There are a number of reasons one might want to delete their Google Chrome Sync data. Regardless of the reason why, there’s one simple place to do it from, though it might not be obvious. To kill your sync data, Open Chrome and navigate to: Now scroll down to the Chrome sync section: Now click on the Stop sync and delete data from Google link: You will now be given a warning message that you are deleting all your information that is being synced, from the Google servers....

If you work on multiple computers, you probably cart your data and portable programs around on a USB flash drive. Wouldn’t it be handy to have an easy-to-use portable method of storing and accessing your private files? We have previously shown you how to use TrueCrypt to protect data on a USB flash drive. When you run TrueCrypt in Traveler Disk mode, you need to have administrator rights on the computer you are using....

The Windows clipboard is like a scratch pad used by the operating system and all running applications. When you copy or cut some text or a graphic, it is temporarily stored in the clipboard and then retrieved later when you paste the data. We’ve previously showed you how to store multiple items to the clipboard (using Clipboard Manager) in Windows, how to copy a file path to the clipboard, how to create a shortcut to clear the clipboard, and how to copy a list of files to the clipboard....

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. Photo by jeff_golden Free Audiobooks There a lot of free audiobooks available on various sites, some in the public domain and some from independent authors....

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. When you enter a host name in a browser to visit a website, that host name is looked up in DNS servers to find the IP address. If you enter IP addresses and host names for websites you visit often, these websites will load faster, because the hosts file is loaded into memory when Windows start and overrides DNS server queries, creating a shortcut to the sites....

In this four part mini-series we are going to look at using Server 2008 R2 as an everyday operating system. In this article we will help you get the OS installed, install the Windows Desktop Experience and get your wireless working. Editor’s Note: this is obviously a very geeky topic, and the average user would want to stick with Windows 7. If you do a lot of server maintenance and other tasks, however, it could be useful to run Windows Server as your desktop....

What Are Computer Threads? To explain a race condition, we first have to understand a little about how computers work internally. When you use an operating system, you will take various actions like opening a command terminal window, opening a browser, etc. Each of those actions will result in a reaction by the operating system to start a new computing/computer thread. A thread is a computing/computer process that will execute/run the various steps (programming steps, originally written in source code format and regularly compiled by a compiler) required to execute the task you asked the operating system or software running on it to perform....

What Is a Server? To figure out what a VPN server is, we first need to take a look at regular servers. A server is a computer that is connected to a network and provides information to it. Right now, for example, you’ve made a connection from your computer to How-to Geek’s web server: your computer requested this exact page, the server looked around its files and then came up with this page....

As October winds down, it’s time for another Chrome release. Version 107 of Google’s popular browser arrived on October 25, 2022, and it includes further work on some under-the-hood features to make your web browsing safer. Continuing with User-Agent Reduction Chrome’s big 100th release marked the beginning of Google’s plan to reduce the information in user-agent strings. This information tells websites what kind of device and OS you’re using, but it can also be used to build a profile about you....

Check Your Data Connection WhatsApp relies on the internet to function, so you’ll need an active data or Wi-Fi connection to use it. If WhatsApp is not connecting on your device, start by checking whether your device is connected to the internet. You can quickly confirm this by opening another app that requires the internet, such as Netflix or YouTube, or by firing up the web browser and opening a website, like howtogeek....

If you’ve been worried about whether you’d be able to play Apex Legends on your Steam Deck, you no longer need to worry, as the game has officially been verified to work on Valve’s Linux-based handheld gaming PC. You can see the full list of verified games on the Steam Deck website. The recently verified games are at the top of the page, and Apex Legends is right near the beginning of the list....

Once a week we round up some of the reader questions we’ve answered and share them with everyone; this week we’re taking a look at setting up file transfer drop zones, installing XBMC on the iPad, and setting up a console emulator. How Can I Setup Simple Drag and Drop File Zones On My Computer? Dear Drag and Drop, I have widescreen monitor and in the space allocated to for the widget sidebar, I’d like to have set up some of that space to serve as a file drop zone of sorts....

Can I Connect To Multiple Wi-Fi Nodes At One Time? Dear Wi-Fi Binder, Is there anyway to connect to multiple Wi-Fi nodes at one time using a single Wi-Fi card in order to merge the connections and boost speeds? Sincerely, Wi-Fi Binder While it is possible to do what you’re asking, the return on investment is pretty low in nearly all circumstances. There is an old and unsupported package from Microsoft, for example, that allows you to tune your Wi-Fi card to multiple access points at one time....

With the M 70 PRO X, it seems Beyerdynamic is aiming at the juggernaut of broadcast mics—the Shure SM7B. Like that microphone, this is a front-address dynamic mic with its own mount. The main differences are that the M 70 PRO X is cheaper and comes with a shock mount instead of the standard mount the SM7B uses. Beyerdynamic’s mic looks the part, but is the sound and build quality up to snuff?...

We don’t do a whole lot of book reviews around here, but after buying this book and reading it, there was no way I could keep from sharing it with you, the geeky readers. Even if you don’t cook, you definitely eat, and you’re a geek, right? Read on! I’ll admit, I’ve got a not-so-secret passion for food and everything else food-related, so when I found a book that explained how it all works “under the hood”, explained it all from a geeky angle, and then gives you hacks to help save time—it was a done deal....

Once a week we dip into the tips box and share some of the gems we find there. This week we’re looking at how to easily generate secure passwords with a personal algorithm, upgrade the font rendering in Windows, and manage your Android volume more effectively. Generate Secure Passwords with a Personal Algorithm Pat writes in with the following tip on generating secure but easy to remember passwords by using a personal algorithm:...

Did you know that you can find out which operating system a networked device is running just by looking at the way it communicates on the network? Let’s take a look at how we can discover what operating system our devices are running. Why Would You Do This? Determining what OS a machine or device is running can be useful for many reasons. First lets take a look at an everyday perspective, imagine you want to switch to a new ISP who offers uncapped internet for $50 a month so you take a trial of their service....

Creating animations from scratch in Photoshop might seem daunting, but in fact, they’re very simple. Fire up Photoshop and grab some of your files. It’s time to annoy the pants off of your friends with lots of animated GIFs! We’ve talked about some simple ways to turn video and Youtube rips into animated GIFs, but today we’re going to show you how to make a simple animation without using any video files....

Word has a handy feature that automatically formats what you type, as you type it. This includes changing quotes to Smart Quotes, automatically creating bulleted and numbered lists, and creating hyperlinks from web addresses. However, what if you have an existing document you want to automatically format? The AutoFormat feature in Word not only works on text as you type it, but it’s also available on demand to format an entire existing document....

Linux has a lot of eye-candy because of Compiz, my favorite of which is the window opacity plugin. Using a short AutoHotKey script, you can add that same functionality to Windows 7. I used this AHK script as a basis for changing opacity. It uses a single hotkey to change the active window’s transparency by 25% each time until it resets to 0. I wanted functionality similar to Compiz, so I modified the script to use the mouse wheel and shortened the increments to get more variety....