Don't use your real email to register on all websites...use this instead

BugMeNot

BugMeNot is a database of usernames and passwords for websites that force you to register. If you encounter one of these websites, visit bugmenot.com and plug the address of the website into the box. Use one of the username and password combos to log in. If they no longer work, you can help by registering your own disposable account (see below) and adding it to the BugMeNot site.

You can integrate BugMeNot into your browser, if you like. Just install the Firefox add-on, Chrome extension, or add the bookmarklet from the BugMeNot website.

Create your own folder to find stuff with Win 8

Windows 7 users were delighted when they found out about a secret feature called GodMode. It basically lets you create a folder with a special name that somehow then gives you access to just about all of the controls, options and settings for the OS.
Luckily, you can enable GodMode in Windows 8 too! To get started, just create a folder on the desktop and name it whatever you like. After that, right-click and it and choose Rename. Now just add the following to the end of the folder name:

.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

As you can see, you need to include the . before the opening bracket. Here’s my mine looks like:

All Settings.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

When you do this, the icon on the folder changes into one that is exactly the same as the Control Panel.

However, if you click on the new GodMode icon, you’ll get a folder with a bunch of links to all kinds of settings on Windows 8. It’s nice because it even breaks it down by category.

Now you can access every single setting and option in Windows 8 from one folder! So if you are having a hard time finding a particular setting or control panel item, just open this folder and do a search. It’s great because you can narrow down the huge list by typing in a few keywords.

Sweet! So that’s how you enable GodMode in Windows 8. However, there is also another way to get access to a lot of settings in Windows 8. The new Start Screen has a built-in search option that lets you search all system settings. Go to the Start Screen and type in the word Settings.

You get a pretty big list of 91 settings you can adjust. Just swipe with your finger or scroll with your mouse to access all of the settings.

Courtesty OTT

Check your LastPass logins for security breaches...here's how

LastPass recently introduced LastPass Sentry, a new feature to help LastPass users be more proactive about their online security by alerting them when their email address is included in the latest breaches of online sites and services (think LinkedIn).

The update means that a full check can be performed locally against your entire LastPass vault to look for accounts that may have been affected by a breach, in addition to the ongoing monitoring of your LastPass account email address.

How LastPass Sentry now works:

1. Sentry still performs daily checks, with the latest updates to the PwnedList database, to see if LastPass account email addresses are on the list.
2. If a match is found, an email notification is sent to the LastPass user, notifying them of the domain that was breached and the potential risk. 
3. Users can also run the LastPass Security Challenge (from the LastPass Icon's Tools menu) and select the option to look for breaches of their stored accounts. 
4. If any matches are found between the PwnedList database and the data in your vault, notifications are sent to the affected email addresses with information on the breach and a reminder to update your passwords.
5. We then recommend updating the password for any affected accounts, and any other accounts using that password (which the Security Challenge will help you identify), using LastPass to generate a new, strong password.

Sleep Deprived PC..see why.....

Have you ever expected your PC to go into sleep mode only to come back and find it is still powered on? We know we certainly have, here’s how to check what’s keeping it awake.

How to See Which App is Blocking Your PC from Going into Sleep Mode

Press the Win + X keyboard combination or right click in the bottom left hand corner of your screen to bring up the Windows Tools Menu, then launch an admin command prompt.

When the command prompt opens, type the following command:

powercfg /requests

You can see from the screenshot above, that I have 1 Process (VLC Media Player) as well as 2 Drivers that are preventing my PC from going to sleep. That’s all there is to it.

Courtesty HTG

How to completely shut down Windows 8

What is Hybrid Boot?

Hybrid Boot is a new feature in Windows 8 that takes the Hibernate feature we all know and love and improves upon it to bring us faster boot times. In your PC you have multiple sessions, more specifically you have session 0 which is reserved for the kernel session and session 1 which is normally your user session. In traditional implementations of hibernation when you click hibernate your PC takes everything that it currently has in memory (RAM) and writes it to the hiberfil.sys file on your hard drive, this includes both session 0 and session 1 data.
With Hybrid Boot, instead of hibernating both sessions it only hibernates session 0, it then closes your user session.  So now when you start your PC back up, it reads session 0 from hiberfil.sys and puts it back into memory, and starts a new user session for you. The result is dramatically faster boot times, with no effect on our user sessions.

How to Quickly Do a Full Shutdown

Right click on your Desktop and create a new shortcut.

When you are asked what you would like to create a shortcut to, type the following:

shutdown /s /t 0

Then give your shortcut a name.

Once you have created your shortcut, right click on it and head into its properties.

Now click on the Change Icon button.

I will just be using one of the default icons that comes with Windows, but feel free to choose your own.

Finally you can pin the shortcut to the Start Screen for easy access.

To do a full shutdown all you need to do is click on the shortcut.

That’s all there is to it.

Courtesy HTG

Secure Boot..my foot!....disable it right now....

• Boot machine while pressing F10
• Find Secure Boot in the menu tree, ignore warnings
• Disable Secure Boot feature
• Enable legacy boot options
• Enable specific legacy devices, such as USB devices
• Save and reboot while holding down F9 

All new computers have Windows 8 with  Secure Boot UEFI bios.....

Buffering......reboot for improved performance

If you want your connection speed to improve, thus decreasing buffering, you should reboot your home internet connection from time to time.

REBOOTING YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY

Step 1: Unplug the Electrical Source from both your Modem and Router.

Step 2: Verify that no lights remain illuminated on either device. Should there still be anything lit, you’ll need to remove the battery from the hatch door at either the bottom or side of the device.

Step 3: Wait 15 Minutes, giving your Internet Devices time to cool down.

Step 4: Reconnect the Modem first and wait 30 Seconds.

Step 5: Reconnect the Router next and wait 30 Seconds.

Step 6: Open a web page on your computer to verify that you’re back online.

This is especially helpful for those of you who are streaming video content.....XBMC users who are getting script errors should try this.......

Raspberry Pi- Berry Boot.....what ? check it out!

For those of  you brave enough to grab a Raspberry PI for about 35 bucks here is an easy way to set it up.....you have several options for operating systems to install....also XMBC is available for the PI directly from RASPBMC
The installers offered here require a wired network connection with DHCP on the Pi’s first bootup, this is the recommended installation method and you should use this install type where possible.
If you wish to install Raspbmc to a USB drive, create a file on the fat partition called ‘usb‘
Raspbmc has a simple UI installer - just pick your platform below.
Installing on Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7)
Installing on Mac OS X (10.5 or later) and Linux




In addition to running on the Raspberry Pi, Berryboot also supports Android tablets, TV sticks and boards that have an Allwinner A10 processor.
For more information see the BerryBoot A10 page

Download link Berryboot for the Raspberry Pi: berryboot-20121126.zip
 

Walkthrough

If your Pi is connected to the Internet BerryBoot will try to detect your location based on your IP-address, and set the right timezone automatically. Verify that it is correct and press “ok”

Select where you want to store the operating system files, and press “format” You can install the operating system files on the SD card itself or an external USB stick/disk. Be aware that if you choose an external drive, the files of the operating system will be stored there, but you still need to keep the SD card in the Pi to boot from.
WARNING: all existing files on the disk will be erased.

Select which operating system you want to install. You can add more later.

It will download the files from the Internet automatically.

In the Berryboot menu editor you can install more operating systems, rename them, delete them, etc. Press “exit” to exit the editor and start using the operating system you installed.