Rick's Daily Tips

ReactOS – Another alternative for replacing Windows on an older PC

Posted on July 26, 2018

A while back I wrote this post about how replacing the now-abandoned older versions of Windows (such as XP and Vista) with Linux can give an older Windows PC a new lease on life.

I’ve received a lot of great feedback from that post from readers who have given Linux a try. Most of them seem to be happy with it, but many others not so much.

Several folks from the “not so much” group have asked me if there’s a non-Linux alternative to Windows that will actually run Windows programs instead of generic Linux-based alternatives.

Well, as it turns out the answer is yes. [Read more…]

Review: Azulle Byte 3 Fanless Mini PC with Windows 10 Pro

Posted on July 21, 2018

As technology advances,manufacturers keep on packing more and more power into ever-smaller packages.

Truth be told, even the cheapest mobile devices on the market today are several times more powerful than the original IBM PC was back when it was introduced.

In case you haven’t noticed, this incredible “smaller but more powerful” dynamic is now beginning to reshape the desktop computer market as well.

Every generation of desktop computers shrinks the size/power ratio even more, and now we actually have smaller than brick-sized PCs that rival their much larger counterparts.

A perfect case-in-point is the tiny, yet surprisingly capable Azulle Byte 3 Fanless Mini PC. (#ad)

As this photo shows, I can literally hold the Byte 3 in the palm of my hand: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I download the Windows 10 Lock Screen images to my hard drive?

Posted on July 18, 2018

Question from Rhonda A.: Hi Rick. I have a question for you.

I recently bought a new computer and I just love the pictures that Windows 10 puts on the Lock Screen.

Is there any way to copy those pictures to my hard drive so I can use them as background images? I tried right-clicking on them and that doesn’t bring up a menu or anything.

If you don’t know of a way to do this it’s ok. Thanks for your help.

Rick’s answer: I love those Lock Screen images too, Rhonda. And yes, there is indeed a way to copy them to your hard drive.

There’s a neat little free app in the Windows Store that was designed specifically to download Windows Spotlight photos to your hard drive.

It’s called SpotBright, and here’s how to install and use it: [Read more…]

How to install a Solid State Drive (SSD) in your laptop

Posted on July 18, 2018

A while back I wrote a post explaining the benefits of replacing your hard drive with a Solid State Drive (aka SSD).

Of course the greatest benefit is the amazing speed increase you’ll gain by replacing your hard drive’s spinning platters and read/write heads with an SSD’s lightning-fast memory chips.

You might recall that in that post I recommended paying a PC Tech to swap out the drives for you, but since then I’ve had a couple of emails from folks who really wanted to try upgrading their laptops themselves, prompting me to decide to write this post explaining the procedure.

But before we get to that, if your laptop was made in such a way that the entire case has to be partially disassembled in order to access the hard drive, I still strongly recommend that you hire a qualified PC tech to remove the hard drive and install the SSD for you. Just sayin’.

On the other hand, if your laptop’s drive bay is easily accessible via a small removable cover you can swap out the drives out yourself. Just follow the instructions below.

[Read more…]

Get this handy TP-LINK Wireless Travel Router at a great price

Posted on July 15, 2018

A while back I wrote a post explaining why it’s a good idea to take along a power strip when you travel.

But what I forgot to mention is that it’s also a good idea to have a wireless travel router (#ad) available as well for those times when your hotel room only has a wired Ethernet connection and or spotty Wi-Fi. [Read more…]