Solid State Drives are slowly becoming the new mainstream storage devices. It may still take a few years before they replace platter based hard drives but it will happen eventually. Currently both price and storage volume are not competitive, but this will change in the future. PC users who followed SSDs from the very beginning [...]

The Windows operating system automatically locks files and folders that are being used by an application or any native Windows service. Stopping services or closing the applications that are locking the file or folder is not always an option. The familiar message, “Cannot delete file: It is being used by another program” can be an [...]

One of the things that you may want to consider when setting up a wireless network connection or troubleshooting an existing one is the vicinity of other wireless signals in the area. Why? Because you may want to make sure you get the best possible network quality. It is for instance advised to select wireless [...]

Back in October a rootkit was discovered that exploits a critical security vulnerability in the Windows operating system. We covered a detection and removal tool two days ago that would scan a PC and remove any traces of the Duqu rootkit from a system. Microsoft today has releases a security advisory to give customers “guidance [...]

Origin is a controversially “Steam-like” distribution and gaming platform by Electronic Arts. The service has recently received bad press because of its end user license agreement which EA in the meantime has updated several times. Regardless of that, it is still heavily criticized by privacy organizations and end users alike for its abilities to crawl [...]

Today I tried to install the Adobe Flash Plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The basic idea was to download the executable, run it and have Flash installed. The problem was that somehow the whole process got corrupted which had several consequences. The Flash Player installation running in the background was creating new temporary Flash executables [...]

The AeroSnap feature that is included in Windows 7 allows you to resize windows and adjust multiple windows viewing on the screen. ReSizer is a system utility that uses AeroSnap functions to give you the option of focusing, resizing and changing windows from the num pad (number pad on the right of most keyboards). This [...]

Game cheats and cheat codes have been very important for previous gaming generations. They were highly popular before the Internet became popular. Game magazines back then filled a lot of pages with walkthroughs, tips, tricks and cheat codes. Today with Internet access almost everywhere, there is no need for offline access to game cheats. All [...]

Protecting a computer system has become one of the most important tasks for computer users in the past decade. While you had your fair share of viruses, hacks and all that stuff on computer systems like the C-64 or Amiga as well, they have never managed to spread far thanks to expensive modems and data [...]

Quizzes can be a great way of testing your knowledge or a fun way to compete with others. Students often use quizzes in preparations of upcoming tests. Mega Quiz is a free quiz software for Windows that comes with all the bells and whistles one would expect. It comes with built-in quizzes, options to download [...]

Windows Task Manager allows us to monitor processes, services, and running applications and also provides control over these so they can be voluntarily ended if needed. There is a replacement for Task Manager that offers more and takes it to the next level, enabling you to end processes at a predetermined time. This replacement is [...]

I remember that both the Commodore C-64 and the Amiga had a thriving public domain, demo and freeware scene. While it was overshadowed by commercial games and applications, it was there and some of the games produced by enthusiasts were well done. If you look at the PC you will find that freeware games and [...]

If you have been following security news lately you may have already heard about the Duqu rootkit that combines the technology of the Stuxnet rootkit with a backdoor trojan and keylogger. Duqu has been discovered on October 18 and infection reports have started to come in soon thereafter. Not all security suites and products detect [...]

All experts are fairly certain that Microsoft will release the Windows 8 operating system in 2012, as it was confirmed by Steve Ballmer back at the Microsoft Developer forum in Tokyo in May 2011. Only the month when the company first starts shipping it is highly discussed. The majority thinks that Microsoft will reveal the [...]

All web browsers save website files automatically to a temporary folder whenever a website is loaded (unless it is a secure website) Html files, images, other media files and CSS files are just some of the files that get saved automatically. The browser cache is actually a great place to find interesting files, images or [...]

Fake antivirus software has been on the rise in the past years. The term refers to malware that disguises itself as system protection software. Some of those programs fake malware infections to lure the user into buying an upgrade to remove the non-existing threats on the system. Others are plain malicious in nature or are [...]

