Group Related Programs Together on Windows 10

When you are on your computer at work, it is normal to have several programs running at once, some for work and some for personal use. Unfortunately, as you know, having unrelated programs running on your desktop may easily cause a distraction and reduce your productivity. Ideally, you could group the programs together according to type and use only one group while the other remains hidden. That way, you can increase the chances of your finishing your work on time because the working desktop environment is distraction-free. This idea can be achieved using the Task Viewer feature in Windows 10, which allows you to create multiple desktop environments for different purposes.

Step 1 : Launch all the programs that you want to be in the first group. For example, this group contains your programs for work.

Step 2 : Reveal the taskbar if it is hidden by moving the mouse to the bottom of screen, and then click the Task View button, the icon of two stacked windows.

Step 3 : Immediately after you click the button, the system will display a series of thumbnails for programs running on the current desktop and an Add a desktop button at the bottom of the screen. If you click that button, the system will create a brand new desktop for you.

Step 4 : Click the second desktop thumbnail to set it as the active one. Once you are inside the second desktop, you will notice that all previously opened windows are now gone. Now, it is time to open programs for your second group.

Step 5 : To switch between desktops, come back to Task View, and then choose the desired one. You may notice that it is possible to add another desktop using the plus button.

Step 6 : When you are in one desktop, you may notice the little highlight under some programs indicating that they are opened in the other desktop. If you click on that icon, you will be redirected to desktop that contains the program.

Step 7 : To close a desktop, go back to Task View, hover your mouse over the desktop which you want to close, and then click the X button. Since the desktop is closed, apps opened inside that desktop will be closed as well.


Try it. Have fun. :) 

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Customize the Start Menu on Windows 10

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft decided to bring back the Start menu that many users complained about missing in Windows 8. However, the new Start menu also includes an area for live tiles which work similarly to the ones in the old release of Windows. Using the steps in this tutorial, you can customize the Start menu to suit your needs and workflow.

Step 1 : Click the Windows logo at the bottom left of the screen to open the Start menu. Alternatively, you can open it by pressing the Win logo on your keyboard.

Step 2 : When the Start screen appears, you will see a grid of live tiles on the right size. If you right-click on one of them, you will see several options including: Unpin from Start, Pin to taskbar, Uninstall, Resize, and Turn live tile off. Under Resize, there are several sizes from which to choose: small, medium, wide, and large. As soon as you choose the size, the chosen tile will be changed and moved accordingly. The size of the Start menu will increase or decrease to adapt to the change, if necessary.

To move a tile, long-click on it, then drag it to the desired location. If there is a tile in that location, it will be moved to a slot nearby.

Un-pinned apps can still be found in the app list.

Step 3 : To pin a program to the Start menu, right-click on it, and choose Pin to Start. If it is a Metro app, you will see a live tile. Otherwise, the tile will contain the app’s icon.

Step 4 : The Start menu can be resized to several predefined shapes as seen in the examples below. Resizing the Start menu is similar to resizing a normal app’s window. All you have to do is move the mouse to the top edge, and then drag it down until it resizes to the shape that you want.

 

Keep Visiting. Thank you. Share with your friends. :) 

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How Do I Block Ad Cookies and Data Brokers on Windows ?

If you saw this 60 Minutes report on CBS (Click on the YouTube video below to view.), then you know that data brokers are robbing and selling your private data. They use cookies, GPS, the serial number of your SIM card, data that they buy from retailers, and analytics to correlate your IP address with your email. They also use your cell phone number to determine your name, address, medical history, sexual orientation, determine if you suffer from alcoholism or depression, or have filed for bankruptcy and provide this information to markets or employers.

Here is how you can stop all of that, at least on a PC, by blocking access to these companies’ systems, thus preventing them from communicating with cookies placed on your computer in order to download your personal data. This approach works on Windows and Mac, but on Android you cannot update the hosts file unless the device is rooted. On iOS, you can install the Disconnect app mentioned on the 60 Minutes broadcast.

You block access to these sites by overriding their IP address and making a manual entry of that on your computer in the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file.  The computer looks there first to obtain the address of web servers before it asks your ISP or wireless carrier.

Windows 10 has placed the host file in the same location as earlier versions of Windows.  Edit it with Notepad.  However, you must run Notepad as the administrator, as shown below, to make changes.

Update Hosts File
Step 1 : Search for Notepad in the Start menu, and then right-click and select Run as administrator

Step 2 : In Notepad, select File>Open and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.  If you do not run this as the administrator as explained in Step 1, you will not be able to save the changes you make.

Step 3 : Here you change the IP address of the advertising companies and data brokers to the IP address 0.0.0.0, which means no IP address. More accurately, look on the local PC of that web server, which of course will not be there.

