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Part 2 of 2: How to Recover Your Computer After a Drive Fails
This post covers what to do when your hard drive fails: replacing the drive, reinstalling the operating system, and restoring your files from the backups you set up in Part 1.
More articles
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A walkthrough of setting up automatic backups on Windows and Mac, using the built-in tools plus a cloud service for off-site protection.
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Amazon is sending refund-clawback settlement notices with a December 1, 2026 claim deadline. The claim needs proof of tender, and here are the ways you can get the proof.
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Most "I think I have a virus" cases turn out to be something else. Here's how to tell what you have, and what to do about it... and what to do when it's something else.
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Home-video DVDs degrade, and most new computers can't read them because they don't come with a DVD drive any more. Here's how to get the footage off the discs and into an MP4 format that can be played on smart phones or saved safely to the cloud.
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Uninstalling Xbox, Clipchamp, and the rest of the bloat from your Start menu isn't enough. Windows 11 puts them back after updates unless you work through a few extra layers.
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Part 2 of a three-part series on backing up family photos. I cover picking an external drive, organizing folders so you can find things later, and rotating drives so one failure doesn't wipe you out.
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There are five ways to move photos and videos off an iPhone.
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Winterizing an outdoor spigot takes about ten minutes. You disconnect the hose, shut the interior valve, and watch for the frost-free trap.
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The small tricks that separate a crisp-looking wrapped gift from the lumpy-tape-everywhere version. Nobody teaches you this stuff, so here it is.
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Most people either overvalue their old stuff or sell it for pennies. Here's how to price your items.
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Vibe coding doesn't have to produce a tangled mess. Set the rules up front and check the AI's work as you go.
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Apple Maps returning results from the wrong city? Here's why the location gets stuck and how to reset it.
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A plain-English guide to picking a video editor — from the free built-ins to the enthusiast tools, and when the phone is the right answer.
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The mail lives on Microsoft's servers, so moving to a new laptop means signing in rather than transferring. Plus what to check before wiping the old machine.
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A Microsoft 365 user cannot change their own password until an admin enables it, and it is off by default. Here is the setting and the steps once it is on.
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A 5 to 10 year old computer that feels slow can usually be brought back to life for under $110 in parts — if you know which upgrades are worth doing and which machines can't be upgraded at all.
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Part 1 of a three-part series on backing up family photos: the basic rule and the three common setups that feel safe but leave everything exposed.
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Five months after my heart attack I'm down 30 pounds and feel healthier than I did before. What worked came down to food, exercise and stress.
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Chasing a high-pitched whine through your car stereo? Here are the fixes everyone recommends first, and the one that killed mine.
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Before you rage-buy a new printer, check these five things. It's usually one of the same handful of problems.
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Your kid just started a real job and HR handed them a 401(k) enrollment form they don't understand. Here's the 10-minute conversation to have with them before the default settings make the decision for them.
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Scam sites look better than ever. Here's what to check before typing a credit card into a website you don't already know.
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Two months after a stent for a 90% blockage in the widowmaker, here's what cardiac rehab, a Mediterranean diet, and daily blood pressure checks have taught me.
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Before you blame your ISP and let them sell you a faster plan, run through a few quick checks. The bottleneck is usually the router, not your internet connection.
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Tankless water heaters get pitched as the obvious upgrade, but they're a great fit for some houses and a bad financial call for others. Here's how to tell which situation you're in.
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Water heaters show warning signs months before they leak. A 10-minute inspection twice a year gives you time to shop the replacement on your own terms.
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I built Cliopanion, a daily-routine app with an AI companion named Clio. It tracks your routines, holds you to what you said you'd do, and reflects with you on how the week went.
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The trade-offs between claiming Social Security at 62, 67, or 70, and how to figure out which age works best for your situation.
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Code Claude hands you can look authoritative and be subtly wrong. Here's how to smell the bluff before you paste it in.
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Part 1 of a build log. I'm making a 10-foot semicircular bar and a dance floor for my daughter's August wedding. I used ChatGPT to design the bar and drop the render onto a photo of the actual yard — here's how that worked.
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Preserve your Hi-8 and VHS memories by converting them to digital movies and saving them to DVD before the tapes wear out for good.
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I wrote FlowPro in 1997 as a Visual Basic port of a Fortran open-channel-flow program. This week I asked Claude to convert it into a web app.
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The dealer negotiates for a living. You don't. Here's how the game works, why the monthly-payment question is the trap, and the script I used the second time I helped a daughter buy a car.
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Ten security findings from an AI-run audit of my own apps — high, medium, and low severity, and how each one got fixed.
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Buying a used car is mostly about catching problems before they become your problems. The full checklist I run every time — exterior, drivability, interior, and the bottom line.
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Vibe coding drops the barrier to building software. But the difficulty doesn't ramp up gently — and the gap between "looks like it works" and "actually works" can be huge.
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Here’s how to send photos and videos to another iPhone – even when there’s no cell phone coverage or wifi – using…
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Quick Response Codes – QR codes for short – can be linked to web pages. Here’s how to create one that links to your…
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Question: I have a lot of books on my Kindle, but sometimes I’d like to read them on my laptop instead of on my Kindle. Is there a…
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Macs have a built-in way of letting you transfer files from one Mac to another using Airdrop over a wireless network connection. According…
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This handy, low-cost tool can revive dead sections of your lights in minutes—saving you money, time, and a lot of holiday frustration. It…
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Back in December 2008, Mother Nature dumped a few inches of snow on Oregon and the kids and I built an igloo. Here's the video — and the modernized how-to for sharing YouTube videos on Facebook.
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You can almost always recover files from your memory card, even if your system is saying the card is corrupted. Here’s how……
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Photos, music and contacts each move onto an iPhone a different way, on both Mac and Windows.
