How to Remove a Facebook Connection

Facebook has taken over the Internet. With Facebook Connect, users can now log into many websites with their Facebook account. While this makes it convenient for accessing websites and eliminates the need to create new user accounts, it also means that you could share a lot of your personal information and Internet usage habits with these third party websites. Read this article to learn how to disable a Facebook Connection with a website.


1. Open your Facebook page. 

Make sure that you are properly signed in. You should be at your profile or timeline.

2.Click the Settings button. 

This is located in the upper-right corner of the Facebook page, and looks like a gear. From the menu, select “Account Settings”.

3.Click the Apps option.

This is located in the left-hand menu of the Settings page, towards the bottom of the list.

4.Browse through your connections. 

Once you’ve clicked “Apps” a list of all of the apps and websites that you have connected to your Facebook account will be displayed. You can adjust the individual settings for each app through this list.

5.Edit the permissions for a specific app.

Click the “Edit” link to the right of the app or website that you want to change. A new list of options and settings will appear specific for that app.

• Depending on the app or site, you can change who can see posts, what data the app has access to, how notifications are handled, and more. You can delete individual permissions by clicking the “X” next to the entry.
• Click the “Close” link at the top of the box when you are finished.

6.Delete a connection with an app or site. 

If you want to completely sever the connection between your Facebook account and a certain app or site, click the “X” icon next to the “Edit” link for that app. You will receive a message stating that your connection will be cut. Click “Remove” to confirm.

The app or site may still have old information stored about you that you previously shared. You will need to contact the company in charge of that app or site to try to remove that old information.
When you delete a connection with a site, you may find that your ability to interact with that site is limited until you reactivate the connection.

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How to make a new SSD your C: drive, copy and remove your existing hard drive

Retrieve a C: drive - turn a new SSD or hard drive into your Windows C: drive

How to turn a new drive - hard drive or SSD - into your Windows PC- or laptop's C: drive.

QUESTION I recently purchased a new SSD to replace my old, failing drive. Eager to protect my files immediately, I removed the old drive and connected it to my laptop using a USB drive caddy, and then backed it up using Macrium Reflect. I then returned the drive to my original PC and plugged it in alongside my new SSD.

The image file is intact and my files have been saved, but when I mounted the drive in the caddy it showed up on my laptop as drive E. This drive letter seems now to be ‘baked in' to my image file and when I restore it to my new SSD it's coming back as drive E with the original faulty drive as drive C.

Windows 8 boots with the drives set up like this, but I realised that all references to drive C are still pointing to the old drive. If I remove the old drive, Windows won't boot at all.

I've gone into the Disk Management plug-in and attempted to swap over the drive letters, but Windows won't let me do this as C and E are both currently in use. Is there any way I can turn my new drive into drive C now, so I can remove the old drive entirely?

HELPROOM ANSWER Windows does its best to prevent you from messing up your computer by changing the drive letter of your system volume, but this doesn't allow for a situation like yours where it's already messed up and you need to put it right. Thankfully, you can dig yourself out of this situation with a little bit of Registry tweaking. Be warned: don't attempt this unless you're in a situation where your drive letters are wrong to start with. You can really mess things up and render your PC non-bootable. Because this procedure involves changing system-level configuration, you will need to have Administrator level access to your PC.

So, assuming you have everything important backed up before you start, press Win-R to bring up the Run dialog box and type: Regedt32.exe (note the missing i in ‘edt'), to bring up the Registry Editor. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. Right-click on MountedDevices and select ‘Permissions' from the context menu. Click on Administrators in the upper pane and note the permissions set in the lower pane. If Full Control is ticked, leave everything as it is and exit Regedt32. Otherwise enable the Full Control permission and come back later to return it to its original setting once you've completed this whole procedure. Now exit Regedt32 and run Regedit.exe from the Run dialog box using the Win-R key combo.

Navigate once again to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. In the right-hand pane look for an entry called

\Dos\Devices\C:.

Right-click this entry and select ‘Rename'. Change the name to an unused drive letter such as \Dos\Devices\U: (just pick any drive letter not already listed). Next, find the entry for the drive you want to become drive C. In your case, this would be \Dos\Devices\E:. Rename this entry to \Dos\Devices\C: Rename \Dos\Devices\U: to \Dos\Devices\E: to complete the swap.

If you need to, go back to Regedt32 and reset the permissions changed in the first step above. Now restart the PC and you should find your drives now have the correct letter assignments.

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Where to find 'Do not disturb' mode on the Galaxy S5

Glancing through the settings menu it would appear the Galaxy S5 doesn’t have a 'Do not disturb' mode, but it does. It just has a different name.









"Do not disturb" (DND) is quickly becoming a feature found on all flagship smartphones. When enabled, the feature prevents your phone from alerting you of incoming messages or calls, avoiding any interruptions during a meeting. Or more importantly, you can schedule DND mode to turn at night while you sleep.

