In Windows 7 the quick launch is disabled by default, so in this blog post I will show you how to enable it.

First of all right click on the taskbar and select Toolbars -> New Toolbar.

In the new dialog, in the Folder field type:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

and click the Select Folder button.

You will see the quick launch appearing on the right-hand-side of the taskbar.

Ok, now that we have the Quick Launch on our Windows 7 machine I want to move it on the left, so what I have to do is bring my mouse on the left-hand side of the taskbar and click on the dotted lines and hold down the button.

Then drag the mouse to the right and you will see that the quick launch is now on the left hand side of the taskbar.

Click the Start button, then choose All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup

Select the drive that contains the Windows.old folder and click OK:

Click the “Clean up system files” button:

Select Previous Windows Installations:

then click OK -> Delete Files

Now that Windows 7 has already been released and judging by the feedback is one of the best MS products up to date, millions of users are asking themselves the million dollar question: “Can I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7?”

It turns out that we, the XP lovers, are in for a big and not so pleasant surprise. If you are running Vista, you can upgrade to Windows 7 in a few minutes time; if you, however, are running XP will have to take quite a few extra steps if you want to install Windows 7 on your computer.

And if you think that you can just back up your data, files and programs settings, format your hard drive and use the cheaper upgrade version, then you might run into a few problems or to be more specific the “The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installations” message. If you happen to get that message there’s an easier (although unofficial) workaround – instead of entering the Windows 7 key when prompted, move to the next step, finish the installation and only then use the key.

And if you don’t want to format your hard drive, then simply print out the Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 guide from Microsoft and follow the steps.

PC to TV - no sound

Ok, despite what many people will tell you actually can get audio from a DVI to HDMI connection, providing that your card has a SPDIF (S/PDIF) output.

The (super-scary) definition of SPDIF (S/PDIF): protocol or physical layer that carries digital audio signal between devices. Well, all we care about is the fact that if your graphic card has a SPDIF output you will be able to get sound on your TV when connecting the PC and the TV with a DVI to HDMI cable.

So, how do I know if my graphic card has a SPDIF output?

Check the card manual, but if you have purchased the card in the past six months then there’s a good chance that your graphic card will have SPDIF. The bad news is that in most cases you will have to connect the SPDIF output from your graphic card to your motherboard with a small cable, conveniently named SPDIF cable and the worse news is that even though you might have paid a few hundred dollars for your graphic card that cable might have not been included. And you have two options: buy a SPDIF cable for your graphic card (the wiser choice) or butcher one of those old audio cables (that we used to connect our CD ROMS to the motherboard in order to get sound).

No matter what you do, you will have to connect the cable correctly – the SPDIF pin from the graphic card to the SPDIF pin on the motherboard and the ground pin from the graphic card to the ground pin on the motherboard.

If you get that wrong you might damage your card or your computer!!!!

…although many will argue that this is very unlikely. Whatever the case, you better get it right the first time. You should refer to your card and your motherboard documentation in order to find which pin is which, but in most cases the black wire on the SPDIF cable will be the ground. Take a look at the pics below to see what the SPDIF output and the SPDIF cables look like (they might be different for different graphic cards of course).

Once you get the SPDIF cable connected from the graphic card to the motherboard, plug in your PC, connect the DVI to HDMI cable to the computer and your TV and boot up. If you have done it all correctly you should hear sound on your TV now.

PS You might need to change the playback settings on your computer - in Windows 7 right click on the speaker icon in the right-hand side of the taskbar, click “playback devices” and then right click on the “digital audio S/PDIF” and tick the “set as default device” option.

If you are trying to record your voice on the computer and discover that the volume of recording is way too low, then you most probably need to boost it and this is how it’s done (Windows XP):

Double click the little volume icon, which is in the right corner of your taskbar (it is not there simply click Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and audio devices -> Show volume control on the taskbar -> OK).

Then click Options -> Proprties -> Rear pink in (or Front pink in if you plug in your microphone into the front) -> OK.

Now again click Options and make sure that Advanced controls is checked, now locate the Advanced button under Rear pink in, click on it and tick the boost check box.

PS If you don’t have a Rear/Front pink in, then the same Advanced button can be found under Mic.

You are not protected!

AVG 7.5 updates have stopped. You are no longer protected against new viruses and other web threads.

Well, if you had the free version of the AVG 7.5 running and protecting your computer until now, then you are pretty much out of luck. The new upgrade isn’t optional - it is forced on you, of course when you try updating to AVG 8.5 you will get a message stating that “the licence number is not valid”.

So, what is it that you should do in order to get the free AVG 8.5 working? I thought that downloading the installation file from the site might be a pretty good idea. It wasn’t: I found the download link, got the file, ran it and …. the installation failed. It got as far as uninstalling the AVG 7.5, but then gave me an error, something about not being able to write to the registry.

Ok, fine it looks like AVG is out and Avast is in.

