How do I delete my cookies in my browser?
What? my computer has cookies in it? How do I get them out? I’m hungry!
Not exactly those kind of cookies. Cookies in computer terms are little files on your computer (harddrive) that stores some information about you. They can store your preferences for certain websites, your authentication information if you need to login etc.
Have you ever been told you should delete your cookies? Well, generally this is a good practice as it will remove these text files from your computer and in the process clean away your personal information as well. There are some drawbacks when doing this, as it will *forget* all your stored authenication information for sites.
If your browser is set to remember your passwords, it will still know them when you login, but setting this option is not a recommended practice
To remove your cookies in IE follow these steps:
Tools \ Internet Options \ Browsing History \ Delete button
on the popup remove the check marks from all options but Cookies
To remove your cookies in FireFox follow these steps:
Tools \ Options \ Privacy Tab \ remove individual cookies
from here, you can remove individual sites cookies, or all.
To remove your cookies in Chrome follow these steps:
Wrench \ Options \ Personal Stuff \ Clear Browsing Data… \ Delete Cookies \ Clear browsing Data
As you can see on those pages, there is other options for passwords, browsing history and some other options. I also recommend that you periodically update / remove these bits of your personal information as well.
Clearing your Cookies is something that you should do time to time just to make sure that you have removed the settings, and personal data for websites from your computer.
Related posts
How do I disable those annoying updates on Facebook?
disable those annoying updates on facebook.
Do you get really annoyed when you login to facebook and all you see on your wall is a bunch of updates from your friends, but not really from your friends? Rather, the update is from a game or application that they are using on facebook, and it has decided to let you know that your friend is playing thier game, and that they want to let you know, or they need your help!
I know that this topic is not one that I normally cover, but I liked the question that I received so I decided to post on it.
In Facebook, these apps and games are trying to advertise themselves to everyone, and thats why they are posting to your wall. I can appreciate that, but I personally find it annoying, so I am going to tell you how to stop it, without blocking your friend!
When you login to facebook and you are looking at the home page, you might see a bunch of updates from farmville, mafia wars, some random quiz, or whatever the latest facebook fad is. The best way and easiest way to stop them is really simple.
Beside each post on the right hand side, there will be a drop down arrow. You won’t see it unless you move your mouse over that area, thats the trick! once you have your mouse over that area, you will be able to select “hide” or hide application. Hide, will remove all posts from that user, so you never see their updates again. Not sure you will want to do that, but its there. Hide application, will remove all the posts from that application. So if you have 20 friends all playing Farmville, or passing around the 10 things I know about you quiz, once you hide that application, you won’t see anyones update about it afterwards.
Although you are not able to do this on the iPhone with the Facebook app, once you do this on your PC in a webbrowser, then you will not see these updates on your iPhone anymore either.
There you go, now you don’t have to see all those application updates anymore!
This was a request from a subscriber to DutchGeek.com. If you want to get your questions answered, why not post a comment below.
Do you get really annoyed when you login to Facebook and all you see on your wall is a bunch of updates from your friends, but not really from your friends? Rather, the update is from a game or application that they are using on Facebook, and it has decided to let you know that your friend is playing thier game, and that they want to let you know, or they need your help!
I know that this topic is not one that I normally cover, but I liked the question so I decided to post on it.
In Facebook, these apps and games are trying to advertise themselves to everyone, and thats why they are posting to your wall. I can appreciate that, but I personally find it annoying, so I am going to tell you how to stop it, without blocking your friend!
When you login to Facebook and you are looking at the home page, you might see a bunch of updates from Farmville, Mafia Wars, some random quiz, or whatever the latest Facebook fad is. The best way and easiest way to stop them is really simple.
Beside each post on the right hand side, there will be a drop down arrow.
You won’t see it unless you move your mouse over that area, thats the trick! once you have your mouse over that area, you will be able to select “hide” or hide application.
Hide, will remove all posts from that user, so you never see their updates again. Not sure you will want to do that, but its there. Hide application, will remove all the posts from that application. So if you have 20 friends all playing Farmville, or passing around the 10 things I know about you quiz, once you hide that application, you won’t see anyones update about it afterwards.
Although you are not able to do this on the iPhone with the Facebook app, once you do this on your PC in a web browser, then you will not see these updates on your iPhone anymore either.
There you go, now you don’t have to see all those application updates anymore!
This was a request from a subscriber to DutchGeek.com. If you want to get your questions answered, why not post a comment below.
Related posts
What are System Restore points?
Have you ever wondered just what a system restore point was, and just why you need them?
Your not alone. A lot of people don’t know how to effectively use them, and they can be a great tool for backup. However; that being said, it should never be your ONLY form of backup of your system. System Restore points should be considered the front line of your backup solution.
System Restore points can be made in Vista or Windows 7 by opening the Control Panel and choosing System.
