Migrate Browser Favorites

Computer Renaissance would like to show you how to migrate your browser favorites.

This depends on which browser you're using. I'll give directions for the current versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.

Internet Explorer:
This is a simple matter of moving the contents of your Favorites folder from one computer to another. It's best to do this with IE closed.

In the old computer, create a new folder, either inside a shared folder (one that can be accessed by other computers on the network), or on an external drive (such as a flash drive). I'll call that folder Transport, although you can give it another name. Open the Transport folder.

Next, select Start (Start, then Run in XP), type favorites, then press ENTER. This opens your Favorites folder. Press CTRL-A to select everything in it, and drag it all to the Transport folder. If you're asked if you want to do something, you do.

On the new computer, open the Transport folder (which will require you to either access the network or plug in the external drive). Then open the Favorites folder as described above. Drag everything from Transport to Favorites.

Firefox:
On the old computer, launch Firefox and select Bookmarks, then Organize Bookmarks. In the resulting
Library window, select Import and Backup, then Export HTML. Save the file to a shared folder or an external drive (such as a flash drive).

On the new computer, gain access to the HTML file you just created by logging onto the network or plugging in the external drive. Then, in Firefox, once again select Bookmarks, then Organize Bookmarks. Select Import HTML and follow the wizard.

Chrome:
On the old computer, in Chrome, click the Tools icon (it looks like a wrench) and select Bookmark manager. Once in the Bookmarks Manager, select Tools, then Export bookmarks. Save the file to a shared folder or an external drive (such as a flash drive).

On the new computer, gain access to the HTML file you just created by logging onto the network or plugging in the external drive. Click the Tools icon and select Bookmark manager. Once there, select Tools, then Import bookmarks. It's all pretty obvious from there.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/184460/migrate_browser_favorites.html

Bring Your Middle Mouse Button to Life

Computer Renaissance found this article very useful and would like to share it with you.

Take a close look at your mouse. Chances are good it has at least three buttons: left, right, and middle. (Note: Your middle button might be your scroll wheel, which on most mice is clickable.) Why would I want to do that? Well, I just took an informal poll of about ten people, and guess how many of them actually use that middle button? A grand total of one. One! People, people, people...

Close Browser Tabs Quickly

First up: browser tabs. I routinely have 10-15 tabs open in my browser at any given time. If I want to close a tab, I have to click it, then click the little X that appears on the tab. That's one more click than I prefer, and it brings into focus a tab I'm planning to close. Crazy, right?

If you middle-click any tab in Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or Microsoft Internet Explorer, boom, it's gone. No need to make it visible first; no need to reach for the X. Just middle-click, boom.

Open Links in New Tabs

When you middle-click a link in Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer, that link opens immediately in a new tab.

Incidentally, you can accomplish the same thing by holding down the Ctrl key and left-clicking a link. But why bother with that when you can just as easily click the middle mouse button?

Open All Your Oft-Used Sites

Let's say that you use Firefox or Internet Explorer and you've organized a handful of favorite sites--you know, the ones you visit daily--into a folder. Smart move.

Here's an even smarter one: You can instantly open every link in a folder, each in its own tab, by middle-clicking that folder.

This works regardless of where the folder is located: your bookmarks toolbar, your navigation toolbar, even a pull-down menu. One middle-click of a folder and presto: every link therein opens in a new tab.

Scroll In Your Docs

Have you ever wondered what happens when you click and hold the middle mouse button? Glad you asked. This action activates a handy page-scrolling option in applications like Microsoft Word and Excel, Adobe Reader, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

In other words, when you click and hold the middle mouse button, you can then drag your mouse forward or back to scroll up or down the page, respectively. This feature is intended for folks who don't have a scroll wheel, but it works just as well with scroll wheels--and I know many people who prefer the speed of middle-click scrolling to the slow, steady pace of wheel scrolling.

Customize Your Scroll Speed

After the mouse itself, the mouse wheel is the single greatest navigation tool ever invented. Mine is spinning constantly, especially in Firefox, where I use it to zip up and down Web pages.

By default, however, one "turn" of the mouse wheel scrolls only a few lines at a time--and I want to move faster. Fortunately, there's a fairly easy way to adjust Firefox's scroll speed. Even better, there's a keyboard shortcut that can slow it down again for "precision" scrolling.

