Archive for February, 2010
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Windows Update in the middle of the night = Firefox restart. Find a great new Add-on for your browser = Firefox restart. Browser crashes = Firefox restart. There are so many reasons why you might find yourself in the middle of a waiting game with Firefox, but so few tools to help your browser through the process of reloading all of those tabs. If you have ever sat and watched as Firefox attempts to “restore your previous session” then you know what I am talking about. All of your tabs appear, but it could take a minute or five, depending on how many tabs you had open before the restart was needed.
Firefox Reloading Tabs after Restart
I am a tab person. If I see a link that I want to check out later, I right-click and “open in a new tab.” My thought process are arranged by windows and each tab is a work in progress. I jump around from tab to tab and use them as reminders of what I was researching, working on or playing. To me, they are kind of like post-it-notes. Thankfully, Firefox added the ability to restore sessions a few years back. Until then, my thoughts and projects would vanish. Until this morning, I would just have to wait patiently as all of those “dot circles” finally turned into real icons. I assumed that this was just part of life and something that I was gong to have to deal with on a regular basis.
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Tags: Add-on, BarTap, Firefox, reload, restart, tabs
Posted in Firefox, Free Programs, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
At least once a month, we like to send out a friendly reminder about PC maintenance. It has been about a month since our last maintenance post and we wanted to make sure you didn’t forget about these important tasks.
In the rest of today’s article, we’ve posted links to the tools you need and a simple “5-Point Maintenance Plan” that you can follow to keep your PC running like new (or better). The average user can perform these tasks in 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the size (hard drive) and speed (RAM and processor) of the computer.
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Tags: clen, computer, defrag, defragmentation, Maintenance, PC, registry, scan, Spyware, Update
Posted in PC Support, Tips and Tricks | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Today is a big day, although you might not hear much about it at all. In my research to bring you information on the Social Media Credit Score series, I stumbled across a movement from the European Schoolnet called Safer Internet Day 2010. This event, which has been held for several years now, was organized to “promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.” The topic for 2010 is Think B4 U post!
Although this movement was originated in Europe, and now encompasses 500 events in 60 countries all over the world, it doesn’t seem to have caught on in the US. I’m not sure why, but I know that this is something we definitely need to start teaching our children, teens and well…. everyone. New technologies, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, cell phone cameras, Flip video cameras, etc. have turned us all into publishers of information. Thanks to these technologies, a photo or video can be taken, posted and shared to hundreds, even thousands of people, in minutes. More recent technologies, like “tagging,” make it even easier to find and share photos of friends and family.
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Tags: Facebook, internet, photos, pictures, safe, Safer Internet Day 2010, video
Posted in Social Media Credit Score, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Over the last few years, you’ve slowly upgraded your existing setup to include high-speed internet and Wi-Fi. You can take your laptop anywhere in the house and surf the internet with ease. Unfortunately, your old printer still has you tied down. You bought it before Wi-Fi was available in everything and you’ve since stocked up on ink, so you really don’t want to invest in a new printer. Luckily, there are some options that make it easy to “cut the cord” and begin printing wirelessly at home.
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Tags: canon, hp, lexmark, print, print server, printer, router, Wi-Fi, wireless
Posted in Deals, PC Support, Technical Issues, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Can you remember all the way back to September 2nd, 2009? That is when it all started. The JumpstartMyPC.com blog began with the simple concept of helping PC users get the most out of their computer and has been posting new updates almost every weekday since then. We have provided FREE information on topics ranging from “Decorating Your Desktop” to “Defragging Your Hard Drive” and everything in between. Today we reach post/article number 100 and we would just like to say THANK YOU to all of our supporters. We hope that, along the way, you learned something new and truly found a way to get a little more out of your computer.
No single article could truly capture the excitement and pride that I feel right now so, in the spirit of every long-running television show, we would like to provide you with a look back at our most popular posts.
