For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow. More by Rick Broida
Wouldn't you love to have this option in your Windows 8 Start screen?
Last October I explained to how to shut down Windows 8—a subject you wouldn't think would require its own how-to guide. And yet.
At the end of that post (which generated quite the conversation), I promised to return with a shortcut that would minimize the hassles of mousing and clicking through the Settings menu to reach the shutdown option. And then I plumb forgot!
For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow. More by Rick Broida
Earlier today my dad called the Hassle-Free Hotline (also known as my home phone number). The poor guy seems to encounter more than his fair share of inadvertant computer problems.
For example, somehow, while using his laptop's touchpad, he'd made everything in his browser bigger. Consequently, he had to scroll pages left and right, not just up and down.
Welcome to the Curse of the Multitouch Touchpad. Most laptop owners know that dragging a finger across the touchpad moves the cursor. On some systems, dragging two fingers up and down enables scrolling. But there's another "gesture" that's easy to perform by accident, and the results often leave users scratching their heads.
For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow. More by Rick Broida
For years now I've harangued relatives about their shoddy password practices. Either they use easily-hacked passwords or forget the passwords they've created—sometimes both.
If you won't take it from me, beloved family, consider this Password Day (yes, apparently it's a thing) statement from McAfee's Robert Siciliano: "74% of Internet users use the same password across multiple websites, so if a hacker gets your password, they now have access to all your accounts. Reusing passwords for email, banking, and social media accounts can lead to identity theft and financial loss."
What's the fix? It's easier than you might think. For starters, head to Intel's Password Grader to see just how easily cracked your current password is. (The site promises not to retain any information, though still recommends that you not use your actual password—so maybe just use somethings similar.)
For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow. More by Rick Broida
Clear this box to restore the merge-conflict dialog.
Recently I told you how to take advantage of Windows 8's cool new file-copy feature. What I didn't mention was a small, but potentially significant, change in the way Windows 8 handles certain folder-copy functions.
Specifically, when you copy a folder to a drive or other destination that already has a folder with the same name, Windows 8 will automatically merge their contents.
For more than 20 years, Rick Broida has written about all manner of technology, from Amigas to business servers to PalmPilots. His credits include dozens of books, blogs, and magazines. He sleeps with an iPad under his pillow. More by Rick Broida
Even for the most tech-savvy users, Windows 8 presents a bit of a learning curve. Just figuring out something as simple as shutting down your PC can be challenging.
The folks at TradePub have just the thing: the Microsoft Windows 8 Quick Reference Card. It's a colorful two-page guide to Windows 8's most commonly used areas. And if you don't mind sharing a bit of personal information, it's free.
