How to Remove Your Name from Search Engines

How to Remove Your Name from Search Engines

Looking for a way to remove your name from Google? Have you tried to Google your own name lately? Anything inappropriate or damaging come up that you would rather not appear in the first page for everyone to see? Googling my own name brings up a lot of results, mostly all related to my online blogging profession.

Luck for me, there’s nothing bad out there on me yet! The main issue with the Internet is that you may have never done anything outrageous in your life, but someone else could easily defame or slander you without you even knowing it! Either way, there are a couple of things that you can try to do to remove your name from the search engines, but none of them have any guarantees.

To start, there are literally four ways to remove bad press from Google and other search engines if there is already something out there ranking well:

1. Contact the site or sites that have this information posted, ask them to remove it kindly and hope that they agree or


2. Contact the hosting company and try to get the account disabled if there is copyrighted content, hateful content, defamation, or anything illegal or


3. Contact a lawyer and sue or get a court order to have it taken down if the content is false or slanderous or


4. Invoke the Right to be Forgotten ruling that lets you delete undesirable links from the Google index (European Union) or


5. Outrank the current information that exists so that it shows up further down in the search results

Method 1 – Contact Site Owner

Before you try anything else, you should definitely try to contact the site owner to see if they can have the information removed. You can find out the contact information for any website by looking it up in the WHOIS database. Here are three tools that might get you an email address or contact number for the registered person of the site:

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

http://whois.domaintools.com/

http://www.internic.net/whois.html

Some websites have private registration, which means you will see the contact information for a proxy company rather than for the individual. You should still go ahead and send an email as it is usually just forwarded to the site owner.

Method 2 – Contact Hosting Company

If someone is out to get you, they probably won’t respond to your requests to take down the content, so your next step is to try and contact the hosting company. I’ve had quite a few hosting companies take down content on my DCMA requests, mostly due to copyright violations. Your name probably won’t be cause enough for a DCMA request, but if the information that is posted about you is hateful or defaming or slanderous, you can pretty much guarantee that the site is violating the terms of service for that hosting company.

Most hosting companies are very helpful when it comes with spammers or abuse violations. Even if they can’t take down the content, they will usually send a warning email to the site owner about your issue.

You can easily find out who is hosting a website by reading my previous post. If you’re unlucky and find out the hosting company is sketchy and won’t help you, then you’ll have to skip this step and try another.

Method 3 – Get a Court Order

If the content is illegal and the person refuses to take it down, your only option other than Method 5 is to contact a lawyer and sue or get a court order to have the content removed. Usually this isn’t as hard or expensive as it sounds. I’ve seen several occasions where the person simply got a lawyer to draft up an official letter of intent to sue if the content was not removed immediately and that was enough to scare the other party into listening.

If someone doesn’t respond to that, then you would have to get a court order, which would take more time and money. Your chances of this working go down significantly if the person or hosting company resides in another country than where you reside. Trying to get a court order in another country could prove it be very difficult, if not impossible.

Method 4 – Right to be Forgotten

If you happen to live in the EU or Argentina, then you have another tool at your disposal. The Right to be Forgotten concept basically was created so that people could ask search engines to remove specific results for searches of their name if the person’s privacy rights outweigh the interests of the content in those search results.

In order to request a removal, you simply have to fill out a form that Google provides. However, this isn’t a surefire way to remove whatever you want from search results. Google looks at each request carefully and make the final decision on whether to remove it or not. According to Google, they have only approved about half of all removal requests.

Also, stuff like criminal convictions, malpractice lawsuits, public misconduct, financial scams, etc will probably not be removed using this tool.

Method 5 – Outrank Bad Results

The last step would then be to try to bury the bad results as far down in the search results as possible. Most people don’t look past the first page of results when performing searches, but if someone is trying to find information about you specifically, they may go several pages deep. You’ll basically have to create as many good results as you can and hope they show up higher. 

There are a couple of websites, services, tools, etc that you can use to accomplish this. First, let’s talk about what you can do yourself. 

Ways to Create Good Search Results

Normally when searching a name in Google, you’ll see a lot of results for social networking sites. The first plan of actions should be to create accounts on all the major social sites like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Linkedin, PinInterest, FourSquare, Meetup, etc, etc. It’s also worth noting that you really have to actively use these services for Google to show the results higher. Don’t expect blank profiles with your name to show up high in the results. 

There are also many other sites that you could try out to get your name to show up higher. For example, if you search my name “Aseem Kishore”, you’ll see I show up for GitHub, Quora profile, SEOmoz profile, Amazon.com profile, Klout, etc. Wherever you can create a profile, create one and try to add content to it!

