New MF Printer: a reader asks… Hi Chris, my HP 8600 multi-function printer is dying. Do you have a recommendation for a replacement? I took a look at two so far from Staples: the HP Officejet Pro X576dw for $350 and the HP Color Laserjet pro M477fnw for $330. Can you see much difference between the two? The Officejet Pro is an inkjet printer like the one you have now. So it’s capable of printing photos (with photo paper). The […]
Data Blown: a reader asks… I hope you can help me! I have a kid in college (new this year) and am getting hit with big charges from Verizon for going over our family data plan. We have 12gb of data monthly with 4 phones, and until she started college, we never went over the data plan. Since she started school, every month I’ve been getting hit with overages and this month I got charged for double: 24gb of data […]
Win10 Recovery USB: a reader asks… Hi Chris, I realized that my Windows 10 recovery USB was quite old, so last night I decided to create a new one. I found the recovery drive window, clicked on “Back up system files to the recovery drive” and waited…and it was still running in the morning. Any idea what’s going on? Let’s first get some definitions in place here for the types of recovery items you can create in Windows.. For Windows 10, […]
Mac Pages vs Word: a reader asks… Hi Chris, I’m in the process of switching from Windows to a Mac. I’ve been using Microsoft Word for a long time now, but am not too happy about having to pay for the program again just to use it on a Mac. My new Mac has this program called Pages which does word processing, can I use that with my Word documents? Are there any ‘gotchas’? One of the really nice thing […]
Windows Explorer Cache: a reader asks… Hi Coach, I’ve got a problem with my Windows 7 computer. I have a drive setup just for photos, and everything was working just fine. But recently when I add new photos the thumbnails don’t show, I get a generic image icon. I’ve got Windows Explorer set to show large icons, and it’s always worked well in the past for me. Got any tips for helping me fix this problem? Microsoft Windows creates thumbnail […]
Slow Mac: a reader asks… My 2-year-old Macbook Pro has been operating slow as of late. It seems like it takes a long time to boot up, and programs load very slowly. I also see that spinning beach ball a lot more often than I used to. Is there something I can do to speed it up back to normal? Over time and with use, all computers can easily fall prey to slowing down. We all have a penchant for […]
Win10 System Image: a reader asks… Hi Chris, I upgraded to Windows 10 recently. Previously on Windows 7 I took your advice and have been doing regular backups using the built-in Windows backup. I’ve also been periodically making System Images. Now that I’m on Windows 10, the new File History seems to be working fine, but I can’t make System Images any longer. Any tips? First off, in Windows 10, Microsoft has thoughtfully included the legacy system image creation feature, […]
Safe Paying: a reader asks… Hi Chris, can you tell me what’s safer? Chip cards versus swipe cards versus Apple Pay versus Samsung Pay? The first thing to recognize is that safety is not an absolute. There’s no 100% guarantee that any method of payment (even cash) is going to be completely safe. The second thing to recognize is that relative safety drops as more institutions have your financial information. The news is awash in hacks by retailers, financial institutions, […]
Advert Badvert: a reader asks… Hey Coach, I’ve been reading about malware built into advertising and I see you have ads on your website. How do you keep your website safe and how do I keep from getting hit with malware in advertising? Advertisements are (unfortunately) the only way most websites have of making any money to stay in business. After all, almost nobody would be willing to pay to read the content on most any news or information website. […]
Mac no copy/paste: a reader asks… Hi Chris, I can’t seem to copy and paste from browsers on my Mac. I tried Chrome and Safari. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot. I can copy and paste stuff from pages and from other programs, but when I try to copy a URL it doesn’t. Any tips? It seems this is a rarely-occurring bug that affects a small group of users, and appears across a variety of versions of OS X. What appears to […]
2-factor spoofing: a reader asks… I hear you about using 2-factor authentication and have been looking at the online places I visit to see if they offer it. I just turned it on for my gmail account. But someone told me that hackers are able to defeat this security method, so I’m wondering if the extra hassle is worth it? In a word, yes, it’s worth it. What your friend was probably referring to was a tweet put out by Alex […]
DashLane vs LastPass: a reader asks… What do you think of DashLane for password management? I know you recommend LastPass, can you tell me the main differences? I’m glad you’re using (or planning on using) a password manager! These days, you can’t get by with anything less, it’s too much of a risk for getting your online identity stolen by hackers. There are plenty of good password managers, including 1Password, KeePass and RoboForm. Each of these password managers has their […]
Cookie Crumbles: a reader asks… Hi Coach, I’ve run across several websites that have a warning on them saying that they use “cookies” and I have to accept them to use their website. Is there anything I need to worry about these things on my computer, like can they infect me or cause other trouble? Cookies are little files that websites store on your computer, primarily intended to make your web browsing experience faster and easier. They may include references […]
2-factor Authentication: a reader asks… Hi Coach, can you tell me what to do to turn on 2-factor authentication for my gmail account? You should take a quick look at my article: 3 Things to Know about 2-Factor Authentication (and some advice) which will give you a good primer for what 2-factor authentication is (and what it isn’t). To turn this feature onto gmail (they call it two-step verification), here’s what you do: visit https://myaccount.google.com/security/signinoptions/two-step-verification/enroll-welcome?hl=en and click the blue Get Started button, and sign […]
Keyboard locked up: a reader asks… Hi. I hit my Logitech Ultrathin keyboard and it has locked up and I do not know how to unlock it. I have also lost the scroll “up ” and “down” function on my iPad. Have switched on and switched off, but nothing is happening. Please Help!!!!!! Thank you. When you say ‘hit’ I’m assuming you inadvertently pressed some keys, not that you damaged it. I’ve found that there are two common ways that […]
