Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It?

Microsoft has just released the final version of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, but should you drop everything and go through the process of installing it? Where can you get it? We’ve got the answers for you.
If you’ve never installed a service pack before, it’s just a big collection of fixes and changes for your operating system, bundled into a big fat download to make it more convenient if you reinstall—if you’ve kept Windows updated, it should have most of the fixes already installed through Windows Update.

How Do Noise Reducing Headphones Work?

Passive noise reduction, active noise cancellation, sound isolation… The world of headphones has become quite advanced in giving you your own private sound bubble. Here’s how these different technologies work.

What Are Computer Algorithms and How Do They Work?

Unless you’re into math or programming, the word “algorithm” might be Greek to you, but it’s one of the building blocks of everything you’re using to read this article. Here’s a quick explanation of what they are, and how they work.
Disclaimer: I’m not a math or computer science teacher, so not all of the terms I use are technical. That’s because I’m trying to explain everything in plain English for people aren’t quite comfortable with math. That being said, there is some math involved, and that’s unavoidable. Math geeks, feel free to correct or better explain in the comments, but please, keep it simple for the mathematically disinclined among us.
Image by Ian Ruotsala

How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions

Have a huge folder of images needing tweaks? A few hundred adjustments may seem like a big, time consuming job—but read one to see how Photoshop can do repetitive tasks automatically, even if you don’t know how to program!
Photoshop Actions are a simple way to program simple routines in Photoshop, and are a great time saver, allowing you to re-perform tasks over and over, saving you minutes or hours, depending on the job you have to work on. See how any bunch of images and even some fairly complicated photo tweaking can be done automatically to even hundreds of images at once.

How to Get AirVideo Features in Android for Free

AirVideo makes it possible for iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch users to stream any video format on their devices. If you’re an Android user, then you are in luck, because you can get AirVideo’s features for free with VLC-Share.
In today’s tutorial, we will start off by giving you an instruction on how to install VLC-Share, followed by configuring firewall and port forwarding, and we complete the tutorial with a walk through of VLC-Share features.
Wallpaper available from our Naruto Customization set.

Maus Trap

In Maus Trap your objective is to help poor Peanut escape from the lab she is trapped in. It will be a journey fraught with danger and terror for our little mouse.

The rules for playing are simple and straightforward…move as quickly as you can without touching the walls or machinery that are set up as traps. Either of these can quickly injure or kill Peanut.

How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7

Wireless network settings in Windows 7 are global across all users, but there’s a little-known option that lets you switch them to per-user, so each user has access to only the networks they are allowed to connect to. Here’s how it all works.
How is this useful? Maybe you want to prevent a particular user from accessing the internet—if you don’t give them the wireless password, they won’t be able to get online. This could be very useful if you’ve got mini-people playing games on the family PC, but you don’t want them getting online.

How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop

You might think that it’s a complicated process to remove objects from photographs. But really Photoshop makes it quite simple, even when removing all traces of a person from digital photographs. Read on to see just how easy it is.
Photoshop was originally created to be an image editing program, and it excels at it. With hardly any Photoshop experience, any beginner can begin removing objects or people from their photos. Have some friends that photobombed an otherwise great pic? Tell them to say their farewells, because here’s how to get rid of them with Photoshop!

How to Monitor the Bandwidth Consumption of Individual Applications

Yesterday we showed you how to monitor and track your total bandwidth usage, today we’re back to show you how to keep tabs on individual applications and how much bandwidth they’re gobbling up.
We’ve received several reader requests, both by email and in the aforementioned post about bandwidth tracking, for a good way to track the data consumption of individual applications. How-To Geek reader Oaken noted that he used NetWorx to track his total bandwidth usage but another application, NetBalancer, to keep tabs on individual applications. We took NetBalancer for a spin and it’s a great solution for monitoring bandwidth at the application level. Let’s take it for a spin and start monitoring our applications.

How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way)

If you’re anything like 99% of everybody, you have some sort of PDF viewing software installed on your PC—but did you realize that you can use Google Chrome to view PDFs from your PC? It’s easy!
We’re showing off how to do this in Windows, but theoretically it would work for OS X or Linux as well. If you’ve tried it, let us know in the comments.

How to Stream Media Files From any PC to Your PlayStation 3

Have you ever wished that you could stream video files from your computer over to your TV without actually hooking the two directly together? If you’ve got a PlayStation 3, you’re in luck, because that’s today’s geek lesson.

