Why it's a good idea to own a USB-to-SATA adapter

In a nutshell, the adapter allows you to connect an internal hard drive to your PC—externally. What would an internal drive be doing outside your desktop or laptop? Funny you should ask.

About a week ago, my media-center PC starting displaying this message during boot-up: "Hard drive failure imminent." And you know what? It was. In short order, the machine wouldn't boot at all.

Long story short, I had to replace the drive, reinstall Windows, etc. But I wondered if I could salvage any/all of my recorded TV shows. To find out, I connected the old, non-booting drive (now "naked" outside the system) to a USB port via my adapter.

Huzzah! The machine was able to read the drive and copy over the recordings. Except for the hassles (and expense) of actually replacing the drive, no harm done.

There's another reason to keep one of these adapters on hand, and that's if you're planning to upgrade to a solid-state drive (SSD). Unless you buy a kit that comes with an adapter, you'll need one so you can image (i.e. clone) your existing drive to the new SSD. Then you'll remove the old drive, install the new one, and presto, you're back in business. (Much faster business: SSDs rock.)

Unless you have a pretty old desktop or laptop, you can skip buying a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter and just go for USB-to-SATA. At the same time, I recommend one that supports USB 3.0. You may not need it now, but it's a good bet your next PC will have USB 3.0 ports -- and that'll make for much faster copying between drives.
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How to use Windows 8's cool new file-copy feature

Let's say you're moving a bunch of stuff to an external hard drive. As usual, the process goes: drag, drop, and wait. The initial good news is that you'll be waiting less: Windows 8 is generally faster at copying files.

But take a closer look at the file-copy dialog box that appears. For starters, if you click theMore details arrow, you're treated to a real-time progress meter that graphs the current and total speed of the copy process. Neat!

You may also notice there's now a pause button. It's true: Windows 8 lets you pause file copies. It's not something you'll probably need to do very often, but it's nice to have the option.

Indeed, as Chris Hoffman points out in How to add Windows 8's best desktop features to Windows 7, "Windows 8’s file-copy dialog box may be its biggest desktop improvement. It brings all copying and moving processes into a single window, tosses in a pause button, deals with file conflicts more intelligently, and is just plain faster than before."

He goes on to note that jealous Windows 7 users should check out the third-party utility TeraCopy, a recommendation I definitely second.
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Boot discs explained: An overview of booting your PC from something other than your hard drive

Before you can successfully boot from a disc or flash drive, you may need to go to your computer's Setup screen and change the boot order. How you do this varies with different computers. Look for an onscreen message, soon after you boot your PC, that says something like "Press key for setup."

The following terms and definitions will help you understand booting from media that doesn't stay inside your PC.

Boot disc: Any bootable CD or DVD. Although not technically accurate, the term is also used for bootable flash drives.

.iso file: A CD or DVD image file that you can download and burn to a disc. To burn one in Windows 7, simply double-click the file and follow the prompts. In Windows 8, right-click the file and select Burn disc image. For earlier versions of Windows, you'll need to install a third-party program such as the free ISO Recorder.

Universal USB Installer: A free program from Pendrivelinux.com that can prepare a bootable flash drive from an .iso file. This doesn't work with every .iso file in existence, but it supports an amazingly large selection of them.

Windows System Repair Disc: This Microsoft boot disc provides several tools for repairing a bad Windows installation. To create this disc in Windows 7, click Start, typesystem repair disc, and press ENTER. Windows 8 provides different options for a CD or a flash drive. For a CD, press WINKEY+R, type recdisc, and press ENTER. For a flash drive, press WINKEY+R, type control panel and press ENTER. Type the word recoveryin the Search Control Panel field in the upper-right corner. Click Create a recovery drive.

Live Linux: This generic term refers to several versions of Linux that can be booted from a disc or flash drive. The most popular of these, and probably the most powerful, is Ubuntu.
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How to switch back to Firefox's old download manager

If you're a Firefox user, you may have noticed a few changes in the latest version of Mozilla's browser, which "turned 20" last week.

Among them: a new Download Manager. It's a small tweak, and I'd say one for the better, but as I noted in Monday's post about Google Chrome's bookmark spacing, not everybody appreciates sudden and unrequested changes.

First, let's talk about what's new. At the right edge of the search bar, alongside the Home button (unless you've moved it), you'll see a new Downloads button.

In Firefox 20, Download Manager is now a part of Library.

