Technology can be great, but when you’re trying to upgrade a PC, incompatible hardware can be a pain.
Moving data from an older drive to a newer one gave members of the Windows Secrets Lounge an opportunity to provide helpful information, as shown in the first of the following most-active threads this week:
- Copying an entire ATA drive to a SATA drive
Lounge member Mike McKinney wanted to upgrade a computer to a larger hard drive. The catch is, the new drive is SATA but the computer has only an ATA connector. Although he had the hardware component figured out, transferring the files was stumping him. Fortunately, several other Loungers contributed good suggestions. More»Insider tips, how-tos, best security practices, and more
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- Username remembered: hacking Firefox
Worrying about malicious keyloggers grabbing passwords off his PC, Scott V asked about turning off Firefox’s autofill function. He received several on-target replies from fellow Loungers, including advice to check his security settings. More» - Laptop powering off due to excessive heat
Complaints about hot laptops are nothing new. However, when Karlo E upgraded his hard drive and operating system, his overheating problems became worse, costing him time and money. Loungers offered several suggestions, including checking his laptop’s fan and reducing its CPU and graphics performance. More»
Despite the successful discussions described above, some questions remain unanswered in the Lounge. Member dglarson, for example, wants to sort Windows Search into two columns. I’m sure there are more than a few WS readers who can contribute answers to this problem and the others shown below:
- Sorting Windows search results on two columns
- Synching audio to a QuickTime video
- Win7 x64 slow connection to MySQL
If you’re already registered, you can jump right in to today’s discussions in the Lounge.
Placing windows side by side using Aero Snap
WS contributing editor Scott Dunn’s Feb. 18 story on Windows 7 annoyances stated that Win7′s Aero Snap feature doesn’t place two windows side by side on dual monitors. Using two monitors with Aero Snap enabled, you can drag-snap one window to the left edge of the left monitor and another to the right edge of the right one — but not next to each other.
In fact, you actually can use Aero Snap to get two windows side by side, but not the way you might expect.
The Aero Snap keyboard shortcuts let you press WindowsKey+Left Arrow or WindowsKey+Right Arrow to make a window occupy exactly the left half or the right half of the screen, respectively, even if you have two monitors. Scott wrote about this in his Feb. 25 column, in the section titled “Other Win7 management tricks.”
Our thanks to the members who wrote about these key combinations in the Lounge comment thread for Scott’s Feb. 18 column.
The Lounge Life column is a digest of the best of the WS Lounge discussion board. Tracey Capen is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.
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