IT DEVICES

How to Color Splash Photos on iOS, Android and PC

The color splash effect is a cool
 photo effect where a picture is first converted to black and white, 
then color is added back to certain parts of the image. This works 
really well in images with a lot of bright color because it looks much 
more dramatic when the rest of the image is converted to black and white
 and one items remains in color.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
In this article, I’m going to show you how you can color splash your 
photos on the desktop and on your smartphone (iOS and Android). Note 
that I’m only going to mention the tools that I have used myself, but 
there are many alternatives on all platforms, so feel free to choose 
another tool if you like. The procedure for adding the color splash 
effect is pretty much the same regardless of which tool or platform you 
use.<br />

Here’s a quick before and after example of the color splash effect added to one of my family photos:<br />

When choosing a photo to color splash, here are my guidelines for 
getting the best results: choose a photo that has a lot of bright colors
 across the entire photo and make sure the part of the photo you color 
splash takes up a large percentage of the photo. If you have a photo 
with one object that is very bright and the rest is darker or neutral 
colors, color splashing the bright part won’t make much of a difference.<br />

If the part you choose is too small, the effect won’t look good 
either. As you can see from above, the boy in the above picture doesn’t 
take up a lot of the photo and therefore the effect is not as dramatic. 
He is wearing bright colors, so that helps a bit.<br />

<h2>
Desktop Tool</h2>
On the desktop, the best way to color splash a photo is to use an 
online tool. They are free, easy to use and don’t require you to install
 anything on your hard drive. The first online tool I recommend is <a href="http://www.fotor.com/features/color-splash.html" target="_blank">Fotor</a>. Click <strong>Get Started</strong> and wait for the editing interface to load.<br />

Now click on the <strong>Open</strong> button and choose the location where you want to import your picture from. Once the picture is loaded, click on <strong>Color Splash</strong> in the left-hand side of effects.<br />

You can choose from a couple of free effects, which don’t have the 
small diamond icon at the top right. I chose the top one with the flower
 and it worked just fine for me. Now you adjust the brush size and start
 coloring in the part or parts of the photo you want to add color back 
to.<br />

Once you have added the effect to your image, click on the <strong>Save</strong> icon at the top next to the <strong>Open</strong> button. You can now save the file to your computer for free and it doesn’t add any kind of watermark or anything like that.<br />

<h2>
iOS App</h2>
My favorite app on the iPhone for the color splash effect is <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-splash/id304871603?mt=8" target="_blank">Color Splash by Pocket Pixels</a>.
 It costs $0.99, but is totally worth it. I find the app on the phone or
 iPad to be a lot better to use than the online tool I mentioned above.<br />

Using your finger is actually the perfect way to add color back to 
the photo and pinching and zooming with your hands makes it super easy 
to edit only the parts you want.<br />

As you can see, it’s really easy using the app to color in complex 
objects with lots of curves using just your fingers. Once you load an 
image, it will be grayed out and you can start coloring in by tapping on
 <strong>Color</strong> at the bottom and then moving your finger across the image. When you want to move the image, tap <strong>Pan + Zoom</strong> or just use the pinch motion with your fingers.<br />

Tap on <strong>Gray</strong> if you added too much color and want to 
black and white parts of the image again. At the top right, you can undo
 your actions easily. When you are done, just tap the icon at the top 
left to save the image to the camera roll, share the image or load a new
 image.<br />

<h2>
Android App</h2>
On Android, I used <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=city.color.splash.effects&hl=en" target="_blank">Color Splash Effect</a>
 by a company called City Photo Editor. There are a lot of other free 
options, so you have quite a bit of choice. Some of the other programs 
are full photo editors and one small feature is the color splash effect.<br />

This program is pretty much the same as all other color splash apps. 
Tap the magnifying glass in order to zoom and move the picture around. 
Then tap on<strong> Free Color</strong> or <strong>Smart Color</strong> to start coloring in the image. Use the <strong>Eraser</strong> to make parts black and white again.<br />

Overall, color splashing is really easy to do on all platforms and 
mostly takes time and patience. Now you can post cool photos to Facebook
 or Instagram and impress your friends or followers! If you have any 
questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!<br />

</div>
</div>

Softwares TIPS How to Color Splash Photos on iOS, Android and PC

The color splash effect is a cool photo effect where a picture is first converted to black and white, then color is added back to certain ...

