Ask anyone who uses Windows 8 on a standard laptop or desktop (not a tablet), and they’ll tell you the key to getting along with Windows 8 is ignoring as much of the new interface as possible. The standard desktop is still there under all that “Modern” interface.

Where’s the Desktop?

When you first log in to Windows 8, you’ll see the new full-screen Start screen. New “Modern” apps that you can install from the Windows Store only run in this full-screen environment.

We’ll get to that later, though. For now, the most important thing you need to know is that the traditional Windows desktop is still there and can still run all your old software. To get to the desktop, all you have to do is click the Desktop tile on your Start screen. You can also press Windows key + D to launch the desktop.

Note that, if you purchased a Windows RT device, the desktop can’t run all your old desktop software — but you probably purchased a Windows 8 device. Windows RT devices are very unpopular, with the exception of Microsoft’s Surface RT.

Where’s My Start Button?

Now you’re at the desktop, which should look very familiar. It’s the Windows 7 desktop, but with a variety of improvements like a better task manager, improved file copy dialog, and built-in time machine backup. However, you’ll notice that there’s no Start button anymore.

The Start button is actually present, but hidden. You can make it appear by moving your mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen and clicking. This opens the Start screen you were at earlier. You can also easily launch the Start screen by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard.

To launch an application from the Start screen, click its shortcut like you normally would — desktop apps appear here, too. You can also start typing at the Start screen to search your installed applications, just like on the Windows 7 start menu. To view all your installed applications, right-click somewhere on the start screen (not on a tile), click All apps at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll see your installed programs.

The Start screen is essentially the successor to the Start menu — think of it as a full-screen start menu. Applications you install will gain shortcuts on your Start screen, so you can arrange these shortcuts as you like. You can also use the search feature to quickly launch apps.

To make things easier, you should pin applications you use to the desktop taskbar — when they’re running, right-click their taskbar icons and select the Pin option. You can then easily launch the applications from your taskbar without opening the full-screen Start screen and leaving your desktop.

How Do I Shut Down?

Note that the hidden Start button isn’t the only special “hot corner.” You can also move your mouse cursor to the top or bottom right corners of the screen and then move it towards the center edge of the screen to access the “charms.” For the most part, you shouldn’t need to access these charms unless you use Modern applications. However, the Shut Down and Restart options are located under the Settings charm.

Don’t worry — there are many other ways to shut down your Windows 8 computer, including with its physical power button.

Move your mouse cursor to the top-left corner of your screen and you’ll access an app switcher that only works for “Modern” apps, not desktop ones — you don’t need to use that unless you’re using the new, Modern-style apps.

Do I Have to Use All This New Stuff?

As far as the Start screen and Modern apps go, you only have to see the Start screen when you log in. You can then use your computer normally, avoiding it as much as possible and using desktop applications. Pin application shortcuts to your taskbar and you won’t need to use it for launching apps. Modern apps are more suited to tablets than typical desktops and laptops.

Microsoft doesn’t give us an option to boot to the desktop or use a traditional start menu, but you can do this anyway. Install a third-party Start menu like the popular Start8 and you’ll have a traditional desktop that appears when you log in. There will be a delay before your desktop appears, however. These Start menus can also easily disable the hot corners for you, allowing to have a more traditional-style desktop.

Windows 8 makes much more sense on a touch-enabled computer, but you probably haven’t purchased a touch-enabled machine as they’re much more expensive — most people are still buying computers without touch support. If you have a touch-enabled Windows 8 machine, check out our printable cheat sheet to Windows 8′s touch and mouse gestures.

For more in-depth information on getting to grips with Windows 8 — including how to use the new Modern environment with all those Windows Store apps — check out our free Windows 8 guide.

Do you have any other questions? Feel free to ask! And in case you have already mastered Windows 8, share your own tips for upgrading to Windows 8. what was your greatest challenge?

The post Upgrading to Windows 8? Get Settled In Faster with these Tips appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Luckily, Windows 8 isn’t yet a locked-down mobile operating system, no matter how hard Microsoft is trying to make it into one. While many features are missing from Windows 8, you can still get them back. Most important features can be restored with high-quality alternatives, but replacements for other features — like the Windows 7 Aero theme and Windows Classic theme — are nowhere near as polished as Microsoft has removed the necessary theming code.

Start Menu, Unified Search & Boot to Desktop

Windows 8 removed the Start button and traditional Start menu, opting instead for the Start screen, which functions as a sort of full-screen Start menu. You also can’t boot directly to the desktop in Windows 8, nor can you use unified search to search programs, settings, and files at once, like you could in Windows 7.

All of these features can be returned to Windows 8 by installing a third-party Start menu like the popular Start8, free Start Menu 8, or traditional ClassicShell. There will be a delay before you see the desktop every time you log in — Microsoft added a delay to hinder people who try to boot to the desktop as they want you to see the Start screen every time you log in.

DVD Playback

Windows 8 can no longer play DVDs out-of-the-box. While you can re-purchase DVD support from Microsoft by purchasing the Windows 8 Pro Pack and then the Media Center Pack, this will cost you over $100 in total. Luckily, you don’t have to do that. Just install the free VLC media player to play DVDs on Windows 8.

Note that, if you purchase a new computer that comes with a DVD drive, the computer likely comes with included, licensed DVD playback software that you can use to play DVDs without downloading anything else.

Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center is no longer part of Windows 8. If you love Windows Media Center and want to keep using it, you’ll have to upgrade to the Professional version of Windows 8 and purchase the Media Center Pack. You can do all this from within Windows 8, but it will cost you over $100 in total. You could also try using a different media center application like XBMC instead.

Solitaire, Minesweeper & Other games

Windows 8 removes Solitaire, Minesweeper, and the other games included with Windows that procrastinating office workers everywhere depend on. You can install Modern versions of Minesweeper and Solitaire from the Windows Store. If you really love the desktop versions, you can install the desktop versions of Solitaire and Minesweeper on Windows 8 — although this will take some work.

Windows Desktop Gadgets

Desktop gadgets were removed from Windows 8. Microsoft says they’re insecure — a desktop gadget is a program and can modify your system like any other program. This is true, but means that desktop gadgets are just as insecure as any other desktop program. If you love desktop gadgets, you don’t have to go without. You can easily install desktop gadget support in Windows 8.

Parental Controls

The parental control feature found in previous versions of Windows is now gone. It’s now replaced by Microsoft Family Safety, which is integrated with Microsoft accounts, gives you a web-based administration console, emails you reports about your children’s internet use if you like, and adds many other new features.

Windows Aero Glass

The transparent, glass-like Windows 7 theme is also gone. You can get some transparency with a tool like Aero8Tuner, but don’t bother. This doesn’t work very well and, even if it did, Microsoft removed the blur effect so it’s not as slick-looking as it is in Windows 7. Microsoft went out of their way to strip the Windows Aero theme engine out of Windows 8.

Windows Classic Theme

The Windows Classic theme has been removed. You can approximate it by using a user-created Windows Classic theme, but it’s nowhere near the same. This theme is essentially a tweaked version of the High Contrast theme, as many elements of the default theme can’t be tweaked.

You can also install a variety of other interesting third-party themes for Windows 8 if you don’t like the included theme. This requires overriding the protection against installing third-party themes on Windows 8, just as it did on Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Do you depend on another feature that’s missing in Windows 8? How did you get it back? Leave a comment and let us know!

