Every time I need to perform some kind of small operation I’m thinking “what if there’s a website that does that for free?”. I always search for stuff like “split PDF tool”, “online compress image tool”, or whatever I need to do. Most of the time I find what I’m looking for. It may not be the first search result, or the second, but I always find something free and quick to use on the first page.

The Why and How

This is how I got the idea of starting to develop my own tools. I get to learn something new, plus I can build a ton of tools easily with the use of AI. AI will come in handy as soon as I venture outside my programming comfort limits, which can now be summarized as HTML, CSS, PHP, and some JavaScript.

The What

So, a few weeks ago I started researching what kind of tools I will be developing. As I said in the beginning, small tools are what I’m looking for. The type of tools that do just one thing, with little or no options at all.

My focus is on making stuff that’s easy to use, fast, completely free, and very useful for specific tasks.

I thought I would have a hard time coding, but you’d be surprised how many free services, frameworks, open-source projects and APIs are available for amateur coding projects like mine. This helps speed up the development and deployment of my tools significantly.

Where do I publish these tools?

I immediately started looking for domain names, then I remembered I already have one tech website that I very much like, even if it may seem that I’ve neglected it in the last year.

So, I started developing and slowly adding tools on BinaryFork.com. Now I can finally show the world what I’ve been doing.

Where can I find the tools?

You will find a list of all the free mini-tools on this page on BinaryFork.

What tools are available right now?

At the time of writing this piece there are just 7 tools.

1. Find your own public IP address.

2. Find information about a specific IP address.

3. Find the hostname/domain associated with an IP address.

4. Find the IP(s) of a given domain name or hostname.

5. Test your Internet Speed.

6. Test your keyboard keys.

7. Generate QR codes from links of plain text.

All are free to use, all are very easy to use, none requires you to create a user account, none of them stores your data in any way. As I said I just want these tools to be useful and be used.

So, I wouldn’t mind if you shared these tools with your friends. It would be greatly appreciated if you did.

What’s next in the pipeline

I have a bunch of ideas on how to extend the functionality of the existing tools, plus a list of what to do next. I’m also open to suggestions, so leave a comment with what would be useful for you. Also, any feedback would be good, so let me know what you think about these tools.

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What if you could install and update software in seconds, all without requiring user input? It’s possible and free with Ninite, one of the first websites I open when I install Windows on a new computer. This is the fastest way to install the most common utilities. It’s even possible to update everything in seconds at any moment using the same steps.

What Is Ninite and Why Should You Care?

Picture this scenario: you've just installed Windows on your shiny new computer (or maybe you've reset an old one). The operating system installation itself takes just minutes on modern hardware. But then comes the real time-sink – downloading and installing all your essential programs one by one. Browsers, media players, PDF readers, security tools... the list goes on, and before you know it, your "quick setup" has consumed your entire afternoon.

This is where Ninite comes to the rescue. It's a completely free for personal use service that automates the installation of popular Windows applications. At its core, Ninite is a major time-saver both during initial computer setup and in the long run when you need to keep your software updated. And keeping software updated isn't just about having the latest features – it's a crucial aspect of maintaining your computer's security and performance that many users neglect.

How to Use Ninite (It's Almost Too Simple)

The beauty of Ninite lies in its simplicity. Here's all you need to do:

• Visit Ninite's official website.

• Browse through the available programs and check the boxes next to the ones you want to install. The selection covers most essential categories, though not every software ever created.

• Click the Get Your Ninite button.

• Run the small Nininte installer file you just downloaded.

• Sit back and relax while Ninite does all the work. Yes, you can actually continue using your computer during this process!

Here's the clever part – to update these same applications later, simply run that same installer file again.

So, don't delete it after the initial installation! Keep it somewhere easily accessible, like your desktop or a dedicated utilities folder. When you run it again, Ninite checks for updates to all the software you selected and automatically installs the latest versions. It's essentially a permanent updater for your most-used programs.

Ninite's Secret Superpowers

While installing and updating apps are Ninite's headline features, this tool does much more than just bundle installers together. Here are some of the less obvious but equally valuable features:

• It automatically skips all those annoying extra options and toolbars that normally come bundled with free software. No more accidental Yahoo toolbars!

• On 64-bit systems, it automatically selects 64-bit versions of applications when available.

• It never requires reboots during the installation process.

• It uses default installation options and locations, saving you from clicking through countless dialog boxes.

• It always installs the most recent stable version of each program.

• It automatically uses your system language for installations (though this can be overridden via command line if needed).

• It downloads each application directly from the original developer's website and verifies digital signatures for security.

Ninite currently works with Windows 10, 8, 7, in both desktop and server versions. This compatibility ensures that almost anyone can benefit from this time-saving tool.

Ninite Pro: For When You're Managing More Than Just Your Home PC

For those managing multiple computers – perhaps in a business environment – Ninite offers a Pro version with additional features. Ninite Pro adds a web-based management interface that makes it ideal for system administrators who need to keep software updated across many machines. If you're responsible for maintaining a company's IT infrastructure, Ninite Pro could be a significant workflow improvement.

The Pro version essentially transforms Ninite from a personal convenience tool into a powerful remote management solution, though the free version remains perfect for individual users.

The Bottom Line

Ninite represents exactly the kind of practical utility that can make your digital life measurably better with minimal effort. It's the perfect example of what good software should be – it solves a real problem, does it efficiently, and gets out of your way.

If you're looking for alternatives that offer even more application choices, check out WingetUI (now called UniGetUI), which provides a simple graphical interface for the Windows Package Manager (winget) utility. It gives you access to a much more extensive list of applications, though I still find Ninite's simplicity hard to beat for the most common programs.

Have you discovered other time-saving utilities that make Windows management easier? Share them in the comments – I'm always on the lookout for new tools to feature that can help all of us spend less time on computer maintenance and more time actually using our computers.

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We’re not getting younger, so there comes a time when you need to increase the font size in Windows and the apps you are using. So it makes sense to get a sense of the three methods to make things bigger in Windows and how they work together.

