Skip ‘Add your Microsoft Account’ during upgrades or installs
Windows 11 is okay - except when it comes time to do a big update or install it from scratch. In both cases, MS has decided to force you to log in to Windows using your Microsoft account. Wouldn't it be nice if you could skip this step? Fortunately, you can! Where did...
PPI, Retina displays, and what makes a screen ‘good’
If you've read any reviews recently about phones, tablets, and other gizmos, you've probably come across a lot of talk of PPI (Pixels Per Inch) and "Retina" screens. In short, the number of pixels crammed into a device's screen seems to be uber-important to which...
Superglue: Everything you need to know, and some things you don’t
Superglue is awesome. Originally discovered in 1942 by American scientists who were trying to come up with good transparent gun sights during WWII, superglue is the "sticks to everything" goto adhesive for all your gluey quick-fix needs. And frankly, until you've...
Remove the “Choose an operating system” message when starting your computer
Many of you have installed Windows 10 on your puters only to discover that every time you boot up, you get a screen that reads: Choose an operating system Windows 10 will of course be at the top of the list, usually followed by either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. If you...
Is the Adobe Flash Player really dead?
By now, you've probably heard that Adobe's Flash Player is going the way of the dinosaur. Except, wait... No, it's not. It's still around, and it still works. No, wait... Yeah, it's dead. No it's not. Yes it is. You could be forgiven if, like most of us, you're...
How to improve your online security
I'll be honest: I didn't think I had to explain any of this, because I thought it was obvious. Given the number of recent online security breaches - including the release of really, really bad passwords - clearly it's not so obvious. Well, I guess I shouldn't be...
Delete an old Windows folder the easy way
Every now and then, you upgrade your puter. Let's say you add an SSD. You copy your old hard drive's contents to your shiny new SSD, and use your old HDD as a data-only drive. You boot from the new SSD, and poof! You're done. Well, sort of... Your new E: drive is now...
Microsoft gives you Windows 10 whether you like it or not
Ooooh, man... Well, it's finally happened: Microsoft is basically tricking users into installing Windows 10. That's right. You now have to be VERY careful if you don't want Win 10 to automagically download and install. By now, we're all used to M$ making decisions for...
Fix Language Bar missing after Windows 10 update
If you speak more than one language, then you probably also write in more than one language. In that case, you're probably using Windows' Language Bar. In Windows 10, it appears in the system tray (lower-right corner of the taskbar by the time and date) as a 3-letter...
Scroll inactive windows: The best reason to upgrade to Windows 10
For those of you who have been avoiding the free upgrade to Windows 10, there is one very good reason why you might want to rethink your plans. The most obvious reason is that apparently, Windows 10 will no longer be a free upgrade after July of this year. And one way...
Windows 10: Can’t uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials? No problem!
You upgrade to Windows 10. All seems to be going well. There's only one problem: Every time you reboot, you get an error message about Microsoft Security Essentials. "No problem!" you think. I'll just uninstall it. Nope! Worse yet, Windows 10 is very confused, since...
Time to ditch QuickTime for Windows
Here's a fun one: The Department of Homeland Security (??) announced that QuickTime for Windows has 2 nasty security flaws. They also say that Apple is no longer providing updates for QuickTime for Windows, so they are recommending that QuickTime be uninstalled from...
The Windows 10 Summer Update will include… Linux?!
This summer, Windows 10 will be 1 year old. Microsoft recently announced that they'll be releasing another "major" update for their latest OS around this time. Most of the new features are nothing terribly earth-shattering. Probably the most impactful change to most...
The SSHD: Hybrid hard drives that are both big and fast
You've probably heard of SSDs (solid state drives). These are hard drives that use a type of very fast and very robust flash memory for data storage instead of a spinning magnetic disc. SSDs are very fast, and until recently, their storage capacity was limited...
Change the display language in Windows 10
In the olden days, you were quite often locked to one language in Windows, unless you had Windows 7 Ultimate. These days, with Windows 10 you can change the display language in most cases. There are a few exceptions, like if you buy a puter with an OEM version of Win...
Windows + Linux dual boot: How to shrink a Windows disk the easy way
Let's say you want to dual-boot between Windows and some flavor of linux. You might think that you need some kind of fancy partitioning software like Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 Suite to free up disk space for the linux partitions. You might also think that your...