Tezzo's Technology Blog

BRR-RING! The phone rings at midnight, interrupting your sleep—or worse, your late night Steam session with your gaming clan. Is someone sick? Did a car hit your dog? Is it your pal, calling to tell you he got the munchies and discovered that, joy of joys, the McRib is back? Perplexed (and maybe a bit hungry), you pick up your handset, and hear the ominous words. Doubling as unofficial tech support for your family and friends comes as part of the territory when you're a PC geek—and those cries for help frequently come all too often or at inopportune times. Weekends! Holidays! Nights! All gone, consumed by the fight against malware and missing Internet Explorer icons. It doesn't have to be like this. Rather than running around and slapping Band-Aids on all the problems, get proactive! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, and taking the time to set your friends' and loved ones' computers up the right way can dramatically cut back on help-seekin...

Technology never stops moving foward. Hardware gets faster, and operating systems gain new features and (we hope) finesse. This is natural computing law. But just because computers are one big exercise in evolutionary progress, that doesn't mean certain computing maxims ever go out of style. Take, for example, the nuggets of wisdom in the following list. All of these things are as true today as they were 2, 5, and in some cases even 10 or 20 years ago. Below, we give you the best pieces of computing advice we've ever heard. Have we left anything out? Share your suggestions in the comments section of this article. More at:    PCWorld :

 "BRR-RING! The phone rings at midnight, interrupting your sleep—or worse, your late night Steam session with your gaming clan. Is someone sick? Did a car hit your dog? Is it your pal, calling to tell you he got the munchies and discovered that, joy of joys, the McRib is back? Perplexed (and maybe a bit hungry), you pick up your handset, and hear the ominous words: "Hi, sorry to call you, but I'm having this problem with my computer…"" More at:  PCWorld :

Before you give away a computer, you should make sure that your most private, sensitive files are irretrievable. You don't want them to fall into the wrong hands. But that's not all. You should also return the hard drive to its factory condition, so that the new owner can set it up as they choose. Let's discuss both topics. Securely wipe sensitive files If a file contains information that you'd rather not fall into criminal hands (or government hands), merely deleting that file isn't sufficient--even if you empty the recycle bin. Deleted files can be restored with simple, free software. Instead, you should  wipe  those files--overwriting them with new, meaningless data. As a general rule, the more times the file's former location on the drive surface is overwritten, the more secure the wipe . . .  More at:  PCWorld : Also:   Remove Sensitive Data Before You Sell an Old PC - go here .

Our digital detectives uncover the truth behind some of tech’s most baffling questions. #3  Why can't I upgrade from 32-bit Windows to 64-bit Windows? Upgrading a copy of Windows 7 from 32-bit Home to 32-bit Professional is simple enough, but upgrading to a 64-bit version of the OS re­­quires you to do a fresh installation. Windows handles information differently depending on whether you use the 32-bit or 64-bit version. In extremely broad terms, a 64-bit operating system can process data in bigger chunks than a 32-bit system can. That's why you can't use the Windows Easy Transfer utility to move files and applications between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows: The CPUs on the transferring and re­­ceiving machines use fundamentally different data architectures. More at:  PCWorld

Microsoft has made available for download Windows 8 Release Preview. This free operating system is the final, feature complete version of Windows 8, which is set to launch to consumers later this year. Here's how to install Windows 8 Release Preview.  Windows 8 is the biggest development in Microsoft's operating system for  PCs  and  laptops  since Windows 95 replaced Windows 3. The Metro interface alone is a radical overhaul of the way you are used to working with Windows, and Windows 8 is built from the ground up to work on touchscreen devices, as well as via keyboard and mouse. More at:  PC Advisor :

Does your PC act as though it's about to die? Don't panic! We explain why the most common problems happen and what to do about them.  It's difficult to solve all possible system problems via the written word, as individual situations may vary just enough to make generalized advice problematic. However, if you're looking for some generally useful ideas on why your computer is misbehaving--and some potential fixes for certain common and unpleasant problems you might encounter--look no further than this handy troubleshooting guide to ten all-too-frequent system malfunctions. More at:  PCWorld :