Hot Computers & Programming Posts

How To: Increase screen contrast in Mac OS X

Mac OSX offers an easy solution to increasing the contrast of your display, and switching the screen from black on white to white on black. In the Universal Access section of System Preferences, under the large "Display" label, you will find a set of controls. Switching from black on white to white on black will invert the colors on the screen, making it easier to read for some people. There is a toggle to the right of that control which switches your display from color to grayscale. Below th...

How To: Change Windows XP start menu text

Certain aspects of Windows User Interface are not customizable like the text of the start button in Windows XP. However you can use certain tools and follow a procedure to change the default text of the start button. To do this you have to use a tool called Resource Hacker. Note that this is a very simple method, but be careful or you may end up causing damage to the Operating System as you are modifying system files. To do this run the program. Now browse to the Windows folder and locate win...

How To: Password protect your wireless network

Most of the home wireless networks are not set up by professionals and hence they might lack in security features. People just set up the wireless networks by connecting the devices and powering them up and never care to apply security settings to the network. This may result in your wireless network being compromised by unwanted external entities. How ever you can do a web based configuration settings and secure your wireless network by password protecting it. This settings differ from the m...

How To: Make a simple keylogger in Visual Basic 2008

The following video shows how you can make a keylogger in Visual Basic 2008. Follow the steps below to create your own keylogger. First you will want to open a new application and name it according to your preferences. Then you want to click on the toolbar button and click textbox. In the textbox values, you will want to select the value of true for 'Multiline' option and the value of True for 'Read only'. On the toolbar, select the 'Behavior' tab and mark it as 'Window'. Go back on to the ma...

How To: Quickly force quit in Mac OS X

If something happens to a program you are working with on your Mac computer, and you have no choice, you will need to access 'force quit'. This is very easy to do, and luckily on a Mac you probably won't use it very often. There are several ways to do this and this video takes you through all of them. If you can, try and save your information before doing a force quit, because you may not be able to recover changes once the app closes.

How To: Boot Windows 7 from a USB pen drive with UNetbootin

In this how to video, you will learn how to make a boot-able USB pen drive using Unetbootin. First, download Unetbootin and install it. From here, insert your USB pen drive into your computer. Next, open the program. Go to my computer and right click your USB pen drive. Next, format and make sure to choose FAT32. Click start to finish this. Once that is done, go to Unetbootin and click disk image. Change it to ISO and click the button to search for the ISO. Open this and then go to my compute...

How To: Create custom screensavers from movies in Windows

This video is a tutorial on how to create your own custom screen savers from your favorite movies on a Windows computer. The first step is to download the Movie Screen Saver Software from www.vijusoft.com. When the program is finished downloading from the website then you will have to open the installer package and follow the instructions. The download should only take a few minutes and then you might have to restart your computer when it is finished. The second step, once the program is down...

How To: Create screensavers & custom wallpaper in Mac OS X

In this how to video, you will learn how to make custom screen savers and wallpaper for your Mac for free. First, download the SaveHollywood and Wallsaver programs to your computer. Install both of these programs. Next, go to system preferences and click on desktop and screen saver. Click the screen saver tab and select SaveHolywood. From here, click options and press the arrow button. Find a video that you want to use as a screen saver and click okay. Click test to see if it works out. Next,...

How To: Download & install HP printer drivers in Windows XP

This silent video shows you how to install HP printer drivers for Windows XP. Start off by turning on the power on the printer. Do not connect the USB cable to the computer yet, it'll ask you at a later time. Now go to HP's support webpage by typing "www.hp.com/support" on your web browser and then choose the region and language you want the support for. Now click on the "download drivers and software" option and type in your printer's model number. Select the correct printer from the list an...

How To: Create your own crossover cable

Watch this video and you'll learn the simplest and most effective way of creating your own ethernet crossover cable. Starting with a general overview of what you'll be needing a crossover cable for, this video walks you step-by-step through the process of stripping the cable, separating the color-coded component cables within, organizing them for easy transfer to an rj45 adapter, and finally, crimping. Special detail is payed to organizing the colored cords, since they must be placed in preci...

How To: Copy your entire DVD library to a Mac computer

This video tutorial from ozz3141 presents how to copy your DVD library to a Mac computer. To start, insert DVD you want to copy. It will mount on Desktop and DVD player will open. Close DVD player. Click File-New Finder window. From left pane select applications. Scroll down and select FairMount. The DVD will remount now.