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NO AC means your sprinkler system is not getting power and is running on it’s backup battery. Here’s how to check…
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Send the photo through Google Drive or Google Photos, or over a cable with Samsung Smart Switch. GarageBand trims an MP3 into a ringtone at no cost.
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With the foundation completed, it’s time to lay down the deck boards. You’ll spend the bulk of your money on this part,…
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We all hope our kids will grow up and live much longer than we do, but if your kids are off to school like mine are, then you’re…
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Question: Have you any info on formatting the memory chip for a camera after deleting all the photos? I tried to make an 8×10…
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Question: I’m getting ready to sell my laptop to someone on Craigslist, and want to be sure they can’t use a restore program to…
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I’ve heard of companies finding data that people thought they had deleted from their work computer. How do they do that? Might be…
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How to transfer pictures from a Samsung digital camera to your computer. Question: I recieved a SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA for my birthday but…
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Impress your friends with this simple and easy holiday-themed spice infused Bourbon recipe. Imagine the feeling of curling up by the fire…
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Macbooks come with a built-in trackpad that you can press anywhere to manually “click” the mouse (with the mouse being your…
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There are three decisions to make before your first website goes up: where to register the domain, which host to use, and which plan. Here's how to make each one without getting trapped.
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Hot tubs are extremely heavy when loaded with water and people, and you’ll need a solid platform to ensure the hot tub doesn’t…
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FaceTime is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, and even the people you work with… but sometimes it’s a…
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I have developed a tight system for putting up and taking down lights over the past few decades, that makes it fast and easy each year to…
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I’ve used Craigslist to sell dozens of household items over the years, and I’ve noticed the larger-priced electronics are…
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Transferring photos from your iPhone to your computer is a much easier proccess with Windows 10 and here are the steps to…
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Question: Where can I download a free Christmas screensaver? Answer: There are a lot of free screensavers that you can download, but be…
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I do a lot of photo and image editing on my Mac and typically use Preview for grabbing screenshots. After quitting Preview with too many…
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Question: Can you recommend an affordable data recovery program for my Mac? Answer: Before you spend any money on data recovery software,…
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Have you ever been midway through a software development project, and had your client request a change in features? That never happens in…
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Hi Ricky, I need to find an electrician near me in the Beaverton, Oregon area. Who do you recommend? Hi Ricky, I need to find an…
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Linux and Unix-based systems have a built-in scheduling service called cron, that runs in the background and executes commands defined as…
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There’s nothing worse than realizing too late that you accidentally deleted hundreds of precious photos from your iPhone or iPad.…
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A domain, hosting, and something to build the pages with. What each one costs in the first year, and the simplest path if you’ve never done it before.
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Question: I have an idea for a new website, but how do I get the web site name, and how much will it cost? Question: I have an idea for a…
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Centos comes with a powerful firewall called iptables, that gives you very granular control over access to your server. Iptables is…
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Many of my friends (and family members) have said to me "So Rick... how do I get started creating my own blog?"... and I've had the privilege of helping some of them to take that f
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New computer? Here's how to easily transfer all your software programs, files and settings from your old computer to the shiny new computer.If you recently purchased a new computer
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Have you ever visited a website that showed you the same exact ad on every single page you visited? You quickly put it in your mental "IGNORE THIS" list, which made it basically in
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Question: I need to have my notebook reconfigured but do not want to lose the programs. Can I move them to an external drive and then return them to my notebook as it is reconfigur
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Question: My dell 8400 tower went down, replaced power supply and ..nothing. How can I get everything off the hard drive, install into another tower, or take it somewhere to downlo
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Here are a few handy shortcuts for Blackberry email that most Blackberry owners just won't be able to live without. 1. Mark All Messages As Read/Opened Select the most recently dat
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I have a confession to make: I've never been very good at backing up my important system files (or any files in fact). I was one of those guys who literally never backed up their h
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How to create ringtones for free with iTunes, and upload them to your cell phone with a USB data cable or a Bluetooth connection. You can create ringtones for free with iTunes usin
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Blackberry curves let you play mp3 music just like an iPod, and you can transfer songs and videos from iTunes to your Blackberry using an SD Micro memory card and a USB card reader
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Hard drives start with a single "partition" that holds the operating system, your applications, games and all of your important data, music, photos and videos. You can split your h
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Top 3 ways to transfer photos from a Samsung Galaxy to your Mac. The Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with 16 GB of memory, which is plenty to store thousands of high quality photos. But ge
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How to quickly transfer hundreds of photos from a Windows PC to a Mac, using a wifi connection with no data cables. Both of my daughters were homecoming princesses this year, and m
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I have been trying to make DVDs from my home videos. I can load the movies onto my computer using windows movie maker, but I cannot get the movie to burn to a DVD that will play in
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Question: My iPod has totally stopped working. It won't charge when plugged into the computer and won't turn on at all. What can I do?