I hope you are all well and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now let’s get back on track with my PC tips:

As with many things in Windows, there are multiple options to achieve something. It may seem various options to the same thing, but when taking a deeper look the differences may become clear (or not).

Same goes for increasing the size of the elements you see on screen. Long gone are the days when Windows would look the same on every device for the same given resolution.

As screen sizes and display resolutions are not more varied than ever, it is crucial to be able to adjust the size of text and app interface elements for a comfortable viewing.

Much has been said in the past about how Windows works with scaling, but for the most part I think you will be satisfied with how it is done today in Windows 11.

I say “for the most part” because legacy apps that have not been updated may still render in a slightly blurry fashion. Other than that Windows does a good job of handling text and interface rendering nowadays.

So much so, that you have three big options at your disposal to adjust screen elements. And I am going to walk you through each of them in this short post.

1 - Increase text size everywhere

The first option will let you increase the text size displayed on screen, in every app except the task bar, from the default 100%. You can go up to 225%, but I reckon for most people that would be too much.

To change this setting, you will need to launch the Settings app (you can press Win + I for easy access), navigate to the Accessibility section and click on the Text size option found in the Vision subsection.

In the next screen adjust the slider and preview your changes in the box above the slider, then hit Apply to submit the changes.

A restart or at least a log off is recommended for the setting to apply on those stubborn apps that don’t recognize the changes.

Here is the difference in practice between 100% and 150%.

2 - Make everything bigger with Windows Scaling

This is an option that changes everything you see in the same proportion. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Open the Settings app again, navigate to Display, then select the desired monitor (if you have more than one that is), then look for Scale under the Scale & layout subsection.

You have options ranging from 100% up to 250% in 25% increments, then two more options for 300% and 350%.

Clicking on the right pointing arrow will let you set a custom scaling ratio between 100% and 500%. The biggest caveat if you’re using this option is that it will be applied to all monitors. Not great if these monitors are different sizes and resolutions.

For reference, here are the differences in size between 100, 150, and 200%.

3 - Zoom in on a specific app

And the final option is to zoom in or zoom out in the browser and supporting apps. OK, it works mostly with the browser, but some apps allow zooming on their content as well (Adobe suite, Microsoft Office, just to name the popular programs).

Zooming is done through the browser settings menu, but I always prefer to use the keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl + Plus - zoom in one step.

• Ctrl + Minus - zoom out one step.

• Ctrl + Zero - reset the zoom level to default.

The cool part is that browsers remember the zoom level you have set manually for each web domain, so you don’t have to do it all over again if you’re revising the same website.

How I’d use those settings

Actually, this is how I do use them: first I set scaling for each of my monitors, then fine tune the text size using the Accessibility option. Finally, if I find the text still too small in one of the apps I am using, I will try and zoom in that app alone, if the option is there.

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One of the best hardware investments I have made in the past decade was to buy an MMO mouse, aka a mouse with a lot of buttons. Mapping the most important actions to my mouse saves a lot of time each time you use these shortcuts. Oh, and it is also great in games, as you can imagine.

I’m not a “work on my laptop from anywhere” type of guy. I love having multiple monitors when I need to work with large documents. It helps me be more productive. Constantly Alt Tabbing on my laptop is annoying.

The fact I have the memory of a goldfish doesn’t help either, so I need to have everything in front of my face when I work.

Add the fact that I use quite a few virtual desktops in Windows, so I need a way to perform the most common actions faster. The problem was solved when I got as a present for my birthday the Logitech G602 gaming mouse.

Why?

Because having a few programmable buttons at my fingertips means I can switch virtual spaces in a few dozen milliseconds. I didn’t time myself, but it feels really fast. My fingers are already on top of the buttons. I just have to press them.

An MMO gaming mouse is like a dual-clutch automatic, faster than anything on the market. It’s even faster than keyboard shortcuts because you don’t have to move your hands at all.

But what is an MMO mouse?

An MMO mouse is a type of mouse that comes with extra customizable buttons meant to be remapped for use in Massive Multiplayer Online games, hence the MMO in the name.

MMO gaming mice excel in games where there are tons of shortcuts for various actions. They work in all games, of course, and are also good for work. An MMO mouse will save you time, especially in programs where you can take advantage of the extra buttons and remap them to the most performed actions.

How I configured my MMO gaming mouse button shortcuts

In total, there are eleven buttons on my Logitech G602. It may seem a lot but one is the left click, another is the right click and the third one is the middle click because you can press on the scroll wheel, so it does count as a button.

This means there are actually eight buttons. Subtract the mouse sensitivity change buttons, which I use constantly, and I’m left with six configurable buttons. That’s more manageable.

Here’s my current buttons configuration:

1. Back browser button (default action)

2. Forward browser button (default action)

3. Sensitivity up one step (default action)

4. Sensitivity down one step (default action)

5. Middle click (remapped)

6. Undo close tab – Ctrl + Shift + T (remapped)

7. Switch to the left virtual desktop (remapped)

8. Switch to the right virtual desktop (remapped)

I won’t bore you with the details, but I had to use one of the buttons for the middle click. Pressing on the scroll wheel without triggering a scroll action is tricky, so I better have that assigned to a different button.

How is it to use an MMO mouse for work?

There are tons of MMO gaming mice out there, some with a ridiculous number of buttons. I don’t think I could use a mouse with 20 buttons, but your mileage may vary.

I say that because from my experience it took me a few good weeks to train my muscle memory for the Logitech G602, but once the neural pathways were imprinted in my brain, I can tell you that I loved using this mouse for work. I still do.

Switching desktops is ridiculously fast. I also love that I can use the middle click functionality without also scrolling, which happens more often than not when you click on the scroll wheel on most mice.

And if I close a tab by mistake, I can bring it up again, and instead of the Ctrl + Shift + T I only need to press one button.

These are actions I do a couple hundred times every day. I suspect I gain at least a few minutes this way. That’s every day, so long term I have more time for other more pleasant tasks.

I definitely think investing in an MMO mouse is going to pay off rather quickly. Prices for MMO mice differ wildly, but as a general rule, brand names like Razer, Logitech, and Corsair tend to cost more and I’m not sure they’re always worth the premium.

