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The Computer Tutor — Software How-To
The Computer Tutor

Computer repair, personal computer instruction in Safety Harbor, Clearwater, Tampa, St Pete

Latest Episodes:

Windows 11 — 422 Trying Windows 11? You have 10 days to switch back Apr 10, 2023
If your computer is running Windows 10, and it meets the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11, you might be tempted to try it.

If you know how to do that upgrade, you’ll probably be fine. There are a few minor differences, but there’s not a huge learning curve from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

However – if you do that upgrade and you’re not quite sure you want to stay with Windows 11, you need to make up your mind pretty quickly. From the time you do the upgrade, you have 10 days to decide if you want to switch back to Windows 10.

My guess is that once you have done that upgrade, you will just go ahead and stay with Windows 11 for two main reasons:

It’s not difficult to make the transition and just start using it

You’ll have to upgrade to Windows 11 eventually anyway, and now it’s done.

For the record, you don’t need to upgrade to Windows 11 yet. Windows 10 is supported until October 2025.
The post 422 Trying Windows 11? You have 10 days to switch back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Create a restore point — 421 Create a restore point BEFORE any install Mar 27, 2023
Based on 22 years as a computer tech, I highly recommend that you set a restore point before installing any new software.

A restore point is a snapshot of your system settings and files at a specific point in time. It can be used to restore your system to its previous state in case something goes wrong during software installation or any other system changes.

Installing new software on your computer can sometimes have unforeseen consequences, such as conflicts with other programs, causing system instability or even crashes. Without a restore point, it can be challenging to revert back to a previous state if something goes wrong. A restore point ensures that you have a backup plan and can easily undo any changes made to your system.

To create a restore point:

1. Click the Start menu and type “create a restore point” in the search box.
2. Click the “Create a Restore Point” option from the search results.
3. In the System Properties window, click the “Create” button.
4. Give your restore point a name, such as “Before Software Install.”
5. Click “Create” again and wait for the process to complete.

Once the restore point has been created, it’s time to install your new software. If anything goes wrong during installation, you can easily use the restore point to revert to the previous state. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start menu and type “system restore” in the search box.
2. Click the “System Restore” option from the search results.
3. In the System Restore window, select the restore point you created before installing the software.
4. Click “Next” and then “Finish.”
5. Wait for the restore process to complete.

By creating a restore point before installing any new software, you can easily undo any changes made to your system and ensure that your computer is running smoothly. It’s a simple step that can save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run. So, don’t forget to set a restore point before your next software installation!
The post 421 Create a restore point BEFORE any install first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

no more LastPass — 420 It’s time to switch away from LastPass Mar 13, 2023
I used and recommended LastPass as the best password manager for years. But it’s time for a change.

The idea behind a password manager program is that it can remember all of your passwords for you. So you don’t have to use easy-to-remember passwords that are insecure. And you don’t have to use the same password for all of your accounts (really bad idea).

And LastPass was the choice for most computer security professionals for a long time. My first blog post recommendation here was around 10 years ago.

But Lastpass has unfortunately gone downhill. In recent months, LastPass has been compromised multiple times by hackers trying to get at user data. In one case, a Lastpass employee’s home computer was hacked and some user data was possibly obtained. And a recent update from LastPass broke something in the program – I was not even able to log in to my bank account using it.

Also, LastPass has been criticized because their announcements of these breaches have not fully stated the severity of what happened. They have tried to balance giving out all the necessary information with trying to maintain a positive image as a company.

So, I have been doing research in order to learn what to recommend. There are a few password manager programs to choose from. My recommendation is a program called BitWarden. There is a consensus among security techs that it is strong and trustworthy. And, I’ve been using it now for about a month and I’m happy with it.

You can get Bitwarden at Bitwarden.com.

There is a free version for personal use, but there’s also a $10 annual subscription that gives you some more features.

Setting up your account is easy. Like most password manager programs, it can run as an extension inside Chrome or other browsers to make it really easy to login to all your website accounts. Bitwarden can also generate really good passwords for you so you don’t have to sit and try to think of random letters and numbers to come up with something.

Here’s the basic process to migrate over from LastPass:

Export all of your password info from your LastPass account, and save that in a spreadsheet temporarily on your computer.

Install the Bitwarden extension in your browser (such as Chrome).

Import your password info from the saved spreadsheet into Bitwarden.

There are some details involved in each of those steps, but it’s too much to include here. If you need help moving from LastPass to Bitwarden (or getting started with a password manager for the first time), I can handle that for you through my Remote Support Service.

For settings in Bitwarden, my personal preference is to have the login information autofill whenever the account page loads – it just makes things easier. I also set the vault timeout to “Never” – but you might prefer a different option, depending on your computer and level of concern for security.

I highly recommend a password manager program. Everything I have seen so far tells me that Bitwarden is a good option.
The post 420 It’s time to switch away from LastPass first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Bitwarden — 420 It’s time to switch away from LastPass Mar 13, 2023
I used and recommended LastPass as the best password manager for years. But it’s time for a change.

The idea behind a password manager program is that it can remember all of your passwords for you. So you don’t have to use easy-to-remember passwords that are insecure. And you don’t have to use the same password for all of your accounts (really bad idea).

And LastPass was the choice for most computer security professionals for a long time. My first blog post recommendation here was around 10 years ago.

But Lastpass has unfortunately gone downhill. In recent months, LastPass has been compromised multiple times by hackers trying to get at user data. In one case, a Lastpass employee’s home computer was hacked and some user data was possibly obtained. And a recent update from LastPass broke something in the program – I was not even able to log in to my bank account using it.

Also, LastPass has been criticized because their announcements of these breaches have not fully stated the severity of what happened. They have tried to balance giving out all the necessary information with trying to maintain a positive image as a company.

So, I have been doing research in order to learn what to recommend. There are a few password manager programs to choose from. My recommendation is a program called BitWarden. There is a consensus among security techs that it is strong and trustworthy. And, I’ve been using it now for about a month and I’m happy with it.

You can get Bitwarden at Bitwarden.com.

There is a free version for personal use, but there’s also a $10 annual subscription that gives you some more features.

Setting up your account is easy. Like most password manager programs, it can run as an extension inside Chrome or other browsers to make it really easy to login to all your website accounts. Bitwarden can also generate really good passwords for you so you don’t have to sit and try to think of random letters and numbers to come up with something.

Here’s the basic process to migrate over from LastPass:

Export all of your password info from your LastPass account, and save that in a spreadsheet temporarily on your computer.

Install the Bitwarden extension in your browser (such as Chrome).

Import your password info from the saved spreadsheet into Bitwarden.

There are some details involved in each of those steps, but it’s too much to include here. If you need help moving from LastPass to Bitwarden (or getting started with a password manager for the first time), I can handle that for you through my Remote Support Service.

For settings in Bitwarden, my personal preference is to have the login information autofill whenever the account page loads – it just makes things easier. I also set the vault timeout to “Never” – but you might prefer a different option, depending on your computer and level of concern for security.

I highly recommend a password manager program. Everything I have seen so far tells me that Bitwarden is a good option.
The post 420 It’s time to switch away from LastPass first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

386 The Norton and McAfee billing scam Nov 22, 2021
I’m still seeing a LOT of these showing up, and clients still contact me to see if they are legitimate. Here’s how to identify this scam.

There’s a good chance you’ve gotten one of these emails at some point over the past several months. The scammers have been sending out a LOT of them – sometimes over 200,000 in a single day.

They tend to follow a predictable format. They are supposedly being sent from Norton or McAfee, and the basic message is that your credit card will be charged $199, $299, or even $399 (the dollar amount varies) to renew the service that you have supposedly subscribed to.

Of course, the recipients of these emails are not going to be charged anything. That’s just to get your attention.

The REAL goal of these scam emails is to get you to call the phone number. They know that people will read this and think, “Wait a minute, I don’t subscribe to those crappy antivirus programs – what’s going on?” And the person will see that big notice that says “For information about your order, please call…”. Or it might even say, “To cancel this renewal charge, call this number”. And of course the person doesn’t want to pay that charge, so they call the number.

That’s the big mistake here – calling the phone number. That’s exactly what they want you to do. Never call the number.

When you make that phone call, you will be talking to a professional scammer who is very good and very clever at this game. He will sound very convincing. A lot of people are tricked by this.

When the scammer has you on the phone, he will tell you that he needs to remote in to your computer in order to uninstall the software and process your refund. But in the background, he’ll be installing other malicious software and more unattended remote access tools – so that he can get into your computer anytime, even when you’re not on the phone with him.

If the scammer senses that you are especially gullible, he might ask you for your credit card information in order to “process the refund”. You obviously don’t want to give a scammer your credit card information.

The key to success is this: if you get an email stating that you owe some money, or that your credit card will be charged, or has been charged, don’t call the number on the email. In fact, if you want to, you can forward the email to me at pctutor@gmail.com and ask if it’s legitimate.

I have one client who gets a lot of these emails. Every time she would call me or email me asking if it’s legit. Finally I told her to just put a note near her computer to remind her that these are all just scams. Then I was in her home recently, and saw this on her desk. Smart!

The post 386 The Norton and McAfee billing scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Norton scam email — 386 The Norton and McAfee billing scam Nov 22, 2021
I’m still seeing a LOT of these showing up, and clients still contact me to see if they are legitimate. Here’s how to identify this scam.

There’s a good chance you’ve gotten one of these emails at some point over the past several months. The scammers have been sending out a LOT of them – sometimes over 200,000 in a single day.

They tend to follow a predictable format. They are supposedly being sent from Norton or McAfee, and the basic message is that your credit card will be charged $199, $299, or even $399 (the dollar amount varies) to renew the service that you have supposedly subscribed to.

Of course, the recipients of these emails are not going to be charged anything. That’s just to get your attention.

The REAL goal of these scam emails is to get you to call the phone number. They know that people will read this and think, “Wait a minute, I don’t subscribe to those crappy antivirus programs – what’s going on?” And the person will see that big notice that says “For information about your order, please call…”. Or it might even say, “To cancel this renewal charge, call this number”. And of course the person doesn’t want to pay that charge, so they call the number.

That’s the big mistake here – calling the phone number. That’s exactly what they want you to do. Never call the number.

When you make that phone call, you will be talking to a professional scammer who is very good and very clever at this game. He will sound very convincing. A lot of people are tricked by this.

When the scammer has you on the phone, he will tell you that he needs to remote in to your computer in order to uninstall the software and process your refund. But in the background, he’ll be installing other malicious software and more unattended remote access tools – so that he can get into your computer anytime, even when you’re not on the phone with him.

If the scammer senses that you are especially gullible, he might ask you for your credit card information in order to “process the refund”. You obviously don’t want to give a scammer your credit card information.

The key to success is this: if you get an email stating that you owe some money, or that your credit card will be charged, or has been charged, don’t call the number on the email. In fact, if you want to, you can forward the email to me at pctutor@gmail.com and ask if it’s legitimate.

I have one client who gets a lot of these emails. Every time she would call me or email me asking if it’s legit. Finally I told her to just put a note near her computer to remind her that these are all just scams. Then I was in her home recently, and saw this on her desk. Smart!

The post 386 The Norton and McAfee billing scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

385 How to download all of your Google Photos images Nov 08, 2021
Do you have all your photos automatically saved to your Google Photos account? What if you want to download all those photos and save them to your computer? Here’s how.

Storing all of your photos on Google Photos is a good thing. It’s kind of like an automatic backup for the photos you take on your phone, and it’s free.

But over time, you can accumulate a LOT of photos on there. And if that’s the only place where those photos are saved, it would make me a little nervous. What if your Google account gets hacked into, and you no longer have access to it? Or something else happens, and you can’t log in? I’m a lot more comfortable if all those photos – which might represent years or even decades of events – are stored in a second location. Specifically, my computer.

When you have all those photos also stored on your computer, you have control of that. In addition, if you follow my recommendations, you’re backing up your computer regularly. So that means those photos would also be backed up. When you store your important things in more than one place, one of them can go haywire and you still have the others.

And how do you get these photos from Google Photos to your computer? Well, you could right click and download them one at a time. If you only have a few, that might be okay. But most people have hundreds or even thousands of photos there. So we need a more efficient process.

For this we’ll use a service that Google provides, called Google Takeout. It’s at takeout.google.com.

When you go there and log in to your Google account (if you’re not already logged in), you’ll see LOTS of data that Google is storing for you. Your Chrome history, your calendar, your contacts, and many more things.

But for this exercise we’re just concerned about the photos. So at the top of the list of data, click where it says “Deselect all”, then scroll down to the Google Photos section and check that one box out to the right:

And if you did not already know this, you’ll also be downloading all of your videos that are stored there as well.

Now, scroll all the way to the bottom and click on Next Step.

Now you can choose the option that says “Export once” (unless you want to set this up on a recurring schedule). I recommend keeping the “.zip” file format:

Now click on Create Export in the lower right.
And here’s where we wait. In fact, we might be waiting quite some time. Google will even tell you, it might take hours for them to complete this task. They even say it might take days. Not much you can do about it though; it’s going to take however long it takes. When it’s done, you’ll get an email (at your Gmail email address) to let you know they have created the export. Now all you have to do is click the link to download it. Once the download is on your computer, you can store the files where you want. You can leave them inside the zipped folders, or you can take them out and store them in your Pictures folder, whatever you prefer. The important thing is that they are still on Google Photos, and they are also stored on your computer. And after your next overnight backup, they will also be on your backup drive. The post 385 How to download all of your Google Photos images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Photos — 385 How to download all of your Google Photos images Nov 08, 2021
Do you have all your photos automatically saved to your Google Photos account? What if you want to download all those photos and save them to your computer? Here’s how.

Storing all of your photos on Google Photos is a good thing. It’s kind of like an automatic backup for the photos you take on your phone, and it’s free.

But over time, you can accumulate a LOT of photos on there. And if that’s the only place where those photos are saved, it would make me a little nervous. What if your Google account gets hacked into, and you no longer have access to it? Or something else happens, and you can’t log in? I’m a lot more comfortable if all those photos – which might represent years or even decades of events – are stored in a second location. Specifically, my computer.

When you have all those photos also stored on your computer, you have control of that. In addition, if you follow my recommendations, you’re backing up your computer regularly. So that means those photos would also be backed up. When you store your important things in more than one place, one of them can go haywire and you still have the others.

And how do you get these photos from Google Photos to your computer? Well, you could right click and download them one at a time. If you only have a few, that might be okay. But most people have hundreds or even thousands of photos there. So we need a more efficient process.

For this we’ll use a service that Google provides, called Google Takeout. It’s at takeout.google.com.

When you go there and log in to your Google account (if you’re not already logged in), you’ll see LOTS of data that Google is storing for you. Your Chrome history, your calendar, your contacts, and many more things.

But for this exercise we’re just concerned about the photos. So at the top of the list of data, click where it says “Deselect all”, then scroll down to the Google Photos section and check that one box out to the right:

And if you did not already know this, you’ll also be downloading all of your videos that are stored there as well.

Now, scroll all the way to the bottom and click on Next Step.

Now you can choose the option that says “Export once” (unless you want to set this up on a recurring schedule). I recommend keeping the “.zip” file format:

Now click on Create Export in the lower right.
And here’s where we wait. In fact, we might be waiting quite some time. Google will even tell you, it might take hours for them to complete this task. They even say it might take days. Not much you can do about it though; it’s going to take however long it takes. When it’s done, you’ll get an email (at your Gmail email address) to let you know they have created the export. Now all you have to do is click the link to download it. Once the download is on your computer, you can store the files where you want. You can leave them inside the zipped folders, or you can take them out and store them in your Pictures folder, whatever you prefer. The important thing is that they are still on Google Photos, and they are also stored on your computer. And after your next overnight backup, they will also be on your backup drive. The post 385 How to download all of your Google Photos images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Blocking Windows 11 from coming in Oct 25, 2021
If your computer is currently running Windows 10, like most Windows computers currently are, there’s a new major update that’s just been released – it’s Windows 11. It’s not something you want yet.

For quite some time, Microsoft said that the last version of Windows would be Windows 10. They said they would just continue to update it, as they’ve always done.

But as they have done in the past, what Microsoft said they would do turned out to be different from what they actually did. Windows 11 was officially released on October 5, 2021 – just 3 weeks ago.

The general rule for any software is that you don’t want to use it when it first comes out. The old saying “Pioneers get arrows, settlers take the land” sort of applies with computer software. The early versions will likely have bugs. So you definitely don’t want to put new software on any computer that you have to rely on.

Right now, Microsoft is saying that Windows 11 will be rolled out gradually. Most people probably won’t see it come in automatically until after the first of the year (2022). But, once again, Microsoft’s actions are subject to change. Remember when Windows 10 came out, and they said you don’t have to get it if you don’t want to? But LOTS of people ended up seeing it on their computers even after opting very clearly to NOT get it.

I can’t really say for sure if Microsoft will force it in. What I can say is that Windows 10 is working fine, and it will be supported until October 14 of 2025. That’s 4 more years to use your current computer and your current operating system. I might jump into Windows 11 before Windows 10 ends, but definitely not right now.

So how do you keep Windows 11 from coming into your computer?

