Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: How do I disable ‘Conversation View’ in Gmail?

Posted on September 3, 2023

Question from Callie: I hate how Gmail groups all of the messages I’ve received from someone and my replies to them all together instead of just listing my emails individually with the newest ones on top.

I did some research and found out that’s due to something called ‘Conversation View’.

The article I read explained how to disable it but it’s a really old article and the steps they listed didn’t work.

Can you tell me what I need to do to disable Conversation View and get Gmail to list the emails I receive individually, in reverse order? [Read more…]

How to reset your browser back to its default settings

Posted on September 3, 2023

There are tons of ways to customize and tweak most current web browsers to make them behave more to our liking.

And in addition to the changes we make on our own, many downloads and browser add-ons take it upon themselves to make changes to our browsers’ settings without us even knowing about it.

These changes add up over time, and eventually your favorite browser might become extremely slow and unstable due to all the changes.

Throw a browser hijacker or malware into the mix and it can even become unusable. If that happens, what should you do? [Read more…]

Q&A: Will it cost a lot to fix the WiFi on my laptop?

Posted on September 2, 2023

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Fred: I have a 2 year old Lenovo laptop. It was working fine till yesterday evening but now the Wi-Fi won’t work.

I thought it might be a setting, but the Wi-Fi adapter isn’t even showing up in the Device Manager under Windows 11.

Since it won’t work with Windows, I tried booting into Linux Mint (I have a dual-boot setup). Mint won’t recognize the Wi-Fi adapter either so I’m thinking it must be a hardware problem.

Can this be fixed without costing me an arm and a leg? [Read more…]

Q&A: How’s my daughter getting on Facebook with her phone shut off?

Posted on September 2, 2023

Question from Deidra: I have grounded my 13 year old daughter for a month for getting into some pretty serious trouble at school.

Part of her “grounding” is a total ban on cell phone and Internet use of any kind.

To enforce that, I’ve had her iPhone shut off and I’ve also turned off the Wi-Fi on our router.

The problem is she’s still finding a way to get on Facebook and talk to her friends because I can see her “liking” stuff and leaving comments. How is that possible? [Read more…]