Weekend Website: PortableApps.com

I have not run this feature in ages, but I decided to bring it out of retirement to feature an excellent site: PortableApps.com. With the increasing popularity of USB flash drives and memory cards many software producers are creating versions of their software tailored to run from these devices. This means that you can carry your favourite applications round with you on your portable drives and use them on whatever Windows computer you like.

PortableApps.com not only provide links to download free portable software but also have packaged the most popular software, which can be executed using their own menu. Applications available on the site include GIMP, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and even a portable version of the antivirus software ClamWin. The site also offers support for all the available applications and has forums where you can join in discussions about portable computing.

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The 15th Carnival of Computer Help and Advice

Welcome to the fifteenth monthly Carnival of Computer Help and Advice - a digest of recent blog articles providing top tips for PC users. Because so many blog authors submitted high quality posts for inclusion this month, this carnival is a little longer than usual. Nevertheless, there is not enough space to include every submission, so apologies to those bloggers whose articles do not appear.

We start with two posts that stress the importance of security of personal data whether it is stored on your hard-drive or, in the first case, being broadcast wirelessly. The author of Fine-Tuned Finances shares good advice about How to Safely Access Online Banking Sites from Public Wi-Fi Hot Spots. Barbara Brabec of Handmade for Profit - Cashing in on Your Creativity! says "If you've never had a total computer system crash, count yourself lucky, because it's not IF your computer is going to crash, but WHEN. How well you prepare for this inevitability will determine how painful and costly the crash experience will be." Thankfully, she helps us plan for this event in How to Prepare for a Computer Crash.

Viruses also pose a significant threat to the integrity of our computers. Thoughtfully Vikram author, VikramKir, presents Where can I Find Free Antivirus Software to Download? Review Free Anti-Virus Software Applications. Vikram also offers advice on Ways to speed up computer. Increase Performance of Windows Machine.

"Registry cleaner key clean up is the process that fixes most of the problems in the your Windows registry. What are the registry keys? Registry keys are the ones most often left behind when a program is installed. Those stray keys are some of information that the computer no longer needs, and finally they become clutter. Registry cleaner key clean up programs attempt to clear those out and make your computer running faster." So says the author of myprofit's Blog on Flixya.com. Their article Registry Cleaner Key Removal not only highlights the importance of cleaning the Windows Registry but also provides a good explanation of exactly what it is.

We have a few more Windows tips now, the first of which should be filed under 'Not for the faint-hearted': Lando presents Delete the Recycle Bin posted at Lando411 - Technology Articles, Tech Tips, Computer Tips, and more. For Vista users, The Egotistical Admin, Jason Beebe, shares his Tech Tip #1: Apply Folder Views to All Folders. For the computer novice, Kathryn explains How to Delete Browser Cookies from Internet Explorer on KathrynVercillo on eHow.

More freeware now, starting with two articles from Marco DSouza's Technology at work and play blog: Hard disk defragmentation: The easy, free way, and his review of a free backup application in Snappy, effective backups. AshPresent of ashPresentom gives us a chance to pimp our Windows desktop by telling us How to get Apple OS X Leopard Stack dock for Windows, and other docks

Finally this month, the author of gadget-cafe, switch2life, presents sensible advice for those who are Selecting a Laptop to buy.

If you are interested in hosting a future carnival please leave a comment on this post or use the contact form over at our Blog Carnival page where you can also submit your blog posts for inclusion. Don't worry, if you don't want to write the Carnival post I can do it for you.

See you all in April. Keep up the good work.

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What to do when Windows hangs (revisited)

So, your PC isn't doing anything, the screen is a mess, the hard-drive is whirring away. Is there anything you can do, rather than just reach for the reset button?

Here are my top tips for dealing with those times when Windows hangs.

Don't keep clicking things
Windows buffers (meaning that it remembers) all these clicks and will implement them when it catches up, preventing you from continuing with what you want to do, and possibly causing havoc. Show a little bit of patience.

Check to see if your PC has crashed
Before you hit that reset button it is wise to check if your PC has actually crashed. To do this simply press the Caps Lock key, and check whether the 'Caps Lock' light goes on or off; if it does then your session may be recoverable. You may have to wait a few seconds to see a response.