At the moment, it’s not a very simple process. I’ve done this for several clients remotely already. These are the basic steps:

Check computer’s internal drive to make sure it’s healthy

Check to confirm that the computer has been fully backed up

Check how long it’s been since the last restart (and restart if needed)

Create a new restore point (so we can get back to the current state if something goes wrong)

Back up the registry (again, playing it safe if things go haywire)

Add two (or three) specific things to the Windows Registry

Restart the computer

Here is my official position on the process I just described above: I do not recommend you do this, unless you are a computer tech and understand what you are doing.

The Windows Registry is like the “brain” of the Windows operating system. So going in and editing it is kind of like doing brain surgery on your computer. If you know what has to be done (in step 6 above) and you know how to do it, it’s fine. If you’re not sure, or you make one mistake in the Registry, your computer may not boot up again.

I’ve been doing this now for a couple of weeks for my current clients. I can do it through my Remote Support service (pricing and details here). Call or email me if you have any questions about it. Whoever you hire to do this, make sure they know what they are doing.

Once Windows 11 is blocked from coming in, you have 4 years to decide what to do. By that time, you might even decide it’s time to get a new computer. And of course, the new computer will have Windows 11 already installed.

The post Blocking Windows 11 from coming in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — Blocking Windows 11 from coming in Oct 25, 2021
If your computer is currently running Windows 10, like most Windows computers currently are, there’s a new major update that’s just been released – it’s Windows 11. It’s not something you want yet.

For quite some time, Microsoft said that the last version of Windows would be Windows 10. They said they would just continue to update it, as they’ve always done.

But as they have done in the past, what Microsoft said they would do turned out to be different from what they actually did. Windows 11 was officially released on October 5, 2021 – just 3 weeks ago.

The general rule for any software is that you don’t want to use it when it first comes out. The old saying “Pioneers get arrows, settlers take the land” sort of applies with computer software. The early versions will likely have bugs. So you definitely don’t want to put new software on any computer that you have to rely on.

Right now, Microsoft is saying that Windows 11 will be rolled out gradually. Most people probably won’t see it come in automatically until after the first of the year (2022). But, once again, Microsoft’s actions are subject to change. Remember when Windows 10 came out, and they said you don’t have to get it if you don’t want to? But LOTS of people ended up seeing it on their computers even after opting very clearly to NOT get it.

I can’t really say for sure if Microsoft will force it in. What I can say is that Windows 10 is working fine, and it will be supported until October 14 of 2025. That’s 4 more years to use your current computer and your current operating system. I might jump into Windows 11 before Windows 10 ends, but definitely not right now.

So how do you keep Windows 11 from coming into your computer?

At the moment, it’s not a very simple process. I’ve done this for several clients remotely already. These are the basic steps:

Check computer’s internal drive to make sure it’s healthy

Check to confirm that the computer has been fully backed up

Check how long it’s been since the last restart (and restart if needed)

Create a new restore point (so we can get back to the current state if something goes wrong)

Back up the registry (again, playing it safe if things go haywire)

Add two (or three) specific things to the Windows Registry

Restart the computer

Here is my official position on the process I just described above: I do not recommend you do this, unless you are a computer tech and understand what you are doing.

The Windows Registry is like the “brain” of the Windows operating system. So going in and editing it is kind of like doing brain surgery on your computer. If you know what has to be done (in step 6 above) and you know how to do it, it’s fine. If you’re not sure, or you make one mistake in the Registry, your computer may not boot up again.

I’ve been doing this now for a couple of weeks for my current clients. I can do it through my Remote Support service (pricing and details here). Call or email me if you have any questions about it. Whoever you hire to do this, make sure they know what they are doing.

Once Windows 11 is blocked from coming in, you have 4 years to decide what to do. By that time, you might even decide it’s time to get a new computer. And of course, the new computer will have Windows 11 already installed.

The post Blocking Windows 11 from coming in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Crystal Disk Info — Check your hard drive health every day – automatically Oct 11, 2021
If your hard drive starts to show signs of failure, you want to know that as soon as possible. Here’s how to get that alert nice and early.

When someone says to you, “I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” what do you say? For me, I am a “bad news first” kind of person. Get it out of the way and on to the good stuff. And if it pertains to my computer, even more so.

If my computer’s hard drive is having a problem, I want to know about it as soon as possible. The earlier it can be detected, the earlier it can be fixed. It also means there’s less of a chance of losing any important data (even though I do two different backups every day).

So I have a system that is completely automated, and it checks the health of my computer’s internal drive daily. And here’s some good news:

This process/system is completely free

It’s easy to set up

Here’s how you do it.

First, you install a little program called Crystal Disk Info. I’ve written about it before. You can get it here. There are different programs listed on the website but what you want is CrystalDiskInfo Standard Edition. Just click on the Installer option, and it will download. Then you can install it. It won’t try to sneak anything else on to your computer.

So now you have it installed, but it doesn’t do anything unless you double click the desktop icon to run it. When you run it, it will show you a window with a button that says Good, Caution, or Bad. That’s really the only indicator you need to look at. If it says Good, just close the window and go on with using your computer. If it says Caution or Bad, your hard drive is most likely in the process of failing so we need to deal with that.

But I said this whole thing is automated, right? That means we need to set it up so that you don’t have to try to remember to run Crystal Disk Info regularly. Here’s how:

Open the program, then at the top click on Function. In the drop down menu, look for the word Startup, and click it.

This means that every time your computer starts up, Crystal Disk Info will run automatically. And you’ll see the report about your hard drive’s health.

For me, that means every single day. My nightly routine, when I’m done using my computer for the day, is to restart it and then plug in the overnight backup drive. So when I restart it, I see the drive health report first thing.

If you don’t do this, your computer’s drive could be in the process of failing for several days or weeks and you wouldn’t even know about it. Better to find out early and take action!

The post Check your hard drive health every day – automatically first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Crystal Disk Info — Check your hard drive health every day – automatically Oct 11, 2021
If your hard drive starts to show signs of failure, you want to know that as soon as possible. Here’s how to get that alert nice and early.

When someone says to you, “I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” what do you say? For me, I am a “bad news first” kind of person. Get it out of the way and on to the good stuff. And if it pertains to my computer, even more so.

If my computer’s hard drive is having a problem, I want to know about it as soon as possible. The earlier it can be detected, the earlier it can be fixed. It also means there’s less of a chance of losing any important data (even though I do two different backups every day).

So I have a system that is completely automated, and it checks the health of my computer’s internal drive daily. And here’s some good news:

This process/system is completely free

It’s easy to set up

Here’s how you do it.

First, you install a little program called Crystal Disk Info. I’ve written about it before. You can get it here. There are different programs listed on the website but what you want is CrystalDiskInfo Standard Edition. Just click on the Installer option, and it will download. Then you can install it. It won’t try to sneak anything else on to your computer.

So now you have it installed, but it doesn’t do anything unless you double click the desktop icon to run it. When you run it, it will show you a window with a button that says Good, Caution, or Bad. That’s really the only indicator you need to look at. If it says Good, just close the window and go on with using your computer. If it says Caution or Bad, your hard drive is most likely in the process of failing so we need to deal with that.

But I said this whole thing is automated, right? That means we need to set it up so that you don’t have to try to remember to run Crystal Disk Info regularly. Here’s how:

Open the program, then at the top click on Function. In the drop down menu, look for the word Startup, and click it.

This means that every time your computer starts up, Crystal Disk Info will run automatically. And you’ll see the report about your hard drive’s health.

For me, that means every single day. My nightly routine, when I’m done using my computer for the day, is to restart it and then plug in the overnight backup drive. So when I restart it, I see the drive health report first thing.

If you don’t do this, your computer’s drive could be in the process of failing for several days or weeks and you wouldn’t even know about it. Better to find out early and take action!

The post Check your hard drive health every day – automatically first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome — How to do a Safety Check using Chrome Sep 27, 2021
Did you know that Google Chrome can run a quick Safety Check on your computer? Here’s how to do it.

Open Chrome, and click the 3 dots in the top right, and choose Settings.

Then, scroll down to the Safety Check session and click on “Check now”.

Chrome will take a few seconds and check for:

Is Chrome up to date?

Are there unsafe passwords stored in Chrome? (My recommendation is that you don’t store ANY passwords in Chrome or any other browser.)

Is browsing protection enabled?

Is Chrome running any malicious extensions?

Is there harmful software running on your computer?

This is what the results on my computer looked like:

If you’re practicing safe computing, and your computer is properly protected, the Chrome Safety Check shouldn’t find any problems. If the Safety Check does alert you to something that needs to be fixed, and you’re not sure what to do, contact me.

Keep in mind, this is a very basic checkup. Your computer may have problems or security issues that would not be detected by this Chrome process. Be sure to have good security on your computer, and make sure all your software is kept up to date (this can be automated).

The post How to do a Safety Check using Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome Safety Check — How to do a Safety Check using Chrome Sep 27, 2021
Did you know that Google Chrome can run a quick Safety Check on your computer? Here’s how to do it.

Open Chrome, and click the 3 dots in the top right, and choose Settings.

Then, scroll down to the Safety Check session and click on “Check now”.

Chrome will take a few seconds and check for:

Is Chrome up to date?

Are there unsafe passwords stored in Chrome? (My recommendation is that you don’t store ANY passwords in Chrome or any other browser.)

Is browsing protection enabled?

Is Chrome running any malicious extensions?

Is there harmful software running on your computer?

This is what the results on my computer looked like:

If you’re practicing safe computing, and your computer is properly protected, the Chrome Safety Check shouldn’t find any problems. If the Safety Check does alert you to something that needs to be fixed, and you’re not sure what to do, contact me.

Keep in mind, this is a very basic checkup. Your computer may have problems or security issues that would not be detected by this Chrome process. Be sure to have good security on your computer, and make sure all your software is kept up to date (this can be automated).

The post How to do a Safety Check using Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

text messaging alternative — An alternative way to send or receive text messages Sep 13, 2021
There are some people who use computers, but don’t do text messages. That sometimes presents a problem for them, but there’s a way to get around it.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

When you go to set up a new Microsoft account, one of the things they will want you to provide is a phone number – and they assume this will be a cell phone that receives text messages. Microsoft is not asking for your phone number so that they can text you all the time with spam messages. They want to have that in place in case you ever need to verify your identity.

This usually comes into play when you forget your Microsoft password. When you click on the “Forgot password” link, they’ll offer to send you a text message to the phone number you have on file, in order for you to prove that you are the person who owns that Microsoft account. Then you can reset the password. It’s a pretty quick recovery process, but you have to have that phone number already on file with them in order to do that.

But sometimes I’ll have a client who has just never bothered with text messaging. So they don’t really know how to get a text message. Or, maybe they’re using an older style phone, or a no-contract phone that doesn’t do text messaging. We come to the place where you have to get a confirmation text message in order to configure the new Microsoft account, but how do you do that when you can’t get a text message on your phone?

Google, of course!

If you have a Gmail email account, you already have the ability to do this. Just go to this website: voice.google.com and sign in with your Gmail email address and password.

Then, just go through their process of setting up a Google Voice phone number. You can even choose one that starts with your own area code if you’re in the US (not sure how it works outside the US). Once you have your phone number assigned to your account, you can use the Google Voice service to make outbound calls, or for people to call you at that number. And guess what – you can also send and receive text messages from that number! All the instructions and configurations are at the website, voice.google.com.

So when Microsoft (or any other website) needs a phone number that receives text messages, just give them your Google Voice phone number. In fact, you might want to use that number even if you are able to get text messages on your actual phone – might help reduce the number of spam message you get on your phone.

The post An alternative way to send or receive text messages first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — An alternative way to send or receive text messages Sep 13, 2021
There are some people who use computers, but don’t do text messages. That sometimes presents a problem for them, but there’s a way to get around it.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

When you go to set up a new Microsoft account, one of the things they will want you to provide is a phone number – and they assume this will be a cell phone that receives text messages. Microsoft is not asking for your phone number so that they can text you all the time with spam messages. They want to have that in place in case you ever need to verify your identity.

This usually comes into play when you forget your Microsoft password. When you click on the “Forgot password” link, they’ll offer to send you a text message to the phone number you have on file, in order for you to prove that you are the person who owns that Microsoft account. Then you can reset the password. It’s a pretty quick recovery process, but you have to have that phone number already on file with them in order to do that.

But sometimes I’ll have a client who has just never bothered with text messaging. So they don’t really know how to get a text message. Or, maybe they’re using an older style phone, or a no-contract phone that doesn’t do text messaging. We come to the place where you have to get a confirmation text message in order to configure the new Microsoft account, but how do you do that when you can’t get a text message on your phone?

Google, of course!

If you have a Gmail email account, you already have the ability to do this. Just go to this website: voice.google.com and sign in with your Gmail email address and password.

Then, just go through their process of setting up a Google Voice phone number. You can even choose one that starts with your own area code if you’re in the US (not sure how it works outside the US). Once you have your phone number assigned to your account, you can use the Google Voice service to make outbound calls, or for people to call you at that number. And guess what – you can also send and receive text messages from that number! All the instructions and configurations are at the website, voice.google.com.

So when Microsoft (or any other website) needs a phone number that receives text messages, just give them your Google Voice phone number. In fact, you might want to use that number even if you are able to get text messages on your actual phone – might help reduce the number of spam message you get on your phone.

The post An alternative way to send or receive text messages first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

name and address form — Use Chrome to fill in your name and address Aug 30, 2021
When you’re online, do you find yourself constantly having to manually type in your name and address when creating a new account? Here’s how to do that with one click.

You know what I’m talking about. You see something on the internet you want to purchase, and it’s for sale on some website where you haven’t bought anything in the past. So you need to create an account.

That means you have to type in your full name, your street address, your city and state, your zip or postal code, your phone number, etc. These are all things you’ve typed out a hundred times before. Why can’t your computer just remember these things and enter them FOR you.

Good news – it can!

This is a great feature that’s available in Chrome. I’m sure it’s in the other browsers as well, but I use Chrome mostly so that’s what I’ll be referring to here.

Chrome will store all of that personal identity information inside a special section in Chrome settings. Then, when you go to a website form that asks you to fill all of that out, Chrome recognizes that it’s a form and what it’s asking for, and offers you the option to have it all automatically completed.

Here’s how you set this up:

In Chrome, click the 3 dots up in the top right, then click on Settings

Now look for the section called “Autofill” and click on “Addresses and more”

Now, where it says “Save and fill addresses”, make sure that switch is turned on (to the right). And click the Add button to enter your address information –

In the next window that opens, you enter your information. There are places for your country, name, organization, street address, city, state, zip, phone and email –

Click Save and you’re done.

Now, if you want to test this, go and create a new account somewhere online. You’ll see that when you place your cursor in the “Name” field (or any of the other fields on that form), Chrome will offer you the option to auto-fill the form with whatever information you have stored.

A couple of things to also keep in mind:

First, you can store more than one set of info. For example, you might have a physical address, and a different address (such as PO Box) that you use for mail purposes. These can be stored separately and you can just use the appropriate one when needed.

Second, you can also store payment methods (such as your credit card information) in Chrome, but I don’t recommend doing that. I also don’t recommend storing your account passwords in Chrome. If anyone gets access to your computer (such as if it were to get lost or stolen), or someone hacks into your computer, they can get access to that information that is stored in Chrome and it could mean a huge headache for you.

The post Use Chrome to fill in your name and address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome settings — Use Chrome to fill in your name and address Aug 30, 2021
When you’re online, do you find yourself constantly having to manually type in your name and address when creating a new account? Here’s how to do that with one click.

You know what I’m talking about. You see something on the internet you want to purchase, and it’s for sale on some website where you haven’t bought anything in the past. So you need to create an account.

That means you have to type in your full name, your street address, your city and state, your zip or postal code, your phone number, etc. These are all things you’ve typed out a hundred times before. Why can’t your computer just remember these things and enter them FOR you.

Good news – it can!

This is a great feature that’s available in Chrome. I’m sure it’s in the other browsers as well, but I use Chrome mostly so that’s what I’ll be referring to here.

Chrome will store all of that personal identity information inside a special section in Chrome settings. Then, when you go to a website form that asks you to fill all of that out, Chrome recognizes that it’s a form and what it’s asking for, and offers you the option to have it all automatically completed.

Here’s how you set this up:

In Chrome, click the 3 dots up in the top right, then click on Settings

Now look for the section called “Autofill” and click on “Addresses and more”

Now, where it says “Save and fill addresses”, make sure that switch is turned on (to the right). And click the Add button to enter your address information –

In the next window that opens, you enter your information. There are places for your country, name, organization, street address, city, state, zip, phone and email –

Click Save and you’re done.

Now, if you want to test this, go and create a new account somewhere online. You’ll see that when you place your cursor in the “Name” field (or any of the other fields on that form), Chrome will offer you the option to auto-fill the form with whatever information you have stored.

A couple of things to also keep in mind:

First, you can store more than one set of info. For example, you might have a physical address, and a different address (such as PO Box) that you use for mail purposes. These can be stored separately and you can just use the appropriate one when needed.

Second, you can also store payment methods (such as your credit card information) in Chrome, but I don’t recommend doing that. I also don’t recommend storing your account passwords in Chrome. If anyone gets access to your computer (such as if it were to get lost or stolen), or someone hacks into your computer, they can get access to that information that is stored in Chrome and it could mean a huge headache for you.

