Does single click access to your browsing history in Google Chrome sound great? Then you should take a look at the History Button extension.

Before

Usually there are two methods for viewing your browsing history in Chrome:

• Using the “Tools Menu” to access the “History Page”
• Performing keyboard ninja magic with the “Ctrl + H” keyboard shortcut

But what if neither method really appeals to you? Perhaps a “Toolbar Button” is just what you have been looking for.

Installation

During the install process you will be asked to confirm installation of the extension. Click “Install” to finish adding your new “History Button” to Chrome.

As soon as you have finished installing the extension you will see your new “History Toolbar Button” and the following message.

There are no options for you to worry with… All that you have to do is just enjoy that single click access goodness.

After

With very minimal impact to your browser’s UI you can now easily access your browsing history.

Conclusion

While this may not be something that everyone will like, the History Button extension makes a very nice addition to Chrome for those prefer to use a toolbar button instead of menus or keyboard shortcuts.

Links

Download the History Button extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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If you’re looking for a music service that allows you to discover and stream unlimited amounts of music, upload your own tunes, and allows sharing via the popular social networks, you might want to check out Grooveshark. Today we give you an overview of the the service and what it has to offer.

Grooveshark

When you first go to Grooveshark you’re presented with an easy to use interface and can immediately begin searching for music, upload your own, create playlists, change themes and more.

When you start using Grooveshark, it will popup various balloon tips to help use the service. You can select to not have them shown if they annoy you.

Without creating an account you can browse through different bands and artists and play the music. However, with out an account you won’t be able to upload your own music and access other cool features.

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Play Lists

The player works like you would expect a music player to. After creating an account you can create playlists and store your favorite tracks.

After searching for the music you want, click the plus icon next to the track and add it to your queue.

Then from your queue list you can drag and drop songs to your playlist.

Or you can save the entire queue to a playlist by either creating a new one or writing over and existing one.

From the songs in your queue you can email a link to your friends to share it with them. There is also an option to use the major social networks like Facebook and Twitter too.

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Uploading Songs

After signing up for the free account you can upload your music and take advantage of other features. This feature is cool because you can access your music wherever there’s an Internet connection. To upload your music you’ll need to have Java installed and then start through the uploading process. First you need to select the music you want to upload.

After you’ve selected the songs you want to upload, Grooveshark will scan the music for information.

When the scan is complete you can go through and double check the accuracy.

If everything looks correct the uploading process will begin.

After the upload process you’re shown a confirmation screen and a message about it might take up to 24 hours for the songs to appear.

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Free Account

With the free account you will be shown ads while using the service. Or you can become a VIP member for $3/month to remove them.

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You also get a lot more as a Grooveshark VIP including access to new features, more music, direct support, custom themes, and more.

Other Features

There are some other cool features like the Grooveshark Radio that works similar to Pandora. You can give a song a smiley or frown as it continues to pull up songs related to what you like.

You can choose from different themes for the page as well. VIP members get a choice of a lot more though.

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If you find a song you really like, they offer a choice where you can purchase it from Amazon or iTunes.

If you are a musician and want to promote your band, they have a section for that where you pay a certain amount for so many plays. With this you also get a full dashboard with analytics, music catalogue and more.

There is also a simple Google Chrome extension you can get that add simple playback controls for it.

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Conclusion

In my tests this seems like a cool service, though the song selection was a bit limited based on my tastes. The songs play right away, and there’s no loading time which is cool. There are also plenty of social features built into Grooveshark as well if you’re looking for that. If you can handle the ads shown on the side, this is a very cool and free solution for finding new music and sharing it online. For $3/month or $30 for a full year, they eliminate the ads and offer other perks as well. As Grooveshark continues to evolve it could turn into the “go to” music sharing and streaming service for music enthusiasts. In the near future we will take a detailed look at the VIP service and the benefits it has to offer. Have fun and let us know what you think of the service by leaving a comment below.

