Hide all notifications in the action center by swiping with two fingers

Windows Phone 8.1 has been impressing and annoying users around the world for quite some time now – no wonder, there is much to discover but since it is still a developer preview there are still some bugs and issues. Anyhow, sometimes even users who have been on it since the very first day find something new. And since it is the small things in life that make us smile, these little surprises are pleasing.

How to enable Nokia’s ‘Living Images’ on your PureView Lumia?

Nokia’s Living Images is a new feature coming to Windows Phone 8.1 and their Lumia Cyan firmware update for the high-end PureView devices, like the Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520, Icon and so forth. Living Images captures a few seconds before you snap a photo, so that when you’re browsing through your Camera Roll or StoryTeller, your photos come alive. Think Cinemagraph, but without having to think about using it, as it just works automatically.

How to add the Fifa World Cup 2014 schedule to your Windows Phone Calendar

tricks to stay current with the 2014 FIFA World Cup on your Windows Phone. Here’s one more tip from the Windows Phone Central forums that we wanted to point out – how do add the World Cup 2014 schedule to your Windows Phone Calendar so that you never miss a game.

Lock Computer With USB Flash Drive

Today i am learn you how can you lock ur own pc with usb flash drive .Guys this tips will not work on all versions on windows including both windows 32 bit and 64 bit.
 so guys follow the steps for do this ..

Share Your Windows 8 PC's Internet with a Phone or Tablet by Turning It into a Wi-Fi Hotspot

These days, there is hardly a place in America that doesn't have access to the internet. But with web usage fees and ridiculous cell phone provider contracts, sometimes it's still necessary to go a little DIY when it comes to staying connected.

If you have a Windows 7 or 8 computer connected to the internet, you can use it as your own personal Wi-Fi hotspot.

Turn Your Windows PC Into a Wireless Hotspot | Wifi

Everybody's got a wireless network at home, but if you've ever wanted to get your iPod touch, iPhone, or other wireless device connected, but all you've got is a wired network at work, school, or elsewhere, Windows 7 and windows 8 makes this process trivial.

Check out Virtual Router Plus, a tiny free program that does the same thing. You can also accomplish the same thing in Windows Vista, XP, and even OS X—the Windows Vista method is almost identical to Windows 7 and windows 8, but XP requires a few more steps.

Before we begin, you should make sure that you've got a laptop or desktop with a wireless card that isn't currently connected. If your laptop is connected to the wired network, your wireless card should be free, and we can use it to allow access to the internet. Note that you have to be plugged into a wired connection in order to share the connection wirelessly with others, or have a second wireless card. Readers should also note that this won't work on (some) work networks that use group policies to enforce TPS report cover sheet boredom and prevent you from having any fun at all.

You'll want to start out by heading into the Network and Sharing Center through the Control Panel, or you can quickly get to it by right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray. Once you are there, find the link for "Set up a new connection or network".

You'll be prompted with a wizard that allows you to connect to VPNs, dial-up, or create a new ad hoc wireless network, which is what we want to do. You can easily use an ad hoc network to share files back and forth between two computers, but today we'll be using it for sharing the internet connection.

You'll need to give your network a name and choose some security options—remember that WEP is extremely easy to crack—and you'll want to make sure to use at least a decent sized key even for WPA2. The really important option on this page is to remember to check the box for "Save this network".

At this point your ad hoc network should be running and ready to start connecting your devices, but you'll want to hold off just a minute.

You'll notice that the ad hoc networks that you create get added to the quick-select wireless network list—when you disconnect from your ad hoc network, it's the same as stopping it. Connecting to the network is the same as starting it back up; this way you can quickly switch back and forth between connections with just a few clicks.

The last step is enabling connection sharing through your regular network card, which will allow anybody connected to your ad hoc wireless to use your internet connection. To do so, you'll want to head into the Network and Sharing Center, click the "Change adapter settings" link on the left, and then find your network connection in the list—it's very important that you only enable internet connection sharing on the adapter that is actually connected to the internet. In this case, my internet access at work goes through my Local Area Connection, so I've enabled it there.

