(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…
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“How do small bezels in computers and smartphones improve the user experience?”
(Answer requested by Alexander Junior Souto) In smartphones, the width of the device — and therefore its screen — is more or less constrained by the width of human hands and pockets. Space not wasted on a needlessly fat bezel can be used to enlarge the display area, improving the user experience by making the…
“Do Android charger cords generally lose their effectiveness over time?”
(Answer requested by Nima Jooyandeh) Android, Apple, it doesn’t matter: Yes, any charger cord can wear out and lose effectiveness over time. Charger cords are technically cables — an assemblage of seperate wires wound together into a bundle;4 and coated with a plastic insulator. (The separate wires in USB charger are often literally only about…
Jan 20 Newsletter Available
The newest AskWoody Plus newsletter is now available. In this issue WINDOWS 7: Closing the book on Windows 7 BEST OF THE LOUNGE: Tools of the trade — PC edition LANGALIST: Win10’s default lock screen is a wasted opportunity PATCH WATCH: 2020 patching starts with a bang! WOODY’S WINDOWS WATCH: Say hello to the latest and greatest Microsoft Edge Don’t miss out!…
“Do you care if your laptop has a backlit keyboard?”
(Answer requested by Elynn Quirk) Personally? Nope. Not at all. I doubt I use my keyboard’s backlight even 0.1% of the time. I’d probably feel differently if I were regularly using the laptop in situations with poor lighting. But if there’s enough light to work, there’s usually enough light for me to to see the…
“Is it true that my phone is listening to me?”
(Answer requested by Jason Zimmer) Yup, almost surely, especially if you have any voice-enabled assistant or controls installed and enabled. Those services and features are designed to at least minimally listen all the time so that they can hear and can respond whenever you happen to say “Siri/Google/Bixby/Alexa/Cortana/whatever” or whatever trigger phrase your assistant uses….
Jan 13 Newsletter available
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“Does leaving stopwatch constantly running on your smartphone drain its battery significantly faster, or is it not a big deal?”
(Answer requested by Nikola Cvetanovski) It’s probably not significant, but that really depends on a host of variables. Let’s try a thought experiment, where you can make assumptions about the variables: Let’s say the phone is on, but with the screen off. No non-system software is running (ie no other apps besides the stopwatch app);…
“How do you bulk delete Bluetooth connections you no longer use on your Android phone?”
(Answer requested by Jack Miller) One easy way is to use Android’s built-in Reset network settings function: Open Settings; search for “reset” and select Reset network settings when it’s offered. (You can dig it out of the menus click by click, too, but the location has changed from version to version: In reasonably current Samsung…
“Why does a dead laptop revive after putting it in the freezer?”
(Answer requested by Edgar Ferrer) Yikes! If this actually worked on your laptop, you’re very lucky. The actual, true “put it in the fridge” advice is very old-school, and is/was a nothing-left-to-lose, last-ditch recovery option for malfunctioning spinning-platter hard drives. Deep-chilling a mechanical drive could sometimes free up stuck internal parts, via differential contraction/expansion of…