Do you have a lot of bookmarks and bookmarks folders in your Bookmarks Toolbar and need a way to make them fit better? See how nicely your bookmarks can be condensed with the Smart Bookmarks Bar extension for Firefox.

Before

Here is our test browser with an assortment of bookmarks not in folders. As you can see it does not take many to fill the visible area of the “Bookmarks Toolbar” therefore requiring the use of the drop-down menu at the end. Even if you have your bookmarks placed in folders they too can fill your toolbar up very quickly.

After

As soon as you have installed the extension and restarted Firefox you will notice an immediate difference. As you can see here all of the bookmarks shown above have been “reduced” to just their favicons. Now your “Bookmarks Toolbar” can have a very clean, colorful, and highly condensed look to it.

Hovering your mouse over any of the favicons will make the text associated with the bookmark appear (slider type of motion). This is especially useful if you happen to have two bookmarks that use the same favicon.

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As always clicking on any of the bookmarks opens those links just like before. This is definitely a great way to get those bookmarks under control and make them easier to use.

If you prefer folders you can also have them condensed as well though they will all have the same favicon. One way to work with this might be to memorize “first folder = blogs, second folder = e-mail, etc.”.

Note: You may also have the names of folders permanently display if desired (see “Options”).

Just like before you can easily access bookmarks contained in the folders.

Options

The options for the extension focus on small operational tweaks for your “Bookmarks Toolbar”…select what works best for you. It is advised to deselect “Hide bookmarks names with no favicon” so that you do not “lose sight” of any new bookmarks that lack a favicon. Or if you already have bookmarks without favicons you could place those in an appropriate folder to work around that minor problem.

Conclusion

If you have been looking for a better way to organize and access bookmarks (and folders) on your Bookmarks Toolbar then this is one extension that you should definitely take the time to try.

Links

Download the Smart Bookmarks Bar extension (Mozilla Add-ons)

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Sometimes you might need to print out data contained in an Excel Spreadsheet, but printing out the entire thing is a waste. Today we show you how to print out only specific areas of the document that you need.

Open the Spreadsheet with the data you need and hold down the Ctrl key while highlighting the area of the document you want to print out.

Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon, then the Print Area button and Set Print Area…

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While still under Page Layout click on Print Titles…

The Page Setup screen opens up and you’ll want to select the Sheet tab. From here type in the Columns and Rows that you want to repeat (if any) then click on Print Preview. This allows you to include any headers or labels associated with the data.

Now you’ll be able to preview the area you’ve selected and can print it out.

You can also select multiple areas of the spreadsheet. Just select another area and when you click on Print Area select Add to Print Area.

Then when you go into Print Preview you can page through the different areas you’ve selected.

The Print Areas will stay set until you clear them out. Just click on Print Area then select Clear Print Area.

This also works basically the same in Excel 2010, but when you select Print Preview, Backstage View opens and you can select your printing options from there.

This is a great way to save ink and paper if you only need to print out specific areas of a spreadsheet. Being able to include column headings and row labels is also nice so the data you print out makes more sense.

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If you’re using the new uTorrent 2.0, you might have noticed that it starts automatically when booting into Windows. Even if you disable it in System Configuration. Here we show you how to completely disable it from starting automatically.

Open uTorrent and from the menu bar go to Options Preferences and under the General section uncheck the box next to Start uTorrent on system startup, then click Ok to close out of Preferences.

In Windows 7 or Vista go to Start and enter msconfig into the Search box.

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In XP you need to go to Start Run then type in msconfig.

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In System Configuration click the Startup tab then uncheck uTorrent and click Ok.

Now you won’t have UTorrent starting up automatically every time you restart your Windows machine.

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It can be quite annoying when you try to install a driver or other software on Windows 7 just to find out it isn’t compatible with the new OS. Today we look at using the Program Compatibility Assistant, and troubleshooting compatibility issues so programs install successfully.

Program Compatibility Assistant

Program Compatibility is a mode that allows you to run programs that were written for earlier versions of Windows. The Program Compatibility Assistant detects compatibility issues and allows you to reinstall using the recommended settings. For example we got this error trying to install a music interface device driver for home recording.