When you're downloading a file, that button changes to a progress meter, showing you the time remaining. And if you click it, you'll see a drop-down menu with your three most recent downloads. That's pretty handy, in my opinion.

Previously, you had to press Ctrl-J to bring up Firefox's download manager, which is still the keyboard shortcut—except that now download manager is part of the Library, home of your browser history, tags, and bookmarks.

No like? No problem. Here's how to bring back the old standalone download manager:

1. Open a new tab.

2. Type about:config, then press Enter.

3. Paste the following into the search field: browser.download.useToolkitUI

4. Under the Value field, right-click false and then click Toggle. That should set the Value to "true."

5. Restart Firefox.

Now, when you click that Download button or hit Ctrl-J, you'll get the old-school download manager. And if you decide you prefer the new one after all, just repeat the process.
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Find and remove duplicate files

I recommend Digital Volcano's Duplicate Cleaner Free. The attractive, three-tab interface allows the program to provide plenty of options without overwhelming you.

 

When preparing Duplicate Cleaner for scanning your drive, you can have it examine or ignore file content. You can tell it to consider files with the same name, with similar names, or to ignore names completely. It can also match files by the Created and Modified Dates. A special Audio Mode tab helps you find duplicates of the same song by title, artist, and other such data.

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If your hard drive is so overloaded that you hesitate to install even a 5MB program like Duplicate Cleaner Free, go with this old but still workable version of Easy Duplicate Finder. It's portable. You can download it on one computer, put it onto a flash drive, insert the flash drive into your PC, and run it without putting anything on the hard drive. It's not as versatile and easy to use as Duplicate Cleaner Free--or for that matter, as the current version of Easy Duplicate Finder, which is a reasonable alternative to Duplicate Cleaner.

But this old, portable version is not difficult either, and it works. It also has, oddly enough, an icon that makes me think of a public restroom.

Either of these programs should help you free up significant drive space--although you will have to face some decisions that only a human can make.
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Black Menu for Chrome puts all your Google services a click away

If you rely heavily on Google services, as so many small-business users do these days, you're probably familiar with the black toolbar that spans the top of various Google services. It provides quick and convenient access to apps like Search, Gmail, Calendar, and so on.

Ah, but what happens when you're viewing a non-Google site? No toolbar, that's what.

Black Menu for Chrome puts all Google services just a click away. Once installed, this extension adds a button to your browser that reveals an attractive drop-down menu for all Google's best stuff: Search, Google+, Translate, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, and the like.

Even better, when you mouse over any of these items, you get an interactive window for using them. For example, mouse over Search and you've got a Google Search field ready for your terms. Mouse over Gmail and you'll see your inbox, where you can read and respond to messages, compose new ones, and even access your search filters.

Calendar shows a month view alongside a list of upcoming events, and your scheduled tasks below that.

If that action window proves too small, you can click any item in the menu to open a full instance in a new tab.

At the bottom of the Black Menu, the More option reveals a full, scroll-able list of Google services, everything from AdSense to YouTube, with more obscure stuff like Consumer Surveys and Postini in between. For some reason, however, nothing happened when I clicked anything inside the More menu.

That glitch aside, Black Menu is an incredibly handy addition to Chrome, and far better than Google's own "black menu." It may not have a major impact on your productivity, but I suspect it'll have a minor one.

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7 quick tips for holding a successful Twitter chat

A Twitter chat is an awesome way to engage an audience, increase your brand's social visibility, and connect with an audience in a new way.

I’ve hosted and participated in several Twitter chats over the last few years. My number of Twitter followers has increased each time, as have the Twitter follows of the other participants. Plus, I’m able to connect with others in a way that’s different from a traditional webinar or video chat.

A Twitter chat happens in real time. It’s defined by a moderated posting of questions and answers on Twitter over a certain period of time, often one hour. Participants joining the conversation use a hashtag (say, for example, #pcworldtalk) to tag each tweet. Everyone who wants to follow in the live, online discussion can click on that hashtag to bring up a list of tweets containing the same hashtag.

Before you throw together an impromptu Twitter chat session, follow these steps below.

1. Be prepared

Don’t do a Twitter chat on a whim. Instead, give some thought to who the audience is, who will be a part of the discussion, and what the questions and answers might be. Decide on a clear, short straightforward hashtag. You can research potential hashtags at Hashtags.org.

