Add Multiple Google Accounts

You need a Google account to use an Android phone but did you know you can choose to run more than one Google account on your Android device. This is convenient if you use more than one account for several of your Google services. To add multiple Google accounts:

1. Go to Settings > Add account.
2. Select Google and setup your New or Existing Google account.
3. Once added, choose what you want to sync with the account.

Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more accounts.

Set Mobile Data Limit

Want to keep track of how far your usage is from your monthly mobile data limit? If you have ICS and above, there is a feature which lets you keep track of how much of the quota you have left.

1. Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to reflect your monthly quota.
3. Set your data usage cycle based on when your "month" starts and ends, and you’re done.

You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have set. Note that the tracked data usage of your phone may vary slightly than your carrier’s tracking.

Disable Mobile Data

Whenever you don’t need to stay connected, disabling the Mobile Data can help keep your smartphone battery from draining too quickly. Turning off mobile data is as easy as:

1. Going to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from ON to OFF.

Disable App Notifications

Bugged by annoying app notifications that just keep coming? If you don’t know already, these app notifications also drain your phone’s battery. If you want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above, here’s how:

1. On any of your unwanted notifications in your notification bar, long press on the notification for a message box to appear.
2. Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.

Add Taskbar Toolbars

The word ‘toolbars’ has a slightly negative connotation in the tech world. It

brings about images of third-party junk clogging up browsers, usually

accidentally installed from other programs. But toolbars can also be great

things, in the correct place.


Your taskbar, for example, can do more than just store program icons. Right

click the taskbar, hover over Toolbars and then tick the ones you want

appearing. The best inbuilt one is Address, which will give you a text field that

allows you to navigate to any website through your browser or load any path or

search in your system.

You might find that some programs offer their own toolbars, like iTunes – this

will mean that when you minimise the music player it’ll provide a neat music

control panel from your taskbar, saving you loading the window each time you

want to pause or change track.

Share Your Own

Okay, so you might know about some or all of these already, but hopefully you’ve

learnt something new. Nevertheless, this list is just a small selection of what’s 

possible with your operating system.

We know our readers are full of useful ideas, so be sure to sound off in the

comments with any tricks that you couldn’t live without.
Do you use any of these tricks? Do you have your own that has altered your computer use forever?
Image Credits: red magic Via Shutterstock

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Launch Programs With Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

If you have programs that you’re constantly accessing then there’s another way

to load them up quicker without clogging up your taskbar.

Right click on the program’s icon (often found from the Start menu or your

desktop) and select Properties. This will open up the program’s properties and

from here you should switch to the Shortcut tab. The field called Shortcut key

is the one we care about.


Click in the field and press a key of your choice. This key, along with Ctrl + Alt

combined, will now become your customised shortcut to opening this program in

a flash.

Customise Start Menu Shutdown

Click the Start menu and you’ll see that the default option on the bottom right is

to Shut down, with the arrow next door allowing you to extend your options, like

restart or log off. It’s possible to customise this if shutting down isn’t the choice

you primarily use.

To do so, right click Shut down, select Properties and this will bring up a

taskbar customisation window that will let you choose your own power button

action. For example, you might want to default to sleep if that’s the choice you

usually go for.

BitLocker Drive Encryption

This one is for those of you using Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise or Windows 8

Pro/Enterprise. Those of you running a different Windows edition, try one of

these disk encryption alternatives.


Data protection is crucially important and BitLocker is a utility that is on hand

to help you encrypt your drives. Right click your drive, select Turn on 

BitLocker and then follow the instructions to get your files secure. It’s simple,

quick and easy – no third-party tools required.

Please bear in mind that it is vital you never lose or forget the encryption key to

your drive. If you lose this then there’s absolutely no way of getting your data

back. Use this feature with great care

Control User Account Control

Some people find User Account Control quite useful, but for others it is more

hindrance than help. If you’re not aware, UAC is the feature that pops up every

time you’re making an important change to your system.


This feature was introduced in order to better protect users and make them

aware of their actions, but if you don’t need it then you can turn it off entirely.

Perform a system search for user account control, select the result and the  

User Account Control Settings window will open. From here you can drag a

slider to customise your notification settings.

The default option is the second highest, but drag the slider all the way to the

bottom if you never want any notifications. The information section on the

right-hand side will tell you what each notch represents in more detail.

Restore Your Deletions in windows

You probably know about Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V for copy and pasting, but

there’s also the lesser known Ctrl + Z. This will undo your last action, such as

restoring something that you’ve just deleted on the active window.


For example, if you’ve sent a file to the Recycle Bin you can press Ctrl + Z to

bring it back to where it once was. This keyboard shortcut also works

elsewhere; like in text boxes online to bring back deleted words and the majority

of software to revert actions (image editors, word processors, and so on).