Guides can be a really great way of learning about a specific topic in little time. For me, a good guide is as short as possible without leaving out any of the essentials one would expect. Nothing’s worse than having to read a 500+ pages guide that beats around the bush. When you look at [...]

We rely on the Internet more and more as every year goes by, or so it seems. Long gone are the days when the World Wide Web was a myth, and only the super-rich or the super-geek has an Internet connection. Long gone are the days when a connection was limited to 28kbps and was [...]

In a home environment, many people neglect to backup their files and systems, and are then devastated when their computer fails taking all their precious files they’ve been collecting with it. Some people do backups, only to realise too late that the backups haven’t been working properly so when they’re needed they either contain data [...]

The Internet is full of free educational videos. Some good, many bad. Whether a video is considered good or bad usually comes down to the individual viewer, or student. If you are a professor at MIT you may expect educational videos to make use of technical terms that you know, while a a non-native speaker [...]

Windows Update is a free computer service provided by Microsoft that provides Operating System (OS) patches and service packs to computers running the many versions of Microsoft Windows. These updates are either enhancements or corrections to OS features, or security updates meant to protect your system from malicious attacks and malware. Reliability, security and performance [...]

The main reason for not using Windows Aero under Windows 7 was the transparency effect that was automatically applied to all open windows. That did not only make some menu items harder to read, but made the screenshots look unprofessional as the desktop background or folder background was shining through because of the transparency. Up [...]

Disk space is cheap, but there are still situations where you’d like to reclaim space. For me, one of them is getting the maximum of the free Dropbox account I use to synchronize my applications between work and home. hey, don’t say my sysadmin I do this, he’d get a heart attack from the sole [...]

Adobe Flash has a market penetration of 99% which means that it is installed on 99 out of 100 computer systems according to a study posted on the Adobe website. Security vulnerabilities on the other hand become more frequent and users have to update their versions of Flash regularly to secure their computer systems. A [...]

If you have read any of the Samba content here on Ghacks you probably will have noticed that within the smb.conf configuration file a line that begins with security =. This is a very important part of Samba setup and generally the section that gives users the most problems. Although the security mode would seem fairly [...]

In the wake of Ubuntu’s 9.10 release, many distributions were forgotten. But one distribution, in particular, keeps getting better and better under the radar. That distribution? Fedora. Just this week Fedora 12 was released, brining some serious improvements not only to the cutting edge distribution, but to Linux in general. Upon installation you might not [...]

Pentagon has been working on a special type of technology that would turn bugs in to something that would really live up to the multiple meanings of bug. Okay, I will give it to you straight – they are working on something that’ll turn normal bugs in to remote controlled ones that can be controlled, [...]

I have been covering the Linux operating system for a long time now. There are moments when I take it for granted that everyone knows the basic terminology surrounding this operating system. Because this is obviously not the case, I thought it might be a good time to stop and explain some of the terms [...]

Until a couple of months ago, I didn’t know much about dual-booting. Yes, I knew it meant running two OS’s on one machine but beyond that, not much else. So when I decided to go ahead and set up a dual boot on my laptop, I definitely needed help. I got it in the form [...]

It is inevitable that IPv6 addresses are going to eventually take over. When that happens you will need to know just how to assign an IPv6 address in your Linux operating system. Of course this will only be necessary on a system that uses a static IP address, but when you’re using Linux that can [...]

If you have to explain a concept to someone you better make sure to match their proficiency level so that they actually understand what you are talking about. If you work in tech support you usually talk to users all the time who have little to no knowledge at all about technology. They might get [...]

When you sign-up at a website or install a piece of software, you are often asked if you ‘accept the terms-of-service.’ This is a really long document full of legalese. Most people don’t even bother to read it and just click the accept button. Even yours truly pretty much just skims through these parts. However, [...]

Sleep Mode – which goes under the name standby, sleep or suspend depending on the operating system in use – has been created to save energy in situations where a computer system does not perform any active calculations. The operating system will power down most of the connected hardware devices except for the computer memory [...]

