Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News back in 2005. Martin started his career as a tech support representative at a large German financial corporation which he used to finance his college education in English, Information Technology and History.
He quit college and his job when Ghacks began to attract a large enough readership. He made the decision to become a full time blogger and webmaster, and has not looked back since.
Martin is interested in all things tech. His primary focus is on desktop operating systems, web browsers, Internet services, and privacy related topics.
He published the book The Complete Windows 10 Privacy Guide: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version in 2017. Martin writes a weekly column for fellow tech site Betanews as well.
You can reach Martin on Facebook or on Twitter. Please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to contact the author directly.
Martin has been quoted or mentioned in many major online and print publications, including Forbes, Lifehacker.com, ComputerWorld, LinkedIn, Reddit, Betanews.com, Bleeping Computer, TechCrunch, PC World, Tom's Hardware, Slashdot, Hacker News, The Register, and more.
Martin's articles on Ghacks
If you install many softwares you notice that some of them add entries to the Windows Explorer menu. The menu looks crowded after some time and it takes longer to find and click on the entries that you use often.
The software with the rather strange name MMM steps in and lets you rearrange all menu entries. This is done by offering a way to hide entries that you never ever use and a way to add entries that you rarely use to a submenu. My initial right-click menu had ten items listed of which I moved five to the hidden area making it look so much better afterwards.
We all know that Microsoft can update Windows Vista and Windows XP at will if automatic updates are enabled. Did you know that Microsoft can also update your operating system even if you disabled automatic updates ? Most users would probably deny that this is possible but it turns out to be true.
A new version of iTunes Sync has been released today and can be downloaded from the developers website. The software syncs iTunes with mp3 players other than iPods. I'm still not sure why users would want to use iTunes but I suppose it has something to do with the ability to buy music and videos there.
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 is currently priced at $619 at Amazon. Microsoft knows that only a few students have the money to buy a software suite for roughly $600 which is why they decided to run a promotion that sells Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $59 which is an absolute bargain.
If you do not know yet there is a Skype worm spreading around that is affecting Skype Windows clients. The virus automatically sends a chat message to other Skype users containing a link to an image on a website where he is prompted to download a file with the .scr extension using a simple redirection
Nine Inch Nails is one of the few bands that is openly opposing the music industry by trying out new ways and methods to distribute their music. This time a full album called 'The Limitless Potential' containing 21 tracks of fan made Nine Inch Nail remixes were released to the public.
Windows file operations are displayed in an basic window with no option to enhance them at all. This can be really tiresome if you copy hundreds of files only to realize that the operation was terminated somewhere in the middle. There is no possibility to resume transfers as well and no list showing all file operations including their status.
Enter Startup Delayer. What this software does is to list all applications that are started when Windows starts. You can then delay the startup of applications that are not system critical. I would for instance instantly start my security applications but delay the start of lesser important programs such as Office, iTunes and other applications of that kind.
If you happen to work regularly with the registry of your Windows system you might have thought that it would be great to be able to open the most used registry keys using a bookmark like system. It's kinda funny that I never noticed until now that it is possible to add registry keys to the registry favorites.
Firefox, Word, Thunderbird and several other applications all have a build in spell checker that warns the user if a word that was written was not found in the dictionary file. There is however no general spell checker in Windows which means that users have to write their texts in softwares that have a spell checker and copy paste them into the software that has none. Or they could write their texts without spell checking.
We have all made the experience in the past that many websites are not available all the time. A website that got on Digg's homepage or slashdotted might have went down pretty fast which is unfortunately if you want to read what the buzz that it created was all about. I normally bookmark those websites and visit them again later to see if the website is available again. If it is not I try it a few more times and if it is not up at that point I either forget about it or delete the bookmark.
Windows does not handle Wallpapers for Dual Monitors very well. If you ever tried to use different wallpapers on each monitor or stretch a wallpaper across both you know what I mean. We - again - have to rely on third party softwares to add functionality to Windows.
Many users think that usb flash drives are all the same. They look boring and can only be used to plug them into a usb port. The Lexar usb flash drive Jumpdrive Mercury adds one useful function to the usb drive.
If you are looking for a sophisticated file and directory monitoring software that looks rather complex on first sight but offers a lot of possibilities if one works for a short time with Log Monitor. Directories or files that you add are monitored in intervals - even realtime is possible - that you specify and commands are executed if checks that are performed in that intervals return a positive value.
Have you ever been in the situation that you have been visiting a foreign country only to find out that they had a unique good there that you needed a constant supply of ? Or something that you did not buy during your visit but are craving for now ? Bringsome may be the solution in all of those cases.
Oh Sony, when will you learn that manipulating the public will not be taken lightly when it becomes public. This time, someone from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's studios in Liverpool was caught adding a sentence to the Halo 3 entry on Wikipedia. The person in question added the sentence 'Although it won't look any better than Halo 2' to the game description which has been removed after discovery.
I'm one of those who always wants to find the perfect gift for people that I care about which usually takes some time to think about. My usual approach is that I listen carefully and make mental notes whenever I hear something, a desire or wish, that makes the perfect gift.
Democracy at it's finest I would say. The project My Football Club has the goal to raise enough money to buy a real world football club in the United Kingdom. Every member pays an annual fee of £35 which in turn gives him an equal share in the football club. All important management decisions such as buying and scouting new players and team selection are democratically decided by counting all member votes with each member having exactly one vote.
