Author: Fred Langa

Windows 10’s dialogs are sometimes laid out in funky ways and can lack headings and other visual cues to help you quickly locate what you’re looking for. That, coupled with Windows’ inconsistent and variable naming and labeling conventions, can be an annoyance to most of us — but can actually enrage some users, as you’ll see in…

Even as Windows 11 is coming down the pike, some readers are still having trouble getting their PCs to upgrade to the current version of Windows 10! But whether you’re updating Win10 or moving to Win11, here are several steps you can try — ranging from simple to severe — if your PC refuses a…

This week’s first reader-submitted question examines yet another OneDrive weirdness that turns out to have the same common cause — and solution! — as many, many other OneDrive issues. The second reader question involves a problem that can occur when a browser (Chrome, in this case) and Windows are respectively set to reopen previous pages and restart previous…

Browser-based password managers have an obvious vulnerability on shared PCs: anyone with access to the browser might also have access to all its stored passwords! Today’s lead item discusses two separate ways to prevent unwanted password sharing. One is extremely secure but takes a little time to set up; the other takes only seconds but…

OK, this is embarrassing: A reader called me out after my planned side-by-side Home/Pro test drive fell apart. (“Crashed and burned” might be more descriptive.) So, with a deep gulp to swallow my pride, here’s where things went really, really wrong — and why. Plus: Beyond simple disk wipes and overwrites, a better way to…

AskWoody’s recent coverage amply illustrated OneDrive’s drawbacks and hassles, but there are instances where OneDrive (and similar cloud-based apps) are truly spectacular aids. For example, OneDrive can speed some setup and reinstallation chores by a literal order of magnitude, cutting down to mere minutes some tasks that used to take hours! Read the full story in the AskWoody…

Lithium-ion batteries wear differently from classic dry- and wet-cell batteries, leading to some behaviors that seem, well, odd. But it also could be a matter of poor thermal management — simple overheating! Today’s column covers easy ways to investigate and cure either type of trouble. Plus: Recurring bank-account password problems lead a subscriber to ask about using…

It’s disabled by default and comes with some serious gotchas … but it also can add an extra level of online security to Microsoft Office apps and to the Edge browser. Here’s how to tell whether Microsoft Defender Application Guard is available on your PC and how to enable it if you wish to give it a…

Setup takes all of about 60 seconds, and there’s absolutely zero old-school POP or IMAP mail-server arcana to figure out. With literally a couple of clicks, you can add a permanent, utterly standard Gmail instance to Edge — or just about any other browser! Plus: Why some restarts during an update are OK, but others…