How To: Get System Restore to use less disk space in Windows 7

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make the System Restore feature use less space in Windows 7. Begin by clicking on the Start menu. Right-click on Computer and select Properties. Under Tasks, click on System protection. In the System Properties window, select the hard drive and click Configure. Under Disk Space Usage, drag the slider to the left for a lower amount. Then click on Apply and OK to confirm. This video will benefit those viewers who have a Windows 7 computer and would l...

How To: Create a bootable Windows 7 repair disc on a USB drive

In this how to video, you will learn how to create a system repair disc on a bootable USB flash drive without having to burn a CD for your Windows 7 system. First, plug in your USB drive and create new folders in it. Name the first folder boot and the second sources. Next, open a command prompt and type in the cd c:\recovery, dir /a:sh, and so forth as shown. Once you have typed in the proper commands in the prompt, eject the flash drive. Restart the computer with the drive plugged in. Boot f...

How To: Format a USB flash drive to NTFS from FAT32 in XP

In this how to video, you will learn how to format a USB flash drive to NTFS. First, plug in the USB drive to your computer. Right click on My Computer and select properties. From here, go to the hardware tab and select device manager. Next, click and expand disk drives and right click your USB drive. Select properties and then click the policies tab. Choose optimize for performance and click okay. Edit the device manager and open My Computer. Next, right click the USB device on My Computer a...

How To: Remove ntde1ect.com & autorun.inf virus & trojan files

In this Computers & Programming video tutorial you will learn how to remove ntde1ect.com & autorun.inf virus & trojan files. Go to my documents > tools > folder options > view and unhide the files and click OK. Open up the task manager. Under properties, click on explorer and end that process. Then look for wscript.exe, select it and minimize the task manager. Now open up command prompt and type in ‘dir’ against C drive. This will not list the hidden files. So, you type in ‘attrib –r ...

How To: Generate a System Restore point on a Windows 7 PC

This video describes how to make a system restore point. First we have to go to click the start on the keyboard. Next select the computer and go for the properties. Next go to system protection. Next go the protection settings and highlight the operating system and give option of “on” on the protection and just click the create. Then you will get a box of system protection. Next you can give a name and then click ok to that it will take some time. Next if you go for system properties you ...

How To: Run Windows programs & apps on your Mac

There's a chance that some of those Windows programs that you've been wanting to run on your Mac can actually be made to do so. There are two ways to go about it. Either you go with emulation, using VM ware or Virtual box. VM ware will cost you while Virtual box is free. The other way to go about doing this is to use Crossover for the Mac, this program is somewhat like the emulation softwares mentioned before but not quite. When installed, the crossover button will appear on your Mac's bar am...

How To: Change the accessibility options in Windows 7

This video teaches how to change Windows 7 accessibility options. Choose Start, Control panel. This opens the Control Panel window. Choose Ease of Access in the control panel window. This opens Ease of Access window. Inside the Ease of Access window, there are various links that allows you to set various accessibility options in windows 7. You can use these settings for options like "Optimizing Visual Display", "Replace sounds with visual cues" and you also have settings to choose how the way...

How To: View hidden files and folders in Windows XP & Vista

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to view hidden files and folders in a Microsoft Windows XP or Vista computer. Begin by clicking on the Start menu and select Control Panel. Double-click on Folder Options and click on the View tab of the Folder Options window. Under Hidden files and folders, check the option that reads, Show hidden files and folders. Then click on Apply and OK. This video will benefit those viewers who use a Windows XP or Vista computer, and would like to learn how to...

How To: Get a virtual desktop to run Linux, Windows or Mac OS

In this how to video, you will learn how get VMWare Fusion on your Mac. This will allow you to install Windows and run them on the same computer. First, go to the mediafire page and download the files. Next, download and install Unarchiver to join the files together and extract the file. Mount this file on to your computer. Run the file and click install. Once that is finished, open it. You will see your Windows partition if you already have one installed. To install a new one, click new and ...

How To: Map a network drive on your personal computer

In this tutorial, learn how to map a network drive on your personal computer and make your life easier and more organized. If you need to map your system for any reason, check out this video. This video will give you a complete overview and step by step in just a few short minutes so you will be ready to map your network in no time.

How To: See who's using your wireless network on a Windows PC

This video shows you the method to find if someone else is using your Internet connection. There are two methods for this. The first method involves opening the start menu and click on 'Run'. Type cmd in the text box which opens as a result of clicking on 'Run'. Type NET VIEW at the command prompt. This will show all people using your network. The second method involves going to Start menu. Go to Connect to and Show all connections. Click on My network places. Click on 'View workgroup compute...