Here's how to change the default scroll speed:

1. Open Firefox, then type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter.
2. In the Filter box, type mousewheel.withnokey.
3. Right-click mousewheel.withnokey.sysnumlines and then click Toggle. This should set the value to False.
4. Right-click mousewheel.withnokey.numlines and then click Modify. Bump the value to 6 or so, click OK, and then switch to another tab to see if you like the scroll speed. (Thankfully, you don't have to restart Firefox every time you make a change.) If not, experiment a bit until you find a number you like.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/185288/bring_your_middle_mouse_button_to_life.html

64-bit vs. 32-bit Operating Systems

Computer Renaissance would like to help you with a hard choice between 64-bit and 32-bit operating systems.

You're probably aware that 64-bit and 32-bit versions of your operating system exist, but apart from ascribing to a bigger-is-better philosophy, you may have no idea what separates the two. The question: Should you use a 64-bit version of Windows, and why?

More and more frequently, users are installing the 64-bit version of their operating system of choice over the less capable 32-bit version. But most people don't really have a full understanding of what the difference really is. Below, we're taking a look at the most important differences so you can better understand what you gain (and potentially lose) if you upgrade to the 64-bit version of your OS. (The post focuses on Windows.)

We've already explained whether you really need 4 GB of RAM, a question that touches on the 64-bit issue, but now let's tackle it in more detail.

Which Version Do I Have?

To figure out which version of Windows you are running, just head into the System properties in Control Panel, or you can take the easy route and right-click on your Computer icon in the start menu or desktop, and choose Properties from the menu. Windows 7 or Vista users will be able to check the System type in the list, while the few XP users with 64-bit will see it on the dialog.Keep in mind that your CPU must support 64-bit in order to be running a 64-bit operating system—if you're running a modern CPU you should be fine, but some of the budget PCs don't include a 64-bit processor.

Does 32-bit Really Have a Memory Limit?

In any 32-bit operating system, you are limited to 4096 MB of RAM simply because the size of a 32-bit value will not allow any more. On a 32-bit system, each process is given 4 GB of virtual memory to play with, which is separated into 2 GB of user space that the application can actually use at a time.

Savvy readers might point out that modern chips support PAE, a processor technology that allows the operating system to use a little bit more memory—up to 64 GB, but it also requires special application support that most applications don't have or necessarily need.

A common misconception is that this is a Windows-specific problem, when in fact 32-bit Linux and Mac OS X have the same limitations and the same workarounds. 32-bit Linux uses a mapping table to allow access to the extra memory, and OS X Snow Leopard actually ships by default with a 32-bit kernel that can't access all the memory on older systems, even though most of the rest of the OS runs 64-bit processes.

The 4 GB limit for Windows, at least, is also a factor of licensing—the home versions of 32-bit Windows, while technically being able to support PAE, have a hard limit of 4 GB for licensing and driver compatibility reasons.

More Problems with 32-Bit

Not only does 32-bit have a hard limit for the amount of memory it can address, there's also another problem: your devices, like your video card and motherboard BIOS take up room in that same 4 GB space, which means the underlying operating system gets access to even less of your RAM. Windows expert Mark Russinovich found that a desktop running 32-bit Windows with 4 GB of RAM and two 1 GB video cards only had 2.2 GB of RAM available for the operating system—so the bigger and better your video cards get, the less of that 4 GB will be accessible on a 32-bit system.

What's Different About 64-Bit?

While 32 bits of information can only access 4 GB of RAM, a 64-bit machine can access 17.2 BILLION gigabytes of system memory, banishing any limits far into the future. This also means that your video cards and other devices will not be stealing usable memory space from the operating system. Windows 64-bit Home editions are still limited to 16 GB of RAM for licensing reasons, but the Professional and Ultimate versions can use up to 192 GB of RAM, so keep that in mind when building that killer system.

The per-process limit is also greatly increased—on 64-bit Windows, instead of a 2 GB limit, each application has access to 8 TB of virtual memory without any special API, a huge factor when you consider applications like video editing or virtual machines that may need to use enormous amounts of RAM.

On Windows, the 64-bit versions also come with a technology to prevent hijacking the kernel, support for hardware-enabled data execution protection, and mandatory digitally signed 64-bit device drivers. You also won't be able to use your 16-bit apps anymore, which hardly seems like a loss.

Do 32-bit Applications Work on 64-Bit?

