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The 50 Best How-To Geek Windows Articles of 2010

The 50 Best How-To Geek Windows Articles of 2010
Even though we cover plenty of other topics, Windows has always been a primary focus around here, and we’ve got one of the largest collections of Windows-related how-to articles anywhere. Here’s the fifty best Windows articles that we wrote in 2010. Want even more? You should make sure to check out our top 20 How-To Geek Explains topics of 2010, or the 50 Windows Registry hacks that make Windows better. How to Customize Your Windows 7 Taskbar Icons for Any App Would you like to change out the icons on your taskbar with a beautiful set of icons that all go together? How to Customize Your Windows 7 Taskbar Icons for Any App Change the Windows 7 Taskbar Color Sure, you can hack Windows and install a custom theme if you really wanted to, or pay for a software package to do it for you. Change the Windows 7 Taskbar Color With No Extra Software (Stupid Geek Tricks) Change Your Windows 7 Taskbar Color the Easy Way (and Rotate Between Colors) How to Crack Your Forgotten Windows Password

The 33 Essential Free Utilities for Every New PC The Windows ecosystem is filled with more programs than we will ever need. But while you know to install essential programs like Firefox and Steam onto every new PC, there are plenty of core utilities you should install before downloading any application software. We pick out the 33 most useful utilities that enhance the Windows operating system. Think you have every utility to bend Windows to your wishes? Cobian Backup After recommending SyncBack SE in our last app roundup, our readers turned us onto Cobian, an independently-developed backup utility that is as elegant as it is powerful. Executor / Launchy It you want to rid Desktop icons once and for all, consider using Executor, a powerful visual implementation of the Run command. CCleaner It’s easily the most popular registry-cleaning utility; though CCleaner will also purge your system of unwanted temporary files, memory dumps, and even system restore points. Dropbox Belvedere

12 Absolutely and Insanely Essential Utilities For Programmers In every era in recent times there has been one profession that for a short while you could enter without formal training. Autodidacts in the 19th century could read the law without recourse to formal education (see Abe Lincoln). In the early 20th century it was aviation. For a short while in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was computing, thanks to the release of the Apple IIe, the IBM PC and the Mac. Were it not for that Window® of opportunity, I hate to think what would have become of me. As much as I continue to love to code 30 years later, there are a few aspects I hate: Doing a mundane task more than onceNot remembering how i fixed this problem in the pastLosing work to crashed disks or stupid irreversible revisionsNot being able to find subtle text differences in files. Hence, my 12 essential utilities…. Before We Begin I assume you have (and use)… If not, stop reading this list and go get em. While I work on both Windows and the Mac, this list is entirely Windows-centric. # 1. #8 Clipx

3 Excellent Tools to Customize Windows Context Menu Whenever you select a file/folder and right-click it, the menu which opens with several options is called the in Microsoft Windows. Usually the context menu contains a set number of options such as Open, Edit, Delete, Properties, Rename etc. which doesn’t seem to be customizable at all. However, this is not true. You can customize the Windows context menu very easily. 1. CMenuEdit is a small sized lightweight tool which can be used to customize the default Microsoft Windows context menu. CMenuEdit lets users customize name of the submenu and command, add separators, brief description of the command, attach an icon and select, working directory and window state. Download CMenuEdit 2. Fast Explorer is a great context menu customization tool thanks to its easy to use and simple User Interface (UI). Download Fast Explorer 3. As the name suggests, FileMenu Tools specializes in customizing shell context menus. Download FileMenu Tools

How Many Influence, Persuasion, Compliance Tactics & Strategies Are There? How many influence tactics exist? There were a number of attempts to create influence taxonomies in the 1980s, and the answer to the question depends on (you guessed it!) who you ask. An example of an influence dimension would be that of social acceptability. So, the question "How many tactics are there?" To make the question even more difficult to answer, different researchers have used a variety of techniques and analyses to arrive at their various lists. Here's a list I've compiled of some researchers who have tried to answer the question, "How many influence dimensions (or clusters, tactics, families, principles, strategies, categories, etc.) are there?" You may notice the name of yours truly at the bottom of this list. Recently, there has been a backlash against attempts to define taxonomies of influence tactics. questions that cause trouble for researchers trying to create taxonomies of influence tactics. These objections noted, I'd like to defend the effort to create taxonomies.

