Formatting Hard Drive In Windows 7

All operating systems allow users to format the hard drive. Once formatting is performed, all data in the hard drive will be erased including the operating system. Technically, the data will be gone and you will be able to use the full space of the hard drive to your purposes. However, the formatted data can still be retrieved. Formatting also checks the hard drives for errors. Both magnetic platter and SSD drives can be formatted.
Once the formatting is complete, the user will have to reinstall the operating system. It may take a few hours to complete. Formatting is usually the last resort when virus infections in the computer cannot be quarantined. If the data is too corrupt, formatting will erase viruses and everything else with it. However, it is recommended to back up and store all required data before formatting the system.

Partitioning

Before you format and use a hard drive (internal and/or external) for backup, it needs to be partitioned. You can either divide your drive into sections of specific sizes or just use it with a single encompassing the full size of the drive.

• Step 1: Click Start button
• Step 2: Right click on ‘Computer’ and select ‘Manage’
  
• Step 3: Under ‘Storage’, click Disk Management which can be found in the left pane. Tip: If your drive has a size of more than 2 TB, select GPT. If it doesn’t, select MBR. Drives that are not partitioned come with black bars and the ‘Unallocated’ label. Partitioned drives come with blue bars and drive letters.
  
• Step 4: Right click the black bar
• Step 5: Select New Simple Volume (where Volume means Partition)
• Step 6: Click Next in the Window that appears
• Step 7: Specify the size of your preference in MB. To use the drive as one whole section, without dividing into multiple sections, specify the same size as the maximum disk size in MB.
• Step 8: Click Next
• Step 9: Now give it a drive letter of your choice and click ‘Next’
• Step 10: Select ‘Format this volume’. If you plan to use the computer with other Windows machines, select ‘NTFS’. If you plan to use the computer with Macs, then choose exFAT. Make sure that the allocation unit size is at default.
• Step 11: Now you have to provide a name for the partition under Volume label
• Step 12: Make sure that you haven’t selected ‘Perform a quick format’ or ‘Enable file and folder compression’
• Step 13: Click ‘Next’
• Step 14: Double check and confirm the selections you have made before clicking ‘Finish’

Formatting for a Windows installation

• Step 1: Insert the Windows Installation disc or ‘Restore’ disc in the disc drive
• Step 2: Now click Start button and select ‘Restart’
• Step 3: Boot the PC from the disc that you inserted
• Step 4: Follow the prompts to start the restoration procedure
• Step 5: If you are using an installation disc, select the language
• Step 6: Accept the Windows terms and conditions for license
• Step 7: Select Custom from Advanced options, if and when prompted
• Step 8: Delete partitions that you don’t want with the Delete option in Drive options, after selecting the partition
  
• Step 9: Click the un-allocated space to select and then go to ‘Drive options’
• Step 10: Now select ‘New’. This is to create a new partition
• Step 11: Select ‘Format’ once you are done specifying the size of the new partition
• Step 12: Click ‘Next’ to start the Windows installation, once formatting is complete. The system is now fully formatted erasing all the data in the hard drive.

Conclusion

Once the formatting is complete and Windows has been installed, you can restore the backup that you have created and stored in an external drive. Although the format erases data in the hard drive, they can still be recovered to a certain extent by using simple recovery tools.

Transferring iPhone Contacts To Android

The iPhone line of smartphones designed and distributed by Apple has become one of the most widely purchased smartphones in the World. But with the introduction of Google’s free mobile operating system named ‘Android’, smartphone manufacturers started coming up with Android smartphones which adversely affected iPhone sales. The user interface and simplicity are the specialty of iPhone. However, the android User interface gained more prominence.
iPhone users may find it difficult to transfer the contacts in their iPhone to a Android phone. To transfer contacts, mails and messages from iPhone to Android, you need to convert these files to format which Android OS is capable of understanding. There is another alternative. This tutorial will be useful in helping you learn how to transfer iPhone contacts to Android using Google Contacts feature.

Syncing contacts to Google Contacts

Syncing iPhone contacts to Google Contacts can be done in two ways, either by using iTunes or via iCloud. But you require a Google account for both, which is free.
Using iTunes to sync to Google Contacts

• Step 1: Manually backup your iPhone to the PC using iTunes
• Step 2: Open iTunes
• Step 3: Plug in the iPhone to the computer using a USB cable
• Step 4: Select iPhone in iTunes
• Step 5: Choose to Sync Contacts with Google Contacts under the Info tab. You can select Google Contacts from the dropdown box under Info tab. Now you will be prompted to provide your Gmail ID and password.

