Have you had any issues with your Nexus 7? We’ve run into quite a few problems and fixed them all – from bad performance and touch-screen responsiveness issues to tablets that won’t power on and separating screens. Some of these problems may not be common – or may be fixed with newer hardware or software updates — but they’re all problems we’ve run into. We’ve collected the solutions here so you don’t have to dig through forum posts....

In the last part of our mini-series, we look at enabling Search and getting rid of the Shutdown Event Tracker. Many programs rely on search, including Microsoft Outlook, lets take a look at how we can enable it. Before proceeding, make sure you read parts one through three of the series. In which, we cover setting up Server 2008, enabling themes, and turning on the Sound settings. RELATED: Using Server 2008 R2 as a Desktop OS: Installation and Setup (Part 1)...

Experian and many other companies are pushing “dark web scans.” They promise to search the dark web for your personal information to see if criminals are selling it. Don’t waste your money. What is the Dark Web? The “dark web” consists of hidden websites that you can’t access without special software. These websites won’t appear when you use Google or another search engine, and you can’t even access them unless you go out of your way to use the appropriate tools....

How Amplification Works Before we go into what sets integrated amplifiers apart, we need to understand how amplification normally works. And when talking about amplification, we need to talk about the signal chain. This is the route that the audio follows from your source device all the way to the speakers or your headphones. The source could be a turntable, CD player, streaming network player, or even just your phone. Whatever the source is, the overall volume is very low and needs to be cranked up significantly before you hear it....

What Is Stack Smashing? Working as a quality assurance engineer, one will sooner or later run into the term stack smashing. As a developer, one will likely discover this term even earlier, especially if one has introduced a bug into the code, which causes a smashed stack. It is relatively easy (as in ‘somewhat easy’) for a developer to make a mistake that introduces stack smashing. As a user, when you learn about stack smashing, the damage is likely done already....

When formatting partitions on a Linux PC, you’ll see a wide variety of file system options. These options don’t need to be overwhelming. If you’re not sure which Linux file system to use, there’s a simple answer. The Quick Answer: Use Ext4 if You’re Not Sure We’ll get into the weeds and run down the difference between the various file systems in a moment, but if you aren’t sure: Use Ext4....

Chrome is Chrome, right? You download Google’s browser—now the most popular in the world—and you’d think you have the same experience as everyone else. But like most large software vendors, Google releases Chrome in differing “channels,” testing out features in more unstable versions before they get to the release build that hundreds of millions of people use every day. Whether you want to know what version number you’re on, what development channel you’re using, or whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit, the About page will tell you everything you need to know....

Free VPNs are too good to be true. You can download a variety of free VPN apps from Google Play or Apple’s App Store, but you shouldn’t. These apps aren’t worthy of your trust. How a VPN Works A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, encrypts all the traffic sent over your Internet connection and sends it to a remote VPN server. Everything goes through the VPN server. For example, let’s say you’re in the USA and you connect to a VPN server located in the UK....

Windows 11 introduced a new panel for widgets, providing easy access to information like weather, upcoming calendar events, and traffic data. Only Microsoft could make widgets, but that has now changed. Microsoft announced back in May that it was working on a way for third-party applications (software not made by Microsoft) to add their own widgets to the widgets panel on Windows 11. The company has now released a new preview version of its Windows App SDK, alongside Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 2517, which makes third-party widgets a reality....

We get tons of emails with every kind of technology and computer question under the sun. Today we’re answering some reader emails and sharing the solutions with you. Remove Over-Sized Shortcut Arrows in Windows Vista and 7 Dear Arrow Hatin’– Why are the shortcut arrows in Windows 7 so freaking big? I don’t remember them being so in-your-face back in earlier versions of Windows. What can I do to get rid of them?...

At DIY Photography they share a straight forward guide to building your own camera flash, including parts lists and schematics. The build itself is a pretty easy one if you have a few electronics projects under your belt. The only caution we’d throw out is that, because you’re working with flash bulbs, you’re also working with high voltage capacitors. This project includes a 450v capacitor which, under the really unfortunate circumstances, can accidentally discharge into your body and give you a heart attack–such is the nature of working with high-voltage electronics....

The History of Netflix and VPNs Netflix hasn’t always been so concerned about VPNs. In the first few years after people discovered that you could “hack” Netflix regions by using a VPN to connect to different countries, you did so undisturbed. Connecting to the United States and watching its much—much—better selection of TV shows was almost routine for a large number of users outside of the country, while American viewers would use a VPN to connect to European countries and their better selection of movies....

If you’re an Excel user, you’re also in luck, because we’ve already shown you how to turn a row into a column, or vice-versa. It won’t make you any less bored though. Convert a Row to a Column (or backwards) The first thing you’ll need is a column or a row of information that you want to convert into the opposite. For our example, we’ve got this set of data that we created by using the Auto Fill options in Google Docs....

If all the application did was show you detailed views of the night sky it would be pretty awesome based on that alone. Where Sky Map dazzles, however, is in linking together the GPS and tilt-sensors on your phone to turn your phone into a sky-watching window. Whatever you point the phone at, the screen displays. Want to see what stars are directly above you despite it being the middle of the day?...

When you create multiple columns in Word, they default to a set width. It’s easy to change that default width for each column. Let’s look at two ways you can do that. Set Up Column Width Precisely with the Columns Dialog Box When you set a Word document to use multiple columns, Word assigns a default column width that depends on the number of columns you choose. Here are those default widths:...

Whether we’re comparing Firefox to Chrome or testing the real-world speed benefits of a 64-bit browser, I see a lot of comments saying one browser feels faster. When people compare web browsers, they don’t usually perform rigorous benchmarks. Instead of trusting your gut and worrying about the placebo effect, use these browser benchmark tools to compare browsers. If you’ve seen news articles comparing web browser performance, this is usually all they do – run the browsers through these tests and create pretty graphs....

iOS 11 adds a new SMS filtering feature that allows you to automatically filter spam text messages in the Messages app. It works similarly to the call-blocking feature added in iOS 10. Once activated, you’ll have two tabs in your Messages app—one for real messages and one for “SMS Junk”. How It Works (and What You Need to Know About Privacy) RELATED: What’s New in iOS 11 for iPhone and iPad, Available Now...

Windows’ built-in firewall hides the ability to create powerful firewall rules. Block programs from accessing the Internet, use a whitelist to control network access, restrict traffic to specific ports and IP addresses, and more – all without installing another firewall. The firewall includes three different profiles, so you can apply different rules to private and public networks. These options are included in the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, which first appeared in Windows Vista....

Head over to the “Insert” ribbon and you’ll find that Microsoft Office gives some cover pages that you can use. Although, normally a cover page appears in the first page, Word lets you place the cover page anywhere in the document. If you don’t like any of these cover pages, you can always create a custom one. Let’s begin by opening a blank document, and make it pretty. Give it a good background color and put a great picture....

Earlier this week we showed you how to make the Gnome Panels totally transparent, but you really need some customized fonts and colors to make the effect work better. Here’s how to do it. This article is the first part of a multi-part series on how to customize the Ubuntu desktop, written by How-To Geek reader and ubergeek, Omar Hafiz. Changing the Gnome Colors the Easy Way You’ll first need to install Gnome Color Chooser which is available in the default repositories (the package name is gnome-color-chooser)....