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Tags: 100, blog, desktop, JumpstartMyPC.com, organize, stylize, uninstall, wallpaper, workspace
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
We’ve talked about ways to speed up an aging computer. We’ve highlighted some quick and easy ways to troubleshoot a problem with your PC. What if there was a way to accomplish both of these things and get some added features without spending a dime? Driver updates could be the solution to a problem that you didn’t even know you had.
Here is an example. I have a 2 year old Dell laptop that I am working on currently. The owner was having an issue with their wireless internet connection (Wi-Fi). The connection would drop regularly on the laptop, while all other computers in the house continued to function properly, and the only viable solution was to run a cable from the router to the laptop, which was in a different section of the house. Not only is a cable like this expensive, but there was now this horrible eyesore running across the floors of 2 rooms and a hallway. Needless to say, the owner was not happy and wasn’t sure where to turn. After about 30 minutes of testing, restarting, changing settings and getting frustrated, I decided to check for a driver update. Bingo! Problem solved.
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Tags: acer, dell, driver, drivers, gateway, hp, Networking, solution, wireless
Posted in PC Support, Technical Issues, Tips and Tricks | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
One of the most popular services we offer at JumpstartMyPC.com is a PC Tuneup. Why? Because people want speed from their computer and they have steadily watched their PC slow down, down…. down to a crawl. We have highlighted numerous ways that anyone can improve their own PC performance (like defrags, registry cleans and deleting unnecessary files) but today we tackle the simplest tweak possible, power settings. Most people have no clue that their computer is designed to monitor and control power usage. This feature is built into Windows and changing the settings is super easy.
WARNING: Before jumping into the step-by-step, it is important to note that changing these settings may very well provide you with a performance boost, but it might come at a price. Pay close attention to the temperature of your system (especially with laptops). I have seen cases where increasing the power settings has resulted in a system that “runs hot.” While this is not the standard, it is something to keep an eye on. It is also important to keep in mind that these settings are to be used while the computer is plugged into a constant power source. If you are using a laptop and are concerned about prolonging the battery life, be certain that you change the “running on batteries” settings or “power plan” accordingly.
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Tags: Laptop, Performance, Power Settings, Speed, Vista, Windows, XP
Posted in Tips and Tricks, Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Have you ever used your television as a monitor for your computer? Have you wondered about the possibilities of connecting your PC to your home theater, for watching movies and surfing the web? These are examples of the natural progression of entertainment technology. Over the last decade, computers have become much more than word processors and televisions have evolved to sleek, high-definition devices capable of playing media from almost any device with a cable attached to it. The two are starting to merge into one device, but we are only beginning to see this in the newest displays.
If you have ventured down the “computer+television” path, or are thinking of doing so, one hurdle quickly prevents itself. How do you control the computer from the couch? You need an input device of some sort and a keyboard with a super-long cord is really not an option (safety hazard!) There have been some great wireless keyboard/mice combos released over the last few years, but they are often costly options and are only useful for that one purpose. At $100 or more, this is not the kind of cost-effective resolution that most are looking for. So, why not use a device you already have as the solution? Your smart phone is just the thing and we have a quick rundown on two applications that can get you up and running today!
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Tags: Android, app, cell, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, keyboard, marketplace, mouse, phone, smart phone, wireless
Posted in Free Programs, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Games and personal computers have been linked since the earliest days of computing. My earliest interactions with computers were the hours spent gaming on the Radio Shack Tandy Color Computer, the Atari , the Apple IIe and numerous other systems. Movies released during these groundbreaking years, like Tron, War Games and even Big made an entire generation aware of computer gaming. Today, the platforms are more advanced, the technology has improved like we only imagined it could and games are available everywhere. From Facebook to the XBOX360, you can kill 1 minute or thousands of hours trying to beat that high score or simply make the hours go by.
Today, we will look at a few of the most addictive games I have played in the last year. These are very basic, easily accessible games that you can play in just a few minutes, if you can walk away after you’ve started.
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Tags: bejeweled, blitz, doodle, farkle, games, iPhone, iPod, jump, touch, YouTube
Posted in Gaming, Social Networking | 2 Comments »
