If you have a lot of data stored on your Windows 8 PC’s search can be a lifesaver when looking for the desired thing in huge chunk of data. Thanks to the many search improvements in both Windows 7 and Vista, searching for files is easier than ever. Windows 8 harnesses the search improvements done in both windows 7 and Vista by bringing out great search enhancements to it.

But lack of “Start” menu button has created problem in finding out files, settings and installed applications in Windows 8 and if you are also finding difficulty in checking out the data then you have come to the right place. Few methods to use search feature of Windows 8 will be explained below.

How to Search Using “Search” Charms Bar

There are several ways to open the Search Menu in Windows.

1.    Do either step 2, 3 or 4 to open Search and then use the step 5 to search.
2.    If you are on the Start screen and have a keyboard connected, then you could just start typing anything.

• Go to step 6.

(Note: You could press the Windows key to go to the Start screen.)
3.    3rd option is to open the “Charms Bar”. To open the charms bar point your mouse pointer in the right hand bottom or top corner of Windows Desktop. This will bring up the Charm bar. Click Search.

• Alternatively you can press Windows Key + C to bring up the Charm bar.
• Go to Step 6.

4.    Open the “Power User Tasks Menu” (Windows Key + X), and click on Search

• Go to Step 6.

5.    As you start to type anything in the search box, you will see your recent search history display below it to make searching for these again easier by just selecting it.
6.    As you type what you want to search for in the search box, you will see how many items to the right in apps, settings, and files that match your search. You can click on “Apps, Settings, or Files” to view the specific search results in each one of them.
7.    The “Apps, Settings and Files” in Search Start Screen are three main search options. By using them you can filter your search results which range from applications, settings and files.

• Press Windows Key + Q and start typing immediately to search for Apps.
• Press Windows Key + F and start typing immediately, to search for Files.
• Press Windows Key + W and start typing immediately, to search in Settings, Metro settings and Control Panel.

With this approach users can focus on a particular search task like launching an app, searching for a video, or searching the web without results from other apps getting in the way or degrading search performance.

How to Search using Windows Explorer
1.    Open Windows Explorer by pressing Windows + E keys and release, and then navigate to the folder or drive you want to search in and open it.
2.    Click in the search box in the top right corner in Windows Explorer to have the Search Tools appear.

• (Note: You will also see your recent search history display below the search box to make searching for these again easier by just selecting it.)

3.    You can use the Search Tools to modify and fine tune your search results before and after typing what you want to search for in the search box.
4.    This is all.
Search in Windows 8 is very powerful and convenient. It offers you just the results you need when you need it. The visual enhancements makes finding what you need fun and easy.

You can share a printer over the internet. And you can do all this without any admin intervention or setting up and modifying any firewall/router permissions. You can either use a software name “PrintShare” to get this job done but now a new alternative “Google Cloud Print” is available which is better than “PrintShare”. Here we will discuss them both as “Google Cloud Print” is still in Beta phase.

Sharing Printer Using Print Share:

• First we download the software from http://www.printershare.com/. There are separate download links for Windows, Mac and Mobile as well.
•  Once Downloaded open the software to install it.
• Once you open the installer you will see the welcome to setup screen simply hit Next to continue the installation.
•  Next window will be to setup a “PrintShare” account. If you have an account already simply check d 2nd option and enter your id and password but check the first option if you are new. After selecting the option, simply hit next.
• On clicking next you will see a Signup form. Simply fill it with correct information and that is all you are done with the installation after that simply click next and Install.

Now let’s take a look at how to configure our remote printing.

• Open the software once it’s installed. Once opened you will see your user number (which you will need to connect from the remote client) at the top and all your installed printers.
• Highlight the printer you want to share and hit the share button.
• Now for others (Clients) to access your printer they need the ID (User number) and Pass.
• Note:  The Pass will be in your mail account which you used to sign up.
•  Just install the software on other PC but now you will have the ID and Pass just enter it during the setup and that’s all. Once installed open the software.
• Hit “Find Printers” after opening the program. And enter you “User Number” and hit find. It will show you the shared printer on the client.
• Now this printer will appear as shared printer in the program and you can use it to print documents.
• Any program that can print will be able to use this shared printer without any difficulty.
• The PrintShare will print a small advertisement with each print and if you want your prints to be add free then you have to pay 20$.