It is only a matter of time until software developers find ways to bring features of new or upcoming Microsoft Windows operating systems to previous versions of said systems. One of the first features to get ported to Windows 7 is the new Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 that Microsoft will ship with the [...]

If you are a comic fan you have probably downloaded a fair share of digital comics to your computer. There are several sites on the Internet where you can download comics for free. An alternative to that are online stores where you can buy individual comics or even complete comic series. While that’s not an [...]

With the rise of Solid State Drives came software from hardware manufacturers to manage and control those drives in a computing environment. Intel’s SSD Toolbox has recently been released in version 3. We have covered both the initial Intel Solid State Drive (SSD) Toolbox release and Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox 2 release before. Lets see [...]

Most Ghacks readers are tech savvy users who know how to type efficiently. When I visit friends, family or colleagues I sometimes notice that they type very slowly and in no optimal fashion. You have probably encountered the two-finger type users as well who hover with two fingers over the keys to find the next [...]

When you look at the performance view of Windows Task Manager on your desktop PC you probably see between two or eight logical processors listed in the interface. On large scale computer systems running Windows 7, the count may be a lot higher. Microsoft showed a screenshot of the performance tab of Windows Task Manager [...]

I check the running processes on my Windows system regularly to find potentially malicious or unnecessary processes. When I looked at the process listing today I noticed that two explorer.exe processes were running. I remembered that this could be a sign of malicious software disguising itself as a system process. When I checked the process [...]

VBoxLaunch is a program that assists in managing access to VirtualBox. For those who regularly use virtual machines in Virtual Box, VBoxLaunch will allow you to create a jumplist from the Start menu which will launch virtual machines. This tiny utility does not alter VirtualBox settings and will not interfere with the interface settings. It [...]

Windows accumulates context menu items any time you install several applications. Not all applications end up on the context menu but enough do so over time that the menu can become cluttered. You might find yourself wondering, “How did that get there?” You may not want it on the context menu, but it is there [...]

Halloween, the night before All Hallows Days, is only a few days away. The holiday usually involves attending costume parties, trick or treating, bonfires, playing pranks and doing other “scary” things. The computer is usually not linked or included in any of those activities. Windows 7 users who want the full experience can download and [...]

Back in 2009 I reviewed one of the first public versions of DNS Jumper, a portable program for Windows that allowed you to change the system’s DNS with the click of the mouse button. The application back then was released during the “dns craze” where Google and other big players like Symantec entered the market [...]

If you like quizzes in general and have a medium to large sized music collection at your disposal, you might fancy running the mp3 quiz software to combine both passions. Mp3 quiz is a free software for Windows that can be used to create mp3 quizzes from locally hosted music collections. It can be played [...]

Sometimes you may download or create multiple pdf documents that you may want to merge into one document. Maybe you have used a program like WinScan2PDF that turns scans into pdf files or Joliprint which turns web pages into pdf documents, or you are receiving reports in pdf format regularly. If you end up with [...]

Sometimes you may feel the need to create a screenshot or multiple screenshots of a website. This can be handy for archiving or reference purposes for instance. While you could create a screenshot easily with tools offered by the operating system, doing so usually involves several steps and is therefor more time consuming than using [...]

One of the things that webmasters need to ensure is that third parties are not modifying code on one of their websites. Attacks that make this possible include code injection or brute force attacks to retrieve the ftp or database password of a website. The free software Websites Cop can monitor contents hosted on one [...]

LinuxLive USB Creator, or “LiLi”, is a quick way to create Live Linux USB drives that are persistent virtualized drives. Typically, Linux USB drives require rebooting to install software. It is possible to create a Linux USB drive that will install without a reboot. This is where LiLi comes into play. By setting drive persistence [...]

With every new Microsoft operating system, regardless of it being a client or server OS, come new and modified services. System administrators as well as end users who are interested in optimizing their PC and knowing what’s running in the background need to spend time to analyze the changes. One of the best Windows Service [...]

For the last days I have been receiving lags and issues both in the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client. With Thunderbird I’m experiencing lags where the window is not responding for some time. I just have to wait and the window becomes accessible again. With Firefox it is another issue. The browser [...]

