Modern lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries which are used in smartphones and tablets are longer lasting than their nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) counterparts, but still require some care. Everyone would want to prolong the battery life of their device as long as possible. In this article, I would like to share some lesser known tips to help you prolong the battery life of your mobile devices on a single recharge as well as extend the overall life of the batteries.
Author: Sergey Tkachenko
Enable delayed loading of previous session tabs on startup in Opera
Opera 23 features delayed loading of previous session tabs on startup. This new option is a really great improvement in the browser as it improves performance: Opera will start much faster and consume less CPU resources on startup. However, by default this feature only works in tandem with Opera Turbo (Off-road mode). If you want to try the lazy loading feature of tabs in Opera 23, but don't need Off-road mode, here is a trick for you which enables delayed loading of previous session tabs regardless of the Off-road mode state.
How to open advanced settings of a power plan directly in Windows 8.1
By default, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista come with three power plans: High Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver. These plans are designed to quickly let you switch a group of hardware and system power settings (like display, sleep, etc). These power settings affect how long your battery lasts and how much power your PC consumes. It is possible to customize these power plan settings but it requires too many clicks to get there. If you change these settings often, you can use a special command to directly open them.
How to quickly check for available solutions to problem reports in Windows 8.1
If a program stops working or responding, Windows can automatically report the problem and check for a solution. By default, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Vista collect information that describes the problem, called a problem report. Report details can include the name of the program that has stopped working, the date and time when the problem occurred, and the version of the program that has encountered the problem. Sending a problem report allows Windows to notify you if a solution is available. In this article, we will look how to quickly check if solutions are available for problem reports.
How to force Windows 8.1 to check for updates
Windows Update allows you to keep the OS up-to-date by installing the latest patches which include new features and security fixes. From Control Panel, you can set Windows Update to download and install updates automatically or only download them but notify you before installation. You can also check for updates manually and disable automatic updates fully. If you wish to directly start checking for updates, there is a secret hidden switch you can use to launch this.
How to end a process quickly with Task Manager in Windows 8
In Windows 8, the Task Manager received an overhaul and saw the addition of several useful features. It can manage startup apps now and calculate their impact on startup performance. You can also see app history and copy process details quickly with it. In the "More details" mode, Task Manager has two tabs, Processes and Details, to control running apps. Today, I would like to share with you a very simple trick to kill a running app quickly.
Fix: YouTube and Google Drive are broken in Firefox Nightly
I always use the Firefox Nightly build as I have mentioned in the past in order to stay abreast of the latest developments. If you use the Firefox Nightly too like me, you may have noticed that YouTube videos no longer work after the latest update to the Nightly branch. Also Google Drive does not work correctly. Additionally, some Russian sites stopped working properly for me, mostly those that use modern client-side JavaScript libraries. If you faced this issue, here's how to fix it.
Download the full offline installer for Dropbox
Like many products have started doing, Dropbox now offers a web-based installer for its Windows desktop client and also for Mac. When you click the download link, you get a small installer stub instead of the full-sized installer. That web installer will download the full version of Dropbox to your PC and install it. This is not an issue for users who want to install Dropbox on just one PC, but, if you want to download it once and then install it on multiple PCs, it makes no sense to download it individually on every PC.
How to reset Opera browser settings to their defaults
After we published how to reset Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox settings, our reader Phil asked how to reset the Opera browser. Although new versions of Opera are based on Chromium and mostly similar to Google Chrome, its developers have made several changes to Opera's core settings so the process isn't exactly the same. Compared to Chrome, Opera has a very simplified options UI. It almost seems as if Opera want to alienate their power users and loyal fans which loved the once feature-rich browser that it used to be. But let's stay on topic. The Opera browser does not come with any built-in Reset feature, so you need to reset it manually as described below.
How to see services related to a process in Windows 8
When your Windows PC starts, many programs open at startup. Some long-running processes, which mostly do system functions are called Services. Service processes usually have no user interface and don't interact with the user. The most famous service process, is svchost.exe which always has multiple instances running and is responsible for many Windows services, e.g. Windows Update or Action Center notifications. You can easily check which services are running from its process. Follow these simple instructions to learn how.
