IT DEVICES: Softwares

The Best Way to Stream from Android to PS4

If you have an Android device and
 a PlayStation 4, you might be wondering what’s the best way to stream 
your photos and videos from your phone or tablet to the PS4?  If you do a
 Google search, you’ll get all kinds of results with a whole bunch of 
different possible solutions.
I tried out most of them and was surprised to find that nothing 
really worked! The main solution was to download an app that would turn 
the Android device into a media server, but one app was no longer 
available (Skifta) and the other one worked, but it would not let me 
play any of my videos (iMediaShare)!

Instead of using apps I had never heard of, I decided to try out some
 familiar names in the media server business: Kodi, Plex, Tversity. 
While doing the research, I realized that Kodi doesn’t have an app for 
the PlayStation 4 and Tversity doesn’t have an Android app. This only 
left me with Plex, which has an app in both stores.

In this article, I’ll show you how to use Plex to stream your local 
photos and videos from your Android device to your PlayStation 4 for 
free. Plex has subscription plans and also a small one-time fee to 
“activate” your mobile app, but you don’t need any of that if you just 
want to stream local videos from your device to the PS4.

Before we get started, you need to create a free Plex account. Visit the <a href="https://plex.tv/" target="_blank">website here</a> and click on Sign Up. Once you have your username and password, let’s get Plex installed on the PS4.

<h2>
Install Plex App on PlayStation 4</h2>
To install the app on your PS4, you need to go to the PlayStation Store and then scroll down until you see the section called Apps. On the right-hand select, select Popular.

Scroll down until you see the Plex thumbnail. It will be several rows down before you see it.

Select Download and wait for the app to install. Once complete, you can either select Start or you can go back to the Home screen, select TV & Video and then scroll down until you see the Plex icon.

When you open the app on the PS4, you’ll need to select the Sign In button at the bottom right. If you didn’t create an account yet with Plex, you should do so now.

The next screen will show you a code and tell you to visit <a href="https://plex.tv/link" target="_blank">https://plex.tv/link</a> to add your PlayStation to your Plex account.

Visit the website and you’ll first have to sign into your Plex 
account. You’ll then have to enter the code that is showing on your TV 
into the text box.

Finally, tap on Link and if everything went well, you should see a App Linked message.

On your TV, you’ll see that Plex has been linked and that it will 
start looking for a Plex server immediately. You’ll then get a screen 
with a big error message.

Don’t worry about this right now! We have to install the app on our 
Android device, configure it and then come back to this screen. Just so 
you know, once the app on the phone or tablet is setup, we’re going to 
select Go Home, not Retry.

<h2>
Install Plex App on Android Device</h2>
On your Android device, open the Google Play Store and search for Plex. Go ahead and install the app.

Open the app and you’ll be asked to log in or sign up. Go ahead and 
log into the app using your Plex account credentials. The next screen 
will then try to get you to purchase a subscription or activate the 
device, neither of which you need to do. Just tap on Stay in Trial Mode at the very bottom.

This will bring you to the Plex home screen, where you will see a 
message stating that no servers have been found. This is fine, again, 
because we do not need to setup a full-fledged Plex server. All we are 
going to do is make our app act as a server and the content will be the 
photos and videos stored on the phone or tablet.

In order to setup the app properly, you have to first tap on Grant Permission
 so that other Plex apps can access the camera roll media. Once you have
 done that, you need to tap on the three horizontal lines at the top 
left and then tap on Settings.

You’ll see another menu with more options. Here you have to tap on System.

Finally, on the System settings screen, we have to make sure all of the items are checked. Most importantly, we need to check Advertise as server, Show camera roll media and Network discovery.

<h2>
Access Media on PS4</h2>
Now we can go back to the PS4 and select Go Home. If everything is 
setup properly and both of your devices are connected to the same 
network, you should see your Android device show up at the top right 
along with Local Photos and Local Videos.

If you select Local Videos, for example, you should get a list of all
 the videos that are currently saved on your Android device.

