If you’re used to bash and new to PowerShell, even the simplest of tasks can be confusing. For all the Linux admins forced to use Windows Server, here’s how to set configure a program to run as an auto-restarting daemon. While ($true), Start-Process In PowerShell, you can loop like many programming and scripting languages. The syntax is while($true) followed by braces for the loop. In this loop, we’re going to launch the process with Start-Process....

This list is not comprehensive by any means—if you have a favorite tweak that you like to use, leave us a comment and we’ll see about adding it to the list. Add Defrag to the Right-Click Menu Want to be able to quickly defrag a drive whenever you want? You can use a little hack to add the Defragment option to the context menu for each drive. It’ll open up the command prompt, and start the defrag process....

How Do Smartphone Gloves Work? Modern smartphones have a capacitive screen that responds to the electrical charge of your fingertip—which is why when you try to swipe on your phone with a pair of regular gloves on, nothing happens. The tip of your glove doesn’t have the same electrical signature as your finger, and the digitizer under the screen doesn’t respond. Smartphone-compatible gloves solve that problem—with varying degrees of success—by embedding electrically conductive material in the glove, turning the tip of one or more of the fingers into what amounts to a screen stylus you wear on your fingertip....

Advanced System Tools There is a very handy collection of system utilities that are included in Windows 7 and Vista that can help you troubleshoot problems that may arise. For some reason Microsoft felt the need to bury them in the OS so they’re not immediately apparent to most users. Here we take a look at accessing the diagnostic tools and briefly cover some of what’s included. To get to the tools type Performance Info into the search box in the Start menu and hit Enter....

Pandora has been a favorite free music streaming service that’s been around for some time now. Though there are new services like Grooveshark and Spotify that are competing, Pandora is still a reliable choice. It’s now included in Boxee, and here we take a look at using it. Create a Pandora Account If you don’t already have a Pandora account, you can easily create one at their website (link below)....

What Is a Unit Test? A “Unit” is the smallest possible software component in your app (i.e, functions, classes, or components). Individual unit tests make sure that the core component of your app is behaving as expected, and that a future commit to one area of your code doesn’t break code in another. If it does, you likely have a bug in either your new or old code (or in a poorly written/outdated test)....

The Weakest Link? Your workforce doesn’t stand alone, of course. You’ll identify and invest in the appropriate technologies, both hardware and software, according to your organization’s threat assessment and its appetite for risk. You’ll implement the appropriate policies and procedures to provide governance, control, and guidance. Of course, the implementation and maintenance of those measures depend on your staff, and your staff are also the day-to-day users of your IT systems....

Don’t Use a Laptop on Your Lap Yes, it’s called a laptop. Yes, you can put it on your lap and type away. For short tasks, that’s not the end of the world. But for getting any extended work done, you’re taking a shortcut to back pain. There’s nothing natural or comfortable about hunching forward over your laptop. We don’t design desktop computers to put the keyboard on our lap and the screen down lown near our knees for a reason....

Getting Started GoogleCL is a Python command line application that lets you access various Google services from command line on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Here we’ll be using the Windows version on Windows 7, but it would work the exact same on other platforms. Head over to the download link below, and select the correct version for your OS. If you want to run it on Windows, select the zip file....

Before If you have a large number of tabs open using the “Tab List Menu” can start to become a little awkward. You can use your mouse’s middle button to scroll through the list or the tiny arrow button at the bottom but there needs to be a better way to deal with this. After Once you have installed the extension you will notice two differences in the “Tab List Menu”....

Note: Many of the buttons included in the extension also work for Thunderbird and Sunbird. Newly Installed Browser You have just finished setting up a fresh install of Firefox and got your favorite extensions added in, but what about some really helpful toolbar buttons? Opening up the “Customize Toolbar Window” shows very few buttons to choose from… What if you could easily have over 100 new buttons to choose from?...

Life isn’t just about how-to articles, interesting downloads, and Friday Fun. The new How-To Geek ETC section is here to bring you everything else—geeky news items and random links that we’ve found while browsing the interwebs. The more faithful readers will probably have already noticed that this section has been around for a few weeks now—we’re just getting around to announcing it officially, and giving you a way to subscribe for updates....

Note: the ability to assign tasks to others has been around for a while, so you can use it in previous versions out Outlook as well, it’s just in a slightly different place. How to Assign a Task to Someone There are a couple of ways you can assign tasks, including while you’re creating a new task—all you need to do is click on “Assign Task” on the Ribbon....

A bipedal robot named Cassie recently set a new Guinness World Record for the 100-meter dash. While it sounds like that might cause Usain Bolt to come out of retirement and strap them on again, the record is only a bipedal robot record, and the robot’s time of 24.73 seconds is nowhere near Bolt’s 9.58 seconds. Mine’s 185 seconds (including snack breaks). A bipedal robot is meant to mimic the way a human being walks, and as a result can manage tasks in spaces normally designed for humans....

Before Unless you have a “speed dial/special page” extension installed you are stuck with the default new tab page in Chrome every single time you open a new tab. What if you do not like the default new tab page or “speed dial/special page” setups? After If you are someone who prefers to have a blank page as a new tab then you will love this extension. Once you have it installed you can click to your heart’s content on the “New Tab Button” and see nothing but blank goodness....

Note: Here we show how to create the shortcut in Windows 7 and add it to the Taskbar. But creating the shortcut should work in XP and Vista as well. Create Shortcut Right-click an empty area on your desktop and select New \ Shortcut from the Context Menu. In the Create Shortcut window type or copy the following in the location field… Now give the shortcut a name such as Hibernate Computer or whatever you want to call it....

Create System Repair Disc Type system repair disc into the search box in the Start menu. The dialog box opens where you select the right drive and click Create disc. A CD will be fine as it only takes up 142MB of space. Using the Disc If you are having problems with your machine just pop in the recovery disc and boot from it and enter into Windows Setup [EMS Enabled]....

From within the Picture Library in Windows Media Center, choose a photo to work with, right-click and select Picture Details. You can also access this option with a Media Center remote by clicking the “i” button. Note: You’ll notice you have the option to rotate the picture from this menu. It is also available on the next screen. Rotate a picture Now you’ll see more options on the Picture Details screen....

“Do you want me to pause it?” I ask. “Not necessary,” they respond. It doesn’t matter whether the movie is good or not. They could love it and yet can still traipse out of the room for several minutes without a care in the world, and then return to their seat without even asking what they missed. Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the sofa as if the act itself is a big affront, as if I’m the one who made the movie and am showing it to them for the first time....

Note: We have briefly covered this before but present it here in a more detailed format. Before For our example we opened all of the websites in the HTG Network in tabs… When hovering over the Firefox Icon in the Taskbar, you only see the one thumbnail. There are two things in particular to notice here: 1.) The Tab Bar for Firefox is displayed with all four tabs visible in the Thumbnail Preview 2....