If you’re wondering how to rip dvds to your PC, we’ve got you covered with an article on the subject, but you can stream video files that you’ve recorded yourself, or downloaded from somewhere.
Image by playstation-themes

HTG Explains: The Best and Worst Ways to Send a Resume

With so many people looking for jobs, the slightest edge in your resume presentation has potential to make or break your chances. But not all filetypes or methods are created equal—read on to see the potential pitfalls your resume faces.
In this article, we’ll explore what can go wrong in a resume submission, what can be done to counteract it, and also go into why a prospective employer might ignore your resume based on your method of sending a resume. Finally, we’ll cover the best filetypes and methods that can help get you that new job you’ve been looking for.

Ask How-To Geek: Dropbox in the Start Menu, Understanding Symlinks, and Ripping TV Series DVDs

This week we take a look at how to incorporate Dropbox into your Windows Start Menu, understanding and using symbolic links, and how to rip your TV series DVDs right to unique and high-quality episode files.
Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag and help readers solve their problems, sharing the useful solutions with you in the process. Read on to see our fixes for this week’s reader dilemmas.

How to Get MacBook-Style Finger Gestures on Ubuntu Linux

Apple users have been swiping, pinching, and rotating Mac’s user interfaces to their fingers’ content. In today’s article, we’ll show you how to do groovy things like expanding and reducing windows, and changing desktops using finger gestures.
To accomplish this, we’ll use a piece of software called TouchEgg, which enhances Ubuntu’s multi touch capability by allowing us to configure actions to the finger gestures that TouchEgg supports.
If you’re a Windows user and like the idea of finger-gestures, we also wrote a tutorial on how to enable MacBook-Style finger gestures on Windows.

Gmail Goes Public, Deep Blue Wins at Chess, and the Birth of Thomas Edison

Every week we bring you a snapshot of the week in Geek History. This week we’re taking a peek at the public release of Gmail, the first time a computer won against a chess champion, and the birth of prolific inventor Thomas Edison.

Gmail Goes Public

It’s hard to believe that Gmail has only been around for seven years and that for the first three years of its life it was invite only. In 2007 Gmail dropped the invite only requirement (although they would hold onto the “beta” tag for another two years) and opened its doors for anyone to grab a username @gmail. For what seemed like an entire epoch in internet history Gmail had the slickest web-based email around with constant innovations and features rolling out from Gmail Labs. Only in the last year or so have major overhauls at competitors like Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail brought other services up to speed. Can’t stand reading a Week in Geek History entry without a random fact? Here you go: gmail.com was originally owned by the Garfield franchise and ran a service that delivered Garfield comics to your email inbox. No, we’re not kidding.

Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release candidate of Internet Explorer 9, which is very close to the final product. Here’s a screenshot tour of the most interesting new stuff, as well as answers to your questions.
The most important question is should you install this version? And the answer is absolutely yes. Even if you don’t use IE, it’s better to have a newer, more secure version on your PC.

How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks

When it comes time to switch from using one application to another on your Android device it isn’t immediately clear how to do so. Follow along as we walk you through swapping the default application for any Android task.
Initially changing the default application in Android is a snap. After you install the new application (new web browser, new messaging tool, new whatever) Android prompts you to pick which application (the new or the old) you wish to use for that task the first time you attempt to open a web page, check your text message, or otherwise trigger the event. Easy! What about when it comes time to uninstall the app or just change back to your old app? There’s no helpful pop-up dialog box for that. Read on as we show you how to swap out any default application for any other with a minimum of fuss.

Are You Using Facebook with an Encrypted Session Yet?

If you’re geeky and keep up with all the tech news, you probably already know that Facebook added an SSL feature, but for everybody else: You can make your Facebook profile more secure by turning this option on, and here’s how to do it.
All we’re going to do is head into the Facebook profile settings and then check a box that forces the use of SSL encryption whenever possible. Easy!

Valentine’s Day 2011 Wallpaper Collection

First, we brought you fonts for your Valentine’s Day stationary needs followed by icon packs to help customize your desktop. Today we finish our romantic holiday trio out with a larger than normal size wallpaper collection.
Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.

How to Turn Your Home Ubuntu PC Into a LAMP Web Server

Got a Linux PC you want to put to work? Maybe you’re not comfortable with the command-line only version of Ubuntu Server Edition. Here’s how to keep the standard Ubuntu desktop and add web-serving capabilities to it.
Whether you’re not comfortable with a command-line only system, you’re using your Ubuntu desktop for other things, or you just need it installed for a few particular apps, you can add Apache, MySQL, and PHP to any standard desktop installation of Ubuntu very quickly and easily.

