Computer Tips Archives - Page 180 of 233

Why you should test your electronic gift items before wrapping them

Posted on December 20, 2016

There are few things in life as exciting as unwrapping an awesome gift, especially if it’s one that you’ve been wanting for a long time.

But there are also few things in life worse than opening a great gift only to find out that it doesn’t work! And that goes double if the recipient happens to be a child.

Yes, it’s true that you can (almost) always return a defective gift and exchange it for another one, but when you’re a kid on Christmas morning it can still be a huge let-down when you discover that your favorite gift is D.O.A. [Read more…]

Here’s an easy way to speed up your PC when it’s running multiple programs

Posted on November 28, 2016

Does your computer slow to a crawl when you’re running multiple programs or have several browser tabs open?

If so, I’ve been testing a nifty free download called Project Mercury that could help speed things up for you.

Project Mercury is a small, lightweight utility that automatically optimizes the way your computer’s CPU assigns the priority it gives to your PC’s open windows and browser tabs. [Read more…]

How to disable Web Search in the Windows 10 search box

Posted on November 17, 2016

Update: Windows 10 no longer allows you to opt out of including web results in your local searches so this post is now moot.

Original post continues below…

By default, the search box in Windows 10 will return search results for your query from both your local computer and the Internet.

As is typically the case, some folks love the integrated search feature, and others hate it.

Personally, I prefer to use the Windows search box just to search for items on my computer. For web searches, I prefer to use Google.

If you would prefer to keep your local and online searches separate as well, you can easily disable the Web Search feature in Windows 10. Here’s how: [Read more…]

How to prevent Microsoft from using Windows 10 to spy on you

Posted on November 8, 2016

Did you know that Microsoft uses your computer’s Windows 10 installation to spy on you?

Windows 10 has a “Telemetry and Data Collection” tool that gathers several kinds of user data from your PC and sends it back to Microsoft via the Internet.

Personally, I don’t much like that. [Read more…]

Scam alert: Web of Trust (WOT) browser extension caught selling sensitive user data to third parties

Posted on November 7, 2016

Another day, another scam. But I must admit that this one caught me by surprise.

The makers of the popular “Web of Trust” browser extension (aka WOT) have been caught collecting and selling sensitive user information to third party companies.

And when I say the information being sold is sensitive, well…check it out for yourself: [Read more…]