Windows Access Panel Basic view gives you quick access to several of the common utilities and system settings. Advanced View allows access to more obscure but equally important settings and system utilities you may need from time to time. Anything in the Access Panel is launched by a single click. This utility will save you several steps in getting to where you need to be. For example, if you want to run Disk Cleanup you’d double click on My Computer, right-click the drive, go to Properties, then click on Disk Cleanup....

By default, SyncToy only synchronizes your files when you run the program and directly tell it to sync. This might work fine for syncing files to a flash drive before heading out on a trip, but makes it difficult if you’re using it to synchronize files regularly between folders or drives on your computer or with Dropbox. Windows includes an often overlooked scheduling tool that can automatically run many applications without any action on your part....

Cyber Safety Made Simple Acronis has a long history of providing superior backup solutions, with its original, single-solution program Acronis True Image being released in 2003. The company experienced rapid growth and success since its inception and rebranded as Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office in 2021. Their more expansive version of data protection and cybersecurity offers the same world-class backup while incorporating more advanced protection against modern-day threats. Whether you’re concerned about malware, cyberattacks, hardware failures, or want added security in the event of an accident or natural disaster, Acronis can keep all of your infrastructure safe and sound....

Apple released iTunes 10 a couple of weeks ago, and unfortunately it’s not much of an improvement if at all. Last week Ed Bott wrote up The unofficial guide to installing iTunes 10 without bloatware. Today we take a closer look at the process of doing a minimal install of it in Windows 7 to avoid the extra junk. Getting Started Instead of just going through a typical update from iTunes 9 to iTunes 10, you might want to look at our guide on uninstalling iTunes and everything that comes with it....

WordPress is extremely popular, powering 30% of the entire internet, and it’s used for many different tasks. We’ll take a look at what your options are if you don’t want to use WordPress for your website. What Is WordPress Used for? This is actually an important question here, as people use WordPress for many different things. WordPress started as a simple publishing software, designed to power personal blogs, sites like this one, and even major news organizations....

Programs like Photoshop have allowed new generations of would-be designers jump in and create with greater ease than ever before. See just how easy it is by learning the Type Character Panel, and applying it to some basic design work. Having covered the text tool briefly in Part 1, The Toolbox, and creation of text objects in Part 3, Layers, let’s take a closer look at how to set typography in Photoshop....

Extracting Files from the Installer The first trick you can try is to extract the application files directly from the installer program. By using the 7-Zip file compression utility, you can attempt to open the setup file as a compressed archive via the right click context menu. Depending on the compression format of the installer, you may or may not be able to open it as a readable archive. For our example, we are going to demonstrate this technique using the Quickbooks Network Diagnostic Tool which is available as an installation only program....

PSReadLine is one of those modules that may not immediately show its utility until regular use. If you use the command-line of PowerShell often, PSReadLine can make your life much easier. Included in PowerShell versions as far back as Windows PowerShell 5, PSReadLine continues to add new features and utility. Building on the venerable legacy of GNU Readline in the Unix world, PSReadLine adds additional features to the PowerShell command-line experience such as multi-line editing, syntax coloring, predictive IntelliSense, richer history support, and alternative edit modes....

Suggested Actions have been in testing since at least May 2022, but they are now rolling out to everyone with Windows 11. When your PC detects phone numbers or future dates in text, they are highlighted, and clicking on them reveals a few buttons with relevant actions. Microsoft explained in a blog post, “for instance, when there are phone numbers or future dates in text, Windows highlights them, making it easy to click and call with Phone Link, Teams or Skype, or click to schedule an appointment, adding an event in your Calendar app and including the person you were communicating with on your invite....

Microsoft overhauled the Start Menu in Windows 11, giving it a new center-aligned grid design and better organization. There’s another change on the way: suggested links to websites. Microsoft is rolling out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25247 to the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider program. It includes some of the changes we’ve seen in other testing channels, like a search bar in Task Manager and cloud storage information in the Settings app....

Explorer in Windows 7 and Vista is much more usable than previous versions, especially with features such as the integrated search box and the breadcrumbs in the address bar. Unfortunately, though, it can still be difficult to shuffle around between multiple windows and folders. Most of us are used to managing pages with tabs in our browsers, and this can be a great way to manage your files as well....

Apple Watch Unlock Requirements You can unlock your mid-2013 or newer Mac with an Apple Watch running watchOS 3 or above. You can check if your Mac supports this feature by clicking on the Apple logo at the top of the screen. Next, click “About This Mac.” Under the Overview tab, select “System Report.” In the window that appears, click on “Wi-Fi” in the sidebar and look for an entry that reads “Auto Unlock: Supported” to confirm....

Installation & Options While adding the extension to Chrome you will be asked to confirm the installation…click on “Install” to finish the process. You will notice a small extension management message window once installation is finished but there will be no “Toolbar Button” visible. At this point you will need to go into the Options to set up the default languages, additional configurations, and keyboard shortcuts. The only method for accessing the options for the extension is through the “Chrome Extensions Page”…...

Schedule Live TV Recording To setup a schedule to record live broadcast TV shows open WMC and select TV then Guide. When the guide is displayed browse through it and when you find something you want to record, right-click it and select Record. Go through the guide and schedule what you want recorded throughout the week. After something is set to be recorded a red record button will appear next to the show....

Just use the echo command to replace the contents of /proc/sys/kernel/hostname with your new host name. Then restart the network interfaces: Now you can use the hostname command to verify that it has changed.

Google Chrome 88 introduced the Manifest V3 API for extensions, which not only significantly changes how some extensions work, but also will be mandatory soon. Google has now shared an updated timeline for the switch. Manifest V3 is the new software platform for Chrome extensions, intended to make extensions faster and more secure. The change has been controversial due to Google’s removal of the webRequest API, which is used by content blocker extensions to filter out network traffic....

Creating a theme pack from scratch is a lot more work than using built in tools, but it gives you a lot more flexibility by allowing you to creating brand icons, RSS background feeds, and customizing every feature which may not be easy to do through Windows native tools. When you are going to create a theme that you can share with others you will want to take into account what exactly you will be able to change that others will be able to use....

Although iTunes Store is known for paid downloads of movies, music, and more, it also has a treasure trove of free media. Some of it, including Podcasts and iTunes U educational content do not require an account to download. However, any other free content, including free iPhone/iPod Touch apps and free or promotional music, videos, and TV Shows all require an account to download. If you try to download a free movie or music download, you will be required to enter payment information....

Geeks love digging under the hood to see what makes their favorite apps and sites tick. But opening the “View Source” window today doesn’t tell you everything there is to know about a website. Plus, even if you can tell what CMS is powering a website from its source, it can be tedious to dig through lines of code to find what you’re looking for. Also, the HTML code never tells you what web server a site is running on or what version of PHP it’s using....

Before Usually if you are browsing you often run into those lovely little “Numbers” or “Next Buttons” at the bottom of webpages. And if you are like most people that is just irritating! You want to browse not waste all of your time “clicking numbers or next buttons”… Time to fix that problem. Installation Once you start installing the extension you will have to click on “Install” in the confirmation message window to finish adding it to Chrome....