Back Up Your Personal Files

The most obvious files that should be backed up on a regular basis are personal files; the ones that are irreplaceable or will make you spend countless hours recovering. These files are mainly found in “C:\Users\[Username]“.

‘My’ Folders

This includes Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos – e.g. your office work or that novel you are writing, family photos and home movies and your entire music collection.

Your Desktop

Many people save files to their desktop instead of My Documents, but it’s just as important to back these up. They are located at “C:\Users\[username]\Desktop”

Your Email

If you are using an email application such as Outlook or Windows Live Mail on your computer, it is imperative to perform a period backup of your files.

Outlook stores all its data in PST files. This is sometimes stored in your My Documents folder under a subfolder called “Outlook Files;” however, it is also often stored in “C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.” You can double-check your mail location by going to “Control Panel -> Mail -> Data Files” – any PST files will be listed and their location shown.

Windows Mail, on the other hand, also stores its information in the user AppData folder at “AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail” and also “AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts.”

AppData folders

These are located under “C:\Users\[username]\AppData”. If this file is backed up and your mail account is stored in the AppData folder, then you can potentially disregard the above note on mail backup, otherwise you may be backing up the same files twice. AppData stores a large amount of relevant user data and information. Things like Google Chrome of Mozilla Firefox profiles, game preferences, application preferences, etc.

Note: You cannot just copy the entire AppData profile when you reinstall Windows to recover from a hard drive crash – you need to be selective about what you restore.

Favorites

If you use Internet Explorer and have many bookmarks, you should also grab this folder. It’s located at C:\Users\[username]\Favorites

If you use another browser, such as Google Chrome, bookmarks are located in the AppData folder which has been previously covered.

Other folders

• Saved Games – If you play games that have a save functionality? They will end up here. – C:\users\[username\Saved Games
• Downloads - If you download many files via the browser and wanted to keep them, the default Downloads folder is located at C:\Users\[username]\Downloads
• Accounting Software – For some reason, Accounting software packages like to save their files in their install directory. If you use MYOB, Quickbooks or similar, they may save your accounting files in a location like “C:\Myob18″ or “C:\Quickbooks.” If that is the case, it’s best to grab these folders too!
• Other Users – Don’t forget about the other users’ users folders on your computer. Their stuff might need backing up too!

Files definitely not required

Unless you are imaging the system, you will not need any of the following:

• Windows Folder (C:\Windows)
• Program Files (C:\Program Files)
• Program Files x86 (C:\Program Files (x86))
• PerfLogs (C:\PerLogs)

Note: The reason Program Files do not need to be backed up is that just about all applications are useless unless installed from their original source. You cannot just copy an installed application folder and expect it to work – it has to install dependencies, update your registry and so on. You will be better off backing up the installer file of the application instead. If you want to be able to get your system back up and running without needing to reinstall applications, then you need to image your system – i.e. take a full snapshot of your hard drive.

Conclusion

If you follow the above guide, you should have everything backed up that you may need to recover from a hard drive crash. Also keep in mind that if you have created other directories in non-standard locations on your hard drive, you should back these up too. Please post in the comments below if you have any questions.

Image credit: External hard drive by BigStockPhoto

The post Files You Should Back Up to Help Recover From a Hard Drive Crash [Windows] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Thankfully, there is a way to paste content without retaining the original formatting; this feature is called “Paste Special.” It also provides some useful options when pasting images into a document. You can Paste Special by pressing “Ctrl + Alt + V” in the Microsoft Office suite and a number of other applications. This article will show you how Paste Special can be used in two of the most popular Office apps – Word & Excel. Please note that this guide is tailored to Microsoft Office 2010 and above.

Microsoft Word 2010 or Above

Copying text from webpage or email into Word Document

1. Once you have copied some text from a webpage to the clipboard (Ctrl + C), in a Word Document, navigate to Home and select the arrow below Paste – Paste Special (or press Ctrl + Alt + V).

2. The Paste Special dialog box will appear as below:

3. By default, the HTML format option is highlighted as we are copying text from a webpage. If we continued pasting with this option selected, the copied text would keep its html formatting and most likely look completely out of place in the document as per the image below.

4. Instead, select the “Unformatted text” option to remove the html formatting and set it to the default settings in the document.

Copying images from webpage or email to Word Document

1. If you are compiling images into a document from the Internet or email, an issue can arise where the image copied is a large file. For example, images embedded in email attachments are usually bmp (bitmap) files, which are one of the largest quality image files available. To lessen the quality of the graphics, Paste Special can be utilised. The Paste Special dialogue box should give you the following options:

2. Instead of copying the image in its html format as highlighted above, selecting another type of image format such as GIF, PNG or JPEG ensures that the graphic size of the image is reduced. As a result, the overall file size of your document shrinks, which is very useful if emailing the document.

Microsoft Excel 2010 or Above

For those of us who regularly mess around in spreadsheets, Paste Special can be a big productivity boon. A few Excel-specific Paste Special techniques are shown below.

Transposing Data

1. A fairly common data cleanup issue in Excel is the transposing of data. For example, to make the columns of our data into rows, highlight the original data and press “Ctrl + C”.

2. Navigate to an empty data area of your spreadsheet and press “Ctrl + Alt + V”. As Paste Special opens, click Transpose.

3. A transposed copy of the table will now appear in the spreadsheet.

Auto Calculations

Paste Special can be applied when needed to perform simple calculations such as multiply, subtraction or addition across multiple cells at the same time. In the example, we need to subtract 20 from values in B3-B10.

1, In an empty cell, type in the value 20 and press CTRL + C

2. Highlight cells B3-B10 and press CTRL + ALT + V. In the Paste Special dialog box, select Subtract under the Operation heading. Click OK.

3. Cells A1-A20 now have 20 subtracted from their total values.

3. Formatting of graphs

If you need to showcase multiple charts, then it is important that the colour, font, and scales are uniform throughout. However, styling each chart to match could get extremely tedious. Thankfully, Paste Special comes in handy again.

In the example below, we want to convert the Vegetable Tally graph to look like the Fruit Tally pie chart.

1. Select the pie chart and press Ctrl + C. Select the bar graph and enter Ctrl + Alt + V.

2. When the Paste Special dialog box opens, select Formats.

3. The Vegetable Tally bar graph has now been formatted to resemble a pie chart like Fruit Tally.

Conclusion

As the examples above illustrate, Paste Special can deliver some great productivity improvements. Complicated or repetitive formatting tasks, particularly in excel spreadsheets, can be resolved with a simple click of the button in most cases. While we mention only its usage in Microsoft Office, it can also be used in many different applications, including Gmail. We suggest giving it a try the next time you copy text from the Internet to a word document. Please post in the comments below if you have any questions.