• Step 6: Enter Gmail ID and Password.
• Step 7: Wait for it to synchronize
• Step 8: After synchronization, go to Gmail and log in to your account.
• Step 9: Then select Contacts in Gmail. You will find the iPhone contacts here.

Using iCloud to sync to Google Contacts
You require an iCloud account for this. You should also have a backup in iCloud.

• Step 1: Go to iCloud.com and log in to your iCloud account
• Step 2: Go to Contacts. You will see all your iPhone contacts here.
• Step 3: Press Ctrl + A to select all contacts
• Step 4: Click on Settings
• Step 5: Now select Export vCard

• Step 6: Go to Gmail.com and log in to your account
• Step 7: Select Import Contacts from the dropdown box beside ‘More’. An alert will appear now prompting you to choose the vCard file.
• Step 8: Choose the Exported vCard file you exported from iCloud
• Step 9: Click Import. Now all contacts will appear in Google Contacts

To get rid of duplicate Google Contacts

• Step 1: In Gmail Contacts, click on ‘More’
• Step 2: Now click ‘Find and Merge duplicates’. Go through the names in the page that pops up in the screen.
• Step 3: Select the duplicate contacts
• Step 4: Click Merge button at the bottom

Syncing Contacts to Android

• Step 1: Go to Menu and tap Settings in your Android phone
• Step 2: Now tap Accounts and Sync
• Step 3: Tap on Add Account and select Google
• Step 4: Tap Sign In
• Step 5: Login to the Gmail account you synced your iPhone contacts to. Wait for some time for the Sync options.

• Step 6: Tap Sync Contacts to check the checkbox
• Step 7: Tap on Finish. This will Sync your iPhone contacts to your Android phone. Verify this in your Contacts list in the phone.

Conclusion

If you don’t merge duplicate contacts in Google Contacts, you will find a lot of repeated entries after syncing the contacts to your Android phone. You will never lose Contacts even if you lose your android phone or format it because it will be always available in Google Contacts.

Using Storage Spaces To Combine Drives In Windows 8

Windows 8 is Microsoft’s latest operating system in the Windows series. It was designed to compete with mobile operating systems like Android and features a better user interface than Windows 7. One new feature of the OS is storage spaces. It allows users to setup flexible and fast data storage.
Storage spaces is a technology which users can use to combine the data storing capacity of multiple disk drives into a pool and craft many virtual disks. Users can also mirror data across many multiple disk drives with this technology.
This tutorial includes the procedure to use this technology to mirror and combine drives.

Creating a storage space in Windows 8

• Step 1: Connect two or more additional storage drives to your computer. You may add internal or external drives of your preference
• Step 2: Log in to Windows
• Step 3: Hit the Windows key and bring up the Start menu
• Step 4: Select Control Panel
• You may also access the Storage space settings by searching ‘Storage spaces’ in the Start menu search field. Now click on the Settings category and select the ‘Storage Spaces’ shortcut from the left pane.
• If you haven’t created Storage spaces before, a link will appear in the Storage spaces settings in Control Panel, to create a new storage space.
  
• Step 5: Click on the link to create new storage space. Now a new window appears asking you to select drives to create the Storage pool.
• Step 6: Select the drives you want to use to create the Storage pool.
  NOTE: Make sure you copy and backup all important files in the drives you select for the storage pool. Files already in the drives will be erased during the process. It’s recommended to format the drives before using them to create the storage space.
• Step 7: After selecting the drives, click on ‘Create pool’ button. You will be able to add additional drives in a storage pool after creating it.

