home | about | newsletters | contact | advertising | shop | radio | courses | site map

Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle

Learn About The Benefits Of Membership

Login: Password: Remember me

Oct 6

Today's Featured Post

Monday

I’ve mentioned on the PCMech Live show many times my disdain for the fact that if you’re one of the few running a 64-bit processor, your options for native 64-bit applications are few and far between on the consumer end.

Chances are very high that the computer you’re using right now has a 32-bit CPU in it.

Here’s the short-short definition of the difference between 32 and 64 concerning your CPU: Read More

Oct 6

PCMech University: Why Now Is The Time To Enroll

The economy is definitely first and foremost on a lot of minds right now. While there is no need to worry unnecessarily, this is a time to think strategically about your life and your income. You want to get more out of what you have, and you should put some thought into other ways to [...]

Oct 6

Is A ‘Budget’ Graphics Card Good Enough For You?

I need to preface this tip with the fact that I am not a gamer. My computer uses an integrated Intel graphics engine and this is fine for my needs.
If you ever go through the PCMech forums here and read about the newest gaming machines people are putting together, usually there is a (and in [...]

Oct 6

SkyDrive - A Quick Review

SkyDrive is a free online storage service offered by Microsoft. If you have a "Windows Live ID" (i.e. a Hotmail, MSN or Live account) you can try this out right now if you like.
This service gives you 5GB of online storage and it works for most that need a quick solution to store stuff online. [...]

Oct 5

Advanced Download Manager For Firefox

Firefox ships with a very functional, yet somewhat basic download manager. For the most part, the default tool is adequate for the majority of users, however for those seeking a more powerful tool, check out the DownThemAll extension.
DownThemAll makes the task of downloading any file (images, binaries, etc.) on a web site very easy. As [...]

Oct 4

Troubleshooting A Sluggish Machine

It’s pretty obvious I am a big fan of the Microsoft Sysinternal tools as I have run many tips on them in the past. I am also a big fan of Mark Russinovich’s (the driving force behind Sysinternals) blog where he covers a lot of interesting and in-depth Windows topics.
In a post Mark released recently, [...]

Oct 3

Control Your Browser With Mouse Gestures

A really nifty time saver when using a web browser is to control it by using simple mouse gestures. For example, whenever you need to go back to the previous page, instead of going to the back button at the top of the screen simply hold down the right mouse button and drag it to [...]

Oct 3

Where’s My Wireless, Linux?

When it come to any OS that’s *nix-based, there’s a lot I don’t complain about compatibility-wise due to the proprietary nature of a lot of computer hardware.
For example, if I had a Microsoft wireless keyboard that had Windows-only features on it and it just would not work under Linux, would I get upset about this? [...]

Oct 3

Controlling Auto-Launched Apps On Startup (Windows XP)

There are utilities like the freeware CCleaner software that can easily let you list and modify auto-run programs from the Windows XP system registry like this:

Above: In CCleaner, click Tools (large icon on left) then Startup (white button in middle column) to see this list.
However if you’re the type that would rather do this [...]

Oct 2

Windows XP Fix And Tweak Catalog

Windows XP has a myraid number of aspects which can be tweaked. Many through option dialogs, miscellaneous utilities or by changing registry entries. On this note, I thought I would pass along a huge catalog of XP fixes and tweaks.
Most of the entries here accomplish the task by using either a VBS script or a [...]

Oct 2

How-To: Access Hotmail Using POP

This is written for the benefit of those who use the Hotmail webmail service. If your e-mail address ends in @msn.com, @live.com or @hotmail.com or you use Windows Live Domains, this applies to you.
POP-based Hotmail is not available in the free version at the time of this writing and I’ll say that right up front. [...]

Oct 2

Five PC Hardware Items You Shouldn’t Buy Online

Generally speaking, buying computer hardware online is always cheaper than the store. The reason for this is because you skip out on tax, the middleman and so on.
However there is some tech hardware that you should never buy online if at all possible no matter how much you’d save.
Monitors
When purchasing any monitor online there is [...]

