Rick's Daily Tips

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…]

eBay has been hacked – Change your passwords ASAP!

Posted on May 21, 2014

Well, another giant website has been hacked. This time it’s eBay, the iconic online auction site and digital marketplace.

eBay issued a statement this morning saying that hackers have managed to steal customer names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and encrypted account passwords. In other words, this one is BIG folks.

If you have an eBay account, you need to log in and change your password immediately. You might also want to start monitoring your credit reports along with your bank account and credit card statements just to be on the safe side.

Important: Please consider sharing this in order to warn as many of your friends as possible.

Avoid malicious websites by installing the AVG Secure Search toolbar

Posted on May 21, 2014

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not a fan of toolbars. Quite simply, this is because most of them are actually malware. There is one exception however, and that is the AVG Secure Search toolbar.

The AVG Secure Search toolbar helps prevent your computer from downloading viruses by scanning web pages for malware before you actually visit them, then warning you if malware is found. That way you can avoid visiting the page and unknowingly infecting your computer with the malware contained within the infected page’s code.

Installing the AVG Secure Search toolbar is easy. Here’s how: [Read more…]