Configuring the storage pool

• Step 1: Give a name for the storage pool and select a drive letter. Windows will display the name and drive letter you provide, for the storage space.
• Step 2: Select a Resiliency type. The Resiliency type you specify will be used by Windows to handle data in the pool. The resiliency types and their descriptions are as follows:
  None: Data will be stored as a single copy. If one of the drives fails, you will lose the data. However, no backup space will be used.
  Two-way mirror: Requires at least two drives. Two copies of the data will be saved and won’t be lost if one of the drives fails.
  Three-way mirror: If one or two of the drives fail, you will not lose data as Windows will save three copies.
  Parity: Parity information is stored with the data protecting it from failure of a single drive. Efficient for storing video files, but time for accessing files will be slower.
• Step 3: Specify a logical size of your preference regardless of the size of the drives
  For instance, you can combine two 30 GB drives and specify logical size of 300 GB rather than 60 GB. Windows will notify you upon reaching the 60 GB limit, to add additional drives.
• Step 4: Click the ‘Create Storage Space’ button
  

Conclusion

Your storage space will appear as an ordinary drive in Windows Explorer, with the name and drive letter you specified. You can encrypt this space and use it as any other normal drive. You can manage and configure storage spaces from the Storage spaces control panel

Download Videos In YouTube From Google Chrome

YouTube is a subsidiary of Google and a popular platform allowing users to share videos. It has a database of millions of videos uploaded by users. Users registered to YouTube are allowed to watch and upload unlimited number of videos while unregistered users can only watch the videos. Creating an account is not necessary as the Gmail account is enough to sign in to YouTube.
Google Chrome, on the other hand, is a free web browser from Google packed with lots of features and improved security mechanisms. The browser launched its official extension gallery with over 1500 extensions on 2010. Now there are over 11000 extensions in Google Chrome, which users can download.
However, these extensions may request permissions from users to access their data. This tutorial will be helpful in downloading videos from YouTube using Google Chrome extensions, without having to rely on online YouTube video downloading websites.

Installing the extension

Install Google Chrome web browser first, if it’s not already in your PC. For this:

• Step 1: Launch your web browser
• Step 2: Search Google for the Chrome web browser or go directly to this link: www.google.com/chrome/
• Step 3: Download Google Chrome browser set up file
• Step 4: After download, click on the set up file and install Google Chrome
• Step 5: After installation, launch Google Chrome web browser. Make sure you have the latest version of the browser installed.
• Step 6: Open Google by typing www.google.com
• Step 7: In the search bar, type ‘YouTube downloader chrome’ and press Enter The search results will now appear. You are looking for a Google Chrome extension.
• Step 8: Look for a link with ‘Chrome YouTube Downloader’ mentioned, preferably from www.chromeextensions.org This will take you to the Google Chrome extensions webpage with the Chrome YouTube Downloader extension displayed. You will notice the version number of the extension beside its name.

• Step 9: Click on the blue button on the right with a ‘+’ sign saying ‘Add to Chrome’
  
  Clicking on the button will download a file of .crx format to the bottom left of the Google Chrome browser. It will be downloaded to the ‘Downloads’ folder of your documents. If you want to check whether the browser version supports this extension, and to check for latest versions of the extension, click on the Visit Website link from the extension details, before clicking ‘Add to Chrome’.

Using the extension in Google Chrome

• Step 10: Click on the wrench icon in the top right corner of the Google Chrome browser. The wrench icon indicates browser settings and options
• Step 11: From the menu which opens, select Tools

• Step 12: From the extended Tools menu, click on Extensions. Doing this will open a new tab in the browser. This is Google Chrome’s extension page, where you can enable and disable extensions.
• Step 13: Click and hold the downloaded .crx file
• Step 14: Drag the file to anywhere you like in the new extension page. The browser will now display a message ‘Drop to install’.
• Step 15: Drop the file in the page
• Step 16: Click ‘Add’ to confirm adding the extension to the browser You have now successfully installed the YouTube Downloader extension to Chrome browser Step 17: Go to www.YouTube.com
• Step 18: Select a video You will now be able to see the Download option in all videos you watch in YouTube.

Conclusion

You can use the download option provided by this extension to download videos in MP3 formats as well. Downloading some videos may be against the Copyright law in your area, and depends on the law. You may disable the extension whenever you want from the Extensions page of the browser.

Configuring A Wireless Network In Windows XP

Windows XP is the predecessor of Microsoft Windows Vista, and used to be the most widely used operating system before the arrival of Windows 7. The highlight of this version was the enhanced user experience. But the successive versions – Windows Vista and 7 offered a whole another level of user experience and Windows XP gradually faded away. However, there are still many users who are still attached to Windows XP.
It’s comparatively easier to configure wireless network in Windows 7 than in Windows XP. A local wired network is easier to connect and configure in Windows XP. But once you connect and configure wireless networks in Windows XP, you will be able to easily do this anytime.

