Ever since personal computers first became widely used in the 1980s, their primary storage medium has been the conventional hard disk drive (HDD). Over the succeeding decades, HDDs continued to boast ever increasing capacity, speed and reliability, even as their prices kept dropping. Consider that for much of the 1980s the cost of a then
It starts when your phone rings, with the caller ID showing an unfamiliar number. When you answer, the caller (usually, but not always, speaking with a foreign accent) informs you that there’s a serious problem with your computer, and that they’re calling to help you correct it. If you believe anything they say, you’ll end
Cut, copy and paste are among the most basic (and most important) functions you need to understand in order to be proficient with your computer. Most users have at least some familiarity with them, but still run into difficulties when trying to apply them in novel contexts or with different types of data. If you
Shortcut keys are individual keystrokes, or sequences of keystrokes, that will immediately invoke specific actions or command in both Windows itself and most applications that run under Windows. They’re called shortcuts because they save you the time and trouble of locating a particular command in a menu bar, toolbar or ribbon and manually invoking it
Sooner or later you’ll be saying goodbye to your old computer. Maybe you’ll replace it with a newer model, maybe you’ll give it to a friend or relative, or maybe it will just stop working. Whatever the circumstances, before the machine leaves your possession there are several things you need to do to save your
If you’re a casual Windows user, you may not be familiar with the Task Manager application – many users have not even heard of it. But it’s really worthwhile to get to know the program. Read on to find out what Task Manager does, how to access it, and how you can use it to
When you start shopping for a new computer, one of the first questions you’ll need to answer is whether to get a laptop or a desktop. As you probably suspect, there’s no one size fits all answer. By considering the advantages and disadvantages of each type of machine, as well as your own needs, preferences
The Problem Cookies are small data files placed on your computer by websites you visit. They record which websites you visit, which specific pages you look at, how long you spend on each page, etc. They’re created to serve a variety of purposes – while some of them can be quite helpful, others are annoying