So, no, you don’t have to spend $150 on a mouse to be productive, but a high quality one will surely last longer. I have mine for 12 years now, and it’s still going strong.

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The iconic Windows Start button hides a cool secret, and that’s a menu accessible via right-click or with a dedicated keyboard combo that gives you access to a ton of useful system related settings and utilities.

Naturally, if you’re doing all these things using just your mouse, you’re spending more time in front of your monitor than you should because you’re not taking advantage of readily available keyboard shortcuts.

What is the Windows 11 Essentials Cheat Sheet?

I’ve put together for my other site, BinaryFork, a 2-page PDF document you can print that will help you learn the most important keyboard shortcuts that work in Windows 11. This document will help you practice the most important Windows 11 shortcuts.

In no-time, you will learn how to access the most important parts of the Windows interface by using the keyboard. You will be able to use File Explorer, create new virtual desktops, and manage your windows quicker than you believed possible.

Just print the document on an A4 page, both sides, and keep it on your desk. Glance over from time to time and you’ll soon remember all the essential shortcuts.

How Can you Download the FREE PDF?

All you have to do is subscribe to the PC is Dead, Again newsletter, and in the welcome email you will find a link to download the 2-page document.

You can unsubscribe immediately and still keep the Windows 11 Essentials Cheat Sheet, but maybe you should stay subscribed a little bit more. Just saying…

Each newsletter I send includes actionable tips that will help you work faster with your computer. You don’t need to be a computer expert to take advantage of any of these tips.

Join PC is Dead, Again and you’ll finish your computer chores a lot faster, freeing time you can spend with your family, friends, or just use for yourself.

Let me be clear, you don’t have to know and use this stuff. But if you do, you are able to unlock a new level of productivity by simply doing things quicker.

This has been my modus operandi since my first computer and has served me well.

Anyway, today I’ll tell you about a very unused, but useful shortcuts menu found behind the iconic Start button in Windows.

You may not know this, but if you right-click on the Start button, or just press the Win + X keyboard shortcut a large menu will immediately open up, revealing a long list of shortcuts that point to important sections of the operating system, Task manager, Settings, network connections, the command prompt/terminal, just to name a few.

As with any Windows feature, there are several ways to access it, so now you can add a few more.

One of the useful entries in this menu is probably the Shut down and sign out option, which will open a sub-menu with Sign out, Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down, and Restart options.

There are no settings options associated with the Win + X menu. Everyone gets the same menu.

But there are ways for advanced users to customize the entries that show up in this menu. But that’s for more advanced use cases, and frankly that’s beside the focus of this newsletter.

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If you’re using a multiple-monitor setup you may have encountered this situation: when you disconnect your laptop some application windows remain hidden on one of the monitor(s) which is no longer connected. This prevents you from accessing the window contents, but fortunately, there’s an easy way to move back into view the off-screen app.

Now I’m at two 32-inch screens and I can finally see there’s a limit to how much desktop space you really need. No, I’m not there yet, but I’m getting closer.

The thing is, not everybody agrees with me that the biggest productivity hack is to use more than one monitor. 

And that’s OK. Some people don’t have the physical desk space, some people only work on the go, while others just don’t work that much with their computers.

This means not a lot of people as a percentage use two or more monitors. The implication is that software developers don’t tend to code for the few. They code for the masses, and niche use cases are either ignored, or not implemented and tested properly.

You can see that even in Mac OS when you use multiple monitors. And that’s the Mac OS who everyone agrees it’s a much more polished experience than Windows. Everyone but me that is.

One of the most common issues I’ve found is that sometimes, when you remove one monitor, or just change the monitor layout, some open windows remain off screen. It happens because the operating system fails to adjust their position on the still connected screens. 

It happens to me quite a lot when I’m constantly connecting my laptop, then disconnecting the monitors when I have to go. It’s quite easy to reproduce this with some programs, like Sumatra PDF reader.

It’s frustrating because there isn’t an intuitive way to bring back that window into view, without connecting the monitor again, or closing the app from the right-click menu, or by restarting Windows. That’s hardly convenient.

The simple solution to move the window back on screen

If you’re on Windows or Windows 11, you can use the Windows Snap feature, which lets you arrange windows easily using the keyboard or the mouse. 

By the way, Snap got a major upgrade in Windows 11, but for this trick you don’t need that.

Are you ready?

First, select the window you want to move by clicking its name/icon on the taskbar.

Now just press Win + Left/Right or Up arrow keys. This forces the app to move to the left, the right side of the screen or maximize on the current monitor, thus bringing the app window back into view.

Simple, efficient and works with any application. You can see that in action in the short clip below.

It was possible before Windows 10, but it was more complicated. I won’t bother you with the details, but you can read all about that method if you’re still on Windows 8 or older.

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Annoyed by Excel, who constantly changes the date format, even when you just want to enter some simple text? Read about the methods you can use to stop Excel from converting something to a date.

I feel I’m not the only one in this category.

Anyway, one of the things that annoys me most is when Excel decides to do something automatically, “to help me out”, but actually misses the mark.

One of those moments is when I just want to type something in a cell that looks like a date, but it’s not actually one. Naturally, I don’t want Excel to transform the text into a date. Not only that, but I don’t want a different date format. I don’t want something like this:

There are multiple ways to solve this, each with its Pros and Cons:

Method 1 - Disable automatic data conversion in settings

This method has the advantage that it works like an On and Off switch. Once disabled, it will never work again in Excel until you re-enable the setting.

The downside? It doesn’t catch all situations, so some automatic data conversion will still happen.

This is how to toggle the setting: Click the File menu > Choose Options > Select Data > Scroll to Automatic Data Conversion.

Here you have a bunch of options. I would first suggest disabling Convert continuous letters and numbers to a date. See if it’s enough, if not go back and disable the other options as well.

Method 2 - Change the cell type before you add text

This method works well, but you have to change the cell type before you add contents.

Just select the cell, or the cells you want to add normal text to, then go to the Home tab, find the Numbers panel, and in the top dropdown menu, change the cell type to Text.

You can now type whatever you want and it will be stored as text.

