Computer Tips Archives - Page 43 of 231

9 tips for protecting your privacy, money and identity while you’re online

Posted on July 10, 2024

With all the hackers out there trying to break into secure Wi-Fi networks, steal personal and financial information and generally wreak havoc on our lives, it only makes sense to do everything possible to protect ourselves while we’re using the Internet.

Short of becoming a hermit and moving into a cave, there’s really nothing we can do to ensure that we never have our privacy compromised in today’s ultra-connected world.

But we can take steps to minimize the risks associated with being online as much as possible. Here are just a few of them: [Read more…]

How to remove an antivirus app that Windows can’t uninstall

Posted on July 7, 2024

I receive hundreds of tech questions every week, and as you might expect some questions get asked over and over.

One of the questions that gets asked most often is some variation of “How do I remove [McAfee, Norton or whatever] from my computer?”

For various reasons, antivirus apps can sometimes be difficult to remove with Windows’ native uninstaller, and I’ve had my own issues with many of them in the past.

Luckily, there’s a simple way to remove most any antivirus program from your computer: Just download and run that company’s automated removal tool! [Read more…]

Q&A: Why do phones no longer come with user replaceable batteries?

Posted on July 6, 2024

Question from Harris: The battery in my three year old smartphone won’t hold a charge anymore.

I found a replacement battery online but it said I’ll have to disassemble the phone in order to remove the old battery and replace it with the new one.

The replacement battery comes with the tools needed to install the new battery but the video showing how it’s done has me thinking it’s way beyond my skill level. [Read more…]

How to verify that a link is safe before you click on it

Posted on July 4, 2024

As you probably know, the Internet is home to a lot of scammy and fraudulent websites.

Truth be told, the percentage of “bad” sites is actually fairly low compared to the number of legitimate sites.

The problem is there are literally billions of websites on the Internet, and that means even though just a small percentage of them are “bad”, that percentage still amounts to a LOT of scam/fraudulent websites.

[Read more…]

Is an outdated modem throttling your Internet connection?

Posted on July 3, 2024

Comcast, Time Warner and other cable Internet providers periodically raise the guaranteed download and upload speeds for their various Internet service tiers in order to remain competitive in the marketplace.

And when they do, they usually email their customers to let them know they’ve received a bump in their connection speeds.

When necessary, they’ll also let the customers know that they’ll need to order a new updated modem in order to actually take advantage of the faster data transmission speeds provided by their plan.

The problem is, many customers either don’t receive the notification emails about the needed modem upgrades or the emails get lost in their junk folder. [Read more…]