Tag Archives: tips

How To Create Wireless Ad Hoc Internet Connection In Windows 8 [Tip]

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Apart from Start Orb and classic Start Menu, what most Windows 7 users, who decided to take Windows 8 for a spin, miss in Windows 8 is ability to create ad-hoc network. If you’re a power users, you might’ve noticed that Windows 8 doesn’t include an option to create and setup ad hoc network connection to share files and internet with Wi-Fi enabled computers and devices. Windows 7 ad hoc connection feature does nothing except creating a shared connection with separate IP address to register the device on the virtual network. This allows users to use router’s default or specified DNS server address to easily connect to internet. Even though Windows 8 comes with ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) feature to allow devices  to connect to yours PC internet connection, it doesn’t allow creating a wireless network connection to share the internet. In this post, we will look at some tools that let you easily create and manage ad-hoc connections in Windows 8. Read More

Set Your Jailbroken iPhone To Auto-Launch Any App On Connecting/Disconnecting Headphones

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Activator is one of the most useful Cydia tweaks out there. More than a mere tweak, it is a platform of sorts, based on which many other iOS tweaks are developed, like the recently covered BrightSlide (for controlling screen brightness & LED flash) and SwipeBack, the tweak for going back one step in any app. So, it certainly is an important news when Activator gets an update. The update for the gesture control powerhouse becomes even more significant when new "activations" are added to it. This is exactly what has happened recently, and now Activator is even more useful than before. On the surface, the new gesture might not appear to be something groundbreaking, but it can prove to be really handy in a number of situations. The gestures we are talking about are the two new ones added to the Wired headset menus, and now it has become possible to launch any app when you connect/ disconnect earphones from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Read More

Label Files In Mac’s Finder via Context Menu, Toolbar Or Drag & Drop [Tip]

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Many of you would be aware that you can label files in Mac Finder. Color labels can be applied to any file or folder, and when files are arranged by Labels, they are grouped together as per the colors assigned to them. One of the easiest and most commonly known ways of assigning a label to a file is from the context menu. Two additional methods are by adding the label button to the toolbar, or by dragging & dropping a file on to an existing category. While each one of these methods are effective, some take more time than others. Here’s a quick way to add labels using all three methods. Pick whichever seems the fastest to you. Read More

Bypass Windows 8 SmartScreen Filter To Run 3rd Party Desktop Apps

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Among Windows 8’s new features has been the rather-hyped SmartScreen Filter. The filter itself is nothing new, as users of Internet Explorer have been familiar with the said protection measure implemented in Microsoft’s internet browser to provide precautions against phishing websites and malicious downloads. With Windows 8, Microsoft brought the same security concept to third-party programs (applications downloaded from the internet), and the default behavior of SmartScreen does not allow many applications to run when they’re downloaded. There is an easy method to change that, however, and you can find out all about it just past the jump. Read More

Where (The Heck) Is Computer In Windows 8?

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So Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 Consumer Preview yesterday, making it available to the masses for testing and getting a taste of the new Metro UI and the OS in general. Amidst all the oohs and aahs, one frustration that many users came across was the (apparent) lack of the Computer icon on the desktop. Now, to be honest, that’s nothing new, since from the days of Windows XP, the desktop had been clear of any icons sans Recycle Bin. Where the problem arose this time around, was the fact that previously, you could’ve easily accessed Computer (or My Computer, if you prefer that) from the Start Menu. Windows 8, however, took away the Start Menu in its entirety, and even the infamous Start Screen didn’t present any shortcut for accessing computer, or exploring the contents of the hard drive. Even though nothing has changed with respect to brining the icons back to their place, and considering that you can still browse the directory structure by navigating through the Libraries (read: Windows Explorer) view, this post is just a summary of how you can bring the good old Computer icon back to your Desktop, or make it shine on Start Screen. Read More

How To Transfer Files, Settings & User Profiles From Windows 7 To Windows 8 [Guide]

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Migrating applications, personalized system and application settings, and other important data from old PC to new PC isn’t only time consuming, but also a wearisome task, as one needs to make a list of all the installed applications, Windows components, User Profile folders, System settings including Personalization, Color Management, Fonts, Accessibility, Keyboard and Mouse settings etc., and then manually transfer the settings and data to new PC. In the past, we’ve covered numerous applications such as Backup Utility, Backup Folder Sync and DataGrab, which let users effortlessly backup User Profile folders without having to manually transfer Documents, Pictures, Music, AppData, Roaming and other important folders. Applications like Special Folders Manager not only makes it easy to create copy of Users profile folders, but also help restoring them at their original locations with a click, but what if you want to migrate entire system including Settings, Applications and data saved in local drives from old PC to new PC? Read More

