How-To Geek

If you download a lot of apps from the Windows 8 Store, install your own programs, and pin those programs to the Metro Start screen, the screen can become a mess. However, you can group tiles on the Metro Start screen and label those groups.

After cleaning out files on your hard drive, you may be left with a bunch of empty folders you want to delete. Rather than finding them manually, wouldn’t it be easier to use a tool that can find them for you and delete them?

We’ve been told many times how important backups are, although we may not realize it until it’s too late and our data’s gone. You can backup your PC’s data to external media, but free online backup services provide useful redundancy that could save your data.

This week we have a list of fun websites for you. Playing games can help relieve stress and provide a break from work. The following are some websites we found offering free online games, freeware games for download, or games you can purchase.

Have you noticed your usually speedy IE9 browser slowing down, or even crashing on you? Unnecessary plugins, extensions, and even browsing data can slow your browser down to a crawl, or make it crash. Here’s how to fix it.

If you have a thirst for scientific knowledge, there are many websites that can start to quench that thirst. From news about scientific discoveries to resources for teaching science, you can find a wealth of scientific information on the web.

If you work on a computer all day, you might forget to get up now and then to stretch. To avoid your neck seizing up and your eyes bugging out, you can set an alarm to remind yourself to get up every so often.

Have you noticed your usually speedy Firefox browser slowing down, or even crashing on you? Unnecessary plugins, extensions, and even browsing data can slow your browser down to a crawl, or make it crash. Here’s how to fix it.

Do you always have a lot of tabs open in your browser? If your browser has crashed on you causing you to lose your open tabs, or you’ve accidentally closed the browser, don’t panic. There is a solution.

When was the last time you listened to over-the-air FM radio? There are so many options on the internet for listening to thousands of different radio stations in many different genres and for downloading a lot of music for free.

Tabbed browsing is a fairly new concept. Not that long ago, if you wanted to view a website, but didn’t want to leave the website you were currently viewing, you had to open a new window. Firefox was the first to make tabbed browsing popular.

If you have a specific set of websites you visit often, you can make it easy to open all those websites at once using a bookmarks folder and a nickname. Typing a folder’s nickname in the address bar opens all the websites in that folder.

Have you noticed your usually speedy Google Chrome browser slowing down, or even crashing on you? Unnecessary plugins, extensions, and even browsing data can slow your browser down to a crawl, or make it crash. Here’s how to fix it.

Recently, we published an article that showed you how to always show the startup dialog when you open Opera, which allows you to specify what’s displayed when Opera opens. You can also specify what happens when you close Opera.

We recently published a list of websites where you can download free eBooks, or purchase, borrow, or rent eBooks. However, if you would rather listen to your favorite books, here are some websites offering audiobooks you can download, rent, or purchase, some free, some not.

If you’re a fan of documentaries, there are many sites where you can watch them for free. The following is a list of sites we found, some of which allow you add comments about the films and even allow you to download the films.

Opera provides several options for what displays when you open the browser. You can start with your Home page or Speed Dial, continue with the same tabs and windows from your last session, or continue with a session saved in Opera’s built-in session manager.

By design, Metro apps in Windows 8 are not meant to be shut down, because you wouldn’t normally shut down apps on a phone or tablet. Therefore, you won’t find an exit command or a close button, like you’re used to.

So, you’ve got yourself an eBook reader, smartphone, tablet, or other portable device and you want to put some eBooks on it to take with you. There are many options for obtaining free eBooks as well as purchasing, borrowing, or even renting eBooks.

Have you thought about expanding your knowledge by taking some courses? There are several colleges and other sites that offer free online courses, certificate programs, some degree programs, and education resources for teachers and professors.

The context menu in Windows provides a convenient place to start programs, access websites, and open folders. There are several ways to add programs to the menu including a registry method and a free tool.

You probably have an RSS reader you really like and several feeds you follow. We encountered a situation recently where we had a Twitter feed for free eBooks (HundredZeros), but no RSS feed on the website and no RSS button on the Twitter feed.

Podcasts, or webcasts, are shows about many different topics that are broadcast over the web and broken up into parts, or episodes.  You subscribe to podcasts and new episodes are automatically delivered to you as they are released.

If you use the Desktop context menu often, wouldn’t it be useful if you could add program shortcuts to it so you can quickly access your favorite apps? We’ve shown you how to do this using a quick registry tweak, but there’s an easier way.

If you use Internet Explorer 9, we have many tips and tricks for you to improve your web surfing experience, from customizing the interface to using the many features, and to make your time online more secure with IE9’s many security and privacy enhancements.