Winmail.dat: a reader asks… My laptop email has been changed somehow to show incoming emails in this format (winmail.dat) and I cannot open regular reports I get because of this. Do you know anyway I can read these files? I use Yahoo email and this just started a few weeks ago, Previously I was getting emails with reports and was able to read them just fine. The problem isn’t with your computer or email, it’s with the person who sent […]
Windows 7 Updates: a reader asks… I keep fighting the MS requests to update to Windows 10 so I keep canceling those update requests. But these updates also popped up. Are there any that you would recommend I not accept? I am on Windows 7 pro. Microsoft splits up their Windows Updates into two categories: Important and Optional. At this point in the Windows 7 life-cycle, Microsoft is no longer doing major bug-fixes and adding new features, but only providing […]
Finger your iPhone: a reader asks… I have an iPhone 6, my first iPhone with a fingerprint reader embedded in the Home button. I’ve registered my fingerprint in the settings, but I can’t seem to get a decent read of my finger when I try to open the iPhone with my fingerprint. Is there a trick to that? Just a minor trick, but one that can easily trip up people, especially folks who transitioned from a Blackberry with physical keys. […]
Windex your Outlook: a reader asks… Hi Coach, can you suggest something to help me clean up my Outlook? I’ve got duplicate contacts, calendar events and even emails all over the place. They’ve sort of accumulated over time, and it’s time to do some housekeeping. Do you have any suggestions? I’m using Outlook 2010 on a Windows 7 computer. While you can certainly do this manually by eyeballing everything, and copying information from one contact or event to the other […]
Windows 10 Strikes Again: a reader asks… Hi Chris, this morning I went to my Dell laptop PC and instead of Windows 7 I was presented with Windows 10. Apparently the upgrade happened overnight, even though I didn’t ask for it. It seems like everything is working, I read here about laptop upgrades going horribly wrong, but my internet works, my screen works, my touchpad & keyboard works, nothing seems to be not working. At this point what do you […]
Firestick Theater: a reader asks… My surround sound system doesn’t work with the firestick. But it works with the TV. Any ideas how the firestick can work with the surround sound system. Any ideas will be appreciated. The Amazon Firestick is an amazing gadget for watching video of all kinds. It’s designed to plug into an available HDMI port on your flat-screen TV, but for folks with home theater setups, that can be less than satisfactory. After all, you’ve invested […]
Buh-bye Facebook: a reader asks… Just a quick question, I’m sick of facebook, can you tell me how to turn it off? Quick answer, visit https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account, read the notifications and then click the blue Delete my Account button. It’s that simple. But recognize that this is a permanent action, you won’t be able to reactivate your facebook account (you can always create a new facebook account though). There are various confirmations you’ll need to go through, and possibly security hoops (if you’ve turned […]
Lost Message? a reader asks… Hey Chris, I’ve been having trouble lately, in that sometimes people aren’t getting my messages. Sometimes it’s a lost facebook private message, sometimes a lost email, sometimes a text that never got delivered. Is there something going on that I should be worried about? I don’t think there’s anything new, but I do think you’re starting to experience the effects of communication overload. If it was only one communication channel, I might explore problems with that […]
Junk Gmail: A member asks… Lately, I’ve been getting alot of junk email in my Gmail inbox. I used to just get a little bit, but now I’m getting dozens of silly emails daily. Some are straight advertising like drugs from Canada, and some just have nonsense text in them. And some have file attachments or pictures in them. Why is this happening and can you tell me some simple ways I can stop this? I’m not a computer expert! Gmail […]
Password Magic: a reader asks… Is there an easier way to make hard-to-guess passwords that I can remember? I’ve been using various combinations of my dog’s name, names of my kids, and so on. I don’t want to use a password manager because I only go to about a half-dozen places online. So I’ve been creating one basic password and varying it for each place I go. I hope you’ll reconsider using a password manager (like https://www.lastpass.com) as that’s the […]
Robocall Block: A reader asks… Hey Chris, I know I can use the DoNotCall registry to try to block robocallers, but I still get way too many on my iPhone and now I’m starting to get junk text messages. Is there any way I can block this stuff? The US Government’s Do Not Call Registry (https://www.donotcall.gov/) is a good first start at eliminating junk calls, and you can and should register every phone number you have, landline and cellphone. But That’s […]
New FIOS Router? I just upgraded my home FiOS system. Now that I have the new Verizon router in hand, I am concerned how it will work with the Netgear wireless routers we attached to the old router. While the installation instructions look ‘stupid simple’ I wonder if I will run into challenges when I upgrade the Verizon device. I also wonder if I need to upgrade our Netgear Wireless routers -they are quite dated. I read that the best […]
Mac Firewall: a reader asks… I recently switched from using an old Windows laptop to a Macbook Pro. I’m still learning how to use it, and I have a question. Isn’t there some firewall I need to turn on, and don’t I need an internet security program? Thanks for any advice you can share! Congratulations on getting your new laptop! Switching from one to the other (either way) is more about finding the new places where the same old controls […]
Landline-less Fax: a reader asks… Hi Chris, I have a problem that’s probably more common than I think. Here’s my situation: I live in a condo and don’t have a landline, just a cell phone. I have a computer and internet service at the condo. On rare occasions I need to send out faxes, but often need to be able to copy and scan things to my computer. Is there a multi-function device that will do this for me – […]
Why Update? a reader asks… It seems like every day some part of my technology needs to be updated. It’s a real pain, especially when I’m working on something and a popup hits my screen saying I need an update to something or other. Just yesterday my Norton told me I have to upgrade to a new version. Do I really need to do these updates? Short answer, yes. In almost all cases, an update to a software program, operating system, […]
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