Recommended Web Sites - YouTube.com

As with music there are a number of services to watch videos on the Internet.

By far the most popular service on the Internet is YouTube.

YouTube videos range from music videos to TV shows, Movie trailers and also some short films on there as well, if you are feeling nostalgic you can also check out old TV adverts and old TV shows.

Other video services are available but the most we recommend checking YouTube first.

Handy QuickTip - Copy

To copy an item whether it is a word in a document or a file, you can press CTRL and C

Recommended Downloads - VLC Media Player

You may have various methods to play video on your computer, such as Windows Media Player or Apple's Quicktime, but today we are recommending VLC Media Player.

Quite simply VLC Media Player will play just about any video and audio file that you can challenge it with, we have it installed on all the computers we use and we highly recommend it.

Don't just take our word for it, download it today, we don't think you will use any other media player after using this one.

Handy QuickTip - Italic

If you would like to make a word appear in italics in a letter you are typing, highlight that word and press CTRL and I

Listening to music

There are many ways you can listen to music on your computer, you can use Windows media player, iTunes or a streaming web service such as Spotify.

Windows media player is already part of Windows, so you can listen to music directly from there without having to download anything else. There is also like many other services a store for you to purchase your music.

iTunes from Apple is a piece of software that you have to download from iTunes you can purchase music which can then be played from you computer or if you own an iPod or iPhone can also be played on those devices as well.

Spotify is one pf a number of services offering streaming music across the Internet, all you have to do is download Spotify, create an account and start listening straight away. Spotify offers different types of accounts ranging from free which has adverts randomly placed in between tracks and also paid services with no adverts.

Recommended Web Sites - HotUKDeals.com

Our recommended web site today is HotUKDeals.co.uk.

HotUKDeals offers a constant stream of deals that users have found in stores and on the internet, the users post the deals as they found them, you can even join yourself and add deals when you find them.

They also have an area that gives vouchers codes for you to use when purchasing items from web sites.

We use HotUKDeals daily and our favourite section is the Freebies - where you can sometimes pickup downloads for your computer and even items sent to you free of charge.

Handy QuickTip - Underline

If you would like to underline a word in a letter you are typing, highlight that word and press CTRL and U

Readers Questions - Battery Charging

We have been asked by email

How often should you charge your laptop battery?

There is no real answer to this, if you search around the Internet you will probably find conflicting answers, some will say let the battery run right down before re-charging and some will say let it run down at least once a month, we would say the best advise is to always follow the manufacturer's recommendations for the battery.

Handy QuickTip - Bold

When typing a letter, if you want to make a certain word BOLD, then highlight that word and press CTRL and B

Social Networking

We have all heard about social networking, but what is it?

Basically social networking relates to web sites such as Twitter & Facebook.

Twitter offers you the chance to see short messages (140 characters long) from people you follow and also people who follow you can see your messages as well. You can also upload photos, the most popular way to use Twitter seems to be from a mobile device. We have a Twitter feed you can follow to get you started @pcquicktips

Facebook on the other hand is quite different, with Facebook you can share your whole life with everybody you are friends with, you can upload photos, tell people what you are doing right now and also use the chat feature to talk to your friends directly. Facebook is a great way to catch up with old friends, such as old school friends or friends who live overseas.

A lot can be said about the different social networking sites available, but really the only way to find out which is best for you is to try them.

Recommended Web Sites - Download.com

Today we are starting a new section, called recommended Web Sites.

Our first site, Download.com here you can find almost any item of software to suit your needs, some of the downloads are free and some you can trial for a limited time.

We use download.com as a first stop when we are looking for software for a specific task, the handy seach option works really well, just type in the item you are looking for it will not only find that item but also give you alternative downloads.

Download.com also has technology news and reviews.

Handy QuickTip - Locking Windows

You can easily lock your computer by pressing the Windows key and L.

Readers Questions - Modems

Steve A, asks.

Do all laptops have a modem?

Well Steve, the main answer is yes, but it depends what tyoe of modem you want, the newer model are less likely to have a dial-up modem in them but will have a wireless modem in them so you can connect to wireless broadband.

Handy QuickTip - Sorting the "Start" Menu

If you have a lot of programs on your Windows XP computer and it is making it hard to find anything in your "Start" menu, you may want to sort them in to alphabetical order.
To do this open up the list of programs and right click your mouse button then select sort by name.

Note: this tip is only for user of Windows XP as Windows 7 and Vista automatically sort the programs into order.

Readers Questions - Anti-Virus Software

Another question we get a lot of mail about is Anti-Virus Software, mainly how many should we have running at one time.

The simple answer to this is just one, if you have too many Anti-Virus programs running at one time there is a possibility that they will clash and become in-effective so our advice is stick to just one.

The Anti-Virus protection we recommend and use is Microsoft Security Essentials

Another one we use on some of our computers is AVG.

Both of these programs are free.

Readers Questions - Watching TV

Another reader of PCQuickTips, Chris writes.


How do I watch TV on my latptop?

Well Chris there are a couple of ways to do this, you can either purchase a seperate item called a TV tuner which is plugged into the USB slot of your computer or you can watch the TV on a catch-up service such as BBC iPlayer, or any of the other TV catch up services available.

Handy QuickTip - Instead of Right Click

Pressing "CTRL" and "F10" will open the right click menu you use on your mouse.

Readers Questions - Removing Software

This question comes in from Alan.

Why can I not just delete a program, why do I have to unintall it?

Well Alan, the reason for this is that just deleting it will not remove the program from your computer.

When you install a program such as Microsoft Office for example it not only adds the program to your computer but it can also install extra items that are attached to other areas of Windows, if you right click when you are on the desktop for instance you will see a menu pop-up called "New" and this allows you to create a file for Microsoft Word directly from that menu.

Just deleting the program will only remove the file itself and can cause problems later on.

If you want to remove a program from your computer always unistall it.

Handy QuickTip - Another way to open the "Start" menu

Pressing the "CTRL" key and the "ESC" key can also give you access to the "Start" menu.

Readers Questions - FireWire?!?

We have been asked a lot of questions recently by email, so this week rather than the usual posts we are going to devote the time to answer some of these questions.

The first question came from a few different readers.

What is FireWire?

Firewire or to give it its technical name IEEE1394 is a way of transferring video from a device such as a camcorder to your computer, video files can be large and FireWire is the best way to transfer these files.

A more detailed and technical description can be found here.

Recommended Downloads - LastPass

One of the many things you may have noticed when using the Internet is how many web sites ask you to sign up or sign in.

It can be difficult to remember all of these user names and passwords, but what if they could all be collected together and you could use one master password to log in to the sites you visit, well help is at hand with LastPass.

LastPass is a small piece of software that when installed is "plugged-in" to your browser and sits there waiting for you to visit a site that needs a password, it then becomes active.

When you have installed the software, it will ask you to set up a master password that you can use to log into the sites you have saved.

The sites are saved as you visit them, when you sign up to the site LastPass will automatically ask you if you would like to save the information, it will even generate a secure password for each site you visit if you wish.

When you re-visit the site LastPass will automatically fill out the user name and password for you. The only password you will need is the master password you have created.

You can also use LastPass to store all of your personal details so that you don't have to fill them out every time you visit a page with a form to fill in, such as home/car insurance sites.

Because LastPass store all of your details on a secure server, you can install the software on any computer and as long as you have your username and password for LastPass you will be able to log into all of the sites that require it.

We can't recommend LastPass highly enough, we'd be lost without it in fact!

LastPass is available to download from here.