Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Ellen P.: I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 10 on it to use when I’m travelling.
I really like it but the touchpad is very sensitive. If I’m typing something and I happen to accidentally brush my hand against the touchpad it messes up what I’m doing.
I always use a mouse instead of the touchpad on this machine so I’d like to disable the touchpad if it’s possible to do so. Is it?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Lenora H.: I recently bought a brand new Acer laptop that came with Windows 10 (which I had never used before).
I’ve been using this machine for almost a month now and I’ve discovered that I absolutely hate Windows 10!
If I buy a Windows 7 DVD can I wipe out the Windows 10 and install Windows 7 in its place? And if I can, do you know of any important reasons why I shouldn’t?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Emil P.: Ever since I updated my computer to Windows 10 it’s been hanging up at shutdown.
It displays a window saying that the system is closing X number of apps and shutting down.
But then it says that an app is preventing Windows from shutting down and asks if I want to shut down anyway or click cancel.
Sometimes it will name the app that’s hanging the shutdown but sometimes it won’t.
This is a screenshot of one of these messages: [Read more…]
Question from Lois P.: My computer (HP laptop with Windows 10) was working fine until it installed an update about a week ago.
Ever since that update was installed the computer won’t automatically connect to my Wi-Fi network when I turn it on.
I can connect to the network manually and it works perfectly until I shut the computer down. It just won’t connect automatically no matter what I do and I really miss having it do that.
I’ve searched Google from top to bottom and I haven’t found a solution to this that works. I even used System Restore to remove the update but that didn’t help either.
A friend told me about your website but I couldn’t find anything you’ve written about this topic on there. Do you know of a fix for this? You’re my last hope!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
As you probably know, Microsoft allowed folks using Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 for free during the first year after it was released.
That blanket free upgrade offer ended on July 29, 2016, but Microsoft decided to allow users with a disability that requires them to use some form of assistive technology to keep receiving the free upgrades even after the July 29 cut-off date.
Well, that special offer is about expire very soon, and most people are unaware that it’s about to end. [Read more…]