Top 6 Free Computer Tricks

Effective computing is as important in college as productivity or organization.  If you don’t know your way around a computer, you will not excel.  Now most of us can write a paper in Microsoft Word just fine, and lord knows we can use Facebook and Myspace.  But can you hide those secret pictures you took the last time you got drunk?  Can you get your important document on the day it’s due even if you forgot your flash drive?  Can you speed up your computer when it’s slow?  Remove a virus?  Can you watch your favorite show that you missed last night (legally)???  Well, by the end of this post you’ll be able to do all of that, and more.

Forgot Your Flash Drive? Not to worry.  Now that you are a smart computing student, you will use DropBox! Dropbox is an online service that will backup 2gb worth of your most important documents (or pictures, music, videos, or anything) and allow you to access it from any computer that has an internet connection, for free!  It will also sync it between any computer that you install the dropbox software on.  What does this mean?  If you are working at school and you save the document to your dropbox, when you get on your home computer it will be in your dropbox folder (on both or as many computers as you install dropbox on).  It’s probably the coolest free software I’ve ever used! Get Dropbox Now!

Hide Secret Stuff.  Face it.  We all have stuff that we don’t want other people to find.  Forget about hiding it in a hidden folder or naming the folder “Windows” or “System Files” or whatever you think your clever technique is.  A savy, nosy person will find it.  Instead use MyLockBox.  Mylockbox is an awesome little piece of software that will make any folder you deem appropriate “disappear” like magic.  Only you, with the super duper secret password” will be able to gain access to the secret folder.  Then you can dump all your secret files into that folder and wala, all gone!  No more embarrassing moments when mom accidentally clicks on something and is rewarded with a picture of your drunken behind…!  Download MyLockBox here!

Speed Up Your Slow Computer.  Well here’s a lesson we could all stand to learn.  If you own a windows computer and have had it for a while now, it’s probably not running at optimum performance.  You don’t need more memory, and you don’t need to reinstall windows.  You just need to do a little house cleaning. I recommend nCleaner.  It’s your one stop shop for re-optimizing your computer.  First Install. Then Clean System, both System and Applications and Registry Clean and Repair. Then Find Junk. Next click Tweak and choose Suggested.  Finally click the Startup Man and remove all apps that you don’t require to start up when your computer first boots.  Restart and like magic you are welcomed to a faster, more responsive computer.  And if your computer still seems sluggishly slow, keep reading. Download nCleaner here!

Remove Viruses, Spyware, and Adware. If you followed the steps above to speed up your computer and it’s still slow and buggy, chances are you are infected with viruses, spyware, and/or adware.  Don’t fret though, these aren’t difficult to fix, they just take the right tools and patience.  I have an arsenal of 3 tools that together can handle most of your viruses/spyware/adware:  Malwarebytes, Adaware, and AVG Free.  Download all three, and run them one at a time (order doesn’t matter).  Delete or quarantine anything that they think is infected or a virus.  Restart your computer.  Assuming everything worked you should now be virus/spyware/adware free and your computer should be brought back to life.

Watch Your Favorite Shows Online (Legally). So you missed the newest episode of your favorite show.  Don’t worry, here comes the internet to the rescue.  There are plenty of sources to find your favorite shows online, you just have to be savvy enough to find them.  My personal favorite place to watch shows online is Hulu.com.  You can also watch episodes of your favorite shows through their network sites: ABC, CBS, The CW, NBC etc.  If you look, you shall find (TV online)!

Take Awesome Notes (way better than those kids using Microsoft Word).  Microsoft Word is excellent for what it is, a document processor.  But it’s not a note taking software.  Use software that was designed to take notes and you’ll never go back.  I use Evernote.  It’s awesome because it automatically syncs online (so you can use it between computers, with your iphone or blackberry, and pretty much everywhere!).  It also can record video or audio (from your webcam or mic), can clip pieces and parts of websites, other documents, or pretty much any other sort of media.  If you make the switch to Evernote, your note taking effectiveness will increase 10 fold, guaranteed!  Download Evernote here!

Well you’ve reached the end of this super awesome computing post.  Is there anything we left out?  What awesome things do you do with your computer that other college kids should be doing?  What do you want to know how to do, but can’t?  Leave your comments below and enlighten the class!