In my articles, I often refer to command line tools and console utilities. Previously, I wrote how to open an elevated command prompt in Windows 10, but today I would like to share with you all the ways to open a regular command prompt.
Get the HTML color code of any web page element in Firefox
Previously, we covered how Mozilla has added an extremely useful command line feature to their Firefox browser. Let's continue exploring more useful built-in commands available in Firefox. The command line functions are very helpful and save you time. We already saw the screenshot command which allows you to take a screenshot of a web page or the entire browser window, and also the folder command which can open any folder from Firefox directly. Let's take a look at another brilliant command, eyedropper.
Windows 8.1 November 2014 update rollup is out
There is good news for all Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 users. The November 2014 update rollup is out and available for download. This update rollup is a big package and brings some improvements to Windows 8.1 besides resolving a number of issues. It also includes all previously released updates since the last major update in April 2014. Let's see what the change log includes for this update rollup.
Microsoft to block Classic Shell in Windows 10: here is why
If you read Winaero regularly, you might be familiar with the awesome Classic Shell application. It became famous thanks to an excellent Start menu implementation with several styles from classic Windows 95-like to modern Windows 7-like. Classic Shell also provides a number of very useful fixes to significantly improve Explorer's behavior and revive its must have features like customizable toolbars or status bar size. Users who have already installed Windows 10 Technical Preview 3 Build 9879 are facing a strange issue that Classic Shell cannot be installed. The operating system simply does not allow the installer to do its work!
Windows 10 features new text to speech voices for Narrator and Cortana
New versions of Windows often add new text-to-speech voices. Windows Vista added Anna which was retained up to Windows 7. Windows 8 also had new voices, David, Zira and Hazel. Windows 10 features a set of additional voices in Technical Preview. In the current build 9879 of Windows 10, enthusiasts have discovered the following new voices in the US English version : Microsoft Mark Mobile and Microsoft Eva Mobile, and a special test voice designed for Cortana. The older Windows 8 voices are also present. It is possible to unlock the "Eva" voice and check it out if you're interested. Here is how.
Get free disk space back after upgrading to Windows 10
If you installed Windows 10 over a previous Windows version like Windows 8 or Windows 7, you might have noticed that free disk space on your disk drive was considerably reduced. This is nothing new. For modern versions of Windows it is the default behavior. When you do an in-place upgrade from a previous version of Windows, setup saves a lot of files from the earlier installed OS during the upgrade and fills your hard drive with files that you might never need again if your upgrade is successful. The reason setup saves these files is so that if something goes wrong during setup, it can safely rollback to the earlier version of Windows. However, if your upgrade was successful and you've got everything working perfectly, then there's no need to keep these files. You can reclaim all the wasted disk space by following these simple instructions.
Download Microsoft Eva voice for Windows 10
Microsoft Eva voice for Windows 10.
A tweak to unlock Microsoft Eva voice for Windows 10 TP3
Move tabs and address bar in Firefox to the bottom with Bottom UI
Some time ago I covered a trick which allows you to move tabs to the bottom in Mozilla Firefox. In that article, I used the awesome Classic Theme Restorer add-on. I was a fan of the classic Opera browser which had a fully customizable UI and I appreciate having the same ability in Firefox to be able to modify its look with the help of add-ons. One such addon is Bottom UI. It is a very interesting extension for Firefox. Let's take a look at what it offers to the end user.
Windows 10 adds system compression to Disk cleanup
Disk Cleanup is an essential Windows system tool which allows you to delete various unnecessary files created by the OS to save space on your disk drive. By default, it works in a simpler mode which allows you to delete only the files related to your current user account. You can switch it to the extended mode, which allows you to delete more unused files such as the ones used by Windows Updates, or service packs and so on. In Windows 10, the extended mode was updated to add one more feature. Now it provides a System compression option. Let's explore what it is about.
Enable hidden secret Search box in Windows 10 build 9879
The latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879 allows you to turn the search icon in the taskbar into a search box. This feature is disabled by default, but here is how you can unlock it and get an idea of what is planned for future builds of Windows 10. The search box in the Taskbar is a nice idea. In fact, with Windows Search for XP, you had a similar search box in the taskbar. Read the rest of the article to learn how to switch between the search icon and the search box in the taskbar on Windows 10.