The post Use Chrome to fill in your name and address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

clipboard — How to view your clipboard history Aug 16, 2021
Your Windows computer has a clipboard feature that you are probably not even aware of!

Before I tell you today’s tip, a little background or “setup” information so that everyone is on the same page.

One of the most useful features of a computer is the ability to Cut and Paste or Copy and Paste. If you don’t use this, you should learn how to do it. It’s really easy and comes in very handy all the time.

Here’s how it works in a basic example – let’s say you have a Word document that has five paragraphs. You want to move the second paragraph down to the end of the document. Well, you could just retype the whole paragraph at the end, and then delete it from its original spot. That would achieve your end result. But there’s a much easier way!

You can highlight the entire paragraph, then tap CTRL + X (this is the “cut” part of Cut and Paste. When you do this, two things happen:

The paragraph disappears from the Word document (don’t worry, it’s not gone)

The paragraph gets stored temporarily on the clipboard (keep this in mind; we’ll come back to it)

Now, you go to the end of the document and put the cursor where you want that paragraph to appear. Now you tap CTRL + V (this is the “paste” part). And there’s your paragraph, where you want it.

That’s how Cut and Paste works.

If instead of CTRL + X, you did CTRL + C, that means you are “copying” instead of “cutting”. So when you paste, the paragraph will be at the end of the document, but it will also still be in its original position.

So what’s the clipboard?

When you Cut or Copy, whatever you have highlighted gets stored on the Clipboard. You won’t see this on the screen though. Think of the Clipboard as being an “invisible” thing that temporarily stores whatever you are cutting or copying. You can’t see it, but it’s there and it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.

So that’s the background of how Copy/Paste and Cut/Paste works. Now here’s today’s cool tip:

You can actually view the past items you have put on your clipboard, and paste them over and over. Here’s how: hold down the Windows key, and tap the letter “v”. Windows + v.

You’ll see a little window pop up on your screen, and there are the last several items you’ve cut or copied. I’m not sure how many it’s able to display, but I just checked mine and it shows the last 16 items.

So if you need to paste something over and over, you don’t have to go back to the original, highlight it, and copy it again. Just click to display the Windows Clipboard, and grab it from there.

And by the way, it doesn’t matter if you copied text or an image – they will all show up in the Windows Clipboard.

The post How to view your clipboard history first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — How to view your clipboard history Aug 16, 2021
Your Windows computer has a clipboard feature that you are probably not even aware of!

Before I tell you today’s tip, a little background or “setup” information so that everyone is on the same page.

One of the most useful features of a computer is the ability to Cut and Paste or Copy and Paste. If you don’t use this, you should learn how to do it. It’s really easy and comes in very handy all the time.

Here’s how it works in a basic example – let’s say you have a Word document that has five paragraphs. You want to move the second paragraph down to the end of the document. Well, you could just retype the whole paragraph at the end, and then delete it from its original spot. That would achieve your end result. But there’s a much easier way!

You can highlight the entire paragraph, then tap CTRL + X (this is the “cut” part of Cut and Paste. When you do this, two things happen:

The paragraph disappears from the Word document (don’t worry, it’s not gone)

The paragraph gets stored temporarily on the clipboard (keep this in mind; we’ll come back to it)

Now, you go to the end of the document and put the cursor where you want that paragraph to appear. Now you tap CTRL + V (this is the “paste” part). And there’s your paragraph, where you want it.

That’s how Cut and Paste works.

If instead of CTRL + X, you did CTRL + C, that means you are “copying” instead of “cutting”. So when you paste, the paragraph will be at the end of the document, but it will also still be in its original position.

So what’s the clipboard?

When you Cut or Copy, whatever you have highlighted gets stored on the Clipboard. You won’t see this on the screen though. Think of the Clipboard as being an “invisible” thing that temporarily stores whatever you are cutting or copying. You can’t see it, but it’s there and it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.

So that’s the background of how Copy/Paste and Cut/Paste works. Now here’s today’s cool tip:

You can actually view the past items you have put on your clipboard, and paste them over and over. Here’s how: hold down the Windows key, and tap the letter “v”. Windows + v.

You’ll see a little window pop up on your screen, and there are the last several items you’ve cut or copied. I’m not sure how many it’s able to display, but I just checked mine and it shows the last 16 items.

So if you need to paste something over and over, you don’t have to go back to the original, highlight it, and copy it again. Just click to display the Windows Clipboard, and grab it from there.

And by the way, it doesn’t matter if you copied text or an image – they will all show up in the Windows Clipboard.

The post How to view your clipboard history first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

slow computer — Two different ways your computer could be running “slowly” Aug 02, 2021
One of the most common things I hear from people is still this: “My computer is too slow!” The problem is, they could be talking about two different things.

This leads me to ask a clarifying question, so we know exactly what we are dealing with.

I ask, “When you say it’s slow, are you talking about when you go to a website, it takes a long time for the website to load? Or, do you mean for example you click on Microsoft Word and it takes a long time for Word to come up on the screen?”

Do you see the difference in those questions?

If it’s a website that is slow to load, that’s not necessarily a problem with the computer itself – it’s just a slow internet connection. If that’s an issue, it’s time to make a call to whoever you pay for the internet each month. They can do some diagnostic checking from their end while you’re on the phone. In some cases, the modem or router (or both) might be failing and need to be replaced. You can also speed up your internet connection by connecting the router to the computer with an ethernet cable, instead of by wifi. I know that’s not always physically possible. But if your computer sits next to the router anyway, you would be better off just connecting a cable rather than connecting to the wifi signal. A wired connection is always faster.

If it’s a program that is slow to load, then that could be an issue with the computer itself. There are a variety of things to check here. The computer may need to be restarted, there might be too many programs running in the background, or it could even be an indication that the hard drive is having a problem (got a recent backup?).

So keep in mind, “slow” can have more than one meaning. But either way, we have methods of speeding it up!

The post Two different ways your computer could be running “slowly” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — Two different ways your computer could be running “slowly” Aug 02, 2021
One of the most common things I hear from people is still this: “My computer is too slow!” The problem is, they could be talking about two different things.

This leads me to ask a clarifying question, so we know exactly what we are dealing with.

I ask, “When you say it’s slow, are you talking about when you go to a website, it takes a long time for the website to load? Or, do you mean for example you click on Microsoft Word and it takes a long time for Word to come up on the screen?”

Do you see the difference in those questions?

If it’s a website that is slow to load, that’s not necessarily a problem with the computer itself – it’s just a slow internet connection. If that’s an issue, it’s time to make a call to whoever you pay for the internet each month. They can do some diagnostic checking from their end while you’re on the phone. In some cases, the modem or router (or both) might be failing and need to be replaced. You can also speed up your internet connection by connecting the router to the computer with an ethernet cable, instead of by wifi. I know that’s not always physically possible. But if your computer sits next to the router anyway, you would be better off just connecting a cable rather than connecting to the wifi signal. A wired connection is always faster.

If it’s a program that is slow to load, then that could be an issue with the computer itself. There are a variety of things to check here. The computer may need to be restarted, there might be too many programs running in the background, or it could even be an indication that the hard drive is having a problem (got a recent backup?).

So keep in mind, “slow” can have more than one meaning. But either way, we have methods of speeding it up!

The post Two different ways your computer could be running “slowly” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What to do about Windows 11 Jul 19, 2021
You probably heard the announcement recently from Microsoft – Windows 11 is coming. Here’s what you need to do.

For quite some time, Microsoft held to their position that Windows 10 would be the last one. They would just keep doing updates to Windows 10, and there wouldn’t be any “new” named versions of Windows.

So much for that idea.

They announced recently that Windows 11 would be released as the next big version, starting later this year and extending the rollout into 2022.

And with that announcement, they included a link that took you to a little program that checked your computer to see if it will be able to run Windows 11. That’s because the hardware and security requirements are going to be higher with this new version of Windows. So people started checking their computers, and they were finding out that their current computer would NOT be able to run Windows 11.

So of course that’s when the phone calls and emails started coming in. I had several clients calling and asking what to do, should they plan on going out and getting a new computer, all kinds of questions.

So, I’m here today to give you detailed instructions on how to handle the Windows 11 situation. Here’s my recommendation:

That’s right. Just wait.

Right now, your computer is most likely running Windows 10. If you went out and bought a brand new computer today, guess what operating system it will have. Yep, Windows 10. That’s because Windows 11 has not even been released to the public yet.

And even if Windows 11 were available starting today, do you really want to be one of the first ones to use it? New software inevitably has problems which get fixed in subsequent updates. Let the early adopters find those errors.

And at this point, as I write this, we really don’t know what the system requirements are going to be for a new computer to be able to run Windows 11. Remember that little checker program that people could run to test their current computer for compatibility? Well, Microsoft took that down because they changed some of the requirements. And those guidelines continue to change.

And here’s another important fact to keep in mind: Windows 10 is working just fine, and it’s going to be supported by Microsoft until October 2025. So you’re fine to keep using it for more than four more years!

So there’s no rush. No need to make any changes yet. You can relax and just see what happens.

Having said all that, I was able to get my hands on an early “preview” version of Windows 11. Microsoft has something they call an “Insiders Program” where techs can try out new versions of Windows to play with it and report problems. So I have a beta version running on one of my computers at the moment, and I have to say I actually kind of like it so far. The Start button and Start menu are in the middle of the task bar instead of in the lower left corner. Taskbar icons are centered (similar to the way a Mac computer displays program icons at the bottom of the screen).

Of course, when it does come out officially, I’ll do a blog and podcast about what’s new (both good and bad). Until then – just keep doing what you’re doing.

The post What to do about Windows 11 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wait — What to do about Windows 11 Jul 19, 2021
You probably heard the announcement recently from Microsoft – Windows 11 is coming. Here’s what you need to do.

For quite some time, Microsoft held to their position that Windows 10 would be the last one. They would just keep doing updates to Windows 10, and there wouldn’t be any “new” named versions of Windows.

So much for that idea.

They announced recently that Windows 11 would be released as the next big version, starting later this year and extending the rollout into 2022.

And with that announcement, they included a link that took you to a little program that checked your computer to see if it will be able to run Windows 11. That’s because the hardware and security requirements are going to be higher with this new version of Windows. So people started checking their computers, and they were finding out that their current computer would NOT be able to run Windows 11.

So of course that’s when the phone calls and emails started coming in. I had several clients calling and asking what to do, should they plan on going out and getting a new computer, all kinds of questions.

So, I’m here today to give you detailed instructions on how to handle the Windows 11 situation. Here’s my recommendation:

That’s right. Just wait.

Right now, your computer is most likely running Windows 10. If you went out and bought a brand new computer today, guess what operating system it will have. Yep, Windows 10. That’s because Windows 11 has not even been released to the public yet.

And even if Windows 11 were available starting today, do you really want to be one of the first ones to use it? New software inevitably has problems which get fixed in subsequent updates. Let the early adopters find those errors.

And at this point, as I write this, we really don’t know what the system requirements are going to be for a new computer to be able to run Windows 11. Remember that little checker program that people could run to test their current computer for compatibility? Well, Microsoft took that down because they changed some of the requirements. And those guidelines continue to change.

And here’s another important fact to keep in mind: Windows 10 is working just fine, and it’s going to be supported by Microsoft until October 2025. So you’re fine to keep using it for more than four more years!

So there’s no rush. No need to make any changes yet. You can relax and just see what happens.

Having said all that, I was able to get my hands on an early “preview” version of Windows 11. Microsoft has something they call an “Insiders Program” where techs can try out new versions of Windows to play with it and report problems. So I have a beta version running on one of my computers at the moment, and I have to say I actually kind of like it so far. The Start button and Start menu are in the middle of the task bar instead of in the lower left corner. Taskbar icons are centered (similar to the way a Mac computer displays program icons at the bottom of the screen).

Of course, when it does come out officially, I’ll do a blog and podcast about what’s new (both good and bad). Until then – just keep doing what you’re doing.

The post What to do about Windows 11 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Western Digital external drive — The Western Digital backup disaster Jul 05, 2021
Recently, Western Digital had a problem with a couple of their external drives. This caused a huge disaster for some users, who ended up losing all of their data. Here’s what happened, and why those who follow my backup process had no problems.

First, let’s clear up some terminology.

A portable drive usually is slightly smaller than a smartphone. It will only have one cable – a USB cable that you connect to the computer when you want to have the computer do a backup.

An external hard drive is usually larger, like the size of a paperback book. The image pictured above is an external hard drive. These drives usually have a USB cable and also a regular power cord to plug into the wall for electricity.

Either of these types of drives can be used for a backup, but the one I use and recommend is the portable drive. For most people, it’s all they need. It can sit on top of your computer tower, or on your desk next to your laptop.

Western Digital is one of the well-known companies that manufactures hard drives. They make external hard drives, and portable drives. They have a couple of particular external drive models known as My Book Live, and My Book Live Duo. These drives have been around for a while, and they are used by literally millions of people all over the world for file storage.

What makes these drives a bit unusual is that they are connected directly to the internet. This means that the files that are stored on the drive can be shared, or you can access the drive from any computer. This is a convenience feature.

Western Digital My Book Live Duo

Last week, many people who use these two drives discovered a huge problem. All of their data on the drive had been wiped out. Completely erased.

When this happened, I saw some people posting things like “This is my nightmare” and “I’m totally screwed” because they were counting on those drives to store their most important things, like documents and irreplaceable pictures and videos.

The question now is, what happened, and how could it have been avoided?

As far as what happened, at this point it appears to have been a malicious attack. Some malware was able to run on the Western Digital servers, and that malicious software gave the command to reset those internet-connected external drives. So not only were the drives reset back to factory state (meaning none of the customer’s data was kept), the password that was used to get into the drive was also reset.

How could this have been avoided? I would explain this in two concepts:

The first concept is what is called an air gap. This means that your backup drive should be, as much as possible, not connected to your computer or the internet or anything else – other than when it’s necessary. There should be AIR between your backup drive and your computer or the internet. For the people who lost all their files, that would not have happened if their external drive was disconnected at the time. Malicious software can’t travel through an air gap.

The second concept is this saying: “3 is 2, 2 is 1, and 1 is none.” This is referring to how many places you have your files stored. You have to always assume that one of those places is going to fail. So if you have your important stuff saved in 3 places, 1 will fail, and you really only have it in 2 places. If you have it stored in just 2 places to start with, then 1 of them will fail, and you really only have it in 1 place. And if you only have your files stored in 1 place, you don’t have a backup. Because if that one place fails, you’ve lost your files.

So many of the people who used these drives made a fatal mistake. And it’s one that I see my clients make sometimes if they don’t check with me first. They say, “My computer’s hard drive is pretty full – so I’m going to free up some space, and move those files to an external drive.” But think about that – if you move them off of your computer, to your external drive, how many places are they stored? ONE. This means you do NOT have a backup. When that external drive fails, you lose.

The process I recommend for backup means that your files are stored in 3 places:

The first place is on your computer. Your hard drive should be big enough to store all of your important stuff. If it’s not big enough, I can upgrade it to a larger solid state drive so that it is big enough.

The second place is your portable drive. Most of the time, this drive is not connected to the computer (that’s the air gap). The portable drive is only plugged in overnight, when you’re not using the computer. The software that I install and configure backs up ALL of your stuff (including the programs) overnight, and it’s done by the time you wake up. When you get on the computer, you double check that the backup happened, and you disconnect the portable drive so that your newly backed-up data stays safe.

The third place is a cloud backup service. The one I use is Carbonite. Once it’s set up, the process is completely automated. You create or edit a file in your Documents folder, and within minutes it is safely backed up on Carbonite’s servers. This means your computer and your portable drive could be completely destroyed in a fire or a hurricane, and your important files (Documents, Pictures, and others) would still be safely stored and can be retrieved later.

One thing I want to stress: I still have faith in the physical integrity of Western Digital drives. I use both Western Digital and Seagate drives, and I think they are both equally reliable. What happened recently was not a hardware failure – it was a breach of the Western Digital cloud servers. The process that I use and described above does not include having any files stored on Western Digital computers. Yes, one of the backups we use is in the cloud (Carbonite), but again – that’s just one place. If that one fails, you still have the other two.

Don’t take any chances with your important files. If you need help setting up a backup process, contact me. No backup system is 100% foolproof, but we can at least make it as reliable as possible.

The post The Western Digital backup disaster first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Western Digital My Book Live Duo — The Western Digital backup disaster Jul 05, 2021
Recently, Western Digital had a problem with a couple of their external drives. This caused a huge disaster for some users, who ended up losing all of their data. Here’s what happened, and why those who follow my backup process had no problems.

First, let’s clear up some terminology.

A portable drive usually is slightly smaller than a smartphone. It will only have one cable – a USB cable that you connect to the computer when you want to have the computer do a backup.

An external hard drive is usually larger, like the size of a paperback book. The image pictured above is an external hard drive. These drives usually have a USB cable and also a regular power cord to plug into the wall for electricity.

Either of these types of drives can be used for a backup, but the one I use and recommend is the portable drive. For most people, it’s all they need. It can sit on top of your computer tower, or on your desk next to your laptop.

Western Digital is one of the well-known companies that manufactures hard drives. They make external hard drives, and portable drives. They have a couple of particular external drive models known as My Book Live, and My Book Live Duo. These drives have been around for a while, and they are used by literally millions of people all over the world for file storage.