The last point is the reason the “Google Cloud Print” is becoming a more preferred options for Printer Sharing.

Sharing Printer Using Google Cloud Print:

When compared to PrintShare, “Google Cloud Print” is a much easier alternative. After you share your printer with someone, they can print to it from their web browser – you can even print to your own printer from a browser if you’re away from your computer.

Setting up Cloud Print

• You’ll need the Google Chrome web browser installed to set up Cloud Print. After it’s installed, launch it and open its Options page.
• Click over to the “Under the Hood” tab and scroll down, you’ll find the “Google Cloud Print” option hidden near the bottom.
• Click the “Sign in to Google Cloud Print” button and you’ll be asked to register your computer’s printers with your Google account.

Sharing the Printer

• Click the “Manage Your Printers” link after registering your printers to access the Cloud Print website. You can also access this page by clicking the “Manage Print Settings” button next to Google Cloud Print on the “Under the Hood” page.
• The main window here shows a list of print jobs, but you won’t have anything here yet. Click “Printers” in the sidebar and you’ll see a list of printers on your current computer.
•  Select a printer and click the Share button to manage its sharing settings.
•  Type an email address of the person with whom you want to share into the box and click Share.
• Google Chrome must be open on your computer so it can forward incoming print jobs to your printer. Don’t worry, though — if Google Chrome is closed or your computer is turned off, print jobs will be saved in Cloud Print’s queue online. They’ll start printing automatically the next time you launch Google Chrome.

Accepting the Shared Printer

The person you share the printer with can sign into their Google account and access the Google. They’ll see an indication that they have a new printer.

• First, they’ll have to accept the shared printer.
• The printer will appear in their list — a face icon superimposed over the printer’s icon indicates that it’s a shared printer.

Printing a Document

The person you share the printer with can click the Print button and select “Upload File to Print” to upload a file from their computer and print it on your printer.

Disk space matters a lot, if you are running short of disk space then it’s important that you should consider removing unnecessary files, programs, and features, so as to avoid consuming more space. And doing so will increase your PC performance. Some options will be discussed below to get the job done on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Files that Usually Consume Space over time:

Over time your hard drive will certainly become cluttered with files you either no longer uses, or never really needed in the first place. These files include:

1. •    Temporary Internet files
2. •    Recycle bin contents
3. •    Windows temporary files
4. •    Unused system restore points
5. •    Unused programs
6. •    Downloaded program files

By getting rid of these files and freeing up space on your hard drive you’ll improve your PC’s performance.

How to do free up Space in Windows XP:

1. •    Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. •    Select the drive you want to clean (usually C).
3. •    On the panel that displays you’ll see two tabs: Disk Cleanup and More Options.

•    Disk Cleanup Tab XP
Disk Cleanup displays a selection of file categories – select those you wish to delete and click OK – Disk Cleanup will remove them from your computer.
Tip: by clicking on a file category you can read a description of that file type in the lower half of the panel.

•    More Options Tab XP:
More Options allows you to remove unused Windows components, installed programs and system restore points.

1. •    Clicking the “clean up” button in Windows Components will display a separate panel where you can select various components and proceed to delete them.
2. •    Clicking the “clean up” button in Installed Programs opens the Add or Remove Programs window (which you may have accessed in the past through Control Panel). Select the programs you want to uninstall here.
3. •    Clicking the “clean up” button in System Restore will present a yes/no confirmation box. Click yes to delete old restore points.

How to do free space in Windows Vista/7:

1. •    Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. •    You’ll be asked whether you want to clean up only your files, or files from all users of that computer. Choose all users.
3. •    If your computer has more than one hard drive, select the drive you wish to clean.
4. •    The Disk Cleanup panel now shows and you should see both the Disk Cleanup tab and the More Options tab.

•    Disk Cleanup Tab Windows 7
Displays a selection of non-system file categories – select those you wish to delete and click OK.
If you wish to also delete system files, click the “Clean up system files” button, select the files you wish to delete and click OK.
•    More Options Tab Windows 7
In windows 7, as opposed to XP, this tab only displays two options:
Programs and Features – allows you to uninstall programs.
System Restore and Shadow Copies – allows you to delete system restore points and shadow copies of files associated with restore points.
Stay Clean
Running the Disk Cleanup utility every month (more often if you use the internet a lot) will help to keep your computer running more efficiently by freeing up hard drive space and preventing the buildup of unwanted files and programs. If this was of any help to you, do let us know in comments. Cheers!

