When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Duplicate-file-finding programs expect you to manually check each file for deletion. That's not practical for Edward Derbyshire, who has "121,000 duplicates" to delete.
Before I tell you how to delete all of your duplicate files automatically--without checking each one first--let me give you a warning: Doing so requires you to let software make decisions best left to you. Are the files really duplicates? Is there a good reason for that file to be in two different locations? And if not, in what folder should the file reside?
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Gamersim17's laptop was "getting intensely hot." He turned to the Laptops forum for advice.
A hot computer is a bad computer. Excess heat can cause malfunctions and crashes, and permanently damage your hardware. And although laptops generally put out less heat than desktops (energy efficiency is a higher design priority), they have their own unique problems. They're rarely as well ventilated as a desktop, and much more difficult to clean.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
LouieB62 needs administrator-level access to his Windows PC, but he doesn't have the password. He asked the Answer Line forum for help.
Your Windows PC has at least one administrator-level account. If you can't access that account, you've got a problem--you can't install or uninstall programs, or change certain settings.
I'll tell you a way to gain this access, but first, ask yourself if you really should be doing this. If it's unquestionably your computer and you've forgotten your password (or if the previous owner failed to give it to you), you have every right acquire or change the password. But if it's a company computer and the IT department wants to keep full administrator control to itself, this is a good way to get fired. And if it's someone else's computer, it's a good way to get arrested.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Walter Bott asked how he could better control Windows 8's built-in Photo app--the one that usually presents a small slide show in its Start page tile.
I've discussed this app briefly before, in How to better control Windows 8 slide shows. But this time around, I want to touch on two issues I didn't cover back then: How to turn on and off the little, tile-based slideshow on the Start screen, and how to control what pictures turn up on that slideshow, and in the Photo app in general.
When he isn't bicycling, prowling used bookstores, or watching movies, PC World Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. More by Lincoln Spector
Larry wants to make a video available, via streaming, to friends and family, and only to friends and family.
Perfectly understandable. Streaming video is the obvious and easy way to share home movies, but sometimes you need to control who can jump into that stream. You may want everyone in the world to enjoy your cat videos, but humans often object when their drunken dancing turns up all over the Internet.
I'll give you privacy control settings for three free and popular streaming services.
