Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Many Windows 7 users decided to skip the upgrade to Windows 8 because of all the stories they heard about how horrid Windows 8 is, and I can’t say I blame them.
But now that Microsoft has fixed many of Windows 8’s most irritating problems and annoyances with the release of Windows 8.1, many of those same users would now like to upgrade. Perhaps you’re one of them. [Read more…]
Question from Sharon A.: Hi Rick. I bought a brand new Acer notebook with Windows 8 on it last month and something went wrong while I was downloading some free software. Now it won’t boot into Windows. It stops at an error screen and instructs me to insert a System Repair Disc.
I’m pretty sure the computer didn’t come with any discs, but if it did I must have lost them. Is there any way to fix this problem without a System Repair Disc (and without having to send the notebook back to Acer)? [Read more…]
Chromebooks are wonderful in their simplicity. Just turn one on and you can start surfing the web or working with your favorite web-based applications in less than a minute.
As Google likes to say about the Chromebook, “It just works!” Well…except when it doesn’t. [Read more…]
It seems like every version of Windows is a little easier to install than the one before it, and Windows 8 is no exception thanks to Microsoft’s nifty Windows 8 Upgrade Tool.
That being said, there are still times when it helps to be able to install the operating system from a USB thumb drive or DVD. Here’s how to create one: [Read more…]
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…]