Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: What kind of hard drive do I need for an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f desktop PC?

Posted on May 27, 2014

Question from David H.: My brother gave me his old HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f desktop computer after the hard drive died. The shop returned the computer to him without the hard drive in it and I need to know what kind of hard drive to buy for it.

Also, I don’t have a set of factory Restore discs for this computer. Will HP send me a set?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick’s answer: David, your HP Pavilion Elite HPE-120f most likely came from the factory with a 1TB SATA hard drive, so virtually any 3.5″ SATA hard drive will work in that system.

That being said, instead of simply installing another hard drive, I recommend installing a solid state drive (#ad) as the boot drive and a spacious hard drive as a secondary data drive. [Read more…]

eBay has been hacked – Change your passwords ASAP!

Posted on May 21, 2014

Well, another giant website has been hacked. This time it’s eBay, the iconic online auction site and digital marketplace.

eBay issued a statement this morning saying that hackers have managed to steal customer names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and encrypted account passwords. In other words, this one is BIG folks.

If you have an eBay account, you need to log in and change your password immediately. You might also want to start monitoring your credit reports along with your bank account and credit card statements just to be on the safe side.

Important: Please consider sharing this in order to warn as many of your friends as possible.

Avoid malicious websites by installing the AVG Secure Search toolbar

Posted on May 21, 2014

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not a fan of toolbars. Quite simply, this is because most of them are actually malware. There is one exception however, and that is the AVG Secure Search toolbar.

The AVG Secure Search toolbar helps prevent your computer from downloading viruses by scanning web pages for malware before you actually visit them, then warning you if malware is found. That way you can avoid visiting the page and unknowingly infecting your computer with the malware contained within the infected page’s code.

Installing the AVG Secure Search toolbar is easy. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I remove the ‘Chrome Notifications’ icon from the task bar?

Posted on May 20, 2014

Question from Keith: Hello Rick. I recently noticed a new icon in the notifications area of my task bar when I use the Chrome web browser. When I hover my mouse over the icon it says “Chrome Notifications”.

I don’t need this icon in my task bar and I want to get rid of it, but I can’t figure out how to do it. Can you help?

Rick’s answer: Keith, you can indeed remove Chrome Notifications from your task bar. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Don’t wait for Microsoft! Add an awesome Start Menu to Windows 8.1 right now, for free!

Posted on May 19, 2014

Microsoft recently announced that a future update to Windows 8.1 will return the missing Start Menu (that should have never been removed in the first place IMHO) to the new Windows.

While this a very welcome change of heart on Microsoft’s part, who knows when the update heralding the return of the Start Menu will actually be coming down the pike?

If you really miss your Start Menu, you’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to wait for the guys and gals in Redmond to finally get around to sending it to you. Thanks to a handy free download called Start Menu Reviver, you can add an awesome Start Menu to your Windows 8.1 installation right now! Here’s how: [Read more…]