Latest Articles
Hokrain Is The Coolest Audio Player That You've Never Heard Of [Windows]
When I'm listening to music downloaded to a local drive, I don't need Spotify or iTunes in charge of my music. I've slowly started to fall in love with a new, free, and portable alternative to Winamp Lite that seems to incorporate the same elements of simplicity while also offering some really awesome extra functionality. Let me tell you about Hokrain!
Path Of Exile Is A Free & Addictive Alternative To Diablo III [MUO Gaming]
Despite breaking the single-day record for sales of a PC game, at 3.5 million, I feel as if Diablo III has turned out to be a bit of a flop. The game had a rocky start with a release that was riddled with crashes, and a huge base of players have severe gripes about the game's difficulty and gameplay in general. Luckily for me, Path of Exile has just come out of closed beta and is available for anyone to play.
2 Websites To Create Disposable Content On The Web
Certain things are just not meant to exist online forever. Sometimes the Internet can feel extremely constricting. Have you ever posted your email address on a forum somewhere? It goes from that forum, to the Google search engine, to a mess of spammers and scrapers, and thus the entire web. Virtually everything you publish online will exist in text for a very long time thanks to caching and archiving.
Toastify Adds Global Hotkeys & Notifications To Spotify [Windows]
One thing that has managed to turn me away from Spotify for quite a long time is its limited support in hotkeys and media keys. Spotify works great with a select few Logitech keyboards, but not so much with hundreds of others. For years, I've been a loyal user of Winamp Lite because of the awesome support for global hotkeys. Spotify has yet to improve in this area, but luckily enough there are third-party developers who are willing to pick up that slack for them.
3 Applications To View Your Entire Internet History In One Place [Windows]
I've run into a bit of a problem lately. I've started using one browser for basic purposes, then another for everything Flash-based (such as games). Flash just feels faster in one browser, without heavy add-ons or extensions, compared to another. And then how many IM clients do we all use? I personally still use ICQ! I've got friends there who refuse to budge. Skype is also a necessity. How many programs must we run, simultaneously, that ultimately do the same job?
What Are Environment Variables & How Can I Use Them? [Windows]
Every now and then I'll learn a little tip that makes me think "well, if I known that a year ago then it'd have saved me hours of time". I vividly remember learning how to use the copy and paste functions, all on my own, as a kid. It was like the entire Internet had just become twice as easy for me. Environment variables are a little-known detail of Windows, if you're a novice user. They belong in this same realm of time-saving conversation.
How To Add Programs To Your Startup On Windows Vista, 7 & 8
It recently came to my attention that there are people who are under the impression that to allow a program to run at startup, you'll need to either enable it in the included program's options or preferences or expect it to be shown on your System Configuration page (for those of you using Vista or 7, as it doesn't exist in 8). That's just not the case. Anything and everything can be launched on your Windows startup.
3 Neat Web Services To Visualize & Analyze Your Last.fm Profile
With over 215,000 plays starting since 2008, I've always been a firm believer in Last.fm. If you're into getting social on the Internet, it's so much easier to link a friend to your Last.fm profile versus going on and on about your musical preferences. Last.fm allows your tastes to be an open book to anyone who might be curious, and I like that. Over the past few years, Last.fm has solidified itself as the best music scrobbling platform online.
How To Speed Up Or Slow Down Offline PC Games [MUO Gaming]
This article isn't for those overachieving, goody-two-shoes gamers with every achievement unlocked in their favorite platformer. Nope, this would be better received by those of you who struggle every day to get past that one level. It may even be nice for some of you who want to put a little extra "speed" in your speedruns. Sometimes you need to skip past the annoying, replayed cutscenes or put your game in slow motion.
How To Filter & Download Multiple Files From A Webpage [Chrome]
After years of being a loyal Firefox user, I've finally made the switch to the same side of the river as many of my MakeUseOf colleagues and jumped to Google Chrome. Albeit late by most of your standards, I'm catching on quickly. The single thing that was keeping me with Firefox was their extensive library of add-ons. Being able to mass download within the browser is a big deal to me because I'm a bit of a hoarder.
