Windows 8 Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

How (and why) to enable ClickLock on your Windows laptop

Posted on January 1, 2024

Do you use a laptop?

If so, you probably know how difficult it can be using the touchpad to scroll through web pages or to drag and drop items.

Yep, it’s a two-handed process for the less dexterous among us (which definitely includes yours truly).

You basically have to use a finger on one hand to hold the left touchpad button while using the other hand to move the object in question around on the screen.

What you might not know however is that a simple settings change can make your touchpad a lot easier to use…

[Read more…]

Q&A: Can I reset a laptop if I don’t know all the passwords?

Posted on September 14, 2022

Question from Barry: I bought an Acer Aspire S7-391 laptop with Windows 8 at an estate auction.

I took a chance on it because it looks brand new and I was able to buy it for only $20. I’m hoping that’s a good deal (LOL).

Once I got the laptop home and booted it up I found out that it has 3 user accounts on it.

The machine boots up fine into an administrator account that doesn’t have a password on it. The other two accounts I can’t get into because they do have passwords (and I don’t know them).

I’d like to reset this machine back to the factory default setting so I can I install Linux on it. Can you tell me how to do the reset? [Read more…]

Review: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545 20B20011US 15.6-Inch Laptop

Posted on August 26, 2016

I’m often asked if it’s still possible to buy a new PC that comes with Windows 7, and the answer is yes. A perfect example is the excellent Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545 20B20011US (#ad) laptop.

Actually, this laptop gives you a choice between two operating systems: Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

It comes with Windows 7 Pro pre-installed, but it also comes with a Windows 8 installation DVD and license. You can always replace Windows 7 with Windows 8 at no additional charge, then update Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 for free.

But the flexibility you get in terms of the operating system isn’t the only great thing about this machine. The hardware is quite capable (and expandable) as well. In a nutshell, this is what you get: [Read more…]

Still using Windows 8? You need to upgrade to either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 ASAP!

Posted on January 12, 2016

Microsoft has announced that as of today they’re no longer be supporting Windows 8 with Security patches and bug fixes.

In essence, the folks in Redmond are abandoning Windows 8 and leaving its users to fend for themselves in the wild, wild west of the Internet.

This essentially means if you’re running still running Windows 8 on your PC you’ll need to upgrade to either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 ASAP in order to keep your PC safe from future malware attacks. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is Windows 8 not using all of my RAM?

Posted on April 3, 2015

Question from Rodney T: I have an Acer Aspire 5552G-7641 with 8GB of RAM. It came with Windows 7 which always showed the entire 8GB on the System Information screen.

My employer paid for a copy of Windows 8 so I backed up my data and wiped the hard drive, then installed Windows 8 (that was an ordeal in itself but I won’t go into it here lol).

Long story short, after installing Windows 8 the System Information screen is only showing 3GB of RAM even though the BIOS screen shows the full 8GB. Did I do something wrong? [Read more…]