In my tests, the videos played immediately from my Nexus 6 and the 
video stream was smooth. Obviously, this only works for videos that are 
stored directly on your Android device. As mentioned, this was the best 
and most reliable way I could find to get my photos and videos onto the 
PS4 for free. If you know of a better way, feel free to let us know in 
the comments.

Softwares TIPS Troubleshooting The Best Way to Stream from Android to PS4

If you have an Android device and a PlayStation 4, you might be wondering what’s the best way to stream your photos and videos from your p...

How to Browse and Search Instagram from a PC

12:28 PM Unknown 0

Instagram, which is owned 
by Facebook, is one of the most popular photo sharing services. The app 
is available on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android and Windows 
Phone. Unfortunately, there is no official desktop client for Windows or
 Mac, even after all these years.
There are many third-party programs out there with funny names that 
try to incorporate “insta” or “gram” or “pic” somewhere, but after 
trying out many on my own, I suggest staying away from them. None of 
them seem to work properly and it’s probably because Facebook really 
wants people to use their own apps to browse Instagram.

Luckily, you can use the web interface to search and browse Instagram
 on your Windows, Mac or Linux PC. For me, being able to view the 
pictures on my desktop is more pleasing to the eye than on my small 
smartphone. Viewing Instagram pictures on a tablet like the iPad is also
 way better than using the mobile apps.

Unfortunately, since most people use Instagram from their mobile 
device, the web version hasn’t improved much over the years. The biggest
 problem is that the web interface still displays images at a horribly 
low resolution (600×600). Luckily, there is a trick you can use to view a
 higher resolution version of the picture (1080×1080), which I will 
mention below. Note that the original image may be a much higher 
resolution, but the full resolution photo doesn’t even get saved.

<h2>
Browse & Search Instagram</h2>
When you log into Instagram from the web, you’ll see images from your personal feed (the people you follow).

At the top right, you’ll see three small icons. The first icon with the diamond in the center is the Explore
 feature. It doesn’t quite work exactly the same as the explore tab on 
the smartphone app. There you see a lot more pictures and videos that 
are popular or that their algorithm determines you might like.

On the web, it seems like the explore feature just shows you content 
from people you may know. Also, it really doesn’t show up more than just
 a new users and that’s it. Overall, it’s quite a lame discover/explore 
tab.

The best way to use the web interface is to search for the stuff you 
are interested in. You can search in one of three ways: for people, for 
places or for hashtags. If you’re looking for someone in particular, 
just type in their name in the search box or type in their Instagram 
user name.

The list of results is not random. It’ll first try to show you people
 you are following, followed by famous or verified people. Those users 
have a little blue star with a check mark in the center (verified 
badge).

To search for places, just type in the location. Note that in the 
results, you should see the map icon instead of the hastag icon for an 
actual location.

When you click on the result, you’ll get a map at the top along with the Top Posts for that location. If you keep scrolling, you’ll see the Most Recent posts also.

Finally, you can search for hashtags, which are the main way people 
tag their photos and videos on Instagram. Just start with the hashtag 
symbol (#) and type in your interest.

As you type, you’ll get lots of suggestions that can help you find 
exactly what you are looking for. Again, the results page will show you 
top posts and most recent below that.

The only issue, like I mentioned above, is that when you click on an 
image, the display size is tiny! Even beautiful high resolution photos 
are shown in a small box.

It would be fabulous if you could just click on the image again and 
it would appear full-screen or at its highest resolution, but that just 
doesn’t happen. Luckily, there are a few quick hacks you can use to get 
the highest resolution image stored by Instagram.

<h2>
View High Resolution Images on Instagram</h2>
In order to get the better quality image from Instagram, you have to 
look through some source code. It’s not the most elegant way or the 
easiest per say, but it’s the only way as of now. Luckily, the 
instructions are really easy to follow and you really don’t have to 
understand anything about the code. All you have to do is click a few 
times and copy/paste.