3 Flash Games To Help Improve Your Reflexes In The Browser [MUO Gaming]
Honing your skills with peripherals like the mouse or keyboard and sharpening your reflexes is something that can help you in general. Games that require no knowledge or game sense and rely completely on skill with the mouse or keyboard act as a way to universally improve you as a gamer, and that's what I've got for you in this article!
CrystalDiskMark & CrystalDiskInfo - Valuable Disk Diagnostics For Free [Windows]
There was once a time when I was a naive kid on a desktop who never even considered that I'd have to keep up with the health of my hard drive. Jumping from the world of video games to the Internet, what do you expect? Blowing a little harder on the connector pins of my NES cartridges was what I'd consider to be the pinnacle of maintenance at that point. Since then, much has changed!
X-Mouse Button Control Lets You Bind New Functions To Your Mouse Buttons [Windows]
As a regular gamer, I know just how important of a peripheral the mouse is. The mouse offers so much control and, unlike certain areas of the keyboard, your hand is practically always resting on it. It's a powerful tool! Your average mouse isn't very flexible on the software end, though. For the typical user, a plug-and-play mouse is all you'll ever know. Just because you aren't willing to drop $80 on a mouse doesn't mean you shouldn't have full control, however.
Double Driver Makes Backing Up & Restoring Your Drivers Easier Than Ever [Windows]
Your drivers can be a scary and intimidating thing. The two pieces of the Windows backend that I never recommend the novice user play with are the registry and device drivers. The smallest of errors in handling either of these can result in system instability or a completely bricked operating system, and that's no fun. As you become a more experienced, savvy, and paranoid citizen of the Internet, you'll grow accustomed to religiously backing up your system and online data.
Starter: A Simplified & Compact Alternative To Autoruns [Windows]
While this Windows feature manages to get the job done, third-party developers always come to the rescue and seem to go above and beyond. The best proof of that in this example would have to be Autoruns. Starter, an application by CodeStuff, is incredibly similar to Autoruns. It's almost like another flavor of the application. In this article, I want to introduce you to Starter and some of its features and differences from Autoruns.
UltraFileSearch Lite: One Of The Best Free Replacements To Windows Search
It's a bit of a shame that the Windows Search experience has been lackluster in recent OS releases like XP, Vista, 7, and even (in my opinion) 8. Luckily, for the savvy user, there are a whole mess of third-party solutions that make searching the Windows file system what it ought to be: simple and effective. Another of our writers, Aaron, recently pulled through with an article that introduces users to seven pieces of software in this class. In the comments, I stumbled across a recommendation by one of our great readers: UltraFileSearch.
2 Windows Applications To Make Launching Files, Folders, And Applications Easier Than Ever
My original horror story when first upgrading to Windows 8 was having no idea how to comfortably launch applications anymore. By default, there is no Quick Launch toolbar and the Start Menu has been gutted to the point where it's almost foreign. Thanks to some third-party tweaks and advice, both issues aren't very hard to fix. Even if you prefer the new style Windows has taken on in the latest version of their OS, let it be known that there are applications out there that can ease the pain of launching your most commonly-used files, folders, and applications.
3 Archives That Will Bring You Back Into The Days Of GeoCities
Today, free web hosting is a thing of the past. Major search engines like the aforementioned Yahoo! and Google weren't such monsters yet, either. You could search for popular keywords and some of the first results would actually be free websites running on GeoCities, made by people just like you and I. Here are some ways to venture back in time and see the remains of one of the coolest internet time capsules ever.
PasteBin Makes Using Pastebin.com Easier & Straight From The Desktop [Windows]
Pastebin is recognized Internet-wide as the place to go to paste your data and code snippets. Many people probably know of the service through releases by groups like LulzSec, but it serves a much greater purpose than just dumping hashed passwords and email lists. Pastebin.com is useful in any scenario where you've got a ridiculous chunk of text that you need to spit out in a clean and efficient way.
AdwCleaner Makes Adware Removal Easier Than Ever [Windows]
When confronted with adware or other junkware, the average person is going to tell you that you're going to need an application like SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes to get rid of the problem. While those are two of the best names to protect your PC from these annoyances, you should know that there are easier solutions available. Sometimes, a freeware seems too good to be free. It comes with a cost that you may not realize.