Search Results for: create system image

Q&A: Can you retrieve a Windows 10 license key from a bad hard drive?

Posted on June 3, 2022

Question from Keith: I updated my Windows 7 computer to Windows 10 a while back, and like a dummy I didn’t write down the license key for it.

The hard drive in this machine went bad and I replaced it with a 1TB SSD. The bad drive appears to be completely dead because it doesn’t make any noise at all.

I have already installed the SSD I and downloaded the Windows 10 files onto a thumb drive with the instructions they provided.

The thing is, I’ll need the license key to activate Windows 10 after I install it, right? [Read more…]

Should you optimize the Windows Registry?

Posted on May 18, 2022

Countless articles have been written over the years on the topic of optimizing PCs that run Microsoft Windows in order to make them run faster.

Many of those articles offer a number of good tips, but they almost always include one that I don’t recommend: Optimizing the Windows Registry.

[Read more…]

How to remove spyware from your Mac

Posted on May 4, 2022

If you’ve started noticing a lot of unusual and intrusive activity on your Mac, chances are you’ve fallen victim to some type of malware.

One common type, in particular, is spyware which can be incredibly sneaky and difficult to notice. So, unless you have a Mac spyware remover installed on your device, you will have to detect and remove this malicious software yourself.

Here’s everything you need to know… [Read more…]

Q&A: What’s exactly is Windows 10 S?

Posted on April 24, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Sheila: I recently saw some Microsoft Surface laptops on Amazon that said they come with Windows 10 S.

The ad didn’t give any details about this version of Windows 10. What does the “S” on the end mean? [Read more…]

Speed up your Windows PC by disabling ‘Low Disk Checking’

Posted on April 8, 2022

By default, Windows constantly checks to see if your hard drive is running low on unused storage space. If it determines that your drive is almost full, it’ll let you know by popping up a warning message.

While all of this checking for low disk space can be beneficial if your PC has a small hard drive/SSD or you tend to use up all available storage space.

The problem is, it comes at a cost in the form of a performance hit.

The fact is lots of modern Windows PCs have large hard drives and/or spacious SSDs and there’s a good chance that all of that vast storage space will never be used.

If you think you’ll likely never run low on storage space you can speed your PC up a bit by disabling ‘Low Disk Checking’ with a simple Registry tweak. [Read more…]