The vast majority of your 32-bit applications will continue to work just fine on 64-bit Windows, which includes a compatibility layer called WoW64, which actually switches the processor back and forth between 32-bit and 64-bit modes depending on which thread needs to execute—making 32-bit software run smoothly even in the 64-bit environment.

There are some exceptions to that rule, however: 32-bit device drivers and low-level system applications like Antivirus, shell extensions that plug into Windows, and some media applications simply won't work without a 64-bit equivalent.

In practice, the vast majority of your favorite applications will either continue to work, or provide a 64-bit version you can use instead—but you should check to make sure.

Does 64-Bit Use Double the RAM?

A common misconception about 64-bit Windows is the amount of RAM that is actually used—some people seem to think it will use double the RAM, while others incorrectly assume a 64-bit system will be twice as fast as 32-bit.

While it's true that 64-bit processes will take a little extra memory, that is a result of the memory pointers being a little bigger to address the larger amount of RAM, and not an actual double in size. Imagine, if you will, an ancient library filing system that has a card to tell you where to find the book in the library—if you got a bigger box to hold the cards, the library would not double in size, you'd just be able to find the book you were looking for more easily.

What will increase with 64-bit Windows is the amount of drive space needed for the operating system—with a compatibility layer in place, the base OS will take up a few extra GBs of space, though with today's massive hard drives that should hardly be a concern.

The Bottom Line, Which Should I Use?

If you are ordering a new PC with 4 GB or more of RAM, you should probably be running a 64-bit version of Windows so you can use all of the available memory, especially if you want a rig with a large video card—just keep in mind that the Home versions only support 16 GB of RAM (for most people a 16GB limit won't be a problem, but it's worth keeping in mind).

If you're running Mac OS X, you don't need to worry about 32-bit vs 64-bit, and if you're running Linux, you probably know this stuff already.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5431284/the-lifehacker-guide-to-the-64+bit-vs-32+bit-operating-systems

Five portable apps that run anywhere and everywhere

Computer Renaissance would like to share with you this useful article.

If you've got multiple computers at home, a computer at work, and occasional guest sessions on other systems, you don't have to memorize and juggle bookmarks, passwords, and application settings. Get comfortable with applications that run anywhere and everywhere--Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, and even off a USB drive--and you'll spend less time fidgeting and more time cranking.

For USB-friendly versions of any of these apps, head to PortableApps.com and grab the latest installer.

KeePass: It's the ultimate portable lockbox. Versions of KeePass are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, as well as on the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry smartphone platforms. There's a portable (Windows) version that runs off thumb drives, and since it's open source, it's likely to adapt to any new system that comes along. Import or enter your passwords once into KeePass, come up with a single, ultimate password or file "key" to secure them all, and you'll never lose your data or log-ins again.

Thunderbird 3: With the new version 3.0 just out, Thunderbird has made it easier than ever to get an efficient, reliable desktop email client up and running in two, maybe three minutes. Even if you're a total Gmail devotee (like certain tip authors), Thunderbird is the smart app to keep on a USB stick and all your systems. When webmail services go down, IMAP connections through Thunderbird usually still work. When you need to write and read email offline, you can hope you installed Google Gears, or just load up Thunderbird and grab your messages before you go.

VLC Player: Why keep an any-codec-goes multimedia player handy on a system meant for business? Because many companies send video and audio files in strangely proprietary formats, and VLC knows and plays them all. If your own file doesn't play in VLC, it means clients won't be able to play it, either.

Sumatra PDF: Okay, so this super-speedy PDF reader doesn't actually run on Linux or Mac systems--but, then again, you generally don't need it to, as those systems have capable and fast-moving built-in PDF readers. Windows, on the other hand, well ... do yourself a favor. Keep Sumatra handy as a default PDF handler, or at least a secondary go-to when certain other official readers crash or continually bug you for upgrades.

AbiWord: Microsoft Office is the standard for editing Word-formatted documents, but it's huge and definitely centered on Windows (and, somewhat in 2008, Macs). OpenOffice is the direct, open competitor, but it's similarly hefty and unwieldy. AbiWord, on the other hand, quietly opens all Word, OpenOffice, Word Perfect, and other files, and opens and operates with speed and minimal system taxing.

Source: http://www.itworld.com/software/89867/five-portable-apps-run-anywhere-and-everywhere

Googsystray Notifies You of New Activity Across Google Services in One System Tray App

Computer Renaissance found this article to be quite interesting.

