Windows 8 Explorer Ribbon (Toolbar) Hopefully by now you are accustomed to the infamous Microsoft Office ribbon, because it’s making the jump to a full-time position within Windows 8. We’re also seeing the return of a beloved old friend: the UP button. Windows 8 Minimized Explorer Toolbar If you’d prefer to ditch the ribbon and gain precious vertical screen real-estate, then the minimized mode offers you emancipation. This feature comes at the bequest of well, everyone… According to market research from Microsoft, 83% of Windows 7 PC users are on a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, a popular laptop resolution....

Note: Before you start, make sure you’re logging with the same Windows Account on your Windows 8 system and your Xbox Live account on your console. On your Windows 8 system, launch Xbox Companion from the Metro Start screen. if you don’t have it listed on your Start screen you can download it from the App Marketplace. Click I Accept to the Xbox Companion Beta Program Agreement. Now, turn on your Xbox console....

You’ll need Windows Live Writer, a website running WordPress and any web browser except for Google Chrome. First, install WLWDownloader developed by aovestdipaperino. Next, acquire the id number of the post you want to download. To view it, log in to the WordPress admin page and edit a post. Or hover over a post’s link. The id number is in the URL after “post=”. Now use the following URL exactly as it is typed, except with your own domain name and post id number....

Get Your Free Copy of Assassin’s Creed II with Xbox Live Gold To start off this month, Defense Grid was offered for free. And today you can get Assassin’s Creed II. Fire up your console and select the Free with Gold tile and check out the game’s description and download your free copy. The download is size is 5.19 GB so make sure you have enough space on your drive. If you have the 4 GB Slim model, or just need some more storage for these free games, check out my article: How to Add a 16 GB Flash Drive to Xbox 360....

Reverting to 8.1 or Windows 7 Maybe you upgraded and aren’t quite ready for the changes in Windows 10, or maybe you don’t like it at all. Whatever the reason, you can go back to the previous version of Windows you were running if you want. But, you will only have 30 days to make your decision. After you upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10, you have 30 days to revert to your old version of Windows if you want to....

YouTube Mobile App Video Sharing and Messaging You can share videos with friends and family directly on YouTube Starting today. According to the official YouTube blog post: This new feature was being tested in select markets since the middle of 2016. After receiving feedback from users in the test markets the company has begun rolling out the new abilities to everyone. To try it out press the share button inside the YouTube apps and you’ll see a carousel at the top with your contacts....

Using Cortana and Alexa Together The easiest way to get Alexa and Cortana talking to each other, the first thing you need to do is to enable the Cortana Skill through your browser on a computer. Or, you can enable it using the Alexa app on your phone or tablet. From the menu choose Skills and then search for Cortana and enable it. Then on your Echo, you can then say: “Alexa, open Cortana” need to grant access between the two services....

Note: The old legacy version of Edge (which is no longer supported) could also read articles to you. But these instructions are for the new Chromium-based version of the browser. How to Make Edge Read Articles Aloud To get started, launch Microsoft Edge on your computer and browse to the article you want to be read out loud. Then click the Immersive Reader button in the address bar next to the URL of the article....

If you’re thinking about travelling somewhere new, but you’re unsure about the length of the journey, you can use Google Maps to measure the distance between two or more locations. This feature works for simple and complex routes alike. If you want to know how to measure distance between locations in Google Maps, here’s what you’ll need to do. Measuing the Distance Between Two Points in Google Maps Measuring the straight line distance between two points in Google Maps is simple to do if you’re using a PC or Mac....

If you’re working with multiple tables, it can help to name them so that you’re not confusing Table1 with Table11. There are a few quirks when you’re renaming Excel tables, however. If you want to know how to name a table in Excel, follow the steps below. Rules for Naming Tables in Excel Before you learn how to name a table in Excel, it’s important to know which names are allowed, and which aren’t....

Connect Devices Over Bluetooth in Windows 10 You will need first to confirm if both devices support Bluetooth. To find out if your computer has Bluetooth installed, press Windows key + X, then click Device Manager. You should see Bluetooth listed in the device tree. If there is no Bluetooth listed, an alternative is to install a third-party USB Bluetooth Dongle. Once you have confirmed Bluetooth is installed, you can begin connecting devices....

The year 2017 is becoming a memorable one thanks to widespread attacks such as Wanacrypt and NotPetya, which locked down your files then used your computer to spread the malware like wildfire. Hackers are using more advanced techniques to ensure their attacks cause more damage to systems on a wider scale. But just because hackers are getting smarter doesn’t mean that users necessarily have to. We just have to be consistent and conscientious about how we maintain our PCs....

Record Your Webcam with VLC As a first step, I suggest you update the firmware on your Logitech webcam. Once that’s completed, launch VLC and go to the View tab and check Advanced Controls. That will put an extra toolbar with a record button to the lower-left corner of the app. Next, go to Media > Open Capture Device. Now, keep Capture mode as “DirectShow” and choose your video camera and audio input device from the drop-down menu....

Unfortunately, animations might not be appropriate for every setting, and they can increase the size of your presentation. Thankfully, it’s easy enough to remove them—here’s how. How to Delete Animations in PowerPoint If you want to delete animations from your PowerPoint presentation permanently, there are two ways to do so. These methods will allow you to delete individual animations or delete multiple animations from each slide. There’s no way to delete all the animations from your entire presentation at once, however....

Remember back when Shutter Shades were all the craze? It was popular because everyone enjoys voluntarily blocking a good portion of their vision for the sake of looking good stupid – err hold on a sec, that fad died out – sorry Kanye. So what’s with the new YouTube bar that takes over the bottom of your internet browser and blocks the screen? The new bottom bar in YouTube has a few cool features, such as AutoPlay and suggested videos, but don’t playlists already have that as well?...

Windows 8.1 has the same feature; however, I like how Microsoft improved it with Windows 10. Previously they separated the feature into Windows Refresh vs. Windows Reset. With Windows 10, it’s just Window Reset with a guided menu to walk you through the steps. Reset this PC in Windows 10 To get started, go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. Then click the Get started button under the Reset this PC section....

Use the physical Apple TV remote or the Remote app for from your iDevice From the main Apple TV menu go to Settings » General. From the General menu scroll down to Reset. Next, on the Reset screen, select Restore. Select Restore on the next screen asking if you’re sure you want to restore it. Now wait while the Apple TV restores to factory settings and downloads the latest software update....

None of these options offers the speed and flexibility that VLC gives you, however. While VLC is well known as a video player, it also has some basic video editing tools that allow you to change how your videos are displayed. In particular, you can use VLC to quickly rotate videos. These changes can be temporary, or you can save the file with the rotation applied. If you want to know how to rotate a video in VLC, here’s what you’ll need to do....

After installing the extension, you’ll see a green printer icon next to the address bar. Just click the icon when you want to print a web page. You’ll see that all the extra content, apart from the article itself, has disappeared. More than that, if you want to get rid of more things (be it an image, a block of text, or whatever else you may not want to print), just click it and it will disappear....

How Do I Search Multiple Keywords in Outlook? The way to search in Outlook is to head to the Instant Search Box. Now, when you need to find emails fast and you want to use multiple keywords, then that is when Query Commands step in. Query commands will help refine your searches in Outlook. Let’s use a simple example: Go to the inbox you want to search and head to the instant search box, now type in subject:...