Windows Tools, Help & Guides

If you store photos on your home PC and don’t back them up, I really recommend you do. Hard drives fail all the time yet I still get many emails and PMs asking for help with data recovery. Even if you use an online backup solution, I still recommend taking an inexpensive local backup on optical media periodically.

I have my photos synced on two hard drives at home, on a remote server (RAID 10), and with a third-party storage provider. I’m still paranoid about losing my life’s memories in photos so I like to take a snapshot of my photo data every two years. By making a biannual backup, you’ll always have 3-5 viable sets of discs (they don’t last forever) with your important files—should you ever lose or overwrite them. Hopefully this guide is helpful and gives you something to do with the remaining 88 of the 100 DVDs you purchased on sale three years ago…

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The other day I got a call from a  user who had somehow managed to make all his desktop shortcuts open in Word. I suspected he had used the “open With” option in the context menu; thus, telling Windows to “Always use this program to open these files”. The problem was clear. Even though each shortcut had the correct settings, Windows would still open them in Word. The problem is, you can’t just tell Windows to open the shortcut files in an other program than Word. You have to somehow Reset the shortcut behavior to factory settings.

So how did we fix it ?

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Windows Guides’ Rating	Compatible with	System
4.5 out of 5

PROS: Lightweight and simple. Performs its main task—reporting file-by-file disk usage—in an intuitive manner and provides the ability to visually drill down to the largest files and directories on your hard drive. Essential for SSD users running out of space! CONS: The only “con” is WinDirStat has pretty much looked the same since its release in 2003. The treemap view is great but it’s a little bit of an eye sore by today’s standards. Still, the software is bug free and provides data quickly and efficiently. VERDICT: If you want to save disk space, this utility is essential. PRICE: Free VERSION REVIEWED: 1.1.2.80 DOWNLOAD: WinDirStat

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Time and time again, the story of a hacker stealing someone’s private pictures or videos is published in newspapers. The recent case is that of Sofia Vergara whose intimate pictures were hacked only a month ago and then were put on sale. Usually, the target of such a hacker is a celebrity as they expect to blackmail them and make money through extortion or sale of pictures/videos. But these hackers can victimize just about anyone. You do not have panic. There is a simple solution to this problem – encrypt your private files with strong encryption so that even if a hacker lays his hands on the files, they would be useless for him. AxCrypt is a free encryption utility that can be used for this purpose. Read more…

XP, Vista, 7, and Windows 8 come with a built in voice database, which you can access via the Microsoft SAPI (Speech Application Programming Interface); in this guide, you’ll learn how to get your computer to say what you type using one of three methods.

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If you’re using Windows 8 and are primarily in the desktop view, you may find yourself jumping to the Start screen often to launch common applications like the Control Panel, the Command Prompt, or Device Manager. To save the jumping around and work a little more efficiently, Microsoft have provided a shortcut menu, accessible from both the Start screen and the desktop. This menu provides quick access to:

• Programs and Features
• Power Options
• Event Viewer
• System
• Device Manager
• Disk Management
• Computer Management
• Command Prompt/Command Prompt (Admin)
• Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc)
• Control Panel
• File Explorer (Windows Key + E)
• Search (F3 from the desktop)
• Run (Windows Key + R)
• Desktop (Windows Key + D)

Note the underlined letter on the menu. Pressing Windows Key + X and then typing the underlined letter will save you a mouse click. Want to access the Control Panel quickly? Windows Key + X, followed by P.

Looking for some more Windows 8 shortcuts? Check out Windows 8 shortcuts for non-touch screen users.

Note: A right click on the Start area will also launch this menu