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Question from Derick T.: Hi Rick. I had been wanting to add some USB 3.0 ports to my HP desktop PC for a while now. I finally broke down and bought a USB 3.0 expansion card
The new USB ports work fine with my USB mouse, keyboard and printer, but when I plug my Seagate external USB hard drive into it I can’t get the computer to recognize the drive. I know it should work because the box the drive came in said it works with USB 3.0. Am I doing something wrong?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Mobile devices are becoming more powerful by the day, and I am continuously amazed at how much computing power and functionality they can pack into such small devices.
Well, now fully-functional desktop PCs have become truly portable as well. A perfect case in point is the awesome Quantum Access Windows 8.1 Mini PC Stick. (#ad)
In a nutshell, this is a fully functioning desktop PC contained within a tiny package that looks somewhat like an over-sized USB flash memory stick. But instead of a male USB connector, it features an HDMI connector that allows you to plug the computer directly into your monitor’s HDMI port without having to use a cable.
Since the device plugs directly in to the monitor, all you have to do is plug in a USB keyboard and mouse and then get right to work!
Check out everything you get with this tiny machine: [Read more…]
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Do you ever worry about forgetting to log out of Facebook and having someone else gain access to your Facebook account? Well, if you haven’t you should because it happens all the time.
Even if you close your web browser you aren’t automatically logged out of Facebook. Someone else could sit down at your PC, open your browser and visit Facebook with your account already logged on for them.
And what if you don’t close your browser at all? If you leave your browser window open while you go into another room or run to the corner market, Facebook will happily sit there and await your return.
But what if something comes up and you can’t get back to your PC for a while? Someone else could easily come along and read your private messages and even chat with your friends while pretending to be you. Or worse. The possibilities for mischief are endless! [Read more…]
If you have been using computers for any length of time, you have probably had some run-ins with the irritating Ask Toolbar.
Without your explicit permission, it probably installed itself along with some other program you downloaded and then took it upon itself to change your Home Page and Default Search Engine, leaving you wondering what in the world had just happened.
Well, I have some good news to report about the Ask Toolbar: The way it stealthily makes unwanted changes to your computer have finally prompted Microsoft to classify the Ask Toolbar as malware and add it to the list of programs that will automatically be removed by Microsoft’s security tools. [Read more…]
Until fairly recently, Flash was required in order to properly display and use many of the world’s most popular websites. And since Adobe Flash is installed on virtually every PC in the world it has become a favorite target for hackers.
Adobe releases frequent security updates for Flash, but for varying reasons those updates often don’t get installed onto a PC in time to prevent hackers from exploiting the security holes the updates were intended to fix in order to attack the system. That’s why hackers love to use Flash to attack computers around the world. And that’s bad news!
But there is also good news: Modern web browsers that support HTML 5 have pretty much made Flash obsolete. If you are using the latest version of your preferred browser(s), you can safely remove Adobe Flash from your system and disable it in your browser and the websites you visit should still work just fine. And I strongly suggest that you do so.
With all of that in mind, I recommend following the steps below to remove Adobe Flash from your PC and disable it in your web browsers. [Read more…]