5 FREE Programs to make your computer (slightly) easier to use and look cool(ish) This is a neat little gizmo that sits on any side of the screen. In its original format, I found it slightly obtrusive (it covered up the tool bars). I used these solutions. Make it too small to obstruct the toolbars (I did this) Put it at the left of the screen (the right has the scroll bar) Set it to 'Pop up on Mousover' in the dock settings. Some other similar programs are: Objectdock download Mobydock download Y'z dock download Rk launcher download Xwindows dock download Orbit dock download All of these are perfectly good, but again, I prefer Rocketdock. You can download Rocketdock here.

A to Z of C - Beta | Online book on C/DOS programming 1. First Chapter 1.1 Acknowledgement 1.2 Book Organization 1.3 FAQ about A to Z of C 2. 3.1 Indian Hill Style 3.2 Hungarian Coding Style 3.3 WAR (Wesley And Rajesh) Coding Style Part I ANSI C 4. 4.1 Myth & Mistakes 4.2 Tips for better Programming 4.2.1 Coding Style 4.2.2 Boolean Variables 4.2.3 How to code better? 5. main( ) and Mistakes 5.1 What main( ) returns? 6. 6.1 Example 6.2 Frequently Asked Undefined Questions 7. 7.1 Swap Macro 7.2 Flip and Flop 7.3 Crypting with XOR 8. 8.1 strlen( ) 8.2 strcpy( ) 8.3 strcat( ) 8.4 strcmp( ) 9. 9.1 Factorial 9.2 Fibonacci 9.3 GCD 9.4 Power 9.5 Reverse Printing 9.6 Decimal to binary conversion 9.7 Decimal to hexadecimal conversion 9.8 Printing a decimal in words 10. 10.1 Power of 2 10.2 Prime Numbers 10.3 Roman Letters [convert Arabic numerals to Roman numerals] 10.4 Day of Week 10.5 Calendar 10.6 Memory-Swap 10.7 Block Structure 10.7.1 Swap macro using Block Structure 10.8 Printf with %b 11. 12. 13. 13.1 Where to contest? Part II DOS Programming 14.

25+ Best Free Tools To Customize Windows 7 Back in November last year, we listed over 55 free tweaking tools available for Windows 7. Just like tweaking tools, there are tens of good utilities available to customize the default look and feel of Windows 7. In this article, we have covered the best free tools available to customize Windows 7. 1. Windows 7 Boot Updater: One of the advanced tools available for the latest version of Windows which makes the impossible possible. Please note that this utility is strictly for power users. 2. Beginners can go for Windows 7 Logon Screen Tweaker which is also another good logon screen changer. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 7Conifier: This is another tool to customize your Windows 7 Taskbar. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 7 Library Icons Changer: Replace the default library icons with the help of this free tool.

Unusual quantum effect discovered in earliest stages of photosynthesis Quantum physics and plant biology seem like two branches of science that could not be more different, but surprisingly they may in fact be intimately tied. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame used ultrafast spectroscopy to see what happens at the subatomic level during the very first stage of photosynthesis. While different species of plants, algae and bacteria have evolved a variety of different mechanisms to harvest light energy, they all share a feature known as a photosynthetic reaction center. These pigment molecules, or chromophores, are responsible for absorbing the energy carried by incoming light. "The behavior we were able to see at these very fast time scales implies a much more sophisticated mixing of electronic states," Tiede said. An article based on the study appeared online in the March 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Downloadable Computer Repair CDs One of our Technibble forum members, PcTek9, and a handful of other Technibble members have compiled a large list of CDs for various computer repair tasks. In this list, the following types of CD are available for download: Antivirus Boot CDs, Recovery Disks, Hardware Diagnostic Boot CDs, Network Testing/Monitoring, Data Recovery Boot CDs and Special Purpose CDs. Some of these are free to download, some are not. Be sure to read the EULA for the CD’s you download and the applications you use to make sure you are allowed to use them in the manner you plan to use them in. Many of the CDs contain a variety of different programs and some of the applications are free to use as you please, but some of them disallow commercial use. So be sure to read and abide by the EULA for whatever you use. Also, some of these CD’s may set off an antivirus false positive due to their virus removal, password cracking, system file changing nature. Creating Multiboot CDs