Getting started

Wireless networks are automatically scanned and detected by Windows XP. The OS will attempt to connect to the discovered network automatically. However, if it doesn’t, you will have to configure the network yourself manually.

• Step 1: Click Start button and then click Run
• Step 2: Type ‘ncpa.cpl’ without quotes in the Run dialog box’s empty field and hit Enter
  This will open the Network Connections window.
  
• Step 3: When the window appears, make a right click on the Wireless Network Connection icon
• Step 4: Now click Properties in the context menu that appears. You will now see the Properties dialog box in the screen.
• Step 5: Click the Wireless Networks tab
  Note: If there is no such tab in the Properties, then it means your network adapter doesn’t support Wireless Zero Configuration service. Make sure you have enabled this service and set it to ‘Automatic’.
• Step 6: Now click the Add button in the ‘Preferred networks’ section

Configuring the network

The Add button in the Wireless Network tab in the Properties box will let you add wireless networks to the system. Here you will have to configure the network by naming the access point and setting up wireless mode in the system.
A Network name box will appear when you click the Add button.

• Step 1: In the SSID box (Network name), provide a name for the access point
• Step 2: Now select the appropriate network settings based on your network requirements. The computer will match the settings you selected with the router or access point configuration. If you don’t own a wireless router or any wireless access points, you can set the wireless mode to ‘Ad-hoc’. You may also have the same network name matching other computers.
• Step 3: Once you are finished with selecting all the settings, click the OK button
• Step 4: Now go back to the Properties dialog box and click ‘View Wireless Networks’ button which would be in the ‘Available networks’ section, just above ‘Preferred networks’. You will now see the Wireless Network Connection dialog box.
• Step 5: Choose the network of your preference by clicking on the network’s name
• Step 6: Now click the Connect button. This will establish a connection with the network that you have selected.

Note: The system automatically determines whether a network is secured or unsecured. So they may appear either unsecured or secured in the list of networks. If there is a network security enabled, then you will be able to see a gold padlock. In such cases, in order to connect to the network, you will need to provide the network password or number to connect.

Conclusion

You have successfully established a wireless connection in Windows XP. Windows XP Service Pack 2 versions validate all wireless networks before establishing the connection. After authentication, Windows will then attempt to acquire the network address. An IP address will be obtained as a result.
If this fails, the system will be assigned a private IP address automatically and you will receive either a Limited connectivity or No connectivity message. Make sure that Windows Firewall isn’t blocking the network, otherwise you will be unable to access it.

Recover Deleted Files In Windows With Undeletemyfiles Pro

Windows 7 is the predecessor of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. It came with a lot of upgrades when compared to Windows Vista, and is compatible with all applications compatible to Windows Vista. Processors with multiple cores have improved performance in Windows 7, which also supports virtual hard disk drives. Even with all the security, the OS is still susceptible to human errors.
Users commonly face the problem of accidental deletion of files. They might have used the permanent delete (Shift+delete) option, meaning that the files cannot be restored from the Recycle Bin. For an ordinary computer, the users can use file recovery software to recover the deleted data. UndeleteMyFiles Pro is one such software that can be downloaded for free. Using this software, users can recover deleted files from not just local disk drives but also from external USB devices.
Follow the steps in this tutorial to recover lost data using UndeleteMyFiles Pro.

Installing UndeleteMyFiles Pro

• Step 1: Launch your web browser
• Step 2: Copy and paste the following website link to the address bar of the browser www.undeletemyfiles.en.softonic.com/
• Step 3: Click Download to safely download the file to your PC
• Step 4: After the download is completed, double click on the downloaded .exe file
• Step 5: Click ‘Run’ if the Open File-Security Warning dialog box appears
  
• Step 6: Click ‘Yes’ if a User Account Control dialog box appears. This will begin the installation of UndeleteMyFiles Pro.
• Step 7: Follow the instructions to successfully install the software in your PC

Using UndeleteMyFiles Pro

Once the installation is completed, you will be able to use UndeleteMyFiles Pro to recover deleted data. Make sure you close all other running programs first.

