Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:38AM Ask Leo: A brief overview of Dropbox
Get a dropbox account here: http://db.tt/ZJ0hVxQ
Click here for transcript: http://ask-leo.com/a_brief_overview_of_dropbox.html
Backup, Networking, Storage, Utilities Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 10:12AM
6 Must Have Programs For Your Laptop Or Netbook
Laptops offer many advantages compared to desktop computers. Most importantly they are small and portable. The convenient hardware features of laptops, however, also imply a lot of limitations, for example finite battery life, a smaller keyboard, or an irritating touchpad.
In this article I will introduce you to a selection of programs for laptops that address these hardware limitations. The tools in this list will make working with your laptop keyboard and touchpad more convenient and increase battery lifetime. And just in case someone takes advantage of its portability, you better had a tool installed that allows you to track your laptop.
One of the greatest annoyances on a laptop can be the touchpad. The most common issue is that the cursor is accidentally triggered and jumps to a random place while you are typing and gently brushing over the touchpad with your hands. This is especially common for people who touch type. TouchFreeze helps solve the issue by automatically disabling the touchpad while the keyboard is in use.
Unfortunately, it does not work on all hardware.
Another tool that tries to deal with the touchpad dilemma is AutoSensitivity. The tool can be used to control the sensitivity of the touchpad and the mouse. A lower sensitivity basically means that the cursor will be less responsive or slower.
Unfortunately, my hardware doesn’t seem to allow separate settings for touchpad and mouse sensitivity and hence the tool did not work as expected. Note that AutoSensitivity requires .NET Framework 3.5 or 4.0.
Touchpads that only support the use of a single finger are utterly limited. Yet the hardware often is capable of interpreting the touch of two or even three fingers at once. This is where Two-Finger-Scroll comes in and taps into the unused potential of your touchpad.
It doesn’t exactly enable multi-touch features known from iOS or Android devices. However, it does enable some familiar behaviors. For example you will be able to scroll up and down when you swipe over the touchpad using two fingers, while using one finger will only move the cursor.
It also supports different behaviors for tapping the touchpad. For example you can assign tapping with two fingers to activating the left and tapping with three fingers to activating the right mouse button. ‘One + one‘ or ‘two + one‘ means that you rest one or two fingers on the touchpad and tap with a second or third finger, respectively.
Whether or not these features will work for you depends on your touchpad. Unlike some of the other tools above, they worked perfectly for me, although it does take some practice to get the tapping just right.
Two-Finger-Scroll received thorough coverage here - How To Easily Activate Two Finger Scroll In Windows Laptops
Laptops are small and so are their keyboards, hence the transition from a full-sized keyboard can be hard. Moreover, some functions require hitting several keys, which can be inconvenient. At the same time, there may be keys available that you never use.
If you want to put some of your unused keys to good use, try SharpKeys, an application that allows you to remap your keys by tweaking the registry. Apart from remapping keys, you can also turn keys off, i.e. disable them.
SharpKeys was featured on MakeUseOf along with two similar tools in this article: Remap Keyboard Keys with These 3 Free Apps [Windows].
Aerofoil tackles the limited energy resources when your laptop is running on battery power. Once you disconnect from A/C power, Aerofoil will step in and optimize your Windows Vista or Windows 7 system for saving power. It does that by disabling Windows features like Aero Glass, muting the sound, or switching to a different Windows power plan.
Some sources claim that Aerofoil can extend your battery life by up to 25%. The tool runs on minimal system resources and all features are optional. Aerofoil is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Note that if you get an error message saying msvcp100.dll is missing, you may need a Windows update. Details are listed on the download page for Aerofoil, below the download links for the tool itself.
Do you often work in public places and are you worried that your laptop might get stolen? Prey won’t protect your laptop from thieves, but if it ever does get taken away from you, you can use the software to keep track of its location and possibly get it back.
For a comprehensive introduction to Prey, check out this article - Track Down and Recover Your Stolen Laptop with Prey.
You may also be interested in similar tools, that we have covered in the following articles and Directory entries :
For more great applications specifically for your netbook, please check out these articles:
The 7 Best Powerful Netbook Applications That Don’t Chug System Resources
5 Killer Optimization Apps To Maximize Your Netbook’s Potential
What are your best tips and tricks for working with a laptop or netbook? Are there any gems you would like to share with us?
Image credits: Yuri Arcurs
Utilities Friday, September 30, 2011 at 08:43AM QTranslate is a free Windows utility that translates texts using online translation services. Once the text is entered in a text-box, it automatically detects the language and displays the desired output in the second text-box.
Input is translated using the most popular online language translation service – The Google Translate (default). However, one is free to choose any other online sources provided below;
Translations can be performed from within applications, such as browsers, PDF readers, word processors, etc. The program also includes a built-in spell checking utility that tracks spelling of the provided inputs and translated texts.
The text entered is invariably translated in English, by default, but one has the option to select any preferred language from the drop-down menu for translation.
Translation services can be toggled by clicking on any of the web service names from the bottom of the interface.
QTranslate has two modes of translation by mouse selection,
The program also provides a virtual keyboard that has the capability to scan and view history page. To access the keyboard, click the keyboard icon residing at top right corner of the main interface and select desired language from the drop down menu.
Main features of QTranslate in a nutshell:
Other settings for QTranslate can be configured from the system tray menu (Options). 
Download QTranslate from here.
QTranslate is compatible with Windows 7 too.
QTranslate: A free Translator Utility for Windows OS | The Windows Club
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 07:18AM 
According to a statistic published in The Atlantic, 90% of computer users don't know what Ctrl+F can do. As a result, we've put together a list of common, handy shortcuts and tricks that every computer user should know. If you have a friend or family member who could use a lesson or refresher, send this post along.