Remember all of these methods will take weeks possibly months to actually work. You won’t be able to just create a few profiles and have them suddenly appear in Google! It takes times and patience. Another way to do this is to search other people’s names and see what sites they show up for and then go sign up on those yourself.

Finally, if none of that works, you can actually use some paid services that will remove your name from search engines for various prices. Most of them at least honestly state that it’s going to take 4 to 6 months to truly have all the bad stuff pushed further down in the rankings. Anyone touting instant removal or anything like that is a fake because it’s impossible to remove information from search engines permanently!

Services to Remove Your Name from Search Results

If you don’t have the time to do all this legwork yourself or it’s not working as well as you would like, then it might be worth spending the money and having a professional team of people create and publish the content for you. It’s probably easier for them to create content that will rank higher faster anyway since they have systems setup already to do this regularly.

Image Source: Reputation.com

BrandYourself.com – An interesting website with a free DIY tool, a cheaper HeadStart package and a more expensive concierge service. The HeadStart package costs $800 initial and then $20/month to maintain and includes creation of all your profiles and even custom websites with custom domains. The concierge service is simply $400 a month and includes everything from HeadStart, but also includes monthly creation of new content for you on all the sites.

Reputation.com – Will basically create positive content around your name using various techniques to rank higher than negative results. Pricing varies depending on your needs; starts at around $3000 and goes up to $15,000.

RemoveYourName.com – Uses the technique described above of pushing down bad or unwanted results. Pricing also varies on the package that you get.

 Note that there really is no way to COMPLETELY erase information that is already indexed by the search engines because not only do they keep cached copies of the pages, but there are also services out there that go through all of the web pages on the Internet and create copies of them at specific times.

So even if you were to get a site to remove some bad content and have it removed from the Google index, someone could always go to Internet Archive and view a past version of the page.

In conclusion, getting search results removed or pushed down is a fairly hard process with absolutely no guarantees of success. Your best bet is to put continuous effort for an extended period of time. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

The post How to Remove Your Name from Search Engines appeared first on Online Tech Tips.

Read More

Far Cry 4 Black Screen FIX, Shadows, No Sound, Crashes

Far Cry 4 Black Screen FIX, Shadows, No Sound, Crashes

Since the release of Far Cry 4 game it has received a lot of criticism from the users who are facing critical issues while playing Far cry 4 on their systems despite meeting all the software or hardware specifications demanded by the game therefore here I have compiled a list of some of the most irritating and common errors and the step by step guide on how to fix those errors effectively. So just go through the below tutorial to learn how to fix far cry 4 black screen, how to fix far cry 4 black shadows, how to fix no sound while playing or crashes etc issues.

Important : Must Read

Before you move on to fix your issues with Far Cry 4 gameplay it is important that you first make sure that your system requirements are enough to support Far Cry 4 properly on your system and to check this here below I have provided the minimum system requirements demanded by Far cry 4 with which you can compare your system specifications and if you think still after meeting all the requirements you are facing issues like Far Cry 4 Black screen, black shadows etc then you can proceed with the following resolving steps.

How to Fix Far Cry 4 Black Screen :

Though the fix for the black screen might sound quite fascinating but it really works. Here what you need to do is that you have to disable the Bluetooth adapter or joystick connected to your system. Disable HID Devices that doesn’t have any effect on your system peripherals along with disabling your HID-Compliant Game controller which can be done via Device manager. Also disable the USB Controllers and if you are using gamepad try to switch them to different USB ports. This all will help fixing your black screen issue.

[FAR CRY 4 SAVE GAME FIX]

Note – To Open Device Manager Press Windows + R button to open RUN Command box and here type devmgmt.msc and Hit Enter

How to Fix Far Cry 4 Black Shadows : 

In order to fix black shadows problem first of all try fixing it by Going to Options -> Quality Settings -> Here change the Shadow settings from High to medium and also change the screen aspect ratio to Auto and hope this will help fixing your issue.

Alternatively :

“Delete patch.dat and patch.fat from the data/win32 folder”. Then to fix the contrast of the game “Set your AA to “SMAA”. And then “Set the Ambient Occlusion to “SSAO”. This is a temp fix so backup the files you delete.

How to Fix Far Cry 4 No Sound while playing :

Try disabling your Dolby Live settings in Windows audio and switch it back to 2 channels and this will surely help fixing your audio problem.

