Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Beverly K.: Hi there Rick. I need some help. All of a sudden my computer started doing some odd things when I press certain key combinations.
My daughter took a look at it, and she said she believes the keyboard is set to use British English instead of American English. How do I change it back? I’m using Windows 7 if that makes a difference. Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Another day, another major hack. This time the victims were folks who shopped at one of the company’s 1,400 brick and mortar retail stores during much of 2014.
If you shopped at a Staples retail store between April and October 2014 and paid for your purchase(s) with a credit or debit card, I recommend that you check this list carefully to see if your store had its Point of Sale System hacked. It very well could have. [Read more…]
Question from Roger: Rick, I’ve had DSL through Verizon for 3 years with no problems whatsoever till 3 days ago when I installed a new FAX machine. Whenever the FAX machine is connected to the phone line my Internet stops working until I unplug it.
Before I bought this FAX machine I’d never had one connected to my phone line before. I’d always just used eFax. It’s hard to believe that one piece of equipment can stop the Internet connection dead in its tracks, but it does.
Do you know what I need to do to fix this problem? It’s a pain having to stop using the Internet and plug in the FAX machine every time I need to use it (which is several times a day).
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Carol: Hi Rick. I paid a man I used to work with $220 to install Windows 7 Ultimate on my Dell laptop (it originally came with Windows Vista). Now every time I boot the computer into Windows it tells me that my Windows isn’t genuine.
I tried to call him to ask him to fix this error, but his phone has been disconnected and I don’t know how to get in touch with him. What should I do to get this fixed? I really appreciate your help.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
If you’ve been using Windows 8.1 for a while, you probably already know how to uninstall Desktop programs with the Control Panel’s “Uninstall a program” utility.
But you have also probably noticed that you cannot uninstall Modern Apps (that have tiles on the Start Screen) that way.
Well, it’s actually just as easy to uninstall a Modern App as it is to zap an unwanted Desktop program. In fact, it’s even easier because you can uninstall multiple apps at the same time! Here’s how: [Read more…]