Change the LastPass Main Password

Your LastPass Main Password (Master Password) is THE most important password to know if you use LastPass. This is the first key to getting access to all of your passwords within LastPass. Here are a few tips on passwords, and how to change the LastPass main password.

Choosing a Master Password

It is always good to know what best practice guidelines you should follow when creating and using passwords.

One thing to think about when choosing a new master password, is to consider using a passphrase. A passphrase is basically 3 (or more) unrelated words, joined together in a way you can easily remember them.

Use 2FA – 2 Factor Authentication

Two Factor Authentication is used as an extra layer of security. One example is that if someone managed to obtain your password for something and you did not have 2FA enabled, they would have access to your account immediately. If you did have 2FA enabled, then they would need to confirm an additional security check, like entering a code from your phone (via SMS or an Authenticator Application). The person with your password would not be able to gain access unless they had access to the 2FA process (eg. your smart phone).

Pro Tip: Always use Two Factor Authentication whenever a website / business provides it.

How To Change the Main Password (Master Password) in LastPass

The process to change the LastPass main Password is fairly easy and straightforward. The process I outline below uses the LastPass extension for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, etc.

  1. Once you have the extension installed into your browser of choice, and have logged in to LastPass, you should have a red icon available
  2. Click on this icon, and choose “Open My Vault”
  3. On the bottom right of this web page, choose “Account Settings”
  4. The screen that appears has a “Change Master Password” button. Pressing it will open a webpage
  5. Enter your current password
  6. Enter your new password / passphrase, then confirm it by entering it again in the “Re-Enter …” box
  7. Press the “Save Master Password” button
  8. If you already have 2FA enabled, you will need to approve the change.

Read my detailed guide on cleaning up LastPass Passwords

Rest Relax Reminder Released

The Release Candiate of the Rest Relax Reminder application is now available.

You can use this Windows application to time breaks from the computer screen. It will detect when you are working, and will adjust itsself accordingly, so you are not being annoyed by breaks when you dont need one. There are many more features you can check out on Rest Relax Reminder’s main page.

Feel free to give it a go! Let me know what you think, and if you find any problems.

Rest Relax Reminder Icon

Light Adjusting Wallpaper Changer (LAWC)

LAWK256I’ve released the BETA of my handy little tool for Windows which allows you to change your wallpaper images, not only just at random, but it will also adjust the images for a Day / Night cycle which can be set to any time of the day. LAWC stores the library of pictures catalogued from user selected folders, and will select randomly from those images.

It also supports multi-monitors, showing different images on each screen, as well as many more features.


Best of all, its FREE!! But feel free to support me, and the application, by Donating whatever $ you can spare.

Click here to Read More about, and Download LAWC…

Performance Problems? And I mean your PC ;)

Having trouble with your PC just not being as fast as it used to be?  Personally, I reinstall the whole OS every 6-12 months, but I have a few friends who are a little daunted by that task, so Ive suggested a few things that might help clean up their computer.  It’s a fairly regular question too, so for anyone stumbling upon this, here are a few good, cheap/free applications that should make your system run better without any (or little) out-of-pocket expense.

Also, I have tried many other applications, some of which have not helped, and others which have made things worse.  These tend to be reliable and do what they say.  BUT, of course make your your system is backed up to a memory stick, hard drive, or burnt DVD, before running these sorts of applications just in case the unforeseen happens.  When was the last time you backed up your PC?  (Now that I think about it, its been a few months for me…)

First things first, head into the Control Panel, and uninstall any programs you don’t use anymore… after that, try these to finish off the cleanup process:

With all of that, the machine should be a little snappier.  After that, you could always overclock it!  Once your PC is out of warranty (as overclocking can void warranties) then its a relatively easy way of getting 10-20% more power with very little, or no cost.  Think of it like boosting the performance of the engine in your car…

Oh, one last word of advice, if you want to know more about how to do things Ive mentioned then just type it in to Google.  Don’t forget, Google is Your Friend!

Setting Up for Media Center Part #1 The Metadata

After visting a mate and seeing how well he set up Media Center with metadata, I decided to look into it myself.

The process is to basically get an application to look through your TV / Movie folders and grab all the pertinent information about the show, the actors, ratings, description of episodes, artwork (poster etc), and so on.  Once the application has set up your folders with the extra info (metadata) then Media Center can look at it and display it nicely for you.

There is a popular tool to do this called MetaBrowser, which now requires registration and a fee to use.  The old version works, but is far from user friendly.  But, in looking around to find instructions on setting up metabrowser, I came across Media Center Master.

So far it looks promising.   Looks like it does a decent job, and even has facility to download shows / keep them up to date via torrents.  Im yet to test out Media Center to see the final result.

If you are interested, grab version 1.25 as its completely free and unlimited.  The later versions have a free/paid option with a number of restrictions on the free one of course.

Worth a look anyway 🙂

Your own Handwriting in a Font – FREE!

Have you ever wanted to put your own handwriting into a font?  Well, I hadn’t really thought about it myself, but I saw this site and had to give it a try:  http://www.yourfonts.com/

The kind people at yourfonts.com have a FREE process to convert your handwriting to a typeable font.

I did some exeprimentation and I learned a few things, including just how messy and bad my handwriting is!  We are in the age of the computer I suppose…

When you create your font, you need to print out their provided sheet, and fill it in.   If you look closely there are markers on them:

 The 4 markers are in each section.  Think about characters like a Y as opposed to y.  The capitals should fit from the top markers to the third marker down.  The lower case letters like a, e, c, s etc should fit from the second to the third marker.  Letters like y will fit from the second to the 4th marker.  Im sure you get the idea! 

Well, I didnt get the idea initially when I generated the font, as I am sure you will see:

 So, I went back to the worksheets and started a fresh one.  This time I used a sheet of paper to act as a ruler to make sure I didnt go outside the markers (too much).  Version 2 was a little better:

The difference isnt major, but it does make a difference.  You will notice the sample text “This is my own handwriting!” sits neater on the line.

So, then I decided to have some fun with the font and just do one more messy / child like font with a texta:

The great thing is that I can now personalise cards etc when I want to give them to people.  If they dont look too closely they may even think I actually wrote it.  Also, if you are after a handwriting style of font, then you can have some fun and create your own!