The first thing you should do is click on the image so that it 
appears like the screenshot above in a lightbox. Now right-click on the 
image and choose View Source or View Page Source.
 This option should be available on all major browsers. Note that if you
 don’t see the option, try right-clicking again on a different part of 
the page.

You’ll see a whole bunch of code that might not make sense, but that’s fine. Press CTRL + F on your keyboard to bring up the Find on Page search box.

You will probably get about 15 results, but the only one you are interested in is the one where the line starts with <meta property=”og:image”. You’ll see the phrase cdninstagram is inslide of a long URL that starts with https://scontent-iad3-1
 or something similar. All you have to do is copy that entire link 
between the start and end quotes. Open a new tab and paste that into the
 address bar:

You should now see the entire 1080×1080 max resolution image in the 
browser window. You can right-click on it to save it if you like. If 
that doesn’t work, there is another way to find the URL. Firstly, you 
should use Google Chrome. When you right-click on the lightbox image, 
choose Inspect instead of view source.

Again, you’ll see the source code in all its technical glory. If you 
right-clicked on the image when choosing Inspect, it should have an 
inner DIV highlighted. Right above that, you should see a DIV with a class=”_jjzlb” value. Expand that and you’ll see the same link I had mentioned above.

You can click on the <IMG section to highlight it and if you hover your mouse over the HTTPS
 link, you’ll see it shows you the size Instagram is displaying the 
image at and the “natural” size of the image. Just right-click on the 
link and choose Copy link address. Again, just paste it into another tab to view the full resolution image.

Overall, using the web interface is the best way to browse Instagram 
from a computer. Hopefully, in the future, Facebook will update the web 
interface so that you can view the higher resolution images without the 
hack.

Softwares TIPS How to Browse and Search Instagram from a PC

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is one of the most popular photo sharing services. The app is available on multiple platforms, incl...

Monitor Hidden Website and Internet Connections

11:59 AM Unknown 0

You can be pretty sure that your 
computer is connected to the server hosting my website as you read this 
article, but in addition to the obvious connections to the sites open in
 your web browser, your computer may be connecting to a whole host of 
other servers that are not visible.
Most of the time, you’re really not going to want to do anything 
written in this article since it requires looking at a lot of technical 
stuff, but if you think there is a program on your computer that 
shouldn’t be there communicating secretly on the Internet, the methods 
below will help you identify anything unusual.

It’s worth noting that a computer running an operating system like 
Windows with a few programs installed will end up making a lot of 
connections to outside servers by default. For example, on my Windows 10
 machine after a reboot and with no programs running, several 
connections are made by Windows itself, including OneDrive, Cortana and 
even desktop search. Read my article on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-10/how-to-secure-windows-10/" target="_blank">securing Windows 10</a> to learn about ways you can prevent Windows 10 from communicating with Microsoft servers too often.

There are three ways you can go about monitoring the connections that
 your computer makes to the Internet: via the command prompt, using 
Resource Monitor or via third-party programs. I’m going to mention the 
command prompt last since that’s the most technical and hardest to 
decipher.

<h2>
Resource Monitor</h2>
The easiest way to check out all the connections your computer is making is to use Resource Monitor. To open it, you have to click on Start and then type in resource monitor. You’ll see several tabs across the top and the one we want to click on is Network.

On this tab, you’ll see several sections with different types of data: Processes with Network Activity, Network Activity, TCP Connections and Listening Ports.

All the data listed in these screens are updated in real time. You 
can click on a header in any column to sort the data in ascending or 
descending order. In the Processes with Network Activity section,
 the list includes all the processes that have any kind of network 
activity. You’ll also be able to see the total amount of data sent and 
received in bytes per second for each process. You’ll notice there is an
 empty checkbox next to each process, which can be used as a filter for 
all the other sections.

For example, I wasn’t sure what nvstreamsvc.exe was, so I checked it and then looked at the data in the other sections. Under Network Activity, you want to look at the Address field, which should give you an IP address or the DNS name of the remote server.