The post 8 Features Missing in Windows 8 and How To Get Them Back appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Steam has gradually added features you once needed third-party programs for. You can now choose an install location every time you install a game, see the games you and another person both own (perfect for deciding a game to play together), and get email notifications when games on your wishlist go on sale.

Steam Mover – Move Installed Games

Steam now allows you to select an installation location when you install your games, which is particularly useful if you have limited storage space — perhaps you have a small solid-state drive and a larger drive where you want to install your games.

However, if you want to change the installation location of a Steam game after installing it, you’ll normally need to remove the game and then install it again, downloading all the game’s data again in the process. This could take a while and could be a problem if you have a slow Internet connection or one with a bandwidth cap.

Steam Mover is a simply utility that can quickly move a game’s files, creating a “junction point” so Steam will see them at the normal location – but they’ll be stored on another hard drive.

Depressurizer – Easily Manage Steam Game Categories

If you’ve ever tried to categorize your games in Steam, you’ll know that it can be an exercise in frustration. You can only assign a category to one game at a time, and you have to do it by opening a context menu, opening a dialog box, and assigning the category. You can’t easily categorize multiple games at once. If you want to rename a category, you can’t – you can only create a new category and slowly reassign each individual game to the new category one-by-one. Worse yet, Steam can sometimes forget these categories when you log in from another PC, forcing you to start over and do the whole tedious process from scratch.

Depressurizer is a tool designed to make using Steam categories much more easily. The application allows you to automatically assign games to categories like “Action” and “Adventure” based on their categories in the Steam store, quickly assign a category to multiple games at once, rename categories, and even create a backup file containing all your Steam game category information. You can quickly reimport this file with Depressurizer if Steam ever forgets your categories again.

Wasted on Steam – See How Much Your Library Is Worth & More

Just how much is your Steam library worth? Wasted on Steam will tell you. This utility won’t actually tell you how much you’ve spent on games – if you acquired games on sale or via bundles like the Humble Bundle, Wasted On Steam will show them at full price. Likewise, if you purchased a game at $60 but it’s now being sold for $20, the game will appear to be worth less now.

Nevertheless, this utility will show you just how much you’d have to spend to buy your entire Steam library again today. Just enter your Steam ID and it will do the work. It will also display how many hours you’ve played games in total, display sales, and more.

How Long To Beat, Backloggery – Track Your Backlog

If you’re one of the people with Steam game libraries composed of hundreds of games – many of them purchased in cheap bundles during sales – you may have quite a backlog of games you haven’t played yet.

You can track this backlog with a website like How Long to Beat. Enter the Steam games you want to play and How Long to Beat will show them all in a list, displaying the time it took for other users to complete the game. It will even add them all up, telling you just how long you’ll have to play your games to catch up. How Long to Beat can also be used without an account — you can quickly search for a game and see how long it will take you to finish it.

Backloggery is another similar service. There’s even a steam2backloggery program you can run, which will automatically import all the games you own into your Backloggery library.

Both of these programs aren’t Steam or even PC-specific – they can be used with games from every platform.

TikiOne-Steam-Cleaner – Free Up Space

Steam games often need to install “redistributable” packages like DirectX updates, Games For Windows Live, and so on. Games include these installer files and automatically install them the first time you launch the game.

After you’ve run them, they stick around on your hard drive, using up space. Worse yet, every game comes with its own unique copy of these files. If you have a large amount of games installed, it’s likely much space is being used by unnecessary duplicates of these installers, which may be as large as 100MB each.

TikiOne-Steam-Cleaner will scan your Steam folder for such installers and allow you to quickly remove them, freeing up space. It’s a good idea that can help free up space, but there’s a problem – if the game ever updates or if you run the “verify game cache” option on the game, Steam will notice that some of the game’s files are missing and re-download them.

GameSave Manager – Back Up & Restore Game Saves

Many – or even most – new games include Steam Cloud support for game saves. They’ll automatically upload your game saves to the cloud, syncing them across all your devices and allowing you to recover them if you ever reformat your hard drive or get a new computer.

However, some games don’t include Steam Cloud support for game saves. You might also want to have local backup copies of saves for games you’ve played, just in case Steam makes a mistake and messes them up. This is even useful if you’re migrating Steam to a new hard drive – not all game saves will come with you.

GameSave Manager is a program that scans your hard drive for Steam game saves and allows you to create a backup file containing them. You can then use GameSave Manager to quickly restore all your game saves from this single file on a new computer. GameSave Manager also allows you to link save folders to cloud folders, so you could link a game’s save folder to your Dropbox or Google Drive folder and automatically sync its saves with your cloud storage.

Have you used any other useful utilities or websites that improve your Steam experience? Leave a comment and share them below!

The post 6 Useful Tools For Getting More Out Of Steam Games appeared first on MakeUseOf.

To do this, you’ll need the popular Titanium Backup. You don’t need the paid version, the free version will do — but you do need to have a rooted device to do this. If you’re not rooted, we have another app that will dramatically speed up your app-uninstalling process anyway.

Use Titanium Backup to Batch Uninstall Apps

Titanium Backup has a way to uninstall multiple Android apps at once — no tapping a confirmation dialog over and over — but it’s well-hidden in Titanium Backup’s confusing interface.

To do this, you’ll need to be using a rooted device. If you are, you can install the free Titanium Backup app from Google Play — the paid, pro version isn’t necessary.

Launch Titanium Backup and grant it root privileges. Once you have, tap the Menu button in its interface.

On the menu screen, locate the General category and tap Batch actions under it. This screen contains a wide variety of actions you can perform on multiple apps at once — everything from backing them up to restoring them, freezing them, and clearing their caches.

Scroll down to the Un-install section on the Batch actions screen and tap the Run button to the left of Un-install all user apps.

Don’t worry — this won’t automatically uninstall all your apps. The option is just confusingly named.

You’ll now see a list of all your installed users apps (this doesn’t include system apps). All of the apps you’ve installed are selected by default. if you want to get rid of them all, great — you can have a completely default device and start over from scratch.

You probably don’t want to do that, so tap the Deselect all button to uncheck all the apps.

Scroll through the list and select all the apps you’ve like to uninstall by selecting their checkboxes. When you’re done, tap the green checkmark button at the top-right corner of the app to uninstall all the apps you’ve selected.

Titanium Backup will now automatically uninstall all the apps you’ve selected without any additional confirmation. It uses its root access to do this — apps can’t normally do this sort of thing because of Android’s security model.

Batch Uninstall Apps Without Root

If you don’t have a rooted Android smartphone or tablet, this isn’t as easy. You can’t actually skip the confirmation messages without root access.

However, you can still speed things up. To more quickly uninstall apps if you’re not rooted, use the Easy Uninstaller app. It will display a list of your installed apps and allow you to check off individual apps you want to uninstall. The apps are sorted by their size, so you can see which apps you should uninstall to regain the most storage space.

Select the apps you want to uninstall and then tap the Batch Uninstall button. Easy Uninstaller will pop up a confirmation box for each app you want to uninstall. You’ll still have to tap OK to each confirmation box, but this is much faster than uninstalling multiple apps the normal way — no additional screens and waiting.

