The past few days calls and emails started filtering in about the new AVG 8.0 version folks have seen appear on their free versions of AVG Antivirus. The common query is, “Should I upgrade?” No, home users of AVG Antvirus do not need to upgrade at all. The current free version of AVG will continue to be updated and as… Read More »AVG Antivirus 8.0 Upgrade Advice
Creating a Better Password:
Mix it up – use number and letters in both upper and lower case
Spell words that you are familiar with such as p455w0rD (see how it kind of spells “password”)
Never use the word “password” as your password.
Creating that Secret Question:
Many services ask you to create a secret question incase you forget your password. This allows them to ask you for the answer to verify that you are who you say you are.
Choose a secret question that is true now and will be true five years from now – not, “what is your favorite movie?” or “what is your pet’s name?”
Choose a question that is very specific – not “Where did you meet your spouse?”
I saw two clients today with slow computer problems. Actually the problems weren’t slow, the computers were and that was the problem. But, I digress.
Both computers were Dells of the same age. As it turns out each machine only had 256MB of RAM – too little for XP to run at its full potential.
I added 512MB to each machine and suddenly the systems came alive and ran faster than most brand new machines I setup.
Don’t know how to check your RAM?
Here’s what to do:
1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Click on Properties in the menu that comes up
3. Look for the amount of RAM that’s installed
If it is less than 512MB for an XP machine or 2000MB for a Vista machine, you should add more.
Last week, I gave you a short video tour of Zoho.com’s Writer word processing application. This week the tour continues with the Sheet program (spreadsheet) from Zoho. Like the word processor program, Sheet offers all of the features that 90% of spreadsheet users need or use, including:
Watch the short video below to see how far online applications from Zoho.com can take you.
All your icons are gone off of your desktop and you can’t bring them back.
It’s an easy fix:
1. Right-click on your desktop
2. Click Arrange Icons By (or something similar depending on your version of Windows)
3. Click Show Desktop Icons
Wait a few seconds and all of your icons will come back. If they don’t you should get a Mac or Ubuntu computer.
One of my client’s today had a problem with slow and frequent disconnects with her wireless Internet (wi-fi) in her home. Upon my investigation, I discovered that her computer had hooked onto a neighbor’s weak, unsecured signal and was ignoring hers. After connecting to her signal, the wireless was strong and didn’t disconnect.
To make sure that you are connected to the wireless signal you think you are:
If you really like saving all of your email, you might seriously consider getting a Gmail account. With today’s emails sometimes weighing in at 5 megabytes and more, email programs (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) can get extremely sluggish. Sluggish performance eventually leads to corrupt data which means you lose all your email.
You can take steps to avoid this, however, by following a few simple
We have written quite a bit about Web 2.0 here at HelpMeRick.com and this week I decided to start a mini-series featuring my favorite Web 2.0 web site, Zoho. Zoho offers an online set of productivity tools unequaled anywhere else on the web. Many of the tools are offered at no cost and cover everything from word processing to project management.
In this first installment, I take you on a short tour of the Zoho word processor known as Writer. Writer offers all the tools that almost anyone needs in a word processor with the convenience of being available on any computer using any operating system or browser and at no cost to the user. Some of Writer’s features include:
Watch this short tour of Zoho Writer to learn more and see it in action.
After almost 13 years of battling security problems on Windows machines, I’m finally seeing the light of day and recommending Mac’s and Linux for many computer users. It will be a long journey convincing people that there is life beyond Microsoft.
For those who bang away with Microsoft Windows computers,and have problems with Slow Computer Disease (SCD), pop-ups, viruses and other problems, I present the following sage advice:
I’ve learned that when it comes to spyware/adware (THE major cause of SCD), if it takes more than an hour to troubleshoot and solve, you will be WAY AHEAD of the game to:
1. Backup your data
2. Reformat the system, and resinstall Windows
This weekend, an emailer asked the question of how to use the backups that we describe on our site. An excellent question I’m sure others have had as well.
Over the years, I laid out step-by-step methods for backing up your email address book, favorites/bookmarks, and even your email. To use these backups, simply use the “Import” function to bring them back into a new installation of a program or even a new computer.