Method 3 - just add an apostrophe before you type into a cell

This is probably the most straightforward method. Just begin typing with an apostrophe (‘) before the actual content. The cell type will be automatically converted to text.

Yes, it’s that simple.

Mention: when you paste contents into an Excel cell or multiple cells most likely the cell type will change automatically. You can circumvent this by right-clicking before you paste, then selecting the paste type that matches the destination formatting. Or paste as plain text, like I’ve shown before.

This is it for today. What other Excel hacks or tricks do you know and would like to share with the world?

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Programming is serious business, but programmers do have a sense of humor. This is why this neat Windows trick is called God Mode. Can you guess what it is? If you’re curious check out the explanation.

If not, it’s not a problem. It has nothing to do with the God Mode in Windows, but it’s probably an indication that some Microsoft programmers have surely played Doom, hence the name reference.

What is God Mode?

You know how Windows search works, right? You open the start menu and type whatever comes to mind. Windows will then look into your files, icons, applications, and so on, and present you with a list of options.

Windows Search works well with files, so most of the settings from the old Control Panel are also found as shortcuts (essentially files) in what is called the Windows Master Control Panel. This is the official name of the God Mode, and you can recreate this folder on your computer with ease.

Limitations: there’s only one downside about the God Mode; it only lists settings from the Control Panel. Starting with Windows 10, Microsoft started to move part of the settings to the… Settings app, and that move only accelerated with Windows 11. At some point there will be no shortcuts left in the old Control Panel, but maybe we will get a God Mode for the Settings app. Who knows?

How to create the God Mode folder

Creating the God Mode folder is straight forward, so here’s how to do it:

Right-click on the desktop, or anywhere else in File Explorer and select New > Folder.

Now, make sure to add this as the folder name:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

The folder icon will automatically change, and the name will disappear. Don’t worry, this means you did things right.

Now you can double-click the folder and you will get a lengthy list of icons as seen below. These are all part of the Control Panel, what’s left of it.

Launching any of these options will just open the Control Panel to the specific settings panel, where you can control all the options available for that particular setting. Nice and easy.

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Even the best laptop webcam is no match for the phone’s main camera, so here’s how to use your phone as a high quality webcam with Camo. It works in most Windows apps, just like the phone’s camera was attached to your PC.

It has a minor problem, though, and that’s the lack of a webcam. Two years ago, I didn’t need a webcam on a regular basis, but now I do. That’s a problem, as you can imagine.

Like many people I have a smartphone, so I looked up ways to use my smartphone main shooter as a PC webcam. There are plenty of free options, but the one I settled upon was Camo Studio.

What is Camo Studio?

Camo Studio is a piece of software that is supposed to make your already existing cameras look better. 

Basically Camo Studio intercepts the camera video feed and applies filters, creates scenes, changes framing, mirrors the image, and lets you adjust the image (tint, exposure, white balance, gamma, hue, saturation, brightness, you name it).

This is all nice, but what interests me is the fact Camo Studio can also connect to your phone camera feed, as long as you have Camo Studio installed on your iOS or Android smartphone.

How it works

First, you will have to download the app (see all the download links here) on your PC/Mac and on your smartphone.

Requirement: both devices need to use the same wireless network. This is super important.

Launch the desktop app and click on the “Pair a device” button in the middle.

This popup will show up:

Launch the app on your phone and tap the WiFi button to open the QR scanner. Scan the code displayed on your desktop.

A preview of your camera feed that is sent to your computer will show up on the smartphone’s screen.

Important: while you stream your phone camera make sure the Camo Studio app remains in the foreground. Don’t lock your phone or exit the app, as the feed will cut off automatically.

The feed is also displayed on the desktop version of Camo Studio (which also needs to remain open, of course).

You can now adjust your camera settings and save multiple presets. My phone has four cameras, but only two are exposed by the Android operating system, the front shooter, and the main camera on the back.

In Camo Studio you can select which camera to use, the resolution, frames per second, adjust the image quality, then save everything as a preset. From the Audio settings you can also select which microphone to use: the desktop PC or one of your device microphones (I have two available on my smartphone for example).

When you want to reconnect just start both apps and select the device from the desktop version of Camo Studio from the top right Device dropdown. The live feed should appear immediately.

How to use the “new” camera in other apps

When two devices are paired a new camera appears in your list of devices and you can use that in supported apps. The current compatibility list includes, but is not limited to Zoom, Meet, Teams, Skype, Slack, Google Chrome, Safari, FaceTime, Cisco Webex.

Using the new camera is easy: make sure you select the video camera called Camo. Here’s how it’s done in MS Teams, before joining or starting a new meeting.

I also tried OBS, and it worked flawlessly on both occasions. The recording quality was much better than my aging Microsoft Webcam I’ve been using for more than 15 years now.

Camo Studio is free, but there’s also a Camo Pro version which lets you record high resolution 4K streams, adds smart zoom, increases the stream maximum frame rate to 60 FPS, and offers priority support.

Are you using your smartphone camera as a PC webcam? Which apps are you using if not Camo Studio? Let me know in the comments.

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If you need to copy a large batch of files over the network, be ready to drink a coffee or two, until it’s done. Or you can use this trick to speed up transfers significantly. You’ll thank me later.

It doesn't matter how fast your home network is, or how good your Internet connection is. You can have an insanely fast SSD in your system, and you will still face a long time before every single file is transferred.

Not only that, but if your connection breaks during this transfer you have to either start all over again, if you don't know how to skip the already transferred files.

On the other hand, when you transfer large files, the transfer rate is most likely to reach the maximum your network is capable of.

Why are network transfers slow?

Without getting too technical, this happens because of the overhead in communication when transferring a single file, multiplied by the number of files you are transferring.

A few dozen milliseconds for establishing the connection and starting the transfer may not mean much when transferring a single file, but it will quickly add up when you transfer thousands of files.

If you think this is bad, you haven't experienced a slow HDD back in the day, with fragmented data. That made network transfers even worse and made quite a noise (look up "HDD seeking sound" on YouTube to get an idea of how brutal this was).

That is the time when I started looking for a better solution, one that would speed up network transfers significantly. 

