We know, updating your PC is a hassle–but it’s essential. New security flaws are discovered on a regular basis, and most companies are pretty good about issuing fixes for those flaws as they crop up. Plugging those holes, however, depends primarily upon you making sure things are appropriately updated.
How to Keep Your Windows PC and Apps Up to Date
We know, updating your PC is a hassle–but it’s essential. New security flaws are discovered on a regular basis, and most companies are pretty good about issuing fixes for those flaws as they crop up. Plugging those holes, however, depends primarily upon you making sure things are appropriately updated.
The more software you install on your computer, the longer it may seem to take to start up Windows. Many programs add themselves to the list of programs started when you boot your computer, and that list can get long.
Windows normally animates windows whenever you minimize or maximize them. These animations can be disabled, if you like, making windows hide or appear immediately. This option is available on all modern versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Your PC makes lots of Internet connections in a day’s business, and not all of them are necessarily sites you’re aware connections are happening with. While some of these connections are harmless, there is always a chance that you have some malware, spyware, or adware using your Internet connection in the background without your knowledge. Here’s how to see what’s going on under the hood.
If you’ve been using Windows for a while, you likely remember how annoying the User Account Control (UAC) was when it first popped up in Windows Vista. We showed you back then how to disable it, and you can still disable it in Windows 8 and 10. Here’s how.
From Enhance Pointer Precision to DPI and pointer speed, there are a lot of options that affect how your mouse pointer moves in Windows. The below tips will help you move your mouse pointer more accurately—and even allow you to move it pixel by pixel.
If you’re concerned a file might be malicious, you don’t need to download it and rely on your antivirus. You can scan the file for malware with over 60 antivirus engines before you download it—all with one single tool.
Your PC’s hard drive could fail tomorrow, or a software bug could erase your files, so backups are critical. But you don’t need to back up all the files on your PC. That would just waste space and make your backups take longer to complete.
Most laptop touchpads make it possible to perform a middle-click, but not all do. In some situations, you may need to enable this option in your mouse driver’s control panel or install the appropriate drivers first.
Reinstalling Windows isn’t as simple as just clicking through an installer. You’ll want to have important data backed up first, and then you’ll need installation media and a product key before continuing—and those are just the basics. This checklist will walk you through reinstalling Windows and ensure you won’t forget anything.
Remote Desktop is disabled by default in Windows, but it’s easy enough to turn on if you want your PC to be remote control requests from the network.
If you’ve previously added or removed the some of the “special” icons like Computer, User, and Control Panel to the desktop—or just want to know how to add them in Windows 10—here’s how to do it.
If you’ve ever bought a new computer with Windows already installed, you might be annoyed by the default name of your PC. Or maybe you’re just ready for a change. Here’s how to rename your PC to whatever you like.
The Run box is a convenient way to run programs, open folders and documents, and even issue some Command Prompt commands. You can even use it to run programs and commands with administrative privileges.
If you’ve ever browsed through Task Manager, you may have wondered why there are so many Service Host processes running. You can’t kill them, and you sure didn’t start them. So, what are they?
You are no doubt reading this article because you stumbled across the Desktop Window Manager process and are wondering just what it is. We’ve got the answer.
If you’ve got a lot of AVI videos in your media collection, you might want to be able to play them on your DVD player—or even more likely, give a DVD to a family member to watch. Here’s how to create your own DVDs easily.
Figuring out whether you’re running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows only takes a couple of steps and the tools are already built into Windows. Here’s how to find out what you’re running.
There are all kinds of ways to open a Command Prompt window from File Explorer—and you can even run commands right in the File Explorer address bar—but did you know it’s just as easy to open a File Explorer window from the Command Prompt?
If you’re worried about someone trying to guess your Windows password, you can have Windows temporarily block sign in attempts after a specific number of failed attempts.
Whenever an application wants to make itself accessible over the network, it claims a TCP/IP port, which means that port can’t be used by anything else. So how do you check open ports to see what application is already using it?
If you’re tired of the way certain keys on your system work, you can re-map them to function as a different key by using a free utility named SharpKeys. Here’s how it works.
Windows plays a startup sound and other sound effects regularly, and they can get obnoxious. They’re especially annoying on Windows 7, where Windows plays a click sound every time you switch folders in Windows Explorer. You can disable them entirely—or even set custom sound effects, if you prefer.
You’re likely reading this because you noticed a gigantic hiberfil.sys file sitting on your system drive and you’re wondering if you can get rid of it to free up some space. Here’s what that file is and how you can delete it if you want to.
The built-in backup utilities in Windows are pretty solid. Let’s take a look at how to create a full backup image of your PC without the need for a third party utility.