• Step 1: Double click on the UndeleteMyFiles Pro exe file to launch the software. The main screen will now appear.
• Step 2: Click on the icon named ‘File Rescue’ in the main screen. The File Rescue screen will now open, which will display your local drives.
• Step 3: Check the corresponding checkbox of the drive letter to select the drive where the deleted file was stored before deleting.
• Step 4: Now click ‘Scan’. Once the scan is completed, UndeleteMyFiles Pro will display all the deleted files in the drive you selected.
  
• Step 5: Go through the list of deleted files, and check the corresponding checkbox of the deleted file that you want to recover.
• Step 6: After making the selection, click the ‘Recover’ button at the top. A dialog box named ‘Browse for Folder’ will appear asking for the location to save the files after recovery.
• Step 7: Select a folder or make a new folder, and then click the OK button

It’s recommended that you save the file to a different folder rather than saving it in the drive in the same folder where it was originally located before deleting. Step 8: In the dialog box that appears now, click ‘Yes’ to recover only the file and click ‘No’ if you want to recover the file with its original structure. The files will be recovered and the statistics will be displayed.

Searching for deleted file

• Step 1: Click the ‘Deleted File Search’ icon in the main menu to search for a specific deleted file
• Step 2: Click ‘Search’ on the Search screen
• Step 3: Click Locations to choose search options and add locations to search
• Step 4: Click the Files tab to choose specific file types for the search
• Step 5: Click Search when you are done
• Step 6: Recover files from the search results as mentioned earlier

Conclusion

UndeleteMyFiles Pro is a very useful file recovery tool with lots of simple features allowing you to search for a deleted file of specific file types and sizes. This free software is also safe to use in the PC as the recovery will not corrupt other files and folders.

Backing Up Gmail Account On Computer

There are quite a few email services in the internet, out of which Google’s Gmail is the most popular. The service started offering free email accounts for users since 2004. Gmail has a simple interface with conversation views of emails and search options and provides over 10 GB free storage space for each account. Gmail accounts come with great security features, chat and mail options.
Gmail currently has over 425 million active account holders worldwide. Many users think about backing up all their emails so that they can view them without internet connections. It’s possible to do so and is recommended as every Gmail users know that Gmail sometimes experiences outages. Even if your Gmail account is experiencing technical issues, you can back up the emails to your computer provided you have an internet connection.
This tutorial provides the steps for easily backing up your Gmail account without having to rely on third party applications.

Getting Started

• Step 1: After logging into the OS, create a New Folder in a drive to store the backup
• Step 2: Now launch your web browser
• Step 3: In the web address bar, type http://www.gmail-backup.com/download and hit Enter. This opens the Gmail backup software webpage.
• Step 4: Scroll down the page until you see ‘Download gmail-backup-0.107.exe’ hyperlink
• Step 5: Click on the hyperlink to start downloading Gmail backup. A pop-up window will now appear.
• Step 6: Click on the Save File button in the Window to allow download
• Step 7: Click on the downloaded .exe file to start the installation of Gmail backup
• Step 8: Follow the instruction and Install Gmail backup in a directory of your preference
  Tip: Click on ‘Download gmail-backup-0.107-linux.zip’ if you are a Linux user. You require the wxPython packages to be installed in your computer and also the ctypes module. You can find wxPython packages at www.wxpython.org. The ctypes module is available in the wxPython v2.5 package.

Using Google Backup

• Step 1: After the installation, open your web browser again
• Step 2: Type www.gmail.com in the web address bar
• Step 3: Provide your Gmail ID and password and click Sign In. You will be signed in to Gmail
• Step 4: Scroll to right and click on the downward facing arrow beside an icon resembling a gear.
• Step 5: Click Settings
  
  The Gmail Settings page will now appear.
• Step 7: In the multiple tabs above, click on ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’
• Step 8: In the IMAP Access options, click on Enable IMAP
  
  This enables IMAP access to your Gmail mailbox. The message storage format in Gmail is ‘YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-nn.eml’. YYYY stands for the year (example: 2005) and MM stands for the month, as in 03 for March. DD stands for the number indicating the day. The hh is for hours, mm for minutes, and ss for seconds. This format indicates the exact time the mail was sent to you.
  If you have more emails with the same time label, you will notice a number nn, which starts with 1 as the value. The plain text file labels.txt is where label assignments are stored. This file pairs the emails in the mailbox.
• Step 9: Open Google Backup
• Step 10: Type the command that follows without quotes – ‘gmail-backup.exe backup dir user@gmail.com password’. Your full username and password should be provided in the command.
• Step 11: Now save the files in the New Folder you created earlier. You have successfully backed up your Gmail account.