Image
Select on System Protection
Image
Here we are able to choose the specific settings of our backup. Choose configure, and Select the following options:
Restore system settings and previous versions of files.
The amount of Disk Space that is used is up to you. I would normally recommend about 10% of your total Hard Disk.
Once these options are enabled, then your system should be backing up the data. The default for the task in Windows is to run at midnight each day.
I do not consider this to be a full backup of your system, however if used correctly, this can be used as one component of a full backup routine for your data.
Have you ever wondered just what a system restore point was, and just why you need them?
Your not alone. A lot of people don’t know how to effectively use them, and they can be a great tool for backup. However; that being said, it should never be your ONLY form of backup of your system. System Restore points should be considered the front line of your backup solution.
System Restore points can be made in Vista or Windows 7 by opening the Control Panel and choosing System.
Select on System Protection
Here we are able to choose the specific settings of our backup. Choose configure, and Select the following options:
Restore system settings and previous versions of files.
The amount of Disk Space that is used, is up to you. I would normally recommend about 10% of your total Hard Disk. Once these options are enabled, then your system should be backing up the data. The default for the task in Windows is to run at midnight each day.
***NOTE***
I do not consider this to be a full backup of your system, however; if used correctly this can be used as one component of a full backup routine for your data.
Related posts
Even professionals make mistakes
Yep, you guessed it, I made a bit of a mistake earlier today, and I thought I would share my experience with you.
I was making a new avatar for a social site, and I was chatting with a friend of mine on skype. So there was mistake number 1, I should have been focusing on what I was doing at the time.
While editing the image to make it smaller, I mistakenly clicked on the save button and not the save as button. Now, my large nice image has been replaced by a much smaller one. This is where I start swearing at my computer right?
Wrong. Why? because I use Windows 7. Windows 7 and Vista have a built in feature called shadow copy. This allows you to restore files from a previous version. In order to restore the file all I need to do is follow these steps.
Right click on the file and choose properties. A dialog box like this will pop up:
Choose the Previous Versions tab
Now I can select the old version that I want to restore from. Simply choose the file that you want, and hit Restore
Those of you that are paying attention will notice that the old version is from Feburary. Yes, that’s a little old, but in this case its fine. The reason that this file is so old is because the shadow copies are only created during a system restore point. By default this option is turned on, but you can manually invoke it so you have more backups of your data.
I will teach you how to setup this option in my next posting.
So remember, that even the professionals make mistakes. The difference is that we know how to recover from them.
Related posts
How do I defrag my harddrive?
People have asked me in the past why their computers run slow. Beyond some of the other reasons that I have given you in past articles, another is not having run a ‘defrag’ on your hard drive.
But what does that mean? and why do I need to do it?
Basically what happens to your computer is that files are saved on it in order. So as you uninstall and add new programs, all the data that is written to the hard drive is written to different areas or sectors of the drive. This means that all your data is jumbled up, and rather then it being in a nice pile its spread out all over the place, and your computer has to spend time trying to find where the next bit of information is.
When you defrag, you basically grab all the little bits of data, and organize them into nice organized piles again so your computer knows where everything is.
How do I run this defrag?
Luckily Windows has a tool built in for just this purpose. It’s not the best tool available, but hey you have it installed, and it works, so lets go with that.
Here’s where you can find it:
- Start
- All Programs
- Accessories
- System Tools
- Disk Defragmenter
When this program opens it will give you a few choices, the first thing we should do is analyze the disk. After Analyzing, the program will report back to let us know if we need to defrag. Most of the time, it will need it.
Click on the Defragment Disk option, and the process will begin. Now if you have a lot of data on your drive, and if its really defragmented, then it will take a while to complete this process.
Once its completed, you should see a little bit more speed out of your computer.
***Special Note***
Windows 7 has the ability to schedule your defrag. You can set your PC to defrag in off hours, so it will not interfere with your day-to-day operation of the PC. I highly recommend setting up a weekly schedule for running your defrag. This way your PC will stay optimal and you wont have to think about it. Just set it and forget it!
Related posts
Categories: Computers, How do I?, Software, Tips and Tricks Tags: computer, defrag, optimize, schedule
How to disable McAffee so you can install software.
Do you happen to use McAffee as a virus scanner? Have you ever tried to install software only to have it block you and not let you install the software that you want/need?
Here is a suggestion on how to disable the product, as its not that easy to do so you can install the software.
- Right click on the shield in the bottom right hand corner and choose Disable On-Access Scan, this will disable the “Real-time scanner”
- Enable the On-Access Scan when you are completed.
If the Disable On-Access Scan is grayed out then you will need these following steps to unlock the option.
