Hacksar

If you have used Windows in the past few years, (and now with Windows 7 out, if you aren’t using it, you should), you may have noticed that there are certain options that Microsoft claims to have implemented for “your benefit” or “security”, when in fact they are just plain annoying. Have you ever come across automatic updates downloading and completing installation all without even informing you, only to find a window pop up saying “Windows needs to restart to complete installing updates” and has a postpone button (which has a max time of clearly not long enough) and just a count down timer that will automatically restart your computer if you aren’t there to hit Postpone? I hate that option, because there have been so many times when I have important documents open, or processes that I’m waiting to complete (I’m looking at you, Adobe installation), and so I’m not at my computer. If you want to disable that option, there is a simple (but hidden) way to forever turn off the automatic restart and even stop automatic updates from pestering you to restart, so you can do it on your own time. Keep reading for the step-by-step guide.

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If you recently decided to make the upgrade to Microsoft’s latest operating system offering of Windows 7 (and even if you haven’t, I STRONGLY suggest you do, as it’s almost perfect), or have even been hesitating updating your OS because you don’t want to spend time reinstalling the numerous pieces of software you’ve amassed on your system over the years, fret no more. (And of course, for those of you that regularly format and reinstall Windows OS’s that aren’t Windows 7, this is still applicable.) I recently my laptop’s OS from Vista to Windows 7 (good riddance) and I was able to save over an hour of tedious “download installer”, “click install”, and “do not sign up for newsletter” actions by using a great tool called Ninite Easy PC Setup. Keep reading for the guide on how you can use it yourself.

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Sometimes, you may want to be able to take your torrenting capabilities along with you. There’s an easy way to do this – and the program itself is barely 1 mb! You can keep torrents, keep partially completed downloads (assuming your flash drive is large enough), or whatever, all in your thumb drive. To find out how to do this, keep reading.

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If you have ever used WordPress on any of your websites, you may have noticed that it likes to take over everything that’s in its subdirectories and redirect any error 404’s (file not found) to its own custom error page. This is a very big problem when you try to password protect a directory using an .htaccess file (or through cPanel). WordPress will grab that page and redirect it to “file not found”, since it asks you to log in (but WP doesn’t like that). Thankfully, there are two solutions that may work for you. Keep reading to see them.

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If you are a television aficionado, you probably have noticed that there are more and more TV shows that have captured your interest, and it’s getting difficult to keep track of when each show is airing (and if it’s even on that week). You may have already read about our article on How to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows, but for one reason or another, TED may not be enough. Sometimes, you just want to know if there is an episode that will air this week just so you can either look forward or… not look forward to that day.

You may also have embraced Google Calendar or iCal to keep track of your life’s daily activities and be your personal secretary (I know I have), and so here’s a great way to automatically update your gCal or iCal with the airdates/airtimes of your favorite episodes with no interaction from you. It’s a good-old set-it-and-forget-it. Keep reading for the info.

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If you have been prone to mess around with your computer, but are not truly an expert, many times, things can and will go wrong. Being the hacksar I am, even I make mistakes. Recently, I had undertaken the challenge of trying to install a Hackintosh’d version of OSX on my laptop, but not being very knowledgeable about the Mac OS, you can only imagine how badly I messed up. Long story short, my laptop would simply not start any operating system.

Keep reading for the full story.

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With the recent release of Firefox v3.5, I’m sure many people have upgraded their old versions of Firefox to take advantage of some of the new features that were placed in this release. However, there also seemed to be some “downgrades” (or maybe just bugs) in the release that I’m surprised that the developers/testers didn’t catch. For example, if you click a link in an external program (like an IM client such as AIM for example), and you have Firefox set as your default browser, the link will open up in the last tab you have open (rather than opening a new tab). In older versions of Firefox, the setting under Tools -> Options -> Tabs -> “Open New Windows in a New Tab Instead” would allow you to open external links in new tabs. However, now, it does not. Thankfully, there is a simple fix for it – keep reading for the solution.

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If you are just going into college, you probably just received your college email account – and it most likely uses some ugly webmail based client. (This also applies to jobs, etc that supply you with email addresses.) You probably also have a Gmail account that you use (since Gmail is so awesome). If you don’t you can sign up for one at the Gmail website. If you absolutely hate your online web email account and yearn for the ability to send and receive your college emails to with your Gmail account, fret no more! There is a very simple and straightforward method of doing this. Keep reading for the step by step guide.

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If you are in the market to purchase a new computer or laptop (especially for those college-bound freshmen!), you are in great luck. Windows 7 is the next Windows operating system (like Windows XP and Windows Vista), and it is tremendously better than Vista ever can be. Not only is it much faster and streamlined, but its user interface is also much better. It has multiple features for backwards compatibility for Windows XP programs.

However, nowadays, almost all computers (and laptops) come with Windows Vista. In fact, companies charge you extra if you want to downgrade to Windows XP. Being a computer geek myself (as are many others out there), I have absolutely refused to touch Vista ever since it was released. I tried out the beta for Windows 7 and I was blown away – I can’t wait for the actual release of that amazing operating system. I also happen to be in the market for a laptop, but I found that all the good laptops seem to ship with Windows Vista preinstalled (which I can’t stand). Rather than having to dish out $100 or more when Microsoft finally releases Windows 7, I did some research and found out how to get a free upgrade from Vista to 7 (when it comes out). Keep reading for the simple, official, and legal way of doing this.

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If you’ve browsed websites, you may have seen certain links or images that indicate an “RSS Feed”, but may not have any idea what that means. An RSS feed basically is a link to a file that updates whenever the site itself updates, and you can use this feed with other websites or softwares to alert you when there is an update to the original site. However, not everybody has access to some sort of RSS reader (whether it’s Google Reader or simply Google Personalized Homepage).

However, if you still want to be alerted when there is an update to a specific site, there is a very simple way. Keep reading for the guide.

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