Conclusion

You may also specify a time interval in the command, which backs up the emails from that time onwards. Just after providing the password in the command, leave a space and type the time in the format YYYYMMDD. You can back up the emails in your Gmail account if your internet service provider allows IMAP ports access. You don’t need to use command if you have the latest Gmail backup version

Linking Twitter And Facebook Accounts Without Any App

Twitter offers online microblogging and social networking services allowing users to send and receive text based messages or ‘Tweets’ of up to 140 characters. Only the followers will be able to reply to the tweets made by a person. Interesting tweets and micro-blogs can gain you followers in Twitter. The more followers there are, the more exposure you will get.
Although it’s not as good as Facebook, Twitter allows following celebrities and popular personalities directly and keeps you posted on their updates. Now it’s possible to share the tweets made on Twitter to Facebook, without using any third party applications.
Note: This requires you to have a Twitter and Facebook account.
This tutorial provides steps to share tweets on Facebook from Twitter.

Setting this up

• Step 1: Open the web browser in your computer
• Step 2: Go to the Twitter webpage. www.twitter.com
• Step 3: Sign in to Twitter with your Twitter ID and Password
• Step 4: Click on the drop-down box beside the silhouetted icon with a downward facing arrow at the top right corner of your page. This opens a drop-down menu with a few options and this is where you can access Twitter settings.
• Step 5: Click on the Settings option in the drop-down menu. This will open up a new page with your account information. You will notice a few tabs on the left pane of the window.

• Step 6: Click on the ‘Profile’ tab on the left pane of the window

• Step 7: Scroll down the page to the bottom. You will now see section titled Facebook. There will be a button beside the Facebook section that says ‘Post your Tweets to Facebook’.
• Step 8: Click on the ‘Post your Tweets to Facebook’ button. Doing this will replace the button with a new button and a message. The message says ‘Your account is not connected to Facebook’. The button says ‘Sign in to Facebook and connect your accounts’.

• Step 9: Click on the button that has appeared replacing the old button. You will now be taken to the Facebook login page.
• Step 10: Log in to Facebook with your Facebook ID and Password. Logging in will take you to the Twitter application on Facebook, where Twitter will ask for permission to ‘Manage your pages’ and ‘Post on your behalf’.
• Step 11: Click Allow. A message will be displayed now in the Twitter profile page saying ‘Your account is connected to Facebook’. This will automatically check the ‘my Facebook Profile’ checkbox under ‘Allow Twitter to the post to the wall of’ section.
• Step 12: Make sure that the ‘my Facebook Profile’ checkbox on the Twitter profile page is checked
• Step 13: Now click on the blue ‘Save Changes’ button in the Twitter profile page. You have now successfully connected your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Your Twitter feed should now appear on your Facebook timeline each time you tweet on Twitter.
• Step 14: Post a tweet in Twitter
• Step 15: Go to your Facebook profile and view your Facebook timeline to see if the Tweet has appeared. The tweet will appear on Facebook with the bluebird Twitter logo right next to the post.

Conclusion

Facebook and Twitter are two of the top ranked social networking websites. With the Facebook and Twitter accounts connected, each post in Twitter will appear immediately in your Facebook timeline as a post made by you, equivalent to a Facebook status update. However, Facebook status updates will not appear as tweets in Twitter, as Twitter only supports tweets of 140 characters length. Hopefully we will soon be able to share the pics in Twitter on Facebook as well.

Using Terminal To Block Websites On Mac

Mac is an acronym for Apple’s Macintosh systems and is generally used to refer to the operating systems of Macintosh. Simple controls and mouse gestures make the Mac OS more user friendly than other operating systems. Mac OS X comes with a great number of features that can easily be mastered. The Terminal is one such feature.
Terminal or the Terminal emulator is a text based program in Mac operating systems. Users can use the Terminal to manipulate the operating system using text commands. There may be many websites that you may want to block. In Windows, you can do with the Browser itself. In Mac, it can be done with the Terminal. However, it may appear to be a bit complicated.
With this tutorial, you will be able to block websites on Mac, by using text commands with the Terminal. You will get used to the technique once you do it yourself.

