Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Kenneth L.: My friend and I have had the exact same HP laptop for over 4 years.
He insists that he bought his laptop several months before I bought mine, but I’m certain that I bought mine first.
Is there any way to tell which computer was bought first? We have a sizable bet riding on the outcome.
Thanks!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
If you have a PC with Windows 10 on it, you know that Microsoft heard all of our complaints about removing the Start Menu from Windows 8.
Thankfully, they added the Start Menu back in Windows 8.1 and then they actually enhanced it in Windows 10.
I really like the new Windows 10 Start Menu because it gives you all the power and functionality of the classic Windows 7 style Start Menu plus a few of the best features of the Windows 8 Start Screen.
One of the things I like most is the amazing flexibility you have in customizing the Start Menu to your own tastes and preferences.
Regular readers of this blog know that you can use a wireless print server (#ad) to easily share a USB printer with multiple computers over your Wi-Fi network.
My friend Scott Bangs pointed out that you can also share an external USB hard drive, scanner or most any other type of USB device over your network by using a wireless USB print server/port sharing station. (#ad)
These nifty devices allow you to share your USB peripherals and gadgets among multiple PCs, Macs, Linux systems, and even most mobile devices without having to connect or switch around any USB cables. [Read more…]
Every now and then I have a need to combine two or more photos into a single image by arranging them side by side and/or over top of one another.
To get an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at the image on the right.
It’s actually pretty easy to create a mini-collage like this with most popular image editing programs, but I’ve found a much easier and faster way to do it.
Just fire up your web browser and click over to the wonderful online Combine Images tool from the folks over at QuickPictureTools.com. [Read more…]
By now you probably know that upgrading your computer’s RAM, adding a stand-alone graphics adapter or replacing the hard drive with an SSD can make it run faster and more smoothly.
But if you’ve ever actually shopped for computer parts you probably also know how difficult it can be to determine whether a given part is compatible with your particular computer.
All the info you need to make that determination is available on the Internet (and in many cases right in the product’s item description), but unless you’re very familiar with computer hardware it can be difficult to figure out which info is even relevant to the determination.
Well, Amazon has a handy tool that can help…