Renaming files can sometimes be a necessity and other times something that improves the readability on a computer system. Probably the most common example used to explain this are photos taken with digital cameras. These photos often come with cryptic file names like CIMG2350.JPG that tell you nothing at all about the photo taken. Renaming [...]

Some processes are more important than others. Maybe you like to run an ftp client or p2p software all the time on your system, maybe a backup software or a messenger client. You may also want to make sure that parental controls or other monitoring or security applications are running all the time on a [...]

The Windows command line prompt can be handy at times and sometimes even the only option to execute a specific command in the operating system. You sometimes may need to copy the output of a command to the Windows Clipboard, for instance to use the output in another application. Most users that I know handle [...]

Hardware manufacturers that want to ship Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system with their PCs need to implement the Secure Boot feature that is part of the UEFI specification. The feature basically determines which code or programs can be started during boot. The core intention here is to prevent malware and other unauthorized code from [...]

Oracle has released a critical patch update for its Java products including the Java Development Kit and the Java Runtime Environment. According to the security advisory the cumulative update fixes a total of 20 security related issues across all Java based products. Java users can verify their computer system’s Java version on this page. Affected [...]

Windows users have many programs at their disposal that display hardware related information. Heck, even the Windows Control Panel offers applets that display some information about the built-in hardware. Knowing your computer’s hardware can come in handy in a multitude of situations. This includes situations where you need to know if your computer supports a [...]

If you ask Windows users which temporary file cleaning program they use then the chance is high that you get CCleaner as the answer. The popular tool has not lost any of its appeal ever since it was first introduced by its parent company Piriform (I first reviewed the program in 2005). But CCleaner is [...]

Did you ever stare at a file operation process bar, for instance a download or upload that you needed to finish, a backup process or a file conversion? Then you might have enjoyed elevator music during that progress. Instant Elevator Music is a fun application for users who like to be accompanied by calming soothing [...]

One of the areas that a lot of computer users do not bother to optimize is the domain name server (DNS) of their Internet connection. A mediocre DNS not only slows down the connection speed on websites and Internet servers in general, but can also be the cause for connection issues and even censorship. Selecting [...]

When you connect an external USB drive to a computer you may run into the problem that finding files on the drive is not as easy and fast as it could be. The main problem here is that the operating system did not have time to index the files and folders on the drive yet [...]

I behave with respect when I’m in a room with other people, in a train or on the street. This means that I have my mobile phone set to vibrate only, that I won’t answer it in crowded places, that I won’t use it to listen to music loudly (and without earbuds) and that I [...]

I have been using MailStore Home for some time to backup and archive my Thunderbird email databases (see Use MailStore To Backup Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Emails and How To Speed Up Thunderbird By Archiving Emails). The developers of this excellent free email backup software have just released version 5 which is more of a bug [...]

Depending on your backup strategy, you may mirror your data backups for additional protection. One option here is to create a local system backup first and copy the backups to a remote location for safe keeping. This way it would be possible to access the latest backup(s) directly on the local computer and past backups [...]

Webcams can be used for a variety of purposes. From video conferencing over monitoring a room for security purposes to connecting them to the Internet to make it available publicly. WebCamImageSave is a new application by Nirsoft for the Windows operating system that can capture periodic webcam images. This can be handy for documentation purposes, [...]

One of the issues that the majority of Windows users will experience after some time of using the operating system is that of broken shortcuts. The best case when uninstalling programs is that the uninstallation routine removes the shortcuts and program folders. Sometimes that is not the case so that shortcuts pointing to directories that [...]

If you work a lot with proxy servers you have probably noticed that they are not the most reliable usually. While it is possible to pay for private proxy servers many users do not want to go that far for that extra bit of anonymity or access to country specific contents on the Internet. There [...]

Microsoft released the Windows 8 developer preview exactly a month ago as part of the Build Conference. The release was made available publicly – it in fact is still available for download – and users had ample time to test some of the new features of the operating system. It did not take that long [...]