When you open the the Processes tab of the Task Manager in Windows 7 or the Details tab of Task Manager in Windows 8, you will be surprised to see that a large number of processes are named svchost.exe. Today, we will see why Windows needs so many instances of the SVCHOST process and how to identify which svchost process runs which groups of services.
Fix: Notification area (system tray) icons are messed up in Windows 8
After using Windows for a while, and installing/uninstalling programs, you may end up with many unwanted icons showing up in the Customize Notification Area Control Panel. There is no way to remove these icons from the list; certain icons remain there even if you have already removed their app. Another issue which users commonly report with the notification area (system tray) is that System icons like Network, Sound, Power get turned off and the 'Behaviors' dropdown which allows turning them on is greyed out. Let us see how to fix these two problems - both issues have one solution.
Nature HD#41 theme for Windows 8
Microsoft to block old versions of Skype for Windows and OS X, forces users to upgrade
Microsoft is going to prevent old versions of Skype from working. In the near future, all versions of Skype below Skype 6.13 for Windows and Skype 6.14 for OS X will be blocked. Microsoft recommends you to upgrade your Skype app to avoid issues in the future. While most users are happy using the latest version and do not remain on an older version, there are some reasons why many people stay with older versions - especially those who do not like the changes Microsoft made in newer version of Skype.
Switch from IDE to AHCI after installing Windows 7 or Windows 8
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the operation of Serial ATA (SATA) disk controllers. When it is supported by your operating system and PC hardware, you will get the benefits of features such as native command queuing and hot swapping. For an older OS like Windows XP which does not support AHCI mode out of the box, without OEM-supplied drivers, it is possible to turn on the legacy (IDE) mode in the BIOS to get it to install properly. If your installed your Windows 7 or Windows 8 accidentally in the legacy IDE mode, and want to switch to the AHCI mode, Windows will not boot after you switch from IDE to AHCI in the BIOS. Here is how to fix it.
How to paste as plain text in Firefox without third party plugins
By default, when you copy some text from a web page in Mozilla Firefox and paste it into a text field at some discussion board, forum or a WordPress post, it will be pasted with all the source page markup and formatting intact. Links, headers, bold and italic text - all these elements of text appearance will be preserved in the pasted content. If you wanted to paste what you copied as plain text, this can be annoying. There are several add-ons available for Firefox which implement the 'paste as plain text' feature, but in this article we will look how to paste as plain text using Firefox's built-in options, without using third party plugins.
How to diagnose memory using Memory Diagnostics Tool in Windows 8
Your PC's memory (RAM) is a very crucial component. If the RAM chip goes bad or develops too many errors your PC will start crashing, hanging and eventually become unusable until you replace the RAM. In many cases, a defective RAM module continues to work sometimes but causes sudden issues occasionally. This behaviour is very annoying as your PC can crash suddenly but it is hard to diagnose such a memory issue. Fortunately, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista ship with a built-in memory diagnostic tool. Let's see how to use it to know for sure if the memory is defective.
Command prompt hotkeys in Windows 8 and Windows 7
The command prompt in Windows 8 and Windows 7 is the shell environment where you can run text-based console tools and utilities by typing commands. It's UI is very simple and does not have any buttons or graphical commands. But it provides a set of useful hotkeys. Today, I would like to share this list of command prompt hotkeys available in Windows 8 and Windows 7. They should also work in Windows Vista or Windows XP.
Switch between multiple displays (monitors) directly with a shortcut or from the command line in Windows 7 and Windows 8
If you have multiple displays or an external projector, you might be familiar with the built-in feature of Windows 7 and Windows 8 to change the active display and the sharing mode of your current desktop. When you press Win+P, you can choose to extend your desktop, duplicate it, or turn off one of the displays entirely. It is possible to control this feature via the command line, so you can create a shortcut any of these 4 settings. Let's see how it can be done.
Download Cursor Commander
Cursor Commander.
Freeware to apply and share mouse cursors with one click.
