Rick's Daily Tips

HeyWire – Free texting on your iPhone, Android phone, tablet or computer!

Posted on March 22, 2013

heywire Do you use your mobile device primarily for texting? If so, a free app called HeyWire will let you text until the proverbial cows come home for free!

With HeyWire you can purchase a cellular plan that comes with a very low number of included minutes and texts and save a ton of money each month.

HeyWire uses your device’s data connection to send and receive SMS messages. The user interface is very attractive and easy to use (it works pretty much like the one you’re using now) and you can learn to use it in 2 minutes flat!

It doesn’t matter whether you use an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows Phone or an Android device, there is a free HeyWire app ready and waiting for you to download, install and begin using it in minutes. You can even use HeyWire to text from your laptop or desktop computer’s web browser! [Read more…]

RonPaul.com controversy illustrates why you should register your own domain name

Posted on March 20, 2013

ron-paul Former Republican Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul has learned the hard way why it is so important to register your own domain name.

The domain name RonPaul.com has pointed to a website promoting Congressman Paul’s political causes and career for years, but the domain is not owned by Mr. Paul himself. Instead, it is owned by a friend of one of his political supporters, and that man is refusing to hand over control of the domain to Mr. Paul now that his political career has apparently come to an end.

The RonPaul.com debacle is only the latest in a long line of high profile domain disputes, and it illustrates with crystal clarity why it’s so important for website owners to control their own domain names. [Read more…]

VistaSwitcher – Awesome replacement for the Windows Task Switcher

Posted on March 20, 2013

Chances are you use the Windows Task Switcher utility by pressing Alt+Tab in order to scroll through a series of thumbnails representing all the open windows, then switch to a different task.

If so, you are probably aware of how difficult it can be to find the task you want to switch to if there are more than just two or three windows open.

A while back I began using VistaSwitcher, a free replacement for the Windows Task Switcher, and it has turned out to be a major timesaver!

I usually have over a dozen windows open at once, and VistaSwitcher makes it easy to quickly find the one I want to switch to and get me there in a jiffy.

Once running, VistaSwitcher can be called up in one of two ways: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I run the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on Windows 7?

Posted on March 18, 2013

Question from Alex G.: Hi Rick. Love this site and all your tips!! I hope you can help me with a problem I’m having.

I just bought an ebook filled with Windows 7 tweaks and several of the ones I really want to try require running a program called Group Policy Editor. The instructions say to type gpedit.msc into the Search box, but when I do I get this error message:

“Windows cannot find ‘gpedit.msc’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.”

What am I doing wrong? My computer is a Dell laptop running the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium. It originally came with Windows Vista.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Instabridge – Allow friends to use your secure Wi-Fi network without giving out the password

Posted on March 18, 2013

Do you ever have guests over to your home who ask to access your secure Wi-Fi connection? Depending on the guests, it can be a little uncomfortable handing over the password to your Wi-Fi network. Well, now you don’t have to if both you and your guests use Android devices.

Instabridge is a free Android app that allows you to invite guests to use your secure Wi-Fi connection without having to give them your network password. Here’s how it works: [Read more…]