Okay, so here’s a pretty good one. This week’s tech tip is about speeding up your Windows PC. It basically does what I do when trying to help speed up a slow computer. There are a few things that can help, like decluttering. I try and add memory if I have some laying around. I also suggest getting an SSD if your pc still has a mechanical hard drive.

Read this article HERE. 

It has step by step instructions for removing programs, slimming down your pc startup list, and more.

If the issue is Internet, then that’s different. Out here (Abiquiu), there aren't many options. As for speeding up your internet, there really isn’t anything you can do to your existing internet that can speed it up. There are scammy devices available that say they will double your current internet speed, or more! They will not. If you are using Windstream DSL, you are basically at their mercy as to how fast it is and how often it works. Lately, it’s not been great.
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Technically, there may be some things you could do, like change the DNS server IP address in your router. Do you really want to do that? It may help a little bit, or not. If the issue is WiFi in your particular location, you may be able to do something about that, but if your internet is already minimal to your home, moving closer to your WiFi router won’t make it any faster overall.

It’s hard to start this article as there is so much wrong about our electronic world. I am so invested in it, and I generally LOVE electronics. It’s also a bit of a scam.
My first smartphones were HTC. I had no love of Apple, nor of Android. My HTC phone was simply an excellent smartphone on the Android platform, and it served me well. When the battery started underperforming, I bought a new, bigger battery with a special back cover to fit the HTC. The back cover snapped off, out popped the battery, and bing bang boom, in went a thicker, longer life battery, with a new back cover to accommodate it.

Samsung phones often (always? I dunno) have easily replaceable batteries. I don’t know about other brands, but Apple has never done that. As Apple hires what are arguably the best designers on the planet, then it seems like it’s something they could do with their product line if they wanted to.

I like Apple products in general, so I’m not bashing them. Apple isn’t the only corporation in the world making products that can’t have a battery easily replaced, and therein lies a problem. As consumers, we ‘encourage’ the bad behavior of manufacturers by buying their ‘poorly’ designed products that force us to toss the older ones and get a newer one, just because it’s not worth paying to replace the dead battery.
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They aren’t really ‘poorly’ designed because they are designed exactly as they are meant to be, which supports the business, and not the consumer. To read an interesting article on that, look HERE. 

I recently was asked to reset a PC so that it could given away. That’s a good reason to reset a PC. I found an article suggesting resetting your PC once a year to keep it running in tip top shape. That’s a bit harder to swallow however, I can see the reasoning behind it. If you don’t keep a lot of stuff on your PC or your backups are perfect, then maybe it’s worth doing? Read about that HERE. 
 
If you are giving away your computer, you might want to reset it first. There is an option in windows (10 & 11) to do that pretty easily. From a security standpoint, it’s a requirement, or removing the hard drive.
I’ve suggested some other ideas, like creating a new Administrator account, going into that, and then deleting your main account. That keeps the programs, generally, but allows you to get rid of the data, generally. It’s not as secure as a reset, but it may be what you’re after if you want the programs to stay intact, but you want your pictures & data removed.
There are several ways to reset the PC but the easiest is probably through Start/ Settings/ System/ Recovery. You can read about that Here.

This sort of thing is not for everyone, I understand that. It definitely goes where most people aren’t particularly interested to go. I’m happy to help out if you want.

Rick's Daily Tech Tips
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Do you receive a lot of calls from people who aren’t on your Contacts list?

If so you’ve probably discovered that most of those “unknown callers” are telemarketers, scammers or other folks you’d simply rather not talk to.

The good news? It’s possible to block calls from anyone who isn’t on your Contacts list, and it’s very easy to do (especially if you have an iPhone).

Yep, anonymous calls are the bane of the modern world, but you CAN get them under control!
Just follow the instructions below for your particular phone to block calls from unknown callers.

To block unknown callers with an iPhone if it’s running iOS 13 or later:
1 – Tap Settings.
2 – Tap Phone.
3 – Scroll down and toggle the Silence Unknown Callers setting to On.

To block unknown callers with an iPhone if it’s running iOS 12 or earlier:
1 – Tap Settings.
2 – Tap Do Not Disturb.
3 – Tap the slider switch beside the“Manual” setting to enable it.
4 – Tap Allow Calls From.
5 – Select All Contacts.

That’s all there is to it. From now on your iPhone will only accept calls from people who are on your Contacts list.

How to block unknown callers with an Android phone:
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated when it comes to blocking unknown callers with Android phones. Some phones don’t have that capability at all, and the ones that do have it don’t all do it the same way.

I recommend that you check your phone’s user manual to see if it’s capable of blocking unknown callers. If so, simply follow the steps listed in the manual to set it up. (Brian recommends Googling it, or look at THIS)

If your particular Android phone doesn’t happen to have a feature for blocking unknown callers, don’t despair. You can still enjoy unknown caller blocking by installing a great free app called YouMail.

YouMail actually replaces your phone’s built-in voicemail service and adds several nice features to boot. I won’t go into all those features here, but one of them is a feature to block unknown callers.

Important caveat: Depending on your needs you might need to pay for the premium version of YouMail in order to get all the functionality you need out of its voicemail service.
Be sure to take that into account before making the decision to install the app.

Click here to read more about the YouMail app and all the great features it provides.
Bottom line: You don’t have to put up with telemarketers and other annoying anonymous callers interrupting you at all times of the day and night. Just follow the simple instructions above and you’ll be able to stop them cold!
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Bonus Tip: If you still happen to have a landline telephone, read this post to learn about a nifty device that will allow you to block unwanted calls on it as well!

Sometimes you need to scan something. You may need to sign a document and send it to somebody as a pdf. While many printers these days have a scanner built in. some do not. Sometimes you need to scan something and you’re not near a scanner.
 
As it turns out, your iPhone has a built-in scanner, and it works pretty well. The scan feature is in the app Notes, which is already on your iPhone. Open it up and choose to create a new note, using the icon in the lower right corner. You’ll get several options, choose the camera icon. That will offer a few ways to do a scan, choose Scan Documents.
 
A neat feature is that it looks at what’s in front of the camera and it automatically chooses what to scan. It worked great when I tested it out. Follow the prompts and it will save the pdf to a folder in Notes. You can then edit it or send it along. A more detailed article on this process is HERE.