The solution: archive your files first

I'm not going to show you how to do this because it all depends on what archiving program you are using, if any. Windows 11 now supports a lot of popular archive formats, but I still prefer to use 7-ZIP because it offers more flexibility.

One of the advantages that I'm looking specifically for this trick is to set the compression level to No Compression. This means the files are packed together inside the archive without any gains in final archive file size.

This makes little sense when it comes to typical archive usage, which is to save space, but in our case, it will speed up compression and decompression since there will be little demand on the CPU, who is the one doing all the calculations.

If you want a simplification of this solutions here are the steps:

1. Select the files and folders you wish to transfer.

2. Compress them into a single archive.

3. Transfer the archive to the destination.

4. Decompress the archive.

5. (optional) Test the archive to ensure data integrity.

Advantages:

• You only need to transfer one big file.

• Archives can be tested after the transfer to ensure data was not corrupted.

Disadvantages:

• If you have limited disk space, you may not be able to create an archive or decompress at destination.

• The destination platform must allow decompression of archives.

How fast is the single archive transfer method? It will all depend of course on the total size and the number of files; I wouldn't be surprised if you see 10x or even 100x faster transfers.

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Extracting multiple images from a Word document is slow and annoying, but there is a way to copy all images at the same time. There are actually two quick methods for doing this.

It’s very annoying and takes a lot of time for both the person who makes the document and the one who has to process it.

Fortunately, there are two very quick methods to extract images from a Word document. Shout out to my girlfriend for showing me this. Both methods are really cool and feel a bit geeky, which is always a bonus for me.

Mention: these two methods only work with Microsoft Word documents saved in the DOCX format. They don’t work with old DOC documents (pre-Word 2007). 

Let’s start with the document. For the purpose of this demo, I took a template restaurant brochure with quite a few images.

Some of these images are background images, which makes them really difficult to right-click and save.

Difficult if you don’t apply one of the methods below.

Change document extension to Zip

In case you didn’t know, DOCX files are actually archives which contain all the media, document metadata, and the document text contents itself.

So, go to the folder where the original document is saved. I would make a copy first just in case you mess up something.

Select the document and press F2 to rename. You have to delete the “docx” text after the final dot and change that to “zip”.

A warning will let you know that the file might become unusable if you change its extension. Don’t be shy and go ahead.

Now you have to right-click the renamed file and extract the archive contents. You don’t have to do it in the same folder, but make sure you remember where you have extracted the document contents because that’s where you have to go next.

Open the folder and further navigate to Word > Media. This is where you’ll find all the images stored in the original document. Move them, copy, rename, edit, do whatever you meant to do in the first place.

I also made a video showing exactly how this works:

Save document as a web page

The second method is just as easy, if not easier.

Open the document with Word and save it as a web page (htm, html).

Now navigate to the folder where you saved the HTML file, and you’ll see the file itself and a new folder which contains all the media from the original document.

Open this folder and you will find all the inserted images together with some document metadata and other HTML elements which you can just ignore.

And that’s it, now you know two very fast methods to extract all images from a Word document.

If there’s a takeaway to this is that you shouldn’t send a word document with images if that is not the final version of the document. If it’s meant to be processed further, I urge you to also attach the original images and tables in Excel format even if they’re much bigger in size together.

That’s actually the point, to have the original images which are higher resolution and are also renamed properly. Once inserted in a Word document all images are renamed to image001.jpg to image999.jpg automatically.

Anyway, I hope you remember this trick because it helped me so many times I cannot count.

Previous articles you may have missed

If you are keeping specific browser tabs opened at all times it is possible to install websites as desktop apps and detach them from your browser completely. It’s easy to do and can be reverted at any time.

When you’re using 50+ tabs spread between multiple browser windows it can take time to access these important tabs, even if you know the navigation shortcuts, or search for an opened tab.

This is why I want to present to you a better solution: install a website as a desktop app. 

What does it mean? You can decouple a tab from your Chromium browser and make it act like a normal app you have installed on your computer. You can pin the new “app” to the taskbar or the start menu. It will appear in the list of installed apps, and you can search for it in the Start menu.

If you didn’t know already it’s a website app you couldn’t see the difference.

But the difference is there, because this app uses your browser for rendering, but will appear completely decoupled from the browser master app. That’s the best explanation I could find without getting too technical.

Installing websites as apps works in Chromium based browsers, which means Chrome, Edge, Brave and pretty much any browser that uses the Chromium code base. And since it’s a browser feature it is operating system independent, which means it works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux.

Installing a website as a desktop app using Chrome

I’ll show you next how to install and uninstall websites as desktop apps using Chrome, the most popular browser. But don’t worry, it works the same in other compatible browsers.

1. First, select the tab you want to install as a desktop app.

2. Click on the three-dot menu at the top-right of the Chrome browser window.

3. Open the Save and share submenu.

4. Select Install page as app.

5. You will now see a final confirmation menu that asks for a name for the “new” app. It defaults to the tab title, but you can type anything you wish.

Note: The app will borrow the website favicon as app icon. In Chrome you cannot change that, but Edge lets you pick another app icon image at this step.

Immediately the tab will appear detached from the main browser window. It looks like this:

You can move, resize, close the window, pin to the Start menu, pin to the taskbar.

There is no indication you are using a website app, not a native app.

How to uninstall desktop apps

Let’s say you find out website apps are not your thing. Uninstalling them is just as easy: just click the three-dot menu of the app window and select Uninstall Gmail.

A small popup confirmation window will appear and will ask if you want to also delete the browser data for Gmail. 

I wouldn’t do that, because doing so will erase all cookies and log you out of your account. That’s annoying if you want to visit and use the website again, which I assume you want.

Hope you like this trick and give it a try. I find it perfect for those websites I use all the time.

Previous articles you may have missed

It’s very easy to quickly and precisely select multiple files and folders if you are using Ctrl and Shift for making multiple selections. You need to do some practical exercise a few times to build up muscle memory, but it’s worth it.

One example is the selection of files and folders in File Explorer. A long time ago I assumed File Explorer was just too simple to be useful, and maybe this was true back in the Windows XP days, but now it has evolved to a very decent file manager. And it did so without complicating the user interface.

