Microsoft Windows Archives - Page 29 of 32

How to find out if your PC will run windows 8

Posted on February 4, 2013

Now that Windows 8 has been out for a while you might be wondering if you should buy the Windows 8 upgrade package and install it on your computer. If you’re a regular reader of RicksDailyTips you already know from reading this post that I don’t really think so.

That being said, there are some valid reasons for upgrading your PC to Windows 8. If you’re considering taking the plunge, the first thing to do is determine whether or not your PC can even run Windows 8. According to Microsoft, the minimum system requirements for running it are as follows: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I restore my Windows PC to the factory default settings?

Posted on February 3, 2013

Question from Lynn: How do I restore my laptop to the factory settings before I give it to somebody else?

Rick’s answer: Lynn, there are two ways to reset a Windows PC back to its factory settings. The first one is to simply insert the Restore disc into the optical drive and boot from it. You can reinstall Windows from there.

The second option is probably the most widely used one these days since most PCs come without a set of Restore discs and few people take the time to create one. Here are step-by-step instructions for resetting a PC that’s running either Windows 7 or Windows 8… [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is everything I click on trying to open in Notepad?

Posted on January 28, 2013

Question from Kim: Everything was working fine until this morning, but now every time I click on a file it tries to open in Notepad. I can’t open anything! Please help??? My computer has Windows 7 if that matters. Thanks!!

Rick’s answer: It sounds like your file associations have gotten messed up Kim. Your PC’s Windows installation associates virtually all common file types with a specific application that it uses to open that file by default whenever you click on it.

For example, files with the .doc extension are usually opened with Microsoft Word while .xls files typically open in Excel. There are literally dozens of other file types with different extensions, and Windows looks at the extension to decide which program it should use to open that file by default. [Read more…]

Make Process Explorer the default Task Manager in Microsoft Windows

Posted on January 27, 2013

process-explorer If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you might remember this post about Process Explorer, a powerful free replacement for the native Windows Task Manager utility. If not, I suggest you check it out because it is vastly superior to Task Manager.

If you downloaded Process Explorer and gave it a try, you might be wishing you could have it load automatically in place of the native Task Manager after pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Del keyboard combination. Well, you can, and it’s very easy to set up. Here’s how: [Read more…]

How to change the boot order on a dual-boot Microsoft Windows/Ubuntu Linux system

Posted on January 25, 2013

change-boot-order If you have a dual-boot system which lets you boot your PC into either Microsoft Windows or Ubuntu Linux, odds are the default O.S. is Ubuntu.

If you boot the computer into Ubuntu most of the time, this works out great. You can just press the PC’s power button and go grab a snack or something, then return to an Ubuntu Desktop ready and waiting for you.

But if you boot into Windows more than Ubuntu, you have to sit at the computer and wait for the Boot Menu to appear so you can instruct the computer to boot into Windows instead of Ubuntu. If you find yourself having to do this on a regular basis you can easily change the boot order of the operating systems on your PC and make Windows the default. [Read more…]