Of course, if you’re a real pro, you could use the adb utility to uninstall multiple apps after connecting your Android device to your computer and enabling USB debugging. The exact command you’ll need is “adb uninstall.” This method isn’t for casual users, but it wouldn’t require root and could be useful if you wanted to batch uninstall apps from multiple phones — you’d just have to run the same command after plugging in each individual phone.

If you’re looking to free up more storage space on our phone, be sure to check out our guide to freeing storage space on your Android device.

Do you have any other tips for quickly installing multiple Android apps without the confirmation screens and annoying delays? Leave a comment below and share them!

The post The Clean Droid: How To Bulk Uninstall Android Apps You Don’t Use appeared first on MakeUseOf.

This feature is easy to set up if you have an Android 4.2 device. It’s a useful feature not found in Apple’s competing iPad, making it easy to leave a tablet lying around and share it with your significant other, children, or anyone else. Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets also have multiple user accounts — Apple’s iPad is the only device that hasn’t caught up.

Note that Android 4.2 does not offer multiple user accounts on smartphones, only on tablets.

Creating Multiple User Accounts on Android 4.2

To get started, open the Settings screen on your Android tablet and tap the Users option under the Device category. If you don’t see this option, your device isn’t running Android 4.2 or above.

Tap the Add User button at the top of the screen to create a new account.

Note that the first user you already set up on the tablet is considered the “owner.” They have the ability to delete any user’s space from the tablet, while other users can only delete their own spaces.

You’ll see an informational message about user accounts. If the other person who will use the account is nearby, you can hand them the tablet and they can begin the setup process by entering their Google account and other information. They’ll go through a setup process just as they would when setting up a new Android tablet. If the other person isn’t nearby, you can leave the user account alone and they’ll be able to go through the set up process the first time they log in.

Using Multiple User Accounts

Once you have multiple user accounts enabled, you can switch between them by tapping the icons at the bottom of Android’s lock screen. if the user has a PIN or password set, they’ll need it to log into their account — this prevents unauthorized people from accessing the user’s account.

To “log out,” simply lock the tablet’s screen or allow it to time out as normal — from the lock screen, other people can switch to their user account and sign in.

Only three users can be “active” at a time. Active user accounts will sync in the background, so every user’s email and other data will always be ready when they go to use the device. If you have four accounts, the least recently used user will be considered “inactive” — the three accounts used most recently will be considered active accounts and will sync.

You can manage user accounts — changing icons, renaming them, deleting accounts, and creating new accounts — from the Users screen in Settings. You can also set an “owner info” message that will appear on the lock screen from here.

But I Don’t Have Android 4.2!

Let’s say you have a tablet running Android 4.1 or older and you really want multiple user accounts. You have some options, but they’ll all probably cause you problems.

• Android 4.1 contains a hidden multi-user feature that can be enabled with root access. However, we don’t recommend this — Google has said the feature was disabled for a reason in Android 4.1 and it will likely cause problems if you enable and use it. It’s an unfinished feature in Android 4.1.
• SwitchMe is an app that purports to add multiple user accounts to any device running Android 2.1 or later. Your tablet will need to be rooted to do this. The app has mixed reviews. Let’s be honest — this app is a dirty hack over Android and will likely cause you problems. The experience is not as smooth, and reviews indicate that you’ll have to reboot each time you change user profiles.

We don’t recommend using any of the above tricks. If your tablet is still running Android 4.1 or older, you may want to try looking for an installing a community-developed custom ROM (like Cyanogenmod) that will bring Android 4.2 to your device and give you multiple user accounts without any dirty hacks.

Do you use multiple user accounts on your Android tablet? Do you have any other tips and tricks to recommend? leave a comment below and let us know!

The post Two People, One Tablet: What Are Your Options? [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The Microsoft Fix It Center desktop program is no longer available for Windows 7, but Microsoft hosts a web page where you can browse all their Fix it solutions. This page allows you to locate a Fix It that will hopefully solve your problem and run it. You may also find Fix It programs suggested to you when you browse for help elsewhere on Microsoft’s website. For example, there are Fix It scripts for repairing your Internet Explorer settings, fixing Windows security settings, and more. We’ll find out whether Microsoft Fix It scripts are actually any good for fixing computer problems or whether you shouldn’t bother with them at all.

These Fix Its work on Windows 7, Windows Vista, and even Windows XP.

Help, My USB Drive Doesn’t Work!

To put our first Fix It to the test fixing a USB drive that failed to work, we:

• Inserted a USB drive and used the DISKPART tool to delete all partitions on it, making it unusable until it’s partitioned again.
• Disabled the USB drive device in the Device Manager.

After this, we ran the “Diagnose and fix Windows USB problems automatically” Fix It with the USB drive inserted. This Fix It did not find the problem, only recommending that we use Windows Update to install USB drivers.

To be fair, Windows Explorer itself prompts us to repartition the USB drive — so the only real problem is that the USB drive itself is disabled in the device manager.

We gave the Fix It service another chance to fix the problem by running the “Hardware devices are not working or are not detected in Windows” Fix It. This Fix It did find the problem.

Together, the two Fix Its found the problem, but they’re a bit too fine-grained. How is a user supposed to know whether the USB device isn’t functioning because of a USB problem or if it isn’t functioning because of a hardware device problem? You almost need to know what the problem is to choose the right Fix It — and if you knew that, you wouldn’t need the Fix It service. One Fix It that ran through all the related problems would work better.

Fixing Internet Explorer Problems

The Fix It service can’t check for problems with other browsers, but it can with Internet Explorer. It can theoretically set Internet Explorer’s settings to recommended ones.

To test this, we:

• Disabled the pop-up blocker.
• Disabled protected mode.
• Set the cache to it lowest possible value.
• Set an invalid proxy server, preventing IE from connecting to the network.

The Fix It service didn’t even make it past the invalid proxy server, failing to connect to the network and providing no help on solving the problem. However, to Internet Explorer’s credit, it noticed the invalid proxy server itself and suggested we disable it.

The Fix It service noticed all other problems and offered to fix them. However, don’t rely on the Fix It center to fix network problems, even if it’s downloaded directly to your computer ahead of time.

Internet Connection Problems

We were going to test the Fix It service’s ability to help you solve Internet connection problems, but we skipped this part — based on our test above, it wouldn’t even be able to contact the Internet and download the appropriate data. The Fix It service doesn’t even attempt to help you repair Internet connection problems if it can’t connect to the Internet. It gets a failing grade here, which is too bad as this would be a great use for Fix It tools.

Securing Windows

Microsoft offers a Fix It tool that promises to help make Windows more secure. To test this, we:

• Disabled the Windows Firewall.
• Disabled User Account Control (UAC).
• Disabled real-time protection in Microsoft Security Essentials, our installed antivirus program.
• Disabled checking for new Windows Updates.

The Windows Action Center started to complain about many of these changes, alerting us to them. We went ahead and ran the “Automatically fix Windows security settings to keep your PC safe” Fix It tool.

The Fix It tool prompted us to re-enable UAC and automatic updates. It also noticed that our antivirus was “not up-to-date” — not an ideal message, but at least an indication that something is wrong.

