Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Keenan R.: My 3 year old ThinkPad X230 2320HQU laptop won’t charge the battery past 10% no matter how long I leave it plugged in.
If I try to use the laptop while it’s running from on battery, it shuts off after just a few seconds. It runs fine with the charger plugged in, the battery just refuses to charge up.
How can I tell whether the problem is caused by the battery or the charger? If possible, I need to get it fixed ASAP. Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
If you prefer using the Desktop instead of the Metro Start Screen in Windows 8, you might be wishing you had a shortcut to the ‘Computer’ dialog sitting right on the Desktop. Well, you can. and it’s very easy to set up. Here’s how:
1 – Right-click on the Windows 8 Desktop.
2 – Click Personalize.
3 – Click Change desktop icons.
4 – Check the box beside Computer and click Apply.
5 – Click Ok.
There are icons for several other familiar Windows features there as well. Feel free to check or uncheck the boxes as desired.
Toolbars are a veritable pain in the neck. Even the ones that don’t spy on your web activities, steal your personal information or hijack your web browsers slow down your system to a virtual snail’s pace.
Removing toolbars and other PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) can be both tedious and frustrating, but a nifty little free download called Junkware Removal Tool scans your system and automatically removes all traces of over a dozen of the worst junkware offenders, including: [Read more…]
To date, the Windows 10 Technical Preview has introduced a number of awesome new features that will likely be included in the upcoming commercial release of Windows 10, and one that I like quite a bit is the handy new Quick Access view in File Explorer.
In a nutshell, Quick Access view displays the most recently used files, folders and related data by default every time you open the File Explorer window. This really speeds up your work flow if you tend to use the same files and folders over and over again.
As mentioned above, I personally like the new Quick Access view, but plenty of others think it’s the worst thing since the introduction of Windows Vista. If you don’t particularly care for it either, you can easily turn it off. Here’s how: [Read more…]
If you’re like me, every now and then you need to take a quick peek at the Desktop, but you don’t want to have to go through the hassle of minimizing all the open Windows or losing track of what you’re doing after having to re-open them all.
If you’re using Windows 7, you can always click the Show Desktop icon or right-click on the taskbar and click Show the Desktop, but if all you need to do is take a quick peek at the Desktop, you can simply do the following: [Read more…]