How-To Geek

Whether you’re at work and forgot some file on your home computer, want to play some music on a train, or just want to move some files between your computers, accessing your files from anywhere is a life saver.

Imagine you have a Windows PC with a single user account, and you just lost your password. Here’s how to enable the hidden Administrator account with nothing more than the install CD and some registry hacking magic so you can reset your password.

Every file on your computer has a timestamp, which contains the access and modification time for a file, but did you know that you can change that timestamp? Here’s how to do it.

Using the command line seems rugged and unpleasant, but Linux has a way to ease things up and help you get things done with the command line by allowing you to use aliases to customize how you type commands.

If you have missing GPG keys you’ll get an error like the one above in the screenshot if you are using Synaptic Package Manager and a similar one if you use the terminal. “Launchpad-getkeys” is a script that imports these missing keys automatically.

Whether you want to listen to music on your smartphone or watch movies on your iPad, you may need to convert you media files from one format to another depending on what your devices support.

Usually making Ubuntu mount a partition at startup would require fiddling with the “fstab” which is confusing. The easiest way to mount your partitions automatically when you turn on your computer is by reading this article. So let’s get started!

By Default, Ubuntu uses apt-get to install packages and updates. Apt-get is a good tool but you can get much faster download speeds using Apt-Fast when downloading and updating your Ubuntu box.

Your desktop doesn’t have to be a boring graveyard for lost and forgotten files anymore! Transform it with BumpTop into 3D desktop that help you keep organized. Like a real desk. Create the desktop that suits your needs and style.

The new Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal uses a Global Menu which puts the applications menus (File, Edit ,View…) on the top panel. In Firefox, this also removes the Firefox menu button in the upper left corner of the browser window. If you liked that menu button and would like to get it back then you are lucky because it can be done in just 2 easy steps!

Obviously this isn’t terribly useful, which is exactly what makes it a Stupid Geek Trick. Either way, it’s a good learning experience to better understand how your OS works.

Windows DreamScene was a great feature in Windows Vista, which allowed you to put videos as desktop wallpapers but unfortunately it was replaced by a slideshow feature in Windows 7. Here’s how to get it back.

Want to change your login screen? Don’t know how? You might think it’s very hard and requires super-geeky skills but it’s really simple and you won’t believe how easy it is to do it. Keep reading for the easy instructions.

We’ve already shown you how to customize your Ubuntu installation and make it look like Windows 7, and now we’re back to show you how to turn Linux into a Mac OS X lookalike in just a couple of minutes.

Ubuntu has pretty good theming system, visual effects, and eye-candy stuff, but you may love the elegance of Windows 7 Aero class, transparency, or the Start Menu. Today we’ll show you how to transform Ubuntu to look like Windows 7.

We all know Grub2 is the default bootloader for Ubuntu, but it isn’t the prettiest bootloader ever. Since we also know that Ubuntu is highly customizable, this week we’re going to show you how to beautify your bootloader.