In and of itself, the information here won’t necessarily help you 
figure out whether something is good or bad. You have to use some 
third-party websites to help you identify the process. Firstly, if you 
don’t recognize a process name, go ahead and Google it using the full 
name, i.e. nvstreamsvc.exe.

Always, click through at least the first four to five links and 
you’ll instantly get a good idea of whether or not the program is safe 
or not. In my case, it was related to the NVIDIA streaming service, 
which is safe, but not something I needed. Specifically, the process is 
for streaming games from your PC to the NVIDIA Shield, which I don’t 
have. Unfortunately, when you install the NVIDIA driver, it installs a 
lot of other features you don’t need.

Since this service run in the background, I never knew it existed. It
 didn’t show up in the GeForce panel and so I assumed I just had the 
driver installed. Once I realized I didn’t need this service, I was able
 to uninstall some NVIDIA software and get rid of the service, which was
 communicating on the network all the time, even though I never used it.
 So that’s one example of how digging into each process can help you not
 only identify possible malware, but also remove unnecessary services 
that could possibly be exploited by hackers.

Secondly, you should look up the IP address or DNS name listed in the Address field. You can check out a tool like <a href="http://whois.domaintools.com/" target="_blank">DomainTools</a>,
 which will give you the information you need. For example, under 
Network Activity, I noticed that the steam.exe process was connecting to
 IP address 208.78.164.10. When I plugged that into the tool mentioned 
above, I was happy to learn that the domain is controlled by Valve, 
which is the company that owns Steam.

If you see an IP address is connecting to a server in China or Russia
 or some other strange location, you might have a problem. Googling the 
process will normally lead you to articles on how to remove the 
malicious software.

<h2>
Third Party Programs</h2>
Resource Monitor is great and gives you a lot of info, but there are 
other tools that can give you a little bit more information. The two 
tools that I recommend are <a href="https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/tcpview.aspx" target="_blank">TCPView</a> and <a href="http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html" target="_blank">CurrPorts</a>. Both pretty much look exactly the same, except that CurrPorts gives you a whole lot more data. Here’s a screenshot of TCPView:

The rows you are mostly interested in are the ones that have a State of ESTABLISHED. You can right-click on any row to end the process or close the connection. Here’s a screenshot of CurrPorts:

Again, look at ESTABLISHED connections when browsing
 through the list. As you can see from the scrollbar at the bottom, 
there are many more columns for each process in CurrPorts. You can 
really get a lot of information using these programs.

<h2>
Command Line</h2>
Finally, there is the command line. We will use the netstat
 command to give us detailed information about all the current network 
connections outputted to a TXT file. The information is basically a 
subset of what you get from Resource Monitor or the third-party 
programs, so it’s really only useful for techies.

Here’s a quick example. First, open an Administrator command prompt and type in the following command:

<pre>netstat -abfot 5 > c:\activity.txt</pre>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/netstat-command.png"><img alt="netstat command" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59876 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/netstat-command.png" height="129" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/netstat-command.png" style="display: block;" width="468" /></a>

Wait for about a minute or two and then press CTRL + C on your 
keyboard to stop the capture. The netstat command above will basically 
capture all network connection data every five seconds and save it to 
the text file. The –abfot part is a bunch of parameters
 so that we can get extra information in the file. Here is what each 
parameter means, in case you are interested.

When you open the file, you’ll see pretty much the same information 
that we got from the other two methods above: process name, protocol, 
local and remote port numbers, remote IP Address/DNS name, connection 
state, process ID, etc.

Again, all of this data is a first step to determining whether 
something fishy is going on or not. You’ll have to do a lot of Googling,
 but it’s the best way to know if someone is snooping on you or if 
malware is sending data from your computer to some remote server. If you
 have any questions, feel free to comment.

Softwares TIPS Monitor Hidden Website and Internet Connections

You can be pretty sure that your computer is connected to the server hosting my website as you read this article, but in addition to the o...