At this point, you should be able to connect any wireless device to your new ad hoc network and access the internet, or even share files directly with your laptop.

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows

Introduction

In order to use a hard drive, or a portion of a hard drive, in Windows you need to first partition it and then format it. This process will then assign a drive letter to the partition allowing you to access it in order to use it to store and retrieve data.

Creating and formatting a partition in Windows

Before you can partition a hard drive in Windows, you must have installed a new unused hard disk, deleted an existing partition, or have some unpartitioned space available on an existing drive. In the example in this tutorial I will take the unused space from one of my hard drives and partition/format it. The steps shown here will work whether you are working with a brand new hard drive, deleting an existing partition and reusing it, or partitioning available space on an existing hard drive.

All hard disk management is done in the Disk Management Administrative Tool. Follow these steps to open this tool:

1. If you are using Windows 8, type Disk Management at the start screen, click on Settings, and then click on the Create and format hard disk partitions option. Then skip to step 3.  Otherwise, click on the Start button and select the Control Panel option.

2. If in Classic control panel mode, double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and then double-click on Computer Management icon.
If your control panel is in the Category view, click on Performance and Maintenance, then click on Administrative Tools, and finally double-click on the Computer Management icon.
3. When the Computer Management screen opens, click on the Disk Management option under the Storage category. This will present you with a screen similar to the one below.

Disk Management Screen

 When you are in the disk management tool you will see a listing of your current hard drives and how they are partitioned. From the image above you can see that I have two hard disks installed. The first disk, Disc 0, has two partitions. One partition is a 24 GB NTFS partition that has been assigned the drive letter C:. The other partition on that drive is a 87 GB NTFS partition that has been assigned the drive letter E:. The other drive, has only one partition, the D: partition. The rest of the space, 26 GB, shows that it is unallocated and therefore can be used to make other partitions.

To make a partition from the unused space you would do the following.

1. Right click on the space listed as unallocated.
2. At the menu that comes up, click on the New Partition option.
3. You will now be presented with a wizard as to how you would like the partition to be created. At the first screen press Next.
4. At the following screen, determine if you need a primary or extended partition. For more information about these partitions you can read our partition tutorial listed above. Most people will be fine selecting Primary Partition. Select Primary Partition and press Next.
5. At the next screen you will be prompted to type in how much of the unallocated space you would like used for the new partition. In my example, my unallocated space is 26.43 GB, so I can choose to make a partition of that entire amount of only use half and save the rest for another partition. Regardless, of what you decide, you need to enter a size in the Partition size in MB: field, or stick with the default size, and press the Next button.
6. At the next screen select the drive letter you would like assigned to it, or use the default one given. When done, press the Next button. The drive letter that you assign here will be how you access the partition later.
7. In this step you will determine how you would like the new partition to be formatted. For the most part you are advised to use the NTFSfile system. If you need a file system that can be readable by older operating systems like DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME, then you should instead choose the FAT32 file system.
8. Type a name in the Volume Label field that will be associated with this partition or leave it blank.
9. Finally press the Next button and you will come to a summary screen. Review how the partition will be created, and if you are satisfied, press the Finish button to complete the creation and formatting of your new hard disk partition.

When the computer finishes creating and formatting the new partition you will be presented with the Disk Management screen again and will see that you have a new partition and drive letter on your computer. Now you can use that drive to start storing your data.

Deleting a partition in Windows

If you have existing partitions on your computer that you would like to delete in order to use its space for other purposes, then you first need to delete this partition. It is important to note that by deleting a partition you will lose all your data on that partition. With that warning given, let me give some examples of why you would want to delete a partition. Lets say that you have a 60 GB hard drive in your computer that was originally partitioned into a 20 GB partition and a 40 GB partition. You would like to install another operating system on your computer, but feel that neither partition is big enough on its own, and would like to instead create one partition using the full storage of 60 GB. The only way to do that would be to delete both of the existing partitions and recreate a new one using all the available space.

