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Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
Question from Danny: I recently bought my first Windows PC after using nothing but Macs for years, and something is driving me crazy.
Every time I try to install a new program a stupid “User Account Control” box pops up asking for permission to make changes to the system.
I find this extremely annoying since I wouldn’t have tried to install the program if I didn’t want it.
My question is how do I disable those annoying User Account Control pop-ups?
Question from Kerry: I have a Windows 11 question for you if you don’t mind.
I used to be a Windows guy, but when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 I decided to switch to a Mac.
Well, my Mac recently bit the dust and I decided to switch back to Windows. Long story short, I ended up buying an HP all-on-one desktop computer with Windows 11 on it.
Back when I was using Windows 7 I could open the Control Panel from the Start menu, but that’s apparently not the case with Windows 11. I’ve looked high and low and I can’t find it.
I’m pretty sure Windows 11 still has a Control Panel because I think I remember seeing it mentioned on your site before. Can you tell me how to find it? [Read more…]
If you use Windows 11 you’ve probably noticed that you receive more notifications than you received from earlier versions of Windows.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because important notifications really do need to seen and dealt with, but getting a steady stream of unimportant notifications while you’re trying to work can be a real problem.
Luckily, Microsoft provides a number of settings you can tweak to limit the types of notifications you receive. [Read more…]
Like Windows 7 and 8 before it, Windows 10 has a Taskbar Preview feature that is enabled by default.
As with most every other Windows feature, some folks love having a small preview of a window’s contents pop up when the mouse is hovered over a Taskbar button.
Others, myself included, find it a bit irritating.
If you find it irritating as well, you can ditch Taskbar Previews in Windows 10 by following the instructions below. But first, I must ask you to read my semi-standard disclaimer: [Read more…]
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Every now and then it helps to be able to view your system’s hidden files and folders, especially when troubleshooting a sticky Windows issue or trying to track down a stubborn malware infection.
A while back I wrote a post explaining how to show the hidden files and folders in Windows 8.1, and it turns out that viewing them is just as easy in Windows 10. Here’s how: [Read more…]