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As a parent myself, I think its important to be aware of the dangers that are lurking on the Internet so that you can protect your kids from viewing inappropriate or adult-related
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Learn how to copy everything from your old phone to your shiny new one, and help your friends and coworkers with their new phones too! Your new phone has arrived, and you're probab
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Question: I keep hearing people talk about Bitcoin and how popular it's becoming... and how they made money buying and selling it. Is it safe and should I try it? Question: I keep
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Question: I have an old Panasonic PV-L859 camcorder. i haven't used it for a while, but i have some tapes that i would like to transfer to either a macbook pro or a dell inspiron
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The Mac keyboard is loaded with shortcuts for everything from a Euro symbol or Copyright symbol, to handy functions like copy/paste or even opening applications. The Mac keyboard i
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This morning my Macbook crashed for some reason, and after booting it back up I noticed Outlook wouldn't start. It would flash the start up logo and then go away. Frustrating! It t
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With the new iOS 9.3 update, Apple introduced a feature called "Night Shift" that makes the colors of your iPhone screen warmer at night, reducing blue light. This can help a lot i
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Outlook keeps prompting me with a "Message too large" error every couple of minutes. I had tried to send an email with a 34 MB attachment, not knowing that there's a size limit for
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While Apple’s iPhone is an amazing piece of technology, sometimes the battery life just doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Improving the battery life is actually easy to do by
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Struggling to get a webpage to load properly? Here are 3 simple ways to fix the problem. Have you ever visited a webpage and it just plain doesn’t behave as you think it should? Th
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In a previous life I sold and delivered technical training for Jive Software for several years, traveling around the world teaching Fortune 500 companies how to enhance their busin
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I've gone back and forth between initially being an iPhone lover (back when they first came out and up through about the 4) and then switched over to a Galaxy S4... and even upgrad
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I accidentally deleted several photos from my iPhone a while back, and thought they were gone forever. It's also been several weeks since I deleted them, and I figured there was ab
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Windows 10 comes with a lot of new features including the ability to customize the Start Menu more than ever before. Here are a couple handy things you can do to get your Windows s
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Question: I downloaded Win 10 on 7/29/15, because Microsoft told me my Dell Inspiron N5110 laptop running Windows 7 was compatible. Each time I started it up, the Win 10 logo came
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Microsoft's Windows 10 upgrade is rolling out in stages to about 14 million machines, but you can avoid the line and upgrade now by following these instructions. Microsoft has a do
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Windows 10 - Microsoft's new operating system that's free if you have a previous version of Windows - tracks everything you do on your computer. This includes web sites you visit,
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Drupal lets you define just about any type of content you can imagine using the Taxonomy module. Here's how to create a form that lets regular users create taxonomy terms, without
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This year my day job has allowed me to work 100% from my home office. I love being able to skip the 45 minute commute into Portland, and I'm able to be very productive without the
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I've built up a respectible arsenal of gadgets and devices while traveling around the world. Some are necessities, and some are just to keep my sanity on longer international trips
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If you're selling your Mac or giving it back to your company's IT department, you'll want to protect your personal information by wiping the hard drive and resetting to factory def
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Question: How do I unfreeze my Sony Xperia Z1 phone? I've tried turning it off but nothing happens. I've tried taking the sim card out but that didn't help either. Question: How do
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The Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is both tough and waterproof... traits the iPhone 6 seems to be struggling with right out of the gate.
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Tired of that iPhone or just switched to an Android? Here's how to wirelessly transfer your photos, videos, and documents from your iPhone to your Android (or vice versa) using you
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You can remove friends from your Facebook account at any time using these instructions, and the good news is that your friend won't be notified that you've removed them. Question:
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Samsung's Galaxy mobile phones come with 16GB built-in device storage. If you want to start watching videos or storing songs though, you'll quickly run out of space. Here's how to
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It's easy to see photos and videos you've liked on Instagram, just by going to your profile page and tapping "Posts You've Liked". But if you want to view posts that one of your fo
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Instagram keeps track of the users and hashtags you search for, so you can easily find them again in the future. If you're looking for a way to clear out your search history, just
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Videos taken from your iphone or ipad are automatically imported into iPhoto when you sync your device to iTunes, but it's not very clear how to get those videos out of iPhoto. Her
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Learn how to turn off these pesky notifications, by following these easy steps. It seems like every app I install has the need to notify me about something every day, and those ale
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Here are the basic steps to personalize and secure your wireless home network. You don't have to be technical to do this. Having recently moved into an apartment while we wait for
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You'll know right away if you've been infected by this nasty malware virus because you'll see a warning popup when you log into Windows, or try to open a web browser, or click on a
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Uploading photos from a DVD to Facebook is a 2-step process. First you import the photos to your computer, and then you can upload them to Facebook. Last week I took my family to C
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iPhones do support multimedia messages (MMS) and here's how to enable MMS on your iPhone so you can send photos in your text messages. Question: I have an iphone 4 that I recently
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How to send photos from an LG Xenon phone to yourself or friends, even if you don't have a data plan. Question: I have a red LG Xenon phone with a few pictures I've taken over the
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Be sure you sync your iPhone before doing any iOS upgrade, so that your camera roll photos will all be in iTunes. Then when you upgrade, they should still be on your phone or at le
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Question: I'm very desperate because my iPhone 3GS got stolen and now I am trying to transfer my backup to another phone, an iPhone 3.
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I am in a school and need to send video from a minidv camcorder to the classroom teacher's computers, to use on their digital projectors. Do you know how I can do this? I am in a s
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I have a Blackberry Torch phone and I'd like to transfer photos from the bb to my computer. I was looking at the Blackberry Desktop Manager that has a Bluetooth option, but I'm not
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MS Word is locked, and I can't do anything. How can I fix this? is there a trick? I hope you can help as I have worked a lot on this document and don't want to lose my changes or h
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I have a Sony Ericsson W350i phone which I have updated with current software from Sony (no MicroSD installed - photos are in phones memory). I have tried unsuccessfully to transfe
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How to use a Samsung Galaxy phone as a wireless access point, to connect your laptop to the internet. Question: I have a new Samsung Galaxy S i9003 LCD Phone. Can I use this mobile
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How do I turn off the security prompt in Windows that pops up and says it needs my permission to continue? This is happening on a school website I go into on a regular basis. Quest
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I have a dvd of photos I made with Windows live movie maker. I no longer have the photo files on my computer. Is it possible to copy the photos back onto my computer from the DVD s
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Question: I just bought a new Gateway PC with Windows 7 Home Premium on it. What is the best way to transfer both programs and files from the old PC to the new PC? Answer: Take a l
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I'm wondering if I could hook up my sprint phone to my fax machine, so I can send faxes. I don't want a home phone line.
