Rick's Daily Tips

Scam alert: Don’t fall for this fake Microsoft ‘Tech Support’ scam

Posted on June 25, 2024

There’s an old scam that keeps popping up from time to time, and I’m hearing lots of reports that it’s spreading like wildfire at the moment.

A while back I wrote a post explaining that neither Microsoft nor Apple will call you to let you know that your machine has a virus.

And they won’t, so if you get a call like that from out of the blue you should know right off the bat that the call is a scam. Just hang up on them.

But now there’s a quickly spreading variation of that scam that’s costing a lot of folks a lot of money and causing tons of grief to boot.

[Read more…]

How to instantly view the browser history in any browser

Posted on June 24, 2024

All major web browsers maintain a list of the web pages you have visited in the past. This list is called the “Browser History”.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to view your browser history (or someone else’s), so knowing how to do it is sure to come in handy at some time in the future.

[Read more…]

6 tips for speeding up a sluggish Windows PC

Posted on June 24, 2024

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Do you ever find yourself wishing your computer wasn’t running like a snoozing slug?

Have you noticed that it now runs a lot slower than it did when you first bought it?

As you probably know, computers tend to slow down over time due to clutter on the hard drive and other software-related issues.

This is simply a fact of life, especially with Windows-based machines. [Read more…]

How (and why) to run Windows’ Disk Cleanup tool

Posted on June 23, 2024

Over time Windows PCs can gather a lot of clutter, and all that junk takes up valuable disk space.

And on rare occasions it can cause the Windows installation itself to slow down and become unstable.

As you can see, it’s very important to keep your machine as free of clutter as possible.

Luckily, all recent versions of Windows come with a handy tool called Disk Cleanup that will quickly and easily remove most of the accumulated digital clutter for you. All you have to do is run it. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Why you need to lock down your email account tight

Posted on June 23, 2024

Have you ever stopped to consider just how important your email account is?

Like most people you probably use email to send messages to friends and family members and receive updates from the various services you’ve signed up for.

But did you know that your email account is one of the most import online accounts you’ll ever use?

In fact, after your online banking and other financial accounts, your email account is probably THE most important account you have. [Read more…]