Computer Tips Archives - Page 17 of 231

How to close a frozen browser tab without closing the other open tabs

Posted on July 26, 2025

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Have you ever had a browser tab freeze up on you?

If so, you know how frustrating it is when you have to close the entire browser including all the other open tabs just to get the PC running normally again.

Well, I have a bit of good news for you: You can usually close just the one browser tab that isn’t responding without having to close any of the other open tabs!

The next time a web page freezes up on you, give this a try: [Read more…]

NoSQL Databases Explained: What they are, how they work, & why they matter for everyday tech users

Posted on July 26, 2025

Apps and websites are expected to work instantly nowadays, respond to user behavior in real time, and handle everything from videos to social connections to shopping carts.

As of February 2025, it is estimated that 5.56 billion individuals worldwide are internet users, which amounts to 67.9% of the global population. Of this total, 63.9% of the world’s population is a social media user.

This is leading to an enormous amount of available data that can be used by companies and traditional databases, while reliable, they often struggle to meet these expectations at scale. That’s where NoSQL databases come in. [Read more…]

How (and when) to reduce Windows 11’s Internet data usage

Posted on July 24, 2025

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Lets face it, Windows 11 is a major data hog. By default, it’s constantly gathering various morsels of usage data and sending them to Microsoft over your Internet connection.

In addition to the obvious privacy concerns, this virtually constant transmission of usage data can really eat into your monthly data allotment if you are subscribed to an Internet service plan that has a data cap (i.e. the amount of data you can use every month).

Luckily, there are several things you can do to greatly reduce the amount of data your Windows 11 PC will collect and send back to Microsoft, while also enhancing your privacy.

[Read more…]

How to convert a bare hard drive or SSD into an external USB drive

Posted on July 18, 2025

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Hard drives and SSDs are dirt cheap these days when compared to the prices from times past, and SSDs that are large enough to actually be usable are now quite affordable.

That’s why so many people are choosing to simply replace the hard drives in their computers instead of buying an entire new PC.

If you’ve taken the plunge and replaced the hard drive in your computer with a larger and/or faster drive, you might be wondering what you can do with your old drive. [Read more…]

How to ask for a second opinion after a clean virus scan (and why you should)

Posted on July 16, 2025

Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?

Over the years I’ve worked on lots of computers that exhibited all the classic signs of a malware infection.

And as you might expect, many of the owners of those machines insisted that the problem couldn’t possibly be malware because they regularly scan their systems with antivirus programs.

But when I ran my own scans on those systems, I often discovered that they were indeed infected, some of them with dozens of viruses, spyware objects, malicious toolbars and other digital nasties.

How could that be? [Read more…]