Rick's Daily Tips

How to disable the Windows 8 Lock Screen

Posted on January 8, 2013

If you find the new “Lock Screen” that Microsoft decided to add to Windows 8 annoying, you can easily disable it. Here’s how:

1 – Type gpedit.msc on any blank section of the Start Screen.

2 – Click Computer Configuration

3 – Click Administrative Templates

4 – Click Control Panel

5 – Click Personalization

6 – Double-click on the policy labeled Do not display the lock screen

7 – Select the option Enabled

8 – Click OK

There you go! Now you won’t have to go through the hassle of “unlocking” your computer every time you want to use it.

Never rest your laptop on a bed or pillow!

Posted on January 5, 2013

laptop-on-bed Obviously, one of the greatest benefits of owning a laptop computer is the ability to use it pretty much anywhere, including in bed.

But if you like to relax with your laptop while lying in bed, you’d be wise to never rest it directly on the bed itself or on a pillow.

Like desktop computers, laptops need an adequate amount of airflow over and around the internal components in order to prevent the build-up of damaging heat inside the case.

If you turn your laptop over and look at the bottom you’ll see several vents that allow the internal fan to draw air into the case. This airflow cools the internal components by drawing heat away from them and blowing it out the exit vent. [Read more…]

How to remove post category and tags from page with Genesis Framework

Posted on January 5, 2013

If your WordPress blog was built using the Genesis Framework (and in my opinion it should be!), you might be wondering how to remove the Category and Tag post meta info from the home page and individual post pages. As with most everything else, Genesis makes doing so quite easy. Here’s how:

1 – Open your child theme’s functions.php file in your favorite code editor.

2 – Add this snippet of code at the bottom:

/** Remove the post meta function */
remove_action( ‘genesis_after_post_content’, ‘genesis_post_meta’ );

3 – Save the file and upload it to your server.

You’re done! Now you won’t see the category or tag information on either the home page or the individual post pages of your blog.

Bitdefender Antivirus is now available for free

Posted on January 4, 2013

Bitdefender consistently ranks (and tests) as one of the best antivirus programs on the market. Now, for the first time ever the company has released a free version of their award winning software.

The antivirus software universe is always expanding and a number of the big-name players have offered free versions for quite some time. I guess Bitdefender finally decided the time was right to offer one of their own.

If you want to download Bitdefender and give it a try you’ll find it at www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html.

How to automatically start up Firefox in Private Browsing mode

Posted on January 4, 2013

If you value your online privacy above all else then you’ll probably enjoy using Firefox’s Private Browsing mode.

Private Browsing prevents Firefox from saving any of your Internet history in its log files which in turns makes it difficult from a third party to see what you’re been doing on the Internet.

Most people who use Private Browsing simply clicking the “Start Private Browsing” option on the main Firefox menu, but this only turns on Private Browsing for the current session only. But there is a simple way to instruct Firefox to turn on Private Browsing automatically every time the program is started. Here’s how: [Read more…]