Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
If you own a Vaio Fit 11A laptop, Sony is requesting that you immediately unplug the AC adapter, turn off the machine and wait for instructions from them about having the unit repaired or replaced.
It seems that the built-in, non-removable batteries in certain models are prone to over-heating, causing some units to catch on fire. Not a good thing, especially if you happen to be holding it on your lap at the time (which you should NEVER do by the way). [Read more…]
Are any of the websites that you visit affected by the dangerous “Heartbleed” bug? If so, your login information as well as your personal and financial info could be at risk of being stolen by hackers.
Thanks to our friends at LastPass, you can easily check to see if any of your favorite websites are affected by Heartbleed. Simply visit this page and type in the URL of the site. Repeat for each website you’d like to check.
Note: You only need to do the Heartbleed check for sites that use SSL encryption.
Question from Annette H.: I have a Compaq Presario 7200 that I just can’t bear to part with. I recently upgraded it to Windows 8.1 and I’m absolutely thrilled with it!
But there’s one problem that I really need your help with. The sound card isn’t working and the Device Manager says there’s no driver for it installed.
The sound drivers on the website don’t include drivers for Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, only Windows XP through Windows 7. Is there anything I can do or will I need to buy a new sound card?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Well, today is the big day. As of today, Microsoft has officially stopped supporting Windows XP, a move that effectively ends the useful life of the most popular version of Windows ever for the vast majority of users.
While there are circumstances under which XP can still be safely used, the millions of people who have their XP machines connected to the Internet should probably make the move to either a different operating system or a new computer. [Read more…]
If you access the Control Panel and File Explorer as often as I do, clicking an icon on the Desktop to access them can be a real time saver. I do it all the time.
Although accessing either of these essential tools is faster and easier than ever before in the latest versions of Windows, there’s absolutely nothing faster than just clicking on an icon.
It’s actually quite easy to add File Explorer and Control Panel icons to the Desktop in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. Here’s how: [Read more…]