This minHour teaches you how to defragment a hard drive in any version of Windows. Windows 10 Type defrag into the Windows search bar. If you don’t see the search bar to the right of the Start menu, click the circle or magnifying glass to open it. Click Defragment and Optimize Drives. A list of … Read more
Scanning your Mac for malware should never require pulling out your credit card. Unfortunately, Mac malware can disguise itself as a removal tool, demand payment in exchange for protecting your computer. Don’t accidentally get tricked into sharing your information with a rogue company—learn how to do a safe (free!) scan on your Mac with a … Read more
In order to truly delete files and data from your hard drive, you’ll need to fill the space those files once occupied. Pressing the Delete key and emptying the Trash bin won’t cut it—sensitive files could still be retrieved by hackers and security experts. Macs include a built-in utility to completely remove deleted files from … Read more
Is your Windows installation completely broken? If you’ve tried everything you can to fix it, the only option left may be to format the drive and reinstall Windows (or another operating system). Formatting the drive will delete everything on it, so it should only be used as a last-resort. Steps Backup anything you want to … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to find and remove malware from your Windows or Mac computer. Typically speaking, an antivirus scan will be enough to remove most major threats to your computer. If you’re having trouble with your malware removal, however, the best way to prevent the malware from spreading is by backing up your … Read more
Windows was designed to be user friendly, and this convenience directly contributes to its success. The drawback is that the more convenient something is, the more potential there might be for things to go wrong. However, there are steps you can take to keep your computer running smoothly and fast throughout its lifespan. Installing Windows … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to increase the size of the icons on your computer’s desktop so you can view them more clearly. macOS Click on your desktop background image. This will ensure Finder is the active app. Another way to verify this is to look in the top-left corner of your screen, which should … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to fix a disk error on a corrupted or damaged hard drive. You can do this on both Windows and Mac computers. Keep in mind that hard drives which have been damaged physically cannot be repaired with software. Instead they will need to be taken into a professional data recovery … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to increase your Internet’s speed and consistency. While it isn’t possible to increase your Internet’s speed past the speed for which you’re paying your Internet Service Provider, most people don’t get the most out of their Internet connections. By applying a mixture of general fixes, hardware solutions, and software updates—including … Read more
Not all PCs are the same. A string of error messages, blue screens of death (BSoD)?, “nothing happens crash” when you try to turn the computer on? Regardless of your PC’s crashed condition, you can still recover from it, or at least retrieve all your data, before completely reinstalling your OS computer. Steps Check your … Read more
If you can’t get to startup options by pressing F8 you will need to boot from XP cd and go to Recovery Console. Steps Remove the non-system disk from your boot device. For example, remove the non-system disk from the floppy drive or the CD-ROM drive. Change your computer’s boot sequence. Make sure that your … Read more
Is it time to upgrade the operating system on your PC? Do you want to try a new operating system, such as Linux? Maybe you want to try dual-booting two operating systems at the same time. This minHour article teaches you how to install a new operating system on your computer. Picking a New Operating … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to plan and develop an operating system if you don’t know how to code in C, or C++. Operating systems manage computer hardware and provide the resources that applications need to run. Writing an operating system from scratch requires a strong command of computer science, a programming language like C … Read more
In can be useful to have two operating systems installed on your PC. Maybe you want Windows 10 and Linux, or Windows 10 and an older version of Windows. This can be useful if you want to run all the latest Windows software and run another operating system with features you may prefer. This minHour … Read more
Computer files with a “.exe” extension are called executables, or EXE files. This type of file is one of the most ubiquitous in the Windows operating system, where it is used to install or run software applications. EXE files are also helpful for packaging and distributing small scripts or macros, as they allow the user … Read more
This article tells you how to use the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows, which can speed up your computer and free up storage by deleting unnecessary system files. Steps Launch the app by searching your computer for disk cleanup or cleanmgr. Here’s how to do that depending on your Windows version: Windows 10: Click or … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to install a computer operating system on a new, blank computer. You can do this on a Windows computer using a Windows Installation media. Brand new Mac computers will always come with an operating system installed, but you can reinstall your Mac’s default operating system using the macOS recovery feature. … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to create and edit a text file in two popular Linux text editors. Nearly all Linux systems come preinstalled with Nano, a straight-forward, easy-to-use text editor. If you don’t like (or don’t have) Nano, you can also use Vi (or Vim, depending on the system) to edit text files. Vi … Read more
This minHour teaches you different ways to create a new file at the Unix command prompt. To quickly create a blank file, use the touch command. To create a new text file from scratch, try the Vi text editor or the cat command. If you want to duplicate an existing file, use the cp (copy) … Read more
This minHour teaches you how to use common keyboard shortcuts on both Windows and Mac computers. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to perform multiple-step actions by simply pressing two or more keys at the same time. Windows Understand how key shortcuts work. To use a key shortcut, you will hold down one or more modifier keys … Read more