Rick's Daily Tips

Clean out and speed up your computer with CCleaner

Posted on April 12, 2018

I love free software that helps me complete my daily tasks and keep my PC running fast and smooth, and my absolute favorite is CCleaner from Piriform, a great company that produces some of the best software out there, free or otherwise.

In a nutshell, CCleaner is like a vaccum cleaner for the file system of your Windows PC.

Running this powerful tool on a regular basis will keep your system clear of clutter such as temporary files, recent documents, cookies, obsolete form data, download history…in fact most any “leftovers” that tend to build up and clutter up your hard drive and slow down your machine. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my PC boot up with new RAM sticks installed?

Posted on April 8, 2018

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Question from Seth: I need help with a RAM upgrade issue, Rick.

My computer came with 4GB of RAM already installed (two 2GB sticks). It has two empty RAM slots open.

I bought two 8GB RAM sticks and installed them in the empty slots.

When I try to start up the PC with the new RAM sticks installed, I hear a beeping sound and an error message comes up on the screen.

If I remove the new RAM sticks and leave the old sticks installed the computer boots up OK.

What can be causing the computer not to boot up with the new RAM sticks installed? Thanks.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Microsoft adds Ransomware protection to Office 365 Personal users’ OneDrive storage

Posted on April 6, 2018

Ransomware is a type of virus that encrypts all the data on your computer’s hard drive or SSD and then demands that you pay a ransom to a hacker in exchange for the decryption key.

In other words, it holds your files and data hostage until you pony up the amount demanded for the ransom.

And the danger is very real. In fact, ransomware attacks are now one of the most common types of malware attacks being perpetrated on the public. [Read more…]

6 of my favorite websites and blogs: How many of them do you read?

Posted on April 5, 2018

As you well know, the Internet is a massive repository of information on virtually any topic you can think of.

In a nutshell, whatever it might be that interests you, you’re sure to find plenty of websites and blogs that cover it in various levels of detail.

Like you, I have a short list of favorite places on the web that I visit regularly for the latest news, information and tips on the topics that interest me the most.

I thought you might be interested in some of them, so I have listed my top six favorites below (and surprise – not all of them are tech related): [Read more…]