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After we closed out of the error, the Program Compatibility Assistant came up advising that the program didn’t install correctly. To try to install it again select Reinstall using recommended settings.

The Compatibility Assistant went through and fixed the issue and we were able to install the driver. The problem was the driver was designed for Vista and the the assistant automatically select the correct compatibility mode for us to install it.

Sometimes you might get a screen similar to this example where Virtual PC 2007 isn’t compatible with Windows 7 and you can check for solutions online.

After checking for solutions online, we’re shown that there is an update that might solve the issue.

Which points us to the Microsoft site to download Virtual PC 2007 SP1.

Note: Sometimes a program does install correctly and Program Compatibility Assistant thinks it didn’t. There are also times when you cancel an installation half way through and it pops up. If you’re an Admin and tired of seeing it pop up because you know what you’re doing, check out our article on how to disable program compatibility assistant in Windows 7 and Vista.

Program Compatibility Troubleshooter

There might be times when Program Compatibility Assistant can’t find a solution, or a program installs fine, but doesn’t work the way it should. In that case you’ll need to troubleshoot the issue. Right-click on the program icon from the Start Menu or in many programs the shortcut icon and select Troubleshoot compatibility.

Windows will detect any issues with the program and you can try to run it with the recommended settings, or go through the troubleshooting wizard. For this part of our example we’ll select Try recommended settings.

This option allows us to test run the program to see if the new compatibility settings fix the issue. Click on Start the program to begin testing it out. After testing the program and determining if the settings work or not click on Next.

If the program is running correctly you can save the settings and it will continue to run with those settings. If it didn’t work properly, you can try using different settings or report the problem to Microsoft and check for an online solution.

If you selected No, try again using different settings it will bring up the troubleshooter where you can specify the issues you’re having with the program.

Depending what you check in the screen above, you’ll be presented with other options for what is not working correctly. Where in this example it shows different display problems.

New settings are applied to the program and you can try running it again.

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If none of the compatibility settings work for the program, you’re prompted to to send a generated problem report to Microsoft.

Manually Select Compatibility

Of course if you don’t want to deal with the Program Compatibility troubleshooter, you can go in and manually select Compatibility Mode. Right-click the program icon and select Properties.

Then click the Compatibility tab then check the box Run this program in compatibility for and select the version of Windows from the dropdown. Now it will always run the program in Compatibility Mode for the version of Windows you selected.

Conclusion

Hopefully running the program in an earlier version of Windows helps solve the problems you’re experiencing. Each program is different so the troubleshooting steps will vary. Most programs written for Vista should work in Windows 7, but not all of them. If you’re having problems with a program not working correctly on Windows 7 and have gone through the Compatibility Mode troubleshooter, your best bet is do search the developers website for a newer version or in their forums.?

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Are you frustrated with the default tab behavior in Chrome? Then the Modified Tab Ordering extension might be just what you have been looking for.

Before

Most people usually have a favorite set of webpages that they open when they start their day, but different preferences in how they like for new tabs opened from the original(s) to behave.

The default behavior in Chrome is for new tabs to open “relative” to the original and therefore be “grouped together” as shown here with these two How-To Geek webpages. But not all people care for that and prefer for new tabs to be opened at the far right end of the “Tab Bar”.

After

Once again here is our set of “starter webpages” with the same link being opened in a new tab. This time that new tab is all the way at the end of the “Tab Bar” waiting to be viewed after the “starter webpages” have been sorted through.

Closing “starter webpages” will produce a very satisfying behavior…

A perfect precession of tabs in a “left to right” order. Once you have finished with your “starter webpages” you can enjoy viewing all of those new tabs in just the order that you opened them.

Conclusion

This extension should be a perfect fit for you if you are someone who prefers sorting through your “starter webpages” first then viewing newly opened tabs in successive “left to right” order.

Links

Download the Modified Tab Ordering extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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Feeling a little bit stressed out lately and need something peaceful to look at to help you relax? Then you can add a bit of tranquility to your desktop with our forest theme wallpapers collection.

Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.

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If you are in the mood for more variety for your collection or something a little different then be sure to take a look at our other great wallpaper collections.

