GeekwithEnvy

Guide

How to View FPS in Heroes of the Storm

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Heroes of the Storm Logo for How to Display FPS

In order to monitor your FPS, Network Spikes and GPU temperature in Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, simply press Ctrl+Alt+F for both Mac and PC. The information will be displayed in the top left corner of the screen.

Showing the FPS, Network Spike and GPU temperature information in Heroes of the Storm can help you diagnose many issues. After certain patches you may find that your game performance isn’t quite what it used to be. Make sure you check your graphics settings closely as Blizzard has a tendency to reset everything to their default values after an update.

If you are looking for solutions to performance issues or just any other problems related to Heroes of the Storm, you can always check Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm forum for more information.

Where is the Network Utility in OS X Mavericks?

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OS X Network Utility icon

In OS X the network utility has been a efficient and convenient way to perform basic tests on your network like ping , trace route, netstat, whois, finger, and port scan. The utility provides all of these tools with the benefit of having a nice graphical user interface to work with (GUI).

The Network Utility has always been included with the installation of OS X and it still is with Mavericks, but it’s no longer in your main applications folder. It has been moved to (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications).

  • You can easily find the Network Utility in OS X Mavericks by Using Spotlight (the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the screen) and Typing “Network Utility”.

Windows 8 Quick Guide for New Users

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Wind8Bro2

Windows 8 is fast and builds upon the success of previous versions of Windows, but it’s not exactly the easiest operating system to get used to. Windows 8 has a brand-new look and our beloved Start menu and desktop seems to have vanished in place of a new “Start Screen”. Where in the heck do you go from here?

If you or a friend have recently bought a new Windows 8 PC and you’re completely lost, there’s no need to worry, as Microsoft has released a great Training Brochure (PDF) that covers the basics and also gives you some handy shortcuts to get you around the new OS much faster.

Win8Bro

The guide goes over pretty much everything you need to get started with Windows 8 including basic navigation, app arrangement and grouping, charms, PC settings, App commands, Internet Explorer 10 in Desktop mode and “App Mode”, Security, theme customization, and shortcuts.

Although Windows 8 may be a little scary at first, it’s still a quick and powerful version of Windows that should only improve over time. Once you get used to the new user interface, things should go a lot smoother and this guide will hopefully help you get there.

 

How To: Use the Mac Version of Ctrl-Alt-Delete

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forceQuitMenuOSX

In the world of Microsoft Windows when things hang up and freeze we can often get out of trouble by pressing the all so familiar key combination, Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Once we get our program menu open we can force close the frozen application and hopefully continue on like nothing ever happened.

Just like any computer Macs freeze up too, and just like with Windows, it’s often because of a locked up or frozen application that needs to be closed. OS X has a similar key combination that will bring up the force quit menu and allow you to easily force quit any misbehaving app.

To open the force quit menu in OS X simply press:

Command (Apple Key)+ Option + Escape (Esc) all at the same time.

* Alternatively, you can also force quit applications on the Dock by Control Clicking (Right Clicking) a running app to open the menu and then by pressing the Option Key to reveal the Force Quit option.

How to Easily Shut Down Windows 8.1

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Win8_1StartScreen

In many ways Windows 8 is pretty awesome, but it has many flaws. One of these flaws is the lack of an intuitive UI. Many people have found that even performing the most common tasks, like shutting down the computer, are very difficult thanks to hidden menus and buttons.  Fortunately , Microsoft is looking to solve these problems with upcoming release of Windows 8.1, which is set to be available to the general public on October 17th.

We originally offered up a solution that allows you to quickly shut down your Windows 8 computer in one step but with the upcoming release of Windows 8.1, this process will no longer be necessary but you can still use it if you prefer. Instead, Microsoft offers it’s own solution, the Start Button.

With the new update, instead of opening the charms bar you can simply right-click the Start Button or press the Windows Key + X, which will open up a menu with the option to Shutdown or Sign Out.