Most Recent Entries

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7 Signs of Phishing to Watch For

A friend received a fairly convincing phishing attempt. I'll cover the signs that showed it was bogus.
2024-09-12

How to Avoid an Account Recovery Scam

Don't let your panic open the door to scammers.
2024-09-11

How Do I Find Out Who Sent Email Trying to Harass or Intimidate Me?

Both children and adults receive harassing or abusive email. Sadly, there's no easy way to trace it back to a sender who doesn't want to be found.
2024-09-09

How Do I Create a New Partition in Windows 10 or 11?

Multiple partitions of a hard drive can be useful. I'll show you how to create a new partition by splitting an existing C: partition.
2024-09-07

What Do Spam Filters Look At?

Spam filters can be sophisticated or simple. I'll look at some of the characteristics of email that spam filters check.
2024-09-06

Social Security Number Compromised — What to Do?

Billions of records of personal information, including Social Security numbers, has been exposed. What to do?
2024-09-05

OneDrive Is Not Backup

OneDrive is not a backup solution. OneDrive is for file synchronization. It's critical you understand the difference.
2024-09-04

How Do I Find My Downloads on My PC?

Downloading a file from the internet is easy, but knowing and controlling where downloads go takes a little more understanding.
2024-09-02

How Do I View the BCC Recipients on an Email I’ve Received?

BCC is a way to send copies of email without all recipients being visible. But can you still view the BCC'ed?
2024-08-31

Why Are There Duplicate Files on My Computer?

Duplicate files on your computer can happen for many reasons, most of which are legitimate. Think twice about deleting duplicate files.
2024-08-30

How Files On-Demand Affect Recovering OneDrive Files

OneDrive's Files On-Demand feature may confuse you into thinking you have a file on your computer that you do not.
2024-08-29

Protect Yourself From Online Scams

We're all vulnerable to scammers. Learn the warning signs.
2024-08-28

Why Didn’t Microsoft Fix This Horrible Bug?

Not all bugs will be fixed or fixed quickly. Not all bugs are even bugs.
2024-08-26

What Does the “Mailbox Unavailable” Error Mean and How Do I Fix It?

"Mailbox unavailable" is a common email bounce message that tells us very little. I'll review some of the more common causes of this message.
2024-08-24

SpinRite: Repair Hard Disk Failures and Recover Your Data

SpinRite is a hard disk repair utility that can frequently recover and repair physical hard disk issues such as CRC errors.
2024-08-23

You’ve Lost (or Recovered) Your Data. Now What?

Another reminder that things can fail completely in an instant.
2024-08-22

How Do I Close a Facebook Account?

Closing a Facebook account is not a complicated process, but think twice before doing so.
2024-08-21

Why Are There So Many Copies of the Visual C++ Runtime?

There are usually many copies of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library on a Windows computer. Here's why.
2024-08-19

Can I Tell If Someone Has Copied My Files?

For all practical purposes, it's impossible to tell if someone has copied your files after the fact.
2024-08-17

What’s the Best Two-Factor App?

Two-factor authentication is one of the most important things you can do to secure your accounts. Here are the 2FA apps I can recommend.
2024-08-16

What’s the Difference Between an Administrator Account and a Limited User Account?

Windows includes three types of accounts: administrator-capable, limited user, and the (hidden) true administrator account.
2024-08-15

Set Up Windows 11 With Only a Local Account

Setting up a Windows 11 machine without a Microsoft account is still possible, though it's not obvious.
2024-08-14

If I Use a Cloud Sync Program to Back Up, Won’t Accidental Deletions Delete the Backup?

Backing up to auto-syncing cloud services is very convenient. But what happens when it syncs your mistake?
2024-08-12

What Is Modern Authentication?

OAuth2, aka a "Modern authentication method", removes the burden of authentication from the email program to the email service itself, enabling a number of important security features.
2024-08-09

How Do I Go Back to a Local Account after Setting Up Windows 11 with a Microsoft Account?

In Windows 11, you may find you must now log in using a Microsoft account. I'll show you two alternatives that will allow you to continue to use a local account.
2024-08-08

Downloading and Installing Zorin Linux

I often hear calls to switch from Windows to Linux. I'll show you how to try Zorin Linux and install it if you decide it's for you.
2024-08-07

How Do I Close My Hotmail or Outlook.com Account?