It didn’t notice any problems with the Windows Firewall at all, even though it was disabled. This is disappointing — there appears to be another Fix It that handles problems with the Windows Firewall, but we should be able to run the security Fix It and fix all security problems. This is the same issue as the USB and Hardware Fix Its above. They should be logically grouped together, but are separated to the detriment of users.

The Verdict

The Microsoft Fix It service isn’t perfect. In addition to not offering enough Fix it scripts, it isn’t robust enough to deal with network problems. It solved many of the problems we caused, however. To its credit, where the Fix It service failed — with an partitioned USB drive or an invalid proxy server — other parts of Windows noticed the problem and alerted us to it. However, you may have to run several related Fix It tools to identify and fix your problem.

The next time you have a problem, should you run a Fix It script you see on a Microsoft support site or even head to the Fix It center and look for one to help you? It certainly can’t hurt. Fix It does help. Unfortunately, it’s rather limited in what it can do.

Whatever your problem, you’re likely better off using the troubleshooter utilities included in Windows 7 and Windows 8, which can handle network connection issues and other more difficult problems.

To be honest, the Fix It utilities feel like a beta test for the troubleshooting tools found in Windows 7. This is a shame, as Windows Vista and Windows XP users would benefit from having more robust Fix It tools available. They’re also still advertised on Microsoft support sites, including to Windows 7 users.

Go ahead and run a Fix It tool if Microsoft suggests one — it can’t hurt and can only help. Unfortunately, given their limitations and the low number of tools available, you’re probably better off looking for help elsewhere than fixing your problems with the Microsoft Fix It service.

Have you had any luck with the Fix It service in the past, or has it been unable to solve your problems? Leave a comment and share your experiences!

The post Is the Microsoft Fix It Service Really Any Good? [MakeUseOf Tests] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

File History requires a removable hard drive or network share, as it can’t save files on your main Windows drive. This ensures that, even if your main Windows hard drive dies, your File History backup drive will still have copies of all your important files. This feature essentially replaces the Windows 7 backup feature in Windows 8 – the Windows 7 backup tools are still present so you can use them if you want, but Microsoft considers them outdated.

Enabling File History

You can open the File History control panel by pressing the Windows key, typing File History at the Start screen, selecting the Settings category, and clicking the File History shortcut that appears.

Connect an external hard drive to your computer and click the Turn On button to enable File History. You can also click the Select drive option in the sidebar to select the exact drive Windows should copy previous versions of files to. Using the Select drive screen, you can optionally set up File History using a network share instead of a hard drive connected directly to your computer.

Windows will save copies of the files in your libraries, desktop, contacts, and favorites to this location.

After clicking Turn On, you can choose to “Recommend this drive to members of your homegroup.”  This will automatically share it with computers in your Homegroup so they can use it as a network backup location for File History.

After you turn it on, you’ll see an indication that it’s saving copies of your files.

It’s that simple – Windows will now automatically save copies of your files every hour. If you disconnect your removable hard drive or the network share becomes inaccessible for a period of time, Windows will create a local cache of files to save on the drive when you next connect it.

You can customize the frequency of saving, size of this local cache, and other settings by clicking the Advanced settings link in the sidebar.

Excluding & Including Specific Folders

You can exclude specific folders and entire libraries by clicking the Exclude folders link in the sidebar of the File History control panel. Add folders and libraries you want to exclude from file history backups. For example, if you have many large video files in your Videos library and you don’t care about backing them up, you can exclude your Videos library to save space.

Bear in mind that only files in certain folders – your libraries, desktop, contacts, and favorites – will be backed up. To force another folder to be backed up, you can simply add it to one of your libraries.

From within File Explorer, select a library and click the Manage library button on the ribbon. Add any folders you want backed up to the library.

Restoring a File

Whether you’ve accidentally deleted a file or want to restore it to a previous version – perhaps you’ve saved over the original document – you can now get the file back from your File History backup.

You can get started with this in several ways:

• Open a File Explorer window, navigate to the folder that contained the file, and click the History button on the ribbon to view a history of files in that folder.
• Open a File Explorer window, select a file, and click the History button to view previous versions of that specific file.
• Click the Restore personal files link in the File History Control Panel.

You can use the arrows at the bottom of the window to switch between backups taken at specific times and choose the version of the file you want. After selecting a file, click the green Restore button at the bottom to restore the file to its original location.

Your file will be restored. If it would overwrite an existing file, Windows will ask you what you want to do

Have you made use of the Windows 8 “time machine” File Backup yet, or do you prefer another backup solution? Leave a comment and let us know!

The post Did You Know Windows 8 Has a Built-In Time Machine Backup? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The answers aren’t just helpful for leaning more about your computer — you may have to choose between a less-expensive CPU with fewer cores or a more-expensive CPU with more cores when buying a laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone. Knowing the difference between dual core vs quad core CPUs – and what it means for you – will help you make smart decisions when purchasing new hardware.

What Is a Core?

Each CPU “core” is actually a separate central processing unit, which is the part of the CPU that actually does the work. For example, a dual-core chip may look like a single CPU chip, but it actually has two physical central processing units on the chip.

Additional central processing units allow a computer to do multiple things at once. If you’ve ever used a single-core CPU and made the upgrade to a dual-core CPU, you should have noticed a significant difference in how responsive your computer is.

For example, let’s say you’re extracting an archive file and browsing the web at the same time. If you had a single-core CPU in your computer, web browsing wouldn’t be very responsive. The single core would have to split its time between web browsing and file-extraction tasks. If you had a dual-core CPU with two cores, one core would work on extracting the file while the other core did your web-browsing work. Web browsing would be much faster and more responsive.

Whether you’re doing multiple things at once or not, your computer is often doing system tasks in the background and you can benefit from additional cores to keep the operating system responsive. Applications can also be written to take advantage of multiple cores. For example, Google Chrome renders each website with a separate process. This allows Google Chrome to use different CPUs for different websites rather than using a single CPU for all browser-related tasks.

Clock Speed vs. Cores

CPUs have a clock speed – think of it as how fast the CPU does work. (That’s actually an imperfect analogy as the truth is a lot more complicated, but it will have to do for now.)

For example, Intel’s Core i5-3330 processor has a clock speed of 3 GHz and is a quad-core processor, which means it has four cores. All four cores in this Intel i5 processor are each running at 3 GHz.

Doubling The Cores Doesn’t Double The Speed

Many computer programs are single-threaded, which means that their work can’t be divided across multiple CPUs. They must each run on a single CPU. This means that doubling the cores won’t double their performance.

If you have a single-threaded application running on a 3 GHz quad-core CPU, that application will run at 3 GHz — not 12 GHz. It will use one core and the other three cores will sit idle, waiting for other tasks to perform.

Writing properly multithreaded applications that can scale across several CPUs at once is actually a difficult problem in computer science. It’s becoming a more crucial problem, as the future looks to be computers with more and more cores instead of fewer cores at faster and faster speeds.

Some applications can take advantage of multiple cores. Google Chrome’s multi-process architecture allows it to perform actions across several different cores at once. Some computer games can divide their calculations across multiple separate cores at once.

However, most of the applications you use are likely single-threaded. A quad-core CPU won’t run Microsoft Office twice as fast as a dual-core CPU. If all you do is run Microsoft Office, the performance might be extremely similar.

