Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
TRIM is a feature in Windows 7 and above that immediately frees up the space on a solid state drive (SSD) that was previously occupied by a deleted file.
This allows Windows to re-use those no longer needed memory locations right away instead of having to search for unused locations elsewhere on the drive.
In a nutshell, having TRIM enabled keeps your SSD from slowing down with regular use, and it makes the drive last longer to boot. [Read more…]
If you’re the only person who ever uses your computer you can have Windows boot straight to the Desktop or Start Screen without prompting you for a password.
It’s easy to set up and the instructions below will show you how to do it. Simply skip to the section with instructions for your particular Windows version.
Windows XP
1 – Click Start > Run.
2 – Type control userpasswords2 into the box and click Ok.
3 – Uncheck the box beside Users must enter a username and password to use this computer, then click Ok. [Read more…]
Question from Manny P.: I use Dropbox to store some of my files, but only with a couple of programs that I only use once or twice a week.
Since I don’t use it that often, I don’t want the Dropbox app to load every time I load Windows. I’ve disabled automatic startup with Autoruns, but it always starts up automatically the next time I start Windows.
How do I prevent Dropbox from loading automatically? I’d much prefer to load it manually when I actually need to use it. Thanks in advance for your help!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
A couple of weeks ago I told you that Microsoft had hinted that they were planning to release Windows 9 in mid-2015.
Well, the timing was accurate, but the name was wrong. The new version of Windows will be Windows 10, not the wildly-speculated Windows 9.
Why they decided to skip the name Windows 9 and jump straight from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 is anyone’s guess.
My own guess is they realized the name “Windows 8” left such a bad taste in the mouths of many users that they felt they really needed to distance the new version version of Windows from Windows 8 in name as well as in functionality.
At any rate, based upon the preview video they released this morning it looks like Windows 10 will indeed be a major improvement over Windows 8. [Read more…]
Question from Sean G.: I hope you can help me. Twice now I have lost work because my computer automatically rebooted after installing Windows Updates. It always catches me off guard and I don’t have a chance to save my work.
This is really driving me up the wall! Is there any way to keep it from happening? My computer has Windows 7 Home Premium.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]