2. Communicate with chat participants

During the Twitter chat, keep in touch with the host and guests via another means of communication. Be on the phone together or use a separate chat system, such as Skype or GChat. It’s important to speak with each other about what to post, and what to retweet and so forth during the Twitter chat. I’ve found the best way to do this is on the phone with my fellow participants.

3. Retweet a lot

In life the best people are givers, and the same is true in a Twitter chat. Retweet the tweets of other people who are engaged in the Twitter chat. The more you retweet, the more people will want to share your tweets, too.

4. Post a Twitter chat summary

After your Twitter chat, consider writing a summary of the key tweets. This is a great way to extend the Twitter chat beyond the dynamic, real-time conversation. One popular tool forarchiving social events is Storify.

5. Use clear agenda markers

In your Twitter chat, use indicators such as “Question 1” or “Answer 2” so that your audience knows where you’re at in the Twitter chat.

6. Promote the Twitter Chat ahead of time

One indication of a successful Twitter chat is the number of attendees you have and how often they are asking questions, answering questions, and engaging via email with you. To achieve these results, promote the Twitter chat at least several days ahead of time. Ask your customers, business associates and others to promote the chat to their Twitter followers and beyond. Use Facebook, email and whatever other outlets are at your disposal.

7. Keep things lively

There’s nothing worse than hosting a Twitter chat without anyone chatting. Ensure that those on the Twitter chat are comfortable with Twitter, and that they know their roles and how the conversation should flow.
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How to enable Family Safety features in Windows 8

The Internet? Kind of a cesspool. And as the parent of kids who are now old enough to operate a Web browser, you can bet I'm keen on checking their activities and filtering out the inappropriate content.

Thankfully, Windows 8 offers some solid tools for doing just that. (Windows 7 does, too, but Microsoft made them easier and more robust in the new version of the OS.)

For example, you can limit your child's Web browsing to age-appropriate sites and block or allow specific sites as needed. You can impose time limits, perhaps locking out the PC during hours when you're at work and not able to supervise. And you can control what games and apps can be played and purchased.

To get started, you'll need to set up an account for your child. Here's how to do that in Windows 8:

1. Open the Charms Bar (with your mouse or by pressing Windows-C), then click Change PC settings.

2. Click Users, then Add a user.

3. Choose the appropriate option. If your little user already has a Microsoft account (say, for Xbox Live), you can enter it and use that. Or you can sign him/her up for a new account. If this PC is the only one your child will be using, you can also sign in without a Microsoft account, then tap Local account.

4. Tick the box marked Is this a child's account?, and then click Finish.

Now you're all set to configure any blocks or limits. Microsoft explains this in some detail, so I won't rehash it here. I will say that once you've got this all set up, you'll be able to monitor your child's activities from this PC or your own. Pretty slick.

If you're looking for a more robust solution, Mobicip (known for its popular content-filtering iOS Web browser) now offers a Windows 8-compatible version of its desktop tool. It offers dynamic, rather than static, filtering, and lets you manage more than just Windows computers. (In other words, you can monitor your kid's phone and/or tablet as well.) It costs $9.99 per year per device.

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Chrome's missing buttons in Windows 8

Now that I'm running Windows 8 for at least part of my workday (much to my chagrin), I'm doing my best to make it hospitable. And for me, the first step is installing Google Chrome, my preferred Web browser.

So I dropped into Desktop, fired up Internet Explorer, downloaded and installed Chrome, and set it as my default browser.

Then I ran it, signed into my Google account, and smiled as my synced bookmarks appeared like magic. This is how the world should work.

But, wait, what's this? Something's missing. Three somethings, in fact. When I went to minimize Chrome, I discovered that the Minimize button was gone. And so were the Maximize and Close buttons. That whole area in the upper-right corner of the browser? Empty!

What. In. The. World.

I'm going to forgo my usual heavy sighing, eye rolling, and Windows 8 griping and just tell you how to fix this:

Click the Menu button (the one at the far right of the address bar, represented by three horizontal lines for some reason), and then click Relaunch Chrome on the desktop.

Yep, that's all there is to it. By default, when Chrome detects that it's being installed in Windows 8, it becomes an "app" by eliminating the usual ways to minimize or close itself.

I'm trying to think what value this might offer anyone, but for the moment I'm coming up empty. No doubt some Windows 8 fan will explain it to me in the comments. Something about a unified UI experience, perhaps?

In the meantime, now you can get back to using Chrome the way it was meant to be used: as a program, not an app.

