There are times when you need to free up some space on your system or you just want to learn how much space each installed application is using. If you are in need of such information, there are no obvious ways to find it. You might be tempted to search for programs that help with this task. You don’t need to do this though. Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 offer this information. It’s just a bit hidden and you need a bit of guidance to find it. We found three ways to learn how much space your installed applications are using.

If you installed Windows 8 on a computer and you then changed its hardware configuration (e.g. upgraded the processor, memory or other important components), it can happen that Windows 8 no longer accepts the product key bundled with your original installation disc. This happens also when you buy a new computer and you install the Windows 8 edition you purchased and stop using the old computer. What can you do in these scenarios? Let’s find out.

A data connection on your Windows Phone can go a long way to enhancing your productivity while on the go. But it can't meet all your needs at all times. Sometimes you need your laptop. While there's no shortage of Wi-Fi hotspots these days, there isn't always one available when you need one. In those instances, you can use your Windows Phone as your own personal mobile Wi-Fi hotspot by sharing your phone’s internet connection. Here’s how.

Microsoft has taken great steps in improving startup times in Windows 8. While you’ll certainly notice the snappy get-up-and-go time in the beginning, you’ll still find that, over time, performance will degrade. The primary reason that a computer slows at startup is the lengthening of the list of startup applications and services. As you install more and more programs, they sneak themselves or their agents onto the startup list. Windows is forced to load more and more before it can take input from you. To help you keep things manageable, Microsoft has added in Windows 8 a new tab to the Task Manager. It enables you to monitor startup apps, their impact on the time it takes to load everything and keep them under control. Here’s how it works.

If you are like me, you always want to use another set of ringtones than those bundled with your phone. Luckily, in Windows Phone 8, this is not a hard thing to do, even though you do need to follow a specific procedure and meet a few requirements. I will share everything you need to know in this tutorial, so don’t hesitate to read it.

Have you ever heard about environment variables? Maybe some IT admin or geek was mentioning them or some program started malfunctioning and returning errors mentioning such variables? Whatever the reason you want to learn more about them, you arrived at the right place. This article will share everything you need to know about what they are, how they work and why they are important.

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, etc. But what about creating ringtones, for free, for any smartphone platform? We did some research and we found a great application named Ringtone Maker. It is small, free, very easy to use and it is compatible with all major smartphone platforms, including Windows Phone. Let’s see how it works and how to create custom ringtones for just about any smartphone.

What if you bought your Windows Phone from another country and you want to switch the default display language to your own native language? Can you do that? Yes you can, unless you are using a more exotic language for which Windows Phone does not provide support. Let’s assume that this is not the case though, and see how the usual process works. As you will see from this tutorial, it’s not that complicated.

Even though System Information is a tool that shows all there is to know about your system’s components (hardware and software), I don’t like the way it displays the information. Personally, I prefer a much simpler tool, named Device Manager. Why? Because, with very few clicks, it allows you to see and manage the devices installed on your system, view devices for which you did not install their drivers, view and manage "hidden" devices, etc. If I made you curious to learn more, read this tutorial, as it shows all you need to know about using the Device Manager in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The Task Manager has always been a quick first stop for technicians trying to diagnose performance issues on a Windows PC. Prior versions of the Task Manager have always provided useful, if general, information about what’s going wrong in their Performance tabs, which offered a place to start looking, but it’s always missed a lot of vital information. In Windows 8 the Task Manager has been improved significantly. The Performance tab now provides detailed graphs and charts that allow you to see precisely what resources are being taxed. This makes diagnosis much easier and faster.

I have a Toshiba NB505 10.1 inch netbook which has served me well, but I’d be the first to say that it’s awfully slow. I’m not sure whether this is due to my installing Windows 7 Professional on it, in place of its Windows 7 Starter Edition, or whether it’s just woefully underpowered to begin with, or both, or something else.

In any case, since Windows 8 is designed to run on more underpowered hardware, I thought I would experiment with a Windows 8 installation to see how that would work. Follow me as I take this adventure in geekery.

Taking screenshots in Windows Phone has been problematic, at least until the recent release of Windows Phone 8. Now this task can be done with ease, by pressing two buttons on your phone. To learn how it is done, read this quick tutorial.