Rick's Daily Tips

How to avoid installing buggy Windows updates

Posted on February 11, 2023

As you probably know, Microsoft has released a lot of buggy Windows Updates in recent years.

In fact, numerous Windows 10 PCs were rendered either unstable or unable to boot up into Windows just by one recent buggy update.

I still recommend installing critical security updates as soon as possible in order to quickly patch “zero-day” security holes before hackers have a chance to exploit them to break into your system.

However, I no longer recommend installing non-critical updates until Microsoft has had time to squash any bugs that might be in the updates’ code. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I force Google to always show American search results?

Posted on February 10, 2023

Question from Brett: I need your help with something if you don’t mind, Rick.

I travel frequently on business, often to other countries (mostly to western Europe but occasionally to South and Central America as well).

The problem I’m having is every time I click on my bookmark to load Google it takes me to the Google site for whichever country I’m in at the time.

I really need for my browser to load the Google search results for the United States at all times because only those results are relevant to the research I do for my job.

Do you know of a way to force Google to always show the American search results no matter which country I’m in at the time? [Read more…]

Blog stats: The differences between Hits, Page Views and Visits

Posted on February 9, 2023

Many new bloggers take a look at their blog’s traffic stats and become confused while viewing the stats for “Hits”, “Page Views” and “Visits”.

Even worse, they often become more confused when they see other bloggers/webmasters bragging about how many “hits” their sites receive every month.

If you find all of this traffic terminology confusing as well, I’ll try to clear it all up for you with this post. [Read more…]

8 tips to make remote learning and video conferencing safe

Posted on February 9, 2023

Most educators can’t imagine their daily lives without video conferencing. It’s useful for everything from online lectures to sprint meetings for the whole team.

Because of its design, it can reach more students without requiring them to be physically present in classrooms. However, keeping outsiders out of video conferencing is just as crucial. [Read more…]

Q&A: Is Microsoft Defender just as good as other antivirus apps?

Posted on February 8, 2023

Question from Darryl: I have always understood Windows’ built-in “Microsoft Defender” antivirus app to be inferior to other antivirus programs.

But yesterday I heard that might no longer be the case.

What’s your opinion about Microsoft Defender?

Is it really just as good as the third-party antivirus programs that are being sold today?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]