We here at NYC Tech Guys have discovered that folks have a lot of complaints when it comes to their computers. From speed issues to viruses run amok, there are myriad frustrations that can complicate the user experience.  But even more amazing, lots of people don’t realize that there are some excellent software solutions out there that can ameliorate or even totally rectify some of the most troublesome issues that plague your computer.  To that end, we present “our picks,” a basic ranking of our preferred options for the most popular types of software to help you find the right programs to make your life easier.  This week, we’re talking about internet browsers.

The internet is everywhere. Literally. It’s in coffee shops, city parks, and likely every room in your home. If you have a smartphone, you’ve even got it in your pocket. It’s probably safe to say that you, like all the rest of us, take this constant connectivity for granted. But this ubiquitous access aside, you might not be getting the best browsing experience. Here are a few recommendations to help you remedy that!

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If you’re like me you use the built-in functionality of your web browser to save and manage your passwords to various online sites.  If you’re being careful and protecting your passwords from prying eyes you’re using a master password to protect your password list.  What happens if you forget your master password?  Before now you were kind of stuck.  Your passwords would remain safe but inaccessible, rendering them useless.  Now a recovery tool called FireMaster that can help you recover your passwords.

Before I go any further I’d like to remind everyone that these tools can be used for both good and evil.  Please use this to recover a lost password for yourself or someone that asks you, don’t use this to snoop on someone else’s online business.  These tools are a godsend for tech guys, but if people misuse them it just makes it harder for legitimate users to get their hands on them.

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I love Firefox, but there are always minor issues with any piece of software that should to be addressed to make them run even better.  Here’s one that has bothered me for quite some time.  If Firefox has been running for a while and I have a bunch of tabs open Flash performance, especially video, tends to suffer.  It turns out there’s a simple fix.

If you’re watching video on Firefox and it seems to skip or stutter every ten seconds or so it’s because Firefox is taking a snapshot of all your open tabs in case your browser crashes.  You can either disable the session restore feature (not really recommended) or you can just change the interval from every ten seconds to something a little more reasonable.

To do so simply type about:config in your address bar, then type browser.sessionstore.interval in the filter box.  It’s default value is 10000 (10 seconds in milliseconds) so just change this to something like  60000 for 1 minute intervals 120000 for 2 minute, etc.  You don’t even have to restart Firefox for this to take effect.

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Do you switch back and forth between Internet Explorer and Firefox and miss the bookmarks of the one when you’re in the other?  Then check out the Firefox extension PlainOldFavorites for a quick fix to this and get your bookmarks in sync.

What PlainOldBookmarks does is creates an extra option in your menu bar called “Favorites” right next to your “Bookmarks” in Firefox.  This is a list of all the favorites in Internet Explorer that you can now access, sort, add to and delete from right through Firefox.

Grab it for free from:

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Sure you can get around your computer using the mouse to point and click on everything, but sometimes keyboard shortcuts are faster and easier.  One of the biggest benefits is that you’re hands don’t have to leave the keyboard.  Let’s say you’re working on writing a document and need to have some bold text inserted.  You could stop typing, move your hand to the mouse, move the mouse to the “B” icon and click it, move your hand back to the keyboard and type what you need then move back to the mouse to deselect bold (phew) or you can just hit Ctrl-b, type what you need in bold and then hit Ctrl-b to turn off bold.  Simple choice, right?

The biggest reason people don’t use keyboard shortcuts is that they don’t know what the shortcuts are.  The are hundreds of available shortcuts, some that you could use multiple times a day, some that are almost never used unless you’re in a specialized job (I almost never use macros ier

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