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Gateway and other manufacturers no longer ship recovery discs with new computers or laptops, so you'll have to create one and I'll show you how to do that. Last year I bought a Gat
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iPhones show a battery meter at the top right of the screen, that shows you how much charge is remaining. You can also make that meter show an actual percentage of remaining charge
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Question: My friend has an iphone and I have an itouch. Can his iphone somehow be turned into a wifi hot spot so I can connect through his device to the internet? Question: My frie
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Question: Is it possible to email a song to my Blackberry, and be able to listen to it from my Blackberry?
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The iPhone's built-in Voice Memos app lets you record audio snippets and play them back later. Here's how to transfer a voice recording to your computer or send via email. The iPho
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How to disable Windows Live Messenger so it doesn't automatically run when Windows starts up. One thing that really annoys me are programs that Windows thinks everyone should have
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Nintendo packed a lot of useful features into the Wii such as the ability to connect to the Internet over a wireless network. You can browse the web using the built-in Opera web br
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It's easy to create ringtones for free with iTunes using the steps outlined below, and then you can upload them to your cell phone with a USB data cable or a Bluetooth connection.
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The Galaxy Tab has a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back along with auto focus and flash. After you've taken pictures on a Galaxy Tab, you can easily transfer them to your computer us
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How to protect your system from computer viruses that are often picked up from seasonal web sites that you or your kids might visit during the Holidays. Today my wife was searching
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Netflix recently pubished it's own Wii channel so you don't have to insert a DVD to view Netflix movies on demand through your Wii.
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How to turn your Mac into a wireless access point, so you can share your Internet connection with multiple wireless devices. Some hotels are greedy and charge for internet connecti
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So you're a proud owner of a new iPhone, but you have a considerable investment in apps and music sitting on your old iPhone, and don't know how to transfer them over to your new i
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According to Apple only a " very small number of iPad users have experienced issues with Wi-Fi connectivity", and that a patch is on the way, yet I see articles all over the web th
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Sprint caps their 3G data plans at 2 GB a month, but 4G connectivity is unlimited and way faster too. The trick is to ensure that you're only connecting to the 4G network, which is
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Microsoft Outlook usually does a decent job of maintaining it's email folders, but if your computer ever crashes or accidentally gets a power cord yanked out then there's a chance
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You can copy recorded shows from your Comcast DVR to a Windows XP computer fairly easily using a FireWire cable, a few software drivers, and a free video streaming program. I love
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Google's free Picasa photo editor can import photos from your camera's SD memory card, and you can install a plugin that will let you upload photos directly from Picasa to Facebook
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How to import pictures in Windows XP using the built-in Scanner and Camera wizard. I recently downgraded from Vista back to XP for performance and stability reasons, but forgot tha
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How to copy songs from Windows Media Player into iTunes. Question: I have lots of songs in Windows Media Player that I want to copy to iTunes (I have just bought an iPod). How do I
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TweetDeck lets you post tweets to both your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Here's how to set it up. I showed you a while ago how to link your Facebook account with Twitter , so tha
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For some reason the Snipping Tool in Windows Vista tends to frequently lock up, resulting in the familiar error message "The Snipping Tool is not working on your computer right now
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It's often desirable to convert DVD movies to an electronic format so they can be viewed as video files directly from your computer or mobile device. In this article I'll show you
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I'm enroute to Dallas, TX right now and it's a wifi flight with American Airlines. I'm typing... I mean tapping this post on my iPhone 3GS, after paying a nominal $7.95 fee for in-
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The Motorola 376g (KRAZR) camera phone from Tracfone comes equipped with Bluetooth support for hands-free headset devices, letting you keep your hands on the steering wheel while y
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Question: When someone puts RT before your name on a tweet, what does that mean? Answer: RT means "retweet". It's similar to forwarding an email to someone else, but in this case y
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Question: I emailed myself a video I took from my blackberry curve. When i try to play the video on my computer it says it can't find the file extension. What is the deal? Question
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I'm hooked on Twitter. It's grown into much more than even it's original charter ever dreamed, which was (quoted directly from their sign-in page): " Twitter is a service for frien
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My auto-play stopped working. When I plug in my iphone to my computer now, it only opens itunes, not the auto-play anymore.
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A few days ago my wife complained to me that her Facebook page looked different and she didn't like it at all. She asked me if I could figure out how to get the old one back. I ass
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It's great to know that the articles I publish on this site are actually helping people, and thanks to those of you who have taken time to drop me a quick thank you note from time
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How to transfer pictures from your computer to a digital photo frame. Digital picture frames are awesome. I have one at work, my wife has one at home, and we gave my parents one fo
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Question: I read your comments about putting a signature into a Blackberry, but to take this one step further, can I add my company logo to this signature? Question: I read your co
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Question: How do I view my pics from a flash drive, thru my cable box, to my TV?
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Question: I have DSL/cable package via Time Warner, a Samsung Blu-Ray P2550 player with built in Netflix and Pandora internet radio. I need to connect a router to the Blu Ray in or
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Question: I've resisted buying an ipod so far because I am an audiophile and I hate the idea of compressed music, which I equate to poor sound quality! Can you transfer whole CDs d
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With the iPhone's built-in iPod music player, you'd think it would be easy to select a music file and set it as your default ringtone, or as a custom ringtone for one of your conta
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Question: Is there a way to connect your ipod touch to the internet with a laptop with an aircard, either through Wi-Fi, bluetooth, or with a USB cable?
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Question: Is their a way to make a song (mp3) into a ringtone on my LG Dare? I could do it with my N70 and this is a better cell!