What makes these drives a bit unusual is that they are connected directly to the internet. This means that the files that are stored on the drive can be shared, or you can access the drive from any computer. This is a convenience feature.

Western Digital My Book Live Duo

Last week, many people who use these two drives discovered a huge problem. All of their data on the drive had been wiped out. Completely erased.

When this happened, I saw some people posting things like “This is my nightmare” and “I’m totally screwed” because they were counting on those drives to store their most important things, like documents and irreplaceable pictures and videos.

The question now is, what happened, and how could it have been avoided?

As far as what happened, at this point it appears to have been a malicious attack. Some malware was able to run on the Western Digital servers, and that malicious software gave the command to reset those internet-connected external drives. So not only were the drives reset back to factory state (meaning none of the customer’s data was kept), the password that was used to get into the drive was also reset.

How could this have been avoided? I would explain this in two concepts:

The first concept is what is called an air gap. This means that your backup drive should be, as much as possible, not connected to your computer or the internet or anything else – other than when it’s necessary. There should be AIR between your backup drive and your computer or the internet. For the people who lost all their files, that would not have happened if their external drive was disconnected at the time. Malicious software can’t travel through an air gap.

The second concept is this saying: “3 is 2, 2 is 1, and 1 is none.” This is referring to how many places you have your files stored. You have to always assume that one of those places is going to fail. So if you have your important stuff saved in 3 places, 1 will fail, and you really only have it in 2 places. If you have it stored in just 2 places to start with, then 1 of them will fail, and you really only have it in 1 place. And if you only have your files stored in 1 place, you don’t have a backup. Because if that one place fails, you’ve lost your files.

So many of the people who used these drives made a fatal mistake. And it’s one that I see my clients make sometimes if they don’t check with me first. They say, “My computer’s hard drive is pretty full – so I’m going to free up some space, and move those files to an external drive.” But think about that – if you move them off of your computer, to your external drive, how many places are they stored? ONE. This means you do NOT have a backup. When that external drive fails, you lose.

The process I recommend for backup means that your files are stored in 3 places:

The first place is on your computer. Your hard drive should be big enough to store all of your important stuff. If it’s not big enough, I can upgrade it to a larger solid state drive so that it is big enough.

The second place is your portable drive. Most of the time, this drive is not connected to the computer (that’s the air gap). The portable drive is only plugged in overnight, when you’re not using the computer. The software that I install and configure backs up ALL of your stuff (including the programs) overnight, and it’s done by the time you wake up. When you get on the computer, you double check that the backup happened, and you disconnect the portable drive so that your newly backed-up data stays safe.

The third place is a cloud backup service. The one I use is Carbonite. Once it’s set up, the process is completely automated. You create or edit a file in your Documents folder, and within minutes it is safely backed up on Carbonite’s servers. This means your computer and your portable drive could be completely destroyed in a fire or a hurricane, and your important files (Documents, Pictures, and others) would still be safely stored and can be retrieved later.

One thing I want to stress: I still have faith in the physical integrity of Western Digital drives. I use both Western Digital and Seagate drives, and I think they are both equally reliable. What happened recently was not a hardware failure – it was a breach of the Western Digital cloud servers. The process that I use and described above does not include having any files stored on Western Digital computers. Yes, one of the backups we use is in the cloud (Carbonite), but again – that’s just one place. If that one fails, you still have the other two.

Don’t take any chances with your important files. If you need help setting up a backup process, contact me. No backup system is 100% foolproof, but we can at least make it as reliable as possible.

The post The Western Digital backup disaster first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

news and interests — How to get rid of “News and Interests” Jun 21, 2021
A recent Windows update probably added a new icon to the lower right corner of your screen. If you don’t want it there, here’s the easy way to get rid of it.

Microsoft really loves to put things on your computer screen even though you didn’t request it.

Last week (June 8, 2021, to be exact) was the monthly time that Microsoft sends out their regular updates to Windows. It’s always the second Tuesday of the month, and is called Patch Tuesday (because many of the updates “patch” security holes that have been discovered). This most recent update included the addition of a Windows toolbar called “News and Interests”, and it shows up in the row of all the other icons in the bottom right corner of your screen:

By default, it just shows the local temperature and weather conditions (84 F and sunny, that’s Florida!). But wait til you put your cursor over it (don’t click, just move the cursor over that icon). Suddenly you have lots more stuff –

So there’s a more thorough weather report, stock prices, a traffic report for an upcoming trip, and several current news stories. And the image you see above isn’t the whole thing – that window is fully scrollable. There are LOTS more news stories when you scroll through the list.

You might actually find this little thing to be a handy quick source of information. But you would also probably want to customize it with the specific news and interests that pertain to YOU.

For the stock prices, you can specific which stocks you want to see. Or you can just eliminate that info entirely.

You can change the weather location (in my example, I would change it to Safety Harbor, which is where I live, rather than Clearwater). Or you can have it not display the weather at all.

There’s also a sports option, so you can see the latest scores and info for your favorite players or teams if you want.

And of course there is always the news – this is reflective of the mind-numbing 24/7 news reporting cycle we are in now.

Some of this stuff might be handy. If I want to know the current temperature, I can just glance at my screen. Of course, I could already do that by glancing at my phone. I don’t follow most sports so I don’t really care about that. In my case, I might customize the news filtering so that I only see the most unusual news stories (those stories are sometimes the source for guests for my “What Was That Like” podcast).

The bad news about this little addition – when you click a link to read an article or get more info, it doesn’t care that your preferred browser is Chrome. All links will open in Microsoft Edge. Remember, this “News and Interests” thing is a Microsoft creation, so they will force you to view any details in their Microsoft browser. Even though most of the world uses Chrome.

But if you find nothing of value in this new addition to your Windows Taskbar, you can just get rid of it. Just do a right click on it, then go up to “News and interests” and in the side menu, click on “Turn off”. And you can always turn it back on using the same process.

The post How to get rid of “News and Interests” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

news and interests — How to get rid of “News and Interests” Jun 21, 2021
A recent Windows update probably added a new icon to the lower right corner of your screen. If you don’t want it there, here’s the easy way to get rid of it.

Microsoft really loves to put things on your computer screen even though you didn’t request it.

Last week (June 8, 2021, to be exact) was the monthly time that Microsoft sends out their regular updates to Windows. It’s always the second Tuesday of the month, and is called Patch Tuesday (because many of the updates “patch” security holes that have been discovered). This most recent update included the addition of a Windows toolbar called “News and Interests”, and it shows up in the row of all the other icons in the bottom right corner of your screen:

By default, it just shows the local temperature and weather conditions (84 F and sunny, that’s Florida!). But wait til you put your cursor over it (don’t click, just move the cursor over that icon). Suddenly you have lots more stuff –

So there’s a more thorough weather report, stock prices, a traffic report for an upcoming trip, and several current news stories. And the image you see above isn’t the whole thing – that window is fully scrollable. There are LOTS more news stories when you scroll through the list.

You might actually find this little thing to be a handy quick source of information. But you would also probably want to customize it with the specific news and interests that pertain to YOU.

For the stock prices, you can specific which stocks you want to see. Or you can just eliminate that info entirely.

You can change the weather location (in my example, I would change it to Safety Harbor, which is where I live, rather than Clearwater). Or you can have it not display the weather at all.

There’s also a sports option, so you can see the latest scores and info for your favorite players or teams if you want.

And of course there is always the news – this is reflective of the mind-numbing 24/7 news reporting cycle we are in now.

Some of this stuff might be handy. If I want to know the current temperature, I can just glance at my screen. Of course, I could already do that by glancing at my phone. I don’t follow most sports so I don’t really care about that. In my case, I might customize the news filtering so that I only see the most unusual news stories (those stories are sometimes the source for guests for my “What Was That Like” podcast).

The bad news about this little addition – when you click a link to read an article or get more info, it doesn’t care that your preferred browser is Chrome. All links will open in Microsoft Edge. Remember, this “News and Interests” thing is a Microsoft creation, so they will force you to view any details in their Microsoft browser. Even though most of the world uses Chrome.

But if you find nothing of value in this new addition to your Windows Taskbar, you can just get rid of it. Just do a right click on it, then go up to “News and interests” and in the side menu, click on “Turn off”. And you can always turn it back on using the same process.

The post How to get rid of “News and Interests” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop computer — What to consider when buying a laptop Jun 07, 2021
Are you thinking about buying a laptop? Here are some things to consider before handing over your money.

Manufacturer
When someone is asking me about which brand(s) I recommend, my first response is to say that who makes the laptop is not as important as what’s inside. In other words, it’s more important to consider the specs of a computer and make sure it’s going to work for your needs, rather than just who manufactures it.

That being said, the brands that I prefer are Lenovo, Dell and HP (in that order). That’s just my opinion, based on my experience in buying, selling and repairing computers for 22 years. And some people have very strong opinions about this as well. There are people who may have had a bad experience with Dell and vow to never buy a Dell computer. Then again, I have other clients who love Dell computers and ONLY buy that brand. There are wide-ranging opinions about every manufacturer. Just keep in mind that it’s not the only factor to consider.

Screen size
Standard screen size for a laptop is 15.6 inches (measured diagonally on the usable part of the screen, not the plastic bezel that frames the screen). If you like a really big screen, the largest laptop screens are usually 17 inches. Recently, more people are looking for smaller screens, like 13 or 14 inches. The advantage of the smaller laptops is that they are lighter and more portable, and usually the battery will last longer since it doesn’t have to power a bigger screen.

Internal drive
This is one of the biggest factors to consider. I always recommend getting a solid state drive since they are more reliable and MUCH faster (as opposed to a traditional, spinning hard disk drive). I also recommend getting a computer that has just ONE drive, not two drives. Some computers are sold with a small solid state drive just to run Windows, and then a separate spinning drive for storage. This gets confusing for doing a backup. Just get a computer that has a solid state drive that has the space you need.

And that’s the next question – what size drive do you need? Here’s how you figure that out. Look at your current computer, and see how much drive storage space you are currently using. Let’s say for example you’re using 110 gb of space. For the new computer, you want to be able to transfer your important files and folders, and still have at least half of the drive as unused space. So if you found a laptop with a 250 gb solid state drive, and you transferred over 110 gb of files (documents, pictures, etc.) then you would still have over half of the drive free. For most people, a 250gb or 500gb drive is sufficient. But make sure you know what you need before you start shopping around.

I had a client once who got a great deal on a new laptop (and bought it without consulting anyone). It had a 120gb solid state drive. She brought it to me so I could move all of her stuff from the old computer to the new one, and that’s when we discovered all of her pictures, music and other files came to over 200gb – so it wouldn’t even fit on the new computer at all. That’s the situation we want to avoid.

Processor
The processor is sort of the “brain” of the computer. I like Intel processors, and usually recommend that you get at least an i5. If you’re on a budget, an i3 might be okay. An i7 is better than both, and i9 is the new one. Of course, the better the processor, the more it costs. So just get the best you can afford.

Memory (RAM)
Memory is another factor that might be based on what your budget is. The basic amount of memory for any new computers now is 4gb. More is better, so if you can get 8gb or 16gb that would be good. More memory means faster computing.

Internet connection
Chances are, if you’re getting a laptop, you’ll probably be using it on a wifi connection almost all the time. But if the computer will actually be sitting in the same place on your desk most of the time, and your router is nearby, you might just want to connect to the internet using an ethernet cable instead of wifi. An ethernet cable will mean your internet speed is faster. But not all laptops have an ethernet port – so you might want to check on that as part of your purchase strategy.

Keyboard
Some keyboards just “feel” better than others. This is just a personal thing. I like Lenovo laptops partly because of their keyboards. If you have a local computer store (such as Best Buy), you might want to go there an get a hands-on feeling of how the various keyboards compare.

Price
And finally – price. This is obviously a personal matter for anyone shopping for a laptop. The only thing I would say here is this: don’t go for the cheapest laptop on the shelf. When you see Walmart on Black Friday selling brand new laptops for $200, there’s a reason why they’re cheap. They probably have Celeron processors – these are low-end and pretty slow. And they’ll have the old spinning-disk hard drives, which are also slow. When you combine those two things with a bare minimum of RAM, you have the perfect storm of slow computing. You’ll be cursing that computer long after you get over the excitement of getting a new computer so cheaply.

If you need a laptop with decent specs but you don’t have the $600 – $1200 budget, you might consider getting a refurbished laptop. I have these available quite often. The ones I offer will always have a solid state drive and a good processor, and it will be already set up for you with Chrome and Firefox, ad blockers, and much of the Windows 10 privacy invasion “features” will be disabled. I go over them and make sure all is working great, and I price them at about half of what a similar-spec new one would cost.

The post What to consider when buying a laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — What to consider when buying a laptop Jun 07, 2021
Are you thinking about buying a laptop? Here are some things to consider before handing over your money.

Manufacturer
When someone is asking me about which brand(s) I recommend, my first response is to say that who makes the laptop is not as important as what’s inside. In other words, it’s more important to consider the specs of a computer and make sure it’s going to work for your needs, rather than just who manufactures it.

That being said, the brands that I prefer are Lenovo, Dell and HP (in that order). That’s just my opinion, based on my experience in buying, selling and repairing computers for 22 years. And some people have very strong opinions about this as well. There are people who may have had a bad experience with Dell and vow to never buy a Dell computer. Then again, I have other clients who love Dell computers and ONLY buy that brand. There are wide-ranging opinions about every manufacturer. Just keep in mind that it’s not the only factor to consider.

Screen size
Standard screen size for a laptop is 15.6 inches (measured diagonally on the usable part of the screen, not the plastic bezel that frames the screen). If you like a really big screen, the largest laptop screens are usually 17 inches. Recently, more people are looking for smaller screens, like 13 or 14 inches. The advantage of the smaller laptops is that they are lighter and more portable, and usually the battery will last longer since it doesn’t have to power a bigger screen.

Internal drive
This is one of the biggest factors to consider. I always recommend getting a solid state drive since they are more reliable and MUCH faster (as opposed to a traditional, spinning hard disk drive). I also recommend getting a computer that has just ONE drive, not two drives. Some computers are sold with a small solid state drive just to run Windows, and then a separate spinning drive for storage. This gets confusing for doing a backup. Just get a computer that has a solid state drive that has the space you need.

And that’s the next question – what size drive do you need? Here’s how you figure that out. Look at your current computer, and see how much drive storage space you are currently using. Let’s say for example you’re using 110 gb of space. For the new computer, you want to be able to transfer your important files and folders, and still have at least half of the drive as unused space. So if you found a laptop with a 250 gb solid state drive, and you transferred over 110 gb of files (documents, pictures, etc.) then you would still have over half of the drive free. For most people, a 250gb or 500gb drive is sufficient. But make sure you know what you need before you start shopping around.

I had a client once who got a great deal on a new laptop (and bought it without consulting anyone). It had a 120gb solid state drive. She brought it to me so I could move all of her stuff from the old computer to the new one, and that’s when we discovered all of her pictures, music and other files came to over 200gb – so it wouldn’t even fit on the new computer at all. That’s the situation we want to avoid.

Processor
The processor is sort of the “brain” of the computer. I like Intel processors, and usually recommend that you get at least an i5. If you’re on a budget, an i3 might be okay. An i7 is better than both, and i9 is the new one. Of course, the better the processor, the more it costs. So just get the best you can afford.

Memory (RAM)
Memory is another factor that might be based on what your budget is. The basic amount of memory for any new computers now is 4gb. More is better, so if you can get 8gb or 16gb that would be good. More memory means faster computing.

Internet connection
Chances are, if you’re getting a laptop, you’ll probably be using it on a wifi connection almost all the time. But if the computer will actually be sitting in the same place on your desk most of the time, and your router is nearby, you might just want to connect to the internet using an ethernet cable instead of wifi. An ethernet cable will mean your internet speed is faster. But not all laptops have an ethernet port – so you might want to check on that as part of your purchase strategy.

Keyboard
Some keyboards just “feel” better than others. This is just a personal thing. I like Lenovo laptops partly because of their keyboards. If you have a local computer store (such as Best Buy), you might want to go there an get a hands-on feeling of how the various keyboards compare.

Price
And finally – price. This is obviously a personal matter for anyone shopping for a laptop. The only thing I would say here is this: don’t go for the cheapest laptop on the shelf. When you see Walmart on Black Friday selling brand new laptops for $200, there’s a reason why they’re cheap. They probably have Celeron processors – these are low-end and pretty slow. And they’ll have the old spinning-disk hard drives, which are also slow. When you combine those two things with a bare minimum of RAM, you have the perfect storm of slow computing. You’ll be cursing that computer long after you get over the excitement of getting a new computer so cheaply.

If you need a laptop with decent specs but you don’t have the $600 – $1200 budget, you might consider getting a refurbished laptop. I have these available quite often. The ones I offer will always have a solid state drive and a good processor, and it will be already set up for you with Chrome and Firefox, ad blockers, and much of the Windows 10 privacy invasion “features” will be disabled. I go over them and make sure all is working great, and I price them at about half of what a similar-spec new one would cost.

The post What to consider when buying a laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

How to include a video INSIDE a Word document May 24, 2021
Have you ever created a Word document and included a link to a YouTube video? Today I’ll show you how to put that video right into the document!