The Call of Cthulhu, the Columbia Shuttle Disaster, and the Birth of Facebook

This week in Geek History saw the beginning of the Cthulhu horror mythos, the Columbia space shuttle disaster, and the birth of Facebook. Also, check out our new addition “Other Notable Moments” at the end for more facts and trivia from this week in Geek History.

Integrate Dropbox with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on iPad

The iWork apps are some of the best apps on iPad, and each show just how powerful a touchscreen device can be with the most basic of computing functions: creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. They each work quite well with their respective Microsoft Office counterparts also. In fact, there’s not much to dislike about the iWork apps.

Create Your Own Quick Calculator Function for the Terminal

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always got a Terminal window open, and you probably have even assigned a hotkey to bring it up anytime. So why open up the boring calculator when you can solve equations right there on the command line?
This is a simple method for creating a calculator using the built-in function support in the Bash shell. Essentially all we’re doing is assigning the question mark to run the bc command with whatever arguments you type after it.

How to Change the Default Application for a File Type in Mac OS X

If you’re a recent Mac OS X convert, you might be wondering how to force a particular file type to open in a different application than the default. No? Well, we’re going to explain it anyway.
This is most useful when you’ve installed something like VLC and want to open your video files in that instead of the default, which is QuickTime Player.

How to Remote View and Control Your Android Phone

If you’ve ever wished you could see your Android phone’s screen on your desktop or remote control it using your mouse and keyboard we’ll show you how in this simple guide to gaining remote access to your Android device.

RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean?

They’re there, lurking in your image files. But have you ever wondered what are image channels are? And what do they have to do with RGB and CMYK? Here’s the answer.
The channels panel in Photoshop is one of the most disused and misunderstood parts of the program. But images have color channels with or without Photoshop. Read on to find out what color channels are, what RGB and CMYK are, and learn a little bit more about how image files work.

How to Archive, Search, and View Your Tweet Statistics with ThinkUp

Worried about archiving your tweets? Want a more powerful search? Want to see your tweet statistics? You can do all of that and more by installing ThinkUp on your home server.
ThinkUp is a brilliant application (currently in beta) that will archive all of your tweets, your replies, responses, etc. so that you can search through them and find out some helpful usage statistics. It has quite a few plugins, including one that adds full Facebook support, too.
It’s designed to be installed on a LAMP server; that is, Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP is what will provide the backbone for it. While it’s possible to install it on a Windows- or Mac-based machine, it’s most easily handled in Linux, so we’ll be using Ubuntu to show you how to get it up and running. It’s in very active development by the founder, Gina Trapani, and by many users in the community.

How to Enable Desktop Notifications for Gmail in Chrome

Last year Google rolled out desktop notifications for Google Calendar, now you can get Gmail and Gchat notifications on your desktop too. Read on as we walk you through configuring them both.
Chrome’s desktop notifications are clean, easy to read, and really handy for keeping an eye on what’s going on inside Gmail without keeping the browser focused on it. Setting it up is easy, grab your copy of Chrome to follow along.

How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally

Have you ever accidentally deleted a photo on your camera, computer, USB drive, or anywhere else? What you might not know is that you can usually restore those pictures—even from your camera’s memory stick.
Windows tries to prevent you from making a big mistake by providing the Recycle Bin, where deleted files hang around for a while—but unfortunately it doesn’t work for external USB drives, USB flash drives, memory sticks, or mapped drives. Luckily there’s another way to recover deleted files.
Note: we originally wrote this article a year ago, but we’ve received this question so many times from readers, friends, and families that we’ve polished it up and are republishing it for everybody. So far, everybody has reported success!

How to Quickly Cut a Clip From a Video File with Avidemux

Whether you’re cutting out the boring parts of your vacation video or getting a hilarious scene for an animated GIF, Avidemux provides a quick and easy way to cut clips from any video file.
It’s overkill to use a full-featured video editing program if you just want to cut a few clips from a video file. Even programs that are designed to be small can have confusing interfaces when dealing with video. We’ve found that a great free program, Avidemux, makes the job of cutting clips extremely simple.
Note: While the screenshots in this guide are taken from the Windows version, Avidemux runs on all of the major platforms – Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (GTK).

How to Transfer Files Between Your PC and Android Phone Wirelessly

Mounting your Android phone to transfer files is fast and efficient, but nothing beats the convenience of a wireless file transfer. Today, we’ll show you how to transfer files between Android and your computer without a USB cable.

Desktop Fun: Valentine’s Day Icon Packs

Are you looking forward to Valentine’s Day? Then we have the perfect way for you to start customizing your desktop for the holiday with our Valentine’s Day Icon Packs collection.