Anyone who installs windows 8 will feel that it’s completely different from previous windows and users will have hard time getting used to it.
Anyone who uses notepad knows how to open it in previous windows but it’s a bit different in Windows 8 due to changes in Start Menu.
Let’s says that you want to save a text file and you open the start menu but u notice that programs and sub programs menu is gone and is replaced by Start Screen.

Number of ways you can use if you don’t know anything about the new Start Screen:
•    Start the “Task manager”, than run the command prompt from there. Then just type notepad at the prompt.
•    The other way is by using Windows Explorer, navigate to the Windows Directory, system32 and double click it. (While in Explorer, set show hidden and show extensions in folder options.)

Proper ways to Open Notepad in Windows 8:
•    Move your mouse over the start button and then into the bottom left corner. This brings up the new short menu. It has from top down, Settings, Devices, Share, and Search.
•    Click the Apps button at the bottom and you get a list of all installed apps and applications in alphabetical order. And there’s notepad.
•    Once you have found it you can start it or pin it to the start page, or pin it to your task bar.
Or
•    On the Metro Start screen, type: notepad
•    Notepad will appear on the left of your screen
•    Click Notepad to open it
Note: If you type in “note” it does not find it. You have to type in the complete name “Notepad”.

You may not care if your Wi-Fi is password-protected or not, but let me tell you, hackers can use your Wireless network to gain access to data on your computer. Moreover, if they download videos and stuff off of the internet using your Wi-Fi, it will decrease your internet speed considerably. So, securing your Wi-Fi is important. Make use of following tips for doing so:

• Use encryption. Select the wireless security mode by enabling WPA, WEP, WPA2 or WPA2 encryptions, WPA2 being the best and strongest encryption. WEP encryption can easily be cracked using simple tools like Aircrack.
• Make sure your Wi-Fi network is password protected. Keep this in mind, if your Wi-Fi is not password protected, it is NOT illegal for your neighbors to use it. Choose a strong password for securing your network.
•  You can alter your Wi-Fi settings in such a manner that allows access only to known devices and prevents unknown devices from connecting to Internet. It is done by using MAC address filter. Your laptop, mobile phones, tablets and all such devices have a unique MAC address. In settings, go to wireless Mac filter section and add Mac addresses of all your devices. Now, access to your Wi-Fi will only be granted to these devices. It is not an absolute solution to your problem as hackers can clone Mac address of a known device. But still you can use it to reduce risks.
• If you don’t know the Mac address of your computer, type “ipconfig/all” in the command prompt and look for the string “Physical address”. Look the settings page for Wi-Fi Mac address of your mobile device.
• Use daunting and intimidating SSID (network name). This will discourage Wi-Fi thieves stealing your internet. Here is a good example I came across: c:\virus.exe. Scary much? Well this is just an example. You can come up with your own scary names.

Okay, this might sound weird and a bit silly, but believe me it WORKS. At least it does for non-techie neighbors. To change SSID, go to router’s admin console and rename your device in Basic Wireless Settings.

•  Determined hackers will try to break your encryption and password anyways. The best way to secure your Wi-Fi network is to set your router not to broadcast the SSID (your network name). Disabling SSID broadcasting makes your wireless internet invisible to devices. People who know your network’s name will be able to gain access to Wi-Fi only.

Procedure of disabling SSID is different for different routers. Check manual provided with router for instructions.
Using these instructions, you can reduce the risk of Wi-Fi theft up to 85%. If these tips are of any help to you, tell us. Share with us in comments if you have other tips to secure Wireless Network.

Google Chrome users appreciate its ease of use, services it provides and speed. But the memory consumption of Chrome has been quite a complaint. It uses a lot of your hard drive space. Though it is because of its built-in crash proof features, but still its memory usage is absurd and annoying. Well, you are not completely helpless about your computer’s memory if you are a Chrome user; following tips will help you minimize the memory consumption of Google Chrome.