Most people don’t even know this is possible so it’s a great trick to show your friends.

First, you need to determine what video you want to use for this. Let’s say we’re writing an article about the TV show The Office. I’ve been a big fan of that show for a long time and highly recommend it. Anyway, there’s a YouTube video that has a few minutes of bloopers from the Office, so that’s the video we want to use.

When you see that video on YouTube, up at the top in the address bar you’ll see the website address for that video:

Highlight that website address, and Copy it (right click, Copy).

Now, go to your Word document and put your cursor at the spot where you want to insert that video.

Then, click on “Insert”, and in the Insert section, click on “Online video”:

Now you’ll see a new window open, and it will ask you for the URL (the website address) for the video. So, in the field provided, do a right-click and choose Paste. That puts the address in that field, and you can click Insert.

Now, the video will show inside the document like this:

As you can see, there are control points all around the video image, so you can drag and make it as small or as large as you like. You can even rotate it using the rotate arrow at the top. You can also format it the same way you would format a regular picture – so the text in the document can flow around it, or beside it, or right over the top of it if you want.

So, what happens when you click to play that video? Well, a small window opens right in front of the Word document, and there’s a Play button which you can click to watch the video.

And it plays, right there in the document. If you click anywhere outside the video window, that window disappears and you’re back to the regular document. It’s pretty smooth.

You might be thinking, “Why would I do this?” Well, if you want reference a video in your article, you could just include the website address for that video. The reader could then click the link, and open a separate window such as Chrome, where they could also watch that video. By including the video inside the Word document, it makes it more convenient for the reader because they don’t have to open a separate program in order to go to the YouTube website and view the video. They can do everything from right within your document.

Bonus: people will probably ask, “How did you do that?!”

The post How to include a video INSIDE a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Office bloopers video — How to include a video INSIDE a Word document May 24, 2021
Have you ever created a Word document and included a link to a YouTube video? Today I’ll show you how to put that video right into the document!

Most people don’t even know this is possible so it’s a great trick to show your friends.

First, you need to determine what video you want to use for this. Let’s say we’re writing an article about the TV show The Office. I’ve been a big fan of that show for a long time and highly recommend it. Anyway, there’s a YouTube video that has a few minutes of bloopers from the Office, so that’s the video we want to use.

When you see that video on YouTube, up at the top in the address bar you’ll see the website address for that video:

Highlight that website address, and Copy it (right click, Copy).

Now, go to your Word document and put your cursor at the spot where you want to insert that video.

Then, click on “Insert”, and in the Insert section, click on “Online video”:

Now you’ll see a new window open, and it will ask you for the URL (the website address) for the video. So, in the field provided, do a right-click and choose Paste. That puts the address in that field, and you can click Insert.

Now, the video will show inside the document like this:

As you can see, there are control points all around the video image, so you can drag and make it as small or as large as you like. You can even rotate it using the rotate arrow at the top. You can also format it the same way you would format a regular picture – so the text in the document can flow around it, or beside it, or right over the top of it if you want.

So, what happens when you click to play that video? Well, a small window opens right in front of the Word document, and there’s a Play button which you can click to watch the video.

And it plays, right there in the document. If you click anywhere outside the video window, that window disappears and you’re back to the regular document. It’s pretty smooth.

You might be thinking, “Why would I do this?” Well, if you want reference a video in your article, you could just include the website address for that video. The reader could then click the link, and open a separate window such as Chrome, where they could also watch that video. By including the video inside the Word document, it makes it more convenient for the reader because they don’t have to open a separate program in order to go to the YouTube website and view the video. They can do everything from right within your document.

Bonus: people will probably ask, “How did you do that?!”

The post How to include a video INSIDE a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome password storage — How to export your passwords from Chrome May 10, 2021
You should not save your passwords in Chrome. But before you delete them from Chrome, you need to save them so that you can refer to them.

I’ve said it many times – don’t store your passwords in your web browser. Yes, it makes things easy. You go to a website, and Chrome just automatically inserts your login information (email address and password) for that account, and you’re in. That’s fine, until your laptop gets lost or stolen, or someone hacks into your computer. If anyone ever gets control of your computer, all of your passwords are stored in Chrome in plain text. Now they don’t just have your computer, they have ALL of your online accounts. Think it will never happen? So did the people who have actually experienced it.

So – the way I recommend you store all your passwords is by using LastPass (I’ve written about it here before). But that’s not what today’s tip is about.

What we want to do today is create a nice spreadsheet that contains all of the passwords you currently have saved in Chrome – BEFORE you delete them from Chrome. This makes a nice reference sheet to have, in case you ever need it. And there’s another handy use for it, which we’ll cover in a minute.

Here’s how you do it –

First, open Chrome and click the 3 dots up in the top right corner. In the drop down menu, click on Settings.

In the Settings window, look in the “Autofill” section and click on “Passwords” –

At the top are two options: “Offer to save passwords” and “Auto sign in”. I recommend turning both of these off.

Now, under that, you’ll see your list of saved passwords. Directly to the right of the words “Saved Passwords” you’ll see 3 dots. Click on those 3 dots, and choose “Export Passwords”.

You’ll get a warning that anyone who sees this file will see your passwords. You probably already know this. Click on the button labeled “Export passwords”.

You will be asked for your Windows password. This just means the password you type in each time you boot up the computer. Type your Windows password and click OK. If you don’t have a Windows password, just leave it blank and click OK.

Now you will get a window that will let you choose where you want to save the list of passwords. It will probably default to your Documents folder, but you can choose to save it anywhere you want. Just pay attention to where it gets saved, so you know where to go find it.

The file name will be: Chrome Passwords.csv

Click Save, and you’re done. You’ll just be back at the list of Chrome passwords in Chrome settings (this isn’t the file you just saved). Close Chrome and any other windows.

Now just go to where that file was just saved (probably Documents unless you designated a different location). Find that file called “Chrome Passwords” and double click it.

If you have Excel, the file will open up in an Excel spreadsheet. If you use LibreOffice, it will open up in the spreadsheet program called Calc. If you don’t have a way to open the file, you can get LibreOffice for free at LibreOffice.org.

So there you have it – all of your passwords that were saved in Chrome are now listed there on that spreadsheet. From here, you can go back and delete all of them from Chrome (using the same list where you exported them). Or even better, you can use that list to import all of them into LastPass – which is a much better and safer way to store your passwords.

As always, if you need help with any of this, just contact me by phone or email.

The post How to export your passwords from Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome settings — How to export your passwords from Chrome May 10, 2021
You should not save your passwords in Chrome. But before you delete them from Chrome, you need to save them so that you can refer to them.

I’ve said it many times – don’t store your passwords in your web browser. Yes, it makes things easy. You go to a website, and Chrome just automatically inserts your login information (email address and password) for that account, and you’re in. That’s fine, until your laptop gets lost or stolen, or someone hacks into your computer. If anyone ever gets control of your computer, all of your passwords are stored in Chrome in plain text. Now they don’t just have your computer, they have ALL of your online accounts. Think it will never happen? So did the people who have actually experienced it.

So – the way I recommend you store all your passwords is by using LastPass (I’ve written about it here before). But that’s not what today’s tip is about.

What we want to do today is create a nice spreadsheet that contains all of the passwords you currently have saved in Chrome – BEFORE you delete them from Chrome. This makes a nice reference sheet to have, in case you ever need it. And there’s another handy use for it, which we’ll cover in a minute.

Here’s how you do it –

First, open Chrome and click the 3 dots up in the top right corner. In the drop down menu, click on Settings.

In the Settings window, look in the “Autofill” section and click on “Passwords” –

At the top are two options: “Offer to save passwords” and “Auto sign in”. I recommend turning both of these off.

Now, under that, you’ll see your list of saved passwords. Directly to the right of the words “Saved Passwords” you’ll see 3 dots. Click on those 3 dots, and choose “Export Passwords”.

You’ll get a warning that anyone who sees this file will see your passwords. You probably already know this. Click on the button labeled “Export passwords”.

You will be asked for your Windows password. This just means the password you type in each time you boot up the computer. Type your Windows password and click OK. If you don’t have a Windows password, just leave it blank and click OK.

Now you will get a window that will let you choose where you want to save the list of passwords. It will probably default to your Documents folder, but you can choose to save it anywhere you want. Just pay attention to where it gets saved, so you know where to go find it.

The file name will be: Chrome Passwords.csv

Click Save, and you’re done. You’ll just be back at the list of Chrome passwords in Chrome settings (this isn’t the file you just saved). Close Chrome and any other windows.

Now just go to where that file was just saved (probably Documents unless you designated a different location). Find that file called “Chrome Passwords” and double click it.

If you have Excel, the file will open up in an Excel spreadsheet. If you use LibreOffice, it will open up in the spreadsheet program called Calc. If you don’t have a way to open the file, you can get LibreOffice for free at LibreOffice.org.

So there you have it – all of your passwords that were saved in Chrome are now listed there on that spreadsheet. From here, you can go back and delete all of them from Chrome (using the same list where you exported them). Or even better, you can use that list to import all of them into LastPass – which is a much better and safer way to store your passwords.

As always, if you need help with any of this, just contact me by phone or email.

The post How to export your passwords from Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Learn online — The best online sources for learning anything Apr 26, 2021
Is there something you want to learn? The internet has what you need.

If you have the time and the incentive, there are resources online that will help you learn just about anything you can imagine.

Online courses:

Coursera – Coursera.org – build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies.

Udacity – udacity.com – discover the fastest, most effective way to gain job-ready expertise for the careers of the future. Great place to learn tech skills.

edX – edx.org – free online courses by Harvard, MIT and 160 other member universities.

Learn a language:

Duolingo – duolingo.com – probably the most popular way to learn a language currently.

Memrise – memrise.com – learn a new language fast by watching thousands of clips of real locals.

Rosetta Stone – rosettastone.com – the original language learning site, and still very popular

Verbling – verbling.com – learn a new language with an online tutor – over 10,000 online teachers give private lessons based on your interests and objectives.

Learn how to code:

Code Academy – codeacademy.com – join millions of others who are learning to code, and you can get started for free.

Learn Code the Hard Way – learncodethehardway.org – advertised as the most effective system for learning the basics of computer programming, designed for complete beginners.

HTML Dog – htmldog.com – learn the code that’s used in making websites.

Learn music:

Justin Guitar – justinguitar.com – over 1800 effective and fun lessons and song tutorials.

Music theory – musictheory.net – free online content as well as premium apps.

How to Play Piano – howtoplaypiano.ca – Andrew Furmanczyk takes stuff that’s complicated, and makes it easy and clear to understand.

Learn to cook:

Cooking for Engineers – cookingforengineers.com – if you have an analytical mind, and you like to cook, this is your site.

How 2 Heroes – how2heroes.com – how-to videos for people who have a passion for food.

Reluctant Gourmet – reluctantgourmet.com – a work-at-home dad started this cooking website 20 years ago to teach himself how to cook, and now he uses the site to share everything he has learned.

Learn math:

Wolfram|Alpha – wolframalpha.com – compute expert-level answers using breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase and AI technology

Project Euler – projecteuler.net – a series of challenging math and computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve.

A few more –

If there’s a particular skill you want to learn, I recommend SkillShare (skillshare.com). Just go to the site and browser, or type in the search what you want to learn.

For general life hack ideas, LifeHacker (lifehacker.com) has been around forever and is full of great stuff.

If you love to learn by watching documentaries, check out Top Documentary Films (topdocumentaryfilms.com) or Documentary Heaven (documentaryheaven.com).

That should keep you busy for a while! Do you have other online learning resources that we should know about? Put them in the comments below!

The post The best online sources for learning anything first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — The best online sources for learning anything Apr 26, 2021
Is there something you want to learn? The internet has what you need.

If you have the time and the incentive, there are resources online that will help you learn just about anything you can imagine.

Online courses:

Coursera – Coursera.org – build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies.

Udacity – udacity.com – discover the fastest, most effective way to gain job-ready expertise for the careers of the future. Great place to learn tech skills.

edX – edx.org – free online courses by Harvard, MIT and 160 other member universities.

Learn a language:

Duolingo – duolingo.com – probably the most popular way to learn a language currently.

Memrise – memrise.com – learn a new language fast by watching thousands of clips of real locals.

Rosetta Stone – rosettastone.com – the original language learning site, and still very popular

Verbling – verbling.com – learn a new language with an online tutor – over 10,000 online teachers give private lessons based on your interests and objectives.

Learn how to code:

Code Academy – codeacademy.com – join millions of others who are learning to code, and you can get started for free.

Learn Code the Hard Way – learncodethehardway.org – advertised as the most effective system for learning the basics of computer programming, designed for complete beginners.

HTML Dog – htmldog.com – learn the code that’s used in making websites.

Learn music:

Justin Guitar – justinguitar.com – over 1800 effective and fun lessons and song tutorials.

Music theory – musictheory.net – free online content as well as premium apps.

How to Play Piano – howtoplaypiano.ca – Andrew Furmanczyk takes stuff that’s complicated, and makes it easy and clear to understand.

Learn to cook:

Cooking for Engineers – cookingforengineers.com – if you have an analytical mind, and you like to cook, this is your site.

How 2 Heroes – how2heroes.com – how-to videos for people who have a passion for food.

Reluctant Gourmet – reluctantgourmet.com – a work-at-home dad started this cooking website 20 years ago to teach himself how to cook, and now he uses the site to share everything he has learned.

Learn math:

Wolfram|Alpha – wolframalpha.com – compute expert-level answers using breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase and AI technology

Project Euler – projecteuler.net – a series of challenging math and computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve.

A few more –

If there’s a particular skill you want to learn, I recommend SkillShare (skillshare.com). Just go to the site and browser, or type in the search what you want to learn.

For general life hack ideas, LifeHacker (lifehacker.com) has been around forever and is full of great stuff.

If you love to learn by watching documentaries, check out Top Documentary Films (topdocumentaryfilms.com) or Documentary Heaven (documentaryheaven.com).

That should keep you busy for a while! Do you have other online learning resources that we should know about? Put them in the comments below!

The post The best online sources for learning anything first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

citys best awards — This is probably legal, but it still feels like a scam Apr 12, 2021
You know I love writing about illegal scams, how they work, and how to avoid them. Recently I was approached by something that seems to have all the characteristics of a scam, but it’s most likely legal.

Just this past week, I received this message, which was submitted via the Contact form on my website:

The subject is 2021 City’s Best Award Nomination.

The text of the message is:

Hello! I wasn’t sure which email to send this to. I’m happy to let you know that you won the 2021 City’s Best Award! We work with one business in each major city throughout the US. Here is the link to claim the award (all of the details are here too)… email me after you claim it so that I can get all of the award collateral over to you. Congrats again! The link is: http://www.citysbestaward.com/2021

Wow, isn’t that amazing? Not really.

Let’s examine this “notification” piece by piece.

“Will” (whoever that is) sent me this message that I have won the 2021 City’s Best Award. Isn’t it interesting that they don’t actually say the name of my city? That’s because this same email goes out to hundreds or thousands of business owners, and it doesn’t matter what city I’m in. When you’re sending out an email to many thousands of recipients, it’s much more time-consuming to customize each one with the name of the city. So they opted to just leave it generic. It’s a show of their laziness really.

It also says that they only choose ONE business in each major city throughout the US. Now, this is confusing to me in a couple of ways.

First, this is not saying one business in each category. That would actually make a bit more sense – like the City’s Best Computer Repair service, the City’s Best Restaurant, the City’s Best Hair Salon, and so on. But no – they’re claiming they only choose ONE single business to give this award to. Again, this is just laziness. It would be a lot more work to categorize each business and customize the award for each category. Without the categories, they can just send out the same cookie-cutter email to every business owner in their list of thousands.

Second, it’s pretty clear that they don’t really deal with one business “in each major city throughout the US”. My city is Safety Harbor, Florida. With a population of around 17,000, it is by no means “major”. Again, this is just nonsense text. They don’t care what city I’m in or how big it is. They just want to get their message out to as many business owners as possible.

And why would they do this? What’s the objective of this scheme? To find out, we would need to visit the website – citysbestaward.com/2021 (I’m intentionally not linking to the site because I don’t want to give them any search engine optimization).

Here’s what comes with this amazing “award” that I’m being offered:

1. Business listing ranked #1 on our website!

Which means nothing, since no one visits their website except other business owners who have fallen for this fake “award”.

2. Website badge for your website!

This means I can put the “award” on my website, so that people can click on it and go directly to my business listing on the awards website. If someone is already on my site, why would I want to put a link on there that takes them to some other website? Really stupid.

3. Social graphics to spread the word!

So I get 100% generic digital images to post on Facebook, to advertise to people that I fell for this nonsense.

4. Award certificate for your office!

And I can also show all of my in-person clients that I got suckered into this too! And note this – they are not going to send me a certificate by mail. They are going to give me a link to some digital image which I have to print myself. More laziness on their part.

5. Professionally-written press release!

No doubt this is a template that reads exactly the same for every one of the “winners” of this award. And do they send out the press release to the news media? Nope – they just give it to me, and then I have to distribute it myself.