- Right click on the shield in the bottom right hand corner and choose Virus Scan Console
- Double click the Access Protection task symbolized with a traffic light, it’s chosen by default
- Uncheck the box at the bottom labeled “Prevent McAfee Services from Being Stopped” OK to close the properties box
- You can choose to disable the On-Access Scanner one of two ways
- While in the Virus Scan Console choose the On-Access Scanner and click the Stop button at the top
- Or, close the Virus Scan Console box and right click on the shield in the bottom right hand corner and choose Disable On-Access Scan
- Enable the On-Access Scan when you are completed.
*Remember that you might need to be logged in as the administrator in order to install the software, and/or to disable McAfee.
McAffee is not my first choice in virus scanners, as it is rather bloated, and hogs a bunch of system resources. Personally, I dislike it, and try to not use it. However a lot of companies have it installed, so I thought I would share this with you.
Related posts
Categories: How do I? Tags: McAffee, Virus Scanner
Are you a Black Berry user on BES?
If you are BlackBerry user and you are connected to a BES or corporate email server (exchange) did you know you can retrieve and use the global address book for your company for personal contacts?
Did you make the same mistakes I did? Did you recreate a bunch of your contacts into your Blackberry only to wonder why am I recreating all my contacts? Did you move a bunch of them into your personal contacts so that you can IM your co-workers?
This is how you can search for co-workers in the global contacts list.
- On your BB open your address book
- Click the BB menu button, typically the key just to the left of the trackball.
- Scroll to LOOKUP and click
- Plug in a users name or part of a name and click to search.
- The search will bring up all the contact with the name you searched on, you should know what to do from here.
I hope this helps and wasn’t a waste of your time. This suggestion was passed onto me by a co-worker odly enough.
I guess we all can learn something new!
Related posts
Categories: How do I? Tags: Blackberry
Stop webpages from resizing in Firefox
Have you ever visited a site, and all of a sudden your browser goes full screen? If you’re like me you like to use your windows at a specific size and not at the full screen size. I use a widescreen monitor, and most sites don’t use all the available realestate, so I size my windows. This way I can have a few of them open and displayed at the same time.
Here is how you can stop Firefox from resizing, so those annoying scripts can’t take control of your browser, and force you to view the site maximized.
Open up Firefox, and go to tools / options.
Select the Content Tab.
On the selection for Enable Java Script, select Advanced.
Locate the option for move or resize existing windows
On the Advanced Java script pop-up window, remove the check mark from “Move or Resize existing existing windows”.
Select “Ok”, and Choose “Ok” on the next window.
Now your browser will not be resized as you surf to new pages. This will not stop new windows (or pop-ups) from being opened to the maximum size, but your open widows will not be resized.
Related posts
How can I tell what type of CPU or RAM I have?
There is a great free little tool that you can use to find out some important information about your computer. This is a little freeware program that gives you some specifics about your computer, that you don’t have to go digging to find.
I use a program called CPUz. This program gives a wealth of information about your core system, so you know just what you have.
you can get the program here: CPUz
After installing the program, it will immedately get your system specs for you, so you can see all the important information about your system
The CPU tab will show you your processor, and the speeds that it runs at:
The Memory tab will show you the timings of your RAM and the amount that you have installed:
The SPD tab will show the size of each stick, and the type that you have. This is the information that you will need in order to go to your local computer store to purchase more.
Remember that your computer mother board might not accept certain types of RAM, and certain sizes. This means that you need to also know what type of mainboard your computer has installed as well. This information is on the Mainboard tab.
If you need help to figure out what all these numbers are, I would suggest that you print off the images that CPUz generates of your computer, and take them with you to your local computer store. The sales associates should be able to help you get the right kind of RAM for your system.
Related posts
How much RAM do I have?
Have you ever been told:
“You’re computer would run so much better if you just had more RAM”
What does this mean? RAM is the memory that your computer uses to actively work on something. Your computer also stores information on your Hard Disk, but the more RAM you have the better.
Think of it this way, your RAM is like your desk that you work at, and it only has so much space that you can use. After its filled up, all the information needs to be filled into that shiny filling cabinet behind you. It’s a pain to take files to and from the filing cabinet, but it has to be done, as your desk is only so big.
What if you could increase the size of your desk? Then you would need to make less trips to the filing cabinet. The same is true if you have more RAM.
How can you check how much RAM you have? Well you can see this information in your task manager and its the most helpful there, so lets have a look there. You can right-click on your taskbar and choose “Task Manager”
This will bring up your Task Manager. This is what your Task Manager looks like.
Where it says “Physical Memory” this is the amount of RAM that you have installed on your PC. The PC that I am using to write this has 8 GB of RAM, and 2.26 GB of it is in use at the moment.
If you notice that your graph is almost at the top, then you are maxing out the RAM, and you might want to consider putting more in.
There are some other tricks that you can do to squeeze out a bit more from your system, but we’ll save those for another time.
Related posts