[FAR CRY 4 SAVE GAME FIX]

How to Fix Far Cry 4 Not Responding : 

Disable or Unplug all your USB Devices and let the first intro sequence play after which you can try connecting your USB Devices and you will no longer face the same problem.

How to Fix Cry 4 Mouse cursor behavior : 

To fix mouse cursor movement Go to GamerProfile.xml located at My Documents/My Games/ Far Cry and here find the lines  find the lines UseMouseSmooth, Smoothness, and Smoothness_ironsights etc and set them all to zero. That’s it and now you will see a much better mouse movement.

Note :

If after trying all the above steps you still face the issues then don’t worry just drop your query and I will provide you special files that you need to replace with your original files so as to let the game work fine.

The post Far Cry 4 Black Screen FIX, Shadows, No Sound, Crashes appeared first on RushInformation.

Read More

How to Update Your Graphics Driver in Windows 8.1/7/XP

How to Update Your Graphics Driver in Windows 8.1/7/XP

We normally keep on updating ourselves with latest news, technologies, current happenings and even our home or surroundings with latest gadgets, tools etc time to time but while keeping a pace with the changing world most of the users often forget to update their windows and its associated functions, drivers etc or try to be ignorant at these steps which is quite disappointing and moreover affects the productivity also since there is a direct effect on the performance of your system. Though it is ok to understand that you can’t keep changing your system hardware frequently because of the large expenses involved but it is strongly advisable that you should at least try to be updated with the latest software versions or windows drivers as they directly affects your overall system performance. Therefore noting the importance of Updating drivers and its direct effect on the system performance today here I am going to tell how to update your graphics driver in Windows which is considered as one of the most crucial update for very system user so let’s have a brief discussion about the benefits that you avail after updating your graphics driver version. Read below more on How to Update your graphics driver in Windows.

Benefits of Updating your Graphics Driver :

• Updating Graphics driver is not only meant for getting stability as in case of motherboard, bios, sound card drivers etc but it does improves your system performance drastically.

• You get the best support and higher performance for all multimedia graphics rich applications like Adobe Photoshop, video editing and nevertheless GAMING.

• If you are a gamer no matter casual or hard gamer you should always stay updated with the latest graphics version because many times the latest graphics drivers comes with special added support for latest games or fixed bugs etc which can be really beneficial for you improving the graphics quality as well as the frame rates.

How to Update Your Graphics Driver in Windows 8.1/7/XP : Steps to Follow

As we know that there are currently three popular graphics providers that are Intel Graphics, nVidia and AMD Graphics so depending upon the graphics provider the updating procedure varies therefore here below I have covered the step by step procedure for all the three graphics providers.

Important : Identifying your Graphics Driver

• First of all you need to identify your graphics chipset provider among the three Intel, nVidia and AMD graphics solutions. To check your Graphics Driver just follow the below given steps.

• Open Device Manager and to do so Run Command box by pressing Windows + R Button together.

• Here type the command devmgmt.msc as shown below and Hit Enter

• Here now expand the Display Adapters and there you would be able to see your Graphics chipset name or version.

Note – Here you can seen in the above screenshot the Graphics chipset is of AMD Radeon R9 200 Series

Updating your Graphics Driver :

Now after Identifying your Graphics you just need to visit the following links as per your chipset provider and from there you can download your respective graphics driver by selecting your chipset name as displayed in the device manger -> display adapter section.

Update Intel Graphics Driver

Update AMD Radeon Driver

Update nVidia Graphics Driver

The post How to Update Your Graphics Driver in Windows 8.1/7/XP appeared first on RushInformation.

Read More

Cashpig.gy Review - A New Legitimate GPT Website

Cashpig.gy, which is pronounced as cashpiggy, is a GPT (Get Paid To) website where users get paid to do various tasks. Cashpiggy is a subsidiary site of Adf.ly which is a very famous money making URL shortener website and is online since 2009. So, you can also trust Cashpiggy because the team behind Cashpiggy is the same team that is working for adf.ly for years. This also shows that they have an experienced team who can tackle all the major ups and downs in the business and can make a business stable both for users and themselves.

Cashpiggy's aim is to revolutionize the GPT industry and to allow everybody to earn some cash in their spare time. Cashpiggy provides various opportunities to newbies as well as professionals to earn a good income through it. On cashpiggy there are various ways through which you can earn money like viewng ads, completing offers, filling up surveys, playing games, referring people etc.

How to earn money on Cashpiggy ?

