Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why can’t I remove the Antivirus app from my computer?

Posted on February 15, 2025

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Question from Dale: Hi, Rick. I have a problem that I hope you can help me with.

I just bought a new antivirus app for our computers. I read your post about only running one antivirus app at a time and I’m trying to uninstall AVG Antivirus before installing the new program.

I was able to remove AVG from my wife’s computer with no problems at all, but when I try to uninstall it from my laptop it gives me an error and the uninstall fails.

Can you tell me what I need to do to remove AVG from my computer? [Read more…]

Did you know everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook is searchable?

Posted on February 14, 2025

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You might not be aware of this, but Facebook’s search feature is quite powerful and extremely thorough in the way it conducts its searches.

As a matter of fact, virtually every public post, comment and photo you have ever placed on Facebook will come up in another user’s search results unless you have your privacy settings configured to prevent it. [Read more…]

Q&A: Do surge suppressors actually work?

Posted on February 13, 2025

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Ana: I bought a new iMac from Best Buy a couple of years ago.

I also bought a surge suppressor to go with it because the salesman said it would prevent the computer from being damaged by lightning.

We had a thunderstorm last night and our power went off. It came back on a couple of hours later but now my TV, dishwasher and iMac are all dead. None of them will do anything when I turn them on.

My question is, do surge suppressors really work?

[Read more…]

Q&A: Is it ok to use Gmail for my business email?

Posted on February 12, 2025

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Question from Gabe: I recently retired after a long career in public service and I’m planning to start a second career as a professional photographer.

I’ve already lined up a few shoots through word-of-mouth but I’m planning to put up a business page on Facebook and have some business cards printed to promote my photography services.

The question I have is do I need a private email address (something like [email protected] where example.com is my own domain name) or will a Gmail address suffice?

[Read more…]

Q&A: How do I set Google Play to only auto-update apps over Wi-Fi?

Posted on February 12, 2025

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Question from Kara: I have an Android phone that loves to auto-update my apps over my cellular data connection without any warning.

The problem is I sometimes use up my data allotment before the month runs out.

I realize that downloading app updates doesn’t use up a lot of data, but they do use some, right?

How can I set my phone to only auto-update my apps when I’m connected to Wi-Fi? [Read more…]