A how-to guide offers tips and information on your latest technology and gadgets.

Your old desktop PC gave you years of reliable service, but eventually it couldn't keep up with modern tasks and applications; so you went out and bought something newer and faster. Now you need to decide what to do with the old clunker.

Increasingly, online services act like roach motels: They make it easy to check in, but nearly impossible to check out. By hiding their opt-out pages deep within their settings menus, by using deliberately confusing graphic design, and by presenting emotional appeals that declare how much the site will "miss you," these services make the simple process of deactivating your account a complicated trial.

A couple weeks back I told you about getting started with Google Chrome and Google Voice--and that went over pretty well. So this week, more Google tips.

Almost everyone uses Facebook, but almost everyone agrees that the social network has quite a few problems. Chances are, most Facebook users have encountered some feature or flaw--from overarching privacy concerns to assorted interface annoyances--that made them reconsider their membership in the social network. Nevertheless, Facebook users tend to stick around because they believe that the benefits outweigh the costs--and because they don't know how to leave the service without losing a few valuable features, such as games or public photo albums.

I love this time of year. The days are getting longer, the temperature is on the rise, and all around me, flowers are starting to bloom. This is a great opportunity to grab a camera and capture some of the natural beauty around us, whether it's in your backyard, at the local park, or along a hiking trail just out of town. Recently, I've explained some general-purpose photo tricks like "A Fast Trick to Salvage an Underexposed Photo" and "Four Easy Tricks for Better Photos." This week, let's focus on tips for capturing some great flower photos--they are a great addition to the advice I gave last year on photographing spring flowers.

Like many folks, I rely heavily on Google Search; I probably use it dozens of times per day. Of course, wonderful as it is, it doesn't always give me exactly the results I'm looking for.

Westpark asked the Windows forum if it's advisable to turn off Windows' automatic updates.

Solid-state drives are all the rage lately, thanks to their high transfer speeds and ultrafast access times, but most people still use cheap, spacious mechanical hard drives. Unfortunately, mechanical hard drives also constitute one of the most significant performance bottlenecks in modern computer systems. Even when paired with the fastest processors and lots of memory, a slow hard drive will drag down the a system's overall performance and responsiveness, which is why upgrading to an SSD usually yields such significant performance gains.

The best-kept secret of the business world? Email reminder services, which can help turn overloaded inboxes into productivity powerhouses.No, really. I’ve been using these services for the past couple years, and I’m constantly amazed at how helpful they are--and how few people know they exist.See, I use my inbox as a kind of to-do list, marking as unread any messages I don’t have time to answer now or need to act on later.The problem is, as my inbox fills up with other mail, these messages get pushed lower and lower, until eventually they're forced out of sight--and out of mind.A reminder service gives you a kind of email snooze button. All you do is forward a selected message to a particular e-mail address; at the designated time, it’ll return to your inbox.For example, suppose a PR person emails me about a new product launch that’s happening next Monday. I decide to write about it, but not until the actual launch day. Instead of spending a bunch of time setting up a reminder in my calendar or to-do list, I simply forward that email to monday@reminderservice.com.When Monday rolls around, presto: There’s the email again.Different services have different syntax for the kinds of delays you can set, but for the most part it’s pretty straightforward: 2pm@reminderservice.com, tomorrow@reminderservice.com, june1@reminderservice.com, and so on.What’s especially nice is that if an email arrives (make that re-arrives) and you’re still not ready to deal with it, you can click a snooze-delay link right inside the message.So, what reminder services are available, and which ones are best? PC World’s Liane Cassavoy recently reviewed three free email reminder services: Boomerang for Gmail, Followup.cc, and Followupthen.com. (Keep in mind that “free” gets you just the basics; for more advanced features, you’ll want to look at pro-level accounts. Worth every penny, in my humble opinion.)I’ve tried all three of these services myself, and while they’re all great, I have to give the nod to Followupthen. That said, I also recommend checking out Nudgemail, which has been in beta forever but continues to be fully free while it is.

Facebook's privacy settings are confusing by design, often hiding similar settings in totally different menus and defaulting to unnerving levels of public sharing. Ensuring that you share the right information with the right people can be difficult, and Facebook even has a few specialized settings that will override your other privacy settings if you aren't careful. Luckily you can take control of your privacy on Facebook fairly quickly once you know what you're looking for.

As giant retailers such as Gamestop, JC Penney, and Nordstrom opened--and quickly shuttered--Facebook storefronts over the past six months, many analysts declared Facebook’s e-commerce effort to be a failure. People come to Facebook to catch up with family and friends, they reasoned, not to shop for goods and services.

Crazy4laptops needs to extend a WiFi network throughout a "rather long house." He asked the Networking forum for advice.

If you've ever opened a PC case and stared inside, or looked at a bare motherboard, you may be taken aback by the number and variety of connectors, pins, and slots that exist on a modern PC motherboard. In this guide I'll identify some of the most common (and a few uncommon) connectors on motherboards used in most home PCs. I won't cover server- or workstation-class boards here, just what you might find in a typical midrange or high-end home PC.

For a service that has famously worked so hard to help you find movies you might like, Netflix is actually a little weak in the recommendations department.