Apps for your W7 Phone Windows Phone 7 is the newest kid on the Smartphone block, but this kid comes highly recommended. WP7's got some great apps worth grabbing, even in its very young Market, and you can try them all free. These look to me to be solid picks. That's right—with the vast majority of apps in WP7's Market, you can click the "Try" button to give a limited version of any paid app a go before committing to a purchase. There are also apps that are straight-up free. It do...
At the request of a Community member (no, neither Jafo nor Zubaz), I'm doing a post about adding a spell checker to help while writing. Some but not all Windows apps have built-in spell checking of some sort. If you want to add spell checking to all of your apps (or a select group) let's look at tinySpell. Please note: There is a paid version of this software (tinySpell+) available as well for those who want extra functionality. The tinySpell I am posting about is the free version. T...
Merry Christmas folks. Just a quickie present this morning to help process those holiday photos .... on Give Away of the Day. It runs on XP, Vista and Seven, however while 32 bit system support is certain, it is not clear 64 bit is. Features: ( LINK ) I haven't downloaded nor run this software, but I have reviewed the comments on Free Giveaway of the Day, and one that caught my eye was that to register, you have to fill out a...
If you want really quick access to launch a frequently used application without putting extra icons on your desktop, you can add that application to the context menu for the desktop with a simple registry hack. Here’s how to do it for Windows 7. I don't have any other OS's to test this on. If you're afraid to edit your Windows Registry believe me, I understand. Just go to my response number 6 to get a nifty program to do this more easily. If you have problems, please pm...
The Microsoft Fix It Center is a resource I knew nothing about until I started poking around with this new job of mine. This site automates repairs which many lay people are afraid to attempt and quite frankly, are ignorant of including advanced trouble shooting techniques and the Windows registry. The latter is a daunting prospect (remember to always make a backup, and change things one at a time). In later posts I'll deal with System Utility software. Now, at this MS site,...
Here's Part One if you didn't see it. Beth Jones is a senior threat researcher with Sophos. She stated to PCWorld (another of Doc's faves), "The two-week mark before Christmas is when things start to ramp up out of control. Spammers and malware authors focus on when the attention is going to be there. That's generally two weeks before a holiday." You don't need to be shopping online to get caught in one of their traps. Even checking out email or spending time on Facebook and Twit...
Since we're getting down to the wire, I thought to add this little post about keeping your guard up. This holiday season, your joy in giving can turn into a disaster if you're not careful! TrendMicro has put together a slightly awkward, but still valuable reminder about how to beware and not fall prey to the Grinches and Blue Meanies who thrive off your naivete and desire to stretch your hard earned money. Please take a minute and check out the tips in this onli...
Free utility Disk Space Fan analyzes your hard drive usage to help you determine what's taking up space on your hard drive, representing it all with fancy visualization eye candy. Disk Space Fan is one of many disk visualization tools, from the classic WinDirStat to DriveSpacio, Disktective, and others. WinDirStat has always been excellent when it came time to visualize your hard drive usage and knock off space-wasting files, but it's not the most attractive tool in the toolbox. ...
During a press conference held ahead of CES, Microsoft gave everyone a sneak peek of their next Operating System, Windows 8. The most exciting news is that Windows 8 will support System On a Chip(SOC) architectures including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Intel and AMD will continue their work on the lower SOC designs on the x86 architecture that supports Windows fully. This includes support for millions of x86 applications. ...
Even the best free software is useless without hardware, yet how many of us actually know how their computer works? Teach yourself by reading the latest free guide form MakeUseOf: “Your PC, Inside and Out.” This amazing free guide covers the computer’s chassis, power supply and motherboard, and is only the first half of a two-part volume. In this guide Lachlan Roy breaks the computer down into its different components. For each component he describes its function, expl...
Does your child need help with math? Could he/she improve skills needed for a great future? I know I wish I had stuff like this when I was a kid! Microsoft Mathematics (formerly Microsoft Math ) is an educational program, designed for Microsoft Windows , that allows users to solve math and science problems. Developed and maintained by Microsoft, it is primarily targeted for students as a learning tool. A related freeware add-in for Microsoft Word and Microsoft OneNote, ...
Apture Highlights is a Firefox extension that turns your cursor into a powerful search tool. Highlight any text in your browser window and see search results from Google, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Once the app is installed you just need to highlight some text (and not very neatly at that, Apture Highlights will intelligently expand to grab the text you were trying to highlight) and then click on the search box that appears near your highlighted text. You don&rsqu...
We all hear the word Cloud every now and then but I am sure many of us aren’t exactly very sure about The Cloud and Cloud Computing . So first of all, it is important to understand, what is the cloud? Cloud is just a metaphor for internet, when we say cloud, we are just referring to internet only and simply the services we use using internet – through our web browsers. Our current model: You own your PC, laptop, phone, netbook, etc. and...
Whether you're upgrading or repairing your computer, at some point in time you'll be faced with the task of reinstalling your operating system, especially in the Windows world. As I can personally attest, most of the frustration with starting fresh comes from losing your installed programs and customized settings with them. Sure, you can create tweaked installation discs to automate the process and have all your drivers, programs and settings already in place. The problem is...
Microsoft’s Kinect has been awarded The National Parenting Center’s 2011 Seal of Approval recommending it for age 6 and up. The National Parenting Center was founded in July of 1989 with the intention of providing the most comprehensive and responsible parenting advice to parents everywhere. Unless you live in a cave it is pretty hard to avoid the crush of media coverage for Microsoft’s newest baby, the Kinect for Xbox. Hype can be a blessing or a c...