Tech Questions & Answers Archives - Page 102 of 258

Q&A: Can I convert an old Windows laptop into a Chromebook?

Posted on June 9, 2022

Question from Karla: Hi, Rick. I hope you can give me some advice about “reviving” an old laptop.

What I have is an older laptop that had Windows on it before the hard drive died.

I bought a new Windows 10 machine but I’d like to replace the bad hard drive in the old laptop and experiment with a different operating system.

I read your post about installing Linux in place of Windows but I’ve been reading a lot about Chromebooks lately. I stopped by Best Buy yesterday and tried one out, and I really like it.

My question is can I install Chrome OS on my laptop and use it as a Chromebook?

[Read more…]

Q&A: What does HughesNet mean by ‘Unlimited data with no hard data limits’?

Posted on June 9, 2022

Question from Kellie: Right now we have a DSL Internet from our local phone company.

It was pretty good when they first installed it, but it’s been terrible for the past year.

We’re wanting to switch to something else because my download speeds are averaging less than 2Mbps and they refuse to do anything to make it faster.

We really need the higher speed because our family does a lot of video streaming (or at least we try to).

Sometimes the Internet stops working at all and stays out for days at a time. I’d sign up for cable Internet but it’s not available in my area.

I’m hoping you can clear something up for me. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can you retrieve a Windows 10 license key from a bad hard drive?

Posted on June 3, 2022

Question from Keith: I updated my Windows 7 computer to Windows 10 a while back, and like a dummy I didn’t write down the license key for it.

The hard drive in this machine went bad and I replaced it with a 1TB SSD. The bad drive appears to be completely dead because it doesn’t make any noise at all.

I have already installed the SSD I and downloaded the Windows 10 files onto a thumb drive with the instructions they provided.

The thing is, I’ll need the license key to activate Windows 10 after I install it, right? [Read more…]

Q&A: Would moving the Page File to a RAM Disk make a PC run faster?

Posted on June 1, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Ethan: I was reading an article last night that discussed using part of a computer’s unused RAM as a RAM Disk, and it got me to thinking.

I have a pretty old desktop computer that’s running Windows 7. It has 2GB of RAM and a 200GB hard drive.

This machine runs really slow, coming almost to a crawl at times. After doing some research I’ve determined that it’s likely sluggish because it’s doing a ton of swapping back and forth with the page file.

Do you think moving the Windows Page File to a RAM Disk would help speed it up? [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I uninstall the ‘Phone Link’ app in Windows 11?

Posted on May 29, 2022

Question from Michael: I just bought my first Windows 11 PC and it came with a ‘Phone Link’ app that’s supposed to let you make calls and send texts from your computer.

I have no desire to use my computer as a phone because I like to keep my devices as isolated from one another as possible.

I want to uninstall the Phone Link app but I can’t figure out how to do it. Can you help? [Read more…]