Rick's Daily Tips

Microsoft admits they went too far in pushing Windows 10 onto their customers

Posted on December 26, 2016

For many Windows users, the biggest frustration of 2016 was having to fight Microsoft tooth and nail just to prevent their PCs from being automatically upgraded to Windows 10.

As you probably remember, the company was determined to get as many users to “accept” the free upgrade to Windows 10 as possible during the free upgrade period.

They kept getting more aggressive by the day as the calendar approached the end of the free upgrade period on July 29, and it finally got to a point where I asked if the “Get Windows 10” app hadn’t actually morphed into the realm of malware.

A lot of people agreed that the app had indeed morphed into malware, but many of the tech experts and pundits that I follow disagreed even though the evidence was quite compelling.

Well, it turns out I was right, and Microsoft themselves just admitted it (in a round-about way). [Read more…]

Q&A: Why did Windows install over 160 updates after I re-installed it?

Posted on December 24, 2016

Question from Marisol F.: My laptop got a virus and I had to re-install Windows 7 on it. After it finished over 160 Windows Updates were installed.

Is this normal? I’ve never seen anywhere near that many updates installed at one time before. Do you think I need to re-install Windows again?

This is the first time I’ve ever had to do this so I’m a little confused.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Do you own a Netgear router? If so, it could be vulnerable to hackers.

Posted on December 22, 2016

A recently discovered serious flaw in the firmware of several Netgear router models can potentially allow hackers to break into an affected router and cause all kinds of mischief.

As far as security researchers can tell, a potential hacker must have your help to gain entry to your router, but all that’s required is for you to click a bad link in an email.

(This is yet another reason to think twice before clicking ANY link in an email!)

Although the list of routers that are affected by this flaw could grow, here are the models known to be affected at this time: [Read more…]

Review: Site 5 VPS Web Hosting

Posted on December 21, 2016

When I built my first website back in 2003 I was pretty much in over my head. Even though it was a very basic site, I still found myself struggling with most every aspect of building and maintaining it.

One of the things I struggled with the most was choosing a good web hosting company. I tried a number of hosting companies and plans over the next couple of years, and finally found one that gave me the support I needed as I expanded the site and began to build more traffic to it. That company was Hostgator, and I can honestly say they are great!

As I learned more and built more websites and kept adding content to them, the traffic my sites were receiving on a daily basis began to grow exponentially. It soon became apparent that I desperately needed to move my sites onto a dedicated server. I chose the most economical plan that Hostgator offered, and was quite pleased with the results. [Read more…]

Why you should test your electronic gift items before wrapping them

Posted on December 20, 2016

There are few things in life as exciting as unwrapping an awesome gift, especially if it’s one that you’ve been wanting for a long time.

But there are also few things in life worse than opening a great gift only to find out that it doesn’t work! And that goes double if the recipient happens to be a child.

Yes, it’s true that you can (almost) always return a defective gift and exchange it for another one, but when you’re a kid on Christmas morning it can still be a huge let-down when you discover that your favorite gift is D.O.A. [Read more…]