You can copy these addresses from here.
Copy all three.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_malvertising.txt

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt

(Hint: The first list is ready to copy into the hosts file.  You need to format the second and third list to add the IP address 0.0.0.0 and one space in front of each host name.  Use Microsoft Word, and replace the end-of-line character “^p” with “^p0.0.0.0. “)

When you edit the file, do not delete the line that says:

127.0.0.1 localhost
You computer needs this. It is known as the loop-back address.

Step 4 : Now, you can test that it works by running cmd on the Start menu and then type:ping doubleclick.net. You will see your computer cannot connect there.

For comparison, you could ping google.com.

Keep Visiting. Thank You.

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How Do I Free Up Space on My C Drive ?

If your C drive is getting full, follow the steps in this tutorial to erase unnecessary files, and free up drive space.

Before we start, make sure to move all the important files in your C drive to another drive.
Step  1 : Go to the desktop, and double-click the Computer icon. Alternatively, you can press Win key + E to open the Explorer window.

Step  2 : When the Explorer window appears, right-click on the C drive, and choose Properties from the context menu.

Step  3 : Next, click the Disk Cleanup button to start the tool.

Depending on the size of the C drive, the process of calculating the space that can be freed will take up to 5 or 10 minutes.

Step  4 : Once the calculating process finishes, you will see a window containing a summary of the process, the files which can be deleted, and the total amount of disk space you may gain after deleting the junk files.  If the disk space that you can free is huge, click OK to erase the files. Once the process is finished, the window will close itself.

After that, you may want to start the Disk Cleanup tool again, and choose Clean up system files. Since erasing unnecessary update files can free a lot of space on your hard drive, you should consider doing this task often.

Step  5 : After the tool gathers all the information about update files, it will display the amount of disk space that can be gained. More detail about the files can be found in the window. While these files are indeed system files, they are safe to erase. Everything listed there can be deleted without causing system errors.

Step  6 : Click OK -> Delete Files to process. Please note that the process will take a very long time to complete. At some points, you may think that the tool is not working, but it is. You just need to be patient. To avoid hangs, avoid running heavy tasks such as video editing or gaming at the same time.

Thats it.

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How to Check the Memory of an External Graphics Card in Windows 7

You have two types of graphics memory in your computer systems: internal graphics memory and external graphics memory. The internal graphics memory is part of the system’s motherboard. The external graphics memory belongs to the hardware of a dedicated graphics card which is installed separately on the motherboard. Graphics memory is needed to run high definition games and movies. You can find out how much memory you have on the external graphics card installed on your machine.


There are various ways to determine how much external graphics memory you have. We will start we the easiest method first.

1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop, and from the context menu, click Screen Resolution.

2. Click on Advanced settings.

3. In the Adapter tab, you will find the Dedicated Video Memory option. This is the dedicated external graphics card memory.

Dedicated Video Memory indicates the memory of the dedicated external graphics card installed on your motherboard.

To find out more detailed information about the memory of your graphics card, you can use the following steps.

1. Go to Run, and type msinfo32.exe.

2. In the Components category on the right, click on the Display subcategory.

3. The first five items listed contain the name of your graphics card and the amount of memory allocated.

The image above shows detailed information about the external graphics hardware.

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How to Write Gmail Filters

You depend on your email for your social life and work, so it is quite annoying when someone sends you junk mail. Your phone beeps that you have mail, but the message is nothing important that you need to read. Fortunately, you can deal with junk email messages when you use Gmail with filters. Here is now to create filters for Gmail to stop those irritating messages that clutter your inbox.

Note: You cannot write filters on Android or iPad apps for Gmail.  You need to log in to the website to write them there.

There are two distinct goals for using filters for email:

1. You can delete mail from someone such as a recruiter from whom you do not want to hear, especially those who say ridiculous things like “urgent” or “hot opportunity.”  You also may want to delete mail from companies that you have dealt with one time, yet they insist on writing you frequently and do not make it easy to unsubscribe with one click.

2. You can also mark items as read. This is useful in situations when you have signed up for a group such as LinkedIn or have subscribed to short stories at Wattpad.  You do not want to delete these items, but you do not want to be bothered by them either.  The way to do that is mark them as read.

Write the Filter

Step 1 : The first step is to open up one of those annoying email messages.  You can filter them different ways.  The most common way is by sender or by specific words in the message.  To eliminate recruiter spam, we could delete any message that says both “current” and “opening.”  Click the drop-down arrow on the right to enter the filter.

 

Step 2 : Select Filter messages like this.

 

 Step 3 : Enter a filter. Do not forget to erase the sender’s name unless you only want the words that you filter to apply just to this sender.

 

Step 4 : Now, tell it what to do with email messages that match the filter. Mark as Read or Delete it is probably what you want. You can also apply the filter to other messages in your inbox that match this condition to remove the clutter there.

