Rick's Daily Tips

Windows 10: Free up wasted space by deleting the Windows.old folder

Posted on March 24, 2017

Did you upgrade your computer from an older version of Windows to Windows 10?

If so, your computer’s hard drive or SSD contains a Windows.old folder that contains the files from the previous Windows installation.

The storage space taken up by this now-unused folder is wasted space, but with today’s massive hard drives that isn’t really an issue for most users.

But that being said, it can be a very serious issue if your PC has a small hard drive or SSD that’s running out of available storage space. [Read more…]

Heads up: Microsoft will end support for Windows Vista on April 11

Posted on March 17, 2017

As you probably know, Microsoft continues to provide security updates for older versions of Windows for several years after the next version is released.

Unfortunately, they have to stop supporting those old Windows versions at some point in order to better focus their resources on developing and supporting newer versions of the operating system.

You might recall that Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP back in April 2014. Well, now it’s Vista’s turn.

The final security patches for Windows Vista will be released on April 11, after which there will be no more of them coming down the pike. That means Vista will essentially become an orphan on that date with Microsoft cutting it loose to survive in the wild on its own.

As always happens when Microsoft stops supporting an older version of Windows, it won’t take long for the hackers and scammers of the world to find and exploit previously undiscovered and unpatched security holes in the Vista framework.

What does all this mean? [Read more…]

Great news: You can now connect an external hard drive to your PlayStation 4!

Posted on March 10, 2017

Do you own a Sony PlayStation 4 game console?

If so, chances are you can’t install any more games because your PS4’s hard drive has run out of space.

It has always been possible to upgrade the hard drive in a PS4 with a little “minor surgery”, but now you don’t have to bother with replacing the internal drive at all.

Sony has just released a firmware update that adds external USB hard drive support to the PlayStation 4. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is ‘MightyText’ still sending notifications after I uninstalled it from my computer?

Posted on March 8, 2017

Question from Carol N.: I installed MightyText on my computer and used it for a few days but then decided I didn’t want to keep it.

I uninstalled it last night but it’s still sending me notifications telling me I’m not signed in to MightyText and that I might miss some messages.

Why am I still getting those notifications even though it’s no longer on my computer? Could it be a cookie or something that’s stored in Chrome?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Want faster Internet on your smart phone or tablet? Use Opera Mini!

Posted on March 8, 2017

If you use the standard web browser that came pre-installed on your smart phone, you’re wasting your time. And I mean that literally. That’s why you need Opera Mini.

Opera Mini is a lean, super-fast version of the popular Opera web browser that loads web pages and photos much faster than the standard mobile web browser.

It achieves these faster speeds by compressing all the images on a web page right on a dedicated Opera server, then sends the optimized pages to your phone. When you first click a link you’ll notice a slight delay while the server is optimizing the images, but then you’ll see the page load onto your screen in a jiffy. [Read more…]