How To: Announce alerts with OS X's Text to Speech feature

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to announce alerts on a Mac OS X computer. To do this, open the Speech preferences and click on the Text of Speech tab. There, users are able to set up the computer to announce when alerts are displayed and announce when an application required your attention. Users are able to set additional options by clicking on Set Alert Options. Users are able to select a different voice, phrase and delay time. To preview the option, click on Play. This video wil...

How To: Navigate the web with VoiceOver in Mac OS X

The video is about how to use voice over in Safari for Mac OS X. To use Voice over it has to be enabled first. It can be used to read the entire html content on web page using short cut control + option + shift + Down Arrow. To move between different items on the web page use Control + Option + left or right arrows. To click any link use Control + Option + Space bar. To go back in the browser use Command + [. To stop interacting with HTML content use Control + Option + Shift + Up Arrow. After...

How To: Format an external hard drive for Mac OS X

The World Wide Geek demonstrates how to format an external hard drive for Mac OS X. External hard drives are usually formatted for windows. To change the format, you will need to use the disk utility option. Access the disk utility by going to finder and clicking on applications. Next, click on the utilities folder. Then, click on the disk utility option to open it. You can also search for disk utility in spotlight. Select your external hard drive in the options to the left of the disk utilit...

How To: Change the size of text and icons in Windows 7

In this video tutorial. viewers learn how to change the size of text and icons in a Windows 7 computer. Begin by clicking on the Start menu and open Control Panel. In the Control Panel window, click on Appearance and Personalization. Then click on Display. Now users are able to select the size of text and icons to Smaller - 100%(default), Medium - 125% and Larger - 150%. If users select one of the larger sizes, some of the items will not fit on the screen. Once users have select the setting, ...

How To: Take screenshots on a PC with the Print Screen button

This is a video about how to use the printscreen button. You can take screenshots with the printscreen button on the keyboard. First you have to a pick an image whatever you want to save in your PC. In this video he is explaining about how to save the a picture about the animal description. Next press the printscreen button when you get the image. Next go to start button and next Accessories and next paint and open the new page on paint. Then go for paste in the edit. Then you will see the pi...

How To: Cut & paste from one location to another

In this how to video, you will learn how to take text from one location to another. This is known as cutting and pasting. First, open your word processor. Next, go in to your browser and find a website with text that you want to copy. Highlight a line of text. Next, right click it and select copy. Next, go back to your word processor and right click. Select paste. If you want to place it somewhere else, highlight the text in the word processor and go to edit. Select copy and then open notepad...

How To: Make an annoying batch file to prank friends

To make an annoying batch file to prank your friends you need to first right click on your screen and go to New and then Folder. In this New folder make a Text file and type in "for /l %%n in (1,1,10) DO md %%n" and that is it. Now this will loop from 1 - 10 and make a new folder for whatever n is. You can change the command if you would like to! Now, you can change this text file to 'Folder' and allow for this to be clicked. You can change the number "10" to any large number so the folder co...

How To: Use high contrast display settings in Windows 7

Windows 7 provides the high contrast display feature for the monitors. To use this feature go to the desktop. Right click and select 'Personalize' from the menu. This brings up the Personalization window of the 'Appearance and Personalization' option of the Control Panel. Here you can change the visuals and sounds of your computer. Scroll down in that window till you find high contrast themes. Choose one of those themes. When you select them Windows automatically applies the theme to your com...

How To: Disassemble an Acer AspireRevo nettop PC

In this how-to video, you will learn how to disassemble an Acer Aspire Revo. First, unscrew the screw on the side of the laptop. From here, you must pull the top cover with the logo apart. This will be tough, but eventually it will be come off. A prying tool may be useful for this task. Now you will have access to the hard drive, RAM, CPU fan, processor, and wireless card. Now you are ready to perform any upgrades or repairs on your Acer Aspire. This video shows you the essential steps in ord...

How To: Upgrade and install Snow Leopard

Michael of michaelsherlock.com demonstrates the installation of Mac OSX Snow Leopard onto a Mac with an Intel Core2Duo processor. We're reminded from the very beginning of the importance of backing up our entire system before beginning the installation. Once that's taken care of, it's time to insert the Snow Leopard disk. Once the disk is loaded, and we've agreed to the End User License Agreement, we are presented with a number of options to customize our operating system, including options s...

How To: Find and install Windows PC drivers quickly & easily

This video shows us the method to find and install Windows PC drivers. Install the software from www.DirectDriverChecker.com. Click on 'Start Scan' to list the drivers you have and which ones need an update. Choose 'All Drivers' to see all drivers and 'Outdated Drivers' to see the outdated ones. Check the drivers and click 'Next' to update them. Use the 'Back Up' option to back up the drivers in case of a malfunction in the computer. Use the 'Restore' feature to restore the saved drivers whic...