Things Every Tech Expert Should Do

1. REMOVING BLOATWARE

Bloatware is a scourge for technology owners. Manufacturers fill your shiny new laptop, phone, or tablet with pre-installed applications to put an extra dollar in their pocket. You are left with bundles of oft-useless programs taking up the already limited storage space.

          

How to Disable Bloatware With Android’s Built-In Setting

Disabling bloatware on newer phones is easy, and shouldn’t require root access. I’ll be using an unrooted Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for this tutorial, but the process will be exactly the same regardless of which phone you have—the interface may just look a little different.

First, open the Settings menu. You can do this by pulling down the notification shade and tapping the little gear icon. Note: on some phones you may have to pull the shade down twice before the gear shows up.

Next, scroll down to Apps (or “Applications” on some phones). Tap that.

Find the app that’s causing you much pain, and tap it. I’m just going to use the “Dictionary” app here, because…why is this even on here in the first place?

On the app’s info page, there are two buttons at the top (again, assuming this is a pre-installed application): Disable and Force Stop. I’ll give you two guesses which one we’re going to use here.

Once you tap the Disable button, you’ll get a scary little popup that tells you it may cause errors in other apps. Tread forward, brave soldier. Tap “Disable. ”

Bam, that’s it. After disabling it, you may also want to tap the “Force Stop” and “Clear Data” buttons as well.

If you ever need to re-enable the app, just jump back into it’s App Info page and tap “Enable.” It’s so easy.

Note that not all apps will have this disable option–but in most cases, they should. If they don’t, you’ll need to use the rooted method below to disable them.

2. ENCRYPT YOUR HARD DISK DRIVE

Encrypt a Hard Drive in Windows 7, 18 and 10

If you’re using Windows, I’ll show you how to encrypt a hard drive with BitLocker, provided by Microsoft. BitLocker is a highly secure tool that encrypts data using the Advanced Encryption Standard to lock your data away.

Step 1: Click “start,” click “control panel,” click “system and security” and then click “BitLocker drive encryption.”

Step 2: Click Turn on BitLocker.

Note: If your computer has TPM (Trusted Platform Module), BitLocker may turn it on and require a reboot. When you turn your computer back on, you’ll see a prompt on how to enable TPM — it varies depending on your hardware manufacturer, but if you need assistance feel free to comment or email me and I’ll walk you through it.

Step 3: You’ll choose to use a PIN, passphrase or a startup key to decrypt your hard drive, depending on which version of Windows or Bitlocker you use, and whether or not you have a computer with TPM.

Choose a pin from 8-20 characters and write it down until you memorize it. If you choose a startup key you can copy it to a flash drive.

Step 4: Save or print a recovery key. I suggest doing both, as losing this means losing your data. You may also choose to save the recovery key to your Microsoft account.

Step 5: You’ll be prompted to restart your computer and BitLocker will begin the encryption process.

Encrypt a Hard Drive in MacOS

Apple has taken a strong pro-privacy stance (well, most of the time) in order to protect their users. Since OS X Yosemite, FileVault has been enabled by default (check out our article on best TrueCrypt alternatives to find out more about FileVault).

This means if you are running Yosemite or later, you may already have full disk encryption enabled. You can check this by going clicking the Apple icon, clicking “system preferences” and then clicking “security & privacy.” The FileVault tab will show whether or not it is enabled.

Step 1: To turn FileVault on and encrypt a hard drive on your Mac, simply click the button labeled “turn On FileVault.” You will have to enter an administrator username and password, and if there are multiple user accounts you’ll have to click the “enable user” button. When FileVault is enabled, no user can automatically log in. The hard drive is only decrypted when a user enters their password to log in.

Step 2: At this point you’ll create a recovery key. On Yosemite and later versions, you can use your iCloud account to unlock your disk and reset your password.

If you’re still running Mavericks or earlier, you can store the recovery key with Apple by providing a security question and three answers.

Note: Write these down. If you lose them Apple will not be able to help you recover your data.

There is also an option to create a local recovery key. Again, write this down and store it in a secure location.

Encrypt a Hard Drive in Linux

There are many different distributions of Linux and encrypting a hard drive in Linux can be accomplished in several different ways.

The easiest method, of course, is to encrypt your hard drive during the installation of your chosen distribution.

Most of the popular Linux distributions provide this option during installation. Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mint and openSuse are among the distributions that provide an easy-to-use full disk encryption method during installation.

Here’s the bad news: enabling full disk encryption on your Linux system after installation is a complex process that requires several several tricky steps.

First, you must be using Logical Volume Management (LVM) so that you can resize your existing partitions. Then you must have enough free space to create encrypted partitions for your existing data, copy it over and then delete your original unencrypted partitions.

To encrypt an existing Linux installation, you’ll need to be comfortable with the command line, as well as creating, resizing and destroying partitions manually. Your easiest option is to backup your data to an external drive using a tool like DejaDup and then installing a fresh copy of your distro of choice.

Most Linux distributions use a setup called “LVM on LUKS,” which means Logical Volume Management on Linux Unified Key Setup. This is a lengthy topic that I won’t delve into here for brevity’s sake, but interested readers can read more if they’re curious.

In short, during installation, when the installer is at the partitioning stage you can select to encrypt your hard disk. You’ll choose a passphrase, and be given the option to overwrite your existing data. If you have sensitive data, you should let the system overwrite it. Be aware that depending on your disk size this can be a very lengthy process.

As always, write your passphrase down until you’ve memorized it or keep it written down in a safe location. If you lose this passphrase, you lose your data.

3. USE VPN FOR PUBLIC WIFI

Since access to public WiFi is a necessity nowadays, using a VPN to encrypt your connections is vital. Of course, you should also use a reliable anti-virus program to get the best results. Otherwise, hackers might manage to exploit the public WiFi network’s connections and steal your data.

Access to public WiFi is the standard nowadays, be it in stores, dining venues, hotels, or even throughout the city. However, while that might be extremely convenient, one should never overlook security measures. While not all public WiFi connections are dangerous, that doesn’t mean you should ever let your guard down. Which is exactly why you should use a quality VPN service. Whatever public WiFi hotspot you are trying to access, a VPN will do its best to encrypt your connections.

For instance, Buffered VPN makes use of 256-bit AES encryption to secure your connections to public WiFi servers. This protocol has been subjected to countless amounts of cryptanalysis, so you know you can rely on it. It’s also a well-known military-grade encryption protocol. And given how easy it is for some hackers to exploit public WiFi connections, it’s obvious that using a VPN is the right choice. Furthermore, a VPN also encrypts all your online traffic. As a result, nobody will manage to decipher what you are doing online.

What’s the end result, you might ask? Well, simply put, no hacker will manage to steal your: Bank account details, passwords, credit card info or sensitive email contents. Let’s face it: We’re using our smartphones and tablets to connect to the web outside our homes and offices on a regular basis. A VPN will simply ensure that we’re doing that in a secure and private manner.