PC Tutorials & Articles
The search option on Internet Explorer is useful for searching the internet without visiting a search engine such as Google, MSN(Bing) or Yahoo. The search feature is located on the right side of the address bar as in the image below.
The default search engine from the image above is Live Search. To change default search engine in Internet Explorer:
- Click Tools then Click Internet Options
- Click Settings located under Search
- Click on the provider you want as your default search provider and Click Set Default
- If the provider you prefer is not on the list of providers listed by Internet Explorer, Click Find more providers
- Internet Explorer will display a list of other search providers that can be added to the list of providers
- Click on the provider and check Make this my default search provider and Click Add Provider
- Click OK on the Change Search Defaults window and close Internet Options
It is always important to have a backup of your Phone contacts/phone book in case your phone gets lost or dies.To backup your contacts,you will need:
- A USB cable for your phone or Bluetooth Dongle. The USB cable or bluetooth dongle will connect your phone to your computer via USB and bluetooth respectively.
- Phone Sync Software. You can use Bitpim or Susteen Datapilot. Bitpim is free but does not support as many phones as Susteen Datapilot. Go to http://www.bitpim.org/help and Click on Phones on the left-hand side,you will see a list of supported phones.Also Click on Reference then Click Howtos to learn how to use BitPim.Go to http://www.susteen.com/productdetail/20/supphones/Notempty to view a list of phones supported by Susteen Datapilot.
In this tutorial we will be using the Samsung Glyde(SCH-U940), since it is not supported by Bitpim we will use Susteen Datapilot 5.6.2.
- Install Susteen Datapilot
- Connect your phone to your computer using the data cable and launch the software(Datapilot). Below is a screenshot of the user interface
- Click on the Phone Book
icon. - You will be presented with a wizard to choose the separation type and the data fields.
- Choose the data you want to backup.For instance to backup a contact's name and phone number, I will choose Name and Phone 1 under the Text Field then choose the corresponding Phone Book entry under Phonebook Field. Click OK
- You will be presented with a list of all the contacts in your Phone Book.Click on the Save
icon to save your contacts to your computer.Type the name of the file in the File Name field and choose the save format from the Save as type drop down list and click Save. 
VHS(Video Home System) is a format that has remained with us for some years but with the invent of DVD and later Blu-Ray, this technology has become obsolete. To preserve the home made movies and memories you have on VHS tapes, its better to convert them to a digital format such as DVD. To convert VHS to DVD, you will need:
- VCR(VHS) player
- Video Capture Device-This can be a TV Tuner card or any device that can take a signal from a VCR and output it to your computer.We will be using the Pinnacle 510-USB.
- Video Capture Software-This software captures the signal from your capture device. We will use Pinnacle Studio 12.
Lets take a closer look at the Pinnacle 510-USB.
The Pinnacle 510-USB has two sides-Input(left picture) and Output(right picture).You can use any video input interface such as Composite,S-video and Firewire and then Output it to USB.Now that you have all the needed materials, lets begin. To convert VHS to DVD;
- Install Pinnacle Studio 12 and also USB drivers for Pinnacle 510-USB. You can download the USB drivers from http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Hardware_Installer/readmeHW10.htm
- Connect your video capture device ( Pinnacle 510-USB) to your VCR using Composite,S-video or Firewire. We will be using Composite(yellow cable). The Composite cable only gives video you will have to connect Stereo In(red and white) cables to get audio.The connection on the VCR will also be Composite and Stereo Out . This should be connected to Video-Out connectors for the VCR. Our connection should look like the picture below.
- Connect the Output side of the Pinnacle 510-USB your USB port.
- Open Pinnacle Studio 12 and Click Capture.Make sure Pinnacle Studio 12 is set to capture from Pinnacle 510-USB. You can do that by Clicking Setup and then Capture Source...Also change the Capture Format to MPEG-1/2 and choose the quality you desire then Click OK
- With all the connections in place, insert your VHS tape into your VCR. Hit Play on your VCR to begin VHS playback,Click Start Capture and name your video file. Then Click Start Capture again.
- When the VHS tape is completed.Click Stop Capture to stop capturing from the VHS.
- Click Edit, select all the frames you need(if all click on one frame,then hit Crtl+A on your keyboard). Right-Click and click Add To Project
Pinnacle Studio 12 adds the frames to the timeline, you can then edit the movie to your liking such as deleting parts you do not want on the DVD. - Click Make Movie and insert a blank DVD into your computer.Click the Disc icon and Click Create Disc
- Pinnacle Studio 12 will create a DVD from the video captured from the VHS tape
If you've ever tried to install Windows XP on a SATA drive, I'm sure you are familiar with the screen below.
The error message indicates that Windows XP cannot find a hard disk for the installation. This is because Windows XP setup doesn't have SATA drivers and therefore cannot recognize the drive. To solve this you can change the SATA mode to IDE in your BIOS as below.
However,not all BIOS have this option. The most popular way of dealing with this is to use a floppy drive with a diskette(has SATA drivers) to install the drivers. You will have to press F6 when the screen below comes up, Windows XP setup will then give you the option to install SATA drivers later.
Instead of digging through your archives to find a floppy drive and diskette, you can download the SATA drivers for your hard disk and add them to your Windows XP installation CD using nLite.If the chipset for your computer is made by Intel, you can download Intel Matrix Storage Drivers. The drivers include SATA drivers that will work with any hard drive.If your chipset is not made by Intel,determine the manufacturer of your hard drive and then download the SATA drivers you need. You can then follow this tutorial to add the SATA drivers to your Windows XP installation CD.