Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Caroline E.: I just bought a new computer with Windows 8 on it and the salesman told me it comes with a free anti-virus program that’s actually a part of Windows.
Is that true? And if it is, do I have to turn it on or is it already enabled? I’d really like to use it if at all possible because it’s free! lol
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Question from Shannon W.: I bought a brand new Gateway laptop with Windows 8 based on the promise that I could upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free. But when I go to the Windows App Store I don’t see any way to download the upgrade.
I called Microsoft Tech Support and they’re apparently unable to help me. I’d just return the laptop and buy a different one, but the return period has expired.
Can you tell me what I need to do in order to upgrade my laptop from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1?
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Question from Sheila S.: I have accepted a great new job as a customer service representative for a major corporation and I’ll be working from home. One of the prerequisites for getting the job was owning a computer that can run the company’s proprietary C.S. software.
I ordered one of the laptops from the list they provided, but after I received it I found out that it has to run Windows 8.1 Pro instead of the standard Windows 8.1 that came with it. None of our local electronics retailers sell Windows 8.1 upgrade discs and I need to have it running on my laptop by January 2!
Do you know where I can buy a Windows 8.1 Pro upgrade disc ASAP? Please help me!!!
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Question from Julie T.: I bought a Lenovo computer with Windows 8 on it in August and finally got around to upgrading it to Windows 8.1 just a few days ago.
After 8.1 was installed I noticed that the apps I had downloaded before I did the upgrade were all missing. I downloaded all of them again but they still aren’t showing up on the Start Screen.
What am I doing wrong? Are the apps not being installed even though it says they are?
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Question from Christopher: My neighbor gave me an old Gateway GM5442 desktop computer that has two 1GB RAM modules in it. The RAM should be good because he stopped using the computer after the hard drive died.
Can I pull the RAM from that Gateway and add it to my HP Pro 3500? (It has two empty memory slots.) I’d just throw caution to the wind and give it a try, but I really can’t afford to mess anything up.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]