Rick's Daily Tips

Why you should disable Adobe Flash on your PC (and how to do it)

Posted on June 12, 2015

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…]

Q&A: Can I install Windows 8.1 on a laptop that originally came with Windows Vista?

Posted on June 11, 2015

Question from Glenn W.: I have an old, but awesome 2008 era Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop that came with Windows Vista. It still works great except for the hard drive which just died on me with no warning.

I found out that I can buy a brand spanking new replacement hard drive for less than $50, but I don’t have a set of Windows Vista restore discs.

If I replace the hard drive can I also install Windows 8.1 in place of Vista? (I would actually prefer Windows 7 but they don’t sell it anymore.)

Or is this machine so old that only Windows Vista will work, which would mean I’m out of luck either way?

Sorry for the multiple questions, but this is all very confusing to me. I hate to throw away a perfectly good laptop just because the hard drive died.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Scam alert: Be wary of those “Watch out for this creep!” posts on Facebook

Posted on June 9, 2015

Facebook is a wonderful venue for sharing our thoughts, ideas and photos with our friends and loved ones, but it also has a very serious downside. It’s ridiculously easy for false information to spread like wildfire by “going viral”.

Just think of all the “Free Gift Card” and “Click and share to get Facebook to donate to this great cause” scams. We see them every day. And make no mistake about it, these are very serious scams.

But there’s another type of scam that routinely takes place on Facebook that is perhaps even worse. Some folks use Facebook to falsely accuse innocent people of crimes and infractions they didn’t commit. [Read more…]

Does your smart phone have an unlimited data plan? Better enjoy it while you can!

Posted on June 8, 2015

unlimited-data-plan It’s no secret that the major cell carriers are trying to ween customers off of their “grandfathered” unlimited data plans. I’m sure you have seen the commercials that are designed to entice folks to switch to one of the new “tiered” data plans.

While those new offers have indeed prompted many customers to give up their unlimited plans in order to qualify for the perks mentioned in the commercials, many more have stubbornly decided to stick with their current plans in order to keep taking advantage of their unlimited data allotments.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re one of the folks who are still using one of those grandfathered plans (like I am), start preparing for the party to end before too long. [Read more…]