Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: How do I rename my Chromecast devices?

Posted on October 15, 2015

Question from Autumn J.: I have two Chromecast devices. One of them is attached to a TV in the living room and the other is in my den.

Both of the Chromecasts have names that look very much alike when viewed on the Chromecast app, and that confuses my mom every time she comes over to spend the night with me (which she does frequently). She’s always choosing the wrong device and wondering why the TV isn’t working like it should.

I set up a cheap Android tablet for her to use to control the Chromecast devices. My question is how can I give both devices a distinctive name to make it easier for mom to choose the right Chromecast from the app?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Finally!! Windows 10 lets you paste into a Command Prompt window with CTRL-V.

Posted on October 10, 2015

Many of the tips I post on this blog require pasting content into a “Command Prompt” window.

That’s really no big deal because we could always right-click and then click Paste, but many of us prefer pasting with the much faster CTRL-V key combination.

The problem with Windows has always been that CTRL-V simply didn’t work at the Command Prompt. Instead, we had to paste using the mouse. [Read more…]

Q&A: Should I upgrade my Mac to OS X El Capitan?

Posted on October 8, 2015

Question from Carla T.: I have a 3 year old MacBook that’s running OS X Mavericks and my son has been bugging me about upgrading the OS X to El Capitan.

I’m hesitant to do that because everything is running great and I don’t want to mess anything up.

I’m really confused about what to do because I’ve heard horror stories about upgrades that go wrong and trash the system. Do you think I should upgrade or not?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Bad news for Microsoft: ‘Edge’ browser is largely being ignored by Windows 10 users

Posted on October 7, 2015

When Microsoft launched Windows 10 a couple of months ago, they also launched their brand new Edge web browser along with it.

I believe Microsoft’s decision to create a brand new browser from scratch instead of simply updating Internet Explorer for the 1,000th time was a good one.

Over the years I.E. had earned a reputation for sluggish performance, buggy code and dangerous insecurity, and I don’t thing the company would have ever been successful at rehabilitating that poor reputation. [Read more…]

Scottrade offering clients free identity protection services after being hacked

Posted on October 7, 2015

Investment firm Scottrade has announced that hackers have breached a database containing the personal information of approximately 4.6 million of their clients.

The company is claiming that the affected clients’ social security numbers and various other sensitive types of information doesn’t appear to have been compromised even though that info is contained in the breached database. [Read more…]