Rick's Daily Tips

Rick’s Daily Pick: CyberPower 1500VA/1000W Sinewave UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector

Posted on July 14, 2026

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

My “Pick” for today is this fantastic CyberPower 1500VA/1000W Sinewave UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector.

Don’t let a sudden power outage fry your expensive computer equipment or cause a sudden file-corrupting hard shutdown. This will help prevent both of those damaging events from taking place.

Click here to check out the CyberPower 1500VA/1000W Sinewave UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector at Amazon.

Did you miss (or want to revisit) one of my earlier picks? You might find it right here.

Picture of the Day: “Country Sunset”

Posted on July 14, 2026

Today’s POTD features a beautiful sunset over a hay field in rural Washington County, Virginia. I hope you like it.

Have lots of treasured photos of your own that you’d love to display in your home but you have limited wall space? A digital picture frame (#ad) is an excellent solution. Check them out!

Enjoy these Pictures of the Day? Sign up for my free Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter and you’ll never miss one (or any of my tech tips either)!

Monthly Tech Giveaway – July 2026

Posted on June 30, 2026

Note: The links on this page are affiliate links.

July’s winner will receive a fantastic Euhomy 59QT 12 Volt Refrigerator/Cooler/Freezer.

This portable refrigerator/cooler/freezer will run off your vehicle’s cigarette lighter port. No more buying ice that’s just going to melt overnight!

All subscribers to the Standard edition of my Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter have an equal chance to win.

Premium subscribers have two chances to win (their email addresses are added to the “pot” twice).

Not a subscriber? Just enter your email address in the sign-up form on this page.

Once subscribed you’ll be eligible to win each month’s drawing – starting with this month. Better yet, opt for a Premium subscription for double the chance to win!

The drawing for this month’s prize will be held on July 31 and the winner will be notified by email. The winner will be selected at random.

Good luck!

Give an older PC new life by replacing Windows with Linux

Posted on July 14, 2026

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In this post I’m going to explain what Linux is, and more importantly, what it can do for you as the owner of an older PC that’s running a version of Windows that has been abandoned by Microsoft (i.e. they have stopped supplying security updates for it).

As you probably know by now, Microsoft is no longer releasing security updates for many versions of Windows, which means computers that are still running them are wide open to hackers and malware.

But an awesome free operating system called Linux can make using that unsafe computer safe again.

[Read more…]

Q&A: Windows is showing my WiFi network as Public. Isn’t that dangerous?

Posted on July 12, 2026

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Question from Kellie: I was messing around with the network settings on my Windows 11 laptop last night.

While I was in there I noticed that my WiFi network is set to “Public” instead of “Private”.

I’ve always heard that public networks are dangerous.

Is that true? And if it is, how can I change it to private? [Read more…]