During the setup process for the Galaxy S5, I started looking for a DND section in the settings menu. I was quickly disappointed, as one was nowhere to be found. Then I realized it was staring right at me the entire time -- it just goes by a different name.

For whatever reason, Samsung has decided to rename "Do not disturb" as "Blocking Mode."


Once you find Blocking Mode, you can set a schedule, manually enable it, customize the types of alerts to be blocked (including alarms), and define what contacts' calls will still come through.

One thing you will notice when setting Blocking Mode to work on a set schedule, is that the you first have to turn Blocking Mode on. In turn, an icon is placed in the menu bar at the top of your screen; even if Blocking Mode isn't currently "active" (it's not currently the scheduled time), the icon serves as a reminder you have it scheduled to turn on. Confusing.

To temporarily enable Blocking Mode, you have to set the time to "Always" and then revert back to the schedule or disable Blocking Mode altogether to turn it off. Again, confusing.

Blocking Mode may not be the best named or implemented feature, but it works well once you learn its nuances.

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See more than 20 results in Gmail search

A URL hack turned into a bookmarklet makes for more search results per page.

One could argue that search is Gmail's strongest suit, yet Google's Webmail service imposes an odd limitation: When you run a search of your inbox, you see only 20 results per page. It's not a deal-breaker, but it's definitely a hassle. Why can't Google give you the option of seeing, say, 50 or 100 results per page?

Programmer Joseph Reddington found that by making a slight change to the URL, post-search, he could increase the number of displayed results to 100.

Of course, it would be hassle of a different sort to have to type in that text every time, so Reddington created a simple bookmarklet to do the job. Here's how to easily change the results you see:

1. Drag the BetterGmailSearch bookmarklet to your browser's bookmark bar.
2. Run a Gmail search like you normally would.
3. After the results appear, click the bookmarklet.

Presto! Now you should see up to 100 matching results, and you can still click the right arrow to see the next 100 (if there are that many).

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How to troubleshoot problems with your Mac

For any problem with your Mac, you can at least help isolate or even fix it by performing several checks and troubleshooting actions.


If you run into any problem with your Mac, there is a general set of steps and checks you can take to troubleshoot it. While these are not guaranteed to get you an answer or necessarily fix your system, they should at least get you closer to a solution.

First, generally characterize the problem by asking yourself what is happening. Notice any errors and behaviors, and other actions you are taking that lead up to the problem at hand. For example, if the system hangs, does this occur for about 30 seconds every time you boot, or does it happen at regular intervals, or perhaps is it random in nature?

In addition, ask yourself how long the problem has been happening, and whether or not it came about after any changes you made to the system, including software installs, upgrades, and changes to system settings.

With these ideas in mind, you can perform a number of tests to determine if the problem is hardware-related, or software-related, and in doing so hopefully narrow down the culprit.

Hardware troubleshooting

1.Remove peripherals

First unplug any peripherals you have, including printers, hard drives, extra displays, and scanners. Run your system with only the keyboard and mouse and with just one monitor attached, and see if this makes a difference. If so, then you can try swapping peripherals to different ports, or change the order in which they are attached to troubleshoot daisy-chaining.

2.Update peripheral firmware and drivers
Even if troubleshooting peripherals by unplugging or re-ordering them does not make a difference, still consider checking for and applying both firmware and drive software updates to the device. Check with your devices' manufacturers to see if there are firmware updates available, and install them. This is especially true if you have recently upgraded or updated your system software.

3.Run Apple Hardware Tests
Apple provides a test suite for all of its Mac systems, which will run a test on the RAM as well as check a number of different hardware sensors to ensure the system is running within voltage, amperage, and temperature tolerances. To access the tests, reboot your system with the D key held, or Option-D to load the tests form the Internet, and from there you can run and interpret the tests.

4.Troubleshoot power sources
Sometimes a system shutting down unexpectedly can be from faulty power adapters, so be sure you check the cabling and wall circuit you have yours attached to, and if troubleshooting the power adapter shows any problems, then consider replacing it.

5.Test your Wi-Fi signal strength
If your problem is with Internet connectivity and you are experiencing drop-outs, then you might be experiencing heavy noise or low signal in your Wi-Fi connection. Troubleshooting this will take time but can be done methodically by going to different locations and noting your connection's signal-to-noise ratio. By doing this, you can map out where noise may be coming from around your system, and adjust your environment accordingly.

6.Reset the PRAM and SMC
The only real hardware-based fixes you can do for your Mac, at least without opening it or getting it serviced, are to reset the Parameter RAM (PRAM) and system management controller (SMC). The PRAM can be reset by booting with the Option-Command-P-R keys held down, but resetting your SMC will require you to hold down a special combination of keys specific to your Mac's model.

