Most Popular Posts of 2008 (So Far)

Check out the most popular Lifehacker posts that have been published in the first half of 2008. Lifehacker

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Add More USB Ports to Your PC

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Reader Jay wants to know how many USB "splitters" he can use with his desktop. The system has four USB ports in the back and two in the front; Jay says he's already using one splitter, but needs two additional USB ports. Holy mackerel, Jay, how many devices do you have? (I'm a power user myself, and only four of my desktop's six ports are occupied.) To answer your question, yes, it's safe to add another splitter (which, although an apt description, is traditionally known as a USB hub). In fact, a PC is theoretically capable of accommodating up to 127 USB ports. However, the reality is a bit different. By "splitting" a USB port, you reduce the power available to the newly added ports. Whether or not that's a problem depends on the kinds of devices you plug in, but I strongly recommend using only powered USB hubs. They cost a little more, and force you to find yet another free AC outlet, but they virtually eliminate the issues that tend t...
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▶ How to dummy-proof the PCs of friends and family | PCWorld

BRR-RING! The phone rings at midnight, interrupting your sleep—or worse, your late night Steam session with your gaming clan. Is someone sick? Did a car hit your dog? Is it your pal, calling to tell you he got the munchies and discovered that, joy of joys, the McRib is back? Perplexed (and maybe a bit hungry), you pick up your handset, and hear the ominous words. Doubling as unofficial tech support for your family and friends comes as part of the territory when you're a PC geek—and those cries for help frequently come all too often or at inopportune times. Weekends! Holidays! Nights! All gone, consumed by the fight against malware and missing Internet Explorer icons. It doesn't have to be like this. Rather than running around and slapping Band-Aids on all the problems, get proactive! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, and taking the time to set your friends' and loved ones' computers up the right way can dramatically cut back on help-seekin...
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Banish Start-Up Errors

"Hassle-Free PC reader Randy is suffering from a vexing problem. Each time he boots his PC, he gets a pop-up Internet Explorer window with this message: 'Cannot find 'File:///'. Make sure the path or internet address is correct.' I feel your pain, Randy. Stuff like this can be seriously annoying. My guess is that you recently installed or uninstalled a program that Windows is looking for--but can't find--during startup. What you need is some kind of startup monitor that will show you everything that's trying to run during the boot process, so you can determine which Internet Explorer-related item is the offender--and then disable it. If you're reasonably tech-savvy, I recommend Autoruns , a free utility hosted on Microsoft's TechNet site" More at PC World :
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