Tech Tips

Most programs let you decide whether you’d like to them to open up automatically when you start Windows. Naturally, this is typically only an option when it’s logical to do so – for example, having Spotify immediately open with Windows makes sense. Having Notepad open with Windows… not so much. But what happens when a program doesn’t offer you that option, but you’d like still it to start up with Windows? Solution There’s a few ways to achieve this, but one of my preferred options is using the Task Scheduler in Windows 10.  Press the Start button, and search for “Task scheduler” or “Schedule tasks.” In the “Actions” menu on the right, click “Create Task.” On the “General” tab, specify … Read more

As much as I like working on videos, I must admit that the rendering process certainly takes a toll on a machine’s performance, particularly when you’d like to use your machine to do something else while it renders. In my case, my main computer at home is by far my most powerful and versatile machine, so when it’s locked up doing rendering for a multitude of hours, I’m faced with a terrifying prospect – actually going outside or reading a book. Determined to avoid this type of cruel fate when away from home, I started to think of ways that I could do the editing on a somewhat less powerful machine, but offload the actual rendering to my beast of … Read more

Transcript “So I was asked recently to demonstrate the basics of working with images in WordPress, particularly when you’re dealing with images that are of a high resolution. So if you look at my desktop here, I have three images. I will just display them quickly – this one, this one, and this one. Now, what they have in common is they’re all the same size… if I hover over them right here, you’ll see that they are 3200 by 2400, that’s a fairly large size, and I can demonstrate that by opening one of them in Paint. So in Paint what you see is a portion of the sky, in this particular shot, and the reason is that the … Read more

I’ve discovered I have a new passion in life, and you know what it’s all about? Helping people remove as much of the ads and sponsored content from Windows 10 as possible, assuming, of course, that that’s something they want to do to begin with. And so today, a very quick but essential tip… how do you remove the “helpful” facts and/or links that appear on the login page? Here’s an example: These icons visually pollute the lock screen image, and in many cases, Microsoft uses them to sway consumer behavior – something they’ve clearly grown fond of doing since people accepted free Windows 10 upgrades. Solution If Windows 10 isn’t doing what you want, beat it with a rolled … Read more

Transcription “Hi everyone. In this video, I’ll be showing you how to hide the Tools Pane from Adobe Reader DC. I’ll be showing it under Windows 10. So you know when you’re opening a PDF with Adobe Reader? On the right hand side, there’s this special section known as the Tools Pane. It’s an area that has several functions: Export PDF, Create PDF, and a bunch of other things. Now, generally speaking, I find this section obstructive, more than anything. So it’s in the way. I would like, for example, the Adobe Reader window to utilize the full width of the window, not just a portion of it because of this sidebar. So in order to hide the sidebar, I … Read more

So there I was, browsing the web with Chrome as I always did, when I noticed a new pop-up in Windows 10. Take a look at this: Now, as much as I like Windows for its simplicity, I have to express my total and utter disgust at this type of tactic. This is basically the corporate equivalent of a kindergardener pointing to another child and boasting how much better they are than them, in an attempt to increase their own popularity amongst the rest. And you just know that they’re using the fact that their dad is the principal to more easily get away with it. See, that’s the thing… if Microsoft actually had any ounce of fairness in their use … Read more

Recently, I finished writing a new page for my blog, and was looking to add it to the main menu. So I proceeded as I normally would – in the WordPress dashboard, I selected “Appearance,” then “Menus.” In that editor, I added the new page, and pressed “Save Menu.” Then, to my surprise, I got this error, which prevented me from saving my changes: Granted, after reading the error message completely, I realized that I was at least somewhat to blame. After all, the size and complexity of my menus were beyond anything I’d seen before in a WordPress site. I make heavy use of sub-menus. This screenshot only scratches the surface. Then again, was it my fault? Shouldn’t software … Read more

As I went to launch the Windows Store app today, I encountered an error I’d never seen before. Here’s what I saw: My first instinct was to see if there were any new updates available for Windows, just in case. I quickly confirmed that I was fully up-to-date, and began to ponder what else I could check. To be safe, I verified that I could successfully log into the Microsoft website, just to confirm that I wasn’t having any authentication issues. When these attempts failed to resolve the problem, I took to Google to try and find a solution. Unfortunately, most of the articles I found simply didn’t solve my problem. Ultimately, I figured it out, so I’m sharing my … Read more

Transcript So in this video, I’ll be showing you how to use the Selective Sync feature offered by Dropbox. So you’ll notice in the bottom right corner, I have a Dropbox icon that has a green checkmark next to it. That means the files are fully synchronized, they’re the same on my device as they are on the Dropbox servers. Now, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna click on this icon, and then I shall click the folder icon here, to show you the actual Windows Explorer version of my Dropbox. Now what you’ll see is that it’s fairly simplistic, I have a Word document, and I have some photos. What you’re actually seeing here is a selective sync … Read more

Transcript A while back, Gmail decided to change the look of the Compose Email interface, I’m talking about this feature right here. When you press Compose, in the past there used to be a full screen editor. Right now what they have is a little pop-up like this that writes New Message, to, subject, cc, bcc, has a place to type your message, and then of course you can send, and there’s some controls. Now, this is different… but let’s go ahead and do what I’m looking to do, which is attaching a file. I have this photo right here. Let’s say I wanna send this photo to myself. My instinct, to get this done, is to drag the photo, … Read more