Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Karen: I have several old computers in my basement that I want to recycle.
I’ve always heard that you need to destroy a computer’s hard drive before you recycle it to prevent someone else from maybe getting your files.
My question is will removing the hard drive from a PC completely eliminate any possibility of someone finding my old files.
As you probably know, the Internet is home to a lot of scammy and fraudulent websites.
Truth be told, the percentage of “bad” sites is actually fairly low compared to the number of legitimate sites.
The problem is there are literally billions of websites on the Internet, and that means even though just a small percentage of them are “bad”, that percentage still amounts to a LOT of scam/fraudulent websites.
Rick’s Daily Tech Tips Update for Saturday, June 1, 2024
• This one settings change blocks 99% of all hacking attempts
• Q&A: How can protect my important work files from accidental deletion?
• Stop your PC from exchanging updates with other PCs via the Internet
• Time-lapse video: Watch a powerful lightning storm develop in just 78 seconds
• May’s Tech Tips Giveaway: TP-Link Deco AXE4900 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Mesh WiFi System
Question from Danita.: I bought a used laptop from a friend a while back and it had Microsoft Office on it.
When I asked him if he had the installation disk he said he had downloaded it from a site that gives away programs for free.
The hard drive in the laptop stopped working a few days ago and I had to have it replaced.
Can you give me the link to the page where I can download MS Office for free? [Read more…]
Question from Luisa: I’m hoping you can clear something up for me.
I’ve heard some people say we need to stop using Windows 7 now that Microsoft has stopped updating it because it’s no longer safe.
Others are saying it’s perfectly fine to keep using it as long as the computer has an antivirus on it.
This is really confusing to me.
My HP laptop is old but it still works fine even though it has Windows 7 on it. I really hate the thought of having to replace it, but I will if it’s really unsafe to use.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]