Copying made easier?

Most users know how to copy text. Select the text with your mouse, then click Edit, Copy -or, better yet, press Control-C on your keyboard. Easy right?

Well, it's about to get a little easier. AutoCopy is a Firefox add-on that automatically copies any selected text straight to the Clipboard. (You then paste it like you normally would.)

This probably sounds like no big deal. After all, how hard is it to hit the aforementioned menu or keyboard key?

All I can say is, it's one less step. And once you start using AutoCopy, you'll wonder how you got along without it. Indeed, it has long ranked as one of the handful of Firefox extensions I absolutely positively cannot live without.

Well, I sure will be looking forward to another add-on, AutoPaste!

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Are you neglecting your Windows key?

Today I saw something that made my eyes go wide: A friend reached for the mouse, clicked the Start button, and then went back to the keyboard to type the name of the app he wanted to launch.

I asked him what I considered an obvious question: "Why didn't you just press the Windows key?"

"The what key?" he responded.

Seriously? This isn't common knowledge? Apparently not, because after a quick survey of some friends and family, I discovered that few people ever bother with the Windows key, and some don't even know what it's there for.

Needless to say, a tap of the Windows key (which on most keyboards is just to the left of the Space Bar) takes you to the Start menu, where--in Vista and 7--you can start typing to dynamically search for apps, files, e-mail, and the like.

And don't forget these three indispensable Windows-key shortcuts -
1. Windows key + D - Minimizes all programs and shows the Desktop.
2. Windows key + E - Opens Windows Explorer (the file-management tool, not the browser). This is much quicker than right-clicking the Start button and then Explore, or trying to find Explorer in the Start menu.
3. Windows key + F - Launches Windows' search tool (remember "F" for "find").

So stop thinking of that little key as some kind of wayward Microsoft marketing effort and start putting it to good use!

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Your Home computer, now a Web server!

Before getting into the actual process, let’s look at a couple of real-world situations that explain why you may want to turn your home computer into a web server.

Situation #1. Say you have music MP3s, documents and other important files on the hard drive of your home computer. If you turn this home computer into a web server, you will be able to access all these files from office or any other Internet connected machine including your mobile phone.

Situation #2. You have some personal photographs that you want to share with other family members. You can either upload these pictures online to a site like Flickr or better still, just convert the computer into a web server. Now you can connect the camera to the computer, transfer the digital pictures to some designated folder and they’ll instantly become available to your friends and family anywhere in the world.

Situation #3. You want to host a website on the internet but the web hosting jargon like FTP, DNS, etc. is way too complex for you. The workaround therefore is that you setup a web server on your home computer (it’s easy) and then host a website in seconds without spending a single penny on external web hosting services.

Now if any of the above reasons look convincing enough, here’s how you can convert your Windows, Mac or Linux PC into a web server in less than two minutes – no technical knowledge required.

Go to labs.opera.com, download the Opera Unite software and install it. Congratulations, you are now running a web server on your machine and just need another minute to configure local file folders that you want to share with others over the internet.

Start the Opera Web browser (yes, that’s also you web server now) and enable the Opera Unite service from the lower left corner. Now double click the File Sharing link and select the folder whose content you want to share on the web. Any file or folder inside this folder can now be accessed over the internet – you can either use a public URL or specify a password for private sharing.

Opera Unite is pretty useful. Go ahead, give it a shot!

Note: It’s important that your computer must be in running state and also connected to the Internet for others to download files and web pages since Opera Unite streams content directly from your machine – it doesn’t upload or caches anything to its own servers.

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My Power PC

Hi and Welcome to My Power PC, your ultimate computer guide. Learn Hundreds of ways to get more out of your PC. You'll be amazed at how much you can get out of your PC.

Adding interesting and helpful topics everyday.

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