As i already said there are various ways to earn money on Cashpiggy. So, lets discuss them one by one in details:

1. By Viewing PTC Ads: This is the most simplest way to earn money on cashpiggy. In this way you should have to click an ad link given to you, so when you click on the ad link then you will be shown an ad for about 30 seconds and after that you will be paid for that. Generally Cashpiggy's PTC ads pay better than other PTC sites.

2. By Completing Offers: This is the major source of earning on Cashpiggy. Generally there are two kinds of offers, one that pays some money for completing them and other that pays some points on completion, which you can redeem to earn prizes for yourself. These offers are very simple and hardly takes few minutes to complete.

3. By Filling Up Surveys: Short surveys are also the great way to earn on Cashpiggy. The surveys on Cashpiggy are simple to complete. Basically these surveys ask you few simple questions based on your likes and dislikes that you have to answer to earn some money.

4. By Playing Games: Cashpiggy also offers a game called PigGrid that you can play to earn up to 10$ everyday. Basically in PigGrid they show you an image/scenery that is divided into small squares and each square contains an advertisers link. So the simple thing is that you have to click those squares to check whether you have won any prize or not. So, whenever you click on a square then you will be taken to their clients website where you have to wait for 10 seconds to find out whether you have won anything or not. Everyday you get 30 chances to try your luck and win a prize. So, in short you can say that the more you play the bigger the chances you have to become a PigGrid winner.

5. By Referring People: Cashpiggy offers a great referral program to its users that you can use to earn some extra income from Cashpiggy.

So, if you refer people to join cashpiggy then you will get 20% revenue share of your referrals earning for lifetime. So start referring people to join Cashpiggy to earn extra cash on Cashpiggy.

6. Earn Prizes By Redeeming Points: As there are two types of offers one that directly pay money and other that give points as reward on completion. So, simply redeem your points to earn prizes for yourself. There are many other ways to get points like viewing ads, daily log in or whatever indicated with points and rewards.

Sign Up And Approval:

Sign up and approval is easy, the all you need is a valid email id to register an account after that you can start earning money on this great site.

Reporting System:

Reporting system is just good, not great but it shows the necessary details. One thing that i want to say is that since this website is in beta phase at the moment so they may upgrade their reporting system when they fully launch their website.

Minimum Payout:

Since this site is in the beta phase so currently they have not set any minimum payout so whatever you have earned they directly send it to your adf.ly account where you can cash-out that money.

Note: This website is in beta phase right now, but this is gonna be a great website because its a subsidiary of adf.ly. So, don't bother about payment options, payment frequency etc. Simply join this program if you like it because soon they will add the required payment methods, minimum payout, payment frequency etc. 

Payment Frequency:

As i already said it is in beta phase so currently payment frequency is not set, however your earned income is directly added to your adf.ly account where payouts are made on demand. So, you can say that they pay on daily basis.

Payment Methods: 

Currently they send your earned income to your adf.ly where you get Paypal, Payza and Payoneer as payment options.

Note: In Cashpiggy's FAQ section you can see that they will add the Paypal, Payza and other payment options soon when they fully launched their website. For now the sign up is invitation only (Invitation Link).

Conclusion:

This website is looking good and have high trust ratings because it is a subsidiary of Adf.ly. Overall you can join this site without hesitation and don't bother about its design and other facilities because when it is fully launched then you will get all the necessary facilities.

Thinking Of Joining Cashpig.gy:

Cashpig.gy Details At A Glance:

Website Type:	GPT (Get Paid To)
Countries Accepted:	ALL
Requirements:	N/A
Payment Methods:	PayPal, Payza
Minimum Payment Threshold:	$
Payment Frequency:	-
Payment Proof:	Coming Soon
Referral Program:	Yes
Statistics Updated:	Instantly
Website URL:	http://www.cashpig.gy/

Read More

How to Check Internet Data Usage in Windows 8.1/7/XP

How to Check Internet Data Usage in Windows 8.1/7/XP

Learn How to Check Internet Data Usage in Windows : Not everyone has unlimited internet data usage plan and therefore it becomes quite necessary to check and keeping monitoring Internet data usage when you are on limited Internet data  plans so as to avoid excessive charges and therefore to help you here in this article I am going to share one of the most useful tip for an Internet user that is How to Check Internet data usage in Windows PC or Laptop. In recent versions of Microsoft Windows i.e Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 there is a default feature provided in the Windows itself by which you can easily monitor your Internet data usage for past few days but it is having very limited features and is not advisable for advanced users who want more closer details about every internet session. Therefore in such cases it is always recommended to use free third party apps which I have shared below.