Grooveshark Main Site

Grooveshark Google Chrome Extension

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So you got your shiny new pre-installed Windows 7 computer over the holidays, but you want to have trusty XP standing by in a dual boot setup. Today we’ll walk through creating a new partition in Windows 7 then installing XP on it.

In this process we are going to shrink some free space on the Windows 7 hard drive to allocate toward a new partition. Make sure to take a moment and decide how much space to use for the XP partition. Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive for files you’ll be adding to each.

Create a New Partition

The first thing we need to do is create a new partition on the Windows 7 machine. Luckily we can do it without any 3rd party software. To begin, click on Start and type either partition or disk management into the search box and at the top of the menu click on Create and format hard disk partitions.

The Disk Management window opens, and from here we need to free up space on the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on. Right-click on the drive and select Shrink Volume. ?

A window pops up showing the drive is being queried for available space.

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Now enter the amount of space you want to shrink the volume. You’re shown the total size of the disk and the amount of size that is available to shrink. In this example we’re freeing up 40GB of space.

After the process completes you’ll see the new Unallocated space. Right-click that and select New Simple Volume.

The New Simple Volume Wizard launches which is a straight forward process. When you get to the Format Partition section, NTFS is selected by default as the file system and you can leave that as is. You might want to rename the Volume label something else like “XP Partition” so it’s easier to identify when installing XP. Also you’ll probably want to make sure to check Perform a Quick Format.

After the format is complete you will see the new volume as a healthy partition listed.

Now when you go into My Computer you’ll see the the new disk and notice that space has been taken away from the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on.

Install XP on the New Partition

Now that you know how to create a new partition on your Windows 7 machine, it’s time to install XP on it. Here we’re installing XP Professional on the new partition. Boot from the XP installation disk and start the install process.

When it comes to choosing a partition, make sure you select the one you created using the steps above. In this example we made a 10GB partition for the XP install.

If the partition you created was already formatted as NTFS you can leave it, or you can choose the FAT file system if you want.?

Basically you continue through as if you were doing a clean install on any hard drive.

Create Boot Loader

Once installation of XP is successful you can now go through and install the latest Microsoft Updates and drivers. You will undoubtedly notice that the machine is booting directly into XP at this time. This is due to XP writing it’s bootloader over Windows 7’s. To get both XP and Windows 7 as an option at the boot screen you can use the free utility EasyBCD 1.72 or their new 2.0 Beta.

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VistaBootPRO 3.3 (free version) will still work too which you can download here. VistaBootPRO is now called DualBootPRO and is no longer free, it’s $9.95 for a single user license.

After getting the bootloader back you should see both XP and Windows 7 as options in the Windows Boot Manager.

Conclusion

If you want to set a default OS on your dual boot system, check out The Geek’s tutorial on how to set it up. To download the EasyBCD 2.0 Beta, you’ll need to register with the NeoSmart Technologies Forum first. If you’re hesitant to try out Beta software, EasyBCD 1.7.2 is also free and will still work as well.? Of course there are other ways of creating a dual boot system, but this is the method I have been using and it’s simple and effective.

EasyBCD 1.7.2

EasyBCD 2.0 Beta (Forum Registration Required)

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If you have been waiting for the official WOT extension for Google Chrome, Iron Browser, & ChromePlus then your wait is over. Now you can enjoy the full power of WOT in your Chromium-Code based browser.

Installation

Installing WOT in Chrome is quick and simple but you will have to click on “Install” when the confirmation message windows appears in order to finish adding the extension to your browser.

As soon as you have finished installing the extension a new tab will open up that allows you to choose the level of protection that you desire. The “Basic” level is selected by default… Once you have made your selection click “Next”.

The second and final setup window will check to see if you would like to register for a WOT account (not mandatory for using the extension). Registering for an account will allow you to “rate” websites and add to the WOT database. If you only want to use the extension click on the “Red X” in the upper right corner to finish up.

To access the options for WOT you can use either the drop-down window or go through the “Chrome Extensions Page”.

The options for WOT are simple…select or deselect the rating components that you would like to have active. It is a good idea to leave all active though…

Note: You will notice that the options page in Chrome is “linked up” to the WOT website (see address bar).

