Some Cool Computer(PC) Useful Tricks and Secrets

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Some Cool Computer(PC) Useful Tricks and Secrets

In one of my past posts on TrickZoo, I talked about some cool useful internet tricks. Here, in this article, I’m going to talk about and share with you all some cool computer (PC) related tricks. These tricks will be very useful for you all. These tricks will not only help you to solve some computer related issues but will also make your work on computer quick. This article is mainly for the Windows Users.

Here are some cool computer tricks:

1. Computer Tricks: God Mode

This is a very interesting trick for your computer. You just need to create a folder with the name:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

When you’ll create this folder with the above name, you can get access to anything related to your PC, for example, Administrative Tools, Internet Options, Security and Maintenance, etc.. Try this!

2. Computer Tricks: Subtitles in VLC Media Player

There is a  problem with most of the people that every time they watch any video on the VLC Media Player which has subtitles, they have to add the subtitles every time they open the video. So, if you don’t want to add the subtitles every time, you just need to rename the subtitles file with the exact name of the movie or that particular video

3. Recover the permanently deleted files

Sometimes, you accidently delete any file that you never wanted to delete and it becomes a blunder just because you don’t know how to recover that deleted file back.
There are many software that help us in getting our deleted files back but with only one condition that the new files should not be written over the free space provided by that deleted file which you want to recover.
Some of the software are …..

1.Tokiwa DataRecovery

Tokiwa DataRecovery Portable doesn’t require installation, so if you want you can run it from a USB device. In fact this is advisable, as you should recover files to a different location from the one you’re running the program in. apart from that, there’s no other outstanding feature in DataRecovery: no settings menu, no documentation, and no options.

2.Recuva

Accidentally deleted an important file? Lost files after a computer crash? No problem – Recuva recovers files from your Windows computer, recycle bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player!

3.Pandora Recovery

When you delete a file on FAT32 or NTFS file system, its content is not erased from disk but only reference to file data in File Allocation Table or Master File Table is marked as deleted. It means that you might be able to recover deleted files, or make it visible for file system again.

4. Computer Tricks: Some Cool Notepad Tricks

There are many interesting things that can be done using the Notepad. Let’s just see some of the cool tricks related to Notepad:

• Shutting Down The PC using Notepad

 If you don’t want to shut down your computer in a conventional way and just want to shut it down by double clicking an icon on your desktop then just open the notepad and copy-paste the following code:

shutdown.exe -s

After pasting it in notepad, save it by the name “.bat” on the desktop. Go to the desktop and double click the saved file, your PC will be turned off.

• Computer Tricks: The Matrix effect

You must have seen this in a very famous movie, “The Matrix“. So, this basically is a fun trick, using which you can create the exact Matrix effect as shown below. You just need to copy-paste the following code in the notepad and save it as “.bat“. After that, open the saved file and enjoy the awesome Matrix effect.

@echo off
color 02
:start
echo %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random%
goto start

5. Computer Tricks: Use two Windows at the same time

If you want to work at two places on your PC at the same time and you just get irritated by every time minimising and maximising one of the two windows. so you can just do it just by pressing the windows key and the right and left keys on your keyboard at the same time. So then you can work on both the windows together and it will appear as shown following:

5. Computer Tricks: Change you Folder Colours

This is one of the most interesting tricks. Using this, you can give different colours to your folders and make it look attractive. You just need to download Folder Colorizer and install it. After you have downloaded this software, go to any folder on your PC and right click it. You will find one more option in the drop-down menu of “Colorize!” (as shown below). Go to that option and select any colour you want. Isn’t it interesting?

6. Computer Tricks: Monitor Your Real-Time Internet Data Usage

 You can monitor how much internet data you’re using in the real-time using some of the amazing software. These software are Shaplus Bandwidth Meter or Glasswire.

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Use Gmail Filters to Automate your Inbox

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Use Gmail Filters to Automate your Inbox

One of the most powerful tools Gmail provides is its filtering system. Strangely, it seems that few users of Google’s extremely popular mail service take advantage of filters to improve their email experience and that's such a shame. Filters can help automate many of the tasks you may perform daily, and can streamline your inbox to show just the emails you want, while removing those you don’t.

