What is a Gravatar? Everyone by default receives a custom Gravatar however it’s much better to add your own. Let’s do that now! How To Get Your Own Personal And Custom Gravatar Things you’ll need: An email address you’ll use for all the sites you post comments onA Photo Visit http://gravatar.com/ and Click the Get your Gravatar today button. 2. On the next page Enter your Email address and Click Signup....

Log in to Google+ and at the top click the More dropdown menu. Then tap or click the the single column view button under Stream Layout. That’s it. Now everything will be in a single column. Of course it’s just as easy to switch back. I actually dig the larger default layout, especially on large high pixel monitors. What do you think of the new layout of Google Plus? Leave a comment and let us know!...

Delete Your Google Search Data The company is rolling out these new changes to search for the desktop today. Android and iOS updates will follow in the form of updates in the coming weeks. You can now review and delete recent search history from your desktop browser. While on the Google search page, click on the Control your data in Google Search link under the search box. There you will see a short video that (kind of) explains how Google uses your data with your search history....

In the official update announcement, Google stated this new change to their ranking algorithm would effect 11.8% of their overall searches. When they say 11.8%, it doesn’t sound like a big number –but in Google’s case, that 11.8% comes out to around 200 million of all searches performed daily that will be effected by the new algorithm. You remember the Chrome extension we talked about last week for blocking unwanted search results?...

According to the official Google blog iOS users will now be able to create, share, edit and format text in documents via the Google Drive app. Also, you’ll be able to see other collaborators instantly when they’re made. iOS users will also be able to create folders, move files between them and upload photos and video from their device. Here’s a full list of new features for Google Drive 1....

Google Voice App Updates After not providing a major update for the apps in five years, some updates and improvements have finally arrived. In fact, in its blog post, the company makes fun of itself saying, “It’s been several years since we’ve made significant updates to the Google Voice apps (and by several, we mean around five 😉), but today we’re bringing a fresh set of features to Google Voice....

Although hundreds of thousands of invitations have gone out for Google Wave already, I’m still getting emails from some groovyReaders requesting invites. The forum topic for Google Wave Invites has also heated up a bit recently. So with all that in mind, I figured it would be appropriate to spin up a groovy Google Wave Invite Donation thread similar to the Google Voice Donation thread which was very successful. So, to kick things off let’s review the RULES for how this is going to work....

Sure, you can take the time to reorganize all of the items and declutter your desktop. Or, you can hide everything with just a couple of clicks. Hide or Display All Desktop Items in Windows 10 The first way to quickly hide everything is a built-in feature of Windows 10. Just right-click an empty area of the desktop and select View and then uncheck Show desktop icons from the context menu....

Thankfully, Microsoft Word comes with annotation tools built-in. These allow you to quickly and easily add notes to your document and keep track of changes. Adding Comments Annotations in Word are done by adding comments. This creates a highlighted area of text that you can hover over to read the attached comment. You can also view the comments in a panel at the side of the page. Each comment includes the author of the comment and the time it was created or edited....

After you’ve set up your sync tasks in SyncToy 2.1, you’ll want to make them run automatically. Click start and type Task Scheduler into the search box and hit Enter. Windows Task Scheduler opens. Under Actions in the right panel, select Create Basic Task. If you don’t see the Actions pane, click the button on the toolbar to Toggle on the Action Pane. The Basic Task Wizard opens, give the task a memorable name and description such as Sync Folder Pairs....

Manage Storage Storage drives have become much more efficient over the years, as have the available software tools that assist in the same way. On Mac, Apple provides various tools to maximize local storage while also making available iCloud compatibilities. It all starts with the automatic Optimized Storage feature on macOS. When activated, the tool offers different features, including: Moves files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that aren’t often used on your machine to iCloud....

One of our most popular articles is how to install iTunes on Windows 10. Now, you likely install iTunes not just for its jukebox features, but also for managing that Apple device you own. We know, we hate it too. iTunes has evolved over the years into an albatross that does so many things but not one or a few particularly well. It manages your music library, synced media such as photos, movies and even data such as contacts....

Although everything is simple and automatic when using EFS, there is a chance you could lose access to your encrypted data if the EFS certificates become corrupted or you change your password using Admin tools vs. the standard password change tool. To protect yourself from this, today I’ll explain how to backup your EFS Private Key Certificates. Note: Although the screenshots below are taken from my Windows 8 desktop, the process is exactly the same from a Windows 7 desktop....

Step 1 Click the Firefox button at the top-left of the browser From the menu Click the Options button, or the Options > Options button… Step 2 On the General tab of the Options window, you have two different ways to setup downloads. Option 1: Saving Firefox downloads to one folder If you go with this option, you can select any folder on your computer that you would like to save your files in....

Change the Default Search Engine on Kindle Fire Launch the silk browser on your Kindle Fire. Tap the menu icon at the bottom of the screen then tap Settings. Then tap Set Search Engine. Select to change the search engine to Microsoft Bing or Yahoo. Comment Name * Email * Δ Save my name and email and send me emails as new comments are made to this post.

Update to Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge Windows 8 has reached the end of mainstream support: While IE 11 is still included in Windows 10 it’s meant to be there for app and service support for business customers. Windows 10 now comes with a Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge for the browser. Tutorial Shortcut — If you’re looking to just quickly Add Google as your default search provider, just click this link: Google Search Provider Download and skip to Step 4 below....

Copy and Paste from the Browser on Fire HD Tablets For this example, I will use the Silk browser to copy text and the email app to paste it. Then, on the Kindle Fire, launch your browser from the home screen. This will work with select apps or documents that contain the text, too. For example, here, I’m copying text from the groovyPost site. Long press the first word of the text you want to copy....

Although the default install of Outlook creates a .PST file, I like to create multiple PST files to organize my email and my email archives of previous years. Here’re the simple steps for creating and customizing a PST file. How to Create PST Files in Outlook 2013 Open Outlook 2013 and click File in the Top Ribbon. Under Info Tab, Click Account Settings. And Click Account Settings again. Click Data Files....

Last week we learned how to create a discreet total-computer-history erase button using CCleaner. The only problem was when Windows launched the shortcut it caused the UAC (User Account Control) security window to pop-up. Fortunately, Microsoft inadvertently included a way to bypass the UAC prompts if the shortcut is run as an administrator Task. Let’s learn how to set one up! Below we’ll walk through the process of setting up a Task in Windows that will act just like a regular shortcut, except it won’t require a UAC prompt confirmation....

You can use GIFs everywhere, from your group chats to your PowerPoint presentations. Millions of GIFs are readily available, but you can also create and edit your own GIFs on Windows or Mac. The best way to do this is by using tools like Adobe Photoshop, although you can use online sites like GIPHY as an alternative. If you’re trying to figure out how to edit GIFs on Windows or Mac using Photoshop, here’s what you’ll need to do....