If you’ve got any geek skills at all, you probably don’t need to bother paying for an expensive security suite and a subscription. Instead, you can use the completely free Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus application, which we’ve already given our official blessing as a great solution. I also explained the basics of how to keep your computer updated using Windows Update and third-party tools like Secunia PSI (which we’ve previously covered here)....

These over-ear headphones look great on paper and honestly, well, they just look great. The question is, did Edifier have to make any major sacrifices to make portable planar magnetic headphones work? What Makes Planar Magnetic Headphones Special? If you’ve spent much time shopping for headphones, you’ve probably at least heard of planar magnetic headphones. Even if you’ve heard of them, you might not know much about planar magnetics. People tend to really like them, and they’re often expensive, but what makes them different?...

A Matter Of Performance The short answer is that emulation is much slower than virtualization, and it all comes down to hardware optimizations. Emulation is the most basic form of running an app on an unintended host. An emulator takes commands intended for the target system and translates them into something the host computer can understand, and run. Usually this involves emulating CPU opcodes and registers. A good example of this is emulating old games, like Nintendo N64, on a modern day PC....

Google is taking a different approach with Project Starline, not creating an elaborate virtual fantasy, but an intimate video chat that seeks the most realistic way for two people to talk when they’re nowhere near each other. While video-calling booths conjure up images of Blade Runner payphones, Google’s feels more like a magic window. The booth uses 3D imagery, light field display systems, high-resolution tracking cameras, and spatial audio to create a real sense that there’s actually another person on the other side of the glass....

Hangouts has slowly been replaced by Chat over the last few months. The Chrome extension now redirects to Chat, and Hangouts has no presence in Gmail anymore. Likewise, the mobile app doesn’t work anymore. The final remaining place where Hangouts was accessible, though, was on the web version. Now, the web version is also being killed off on November 1st, when the website will begin redirecting to Chat. The ultimate demise of Hangouts has been slow, carrying over for years....

Grooveshark When you first go to Grooveshark you’re presented with an easy to use interface and can immediately begin searching for music, upload your own, create playlists, change themes and more. When you start using Grooveshark, it will popup various balloon tips to help use the service. You can select to not have them shown if they annoy you. Without creating an account you can browse through different bands and artists and play the music....

If you want to make web requests in C#, or just want to do some background processing, you’ll need to use asynchronous background tasks to not block up the main thread. We’ll discuss what they are, and how to use them. What Is Async/Await? To use Tasks, you must first understand the concept of async/await. C# tasks don’t have to run asynchronously, but considering the sole purpose of them is to represent an asynchronous operation, they almost always will run async....

Update: After doing some more testing, I’ve realized that dragging the slider to the bottom will set the same registry key. So while setting the registry key will disable UAC, so will dragging the slider to the bottom. The trick is that you need to reboot afterwards! Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely disable UAC from the user interface—sure, you can drag the slider all the way down to make sure you never see a notification, but UAC is still running behind the scenes, so you have to continue to “Run as Administrator” for any system tool you use....

It’s been possible to adjust the vibration strength for some things for a while, but Android 13 introduced the ability to tweak it for notifications, alarms, and media. It’s possible on Samsung Galaxy and other Android devices running Android 13 or newer. RELATED: 10 Hidden Android 13 Features You Might Have Missed First, swipe down once or twice from the top of the screen—depending on your phone—and tap the gear icon to open the Settings....

Copy Worksheet in Excel 2007 & 2010 First open the workbook with the sheet you want to copy, right-click on the sheet tab and select Move or Copy. Make sure you have the workbook(s) that you want to copy the sheet into open for them to show up in the “To book” dropdown list, then choose the one to copy to. If the workbook that you want to copy to isn’t open, it won’t show up in the dropdown list....

Command Prompt The Command Prompt in Windows is a feature that provides the ability to enter in MS-DOS and other commands to perform tasks in the OS. By default though, it’s not always wide enough for viewing the data you want in an easy to read format. In this example we’re running the tracert command in prompt. With the default settings we cannot see all of the information in an easy to read format....

First, you’ll need to make sure you know where nginx is installed — for me, it was under /usr/local/nginx/ but it could be different for you. You might be able to use which nginx to find it if you’ve installed using a package, but in my case I had compiled it from scratch so I could include ngx_pagespeed. So a quick ps -ef | grep nginx showed me where it had launched from....

There are two types of Samsung Galaxy Watch—the newer models that run Wear OS, and the older Tizen OS models. The process for taking screenshots is different on both, but we’ll show you each method. Take a Screenshot on a Galaxy Watch (Wear OS) The Galaxy Watch 4, Galaxy Watch 5, and newer Samsung watches run Wear OS software. An easy way to know is if the Google Play Store can be found on the watch....

If having access to your most important files is critical to you, even when you are on the go, Dropbox is your answer. Not only can it sync documents between all your computers whether they be Windows, Mac, or Linux, it also allows you access using your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android phone. Download and Setup Download Dropbox from the Android Market or install it by scanning the QR code and the end of the article....

We’ve recently been covering ways you can use a free WordPress.com blog, but the great thing about WordPress is that you can either get a free hosted blog or you can download the software and run it on your own server for free. Many webhosts today offer scripts that make installing WordPress as easy as possible, so here we’re going to look at how you can install WordPress in only a few steps in cPanel with Softaculous....

Note: PageZipper is available as an extension for Firefox and as a bookmarklet for your other browsers (very nice). Setup Once you have installed the extension, there are no options for you to have to worry about. Simply add the Toolbar Button to the location that best suits your needs. Toolbar Button in place…time to say goodbye to those “Next” links! PageZipper in Action To test PageZipper out, we decided to go to Photobucket and look for pictures of horses....

The lock icon in Windows indicates that the file or folder can only be accessed by you, and not any other user on your computer. If this is desired, then the lock icon is a good way to ensure that those settings are in place. If this isn’t your intention, then it’s an eyesore. To remove the lock icon, we have to change the security settings on the folder to allow the Users group to, at the very least, read from the folder....

VidCoder is a Windows application uses the Handbrake encoding engine and is basically a simplified, more user friendly version of Handbrake. Like most DVD ripping applications, VidCoder needs a helping hand to remove DVD copy protection. We could also use HD Decrypter to rip our DVD to the hard drive, or a commercial application like AnyDVD that removes DVD copy protection. For our example, we will use DVD43 to Decrypt our DVD on the fly while we convert our video....

The WH-1000XM5 is the newest version of Sony’s popular WH series of active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones, complete with an updated design, long-lasting battery life, and great sound quality. It supports wireless audio over Bluetooth, and there’s a detachable cable in the box for use with 3.5mm audio jacks. Charging is provided through a USB Type-C connector, and downloading the Sony Headphones Connect app on an iPhone or Android device lets you customize the audio equalizer and controls....

In either case, neither is of immediate help when you come home from work and only find condiments inside. But a smart fridge can make you feel real stupid about it. Smart refrigerators tend to offer automatic temperature regulation (I would just set mine to cold), integration with all your smart devices, and often the ability to peek inside the fridge through a camera or window—a particularly useful feature if you’re worried the milk and eggs are going to jump you and take your lunch money....