Image credit: Paste Copy Paste Copy

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Thankfully Google has delivered such a solution – Google Forms. It allows you to create and send surveys embedded within an email. The recipient is able to fill out the form within the email if they have Gmail or Google Apps. If they don’t, there is a link at the start of the email that will take them to a site to complete the form. The whole process of embedding Google Forms in email is relatively simple to complete as this article will show.

Creating & Embedding a Google Form in Email

1. From your Gmail account, navigate to Google Drive and click “Create -> Form”.

2. Complete the necessary questions for your survey (as shown below) and click Done.

3. When the “send the form to others” dialog box pops up, enter in the relevant email address you want to send the form to and ensure the “Include form in this email is ticked”. When you’re sure all the details are correct, click “Send”.

4. When the client receives the email, they will see the survey embedded in the email and will be allowed to answer it directly instead of using the link. As shown in the example below, the recipient chooses the appropriate radio buttons and clicks Submit.

5. When the Submit button is clicked, a message box pops up stating that the recipient is submitting the information to an external website. They will need to click OK to continue.

6. A new tab opens (within the relevant browser) indicating the survey has been submitted.

7. To ensure that the response was successfully received, navigate to the form in Google Drive and open up the survey form. The results should be recorded as shown below.

As previously stated, Google forms cannot be filled out within an email unless the recipient is using Gmail or Google Apps. This means that if the form is sent to emails such as Outlook or Yahoo, there is no option available to submit the survey directly within the email. Instead, the user has to click on the external link to access the survey page. An example from the form received in the Outlook web app email account is shown below.

Conclusion

Google forms provides an easy and straightforward way to integrate a survey into an email, and should result in higher numbers of people completing your surveys. Unfortunately the limitation is that these integrating surveys only work in Gmail / Google Apps, and this is one thing that Google can’t control. If you come across any other method to embed survey form in email, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Customer Service Survey by BigStockPhoto

The post How to Embed A Survey Form in Email And Receive Higher Completion Rate [Google Forms] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

If you are not sure what versions of Android and Webkit you have, then visit whatsmyuseragent.com to find out. You will then be presented with the relevant information (as shown below).

There are a number of different ways to pin bookmarks to the home screen, and we cover many of them below. If you know of another, please post it in the comments.

For a website that does not already have a bookmark

1. Open your Internet browser and navigate to the website you wish to create a home screen link for.

2. Press the menu button on your phone and click on “Add bookmark.”

3. The Name, Address and Folder location details of the bookmark appear. You can either leave the default name of the website or type in an alternative name. Furthermore, if you have more than one Folder (other than Home) you can also choose to save the bookmark in a different location. In our example, we keep the default settings and select Save.

4. You are returned to the website. To access the bookmark, tap and hold on the bookmark icon on the top right.

5. A list of your bookmarks appear. Scroll to the bookmarked website, and press and hold on the bookmark.

6. A list of options appear; select “Add shortcut to home.”

7. The bookmark has now been added to the home screen.

If the bookmark for the website already exists

1. Press and hold the home screen. A menu pops up titled ‘Add to Home;’ select the Shortcuts option.

2. Choose the Bookmark option from the Shortcuts list (You may see a few Bookmarks options if you have installed several browsers in your phone).

3. Scroll to the relevant bookmark and select it.

The bookmark will again appear on the home screen.

Alternative Method

If you do not want to bother with bookmarks, it is also possible to pin a website to the home screen as a direct shortcut without needing to create a bookmark for it (It works on most Android phones).

1. When you have the website open in your browser, click the menu button and select “Add shortcut to home.”

2. The bookmark for the website has thus been added to the home screen.

Deleting pinned bookmarks (or shortcuts) from the Home Screen

1. The process is relatively the same as when deleting apps from the home screen. Press and hold the pinned bookmark or shortcut and drag it to the bin on the bottom of the screen.

Note: If you delete the bookmark from your web browser, it will not remove the shortcut from the home screen.

The post How to Pin Your Favorite Websites to the Home Screen [Android] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

If the device is lying flat (at about 180 degrees), then it is considered ‘inactive’ by the app. It allows the screen to dim and eventually switch off. If you are holding the device at an angle with a trajectory more than 160 degrees, then the app infers that the device is “active” and will keep your screen on. Furthermore, the “screen on time” you have configured in your Android settings is no longer functional and is indefinite when the app is effective. “Screen on time’ only becomes activated again when the app senses that the Android is no longer being used.

1. Download Keep Screen On (Lite) from the Google Play store.

After you have installed it, open the app to be presented with a menu list. Navigate to the Test section to check whether your Android phone works properly with the device. Lie your phone at 180 degrees flat and the “person” should become grey (inactive).

Pick up the phone at an angle that exceeds 160 degrees, and the “person” should become green (active).

The app comes with the option of adjusting the range of when the Android mobile is considered active or not. The default settings are a minimum of 5 degrees and a maximum of 160 degrees.

The minimum and maximum settings can be altered to suit your personal preferences. For example, if you would like to keep your screen on, even if it is laying down flat (180 degrees), then adjust the max range to 180 degrees.

You can also amend the accuracy of the app from low to high. The default setting is Normal.

According to the developer, the app is compatible with versions of Android from 2.0 onwards. The Pro version comes with extra features like interpolation and a display time-out feature that works in conjunction with its normal method. For general use, the free version will suffice.

Image credit: Twitter for Android

The post How to Keep Your Screen On While You Are Reading [Android] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Why your photos won’t work well as the wallpaper

Wallpapers on your Android phone are handled by effectively spreading it across the homescreens, instead of having it fixed as is commonly seen in other smartphones (such as the iPhone). The wallpaper is “panned” across the screens to give it an overall panoramic effect. However, to figure out the resolution width of the homescreen, you cannot just multiply it by how many screens you utilise (whether it be 3 to 10). The way you calculate the correct background resolution is by doubling the native width and taking one times the height. So if your phone resolution is 480×800 (height x width), then the required wallpaper would be 960 x 800.

When you have obtained the correct wallpaper specifications for your Android phone, you now are able to resize the photo to the correct ratio. This can be performed either from apps on your phone or computer.

If you prefer to amend the image directly on your Android phone, there are many apps to choose from, such as Photo Editor which is available from Google Play.

When you have installed the application, launch the program and select “Gallery” on the home page.

Open the photo you want to configure from your photo album. Scroll and press on the “Resize/Fit” option from the list of functions down at the bottom.

Click Manual and enter in the required wallpaper resolution for your particular Android phone. For our example, we are using the wallpaper resolution, 960 x 800, calculated for a Galaxy Samsung S2. Be sure to untick “Keep Aspect Ratio” so you can enter in the exact figures. Tap OK to continue.

The photo has now been resized. Select the green tick icon on the top right hand side to save changes.

