Windows makes it relatively easy to format and erase a hard drive in most cases. However, if you have a hard drive with encrypted data, Windows may prompt you for a password before allowing you to format, copy or even view the contents on the drive. Problems accessing an encrypted drive escalate if you forget the password or inherit the drive from someone else. While there are many commercial programs that are able to format and erase encrypted drives, Windows includes command-line tools you can use to do the job free....

Updated September 15, 2017 Visit the Google Web History page by clicking on the link in the Resources section of this article. Enter your Google email address and password into the blank fields on the upper-right part of the screen. Click the “Sign in” button. Your most recent web history will now appear at the top of the screen. Notice the calendar on your right, which displays both your total number of Google searches and the days on which you had the most search queries....

Your Hotmail account is the place where you send and receive emails. In order to check your email account, you’ll need your user name, which is your email address, and you’ll need a password. If you have forgotten your Hotmail password, you can find it from Hotmail, as long as you have the correct information.

An ex-directory, or unlisted phone number, is a number that doesn’t appear in the phone directory. This is usually because the owner of the phone number has chosen not to appear in the directory; they may have been required to pay a fee to remain anonymous. If you want to contact someone who has an ex-directory number, you’ll want to employ a little detective work in uncovering the telephone number....

Put on a detective hat to sleuth through the methods of finding company websites. Locating a specific company website requires using both online and in-person tactics if maneuvering through search results does not bring up the desired site. Utilize search engines, online directories, print publications at the local library, and business acquaintances. Starting with industry association websites and newsletters is a good way to begin a global search before narrowing choices to individual companies....

If you are curious and want to see your house on the Internet, you can find it using Google. The popular search engine offers multiple services on its website, including Google Maps. With Google Maps, you can find directions and even view images of certain locations or landmarks, including your house. Tips Writer Bio

Although the online social networking service, Twitter, does not include the option to display the date when you created your account, it is possible to do so through third-party software. If you are using the Chrome browser, the Born for Twitter extension can display the exact date that your Twitter profile was created. If you are using another browser, the only way to display this information is by using the When Did You Join Twitter?...

Updated August 24, 2017 Reverse Phone When a poster places a transactional ad on Craigslist – such as a “for sale” ad – she can choose to include her personal email address in the ad, opt for a temporary anonymized address issued by Craigslist, or include no email address at all but a phone number or other way of contacting instead. There’s a chance that you can uncover who posted the ad by entering that phone number in an online reverse directory, such as White Pages, AnyWho or Intelius....

A postcode is the United Kingdom’s equivalent to the United States’ ZIP codes. The ZIP code allows the postal service to quickly sort and deliver mail. If a postcode is not placed on a piece of mail, it may prolong the delivery because it must be manually sorted. You can easily use a postcode to find people if you know where to begin. Experian provides a service for the U....

Most modern Toshiba laptops integrate a webcam into the lid for convenient video conferencing while traveling with the laptop. This webcam does not pick up images quite like the human eye does, so the default settings may require adjusting to conform to environmental conditions, such as insufficient lighting. To give you control over your webcam, Toshiba pre-installs its “Camera Assistant Software” on the laptop. This software activates your webcam and grants access to advanced settings, such as “Night Mode....

Netflix’s iOS app gives you mobility and the convenience of streaming movies. You should be able to enjoy consistent video quality, but a few problems could reduce normal quality. You should be able to correct this problem fairly easily, though if your video quality is low because of your Internet service, you may have to upgrade your service plan to ensure high-quality movies. Writer Bio

A cookie is a small trace of a website placed onto your computer. These cookies come from just about every website you visit and help trace where you go when browsing the Internet. The information is then sent back to the site you received the cookie from. This allows the site to offer you personalized ads and other options due to what you search the Internet for. However, these cookies often slow down a computer’s performance, so if you notice a lag in computing speed, you need to fix the cookies and remove them from your computer....

Your iPad backs up data automatically when it’s synced with iTunes or connected to the iCloud service. If you’re planning to reset the iPad, send it in for repair or sell the device, you may want to back up your content manually. This allows you to keep your data even if the iPad’s memory gets wiped clean. The backup and recovery methods differ slightly for iTunes and iCloud. Tips Warnings Writer Bio

You need to format a new DVD disk before you can begin burning information onto it. If you have a DVD-RW disk, you can reformat it to erase all the data on it and use it again. Formatting a disk in Windows XP is very much like formatting a disk in Vista. Your XP system, however, may not recognize a DVD-RW if you haven’t updated all of its drivers, particularly the Universal Disk Format driver....

Developed by Microsoft and included in its Office suite of productivity software, Word allows you to create print-formatted documents such as letters, envelopes, brochures and forms. Although you can manually configure the page sizing and layout elements associated with a greeting card document, both Word 2007 and Word 2010 provide access to an array of formatted templates that can save you a great deal of time. As long as you have a network connection, accessing these templates and formatting a greeting card in Microsoft Word become quick tasks....

Updated February 10, 2017 Software Reset Connect the phone’s charging cable, so that you have full power throughout the reset process. You risk rendering the phone inoperable if you initiate the formatting process and run out of battery power midway through. Back up to the cloud any data you want to save before formatting the phone. To do this, start by swiping through the list of apps until you see the Settings icon....

Microsoft PowerPoint presentations may be an ideal way to get information out to a large audience or even one-on-one, but the electronic slideshows offer something else to help presenters with their work – Notes. The Notes area in PowerPoint is a small section at the bottom of the main work pane where speakers can type notes to themselves they don’t want to appear on the slide, such as rhetorical statements or questions to ask participants....

If you’re listening to a sound file over the Internet, that file has a URL attached to it. If you were to type that URL into the address bar of your browser, for example, it would take you right to the sound file as opposed to the main page where you found the file in the first place. If you want to get the URL of a sound file you’ve located on the Internet, you just need to look at that sound file’s “Properties” window....

AT&T’s Voicemail to Text service uses voice recognition technology to convert your voice mail messages into a text form. It then routes the messages directly to your phone in the form of a text message or to an email account that you specify. Voicemail to Text is a paid service. As of February 2011, the service costs $3.99 per month. You can still dial directly into your voice mail box to browse through your messages over the phone....

Sometimes when you open an Adobe PDF document, particularly if you download from the Internet, you may find advertisements embedded in the document. If you plan to reuse the PDF content, it may be necessary to get rid of the ads completely. Although PDFs typically cannot be changed, using the PDF creation software Adobe Acrobat, you can select any object and delete it from the document. Warnings Writer Bio