Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
If you’re like me you probably have several old flash memory devices laying around. In fact, I have three USB thumb drives and two SD memory cards sitting on my desk at this very moment.
Do they all work without having any dead memory cells? They sure do, and I know that for a fact because I just tested them with a great free download called Flash Drive/Card Tester.
Flash Drive/Card Tester is extremely easy to download and use. Here’s how: [Read more…]
Did you purchase an Nvidia Shield tablet between July 2014 and July 2015? If so, it might have just been recalled.
The tablets affected by the recall contain defective batteries that can potentially over-heat and cause a fire.
83,000 of the recalled tablets were sold in the United States. The remaining 5,000 were sold in Canada.
Nvidia is asking everyone who owns a Shield tablet that was purchased during the time-frame mentioned above to follow the steps below to determine if your unit is subject to the recall: [Read more…]
The web is filled with all kinds of adware, spyware, and junkware, and unwanted toolbars are among the biggest culprits.
And as any seasoned Windows user knows, removing some unwanted software programs is about as easy as swan-diving through the eye of a needle.
Luckily, an awesome free download called Browser Cleaner makes it easy to remove virtually all common toolbars and junkware from your PC, regardless of how stubborn they might be. Here’s how to use it: [Read more…]
Question from Devona T.: Hi Rick. I have what is probably the silliest question you have ever heard. Where in the world can I find the Windows Product Key on my HP laptop?
I have owned four other laptops prior to this one and they have always had the Windows Product Key printed on a label on the bottom of the case. But this one doesn’t have it printed anywhere as far as I can tell, and I’ve looked everywhere!
I want to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 so I need the Product Key. Can you please, please, please tell me where to find it? I have already created my Recovery Media.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Update: Facebook has removed the setting to prevent strangers from contacting you, making both this question and my answer moot.
I recommend that you read this post that explains why privacy simply doesn’t exist on Facebook.
Original post continues below…
Question from Hanna C: I used to have my Facebook settings configured to block people who aren’t my friends from sending me messages, but somehow that has got changed and I’ve started getting messages from people I don’t know.
I can’t figure out how to find that setting anymore. Can you tell me where it is?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]