Select the disk icon in the top right hand corner. You are provided with options such as setting the quality of the image (10-100) and what you wish to do with the modified image. Since we want to set this amended image as our Android wallpaper, click the Wallpaper option. For our example, we chose to leave the quality as the default 95. If you would like to save the wallpaper option for later, select Gallery where the photo will be saved under folder name PhotoEditor on your Android.

Success!!

For computers, there are a variety of free programs you can use to generate your ideal wallpaper. Even the simple Paint in Windows will do the job well. If you prefer not to download and install software on your computer, you can use Pixlr which enables you to amend your pictures completely online.

With the proper application, blurry, greatly zoomed in wallpaper on your Android phone will be a thing of the past. If you are searching for wallpapers online, remember to have your wallpaper resolution at the ready to be sure you got the right fit for your device.

Image credit: Android puzzle

The post How to Optimize Your Photos As The Perfect Wallpaper For Your Android Phone appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Features

Folder Actions for Windows offers a number of different actions that can be tied to a specific folder. These include:

• Showing new file alerts
• Automatically moving or copyiing files to a new folder
• Converting image files
• Converting audio files
• Converting video files
• Compressing or decompressing files
• User defined action

Using Folder Actions

Although it is quite powerful, using Folder Actions is also a very straightforward affair.

1. Click the green “+” to add a folder you wish to apply a folder action to.

2. On the right hand panel, select what action you wish to occur. By default, no action is selected. For this example, we will select “Show new file alert, copy, move files”, and the sub-option “Show new file alert.”

3. Test this new folder action by copying a file to it. A box pops up notifying us that a new file has been detected and asks if we’d like to view the new file.

Conversion Functionailty

The conversion features for applying Folder Actions in Windows are extremely useful so we will go through them in a little more detail.

Convert Image Files Feature

This feature allows you to automatically convert from a large number of filetypes to JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG or GIF, and to set the compression level (or colour depth, depending on filetype). You can even add a rotation to images and set a final output folder for them. Additionally, it can delete files after processing.

Convert Audio Files

Audio files can be automatically converted to MP3, AC3, FLAC, OGG or WAV, and quality can be set. And again, files can be moved to a new folder and deleted after processing.

Convert Video Files

Video files can be automatically converted to MP4, FLV, 3PG, AVI and MPEG. and again quality options can be set and files can be moved to a new folder and deleted after processing.

User Defined Actions

Something that makes Folder Actions especially powerful is the option to create a user-defined action. This essentially lets you run a batch file or even code a batch file from within the program itself. If you have no idea what a batch file is, then you might find utilizing this functionality a little bit challenging. A good little batch file tutorial is available, although you will need to know MS DOS commands in order to make proper use of a batch file in any event.

Conclusion

Folder Actions for Windows is a powerful application that can automate many tasks that you may otherwise have performed manually. Let us know in the comments below how you plan to use the software to help your productivity and if you know of another way to apply folder actions in Windows.

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Hard Drive Structure

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First off, let’s go through the logical structure of a hard drive. Typically, a hard drive is composed of a Boot Sector, index and data. The Boot Sector is situated at the beginning of the drive and is normally used to start the operating system and includes details about the drive’s partitions. The index contains information about the files and folders that exist on the drive – in the case of a Windows-based system, that would be the MFT or Master Fat Table. The data section of the drive holds the actual files and their contents.

Deleted Files

What happens when you delete a file and empty the Recycle Bin? Is it gone for good? The contents are not really disposed of permanently. The index entry that directs the user to the file is marked as deleted and the file’s content area is marked as available to be overwritten or for use in the future. This means that the physical data is still around until it has been overwritten by another file. Therefore, if you hope to recover files, you should only attempt recovery by turning off your computer and connecting your hard drive to a different computer. Otherwise, any activity you perform on the drive may actually overwrite the data of your deleted files.

Data corruption

In the case of data corruption, there are many possible causes. The loss of power at an inopportune moment or a random computer crash/reboot could corrupt a segment of a file, the filesystem more broadly, or the MFT itself. Similar to the deleted files scenario, you should turn the system off and attempt recovery on a second computer.

The process of file recovery

Considering either scenario – deleted files or data corruption, there is a significantly good chance of recovering the data. The success rate of doing so somewhat depends on how long ago the files were deleted or the corruption that occurred and how much use the computer has had since that point in time.

There are a larger number of programs available that can facilitate data recovery. In my experience, TestDisk has worked extremely well.

Deleted file recovery

Most data recovery applications have some sort of quick scan feature. This is usually only used for deleted files and necessitates that the logical drive is visible by the operating system – i.e. that the partition is not corrupt, mounted correctly, and you can actually browse the drive in explorer. A quick scan will scan the file table (MFT as discussed earlier) and look for files that have been marked as deleted.

The file table will dictate the location of the files on the drive and thus permit their recovery. However, if the space that they reside in on the drive has been overwritten then the recovery will not work as you had hoped and you will get a file full of junk. Most data recovery applications have a built-in file previewer which lets you take a sneak peak at the file contents. However, this may not be very useful if you don’t know what you’re looking for – plain-text files are easy to understand, and Word Documents generally have their contents as cleartext somewhere within a garbled mess of hex, but other media files will be more difficult. As you can see, the batch file below is clearly in good condition:

Another complication of deleted file recovery is that the file(s)’ original location is not always known. You may need to go trawling through a random list of randomly named directories in order to find the files you wish to recover. This is because the file table may no longer be linked to the file’s directory location information. As you can see in the image below, the directory list on the left is made up of random characters. The filenames themselves, however, should still be intact, and your data recovery application should have a search option available to make the task of locating the files easier.

Once you have ascertained which files are to be recovered, your data recovery application should be the last step. Just remember to pick a destination drive that is not the same as the drive you are recovering from. Otherwise you risk the data recovery process writing over the very files you are trying to recover!

Corrupted data recovery

This scenario is a little more complicated. Various aspects of the file system may be corrupted – the file table, a segment of the data or many other permutations, including in the case of formatted drive recovery. In some scenarios, the data recovery application is able to read segments of your MFT to locate a significant portion of files. There may also be a mirror of the MFT so the data recovery application may be able to combine both the mirror and the normal copy to locate all of your data.

If the “faster” version of corrupt data recovery fails, then the fallback approach is to scan the raw drive data for signatures of particular file-types that you wish to recover. Files such as jpegs, MS Word documents, and Excel files have a specific “signature” – usually a similar beginning and ending to a file that defines their filetype. So the data recovery application would scan the drive for these strings in order to locate lost files.

However, this process is nowhere near perfect – the main issue being that it is sometimes difficult to decipher where a given file may end which can cause multiple files to group together in some cases. The software cannot figure this out with the limited information available and so makes a calculated decision. Another limitation with this method is that files that are not stored in contiguous space (fragmented files) will not be recovered correctly, as the recovery software has no knowledge of the file’s fragment locations without a file table. The final issue with this approach, as illustrated in the image below, is that it can be a slow process. (the recovery shown below is actually on a physically damaged drive, a normal raw scan would take a few hours, not 3 weeks!)