Top 6 Tips To Resolve System Issues Of Your Family Members & Friends In Holidays

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The holiday season has once more arrived and it's time to visit your loved ones, to spend some quality time with them. Having said that, a lot of this quality time can end up being spent on troubleshooting your nieces' laptops, or your uncle’s old computer, i.e., if you are a geek, or even an intermediate computer user. Updating applications, troubleshooting issues, and re-installing the operating system are all those tedious tasks that can eat up a lot of your “quality time,” but all that can be prevented if you can take some simple measures to ensure that you do not have to start from scratch each time your family members or friends end up messing their computer. In this post, we will provide you with some simple guidelines to help you reduce the time and effort that you may spend resolving technical issues of your near and dear ones. Read More

Shift Nautilus Back And Forward Buttons To Left In Ubuntu [Tip]

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Some Nautilus users have been rather annoyed by the positioning of back and forward buttons to the right-hand side of the Nautilus file browser in Ubuntu 11.10. While there might not appear to be any easy way of getting this fixed, a developer has posted a tip on Ubuntu Forums to provide a quick solution. This tip posted by user “nyteryder79”, allows users to shift the back and forward buttons on the Nautilus file browser, back to the left. Read More

How To Prevent Your Laptop From Overheating [Windows 7]

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A few months back, I bought a new Core i3 laptop, hoping to run more resource intensive applications and games with better performance. While most of the applications seem to run without any issues, I have been dealing with a few thermal heating issues while playing games or running encoding tasks. For some odd reason, even reducing the affinity of the application or the game, does not eliminate the heating problem. I even bought a cooling pad, and tried switching to lower graphic options, but that, too, has resulted in minimum heat reduction. After going through many methods of reducing system heat up, it appears that there is only one true method that may be more effective than others (courtesy of our former editor, Ghaus Iftikhar), i.e., to reduce the maximum processor state from the laptop’s power settings. In this post, we will tell you how to prevent your system from heating up by adjusting the power options for your processor state. This tip might come in handy not just for gamers and people who wish to run resource intensive application in the wake of overheating laptops, but also if, for some reason, you are unable to return a laptop with a heating issues (perhaps due to warranty constraints), or are dealing with an old laptop, which won't take the brunt any more. Read More

How To Turn Off SmartScreen Filter For Windows 8 [Tip]

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Microsoft recently introduced a SmartScreen filter for applications in the new Windows 8 Developer’s build. This filter works similar to the Internet Explorer SmartScreen filter, which protects users from malicious agents across the internet by providing warnings for phishing websites. Unfortunately, this new SmartScreen filter can be a bit annoying, since it often provides unwanted security prompts, even for secure applications. The most notable issues occurs with uncategorized portable applications that one may require running frequently. The annoyance stems mainly from the SmartScreen filter being displayed each time such programs are executed. Read More

How To Create Custom Brushes In MS Paint [Tip]

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You are probably using Windows for a long time like us, and must have played around with MS Paint a lot. But did you know that you can create your very own custom brush? If you create rough prototypes of graphic design projects in Paint and need to use a custom brush, here’s a small tip that lets you do just that. Using the built-in Transparent Selection tool, you can create just about any kind of brush with preferred style and effect. Read More

Enable/Disable Auto Hide For Unity 2-D Launcher In Ubuntu 11.10 [Tip]

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Since the inception of Ubuntu 11.10, users have had a number of complains regarding the bugs and UI issues. One such problem is the management of the auto hide feature of the Unity Launcher. While it was fairly easy to disable auto hide for the Unity Launcher in Ubuntu 11.04 with the help of Unity 2D-Desktop Settings tweak, it does not work with Ubuntu 11.10. Even the Unity Plugin does not disable the auto-hide feature for Oneiric. In this post we will provide you with instructions to disable the auto hide feature for the Unity Launcher in Ubuntu 11.10. Read More

How To Share GPS From An Android Phone To An iPad [Guide]

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The absence of GPS capability in the WiFi-only iPad was termed a dealbreaker by some when it was released and again when its 2nd generation counterpart hit the market. With either of the two devices, the only time the OS allows you to view your location on a map or, say, geotag a photo is while you’re connected to a WiFi hotspot. Furthermore, location data returned via WiFi triangulation is only as accurate as the number of WiFi access points in range, that is, usually not that accurate. Looking for a workaround? Look no further. If you’re one of those tech enthusiasts who own both a jailbroken iPad and an Android phone, then the following workaround should make your GPS-deprived iPad whole. It involves a Cydia Store application by the name of BTstack GPS and a GPS-over-bluetooth sharing Android app. As of this writing, BTstack only works with select GPS units and, as you will see in the guide that follows, Android phones. The developers behind the app are still working to find a an iPhone-to-iPad GPS forwarding solution. Read More