WOT in Action

To start off we visited one of the pages here at the site. All nice and green…

A closer look at the ratings for the How-To Geek website…

This website displayed with a “yellow color” rating, so something is definitely not too good here.

Looking at the ratings for this website two of the categories are “caution level” but the other two are definitely trouble. Probably better to leave this website than stay…

Not good! As with WOT for other browsers the extension will “shade out” the website and display a warning when a “problem website” is encountered.

The drop-down window shows nothing but trouble here…definitely time to close that tab and look elsewhere.

As always there will be some websites that display a “white color” so it does become a matter of how comfortable (or daring) you feel with those websites.

This website seems to have had very little submitted for it. Sometimes a website with a “white color” rating will have some information available in the drop-down window that is helpful as guidance, but not this one.

Conclusion

If you have been looking forward to adding WOT to your Chromium-Code based browser then your wait is over. This is definitely an extension that you should add to all of your browsers (Chromium-Based or not). See our previous post for more information about WOT for other browsers.

Links

Download the WOT extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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If you have a shared or public computer you might want to allow users to use only specified programs. Today we take a look at a setting in Local Group Policy that allows you to set only specified programs to run.

Note: This process uses Local Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.

First click on Start and enter gpedit.msc into the search box and hit Enter.

Navigate to User Configuration Administrative Templates System. Then under Setting scroll down and double click on Run only specified Windows applications.

Set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of allowed applications.

A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to allow users to run. When finished with the list, click OK then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.

If a user tries to access an application that is not on the specified list they will receive the following error message.

This is a nice feature for limiting what programs users can or cannot access on the computer.

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There are a lot of services these days that let you store files in “the cloud” and access them from virtually anywhere. These services are extremely handy, but what if you need a mobile operating system as well? Today we take a look at a couple of online operating systems that let you store your files and work on them as well.

Online operating systems are a good solution if you have say a Mac at home and PC at work. Or maybe certain features of Windows aren’t available on different machines you work on during the day. There are a lot of different scenarios where an online operating system could come in handy. Here we take a look at two such apps which have a lot of functionality and are free to use.

G.ho.st

This is a worthy free Web OS that gives you 15GB of storage and offers an office suite (powered by Zoho), sharing and collaboration, and access to your documents on a mobile device. The OS runs in a separate window of your browser and has a lot of neat functionality. Everything you do is saved and will be exactly the same no matter what computer you use to log into your account. The Go button acts like the Start menu on Windows and gives you access to all of the available apps and other utilities.

You can upload individual files, use the bulk uploader to transfer folders and large amounts of data, and they also offer a sync feature that will keep data on all of your machines and the G.ho.st OS synchronized. Another cool feature is getting 5GB of extra storage space for each friend or colleague you get to sing up for the service.

They offer the internal G.ho.st web browser which you could use as a security tool if you want to visit less than reputable sites without affecting your actual system.

It’s not all business either. There are some fun utilities included like a music player, it’s own email system, and links to social sites and games.

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G.ho.st Lite lets you access your documents and basic features from your mobile device.

Glide OS

The next one we’ll take a look at is Glide OS which offers a free account and has 20GB of storage and up to 6 different users. It offers a lot of the same functionality of G.ho.st with their own unique interface and other features.

You can change the layout to Glide HD which allows easier navigation to the different services and features.

There are different available office features that allow you to create documents and presentations and collaborate with others as well.

Here is an example of working on a Word document inside Glide OS.

You can go through different themes and customize your desktop.

Conclusion

Other advantages of a Web OS are there is nothing to install, no Antivirus to worry with, and files and documents are available anywhere you have a web connection. Also you don’t need to worry a whole lot about a machines specs, but rather the speed of your Internet connection. There are a few other online operating systems to choose from like iCloud, and each one has different features. You might want to try each of them out to find the one that suites your needs. If you’re constantly moving from computer to computer to get work done, you may want to check out a Web OS. If nothing else, they are geeky and fun to play with.