Concluding Remarks

It is important to note that the chances of recovering the file does depend on how long it has been removed/deleted/formatted from the hard drive. For example, if the file was only erased a mere hour ago then it should still be relatively intact and not overwritten by the system. Unfortunately, if the file was deleted a few weeks to months beforehand, the chances of regaining the file may be significantly reduced. To have the best chance of recovery, we recommend that the user ceases saving new files (as well as performing any other actions) on their computer and immediately commence trying to restore the necessary files.

Image credit: Broken Hdd Data Loss by BigStockPhoto

The post MTE Explains: How File Recovery Works on a PC appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The main difference between these two protocols is that IMAP has a two way communication path, whereas POP3 has a one way communication path.

For IMAP: Emails you have marked “read” in your mail client would be updated on the mail server and the subsequent changes appear in your webmail inbox. Even if you are performing these actions offline, the changes will be reflected online as soon as you have reconnected to the Internet and your mail application has synchronized with the server.

For POP3: Any emails you may have read may still show as “new” in your webmail inbox, and any replies you have sent may not be in your webmail sent items (depending on your provider and how you configure the POP account). This pronounced contrast can cause great inconvenience to some users who may prefer that their mail client and mail server are properly synchronized to lessen confusion and avoid repeating the same exercise.

Another contrast between the two protocols is that POP3 requires emails to be downloaded onto the desktop PC before being displayed, whereas, IMAP can allow you to download the headers only and the content on-demand. The issues that normally spring up with POP3 in this case is that if you normally utilize more than one computer to access emails you may need to wait for the local copy of your mailbox to update, which can be very time consuming! On the flipside, since the POP3 approach downloads entire emails to the computer in use, this allows users access to their old emails even when offline.

People who are forced to use a POP3 account (for work, for example), may be able to use a proxy approach to get around POP3′s limitations. Many services, like Hotmail or Gmail, allow you to add an external POP3 account which will be automatically synchronized with your webmail platform. This means you could use the web-based mail service via IMAP in your mail client and all changes would be synchornized to the server, preventing unnecessary duplication.

The question now remains, which is the preferred protocol? POP3 or IMAP? It really does depend on how you use your emails. If you are the type of person that access your email account from multiple locations (thereby random PCs) and would like to ensure all changes you make are automatically synchronized online, then IMAP is your preferred option. If you are a user that only accesses your email from one location and is not particularly anxious about storage space on their computer (downloading emails), then POP3 would be recommended.

Image credit: Two Sided Arrow Road Sign by BigStockPhoto

The post The Differences Between POP3 and IMAP [MTE Explains] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

PPTP

Point-To-Point-Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is the most popularly VPN protocol and is supported by the most devices. PPTP stands for point to point protocol, is by far the easiest to configure and has low overhead that makes it faster than other VPN protocols. Firewalls such as ISA Server, Cisco PIX and Sonic Wall recognize the protocol.

PPTP encrypts data using a 128-bit key which puts it in the “weakest” category of VPN protocols. It has also had other weaknesses in the past, such as clear-text authentication prior to a connection being established and as such it is rarely used in sensitive business environments. However, the most recent implementations of this protocol have resolved some of the security issues – for example, the implementation of EAP authentication.

L2TP/IPSec

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) came about through a partnership between Cisco and Microsoft with the intention of providing a more secure VPN protocol. L2TP is considered to be a more secure option than PPTP, as the IPSec protocol which holds more secure encryption algorithms, is utilized in conjunction with it. It also requires a pre-shared certificate or key. L2TP’s strongest level of encryption makes use of 168 bit keys, 3 DES encryption algorithm and requires two levels of authentication.

L2TP has a number of advantages in comparison to PPTP in terms of providing data integrity and authentication of origin verification designed to keep hackers from compromising the system. However, the increased overhead required to manage this elevated security means that it performs at a slower pace than PPTP.

SSTP

Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) is viewed as the VPN protocol with the highest security due to authenticating with 2048 bit key certificates and encrypting with 256 bit key. SSTP can be used in place of other VPN protocols (PPTP, L2TP), and is effective in locations where network access is restricted as it uses TCP port 443, the same port used by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) transmissions.

SSTP VPN is viewed as quicker and more reliable than OpenVPN. However, your operating system needs to be relatively up to date in order for it to function properly with SSTP.

The major disadvantage of SSTP is that since it was developed by Microsoft it only functions on Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8. Currently, there are no intentions to make the protocol available to users of Mac OS, Linux and older versions of Windows.

OpenVPN

OpenVPN was developed by Open Source software as a free alternative to Microsoft’s SSTP protocol. One major advantage of this particular protocol is that it functions on a variety of operating systems, such as, Mac OS, Windows, Linux and some IP phones. Similar to SSTP, OpenVPN has a higher encryption level than L2TP as it operates on both Layer 2 and Layer 3. Furthermore, it is accompanied with extra features such as transporting Ethernet frames, IPX packets and providing NETBIOS functionality.

A minor disadvantage with OpenVPN is that it provides insufficient support for mobile devices and the requirement to install a 3rd party client. This is not the case for SSTP.

A major disadvantage with VPN is the high overhead associated with the protocol due to its level of encryption. It may also be quite challenging to configure.

Final thoughts

The VPN protocols illustrated above all have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The easiest protocol to configure with the best device compatibility would be PPTP. SSTP and OpenVPN are the protocols least likely to be blocked by servers or firewalls  and generally thought to be the most secure. In terms of speed, generally speaking, less encryption means greater speed but at the cost of less security. However, if your devices are of reasonable speed this should not be a major factor. Best to consider your security requirements and pick a protocol accordingly.

The post The Differences Between PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP and OpenVPN Connection appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Nikola Tesla, an inventor and electrical engineer, in the early twentieth century first postulated that it is possible to transmit electricity through the air. This scientific concept led to the formulation of the ‘resonant magnetic coupling’ or ‘magnetic induction’ process which the wireless charging technology is based on. For example, magnetic induction is utilized for recharging electric toothbrushes. The base of the toothbrush has a magnetic coil that creates a magnetic field. In the toothbrush, a second coil encapsulates some of that magnetic field which generates an electric current. However, in this particular scenario, the power transfer between primary coil to secondary coil needs to be performed at a close proximity for it to function.

