When you fix as many computers as I do, you come across some strange things. When reinstalling Windows, you’ll almost always get a message at first log on that you need to activate windows within 30 days (or else). Following that you’ll have to verify that windows is genuine. But you have to do it in that order. So on …
Tech4Eleven Re-Visit: Album Art Screen Saver
To celebrate my 100th post, I’d like to revisit a blast from the past… Written on December 8th 2007, the “pre-owned mac-me” wrote about how I envied Mac’s album art screen saver – you know the one that fills your screen with tiny images of all your album’s cover art and flips them in random order in such the mesmerizing …
PC Killed by Fake Anti-Virus? Get Help.
In these times, I’m glad to have a Mac. There’s a certain virus going around and it’s really good. It gets the best of people- and you usually don’t have to do anything to get it. You just have to be on the internet. Trust me- I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it in the last few months. …
Macgyver your keyboard with Keytweak
I recently had a co-worker ask me if it were possible to change a key on her keyboard to be something else, something more convenient for her daily spreadsheet handling. I went straight to Google and found Keytweak (for Windows)- the macgyver of all keyboard remapping tools. Why? Because it’s simple- almost DIY. All you have to do, after installing …
MediaBox: New Interface
Last month I successfully installed Windows 7 on a custom PC and hooked it up to my TV so that we can watch Netflix, hulu, and whatever else. I installed a VNC client on the PC and am using Snow Leopard’s built in VNC Viewer (Screen Sharing) which acts as the MediaBox’s remote control. It’s not as convenient as a …
The workings of a hackintosh attempt turned windows7 media box
Over the past weeks I have been attempting to “build” a hackintosh (OSX installed on a PC) on the box to the left. In some worlds, this is pretty easy. There are many tutorials out there for specific machines and hardware, but since my machine is not a brand name AND after hours on hours of trying, I finally deemed …
Save Windows Icon Location
I’m all about sharing things I find useful, so writing about this little post about this little app fits right in line. At work, I have all my desktop icons arranged exactly how I want them-“minimally” really, because I hate a cluttered desktop. But every now and then I am working away from my desk, thus need to remote into …
XP Desktop Icon Annoyance
Sometimes the icons on your desktop will have color behind them, making it SO 1990. And its really not obvious how to change this so there’s NO color, or so that it’s transparent. These tips are all over the internet, but I’ve collected two main fixes here. First: Go to this path: Control Panel> System> Advanced Tab> Settings button under …
Your Service is not Needed
Today I needed to delete a service in Windows XP because on this PC there were remains of an old virus- good ‘ol _qbot. Even though you can disable services that are running on your PC through start>run>msconfig> startup tab AND in services.msc, their “remains” still exist, or at least their annoying name. So, with the help of theeldergeek.com, a …
\Shareand Share.alike
Sharing files by email is stupid. Sharing files with Dropbox is nice. But sharing files by UNC path is just plain awesome. WINDOWS: According to Everything Guru Wikipedia, UNC “is short for Universal Naming Convention or Uniform Naming Convention, [which] specifies a common syntax to describe the location of a network resource, such as a shared file, directory, or printer.” …
SFC Lightweight Champion of the PC
SFC sounds like a wrestling division. But it’s not. It’s actually one of my new favorite PC troubleshooting tools… built into to every Windows computer, which is always my favorite. When something is “goofy” (technical term) with the PCs that I work on, at some point I usually will open up a command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and bust out a fancy …
Digital Coloring
Ok, I’m no proclaimed graphic artist, but with what I do create, I often need to use certain colors that are placed here or there on my screen and I’m not sure what the color is “called.” On my mac, the DigitalColor Meter is built in. It lets me navigate over any color on any window on my desktop. It …
Another Competition: Mac and Windows 7
I just read through this visual posting by Galen Gruman at ITWORLD.com entitled ” The UI challenge: Windows 7 vs Mac OS X” and it’s very good. Here Gruman compares several aspects of the now Mac OS Leopard and then soon Windows OS Windows 7. Windows 7, in my testing, is a very good operating system, and of course, Leopard …
Everything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
I have been using Windows XP everyday since the beginning of March, where before I was strictly Mac. I grew up being a big Windows user and thought I knew it inside and out. Then just last year I made the switch. Now I’m two faced. I use both all the time. And recently, having gained embraced all sorts of …
Don’t Be Fooled by an Apparent Virus
A quick post… In light of all the media this conflicker worm is getting, doomed to hit PCs everywhere starting tomorrow, please be advised. If this IS a real attack (unknown as of yet), be on guard with a couple of things: 1. Common Sense: My Anti-virus advice- You can’t get a virus unless you ask for it (generally). Don’t …
Ok, So watch out ’cause this Safari is Quick
The new safari 4.0 beta is insanely fast (thanks to my brother for the heads up). What’s new you ask? Well for starters, there’s a new engine under the hood. According to Apple, it’s called the “Nitro Engine:” Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than …
See-Net; for Reviews and Purchasing Help
Way back when, I fell upon a site with countless free downloads and reviews on software applications, a not so little site called download.com. At download.com I can search for any type of software I want either by category, popularity, or by guessing. Then I can sort those results by paid, trial, or free, again by popularity, by rating, and …
Steady As She Goes: Windows User Control
Windows Only: The last two days I have spent most of my time setting up the tech bar at a local coffee shop. This gourmet beverage delivering company hosts two public access computers for customers to browse the net while they down their drinks. Long story short, after years of use and neglect, they both needed to be redone, completely. …
Be proficient with Microsoft Office Document Scanning
Windows: Tucked away in a small crevice of your Window’s Start Menu resides a powerful, but otherwise relatively unknown tool. Follow the path to Start>All Programs>Microsoft Office>Microsoft Office Tools>Microsoft Office Document Scanning and Whallah! – Power at your fingertips. You have a paper, a project, a document, something with text on it, and you need to revamp-edit-rework it, but of …
IE for FF
Since I started my new job, I have been using windows and PCs more often. The sensation is kind of like when you go away to a distant country for a very long time, then return to the land of your fathers and revisit things that you now think were important to you before you left-it’s that instance of-[picking up …
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