If have just downloaded drivers from the Internet and are wondering how to install them, simply follow these easy steps and you should be done in a couple of minutes:

1. Right click on the My Computer icon.

2. Select Manage.

3. Double click the Device manager in the left pane (see the image below).

4. In the right pane locate the device for which you downloaded the driver, and right click on it.

5. Select Update driver or Install driver, then use the wizard to install the driver.

That’s it!

Download iTunes, and create an account, then login to iTunes and authorize your computer and your iPod Touch (go to Store -> Authorize Computer).

Once this step is completed, select iTunes Store from the menu on the left, enter your password, and you can now download applications. If you have a wi-fi access you can visit the App Store directly from your device.

In order to use Windows Live Messenger you need to have Windows Live account, if you don’t have one go to http://www.live.com/, click Sign in, then Sign up. Alternatively you can go to http://www.hotmail.com and create an account there.

Once done, download the Windows Live Messenger from here, double click the installation file and follow the installation wizard.

After that you can use the account you have created in the first step to sign in.

If you want to install a second operating system on your hard drive there are a few facts you should be aware of. First of all if you are not too computer savvy I suggest that you back up all your important files before you begin.

Now insert the second operating system install CD into your CD ROM. If this is Windows then when prompted you should choose Install.

Before the installation begins you need to create a new partition (choose NTFS) for the second operating system, unless you already have created second partition.

LEAVE the partition on which your first operating system is INTACT!

Then simply proceed with the installation. Once your second operating system is installed, when you boot up you will be presented with the choice which Operating System you want to boot from.

That’s it, you are done.

The first thing you should try is simply plug it in and see if it gets recognized. If it is then you work with it just like you would work with an external hard drive, you can copy and past images and files, delete file, etc.

If you get a message which says “hard drive not recognized” then you should find the CD that came with the digital camera, insert it into your computer’s CD ROM and install all the necessary software.

If you don’t have the CD then you need to find a driver for your digital camera. Simply search on Google for a driver for you particular digital camera model or visit the manufacturers’s site.

You have several options:

1. Back up for files to an external hard drive.
1a. Back up your files to online drives (Xdrive), although when downloading them later on you might not be too happy with the download speed.
1b. Burn your files to CDs.
2. You may want to image your entire hard drive too - this way you will keep all your personal settings, all your installed programs, etc.

If you have a computer which runs Windows Vista and you buy a second hard drive you need to format it, please watch this video and carefully follow the steps.

If you want to permanently erase information from your hard drive, sending the files to the Recycle bin and then emptying it is simply not enough. Even though the files might eventually be overwritten sector by sector, they could be partially or entirely recovered with specialized software.

If you need to permanently remove files from your computer you can use a free little tool called Eraser which completely removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times.

If you need to make a full copy of your hard drive, including your operating system, and all your personal files and settings than you can use one of the disk imaging software like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.

In fact Acronis True Image offers a free trial which you can use to back up your system and in case of a hard drive failure or other disastrous event, you can recover all your files and programs.

How do I find what my hard drive temperature is? If you want to find out what your hard drive temperature is you can download a free diagnostic tool named Everest Home Edition.

Once you download and install it, click on the plus sign next to Computer on the left, then double click Sensor.

On the right panel you’ll see your motherboard temperature, CPU(s) temperature, and hard drives(s) temperature.

In most cases your hard drive temperature should be around 32 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), if it’s a few degrees more then you still have nothing to worry, again please check your hard drive manufacturer’s site for more information.

So, you need more space on your hard drive, right? Well, if you take a few simple steps you finally might have enough space to install that new game you’ve dying to try. Things you should do to free more space on your hard drive:

1. Uninstall programs you don’t use any longer Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the ones you are not using any more.

2. Burn all your personal files on a CD or DVD and delete them from your PC.

3. Do a Disk Cleanup Start ->My Computer, right click on your Disk Drive and select “Properties”, click Disk Cleanup -> then the OK button, wait for a few minutes then Check the box for the files you want to delete.

4. Defragment your Hard drive - Start -> My Computer, right click on your hard rive letter and select “Properties”, under the “Tools” tab, select “Defragment” and proceed.

If you want to move a program from your hard drive to an external hard drive your best option is to uninstall the program and then install it on the external hard drive. Make sure to choose custom when prompted for the installation directory and choose you external hard drive folder.

If you try to directly copy all your files from your hard drive to the external hard drive in most cases the program will not function since the registry and other settings will still be pointing to the original hard drive path.

If you want to to recover data from a corrupted external harddrive your best options is taking it to a computer shop and let them recover your precious files. In most cases that will cost you anywhere from $100.00 and up.

Well, the simple answer is yes.

It is possible in almost any network to log your sessions. If your machine is at work or at a school then monitoring your online activities is pretty simple and with a software your desktop can be “watched” without you being even aware of that.

You should know that most wi-fi hotspots are unsecured and can be very easily be “tapped”, if you need to learn more on how secure your wireless network then follow this link. One more step that you can take no matter what network you are on is to get yourself a good firewall like the COMODO’S Award-Winning Firewall.