What Files Should You Backup On Your Windows PC?

Everybody always tells you to make sure that you are backing up your PC, but what does that really mean? And what files do you actually need to backup? Today we’ll walk you through the basics of backing up your PC, what you should back up, and why.

How to Use the New Task Manager in Windows 8

The Task Manager in Windows 8 has been completely overhauled. It’s easier-to-use, slicker, and more feature-packed than ever. Windows 8 may be all about Metro, but the Task Manager and Windows Explorer are better than ever.

How to Test Your Internet Speed from the Command Line

Anybody who wants to test their connection speed can easily do so from a speed test web site — but that isn’t very geeky. Here’s how to do a test from the terminal prompt instead.

Note: If you are using Windows, you’ll want to either have Cygwin installed, or have a copy of curl or wget installed. On the Mac you can use curl, but if you prefer wget, you’ll need to install that.

How to Connect a Laptop to a Television

Hooking up a desktop computer to a monitor is simple, you just plug it in and it works.  Connecting a laptop to a television should be just as easy, right?  Well, not always.  Read on as we explain several ways to hook up a laptop to your TV.

5 Ways to Bypass Internet Censorship and Filtering

More and more Internet connections are being filtered, from public Wi-Fi and workplace connection filtering to ISP and country-level censorship. However, there are still ways to get around this filtering and view blocked websites.

How to Encrypt Files and Folders in Windows 8.1 Using EFS

 

Windows 8 contains a built-in file encryption feature, called BitLocker, but only in the Pro or Enterprise versions. In addition, if your system does not have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), you must use an external USB flash drive with BitLocker for it to work.

How to Force Your PC to Keep Its Private IP Address

 

There may be times when you need your PC to retain the same local IP address every time it boots up.  Forwarding ports, sharing content on your network, and other things can all be made easier when your computer’s IP address never changes.

How to Enable and Secure Remote Desktop on Windows

While there are many alternatives, Microsoft’s Remote Desktop is a perfectly viable option for accessing other computers, but it has to be properly secured.  After recommended security measures are in place, Remote Desktop is a powerful tool for geeks to use and lets you avoid installing third party apps for this type of functionality.

How to Recover From a Virus Infection: 3 Things You Need to Do

If your computer becomes infected with a virus or another piece of malware, removing the malware from your computer is only the first step. There’s more you need to do to ensure you’re secure.

Note that not every antivirus alert is an actual infection. If your antivirus program catches a virus before it ever gets a chance to run on your computer, you’re safe. If it catches the malware later, you have a bigger problem.

Not All “Viruses” Are Viruses: 10 Malware Terms Explained

 

Most people seem to call every type of malware a “virus”, but that isn’t technically accurate. You’ve probably heard of many more terms beyond virus: malware, worm, Trojan, rootkit, keylogger, spyware, and more. But what do all these terms mean?

These terms aren’t just used by geeks. They make their way into even mainstream news stories about the latest web security problems and tech scares. Understanding them will help you understand the dangers you’ve heard about.

How to Speed Up Any Android Phone By Disabling Animations

Android phones — and tablets, too — display animations when moving between apps and screens. These animations look very slick, but they waste time — especially on fast phones, which could switch between apps instantly if not for the animations.
Disabling these animations will speed up navigating between different apps and interface screens on your phone, saving you time. You can also speed up the animations if you’d rather see them.

8 Clever Uses for Your Smartphone’s Camera (Aside From Taking Pictures)

Sure, your smartphone’s camera can be used for photos and video chats, but it can do much more than that. Your phone’s camera is a powerful tool you can use for everything from finding better prices to navigation and translation.
Your smartphone’s camera is a full-fledged input device that makes all sorts of creative apps possible. The apps mentioned below are just examples — there are a variety of different apps that do all of these things.

How Can I Find Out Where an Email Really Came From?

Just because an email shows up in your inbox labeled Bill.Smally@somehost.com, doesn’t mean that Smally actually had anything to do with it. Read on as we explore how to dig in and see where a suspicious email actually came from.

Someone once said, "I wants to know how to figure out where emails actually originate from:."

How Attackers Actually “Hack Accounts” Online and How to Protect Yourself

People talk about their online accounts being “hacked,” but how exactly does this hacking happen? The reality is that accounts are hacked in fairly simple ways — attackers don’t use black magic.

Knowledge is power. Understanding how accounts are actually compromised can help you secure your accounts and prevent your passwords from being “hacked” in the first place.

How to Find the Version Number for Your Device Drivers in Windows

We have advised you not mess with your drivers if they are not broken in the past, but from time to time issues arise and later versions of a driver may fix an issue that you are experiencing. Here is how to see which version any driver is at, on any recent version of Windows.

How to Prevent People From Viewing Your Browser’s Saved Passwords

Have you ever saved a password in your browser — Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or another one? Then your passwords are likely viewable by anyone with access to your computer while you’re logged in.

Chrome and Firefox’s developers think this is fine, as you should be preventing people from accessing your computer in the first place, but this will likely come as a surprise to many people.

How Can I Stop Apps from Running at Boot on Android OS?

Is it necessary to keep your list of startup and running apps lean and mean on Android OS, and if so,  how can you put the brakes on an application heavy startup?

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

How to Easily Reset a Computer Back to a Clean State Each Time It Boots

 

When you’re managing a public computer, you need a special kind of tool. You need a way to reset that computer back to a clean state every time it boots so no one can make any harmful changes.

Commercial solutions like Deep Freeze offer this feature, and Microsoft once offered it via its Windows Steady State tool for Windows XP and Vista. However, Windows Steady State has been discontinued and doesn’t work with Windows 7.

We’ll be using Reboot Restore Rx for this, as it supports both Windows 7 and Windows 8. Steadier State is another solid option, but it only works in Windows 7, and even then only with Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate.

How To Add Files To VLC on your iPhone Without iTunes

VLC for iPhone has been released back onto the App store and has some nice new features, one of which is a small webserver you can use to send files directly to your iPhone through a web browser.

Note: The computer and iPhone must be connected to the same network in order for this to work.

How to view Youtube Videos on your BlackBerry

Have you ever wondered how to view YouTube® videos on your BlackBerry® smartphone while you are on the go? Let’s take a look at how you would go about viewing a YouTube video on your device and the requirements that are necessary in order for you to view these videos using the Mobile Network.

1. The first step is making sure you have an active data plan on your BlackBerry smartphone and that the signal in the top right corner of your device shows as any of the following: 3G, GPRS, EDGE, or 1XEV.