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Windows or OS X?

9:14 AM Unknown 0

Mac or Windows computer not 
recognizing your external hard drive or flash drive? This is a common 
problem, especially when connecting hard drives between Mac OS X, 
Windows and Linux. It can also happen on a single system where it was 
working just fine for a long time and then suddenly stops being 
recognized by the operating system.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
Sometimes the fix is easy and sometimes it is a bit more complicated.
 In this article, I’ll try to go through the different solutions on Mac 
and Windows for fixing this issue. How the drive is formatted and what 
file system is being used is the most common reason why drive is not 
recognized.<br />

<h2>
Assign Drive Letter</h2>
The other main reason is that the drive simply is not being 
recognized by Windows or Mac and therefore won’t even show up on your 
system at all. This is usually a problem with drivers or hardware. In 
order to figure out whether your problem is related to formatting or to 
not being recognized, go to <strong>Disk Management</strong> in Windows or <strong>Disk Utility</strong> on OS X and see if the drive shows up there.<br />

If the drive shows up here, but not in Windows Explorer, you might 
have to assign a drive letter to the disk. Normally, Windows does this 
automatically, but sometimes because of other connected devices, your 
external hard drive will be recognized, but not have any drive letter 
assigned to it. In Disk Management, just right-click on the disk and 
choose<strong> Change Drive Letter and Paths</strong>.<br />

Pick a letter for your drive and you should be good to go. If the 
drive is showing, but you’re getting messages about the drive needing to
 be formatted, etc., then read the next section below.<br />

On Macs, the drive should automatically appear on the desktop. If 
not, go to Disk Utility and check to see if it appears under the heading
 <strong>External</strong>.<br />

If the drive is showing here, but not on the OS X desktop, then click <strong>First Aid</strong>
 to try and repair the drive. If the drive has a file system not 
recognized by OS X, you’ll need to erase it and the format it using FAT 
or HFS+.<br />

If the drive is not showing up in Disk Management or Disk Utility at 
all, you have some other type of problem. Scroll down to the <strong>Not Showing Up</strong> section below.<br />

<h2>
Format Drive</h2>
When it comes to file formats, there are a couple of major formats that are used about 99% of the time: <strong>FAT32</strong> and <strong>NTFS</strong> for Windows and<strong> HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)</strong> for Macs. Now OS X can read and write to FAT32 formatted drives, but can only read NTFS volumes.<br />

Windows is worse in the sense that it cannot even read or write to 
HFS+ formatted volumes by default. You can get Windows to do it, but you
 have to purchase third-party software. The only other option is to 
format the hard drive and use the FAT32 format for the best 
compatibility.<br />

When you connect a HFS+ formatted drive to Windows, you’ll get a 
message stating that the drive needs to be formatted in order to be 
used.<br />

If you see this message, it just means that Windows does not 
recognize the file system on the drive. Make sure you connect the drive 
to the appropriate operating system and backup any data that you might 
need before performing a format.<br />

So what’s the best format to use so that you can see your hard drive 
on multiple operating systems? The legacy format that is most compatible
 is FAT32, but it limits you to only 4 GB for max file size. You can 
read my previous post on how to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/" target="_blank">format an external hard drive using FAT32</a>.<br />

If you need support for bigger files, then you should use the <strong>exFAT</strong>
 format. It’s newer and supports much larger files, but only works with 
newer versions of OS X and Windows. You’ll have to be running OS X Snow 
Leopard (10.6) or higher or Windows XP or higher.<br />

In Windows, you can choose exFAT as the file system format in <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/format-usb-ntfs/" target="_blank">addition to NTFS and FAT32</a>. When you format a drive in OS X using Disk Utility, you can also choose the exFAT format if you like.<br />