To delete a partition please follow these steps:

1. Click on the Start button and select the Control Panel option.

2. If in Classic control panel mode, double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and then double-click on Computer Management icon.
If your control panel is in the Category view, click on Performance and Maintenance, then click on Administrative Tools, and finally double-click on the Computer Management icon.
3. When the Computer Management screen opens, click on the Disk Management option under the Storage category.
4. Right-click on the partition you would like to delete and choose the Delete Partition option.
5. A confirmation box will come up asking if you are sure you would like to continue. If you press the yes button, all data on this partition will be deleted. If you are sure about deleting this partition, press the Yes button.

The partition will now be deleted and you can either create a new partition or exit the program. 

How To See Hidden Files In Windows

Introduction

By default Windows hides certain files from being seen with Windows Explorer or My Computer. This is done to protect these files, which are usually system files, from accidentally being modified or deleted by the user. Unfortunately viruses, spyware, and hijackers often hide there files in this way making it hard to find them and then delete them.

By following the steps below for each version of Windows you will be able to change the operating systems behavior so that you can see hidden and protected files. In this way you will be able to delete or replaces files for troubleshooting purposes.

Windows 95

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the View menu and then click Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
6. Press the OK button and close the My Computer window.
7. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows 98

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the View menu and then click Folder Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
6. Press the Apply button and then the OK button and close the My Computer window.
7. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows ME

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide file extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
9. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows NT

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the View menu and then click Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
6. Press the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
7. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows 2000

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide file extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
9. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows XP and Windows 2003

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
3. Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
4. After the new window appears select the View tab.
5. Put a checkmark in the checkbox labeled Display the contents of system folders.
6. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide file extensions for known file types.
8. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
9. Press the Apply button and then the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
10. Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows Vista

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button with the Windows flag in the lower left corner.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens you can either be in Classic View or Control Panel Home view:
   
   If you are in the Classic View do the following:
   1. Double-click on the Folder Options icon.
   2. Click on the View tab.
   3. Go to step 5.
   
   If you are in the Control Panel Home view do the following:
   1. Click on the Appearance and Personalization link .
   2. Click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
   3. Go to step 5.
       
5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button.
9. Now Windows Vista is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows 7

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps. Please note a guide with images that shows the same steps can be found here:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button with the Windows flag in the lower left corner.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens click on the Appearance and Personalization link.
5. Under the Folder Options category, click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
6. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, or drives.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
8. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
9. Press the Apply button and then the OK button..
10. Now Windows 7 is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows 8

To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps. Please note a guide with images that shows the same steps can be found here:

1. From the Windows 8 Start Screen, click on the Control Panel app.
2. When the Control Panel opens scroll down to the bottom and click on the More Settings option.
3. The traditional Windows 8 Control Panel will now open. When it is open, click on the Appearance and Personalization link.
4. Under the Folder Options category, click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, or drives.
6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
8. Press the Apply button and then the OK button..
9. Now Windows 8 is configured to show all hidden files.

Please note that you will now see icons that were not previously visible. One of the most common concerns is that you will see a file called desktop.ini throughout your computer. These are legitimate hidden files and can be ignored.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to see all hidden files on your computer, malicious programs such as viruses, spyware, and hijackers will no longer be able to hide their presence from you or people helping you.

Developer Preview of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 is Now Available

If you were one of the people worried that Windows 7 would be left behind with regard to Internet Explorer 11, then you will definitely feel better after today’s news. Microsoft has just released a developer preview of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 32 and 64 bit operating systems.

When you install the developer preview, it will check for and download any relevant updates (minor on our test system) needed before starting the installation process. Once the installation process has finished, you will need to restart your system.

Important Note: Keep in mind that the developer preview will install over top of (a.k.a. over-ride) your regular version 10 installation!

Here is the official Microsoft video about the new developer preview…

You can download the new developer preview and learn more about it using the links below.

