Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Hailley: Hi, Rick. I’ve been reading your blog for a good while now and I love your tips!
I’ve noticed that you often recommend using free antivirus software instead of one of the expensive paid programs.
I really like the idea of using free software whenever possible, but I want to make sure my laptop is protected from all the nasty viruses that are out there these days.
My question: Are the free antivirus programs really just as good as the ones you pay for? [Read more…]
One of my Facebook friends recently asked me what a person should do if their Facebook account gets hacked.
I answered her in a Facebook post but then thought it might be a good idea to post it on the blog as well.
The first thing you need to do is determine whether your account has indeed been hacked, or merely cloned. [Read more…]
Question from Danita.: I bought a used laptop from a friend a while back and it had Microsoft Office on it.
When I asked him if he had the installation disk he said he had downloaded it from a site that gives away programs for free.
The hard drive in the laptop stopped working a few days ago and I had to have it replaced.
Can you give me the link to the page where I can download MS Office for free? [Read more…]
Question from Carla G.: I have a WordPress blog and a while back I read your post explaining why we should write our blog posts using an “Editor” account instead of the “Administrator” account.
I set up a new account with the Editor role as you suggested and I’ve been logging into that account to do my writing ever since.
Yesterday I happened to notice that my old posts still have the Author name that corresponds to the Administrator account that I no longer use when writing my posts.
I’d like to change the Author of those old posts to my other name and I can’t find a way to do it anywhere on the “Edit Post” screen. I know there has to be a way to do it though. [Read more…]
Question from Luisa: I’m hoping you can clear something up for me.
I’ve heard some people say we need to stop using Windows 7 now that Microsoft has stopped updating it because it’s no longer safe.
Others are saying it’s perfectly fine to keep using it as long as the computer has an antivirus on it.
This is really confusing to me.
My HP laptop is old but it still works fine even though it has Windows 7 on it. I really hate the thought of having to replace it, but I will if it’s really unsafe to use.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]