1.  Avoid using extensions. Although extensions make sites like YouTube, Google + etc. available at one click but they consume so much memory. Instead, use bookmarklets and userscripts. Bookmarlets are souped-up versions of regular Chrome bookmarks and they don’t take additional memory. Moreover, they can be easily handled using Chrome bookmark sync feature. Userscripts are also a good alternative of extensions as they don’t use memory space of their own, so make use of them to enhance your favorite sites. To remove an extension, go to settings> Extensions. Click “Remove”.
2. Chrome is a multi-process browser. For each tab, it runs a separate process. But Chrome supports other process models as well. Chrome has following settings to handles each process: Process per tab: An independent process runs for each open tab. Though it makes the browser stable but it consumes a lot of memory.

Process per site: Runs per process per unique website. It is the default model. For example, if a user is running Yahoo mail in one tab and Facebook in other tab, there will be two Google tabs running in the same process.

Single process: All open tabs run in a single process, thus freeing up memory for other applications. So, this is what we are actually looking for. To run Chrome in a single process, create a shortcut of Chrome. Open “Properties” tab.  Got to “Target” box and edit it like this image.

Similarly, you can create shortcuts for Process per tab and process per site models too, to handle your browsing in three ways.

3.     Add a purge memory button to Chrome task manager. This method frees up a little bit unused memory; about 10 MB.

To add a purge memory button, go to “Properties” of Chrome. Go to “Target” box and add -purge-memory-button after “C:Program FilesGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe”.

“

Now while using Chrome, open Task Manager (of Chrome, not of Windows) by going to Settings>tools>task manager (or simply click Shift+ Escape) and you will see a purge memory button.

Google Chrome task manager gives all the information of RAM consumption; how many tabs, extensions and plug-ins you are using and how much memory they are utilizing. You can check from here which component is consuming much of the memory and close it.
For this, go to task manager of Chrome (by pressing Shift+ escape). Task manager window will pop-up. Select the page you want to close. Click “End Process”.

4.  Chrome may save images, videos and other data in cache for ease of access. It also takes up memory, so clear cache to free up some space. Go to “Tools” and select “Clear Browsing Data”. Delete all data by selecting “Beginning of Time”. Click clear browsing data.

Using above tips, you can use chrome any way you want, controlling the memory consumption. If you know other ways to make Chrome use less memory, feel free to share with us in comments.

You own a Facebook page and you want to transfer the administration to someone else? Well it is not hard if it has other admins to replace the creator. Simply follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Login to your Facebook account which holds that fan page using your email address and password.
2. In the top right of the screen, click “Account”. Then select option “Use Facebook as Page”.
3. Select the page which you want to transfer the administration of.
4. Click “Edit Page”, followed by “See All” in administrator box in the right pan.
5. Type the account email address of the person you want to transfer administration to.
6. Click “Save Changes”.
7.  You will see that in administrator box, there are two accounts as admin.
8.  If you want to completely transfer the ownership to the other person, remove your name from admins and you no longer will own that page. Or simply unlike the page.

Make sure the person you want to hand the page over is a fan of the page, or friends with you. Otherwise an error would appear and you will not be able to transfer the administration.

Search Engine Optimization a.k.a SEO is a process of getting free, organic, editorial or natural listing on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo etc. It improves the visibility of your blog in search results, giving you maximum benefit and opportunity to attract a lot of traffic. Thus, it is a significant thing to make your blog successful. If you are searching for some tips for writing a SEO rich blog post, following lines might help you:

1. Select proper keywords. It is the main tool to enhance the article. Select 2 to 3 words included in the article. Make use of Google Adwords tool to select keyword.
2. Use right percentage of keywords. About 2% to 6% is sufficient for SEO. If you go below this, your content will not be that powerful. If you go above this percentage, your blog will be labeled as spam and will be abandoned. Moreover, repeating a word over and over again reduces the quality of your post. Use WordPress words density checker plug-in. 0.5% to 5% keyword density is a significant feature of SEO rich blog post.
3. Keep a difference between Post title and Meta title. Post title is for readers and Meta title is the one visible to search engines.
4. Try to interlink your blog’s content. Use keywords within the articles for interlinking, instead of using “Click here” and “Go to”. You can use Insight Plug-in to interlink your blog’s posts.
5. Keep in mind; if your content is original, it will automatically attract readers. Try to make your posts interesting and original; it will help you rank better. Try using simple but good words for SEO rich blog posts.
6. Your posts should be in a flow. Write in steps so that user can understand the whole procedure.
7. Your Blog will be ranked well if there are more than 100 posts on it.
8. Make use of H1, H2 and H3 tags and highlight the keywords. This makes Google keyword Catcher pick the words on priority.
9.  Image names and alt attributes (specifies an alternate text for an image; provides alternative information for users who, for some reason, cannot view the image) are also very important for SEO rich blog posts.
10. Remove stop words from Permalinks. Permalinks are actually derived from Post title. Permalinks with stop words are not optimized for Search Engines.

