Rick's Daily Tips

Speed up your PC by replacing the hard drive with an SSD

Posted on July 27, 2021

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In a previous post I discussed how adding RAM to your PC would give you the biggest bang for the buck when upgrading your computer.

Adding RAM has always been one of the most cost effective ways to speed up a PC, and it still is.

Today I’m going to tell you about an equally amazing upgrade that will definitely speed up your computer and hurtle it right into the fast lane! [Read more…]

Scam Alert: Beware of fake confirmation emails for online purchases

Posted on July 26, 2021

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Well, the Internet shopping era is here to stay, and more shoppers are now buying online than ever.

And in my opinion, all things considered, that’s a good thing.

But that being said, you should know that scammers are constantly coming out of the virtual woodwork to try to separate you from your hard-earned money. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I connect a TV to a laptop that doesn’t support HDMI?

Posted on July 26, 2021

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Question from Kevin: I have an older Lenovo Thinkpad T520 laptop that I’d like to hook up to a spare 40 inch flat panel TV that I’m not using so I can watch Netflix on a larger screen.

The problem is the Thinkpad T520 doesn’t have an HDMI port and the TV doesn’t have a VGA connector.

Is there any way to add an HDMI port to this laptop so I can connect my TV to it?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Why it’s best to connect your computer to a printer via USB instead of WiFi

Posted on July 26, 2021

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I’ll admit it. Wireless printers that allow you to print via WiFi instead of having to connect a cable sure are handy.

After all, who wants to run a long USB cable into every room where you occasionally use your laptop?

And if you print from your phone or tablet then using WiFi is a no-brainer.

But what if you only use a desktop computer or you always use your laptop in the same place every time?

If you don’t need to print from a mobile device you’d be a lot better off connecting your printer to your computer with a USB cable instead of WiFi.

There are several reasons why this is true: [Read more…]

How to (almost) always get the most recent results for a Google search

Posted on July 25, 2021

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Have you ever done a Google search on a topic only to discover that most of the search results consisted of pages that were created years ago?

That isn’t always a problem when searching for “facts” because many facts just don’t change over time.

For example, if you type largest planet in our solar system into Google, the answer you receive should be Jupiter whether the article you click on was written in 1998 or 2021. After all, Jupiter hasn’t gotten smaller and the other planets haven’t grown any larger.

On the other hand, if you search for latest medical research some of the pages returned by Google could possibly be woefully out of date.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to ensure that your Google search results are at least fairly recent… [Read more…]