Computer Tips Archives - Page 162 of 225

How to install a Solid State Drive (SSD) in your laptop

Posted on July 18, 2018

A while back I wrote a post explaining the benefits of replacing your hard drive with a Solid State Drive (aka SSD).

Of course the greatest benefit is the amazing speed increase you’ll gain by replacing your hard drive’s spinning platters and read/write heads with an SSD’s lightning-fast memory chips.

You might recall that in that post I recommended paying a PC Tech to swap out the drives for you, but since then I’ve had a couple of emails from folks who really wanted to try upgrading their laptops themselves, prompting me to decide to write this post explaining the procedure.

But before we get to that, if your laptop was made in such a way that the entire case has to be partially disassembled in order to access the hard drive, I still strongly recommend that you hire a qualified PC tech to remove the hard drive and install the SSD for you. Just sayin’.

On the other hand, if your laptop’s drive bay is easily accessible via a small removable cover you can swap out the drives out yourself. Just follow the instructions below.

[Read more…]

How to restore the ‘View Image’ button on Google Images

Posted on July 13, 2018

A while back Google removed the “View Image” button from the photos they display on Google Images due to some kind of deal they made with Getty Images.

I don’t know about you but I really liked being able to view an image directly from Google’s own server instead of having to visit the original website just to check it out.

Why is this is important? Because it’s easy to download malware to your computer simply by visiting an untrusted website, even if it’s just to display an image that’s contained on one of the site’s pages.

Well, apparently lots of other folks really miss the “View Image” button as well because there’s now a fantastic browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that restores the missing button.

The extension is called “View Image” and it works like a champ. If you’d like to give it a try just follow the steps below that match your preferred web browser. [Read more…]

How to install a PDF printer on your Windows 10 PC

Posted on June 26, 2018

Did you know that Windows 10 includes a native PDF printer?

Well, it does, and it’s typically installed by default when the Windows installation is created.

To save a document in most any program/app as a PDF file you would simply select Print to PDF (or something similar) from the Print dialog.

However, for whatever reason the default Microsoft PDF printer isn’t installed along with Windows 10 on every PC.

You’ll know that’s the case with your computer if you don’t see the “Print to PDF” option when you click File>Print or press Ctrl–P.

Luckily, it’s very easy to install the default Microsoft PDF Printer on your Windows 10 machine if wasn’t installed along with Windows. Just follow these steps: [Read more…]

How to never miss an opportunity to get free shipping on Amazon

Posted on June 25, 2018

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, and one of the things that makes Amazon so popular is their policy of offering free shipping for most items if your order totals at least $25.

But what if you finish your shopping and the order comes to just $22.67? That leaves you a mere $2.33 short of the magic number of $25 – which means you’re gonna miss out on that awesome free shipping deal! [Read more…]

Quickly remove toolbars, adware and browser hijackers from your PC with AdwCleaner

Posted on June 20, 2018

Have you noticed that your computer has been running slower, displaying pop-up ads or exhibiting other strange behavior of late?

If so, the reason could be “junkware” such as toolbars, adware, browser hijackers and/or other malware items have infected your PC with their digital crud.

While most high-quality anti-malware programs will detect and remove some of the most common junkware programs, they typically won’t catch them all.

But an awesome free tool called AdwCleaner (from the folks at Malwarebytes) will find and remove virtually all of the junkware that’s currently out there with just a couple of clicks! [Read more…]