41 Essential Skills for Windows Users

11:59 AM Unknown 0

Recently upgraded to Windows 10? 
Or still using the all-time favorite Windows 7 on your PC? Whichever 
version of Windows you are using, there are certain tasks every Windows 
user should know how to do.
The tasks range from knowing how to restart your computer in safe 
mode to being able to change the name of your computer. Even if you 
can’t remember how to do these tasks on your own, you can always 
bookmark this page and use it as a quick reference. 
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/windows-10-laptop.jpg"><img alt="windows 10 laptop" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59642 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/windows-10-laptop.jpg" height="475" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/windows-10-laptop.jpg" style="display: block;" width="680" /></a> 
I’ve written hundreds of articles over the years on Online Tech Tips,
 so I’m going to be linking to each of my previous articles since they 
provide detailed step-by-step instructions for each task. 
<h2>
Essential Windows Skills</h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/restart-safe-mode/" target="_blank">Restart Windows in Safe Mode</a>
 – Doesn’t matter which version of Windows you are running, at some 
point you will run into a problem (like the blue screen of death) where 
you need to restart your computer in safe mode.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/speed-up-windows-boot/" target="_blank">Optimize Windows Boot Times</a>
 – Windows is a great operating system for anyone who likes to tweak and
 tinker around. There are lots of ways you can speed of Windows and this
 articles mentions 14 of them.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/reset-or-clear-administrator-password-windows/" target="_blank">Reset Windows User Password</a>
 – When I did tech support, this was one of the most common requests 
from clients. Luckily, you can reset an Administrator password in 
Windows fairly easily.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/guide-to-msconfig-windows/" target="_blank">Using the MSCONFIG Tool</a>
 – The MSCONFIG tool is kind of like a toolbox for managing various 
under-the-hood Windows settings. You won’t need to use it often, but it 
can come in extremely handy for some situations.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/msconfig-windows-7.jpg"><img alt="msconfig windows 7" class="lazy size-full wp-image-55853 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/msconfig-windows-7.jpg" height="391" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/msconfig-windows-7.jpg" style="display: block;" width="585" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/simple-ways-to-increase-your-computers-performace-stopping-the-startup-programs/" target="_blank">Disable Startup Programs</a>
 – As a corollary to the MSCONFIG tool, you can also manage startup 
items from within the tool. Disabling startup programs can save you a 
lot of time when first logging into Windows.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/restore-windows-to-factory-settings/" target="_blank">Restore Windows to Factory Settings</a>
 – Unfortunately, restoring Windows to factory settings is required when
 you can’t get rid of a virus or malware program. It’s also useful in 
other situations too.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-create-mount-and-burn-iso-image-files-for-free/" target="_blank">Create, Mount, or Burn an ISO</a>
 – An ISO file is an image of a CD or DVD. You can copy CDs or DVDs to 
your computer and store them in ISO format or you can mount an ISO that 
you downloaded off the Internet.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/find-windows-product-key/" target="_blank">Find Windows Product Key</a>
 – Not all computers have that little Windows sticker that tells you the
 product key. If you’re in that boat, then you can read this article on 
how to get your product key via software.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/view-saved-wifi-passwords-windows/" target="_blank">View Saved WiFi Passwords</a>
 – I do this all the time. I have a crazy, long WiFi password written on
 my router, but am too lazy to go read it. Instead, I can just get the 
password directly from Windows and share it with someone.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/change-user-account-name-picture-password/" target="_blank">Change Computer Name, Password, Picture</a> – You should definitely know how to change the computer name, the computer password and the account picture in Windows.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/change-account-name-win-10.png"><img alt="change account name win 10" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58893 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/change-account-name-win-10.png" height="253" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/change-account-name-win-10.png" style="display: block;" width="641" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/change-user-account-name-picture-password/" target="_blank">Configure AutoPlay</a>
 – Every time you connect a device to your computer, AutoPlay determines
 how it is handled. You can take no action, have Windows ask you, 
automatically import photos and videos, etc.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/install-delete-fonts-in-windows/" target="_blank">Install & Delete Fonts</a>