Due to recent developments and practical applications of this science, the wireless charging technology has been designed to effectively charge objects that are around three or four feet away – even farther – from the primary source of electricity. Marin Soljacic, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is responsible for formulating Witricity’s revolutionary technology. Prof Soljacic and his colleagues managed to extend the length of induction by amending the structure of the magnetic coils that create oscillating magnetic fields. They successfully engineered the magnetic coil that plugs into an outlet to resonate at the same frequency as the companion coil embedded in the electronic device. As a result, static energy is transmitted from the wireless receptor pads in the charger through the air to effectively charge up batteries in nearby electronic devices. Professor Jason W. Fleischer who has no financial affiliation to Witricity, but has research is in electromagnetics and optics claims that this novel technology is a ‘better form of induction’. Prof Fleischer elaborates that electronic devices will no longer have to be directly connected or placed in a certain position to recharge.

Now with the Science component figured out, how would the wireless charger work in day to day life? In a typical scenario, a power transmitter could be installed in a room and starting charging your device when you enter it. It could also be placed in a workplace, allowing numerous employees to keep their devices full of juice. Although there may be instances where an electronic device is unable to charge wirelessly due to it being too outdated or requiring an adapter capable of transmiting electrical energy wirelessly to the device. Furthermore, all electronic devices may not charge equally.

Wireless chargers will have far-reaching implications for our lives as it will make it everything that little bit easier. As the technology continues to improve to the point where you could be in any location and your electronic devices are able to charge wirelessly will be a magnificent achievement.

The post How Can An Electronic Device Charge Wirelessly? appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Installing and Using SmallWindows

Navigate to the developers website where you can download SmallWindows. Once you have downloaded and successfully installed the program, launch the program.

On first start up, a welcome message appears requesting if you would like SmallWindows to open every time you start up your computer. Click “Yes” to continue. If you decide “No” but want to enable it later, this can be configured in Settings.

When the program is running it can be found in the system tray where you can access settings or the mini windows feature. Click on the miniature windows option to view a default version of SmallWindows.

The miniature windows will appear as below.

Alternatively, to configure the settings on SmallWindows, select settings from the system tray instead.

In Settings, you can configure your 4 corner Hot Zones. For our example, we set it to show related applications if you push your cursor into the top left corner of the screen, to show the desktop if you move your cursor to the top right of the screen, and to show all open programs if you move the cursor to the bottom left of the screen.

From now on, if a user open a particular web browser and wants to view all related browser windows open on their computer, they merely have to glide their mouse to the top left hand corner of the screen. You can also see that the miniature Windows are marked from 0 in ascending order. If you wanted to view the desktop, you can just navigate your mouse to the top right hand corner of the screen.The beauty of hot zones….

Instead of using your mouse to access the Hot Zones you have configured, you can configure Hot Key activation. For example, to put in a Hot Key activation code for the related Hot zone select the [None] button.

The Set Hotkey dialog box appears. From the key droplist we choose the “F1″ key from the drop down list.

For Modifiers, tick the “Ctrl” check box. Click ”OK” to continue.

Another handy feature in the settings page is that you can nominate particular Windows to  be excluded from miniature or show desktop. For example, if you wanted to prevent Google Chrome, you just have to select the Exclude Windows button in Settings, click ”Add” button and type in its name. It should appear as below if configured correctly.

There are a few other options available in settings such as configuring colour options or enabling Live update of windows.

Conclusion

SmallWindows is a great productivity booster for people who tend to have many applications open at once. Please post your experiences or questions below in the comments.

The post How to Enable a Mission Control-like feature in Windows 7 & 8 appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Better Wifi On/Off is an Android application that allows you to setup rules to effectively disable Wi-Fi under various situations, such as when not it is not being used, or ensure that it is switched on when your phone is connected to a charger.

1. Install Better WiFi On/Off from the Play Store.

2. On start up, you are presented with some release notes. This should only show up once. Click Dismiss to continue to the Home screen.

On the Home Screen, you can review the activity log on the main menu. To customize settings on the app, select the settings icon on the top right hand side. The settings contain actions such as when to switch on Wi-Fi, what action to perform when the phone is plugged in, and when to switch off Wi-Fi.

3. The settings section will only list a few options to configure on your phone as Expert mode is not yet switched on. To enable Expert mode, which provides you with a wider variety of settings to manage, scroll down to the bottom of the settings section and tick the relevant check box. When enabled you will have to navigate back to the Settings page from the Home screen.

4. Under the Rules for turning Wifi on heading, there are a three options you can configure for the app to enable Wi-Fi on your phone: On when screen unlocked, On when screen on and On when plugged in (to power source). Enabling Wi-Fi after unlocking your phone saves you the time from navigating to notification menu or settings to turn on Wi-Fi. Furthermore, your battery consumption is reduced as you are not continuously connected to the internet and it prevents particular apps from utilizing the connection when it is not being used. Turning Wifi on when your phone is plugged or charging is a good idea as battery life is obviously not being used.

You can also configure rules for the Wifi connection if the screen is on or off.

5. In Expert mode settings only, you can further configure the options of the app when you have plugged in your Android mobile. If you prefer, selecting Wakelock while plugged in allows you to keep your Wifi connection on everytime your phone is plugged in (even if the screen goes off) which helps when downloading large files or if you are streaming content in the background.

For disabling Wifi, you can check the boxes to turn it off when unplugged and when the screen goes off.

With these simple rules, you can now automate the turning on/off of WiFi for your Android phone. And yes, it will definitely help you conserve battery life, unless you have need for the WiFi to be on all the time.

The post How to Automatically Turn Off The WiFi When It Is Not In Use (And Save Battery Life) [Android] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Add a Dropbox (or other) account to FolderSync

1. Download and install the FolderSync App from the Google Play Store.

2. After you have successfully installed the application on your Android, launch the app where you are greeted with the end user license agreement. Click Accept to continue.

3, The FolderSync Lite home screen appears with seven options available: Accounts, Folderpairs, File manager, Sync status, Settings, Help and About. To create a new account, select the ”Accounts” option.

4. On the following screen, tap the ”Cloud +” icon on the bottom of the screen to start creating an account.

5. You will be asked to choose your preferred cloud storage provider. The cloud storage provider can be SkyDrive, Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Box.net, SugarSync, HiDrive, Google Docs, NetDocument and Google Drive. For our example, we choose Dropbox.

6. On the “Account details” page, provide a unique name for the new account and select the ”Validate access”.

7. You will then be prompted to sign into the relevant account (in our case, Dropbox). Enter in your credentials and select ”Sign in.”

8. On the next page, you are requested to confirm Foldersync Lite app access to your nominated account. Select ”Allow”.

9. Once complete, your cloud storage solution is connected to the Foldersync app. Click the ”Disk” option on the top right to save changes and return back to the Home screen.

Customization

1. Once you’ve setup one of your shared folder accounts, you can access the settings tab, tap ”Settings” option.

2. In the “Settings” page, you can configure your personal preferences. For example, if you want to disable notifications ensure the checkbox is ticked.

3. A handy feature in settings is that you can backup your settings to an external storage device instead of waiting for automatic backup to occur. To perform this action, Select the Backup database button.