<h2>
Drive Not Showing Up</h2>
If you connect the drive to the computer and nothing happens, one of 
several things could be going on: your hard drive might have a problem, 
the correct software or drivers are not installed on your system, or 
there is something not working properly with the operating system. Let’s
 start with some common problems and their solutions.<br />

<h3>
Windows – Device Manager</h3>
Sometimes old drivers can cause a device to malfunction when 
connected to Windows. You can try fixing this by first going to the 
command prompt (Start and type in CMD) and running the following 
command:<br />

<pre>set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1</pre>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/run-command.png" rel="attachment wp-att-59012"><img alt="run command" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59012 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/run-command.png" height="175" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/run-command.png" style="display: block;" width="488" /></a><br />

Once you do that, open <strong>Device Manager</strong> (Start and type in device manager) and then click on <strong>View</strong> – <strong>Show Hidden Devices</strong>.<br />

Expand out <strong>Portable Devices</strong>, right-click on any items that are grayed out and choose <strong>Uninstall</strong>. Restart your computer and try to connect the hard drive again.<br />

In addition to Portable Devices, you can expand out<strong> Disk Drives</strong> and try to uninstall the device from there if it is not showing up properly in Windows Explorer.<br />

<h3>
Windows – USB Device</h3>
If you connect your USB drive to Windows and get a <strong><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/usb-device-not-recognized/" target="_blank">USB Device Not Recognized</a></strong>
 error, make sure to check out the link on how to fix that particular 
problem. Windows tries to blame the device for malfunctioning, but it’s 
normally a problem with Windows.<br />

<h3>
USB Ports/Secondary PC</h3>
You can also try plugging the drive into another USB port on the 
computer to make sure it’s not a problem with that particular port. If 
you are connecting to a USB hub, disconnect that and try to connect the 
drive directly to the computer.<br />

The only way you can really tell if the problem is with the computer 
or the hard drive at this point is to connect the drive to another 
computer. If the drive doesn’t work on another computer, it’s highly 
likely something is wrong with the drive itself.<br />

<h3>
Drive Tools</h3>
If it appears that there is a problem with the drive itself, you can 
try to download the diagnostic tools from the drive manufacturer. Just 
about all the major brands like Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, etc.,
 have these diagnostic tools.<br />

<pre><a href="http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/" target="_blank">http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/</a></pre>
<pre><a href="http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3">Western Digital DataLifeguard Diagnostic</a></pre>
<pre><a href="http://storage.toshiba.com/storage-services-support/warranty-support/software-utilities">Fujitsu (Toshiba) Diagnostic Utility</a></pre>
You can also read my previous post on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-check-your-hard-drive-for-errors/" target="_blank">checking your hard drive for errors</a>
 for more information and more tools to test hard drives. If the drive 
has become corrupt or has bad sectors, these tools can fix it.<br />

<h2>
USB 3.0 Drives</h2>
If you have a USB 3.0 external hard drive, there are a couple of 
extra considerations you have to take into account. Firstly, make sure 
you are using an appropriate cable. I’ve run into several clients that 
had this problem and fixed it by simply using a different USB cable. So 
try out several cables before you give up.<br />

Secondly, you might need to update the driver in Windows. Again, go to Device Manager, expand <strong>Universal Serial Bus controllers</strong>, right click on the one that has<strong> USB 3.0</strong> in the text and choose<strong> Update Driver</strong>.<br />

<h3>
Power Issues</h3>
The only other possibilities with this type of problem are lack of 
power or complete hard drive failure. Make sure the hard drive has the 
correct external power adapter and that the light on the front of the 
drive is turning on and is not orange or red. Also, try using different 
cables as some are able to carry more power than others.<br />

Hopefully, this article will help you get your external hard drive 
recognized by Windows or Mac. If not, post a comment and I’ll try to 
help. Enjoy!<br />

</div>
</div>

TIPS External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Windows or OS X?

Mac or Windows computer not recognizing your external hard drive or flash drive? This is a common problem, especially when connecting hard...

Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

9:13 AM Unknown 0

I’ve already written about how to fix issues with <a href="http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-will-not-sleep/" target="_blank">Windows 7 not going to sleep</a> and <a href="http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-8/fix-windows-8-1-will-sleep/" target="_blank">Windows 8 not going to sleep</a>,
 but I haven’t talked about sleep issues in Windows 10. Due to the wide 
number of machines and huge variety of hardware that Windows can run on,
 every single version of Windows will have problems going to sleep in 
certain situations.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
Sometimes the problem is because of hardware, sometimes it’s due to 
drivers and other times it’s something not configured properly with the 
operating system. In this article, I’m going to go through all the 
different solutions I could find to fix this issue in Windows 10.<br />

Note that I’ll try not to repeat the solutions already mentioned in 
the Windows 7 and Windows 8 articles, so feel free to read those if none
 of the solutions below work. Since Windows 10 is fairly new, there 
seems to be a lot of issues on specific machines, probably due to 
drivers not fully supporting Windows 10 yet.<br />

The only real solution in those cases is to wait until an appropriate
 Windows 10 driver is released. Method 1 is your best shot if you’ve 
found that many people with the same machine as yours are having sleep 
issues.<br />

<h2>
Method 1 – Update Chipset Drivers</h2>
The quickest way to possibly solve this issue is to download the 
latest drivers for your Windows 10 machine from the PC manufacturer 
website. For example, I have a Dell and using Dell System Detect, it 
automatically scans my system and finds all the appropriate driver 
updates.<br />

The most important drivers to update are the chipset drivers, BIOS 
and network card drivers. If you have a custom built system, read my 
post on using <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/windows-tips-how-to-automatically-backup-or-update-your-computers-device-drivers/" target="_blank">third-party software to find and update drivers</a>. I’ve also previously written that it’s probably <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/ott-explains-do-you-need-to-update-your-bios/" target="_blank">not a good idea to update your BIOS</a>,
 except for certain cases like this where you’re having possibly 
hardware-related problems. If you do decide to update the BIOS, read my 
post on how to check <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/determine-if-bios-update-is-needed/" target="_blank">whether an update is available for your BIOS or not</a>.<br />

In addition to updating drivers, make sure you go to <strong>Settings</strong> – <strong>Update & Security</strong> and install all the latest updates for Windows 10 from Microsoft.<br />

<h2>
Method 2 – Check for Power Requests</h2>
Sometimes certain Windows programs send power requests to the system,
 which prevent the system from shutting down or going to sleep. Normally
 these cases are valid like when you are playing a DVD and there is no 
interaction with the mouse and keyboard for several hours, the screen 
will remain on.<br />

The requests should automatically go away when the program is closed.
 However, there are instances where it can become stuck. You can check 
to see all power requests by opening an elevated command prompt (Click 
on Start, type <strong>cmd</strong>, right-click on<strong> Command Prompt</strong> and choose <strong>Run as Administrator</strong>) and typing in the following command:<br />

<pre>powercfg -requests</pre>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/powercfg-requests.png" rel="attachment wp-att-59018"><img alt="powercfg requests" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59018 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/powercfg-requests.png" height="329" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/powercfg-requests.png" style="display: block;" width="430" /></a><br />

Ideally, you want all of the items to say <strong>None</strong>, which means no power requests currently exist. If you do have something listed like <strong>SRVNET</strong>, check out the Windows 8 article I mentioned at the very beginning of the article.<br />

Another good use of the powercfg command is to see which devices on 
your system can wake the system up. Normally, this includes the mouse 
and keyboard, but sometimes other devices like the network card, 
graphics card, etc., register themselves and can cause issues. Read 
Method 3 from my <a href="http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-will-not-sleep/" target="_blank">Windows 7 post</a> to prevent devices from waking your computer up.<br />

I’ve also read that checking the <strong>Only allow a magic packet to wake the compute</strong>r
 box for your network adapter fixes the sleep issue too. Also, to see 
the last device that waked your computer up, run the following command:<br />

