Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
When using Microsoft Windows, there are times when we need to find the entire path to a file’s exact ‘location’ on the hard drive (i.e. the file’s pathname).
For example, some of the tips I post on this blog require entering a file’s full pathname into a text field of some sort.
Back in the Stone Age of personal computing when the DOS operating system ruled the roost, determining a file’s pathname was easy…. [Read more…]
Question from Ed: I have a Lenovo laptop that came with Windows 8.1 preinstalled.
The hard drive died and I have to replace it and my co-worker recommended that I install Linux on it.
The thing is, there are so many Linux versions to choose from that trying to pick one is about to make my head explode.
Which version of Linux do you recommend for a system that was running Windows 8.1 previously? [Read more…]
Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
For the most part, the Windows operating system has improved greatly over the years, generally getting better and more reliable with each major update.
But unfortunately a couple of major frustrations still plague Windows users to this day.
One of the most irritating things about using a Windows PC is having to wait for it to boot up into a usable state after we turn it on.
To their credit, Microsoft has tweaked newer versions of Windows to reduce average boot times, but in my opinion it still takes longer for them to start up than it should.
Luckily, there are several things you can do to make your own PC boot up a lot faster than it does right now, even if your computer is brand new. Do as many or as few of them as you wish, then enjoy the fruits of your labor. [Read more…]
Question from Mike: I install lots of free software and I always create a new System Restore Point before installing a program just in case something goes wrong.
I think Windows is great, but as you know, things do go wrong sometimes.
My boss told me that relying on System Restore for my backups isn’t good enough. He said I need to create System Image backups too, but I think that’s overkill.
What’s your opinion on this? [Read more…]