I have been running my Windows PC without any anti-virus, anti spyware, adware and pretty much anti everything for about a few years now. I told this my buddies and they think i'm stupid or something. Unsurprisingly, this decision never came to haunt me.

The primary reason I do not use Anti (insert windows flaw here) is because of the performance issues. Seriously, every AV (Anti-virus and the like) software I ever tried has eaten up so much of my CPU and RAM I figured it was not worth it. Half of the Av software is in itself a virus. Remember good ol' Norton? I remember spending countless hours trying to completely remove the thing, on later to find out Norton had complaints of people unable to completely remove the software. They made a tool that removes it, but by then, your PC was so screwed up and slow that it wasn't even worth spending the time to remove the thing. You might as well just do a destructive reformat (I like to call it a 'nuke').

You still probably think I'm crazy, and so be it. I don't get viruses. I always wonder how to get a virus anyway. Yes, you read that right. I hear people talking about how they spend countless hours trying to remove a virus, installing countless AV software each promising to remove it. I seriously think people get viruses from doing stupid shit like open email attachments from people they don't know or download files from shady sites.

Personally, AV software are a waste of time. I'm not going to spend half an hour scanning for crap when I can nuke it with a fresh reinstall. So far, life without AV's has been great.

In Google Chrome, you can install custom user javascript (a.k.a "userscripts") that lets you do cool things to website. I think of them as power-ups for your browser. In recent builds of Google Chrome, attempting to download and install userscripts will be met by the following error;

Extensions, apps and user scripts can only be added from the Chrome Web Store

Like the message says, you must download userscripts from the Chrome Web Store. This is to protect your average Joe from malicious code which is fine and dandy, but i'm a pro and I know what the hell i'm doing. I don't wan't to make an extension, I just wan't to install the script.

The solution

1. Make a folder where you will store your userscripts. My Documents is good for most people, but it can really be anywhere. I personally store my userscripts in separate partition where all my development work is saved.
2. In Chrome, navigate to your extensions page; type in chrome://chrome/extensions/ or you could open up the Chrome Main menu -> Tools -> Extensions.
3. Drag and drop your .user.js to the extensions page. It will ask you if you want to install. Click yes.
4. There is no step 4. You're done.

FYI

The best place for userscripts is at userscripts.org.

Like always, if you find a new/cool/more efficient way to do this, let me know by tweeting @y00fie or sending me an email. I will update this post accordingly.

The problem

The media keys / the function keys that your keyboard comes with stopped working for some reason. They worked before, but they stopped working after doing something.

The solution

HID (Human Interface Device) service stopped running. This services lets your keyboard do cool things. For whatever reason, it got disabled or turned off. My guess is that you installed a program or system update that disabled it.

How to turn it on

In Windows 7 or 8

1. Start --> Search
2. type services.msc and hit enter
3. Look for HID (Human Interface Device) service and turn it on. Go into the properties and set the option to auto start.
4. Problem solved. System reboot is not necessary.

Yes, this is possible. By default, #Windows will not allow the logon over a network with a blank password. There is a KB article that details how to allow blank passwords for network logons. You can disable blank password restrictions by using a policy. To locate and change this policy:

1. Click Start, point to Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK to start the Group Policy Editor.
2. Open;

• Computer Configuration
• Windows Settings
• Security Settings
• Local Policies
• Security Options
• Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only.

1. Click Disabled, and then click OK.

Quit Group Policy Editor NOTE: By default, this policy is on (enabled). Under the cover, in Registry, this is controlled by

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa]
"LimitBlankPasswordUse"=dword:00000000
 Therefore, alternatively, this can be achieved by directly setting 

LimitBlankPasswordUse to ``. Setting it to 1 will restore the default behavior.