It’s true that Google does provide some email filtering already through features like inbox categories and tabs, automatic highlighting of ‘important’ emails, and, of course, spam filtering. But creating your own filters can take inbox organization to the next level, and help you spend less time in your inbox each day.

The Basics of Filtering

Filtering is accessed in Gmail under the ‘Filters and Blocked Addresses’ tab of the settings screen. You will need to open the Gmail web client on a desktop to access this setting, as there is currently no way to set up filters from the mobile Gmail app.

In this section of the settings screen you will find two sections, one for filtering emails, and another for blocking emails. In this article we’ll be focusing on filtering emails, although it’s easy to add email addresses to the blocked address list through the option under each email in a thread.

The first step to setting up a filter is to create a set of search parameters. Any incoming emails that match these search terms will be acted upon before they reach your inbox, so it’s important to make your terms as specific as necessary. Google provides several self-explanatory boxes to create the search terms you require, and you can combine as many of these fields into the one search as you’d like.

For example, let’s say you want to filter all emails from your boss relating to your important business project that have large attachments. You can set up a search with the following terms:

• Your boss’ email address in the ‘from’ field
• Important business project in the ‘has the words’ field
• The ‘has attachment’ box is ticked
• A size greater than 5MB in the last field

The next step is to set what you want the filter to do. There are a lot of very handy options available here, from automatically labelling emails, to outright deleting them when they arrive. As with the previous step, you can combine multiple actions into the one filter.

Using the previous example, let’s say you want to label these emails as ‘PDF’ and make sure they are as prominent in your inbox as possible. Setting up the following filter actions would be wise:

• Star the email
• Apply the label ‘PDF’
• Never send to spam
• Always mark as important

Click to create the filter (you can also apply the filter to existing emails) and it’ll quietly work in the background to optimize your email experience.

Handy Uses for Filtering

Now that you are aware of the filtering system and how it works, here are some handy things you can use the system for. Several of these have helped us automate our inboxes by cutting down on unwanted emails and categorizing incoming mail so it can be easily tackled.

• Label work and personal emails. If you have a personal and work account coming in to the same inbox, you can apply labels to these respective emails automatically through the filtering system. Then, your work emails will stand out in your inbox.
• Highlight emails relating to projects or events. Using the labelling, starring and categorizing features of the filtering system, you can automatically highlight emails that may be of the highest importance.
• Delete spam that just won’t go away. Sometimes you might get a ton of emails from the same group of email addresses, and no matter how many times you report them as spam, they just keep coming back. The filtering system can target email addresses and banish these emails to spam or the trash with ease.
• Forward only some emails. It’s easy to forward every email you receive to another address, but sometimes you need a more fine-grained approach to automatic forwarding. The filtering system gives you this ability.
• Archive emails immediately. Does your mum send you outdated and not particularly funny memes via email? You can mark these emails as read and archive them when they arrive through the filtering system.

Of course, there are a bunch of other things you can do with Gmail’s email filtering system, so if you want to streamline your inbox and automate some basic tasks, it’s well worth exploring its full capabilities.

5 days, 5 killer tech tips is a new TechSpot monthly feature

On the 3rd week of every month, we will publish 5 tech tips, one for each day of the week (Monday-Friday) about a given app, service, or platform.

This week it's about uncovering great Gmail usability tips and tricks.

• Day 1: How to Remotely Sign Out of Gmail on Multiple Devices
• Day 2: Mastering Gmail Search
• Day 3: Use Gmail Offline and Schedule Emails
• Day 4: Use Gmail Filters to Automate your Inbox
• Day 5: TBA

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Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances

12:31  

Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances

Microsoft slowly started to sneak advertisements into the Windows platform with Windows 8, and they’ve only crept up further in Windows 10. From so-called suggested apps in the Start menu, to nagging taskbar notifications, and even full screen ads on users’ lock screens, Microsoft seems dead-set on figuring out new ways to promote and monetize its products.

Thankfully it's easy to shut down most of these annoyances if you know where to look.

Disable lock screen ads

To get rid of lock screen ads you’ll need to disable Windows Spotlight, which is the default option for the lock screen background and displays different background images each day. It also suggests Windows 10 features you may have not tried yet, throwing the occasional ad in the mix.

To turn off Windows Spotlight head to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen and set the background to “Picture” or “Slideshow” instead of Windows Spotlight. Right below this you find an option to switch off “fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen.”