<pre>powercfg -lastwake</pre>
<h2>
Method 3 – Run Troubleshooters</h2>
Windows 10 has some good troubleshooting apps installed that can fix a
 lot of problems for you automatically. Go to Control Panel, click on <strong>Troubleshooting</strong> and then click on <strong>View all</strong> at the top left.<br />

The two you want to run are <strong>Power</strong> and<strong> System Maintenance</strong>.<br />

I’ve had some success running these on certain client machines, so it’s worth a shot.<br />

<h2>
Method 4 – Disconnect Devices</h2>
I had one client whose computer would not sleep and after hours of 
trying all kinds of fixes in Windows, it ended up being a Logitech USB 
Joystick that was causing the problem! So another possibly easy solution
 is to remove any connected USB devices, restart your computer and see 
if Windows 10 goes to sleep.<br />

This is especially true if you have any USB devices like writing 
tablets, joysticks, microphones, cameras, external hard drives, etc. 
connected to your computer. If you do find that it’s one of your USB 
devices, try to find the latest driver for that device and install it.<br />

<h2>
Method 5 – Clean Boot</h2>
Beyond these issues, the only other reason is some kind of startup 
program or service that is preventing Windows from going to sleep. The 
only solution to this problem is performing a clean boot. You can read 
instructions here on how to <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135" target="_blank">perform a clean boot</a>. Follow the instructions for Windows 8.1 as they will be the same for Windows 10.<br />

In the clean boot, you basically disable all startup items and then 
restart the computer. If you find that the computer is going to sleep, 
you now know the problem lies with one of the startup programs. You then
 enable each startup program one by one and restart the computer until 
the problem comes back. At that point, you’ll know which program is the 
culprit. It’s a tedious process, but it does work!<br />

Before performing a clean boot, you can quickly check to see if it’ll work by <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/restart-safe-mode/" target="_blank">restarting Windows in safe mode</a>.
 If the computer sleeps fine in safe mode, then go ahead and perform a 
clean boot to find the program causing the sleep problem.<br />

<h2>
Method 6 – Restore Plan Defaults</h2>
Another quick fix is to restore your power plan defaults. Go to Control Panel, click on <strong>Power Options</strong>, and then click on <strong>Change plan settings</strong> next to the plan you have selected.<br />

Click on <strong>Restore default settings for this pla</strong>n and restart your computer.<br />

<h2>
Method 7 – Restore PC</h2>
This is obviously a last resort, but resetting your PC might be the 
only thing you can do if you’ve tried everything else. Check out my post
 on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/restore-windows-to-factory-settings/" target="_blank">resetting your Windows 10 PC</a>. Note that you can choose to keep your data and files, so it’s not a complete wipe of your system.<br />

It’s basically reinstalling Windows 10 and that’s it. A lot of people
 have had success with this method, but it’s more time consuming and 
riskier. Make sure to backup your data before you restore your PC just 
in case something goes wrong.<br />

<h2>
Other Possible Solutions</h2>
There are several one-off solutions that work for some people and no 
one really knows why. Anyway, I have compiled them here just in case you
 happen to be one of those people!<br />

<ol>
<li>Some users have stated that if they are log into Windows 10 with a 
Microsoft account, the sleep/shutdown problem goes away when they change
 the password on their Microsoft account. This makes zero sense, but it 
has worked for some.</li>
<li>If you have a Windows PC, you probably have a lot of Intel software 
installed like Intel Management Engine, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, 
Intel Security Assistant, Intel HD Graphics Driver, etc. You don’t 
really need all this software in order for your system to work, so you 
can try uninstalling these programs and seeing if that fixes the issue.</li>
<li>Turn off or disable fast startup. This is a feature in Windows 8/10 
that helps the computer boot very fast from a shutdown state (not a 
restart). Just Google it and see if it fixes your problem.</li>
</ol>
Hopefully, one of the above solutions will work for your computer. If not, post a comment and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!<br />

</div>
</div>

Softwares TIPS Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

I’ve already written about how to fix issues with Windows 7 not going to sleep and Windows 8 not going to sleep , but I haven’t talked abo...

