viruses Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Is it safe to completely disable Windows updates?

Posted on April 6, 2025

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Question from Michael: I recently bought a new desktop computer to replace the one I’ve been using for the past six years.

It seems like the updates I’ve been installing on this new machine have all been filled with bugs because almost every time I install them something goes wrong.

The last time it happened my nephew had to completely reinstall Windows for me.

I’d like to completely disable the installation of updates on the new PC. Is it safe to do that? [Read more…]

Why you shouldn’t send suspicious files to the Recycle Bin

Posted on February 18, 2025

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If you’ve been using Microsoft Windows for a while you probably know that deleting a file doesn’t really remove it from the system.

Instead, it’s actually moved to a special folder called the Recycle Bin.

That’s generally a good thing because we all occasionally delete a file by mistake or wish we hadn’t deleted a file at some later point in time.

Having our deleted files go into the Recycle Bin makes it easy to restore one of them to it’s original folder in either of the above-mentioned cases.

But unfortunately some files can become problematic if we allow them to sit idly in the Recycle Bin.

[Read more…]

Reminder: Why you should never ‘Unsubscribe’ from SPAM emails

Posted on January 13, 2025

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

Like most everyone else, you probably receive SPAM and phishing emails all the time.

And despite the existence of the Can-Spam act, this scourge of the Internet seems to actually be getting worse instead of better.

If you ever happen to accidentally open one of these obnoxious messages you might be tempted to click the “Unsubscribe” link located near the bottom of the message to have your email address removed from their mailing list.

Whatever you do, don’t click that link! Read on to find out why… [Read more…]

Real-Time vs. On-Demand: Antivirus protection explained

Posted on July 24, 2024

I’ve been receiving questions from folks who are confused about the terms Real-Time and On-Demand in regards to antivirus protection, so I thought it might be helpful to explain the difference between them here.

Both real-time and on-demand antivirus protection is important for keeping your computer free of viruses and other forms of malware, but while they are closely-related, they operate in very different ways. [Read more…]

How to verify that a link is safe before you click on it

Posted on July 4, 2024

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.

[Read more…]