Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Knowing how to keep your PC running smoothly and doing your own repairs is a lot of fun as well as a real money saver.
I’ve been working on computers for well over 30 years but I still gain a lot of satisfaction every time I fix someone’s computer.
There’s a lot to learn when it comes to the inner workings of a PC and the software that runs on it, and knowing how to put those skills to work in the most efficient manner possible is half the battle.
As you probably know, Windows 10 has both a Control Panel and a Settings app that make it easy to alter a plethora of Windows settings and features.
Unfortunately, these powerful tools also make it very easy for inexperienced users to make system changes that end up causing issues with either the Windows installation itself or the programs and apps that run under it.
Question from Stuart K.: I was cleaning out my closet yesterday morning and I found an old game disc with “Age Of Empires” on it.
I remember that I loved playing that game when I was a kid so I installed it on my son’s ASUS ROG gaming PC (with Windows 10).
The game played just like I remember and I didn’t notice any problems with anything else. Everything seemed to work fine so I shut the computer down.
My son used the computer for a few minutes and then shut it down when he got ready to leave for school.
This morning when he turned it on he noticed that the screen resolution was wrong and the screen was flickering really bad. He shut it down and restarted it and got the same result.
He asked me to help him get it straightened out, but so far I’m not having any luck.
Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter
Data loss is one of the most common issues faced by computer users these days.
And as you an imagine, the loss of critical and irreplaceable data can be catastrophic.
For this reason, it’s very important to keep your data as safe and well-protected as possible.
Many factors can contribute to data loss, and I will highlight the main ones in this post. I’ll also offer some tips for protecting your precious data from catastrophic loss.
Here’s a quick rundown of the most common reasons for data loss:
It happens to most everyone sooner or later. You turn on your PC and discover that it won’t boot.
You hear a clunking sound from your hard drive and whisper “Oh, no!!!” after realizing that the drive has gone belly up on you.
All is not lost if you have a current backup that works. You can simply replace the bad drive with a new one and restore everything in short order.
But what if you don’t have a backup? Or what if you have a backup but it has somehow become corrupted and you can’t restore from it?
Well, that’s when you have a choice to make. [Read more…]