Paying $0.99 for a single Ringtone is way to much especially if you already bought the song from iTunes or have it available on CD or as mp3.The funny thing is that Apple introduced a new format for ringtones with the extension .m4r which is simply a renamed .aac file which are the files that you download when you make a purchase at iTunes.
Retroshare is a secure Instant Messenger with File Sharing options. It uses a 2048-bit RSA encryption keys in combination with trust style authentication to ensure maximum security. Connections are only established to friends who received your Retroshare certificate which is of course a little bit more complicated but it is well worth it.
The IT Crowd is one of the best British comedy series ever produced. It's up to the point, uses nerdy characters that remind me of many of my work colleagues.The IT Crowd is about three guys - actually two guys and their female boss - from the IT appartement and their daily life in the office.
If there is one thing for sure it is that spammers are creative in finding new ways to bypass anti spam filters. They send distorted pictures, add random text to their messages, zip their spam, use excel files, pdf files and nowadays fdf files. Fdf files ? What's that again ?
Gili over at Connected Internet compiled a list of 15 applications that he calls the best free software for your computer. We all know that it can be quite difficulty to compile a list with the best because the best is nothing more than a personal judgment. I would agree that about half of the recommended softwares are must haves while the other half are nice to have but not really required.
I recently received the error message "The associated helper application does not exist" whenever I tried to download - and run - a torrent file from within Firefox. The associated helper application is a third party application that is either added to the download actions list be default or when a user is selecting to always open a file type with an application.
Do you love both episodes of the Max Payne game ? Did you also enjoy playing old Sierra classic adventures such as Gabriel Knight 2 and Phantasmagoria which can be best described as interactive movies ? You will enjoy playing Fate by Numbers if you answered both questions with yes.
If you are a big Halo fan you surely would like to download four Halo 3 wallpapers and one Halo 3 ringtone for Windows Mobile devices directly from Microsoft. All Windows Mobile devices with touch screens (Pocket PCs) and without touch screen (Smartphones) are supported.
You decided to export your Outlook data to a new computer only to realize that all Outlook categories have not been exported. Instead of manually creating those categories again you decided to search for a solution to backup the categories on the old computer and add them again to the new pc.
Frozen iPods are more common than you might think. Read on before you go out and buy a new iPod just because you can't get your old one fixed. As I said, frozen iPods are common and there are a few steps that you can undertake that will most likely fix the iPod and get it out of it's frozen state.
Apple once again announced a new batch of iPod devices to lure consumers in the trap of buying just another iPod that can store more Gigabytes, is smaller or offers a touch screen interface. High-End users have the choice between a 8 and 16 Gigabyte iPod Touch which looks pretty similar to the iPhone but ships without phone capabilities or between a 80 and 160 Gigabyte iPod Classic device.
Nec announced the Lavie C series of notebooks recently which are basically standard notebooks with one features that makes them stick out from the rest. The new feature is called 'Face Pass' which is a biometric system that uses face recognition instead of passwords to grant access to the notebook.
Windows Vista does have some nice features that are a great addition but not enough to justify a purchase. That is why clever software coders stepped in and implemented those features for Windows XP. XP has the major advantage that it is a fairly stable system that is not as resource hungry as Windows Vista is.
NBC wants more control on pricing and usage restrictions while Apple did not want to give in which is why the current relationship between those two is a little bit icy and it remains unclear if NBC shows will still be available in iTunes at years end. Meanwhile Amazon and NBC announced that NBC's tv shows will be made available on Unbox.
How many good tech blogs are out there ? What would you guess ? I'm always astonished to discover a new blog that I never heard before only to realize that I must have living behind the moon to not know it. This happens quite frequently and I add new blogs daily to my ever expanding list of feeds in Netvibes.
Until now it was possible to use the public id of any Adsense webmaster and place it on bogus sites to get the account of that webmaster banned. The public id is visible when viewing the source code of a website that uses Google Adsense to monetize.
Data synchronization is one of the most important features of software that you have to use on more than one computer. If a software does not provide a way to synchronize data between computers users normally find a way and use applications that synchronize folders and files automatically.
Would you play ad supported games if they were free ? I think the main question that has be to answered before you can give me an answer is the way the ads are displayed. Are they only shown during startup or ingame as well ? This is unfortunately a question that I can't answer right now but I can post links to some ad supported games by Ubisoft - full versions of course.
Wordpad offers an advanced functionality in comparison to Notepad but is not able to compete against Office suites such as Open Office or Microsoft Word. Ultra-Pad is a Wordpad replacement for Windows which adds several features that Wordpad does not offer. It can be enhanced with themes for instance, an option that Wordpad does not offer.
Microsoft tried to enhance Windows XP by adding a central folder for user data which is called MyDocuments which is the default place for save games, pictures, music and everything else that is user related. The default location has some disadvantages though. First, it adds another folder that has to be backed up if you do backup your data regularly.
I have been working with the ftp client Filezilla for some time now and switched to release candidate three of the new and upcoming Filezilla 3 just recently. I have to use ftp clients on a daily basis to upload files to my websites and edit php and html files that are already on them. They are indeed useful for webmasters but on a decline when you take a look at all Internet users - my opinion but supported by the fact that most modern browsers support ftp downloads as well.
It has been a while since I posted the first part of this mini series entitled 10 Freeware Recommendations. Two months are a long time considering that I write about software almost every day here at Ghacks, that is why I decided to open my treasure trove again and present you another batch of freeware recommendations for Windows that will probably make your day.
