Rick's Daily Tips

Make your mouse wheel work in the window that’s currently under the mouse

Posted on June 1, 2014

wizmouse You might have noticed that when you have two or more windows open at once, in order to scroll the contents of an inactive window you have to first click it to make it the active window. This can be quite annoying if all you want to do in that window is scroll the contents up or down a bit.

Well now there’s a nifty little free download that will make your mouse work the way it should have worked all along. It’s called WizMouse, and once it’s loaded your mouse wheel will scroll the contents of the window that’s directly under the mouse pointer without making that window active! What a time-saver! [Read more…]

Automatically monitor how far and how fast you have jogged with Runkeeper

Posted on June 1, 2014

Runkeeper Fitness App Does your fitness routine include jogging? How about walking or bicycling?

If you do any of these activities, a free mobile app called Runkeeper will give you up-to-the-second, real-time info about how far you have gone so far, and how fast.

Runkeeper works with your phone’s GPS radio to establish your current location, the distance you have traveled, your speed, and even your current elevation! [Read more…]

Q&A: Is there a way to display the menu bar in Windows Media Player with Windows 7?

Posted on May 28, 2014

Question from David: Unlike the Windows Media Player included in Windows Vista Home Premium, the version in Windows 7 Home Premium on my Samsung laptop does not have a Menu Bar. Is there a way to add or enable one?

Rick’s answer: Try this David:

1 – Launch Windows Media Player.

2 – Press the Alt key by itself and you’ll see a menu pop up.

3 – Click the Show menu bar option.

Note: Pressing the Alt key in most Windows programs will display the “File menu” in situations where it isn’t already displayed by default.

That should do it David. Please let me know if it works for you.

Update from David: Yes it does. Many thanks.

Do you have a tech question of your own for Rick? Click here and send it in!

Data breach prompts Spotify to advise users to change their passwords and update their Android apps

Posted on May 28, 2014

Popular music service Spotify has announced that their servers have been breached by hackers, but they seem to believe that there is little for their users to worry about.

This attack is the latest in a spurt of hacks that have plagued a number of online services and brick and mortar retail chains in recent months. [Read more…]

Q&A: What kind of hard drive do I need for an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f desktop PC?

Posted on May 27, 2014

Question from David H.: My brother gave me his old HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f desktop computer after the hard drive died. The shop returned the computer to him without the hard drive in it and I need to know what kind of hard drive to buy for it.

Also, I don’t have a set of factory Restore discs for this computer. Will HP send me a set?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick’s answer: David, your HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f most likely came from the factory with a 1TB SATA hard drive, so virtually any 3.5″ SATA hard drive will work in that system.

That being said, instead of simply installing another hard drive, I recommend installing a solid state drive (#ad) as the boot drive and a spacious hard drive as a secondary data drive. [Read more…]