Rick's Daily Tips

Is your PC infected with a Rootkit virus? Here’s how to find out.

Posted on October 1, 2020

As you probably know, modern day malware comes in many forms.

Some varieties, such as adware, are often merely annoying.

But more malicious forms of malware can actually wreck your Windows installation and help hackers steal your identity and/or your valuable financial information.

A high-quality anti-virus program such as Avast can help keep your computer free of malware, but a special class of malware known as rootkits often goes undetected by regular virus scans.

Rootkits load into your computer’s memory before Windows even boots up, and that makes them especially difficult to find. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is Chrome using so much of my computer’s RAM?

Posted on September 29, 2020

Question from Keith: Hi Rick. I’m having a computer problem that I hope you can help me fix.

I have a Dell desktop computer that’s running Windows 10 Home.

This machine has 8GB of RAM which seems like it should be plenty, but I’ve started getting frequent “Low Memory” warnings.

When I open the Task Manager I see that there are over two dozen Chrome processes running, and every one of them is using a big chunk of of RAM.

Even if I only have a couple of Chrome tabs open I still see a bunch of Chrome processes eating up lots of RAM! Is this normal? If not, what can I do to fix it?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: FixMeStick Gold (hardware-based malware removal tool)

Posted on September 28, 2020

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Viruses, trojans and other malware infections are spreading like wildfire these days.

And as you probably know, all of those nasties can allow identity thieves and scammers to steal your info without you even knowing about it.

There are a number of excellent anti-malware programs out there that can rid your computer of most of these exploits, but some infections are so insidious that they won’t even allow Windows to boot up.

And even when Windows somehow manages to boot up, the malware that has taken control of your computer will often prevent your anti-virus program from loading into memory or running correctly. [Read more…]

How to protect the photos and videos on your phone from prying eyes

Posted on September 28, 2020

Do you have family photos or videos on your phone that you’d rather not share with just anyone who happens to pick up your phone?

Do you hate it when you let someone borrow your phone and they decide to take a peek at your photos before handing it back to you?

Or perhaps you worry about your phone getting lost or stolen, resulting in a total stranger gaining access to your personal images?

If so, there’s a great free Android app called Vaulty will let you put some or all of your photos and videos into a password-protected “vault”.

That way you can loan your phone to a friend (or even a stranger) without having to worry about them snooping around and seeing your private family snapshots and videos. [Read more…]

Opinion: The FBI shouldn’t be doing this…

Posted on September 27, 2020

Have you ever taken your computer into Best Buy to have their “Geek Squad” crew check it out and repair it if needed?

If so, the computer technician who worked on your machine probably searched your hard drive to see if there was any child pornography on it.

And guess what? Had they found some the FBI would likely have paid them to turn you in.

You’re probably thinking that having computer techs help the FBI catch people who create, distribute and view child pornography is a good thing, and I certainly don’t disagree. But I do believe it’s a very bad idea for the FBI to be paying them to do it. [Read more…]