Rick's Daily Tips

Adobe Creative Suite moves to the cloud

Posted on May 8, 2013

adobe-creative-cloud Back in January I wrote a post about how Microsoft was beginning the gradual transition of Office from a suite of desktop applications to a suite of cloud based apps.

Now Adobe has announced that they plan to end the development of new features for the popular Adobe Creative Suite desktop software package altogether and transition as many Adobe software users as possible to the cloud as well.

The new cloud-based bundle of Adobe software will be aptly named Adobe Creative Cloud.

Beginning with the launch of Adobe Creative Cloud on June 17, Adobe Creative Suite will no longer be updated. You’ll have to subscribe to the Cloud version in order to continue upgrading to the latest and greatest Adobe products when they become available. All the bundled apps in the Adobe Cloud suite will bear the CC moniker instead of the now familiar CS.

The Adobe Creative Cloud suite will include all of the following: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I access files on my USB thumb drive that were hidden by a virus?

Posted on May 6, 2013

Question from Mike D: Rick, a few days ago my Acer laptop running Windows 7 caught a couple of nasty viruses, but I was able to remove them by following the instructions in your great virus removal post. Thanks for the help!

Now that the viruses are gone however, I have a different, but related problem. The viruses apparently “hid” all the files on a very important USB thumb drive that was plugged into the PC when the viruses struck. These are documents that I use at school, and I really need to get them back if at all possible. I’m not really concerned about the drive itself. I just need the files back! Any ideas?

Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]

View all of your purchased Android apps together, in one place

Posted on May 5, 2013

my-purchases Do you ever find yourself needing to see a list of all the Android apps you have purchased? The Google Play Store allows you to see such a list by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and then selecting the My Orders & Settings link, but the list you’re given includes your free apps mixed in with the paid ones.

A free app called My Purchases lists just the apps you actually paid money for along with links to the apps’ pages in the Play Store, the date you purchased the apps and the amount you paid for them. Really useful stuff in my opinion.

There is a paid version of My Purchases as well, but the only difference between the free version and the paid version is the paid version is ad free. To download My Purchases to your Android device, simply visit the Google Play Store and search for it by name.

Q&A: Why won’t Chrome load some websites when they load just fine in other browsers?

Posted on May 5, 2013

Question from Kenneth O.: I started using Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer a while back, and I really like it.

But starting last night I can’t get to certain websites in Chrome even though I can get to them just fine in other web browsers.

As far as I know I haven’t changed any settings or anything. What could be the problem?

Rick’s answer: There are a number of possible causes for this problem Kenneth, but the two most common (and most likely) are having your browser set to use a proxy server or corrupted cookies on your hard drive. The following steps will eliminate both possibilities: [Read more…]

Q&A: Will a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card work with my Gigabyte H77M-D3H motherboard?

Posted on May 4, 2013

Question from Lonnie K.: I paid a guy I know to build me a custom PC around a Gigabyte Intel H77M-D3H motherboard. We had a disagreement and now he won’t talk to me or give me any advice.

What I want to do is add a stand-alone video card. I found a really good deal on an “open box” ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti but before I buy it I want to make sure it’ll work with my motherboard. Will it?

Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]