How to Check Internet Data Usage in Windows : Different Ways

Without Using Apps : Only for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

In Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 you can monitor your Internet data usage by setting the internet connection as metered connection which will then start tracking your total used bandwidth and to do you have to just open your charms menu and go to your Connections and Right-Click on your Internet Connection and click on “Set as metered connection” as shown in the screenshots below. After this now whenever you need to check your Internet Data Usage just right-click or long-press on your connection and select Show Estimated Data Usage which will then show your total Internet data usage. Being a default windows feature you won’t be able to get special features or options like set internet data usage threshold warning etc and much more therefore in such circumstances the best way is to opt for apps by which you can easily set your preferred settings while using internet on pc.

With Third-Party Apps : Applicable for All Windows Versions

There are various apps available over internet through which you can monitor your internet data usage but most of them are having issues or generate fake data usage charts i.e not accurate and therefore here below I have shared only popular apps that works flawless and will surely fulfil all your needs.

NetWorx

NetWorx is one of the best application to check all your internet data usage and more importantly it provides very accurate details about your data usage. What you need to do is just install NetWorx app on your windows system and it will then start tracking down your internet usage as per your choice of settings. To track your data usage you can just click on the NetWorx icon in the taskar which will then open the NetWorx window from where you check your internet usage and set a daily, weekly or monthly quota to track uploads or downloads or both. Also you can set a upper threshold limit which will warn you when you will reach that upper internet usage limit so as to save you from excessive billing charges.

• Get NetWorx for your Windows System

BitMeter 2

Another popular and very useful application is BitMeter 2 that comes with a Desktop widget that displays internet data usage in graphical view. BitMeter 2 shows both the downloading and uploading speeds as well. In BitMeter 2 you can also set the quota or thresold limit under ISP Restrictions which is a very useful feature.

• Get BitMeter 2 for your Windows System

The post How to Check Internet Data Usage in Windows 8.1/7/XP appeared first on RushInformation.

Read More

How to Use MSCONFIG in Windows

How to Use MSCONFIG in Windows

Windows has all sorts of hidden little utilities that let you configure and modify system settings not normally visible in areas like the Control Panel. One of my favorite tools that has been around since Windows 98 is MSCONFIG. It basically stands for Microsoft System Configuration and is obviously used to configure various settings. In this article, I’ll show you how to access MSCONFIG and how to use it.

Let’s start off by opening MSCONFIG on Windows 7. The tool is pretty much the same from Windows Vista and higher, with only a minor change in Windows 8 that I will talk about later. Go ahead and click on the Start button and type in msconfig.

The system configuration dialog will pop up with several tabs. The number of tabs may vary depending on which version of Windows you are running. In Windows 7 and 8, there are 5 tabs: General, Boot, Services, Startup and Tools.

MSCONFIG General Tab

The first tab, which is selected by default, will normally always be the General tab.

Here you will see three selectable radio buttons under the Startup Selection heading.  Normal Startup will be selected by default unless changed.  Diagnostic Startup will start Windows up in a “stripped down” functionality mode, similar to, but not the same as Safe Mode.  If you choose this option, remember to change it back when you are done troubleshooting, or Windows will keep starting up in this manner.

Also, when you select Diagnostic startup and click Apply, you will see that it automatically selects Selective startup with only the Load system services box filled in. In diagnostic mode, you get more drivers and services started by default than with Safe Mode, which I explain below. If you find you need to use a Control Panel item or a program that simply won’t run on Safe Mode, then you can try diagnostic mode, which loads less than a normal startup, but more than Safe Mode.

You’ll notice that when you click Diagnostic startup and click Apply, the Load system services box is not checked, but is filled in entirely. That is significant because if you click on the Services tab and scroll through, you’ll see that only a handful of services are checked. Now if you go back to the General tab, click on Selective startup again and check the Load system services box with an actual checkmark, you’ll see that ALL services are checked under the Services tab not just a select few.

With the Load startup items box, you can only check it with a checkmark, which either enables all the startup items on the Startup tab or disables all of them. It should be noted that if you chose selective startup with a checkmark in both Load system services and Load startup items, then that’s pretty much the same thing as doing a normal startup because everything is enabled.

The only reason to do selective startup and check one or both items is to figure out if a particular service or startup item is causing problems. The way to do that is to check the appropriate box on the General tab and then go to Services or Startup, click Disable all, and then check off only one item. You restart the computer and see if that service or startup item is causing the issue with your system. If not, you go to the Services or Startup tab again and check another item. Continue this process until you find your problem service or startup item.

MSCONFIG Boot Tab

Now that we have a clear understanding of the General tab and how it’s connected to both the Services and Startup tabs, let’s talk about the second tab: Boot. This is an important tab because it has a lot of options for how Windows starts up.

