Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
(Question submitted anonymously.) Full question: “If someone ran all his anti-virus software but can’t get a weird bug removed off his PC that opens a bunch of tabs and takes pictures, what should he do next?” “Someone?” You asking “for a friend?” 😉 You mention “opening tabs” so I’m guessing you mean your friend’s browser…
Earlier this week, Microsoft released the semi-annual refresh of Windows 10, this one dubbed “2004,” meaning it was finished last month, 2020-04. So far, I’ve updated four PCs, including my primary-use, personal system. All have gone smoothly, with nary a hiccup. Microsoft’s install routines seem to be getting better at picking up existing software, too….
(Answer requested by Shreya Mehta) In sleep mode (sometimes called suspend), your PC goes into a low-power state, consuming just enough electricity to keep the RAM contents intact; to monitor for system events (such as a key- or mouse-click, or closing the lid on a laptop); and to run similar low-power processes. The major advantage of standard sleep…
(Answer requested by Dreezy Mida) Well, sometimes they don’t. Here’s what’s going on: External (USB) storage is almost always slow storage compared to what’s inside a PC. As a result, PC’s using USB storage would typically buffer (temporarily store in RAM) data that was destined for an external device. This way, the app wouldn’t have…
(Answer requested by Sam Jones) The electrical contacts on batteries (and the cells that make up batteries) are metal; metal can oxidize or otherwise develop a thin layer of surface contamination that reduces the electrical conductivity. This layer may be invisible to the naked eye. Physically manipulating the battery scrapes away this layer, exposing clean…
(Answer requested by Katherine Quinn) My first guess is that it’s a purely physical issue with your laptop. For example, one of the reasons I use an external, plug-in keyboard on my laptop is because my thumbs used to occasionally brush the laptop’s touchpad as I typed on the built-in keyboard; I wouldn’t feel the…
(Answer requested by Ram Binay Yadav) In a word, no. Even for systems using UEFI instead of a BIOS — and that’s almost all current PCs (see below) — the answer’s still no. BIOS: Old-school PCs used a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to handle the power-on startup sequence of a PC’s hardware, before the operating…
(Answer requested by Gabriel Austria) Most Android phones use utterly-standard USB connections. Even if the phone’s screen is cracked or otherwise damaged, if you can still turn the phone on and log in (by any means — face, voice, fingerprint, pattern, password…), you usually can retrieve the phone’s user data via USB. Just plug the…
(Answer requested by Roger Wilkey) The “ ஃ ” glyph is used in mathematics and logic to symbolize “thus” or “therefore” in the same way that the ” = ” glyph is used to symbolize “equality” or “equals.” But you’d never use ” = ” in a normal written sentence to replace the word “equality,”…
(Answer requested by Ryan Nugent) In my experience, all of them. Windows 10’s various Reset and Fresh Start options can strip away most or all (your choice) of the preinstalled software on any Windows PC. You’ll be left with a PC running as “pure” and unmodified a Windows setup as your system allows. You may…