And for all of that, I just have to “Claim my Award” – and pay the $299 annual fee. Ah, now we see where this was all going, right? They want to give me all the meaningless junk listed above, and for that I have to pay not just $299 now, but $299 every year. Wait a minute, how do they know I’ll still be the best business in my city a year from now? Well, their website says that they’ll check in with me in a year, and if nothing about my business has changed, I’ll get the same award again. And every year after that – if I keep paying the $299.

So you can see why they have the incentive to send this out to as many business owners as possible – regardless of the type of business, or what city it is, or how big the city is. What if they just get a 3% conversion rate? That means if they send out a thousand emails, 30 people will claim their so-called “award” and this place just made $8970. And I can guarantee you they’re sending out a LOT more than a thousand emails.

And why is something like this profitable? It comes down to one word: ego. Who doesn’t want to feel like they own the best business in their city? So some people see that “award” and kind of willfully ignore all the parts of this that feel fake.

And, unfortunately, what’s happening here is most likely not breaking any laws. I mean, they tell you what you’re getting, and they tell you the price, and you agree to the price, and they give you that stuff. Yes, the initial message is pretty misleading, but who’s going to complain? The people who fall for it and pay the $299 don’t even know it’s all worthless, and those who know it’s all junk just delete the message and move on.

When someone sends them $299, I would estimate probably $260 of that is pure profit. You almost have to respect them for coming up with something like this, right? Something that feels very much like a scam, but doesn’t really break any laws.

Just make sure you’re not one of the few who fall for it.

The post This is probably legal, but it still feels like a scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

legal scam — This is probably legal, but it still feels like a scam Apr 12, 2021
You know I love writing about illegal scams, how they work, and how to avoid them. Recently I was approached by something that seems to have all the characteristics of a scam, but it’s most likely legal.

Just this past week, I received this message, which was submitted via the Contact form on my website:

The subject is 2021 City’s Best Award Nomination.

The text of the message is:

Hello! I wasn’t sure which email to send this to. I’m happy to let you know that you won the 2021 City’s Best Award! We work with one business in each major city throughout the US. Here is the link to claim the award (all of the details are here too)… email me after you claim it so that I can get all of the award collateral over to you. Congrats again! The link is: http://www.citysbestaward.com/2021

Wow, isn’t that amazing? Not really.

Let’s examine this “notification” piece by piece.

“Will” (whoever that is) sent me this message that I have won the 2021 City’s Best Award. Isn’t it interesting that they don’t actually say the name of my city? That’s because this same email goes out to hundreds or thousands of business owners, and it doesn’t matter what city I’m in. When you’re sending out an email to many thousands of recipients, it’s much more time-consuming to customize each one with the name of the city. So they opted to just leave it generic. It’s a show of their laziness really.

It also says that they only choose ONE business in each major city throughout the US. Now, this is confusing to me in a couple of ways.

First, this is not saying one business in each category. That would actually make a bit more sense – like the City’s Best Computer Repair service, the City’s Best Restaurant, the City’s Best Hair Salon, and so on. But no – they’re claiming they only choose ONE single business to give this award to. Again, this is just laziness. It would be a lot more work to categorize each business and customize the award for each category. Without the categories, they can just send out the same cookie-cutter email to every business owner in their list of thousands.

Second, it’s pretty clear that they don’t really deal with one business “in each major city throughout the US”. My city is Safety Harbor, Florida. With a population of around 17,000, it is by no means “major”. Again, this is just nonsense text. They don’t care what city I’m in or how big it is. They just want to get their message out to as many business owners as possible.

And why would they do this? What’s the objective of this scheme? To find out, we would need to visit the website – citysbestaward.com/2021 (I’m intentionally not linking to the site because I don’t want to give them any search engine optimization).

Here’s what comes with this amazing “award” that I’m being offered:

1. Business listing ranked #1 on our website!

Which means nothing, since no one visits their website except other business owners who have fallen for this fake “award”.

2. Website badge for your website!

This means I can put the “award” on my website, so that people can click on it and go directly to my business listing on the awards website. If someone is already on my site, why would I want to put a link on there that takes them to some other website? Really stupid.

3. Social graphics to spread the word!

So I get 100% generic digital images to post on Facebook, to advertise to people that I fell for this nonsense.

4. Award certificate for your office!

And I can also show all of my in-person clients that I got suckered into this too! And note this – they are not going to send me a certificate by mail. They are going to give me a link to some digital image which I have to print myself. More laziness on their part.

5. Professionally-written press release!

No doubt this is a template that reads exactly the same for every one of the “winners” of this award. And do they send out the press release to the news media? Nope – they just give it to me, and then I have to distribute it myself.

And for all of that, I just have to “Claim my Award” – and pay the $299 annual fee. Ah, now we see where this was all going, right? They want to give me all the meaningless junk listed above, and for that I have to pay not just $299 now, but $299 every year. Wait a minute, how do they know I’ll still be the best business in my city a year from now? Well, their website says that they’ll check in with me in a year, and if nothing about my business has changed, I’ll get the same award again. And every year after that – if I keep paying the $299.

So you can see why they have the incentive to send this out to as many business owners as possible – regardless of the type of business, or what city it is, or how big the city is. What if they just get a 3% conversion rate? That means if they send out a thousand emails, 30 people will claim their so-called “award” and this place just made $8970. And I can guarantee you they’re sending out a LOT more than a thousand emails.

And why is something like this profitable? It comes down to one word: ego. Who doesn’t want to feel like they own the best business in their city? So some people see that “award” and kind of willfully ignore all the parts of this that feel fake.

And, unfortunately, what’s happening here is most likely not breaking any laws. I mean, they tell you what you’re getting, and they tell you the price, and you agree to the price, and they give you that stuff. Yes, the initial message is pretty misleading, but who’s going to complain? The people who fall for it and pay the $299 don’t even know it’s all worthless, and those who know it’s all junk just delete the message and move on.

When someone sends them $299, I would estimate probably $260 of that is pure profit. You almost have to respect them for coming up with something like this, right? Something that feels very much like a scam, but doesn’t really break any laws.

Just make sure you’re not one of the few who fall for it.

The post This is probably legal, but it still feels like a scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 version — Are you running the current version of Windows 10? Mar 29, 2021
There are different versions of Windows 10, and you might not be running the most current one. Here’s how to check.

Windows 10 is the most current Windows operating system. If you’re still running Windows 7, you NEED to upgrade to Windows 10 now (you actually needed to do this over a year ago). If you’re still running Windows 8.1, you SHOULD upgrade, but it’s not critical that you do so immediately. The primary reason for upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 is because Windows 8.1 is really awful.

But at this point, almost all of the computers I see are running Windows 10. That’s a good thing. The bad news is, it’s not always the most current version of Windows 10.

Probably the oldest version of Windows 10 I see sometimes these days is version 1909. That version is almost to its end of service. So if you’re running that one, we need to take action before it reaches its end of service on May 11, 2021.

The next versions after 1909 are 2004, and then the current one, which is 20H2. Either of those is fine for right now.

Here’s how to check on which version of Windows 10 you are running:

On the keyboard, find the Windows key (lower left area). Hold that down and type the letter “r”.

In the box that comes up, type: winver and click OK.

You’ll get a window that looks like the one below, which will tell you if you’re running version 1909, 2004, or 20H2.

If you are still running 1909, it most likely means that the automated Windows Updates are “stuck” and needs to be forced to update. I can do this through my Remote Support service if you need help with that. You would need the 2-hour package (it sometimes takes longer than two hours, but we don’t need to be on the phone for that whole time).

If you are running 2004 or 20H2, you’re fine for at least the rest of this year (2021).

The post Are you running the current version of Windows 10? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

lost Word document — How to recover a Word document that was never saved Mar 15, 2021
Have you ever started typing up a Word document, and gotten quite a bit of text entered, then accidentally closed it without saving? Today’s lifesaving tip will show you how it’s possible to get that document back.

A friend of mine used to create Word documents very dangerously. He was a pastor of a church. And he would always create his Sunday sermon in a Word document. He would just open Word, open a new blank document, and start writing. He might write for hours, filling that document up with many pages of text. And that whole time, at the top of that document it would say “Untitled document” – because he never clicked to save it and give it a name. I only knew this because one day I visited him in his office on a computer matter, and I happened to see his Sunday sermon document on the screen – many pages and many hours of work, and none of it had been saved to his computer. When I asked him about it, he said, “Oh, it’s no problem. When I have my full sermon completed, I just click the “X” up in the corner to close the document…” – that in itself caused a little shot of adrenaline in me – “… and the program pops up and asks me if I want to save it. So I say “Yes” and give it a name, and it’s all saved, no problem!” What he had not considered is – What if some day Word DOESN’T ask him if he wants to save it, and just closes? What if some day Word asks him to save, and he (without thinking) clicks “Don’t save”? What if he has several hours of work put in, and there’s a sudden power blip and the computer shuts down? All of those things are possibilities. But he had his routine that he was used to. And I understand that – change can be hard to implement when you’ve been doing something a particular way for a while. Especially since you haven’t had any problem at all (s0 far) with the way you’ve always done it. Unfortunately, some time after that I was called in to see if I could find a document that had gotten closed without saving, and could not be found. I wish I had known today’s tip then. Actually I don’t even know if that old version of Word even offered this function that we’re talking about today. But the current version of Word does, and for some people, it’s a real lifesaver. What we’re talking about is getting back a Word document that has been closed, without EVER having been saved or given a file name. To show how this works, just go through this process: Open a blank Word document, and add some text to it. Don’t save it. At the top, it will just have the title “Document1”, which is the default file name until you save it and give it a name that makes sense: Now, close that document with the X in the top right corner. When it asks if you want to save it, click on “Don’t Save”. At this point, most people would assume that file is lost. Or actually, it just doesn’t exist any more. But it actually does exist. Open File Explorer by clicking on the little folder icon down in the bottom left area of the screen, on the taskbar. Then click on “This PC”: Then in the top right corner, in the search field, type: *.asd and hit Enter: When you do that search, you’ll see your unsaved Word document come up in the search results. It might take a while, depending on how big your computer’s drive is and how much storage space you’re using. But it will be there: You can identify it in the list because it will show the first few words of the document. At this point you want to do a RIGHT click on that file, and click on “Open with”: If Word is not immediately shown in the list of programs, click on “More apps” and scroll down to choose to open it in Word. When it opens, the first thing you’ll see is a prompt to Save it and give it a name: Do that before you do anything else! So now your lost/nonexistent file now has a name and it is saved somewhere on your computer (most likely in the Documents folder). Even if you don’t need this tip right now, keep track of it because someday it could save your life! Open blank Word doc, add some text Close it without saving To find it: Open File Explorer and click on This PC in the search field, type: *.asd the lost document will show up in the search results Right click – open with – choose WordThe post How to recover a Word document that was never saved first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Word doc — How to recover a Word document that was never saved Mar 15, 2021
Have you ever started typing up a Word document, and gotten quite a bit of text entered, then accidentally closed it without saving? Today’s lifesaving tip will show you how it’s possible to get that document back.

A friend of mine used to create Word documents very dangerously. He was a pastor of a church. And he would always create his Sunday sermon in a Word document. He would just open Word, open a new blank document, and start writing. He might write for hours, filling that document up with many pages of text. And that whole time, at the top of that document it would say “Untitled document” – because he never clicked to save it and give it a name. I only knew this because one day I visited him in his office on a computer matter, and I happened to see his Sunday sermon document on the screen – many pages and many hours of work, and none of it had been saved to his computer. When I asked him about it, he said, “Oh, it’s no problem. When I have my full sermon completed, I just click the “X” up in the corner to close the document…” – that in itself caused a little shot of adrenaline in me – “… and the program pops up and asks me if I want to save it. So I say “Yes” and give it a name, and it’s all saved, no problem!” What he had not considered is – What if some day Word DOESN’T ask him if he wants to save it, and just closes? What if some day Word asks him to save, and he (without thinking) clicks “Don’t save”? What if he has several hours of work put in, and there’s a sudden power blip and the computer shuts down? All of those things are possibilities. But he had his routine that he was used to. And I understand that – change can be hard to implement when you’ve been doing something a particular way for a while. Especially since you haven’t had any problem at all (s0 far) with the way you’ve always done it. Unfortunately, some time after that I was called in to see if I could find a document that had gotten closed without saving, and could not be found. I wish I had known today’s tip then. Actually I don’t even know if that old version of Word even offered this function that we’re talking about today. But the current version of Word does, and for some people, it’s a real lifesaver. What we’re talking about is getting back a Word document that has been closed, without EVER having been saved or given a file name. To show how this works, just go through this process: Open a blank Word document, and add some text to it. Don’t save it. At the top, it will just have the title “Document1”, which is the default file name until you save it and give it a name that makes sense: Now, close that document with the X in the top right corner. When it asks if you want to save it, click on “Don’t Save”. At this point, most people would assume that file is lost. Or actually, it just doesn’t exist any more. But it actually does exist. Open File Explorer by clicking on the little folder icon down in the bottom left area of the screen, on the taskbar. Then click on “This PC”: Then in the top right corner, in the search field, type: *.asd and hit Enter: When you do that search, you’ll see your unsaved Word document come up in the search results. It might take a while, depending on how big your computer’s drive is and how much storage space you’re using. But it will be there: You can identify it in the list because it will show the first few words of the document. At this point you want to do a RIGHT click on that file, and click on “Open with”: If Word is not immediately shown in the list of programs, click on “More apps” and scroll down to choose to open it in Word. When it opens, the first thing you’ll see is a prompt to Save it and give it a name: Do that before you do anything else! So now your lost/nonexistent file now has a name and it is saved somewhere on your computer (most likely in the Documents folder). Even if you don’t need this tip right now, keep track of it because someday it could save your life! Open blank Word doc, add some text Close it without saving To find it: Open File Explorer and click on This PC in the search field, type: *.asd the lost document will show up in the search results Right click – open with – choose WordThe post How to recover a Word document that was never saved first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

start at bootup — How to make a program start at every bootup Mar 01, 2021
Is there a particular program that you want to run automatically, every time you turn on your computer? Here’s how to make that happen.

What we’re talking about today is usually the OPPOSITE of how we discuss this topic. So many programs want to insert themselves into the “startup” process when they have no business being there. I’m constantly removing programs from automatically starting up every time the computer boots up, on client computers and even my own primary PC.

But what about if you actually WANT a program to run every time you turn on or restart your computer? In some situations, that might make sense.

Here’s an example.

A while back (actually it’s been 4 years ago now), I wrote about a program that checks the health of your hard drive. It’s called Crystal Disk Info. Once it’s installed, you can run it whenever you want just to check your hard drive.

For me, I like to check my hard drive regularly – ideally, that would be every time I boot up the computer or restart it. And that is exactly what happens, using the following process.

When you install Crystal Disk Info, it creates a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Then, you hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “r”. That will open a little window with a space to type an instruction. You will type:

shell:startup

and click OK.

That will open a new window. Now, you can just drag (or copy/paste) the Crystal Disk Info shortcut icon into that window. Done!

And you can check it by just restarting your computer. When you get back to Windows, you’ll see Crystal Disk Info pop up and give you your hard drive health report, which should look something like this:

Now you can close that window and get on with your work or whatever you need to do. It will show up every time you boot up or restart your computer.

If you want to remove anything from that shell:startup list, just open it up, right click on the item to be removed, and choose Delete.

So whatever program you want to run at each bootup, that’s the process you use.

The post How to make a program start at every bootup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

shell startup — How to make a program start at every bootup Mar 01, 2021
Is there a particular program that you want to run automatically, every time you turn on your computer? Here’s how to make that happen.

What we’re talking about today is usually the OPPOSITE of how we discuss this topic. So many programs want to insert themselves into the “startup” process when they have no business being there. I’m constantly removing programs from automatically starting up every time the computer boots up, on client computers and even my own primary PC.

But what about if you actually WANT a program to run every time you turn on or restart your computer? In some situations, that might make sense.

Here’s an example.

A while back (actually it’s been 4 years ago now), I wrote about a program that checks the health of your hard drive. It’s called Crystal Disk Info. Once it’s installed, you can run it whenever you want just to check your hard drive.

For me, I like to check my hard drive regularly – ideally, that would be every time I boot up the computer or restart it. And that is exactly what happens, using the following process.

When you install Crystal Disk Info, it creates a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Then, you hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “r”. That will open a little window with a space to type an instruction. You will type:

shell:startup

and click OK.

That will open a new window. Now, you can just drag (or copy/paste) the Crystal Disk Info shortcut icon into that window. Done!

And you can check it by just restarting your computer. When you get back to Windows, you’ll see Crystal Disk Info pop up and give you your hard drive health report, which should look something like this:

Now you can close that window and get on with your work or whatever you need to do. It will show up every time you boot up or restart your computer.

If you want to remove anything from that shell:startup list, just open it up, right click on the item to be removed, and choose Delete.

So whatever program you want to run at each bootup, that’s the process you use.

The post How to make a program start at every bootup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to password protect a Word document Feb 15, 2021
Do you have information in a Word document that you don’t want anyone else to see? Here’s how to put a password on it.

Some of my clients store all of their account passwords in a Word document. Some people use a Word doc to keep track of their medical information, or perhaps their bank account details. If you have private information of any kind in a Word document, it might be a good idea to add a password to that document so that it doesn’t get seen by anyone else.

