Rick's Daily Tips

Planning to upgrade your PC to Windows 10? You need to do this first!

Posted on December 4, 2015

Microsoft really wants you to upgrade your computer that’s running Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10. In fact, they want you to upgrade so badly that they’re literally offering you the upgrade for free.

Personally, I really like Windows 10, and getting it for free was like getting a Christmas present in July. But others aren’t that keen on it, and that’s fine.

Plenty of peole are perfectly content with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and they have every right to keep using them as long as they can.

If you happen to like what you’ve heard about Windows 10 and you’re planning to install it on one or more of your machines, I believe you’ll probably be glad you did after all is said and done. And if you aren’t, you’ll be able to roll your Windows 10 installation back to the previous version (as long as you do it within 30 days).

All of that being said, if you’re planning to update your machine to Windows 10, there’s something that you really need to do first. You need to create a System Image backup of your current Windows installation!

If you’re wondering why you would need a backup when you can always simply roll back to the previous Windows version if you find that you don’t like Windows 10, here’s why: [Read more…]

Adobe is now encouraging developers to stop creating content using Flash

Posted on December 3, 2015

Adobe Flash has been used to create some of the best content on the web for decades, and their Flash Player has been downloaded billions of times over the years. But that is about to come to an end.

Hackers have been finding and exploiting security holes in Flash faster than Adobe can patch them, and that has led many of us who follow these things to recommend disabling Flash on your computers in order to avoid malware attacks. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I disable the tooltips that pop up and cover the text boxes when I’m trying to type on Facebook?

Posted on December 2, 2015

Question from Elise: I hate it when I’m trying to type a comment or status update on Facebook and a tooltip pops up and won’t let me see what I’m typing.

I use Facebook with both Chrome and Firefox and the problem shows up in both of them. Is there any way to disable the annoying tooltips in those browsers?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Toy maker VTech has been hacked, and your child could be at risk.

Posted on December 1, 2015

VTech is a major toy manufacturer, and if you have children chances are they own at least one of their toys. In fact, it’s a pretty good bet that they do.

If your kids do own a VTech toy, you (and they) might also have accounts with the VTech Learning Lodge, an online repository for educational apps and games.

Well, the VTech Learning Lodge’s computers have been hacked, and if both you and your child have accounts there the hackers now have your child’s name, age, birth date and mailing address. That means if your family’s mailing address is also your physical address, the hackers now know where your child lives. [Read more…]

Make your Android phone’s battery last longer with the free ‘Doze’ app

Posted on November 30, 2015

Update: This is is no longer available.

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Your Android phone has a wonderful power-saving feature called “Doze”, and it’s really pretty amazing.

In a nutshell, Doze puts your phone into a deep sleep when it’s idle, preventing non-critical apps from transferring data in the background during the times when your phone isn’t being used.

Don’t worry, your phone will still ring when someone calls you and you’ll still receive incoming text messages, but pretty much everything else is placed in a holding pattern. And that helps your phone’s battery lost a lot longer than it would otherwise. [Read more…]