Gh.os.t Web Operating System

Glide OS Web Operating System

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Have you been waiting to get Firefox’s Auto-Paging extension goodness in Google Chrome? Well your wait is over. Now you can enjoy skipping those Next Buttons with the AutoPager Chrome extension.Have you been waiting to get Firefox’s Auto-Paging extension goodness in Google Chrome? Well your wait is over. Now you can enjoy skipping those Next Buttons with the AutoPager Chrome extension.

Before

Usually if you are browsing you often run into those lovely little “Numbers” or “Next Buttons” at the bottom of webpages. And if you are like most people that is just irritating! You want to browse not waste all of your time “clicking numbers or next buttons”… Time to fix that problem.

Installation

Once you start installing the extension you will have to click on “Install” in the confirmation message window to finish adding it to Chrome.

Once the installation has finished you will have a new tab open with the homepage for the extension. Notice the link for the forums at the top of the page and the download links for Stable/Dev releases in Stable and Lite versions.

If you need to access the options you will have to use the “Chrome Extensions Page”.

At the moment there are few options available…mainly enabling or disabling the extension and updating/importing.

AutoPager Chrome in Action

Here is our same search from earlier…certainly no need to click on numbers or text to access the next page now.

Still looking good at the break between pages 14 and 15…

Even here at the HTG site the browsing is oh so smooth.

Conclusion

If you are tired of not having auto-paging capabilities in Google Chrome then you will really want to add this extension to your browser. This is definitely a recommended install.

Links

Download the AutoPager Chrome extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

Download the AutoPager Chrome extension (Extension Homepage)

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Are you looking for a way to monitor multiple Google Services with just one extension instead of many? Then you will definitely want to take a look at the One Number extension for Chrome.

Installation & Setup

As you are installing One Number you will need to click on “Install” in the confirmation message window to finish adding it to Chrome.

As soon as the installation has finished you will see your new “Toolbar Button” and a short extension management message. Notice that there is already an “Unread Count Number” visible with the “Toolbar Button”. To make certain that you have the most accurate “Unread Count” you will need to go into the “Options” first thing.

There are two ways to access the “Options” for the extension. The first is in the drop-down window for the “Toolbar Button”…

And the second is through the “Chrome Extensions Page”.

All of the “Options” are shown here in expanded form. The first thing to check for is to see if you would like to change the “Server Query Interval”…

Note: If you decide to change any colors you will need to manually enter the new “Color Code”.

The second thing that you should definitely enable if you use “Filters” in your Gmail account is the “Check for any unread messages, not just in the Inbox” option. This one made an immediate difference in our “Unread Count”.

The same recommendation applies to Google Voice.

One Number in Action

You can see that there were two additional items added to our “Unread Count” (from 75 to 77) after modifying the “Options”. When you open the drop-down window this is how it will look. There is a small toolbar of sorts across the top and each service is nicely stacked in its’ own “section”. You can see the number of unread items and a brief view of the first item(s) for each service.

If you only want to focus on one service at a time click on the link for that service and a new tab will be opened to the appropriate Google webpage.

Want to open tabs for all of the unread items at the same time? Then click on “Open Unread”…

Three services with unread items and three new tabs opened up.

Conclusion

If you are looking for an easy way to monitor your favorite Google services then you will definitely want to try this extension.

Links

Download the One Number extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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You’re probably wondering what the mobsyc.exe process is doing running in Task Manager or why there’s a green and yellow icon in the Notification Area. Here we will take a look at what it is, and how to disable it if you don’t use the feature.

Note: This process disables the Offline Files feature which is not available in Home versions of Vista or Windows 7

What Is It?

Mobsync.exe is a process that belongs to Microsoft Sync Center and the Offline Files feature. It’s associated with a device like a Windows Mobile phone with ActiveSync, a SQL Server installation, or if you have Internet Explorer (a feature in IE 6 not in IE7 or above) set to synchronize pages for viewing offline. The process is not a threat and shouldn’t be deleted if you’re using the feature. If you go into Control Panel, you can launch Sync Center and manage its settings.

