Computer Recycling

When you want to dispose of a computer, you should recycle it. Your local landfill may come to mind for this task, but that’s often not the best idea. Besides the inconvenience of driving there, the landfill is likely to charge you recycling fees for some of your tech-junk. But there’s good news: Virginia passed … Read more

VirusTotal.com

You can use your antivirus to scan any file on your system, and it’ll tell you if the file is safe or not. But sometimes, you might want a second opinion. No antivirus is perfect. If you want to double-check any file before you open it, head to www.virustotal.com . At this site, you can upload a … Read more

Windows Live Mail

An email client is a program that is used to view your email on your computer. There are many email clients, like the Windows 10 Mail app, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Microsoft Outlook. But the one that many just can’t give up is Windows Live Mail. Microsoft made that program as a successor to Outlook Express … Read more

Woot! & Meh.

I’d like to mention a couple of my favorite “daily deal” websites, Woot.com and Meh.com . Woot.com started some 16 years ago as a site that sold just one item, each day. That item changed everyday — today it could be a vacuum, tomorrow it could be gourmet coffee from Guatemala. Whatever it was, it was offered at a truly … Read more

GetHuman

Large companies don’t always want to talk to you . They may not reveal a phone number for the public to call. And they may use IVR menus to discourage and prevent some callers from ever getting to speak to real people. If you need help phoning up a dodgy corporation, check out GetHuman at https://gethuman.com/ . … Read more

Free Credit Reports

Federal law makes it so you may obtain free credit reports, once a year. AnnualCreditReport.com is the easiest site for obtaining your credit reports. ACR is simple and straightforward, and will pace you through to each of the big 3 credit reporting agencies, to collect each record. There are other websites and companies that may offer … Read more

Antivirus for PCs

There are so many antivirus solutions out there for Windows Computers. I can’t possibly name them all, but I’ll try to touch on the ones I know and love. And I swear by free protection, so you should expect that everything I mention here has a $0 pricetag. Microsoft Windows Defender: this app is built-in … Read more

Antivirus for Macs

Macs get infected just as often as PCs. I know because I’m cleaning malware and baddies off of Apples these days, just as I do for Windows computers. Protect your system with a free antivirus for Macs: Bitdefender Virus Scanner for Mac: https://www.bitdefender.com/solu…/virus-scanner-for-mac.html AVG Antivirus for Mac: https://www.avg.com/en-us/avg-antivirus-for-mac Sophos Home Free Antivirus: https://home.sophos.com/en-us/download-mac-anti-virus.aspx These are full-time, auto-updating antiviruses. … Read more

Windows 10’s Problematic Game Mode

Windows 10 has a “Game Mode” that Microsoft says will optimize your PC for play. Except it doesn’t always do that. Sometimes, this feature will *cause* lag or other performance problems with your high-end video games. So if you’ve had any glitches with your gaming, and driver updates & upgrades haven’t helped, turn this option … Read more

Turning On Post Notifications

When we see a really good post on Facebook, we may want to track it and read all of the future comments. Maybe it’s a post about the best Italian food in the region, or a question about who is making and selling facemasks nearby. In any case: There’s a right way and a wrong … Read more