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How to add permanent captions to your photos

assuming you're saving and sharing those photos as .jpg files. And that gives you an advantage, because jpegs have captions build in as part of the format's metadata.

Metadata is a particular kind of data that explains a file's content, and most file types contain their own metadata fields. For instance, a jpeg's metadata includes the camera model, resolution, the date the photo was taken, and other bits of information. To view and potentially change a file's metadata, right-click it, select Properties, and click the Detailstab.

If you want to add a caption to a photo, use the jpeg format's Title field--the very first one on that Details tab. Point the mouse cursor to the blank space to the right of the word Title. A field will appear; click there and type your description.

The "Other" Facebook inbox you didn't know you had

I know loads of Facebook users who never bother to check their notifications. You know, that area in the top-left corner of the screen, the one with the little red number badges?

From left to right, those little icons consist of the following: Friend Requests, Inbox, and Notifications.

To me, all three are like inboxes, in that they should be checked and cleared out on a regular basis.

But let's talk about Inbox itself for a moment. When you click that icon, you'll see a list of messages (emails, for all intents and purposes) you've received from people you know.

However, what's very easy to overlook is the "Other" option, which is grayed out and barely visible atop the inbox frame. Click that; you may be surprised by the result.

Facebook's little-known Other inbox.

Surprised, as in you have another inbox you didn't know you had. According to Facebook, the Other folder is "where you'll find messages and emails that have been filtered out of your inbox"—in other words, messages from people you probably don'tknow.

Now, you may have none at all. Or you may have a ton of them, all unread and unanswered. Hope there was nothing important in there from, like, two years ago.

This black hole goes hand in hand with Facebook's newly monetized messaging system, through which people can spend $1 to send you a message that lands in your proper inbox, and not the Other folder. And I suppose Facebook is banking on the fact that almost no one knows that folder exists.

So, consider this your public service announcement. And this as well: If you want to change your message-filtering preferences, Facebook offers a simple how-to. Except that step #3 is wrong: You won't see the Edit Preferences option unless you first click on one of the messages in your Other folder.

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How to uninstall apps in Windows 8

If you're new to Windows 8, I suspect you're finding certain things confusing. (Never mind the lack of a Start button; that's been covered to death.)

For example, if you're using the Metro UI (i.e. the new Start screen with all the tiles), you've undoubtedly installed some apps. That's half the fun, right?

Okay, but what happens when you want to remove an app? It's not immediately obvious. If you pull up the Charms Bar and tap Settings, no help there. If you tap the Change PC settings link, you'll find no uninstaller there either.

Well, there's always good old Control Panel, right? Wrong: When you get there, you'll see that apps aren't listed. Guess they're not "programs" in the traditional sense.

As it turns out, if you're operating Windows 8 with a mouse, it's a snap to uninstall an app: Just mouse over its tile, right-click, and then choose Uninstall from the options toolbar that appears at the bottom of the screen.

How to sync files and folders across two PCs

Here are four ways to do this, although--technically speaking--only two of them actually keep the files on both PCs. The others merely make the folder available on both.

I'm assuming here that both PCs are attached to the same router (either wired or wirelessly), and through that router can access the Internet.

Share a folder over the network

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Since your computers are on the same router, they're also on the same local area network (LAN). You can therefore keep the folder on one computer, and share it with others. Exactly how to set up the sharing depends on the operating systems involved.

This solution won't cost you anything, but it's got one serious flaw: It only works when the PC hosting the files is on, and on the LAN.

Next two iPhones may have been designed under Steve Jobs

The Steve Jobs era may not quite be over at Apple.

The late co-founder may have been involved in the development of the next two versions of iPhone, according to a report in the San Francisco Examiner. That information was supposedly imparted to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón by Apple's government liaison, Michael Foulkes, during discussions with Apple regarding the growing problem of mobile phone theft.

Gascón described his hour-long discussion with Foulkes as "very underwhelming," saying that Foulkes did most of the talking.

"It was incredible. He would just go on and on, one subject to the next," Gascón said. "It was hard to follow. It was almost like someone who's been trained in the art of doing a lot of talking and saying nothing."

However, whatever special communications skill Gascón suspects Foulkes of mastering, the Apple liaison may have accidentally said too much about closely guarded company secrets. In discussions about kill-switch technology for lost or stolen devices, Foulkes allegedly revealed that the next two generations of iPhone had already been developed and that he was told: "They preceded Tim Cook."