Banish Start menu 'suggestions' and other tweaks

It’s great that the Start menu is back in Windows 10, it's still not perfect, but it keeps receiving tweaks and the tiles UI makes it convenient to access your most frequently used applications and programs. It may also serve as prime real estate for advertisers, taking up valuable space in your Start menu.

To prevent annoying ads and suggestions from cropping up in your Start menu, head to Settings > Personalization > Start and set the “Occasionally show suggestions in Start” setting to “Off”.

If you are not a huge fan of Live tiles you can turn them off by right clicking on a tile and selecting the option from the context menu, or you can select “Unpin from Start” to get rid of the tile entirely.

By unpinning all tiles on the right side you can make a single column Start menu and regain some real estate as well. Or if you would prefer to have a Windows 7-style Start menu there are a handful of third party tools worth checking out, including Start10 or the free Classic Shell.

Disable 'Get Office' notifications

Windows 10 users who don't have Microsoft Office installed are offered to try Office 365, the subscription-based version of the ubiquitous productivity suite, and enjoy a month-long free trial. This is done by a “Get Office” application that sits there for the sole purpose of promoting it.

To stop these notifications head to Settings > System > Notifications & Actions and switch off notifications for the “Get Office” app. And while you are here you can also disable the “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows” option from the same screen.

But going back to the Get Office application, you can also uninstall this from the system by going into the Start Menu, right clicking on the app and then selecting Uninstall. To make sure it doesn’t automatically install itself again after a restart, search for “Windows PowerShell”, rick-click on the icon and choose “Run as Administrator”. Then execute the following command:

Get-AppxPackage|? name -like MicrosoftOfficeHub|remove-appxpackage

Make Cortana less prominent or kill it altogether

The search box on the Windows taskbar takes up too much space for something that you can just as easily do by pressing the Windows key and start typing. Windows lets you either hide it or reduce it to an icon to open up Cortana. Right-click anywhere on the taskbar and point to Cortana on the contextual menu to pick your preferred setting.

Microsoft’s intelligent personal assistant can be annoyingly persistent to get your attention, and will bounce or show notifications and tips from time to time encouraging you to use it. You can curb her enthusiasm by clicking on the Cortana bar (or button), head to settings and disable “Taskbar Tidbits”.

Microsoft removed the option to switch off Cortana with the Anniversary Update, but if you would prefer your search to stay focused on local files, settings, and apps you can still shut down the assistant through Windows Registry — or the Group Policy Editor too if you have Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.

You can open the Registry Editor by pressing Windows+R on your keyboard and typing “regedit”.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search. If you don’t see a “Windows Search” folder, right click the Windows folder and create a new key named “Windows Search”. Then right-click this newly created folder in the left pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value “AllowCortana”. Double-click it and set the value to “0”.

You can now close the editor. The changes will take effect after signing out and back again.

Shut down OneDrive completely

OneDrive is tightly built into Windows 10. It has its own node in File Explorer, and the OneDrive sync client runs automatically at startup, asking you to sign in. Of course, you don’t have to use OneDrive if you prefer a cloud service from another provider, like Dropbox or Google Drive, but you can’t uninstall it like a normal app. And while you can change OneDrive settings so that the sync client doesn't run automatically at startup, that still leaves the OneDrive icon in the navigation pane of File Explorer.

Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise users can use the Group Policy Editor to completely shut off OneDrive. The setting in question can be found under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive, where you just need to double-click the policy ‘Prevent The Usage Of OneDrive For File Storage’ and set it to Enabled.

Windows 10 Home users have to edit the registry manually. Press Windows+R on your keyboard and type “regedit” to launch the Registry Editor, then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software \Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive. If there is no key for OneDrive, you’ll need to right click the Windows folder and create a new key named OneDrive. Add a new DWORD value as DisableFileSyncNGSC and set it to 1. Restart for the new policy to become effective.

5 days, 5 killer tech tips is a TechSpot monthly feature

On the third week of every month, we'll publish 5 killer tech tips, one for each day of the week for a given app, service, or platform.

This week we are uncovering great Windows 10 usability tips and tricks.

