Rick's Daily Tips

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…]

Create a Homegroup in Windows for sharing files, folders and printers on your local network

Posted on March 5, 2017

Recent versions of Windows make it easy to create a Homegroup for easily sharing files, folders and printers with any or all of the PCs on your local network. In fact, it only takes a few mouse clicks and keystrokes to set one up.

Note: There are a couple of things to consider before you create your Homegroup and begin sharing your computer’s resources: [Read more…]

How to protect your Apple devices from malware attacks

Posted on March 4, 2017

Today I’m going to discuss the recent explosion in malware targeting Apple computers and mobile devices and give you a few tips for keeping your Apple gear malware-free.

For the longest time folks who used Mac computers and other Apple devices didn’t really have to worry that much about malware infecting their machines, but that has now changed. [Read more…]

If your computer is under warranty, keep your old RAM sticks after a memory upgrade

Posted on March 3, 2017

A while back I wrote a post explaining how adding RAM to your computer can give it a major speed boost, but I inadvertently left out a very important detail…

If your computer is still under warranty when you upgrade its RAM, make sure you keep any old memory sticks that you remove from the machine as part of the upgrade process.

That way if something happens and you have to send the computer in for a warranty repair, you can temporarily remove the new RAM sticks and re-install the original ones. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I stop my PC from rebooting at random times?

Posted on March 2, 2017

Question from Ben K.: I need your help with a problem with my Acer desktop computer.

I upgraded it from Windows 7 to Windows 10 a while back and ever since then the machine has been rebooting at random times.

I’ve tried doing several System Restores and even Refreshed my current Windows installation, but neither of those tasks have fixed the problem.

Can you please tell me what I need to do stop my PC from randomly rebooting? I need to get this fixed ASAP or else I’ll have no choice but to take it into a shop for repairs. Thanks so much for your assistance!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]