4. You are prompted to confirm if you want to create a database backup now. Click Yes. 

Managing files with FolderSync

Being able to manage your cloud-hosted files is obviously core to FolderSync’s functionality. The example below will show you how to to transfer a folder (or file) on your Android device to your cloud storage account.

Transferring files from your Android device to the Cloud

1. Access “File Manager” from the Home Screen.

2. The folders available on your Android will then be listed on the File Manager page. If you want to transfer a folder to your Dropbox account, tick a particular folder (i.e. Attachments) and select the mirror image document icon on the bottom of the screen.

3. Select the cloud icon to access your remote account.

The nominated folder should then have transferred to your remote account as per below.

Transferring files from the Cloud to your Android device

You can transfer files/folders from your cloud storage account to your Android by the following the same procedure as above, however you would access your cloud account first then access your local storage by selecting the SD card icon on the bottom of your screen and choose local path.

Concluding Remarks

There are some drawbacks with the FolderSync Lite in comparison to the full version. You can only setup one account, which essentially limits you to utilising only one cloud storage provider. Furthermore, there are no sync filters nor Tasker/locale support available. Still, it’s a neat application with a lot of flexibility.

FolderSync Lite

The post How to Synchronize Files To Different Cloud Storage Providers on Android (Without Installing a Large Number of Apps) appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Initial requirements

Transferring android applications via Bluetooth can be performed through the use of two applications, Astro and BlueTooth Transfer. This procedure requires the user to generate an APK of an individual file via Astro and transmit it over Bluetooth to another device using the BlueTooth Transfer App.

Astro is highly recommended as a file explorer for Android as it allows the user to backup their installed applications on the memory card as an APK file which allows them to restore their applications in case your phone malfunctions or crashes.

Procedure:

1. Navigate to “Google Play” and type “Astro” in the search bar. Download and install Astro onto your Android phone.

2. Press on the Astro icon to run the application. The main screen opens with a search bar on the top and three tabs underneath – locations, searches and recents.

3. Navigate to “Tools -> Application Manager”.

4. In the Application Manager window, there are two tabs, Installed Apps and Backed Up Apps. Navigate first to the Installed Apps tab and select the application (i.e. ES File Explorer) you want to transfer via Bluetooth. Press on the “Backup” button that appears.

Note: You can select multiple applications if you prefer

5.The application should now be highlighted bright blue and also found in the Backed Up Apps tab (as shown below). Exit out of Astro.

6. Install Bluetooth File Transfer app from the Google Play store.

7. Once installed, open the Bluetooth File Transfer app. Navigate to the following folder “/mnt/sdcard/backups/” and select the file (with extension .apk) you want to transfer. In our case, we would find “ES File Explorer” in this location. Once the file is ticked, press the Bluetooth button.

8. The android phone should be listed under “Found Devices” or “Cache”. Click the relevant android and send the file. Once the other user receives the file, he/she will then be able to install it onto their android.

Conclusion

This straightforward guide should work on most Android mobiles and tablet devices. Please post in the comments section below if you have any questions or run into any trouble when following this procedure.

The post How to Transfer Apps between Android Mobiles via Bluetooth appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Method 1: Reboot the wireless router

1. This is the simplest method but can be highly effective in most cases. Switch off the wireless router, leave it off for at least 60 seconds and then turn it back on again.

2. Try connecting to your wireless network.

Method 2: Perform Diagnostic Repair

1. Navigate to “Start -> Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Centre”.

2. Click on “Change Adapter Settings”.

3. Right click on your Wireless Network adapter and select “Diagnose”.

4. Diagnostic repair will try and (hopefully) resolve the issue.

Method 3: Delete and re-add the Wireless Network

1. In “Network and Sharing Centre,” select “Manage wireless networks”.

2. Right click on your wireless network and choose “Remove network” from the drop down list.

3. Return to “Network and Sharing Centre” and click on “Connect to a network.” Select your network from the list.

Method 4: Alter Power Management profile

1. If this issue occurs after resuming from hibernate or sleep mode, or are having intermittent connectivity issues, adjust your Power Management profile to set your Wireless Adapter Settings to Maximum Performance.

2. Navigate to “Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> Change plan Settings”

Note: This example is where the laptop uses Power saver, but this method can apply to the other plan settings (Balanced and High Performance).

3. Select “Change advanced power settings.”

4. Scroll down to “Wireless Adapter Settings” and change both configurations (battery or plugged in) to “Maximum Performance.” If you prefer, you can do this for all of your power profiles. Click “OK “to finalise changes.

Method 5: Check settings on your wireless router

1. In the “Network and Sharing Centre “select “Change Adaptor settings.” Right click on the network device you use to connect to the internet and select “Status.” The Wireless Network Connection Settings dialog box comes up. Select the “Details”button.

2. The Network Connection Details dialog box appears. Note down the “IPv4 default address”.

Note: The above points may not be possible if you are unable to connect to the wireless network at all. In which case if you know the IP address of your router then utilise it for the next points or else try 10.1.1.1, 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1. Alternatively you could use another computer or laptop on which the internet connection is working properly to check these details.

3. Navigate to an internet browser and enter in the relevant IPv4 address into the browser bar.

4. Your wireless router login page should appear, prompting you to type in a login and password. Unless you have previously saved a password, the credentials are usually admin / admin, admin / password, admin / blank (with the first word being the username and the second being the password, and blank meaning just hit enter instead of typing something. Failing that you may need to look up the default username and password for your modem).

5. Browse through all the settings and check that the router is set to broadcast it’s network name (SSID), ensure that you are connecting to the correct wireless network (SSID) and that you are using the right WEP/WPA/WPA2 passkey on both devices. We advise to use ‘Windows Connect Now’ or ‘Wi-Fi Protected Setup’ (if available) on your wireless router to ensure that the connection is setup correctly. The example below shows the correct wireless settings on a Netgear DGND3700 wireless router.

6. If you are trying to use WPA or WPA2, ensure that both your network adapter and wireless router support this protocol. If you are having issues detecting your wireless network when using WPA or WPA2, try configuring your router to use WEP instead and see if you can connect. If you can only connect to the internet via WEP, then your networking hardware may require a firmware upgrade. If you are unfamiliar or unsure about updating your firmware, we suggest contacting your hardware/router manufacturer for advice on the matter.

Note: The change between WEP/WPA/WPA2 will need to be performed on both your wireless router and computer(s).

7. Once you have reviewed the wireless router settings and made changes (if required), logout of the router. Turn the wireless router off and on again for changes to take effect.

Method 6: Reinstall Network Adaptor Driver

1. Click “Start” and type “Device Manager” into the search bar. Click on Device Manager to open it.

2. Navigate to Network Adaptors, right click the Wireless Network device and select “un-install.”

3. A warning message will appear requesting confirmation that you want to uninstall the Wireless Network device. Click “OK “to continue.