But I digress, so let’s get back on track.

Let’s assume you have a folder open in File Explorer with a bunch of items. You want to move, copy, or delete some of this stuff, but not everything. 

You have the:

• Really slow option: select one item by clicking it, perform the action, repeat for the other item(s).

• Lucky option: the items you want are all grouped together, so you click on the first one, press and hold Shift, then click the last item in the list to select them all in one go.

• Tedious option: press and hold Ctrl, then click each item, until you’re done.

Tip: if you need to select all items in a folder just open the folder and then press Ctrl + A. This will extend the selection to all items stored in the current folder.

But there’s a fourth option which is the focus of this post. Using both Ctrl and Shift.

What you do is the following: 

1. Click an item, then press and keep Ctrl pressed.

2. Click another item to add it to the selection or press Shift, then click to also select all items in between.

3. Repeat until you have added all needed items to your selection.

4. Finally, release Ctrl.

I made a video to show you how it’s done:

If you want to make it easier to remember, just imagine that Ctrl is used to select one item at a time, no matter where it’s located, while Shift is used to select all items between two positions, including the two positions. Remember that the same behavior also applies to selecting text and moving inside a document.

Where does it work? Besides File Explorer, this trick should work in pretty much any Windows file manager. I only have Total Commander to try and I’m happy to report it works very well. Oh, and Windows 10 is also supported, as well as the newer Windows 11.

And that’s it, you can now copy, paste the items you have selected using shortcuts, or you can drag the items using the right click method, for more options.

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If you only need basic tools to edit your photos and you are used to Adobe Photoshop’s interface, you should try Photopea, a free alternative that runs in the browser and which lets you fully control your file sources, unlike Canva.

The user interface is non-intuitive, there’s little help for novices, but it’s the best photo and image editing software for professional use. It’s the gold standard for graphic designers.

I have a lot of friends that use Canva, which is a very user-friendly alternative, but for me it’s not good enough. When it comes to functionality, Canva is on the opposite spectrum from Photoshop. 

But it has one major disadvantage: you can only export your final “product”, as the Canva source files, with layers, effects, and everything else stays on Canva’s servers. That’s not good if you lose access to your account or you just want to back up your work.

If you’re like me and need a solution that sits somewhere in between Canva and Photoshop I think I found it.

It’s called Photopea, is free to use, with paid options to remove ads and add more online storage. Best of all? Photopea runs in your browser. Yes, you don’t need to install anything.

As you can see from the main page, Photopea can work with some popular image formats, including PSD (Photoshop), AI (Adobe Illustrator), XD (Adobe XD), Figma, Sketch, PDF, RAW, plus a bunch of standard formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, SVG and so on).

If you’re using one of the popular graphic design programs, chances are the format is supported by Photopea. You may not be able to use all native features for these formats, but you can open, edit, and export in these formats (you may not be able to always save back in the same format). That’s good enough for most people.

How do you use Photopea?

Just go to Photopea.com and start using the app.

No need to register for an account, unless you plan to use PeaDrive, a cloud option that includes 500 MB of storage on a free plan, and 5 GB on a paid plan that will also get rid of ads.

You DON’T NEED to install anything. Photopea runs in your browser window. You can install Photopea as a desktop app, so you can add a shortcut to your taskbar or start menu, but it’s still a web app that uses your browser. Anyway, here’s a guide you can follow, in case you want to do that.

If you’re an Adobe Photoshop user, it’s obvious Photopea has cloned the aforementioned interface. Even the keyboard shortcuts are almost identical.

As you can imagine, the functionality covered by Photopea is significantly limited, but I would venture to say the most important features are there and free to use, if you don’t mind the ads that are displayed on the right side of the panels.

Photopea is not just a lightweight version of Photoshop. Its creators have added a Templates section where you will find over 800 ready to use designs, including business cards (these are among the useful ones). There are also actions, brushes, gradients, styles, patterns, shapes, and some LUTs.

Another nice addition compared to Photoshop is the option to work directly with other cloud storage providers. Currently, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive are supported, so basically the most popular services.

Is Photopea as good as Photoshop?

No, of course not.

For professional work I still think you have to use Photoshop, even if you don’t like Adobe’s recent invasion of privacy with AI training on your work and their obnoxious pricing strategy, which forces you to buy a subscription plan.

During my use I found that export render quality lags a bit behind Photoshop. At the same time, I managed to open large PSD files, over 1 GB in size, with many layers, and Photopea worked just fine (note that I have a decent Internet fiber connection). But I had one instance when a very large 2.5 GB PSB file crashed Photopea after a long waiting period. That’s again an edge case, and I only wanted to test what the app can handle.

Again, for most use cases Photopea will do just fine, but extreme situations will probably reveal its disadvantages. You cannot expect a web app to perform just as good as a native app.

For everything else, there’s Mastercard Photopea.

Previous articles you may have missed

If you’re concerned with privacy issues when using public cloud providers such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, you can consider setting up a local NAS. I wrote an article highlighting some of the cool features of a NAS because this kind of device can do so much more than store your files.

There’s no magic when you hear the word cloud. Please don’t fall for that.

A NAS is not much different, but it sits much closer, in your home, providing you with physical access. You also get access from anywhere on all your devices, not just when you’re at home.

Oh, and very important: no-one can read your data, unless you give them access to it, or you get hacked. This means no ads personalized based on your history, and no AI training on your photos and documents.

If you care about privacy, but don’t want to give up the convenience of everywhere access to your data then a NAS should be on your short list of options.

And if you continue reading, I’ll try and tell you what else a NAS can do. I think you’ll find some of these uses quite interesting.

First, what is a NAS exactly?

The acronym NAS comes from Network Attached Storage. Basically, a small computer that runs all the time, with a lot of storage options (depending on what you buy). A NAS runs a custom operating system that’s usually based on Linux, so it can run on less than capable components, which is the case for most home NAS models.

You don’t attach a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to a NAS. You just plug a network cable from your own router then access the NAS admin interface from any device in the same network that is capable of opening a browser window.

