Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Margaret L.: I have a serious problem Rick. I bought an HP laptop from Best Buy on February 6, 2012 and I also took the three year extended warranty. The laptop died and now I can’t find my receipt or extended warranty paperwork.
Best Buy said there’s nothing they can do without the paperwork except send it off to HP for repair at my expense. Is there anything I can do to get them to honor the warranty I paid for? I’m just so frustrated right now.
Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Felipe G.: I have a Dell Inspiron N5110 laptop (Windows 7 – 64 bit) with a single stick of 4GB RAM installed from the factory.
I checked and there is one empty memory slot in this computer. Can I upgrade the RAM to 12GB by plugging a single 8GB DDR3 RAM stick into the empty slot?
Rick’s answer: Hi Felipe. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the answer to your question is no. The maximum amount of RAM supported by your laptop’s motherboard is 8GB. [Read more…]
Windows 7 contains a suite of powerful Administrative Tools that are useful to System Administrators and advanced users. Previous versions of Windows had a direct link to these Administrative tools right on the Start menu, but Windows 7 has them hidden from view by default.
These tools are easily found if you know where to look (most people don’t) or by simply searching for them by name via the Search box, but I prefer having them linked from the Start menu as they had been in the past.
It’s very easy to add the Administrative Tools back to the Windows 7 Start menu. Here’s how: [Read more…]
It seems like every version of Windows is a little easier to install than the one before it, and Windows 8 is no exception thanks to Microsoft’s nifty Windows 8 Upgrade Tool.
That being said, there are still times when it helps to be able to install the operating system from a USB thumb drive or DVD. Here’s how to create one: [Read more…]
Microsoft has announced that Windows 8.1 (AKA Windows Blue) will be released as a free upgrade to Windows 8 some time before the Christmas season gets into full swing. I thought all along that it should be free since charging for it would be like “selling” a repair for a brand new recalled vehicle.
Of course Windows 8.1 won’t be free to those purchasing new PCs or wanting to upgrade from Windows 7 or earlier, but Windows 8 users will rightly be able to get it without having to pay for it.
The mind-boggling changes introduced with Windows 8 have led to mass confusion and frustration among long-time Windows users, as well as the largest year-to-year decline in new PC sales ever. In my opinion, Microsoft had no choice except to take quick action to stop the migration of Windows users to Macs, Linux boxes and tablet devices.
Among a number of small changes coming in Windows 8.1 are two biggies: [Read more…]