Kevin The Tech Guy

In this Quick Tip, I cover how Cookie banners have taken over the internet, and not in a good way. In this episode, I dig into what they actually are, why they’ve become so common, and why they don’t do much to protect your privacy. These banners are mostly just a response to GDPR rules in Europe, and while they look like a step toward transparency, they really just shift the responsibility onto the user without solving the real issue, invasive third-party tracking.

I walk through what cookies actually do, like remembering login info or keeping items in your cart, and explain why most sites use them responsibly. The problem isn’t cookies themselves, it’s how some sites use them behind the scenes. But instead of fixing that, websites throw up a popup and call it a day.

If you're as frustrated by all this as I am, I’ll also show you a few practical ways to block most of those banners completely. I go over the extensions I use to better manage my experience with cookie banners in Firefox, and explain which settings make the biggest differences. You don’t need to ditch cookies altogether, just the annoying banners.

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In this Quick Tip, I will cover how to change your default program settings in Windows 10.

Suppose you have left the settings in Windows 10 on your computer mostly the same since you bought it or installed Windows 10. In that case, you have, without a doubt, quickly encountered moments where you want to open a file or open a web page in a specific program. Still, Windows insists on opening a program you may not want to use, such as Microsoft Edge, when you want to use Firefox.

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NOTE: This is the audio version of one of the first videos I did a couple of years ago, but the advice is still relevant.

In this episode, I’m digging into something that seems small but makes a big difference: how to use the Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox. A lot of people save bookmarks and then can’t find them later because Firefox doesn’t show the toolbar by default, and it’s not always obvious where your saved pages end up. I walk you through how to turn the toolbar on, how to save bookmarks directly to it, and why this setup is way more efficient than using the standard bookmarks menu., but only for your most frequently accessed bookmarks.

I also talk about how to rename your bookmarks for quick access, what to do if you want to organize things with folders, and why this is one of those changes that helps both tech-savvy users and people who just want to make their day-to-day browsing easier. If Firefox is your daily browser, this episode will help you tidy up your bookmarks and make your most-used sites faster to reach.

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If Firefox is acting up, maybe it's launching with strange settings, crashing more than usual, or just not performing like it used to, and reinstall isn't resolving those issues, there's a good chance it's tied to an old or broken profile. In this quick tip, I’ll show you exactly how to backup your browser bookmarks, track down those hidden Firefox profiles that most people don’t even realize are on their computer.

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