Oct 2

Laptop Stand Giveaway

Feature Image

Congratulations to Vicki, the winner of our computer case giveaway. Now, it is time for the next one.

You can read the review of the Attache Laptop Stand.
So, here are the details for winning this laptop stand.
The contest is going to wrap up on Friday, October 10th. The winner is going to be announced on Twitter.
This [...]

Oct 2

How Many Connections Can A Wireless Router Handle?

The question of how many literal connections a wireless router can handle is anywhere between 50 and 253 depending on manufacturer. (Quick question answered: It’s not 255 because the router has to assign itself a few IPs.)
The question of how many usable simultaneous connections is a different story altogether because that number is drastically smaller.

Oct 1

Add Vista-esque Task Bar Preview To XP

A really nice feature which is standard with Windows Vista is the task bar preview. That is when you hover your mouse over an item in the task bar, you get a small thumbnail of what the application currently looks like without having to restore it. If you would like to add this functionality to [...]

Oct 1

AOL Journals Going Bye-Bye

From the "I didn’t know AOL had blogs" dept., AOL’s journal service at journals.aol.com is going to the digital graveyard as of October 31, 2008.
Another place called peopleconnectionblog.com, winner of a "domain name that’s too frickin’ long" award, has an article stating that if you happen to be one of the poor saps using AOL [...]

Oct 1

Ubuntu 8.04 Persistent Install To USB Stick

What exactly is a “persistent” install?
With a normal Live-CD boot of Ubuntu, you can’t save your session settings on exit of the OS. And if you boot off USB stick from a transferred CD image (such as one created using the Unetbootin utility), that won’t save your settings either because the OS is still in [...]

Sep 30

Social Networking Outranks Porn

According to Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, the porn industry has been overtaken by social networking for the most searches on the net lately.
In his published book “Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters“, he says that over the past decade the interest in adult-oriented [...]

Sep 30

Bill Gates Is Not Giving You His Money

In an age where people love to try to scam you over the Internet, it amazes me how many people actually believe someone will pay you or some picture will appear on your screen by simply forwarding an email.
I received the email below a few days ago and before it ‘graced’ my inbox, I could [...]

Sep 30

Easy Laptop Upgrades

Compared to regular PCs, laptop upgrades are seriously simple to do. While you’d think the compact shape would make it more difficult to take apart and upgrade, this isn’t true.
In this article I’ll give you the how-to on three simple upgrades for major components - and how/where to get the parts you need.
Please Login or [...]

Sep 30

Spammer’s Delight

What you see here’s not a test; I’m a’warning you - beware!
If you reply to spam and don’t give a damn; you’ll get stung, and they don’t care.
They sent out spam; damn, to the people on the Internet; jammin’ up the servers;
To the spam spam boogie say up jump the boogie, to the rhythmic unsolicited [...]

Sep 30

External Comment Hosting (Blogging)

If you are or intend to run a for-profit blog (which many people are interested in), you may be a bit unnerved by the integrated comment system in some systems. Sure, it’s easy enough for people to post comments, but the administration of them may prove to be a headache once the commentary starts coming [...]

Sep 29

ASCII Character Code Table

Something every developer should have handy is a chart of the ASCII character code table. If you do not have resource for this already, check out the ASCII Table web site.
This site is very straightforward and includes both the standard ASCII set as well as the extended character codes. While the chart is ‘protected’ from [...]

Dominate Your Computer

Profit From The Internet

Premium Information From a Trusted Source

Learn More About Benefits To You

Got The Newsletter?

Exclusive PCMech Content. Sign up and receive our free report: 20 Tips For Becoming a Technology Power User.

NAME:
EMAIL:

Featured Product of The Week

Build Your Own PC

Build Your Own PC - Book/DVD

Now Playing on PCMech Video

Feature ImageLaptop Stand Giveaway

Feature ImageHow-To: Multiple Application Bars In Windows

See All Videos | PCMech Channel Youtube Channel