Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 010326

Laura says Bing has taken over
Bing keeps taking over Google Chrome. Someone said I should use Restoro to check it out. Please do you have an answer? Thank you.

Our answer
Hi Laura. Bing is a Microsoft search engine. I am guessing you added a Bing toolbar (extension) or some other extension to Chrome that keeps switching your search engine. It could be a search engine hijacker.

Try this:

1. Type CHROME://EXTENSIONS in the Chrome address bar & press “Enter”
2. Disable or remove any extension that contains the word Bing or Search

You can also remove Bing from the list of search engines available in Chrome.

1. Type CHROME://SETTINGS/SEARCH in the Chrome address bar & press “Enter”
2. Make sure your default search engine is set to Google.

3. After you click “Manage search engines, you can remove Bing from the list of available search engines, if you choose to do so.

If the above doesn’t stop Bing, reset Chrome by following the instructions on this page. 

Resetting Chrome returns Chrome to its defaults. Keep in mind this does not remove bookmarks. It disables all extensions, clears Chrome history and cache, and restores Chrome to its factory defaults.

Restoro is malware in our opinion. It’s scammy and it can mess up your computer. Our advice is don’t use it. It’s certainly not the miracle cure it claims to be. If you have installed it, we recommend you uninstall it.

Mike’s friend sent him a tip on how to make his computer lightning-fast
How to kill Win 10 apps… A friend of mine found on the web how to disable all the extra apps on Win10 to trim his PC down to the bare minimum and reported blinding speeds as a result. Rather than search the internet, I thought I’d ask the experts – YOU! Where do you look to disable or even remove all the nonessential programs in Windows 10? A list of what to kill or keep and where to find those controls would be terrific.

Our answer
Hi Michael. There are a lot of myths going on here. Windows Store apps don’t use any resources when they’re not running. And you can stop any app from running in the background by going to Settings > Apps >Privacy >Background apps and turning the switch at the top under “Let apps run in the background” to “Off”.

Some people refer to desktop programs as “apps”. The only programs that generally affect performance are the ones starting with Windows. The only programs that need to start with Windows are programs like antivirus programs or programs necessary for an essential function like the computer’s sound. There are dozens of programs (many free) that help control startups. Generally, there should not be more than 4 or 5 programs starting with Windows.

Our two favorite programs to use to manage Windows startup programs are HiBit Uninstaller and Autoruns. You can also use Windows Task Manager to control start-ups. Hibit and Autoruns are more robust.

Cutting back on startup programs can make a big difference in computer performance, but “lightning-fast” is probably more due to having a lot of RAM than it is to turning off background apps and keeping startup programs to a minimum, although it’s always helpful to keep things under control.

Task Manager is also a good way to see what programs are using the most resources thus slowing down your computer. See this article.

And I can tell you this if a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC has only 4GB of RAM, there’s no way on God’s green earth, that that computer is going to be lightning-fast no matter what do. The more programs you open the fewer resources you’ll have available. And most people don’t realize that with most browsers, each tab opens as a separate process. So having 20 browser tabs open will slow down any computer that doesn’t have enough installed RAM. We don’t suggest running Windows 10 or Windows 11 with less than 8 GB of RAM.

My $280 cheapie Windows 11 computer runs “lightning-fast” because it has 12 GB of RAM. And even with more than adequate RAM, I still don’t allow many programs starting with Windows

So, whenever I hear someone saying “Oh, you and do this and that and make your computer lightning fast” I raise my eyebrows and think “sure” – because this is the fallacy promoted by the many scammy One-Click-Wonder-Fix programs.

So, I guess, my answer isn’t what you wanted to hear, but we hope it’s helpful anyway.
——
Mike wrote back: “Brilliant answer TC! You’re the best! My friend does have heaps of RAM.”

Larry says his “webmail” adblocker no longer works
Hello, folks! I need some advice, and I know you computer wizards can help me. I used Web Ad Blocker for a long time, and it worked to block all the ads in all of my email programs (Outlook and Gmail), but then it suddenly quit working. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, and the ads continue to appear, especially in my Outlook mail. I remember you guys recommending this program and that is why I got it, and it has worked great for years. Reinstalling it did not help. Is Web Ad Blocker no longer viable? Is there another (easy) program that I could install to block ads in my mail, which are so distracting? Thank you both so much, I would be lost without you guys there to help and guide us old folks! I trust your judgment and know you will give me the best advice. Thank you, from your friend! Larry H.

Our answer
Hi Larry. Thanks so much.

We have never heard of a webmail ad blocker and we’re not familiar with “Web Ad Blocker” so we have no idea what’s going on with it. The only two ad blockers we’ve ever recommended are Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin. While we recommend installing them both, if you’re only going to install one, then you should install uBlock Origin. It will block ads on all web pages, including on webmail pages.

You can read more about uBlock Origin here.

If you’re using Google Chrome, check out uBlock Origin Lite.

If you’re interested in adding the Privacy Badger extension to your browser also, see this page.

We hope this helps you, Larry.

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