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Question: I just bought my two daughters Ipod Touch 2nd Gen for Christmas. They are 10 and 12 yrs old and a bit more technology savvy than I when it comes to handhelds. I am concer
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Question: I am trying to put some movies onto my Sansa Fuze, but I don't know how to go about doing this. Every time that i try, the file is either to big or something. Please tell
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Question: I recently purchased a Samsung Blackjack II. I have had it less than a week...there is so much dust that has accumulated under the screen and it is driving me crazy. I ca
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Question: I have cell phone service with Verizon Wireless. Do you know if it is possible to transfer ringtones that I purchased from Verizon from my old phone to my new phone? Veri
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Is it possible to lock down access to my Blackberry, so my boss cannot see my email and web browsing activity? Question: My Blackberry is a company phone. I use it, I answer it, bu
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Many people pay an extra $10 - $15 a month for a DVR to record TV shows and movies and view them later. Did you know you could be recording TV and cable shows directly to your comp
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Question: I just purchased a BB Curve with sprint. According to the specs this phone supports an 8gb memory card (which I have), but how do I reformat it?
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Loom and OBS Studio record training the teachers watch on their own schedule, and Google Meet or Teams covers live sessions a district already licenses.
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Facebook and LinkedIn closed automatic blog posting to personal profiles in 2018. Share the link by hand, or schedule it to a Page with Buffer or Hootsuite.
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I love Facebook and have connected with several old time friends that I haven't seen in ages. I find though that my inbox is filling up with emails from Facebook, letting me know e
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Create a Facebook group from Groups, then Create new group. Public shows posts and the member list to anyone; Private and Hidden keeps both to members.
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Texts addressed to someone else usually mean the number was reassigned. Forward them to 7726 to report the sender, and reply STOP to automated messages.
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How do i find the files for itunes on a macbook air to transfer to a memory card, to use in a blackberry curve?
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The Yahoo Weather app follows the iPhone's own language. Check Settings, then General, then Language & Region, and the per-app Preferred Language setting.
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iTunes has no setting that locks a playlist. Separate user accounts on the computer give each person their own library, and holding Option opens a second one.
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Here's how to link your Twitter and Facebook accounts, so you can have your updates automatically show up in both places. Twitter is a free service that lets you communicate and st
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How to transfer photos from my an LG Shine CU720 to a PC computer or laptop. Question: How do I transfer photos from my new LG Shine CU720 to my PC? Answer: The user's guide for th
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The iPhone 3G will be my new travel companion when I leave for Zurich, Switzerland tomorrow morning (yep, I finally upgraded from my Blackberry Curve). The iPhone has a lot to offe
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I'd like to capture screenshots of my iPhone - is there a way to do this? Question: I'd like to capture screenshots of my iPhone - is there a way to do this? Answer: You can take s
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Backups are one of those things that I keep meaning to do, and now that I'm traveling once or twice a month as an instructor, I decided recently that it was time to implement a sol
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Question: I have music that I bought from iTunes that I can't play on my blackberry, or even on my computer with Windows Media Player. Is there a way around this limitation? I mean
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Question: My computer is taking a really long time to shut down or restart - like a few minutes. Drives me nuts. Any solutions? Answer: I had the exact same thing happen on my kid'
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Question: I just lost my ipod that had a ton of songs on it. So now I have to buy those songs all over again and load them on my new ipod! Is there a way for me to backup these son
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Cell phone camera technology is changing rapidly, and manufacturers are starting to bundle higher resolution cameras with their cell phones. Sanyo’s M1 and Apple’s iPhone both incl
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Question: My computer keeps locking up and runs quite a bit slower than it used to. Programs like Internet Explorer and MS Office freeze when I try to open them. Is it time to buy
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Question: I keep getting duplicate emails on my Blackberry Curve 8310, and it seems to be only messages that I reply to (where the original message will show up again after I reply
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I recently bought a new iPhone and want to copy all my contacts from my old phone to the new phone. I have quite a few and don't want to have to type them each into the iPhone as i
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Question: I have My Portfolio set up at iGoogle and can see it fine on a PC. But when I go to iGoogle using my Blackberry it does not show up - everything else on the iGoogle home
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Question: I occasionally want to take a picture of my Blackberry screen to explain to friends or coworkers how to do something on the phone, or to show them what a game looks like.
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Question: Even though I have set up profiles for my Blackberry Curve phone, I still do not receive email messages when its on. The phone rings but not when I get email at any of th
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How to copy photos and videos from your Blackberry to your computer, or from your computer to your Blackberry. Question: I have some pictures I took with my Blackberry Curve that I
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Question: My work laptop doesn't have any games on it, but I thought there were some cool games like chess and mahjong that came with Vista. Is there a way to turn them on or insta
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As you know, I've been a strong advocate of my Blackberry Curve and wrote an article a few months ago titled Five Reasons Why I Chose a Blackberry Curve Instead of an iPhone . I ta
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I'm heading to London tomorrow for a week long business trip and will need to have access to phone, email, and internet on my Blackberry...
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Question: Do you have any software programs that you recommend - preferably free - for converting images and photos into other file format? I have some pictures that are in bitmap
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From Apple's web site: "iPod touch finds wireless networks and connects you to the Internet". That can be a little misleading to some people... Question: I own the iPod touch but a
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Question: I would please like to know the reasoning behind the auto signature message when you send an email or message from a black berry, such as 'sent from my black berry' Answe
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Question: I have a bunch of music in iTunes on my old computer. How do I transfer my iTunes library to my new computer?
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Question: Can malware or spyware do any real harm to my computer, or is it all just a bunch of hype? Answer: Yes, malware, spyware, and adware can wreak havoc on your computer - fr
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Question: I have paid for the full version of Malware Alarm, but now I can't find the software on my PC. I paid $40 for it - can I use it or get my money back? Answer: I'm sorry to
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Question: Is there a way to download YouTube videos and save them to my computer, so I can view them even when I'm not connected to the Internet?
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DVD movies can be converted to standard 3gp video format, which is the format used by video-enabled cell phones and other mobile devices.
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Question: My kids love their Webkinz toys and collect them - they each have several of them, and they play with them online a lot. Are they safe though, or should I be concerned? A
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Wondering how to convert your DVD movies into a video format that will run on your new iPhone or iPod?
