Rick's Daily Tips

Tech Tips, Tricks and Tutorials

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Process Explorer – A powerful free replacement for the Windows Task Manager

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process-explorerThe native Windows Task Manager has long been the go-to utility when we need to see which programs are running on our PC or kill a “hung” process.

While Microsoft has really expanded the features and power of Task Manager in recent years, it still has some serious limitations.

Luckily, Microsoft also offers a free program called Process Explorer that takes the concept of the Task Manager to a whole new level.

Process Explorer displays every process currently running on your PC in an easy to visualize “tree” structure.  [Read more…]

You can immediately eliminate several of Facebook’s most irritating annoyances with ‘Social Fixer’

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Do you use Facebook on a laptop or desktop computer?

If so, you’re probably familiar with one or more of these common annoyances:

  • Facebook is constantly switching your Newsfeed from “Most Recent” to “Top Stories”
  • You keep seeing the same “Sponsored Posts” over and over again
  • Political posts (and the arguments they generate) get your blood boiling
  • You receive an important message from someone who isn’t on your friends list but Facebook hides it from you by placing it in the “New Message Requests” folder
  • One of your Facebook friends “unfriends” you but you don’t find out about it until much later because Facebook didn’t let you know that your friend had unfriended you

All of these annoyances (and many more) have irritated me at one time or another, and I’m guessing they’ve irritated you as well.

Luckily, there’s a very easy way to eliminate all of these Facebook annoyances and more in one fell swoop… [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I combine several short videos to create one long video?

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Question from Tina:  Our church hosted a gospel music festival over the weekend and I videoed the performances of eight groups, each of which sang several songs each.

There was a considerable gap between the performances so I stopped recording after each group had finished singing their last song.

That left me with eight relatively short videos instead of just long one.

How can I combine all of those short videos into one long video?

Rick’s answer:  [Read more…]

Q&A: Can you recommend a good Linux ‘Screen Recorder’ app that’s easy to use?

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Question from Earnie:  I’ve been following you on Facebook for a long time Rick, and I’ve learned a lot from the great info you post.

One post that really helped was the one where you basically said we need to ditch Windows 7 before January. I had no idea!

After reading that post and pondering my options for several days I finally took your advice and replaced the Windows 7 on my laptop with Linux Mint, and I believe it was a good move.

I checked your list of Linux replacements for Windows programs (very helpful, thanks!) for a screen recorder app but I didn’t see one listed.

I searched Google for Linux screen recorder apps and found several but all the ones I tried are too complicated for what I need.

All I need is a very simple app that can record everything that happens inside the active window.

Is there one that you can recommend?

Rick’s answer:  [Read more…]

‘Unchecky’ helps you avoid installing unwanted add-on software when installing free programs

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unchecky-logoAs regular readers of this blog already know, I’m a huge fan of free software. And thanks to the Internet there are thousands of great free programs available for instant download right onto our computers.

But truth be told, much of that “free” software isn’t actually free.

While it’s true that we can download tons of free programs without having to lay out any cash, we often end up paying in other ways.  [Read more…]

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