Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Toolbars are a veritable pain in the neck. Even the ones that don’t spy on your web activities, steal your personal information or hijack your web browsers slow down your system to a virtual snail’s pace.
Removing toolbars and other PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) can be both tedious and frustrating, but a nifty little free download called Junkware Removal Tool scans your system and automatically removes all traces of over a dozen of the worst junkware offenders, including: [Read more…]
To date, the Windows 10 Technical Preview has introduced a number of awesome new features that will likely be included in the upcoming commercial release of Windows 10, and one that I like quite a bit is the handy new Quick Access view in File Explorer.
In a nutshell, Quick Access view displays the most recently used files, folders and related data by default every time you open the File Explorer window. This really speeds up your work flow if you tend to use the same files and folders over and over again.
As mentioned above, I personally like the new Quick Access view, but plenty of others think it’s the worst thing since the introduction of Windows Vista. If you don’t particularly care for it either, you can easily turn it off. Here’s how: [Read more…]
If you’re like me, every now and then you need to take a quick peek at the Desktop, but you don’t want to have to go through the hassle of minimizing all the open Windows or losing track of what you’re doing after having to re-open them all.
If you’re using Windows 7, you can always click the Show Desktop icon or right-click on the taskbar and click Show the Desktop, but if all you need to do is take a quick peek at the Desktop, you can simply do the following: [Read more…]
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…]
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…]