Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
One of the things I like most about Microsoft Windows is the ability to create shortcuts on the Windows Desktop that simplify the execution of common tasks.
For example, I find myself creating a lot of System Restore Points on my PC so I created a handy desktop shortcut that creates a new Restore Point every time I click on it.
This particular shortcut makes it easy for me to quickly create a Restore Point at any time without having to wade through a series of menus. [Read more…]
Question from Brandon: A guy I play games with online told me how to overclock my computer to make it run the games faster.
I followed his instructions and did it and everything was great for about 2 days.
Then I must have downloaded a virus or something because my computer has started acting strange. It’s locking up on me and shutting down on its own.
I ran my virus checker but it didn’t find anything so I want to follow your instructions to reset Windows 10 to see it that will fix it.
If I reset Windows will it wipe out the overclocking? I’d hate to have to go through all those BIOS settings again.
As you probably know, Microsoft has released a lot of buggy Windows Updates in recent years.
In fact, numerous Windows 10 PCs were rendered either unstable or unable to boot up into Windows just by one recent buggy update.
I still recommend installing critical security updates as soon as possible in order to quickly patch “zero-day” security holes before hackers have a chance to exploit them to break into your system.
However, I no longer recommend installing non-critical updates until Microsoft has had time to squash any bugs that might be in the updates’ code. [Read more…]
Question from Lauren: I have an older Dell desktop PC with Windows 10 on it (upgraded from Windows 7).
It has always worked well, but I’ve recently started having a bit of trouble with it.
Sometimes when I’m typing something the Start menu will pop up all on it’s own just like I clicked on the Start button or pressed the Windows key (neither of which is the case when this happens). [Read more…]
Question from Melinda: I have a question about my Acer Windows laptop, Rick.
Yesterday morning I asked a friend on Facebook a computer question and his reply was that I need to run a file called cleanmgr.exe.
I’m a little leery about running .exe files because I remember reading that they can be dangerous.
Here’s my question: Is cleanmgr.exe a virus or is it safe for me to run? And if it’s safe, do you think I should run it? [Read more…]