And it turns out, adding a password to a Word file is pretty easy:

Open the document, then click File:

Next, in the left column, click on Info. Then, under “Protect Document” click the drop-down menu and choose “Encrypt with Password”:

Now you are presented with a window to enter the password you want to use for this file:

You enter the password, then it will prompt you to enter it again to confirm. Then you just Save the document and close it.

Now you can test it – double click to open that file, and it should prompt you for the password.

If you want to remove the password, use the same process as above, but leave the password field blank, then save the document again.

Keep in mind – this level of protection is not all that strong. Someone with a reasonable level of expertise could most likely get past that password protection. But for a lot of people, this simple password protection is sufficient.

The post How to password protect a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Word document — How to password protect a Word document Feb 15, 2021
Do you have information in a Word document that you don’t want anyone else to see? Here’s how to put a password on it.

Some of my clients store all of their account passwords in a Word document. Some people use a Word doc to keep track of their medical information, or perhaps their bank account details. If you have private information of any kind in a Word document, it might be a good idea to add a password to that document so that it doesn’t get seen by anyone else.

And it turns out, adding a password to a Word file is pretty easy:

Open the document, then click File:

Next, in the left column, click on Info. Then, under “Protect Document” click the drop-down menu and choose “Encrypt with Password”:

Now you are presented with a window to enter the password you want to use for this file:

You enter the password, then it will prompt you to enter it again to confirm. Then you just Save the document and close it.

Now you can test it – double click to open that file, and it should prompt you for the password.

If you want to remove the password, use the same process as above, but leave the password field blank, then save the document again.

Keep in mind – this level of protection is not all that strong. Someone with a reasonable level of expertise could most likely get past that password protection. But for a lot of people, this simple password protection is sufficient.

The post How to password protect a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

bad software permission — Should you ever allow a bad program to make changes to your PC? Feb 01, 2021
Do you think there’s a time when a bad program requests permission to make changes to your computer, and you should allow it?

This question came in from Jerry, in Minnesota –

Hi Scott, I’m a long time subscriber. We’ve “talked” in the past about your laptops and a couple other things. Here’s a Computer Tutor topic for the future…I hope. I have the Slimware cookie or whatever that keeps its window popping up. The solution appears to be to uninstall it. However, one of the first steps in the uninstall asks me if I want to allow this thing to make changes to my computer. That just sounds like a very bad idea. What do you say to that? Thanks, and I hope you find this worthy of a Monday post. Sooner rather than later I hope!

Thank you,
Jerry

Loretto, Minnesota (near Minneapolis)

Great question, Jerry!

Logically, it makes complete sense to have concerns about this. Why would you let a known bad or malicious program make changes to your computer. Seems like that would be similar to letting a car thief borrow your car, or giving a scammer your credit card number. It just seems unwise, from a security standpoint.

But there is an exception!

When you realize a program is unwanted, the next step of course is to remove it from your computer. In most cases, this means you go to Control Panel, where you can look in the “Programs and Features” category to see a list of the programs installed on your computer. Then you can do a right click on the one you want to remove, and choose the option to “Uninstall”.

But then, you’ll likely get this pop-up alert:

And though it may go against your safety concerns and your intuition, the correct answer is “Yes”.

That’s because the change for which it’s requesting permission it to uninstall itself. And of course since that’s the whole goal of this operation, you want it to be able to do that. If you say “No”, then the operation will stop and the program will still be installed and able to run.

So, when you’re trying to uninstall a program and it asks you for permission to make changes, the correct thing is to allow that to happen. Once that “change” has been made, the program should be gone. At least, in theory. Some malicious programs make it seem like they’re going away, but they’re really sticking around. If you have a program that won’t uninstall, contact me. We’ll force it out!

The post Should you ever allow a bad program to make changes to your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

permission alert — Should you ever allow a bad program to make changes to your PC? Feb 01, 2021
Do you think there’s a time when a bad program requests permission to make changes to your computer, and you should allow it?

This question came in from Jerry, in Minnesota –

Hi Scott, I’m a long time subscriber. We’ve “talked” in the past about your laptops and a couple other things. Here’s a Computer Tutor topic for the future…I hope. I have the Slimware cookie or whatever that keeps its window popping up. The solution appears to be to uninstall it. However, one of the first steps in the uninstall asks me if I want to allow this thing to make changes to my computer. That just sounds like a very bad idea. What do you say to that? Thanks, and I hope you find this worthy of a Monday post. Sooner rather than later I hope!

Thank you,
Jerry

Loretto, Minnesota (near Minneapolis)

Great question, Jerry!

Logically, it makes complete sense to have concerns about this. Why would you let a known bad or malicious program make changes to your computer. Seems like that would be similar to letting a car thief borrow your car, or giving a scammer your credit card number. It just seems unwise, from a security standpoint.

But there is an exception!

When you realize a program is unwanted, the next step of course is to remove it from your computer. In most cases, this means you go to Control Panel, where you can look in the “Programs and Features” category to see a list of the programs installed on your computer. Then you can do a right click on the one you want to remove, and choose the option to “Uninstall”.

But then, you’ll likely get this pop-up alert:

And though it may go against your safety concerns and your intuition, the correct answer is “Yes”.

That’s because the change for which it’s requesting permission it to uninstall itself. And of course since that’s the whole goal of this operation, you want it to be able to do that. If you say “No”, then the operation will stop and the program will still be installed and able to run.

So, when you’re trying to uninstall a program and it asks you for permission to make changes, the correct thing is to allow that to happen. Once that “change” has been made, the program should be gone. At least, in theory. Some malicious programs make it seem like they’re going away, but they’re really sticking around. If you have a program that won’t uninstall, contact me. We’ll force it out!

The post Should you ever allow a bad program to make changes to your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Deep web — What is the Deep Web? Jan 18, 2021
You’ve probably heard the terms “Deep Web” and “Dark Web”. They are not the same thing.

In general, there are 3 internets, or 3 “webs”.

The first one is often referred to as the Clear Web. It’s also called the Surface Web. This is the internet that most people use every day – Google searches, reading blogs, watching YouTube videos, seeing what’s on a website. The Clear Web consists of the stuff that anyone can access with a regular web browser such as Chrome. It’s content that’s available to the public. This is, of course, the most popular web as it’s something just about everyone uses.

The second one is the Deep Web. Most likely, you have used the Deep Web as well. It consists of content that is hidden – and “hidden” can mean different things. The content might be your online bank account, and of course that is hidden by your password. The general public can’t go to your bank’s website and see your personal account, because it’s in the Deep Web and requires your password. Same thing for your Facebook account – only you can log in and post things on your Facebook account. This also applies to online forums where you have to register in order to post something. And it’s becoming more common to see newspapers put their content on the Deep Web, behind a paywall. This information is still accessible, but only to those authorized to see it.

The third web is the Dark Web. If you think about the internet in general as a big city, the Dark Web would be considered a really bad neighborhood. It’s not a place you want to go. This is where most of the illegal online activity takes place, including:

buying and selling illegal drugs

buying and selling of malware and viruses

terrorist forums

pedophile groups

So you might be thinking – if the authorities know that all of this takes place on the Dark Web, why don’t they just go there and find these people and arrest them? Well, it’s not that easy, for a couple of reasons:

The Invisible Internet Project provides hosting of this content anonymously. So the servers that store the information cannot be accessed (at least not through traditional methods).

The Onion Routing project allows people to access the internet anonymously. They do this using a special web browser (called the Tor browser), which hides your IP address. Your connection bounces around at points all over the world before it actually lands on the server with the illegal content – so there’s no way to trace that access back to you.

And of course, most of the buying and selling on the Dark Web is done using cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin – which is also essentially anonymous.

So, you use the Clear Web probably every day, and you probably use the Deep Web fairly often. But I’ll bet you haven’t accessed the Dark Web. I haven’t either – and I really don’t have any plans to.

The post What is the Deep Web? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — What is the Deep Web? Jan 18, 2021
You’ve probably heard the terms “Deep Web” and “Dark Web”. They are not the same thing.

In general, there are 3 internets, or 3 “webs”.

The first one is often referred to as the Clear Web. It’s also called the Surface Web. This is the internet that most people use every day – Google searches, reading blogs, watching YouTube videos, seeing what’s on a website. The Clear Web consists of the stuff that anyone can access with a regular web browser such as Chrome. It’s content that’s available to the public. This is, of course, the most popular web as it’s something just about everyone uses.

The second one is the Deep Web. Most likely, you have used the Deep Web as well. It consists of content that is hidden – and “hidden” can mean different things. The content might be your online bank account, and of course that is hidden by your password. The general public can’t go to your bank’s website and see your personal account, because it’s in the Deep Web and requires your password. Same thing for your Facebook account – only you can log in and post things on your Facebook account. This also applies to online forums where you have to register in order to post something. And it’s becoming more common to see newspapers put their content on the Deep Web, behind a paywall. This information is still accessible, but only to those authorized to see it.

The third web is the Dark Web. If you think about the internet in general as a big city, the Dark Web would be considered a really bad neighborhood. It’s not a place you want to go. This is where most of the illegal online activity takes place, including:

buying and selling illegal drugs

buying and selling of malware and viruses

terrorist forums

pedophile groups

So you might be thinking – if the authorities know that all of this takes place on the Dark Web, why don’t they just go there and find these people and arrest them? Well, it’s not that easy, for a couple of reasons:

The Invisible Internet Project provides hosting of this content anonymously. So the servers that store the information cannot be accessed (at least not through traditional methods).

The Onion Routing project allows people to access the internet anonymously. They do this using a special web browser (called the Tor browser), which hides your IP address. Your connection bounces around at points all over the world before it actually lands on the server with the illegal content – so there’s no way to trace that access back to you.

And of course, most of the buying and selling on the Dark Web is done using cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin – which is also essentially anonymous.

So, you use the Clear Web probably every day, and you probably use the Deep Web fairly often. But I’ll bet you haven’t accessed the Dark Web. I haven’t either – and I really don’t have any plans to.

The post What is the Deep Web? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

The world’s largest online library Jan 04, 2021
Almost any book you can think of – available online for free. Same as your local library.

If you have a library card for your local library, you probably already know you can borrow digital books. You just need to create an account using an app called Libby, and that allows you to access lots of digital books that are available right there at your local library. And of course, all of this costs you nothing since it it part of the services at the library. It’s really pretty amazing, since you can borrow and read even recent, popular books. Books that if purchased, you might pay $10 or $20 for. But since it’s through the library, you don’t pay anything.

But there’s an online library that’s available to just about anyone – and this takes borrowing digital books to a whole new level.

It’s called Z-Library. You can view it at https://b-ok.cc/ (not sure what that domain name stands for though).

If you thought your local library had a lot of digital books available for download, you’re in for a big fat surprise when you check out Z-Library. As I write this, there are currently over 5.9 MILLION books available there for download.

If you’re looking for a specific book, you can most likely search for it and download it without even registering for an account. You’re allowed up to 5 downloads per day without registering.

If you create a free account with your email address and a password, that increases your download limit to 10 e-books per day, and a faster download speed. But this only allows you to download and read books on your computer. Still, for some people that’s fine. I mean, how many people read more than 10 books a day?

But if you really want all the features, you can get a Premium Plan. To get a Premium Plan, you can donate as little as $1. That allows you to have digital books sent to your Kindle, and the downloads are free of any ads (the free accounts have advertisements).

Beyond that, there are additional benefits if you pay more. But you can always choose how much you want to pay.

If you pay $1 to $4.99, you get all the extra features but you are still limited to 10 downloads per day.

If you need more than 10 downloads a day, you can choose to pay more (but it’s still really cheap).

You’ll see the pricing structure listed after you create your free account with your email address.

Libraries have always been an incredible local resource. To give you an idea on how this compares to purchase, I looked up the complete set of Harry Potter books on Amazon. The Kindle version is $62.99:

But at Z-Library, you can just click to download the whole thing to your computer. Or pay a little bit of money, and have them sent to your Kindle e-reader:

If you’re wondering if they have a particular book you want, just go to the website and do a search on the title. With almost 6 million books to choose from, there’s a very good chance you’ll find it available.

So if you’re planning to make a New Year’s resolution to read more books, the Z-Library could play a big role in making that happen!

The post The world’s largest online library first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Harry Potter Set — The world’s largest online library Jan 04, 2021
Almost any book you can think of – available online for free. Same as your local library.

If you have a library card for your local library, you probably already know you can borrow digital books. You just need to create an account using an app called Libby, and that allows you to access lots of digital books that are available right there at your local library. And of course, all of this costs you nothing since it it part of the services at the library. It’s really pretty amazing, since you can borrow and read even recent, popular books. Books that if purchased, you might pay $10 or $20 for. But since it’s through the library, you don’t pay anything.

But there’s an online library that’s available to just about anyone – and this takes borrowing digital books to a whole new level.

It’s called Z-Library. You can view it at https://b-ok.cc/ (not sure what that domain name stands for though).

If you thought your local library had a lot of digital books available for download, you’re in for a big fat surprise when you check out Z-Library. As I write this, there are currently over 5.9 MILLION books available there for download.

If you’re looking for a specific book, you can most likely search for it and download it without even registering for an account. You’re allowed up to 5 downloads per day without registering.

If you create a free account with your email address and a password, that increases your download limit to 10 e-books per day, and a faster download speed. But this only allows you to download and read books on your computer. Still, for some people that’s fine. I mean, how many people read more than 10 books a day?

But if you really want all the features, you can get a Premium Plan. To get a Premium Plan, you can donate as little as $1. That allows you to have digital books sent to your Kindle, and the downloads are free of any ads (the free accounts have advertisements).

Beyond that, there are additional benefits if you pay more. But you can always choose how much you want to pay.

If you pay $1 to $4.99, you get all the extra features but you are still limited to 10 downloads per day.

If you need more than 10 downloads a day, you can choose to pay more (but it’s still really cheap).

You’ll see the pricing structure listed after you create your free account with your email address.

Libraries have always been an incredible local resource. To give you an idea on how this compares to purchase, I looked up the complete set of Harry Potter books on Amazon. The Kindle version is $62.99:

But at Z-Library, you can just click to download the whole thing to your computer. Or pay a little bit of money, and have them sent to your Kindle e-reader:

If you’re wondering if they have a particular book you want, just go to the website and do a search on the title. With almost 6 million books to choose from, there’s a very good chance you’ll find it available.

So if you’re planning to make a New Year’s resolution to read more books, the Z-Library could play a big role in making that happen!

The post The world’s largest online library first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook — Should you hide your Facebook friends list? YES – here’s how Dec 21, 2020
There are good reasons for hiding your list of Facebook friends on your Facebook public profile.

You’ve seen those posts from your Facebook friends:

“I’ve been hacked! If you get a friend request from me, it’s a fake!”

But, as I’ve written before, this is not a “hack”. Their Facebook account has not been compromised. The scammer has just created a new Facebook account, using your friend’s name and profile picture, and they’re pretending to be your friend. The plan for this scam is that they will send friend requests to the people you are already friends with, and some of those friends will just blindly accept (even though you’re already friends). Then they will try to scam your friends, posing as you in order to take advantage of their trust.

And THAT’S why your list of Facebook friends should be hidden from public view. If the scammer sees that he cannot find out who your friends are and try to contact them, he’ll move on to another Facebook profile to run his little scheme. So, having your Facebook friends hidden saves you AND your friends the hassle of dealing with it.

Here’s how you hide your list of friends. (This is how you do it in Chrome, on a desktop/laptop computer. The process on your phone may look different.)

Go to Facebook, and click the little triangle in the top right corner. Then, click on “Settings and Privacy”:

In the next window, click on Settings:

In the next window, look in the column on the left and click on Privacy:

Now look out to the middle part of that page, and find the section called “How People Find and Contact you”. You’ll see an option named “Who can see your friends list?” – click to Edit that setting:

In the drop-down menu, choose “Only me”:

Now just click “Close” over on the right hand side, and you’re done. There’s no “Save” button needed – Facebook has already saved your preferences.

Now, no one can see your list of Facebook friends except you.

The post Should you hide your Facebook friends list? YES – here’s how first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook Settings and Privacy — Should you hide your Facebook friends list? YES – here’s how Dec 21, 2020
There are good reasons for hiding your list of Facebook friends on your Facebook public profile.

You’ve seen those posts from your Facebook friends:

“I’ve been hacked! If you get a friend request from me, it’s a fake!”

But, as I’ve written before, this is not a “hack”. Their Facebook account has not been compromised. The scammer has just created a new Facebook account, using your friend’s name and profile picture, and they’re pretending to be your friend. The plan for this scam is that they will send friend requests to the people you are already friends with, and some of those friends will just blindly accept (even though you’re already friends). Then they will try to scam your friends, posing as you in order to take advantage of their trust.

And THAT’S why your list of Facebook friends should be hidden from public view. If the scammer sees that he cannot find out who your friends are and try to contact them, he’ll move on to another Facebook profile to run his little scheme. So, having your Facebook friends hidden saves you AND your friends the hassle of dealing with it.

Here’s how you hide your list of friends. (This is how you do it in Chrome, on a desktop/laptop computer. The process on your phone may look different.)