"I want to close my Hotmail account" is a knee-jerk reaction to many account problems. It's easy, and I'll show you how, but it also may be pointless or even harmful.
2024-08-04

Why Won’t My Program Use More than 25% of the CPU?

Multi-core processors add an additional layer of complexity to software design. Occasionally that can manifest as only a portion of the CPU being used.
2024-08-03

Why I Avoid Windows’ Default Folders

I've avoided Windows' default folder layout for years. With recent assumptions Microsoft has made on how those folders should be treated, I'm glad I don't rely on them.
2024-08-02

Troubleshooting External Disk Issues

Here's a series of steps to recover use of an external drive that's acting up when connected to one machine but not with another.
2024-08-01

Delete Not Freeing Up Space? Take Out the Trash!

It can be frustrating to delete something to seemingly no effect. I'll explain why that might be and what to do.
2024-07-31

Should I Update to Windows 11?

Windows 11 is out to much fanfare, hype, and confusion. Unless you have specific reasons, you don't need to upgrade yet, but there's also no reason to avoid it.
2024-07-29

Is There a Windows 11 Installation Media Download?

It's rare to get installation media with your machine any more. Fortunately, Windows 11 installation media can be download online.
2024-07-27

A Story of Data Loss and What Could Have Been

I repaired a friend's machine's hard disk failure only to discover something much, much worse.
2024-07-26

How Do I Stop Outlook.com from Putting Legitimate Messages in the Junk Mail Folder?

Outlook.com, like most email services, tries hard to keep spam out of your inbox. Sometimes it gets a little too aggressive. I'll look at how to tame it.
2024-07-25

What’s the Difference Between an Email Domain, Account, Address, and Alias?

Email comes with its own set of terminology. I'll review how email addresses, accounts, domains, and aliases relate.
2024-07-24

How Do I Recover My Hacked Facebook Account?

Unfortunately, Facebook account hacks are common. I'll look at the process Facebook uses to recover a hacked Facebook account.
2024-07-22

Why Doesn’t Microsoft Dump the Registry?

The registry is a database that is needed for the complex issues Windows tries to solve. With that complexity, though, comes the potential for error.
2024-07-20

How Do I Find Someone’s Email Address?

It can be extremely difficult to find the email address of someone you want to contact. To begin with, they must want to be found.
2024-07-19

Where Can I Download Word For Free?

You can download Microsoft Word from Microsoft, but not for free. The good news is that there are several free alternatives.
2024-07-18

“Deleted Files Are Removed Everywhere” — What Does It Mean?

It's a scary warning that doesn't quite mean what it says but is important to understand. I'll explain.
2024-07-17

Should I Switch to Linux?

Linux is a viable alternative to extend the life of older machines or if you're just fed up with Windows. I'll look at some of the issues involved in switching to Linux.
2024-07-15

The World Won’t End!

I reflect on the realization that Windows XP's end-of-support date came and went and nothing happened, and the implications of that for Windows 10's end of support.
2024-07-13

How Do I Get Rid of Copilot?

Microsoft's AI, CoPilot, has received mixed reviews. Here's how best to get rid of it... for now.
2024-07-12

8 Ways Spammers Get Your Email Address

Spam is annoying. What's more annoying are all the ways spammers have to get our email addresses in the first place.
2024-07-11

What to Do About Kaspersky Antivirus

Any software company with ties outside the U.S. comes under scrutiny. Should you be worried?
2024-07-10

How Do I Unsubscribe from All These Unwanted Emails?

There are emails from which you should certainly unsubscribe if you no longer want them. However, there are emails that you absolutely should never unsubscribe from. I'll review the difference.
2024-07-08

Get Better, Faster Answers by Reading What’s in Front of You

I vent a little about people missing what's right in front of them (including myself) and then discuss why taking the time to read what your machine is telling you is so important to a less frustrating experience with your technology.
2024-07-06

How Do I Move My Address Book From One Provider to Another?

Taking your contacts with you when moving from one platform to another is a clumsy process.
2024-07-05