Rick's Daily Tips

How to access a Shell Prompt on a Chromebook

Posted on January 15, 2013

Google’s Chrome operating system is billed as the OS that moves the computing experience into the “cloud”, but there is still an easy way to access a Command Line and Shell Prompt: Simply press the CTRL+ALT+T keyboard combination to get to the command line, then type Shell to get a shell prompt.

Most users would be well advised to stay away from the Chrome command line since a misstep could seriously break your Chrome installation. But if you enjoy tinkering and don’t mind taking a risk, have at it!

Safari – Run Apple’s award winning web browser on your Windows PC

Posted on January 14, 2013

safari If you have friends or family members who love all things Apple, they have probably mentioned more than once how “superior” Safari is to the popular web browsers that Windows users run on their PCs.

What they probably have not told you however is that you can run Safari just fine on your Windows PC! It’s available as a free download from a number of popular download sites with Apple’s blessing.

I’ve been testing Safari for a while now and I can report that I’m happy with it. I haven’t noticed the massive speed advantage that many Apple enthusiasts claim (which could be because it’s running under Windows instead of in its natural environment of a Mac or iPad), but it’s a speedy browser for sure.

If you’d like to give the latest version of Safari a test drive on your own PC, you can download it for free right here.

ManualsOnline.com – Download free User Manuals for virtually anything!

Posted on January 14, 2013

Have you ever bought an item, took it home, opened up the box and stashed the user manual away in a “safe place”, only to not be able to find it when you needed it? Yeah, me too. I wish I had known about a great site called ManualsOnline.com!

ManualsOnline.com has over 300,000 user manuals available for download right to your PC, for free. Their catalog includes manuals for virtually everything ranging from electronics to power tools to computers to appliances to lawn tractors to automobiles to…Well, you get the picture. At various times I have personally downloaded manuals for a couple of computers, my Samsung smart phone and my Husqvarna lawn tractor.

If the manual you’re looking for is in their catalog (and it probably is), finding it is easy. Simply browse the category of your item by brand and model number, or if you’re really in a hurry you can just type the model number into the Search box.

While this isn’t one of those sites that you’ll visit every day, when you do need it you’ll find it indispensable. I keep it safely tucked away in my bookmarks!

Visit www.manualsonline.com and check it out.

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Should you buy a used laptop?

Posted on January 14, 2013

As a general rule, I don’t recommend buying a used laptop computer. Why? There are several reasons:

1 – The prices of new budget laptops have dropped to the point where they can now be considered disposable items. Why pay $200 for a used laptop that might have all kinds of hidden problems when you can pay $350 and get a brand new one with a warranty.

2 – For various reasons, the useful life of a typical laptop is around 5 years. After that you’re running on borrowed time, and paying for the privilege rarely makes sense. [Read more…]

How to remove Java from your PC

Posted on January 13, 2013

java Java is a programming language that was used heavily by web developers back in the early days of the World Wide Web, but over the years it has largely been replaced by newer, safer and more powerful technologies.

A smattering of websites still use bits and pieces of Java code (not to be confused with Java Script) to accomplish certain tasks, but this is becoming ever more rare by the day.

Although Java is rarely used these days, most users will still find that it has been installed on their computers. This is now a huge problem because of a serious security hole in the Java core that has recently been discovered. You can read more about the flaw and why the Department of Homeland Security is recommending that Java be removed from all PCs right here if you’re interested.

If you’d rather skip the “why” and get straight to uninstalling Java from your computer, you’ll find instructions for doing so below. Be sure to remove all instances of Java found in the list of installed programs if you see more than one. [Read more…]