Rick's Daily Tips

Create a USB Flash Recovery Drive for your Windows 8 PC

Posted on April 30, 2013

recovery-flash-drive If you have ever used Windows 7 you probably remember creating a System Repair Disc soon after setting up your new PC just in case it ever failed to boot up properly. You can create one for your Windows 8 PC as well, but you also have the option of creating a bootable USB Flash Recovery Drive instead.

You can use either a System Repair Disc or USB Recovery Flash Drive to boot a PC that fails to start up properly into an emergency troubleshooting and repair mode. They both do the job equally well, but I prefer the USB flash drive option for a number of reasons. If you do as well, here’s how to create one in Windows 8: [Read more…]

Enable the F8 key for booting into Safe Mode in Windows 8.1

Posted on April 29, 2013

When Microsoft designed Windows 8/8.1 they optimized the boot process in order to make Windows load faster.

While this was a welcome change from previous Windows versions, the faster boot time made it impossible to use the F8 key to load the Boot Menu for booting into Safe Mode.

If you prefer the convenience of being able to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 8 by pressing the F8 key at startup over the faster boot process, you can re-enable the F8 key and have it work just like it always has. Here’s how: [Read more…]

A better way to refresh a web page

Posted on April 29, 2013

ctrl-f5 Most of us are used to refreshing the current web page in our browser by either clicking the Refresh icon or pressing the F5 key, but there is a better way to refresh a page: Press the Ctrl+F5 key combination.

Why is pressing Ctrl+F5 to refresh the current page better than the other two options? Because it clears the browser cache for the page before reloading it into the browser. [Read more…]

LivingSocial has been hacked – Change your passwords!

Posted on April 27, 2013

The popular “Daily Deals” site LivingSocial.com has announced that their site has been hacked and the personal information belonging to over 50 million users has been compromised.

If you have an account with LivingSocial you need to change your password immediately (click here for tips on selecting one that’s tough to crack, but easy to remember). You should also begin monitoring your credit report and financial statements for irregularities.

According to LivingSocial, the customer data that has been compromised includes the following: [Read more…]

Samsung smart phones outselling iPhones 2 to 1

Posted on April 27, 2013

samsung-smart-phone Korean electronics giant Samsung has quietly become the 800 pound gorilla in the smart phone marketplace.

According to market researcher IDC, in the first quarter of 2013 Samsung shipped 71 million smart phones compared to Apple’s 37 million. In fact, during that three month period Samsung’s market share was greater than the next four companies combined.

Of the top five smart phone vendors, Apple is the only company in the bunch that actually lost market share in the first quarter. And another recent study shows that more customers switch from iPhone to Android when purchasing their next phone than the other way around. [Read more…]