How to block Websites using Terminal

• Step 1: Click the Finder
• Step 2: Now from the Finder menu, select Applications
  
  You will now be able to see a few folders.
• Step 3: Find the Utilities folder and click it. You will now see the Terminal application
• Step 4: Click Terminal. The Terminal window will now open up. Before starting, you have to backup the hosts.txt file. In this tutorial, we will back up the file in the desktop.
• Step 5: In the Terminal window, type ‘cp /etc/hosts ~/Desktop/hosts.txt’, without the quotes
• Step 6: Hit Enter. This will copy the hosts.txt file to your desktop as backup.

Blocking websites

• Step 1: After copying the hosts.txt file, type ‘sudo pico /etc/hosts’, without the quotes
• Step 2: Hit Enter, upon hitting Enter, the system will prompt you for the Administrator password.
• Step 3: Provide your administrator password and then hit Enter. The /etc/hosts file will now appear. Now you have to go to the bottom of the file.
• Step 4: Use the arrow keys and navigate to the bottom of the file. When you have reached the bottom, you can add the website that you want to block.
• Step 5: Enter the IP address ‘127.0.0.1’, without the quotes, first
• Step 6: Just after the IP address, type the domain name of the website you want to block
  For example, typing “127.0.0.1www.yahoo.com” (without the quotes of course) will block Yahoo on your Mac.
  The theory is as follows. 127.0.0.1 is your Local Macintosh IP. If you type the website domain name following this IP, it will tell the computer that this is the address for that domain. A website domain and a computer can never have the same IP as this can confuse the system. Due to this command, the browser of the system won’t be able to differentiate that domain you have given, to a webpage. So technically, the website will be blocked.
• Step 7: Enter all the domains you want to block this way, with domains on separate lines
• Step 8: Once you are done entering the domains, press and hold Ctrl and then hit X.
  You will now exit the terminal, and a Save prompt will appear.
• Step 9: Press Y to Save

To put the changes into effect

• Step 1: For Mac OS 10.4.X, type the following and hit Enter lookupd –flushcache
• Step 2: For Mac OS 10.5.X and higher versions, type the following and press Enter
  sudo dscacheutil –flushcache
  
• Step 3: Click the Terminal menu and then click ‘Quit Terminal’ to exit
• Step 4: Open any browser and type in all the domain names to make sure they are blocked.
  

  Conclusion

  This is how you can block websites by modifying host file. The website will be blocked to all users of the system. This also applies to all browsers in the system. However, if you want to block sites by keywords, you require professional blocking tools.

Creating MySpace Profile And Integrating To Website

Myspace is a popular social-music networking website launched in August 2003. The site offered a unique feature of allowing artists to host their music tracks via a customized music player. Myspace users can add these tracks to personal lists in their profiles. The public Myspace profiles of users allow them to send short messages, emails, post photos and listen to hosted music tracks of upcoming and popular artistes.
With the launch of Facebook, several users shifted from Myspace to join Facebook. However Myspace still has a lot of active users. Presently, Myspace is under a new ownership, with the owners determined to revamp the site and make it mobile/tablet friendly, adding all new features. Users are able to stream complete albums from several artists, and replay the tracks any number of times whenever they want, for free.
This tutorial is a guideline to those who users who would like to join the new Myspace and make the most of it.

Creating a Myspace profile

• Step 1: Launch your web browser
• Step 2: Go to https://new.myspace.com/signup In this page, you can either register for a new account or use your old Myspace account and update it. You may also use your Facebook or Twitter account to join the new Myspace by syncing those accounts with Myspace.
  
• Step 3: Provide your details and check the checkbox at the bottom of the page
• Step 4: Click Join
  You are now a member of the new Myspace. The website will prompt you to associate with items such as ‘Musician’, ‘Fan’, ‘Comedian’ etc.
• Step 5: Choose the options you like or skip this step
• Step 6: Choose whether to connect through Facebook. If you choose this, it will automatically add all the artists, whose page you liked on Facebook to your Myspace account.
• Step 7: Create and personalize your profile
  You can add a profile picture, and describe about yourself.
• Step 8: Choose whether you want the profile to be Public or Restricted
• Step 9: Click Take me to Myspace when you are done

Using the new Myspace

You will now be taken to the profile home screen.