Mac Equivalents of Windows Programs and Features

9:13 AM Unknown 0

If you’ve recently converted over
 to a Mac or are being forced to use one against your will, you probably
 are used to the user-friendly environment of Windows and want to know 
the Mac equivalent of your favorite Windows program or feature, right?<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
Well, luckily, recent Macs running the latest versions of OS X are 
not wildly different than the current versions of Windows. The biggest 
difference in my opinion is the lack of any kind of Start button on OS 
X. That’s pretty much what Microsoft did with Windows 8 and probably why
 everybody hated it.<br />

There simply is no Mac equivalent of the Windows Start button or 
Start Menu in OS X. The only thing you can do is get a list of all your 
applications in the OS X Dock, which is like the Windows taskbar. In 
this article, I’ll go through all the Mac equivalents of Windows 
programs and hopefully you’ll find using a Mac just as easy as a Windows
 machine.<br />

<h2>
Windows Taskbar – OS X Dock</h2>
Even though you’ll miss the Start button, OS X at least has the equivalent of the taskbar called the <strong>Dock</strong>. It shows you currently open programs and you can add or remove icons for any other applications installed on your Mac.<br />

The recycle bin is also located on the Dock and in order to eject any
 device connected to your Mac, you drag and drop it into the trash. You 
can also go to <strong>System Preferences</strong> and adjust the 
settings for the Dock: allow it to remain visible at all times, increase
 the size, change the position on the screen, etc.<br />

To get all the applications as an icon on your Dock, open Finder and drag <strong>Applications</strong> from the sidebar and drop it onto the Dock.<br />

<h2>
Windows Explorer – Mac Finder</h2>
Next up is Windows Explorer. The Mac equivalent is the <strong>Finder</strong>.
 Windows Explorer is pretty good, but I actually like the Mac Finder 
more. For one thing, it allows you to have multiple tabs open in the 
same Finder window, making it easy to drag and drop files to a different
 location without having to open multiple Finder windows.<br />

Secondly, it shows you more useful stuff in the sidebar than Windows 
like shared servers, other computers, connected devices, etc. You can 
also click on <strong>Finder</strong> and then <strong>Preferences</strong> and configure what items show on the sidebar, which you can’t do in Windows either.<br />

<h2>
Windows Control Panel – Mac System Preferences</h2>
The Control Panel is the place to go in Windows to control how 
Windows operates. You can manage pretty much everything from here 
including backups, encryption, default programs, audio, fonts, Java, 
Flash, languages, mouse and keyboard settings, user accounts, firewall 
settings, and lots more.<br />

Though not exactly the same, you can manage all the settings for your Mac from System Preferences.<br />

<h2>
Windows Notepad – OS X Text Edit</h2>
If you use Notepad in Windows, then you’ll be happy to know there is 
an equivalent in Mac known as TextEdit. It ships with all Macs and it’s a
 basic text editor that lets you work with plain text too. That’s really
 the only reason I use Notepad and it’ll probably be the only reason you
 use TextEdit on your Mac.<br />

The only thing you have to do in TextEdit is click on <strong>Format</strong> and then click on<strong> Make Plain Text</strong>. It is basically WordPad and Notepad combined into one, which is nice.<br />

<h2>
Windows Task Manager – Mac Activity Monitor</h2>
The Task Manager in Windows is one of my favorite features and I use 
it all the time to check which process is eating up memory or the CPU. 
You can also get a lot of extra information about your <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-8/8-windows-8-task-manager-tips/" target="_blank">system from the Task Manager</a>.<br />

Like the Task Manager, the Activity Monitor (open Spotlight and search for activity monitor) is broken into several tabs: <strong>CPU</strong>, <strong>Memory</strong>, <strong>Energy</strong>, <strong>Disk</strong> and <strong>Network</strong>.<br />

