Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Every now and then I get questions from people about unknown file types. And even more rarely I find file types, which I don’t recognise. Usually a quick answer is found by googling the file type. But if you get this a lot – then this freeware solution, might just be what you need.

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Some days ago I wrote a post about Hacking InPrivate Browsing, there you find useful information about how to find traces left by Internet Explorer using InPrivate Browsing.

Incognito Mode in Google Chrome, Private Browsing in Firefox, and InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer are, in essence, the same. This feature restricts the information that browser stores while using the internet. What information are we talking about?

• History: If you enter a web page, information about the site, title and URL, as well as when that page was entered is saved.
• Cookies: Many sites need to track information about the user, for example a set of books on a library site. One way to achieve this is using cookies that store the information on the user’s computer.
• Cache: If you enter more than once on a website, the browser doesn’t need to download all components of that site every time. It’s clear that these programs need storage  and a way to organize the files.

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A colleague of mine recently asked me to have a look at his personal Notebook. He has a virus infection on the PC and doesn’t know how to get rid of it.

He dropped the Notebook off at my house after work one evening and I had a look. Immediately several screens popped-up at me screaming about all the infections on the machine. I found this strange as I didn’t know the program spewing out these warnings.

After a bit of research on Google I found that this was one of those programs enticing the user to download for free. Once installed, it produces false-positives so the user will be scared into purchasing it. I removed the offending program, and updated the perfectly good antivirus and firewall software on the machine, scanned the entire notebook to find no major threats.

All the user needs to do now is to purchase a new annual license and he is good to go.

My advice is to ensure you have one of the major anti-virus programs installed, preferably with a firewall built-in. It is quite easy to read-up on different antivirus software programs online by simply asking Google.

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After installing some software, an entry appears in your Send To Desktop context menu.

If you’ve a plethora of software installed on your system, this context menu can become cluttered and not as useful as intended my Microsoft.

This Quick Tip is going to show you how to tidy up your Send to menu.

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There were a number of surprise benefits I found upon making the conversion to Windows Media Center.

They don’t hype this much in the Microsoft literature on WMC, but I find the switch from 6 remote controls to just 1 a huge benefit. No more flailing around to set the TV to the right input, and the DVR to the right mode, and Sky box to the right channel etc. etc. It’s all right there on my new remote best friend.

The “Before” and “After” shots are below.

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Ever wonder how much you use your mouse when you’re using your computer? I think you’d be surprised to see just how much you use it. In this, guide I’ll show you how to get a small app called “MousePath” and how to get it to track your movements.

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