Let’s start with Boot options as that’s the main point of this tab. The Advanced options button will normally only be used by programmers writing device drivers for actual hardware.

If you check Safe Boot, you can then pick from four options: Minimal, Alternate shell, Active Directory repair and Network. Let’s go through each option:

- Minimal – This is the standard safe mode that will load the GUI with only the most basic drivers and services enabled. Networking will be disabled in this mode. You can pretty much only open explorer and browse around.

- Alternate shell – This will load safe mode with just the command prompt. The GUI and networking will both be disabled. Only use this mode if you want to run DOS commands.

- Active Directory repair – This is only useful for corporate environments and will probably something your network administrator would use.

- Network – This is like Minimal, except networking is enabled. Useful if you need to connect to a network resource or website for downloading files.

On the right, you’ll see four checkboxes, which means you can check up to all four, if needed. Let’s go through these options:

- No GUI boot – Will simply not show the Windows welcome screen when booting.

- Boot log – Will make a log file of the entire boot process located at %SystemRoot%Ntbtlog.txt. 

- Base video – Will load Windows in minimal VGA mode, which uses standard VGA drivers instead of the drivers that are specific to the video card installed on the machine.

- OS boot information – As drivers are being loaded during the boot up process, the names of the drivers will be shown in the output.

Timeout is the amount of time the boot menu is shown before it selects the default option. If you check the Make all boot settings permanent box, then clicking Normal startup on the General tab will not revert you back to your original settings. You’ll have to manually change any boot settings.

Again, Windows will continue to load in Safe Mode until you go back to the system configuration utility and uncheck it or choose normal startup.

MSCONFIG Services Tab

Next up is the Services tab, which is pretty self-explanatory. The main thing here is that you really don’t want to disable any Microsoft system services. You’ll read lots of articles online about useless Windows services that you should disable, but it’s really not a good idea.

Go ahead and check the Hide all Microsoft services box and you’ll only be left with third-party services.  Disabling third-party services can be useful, but only in certain circumstances. Mostly this tab is used to disable a service that is causing Windows to freeze, blue screen or something else that is not good.

MSCONFIG Startup Tab

The startup tab is by far by favorite tab and really the only reason I actually use the MSCONFIG utility in the first place. It amazes me how slow some client computers are because of the massive number of startup programs. Even if I have a lot, I normally disable 80 percent of them because they aren’t necessary.

Of course you do have to be careful, especially on laptops, because some startup items control your wireless network card or your touchpad and both will stop working if you uncheck them. It’s best to perform a simple Google search with the startup item name or EXE file that you can see under Command.

I’ve also already written an in-depth article on disabling startup programs in Windows, which gives you more tips and pointers on what to and what not to disable.

MSCONFIG Tools Tab

Lastly, there is a useful tab called Tools that basically links out to a whole bunch of other useful utilities in Windows.

This includes everything from information about Windows, UAC settings, action center, troubleshooters, computer management, event viewer, programs, system properties, Internet options, command prompt, registry editor, task manager, system restore, etc. If you can’t remember where to find a tool or setting, it’s probably listed here.

Overall, the system configuration utility is a very handy tool to manage Windows PCs and definitely something you should learn if you want to become a power user. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

The post How to Use MSCONFIG in Windows appeared first on Online Tech Tips.

Read More

How to Access Mac Files from a Windows PC

How to Access Mac Files from a Windows PC

Apple is becoming more popular everyday (I love my MacBook and it’s selling in record numbers this year), yet most people still have Windows PCs at home. If you are running both Macs and PCs on your network, there’s a good chance you might want to share files between your Mac and PC. You can do this in one of two directions: either access Mac files from a Windows PC or access Windows files from a Mac.

Today I’m going to talk about how you can share files on your Mac and access them on your PC. The process is fairly simple and should work as long as you are on the same network and don’t have any over zealous security settings configured on your Mac.

The first thing you’ll need to do is enable file sharing on your Mac. Here’s how to do it.

Enable File Sharing on Mac OS X

First go to the System Preferences menu option by clicking on the Apple icon at the top left and then clicking on System Preferences.

Now click on the Sharing icon, which is where we need to go to configure all the sharing options.

Before you get started, make sure to click on the little gold lock icon at the bottom left otherwise everything will be greyed out and you won’t be able to make any changes.