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If a picture can tell a thousand words, then a video can be even more effective on your blog or website. You can add your favorite YouTube video to your blog by following these eas
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Question: I'd like to convert my favorite commercial DVD movies into video format, so that I can view them from my laptop or desktop computer. Preferably in a format that I can sen
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Question: I have a few DVD movies that I'd like to copy for backup purposes, and would also like to view them on my laptop when I go on business trips. The software that came with
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The release of the new Macintosh "Leopard" operating system is coming up this Friday, Oct 26, 2007. According to Steven Jobs, the New York Times reports him saying "The Macintosh h
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Question: Windows seems to take forever to start up on both my computers, and some programs try to run everytime I start Windows (even though I didn't ask them to). I'm running Win
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Question: Hi Ricky, I'm trying to install a computer game with the cd rom included. It wants to install to the "C" drive, but when my original hard drive was fried in an unfortunat
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Question: How can i transfer my Videos taken/captured on my Cell Phone Sanyo M1 and transfer them to my PC? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Chaloo Answer: The Sanyo M1 is a
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Question: How much do you think my computer is worth? The specs are: 384MB of RAM 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor 38GB HD 52x CD-R Drive Floppy Drive Updated BIOS I'm selling it b
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Have you ever seen a picture that you really liked while browsing the web, and wanted to set it as your Windows wallpaper? This article will explain exactly how to do this and wher
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Most web hosting providers include free website template building software to help the average non-programmer build a web site, such as SiteBuilder or the CoffeeCup software suite
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Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be downloaded from your website in a given month. Every time someone visits one of your web pages, they're downloading anywhere from 10KB t
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Developing your photos online is an easy way to convert your digital photos into actual printed photos. All you need is a web browser and a fast internet connection (DSL or cable),
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My home computer systems were both recently infected by the MalwareAlarm program, and I captured screen shots as it attacked my system - to show you the kind of grief this program
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Apple made a stellar product with the iPod (I own a black 4 GB nano that I use almost every day), but for various reasons they decided to not allow music stored on an iPod to be tr
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Some people might think there's a catch when they see an offer for a free cell phone, but it's really just a matter of knowing one key piece of information: Wireless providers such
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Have an iPod and want to listen to it through your car steror? Have an iPod and want to listen to it in your car? Read on to learn a couple ways to hook up your iPod to your car st
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Follow these easy steps to copy songs into iTunes and then load the songs onto your iPod or iPhone. Follow these easy steps to quickly copy songs from a memory card or CD into iTun
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If you own two or more computers, you can connect them together on the same network and gain some immediate benefits. With two or more computers on the same network, you'll be able
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On a default Windows installation, every time you try to install or run a program (or do just about anything), it prompts you to ask if you really want to do this. Here's how to tu
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I use my leather laptop bag every day to bring my laptop to work, and every day I put my phone charging cord in that bag nice and tidy... yet somehow it gets all tangled up by the
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Question: I had a text conversation going with a friend and wanted to add another friend, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Is there a way to turn an existing iPhone message in
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You can record movies from your Comcast DVR (or any DVR) to your Mac following these simple steps. What you'll need: EasyCap USB audio/vidoeo adapter . You can get one for about $2
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If your Outlook calendar is using Gmail, you can share it with other people even if they aren't part of your company. First log into Google on your web browser, and then open the
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On the popular social network, Instagram, you can see what people you follow have posted in a chronological list, and you are notified each time somone posts a photo. But what if y
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Looking for a tablet? Here's a head-to-head comparison of the iPad and the new iRulu Walknbook. Recently I was looking online for a small portable computer. I stumbled across the i
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I have hundreds of contacts in LinkedIn. Is there a way these Linkedin contacts can be exported to an excel spreadsheet? LinkedIn is currently the #1 Social Media Platform for Busi
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Question: My ipod has stopped playing music via a usb on my car checked all the usual leads, connection etc ipod plays fine on its own or via headphones but does not play via usb i
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Learn an easy way to disable chat, while still allowing access to the command line for entering Minecraft commands. Just follow these easy steps... My son is a die-hard minecraft a
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The iPad's built-in keyboard automatically switches from large keys when you're holding it the wide way (landscape) and small keys when you're holding it vertically, but did you kn
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Hi Ricky - followed your instructions how to copy CD onto ipod which was great and really clear. Have downloaded the latest version of itunes but every CD we copy itunes hangs on c
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The drawback with iPhones, Blackberries, and most other Qwerty devices is that you usually are required to purchase a data plan that includes web browsing and email. Phones that le
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To send SMS text messages to any cell phone in the US using email, just use your 10-digit phone number including area code as the first part of the email address (without any dashe
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One of the first things I did after purchasing my iPhone was to buy a screen protector. In fact, I had the sales tech install it for me in the Apple store to make sure there was no
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Question: I saw your article on how to copy music to an ipod, but is it possible to point the ipod to an external portable drive, so that it finds music files there instead of from
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Question: Is there a way to get a wifi signal to your itouch from either your cell phone or connect an aircard to the touch?
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Question: Someone sent me 2 ringtones in an email. How can I e-mail them to my phone? Is there anyway I can bluetooth them?
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This week Mother Nature decided to dump a few inches of snow on Oregon, and another 4 piled up this morning while my kids and I built a huge igloo in our front yard. I pulled out t
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Question: How do I access files on my Samsung Instinct using a USB data cable, or how do I put ring tones on my phone that are on my computer.
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peggy and Anonymous answered this in the comments: Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking let a BlackBerry pass its connection to a Mac, for a $30 monthly Verizon fee.
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Dust under a phone screen sits beneath the lens, out of reach. Clear the seam with a dry brush and adhesive putty; compressed air pushes it further in.
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Question: Suppose we have a networking in a LAB and i have total rights over all other systems on the LAN. Now how to change the wallpaper of the system which is there on the LAN??
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Despite all the reasons I posted earlier for not buying an iPhone and keeping my Blackberry Curve, I ended up buying an iPhone and completely love it.