That’s all the info most people need to know about a NAS.

Data storage: the basic functionality of a NAS

The most common use for a NAS is data storage, as the name suggests. You plug one or more hard drives, configure the operating system, set up users and access rights for everything stored on your NAS and you’re good to go.

OK. How do you access the data?

Well, there are tons of options, some of which depend on the NAS you bought. You can access the NAS from the same networks by opening your favorite file manager and looking into the local network section.

Most of the time you can even make your NAS show up as a local drive in Windows, or Mac OS. NAS files and folders will look like normal files and folders you can copy, move, delete, rename, edit, and so on.

Data backup

If you’re using utilities to back up your data, you can set up your NAS as a destination for these backups. You can use most NAS models as an Apple Time Machine, or you can set up Windows Backup to save your system data, and other important folders on a schedule.

FTP server

You can use a FTP manager to access the files remotely, or from the same network. FTP is not super easy to understand, but it is a very popular standard supported by a lot of applications.

Personal/private cloud

Most NASes offer the option to install a mobile app you can use to transfer data, access your stuff from everywhere, even backup camera photos automatically. You can save a few pennies if you don’t need to buy space for Google Photos.

You’ll find that if you’re in the same network or country with your private cloud, it will offer transfer speeds much faster than other public cloud solutions, paid or not. Plus, you get privacy, which is priceless.

What about the more advanced stuff a NAS can do

Let’s see a few options I have on my QNAP 3-bay NAS:

P2P File sharing aka Torrents

Yes, you can use your NAS to download torrents. I guess you already know that torrenting is not illegal, but what you will torrent is illegal most of the time. So, make sure you obey the law.

Steaming your media

Wouldn’t it be cool to save all your legally purchased music, videos, the photos you take, basically all your media on your NAS, then stream everything to all your devices?

Yes, you guessed right: it is possible. What I’m using on my NAS is called Plex and most of its functionality is free.

I get to stream in original quality, or, on unsupported devices, the media will be automatically converted to a quality and format that allows playback.

Not only that, but Plex will organize my media automatically, can pull movie posters, ratings, the synopsis for my media, can find subtitles, and will even remember the media I have already watched.

And if you don’t have any media Plex offers access to a lot of free content, including, series, movies, and TV channels.

Web development server

I guess you already know this if you’re a programmer, but you can install quite a few development tools on your NAS. Here’s what I have available on my QNAP:

Depending on how advanced and powerful your NAS is, it’s even possible to run websites and Virtual Machines on it. So yes, a NAS can also act as a web server and VM supervisor. Just don’t expect stellar performance on your typical home NAS.

Surveillance system

This will require you to invest in surveillance cameras, of course, but it’s possible to turn your NAS into a full surveillance system with recording capabilities. 

A final word on NAS Security

This is an elephant in the room which I feel I need to address. Like with anything connected to the Internet, you’re never 100% safe. Hackers actively target devices with outdated firmware, models with known vulnerabilities, so don’t think your data is safe if you don’t take precautions.

That’s not good news if you are not familiar at least to a basic level with networking and some important security Dos and Don’ts. Make sure you do some research before you copy your most important data on your NAS.

I have an article about things you can do to secure your home router, the gateway to your home network where the NAS lies. Just keep in mind these are basic things. Cybersecurity is much more complicated than that.

And if you now think a NAS is not such a great idea, just remember that you already have a home network with a couple of devices that need protection anyway. So, start learning before it’s too late.

Previous tips you may have missed

On the same note with privacy another must-read article is the one about O&O ShutUp10++, a small free utility that can greatly improve your privacy in Windows 10 and Windows 11. It only takes a couple of moments to set up.

I was prepared to copy and paste into Google Translate or DeepL, but they were Excel documents, which meant I had to copy each cell, translate it, then paste it back. Since that seems like a lot of work and given the fact I’m a lazy person, I started looking for a better solution.

This is when it occurred to me that Google Translate may be able to help. And it can. Besides simple text, Google Translate can also translate text inside images, without having to extract the text beforehand (which is possible), various types of documents, and entire websites (it loads them in a new tab and they’re fully dynamic, allowing even navigation).

How to translate full documents with Google Translate

For this article, I’m going to focus on translating full documents, which can then be downloaded to your computer.

Go directly to the Google Translate website, and on top of the page, under the logo, you’ll see four tabs: Text, Images, Documents, Websites. Click on the Documents tab to open the section below.

As of right now Google Translate can translate entire documents in DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX file formats.

Note that DeepL can also translate documents, but there’s a limit to how much you can translate with the free version (3 documents per month currently). Not only that, but the resulting translated documents are read only, so it’s a pain if you need to edit them later.

Next, check the (1) original document language and the (2) destination document language. The automatic language detection method doesn’t always work properly. If you need to select languages manually use the arrow next to the original and destination languages. A very long list of languages is currently supported by Google Translate. And the list is constantly expanding.

Finally, click on the Browse your computer button to select the correct documents you want to be translated. Or drag and drop them directly on the left side of the window. The list of selected documents will populate in Google Translate.

To begin the process (3) click on Translate. In a few moments, the translated document(s) will be available for download.

Funny thing, or not: while I was taking screenshots for this guide Google gave me a generic “Can’t translate this file right now. Try again in a few minutes.” message. I didn’t have to wait too long, maybe 30 seconds, but keep this in mind if you plan to use Google Translate for critical work.

You shouldn’t, because these automatic translations are not 100% accurate, far from that actually. Like pretty much anything “AI” at this point, I may add.

The results will depend of course on the complexity of the document you are translating. For most of the tests I did Google Translate did an adequate job. Depending on where you’ll be using these documents for, I think you’ll be happy enough with the results.

Previous tips you may have missed

You cannot trust big Tech to respect your privacy, so you need to take matters into your own hands. In the case of Windows and Microsoft you can use the O&O ShutUp10++ utility to control what your operating system is sending to the cloud. It’s super easy to set up and it is also free.

That's how I discovered a long time ago the O&O ShutUp10++ utility. What does it do? It allows you to switch off all the Windows 10 and Windows 11 features that are using telemetry to send data to Microsoft.