4. Exit out of Device Manager and reboot the laptop/PC.

5. Upon startup, a message will pop stating that new hardware has been found and installed. A pop-up window will then appear advising “One or more wireless networks detected, click here for more options”. The “Available Wireless Networks” window appears that lists all networks in range. Select desired Access Point to connect to then once connected, test trying to access the internet.

Method 7: Reset TCP/IP stack

1. One of the main Windows components of your internet connection is the TCP/IP stack which can become corrupt or damaged in some cases. Resetting the TCP/IP stack using the Netshell utility (Netsh) may resolve the problem.

2. Access the Command Prompt by navigating to “Start” and typing “CMD” in the search bar. Right click CMD and select the “Run as Administrator” option.

3. Type in the following commands:

netsh int ip reset reset.log
netsh winsock reset catalog

4. Restart your computer and try to connect to the internet.

Conclusion

If all else fails, post a comment below or contact your modem/router provider or ISP for further assistance.

The post How To Troubleshoot Your WiFi Connection [Windows] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

When opening the program for the first time you will be greeted with a confirmation message requesting that you agree to the Terms of Service, so sign your life away by tapping on “Accept” and read on.

Main Menu

The home screen lists a number of options to navigate through such as, items in your Drive, items are shared with you and items that have been starred. If you prefer to switch between email accounts, you can do so by clicking the email address at the top of the screen and selecting an alternate email address listed. For privacy reasons, the email in the image below is greyed out, but usually it would be displayed at the top.

Since we are operating the app for the first time, press the Menu button on your phone and select “New…” The “Create New…” dialog box appears where you can create a new Document, Spreadsheet, Document from photo or Upload. The first three options listed were already available on the Google Docs app, however, Upload is a new feature.

Uploading a File

The Upload feature enables users to browse and upload files from their Android device onto their Drive account. However, if you prefer to upload files that are not music or images, you are required to install a file manager, such as ES File Explorer, in order to browse these different files.

To perform a simple upload, choose “My Drive -> New… -> Create New… Upload”.

Navigate to the file of your choice (in our case, an image in Gallery) and select it. Once opened, you can amend the document title if you wish, change email account and convert the file to a Google Docs document. We decide to leave the default settings and press “OK.”

Your file is should then be uploaded to Google Drive (as per below).

When uploading specific files, you need to specify which folder you want to upload the file to or it will upload to your Drive root directory. Folders can be shared, renamed and deleted but they cannot be sent to anyone or made available for offline access. Unfortunately, the Android app does not yet have the create folder feature available. You can create folders by using the web interface from a desktop, and then these folders will be available for use on your Android app.

Viewing Your Google Drive Items

To view your Drive items, click on the ‘My Drive’ option and ensure to select the “refresh” icon to update files stored on your Drive as this is not performed automatically. For items that are more important you can star them by tapping the “star” icon next to the file name.

Tapping the “arrow” icon provides you with a range of options for the file such as making it available offline, adding a collaborator or opening the file. If you press the “dotted menu button” in the top right you are given a further list of options (i.e. send, delete, rename). Click the “tick” icon on the top left when you have finished editing the item.

The “Settings” for the Google Drive app allows you to manage the Cache size which is set to 50MB by default but can range between 25MB to 200MB. Furthermore, you have the ability to encrypt or decrypt documents and enable a reminder to advise you when you are no longer connected to a Wireless network. For users who have the free Google Drive app, there is the option to purchase more storage as well. The free version entitles users to store up to 5GB, however, you can easily upgrade to 25GB for less than $2.50 a month.

Conclusion

Google Drive for Android is a great little app that lets you take control over your Google cloud-hosted files. Hopefully a create folder feature will be added soon, but aside from that, it works pretty well. Please comment below with any questions or thoughts.

Google Drive for Android

The post How To Use Google Drive for Android appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Configure File Sharing in Windows 7

First of all, we need to ensure your Windows system is properly configured for file sharing.

1. Open up explorer and browse to the folder you wish to share. Right click on the folder and click on “Properties”. In User Properties, select the “Sharing” tab and click the “Share…” button.

2. The File Sharing page requires you to select the users or groups you wish to share the folder with. The simplest solution is to type “Everyone” in the text box and select “Add”. Keep in mind this will grant anyone on your network access to that share folder, so if you wanted things to be secure you could type in your username instead (you will need to have a password set for this to work properly).

Note: The default settings when sharing folders is “Read” permissions only. If you want the ability to copy files from your Android to your shared folder, you can amend the Permission Level to Read/Write.

3. Click “Share” to continue.

4. We then need to modify anonymous sharing permissions. To do this, go to the Network and Sharing Center by clicking on “Start -> Control Panel -> Network Internet -> Network and Sharing Center”. Select “Change advanced sharing settings” on the left side of the page.

5. The Password protected sharing page appears and “Turn on password protected sharing” is selected by default. If you opted to share with Everyone in Step 2, then you would want to turn this off. However, if you are worried about security and opted to share only with specific usernames, then you could leave this setting on. Be sure to set a password for your username, however, or you will be unable to connect.

How to check your PC’s IP address

For the rest of the guide it is important we know what your PC’s IP address is, so please complete the following steps if you are unsure.

1. Open a command prompt.

2. In the Command Prompt, type

ipconfig

and your IP address will be shown as part of the list of information. It should either be listed in a section called “Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection” or “Wireless adapter Local Area Connection” and will probably be something like 192.168.1.5.

Accessing the Shared Folders With Your Android Device

There are of course a number of applications on the market that you can configure to access shared folders on your Android device. For this how-to guide, we have used ES File Explorer as it is free, is known to work well with windows file sharing, and is compatible with devices that have Android version 1.6 and above installed.

To configure ES File Explorer for file sharing, perform the following steps:

1. Install ES File Explorer. Run it when the installation is finished.

2. The home screen appears which displays all the files and folders on your SD card. At the very top left you will see a little dropdown box that says “Local”. Click on this and a dialogue box appears, in which you need to select the “LAN” option.

Note: Your Android device and Computer must be connected to the same network to be able to access your PC. This means turning WiFi on on your Android device

5. Now that you are in the LAN section, select “New” from the toolbar at the top and you are shown two options – “Scan” and “Server”. You can utilise either, and both options are detailed below:

Scan option:

Select “Scan” to search for PCs on your network that have shared folders. It is important to know your PC’s IP address for this step. Once your computer shows up, you can cease the scan process by tapping the screen once. Select your computer and if you chose to turn off password-protected file sharing, it should automatically connect. If not, you may be prompted with the following screen:

In this case, you will need to type the username and password in of the specific account you shared the folder with on your PC.

Server option:

Select “Server” if you want to enter your computer’s IP address manually.

