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Posts Tagged ‘windows’

Wireless is really convenient until you drop your connection or get really low speeds. Thanks to DD-WRT, it’s easier than ever to extend your home networks range with a few simple tweaks and a spare router.

DD-WRT is a fully feature-packed alternative firmware for your router. If you don’t know what it is or how to get it on your device, you should start off with Turn Your Home Router into a Super-Powered Router with DD-WRT.

This article was written by How-To Geek (Source)… [Read More...]

Which AV product is up to the task of keeping your PC squeaky clean and immune to malware?

In some ways, visiting cyberspace is kind of like entering a crowded subway car during the peak of flu season. You’re surrounded by all sorts of germs—in the form of trojans, spyware, viruses, rootkits, etc.—just looking for a vulnerable host to invade and feed on. Once you’re infected, these pests can wreak havoc on your system, swiping your personal information and passwords, annihilating your credit rating, and stealing your identity. To avoid a potentially virulent attack, you need to take precautions.

Wouldn’t … [Read More...]

One of the most common misconceptions about PCs is that the bigger the screen, the more items you’ll be able to pack on it. After all, bigger is better, right?

Well, sort of.

There’s a big difference between screen size and screen resolution, and that’s what Ryan and I are talking about in today’s video. In short, screen size is the actual physical size of your screen – usually somewhere between 11-17 inches on a laptop, and screen resolution, which is the density of pixels on that display, i.e., how much stuff you can see at one time.  Check out … [Read More...]

In this guest post, James Ricketts discusses how deal with computer uninstall errors. Find out more about James at the end of this post.

Uninstalling applications is never as seamless a process as installing them. Although Windows PCs come with a built-in utility, the Add or Remove Programs utility, that allows users to easily uninstall various applications and software, it usually fails to do the required job when you need to uninstall certain applications, such as McAfee Antivirus suite or DirectX.

Incomplete uninstallation may cause errors and complications on the system. Leftover processes of a previously installed program may interfere … [Read More...]

Spring is in the air! That means blooming flowers, warmer weather…and the Spring Series of PC Showcase events!

Next week, the team and I are packing up some of our latest and greatest PCs and heading to Miami to meet with local press and influentials, as well as with press, analysts and bloggers from all over Latin America. It’s shaping up to be a really fun event, and we’ve secured an incredible venue in the Viceroy Hotel & Spa. I think that this will sufficiently match the beauty of our PCs, don’t you?

While the PCs are the stars of … [Read More...]

Some days, all I want is to sail away… or to lie on a beach somewhere, hearing the pounding surf, while I drowse over a book. My two newest themes are for all of you who need a virtual vacation. My hope is they’ll bring you a little bit of seaside relaxation, without requiring you to actually get on a plane.

The surfing theme puts you right in the tubes, hearing the roar of the waves and seeing the sun sparkling through the water.

The sailing theme puts you on deck for a virtual voyage from Boracay in the South … [Read More...]

Here at Wired, we take things very seriously. Correction — we take protecting our desks and planning sneak attacks on our coworkers very seriously. We put some different office warfare gadgets to the test.

First on our list was the USB Thunder Missile Launcher ($36). Download the free controller software, plug in the launcher to your Windows laptop or PC via USB (a Mac update is in the works), and use your mouse or arrow keys to aim and shoot. Since the launcher doesn’t include a webcam, ballistics are a trial-and-error affair. But it’s surprisingly easy — my first shot … [Read More...]

We’ve waited a long time for Google Cloud Print, and it’s every bit as convenient as we had imagined. The new service from Google makes it possible for PC users to wirelessly print to a networked printer from smartphones, laptops, and tablets capable of supporting Google services, such as Gmail or Google Docs. To get your own Google Cloud Print party started, follow these simple steps.

1. Download Google Chrome Beta 4

Google Cloud Print supports a number of flavors of Windows, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7. No matter which version of Windows your rig is rocking, you’ll need … [Read More...]

Can an off-the-shelf cooling loop out-cool a custom-built system?

I’m taking a standard midrange computer with a Core-i7 930 CPU (stock speed: 2.8GHz) and clocking it up to 4GHz. That’ll up my CPU’s heat output, and I’ll need better cooling. Water-cooling can be quieter and more effective than air, but isn’t necessarily cheap or easy to install.

How much time and money do you need to spend to get good cooling? To answer this question, I’m testing three build options: a basic off-the-shelf liquid-cooling loop (Corsair’s H70), an all-inclusive Swiftech DIY kit, and finally, a custom-built water-cooling setup of my … [Read More...]

About a year ago I set out to create me a Windows 7 live CD. Finally, I am able to present you with the How-To. But before we get into that, let’s review what a LIVE CD is.

A Live CD is an actual Windows Installation that you carry with you on a USB Flash Drive or CD/DVD. The Windows Installation is portable, meaning that you can have your own windows running on any PC you encounter. The Live CDs are most commonly used to repair computers that have crashed or to rescue data from a hard drive before doing … [Read More...]

When you think business-class PCs, you think functional. Durable. Powerful. Boring. Dell, however, wants you to think “beautiful”. That’s the vision behind the strikingly thin, surprisingly gorgeous Dell Vostro v130. Part of Dell’s “Vostro” small business lineup of PCs, the Vostro v130 is powerful (Core i5 ULV processor, 4GB RAM, Intel HD graphics, 500GB 7200rpm drive), light (only 3.5lbs) and beautiful (just look at it!)…and starts at an amazing $429. Mine, configured with the specs above, runs about $900.

It’s an impressive little PC that stands out from the business PC crowd like a red dress at a black tie … [Read More...]

WinToFlash

I know, there are many solutions … [Read More...]

Tegra 2 makes for a scary-fast smartphone

As far as referendums on nVidia’s new Tegra 2 processor go, Motorola’s and AT&T’s Atrix 4G is a shining success. It throws off beastly performance and also manages to greatly reduce power consumption. However, when viewed as a referendum on the ARM architecture’s potential to scale up and supplant x86 in laptops and desktops—or even run Windows—the outlook isn’t quite as promising.

First the basics. This is the fastest phone we’ve ever seen. In our CPU, GPU, and combined benchmarks, the 1 GHz dual-core Tegra 2 CPU and GeForce ULP GPU core helped … [Read More...]

Two backups are better than one. It’s the only principle geeks follow more closely than the Prime Directive.

Back up your data to one drive, and make the second drive into an exact duplicate of the first — voila, a backup of a backup. In IT parlance, this is known as a redundant backup, and the most popular system for handling it is called RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

The PopDrive from DHK Storage intends to be one of the first inexpensive, consumer-level RAID drives. It comes with two separately packaged, Western Digital 2.5-inch hard drives, like those … [Read More...]

Double the GPUs, double the performance, at almost double the price.

AMD’s dual GPU cards have come a long way in the past several years. The original Radeon HD 3870 was noisy, ran hot and didn’t always perform up to snuff. Since then, AMD’s Catalyst Driver suite has substantially improved the performance and breadth of CrossFire-supported games.

On the hardware side, AMD is pulling out all the stops with its Radeon HD 6990 card. The company understands that a dual GPU card is most appealing to a small band of enthusiasts who really want the card to push the edge … [Read More...]