 – If you like to try out new fonts in Windows, you have to install them
 first. If you have too many fonts, you can easily remove them.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-7/customize-notifications-action-center-windows-10/" target="_blank">Customize Windows 10 Taskbar</a> – If you’re using Windows 10, you should know how to customize the Taskbar, Notification Area and Action Center.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-setup-dual-monitors-in-windows/" target="_blank">Setup Dual Monitors</a>
 – Dual monitor setups are becoming much more common these days, so it’s
 a good idea to know how to set them up and what kind of support Windows
 has for dual monitors.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/dual-monitors.jpg"><img alt="dual monitors" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58687 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/dual-monitors.jpg" height="299" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/dual-monitors.jpg" style="display: block;" width="650" /> </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/split-or-divide-your-desktop-screen-into-multiple-parts/" target="_blank">Split Your Screen</a> – If you can’t have two separate monitors, you can still split your screen or desktop into multiple parts using Windows.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/rip-a-dvd/" target="_blank">Rip DVDs to PC</a>
 – Got some old DVDs lying around your house that you would rather have 
stored safely on your computer? HandBrake can help you rip them easily.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-forcefully-clear-all-jobs-from-a-print-queue/" target="_blank">Clear the Print Queue</a>
 – Have you ever printed something and it just got stuck in the queue? 
If so, clearing the print queue will usually fix the problem.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-use-dos-command-prompt/" target="_blank">Command Prompt Basics</a>
 – The Command Prompt is essential to Windows and it should be something
 all users know how to use on a basic level: open it, type a few 
commands, etc.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/open-command-prompt.png"><img alt="open command prompt" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58528 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/open-command-prompt.png" height="237" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/open-command-prompt.png" style="display: block;" width="390" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/change-clock-to-military-time/" target="_blank">Military Clock Time</a> – If you love the 24-hour format, then you can switch from the 12-hour format to military time very easily in Windows.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/upgrade-higher-edition-windows/" target="_blank">Upgrade Windows</a>
 – Every release of Windows comes in multiple versions and you can 
pretty much upgrade from within Windows itself to gain access to 
business or enterprise features.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-burn-cds-dvds-blu-ray-discs-windows/" target="_blank">Burn CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray Discs</a>
 – Even though I don’t burn that many discs these days, it’s still 
something a lot of people do and will be doing for a long time to come.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/set-file-folder-permissions-windows/" target="_blank">File & Folder Permissions</a>
 – The entire Windows file system is built around permissions, so it’s 
pretty essential that you understand permissions, especially if you want
 to keep sensitive data secured.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/folder-lock.jpg"><img alt="folder lock" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58297 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/folder-lock.jpg" height="405" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/folder-lock.jpg" style="display: block;" width="500" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/encrypt-usb-flash-drive/" target="_blank">Encrypt USB Flash Drive</a>
 – Related to permissions is encryption. Here’s an in-depth article on 
encrypting a flash drive, which is important since they are so popular 
and easy to lose.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-encrypt-your-computers-hard-disk-data-and-files-for-free/" target="_blank">Encrypt Hard Drive</a>
 – With all the snooping that the government can do, it’s probably a 
good idea to encrypt your hard drive too if you want to keep your data 
secure.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/use-windows-defender-offline-tool-to-fix-an-infected-pc/" target="_blank">Remove a Virus</a> – This article explains how you can use an offline virus scanner to completely remove a virus or malware from your system.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/free-defragmenter/" target="_blank">Defrag Windows?</a> – Do you need to defragment Windows anymore? This article explains defragmentation in Windows and related topics like SSDs.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/sync-two-folders-windows/" target="_blank">Sync Two Folders</a> – Ever need to keep two folders stored in different locations synchronized without using a cloud service?</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-map-a-drive-in-windows/" target="_blank">Map Network Drive</a> – Mapping network drives in Windows is not necessarily essential, but very convenient if you know how to do it. You can also <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/create-persistent-substituted-drives-subst-in-windows/" target="_blank">map a folder to a drive lette</a>r in Windows.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/windows-8-map-drive.jpg"><img alt="windows 8 map drive" class="lazy size-full wp-image-57363 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/windows-8-map-drive.jpg" height="341" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/windows-8-map-drive.jpg" style="display: block;" width="504" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-vista/enable-disable-system-restore-vista/" target="_blank">Enable/Disable System Restore</a>
