Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Can I install Windows 10 without having to open a Microsoft account?

Posted on March 20, 2015

Question from Cale G.: Rick, I read your post about installing the Windows 10 Preview and I’d like to try it out on my old Acer laptop that’s currently running Windows Vista.

I checked and the machine seems to meet all the hardware requirements, so I figured why not install it and check it out?

The problem is I heard you have to have a Microsoft account in order to install the Windows 10 Preview, and sure enough when I went to install it I was prompted to either log in to an existing account or create a new one.

If I can possibly avoid it, I don’t want a Microsoft account, and I definitely don’t want to have to log into Windows on my laptop through one! Hence my question: Can you tell me if there’s a way to install Windows 10 without having to open a Microsoft account first?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I disable my laptop’s built-in webcam?

Posted on March 19, 2015

Question from Alice T.: Rick, I have an HP laptop running Windows 7, and I have a question for you.

I read somewhere that hackers can take control of your webcam and make videos and take pictures of you without your knowledge.

I NEVER use a webcam for anything so I’d like just disable it completely and be done with it. How do I do that?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to make Windows 8.1 boot directly to the Desktop

Posted on March 19, 2015

windows-8-1 Windows 8.1 is a huge improvement over Windows 8 because it fixes a number of the most despised “changes” that Microsoft made to the newly-designed Windows interface.

One of the most appreciated “fixes” is the ability to have Windows 8.1 boot directly to the Desktop instead of the Start Screen – but this isn’t the default. Follow these steps to make Windows 8.1 boot directly to the Desktop: [Read more…]

How to use System Restore to remove a bad Windows Update when your PC won’t boot up

Posted on March 19, 2015

A few days ago I wrote a post about a bad Windows Update that was causing many Windows 7 PCs to go into a reboot loop. Inexplicably, Microsoft has yet to release a fix for the issue.

As I explained in that post, if your PC already has the bad update installed and it’s stuck in a reboot loop, you can probably use the System Restore utility to roll back your Windows installation to a point in time before the bad update was installed. [Read more…]

Windows 10 could be released sooner than expected – and I believe you’ll love it!

Posted on March 18, 2015

windows-10 Microsoft announced yesterday in a blog post that Windows 10 will be released “this summer”. The term “this summer” is pretty ambiguous, but I believe they’ll want to get it out to the masses as soon as they can.

The much-maligned Windows 8’s replacement was widely expected to be released some time around October, but yesterday’s announcement leaves open the possibility that it could be released much sooner. [Read more…]