Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
I have written several posts that discuss either replacing a bad laptop hard drive with a new one or upgrading the system with a larger drive or an SSD.
Last night I was answering a reader’s question about a hard drive upgrade when it occurred to me that I’ve never really explained how to physically swap out the drives.
Replacing the hard drive in most laptops is almost as easy as selling popcorn in a movie theater. Just follow the simple steps listed below: [Read more…]
As you probably know, enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on an online account is just about the most effective way there is to prevent hackers from breaking into it.
In a nutshell, once Two-Factor Authentication has been enabled a hacker would have to have physical possession of your mobile phone in order to successfully login that account, even if he knows both your username and password.
These days virtually every major online service allows users to enable Two-Factor Authentication on their accounts, and luckily that includes the massively popular Pinterest.
If you would like to enable Two-Factor Authentication on your own Pinterest account you can easily do so by following the steps below: [Read more…]
Many Windows 10 users have discovered that their machine’s Windows installation has been deactivated, and a number of them have messaged me asking what’s going on.
In a nutshell, Microsoft is experiencing an issue with their Activation servers that’s causing some Windows 10 installations to lose their “Activated” status.
Whenever you visit a secure website, the data flowing between your web browser and the site’s server is encrypted (converted into code that is very difficult to understand and use without having the decryption key).
Encryption is a big deal because it helps protect your personal information from prying eyes and hackers. You’ll know you’re visiting a secure website when the URL in the address bar starts with https: instead of the usual http:. [Read more…]
If your PC is running Windows 10 and have your user account protected with a password, you are no doubt familiar with the Lock Screen.
That’s the screen with the pretty picture on it that loads right before you get to the Login Screen.
Some people like the Lock Screen for its aesthetic value, but I happen to find it irritating because it’s simply an extra screen that I have to get past in order to log in to my Windows account. Therefore, I have disabled it.
If you’d like to disable the Lock Screen on your computer as well, follow the steps listed below. [Read more…]