Google has so many different services these days that installing a notification app for each one gets cumbersome quickly. Free system tray utility Googsystray watches Gmail, Google Voice, Calendar, Reader, and Wave so you can set it and forget it.

After installing Googsystray, you can configure which services you want it to watch and what you want it to do for each—upon receiving a new email, SMS, calendar alert, RSS article, or wave, you can have it play a sound and even run a command. The icon of the given service will also pop up in your system tray. Right clicking on it gives you a Growl-style popup with more detailed information about the notification, such as email subject or SMS content. You also have limited actions you can take depending on the service.

Google Voice is the most feature-filled, allowing you to send SMS messages with a hotkey and read voicemail transcripts. You can have Gmail monitor your inbox or specific labels for new messages, as well as mark messages as read, spam, or delete them. Google Calendar support is limited to alerts on upcoming events, and Google Reader can notify you of new RSS articles, although you can tell it to stop notifying you when the number of unread articles reaches a certain point. Google Wave support merely notifies you of new and unread waves, along with a preview.

Googsystray is a free download, works on Windows and Linux (Python and pygtk required for Linux).

Download Googsystray.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5428836/googsystray-notifies-you-of-new-activity-across-google-services-in-one-system-tray-app?skyline=true&s=x

Get the Classic Network Activity Indicator Back in Windows 7

Computer Renaissance can help you if you want get back the classic network activity indicator in Windows 7.

The classic little two-computer icon that blinks to indicate network activity is missing from Windows 7, replaced by an icon that simply indicates if the computer is or is not connected to a network.

The solution is a tiny application called, appropriately enough, Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7. Download the application and park your standard Windows 7 network indicator in the hidden portion of your system tray, placing the icon for the Network Activity Indicator in the appropriate place in the system tray.

Once you've performed the swap, you'll have the old network activity indicator back and its familiar blinking screens. Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7 is freeware, Windows only.

Download Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5428229/get-the-classic-network-activity-indicator-back-in-windows-7

10 Linux features Windows should have by default

Computer Renaissance would like to share with you top 10 Linux features that Windows should have by default

The battle between Linux and Windows will most likely rage on for years to come. I can foresee that even when all things migrate to the cloud, users in both camps will still be screaming the virtues of their favorite operating system. And, of course, I will be one of those campers (and I can bet you know just which camp I’ll be in). But being in that camp does not preclude me from seeing the benefits and strengths of the Windows operating system.

In my next two 10 Things articles, I am going to take pieces of each operating system and place them in the other. In this first article, I am going to share 10 features from the Linux operating system that should be in the Windows operating system. In the next article, I will go the other way.

Now you should know, features will encompass literal features as well as systems and even philosophies. I don’t want to leave anything out of the picture. In the end, my hope is that theoretically, at least, we’ll have a much more ideal operating system. Of course, you can (and will) be the judge of that. Let’s get going and start adding Linux features to Windows.

1: Compiz

No matter how clean Aero gets, I am not a fan of the flat, single-workspace desktop of Windows 7. Yes, it has come a long way, but it’s not nearly the modern desktop that Compiz offers. Of course, many would argue that Compiz is nothing more than eye candy. I, on the other hand, would argue that many of the features Compiz offers are just as much about usability as they are eye candy. Having a 3D desktop that offers you quick access (via key combinations) to multiple workspaces is handy. Window switchers can’t be beaten for ease of use. And the eye candy is just a bonus. Having Compiz on top of Windows would certainly take the experience to a level few Windows users have experienced.

2: Multi-user

Yes I know you can have multiple accounts on a Windows 7 box, but that doesn’t make it truly multi-user. Can you log on more than one user at a time in Windows 7? Not by default. To have concurrent user sessions for Windows 7, you have to download a third-party tool. In Linux, you can do this by default. This is a feature that should be enabled by default in Windows 7, too.

3: Log files

Windows operating systems have plenty of tools that enable the administrator to read log files. But for system, administration, and security issues, the administrator must fire up the tools to see those log files. But Linux places all system log files in /var/log and allows the user (with the right permissions) to read these log files from a simple text editor. And the Linux log files are flexible in many ways. For instance, if I want to follow a system log, I can open that log in a terminal window with the tail -f command and watch as events occur.

4: Centralized application installation

The new paradigm for Linux is a centralized location for installation. The Ubuntu Software Center is turning out to be the culmination of much of this work. From one source, you can search from hundreds of thousands of applications and install any one you need. And with upcoming releases of the Ubuntu Software Center (version 3 to be exact), commercial software will be available.