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You can still transfer pictures from your cell phone to your computer if the screen is broken, with a USB data cable and driver software to handle the transfer. Question: I need to
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Question: How do I change the ring tone on my RAZR phone, and also how do I set a different ring tone for each of the contacts in my phone (so a different ring tone plays for each
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I feel obliged to reply to my own post title " Apple Drops iPhone Price to $199 and Converts Blackberry Fans ", and let you know that I decided to actually stick with the Blackberr
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Question: "My cell phone lets me browse the web, so it seems I should be able to use that connection from my laptop. Is there a way to connect my laptop to the Internet using my ce
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Most Blackberry devices comes with a standard 3.5-inch headphone jack that let you listen to music from the built-in mp3 player. But you can also listen to music using a wireless b
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Trying to decide between a Blackberry Curve and an Apple iPhone? In this article I compare the features of a Blackberry Curve with an Apple iPhone.
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Easy steps for customizing your Blackberry email signature, or removing it altogether. If you own a Blackberry, you know why they call them Crack-berries, because once you start us
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Question: How do I transfer photos from Razr phone to Mac OSX? I'm really looking for something free and I hope you can point me in the right direction!
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Comparison of Norton, McAfee, and Panda security programs for defending against virus, malware, spyware, and system intrusion attempts. This article explains the vigorous test I us
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I recently posted a write up about how I used my Motorola Razr as a bluetooth modem for my laptop , which let me surf the web on the way to work each morning. Well, sort of... it w
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Question: I need to send faxes but I don't have a fax machine. Is there a way for me to send and receive faxes using email? Answer: Yes, you can send and receive faxes without owni
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The recent iPhone launch is being exploited by cyber-crooks for financial gain. Panda Labs (makers of Panda Internet Security 2007 ) has uncovered a tool that controls a botnet mad
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Here are 5 alternatives to Winzip that are all compatible with Winzip's compression technology, and most of them are even free. Winzip has become the defacto standard compression s
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How to transfer ringtones and pictures between phones using Bluetooth. Did you recently download a new ring tone for your cell phone, and your friends are begging you for a copy? O
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The school year is coming to an end, and many students are scrambling to finish up their homework assignments. They may be asking you questions that you aren't able to answer, or m
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Don't panic if you received a nasty email in your inbox letting you know your mail server has been hacked and is demanding a ransom to avoid some embarrassing sharing of your web b
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By far the most frequently asked question I get from people is "How do I transfer a photo from my computer to my cell phone? (or vice versa)".
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How to copy photos from your iPhone to your PC using Window's built-in photo importer. No iTunes needed!The iPhone's built-in camera makes it easy to snap decent quality photos, bu
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How to copy songs, photos, videos and files from an iPhone to a Mac or PC over a wireless network connection - no cables required.Here's how to copy your songs, videos and files fr
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How to make your videos incredibly effective by adding zoom, pan, and tilt features that focus viewer's attention and just plain look awesome.Videos are one of the most powerful wa
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Laptops and other devices run on 120V AC electrical power from a home or office outlet, whereas output from an automobile cigarette lighter is 12V DC power. It takes a power invert
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Anyone who has an iPhone has probably run into the “Not Enough Storage” message, and usually that happens right when you're trying to capture your child in a priceless moment, like
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Connecting the Plantronics Voyager to my iPhone was a complete breeze, but getting it to work with my computer took a little persistence and eventually an operating system upgrade.
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Today I was just browsing through various websites using Chrome on my iPhone - and nothing questionable by any means - when I suddenly received a "Security Breach Detected" po
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Dear Mr. Ricky: I had this whole long letter typed out about how I couldn't get into my facebook because i couldn't remember my fb email or my gmail.com Which is also my
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Batch-resize your images on a Mac and reclaim disk space without opening each photo one by one.If you have more than a couple images that you need to resize, you know how time cons
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Whether you have hundreds of contacts on your iPhone and want to delete them all at once, or just want to delete one contact, this tutorial will walk you through the process step b
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Wireless mouses have always been finicky, working one day but not the next. Fixing a wireless mouse is a actually a fairly easy process. Just follow these three steps and
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Step-by-step wireless setup so your Epson printer actually works on Wi-Fi the first time.Recently I got an Epson printer, and I wanted to make sure I setup wireless printing right
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If you're like me, you've waited until the very last minute to even start your taxes, and you dread the process of trying to understand all the tax form questions. You're also worr
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In the days of new technology, at some point you’re going to upgrade your computer. Transferring files from your old computer to the new one is something that might scare you, howe
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Are you getting the most out of your iPhone, iPad, or Mac? Here are my 5 favorite features of Apple's latest mobile software - iOS 9.iOS 9 has been in the hands of Apple lovers for
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The Nintendo Wii U is Nintendo’s newest console, and brings some amazing new mechanics. For example, it has a second screen on the gamepad, and it can control your TV. It might be
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Question: I'm running Mac OSX 10.9.5 and (Mavericks) and for some reason nothing happens when I click the Finder icon in the dock. This is driving me nuts because I can't
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Here's an online tool that will let you download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and others - and without any advertisements.There are dozens of websites that let you upload a
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Here's a review of the top 5 smartphones for gaming, including one I bet you've never heard of...Samsung Galaxy S5The new material used to cover this is much more comfortable to ho
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Transferring songs and photos from your Windows PC to your iPhone requires the use of a software program like iMacSoft, which also has a lot of other features that let you transfer
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Question: My phone's a NON-smart LG from AT&T, and I didn't know it needed a memory card before I took a bunch of photos, so I'm forced to e-mail them to myself one at a time. Most
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Direct messages can start piling up in Twitter, and I don't always have time to look through each message (especially since 95% of them are spam). Here's an easy way to mark all Tw
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If you have several documents that you need to scan and convert to a PDF file, here's an easy trick that uses your built-in printer software.I'll be scanning with an HP Deskjet 305