 – System restore has saved me many times over and I recommend you keep 
it enabled for the active partition (where Windows is installed). You 
can disable it for other drives. Here’s how to use System Restore to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-backup-registry/" target="_blank">restore the Windows Registry</a> too.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/remove-old-versions-of-java-runtime-environment-jre-using-javara/" target="_blank">Uninstall Java (JRE)</a> – With all the security holes in Java, you should know how to remove it if you are not using it.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/" target="_blank">Format External Hard Drive</a>
 – You should also know how to format an external hard drive in FAT32 
format, which will make it compatible with pretty much all operating 
systems.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-xp/change-windows-default-picture-viewer/" target="_blank">Change Default Programs</a> –
 By default, Windows will open files with whatever the default program 
is. You can change this so that pictures open with Adobe Photoshop 
rather than the Photos app, etc.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/windows-8-default-programs.jpg"><img alt="windows 8 default programs" class="lazy size-full wp-image-57668 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/windows-8-default-programs.jpg" height="380" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/windows-8-default-programs.jpg" style="display: block;" width="573" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/share-internet-connection-windows/" target="_blank">Share Internet Connection</a>
 – Got an Internet connection on your computer, but need to share it 
with others? Create a virtual wireless network and you’re good to go.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/find-wireless-access-point-ip-address/" target="_blank">Find Router IP Address</a>
 – Need to log into your wireless router, but can’t figure out the IP 
address? This article shows you how to find that information.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/determine-if-bios-update-is-needed/" target="_blank">Update BIOS?</a> – Not sure if you need to update the BIOS on your computer? This article will explain the advantages and disadvantages.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/software-reviews/free-advanced-network-ip-and-port-scanner-security-tool/" target="_blank">Scan Network for Devices</a> – You should know what devices you have on your network and this article will explain the ways you can go about doing this.<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/network-scan-results.jpg"><img alt="network scan results" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58053 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/network-scan-results.jpg" height="366" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/network-scan-results.jpg" style="display: block;" width="616" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-remove-and-reinstall-all-windows-updates/" target="_blank">Uninstall & Reinstall Windows Updates</a> – There are times when a Windows update will mess up your computer and you will need to uninstall it.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/control-mouse-with-keyboard/" target="_blank">Move Mouse with Keyboard</a>
 – Though rare, sometimes you may have to use your computer without a 
mouse. It’s good to know how to move the mouse using your keyboard.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-connect-your-laptoppccomputer-to-your-tv/" target="_blank">Connect Laptop to TV</a> – Want to get your computer screen to show up on your fancy HDTV? This article explains the different connection methods.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/download-windows-10-8-7-install-usb-flash-drive/" target="_blank">Legally Download Windows</a> – If you have a product key, did you know that you can easily download legal copies of Windows 7, 8 or 10?<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/download-microsoft-os.jpg"><img alt="download microsoft os" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58324 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/download-microsoft-os.jpg" height="313" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/download-microsoft-os.jpg" style="display: block;" width="640" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-10/how-to-secure-windows-10/" target="_blank">Secure Windows 10</a> – Finally, you should go through Windows and make sure your privacy is being protected by securing Windows 10.</li>
</ol>
If you have any other essential tips, feel free to post them in the comments.