More cores help if you’re looking to do more at once or if you have a multithreaded application that can take advantage of them. For example, if you’re running several virtual machines while encoding video, extracting files, and doing other CPU-demanding things on your computer, an octo-core CPU may be able to keep up while even a quad-core CPU may stumble under such load.

Dual Core, Quad Core & More

Phrases like “dual core,” “quad core,” and “octo core” all just refer to the number of cores a CPU has:

• Dual Core: Two cores.
• Quad Core: Four cores.
• Hexa Core: Six cores.
• Octo Core: Eight cores.
• Deca Core: Ten cores.

Controlling & Monitoring Cores

You can actually control which running programs can use a core from the Windows task manager. Right-click a process on the Processes pane and select Set Affinity.

You’ll be able to select which physical CPUs (cores) the application can run on. You shouldn’t need to tweak this most of the time, although it can be helpful when you want to restrict a demanding application to certain cores or avoid bugs in old PC games.

From the task manager, you can also use the Performance tab to view the usage of all your CPU cores.

Hyper-Threading

Intel CPUs use a technology referred to as “hyper-threading technology.” With hyper-threading, each physical core presents itself to the system as two logical cores. In the screenshot above, we’re not using an octo-core CPU – we’re using a quad-core CPU with hyper-threading.

This improves performance to some degree, but a quad-core CPU with hyper-threading is nowhere near as good as an octo-core CPU. You still only have four physical cores, although some tricks allow them to do a bit more work at once.

Have a question of your own about how technology works? Ask us on MakeUseOf Answers! This article was inspired by several good questions on MakeUseOf Answers.

Image Credits: Nao lizuka on Flickr, Installing computer CPU on a motherboard via Shutterstock

The post What Does “Dual Core” & “Quad Core” Mean? [MakeUseOf Explains] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Of course, a controller isn’t just useful for playing games on your television. Some types of games — 2D platformers, for example — cry out to be played with a controller. One of the PC’s strengths — whether it’s running Linux or Windows — is offering a variety of options for controlling games.

Connecting an Xbox 360 Controller

The Xbox 360 controller has a USB connection, so you can plug  it into your Linux PC’s USB port, just as you would on Windows. On most Linux distributions — including the latest versions of Ubuntu — the Xbox 360 controller should work without any more tweaking required.

You can test if the Xbox 360 controller is working by opening a terminal and running the following command:

dmesg | grep xpad

If you see information saying the xpad driver was registered, you’ll know that the controller has been recognized by your Linux system.

The Xbox 360 controller is recognized using the “xpad” kernel driver. You may want to Google the name of your Linux distribution and “xpad” for instructions on making it work if it doesn’t.

Assuming the controller is working, you can now fire up games that support it and play them. For example, you can launch Steam, click the Big Picture icon in the top-right corner, and use the controller to navigate through Steam’s Big Picture mode and launch games.

Whether a game supports the controller will depend on that game’s developers. Some games will respond to the controller immediately — for example, it works fine with Valve’s free-to-play Team Fortress 2. Some games will have configuration screens where you can configure them to acknowledge your controller. Some games disappoint by ignoring the controller and providing no configuration options.

The controller should work particularly well with the wide variety of emulators available for Linux. They’ll all allow you to customize the input controls you use. Emulators have always been one of the highlights of gaming on Linux.

Connecting a Wireless Xbox 360 Controller

Unfortunately, a wireless Xbox 360 controller doesn’t communicate over standard Bluetooth, so you can’t pair it directly with your Linux PC. (You can’t pair it directly with a Windows PC, either.)

To connect a wireless Xbox 360 controller to your Linux PC, you’ll need the same Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver adapter you’d need for a Windows PC. Just plug the adapter into your computer’s USB port and you should be able to use the wireless controller normally. The wired controller is better-supported by Linux’s drivers, so you may run into a few issues with the wireless controller — but it should work.

Playing Unsupported Games, Using Other Xbox 360 Controllers, and More

Let’s say you want to use your Xbox 360 controller with a game that doesn’t support it. On Windows, you’d use joy2key to remap the controller’s inputs to key presses, allowing it work in games that only respond to key presses.

On Linux, you can do this by installing the xboxdrv driver. This driver provides many more configuration options as well as support for other Xbox 360 controller, such as ones made by Logitech and other companies. You can easily install it on Ubuntu by running the commands on its web page.

xboxdrv provides an extreme amount of options, including the ability to tweak everything about the controller’s input, create startup scripts that launch games with special options that allow you to create per-game controller button-to-key remappings, and more. You’ll find a huge amount of information on the xboxdrv manual page.

The Xbox 360 controller is probably the most compatible controller out there at the moment, so it’s one of the best choices for playing games on Linux. When Valve finally releases their own dedicated controller for their Steambox consoles, this may change — but the Xbox 360 controller is where it’s at for now, whether you’re gaming on Windows, Linux, or even Android.

Have you ever set up an Xbox 360 controller on Linux? Do you have any other tips, or do you prefer another controller? Leave a comment and share your experience!

The post Connect Your Xbox 360 Controller To Your Linux Gaming Rig appeared first on MakeUseOf.

We’ll be using a wired Xbox 360 controller for this. It’s the most popular controller used by PC gamers for a reason, as it offers a standard USB connection and can be used with both Android devices and PCs with no additional configuration required — just plug it in and go. We’ll also offer some tips for using other types of controllers you may have lying around, including Wiimotes, PlayStation 3 Sixaxis gamepads, wireless Xbox 360 controllers, and Bluetooth controllers.

Connecting an Xbox 360 Controller to Android

Using a game controller with Android is actually pretty simple. All you’ll need is:

• A wired Xbox 360 controller.
• A USB OTG cable, which can be purchased on Amazon and elsewhere for under $2.

USB OTG stands for “USB on the go.” It’s essentially a tiny adapter cable that contains a full USB plug at one end and a micro USB connector on the other end. It allows you to plug standard USB devices into your Android phone or tablet, including USB drives, mice, keyboards, and Xbox 360 controllers.

This should be plug-and-play on newer devices. We did this on a Nexus 7, and everything worked with no additional configuration required. On an older device, you may need to use USB/Joystick Center to make this work — see the last section of this article for more details.

Playing Games

You can now fire up games that support controllers and play them with the controller. Some games may have a settings screen where you can select between controller and touch controls, while some games will respond to the controller immediately. For example, Riptide GP offers such a configuration screen, while Sonic games respond to the controller immediately.

The controller works surprisingly well with Android. You can even use it to navigate through your home screen and launch games and other apps, something that can’t be done with an Xbox 360 controller on the Windows desktop. Some games won’t respond to the ABXY buttons and will require you to depress the right thumb stick to perform an action — such as jumping in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 — while some games work fine with the A/B/X/Y buttons — such as Sonic CD for Android, which allows you to jump by pressing A.

The controller even works with many games that offer no indication they support controllers. For example, the controller works well with Super Hexagon, which was a pleasant surprise. Be sure to experiment with the controller in your games — you never know what games it will work with. You can also look for lists of games that support controllers online.

Using a Controller with Unsupported Games

It’s possible to use an Xbox 360 controller with unsupported games on Android, just as you can use a controller with unsupported games on Windows. To do this, you’ll need to be using a rooted device. Most people recommend the USB/BT Joystick Center app as the most convenient solution for setting this up, although it will only work on certain devices and certain ROMs. Be prepared for some tweaking if you opt to go this route.