It all sounds lovely, right? Yes, but as with everything in life there are downsides, and I'll address those because they're important, even if it's not the utility's fault in any way.

Once you download the app, available as a portable version that doesn't require installation, you will see this screen.

Don't get discouraged, this is not that complicated. It's a list of features that you can toggle on and off in your Windows installation. The options are grouped in sections, and each time you launch O&O ShutUp10++ it will scan the computer and show you what's active and what is already disabled.

Clicking on an item title will expand it with a nice little explanation of what the feature does and a recommendation on what to do.

The recommendation is also found on the Recommended? Column. If you see Yes, it means "Yes, you should disable this feature". Also, the green checkbox doesn't mean the feature is active, it means you have disabled it. This is indeed a bit confusing, but you'll get used to it pretty fast.

If you don't have the time and patience to go through all these options, you can access the Actions menu and select one of the three "nuclear" options:

• Apply only recommended settings (this is the safe choice).

• Apply recommended and somewhat recommended options (this is good if you feel a bit courageous).

• Apply all settings (this will disable everything for the most privacy conscious people).

As with everything Windows, make sure you do a backup first and create a restore point. You can go back, launch the app and re-enable anything, or return your system to Windows defaults, so nothing is really permanent, if you don't like it to be.

Some of the settings you apply will require a system restart, and you will be notified of that. Also, some settings will disable Windows functionality. That's the major downside, but it has nothing to do with the app, but the way Microsoft is using data gathering to enable some "smart" features. 

That is why you may see some messages like this one in the Settings app. Don't worry, nothing is broken, it's just that the setting was applied as a system policy, just like an IT administrator would.

In the many years that I've used O&O ShutUp10++ I have never encountered any issues with it, it was rock solid.

That's because what the app does is disables various Windows settings and system policies. These are already available through the Settings app and the Local group policy editor.

One last mention: you will never be able to completely protect your Windows computer from Microsoft. There are still ways Microsoft can gather data about you, so don't think you've solved all your privacy issues. Far from that.

Not only that, but some Windows updates will re-enable some of these features without warning. It wouldn't be a bad idea to launch O&O ShutUp10++ from time to time and check what's changed.

Previous tips you may have missed

Bad habits are very hard to get rid of, and one of them is using Shift + Delete to completely delete files and folders without confirmation, and with skipping the Recycle Bin. Don't be like me and just delete things the good old way.

This is one example when it’s OK to do things slower, to take your time. I’m talking about deleting files and folders permanently, by skipping the Recycle Bin in Windows. 

You see, there’s a very fast way to completely erase something from your computer.

The quick way I’m talking about is to delete stuff in Windows by holding the Shift key, then pressing the Delete key. This will trigger the following warning: 

If you now press Enter, the selected item(s) will be immediately erased from your computer. 

This saves you a bit of time. You no longer have to right click the Recycle Bin, select Empty Recycle Bin, then confirm. And because I love keyboard shortcuts it’s why for the longest period of time I can remember, I was using SHIFT + DELETE on a regular basis. That was until I repeatedly hit the downside of this method.

The downside is pretty obvious: you will no longer be able to recover the deleted file or folder(s) without resorting to third party apps. Usually, these tools are not very user friendly, at least for beginners, and they’re not free. Data recovery is not free in general, by the way.

Even if you’re using a data recovery tool, full recovery of deleted content is not guaranteed. That’s because when you delete something, the disk space is freed immediately, and the operating system can overwrite it with different file contents.

That’s why I now think it’s best to use the normal Recycle Bin deletion process: when you delete something the items are moved to the Recycle Bin. The confirmation dialog, shown after you press Delete, confirms things will be moved indeed, not erased.

Deleted items are kept there until you:

• Empty the bin.

• The maximum amount of space allocated to the bin is reached.

If you want to recover a file moved to the bin, just open the bin, right click the item, and select Restore. It will be moved automatically to the previous location. It’s that simple.

To keep erases items for longer you can set individual quotas for all your disk drives from the Recycle Bin properties window (available with a right click).

By the way, if you want to go nuts, you can even set the default Delete key to skip the Recycle Bin. Maybe you shouldn’t do it. I’m just saying.

I know this may not be the best productivity trick, until you realize you can spend significantly more time trying to recover something you have deleted in a rush, or by mistake.

Previous tips you may have missed

Did you know you can rename multiple files in File Explorer by jumping from one item to the next one? I’ve explained how to do that in this article. You can save a lot of time and the shortcuts are easy to remember.

I’m a huge fan of Total Commander and if I can only use one file manager that’s what I would choose. But that doesn’t mean the simplicity of File Explorer is not something you should be appreciating.

One of the little things you can do in File Explorer very quickly is to rename a bunch of files.

How do you rename a single file or folder in File Explorer

First, you have to select the item you wish to rename. It doesn’t matter if you’re in icon view, details view, list view, content view. It always works, unlike in Finder on Mac OS.

Now just press the F2 key and the currently selected item name is selected, without the file extension.

You can just start typing and the old file name will be replaced with what you typed. If you move the cursor with the left or right arrow keys, you can insert text at the cursor location. You can even rename the file extension, but that’s not a good thing.

Windows will automatically detect the new file name and will use another program to open the file, not knowing the contents are for a different type of file, image, or document. You’ll just get an error if you rename the extension.

When you’re done with renaming just press Enter to confirm the new name. If you want to discard the change just press Esc.

Hint: this works for both files, folder, in File Explorer, open document popup windows, and on the desktop. 

How do you rename multiple items in the same Folder

If you want to take things to the next level and quickly rename multiple files do the following: while you rename an item with F2, just press Tab to jump to the next item. The previous item is renamed, and you can start renaming the newly selected item.

You can use Tab to jump between files and folders. Pressing Shift + Tab will select the previous item in the list, if you need to go back.

And that’s it, you don’t need fancy third party apps to rename files. No right-click menus, no complex shortcuts to remember.

Previous tips you may have missed

While you can use Alt + Tab to switch between open apps and Ctrl + Tab to switch between tabs inside an app, there’s a better trick to directly select an app from the taskbar or an open tab.