• Day 1: Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances
• Day 2: 7 Free Apps to Install on a New Windows PC
• Day 3: TBA
• Day 4: TBA
• Day 5: TBA

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7 Free Apps to Install on a New Windows PC

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7 Free Apps to Install on a New Windows PC

Browsers

Windows 10 offers Edge which is a serviceable browser, nothing wrong with it but you'll rarely find power users favoring it over Chrome or Firefox. The default choice for most is indeed Chrome, a great browser that is very extensible. Although it's been suffering from some performance hiccups as of late, Google is hard at work correcting those. Chrome is great for Android users, too for natively syncing across devices.

Then there's Firefox which is long time contender that has never stopped evolving and arguably every bit as good browser as Chrome.

If you're up for a little experimentation, Opera remains a slick and feature rich browser that is based on Chrome's engine. Same goes for Vivaldi (from the original makers of Opera), the new kid on the block, it's not as polished as Opera on the UI front, but is very customizable and offers many power user friendly features.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage and services are a must-have in your toolbox. There is nothing more convenient than accessing data from any place or device, and having that data sync across devices.

Backing up and restoring information has never been smoother either, and even though there's a huge array of options we've long been spoiled by Dropbox's ease of use. Major alternatives include Google Drive and Microsoft's own OneDrive, which is integrated into Windows 10. Odds are you already rely in one (or more than one) of these three, but if not, I'd start by picking one and making the most of the free storage you get to sync and backup important documents.

Messaging

Information is power but having the right information at the right time is even more important. For video calls there's Skype. The most ubiquitous messaging platforms are Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, though only the former offers a native desktop application which comes super handy when you're working on your PC.

It's always fun to stay in touch with family and friends, but if you need to collaborate in a workgroup then Slack, Spark or Hipchat are the most likely platforms you'll be using. And if you're interested in having all your different communication services in one place you could try Franz.

Security

If you know what you're doing, Windows 10 comes out of the box with more than decent security. Common sense and Microsoft's built-in tools should be enough for most users, but if you want to go the extra mile and add another layer of protection that won't turn into a burden for your system, you should install Malwarebytes. A veteran specializing in preventing malware and rootkits attacks, it's good and free for personal use. There's also Virustotal.com which you can use to scan downloaded files for threats before you open them.

Gaming

For gaming we have to recommend Steam. Valve's platform does an awesome job at being a one-stop shop for all PC gaming. It's a great hub and gaming communication platform, also known for its killer sales. Do note however that certain franchises are absent from Steam, namely games from the likes of EA, Ubi and Blizzard. So here are download shortcuts for Origin, Uplayand GOG Galaxy.

Multimedia

For watching your favorite movies and series there's VLC Player. It just works, but if that's not enough it has great support, a wicked equalizer, and simple controls. To be fair, Windows 10's built in player works well and supports a variety of formats, too. Last time we checked it saves you battery when playing movies on a laptop, so we certainly wouldn't discard it.

It's not uncommon for PCs to act as hubs to stream movies or serve as HTPCs. If you are looking for more than a player, something that offers streaming and can organize your library there is Plex, which is very popular, and Kodi, less known but just as capable alternative.

Productivity

Personally I'm a big LibreOffice fan. It's the first thing I install for productivity. It offers all the basics (and then some) you'll need from Microsoft Office but at no cost. Not everyone agrees on my choice -- there are other free alternatives as well as Google Docs if you can't justify paying for the Office suite.

For note-taking there's OneNote, which Microsoft now offers as a free cross-platform, cloud connected app. If you're more of a visual person you can use Monosnap for taking screenshots with annotations.

We all need an image editing tool. Windows 10 users can rely on Adobe's Photoshop Express for basic editing, free of charge.

Finally, for coders and developers we have to give a shout out to Sublime Text, possibly the best text editor you'll find.

Bonus Killer App

Feel the list is missing something? If that's the case, we have F.lux as a bonus.

This nifty little app shifts the color of your computer's display to adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. If you like to work at night, F.lux is a godsend.

5 days, 5 killer tech tips is a TechSpot monthly feature

On the third week of every month, we'll publish 5 killer tech tips, one for each day of the week for a given app, service, or platform.

This week we are uncovering great Windows 10 usability tips and tricks.

• Day 1: Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances
• Day 2: 7 Free Apps to Install on a New Windows PC
• Day 3: Take advantage of Xbox Streaming and Game DVR in Windows 10
• Day 4: TBA
• Day 5: TBA

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