When I changed over from Firefox 3.6.13 to Firefox 4 Beta 11, the standard utility I use for ‘complete page’ screenshots, ScreenGrab, was not supported in Fx 4. However the alternative Screenshot Pimp is fully supported and works great. If you need a utility to grab quick screenshots and save videos, Screenshot Pimp is highly recommended; it works...

Windows 7 SP1 is now available from Windows Update. First question answered: Is there a difference between x86 and x64 SP1? Yes, the installer will be specific per your architecture:What this means is that if you intend on doing offline installations of SP1 for varying x86 and x64 systems, you will need to download the appropriate release. What’s the...

A standard statement millions of people have made over the decades concerning new-to-market consumer electronics is this: I’ll wait 6 months before I buy it.If you ever wondered why 6 months is the magic number, there’s really nothing magic about it. In the business world, that’s two fiscal quarters. Generally speaking, any consumer...

When going to format a hard drive in Windows, the default file allocation unit size is 4096 bytes, however there are a whole bunch of other choices to pick from:Is there a speed difference? Yes. Selecting a larger cluster size results in faster access times. Why is there a speed difference? Because with larger clusters there are less clusters to record,...

In the video above is IcoFX, a freeware icon editor for Windows. While it’s true there are other more powerful graphics editors like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, IcoFX’s simplicity definitely makes it worth having installed. If you do any sort of web design work, whether personally or professionally, a custom favicon.ico file is more or less mandatory...

Good games never truly die because gamers simply won’t allow it. If there’s a game out there and it entertains in a way that a lot of people like, they will find a way to keep it alive. The way most people play older games these days is via virtual PCs or emulators. On the emulator side, a good example is DOSBox. Not only does that app play just...

Bit rot is a real thing that happens to files over time where they do, quite literally, start to wear out. Chances are you have experienced files or storage media that’s been ‘rotted’ before. Here are some common examples for home computer users:You use an email client, and some older emails have attachments that simply cannot be viewed and...

When writing documents, HTML is actually not a bad choice because you have plenty of editors to choose from and it is universally compatible. Concerning editors, you could use Seamonkey (it has an HTML editor in its suite), Kompozer or even text editors like Notepad or vi. The issue with HTML however is that it’s not exactly clear how to make a page break....

Normally there isn’t much to say about BitTorrent clients, but uTorrent 2.2 brings some rather new and interesting things to the table that keep it on top as one of the most-used clients of its kind. Before continuing, a very quick note (and I have to say this to dissuade popular assumption): "Torrent" does not mean "illegal";...

1. FLIQLO Type: Screen Saver Link: http://www.9031.com/downloads/screensavers.htmlA simple virtual flip-style clock as a screen saver. 2. Online Alarm Clock Type: Browser Link: http://onlineclock.net/Simple LED-style clock with alarm features. 3. HTC Home Type: Standalone Application Link: http://www.htchome.org/en/Very graphical clock that takes full...

Something that’s been around for as long as there have been GUI environments is the standard menu bar. Some people think it’s a "Windows thing". Not exactly. This menu style reaches quite a few years back in computer history as far as GUIs are concerned. The first menu in the bar is always File and the second either View or Edit. This was...

A recent report published by the security experts at Secunia finds that Apple, Oracle and Microsoft are 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in known software vulnerabilities across all their non-OS products. If you don’t want to read the full article, The Windows Club has a good write-up about it where they make a good point: The report shows an alarming development...

A disturbing trend among popular freeware applications seems to be the inclusion of browser toolbar and/or other garbage options as part of the installation wizard. One rather lengthy message post has an updated list of offending programs which they have titled the “Installers Hall of Shame“. As a developer I can certainly appreciate the hard work it...

Good through Friday (6/18/2010), The Windows Club is offering a free copy of Paragon’s System Backup 9.5/2010. While I have never used this product personally, I pass this link along because everyone should have a reliable backup process and if you have nothing in place this program may fit the bill. You can read the full description on Paragon’s...

For many of you, a lot (if not all) programs/utilities on your computer are probably free or open source software. So I ask, which of these programs would you pay for if they had the same features but where only commercially available? List the software title and the highest price you would pay for it. Here are my lists of programs I use on a regular...

Building on a tip I posted a couple of weeks ago about opening non-zip files using 7-Zip, a practical use for this can be when you want to run a program that does not offer a portable version without installing. By opening the setup EXE file using 7-Zip, you can extract the files the installer copies to your system and then run the program like a portable...

Today’s tip is more of an open question. My thought is typically to go with the lesser freebie. For the most part, commercial packages do offer more, but I typically don’t really need it. For example, I swapped from Quicken to GNU Cash about 2 years ago and I haven’t looked back. Quicken has a fancy interface and a bunch of wizards, but I found...

Something alarming which seems to be more and more commonplace are software installers which attempt to install other software. For example, suppose you are installing “ABC”. During the installation wizard, there is an option (turned on by default) to install “XYZ browser toolbar”. Unless you notice this and uncheck, this option, you now...

Mac users who do a lot work in text files (HTML, coding, etc.) and are not fond of the editor you use, should take a look at TextMate. TextMate brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users...

The vast majority of times when I post tips to software, the respective product is free. However, just because it is ‘free’ doesn’t mean it has no restrictions as there are different models of free software. The primary ones are freeware, shareware and open source. It is a good idea to know the difference between these release models. For a...