If you suddenly got some unexpected behavior on your Windows 8 PC, then the first thing you should do is take a diagnostic approach by way of elimination. There are plenty of factors which can be the cause of issues like slowdowns, BSODs, freezes and even sudden reboots. The best way to detect what exactly is the cause of the trouble is to perform a clean boot. Using a clean boot, you can find if the OS is damaged by some third party app or a bad driver. By preventing them from loading, you can exclude the influence of these two factors.
Author: Sergey Tkachenko
Nature HD#33 theme for Windows 8
How to use the Quick Access Toolbar of File Explorer with keyboard only
The Quick Access Toolbar is a feature of File Explorer which exists in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. It is part of the Ribbon UI in File Explorer and is located in the title bar. I consider this toolbar very useful because it allows you to have fast access to any ribbon command with one click.
Using keyboard shortcuts, you can execute any command from the Quick Access Toolbar. Sometimes keyboard shortcuts are faster than the mouse and can improve your productivity and save your time.
How to reset the Start Screen layout in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
In Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the Start Screen is designed as a touchscreen-friendly Start menu replacement. It focuses on the concept of pinning. Everything must be pinned to the Start screen and it appears as a tile. Earlier in Windows 8 RTM, it pinned every single installed app automatically, creating a real mess of random icons splattered all across the Start Screen. Thankfully, in Windows 8.1, Microsoft has changed this behavior. Windows 8.1 does not pin anything automatically, so you are able to keep your Start Screen well organized. With help of apps like Pin to 8, you can even pin any file, folder or system location.
If you want to change the way your Start Screen is organized, you may want to reset its layout to the defaults. It's pretty easy to do this.
Daily Bing #34 theme for Windows 8
How to disable geolocation sharing feature of Mozilla Firefox
By default, Mozilla Firefox comes with a geolocation feature (location-aware browsing). It is enabled by default. This means that websites and web apps will be able to get all the necessary information to track the user's physical location. In some cases it can be useful, i.e. for online maps services, because they can display the appropriate starting point on the map wherever you are located at that moment. But it is also a cause for privacy concerns. There is a certain category of users who always prefer disabling such options completely. Unfortunately, there is no setting in the Firefox GUI options to turn off geolocation. Luckily, there is a way to disable it.
Where to download Google Chrome full offline standalone installer
Recently we covered how to get the full offline installer for popular browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. If you want to download the full installer for Google Chrome, then here's where you can download it.
Nature HD#32 theme for Windows 8
How to download the full offline installer for Opera web browser
Today, Opera Software has introduced a major change to the redistribution model of the Opera browser. Like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the stable release channel of Opera will get a web-based installer in the near future. Opera Dev branch has already got it so anyone who is interested in staying on the bleeding edge of browser development will be able to play with the installer stub.
Download the Firefox full offline installer and bypass the web installer
As Google has always been doing with their Chrome web browser, Mozilla has recently switched to a web-based installer for its browser, Firefox. Now, when you click the download link, you will get a small installer stub instead of the full big-sized installer. The web installer downloads the full version of Firefox. This is not an issue for users who want to install Firefox on just one PC, or who have a good Internet connection which is always online. However, there are several cases where you might need the complete, full offline installer for Firefox. For example, 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. Also, if you have an expensive and limited mobile internet data plan, then again you wouldn't want to download Firefox multiple times. To get the full offline installer for Firefox, you have at least two options.
