Tag: HOWTO

When the news first broke of Gmail losing a small chuck of its users' inboxes, I had a rather terrifying realization: For nearly 8 years, I've been using Gmail as my only message store -- putting all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. If you use Gmail, you're probably now thinking the same thing as me: I really should have a backup. But where should I back up to? There are two choices: use ...

You may have tried to pin a document or file you work on frequently to your Windows 7 taskbar, only to learn that it's too smart for that. Instead, you wind up with a pinned item for the program associated with the file's type, with your file pinned to the jump list. After reading a writeup at Lifehacker earlier today, I couldn't help thinking there was an easier solution than what they proposed ...

This week we're running a series of posts that tackle common Windows networking issues, and some tips and tricks that might speed up or improve your network stability. You can find more tech tips in our Tips index. One slick new feature Windows 7 introduced was the homegroup, a simple yet powerful way to share files and printers among users on your home network. If you created a homegroup ...

This week we're running a series of posts that tackle common Windows networking issues, and some tips and tricks that might speed up or improve your network stability. You can find more tech tips in our Tips index. There are plenty of good reasons to use a custom DNS server on your computers. Some services -- like Google DNS -- can provide a speed boost to your Web browsing. Other services -- ...

Email scams, or phishing, aren't going to disappear any time soon. As much as we'd like to think that people we know aren't taken in by messages like the one in the screenshot above, chances are good that you know of someone who has taken the bait. It's easy enough to recognize a scammy email message if you know what to look for, so let's break it down. Take the jump and we'll dissect this ...

Lots of the Windows tips and tricks I've picked up over the years are the result of facepalm moments. For example, I went years before finding out that you could right-click the Start Menu's programs list to sort by name. These moments of 'duh' prompted me to share some of these Stupid Windows Tricks, and today I've got another one that probably took me way too long to figure out. If you open ...

As a quick follow-up article to the Adobe Flash 10.2 beta announcement, we thought we'd show you how to disable Google Chrome's built-in Flash plug-in so that you can use a pre-release build like the 10.2 beta. It's a quick and simple process, but please remember that once you've disabled Chrome's built-in Flash you won't get the benefit of Chrome's internal Flash updates. 1. Download the Flash ...

The Bluefire e-reader for iPhone made a big splash last week because it's a free app that can read DRM-protected e-books, like the ones offered by many public libraries. We've reviewed Bluefire and shown you how to get borrowed e-books onto your iPhone, but there are two better and faster ways to accomplish this, without opening Adobe Digital Editions on your computer or syncing with iTunes. ...

With Google calling out Facebook last week for trapping your contacts, it seems like a perfect time to offer a solution for rescuing those Facebook contacts and their email addresses -- sorry, still no phone numbers -- and exporting them to Gmail or your other address book of choice. To do this, you'll need a Yahoo! account (Mozilla's Asa Dotzler says a Windows Live account works, too). It's ...

 Maybe you've seen enough of the Internet Explorer 9 beta for now -- you just wanted a taste, but you'd rather not use a beta browser on a day-to-day basis. Maybe you just want to know how to uninstall it because other people are going to ask you how to do it. Unlike most other programs on your computer, however, you won't find IE9 listed on the Uninstall or change a program screen. That's ...

Google Chrome's sync features can be incredibly handy for those of use who run the browser on multiple computers. Every now and then, however, you may run into a problem. In my case, I had certain bookmarks which kept popping back up even though I'd previously deleted them. Today I got an email from a reader, John, who was having a similar issue with his extensions. "Recently LastPass has ...

Over at TechCrunch, MG Siegler has posted images of some Chrome Web apps installed and working in Chromium -- but it's worth knowing that you can already play with a handful of apps in Google Chrome as well. If you're running the Chrome dev channel, here's how you do it. First, add some command line switches to your Chrome shortcut: --enable-apps : turns on extension apps, otherwise you'll ...

ExtensionFM is arguably one of the coolest extensions you can find for Google Chrome -- it's a must-have for music lovers. But if you're browsing with Chromium or a Chromium-based browser, you may have noticed that you can't listen to MP3 files in it. What gives?! Alas, this is one of the differences between the open source Chromium browser and its semi-closed brother, Google Chrome. Many of ...

Apple's latest and greatest operating system, iOS 4, hits the iPhone today, bringing a bunch of hot new features along with it. In case this is your first time doing an iPhone update (or in case it's just been a while), here's a quick walkthrough of the installation process. First, you'll need the latest version of iTunes, 9.2. iOS 4 can't be installed without it. You can grab the iTunes update ...

digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/06/17/how-to-block-ads-or-annoyances-tynt-any-browser-any-os/'; Now, we've previously covered extensions for both Chrome and Safari 5 that stop Tynt from ruining your copy/paste party, but if you've got administrative rights to whatever computer you're currently using, you can put a stop to more than that. You can block services like Tynt ...