Computer Tips Archives - Page 217 of 227

Q&A: How do I run the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on Windows 7?

Posted on March 18, 2013

Question from Alex G.: Hi Rick. Love this site and all your tips!! I hope you can help me with a problem I’m having.

I just bought an ebook filled with Windows 7 tweaks and several of the ones I really want to try require running a program called Group Policy Editor. The instructions say to type gpedit.msc into the Search box, but when I do I get this error message:

“Windows cannot find ‘gpedit.msc’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.”

What am I doing wrong? My computer is a Dell laptop running the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium. It originally came with Windows Vista.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to block your name from being used with Facebook Social Ads

Posted on March 17, 2013

If you’ve been on Facebook recently you might have noticed your name being used in one of Facebook’s new “Social Ads”. It usually looks something like “Rick Rouse likes AT&T” in close proximity to an ad for the AT&T Facebook page.

Basically, they’re promoting a page that you have “Liked” to your friends with the hope that your friends will take notice and visit the page. Personally, I don’t mind my friends knowing which pages I have “Liked”, but I’m not too fond of having that info used in conjunction with an ad!

If seeing your name used as part of an ad irritates you as much as it does me, you can easily opt out. Here’s how: [Read more…]

How to disable the annoying ‘Snap’ in Windows 7

Posted on March 14, 2013

windows-7 Windows 7 includes a feature that allows you to expand open windows and rearrange them on the screen by dragging them hither and yon with the mouse. Some people like it, others despise it.

I happen to be among those who find it irritating when a window suddenly expands to fill the entire screen when all I’m trying to do is move it over just a bit. If you find it irritating as well, here’s how to disable it (refer to the screenshot below): [Read more…]

Outlook.com Web-Based Email – My thoughts and recommendations

Posted on March 12, 2013

Microsoft recently announced the release of their brand new web-based email service Outlook.com, and the press release made it sound too good not to take for a spin.

Since I love the thought of being able to access my POP3 email accounts via any web browser on any PC and Outlook.com sounded like it might be a great solution, I signed up for an account and imported all of my POP3 email accounts into it.

After putting Outlook.com through its paces for a week, here are my impressions and recommendations: [Read more…]

2 super-fast ways to open the Windows Task Manager

Posted on March 8, 2013

If you’ve been using Microsoft Windows-based PCs for a while you’re probably quite familiar with the Windows Task Manager. It is in fact one of the most-used Windows utilities.

After all, who among us has never had to open the Task Manager in order to kill a stuck program that simply refused to go away when you clicked the little X in the top-right corner? [Read more…]