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Set Default Folder When Opening Explorer in Windows 10

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After upgrading to Windows 10 
recently, I noticed that whenever I opened Explorer, it would always 
show me Quick Access. I like the new Quick Access feature, but I 
preferred to have Explorer open to This PC instead.
For me, being able to access the different drives on the computer and
 my network devices was far more important than accessing frequently 
used folders or recently opened files. It’s a useful feature, but I 
don’t mind having to click once to access it.

In this post, I’ll show you how to change the default folder from Quick Access to This PC
 when opening Explorer. In addition, I’ll also show you a trick whereby 
you can set any folder to be the default folder when opening Explorer in
 Windows 10.

<h2>
Set Default Folder to This PC</h2>
To change the setting, open Explorer, click on File and then click on Change folder and search options.

In the dialog that pops up, you should already be on the General tab. At the very top, you’ll see Open File Explorer to where you can select from This PC and Quick Access.

Just pick whichever folder you prefer and you’re good to go! Now when
 you open Explorer, you should see it open to This PC selected instead 
of Quick Access.

If you need to do this on many machines in a corporate environment, 
you’ll be happy to know that there is a registry entry that controls 
this setting also. Just navigate to the following key:

<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced</pre>
On the right hand side, look for a DWORD key named Launch To. 1 means This PC and 2 means Quick Access.

Finally, let’s talk about how we can configure Explorer to open up to any folder as the default folder.

<h2>
Set Any Folder as Default for Explorer</h2>
Since there really isn’t any official way to do this, we have to kind
 of hack Windows to get it to do what we want. I’ve tested it out and 
the process seems to work just fine. To get started, find your folder 
and create a shortcut to the folder on your desktop.

For example, if I wanted to use the Pictures folder as my default folder, I would right-click on it, choose Send to and then click on Desktop (create shortcut).
 Next, we need to copy that shortcut into a special location in Windows.
 First, let’s open Explorer and go to that special location. Just copy 
and paste the following path into the address bar in another Explorer 
window:

<pre>%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar</pre>
Make sure to press Enter after you paste the path into Explorer. 
Depending on what else is pinned to your taskbar, you might see 
shortcuts to several programs here, but you should always see a File Explorer shortcut.

Now go ahead and drag the shortcut that we just created from your 
desktop into the special folder you have open in Explorer. Now we have 
to do one last thing. Go ahead and delete the File Explorer shortcut and
 rename the Pictures Shortcut to File Explorer. If you chose a different folder than Pictures, then change whatever the name of that shortcut is to File Explorer.

That’s about it! Now open File explorer from your taskbar and you 
should be viewing the contents of whichever folder you chose to be the 
default folder.

It’s worth noting that this little trick will only work when you 
click on the Explorer icon on your taskbar. If you open Explorer by 
double-clicking on This PC on the desktop or by clicking on Start and 
then File Explorer, you’ll either see This PC or Quick Access, depending
 on which option is chosen in the settings.

If you want to undo what we just did above, all you have to do is right-click on Explorer in the taskbar and choose Unpin from taskbar.
 After that, just drag the This PC icon from your desktop and drop it 
onto the taskbar again. This will create a new Explorer shortcut and 
it’ll work normally.

<h2>
Pin Folders to Quick Access</h2>
If you don’t like any of the two options above, you do have one other
 choice in Windows 10. You could use the new pinned folders feature that
 is associated with Quick Access. When you open Explorer, you’ll see a 
pin icon next to several folders under Quick Access.

The Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, This PC and Music 
folders are pinned by default in Windows 10. If you want to remove any 
of them, just right-click and choose Unpin from Quick Access.

However, if you want one click access to any folder on your computer,
 navigate to that folder, then right-click on Quick Access and choose Pin current folder to Quick Access.

As you can see, this is how I pinned the Program Files folder to my 
Quick Access section. Using this method, you don’t have to resort to any
 hacks and you can also quickly access any folder on your system with 
two clicks.

Lastly, you can also get to that pinned folder quickly by simply 
right-clicking on the File Explorer icon in your taskbar and choosing 
your pinned folder, which will show up in the jumplist.

So in summary, if you want to change the default folder system-wide, 
you can only pick between This PC and Quick Access. If you use the 
second method involving the shortcut hack, then you have to use the 
shortcut from the taskbar.

Lastly, if you just need quick access to a folder, try using the pin 
to Quick Access option as that will also be system-wide and will remain 
in the left-hand side even as you browse through other folders. If you 
have any questions, post a comment.

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