Computer Tips Archives - Page 3 of 151

Things to consider before taking your ailing computer to a repair shop

Posted on December 4, 2018

If you own a computer, chances are there will come a time when it will need to be repaired or tuned up a bit.

For example, you might start hearing strange noises or your most-used apps start crashing.

Or perhaps the system might start shutting down at random times or other irritating things begin to happen.

When something out of the ordinary pops up you’ll need to evaluate the situation and determine how you need to proceed.

I’m often asked whether a given computer should be repaired, or simply scrapped and replaced with a new laptop or desktop PC. This is my usual reply: [Read more…]

100 Million Quora users affected by massive data breach

Posted on December 4, 2018

Do you use the “Question & Answer” site Quora?

If so, you should know that your account might well have been compromised.

Quora has just announced that hackers have gained access to their system and stolen the personal information of up to 100 million users.

The full extent of the damage is yet to be determined, but here’s a list of the types of info that are already known to have been compromised: [Read more…]

How to back up (and restore) the Windows Registry

Posted on December 3, 2018

Many of the tips I post on this site involve editing the Windows Registry, and the first step of the procedure always explains how to create a backup of the Registry before proceeding on to the actual “tip”.

It occurred to me earlier today that I should probably make the steps for backing up and restoring the Registry a tip in its own right.

I recommend that you always make a backup of the Registry before you attempt to make any changes to it. That way if something goes wrong you’ll be able to restore it to it’s previous (working) state.

Luckily, it’s very easy to make a backup of the Windows Registry. Just follow the steps below: [Read more…]

Amazon’s new ‘PartFinder’ tool will tell you if a computer part will work with your computer

Posted on December 3, 2018

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 now introduced a handy tool that can help.

[Read more…]

How to make sure you always get the most current search results from Google

Posted on December 3, 2018

Have you ever done a Google search on a topic only to discover that most of the search results consisted of pages that were created years ago?

That isn’t always a problem when searching for “facts” because many facts just don’t change over time.

For example, if you type largest planet in our solar system into Google, the answer you receive should be Jupiter whether the article you click on was written in 1998 or 2018. After all, Jupiter hasn’t gotten smaller and the other planets haven’t grown in a very long time.

On the other hand, if you search for latest medical research some of the pages returned by Google could possibly be woefully out of date.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to ensure that your Google search results are at least fairly current. [Read more…]