Wireless Xbox 360 Controllers

Using a wireless Xbox 360 controller is also possible, although it isn’t quite as easy. To do this, you’ll need the same Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Dongle that you’d use to connect your wireless controller to a PC. You can then plug this wireless dongle into the USB OTG cable and connect the dongle to your tablet.

This will be enough to make many emulators and games work. However, some games won’t work with this setup. You can find a solution to make the wireless Xbox 360 controller work with more games on the XDA Developers forum. The solution is intended for the Nexus 7, but may work with other Android devices. View it here.

Bluetooth, Wii, and PlayStation Controllers

• Bluetooth Controller: Any Bluetooth gamepad can be paired with your Android device using its standard Bluetooth pairing options — no wires required.
• WiiMote: Check out our guide to connecting your WiiMote to your Android device.
• PlayStation 3 Sixaxis Gamepad: You’ll need to be using a rooted Android device. You’ll then need to install the Sixaxis Compatability Checker app to verify your device is compatible with your controller, use the SixaxisPairTool app on a Windows PC to pair your controller with your device, and then install the Sixaxis Controller app on your device.

For some great Android games to try your controller with, check out our list of the best Android games.

Have you connected a game controller to your Android device? Did it go this easily, or did you need to do more tweaking? Is there a controller that works better than the wired Xbox 360 controller? Leave a comment and share your experiences!

The post How To Connect a Game Controller to Android For Console-like Gameplay appeared first on MakeUseOf.

These comments can be improved with browser extensions, replacing them with intelligent or amusing quotes. You could also just rip all the comments out entirely.

Translate Comments To Herp Derps

The Herp Derp extension will convert all YouTube comments to herp derps instead of hiding them completely. This extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Don’t worry about missing any important information when you use this extension — YouTube comments might as well contain “herp derps” for all the value they offer. If you haven’t heard of the “herp derp” meme yet, Know Your Meme defines it as “an expression used to indicate that someone is unintelligent or making ignorant statements.” That certainly seems appropriate for YouTube.

You can click a YouTube comment to read the original comment, but, according to the add-on’s author, reading an original YouTube comment is “highly discouraged.”

Replace Comments With Feynman Quotes

If you really wish YouTube comments were more intelligent, you can install the FeynComment user script. It works in both Chrome and Firefox – you’ll find installation instructions on the Userscripts website.

FeynComment replaces all YouTube comments with quotes from famed theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. With Feyncomment, the comment section on YouTube will become a serious, intelligent discussion of science and physics. Even if you just see these comments out of the corner of your eye, they’ll fill you with a sense that your fellow human beings are intelligent people having a discussion about the nature of reality rather than bickering and cursing over the latest popular music video on YouTube.

Replace Comments With Nietzsche Quotes

Available as both a Chrome extension and Firefox extension, NietzscheDerp goes another direction by replacing all YouTube comments with quotes from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s quotes can be rather bleak, so they somehow seem perfectly at home in a YouTube comment section. It’s as if all YouTube commenters have fallen into a malaise after being exposed to YouTube comments for so long.

Convert Profanity into Yuletide Cheer

It may not be the holiday season, but YuleTube works year-round. This extension, which is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, converts profane comments into festive expressions of goodwill. As the extension’s website says, it will “turn the troll‘s comments from naughty into something nice.”

With Yuletube, a YouTube discussion about Justin Bieber becomes a discussion about a chubby little elf. Mean comments become cute lines like “I bet every reindeer who gets into TV…”. You’ll wish your fellow men and women goodwill instead of being overcome by misanthropy. It’s the perfect pick-me-up to ensure you don’t become a Grinch in the holiday season, but it’s preferable to the original comments at any time of year.

Remove Them All!

The most obvious way to improve YouTube’s comments section is by getting rid of it entirely. Just install the No YouTube Comments extension for Chrome or Comment Snob for Firefox. No YouTube Comments hides all comments entirely, solving the problem in just a few clicks. Comment Snob for Firefox is pickier by default, opting to filter comments based on the number of spelling mistakes, capital letters, and excessive punctuation they contain. You can tweak these filtering rules in the add-on’s options or just tell it to hide all YouTube comments completely.

French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once famously said that “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Removing comments brings YouTube that much closer to perfect.

Of course, YouTube comments aren’t the only blasted wastelands of intelligence on the web. Other websites with comment sections — particularly news websites — can be as bad or even worse. To get rid of comments on other websites, try the Shut Up extension for Chrome, which allows you to toggle comments on and off on various popular websites. it will remember your choices, so you won’t have to see comments the next time you visit the same website.

What’s your favorite way of dealing with YouTube comments? Leave a comment and let us know how you handle YouTube comments without going insane. (Don’t worry, our comment section is nowhere near as bad as YouTube’s! We wouldn’t tolerate that.)

The post 5 Ways To Improve YouTube Comments appeared first on MakeUseOf.

In reality, there are lots of good reasons to be skeptical of operating system upgrades. Ask anyone who installed Microsoft’s Windows ME over their Windows 98 systems and was unable to use Windows ME’s shiny new features because their computer started blue-screening all the time (this happened to me!), This is an example of why upgrading for the sake of upgrading isn’t a good idea.

This doesn’t apply to security updates such as the ones available via Windows Update, of course. You should always install security updates as soon as possible.

Missing Features

New versions of operating systems and other software may remove features you depend on in your current operating system. One of the most recent and significant examples was Apple’s iOS 6. iOS 6 removed Google Maps, which many users depended on, and introduced Apple’s “most powerful mapping service ever,” which offered much less coverage throughout most of the world and no public transit directions.

iOS users who upgraded immediately and found Apple Maps wasn’t good enough were left scrambling for a decent mapping app, with James temporarily switching to an Android phone just so he could use Google Maps.

iOS users who hung back and stuck with iOS 5 because it suited their needs could continue using Google Maps. Google eventually released a Google Maps app for iOS 6. At this point, iOS users could upgrade to the latest version without ever losing access to Google Maps.

When upgrading, be sure you’re not giving up a feature you depend on – there’s no point in getting a shiny new OS that doesn’t do what you need it to do. You may want to wait until the new operating system suits you, as people held onto iOS 5 until Google Maps was ready.

If you love Windows Media Center and upgrade to the standard edition of Windows 8, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro version and then buy the Windows Media Center software separately, which will cost you over $100 in total to keep using the feature you depend on. If you use Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 Pro, you’ll have to migrate to another virtual machine solution on Windows 8. New operating systems don’t just add features, they also take them away.

Price

Upgrading to the latest version of Windows can be rather pricy. Buying an upgrade edition of Windows 8 will currently cost you $120. Windows 8 may be faster to boot and a bit snappier than the previous versions of Windows, but if you’re upgrading just for that speed improvement, you’d be a lot better off using that $120 for a hardware upgrade – a solid-state drive or some more RAM will offer more speed improvements.

This doesn’t apply to all operating systems, as some upgrades are available for free, but the cost of upgrading should be taken into account. You’ll probably get the new operating system when you buy a new computer anyway, so why shell out additional money for an expensive software upgrade now?