Try to close any non-essential applications
You can try to close any programs that don't have any of your precious work open in. Try right-clicking on their button on the taskbar (the bar with the time and the Start menu on it) and clicking 'Close'. A little patience may be required here if the machine is running slowly.

If your mouse is really slowed down you may have more joy with the keyboard. Hold down the alt key and press tab to change between programs. When the non-essential application appears try to close it by holding down the alt key and pressing F4.

Use the Task Manager
All recent versions of Windows have a built in application called Task Manager. To run it simply hold down Ctrl and Alt, and press Delete (note: Windows 2000 users will then have to press the 'Task Manager' button on the dialog box that opens.)

As with all these tips, you will have to wait a while to see if it appears. When it does, check the 'Applications' tab to see if any of the programs you are running have a status of 'Not Responding.' If they are, click on one to highlight it then and click the 'End Task' button. Do this with any other programs that are not responding, then cross your fingers.

If Windows starts working again it is best to save all your work and restart the PC. A clean restart is always preferable to a nasty reset.


This is an updated and amended version of an article originally published on 19 September 2007.

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How to pin shortcuts to the Start menu

The left hand side of the Start menu in Windows XP and Vista includes a list of recently used applications at the bottom below the divider, and a list of 'pinned' items at the top, as shown below.

You can add and remove shortcuts to this list of 'pinned' items in two ways. Firstly, you can simply drag-and-drop a shortcut from the bottom list to the top, as shown in the following video. Click on the icon in the lower list and hold down the mouse button while you drag the icon up above the divider.


Secondly, right-click on any shortcut and click on 'Pin to Start Menu'.

You can alter the order of the shortcuts by dragging and dropping them into their new position. To remove a pinned shortcut, right-click on it and select 'Remove from this list'. You can also alter the number of shortcuts displayed on the Start menu.

Windows XP
Right-click on the Start menu and click 'Properties' making sure the mouse pointer is not over an icon. You will then see a window like this.

Click the 'Customize...' button to open the following window.

You can adjust the number of programs on the Start menu here. Other settings on this page include the size of the icons on the Start menu, a button to clear the recently used applications and a way to select the email and web browser applications that are displayed on the menu. Adjust these as you desire and click 'OK' to close that window, and 'OK' again to close the first window.

Windows Vista
Right-click on the Start menu and click 'Properties' making sure the mouse pointer is not over an icon. You will then see a window like this.

Go to the 'Start Menu' tab and click the 'Customize...' button.

You can adjust the number of programs on the Start menu on the following window, as well a variety of other features on the Start menu.

Once you have adjusted the settings click 'OK' on both windows to close them and implement the changes.

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The 14th Carnival of Computer Help and Advice

Welcome to the fourteenth monthly Carnival of Computer Help and Advice - a digest of recent blog articles that spread the wealth of PC knowledge.

First up this month we have the latest post from carnival-regular Andrew Edgington. He presents a guide to Adobe Photoshop Tricks For Absolute Beginners at Learn Photoshop Now.

Readers will no doubt have noticed that the popularity of Twitter is on the rise. The author of Homemaker Barbi, Danelle Ice, has kindly submitted a "quick and easy tutorial will show you how to capitalize your username on Twitter without losing your followers or tweets" in her How To Capitalize Your User Name on Twitter post.

While Twitter's fame is increasing Google's remains strong as they diversify their services. Nevertheless Google's core business is still their search engine, which Amal Bose lifts the lid on in the Google Secrets post at The Techies blog.

I will let the author of the next post introduce it themselves: Zenodice wrote "This is an article I wrote with tips on how to greatly improve firefox's performance as well as some custom code for the truly hardcore users. This will help any Firefox user improve their browser's performance greatly." The post How To: Tweak Firefox For Optimal Browsing Speed (Broadband) is available at The Nexus for anyone who needs to give Firefox a boost.

Talking of speed, Sara Schweiger published a tutorial about Removing Internet Speed Monitor at the Internet Speed Monitor Pro blog. Despite its name Internet Speed Monitor is actually a piece of adware, so her advice on removing it is most welcome.

Jules presents another piece of welcome advice in the article Change Storage Location for Attachments in Outlook Express that was posted at PCauthorities.com. This location is defined when the software is installed and is not easily changed, but Jules offers a step-by-step guide detailing how to do it.