Drinkhacker.com | The Essential Blog for the Discriminating Drinker Remove the 'Test Mode' Watermark from Windows 7 Isn't it cute the way Windows always finds new ways to surprise and annoy you? Like today, for instance, I booted my system and noticed something new in the lower right corner: Huh? Who knows? Don't get me wrong--I like Windows 7 a lot. Anyway, if you've encountered that same watermark in Windows 7, here's how to get rid of it: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. That should send the watermark packing; it did on my system. Oh, Windows--what exciting surprises do you have in store for me tomorrow?

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python - Chapters Chapter 1 Read online: Chapter 1 - Installing Python Videos: Chapter 2 Read online: Chapter 2 - The Interactive Shell Chapter 3 Read online: Chapter 3 - Strings Download source: hello.py Copy source to clipboard: Use the online diff tool to find typos in your code: hello.py Chapter 4 Read online: Chapter 4 - Guess the Number Download source: guess.py Use the online diff tool to find typos in your code: guess.py Chapter 5 Read online: Chapter 5 - Jokes Download source: jokes.py Use the online diff tool to find typos in your code: jokes.py Chapter 6 Read online: Chapter 6 - Dragon Realm Download source: dragon.py Use the online diff tool to find typos in your code: dragon.py Chapter 7 Read online: Chapter 7 - Using the Debugger Chapter 8 Read online: Chapter 8 - Flow Charts Chapter 9 Read online: Chapter 9 - Hangman Download source: hangman.py Use the online diff tool to find typos in your code: hangman.py Chapter 10 Read online: Chapter 10 - Tic Tac Toe Download source: tictactoe.py Chapter 11 Download source: bagels.py

150 Best Windows Applications Of Year 2010 [Editor's Pick] AddictiveTips is popular for covering the latest and greatest desktop applications, having one of the largest collection of Windows freeware reviews on the web. Now that 2010 has come to an end, we take a look back at the best 150 applications. We plan to cover more topics in 2011, including Cloud OS, Mobile (Android, WP7, iOS), Mac, and much more, apart from extensive Windows coverage. The AddictiveTips team wishes you a very Happy New Year! Without further ado, here are the best 150 desktop applications (in order from January to December) that we covered in 2010. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. iBin (Recover files from USB Drive) 6. 7. To download from Grooveshark and SoundCloud, give SciLor’s Grooveshark Downloader and SoundCloud Downloader a shot. 8. 9. ei.cfg Removal Utility (Create Windows 7 Universal DVD by removing Versions) 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Also check out Moo0 File Shredder. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Also check out 7sDocs. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Another similar tool is WindowsMaster.

Become a Programmer, Motherfucker If you don't know how to code, then you can learn even if you think you can't. Thousands of people have learned programming from these fine books: Learn Python The Hard Way Learn Ruby The Hard Way Learn Code The Hard Way I'm also working on a whole series of programming education books at learncodethehardway.org. Learn C The Hard Way Learn SQL The Hard Way Graphics Programming Language Agnostic NerdDinner Walkthrough Assembly Language Bash Clojure Clojure Programming ColdFusion CFML In 100 Minutes Delphi / Pascal Django Djangobook.com Erlang Learn You Some Erlang For Great Good Flex Getting started with Adobe Flex (PDF) Forth Git Grails Getting Start with Grails Haskell Java JavaScript JavaScript (Node.js specific) Latex The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX (perfect for beginners) Linux Advanced Linux Programming Lisp Lua Programming In Lua (for v5 but still largely relevant)Lua Programming Gems (not entirely free, but has a lot of free chapters and accompanying code) Maven Mercurial Nemerle Nemerle NoSQL Oberon Objective-C

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