How to Password-Protect a Printer

If you share a computer, you might want to limit who can use it to print. Unauthorized printing gives others the opportunity to walk away with digital material, and it wastes resources like ink and paper. Luckily, you have a couple of ways to secure your printer without compromising your own ability to print.

Set a Password

How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

Has your Internet connection become slower than it should be? There may be a chance that you have some malware, spyware, or adware that is using your Internet connection in the background without your knowledge. Here’s how to see what’s going on under the hood.

It’s worth noting that most third-party firewalls will probably give you this same type of information as well as block things that are trying to connect… unless the applications managed to add an exclusion already. Better check anyway.

3 Free Norton Ghost Alternatives to Create a Full Windows Image Backup

If you’re constantly testing software, trying out new Windows settings or tweaks or even purposely infecting your own machine with malware, it’s essential to have a complete copy of your Windows partition to hand so you can quickly restore it to its exact state to before you started messing around. Even if you don’t use your computer very often or for those things, a full backup could save you time and money, reinstalling Windows and all your applications again would be a long, laborious and possibly expensive process.

How to Open the Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 8.1

Normally, the command prompt can be opened as a regular user to run commands that don’t require administrative rights. However, if you need to run a command that requires administrative rights, you must open the command prompt window as administrator.

Why is Google Services Draining So Much Battery on Android?

Google Services shows up on Android’s Battery statistics screen as one of the many things draining your battery. It can sometimes drain an excessive amount of battery power, but you can solve this problem.

“Google Play Services” used to appear on Android’s battery screen as its own entry, and it was a big battery hog for some people. Google Play Services is now just one part of the Google Services app.

How To Use BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on Your Computer

 

 

BBM is by far the greatest mobile messaging application. Here is a way to have BBM on your desktop computer, using a very simple method involving BlueStacks.

How to Access a Windows Desktop From Your Tablet or Phone

iPads and Android tablets can’t run Windows apps locally, but they can access a Windows desktops remotely — even with a physical keyboard. In a pinch, the same tricks can be used to access a Windows desktop from a smartphone.

Microsoft recently launched their own official Remote Desktop app for iOS and Android devices. Microsoft’s official apps are primarily useful for businesses — if you’re a typical home user, you’ll want to use a different remote desktop solution.

What is the System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It?

Windows 7 and 8 create a special “System Reserved” partition when you install them on a clean disk. Windows doesn’t assign a drive letter to these partitions, so you’ll only see them when you use Disk Management or similar utility.

The System Reserved Partition was introduced with Windows 7, so you won’t find it on previous versions of Windows. The partition is also created on Windows Serer 2008 R2 and newer Server versions of Windows.

How to Bypass and Reset the Password on Every Operating System

Passwords can be reset or bypassed on every operating system. On Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, you can gain access to a computer’s unencrypted files after resetting the password — the password doesn’t actually prevent access to your files.

On other devices where you can’t gain access to the files, you can still reset the device and gain access to it without knowing a password. These tricks all require physical access to the device.

How to Tell if An Android App is Potentially Dangerous

Yes, some Android apps can be malicious — Apple, Microsoft, and the media seem happy to remind us about this. Take a few basic precautions and you can avoid these potentially dangerous apps.

Google doesn’t manually approve apps like Apple does, but they do scan apps in the Google Play Store for malware. Permissions, reviews, and other reputation information can also tell us a lot.

How to Create a Virtual Hard Drive in Windows 7

Have you ever wished you had an extra Hard Disk to store files, share, or set aside as an encrypted vault? One of the new features in Windows 7 is the ability to create Virtual Hard Disks and we’ll show you how. 

How to Create an Encrypted Container File With BitLocker on Windows

BitLocker normally encrypts entire drives and partitions, but you can also create encrypted container files with tools built into Windows. Such encrypted VHD files can easily be moved between systems, backed up, and hidden when not in-use.

This trick allows you to create TrueCrypt-style encrypted volumes as files on your computer. Like other BitLocker features, it requires a Professional or Enterprise edition of Windows, or Ultimate for Windows 7.

How do You Search for Multiple File Types at the Same Time in Windows 8?

Searching for a singular file or file type is one thing, but what do you do when you need to search for multiple file types at the same time? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post comes to the rescue for one reader’s file search dilemma.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot

Safe mode can help you troubleshoot your Android, but sometimes you’ll need to wipe everything and restore your device to its factory state. You can even perform a factory reset when your Android phone or tablet won’t boot normally.

Ensure you have any important data backed up before doing a reset. This includes your Google Authenticator credentials, which will be lost during the reset. Disable two-factor authentication on your accounts first or you’ll experience some trouble afterwards.

How to Locate Your Lost or Stolen Android Phone (and Wipe if Necessary)

Thanks to a new native Android tool, you can now easily locate your phone and (in a worst case scenario) perform a remote data wipe. Read on as we show you how to activate the feature on your phone.

How to Remotely Track Any Lost Smartphone, Tablet, or PC

Whether your device was stolen or simply lost, you can remotely track, lock, and wipe it. Don’t wait until you’ve lost your hardware to think about this — these features need to be enabled ahead of time.

This requires that the device is powered on and has a connection to the Internet. This is easy if you’re tracking a phone with a data connection, but harder if you’re tracking a laptop that may be offline or powered off.

How To Secure Your Wi-Fi Network Against Intrusion

Insecure Wi-Fi is the easiest way for people to access your home network, leech your internet, and cause you serious headaches with more malicious behavior. Read on as we show you how to secure your home Wi-Fi network.

Don’t Have a False Sense of Security: 5 Insecure Ways to Secure Your Wi-Fi

You’ve got WEP encryption enabled, your network’s SSID is hidden, and you’ve enabled MAC address filtering so no one else can connect. Your Wi-Fi network is secure, right? Not really.

How an Attacker Could Crack Your Wireless Network Security

It’s important to secure your wireless network with WPA2 encryption and a strong passphrase. But what sorts of attacks are you actually securing it against? Here’s how attackers crack encrypted wireless networks.

5 Cooling Solutions to Prevent Your PC From Overheating

Computers need cooling to remove the heat their components generate during use. If you’rebuilding your own PC — especially if you’re overclocking it — you’ll need to think about how you’ll cool it.

Heat build-up can actually damage your computer’s hardware or cause it to become unstable. Modern PCs may shut down and refuse to operate if they reach a potentially unsafe level of heat.