Download the Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview [Microsoft]

Internet Explorer Test Drive Website [Microsoft]

modern.IE Website [Microsoft]

Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview for Windows 7 [YouTube]

Keyboard Shortcuts To Simplify Browser Use

The mouse may be the most intuitive way to control a browser, but it's not the most efficient. 

I'd like to tell you that nothing can speed up your Web browsing like a few basic keyboard shortcuts. But that's not really true. They won't speed things up nearly as much as a faster Internet connection.

But the keyboard shortcuts will speed it up in an entirely different way. They won't bring up a new page any faster, but once the page is up, they can get you to the top or bottom immediately, change tabs in the blink of an eye, and toggle full-screen mode.

And unlike a faster connection, they don't add to your monthly bills.

Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts, all of which work with Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. For simplicity's sake, I haven't tried to include everything.

General Navigation

Task	Shortcut
Back to the previous page	Backspace
Forward to page you just went back from	Shift-backspace
Toggle full screen	F11

Navigating the current page

Page down	Spacebar
Page up	Shift-Spacebar
Bottom of page	End
Top of page	Home

Moving between pages

Open new tab	Ctrl-T
Close current tab	Ctrl-W
Move to tab on the right	Ctrl-Tab
Move to tab on the left	Ctrl-Shift-Tab

These are the commonly used shortcuts. Will be Updated with more....

Windows 8 Is Failing to Beat Windows 7 And XP And Even Vista!

With the release of yet more data showing Windows 8's dismal performance in the marketplace, we have to ask: Is Windows 8 failing to gain traction because it sucks, or because there's no demand for it?

That is a key question that must be on the minds of the execs at Microsoft right now, but it's a question that may also impact anyone else who makes software on a timed version release scheduled these days.

First, the numbers from NetMarketshare. Looking at the Desktop Operating System Marketshare for May, Windows 8 is fourth on the rankings list, its 4.27% market share coming in behind Windows 7 (44.85%), Windows XP (37.74%) and Windows Vista (4.51%). While Windows 8 is outperforming each of the individual versions of Mac OS X, there are still far fewer Windows 8 machines in the world than any given OS X machine (7.06% combined).

Given that we are just past the seven-month mark for the official release of Windows 8, you'd normally think that Windows 8 would have passed at least one the previous three versions of Windows by now. But here it is, still behind Vista, the much maligned version of Windows that debuted more than six years ago, in November 2006.

Blame A Crowded, Shrinking Market

It would be very easy to point fingers at the Windows development team and place the blame on the radical redesign of the Windows 8 interface as the cause of the problem. But that may be too much of a generalization.

A larger cause for the new operating system's failure to gain traction in the marketplace may lie in an unexpected reason: people are happy with what they have. This satisfaction lies in two categories: the Windows software they have is stable enough to support the apps they are using and the hardware they are using is powerful enough to run the OS and apps they are using.

Since fewer PCs are being upgraded, Windows 8 preload have fewer opportunities to enter the market.

This situation may resonate with ReadWrite users, some of whom cited this slow down in hardware upgrading as one of the reasons PC sales are slowing down, even as tablet sales accelerate.

After years of new application upgrades forcing users to upgrade their machines if they wanted their new software to run faster than a crawl, web-based apps like Gmail and social network platforms like Facebook have disrupted the hardware/software upgrade cycle.

Feature saturation on local applications like office suites played a contributing factor, too. If my business communications and finances can be handled quite well with Office 2007, why upgrade and deal with the pain of retraining?

Given such a situation, Windows 8 may have really never stood a chance for massive blockbuster release numbers. The market is too crowded with, ironically, other Windows installs that are doing the jobs they need to do well enough. Microsoft also faces a similar problem of entrenchment in the mobile sector, though with iOS and Android standing in the way.

Eventually, Windows 8 will be the market leader. Entropy will see to that, as PCs and laptops break down and need to be replaced. But by that time, it may be Windows 9 or even 10 that will be standing in line, waiting for their turn as number one in the PC marketplace.