How To Make Any Photo / Image The Cover Of An Album In Windows Phone 7

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A good operating system is one which, while maintaining an appropriate level of security and privacy, still manages to endow the users with a sense of freedom. A user must be able to customize anything on his or her device, the user has paid for it after all. Windows Phone 7 is sometimes dubbed as too strict on security and that can turn a few users away. Although it does strive to achieve a certain level of customizability. For instance, in the Pictures hub, you can create as many albums as you like, but one thing you miss out on is the choice of an album cover. There is no one-click way of choosing which pic you would like to display as the cover of any photo album. However, there is a simple enough workaround for that. Read More

How To Get Classic Scrollbar Back In Ubuntu 11.04 [Tip]

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Along with the many changes which we saw in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty, the overlay scrollbar was perhaps one of the most distasteful ones. While some users might find it convenient to auto-hide the scrollbar, yet some of us just can’t seem to get used to it. Moreover, the overlay scrollbar also seems to be a bit buggy as it sometimes fails to show up at all. If for some reason you want to get the old scrollbar back in Ubuntu 11.04, here is a small tip that will come handy. Read More

How To Delete And Disable Recent History In Ubuntu [Tip]

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Whenever files are accessed in an operating system, a log of recently accessed files and folders is created. While this can be handy to reopen recent files and folders quickly, it can also become a privacy issue for some users. Unlike Windows, where it's fairly easy to find recent documents (as explained here),  Ubuntu users often find it hard to find the recently used documents. Moreover, some users might want to prevent the logging of recent history. In this post we will tell you how to delete recent history in Ubuntu and how to disable recent history logging. Read More

[How To] Receive Updates For Side Loaded Market Apps From The Android Market Client

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When you side-load an Android Market app that is unavailable in your regional variant of the Market (Google+ or Google Maps, for instance), it isn’t included in the My apps list within the Market client on your device and hence, the client does not notify you when an updated version of the app is released. So, to keep your side-loaded apps up to date, you have to go through the ordeal of searching for and downloading APKs for every update that said apps receive on the Market. You could always use Market Enabler to spoof your network / location and download the app directly from within the Market app but the app requires your device to have root access. After the break, we explore a simple 3-step workaround that will allow you to link your side loaded Market apps with the Android Market mobile client so that you may receive timely and/or automatic updates for each, without requiring you to root your device. Read More

How To Empty Dropbox Cache (Hidden Deleted Files) To Free Disk Space

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Who knew that Dropbox contains a hidden cache folder which is meant to store deleted files? This folder is present so that when one tries to recover deleted files from Dropbox, as the saved files within the cache are restored to quickly recover your data, instead of downloading it from Dropbox servers. While this  may seem to be quite useful, it does have its demerits. The cache folder is saved on the hard drive which can take up a lot of space. This might not only be problematic for people with less hard disk space but also for users like me who use Dropbox with virtual machines. These VMs are allocated a small size from the physical hard drive to save hard disk space. So assuming a virtual machine has 3 GB of allocated disk space and you delete nearly 1.5 GB of Dropbox files, you can end up having some issues with the available free space. This might also be a problem for people who always find themselves short of disk space. If such an issues occurs with your primary partition (assuming it contains your Dropbox folder), you can run into some serious system problems. In this post we will tell you how to empty your Dropbox cache to free up system space. Read More

Auto Wake Up And Transfer Android Photos & Videos To Computer via WiFi

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If you don’t have a data plan for your Android phone and are looking for the an efficient way to automatically back up photos and videos that you take with your phone’s camera, then a syncing-on-the-go solution is probably not what you’re looking for. What you want is an app that automatically transfers photos and videos from your device to your home computer over the affiliated WiFi network after, for instance, you return from an outdoor casual photography spree. There is an app that can do that, of course. But we have something better for you – a three-freeware combo that automates the entire process from turning on your device’s WiFi when you get home, to turning on your computer and wirelessly transferring camera photos and videos from device to computer. Read More

Fix Laptop Brightness Toggle Issues In Ubuntu 10.10 And 11.04 [Tip]

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The laptop brightness key provide easy management of brightness options from the keyboard. This is done with or without the combination of the FN key, depending upon your manufacturer. Unfortunately, some Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 users using NVIDIA graphic cards are having problem with using this key and are unable to change the screen brightness from their keyboard. A solution to this problem is to edit dit xorg.conf. Below is a procedure which can make your laptop’s brightness button functional again for your Ubuntu OS (NVIDIA users only). Read More