Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Rheta: For some reason Microsoft Defender quarantined one of my important work files on my Windows 11 laptop, apparently thinking it’s a virus (it isn’t).
I really need to get that file back. Can you tell me how to “unquarantine” it? [Read more…]
Question from Darren: I love your blog Rick, especially the questions and answers section.
I hope you can help me solve a problem I’ve been having ever since I replaced my old computer with one running Windows 10.
I use two printers with my computer. The first one is an Epson inkjet that I use every now and then to print photos. The other is a Brother laser printer that I use to print most everything else.
With Windows 7 I could leave the laser printer as the default printer, then switch to the inkjet manually on the rare occasions when I needed to use it. But with Windows 10, every time I print to either printer, that printer gets set as the default printer.
I really want the laser printer to remain as the default and switch to the inkjet manually when I need it. Is there any way to stop Windows 10 from changing the default printer without my permission? [Read more…]
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Question from Milo: I really like your site, Rick. It’s easy to tell that you put a lot of work into it.
I’ve been following you for several months now and I always learn something every time I visit your blog.
I hope you don’t mind but I finally have a question of my own that I need to ask you.
Do you have a smartphone? If so, it probably has dozens of apps installed on it.
Some of those apps were likely installed manually by you, but most of them probably came pre-installed on your phone from the factory.
Most of your phone’s installed apps have one thing in common: They’re constantly sending data to and receiving data from remote servers located in various parts of the world.
This isn’t usually a problem for most users, but if you happen to have a cellular contract with a limited data plan it can be a huge problem for you. [Read more…]
As you probably know, Microsoft is constantly making subtle changes to the Windows user interface.
And as you also probably know, some of those changes make more sense than others.
In fact, some changes make you scratch your head and wonder just what the folks up in Redmond were thinking when they decided to make them.
One of the biggest head-scratchers of all is Microsoft’s decision to remove the Control Panel from the Start Button’s right-click menu (the menu that pops up when you right-click on the Start button) starting with Windows 10. [Read more…]