The Energy tab is unique to Macs and is useful for laptops so that 
you can see which processes consume the most power. Otherwise, you can 
use Activity Monitor to end a process or to run system diagnostics.<br />

<h2>
Windows Command Prompt – OS X Terminal</h2>
The Command Prompt in Windows is the tool you have to use when you 
have to do something technical to fix your computer or change an obscure
 setting that you can’t get to any other way. The same applies to the 
Mac equivalent, which is called <strong>Terminal</strong>.<br />

The Terminal is a very powerful tool that allows you to control the 
underlying UNIX system that OS X runs on top of. So if you are familiar 
with Linux commands, Terminal is a piece of cake. One task I have to use
 the Terminal occasionally for is showing hidden files. You open 
Terminal and paste in the following command:<br />

<pre>defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES</pre>
Now you can see hidden files in Finder. Again, you’ll probably only 
use Terminal in these rare instances where you simply have to copy and 
paste the command.<br />

<h2>
Windows Paint – OS X Preview</h2>
If you use Paint in Windows, the closest tool in OS X is <strong>Preview</strong>. It can’t match everything that Paint can do, but it allows for basic drawing.<br />

You can also use it to make basic edits to images like cropping, 
removing backgrounds, adding outlines, adding text, adjusting colors, 
etc. You can also use it to add signatures to your PDF files and fill in
 forms.<br />

<h2>
Windows Disk Management – OS X Disk Utility</h2>
The Disk Management tool allows you to format and partition hard 
drives in Windows easily. You can do other stuff, but those are the main
 functions. The Disk Utility tool on Macs allows you to do pretty much 
the same thing.<br />

You can use Disk Utility to repair a hard drive if OS X is not 
booting properly, partition a hard drive, erase a drive and see what 
kind of data is taking up space on the hard drive.<br />

<h2>
Windows Netstat, Ping, Tracert – OS X Network Utility</h2>
The Network Utility in OS X is one place where Apple does a much 
better job than Windows. The Network Utility lets you quickly get 
information about your network connection and lets you easily run tests 
like <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/monitor-hidden-website-and-internet-connections/" target="_blank">netstat</a>, ping, traceroute, Whois, Finger, and port scans.<br />

You can use the Netstat tab to quickly see all the connections your 
computer has made. To do any of this in Windows, you have to open a 
command prompt and type in commands! It’s way more technical and not 
nearly as nicely implemented as it is in OS X.<br />

<h2>
Windows Event Viewer – Mac Console</h2>
Lastly, the Event Viewer program in Windows allows you to see a log 
of everything that is happening on your computer. It’s really useful for
 debugging hard to fix problems.<br />

The Console is pretty much exactly the same as Event Viewer and 
allows you to see pretty much everything that happens in the background 
of your computer.<br />

You really only look at the log files when you are looking for 
something specific, otherwise, there are just way too many messages 
generated by the operating system.<br />

There are other equivalents that I could mention here, but I think 
these are the basics and enough for most people who are just starting to
 use a Mac after being on Windows for a long time. If you have any 
questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!<br />

</div>
</div>

Softwares TIPS Mac Equivalents of Windows Programs and Features

If you’ve recently converted over to a Mac or are being forced to use one against your will, you probably are used to the user-friendly en...

How to Turn on Private Browsing in Firefox

9:12 AM Unknown 0

All web browsers now have a 
privacy feature called private browsing that lets you browse websites 
without your history being tracked locally on your computer. I’ve 
already written about how to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/internet-explorer-tips/use-private-browsing-ie-11-microsoft-edge/" target="_blank">enable private browsing on IE 11 and Microsoft Edge</a> and in this article we’ll talk about Firefox.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
Note that in Firefox, private browsing works a bit differently than 
other browsers. In addition to not recording your web browsing history, 
Firefox also enables tracking protection. This will block parts of sites
 that try to track your browsing history across multiple sites.<br />

Ever visit a travel website to do some research on a vacation and 
then suddenly see ads for that same place while browsing other websites?
 That’s you being tracked as you browse. Firefox will prevent this when 
you are in private mode.<br />