In my last post, I mentioned wanting to try out Linux, specifically Ubuntu. After much consideration and with the help of the Ghacks readers, I decided to try the Ubuntu LiveCD before actually installing it. However, I first had to bump up my laptop’s RAM, which took a while. It’s tough to get compatible DDR [...]

gHacks has a diverse range of editors, living in, amongst other places, the UK, Germany and Hungary. All write in the medium of English, but learning a foreign language is no easy task. I am currently trying to learn French and German and often find myself using many computer-based resources to ease my learning, some [...]

Some software programs are unpacked to both an msi ans exe setup file. If you are a end user you might wonder which to execute to install the application properly. Chance is that you tried both ways at least once and noticed that clicking the msi or the exe setup file would install the application [...]

Most of you will agree with me when I say that education (especially in university) is expensive. After tuition and living costs, the next highest expense on the list will no doubt be textbooks. College textbooks prescribed by the university change on an almost yearly basis and most students have no choice but to cough [...]

I do a lot with spreadsheets. And when I work in spreadsheets I work in OpenOffice. Most people know the ins and outs of spreadsheets, but many don’t realize just how powerful spreadsheets can be. Openoffice Calc holds a lot more bang for the users’ buck than you might think. For instance, did you know [...]

I confess that I’m not particularly adept when it comes to working with hardware. I can work with nuts and bolts and have even built my own switchboards but I’m always looking to upgrade my skills. Besides, as most people know, getting people to come and fix things can turn out to be a very [...]

Do not worry. This article will not contain the same old blabla that most of the other Windows 7 toplist articles will mention. It will instead concentrate on five lesser known but powerful new features that increase productivity by a large margin. You might want to check out our article about Windows 7 which has [...]

If you do much desktop publishing or graphics work in Linux than you might be at a place where you are struggling to get fonts installed. Well never fear – it’s not nearly as difficult as it sounds. In fact, installing fonts in Linux is quite easy. Of course the easiest means to installing fonts [...]

For many people, the biggest hurdle to using The GIMP is the user interface. When The GIMP began it started out with a very different UI than any other application. That UI was sustained, pretty much as-is, until The GIMP 2.6. With the adoption of 2.6 the user interface took a turn towards being more [...]

So called SSD hard drives are becoming increasingly popular especially in the netbook sector. Solid State Drives have several distinctive advantages like faster access times, lower power usage and being completely silent while running. The main disadvantage that you might notice especially in netbooks is the write speed of those drives which is usually lower [...]

Connecting to wireless networks in Linux has, for a long time, been a nightmare. Until recently wireless was often a deal breaker in Linux (especially with laptops.) But things have changed. Now more cards than ever are supported as well as more protocols. And with the GNOME Network Manager Applet, connecting to a wireless network [...]

Over the  years I have used countless Linux desktops and window managers. But no matter how amazing a desktop (read: Compiz-Fusion) I always seem to wind up going straight back to Enlightenment. Enlightenment is one of those window managers that has a very small footprint yet offers enough eye candy to impress. But the appeal [...]

If you open the Windows Task Manager (by pressing CTRL ALT DEL) you might notice the process jqs.exe that is running with a low priority. Jqs.exe uses about 1.5 Megabytes of computer memory and 2 Megabytes of virtual memory while running. It also initiates I/O processes frequently if those columns are activated in the Task [...]

Unlike Windows Vista, Windows XP does not have a built in tool to resize a partition. Because of this you have to make use of another means. One of my favorite tools for this task is the GParted Live CD. What the GParted Live CD does is boot into a very simple Linux desktop that [...]

I have had a number of requests for how to documents on dual booting Windows and Vista. Since the process for Vista and XP are different I am going to give them separate articles. I will start with dual booting Vista and Linux. This tutorial will focus on the Windows portion of the process and [...]

I have had a number of requests for a step by step walk through of a Linux installation. I thought this would be a great way to illustrate how simple installing Linux is. I have chosen Ubuntu because it is a good example of how far the Linux installation process has come. This installation will [...]

