Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Todd L.: I have a 4 year old Dell laptop with Windows 7, and I really like it.
A guy I know told me that if I don’t turn off Windows Update it will automatically replace Windows 7 with Windows 10.
I don’t want Windows 10 but I can’t figure out how to turn off Windows Update. How do I do that?
Ricks’ answer: [Read more…]
Millions of people around the world are planning to upgrade their computers to Windows 10 after it’s released to the public on July 29.
Personally, I think that’s a good thing. After using the Windows 10 Preview for several months I honestly believe Windows 10 will be the best version of Windows ever.
That being said, I plan to make full backups of the current Windows installation on every PC that I plan to upgrade before installing Windows 10. I strongly recommend that you do the same. Here’s why: [Read more…]
Question from Brenda Y.: I have a BIG problem Rick, and I really need your help. My computer (Lenovo desktop w/ Windows 7) was installing updates last night when it just shut off. It does that sometimes when my heat pump turns on.
Anyway, when I turned it back on it refused to boot up all the way into Windows. It’ll start, then hang up after the Windows logo is displayed. I even tried booting it into Safe Mode but it gets stuck there too.
I’d like to try to do a System Restore, but I can’t because the computer won’t boot up at all. Is there any way to do a System Restore manually without having to actually have Windows loaded?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Glenn W.: I have an old, but awesome 2008 era Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop that came with Windows Vista. It still works great except for the hard drive which just died on me with no warning.
I found out that I can buy a brand spanking new replacement hard drive for less than $50, but I don’t have a set of Windows Vista restore discs.
If I replace the hard drive can I also install Windows 8.1 in place of Vista? (I would actually prefer Windows 7 but they don’t sell it anymore.)
Or is this machine so old that only Windows Vista will work, which would mean I’m out of luck either way?
Sorry for the multiple questions, but this is all very confusing to me. I hate to throw away a perfectly good laptop just because the hard drive died.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Millie H.: I heard that Windows 10 is supposed to be released pretty soon. Will the Windows 7 that’s on my computer still work after that or will I need to buy Windows 10?
Rick’s answer: Millie, you have nothing whatsoever to worry about. Your computer’s Windows 7 installation will work just fine for the foreseeable future. In fact, Microsoft has committed to supporting Windows 7 with regular security updates until the year 2020.
But that being said, you might want to consider upgrading your computer to Windows 10 when it is released anyway. Here’s why… [Read more…]