How-To Geek

We always hear how important it is to backup your data, but do we think about backing up our web-based email? We have shown you how to backup your Gmail account using programs in Windows, but what if you are using Linux?

Do you perform a lot of calculations and mathematical functions on your PC? Tibi’s Mathematics Suite is a free package of useful mathematical applications that go beyond the Windows calculator and allow you to perform useful mathematical functions on your computer.

Do you sometimes wish that you could use Microsoft Word’s more useful features, such as auto-complete, automatic spelling correction, and Autotext, in other programs in Windows? PhraseExpress is a free program that allows you to do just that.

If you have accidentally deleted files from your Windows computer or from an external USB drive, memory card, or other external storage device, there’s an easy way to recover those files using a free program.

Do you need to convert meters to feet often? Or, quickly find out how the US dollar currently compares to the Euro? We have collected many convenient options for quickly and easily doing unit and currency conversions, both online and offline.

Do you need to send someone sensitive information through email? Regular email is sent “in the clear” and therefore is subject to interception by hackers. However, there are many options for sending private, sensitive information securely through email.

One of the nice things about Firefox is that it is completely customizable. We recently showed you how to change the look of the orange Firefox menu button. You can also customize the items available on the menu itself by adding, removing, and rearranging the options.

Do you get tired of looking at the orange Firefox menu button? Firefox’s interface is completely customizable, so you can change the color, text, and other properties of the Firefox menu button to create your own custom look.

Are you a puzzle geek? Does it relax you to sit down and solve a crossword puzzle, Sudoku puzzle, or word search? If you can’t get enough puzzles to solve, we’ve collected some links to sites that will provide many hours of puzzle-solving fun.

When you install an add-on in Firefox, a confirmation dialog box displays with a countdown on the Install button. Many people find this annoying and would like to disable the countdown. However, it is there for good security reasons.

Most browsers are moving towards a minimalist approach and are consolidating menus, toolbars, and other program elements. If you want to maximize the website viewing area, and you use Firefox, there is an option for optimizing the space available in your browser window.

Last week, we published a list of websites for sharing photos with friends and family. Of course, you can also share your photos by emailing them, but many email services impose a limit on the size of files you can send.

Need to send sensitive information through email? Normal email messages can be intercepted or hacked before reaching the recipient. However, you can use a free extension for Google Chrome, called SafeGmail, that allows you to send encrypted emails to anyone.

Now that the holidays are over, you probably have a lot of photos taken of family and friends. Want easy ways to share those photos? Facebook is a popular option for photo sharing, but what if your family and friends are not on Facebook?

We at How-To Geek appreciate all our readers and hope you have learned new and interesting things from our many articles. We’ve collected the top 25 articles published on How-To Geek in 2012.

Are you a writer? Or a word geek? If you write anything or play word games, dictionaries, thesauruses, and other reference tools can come in handy. We’ve found some useful offline and online tools for looking up words, finding synonym, or building words in Scrabble.

Robocopy, or “Robust File Copy,” is a command line directory replication tool from Microsoft. It is available as part of Windows 7 and Vista as a standard feature, and was available as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit.

If you often open a lot of applications at once, a virtual desktop program can help you keep all those windows on your desktop organized. A virtual desktop program allows you to put open applications into separate virtual desktops, cutting down on your desktop clutter.

We’ve all had programs crash on us in Windows at one time or another. You can take the time to manually start the program again, or you can have a simple program like ReStartMe restart it automatically for you.

If you’ve used Linux, you’re probably familiar with the virtual desktop feature. It provides a convenient way to organize programs and folders open on your desktop. You can switch among multiple desktops and have different programs and folders open on each one.

Note: We write and schedule our articles far in advance. We certainly didn’t specifically mean to publish this post a day after yet another shooting. That said, video games don’t cause these incidents.

We’ve published a lot of articles about Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 and the programs in the suite. This article compiles many useful tips for Office, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and a few links to articles about the latest version, Office 2013.

The hosts file in Windows contains mappings of IP addresses to host names, like an address book for your computer. Your PC uses IP addresses to find websites, so it needs to translate the host names into IP addresses to access websites.

With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to pull out the holiday card list and get writing. However, how would you like to save some money this year and also help save the environment?

If you use iOS or Android devices, you’re familiar with the drag-and-drop method of creating folders. If you like that method of grouping files, you can get the same functionality on your Windows PC using a free utility, called Smart Folders.