The Tech Loft

Resurrecting Your Old PC: Google’s Free Alternative to Abandoning Windows 10 Google's ChromeOS Flex provides a second life for Windows 10 devices. As Microsoft prepares to pull the plug on Windows 10, hundreds of millions of users are facing an expensive ultimatum: shell out for a new computer or risk navigating the internet on an insecure, outdated machine. For the estimated 500 million users whose hardware lacks the "TPM 2.0" security module required for Windows 11, the upgrade path has effectively been a dead end—until now. Google is positioning ChromeOS Flex as the ultimate "fountain of youth" for aging hardware, offering a fast, sustainable, and entirely free way to keep your current PC out of the landfill. The "Free" Upgrade That’s Flying Off Shelves Google recently made waves by partnering...

Beyond the Monitor: How to Properly Connect Your PC to an HDTV Is your 27-inch monitor starting to feel small? My YouTube guide on connecting a PC to an HDTV has become one of my most popular videos, proving that many of you are looking for that big-screen experience. Whether it's for gaming or media, here is how I set up my custom rig to run on a 42-inch Samsung Plasma. The Rig: My Connection Gear In the video [00:01:21], I used a custom build featuring an Asus NVIDIA 8400GS . While it's an older card, it supports the two essential outputs for this project: DVI and HDMI. I paired this with a Samsung 430 Series Plasma . Step 1: The Connection (DVI to HDMI) If your PC doesn't have a native HDMI port, don't worry. I used a DVI to HDMI cable [00:01:30]. Crucial Tip: On many Samsung TVs, one specific HDMI port is optimized for PC input. Look for the port labeled ...

Lots of like to visualt turn their Windows PC into looking like a Mac. Some of these are paid themes and others are free, but don’t work very well. Well, HamedDanger has created the Lion Skin Pack 3.0 for Windows 7. Lion Skin Pack 3.0 is free and it turns your boring Windows 7 looks into the yet to be launched Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Unlike other skin transformation pack, this installation does not require any third party software, all you have to do is unzip and install. Everything is automatic, to download, visit the official website –  Mac OS X Lion Windows 7 Transformation Pack

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Well, here on Sal’s Blog, I’ll be bringing you an amazing list of free software and resources from around the internet, or interWEB as a few of my readers like to call it. * Ad-Aware Free : Stops spyware * Audacity : Records and edits sound * Dropbox : Online file syncing * Evite : Fast party planning * FreeConference.com : Unlimited conference calls * IMDb : Movie facts and trivia * OpenOffice.org : Microsoft Office alternative * The GIMP : Tool-rich image editor * Trillian Basic : Chat with friends on many instant messaging services

DEAR GOOGLE ADSENSE TEAM, THIS PAGE HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF PLACING ADSENSE ADS IN AREAS THAT ARE “ENCOURAGING ADDITIONAL CLICKS”. I WOULD LIKE THE EYES OF A HUMAN TO INSPECT THIS PAGE AND NOT SOME PROGRAMMED BOT. I HAVE AN AD AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS POST AND TWO ON THE SIDE MENU.   I sometimes post things on my site so I have a record of it and can reference back whenever I need the information. Does your video camera record capture .MOD files in 16:9 but displays 4:3 in Windows Movie Maker? Well, here’s a solution: Several camcorders that record to an internal hdd store video in files with a .MOD extension.  Unfortunately I couldn’t import these directly into Windows Movie Maker. To get the footage into Windows Movie Maker find a program called SDCOPY .  By default my Canon FS100 records in widescreen mode (16:9 aspect ratio).  However, it doesn’t properly set a flag in the .MOD file to indicate this so several programs (including GSpot codec appliance) report th...

Months ago I posted a couple of articles on free software to download. In my list, I included CD Burner XP Pro 3.0.116 as the software of choice for burning cds. This morning I have upgraded my version of CD Burner XP Pro to version 4.0.020.367 and guess what happened? It was JUNK! Allow me to elaborate. So I downloaded and installed the newest version of CD Burner XP Pro. I ran it and right from the start it appeared to be VERY sluggish. Maybe you know what I’m talking about; you see the application pop up yet it’s unresponsive for 5 minutes. And ANY click in the application freezes it for another 5 minutes. SO DAMN ANNOYING. My advice is to not bother upgrading or to find something else that’s more recent. If I find anything, I’ll be sure to post it!

I recently found an article outlining several programs that virtually eliminates the need to use purchased or pirated software. Ya, and I don’t mean a simple Excel replacement, but it’ll be on the list.   The first listing is actually a bundle of applications from Mozilla. Most of you out there are familiar with Firefox (like myself), but have you seen what else they have? So Firefox is your feature rich web browser with TONS of extensions and plug-ins.  http://www.getfirefox.com Next would be Thunderbird. No, not the marionettes but the one that replaces Microsoft Outlook. Again it’s full of features AND works with all if not most web based internet services out there. http://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/  The third application in this bundle is Sunbird. Sunbird is a calendar application the replaces Outlooks Calendar feature. Again it’s easy to use and apparently easy to share dates with your friends. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/ The r...