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Appearance and Personalization

How to personalize Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, and other software platforms. How to customize the appearance of your gadgets, apps, and hardware.

Introducing Windows 8.1: How to Improve Your Privacy When Using Apps

Introducing Windows 8.1: How to Improve Your Privacy When Using Apps

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 14.10.2013
Windows 8.1 brings many welcome changes, some of which have not been communicated very well by Microsoft. One of the lesser known changes is that Windows 8.1 has very good privacy controls for working with Windows Store apps. As you will see in this tutorial,...
Introducing Windows 8.1: What are Quiet Hours & How to Configure Them?

Introducing Windows 8.1: What are Quiet Hours & How to Configure Them?

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 10.10.2013
Windows 8.1 introduces a neat little feature, named Quiet Hours. As the name implies, quiet hours are an interval within the day when you don't want to be interrupted by notifications, by any Windows app, not even the Mail app. You can also set that,...
Where the Desktop & Lock Screen Wallpapers are Stored in Windows 8

Where the Desktop & Lock Screen Wallpapers are Stored in Windows 8

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 16.08.2013
Where can you find the images used by Windows 8 as wallpapers for its default Desktop themes and for the Lock screen? It turns out that they are placed in the same folder and you can copy and paste the images from there with ease....
Where are the Start Screen Patterns Located & How to Extract Them?

Where are the Start Screen Patterns Located & How to Extract Them?

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 14.08.2013
I like some of the patterns used by Microsoft on Windows 8's Start screen and I thought I could be using them as Desktop wallpapers. But the problem is - where are they located? They are not stored in any of the usual locations used...
How to Configure the Windows 8 Apps Inside Which You Perform Searches

How to Configure the Windows 8 Apps Inside Which You Perform Searches

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 05.08.2013
Performing searches in Windows 8 is fast and easy. One important difference versus Windows 7 is that you can perform searches inside Windows 8 apps, directly from the Start screen. You type a search term, select the app where you want to perform the search...
Introducing Windows 8: Customize the Look of the Start & Lock Screens

Introducing Windows 8: Customize the Look of the Start & Lock Screens

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 12.06.2013
Changing your Desktop wallpaper in Windows 8 is exactly the same procedure you've seen in Windows 7. While the choice to customize your Desktop is a given, Windows 8 goes farther than previous versions of Windows by giving you two more things to customize: the...
How to Create Your Own Screen Saver with Windows Photo Gallery

How to Create Your Own Screen Saver with Windows Photo Gallery

  • tutorial
  • Marte Brengle
  • 29.05.2013
I recently searched for good and free screensavers. What I found was pretty distressing. Free screensavers appear to be a favorite delivery system for malware more than anything else. However, all is not lost. If you want a really good, free screensaver, you need look...
How to Customize the Notification Area in Windows 7 & Windows 8

How to Customize the Notification Area in Windows 7 & Windows 8

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 23.05.2013
Although the notification area has been around since Windows 95, it wasn't very customizable and useful until Windows 7 was launched. Even though many know what it is and what it does (or at least in theory), few know how customizable it has become. In...
What's New About Windows 8 Themes? Why They Don't Work in Windows 7?

What's New About Windows 8 Themes? Why They Don't Work in Windows 7?

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 11.04.2013
Windows 8 themes are not different from Windows 7 themes, at least not when you look at them for the first time. The process for creating and customizing themes is the same in both operating systems but the theme files that result from the process...
How to Use Special Characters in Windows with Character Map

How to Use Special Characters in Windows with Character Map

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 13.03.2013
What do you do when you have to insert special characters that can't be found on your keyboard? You use the Character Map tool found both in Windows 7 and Windows 8. It allows you to insert scientific notations, mathematical operators, currency symbols and characters...
Create Free Custom Ringtones for Any Smartphone with Ringtone Maker

Create Free Custom Ringtones for Any Smartphone with Ringtone Maker

  • tutorial
  • Codrut Neagu
  • 11.02.2013
Depending on the smartphone you are using, creating custom ringtones for it might not be that easy. Unfortunately, on systems like Windows Phone or iOS, the process involved is a bit more complicated, as ringtones need to meet specific requirements in terms of format, length,...
How to Use Desktop Gadgets in Windows 8 with 8GadgetPack

How to Use Desktop Gadgets in Windows 8 with 8GadgetPack

  • misc
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 17.09.2012
In one of our previous articles, we mentioned that Windows 8 has removed a few features from Windows 7, even though they were used by quite a few people. One of the most important missing features in Windows 8 is desktop gadgets. Therefore, I searched...
Download Windows 8 Release Preview Themes for Windows 7

Download Windows 8 Release Preview Themes for Windows 7

  • misc
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 01.06.2012
Since Windows 8 themes are not compatible with Windows 7, we would like to return with new themes for Windows 7, inspired by the new Windows 8 Release Preview. The first theme includes the desktop wallpapers used in Windows 8 Release Preview, while the second...
The Best Remaining Desktop Gadgets for Windows 7

The Best Remaining Desktop Gadgets for Windows 7

  • misc
  • Marte Brengle
  • 27.10.2011
Microsoft used to maintain a Desktop Gadget Gallery that showcased quite a few gadgets for users interested in using them. However, in preparation for the upcoming Windows 8 launch, Microsoft decided to (as some put it) "stop pretending to support gadgets". For the company, supporting...
The Geeky Way of Personalizing Windows Themes

The Geeky Way of Personalizing Windows Themes

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 16.07.2011
Did you know that, beyond the basic personalisation of Windows themes, there's a slightly more hidden but more powerful way to customize visual settings? With the help of the Window Color and Appearance window, you can change the background color used by certain applications, you...
How to Work with Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7

How to Work with Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7

  • tutorial
  • Ciprian Adrian Rusen
  • 15.01.2010
Desktop Gadgets are not something new to the Windows world. They were first introduced in Windows Vista, where they were fitted on the Windows Sidebar. Even if the idea itself was good, it didn't have the success it might have deserved. With Windows 7, Microsoft...