Using these tips will, for sure, help you write SEO rich blog posts. Leave your valuable comments below. Do share with us if you have more tips to make a blog successful.

Skype provides you a platform to make calls to your friends and family absolutely for free using your internet connection. Free national and international audio/video calling and instant message service of Skype is now available for Windows, Linux, Android, Mac, iOs, Symbian and Java mobile handset.

All you need is Skype, a microphone, a web-cam (for a video call) and an internet connection. With Skype version 5 (and onwards), you can also make video conversation with your Facebook friends. Group video call is another interesting feature of Skype.

Get Skype

Skype Ltd. provides an online installer that connects to the internet to download files. An installer, basically, is partial installation software, about 1 MB in size. When you run it, the installer downloads rest of the files to complete installation. It is rather annoying because it requires both time and internet connectivity (quite a problem for dial-up users). Moreover, during installation it urges the users to install third party toolbars and some applications too.

To avoid all this, make use of Skype offline installer. Skype offline installer is a complete set up, using which you can download Skype on your computer even when your internet connection is disabled. It saves bandwidth and time because you don’t have to download additional data before installing Skype. This installer can also be used to install Skype on several computers/laptops without having to download all the data gain and again.

To download full standalone offline Skype installer, go to this link:

Download Skype Offline

Launch the offline installer by double clicking it to begin setup. A screen will appear with all the terms and conditions. Click “Accept”. In the next few steps, simply click “Next”.

Choose the language and click “I agree- install”. You can leave the checkbox “Yes, I want to install browser highlighter” unchecked. Click “Next”.

Finally click “Finish” to end the setup. Skype is ready to use. Enjoy free calls and instant message service it provides.

Note:

Remember This installer installs only the latest version of Skype. To install an older version, you will have to find some other source.

A “blog” is an abbreviated word for web-log. It is a web-based journal in which people can publish their thoughts and opinions on the Internet and which is the most effective way to share nowadays. People can visit the blog, leave their comments and share views about it.

But how to start your own blog? Fortunately, starting a blog site is an easy task. You do not need to know anything about web development to start blogging. You can create and manage your blog site using some of the free blogging providers already available out there. Follow these basic steps if you are interested in creating a blog:

Steps to Create Blogs:

1. Find a decent blogging provider that appeal to you. The most popular providers include web-hosting.pk, LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress , Xanga, Tumblr and Webs. These sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don’t require much technical know-how.
2. After you choose the provider you want to choose, next step would be to sign up at their site.
3. Once you sign up, you’ll have a gallery of ready-made templates to choose from. With these, you can pick a color scheme and layout for your blog.
   • Most sites come with a set of predefined layouts and schemes that you can choose from. Select one and personalize it. Then add your name, interests, images, etc.
   • If you want to, get a more unique template, there are some sites up that have many of these that might make it look better. For example, PimpMyProfile or Pyzam.
4. Add blogging freebies like buttons, images, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards (for example, myshoutbox.com), guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers’ input, etc. (well these are things which you will learn once you go to those sites).
5. And if you want more features then there are other sites that offer more features but for a price of course. (But as a start I will suggest to use the free providers first to get use to blogs)
6. Decide whether you want your blog to be private or public: Do you want any Internet visitor to be able to read your blog, or do you just want your friends and family to be able to read it? Most blog sites offer the ability to password-protect your published posts so only those who you approve of can view what you’ve written.
7. After you’ve set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit. At first, it will seem tough to figure out what to write, but once you get into a routine of daily blogging, you will find it addictive. Write about your day, your thoughts, events, ideas, fears, pleasures, the news, current affairs, art, or anything you are interested in!
8. Visit other blogs to build a blogging circle. When you leave comments, add your blogging address so they can visit you too. (Note: This will not work if your blog is private)
9. Publish your blog by sending the URL to your friends or publish the URL on your website. Add the URL to posts you make on other blogs.

Enjoy what you have created.