Rick's Daily Tips

Guess what? Your bank’s ATMs are probably running the soon to be abandoned Windows XP!

Posted on January 19, 2014

atm By now you’re probably aware that Microsoft is planning to stop supporting Windows XP with security updates on April 8, effectively leaving the millions of computers that are still running it after that date wide open to hackers.

What you probably don’t know is that approximately 95% of the 420,000 ATMs currently being used in the U.S. are running Windows XP!

While a large percentage of those Windows XP-based ATMs can be updated with newer hardware components that will allow them to be upgraded to Windows 7, many of them will simply have to be replaced outright.

But there’s a problem… [Read more…]

How to display the ‘Power Users’ menu in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Posted on January 19, 2014

Microsoft made a ton of changes in Windows 8, and many them were not well received. But they did make a few changes that are actually great, and one of them was the addition of a handy new ‘Power Users’ menu.

The Power Users menu places a number of Windows’ most useful tools just a couple of clicks away, regardless of which screen you happen to be on at the moment.

Here are the tools that are available from the Power Users menu: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I get started repairing computers?

Posted on January 18, 2014

Question from Eric: Hi Rick. I want to ask you where can I start on getting my old Dell Dimension E521 Desktop Tower working again? I don’t have a hard drive for it because the one that was in it went in my family’s fairly new HP Desktop computer and my mom doesn’t want me to take the hard drive out.

I don’t have an RGB cable and a monitor for it to work but I do have a wired keyboard, wired mouse, a power cable, and speakers, that’s it.

My older brother put a wanted ad on Craigslist for me for free computers so I could work on some older desktop/laptops so I could get used to repairing/rebuilding computers.

I was thinking about when I get some older computers I could work on them then maybe try to sell them in the summer this year. I just want to make some money to help my family as best as I can because we’re going through a rough time with our financial status. I’ll appreciate any advice you can give me.

Your friend, Eric.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

8 lessons that Microsoft (hopefully) learned from the Windows 8 debacle

Posted on January 18, 2014

microsoft-windows Since we now know that Microsoft is planning to scuttle the Windows 8 brand sooner than usual by releasing Windows 9 sometime in 2015, I think it’s safe to assume that they have learned a few lessons from the Windows 8 debacle. Well, at least one can hope.

While Windows 8.1 is a vast improvement over Windows 8, many irritants still remain that tend to frustrate seasoned Windows users.

Here are just a few of the lessons that Microsoft surely must have learned by now: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why can’t I message someone on Facebook without paying $1?

Posted on January 16, 2014

Question from Jamie: Hi. Just yesterday I tried to send someone I wasn’t “friends” with two pictures they had asked for. Facebook said if I wanted to have the message go directly into their message box, I had to pay a $1.00.

I also sent someone a link in a private message, and she could not take the link from her private message and put it to her site without paying. Is this Facebook really doing this or just another scam?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]