Now go ahead and check the File Sharing box under Service to enable file sharing. This one dialog pretty much contains all the settings and options for sharing. Starting at the top, you can change your computer name to something less complex so Windows users have an easier time connecting. If you don’t, OS X will give it a short name automatically so that Windows can recognize it. Click the Edit button to change the name.

You’ll also see the IP address for the computer listed by the Options button. Under Shared Folders, the Public folder is shared out by default. Click the little + (plus) button to share any folder on your hard drive. Under Users, you can see the standard permissions and edit them as you see fit.

The only other thing you have to do is click on the Options button and you’ll see a section at the bottom called Windows File Sharing. In order to connect from a Windows machine, you have to check the box next to the user name and enter your password. For whatever reason, OS X has to store your Mac user account password in a less secure way in order to connect from a Windows machine. If you don’t do this step, you’ll be asked to enter the username and password from your Windows machine, but it will just give you an error even if you type it in correctly.

That’s about it from the Mac side. Now it’s time to try connect from your Windows machine.

Connect to Mac from Windows

There are a couple of ways you can do this. One way is to simply open up Explorer and click on Network. You should see the Mac computer listed there.

If Windows asks you to enable Network Discovery, then go ahead and do that. Now when you double-click on the computer name, it should pop up a login dialog box. Enter the same username and password that you had entered in the Windows File sharing dialog on OS X earlier. If the user account on your Mac had spaces, don’t worry because Windows can handle it just fine.

If everything went well, you should see some shared folders now on your Windows computer!

Another way to connect is to use the Run command from the Start Menu. Click on Start, then Run and type in the IP address or computer name:

Now you’ll get the same dialog box where you have to enter the username and password for your Mac user account. You should now be able to copy files back and forth from Windows to Mac and vice versa.

The only setting that can cause issues is the firewall on OS X. Everything should work fine with the firewall enabled with default settings, but if you go to firewall and then Firewall Options, you can block all incoming connections. If this item is checked, then file sharing will no longer work.

Just uncheck that option under firewall options and you should be good to go. If you have any other trouble sharing your Mac files with your PC, post a comment and I’ll see if I can help. Enjoy!

The post How to Access Mac Files from a Windows PC appeared first on Online Tech Tips.

Read More

How to Batch Change File Extensions for Windows Files

How to Batch Change File Extensions for Windows Files

Recently, I came across a problem where I had to change the file extension on a bunch of Windows files from no extension to .JPG. Someone sent me a large number of files, but for some strange reason, they had no file extension, even though they were images! Once I added the .JPG extension to the end of the file, I was able to open the images.

There are many other reasons why you may need to rename file extensions, so I’ll show you how you can change them one at a time if you have a small number of files or batch rename file extensions if you have lots of files.

If you have a file with no extension, Windows will probably assign a generic icon to it. When you try to open it, the Open With dialog will pop up where you’ll get a list of programs to choose from.

Obviously, since there is no file extension for the file, Windows is not able to determine which program should open it. If you want to change the file extension for the file, you first need to be able to see file extensions in Windows. You can do this by going to My Computer and then going to Tools and  Folder Options.

In Windows 7, click on the Organize button and then click Folder and search options.

In Windows 8, you just click on the View tab in Explorer and check the File name extensions box.

Go to the View tab and scroll down till you see the option “Hide extensions for known file types“. Go ahead and uncheck it.

If the file has no extension at all, this step may not be necessary, but I am including it because if you’re trying to CHANGE the file type from one type to another, then you need to do this. Now right-click on your file and choose Rename.

Move to the end of the name and type in .XXX or whatever the type is for the file you want it to be, i.e. .TXT for text files, .XLS for Excel files, etc. Obviously, the file has to have originally been from that program that you are changing the file extension too. In my case, the text file was from Excel, so I added that extension back.

How to Batch Rename File Extensions

So how do you rename multiple file extensions at once? If you have a directory full of files that need to be changed from .PNG to .JPG, it’s going to take forever to do this using the method above. Luckily, there are a couple of different ways we can change the file extension for multiple files at once.

Command Line

For those of you who are familiar with the command line, there is a very easy command you can use to perform very simple file renaming tasks. There are two commands that you can use at the command prompt: ren and rename. Both of them do the exact same thing, so it’s just a preference as to which one you use.

If you have a folder with a bunch of JPGs inside and you want to change the file extension to PNG, for example, you would type in the following command:

ren *.jpg *.png

As you can see above, the command changed all the files in that directory with a JPG file extension to ones with a PNG file extension. You can get more information on how to use the ren command from Microsoft’s website.