This also applies to other software, like Microsoft Office. We’ve advised you not to buy Office 2013 if you already have Office 2010. It isn’t a big enough upgrade, and you can do most things on Office 2010. In truth, many home users would be fine with the ten-year-old Office 2003, cloud-based Google Docs, or free LibreOffice. The upgrade probably isn’t worth the price.

Instability

Some new operating systems are half-baked. Witness Microsoft’s Windows ME, notorious for its blue-screens, bugs, and crashes. Also consider Windows Vista, which was unstable in its initial release. Vista may have been unstable because hardware manufacturers hadn’t yet polished their hardware drivers to a stable enough state, but that’s all the more reason to hang back and wait until the new OS stabilizes.

Businesses often wait for the first service pack to fix problems before upgrading to a new version of Windows, and you may want to do so, too. Windows 8 doesn’t appear as unstable as past releases of Windows, but you should bear in mind that new operating systems can be less stable than old ones and act accordingly when the next buggy operating system is inevitably released.

Performance

Performance is becoming less of a concern, as new Windows versions are lighter and better-performing than previous ones. However, devices that could run the previous versions of software may not have the hardware to run the most recent versions at a reasonable enough speed.

For example, many Windows XP systems could never have been upgraded to the heavier Windows Vista without dramatic performance decreases. Users of old iPhones often claim new versions of Apple’s iOS makes the older iPhone hardware progressively slower, even as they add new features.

Software Incompatibilities

Some software won’t work on new operating systems. In iPhone land, a jailbreak was unavailable for iOS 6 for quite a while. If you depended on jailbreak software, you should have waited until a jailbreak for iOS 6 was ready before upgrading from iOS 5. This cycle will likely repeat itself with iOS 7.

On Windows, some businesses may have business-critical software that doesn’t work on new versions of Windows. Businesses with large computer deployments generally test their software to make sure it runs properly on new versions of Windows before upgrading, and you should exercise similar caution with your important software.

Hardware Incompatibilities

New operating systems may be incompatible with hardware you still use. For example, Windows 8 includes a revamped printing system that requires printer-driver upgrades. Your existing printer may not work properly on Windows 8. Is it really worth upgrading if you have to throw out a perfectly good printer and buy a new one? You’ll likely have to upgrade eventually as you buy new hardware, but it may be time to buy a new printer by then, anyway.

Your Current OS is Supported

In the case of Windows, Microsoft supports old versions of Windows for quite a long time. Windows XP is still currently “supported” — it will receive security updates from Microsoft until April 8, 2014. Windows 7 will be supported with security updates until 2020.

When it comes to Windows, there’s no need to rush along to the latest version when Microsoft supports each version of Windows with security fixes for a decade.

Training Costs

Businesses will run into training costs if they attempt to upgrade to a new operating system. Windows 7, which wasn’t hugely different from Windows XP, still required businesses to train their employees in the way it worked. Windows 8 has a radically different interface and will require businesses to train their employees about its new “Modern” interface and lack of a Start menu.

You’re probably not in charge of a business network, but you’ll have to train yourself (and possibly your family members) in the way a new operating system works if you upgrade to it. If you’re a tech geek, this may sound like fun, but if you’re just trying to get work done on your computer, this may just waste your time.

You May Still Want to Upgrade

We’re not advising you never to upgrade your operating system. Instead, we’re trying to get you to slow down and examine operating system upgrades rationally. Is there a significant benefit to upgrading? What are the downsides? What will it cost you, in addition to the time needed to perform the upgrade and set up your system again? Can you use all your software after you’re done, or will you need to hunt down replacements? What about your hardware? Is the new operating system worth the upgrade, or is it missing critical features, unstable, or slow?

Exercise some thought and you won’t end up with an unstable computer, a smartphone that can’t use Google Maps, or a desktop computer with a “touch-first” interface designed for tablets that you don’t want.

Thanks to our readers for their interesting discussion over at MakeUseOf Answers, which inspired this article. Feel free to chime in in the comments with your own opinions!

Image Credit: David Pursehouse on Flickr

The post Step Off The Treadmill – 8 Reasons Not To Upgrade Your OS appeared first on MakeUseOf.

However, hybrid boot can cause problems. Some older computers with buggy drivers may not like it, just as some older computers refuse to hibernate properly because of driver issues. In addition, corrupted boot data can also prevent Windows 8 from booting normally, just as it could on older versions of Windows.

Disable Fast Startup/Hybrid Boot

If you’re experiencing boot problems, you may want to try disabling hybrid boot. This will slow down your computer’s boot process, so you should only do this if you’re trying to fix a problem.

To access this setting, press the Windows key, type “power settings” at the Start screen, and select the Settings category. Click “Change what the power buttons do” to launch the appropriate Control Panel.

Click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” option near the top of the window that appears.

After bypassing the UAC prompt, uncheck the “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” option under Shutdown settings near the bottom of the window.

Click the Save changes button. Windows will now perform a full shutdown and full startup, just as it did on Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows. Your boot process will take longer, but this will hopefully fix any problems you’re encountering. If this doesn’t fix your problem, you should re-enable fast startup to improve your boot-up speed.

Repair Your Startup Data

When your computer boots from its hard drive, it checks the hard drive’s master boot record, which loads the boot loader and begins the boot process. However, the master boot record (MBR) itself can become overwritten or Windows boot data can become corrupt, preventing your computer from booting and resulting in error messages. If your Windows 8 system refuses to boot, you can use a bootable Windows installer disc – or make a Windows installer USB drive – to repair it.

Insert the disc or USB drive into your computer and restart. You should see the Windows 8 installer appear. Specify your language and keyboard type and continue until you reach the below screen. Click the Repair your computer option at the bottom-left corner of the window.

Click Troubleshoot, and then Advanced Options.

The first thing you should try is clicking the Automatic Repair option. If this works, Windows will take care of everything for you and make your computer boot properly.

If this didn’t work, click the Command Prompt option instead. Type the following commands into the Command Prompt window, pressing Enter after each:

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

The first command fixes your master boot record, while the second command writes a new boot sector to your hard drive. These commands should fix your problem.

In some cases, you may also need to run these commands afterwards:

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd

The first command scans your computer for operating systems and adds them to its boot configuration data – this should ensure the boot loader knows where the Windows installation is if it can’t find your Windows installation for some reason. The second command also scans your computer for operating systems, but displays a list and allows you to select the operating systems you want to add.

Fix Other Problems

If your Windows 8 computer is still refusing to boot normally, you may want to reset it to a clean state. If the boot process is failing, you should find yourself at the blue screen below. If the failure to boot is happening too early in the startup process, you can insert a Windows installer disc or USB drive – the same one you used above – and access the Troubleshoot screen in the same way. On the Troubleshoot screen, select the Refresh your PC option to reset your PC’s system files to their default state.

Of course, you can always reinstall Windows 8 entirely from a Windows 8 installer disc or USB drive, but the Refresh (or Reset) options work similarly and more quickly.

For more information about troubleshooting Windows 8 boot issues, check out our complete guide to Windows 8.

Have you encountered any Windows 8 boot issues? How did you fix it? Leave a comment below and share your experiences!

The post How To Resolve Windows 8 Boot Issues appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Video conversion isn’t as essential as it used to be when playing videos on a modern smartphone. With apps like VLC for Android, you can play videos of almost any type or size directly on your smartphone. However, you may still want to convert a movie before viewing it to save precious storage space on your smartphone and get more battery-efficient playback.