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These rechargeable USB batteries can be charged anywhere there's a computer or laptop with a USB port, making them a great travel accessory.I've been doing a little more travel lat
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One of the first things you'll want to do when building a new website is to pick a URL for your site - also known as a domain name. Here's how you can check if your domain name is
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Setting up your own mail merge template using Word and Excel is fairly easy and you can save you a lot of money at the print shop by doing it yourself.Setting up a mail merge using
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Samsung Galaxy mobile phones let you easily upgrade memory capacity by adding a microSD card, and the new S4 now lets you move installed apps to the SD card.Samsung Galaxy mobile p
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Android mobile phones have a lot more configuration options than an iPhone, like it's ability to configure multiple shortcut apps - letting you unlock the phone and jump right to t
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You can easily transfer your browser bookmarks from your PC to your Mac, or vice versa.Whether you're switching from a Mac to a Windows PC, or the other way around (PC to Mac), you
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How to convert the iPhone 3G into a pre-paid iPhone, using regular-sized sim cards that you can find in pay-as-you-go phones, like AT&T’s GoPhone.Question: I have an older iPhone 3
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Three options for transferring pictures from a Pantech Impact P7000 mobile phone to your computer. Question: I have a Pantech Impact P7000 mobile phone. I am wanting to transfer my
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Hello Ricky, I hope that you can help me! I have lost maybe two thirds of my precious family pictures. Can these be retrieved?Hello Ricky, I hope that you can help me! I wanted to
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My Blackbery torch has my POP email account on it. If I open an email on my BB first, it will not show up in my desktop inbox in Outlook. Why does that happen and how can I prevent
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Question: Can you configure an iphone 4 so that it always uses a wireless internet connection for web access when one is available, as opposed to using the iphone's built-in 3g int
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Could you please tell me how to transfer the contacts from my iPhone onto my computer? I'd like to have them in my Outlook email program if possible.
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Photos and files from my hard disk were corrupted and after recovery was done only a few were recovered. After recovery, the hard disk was reformatted. Is there any way I could sti
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Question: I noticed recently that my computer runs in the middle of the night. I turn it off before I go to bed, but it starts up at around 3 in the morning. What is it doing and h
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How to get Facebook notifications on your Blackberry device.Question: hi i have question, i just downloaded facebook mobile onto my blackberry and my friends have facebook on their
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I have Comcast internet at home with a standard-issue Motorola cable modem, and it seems that Linksys routers don't play nice with these modems. Here's how to fix the problem.I upg
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Question: I recently purchased a Motorola W376g camera phone from Tracfone, and I'd like to get pictures I took on it over to my computer. Is this possible? Question: I recently pu
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Last year I trashed on Norton because it failed to protect my home computers from Malware Alarm. A rep from Norton reached out to me a couple weeks ago, and asked if I'd give them
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If you own an iPhone 3G as I have for several months, then you're probably used to a daily battery charging routine. Here are some tips to extend your battery life.If you own an iP
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Question: I ran defrag on my Windows XP box to hopefully speed things up, but it still left quite a few files that are fragmented. What gives?
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Selling your Blackberry or just want to get it back to it's original factory settings? Here's an easy way to do it using a built-in menu option.
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The Motorola RAZR has a built-in menu option for wiping the phone clean and resetting it to factory specifications, with all of the default settings it came with out of the box.I'v
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Here's how to transfer contacts from your old Blackberry to your new iPhone, and without buying anything extra along the way (completely free solution).Just traded in your Blackber
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I love all the free applications that you can download for the iPhone through the App Store, and was looking for something to let me use the iPhone as a storage drive - like what I
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Question: I have a computer with a 20GB drive and would like to install a 80GB drive that I have, as the 20GB drive has under 1GB remaining. Can I use imagining software to copy al
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I recently went to Zurich for a week-long business trip. I knew I'd need to use my iPhone a lot on the trip so I bought a 100 MB data package the day before I left, and...I recentl
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If you have a specific folder that you'd like Windows Explorer to always open to by default, then here's an easy way to make that happen.Ever notice how Windows Explorer opens up t
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Connecting your Bluetooth wireless phone with your computer is called pairing. You can do this with any bluetooth-enabled phone.Question: How do I connect my Bluetooth wireless pho
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How to connect your camcorder to your PC, copy your recording to your computer, make a movie and publish it.Have a video you've recorded that you're proud of or that you'd like to
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Most USB ports are located on the back side of your computer, and are about 5/8-inch wide and 1/4-inch tall. Here's what it looks like...Question: Where do I connect the informatio
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My wife gave me a 4 GB black ipod nano as a gift a couple years ago. At the time, it was state-of-the-art and held a very high cool factor rating. I proudly wore it around my neck
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How to tether your cell phone to your laptop for on-the-go Internet access.I recently started a new job in a downtown office that's right off the bus line. I decided to start commu
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How to send personalized newsletters to multiple contacts.Question: I have a mailing list that I send newsletters and announcements to on a regular basis, but recently a few of the
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How to remove the screen cover on a Motorola RAZR so you can clean out the dust.Question: I took my black Motorola RAZR phone with me to the beach a while ago, and somehow the wind
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Whether you're a PC, Mac, or Linux user there is one common document format that's viewable across multiple operating systems - the Portable Document Format... commonly known as PD
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Good question, especially since it's getting closer to the tax filing deadline.I’ve used TurboTax Online several times, and each time received about $2500 back from Uncle Sam.
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Digital cameras have been on the market for several years and have come a long way in features and quality, but the one drawback still remains - the slight delay when you take the
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The wife of one of my best friends sent me this question via email recently, wondering which one she should get her husband for his birthday.First of all, I applauded her thoughtfu
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If you spend any time shopping on the Internet or reading email, then the answer to this question is most likely yes.Most people don't realize just how many spyware programs are cu