The “New/Edit Samba Server” page will display. The completion of this page depends on whether you chose to have password protected sharing enabled on your computer.

a) If you chose to “Turn on password protected sharing:” type in your computer’s IP address, enter your Windows login username and password details and put in Display name (as shown in the example below). Do not tick the anonymous option.

b) If you selected “Turn off password protected sharing:”, type in your computer’s IP address,  tick the anonymous option and put in a Display name (as shown in the example below).

Final Use

After you have completed either the “Scan” or “Server” option procedure, your shared files/folders will be listed in the LAN screen.

Browse to your specified shared folder and select a video to play. It should stream on your Android device. In my case, I found that the in-built player on my Samsung Galaxy Note had a lot of trouble with the avi files I threw at it. ES File Explorer is flexible enough to prompt you, asking which video player you would like to use. So I instaleld the VideoLAN client, and sure enough this fixed the problem and videos played without a glitch. Music and images worked fine with the built-in applications.

That’s it.

Image credit: Cloud Concept Icon by Big Stock Photo.

The post How To Access Shared Windows Folders on Your Android Phone appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Increase DNS Cache

The role of DNS cache is to store IP addresses of pages you have recently viewed. If you tend to visit particular sites often (such as facebook or twitter), increasing the size of your DNS cache effectively improves browser loading performance. To enhance the size of your DNS cache you need to do the following:

Click the Start button and type “regedit” and hit enter. In the registry editor, browse to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNScache\Parameters

Right click on the white space on the right and add four DWORD values:

CacheHashTableBucketSize
CacheHashTableSize
MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit
MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit

Ideal value settings could be as follows:

• CacheHashTableBucketSize – up to 1
• CacheHashTableSize – up to 384
• MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit – up to 64000
• MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit – up to 301

Restart your computer for changes to take effect.

Retrieve your bandwidth

For XP, Vista and Windows 7, the QoS Reserve Bandwidths limit is enabled by default to 20% ‘reserve’ of your available bandwidths in order to assist certain applications like Windows Update. Changing the limit to reserve a lower percentage of bandwidth will effectively speed up your internet performance. To reduce your reserved bandwidth limit in Windows 7, you need to do the following:

Click the Start button and type “regedit” and hit enter. In the registry editor, browse to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Right-click on Windows and create a new key called “Psched”.

Then right click on the new key you just created and create a new “DWORD” entry. Name it “NonBestEffortLimit” and set the value to zero to disable reserve bandwidth.

Switch off auto tuning

For Windows 7, the TCP auto-tuning feature is enabled by default. This may cause websites to open at a significantly reduced speed as the feature does not operate effectively with a number of web servers. To disable TCP, first open a command prompt with “Run As Administrator” permission. Type the following command to disable the TCP autotuning feature:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Exit the Command Prompt and restart your computer to ensure changes take effect.

Note: To restore TCP autotuning feature type the following command at Command Prompt:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Exit the Command Prompt and restart your computer to ensure changes take effect.

Software rendering mode

In some instances, you may notice that browsing a particular webpage with your internet browser is significantly slower than with an earlier version. This may be because your browser is running in Software Rendering mode instead of GPU Rendering mode by default. This can occur for users with outdated video cards and video drivers that do not support GPU hardware acceleration. To resolve this issue, install the latest video driver that supports GPU hardware acceleration.

If the issue is not resolved after installing the most up to date video driver, you may have to upgrade your video card to one that supports GPU hardware acceleration.

You can normally check if your browser is running Software Rendering mode in the advanced settings sections of most browsers advanced, and is referred to as “accelerated graphics section”.

The example below shows how to review this in Internet Explorer 9:

1. Open Internet Explorer 9 and click ‘Internet Options’ on the Tools menu.

2. .On the Advanced tab, locate the Accelerated graphics section.

Verify that the “Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering” check box is selected. If this option is selected, Internet Explorer 9 is running in Software Rendering mode. Uncheck the box if you want IE9 to run in GPU rendering mode. If the option is grayed out, your current video card or video driver does not support GPU hardware acceleration.

The example below shows how to review this in Mozilla Firefox 14:

1. Open Firefox and press Alt+T, go to Tools and click on “Internet Options” in the drop down box.

2. Go to the Advanced tab, click the General tab in the Options Window. Navigate to Browsing and verify that the “use hardware acceleration when available” check box is selected. If this option is selected, Firefox is running in Software Rendering mode. Uncheck the box if you do not want Firefox to run in Software Rendering mode.

What other tricks do you have to speed up your Internet browsing?

Image credit: Abstract blurred action from car at high speed
by Big Stock Photo.

The post 4 Useful Tweaks to Speed Up Your Internet Browser [Windows] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

PDFsam

In PDFsam, spliting PDFs is a straightforward process. Start the application and select Split from the plugins list.

In the right hand panel, click the Add button, browse for the PDF you wish to split, then select your split option. The most simple split option is Burst, which will split the pdf into single pages. You can choose to split the odd or even pages, or even split after a certain number of pages or at bookmarks. It’s really a very powerful app. Finally, you need to select your destination folder, then a filename prefix and hit Run.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the final output was 12 pdf files, the start of the filename being the page number, then the prefix that was set in PDFsam, then the name of the original PDF. Simple.

PDFsam is a free open source application, available from here.

PDFBurst

In PDFBurst, splitting PDFs is even easier. You run the application and it shows you a window that says “Drag & Drop PDF Here”. You can drag and drop a PDF, or just click on the picture and it will load a file browser for you to select a PDF.

Once a PDF is selected, you will see a dialogue box appear (assuming all has gone well), indicating that the file has been split in the current folder. This basically means the folder in which you ran PDFBurst in, so perhaps that’s not so convenient. You also cannot set any filename options in the program.

PDFBurst is a freeware application, available from here.

FoxyUtils SplitPDF

Being a web application, FoxyUtils SplitPDF is quite straightforward. It is, however, a little different to the other two applications. It lets you extract a specific page range from a PDF into one file. For example, we can select pages 1-3 for extraction which will output one single pdf file with pages 1-3.

To do this, you would browse to the site here. Then click Browse and select the PDF. You must then select the page range to be split (e.g. 1 to 3). Then click Split PDF. At this point be careful! A box pops up with an ad inside, the ad may try to mislead you into downloading some adware – the download bottom is in the bottom right hand corner. This will then save the single pdf file with the page numbers your selected.

Conclusion

Out of the above applications, the most flexible option is PDFsam. It’s still very straightforward but allows you to set various useful options to make sure that you extract what you want, where you want, with the filenames you want from a pdf file. The others simply don’t offer you that level of flexibility. Plus it’s an active open source project, so it should support the latest PDF format with no issues.

Image credit: 3d rendering of a road splitting with road blank signs by BigStockPhoto

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