Many people now have computers in a number of rooms in their homes. Ashan Jay explains How to connect two computers (dual screen) over network at the ashPresentom blog. Also, Carl Jagt of Carl Jagt's Tee of the Week fame presents his guide to 10 Great Portable Apps: Use Your USB Thumbdrive for Good for everyone who uses a variety of PCs.

If you are interested in hosting a future carnival please leave a comment on this post or use the contact form over at our Blog Carnival page where you can also submit your blog posts for inclusion. Don't worry, if you don't want to write the Carnival post I can do it for you.

See you all next month for another selection of posts.

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Where has all my hard-drive space gone? - Reloaded

Just as you can never have enough cupboard space in your home, you can never have enough hard-drive space. Nevertheless, occasionally we all have to sort through our storage and throw out a few things to make some more room. This is often easier said than done when it comes to your PC as it is not always clear what is taking up all the space.

The free version of TreeSize provides a graphical representation of how much hard-drive space your folders are using. Simply right-click on a particularly bloated folder and click on 'Explore' from the menu. This will open up that folder so you can set about deleting any files that are surplus to requirement. Remember to empty the recycle bin when you are finished. I would suggests that you leave the 'Program Files' and 'Windows' folders alone unless you know what you are doing.

If you use Internet Explorer you may want to delete its cache of temporary files. From the 'Tools' menu select 'Internet Options.' If you use IE version 6 or earlier, click on the 'Delete Files' button. For later versions click the button marked 'Delete...' in the 'Browsing History' section. Click the 'Delete Files' button on the box that opens. You will then be asked whether you are sure, click 'Yes.' Deletion of all the temporary internet files may take a while.
In Firefox, go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Options..' Click on the 'Advanced' icon. Click on the 'Network' tab. There you will find a button labelled 'Clear now', pressing this will empty the cache.
Also, the save files of many computer games can be quite large. You may want to delete a few of these and the best way to do so is within the game. Usually this facility is located on the 'load game' screen. See these related posts for more ways to recover drive space:-
Spring Cleaning: How to clear out temporary files
Time for a purge: reclaiming hard-drive space

This post comprises amended information from two earlier posts Where has all my hard-drive space gone? and Keyboard shortcut of the week: refreshing changes both posted on 30th August 2007

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How to save paper when printing pdf files

In these days of environmental concern and financial insecurity every little helps, including being able to save paper when printing documents. The Portable Document Format is an incredibly popular file format that can be viewed in Acrobat Reader (developed by the inventors of the file format, Adobe) and in other more lightweight applications, such as the excellent Foxit Reader. Both these programs support printing more than one page of the pdf onto one sheet of paper, as explained below:


Adobe Acrobat
Pull down the 'File' menu and select 'Print'.
On the 'Print' window pull down the drop-down list marked 'Page Scaling' and select 'Multiple pages per sheet'.


Use the other settings to adjust how many pages appear on each sheet. I do not suggest selecting any more than two as this may make the text too small to read. Use the preview on the 'Print' window to make sure that your selections are correct.

You can also select the order in which the pages are placed on the sheet. Setting this to 'Horizontal' will put the first page on the left and the second on the right of the printed sheet, and so on for the rest.

You can also print a border round the page and rotate the pages should you desire by ticking the appropriate boxes.

If the version of Acrobat Reader doesn't have this facility, you can upgrade to the latest version for free. These instructions should also apply for the latest versions of Acrobat Reader on Mac OSX and Linux.


Foxit Reader
The process is pretty much the same in Foxit Reader; although, the interface is slightly different.

Pull down the 'File' menu and select 'Print'.
On the 'Print' window pull down the drop-down list marked 'Page Arrange' and select 'Multiple pages per sheet'.


Select how many pages you want to appear on each printed sheet. As with Acrobat, two is probably the best choice.

Set the page order. Usually this will be 'Horizontal'.

Make sure that 'Auto-Rotate' and 'Auto-Center' are ticked.

Tick the 'Print Page Border' box if you want to have each page appear in a box; although you may consider this to be a waste of ink.

Foxit Reader also has a preview of what the first page will look like on the Print window, so you can confirm that your selections are correct.

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