Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Is it safe to keep my laptop plugged in all the time?

Posted on April 13, 2025

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Question from Chris: I’ve asked this question of several people who should know and received several conflicting answers.

I guess this is one of those things that boils down more to opinion than science.

I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now and I think you really know what you’re talking about, so I thought I’d ask your opinion on it.

[Read more…]

Scam alert: Don’t fall for this dangerous gift card/debit card scam

Posted on April 12, 2025

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As you probably know, scammers are coming at you from every direction these days.

I try my best to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest scams that are making the rounds, and there’s a very dangerous recurring scam involving gift cards and debit cards that a lot of kind-hearted individuals are falling for yet again this year.

As usual, there are several variations of this scam but they all depend on the scammer gaining the victim’s trust over time. [Read more…]

This Windows service is spying on you (but you can stop it)

Posted on April 12, 2025

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By default, a sneaky Windows service that’s constantly running on your PC watches your every move and sends the data it collects about your computer usage back to Microsoft.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of serious issues with this… [Read more…]

Scam alert: Beware the dangerous ‘Blank Images’ email scam

Posted on April 11, 2025

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As you probably know, the scammers of the world are getting sneakier by the day.

One of the latest scams that’s making the rounds right now consists of a mostly blank email with a line stating some variation of the following:

“If you can’t see the images below, click here.“

In all the scam emails the words “click here” will be hyperlinked to a malicious web page.

[Read more…]

Two ways to quickly view the Desktop in Windows 11

Posted on April 10, 2025

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If you’ve recently switched to Windows 11 from a previous Windows version you’ve probably noticed that the little “Show Desktop” icon that used to be located beside the Start button is no longer there.

The folks at Microsoft really love making changes just for the sake of making changes, and this one is a real head scratcher.

The thing is, Windows 11 still has a “Show Desktop” icon. They’ve simply moved it to the far right-hand side of the Taskbar and changed its appearance a bit. And depending on your settings, it could actually be hidden from view.

Here’s how make sure the “Show Desktop” icon is enabled on your Windows 11 PC… [Read more…]