Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Derick G.: I read a news report that indicated that Windows XP will become unusable when Microsoft abandons it this spring. I have a Dell Inspiron Mini 12 that’s running Windows XP Home Edition that still works like a champ.
What would you recommend that I do with this computer? Sell it? Scavenge it for spare parts? Just recycle it? I really have no idea how much it’s worth, either in whole or in parts.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Denise: Rick, I know it sounds silly but I sometimes have trouble locating my “Downloads” folder. I know, I can be a little dense at times lol.
I’d like to set it up so that all downloads go into a “Downloads” folder that’s located in the root of the C: drive where I can find it in a jiffy without having to think about it. How do I do that?
Rick’s answer: Hi Denise. I can understand why you might want to move your Downloads folder to another location, and there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t.
Follow these steps to change the location of your Downloads folder: [Read more…]
Question from Marc E.: Hi Rick. I hope you can help me with a keyboard issue that I’m struggling with on my Lenovo ThinkCentre 3493GPU desktop computer with Windows 7 Pro.
It all started when I downloaded a game on to the desktop PC for my 5 year old to play while I’m working on my laptop. Now the number keys on the numeric keypad won’t work. When I press a key the mouse cursor will move just a tiny bit, but nothing shows up on the screen. The rest of the keyboard works fine.
Whatever happened seems to have just affected the numeric keypad and nothing else. Even the number keys located above the letter keys are working.
Uninstalling the game didn’t help, and neither did a System Restore. Do you have any ideas about what I can do to fix this? Thanks in advance for your help.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Belinda C: Rick, I have a Nexus 7 that I absolutely LOVE except for the stupid, diabolical Auto-Correction that constantly slows me down and messes up my writing. Can you please, please, please tell me how to turn it off? Thanks!!!!!
By the way, I LOVE your blog!! It’s the first thing I look at when I get home from work every evening. Thanks for taking the time to help so many of us with our computer problems!
Rick’s answer: Thanks for the kind words about my tips Belinda. I truly enjoy doing whatever I can to help folks when they’re having trouble with their digital devices.
To answer your question, auto-correction is one of those features that most users either love to death or hate with a passion. It’s easy to see that you fall into the latter group. As luck would have it, it’s quite easy to disable auto-correction on the Nexus 7. Here’s how: [Read more…]
Question from Randy S.: I recently found out that my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet has an external microSD slot. I found a 4GB card in my desk that I had once used with a digital camera that no longer works, so I took it out and plugged it in.
The tablet recognizes the SD card as being installed, but I get an error message every time I try to save any files to it. Can you tell me what I need to do to get it to work?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]