 

 

I hope this tutorial will help you. :)

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Use Google Data Proxy to Save on Airtime in Chrome

Cell phone companies typically do not offer unlimited data plans anymore.  Unlimited plans were offered in some markets when only 3G was available, but with 4G, users can use up large amounts of GB in a short time.  This usage creates a strain on the cellular network as its capacity is not unlimited. Also, in developing countries, unlimited data plans are not usually offered.  Therefore, it is in your interest to take steps to reduce your data usage so that you do not run out of MB.


Google Data Compression Proxy can help you use less data on your phone.  This browser plug-in intercepts web pages and reduces the size of the graphics.  This saves you about 30% on data usage. Not all web pages size their graphics correctly to fit the browser. For example, a website transmits to you a 1MB image (when 35KB is all you need to see the picture clearly). When the browser receives the oversized image, it resizes the image anyway to match the instructions in the web page or your screen size.  All of that is wasted bandwidth.

Here is now to set up the Data Compression Proxy with Chrome on Windows and on the iPad.

Step 1 : Go to this URL to add the extension to Google Chrome.  Click where it says Free to install.

 Step 2 : Now, the Data Compression Proxy is installed.

 Step 3 : To disable / enable it, click the green icon at the top right of the Chrome browser.

On certain websites, the icon will automatically change to red.  The icon changes to red for pages that cannot be displayed via the proxy.  This would be the case for something that is not in its cache such as your bank statement. The icon will turn green automatically when you are on a website that can be viewed with the proxy.

The browser will say: “This page cannot be loaded via the Chrome Data Compression Proxy. Try reloading the page.”


Step 4 : Click the link below to see how much data you have saved.

http://www.net-internals.com/#bandwidth 

iPad
Step 1 : Install the plug-in as shown above.  There is no green icon on the iPad version.  Instead, press the settings icon at the top right-hand corner of Chrome and select Settings.

Step 2 : Now, scroll down to Bandwidth.

Step 3 : Turn on / off the Reduce Data Usage option.  Now, it shows you the bandwidth you have saved.

 

Thats it.

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How to Create a God Mode Folder in Windows 7 & 8

The Windows operating system is full of hidden features and tricks. Using these hidden features can save you a lot of time and increase your productivity. One of the most useful features which is not widely known in Windows 7 and Windows 8 is God Mode.


God Mode is a folder which lists all the possible settings available in Windows. Some of the most useful settings are Display, Folder Options, Fonts, and Network and Sharing Center. This hidden feature is very useful when you do not know where all these individual settings are located. Using God Mode, we can see and manage them from one place.

Create a God Mode Folder in Windows 7 and Windows 8

Step 1 : First, create a new folder on the desktop. To do this, right-click on the desktop. Click New in the context Menu which appears, and then select Folder.

Step 2 : Name the folder GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Step 3 : Once you press Enter, it will create an icon named GodMode.

Step 4 : Open the GodMode folder. It contains numerous settings options, including Display, Network, Device drivers, etc.

Thats it. Try it :)

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Change the Size of Virtual Memory in Windows 7 & 8

Virtual memory helps your PC execute programs and actions quickly when you are running low on random-access memory (RAM). Virtual memory combines your RAM memory with your hard drive space. These two work together to compensate for lack of RAM and attempt to speed up your system.


For many actions RAM is directly correlated to your computer’s speed. The more RAM you have, the faster your PC will run. When doing processor-heavy tasks and running low on RAM, Windows will use hard drive space as a memory substitute. How much Windows uses virtual memory is ultimately your choice and can be set by following these directions.

Too much or too little virtual memory will decrease your system’s performance. Additionally, the speed of your hard drive in some ways will dictate how much benefit you receive from virtual memory.

Often tweaking virtual memory is not the best solution for increasing system speed. If your system is running slowly, upgrading RAM typically will provide much more benefit than virtual memory adjustments.

This tutorial was done on a Windows 7 machine, but the steps are similar on Windows 8.

Step 1 : Open up the Control Panel. This can be done by clicking on the Start button and selecting Control Panel. In Windows 8 you will want to access the classic Control Panel.

Step 2 : From the Control Panel, select System and Security.

Step 3 : From the System and Security options, select System.

Step 4 : Now, select Advanced system settings from the options on the left-hand side.

Step 5 : Under System Properties, make sure that the Advanced tab is selected. Then choose Settings… under Performance.

Step 6 : From the Performance options, select the Advanced tab. Then choose Change… under Virtual memory.

Step 7 : First un-check the box next to Automatically manage paging file size for all devices. Next, select the drive you want to use, and adjust the Custom size option. Hit Save, and then click OK to save your settings.

How to configure virtual memory is highly debated among Windows experts. Many of us suggest disabling the OS’s automatic management and setting the initial and maximum size to the paging size recommended by Windows. In my example above, I would set these sizes to the suggested 1918 MB.

Users of SSD drives have a more complex problem. Since virtual memory writes to the hard drive very frequently, using SSD drives in this fashion can theoretically decrease the life of the drive.

However, SSD drives are so quick that this drive style reduces a lot of the performance limitations associated with virtual memory.

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