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If it gets activated for using Offline Files, it will show up in the taskbar in Vista and Windows 7.

How Do I Turn it Off?

So you’re? not sure how the heck it got turned on, and want it off. You could go into Task Manager each time and end the process, but that is extremely annoying.

Disable mobsync.exe in Windows 7

Click on the Start Menu and enter offline files into the search box and hit Enter.

In the Offline Files window click the Disable offline files button then click Ok.

You’ll need to restart the computer for the new setting to take effect. After a reboot, the Sync Center icon should be gone and not be running in Task Manger.

Disable in Vista

Open Control Panel and select Network and Internet.

Next click on Offline Files.

In the Offline Files window, click on the Disable Offline Files button?and click Ok.

A restart is required and after that, it should be disabled and you won’t see it in the Taskbar or running in Task Manager.

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If you have a home version of Vista or Windows 7, you will see mobsync.exe running in task manager, but closing out of Sync Center should stop the process. If you were using Sync Center and ActiveSync to manage a mobile device and no longer need it, you can uninstall ActiveSync software and it should stop mobsync.exe as well.

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If you’ve got a PC infected by the Antivirus Live virus, you’ve got a tough job ahead of you to remove it. And we’ve got the instructions to help.

Antivirus Live is one of many fake antivirus applications that are really rogue viruses that take your computer hostage—then they tell you that your computer is infected by viruses, and you have to pay them to get rid of the fake viruses that aren’t really there. It’s a huge problem, and they are not easy to remove, because they block virtually everything you try and run, including real anti-malware tools.

Removing Rogue Fake Antivirus Infections

There’s a couple of steps that you can generally follow to get rid of the majority of rogue antivirus infections, and actually most malware or spyware infections of any type. Here’s the quick steps:

• Reboot your PC into safe mode with networking (use F8 right before Windows starts to load)
• Install SuperAntiSpyware and run it. (see our previous article on how to use it)
• Reboot your PC and go back into safe mode with networking.
• Install MalwareBytes and run it, doing a full system scan. (see our previous article on how to use it).
• Reboot your PC again, and run your normal Antivirus application (we recommend Microsoft Security Essentials).
• At this point your PC is usually clean.

Note that some malware will block you from using safe mode. That usually requires another set of steps that we won’t cover here.

Let’s Remove Antivirus Live

The first thing you’ll want to do is reboot your computer, and hit the F8 key right before Windows starts loading (you can hit it a bunch of times). Then select the Safe Mode with Networking option.

Before you do anything else, you’re going to need to fix the internet connection to work, because Antivirus Live changes IE to use a fake proxy server that prevents you from getting to anything else—and will also prevent you from installing and updating a real anti-malware software.

Now you’ll want to install SuperAntiSpyware (linked above), which you have hopefully downloaded via another computer already, but safe mode with networking should allow you to download and install it.

Once you load it up, it’s going to do some analysis…

Then you’ll see the full application screen, where you’ll want to use the Check for Updates button to make sure you have the latest definitions. Once you’ve done that, click the Scan your Computer button.

Select your primary drive at least, though you should pick all the drives, and then click the Perform Complete Scan button.?

It’ll run for a long time, detect a bunch of stuff, and then you can proceed through the wizard to actually removing it all…

Once it’s all done, you can reboot the PC again (just make sure to go back into Safe Mode again).

Next you’ll want to install Malwarebytes, make sure to check the Update tab for the latest definitions, and then perform a full scan of your system.

Malwarebytes will find even more malware that SuperAntiSpyware missed (seems like you always need more than one util to get it all). Just be sure to click the Remove Selected button to get rid of the rest.

At this point you’ll want to reboot your system, and then install Microsoft Security Essentials and run another full scan. Can’t hurt to be too cautious!

Note: If you used a thumb drive at any point during this process, you should make sure and scan that as well—I’ve had viruses hop over to the thumb drive, ready to infect the next machine.

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