Bulk Rename Utility

If the command line sounds daunting, then there are a couple of useful file renaming utilities that will get the job done for you with only a few clicks. One of my favorites is the Bulk Rename Utility because it is the single most comprehensive file renaming utility out there.

Yes, the interface is absolutely jammed pack with options that make little to no sense unless you read all the document from the website. However, for our purpose, all we have to worry about is the box labeled Extension (11) down at the bottom right. Change it from Same to Fixed and then type in the new extension you want. You’ll see that the list box will show you the new name of the file instantly before you even commit the changes. Click the Rename button and that’s it.

I mentioned this tool even though it’s overkill for our purpose because it’s a really great utility and one that some might be interested in learning if they want to rename thousands of photos with names likes DSC00x, IMG00x, etc.

Advanced Renamer

Another good program that also requires a bit of reading to figure out is Advanced Renamer. Thankfully, both sites have user guides and tutorials. Also, I’ll explain the process for changing the file extension here. Once you install it, go ahead and click the Add button to add their files or to add a folder, which will add all the files in that folder to the list.

Now in order to perform any actions on that list, you have to add methods in the left hand pane. You can add multiple methods to perform complex renaming of files and folders. We want to click Add Method and then choose New Name.

Now go ahead and type in the new extension you would like into the box at the top and then change the Apply to box at the bottom to Extension instead of Name.

In the list of files, you should see the updated New Filename field updated with the changes to the file name or extension. When you have gotten it right the way you like, go ahead and click on the Start Batch button.

Again, I’m giving the simplest example with these programs, but you can create far more complex renaming schemes if you like. If you really don’t care about all the extra functionality, then check out the last program that does nothing but change the file extension.

Bulk Extension Changer

If you want simple, Bulk Extension Changer is the program for you. All you have to do is three things: first, pick the folder where the files are located, then set the current and replacement extension and then just press the Go button.

The only option is if you want to include sub-directories or not. In the 2nd step, you can add multiple replacement rules in case your folder has files of many different types and you want to check several at once.

Hopefully, those are enough options for any need you might have for renaming file extensions. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment. Enjoy!

The post How to Batch Change File Extensions for Windows Files appeared first on Online Tech Tips.

Read More

Far Cry 4 Save Game FIX | Save Game Location Windows PC

Far Cry 4 Save Game FIX | Save Game Location Windows PC

Far Cry 4 Save Game FIX : Far cry 4 is an action-adventure First Person Shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Far Cry 4 is developed on DUNIYA game engine. Best thing about far cry 4 is its immersive  beautiful open world Kyrat .Kyrat is simply stunning and the animals are the most realistic .Not to be fooled by the beauty , wildlife can be aggressive. You will find tigers , elephants and much more in Himalayas. Not to forget that you can ride elephants , gliders , copters etc.

You play as Ajay Ghale (the protaganist) a young man returning to his homeland of Kyrat to scatter his mother’s ashes. Instead hes caught between two rebellion, The Golden Path. Far cry 4 has been one of the most anticipated games of this year and since its release on 18th November 2014 it has received much acclaim and appraisal for its amazing story, gameplay and graphics but apart from these some users have faced critical issues while playing far cry 4 on their windows pc out of which some common issues are Save game problem, freeze or frequent crashes and lagging stuttering frames issues therefore here I have provided a simple temporary fix for far cry 4 save game problem. For now being you can use this temporary fix until some proper updates are released from Ubisoft end. Read below about Far cry 4 save game fix for Windows 8.1, 8, 7.

Far cry 4 Save Game FIX : Possible Solutions

• First of all make sure that you run Far cry 4 with administrative privileges and to do go to the installed game directory open bin folder and here Right click on FarCry4.exe and Select Properties and Navigate to Compatibility tab and Under Setting Check mark the box Run this Program as an administrator.

Note – Running with administrator privileges has fixed the issue for most of the users but if in case you face issues again then follow the below instruction.

• If After making the above changes you still face the same issue then don’t worry just drop a comment below mentioning your email id and i will mail you a proper fix with detailed instructions for this far cry 4 save game problem.

Far cry 4 Save Game Location :

If you are looking for far cry 4 save game directory and are unable to find it in documents or app data directory then don’t worry here below is the proper location from where you can find your save game.

C:\Program Files\Far Cry 4\bin\Profile

Note – If you have installed it in some other drive then please make sure to search in that specific drive.

Related Searches :

• Far cry 4 save game problem.


• Far cry 4 game doesn’t save.


• Far cry 4 game doesn’t load the last save.

The post Far Cry 4 Save Game FIX | Save Game Location Windows PC appeared first on RushInformation.

Read More