Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
TRIM is a feature in Windows 7 and above that immediately frees up the space on a solid state drive (SSD) that was previously occupied by a deleted file.
This allows Windows to re-use those no longer needed memory locations right away instead of having to search for unused locations elsewhere on the drive.
In a nutshell, having TRIM enabled keeps your SSD from slowing down with regular use, and it makes the drive last longer to boot. [Read more…]
Question from Lexie V.: I get tons of messages from my Facebook friends, and I always try to read them as soon as possible.
That being said, there are times when I’d rather not let some senders know that I have read the messages they sent to me.
Is there any way to keep my friends from knowing that I have read the messages they sent me on Facebook?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
If you’re the only person who ever uses your computer you can have Windows boot straight to the Desktop or Start Screen without prompting you for a password.
It’s easy to set up and the instructions below will show you how to do it. Simply skip to the section with instructions for your particular Windows version.
Windows XP
1 – Click Start > Run.
2 – Type control userpasswords2 into the box and click Ok.
3 – Uncheck the box beside Users must enter a username and password to use this computer, then click Ok. [Read more…]
I have never been all that keen on password manager apps because if a miscreant is able to compromise your master password, ALL of your passwords become available to the crook.
Not it seems that my paranoia concerning password managers was justified. The nasty Citadel malware that’s been compromising the websites of banks and other institutions of late has started attacking password manager apps via a special keylogger that’s built into the malicious code. [Read more…]
Question from Manny P.: I use Dropbox to store some of my files, but only with a couple of programs that I only use once or twice a week.
Since I don’t use it that often, I don’t want the Dropbox app to load every time I load Windows. I’ve disabled automatic startup with Autoruns, but it always starts up automatically the next time I start Windows.
How do I prevent Dropbox from loading automatically? I’d much prefer to load it manually when I actually need to use it. Thanks in advance for your help!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]