How-To Geek Wallpaper Collections

• Desktop Fun: Underwater Theme Wallpapers
• Desktop Fun: Winter Theme Wallpapers
• Friday Fun: Retro Nintendo Wallpapers
• Totally Awesome Lego Wallpapers for Your Desktop
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Guitar Edition
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Abstract Art Edition
• Awesome Desktop Wallpapers: Windows 7 Edition
• Fun Wallpapers: The Linux Desktop Edition
• Amazing Desktop Wallpapers: Castle Theme Edition

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If you are using Google Chrome, there are times when you might want to quickly take a screenshot of a page without having to open a third party utility. Today we take a look at the Webpage Screenshot extension for Chrome which will save a screenshot of any webpage in PNG format.

Sometimes obtaining a screenshot of a webpage can be a bit of work depending on whether you need only a portion of it or the whole thing. If you do not want to take the time to launch another screenshot utility, this extension works well in a pinch.

Webpage Screenshot in Action

As soon as you find a webpage that you would like a screenshot of click on the “Toolbar Icon” to open this drop-down window. Notice that there are three types of screenshots that you can take: a Resized Window (specific pixel size), a Visible Area Screenshot, or the Entire Webpage.

If you choose the “Resize Window Option” this is what you will see. Being able to enter a custom width and height will be great for anyone who loves to finesse their screenshots.

For our example we chose “All Page Screenshot”. The drop-down window will be active and the webpage itself will “auto-scroll” as your screenshot is being created.

When finished you will be presented with a thumbnail of the screenshot, the image size, and a clickable link to view the image itself.

Clicking to view the image will open the image in a new tab. Looking at it the only difference between it and the original will be the “Control Area” at the top and the lack of a website address if you are viewing it at 100%…ours turned out that nicely.

When you have saved the screenshot you can easily open and view it using the “Download Bar”…

If you have taken a lot of screenshots you can easily search through them on the “Downloads Page”.

The Results

Here is our screenshot opened in Paint.NET…definitely looking good.

There was one interesting thing that we noted during our test. The entire length of the webpage was captured but the “visible width area” of the screenshot was affected by the width of the browser window itself (in our case the browser was not maximized). This will not be a problem if you have your browser window maximized though…

Here is the webpage shown for comparison with the screenshot displayed above…the right side is “cut off” at the same point in both.

Conclusion

If you have been been looking for a nice screenshot utility for Google Chrome then you might want to give this extension a try.

Links

Download the Webpage Screenshot extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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Last July, we pointed out that the Google Reader Notifier extension had turned into crapware, the NoScript add-on was hijacking another extension, and even the Fast Dial extension was spamming you—so it was only a matter of time before an extension came bundled with a full-blown trojan.

Last time, it was as simple as spam links showing up in your browser, and tracking the URLs you were going to—really frustrating and evil, but not necessarily the end of the world, since it wasn’t going to take over your PC.

Yesterday, the Mozilla Add-ons blog reported that two extensions contained nasty trojans that hijacked your PC.

Two experimental add-ons, Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader and all versions of Master Filer were found to contain Trojan code aimed at Windows users. Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader contained Win32.LdPinch.gen, and Master Filer contained Win32.Bifrose.32.Bifrose Trojan. Both add-ons have been disabled on AMO.

If you’ve installed those extensions at any point, you should make sure to run a full virus scan on your PC.

Rant About Firefox Extension Security

Instead of ranting again, let me just quote what I said last time this happened…

What’s to stop yet another Firefox extension from turning into badware, sneaking in tracking codes, or stealing your personal information? It’s already happened with two of the most popular extensions… Somebody at Mozilla needs to do something about this.

The current process over at Mozilla is to run an automated virus scanner against the extensions, and as a result of this issue they have added more scanning tools to the process. This doesn’t solve the real issue, because any virus programmer with some skills can write a customized virus that doesn’t get picked up by any of the commercial virus scanning tools. Sure, some of the tools have heuristics that will probably detect rootkits and some of the nastier techniques, but it’s not going to prevent the issue entirely.