The Linux file system hierarchy is much different than that of Windows. So much so that it becomes a show stopper for many new users. I hope to clear up a lot of the confusion here and now at gHacks. So, without further adieu, I give you the Linux file system hierarchy. / – This [...]

Anyone who has pondered the idea of migrating from Windows to Linux knows there are differences between the two operating systems. But just what are those differences? Many people considering this migration might be more apt to make the jump if they know just what the differences are. So I thought it would be a [...]

Ever since the inception of GNOME and KDE there has been confusion among new Linux users which is which and which is best to use. The former question is fairly simple to answer. The latter question, however, is a bit more complex due to user-specific needs/wants. With that in mind let us begin by illustrating [...]

Lots of tools can join multiple mp3 files into one mp3 file that contains all the bits of the original files. Mp3 files but also files with the ogg extension can be concatenated easily because of the way the data is structured. The following command line argument will not work with many other file types [...]

Search Engine Optimization is essential for webmasters who want to promote their websites to their fullest extent. It is usually divided into onpage and offpage SEO. Onpage SEO describes the process of optimizing the website itself while offpage SEO describes all methods of attracting links to the website. Most search engines do not talk about [...]

A question came up today if it was possible to export a Calendar in Microsoft Outlook and import it to Mozilla Lightning. Mozilla Lightning can be integrated in the email client Thunderbird. There are basically two ways to import the Microsoft Outlook Calendar into Mozilla Lightning. The manual way would be to export the Calendar [...]

Starting iTunes after a recent installation returned the error message “The folder iTunes cannot be found or created”. It was referring to the My Music directory that is usually located in the My Documents folder on the partition containing the operating system. The iTunes software creates an iTunes folder in the My Music directory on [...]

One of the things that bothers me the most is when I open the Windows Registry to edit a key and it loads up showing me the last key I had viewed. I normally go into the Registry to make one change and that’s it. I never go back and edit the same key. Wouldn’t it be great if you could open the registry and all the hives would load up collapsed like you opened it for the first time ever?

Regular readers already know that I recently switched from using XMPlay to AIMP2 which provides the better total package. One of the interesting functions of AIMP2 is to record Internet radio (yes XMPlay can do that as well). It took a while to find out how this function could be enabled in the player and [...]

The default folder settings are not working consistently in Windows Vista and it becomes quickly annoying to move and resize the folders to the right size all the time in the new Microsoft operating system. Brian Scott posted an interesting Registry hack that makes it possible to define default folder settings for all folders in [...]

Ashish Mohta posted an interesting Microsoft Excel tip at his website that explained how to smart paste contents from Notepad into Microsoft Excel. The procedure is actually working with any kind of text editor not just Notepad. When you normally copy paste contents into Microsoft Excel they will all be stored in the same cell [...]

The IP address. Your gateway to the internet. That little set of numbers that guarantees you can log on and check mail, watch videos, etc. This is something I only used to bother about when my internet connection stopped working and I needed to check if there was a problem from my end. All this [...]

There are three types of bloggers. Those that do it for fun, those that want to become rich and those that do it because they want to market themselves. The first group can do whatever they want and will still be happy with it. The other two groups need knowledge about blogging if they want [...]

My new computer monitor arrived yesterday. It is an hp computer monitor with 24″ for maximum screen space. Pretty much feels like working with two 19″ monitors only that you got everything on one screen now. One thing that I noticed after connecting the new computer monitor to my computer system was that the quick [...]

I have been experiencing a problem with the auto-hide feature of the Windows Taskbar for the last two weeks or so. Auto-hide would work fine for some time but eventually the Windows Taskbar would just lock up and not auto-hide anymore. This was sometimes caused by applications that have been started but the rest of [...]

Adobe installs a software called Adobe Updater with many of its products. The updater will automatically connect to the Internet to check for updates for supported and installed Adobe products. Adobe Updater, that’s the official name of the application, will be installed in its own folder on the system. Most users probably do not mind [...]

I never quite understood why most people shy away from going to a library. After all, 9 times out of 10, the information you are looking for is available at your local library. In fact, libraries have an excellent collection, not only of books but also CDs, DVDs, scientific journals, etc. One common reason people [...]