Software troubleshooting

1.Boot to Safe Mode
If your Mac is having trouble with some third-party software, then you can boot into Safe Mode to see if doing so avoids the problem. Safe boot will load the system to a minimal boot environment, avoiding any nonessential software that potentially could be affecting the system. If the problem goes away in Safe Mode, then it is likely rooted in the main operating system as opposed to a configuration in your user account.

2.New user account
Try creating a new user account, or enable and log into the Guest account in the system. This will run all your system's same software, services, and installed programs under fresh user settings, and thereby help determine if the problem is account-based or rooted in the system. If the problem persists in your new or Guest user account, then this suggests it is system-wide and not an issue with your home folder. Therefore, performing steps like preference file deletion likely will not help.

3.Remove application preferences
If a specific application is giving you troubles and these problems are happening in just one account but not another, then you can try the classic approach to remove preferences for the program. Removing preferences can be done manually by going to the hidden Library > Preferences folder in your account and removing the associated .plist file for your program (found based on the developer name and program title, such as com.apple.TextEdit for Apple's TextEdit program), but can also be done using the OS X Terminal.

4.Remove temporary and cache files
Both OS X and applications running on it create temporary files and caches that, if corrupted, may lead to problems including hangs or the inability to perform specific tasks, and which can sometimes lead to crashes. If a specific program is causing problems, then you can try clearing the caches for it, or for the entire system, to see if this helps. While there are ways to do this manually, you can use the most up-to-date version of a reputable system maintenance tool like OnyX to access and remove cache files. Keep in mind these tools may be specific for a given version of OS X, but for the most part they will perform tasks like cache deletion just fine. After removing caches, restart your system to see if it's made a positive effect.

5.Check Activity Monitor
Open Activity Monitor and sort the various process lists by the %CPU, Memory, or Energy columns, to see if any program is regularly using up system resources. If one is persistently at the top of the list, then consider investigating it to see whether the activity seen is normal.

6.Check filesystem formatting
Use Disk Utility to both check the boot drive for errors, and to fix its permissions. To do this thoroughly, you will need to boot to the OS X Recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to verify and repair the hard drive. You can also run a permissions fix on the drive, to ensure system files are properly accessible. In addition to a full system permissions fix, you can reset the permissions on home folders in your user account, which will ensure programs, services, and anything else that runs under your account has proper access to the resources it needs.

7.Check the system console
The system console in OS X offers central access to system logs, and as such is a quick way to track down errors. While system and application logs can be somewhat cryptic, you can use some techniques to isolate messages and identify common errors that accompany the problematic behaviors you are experiencing. While console output can be difficult to interpret, if you see a repeating pattern then you can communicate this to technicians who might be better-equipped to help.

8.Reinstall OS X
While the idea of reinstalling an OS seems pretty invasive, Apple has made it almost seamless, where doing so will preserve your installed applications, settings, files, and other data you use. Performing a reinstall of OS X simply requires you boot into Recovery mode, and then select the option to reinstall OS X. This will simply replace all the core system files with fresh ones, which sometimes can be a quick fix for a damaged OS installation.

Sometimes you can search for a "Combo" updater for your version of OS X from Apple's Support Downloads Web site, but while this will replace system files, it will do so only for the subset of those changed by the update. To ensure all files are replaced, perform a full reinstall followed by installing the relevant combo updater, or simply run Software Update in the Apple menu.

Even if these steps do not fix the problem, you can make a note of whether or not they help isolate it. If the problem stops occurring, or shows specific behavior when you perform the steps above, then you can convey these to a technician or online help resource to get better insight on what to do next.

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10 Great Social Networking Tips and Tricks

Here are 10 ways to boost your social standing online.

Listen to Your AudienceThe three most important factors in social networking are audience, audience, audience. Identify what kind of people you're trying to reach and pay attention to what they're saying. Build RSS feeds and monitor conversations using listening tools like TweetDeck, Social Mention and Seesmic. (Take this 10-step tutorial on how to use Social Mention to monitor many social networks at once.) Learn the basics of social metrics, or what to measure and why.

Participate and CollaborateSet goals for engaging your contacts and monitor how much activity your efforts generate. How many retweets do you get on Twitter? How many reposts does your blog generate? Use third-party tools like Retweetist and the Retweet iPhone App to measure your social media influence and impact on networks.Klout is one such tool that lets you track your impact on multiple social media networks.

Join Specialized NetworksWhatever your passion, there is a specialized social network for you. Try Digg if you're a social newshound, Kickstarter for fundraising, Last.fm for music, deviantart.com for artists, fanvibe for sports, or ozmosis for doctors. To find your niche network, run a Google search on"yourtopic and social media."