The real problem isn’t even a traditional virus, as far as I’m concerned. How difficult would it be for somebody to write a native Firefox extension that simply takes all your passwords and sends them to a rogue site? There’s no security layer to prevent add-ons from accessing your personal information stored in the browser, and no virus scanner is going to pick up a native Firefox extension since they are written in Javascript.

The Partial Solution

Nobody’s expecting Mozilla to scan through the source code of every single extension—that’s just prone to human error anyway. What would make sense, however, is to have some layers of security that prevent add-ons from accessing any of your personal information stored in the browser unless you specifically allow them to.

What Can You Do to Keep Safe?

You should always make sure to check the reviews on an extension before you install it—don’t just take somebody else’s word when they vouch for an extension… make sure to do your due diligence to check things out first. The same thing applies for any application, of course—if you’re installing applications without doing a virus scan, you’re leaving yourself wide open to having your PC hijacked.

Please read: Security Issue on AMO [Mozilla Add-ons Blog]

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When you open Explorer in Windows 7 you’ll see a list of Favorites in the Navigation Pane. Microsoft has already put some there, but today we show you how to remove them and add your own favorite folders including Search Connectors.

Remove Favorites

By default Microsoft has included some favorite locations for you that you may not want. The default locations are Desktop, Downloads, Recent Places, and Recorded TV if you’ve set up Live TV in Windows Media Center.

To delete the locations from Favorites, simply right-click on the location and select Remove from the context menu.

Add Favorites

Adding you favorite locations that you visit often is easy. While your in the folder you want to add, right-click on Favorites and select Add current location to Favorites.

You can also drag a folder over to Favorites to link it there as well.

In this example we removed all of the default locations and added four locations…a FLAC folder from a home server, My Documents, My Videos, and our Dropbox folder.

If you want to get the default locations back just right-click Favorites and select Restore favorite links. It won’t delete the locations you added, but will just restore the originals.

Search Connectors

You can’t add Internet Explorer Favorites or files to your favorites in Windows Explorer. However, you can add Search Connectors which allow you to search a favorite website and view it in Windows Explorer. This is a neat trick we covered in a previous article.

This should help make navigating through your favorite locations a bit easier and allow you to add Search Connectors as well. Make sure to check out our links below that will help better understand Search Connectors and why they might come in handy.

Search Websites from Your Desktop in Windows 7 with Search Connectors

Download the How-To Geek Search Connector

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Another Friday as arrived and it’s time to have fun and forget about spreadsheets, meetings and documents. Today we take a look at Battlefield Heroes which is a free online first person shooter game developed by EA.

Installation

To begin playing Battlefield Heroes you must register for an account. Here we take a look at installing it with Firefox. You need to install the Battlefield Heroes Updater and restart Firefox.

When you get back you’ll need to install the updater.

Accept the EULA…

Then wait as everything is downloaded and installed. It’s a fairly complex game so the amount of time it takes will vary.

After installation is complete you can start playing right away.

Playing Battlefield Heroes

When you first start out you might want to go through Basic Training so you can get a feel for the controls and learn what they do.

You start out completing different assignments throughout the tutorial…just follow the arrows to the next one.

You learn how to enter tanks, planes, jeeps and other vehicles and maneuver them.

Driving a jeep to the next checkpoint for a new assignment.

Learning to use weapons and attack enemies…

Firing at other tanks in the tutorial…

Flying a plane around… this is very fun and you can shoot targets as well.

There are plenty of settings you can change from the video and audio quality to keyboard controls.

You’re allowed to create up to three hero’s and can choose the way they look and the type of soldier they are including a gunner, soldier, and commando.

Unfortunately while I was writing this up I was kicked off the server during battle because I was idle and trying to get screenshots. But I’m sure you get the idea of the game. During the game other players can hop in a vehicle with you and shoot at the enemy while your driving. It’s kind of a “capture the flag” type rules. The controls are fluid and the graphics are very nice. It’s definitely a lot of fun.

Even going through Basic Training is a fun experience and would be perfect while you’re at work. Then when you get home and have free time you’ll be ready for real battle. We’re interested in hearing from those of you who have played the game. Tell us what you like or don’t like about Battlefield Hero’s.

Play Battlefield Heroes

Videos and Screenshots of Battlefield Heroes

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