Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Picking up a malware infection with your PC is almost as easy as counting to 1 these days, but if you bought a Lenovo machine recently it quite possibly was infected with adware before it ever left the factory!
It has recently come to light that some Lenovo desktop, laptop and Windows tablet PCs were shipped with the Superfish adware app already pre-installed. This takes the concept of junkware to an entirely new level! [Read more…]
When a program is installed on a computer, bits and pieces of the installation are placed in several places on the hard drive. This is typical of the way most modern operating systems work, and for the most part it works well.
The problem with this “distributed installation” approach occurs when the programs are uninstalled and removed from the system. The built-in unistallers typically leave behind remnants of the installation that clog up the hard drive and can potentially create system instability issues. [Read more…]
As they have with previous versions of Windows, Microsoft decided to hide “known” file extensions by default in Windows 8.1.
Why they would ever think it’s a good idea to hide them is beyond me, but of course the guys and gals in Redmond have had me scratching my head in wonder for years.
In addition to making it difficult to determine a file’s “type” while viewing it in a list, hiding file extensions also makes it easier for hackers to trick us into opening malicious files. Not a good thing!
As luck would have it, it’s very easy to prevent Windows 8.1 from hiding file extensions. Just follow these steps: [Read more…]
In today’s digital world, many of us have multiple gadgets such as smart phones, tablets and other portable devices that are powered via USB-style battery chargers. And that, of course, means we have lots of chargers on hand.
A good wall-powered multi-port charger can simply life considerably by replacing several chargers with just one.
Today I’m going to tell you about an incredible and inexpensive charger that I believe you’ll really love. [Read more…]
USB flash drives have made the process of transferring files between one PC and another the easiest that it has ever been. Simply plug the drive into one PC, copy the desired files to it, then plug it into the 2nd PC and copy the files to the hard drive. It’s a fast and easy process.
But this convenience comes at a high potential cost. Plug a thumb drive into a computer that’s infected with a virus and that virus can hitch a free ride right onto your own PC’s hard drive. [Read more…]