Use Social Media DashboardsSave time by using tools like HootSuite to manage your accounts and activity across different social media services, including Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, Foursquare and others. HootSuite lets you post and read messages, track mentions of you, and lets you prepare posts and updates for automatic posting later at pre-scheduled times. Most of the best Twitter clients, for example, also let you manage other social networks.

Ask Lots of QuestionsAsking questions is a great way to engage your contacts, attract fresh links and learn new things. When people reply to your questions with comments or posts, it boosts the visibility of your content on that particular network. But take care to read and respond to answers.

Link, Link, LinkLinks equal love in social media. So liberally add links to your posts, status updates, tweets and other content. Cross-link to your tweets from your blog and vice versa. On Facebook, you can tag your pals to hyperlink their names. All it takes is adding the "@" symbol at the beginning of your friend's name when you write your status updates. You can also upload files and link to them. Try the TwileShare app,for example.

Time Your TweetsNoon Eastern Standard Time is a great tweeting time to reach bigger audiences. American West Coasters are showing up for work then, while East Coasters are starting lunch breaks. If you really want to expand your audience, check out this guide to writing good tweets.

Use Mobile HelpersIf you have a smart phone, install special helper applications to send and receive information faster on your favorite social networks. Instagram, for example, helps iPhone users spice up their cell-phone photos and share them quickly across different networks -- Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and others. There are plenty of Twitter helpers for cell phones and tablet computers. Trickle, for example, displays tweets on the iPad one at a time.

Create a Visual IdentityTweak your Twitter profile and other social network home pages to create a unique visual identity. Create a custom Twitter background to add more bio information and give your Twitter presence personality. Many custom backgrounds are available for free downloading at sites such as MyTweetSpace.com.

Back Up Your Virtual SelfOnce you've taken time to build a strong social network, don't let your social identity go up in digital smoke. Make use of available tools for backing up your profiles, photos, and status updates. Facebook's backup tool is under "download your information" in Account Settings. For Twitter, try a third-party tool like TweetStream or TweetScan. WordPress lets you export your posts to a downloadable XML file, which you can save and import later into a new blog in the event that one of your best social blogs accidentally get zapped into oblivion.

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Why Blogging is the Future of Branding

The Internet is not a static space. It is a dynamic space filled with dynamic people who have dynamic viewpoints. It is constantly evolving and growing. As such, the old “broadcaster” model of business simply does not fit with today’s generation. And that is why blogging has become so important. People don’t want to passively absorb the content on the Internet; they want to interact with it. They want to engage with the blogger. They want a much richer experience.

In the early days of blogging, the articles were very personal and very casual. Even so, it represented a huge revolution in the way that information was not only consumed, but how it was produced. The average Joe and Jane could stake their claim on the web and make their mark on the world. It paved the way for more mass communication and a true voice “from the streets” and from real people. Anyone can start a blog and the barriers to entry are lower than ever.

But what is a blog exactly? Short for web log, it is a shared online journal that is typically presented in reverse chronological order. That is to say that the newest blog entries are displayed at the top of the page and older ones follow beneath it. They started as online diaries with personal experiences and stories, but blogs have quickly evolved into much more than that.

Companies use them to better expand their brands. Indeed, blogs themselves have become a very viable business, powered and funded by major media conglomerates. Blogs can be more than text. They can include video, pictures, and more. The most important thing is that the blog is updated frequently and regularly.

From Blogspot to WordPress, blogging can truly be a free endeavor. Even those who want a more professional appearance need only a very small investment: the cost of a domain. Whereas these costs could be out of reach for the average citizen in days past, they are literally pennies on the day today. Anyone can start a blog. Anyone can have their voice heard on the Internet.

Companies are really starting to understand the value of blogging. The press release still has its place, but people want to know more about the companies, the people working there, and the products being sold. There’s so much more than simple feature comparison or price checks; from socially-conscious consumers to interested investors, people only want to do business with companies that they really know.

That’s why blogging is positively critical for branding. This is true not only of large corporations and their official blogs, like Disney and Google, but also small business owners and entrepreneurs. As a freelance writer myself, my blog plays a monumental role in how I choose to brand myself and my writing business. It offers potential and current clients a better viewpoint into who I am as a person and what I am able to bring to the table.

Companies like Disney still have their official websites. This is where they can place important official information, but the blogs offer customers a glimpse behind the scenes in a very human way. This allows the people at Disney to interact with its users, customers, and community. It is much less intimidating for web users to participate in a blog or forum than it is for them to approach a corporate contact form. They can feel like they are a part of the family, rather than an outsider intruding in unfamiliar territory.

With blogs, companies and individuals can remind the public that they aren’t just some corporate entity; they’re real people. And when it comes to brands, people want to deal with other people, not some nameless organization. Blogging helps to establish, maintain, and grow that very human relationship with the brand.

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