Before we get started, let's tackle some basics. The CTRL is an abbreviation for Control, and it's the main key on your Windows PC that you use for keyboard shortcuts. If you have a Mac, you also have a Control key, but your primary keyboard shortcut key is Command. Like Alt/Option and Shift, these are modifier keys. When you press them, nothing obvious happens. When you press them along with another letter or number, however, you can make your computer do things faster. We're going to talk about some handy shortcuts you can use with these keys.
Obviously we have to begin with Control+F since the statistic is begging for it. Control+F, or Command+F on a Mac, is the keyboard shortcut for the Find command. If you're in a web browser and want to search text on a web page, pressing Control+F will bring up a search box. Just type in that search box and it'll locate the text you're typing on the page. Control+F may work in other applications, too, when you need to find something. For example, Microsoft Word and other word processing applications use this keyboard shortcut.
Pressing Control+N, or Command+N on a Mac, is the command for creating something new. In a web browser, this will make a new window. In a word processing, image editing, or other document-based application this keyboard shortcut will create a new document.
Now that you know how to create a new document with your keyboard, you should also know how to save one. Control+S, or Command+S on a Mac is the keyboard shortcut for saving a document. If this is the first time you've saved the document you'll be presented with a new window that'll ask you what to name it and where you want to save it. If you've already saved it once before, this keyboard shortcut will simply save your changes.
If you want to print the document you just made, Control+P, or Command+P on a Mac, is the keyboard shortcut that will open the print window. From there you'll be able to check your settings, choose a printer, etc. When you're ready, just click print and your document will be printed. This keyboard shortcut works in pretty much any application with printable content, including your web browser.
Alt-F4 (and sometimes Control+W or Control+Q), or Command+Q on a Mac, is the keyboard shortcut for quitting the current application. In Windows it will quit the currently open that's in focus on the screen. On a Mac this is also generally the case, but sometimes it's not as clear. To know which application is going to quit when you perform this keyboard command, just look in the upper left corner to see it's name.
The enter key, or return key on a Mac, is useful for a lot of things. When a dialog window pops up and asks you to press okay or cancel, you can usually just press Enter instead of clicking okay. In Windows you can tell which button will respond to enter because it'll have a dotted box inside of it. On a Mac the button will be blue instead of gray. Enter can also be used for other things, like submitting forms on web pages from any text field in that form.
Utilities, Windows OS Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 09:46AM Gone are the days of low disk space warnings, you say? Not really. Many a time, the primary partition on your hard disk is loaded up to the last few gigabytes – probably because you installed too many programs and games. You can do a clean up, but you can also free up space without the hassles of Shift + Delete. Just try these workarounds to free up some space in the C:\ drive and make your computer run faster.
1. Change Dropbox Location
If your computer has Dropbox installed, you probably chose to keep the Dropbox folder inside ‘My Documents’. You can quickly move it to any other partition to free up space in the C:\ drive. Just right click the Dropbox icon in the system tray, choose Preferences and click Move to move your Dropbox folder’s contents.
2. Relocate Program Files
If you are a download junkie, the program files folder on your disk is probably crammed. Use the Steam Mover utility to move programs installed in C:\Program Files\ to another partition. Specify a particular program’s directory and the target location – Steam Mover will instantly move all your files there and create symlinks in the original location. That is a lot of disk space saved.
3. Move iTunes Backups or Delete Podcasts Automatically
Podcasts that you download using iTunes are in your main partition, right inside your music folder. You can quickly use the Edit > Preferences dialog to move them to another partition. This is quite a confusing process, and there’s a detailed guide here on how you can go about doing it.
You can also set iTunes to automatically delete podcasts that you’ve already listened to. You can do that by going to your Podcasts list and choosing Settings from the bottom, and then altering the choices in the ‘Episodes to keep’ option.
4. Change the default My Documents location
If you have a large number of files saved up in My Documents, you can move the folder to another partition in the disk to free up some disk space. Right click your documents folder, choose Properties, click the Location tab and hit Move to choose a new location for your documents. This is a pretty easy step, and could potentially save you plenty of disk space.
5. Use Symlinks When Desperate
Symlinks are your best bet when you have very little space left in the main partition. When you create symlinks, your folders will be accessible from the original location but their contents will actually be stored in the place the symlink is pointing to. The Link Shell extension for Windows Explorer makes it easy to create symlinks via the right click menu. You pick a link source and then you can go to the destination to drop a hard clone/soft link.
6. Power up CCleaner
If you thought CCleaner cleans all the temporary files in your C:\ drive, think again. Previously mentioned CCleaner Enhancer adds extra definitions to clean junk files left by over 270 applications. Just get the Enhancer installer which downloads the latest .ini file with definitions and you’re done – you can quickly reclaim more disk space in the C:\ drive!
7. Delete System Restore Points
System Restore files could be occupying considerable size in your hard disk partition and it makes sense to delete all these restore points except the latest one. You can use More Options in the Disk Cleanup utility to accomplish this. If you have CCleaner installed, you can use the System Restore cleaner from the Tools tab and remove individual system restore points quite quickly. The Disk Cleanup utility could help you gain more disk space by permanently deleting hibernation and other temporary files.
8. Look at the disk usage graph
The quickest way to find what’s hogging your hard disk is to deploy a disk usage graph. Install any one of these tools, and you can instantly see the amount of space used by the files and folders in your hard disk as neat and pretty graphs. These tools also give you an option to trash these folders immediately. Your only other choice is to use the Symlinks workaround mentioned above, in case you just don’t want to remove them from the partition.
9. If you don’t want to fiddle with any of these methods, just resize the partition using a partition manager like Easeus. That’d do the trick.
Utilities, Windows OS 