To enable private browsing in Firefox, click on the hamburger icon at the top right and then select<strong> New Private Window</strong>. You can also just use the <strong>CTRL + SHIFT + P</strong> keyboard shortcut.<br />

You will be able to tell you are in private mode because of the mask located in the top right of the window.<br />

You’ll also get a new window showing you what is saved and what is 
not saved while browsing in this mode. As with all private browsing, 
your activity is not tracked locally in your browser, but your ISP, 
employer or even software installed on your system can possibly track 
everything you are doing.<br />

As mentioned earlier, tracking protection is enabled also, but can be turned off. By default, it uses the list provided by <a href="https://disconnect.me/trackerprotection" target="_blank">Disconnect</a>,
 which is an online security and privacy product. Firefox uses the 
standard list, which blocks common advertising trackers, social sharing 
trackers and analytics trackers.<br />

If you want even more protection, you can enable the strict 
protection list, which will block all trackers. The only issue with this
 is that it might break some sites since it blocks a lot of stuff. You 
can enable the stricter list by clicking on the hamburger icon, then 
clicking on <strong>Options</strong> and then going to <strong>Privacy</strong>.<br />

Next to <strong>Use Tracking Protection in Private Windows</strong>, click on the<strong> Change Block List</strong> button.<br />

Now go ahead and click on the Disconnect.me strict protection list and then click<strong> Save Changes</strong>. So what exactly does this do? Well, here’s an example of my own website below.<br />

If you open up the web console, you’ll see exactly what resources get
 blocked. In my case, all the ads from Google are blocked, Kontera, the 
Google Analytics script, and Google+. Your browsing will definitely be 
faster and more private using this mode. Obviously, it hurts sites that 
make their money off ads like mine, but that’s your choice.<br />

If you need to allow trackers on specific sites, you can click on the little shield icon in the address bar and then click on <strong>Disable protection for this session</strong>.<br />

Finally, if you want to enable private browsing mode all the time in Firefox, you can do that by going to the same <strong>Privacy</strong> tab under <strong>Options</strong> and then choosing <strong>Never remember history</strong> next to <strong>Firefox will:</strong> under the <strong>History</strong> heading.<br />

Choosing this option is the same as private browsing mode. The only 
difference is that you will not see that purple mask icon in the browser
 window. Firefox will have to restart in order for the changes to take 
effect. You can also click on<strong> Use custom settings for history</strong> and then check the <strong>Always use private browsing mode</strong> box.<br />

This is exactly the same as choosing <strong>Never remember history</strong>,
 so I’m not sure why they have the option here also. I’m guessing it’s 
more clear to users and therefore they feel safer. Private Browsing mode
 will also delete all cookies when Firefox is closed. Other data that is
 not stored include form and search bar entries, passwords, list of 
downloads, and cached web content (temporary Internet files).<br />

Overall, Firefox’s implementation of private browsing is really good 
from a privacy and security perspective and definitely worth using when 
you need to keep your browsing history private. If you have any 
questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!<br />

</div>
</div>

Softwares TIPS How to Turn on Private Browsing in Firefox

All web browsers now have a privacy feature called private browsing that lets you browse websites without your history being tracked local...

Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

9:11 AM Unknown 0

In addition to updating drivers, make sure you go to <strong>Settings</strong> – <strong>Update & Security</strong> and install all the latest updates for Windows 10 from Microsoft.<br />

The two you want to run are <strong>Power</strong> and<strong> System Maintenance</strong>.<br />

I’ve had some success running these on certain client machines, so it’s worth a shot.<br />

Click on <strong>Restore default settings for this pla</strong>n and restart your computer.<br />

</div>
</div>

TIPS Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

I’ve already written about how to fix issues with Windows 7 not going to sleep and Windows 8 not going to sleep , but I haven’t talked abo...

How to Color Splash Photos on iOS, Android and PC

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Windows or OS X?

Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

Mac Equivalents of Windows Programs and Features

How to Turn on Private Browsing in Firefox

Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep

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