5: Cron

I am a big fan of Cron. Cron jobs enable you to easily automate tasks. Yes, you can add third-party software on a Windows operating system to help automate tasks, but none will have the flexibility of the cron job. Cron allows you to schedule as many tasks as you like, at any time you like, from a simple command-line tool (or a GUI tool, if you so desire). And cron is available system wide — for both administrative tasks and standard user tasks. Having an automated system built in would certainly be handy.

6: Regular release cycle

This is one of those areas where Microsoft could learn a serious lesson from the Linux camp. Most Linux distributions release their updated distributions on a regular basis. And even better, they stick to these schedules to the best of their ability. Take Ubuntu, for example. For each release there is a .04 and a .10 version. The .04 version is released on the fourth month of the year. The .10 version is released on the 10th month of the year. This happens like clockwork. So Ubuntu 10.04 will release April 2010 and Ubuntu 10.10 will release October 2010. Granted sometimes those releases don’t start populating the mirrors until the last second of that month, but they are as regular as they can be.

7: Root user

Let’s face it — by default, the average user can do too much in Windows. So much so, it becomes simple for someone to write a nasty little virus that can be spread simply by opening up an attachment in an email. With the way Linux is set up, this doesn’t occur. For damage to be done to a system, generally speaking the root password must be known. For example, if a user clicked on an attachment from an email, and that attachment demanded the root (or sudoers) password, that would be a quick indication that the attachment was malicious. Windows should separate the administrative user and the standard user by default. The first thing Windows users should have to do, upon starting up their new computer for the first time, is create an administrative password and a user password.

8: Pricing

Okay, I’m not going to say Windows should be free. What I am going to say is that it should have one version and one price (with a nod to bulk pricing). Why do I say this? Simple. Which version should you buy? Do you need Premium or Ultimate? Which sounds better? Is “premium” better than “ultimate”? Here’s an idea — just have one version for the desktop and one for the server. It works for Linux. Less confusion and frustration for the consumer, less advertising waste for Microsoft. And all those features that cause the most expensive version of Windows 7 to be thus — the average user wouldn’t know how to use them anyway.

9: Installed applications

I know that Microsoft doesn’t include any useful applications (minus a browser) by default for a reason — to make money. But when I install Linux for the average user, I’m done. I don’t have to install an office suite, an email client, or audio/visual tools. Outside of installing financial applications and the odd power-user tool (which is all handled in a single, centralized location — see #4), there’s nothing more to do once the OS installation is done. Microsoft could at least include Word.

10: Hardware detection

Before anyone gets bent out of shape, this is not what you’re thinking. Let me set this up for you. What happens when you install a Windows operating system and something doesn’t work? Say, for example, video. You thought for sure the OS would support your video card, but when the installation is complete you’re stuck with good old 800×600 resolution. So you go to the device manager to see if you can find out what the card is, and you get nothing. How are you supposed to find out what drivers to download when Windows gives you no information? Oh sure, you can open up the case and check out the chipset. Or you might get lucky and find that device driver CD lying around. But what if you can’t? Or what if that video is on board?

If you were using Linux you could at least issue the dmesg command and get some information right away. And if dmesg didn’t help out, you could always fire up the Hardware Drivers tool, which will might discover a proprietary driver you could use. In Windows, if you don’t know the card, you’re going to have fun finding the drivers. Although Windows hardware support is better, Linux hardware detection is better.

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1194

Fix Common Windows Problems with One Click

Friendly Computers found useful tool for you.

Have you ever wished for a magic wand that could make annoying Windows problems disappear? Like, say, a missing Recycle Bin icon, or those pesky Runtime Error messages in Internet Explorer?

FixWin is that magic wand. This ingenious free utility requires just over 500K of space, runs without installation, and quickly fixes 50 different Windows glitches--many of which would normally require a trip to the Registry.

These are divided among five categories, including Windows Explorer, Internet & Connectivity, and System Tools.

Each problem is presented with a brief but thorough description. Here's an example: "CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs." (Been there!) To fix a problem, just click the corresponding Fix button.

It really is that simple. And before you get started, FixWin can scan your machine for--and fix--corrupted system files. It also allows you to create a System Restore point before making any changes, a smart addition.

Certainly FixWin won't solve all your Windows issues, but if it can correct just one, it's well worth the download.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/184125/fix_common_windows_problems_with_one_click.html