HandBrake

HandBrake is one of the more popular video conversion tools. These apps are referred to as “transcoding” tools, because they can convert videos from one encoded format to another encoded format. We’ll be focusing on the Windows version here, but HandBrake also runs on Mac OS and Linux. You can download Handbrake for any platform from its website.

HandBrake also offers DVD-ripping capabilities, so you can convert a movie from a physical DVD to a file you can watch on your phone. To do this, you’ll need to install the DVD43 software for Windows, which bypasses the DRM included with DVDs to allow this ripping. Depending on the country you’re in, this may technically be illegal.

After installing and launching HandBrake, click the Source menu and choose the type of video you want to convert. Select Video File for a single file or Folder to convert all video files in a single folder. If you want to convert a DVD, insert the disc into your computer and it will appear in the Source drop-down box.

Once the file is added, you can start tweaking your conversion settings. If you added a DVD, click the Title box and select the appropriate section of the DVD.

Whatever you’re converting, you’ll need to specify a destination. You can enter a destination for this conversion using the Destination box. If you’d like HandBrake to take care of this automatically in the future, you can open its options window (Tools -> Options), select the Output Files tab, and enter a default location in the Default Path box. For example, you can have HandBrake automatically save all converted video files to your desktop or another easy-to-access location.

To quickly select appropriate transcoding settings for your device, click an option in the Preset column. There are options for the iPhone and different types of Android phones, as well as other devices like the iPod Touch, iPad, and Apple TV. You can also select one of the normal profiles.

You can optionally modify the conversion settings after selecting a preset. For example, the Picture tab allows you to set a custom width and height for your video file. However, you’ll probably be fine if you stick to the default settings.

Once you’re ready to perform the conversion, click the Start button. HandBrake will convert your selected source video and create a new video in the destination folder you specified.

You can now copy your video file to your phone by connecting it to your computer with a USB cable or, if it’s an Android phone, using the excellent AirDroid app to transfer the video file to your phone over Wi-Fi.

If you’re converting a lot of videos on a regular basis, you could use DropFolders along with Handbrake to automatically convert video files you add to a specific folder on your computer.

SUPER

SUPER is a Windows application with its own cult following. Kannon recently dubbed it a “HandBrake killer”, noting that “no free (or paid) video software in its class matches the versatility and broad file-type compatibility of SUPER.” SUPER offers more power and options than HandBrake. It’s also more compatible with different video formats. HandBrake has removed support for AVI, XviD, and OGG/OGM codecs, but SUPER still supports these formats.

However, SUPER is a much more complicated application with a user interface that isn’t nearly as user-friendly. It also installs adware during the installation process, which you must immediately uninstall after installing SUPER if you want to keep your Windows system clean. And it’s Windows only, so Mac and Linux users are out-of-luck.

If you’re interested in SUPER, head on over to Kannon’s guide to using SUPER, where he’ll walk you through dodging the adware and getting to grips with SUPER’s interface.

More Tools

These are our 2 favorite tools for converting videos, whether you need a slick, easy-to-use interface optimized for the most popular formats or you need the most flexible video-conversion tool out there.

For more ideas from readers like you, check out the discussion on MakeUseOf Answers, where readers recommended their favorite video conversion tools.

What’s your favorite tool for converting videos before watching them on your smartphone? Do you prefer one of the above tools, or have you found a better one? Leave a comment below and share your favorite one!

Image Credit: Smartphone mobile video via Shutterstock

The post 2 Tools For Converting Movies For Viewing On a Smartphone appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Many of these Windows 8 themes also include custom desktop backgrounds and icons that you can use if you like them. They don’t just change your desktop’s colors — they change the look of the window buttons, the appearance of interface elements like buttons, menus, checkboxes, and much more.

How to Install and Use Desktop Themes

Like previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 doesn’t support third-party desktop themes out of the box. You’ll need to patch some system files. This isn’t is scary as it sounds — all you need to do is download and run UltraUXThemePatcher. You’ll be prompted to reboot your computer after running the installer.

You can now download and install third-party themes, which have the .theme file extension. To install them, place them in the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes directory on your computer. They’ll appear in the standard theme window — right-click the desktop and select Personalize to view your installed themes and switch between them. They’ll appear in the Installed Themes section. You can also double-click a theme’s .theme file to apply it once it’s installed.

Note that many of the themes below also include icons, which must be installed separately. Some themes include other system modifications, such as Ribbon Disabler, which disables the new ribbon in the File Explorer. Such themes will look ugly if you don’t disable the ribbon, as they don’t change its appearance at all. Read the theme’s readme file or download page for further instructions on setting up each specific theme.

Some themes also include custom Start button images, which can be used by Start8 and other Start menu replacements for Windows 8.

Base

Base uses a dark taskbar and window borders along with light main area, drawing attention to the content of your windows. It also includes a variety of high-quality background images for your desktop wallpaper, which rotate automatically by default.

Simplex

Simplex offers a simple, light theme with minimal window buttons. It requires a third-party tool that makes its window borders transparent, offering transparencies that aren’t possible on Windows 8 without such third-party hacks.

Royale 8

Royale was a Microsoft-created theme for Windows XP. If you miss that Windows XP look, you may want to try Royale 8, a port of this Microsoft-designed theme to Windows 8. It’s not as easy to create themes that mimic Windows 7 or Windows Vista because Microsoft removed the code that allows for Aero-style transparency.

Platinum

Many theme-creators create themes that mimic other operating systems, bringing foreign looks to the Windows desktop. Platinum is a pack of themes inspired by Mac OS X. If you prefer that Mac look but find yourself using Windows 8 for some reason, give one of these themes a try. It also offers OS X-style icons, which you can choose to install.

Work for Windows 8

Work for Windows 8 is another theme with dark window borders. Unlike Base, it uses more gray colors and gradients, reducing the contrast between the borders and content. It ships with a flat-color background, emphasizing that the Work theme is for getting down to work.

WhiteDior

WhiteDior is one of the more popular themes available. It’s very high-contrast, offering almost solid-white window themes paired with a black taskbar and a black line at the bottom of each window. The minimize and maximize buttons are invisible until you mouse-over them, which demonstrates just how aggressively minimalist this theme is.

areao4.8

areao4.8 has a slate-colored taskbar and titlebar along with bright blue window buttons. It uses a gray background with bright blue elements for its content areas, and even bundles a set of included icons that fit the theme. Like Base, it includes rotating wallpaper images.

Glow

The Glow theme offers a brighter theme with more use of white and gray gradients, contrasting with many of the darker themes available for Windows 8.

Dark8

Some people just like dark themes. If you’re one of them, give Dark8 a try. It’s different from the other dark themes above because it goes full-on dark, replacing even the typically-white content areas with dark backgrounds and gray text. It’s definitely not for everyone, but some people will love it.

Finding More Desktop Themes

You can find many more Windows 8 themes in deviantART’s Windows 8 Utilities section. This section also includes a wide variety of other user-created customizations for Windows 8.

Windows 8 and previous versions of Windows can also use customized mouse cursors if you feel like tweaking your Windows 8 desktop even more.

Have you found any other awesome desktop themes for Windows 8? Leave a comment and share them!

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