Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Freida G.: I need your help Rick. I read your article explaining how to uninstall unwanted apps in Windows 8 and I decided to delete a few of them to tidy up my Start Screen.
While removing the apps that I figured I’d never use, I accidentally deleted the Weather app – which I love! How can I get it back?
I love your site by the way. Your tips have helped me so much!!! Thank you!!!
Ricks’s answer: [Read more…]
It’s no secret that new models of the most popular tech items are released virtually every day. That makes it virtually impossible to always own the latest and greatest computer, smart phone or tablet for more than just a short while.
Think about it or a moment. The last time you bought an electronic device, just how long was it before you found out that a newer model had just released? My guess is it was just a few months, and possibly even just weeks.
The gadget manufacturers of the world know that the only way to keep making money hand over fist is to keep selling new gadgets to existing customers. To that end, they keep producing an endless stream of new models that offer more features, faster CPUs, more memory, and other real (but not necessarily important) enhancements.
The question is, do those new features and capabilities justify replacing a perfectly good, fully operational device? Or if you’re buying a new device ouright, is it worth the extra cash you’d have to lay out in order to come home with the latest and greatest model? [Read more…]
Question from Mina L.: I recently looked up the Whois information for my blog’s domain name and noticed that the nameservers pretty much tell everyone which web hosting company I use.
With all the hacking that’s going on these days, I’d rather keep my web host (among other things) a secret if at all possible.
I heard that Godaddy will let you create private nameservers based upon your own domain name, but I can’t find a link or a tool in my Godaddy account to do that. Can you tell me where to go in my Godaddy Control Panel to create my private nameservers?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Do you install all Windows Updates as soon as possible after they are released?
I do, because I believe that’s the best way to keep a PC safe from hackers by patching security holes in the operating system before they can be exploited.
That being said, every once in a while a buggy update can actually cause a problem instead of fix one. That seems to be the case with one of the Windows Updates that was released this past Tuesday. [Read more…]
Question from Darcy L.: Hi Rick. I have a dilemma that I hope you can help me solve. My mom’s wireless router died the other day so I went to Office Depot and bought her a new one.
When I got back to mom’s house and tried to install the new router the instructions said I need to plug it into a computer and use the computer to set it up.
The problem is she doesn’t have a computer. She had a desktop PC for years, but when it died she decided to just use her email and Facebook on her phone and not replace the computer. So here we are with a new router and no computer to set it up with. Is there any way to set up the router using her iPhone 4s?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]