• Step 1: Click on the speech bubble to post a status update, just like in Facebook
• Step 2: Search for friends in other social networks like Facebook and Twitter using the Search bar
• Step 3: Search for a track
• Step 4: Click on a track in search results to play it in the Myspace music player. You can also see fans and followers of the band you have searched, if you scroll to the right. In order to ‘like’ a song as in Facebook, you can choose the similar ‘Connect’ option in new Myspace. For that,
• Step 5: Click on the linked circles symbol beside the name of the track you played. A menu will now appear.
• Step 6: Click Connect
  
• Step 7: Click Queue to list the track in the current list you are listening to
• Step 8: Click Share to share the track with your friends
• Step 9: Click Add to Mix to add the track to the new playlist. Add to Mix option also allows you to create a new playlist, where the track can be added. To know the latest news in the world of music,
• Step 10: Click Discover on the toolbar next to the Music player

Conclusion

In the new Myspace, you will also be able to view the pages of the bands. These pages will have descriptions of the band, their photos, events and their new updates. You will also be able to play the musical videos of the band. The new Myspace is designed for music lovers, who can also have a good time discussing music related stuff and sharing music with their friends in other networks.

Change Settings In Windows 7 for Bluetooth Device

Microsoft’s Windows 7 is a widely used operating system, and is the predecessor of Windows 8. The OS is mostly used in desktop/laptop computers, tablets, Netbooks and media center computers. Windows 7 is designed to be compatible with Vista-compatible hardware and applications. This Windows version also comes with built-in drivers and DirectX. The OS supports virtual hard disk storage’s, and adds to the performance of multi-core processors.
The OS is basically an incremental upgrade to Windows Vista. The built-in drivers also include Bluetooth drivers. Users can connect Bluetooth devices with the PC, provided there is a Bluetooth module or a Bluetooth dongle in the PC to detect Bluetooth enabled devices. You can change the settings of any connected Bluetooth device in Windows 7.
This tutorial includes the steps for changing settings of Bluetooth enabled devices connected to the computer.

Control Bluetooth pairing

• Step 1: Click the Start button and select Control Panel
• Step 2: Type Bluetooth in the Control panel search box and press Enter
• Step 3: Click Change Bluetooth Settings
• Step 4: Click the Options tab in the dialog box that appears
  
• Step 5: Make your computer discoverable by checking the checkbox saying Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer. (Tip: Make the computer discoverable only when you want the device to detect the computer)
• Step 6: Check the checkbox ‘Alert me when a new Bluetooth device wants to connect’ to enable alert notifications.

Connecting a device

• Step 1: Make sure the integrated Bluetooth module is enabled
• Step 2: Turn on the Bluetooth connection in the device you wish to connect to the computer. Windows will detect the device and alert you with a notification that a device is trying to connect via Bluetooth.
• Step 3: Click on the notifications to allow access to the device
• Step 4: Pair the device to the PC, providing pairing codes if prompted

Enabling/Disabling devices connected via Bluetooth

The connected device may support various services like file transfer, dial up networking and stereo audio. Windows allows you to enable or disable these services and even change the name of the Bluetooth device connected.

• Step 1: Click on the Start button
• Step 2: Now click on Devices and Printers, which should appear in the Start menu on the right pane.
  
  The Devices and Printers window will now appear in the screen. You will be able to see the device connected via Bluetooth. The name of the device will be the name given by the device manufacturer, by default. If you changed the device’s Bluetooth name in the device itself, that name will be displayed instead.

Changing the name of the device

• Step 1: Right click on the Bluetooth enabled device which appears in Devices and Printers window
  
• Step 2: Now select Properties from the context menu which appears on right clicking
  This will open the Properties dialog box of the device. You will be able to see a Bluetooth tab in the box.
• Step 3: Click on the Bluetooth tab in Properties.
• Step 4: Type a new name of your preference for the device and click OK. The new name will be displayed for the device from now on, until you change it again.

Enabling a service

• Step 1: Click on the Services tab in the Properties box
• Step 2: Check the checkbox beside the service you want to enable and click OK

Disabling a service

• Step 1: Click on the Services tab
• Step 2: Clear the checkbox beside the service you want to disable and click OK

Conclusion

You have now configured the Bluetooth settings of Windows 7 and the settings of a Bluetooth connected device. The device only appears if the system can detect it. You will lose connection if the device is out of range.

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