Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Intocircuit Portable Charger 26000mAh External Battery Pack

Posted on July 1, 2018

I’ve been testing and writing about external battery packs for mobile devices for years, but the typical model is only good for three or four charges of a smart phone, at most.

What’s more, if you want to recharge multiple devices at once, you’re simply out of luck!

But now there’s something a lot more powerful than the typical portable charger.

Put simply, the Intocircuit Portable Charger PC26000 is a high power / high capacity external battery pack and charger that will charge multiple devices all at the same time. [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it safe to keep using a hard drive after doing a low-level format to lock out bad sectors?

Posted on June 29, 2018

Question from Tom J.: I have a 4TB Seagate external hard drive that recently came down with a bunch of bad sectors even though it’s only about 2 years old.

A friend of mine said I could do a low level format of the drive to lock out the bad sectors and the rest of the drive would work just fine.

What’s your opinion on this? I hate to just trash a drive that large when it still has most of its capacity available, but I don’t want to risk losing my files either.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to install a PDF printer on your Windows 10 PC

Posted on June 26, 2018

Did you know that Windows 10 includes a native PDF printer?

Well, it does, and it’s typically installed by default when the Windows installation is created.

To save a document in most any program/app as a PDF file you would simply select Print to PDF (or something similar) from the Print dialog.

However, for whatever reason the default Microsoft PDF printer isn’t installed along with Windows 10 on every PC.

You’ll know that’s the case with your computer if you don’t see the “Print to PDF” option when you click File>Print or press Ctrl–P.

Luckily, it’s very easy to install the default Microsoft PDF Printer on your Windows 10 machine if wasn’t installed along with Windows. Just follow these steps: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I remove the Avast ads from the footer of my sent emails?

Posted on June 26, 2018

Question from Adam G.: I’ve been using Avast Antivirus for a few months, and for the most part I really like it. I know you use it too, so I thought you might be able to help me solve a problem I’m having with it.

I was just tipped off by one of my customers that Avast is placing what is essentially an ad promoting their software into the footer of my outgoing emails.

I actually don’t mind the ad in my personal emails since Avast allows me to use their software for free, but I don’t like them showing up in my business emails. How can I remove them?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Afraid to install the awesome DD-WRT firmware on your router? No problem – buy one with it already on it!

Posted on June 25, 2018

Do you enjoy keeping up with the latest in technology?

If so, you probably know that replacing your router’s proprietary firmware with the free open-source DD-WRT firmware could possibly increase your Wi-Fi speed, extend your wireless range and make your wireless connection more stable.

That being said, you might also be afraid to install DD-WRT on your own expensive router because of the very real chance that you might accidentally “brick” it.

Well, now you can actually buy an awesome wireless router that comes from the factory with DD-WRT already installed! [Read more…]