Go to Facebook, and click the little triangle in the top right corner. Then, click on “Settings and Privacy”:

In the next window, click on Settings:

In the next window, look in the column on the left and click on Privacy:

Now look out to the middle part of that page, and find the section called “How People Find and Contact you”. You’ll see an option named “Who can see your friends list?” – click to Edit that setting:

In the drop-down menu, choose “Only me”:

Now just click “Close” over on the right hand side, and you’re done. There’s no “Save” button needed – Facebook has already saved your preferences.

Now, no one can see your list of Facebook friends except you.

The post Should you hide your Facebook friends list? YES – here’s how first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Adobe Flash — What should you do with Adobe Flash Player? Dec 07, 2020
You might see a notice pop up on your computer that Adobe Flash Player is being discontinued, and asking if you want to uninstall it from your computer. Here’s what to do.

I’ve had several clients ask me recently about this message they’ve gotten on their computer:

The questions that come up…

What is Flash?

Do I need it?

Should I uninstall it?

What is Flash? Flash is a programming language that used to be very common. Websites used it to display some of their content, such as animated images or games. An example of this is the original Facebook game of Farmville – remember when all your friends were always talking about playing that game? It’s actually still played by a lot of people, but that will end at the end of this year when Zynga (the company that owns Farmville) ends it. Only the original Farmville is being discontinued – newer versions will still be available, since they don’t use the Flash technology.

The end of Flash has actually been on the horizon for a while. Adobe announced the “end of life” for Flash over two years ago, to give enough time for websites to change over to its replacement (HTML 5). And why is it going away? Because of all the security problems it causes. Of all the malware in existence right now, about HALF of it is due to security issues in Flash. It’s really bad.

Do you need Flash? No. The vast majority of websites have already switched over to the much safer HTML 5, and you probably didn’t even notice. There are still a few sites that use Flash to display content, but it’s becoming pretty rare now. And those sites are going to have a big problem after December 31, when Flash no longer works.

Should you uninstall Flash? Yes. There’s a good chance you don’t even have it installed now anyway. I haven’t been installing Flash on new computers and the laptops I sell for at least a couple of years. If you have had your computer for longer than that, you might still have it installed. If so, when you get that pop-up on your screen offering to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player, you can go ahead and get rid of it.

If you have not seen that pop-up and want to make sure you don’t have it, you can go to Control Panel and look at the list of programs available to uninstall, and see if it is listed there as Adobe Flash Player. If you see it, you can go ahead and uninstall it. Or, you can use the Adobe Flash Uninstaller program here.

And if you still play the original Facebook Farmville game, enjoy it while you can!

The post What should you do with Adobe Flash Player? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

uninstall Flash — What should you do with Adobe Flash Player? Dec 07, 2020
You might see a notice pop up on your computer that Adobe Flash Player is being discontinued, and asking if you want to uninstall it from your computer. Here’s what to do.

I’ve had several clients ask me recently about this message they’ve gotten on their computer:

The questions that come up…

What is Flash?

Do I need it?

Should I uninstall it?

What is Flash? Flash is a programming language that used to be very common. Websites used it to display some of their content, such as animated images or games. An example of this is the original Facebook game of Farmville – remember when all your friends were always talking about playing that game? It’s actually still played by a lot of people, but that will end at the end of this year when Zynga (the company that owns Farmville) ends it. Only the original Farmville is being discontinued – newer versions will still be available, since they don’t use the Flash technology.

The end of Flash has actually been on the horizon for a while. Adobe announced the “end of life” for Flash over two years ago, to give enough time for websites to change over to its replacement (HTML 5). And why is it going away? Because of all the security problems it causes. Of all the malware in existence right now, about HALF of it is due to security issues in Flash. It’s really bad.

Do you need Flash? No. The vast majority of websites have already switched over to the much safer HTML 5, and you probably didn’t even notice. There are still a few sites that use Flash to display content, but it’s becoming pretty rare now. And those sites are going to have a big problem after December 31, when Flash no longer works.

Should you uninstall Flash? Yes. There’s a good chance you don’t even have it installed now anyway. I haven’t been installing Flash on new computers and the laptops I sell for at least a couple of years. If you have had your computer for longer than that, you might still have it installed. If so, when you get that pop-up on your screen offering to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player, you can go ahead and get rid of it.

If you have not seen that pop-up and want to make sure you don’t have it, you can go to Control Panel and look at the list of programs available to uninstall, and see if it is listed there as Adobe Flash Player. If you see it, you can go ahead and uninstall it. Or, you can use the Adobe Flash Uninstaller program here.

And if you still play the original Facebook Farmville game, enjoy it while you can!

The post What should you do with Adobe Flash Player? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to select text in MS Word – VERTICALLY Nov 23, 2020
This is a trick you can do with MS Word, that very few people know about. It can be handy in certain situations.

What we’re talking about is being able to select and highlight certain text in a Word document.

You already know that if you double-click on a single word, that word is highlighted (selected). You might also know that if you TRIPLE click, the entire paragraph is selected. (If you didn’t know that, there’s a bonus tip for you this week.) You can click on a certain word and drag the cursor across several words, and just those words are selected. You can even do CTRL + A and select the entire document.

Then, whatever you have selected, you can do whatever you want with that text. You can cut and paste, copy and paste, change the font or size, or even delete it. Whatever action you take, it applies to ALL of the text you have selected.

But here’s a different scenario:

Let’s say you have a Word document, and the text in that document is a list of names. Each line is the last name, then a tab, then the first name. Like this:

For your purpose, you need to select ONLY the first names (the second column) in that list. How do you do that? If you start with the first one, John, and drag to select, as soon as you get to the second line you’ll see that it’s highlighting the whole second line (not just the first name, Elizabeth). What is the fix for this?

Well, for a list that is short like the one above, you could just hold down the CTRL key and double click each first name. That would achieve the goal. But what if this list contained 150 names? or 1500 names? Double clicking on each first name would take quite some time. And there’s a risk – you could spend a bunch of time double clicking and have 89 first names selected, then accidentally click without holding the CTRL key – that means you have DEselected all of them, and you have to start over from scratch.

But there’s a little-known trick that makes this process much easier. With a certain keyboard key combination, Word will allow you to select text vertically.

In our example, you can place the cursor just to the left of the letter “J” in “John”. Then, on the keyboard, hold down CTRL + ALT + Shift at the same time, and drag the cursor straight down. This allows you to highlight ONLY the first names on the list:

Now you can copy those names into an Excel spreadsheet column, or print them, or do whatever you want with them.

The post How to select text in MS Word – VERTICALLY first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

selecting text in Word — How to select text in MS Word – VERTICALLY Nov 23, 2020
This is a trick you can do with MS Word, that very few people know about. It can be handy in certain situations.

What we’re talking about is being able to select and highlight certain text in a Word document.

You already know that if you double-click on a single word, that word is highlighted (selected). You might also know that if you TRIPLE click, the entire paragraph is selected. (If you didn’t know that, there’s a bonus tip for you this week.) You can click on a certain word and drag the cursor across several words, and just those words are selected. You can even do CTRL + A and select the entire document.

Then, whatever you have selected, you can do whatever you want with that text. You can cut and paste, copy and paste, change the font or size, or even delete it. Whatever action you take, it applies to ALL of the text you have selected.

But here’s a different scenario:

Let’s say you have a Word document, and the text in that document is a list of names. Each line is the last name, then a tab, then the first name. Like this:

For your purpose, you need to select ONLY the first names (the second column) in that list. How do you do that? If you start with the first one, John, and drag to select, as soon as you get to the second line you’ll see that it’s highlighting the whole second line (not just the first name, Elizabeth). What is the fix for this?

Well, for a list that is short like the one above, you could just hold down the CTRL key and double click each first name. That would achieve the goal. But what if this list contained 150 names? or 1500 names? Double clicking on each first name would take quite some time. And there’s a risk – you could spend a bunch of time double clicking and have 89 first names selected, then accidentally click without holding the CTRL key – that means you have DEselected all of them, and you have to start over from scratch.

But there’s a little-known trick that makes this process much easier. With a certain keyboard key combination, Word will allow you to select text vertically.

In our example, you can place the cursor just to the left of the letter “J” in “John”. Then, on the keyboard, hold down CTRL + ALT + Shift at the same time, and drag the cursor straight down. This allows you to highlight ONLY the first names on the list:

Now you can copy those names into an Excel spreadsheet column, or print them, or do whatever you want with them.

The post How to select text in MS Word – VERTICALLY first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

car scam — Recognizing an online car sale scam Nov 09, 2020
Shopping online for a used car? You need to be able to identify the scam ads – and there are a lot of them.

Everyone wants to score a great deal when they buy a car. If you go to a car dealer, you might be able to negotiate a fair price. But if you shop around and look for a car being sold by an individual, you might get a REALLY great bargain. Sometimes people have a car and they just want to get rid of it, and they aren’t really worried about getting the price that it’s really worth. That’s what a lot of potential car buyers are looking for. But that strong incentive to find an amazing deal is also what ends up costing the buyer a lot of money – because they fall for a scam.

There are a few things to look for when you’re shopping the used car ads – things that should pop up as a red flag that what you’re looking at might be a scam. Here are a few of them.

First, a ridiculously low price. For example, I went on OfferUp and just searched on the word Honda. This is one of the first ads that came up. A nice 2012 Honda Accord, only 86k miles, always garage kept and it has no mechanical issues. You might expect to pay $8000 to $10,000 for a car like this. But look, this one is only $1400!

And when an ad like this comes up, a lot of people will say, “No way that could be real” and they keep scrolling. BUT…there are a certain percentage of people who think, “I know that doesn’t really make sense, but what if it’s just a really good deal? I have to investigate further!”. That’s the exact response the scammer is looking for.

Second, look for the seller to include an email address in the description. They want you to contact them by email, rather than clicking the “Contact seller” button on the website.

Why is that? Because if you start a conversation using the website’s communication service, the scammer might have you believing the whole story and ready to make the purchase. Then, someone else sees the ad and reports it – and the scammer’s account gets immediately closed. That means he immediately loses his avenue of communication with you. If you start off using email, he can continue the scam even if his seller account gets shut down. Of course, his email account could also get deleted, but that’s less likely..

Really, those first two items should tell you to NOT pursue buying this car because it is definitely a scam. But if you do continue (maybe to just act as a buyer to see what happens, even if you know it’s not a real car for sale), here’s the next thing to watch for: an emotional story.

I emailed an ad a while back (research purposes), and this is the message I got back from the “seller” –

So I guess in this case, her potential scam victims aren’t just people looking for a good deal on a car, it’s also those who are willing to practically steal a car from a grieving widow. Nice!

The other very common story with these scammers is that they are in the US military. That is very deliberate, because it plants a subconscious evidence of honesty and credibility into the story. After all, would a United States soldier lie to you? In the case of the letter above, she claimed to be a recent widow AND a military doctor. Must be legit, right?

And finally – if you keep going this far with the fake seller – they will try to assure you that it’s all real, because the deal is going to happen through the security of eBay selling process. But wait a minute, you didn’t find the car on eBay, did you? It was listed on Craigslist or OfferUp or some other online classified ad site. So how is eBay involved? Answer: eBay is not involved at all.

The scammer wants you to feel confident that it’s all real, so they pretend that the whole transaction is going to happen through ebay Motors. They will tell you that you have no shipping costs, and you can even drive the car for 5 days before your money is even released from eBay to the seller. This is 100% false. If the car was not listed on eBay, and purchased by your bidding on the eBay listing, eBay has zero involvement with this sale and they will not protect you in any way.

What should you do when you see a scam car ad?

Well, in most cases I would tell you that you should report it so that the scammer’s account gets removed. But now I’m kind of leaning toward the notion that it’s not really worth your time. When I recently went on OfferUp and searched for the word Honda, the FIRST FIVE LISTINGS were all scams. I don’t think the websites can keep up with all the fake listings.

Check this out – on OfferUp, there’s a seller named Gianna who had a Honda Accord for sale for just $800. This was in Gulfport, Florida, about 30 minutes from where I live.

But when you look at her “other items” for sale, you can see she has the SAME CAR listed 19 different times. And that car is supposedly for sale in multiple cities in Michigan, Louisiana, California and Massachusetts (and other cities). And every ad I clicked on had just been created MINUTES earlier. The oldest ad I saw was 27 minutes old.

This means that the scammer can get their account shut down by someone reporting the scam, and they are immediately ready to open a new account with the complete set of listings posted almost immediately. It seems like the seller sites could come up with some kind of mechanism to defeat this, but so far it seems to all rely on the scammers being reported by other users. And that doesn’t seem to be very effective.

Bottom line – watch out for these things and don’t fall for the scams. Always deal with a seller face to face. Never send cash or Western Union (or iTunes gift cards). Don’t let your desire for a bargain override your common sense.

The post Recognizing an online car sale scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Car scam — Recognizing an online car sale scam Nov 09, 2020
Shopping online for a used car? You need to be able to identify the scam ads – and there are a lot of them.

Everyone wants to score a great deal when they buy a car. If you go to a car dealer, you might be able to negotiate a fair price. But if you shop around and look for a car being sold by an individual, you might get a REALLY great bargain. Sometimes people have a car and they just want to get rid of it, and they aren’t really worried about getting the price that it’s really worth. That’s what a lot of potential car buyers are looking for. But that strong incentive to find an amazing deal is also what ends up costing the buyer a lot of money – because they fall for a scam.

There are a few things to look for when you’re shopping the used car ads – things that should pop up as a red flag that what you’re looking at might be a scam. Here are a few of them.

First, a ridiculously low price. For example, I went on OfferUp and just searched on the word Honda. This is one of the first ads that came up. A nice 2012 Honda Accord, only 86k miles, always garage kept and it has no mechanical issues. You might expect to pay $8000 to $10,000 for a car like this. But look, this one is only $1400!

And when an ad like this comes up, a lot of people will say, “No way that could be real” and they keep scrolling. BUT…there are a certain percentage of people who think, “I know that doesn’t really make sense, but what if it’s just a really good deal? I have to investigate further!”. That’s the exact response the scammer is looking for.

Second, look for the seller to include an email address in the description. They want you to contact them by email, rather than clicking the “Contact seller” button on the website.

Why is that? Because if you start a conversation using the website’s communication service, the scammer might have you believing the whole story and ready to make the purchase. Then, someone else sees the ad and reports it – and the scammer’s account gets immediately closed. That means he immediately loses his avenue of communication with you. If you start off using email, he can continue the scam even if his seller account gets shut down. Of course, his email account could also get deleted, but that’s less likely..

Really, those first two items should tell you to NOT pursue buying this car because it is definitely a scam. But if you do continue (maybe to just act as a buyer to see what happens, even if you know it’s not a real car for sale), here’s the next thing to watch for: an emotional story.

I emailed an ad a while back (research purposes), and this is the message I got back from the “seller” –

So I guess in this case, her potential scam victims aren’t just people looking for a good deal on a car, it’s also those who are willing to practically steal a car from a grieving widow. Nice!

The other very common story with these scammers is that they are in the US military. That is very deliberate, because it plants a subconscious evidence of honesty and credibility into the story. After all, would a United States soldier lie to you? In the case of the letter above, she claimed to be a recent widow AND a military doctor. Must be legit, right?

And finally – if you keep going this far with the fake seller – they will try to assure you that it’s all real, because the deal is going to happen through the security of eBay selling process. But wait a minute, you didn’t find the car on eBay, did you? It was listed on Craigslist or OfferUp or some other online classified ad site. So how is eBay involved? Answer: eBay is not involved at all.

The scammer wants you to feel confident that it’s all real, so they pretend that the whole transaction is going to happen through ebay Motors. They will tell you that you have no shipping costs, and you can even drive the car for 5 days before your money is even released from eBay to the seller. This is 100% false. If the car was not listed on eBay, and purchased by your bidding on the eBay listing, eBay has zero involvement with this sale and they will not protect you in any way.

What should you do when you see a scam car ad?

Well, in most cases I would tell you that you should report it so that the scammer’s account gets removed. But now I’m kind of leaning toward the notion that it’s not really worth your time. When I recently went on OfferUp and searched for the word Honda, the FIRST FIVE LISTINGS were all scams. I don’t think the websites can keep up with all the fake listings.

Check this out – on OfferUp, there’s a seller named Gianna who had a Honda Accord for sale for just $800. This was in Gulfport, Florida, about 30 minutes from where I live.

But when you look at her “other items” for sale, you can see she has the SAME CAR listed 19 different times. And that car is supposedly for sale in multiple cities in Michigan, Louisiana, California and Massachusetts (and other cities). And every ad I clicked on had just been created MINUTES earlier. The oldest ad I saw was 27 minutes old.

This means that the scammer can get their account shut down by someone reporting the scam, and they are immediately ready to open a new account with the complete set of listings posted almost immediately. It seems like the seller sites could come up with some kind of mechanism to defeat this, but so far it seems to all rely on the scammers being reported by other users. And that doesn’t seem to be very effective.

Bottom line – watch out for these things and don’t fall for the scams. Always deal with a seller face to face. Never send cash or Western Union (or iTunes gift cards). Don’t let your desire for a bargain override your common sense.

The post Recognizing an online car sale scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to change the default font and size in Word Oct 26, 2020
I used to have a routine whenever I would open Word and create a new document. I would always start by changing the font to one that I like, and also the font size. What a waste of time!

The default font in Word, if you don’t change anything, is Calibri. The font size is 11. It looks like this:

It’s not a bad font. Pretty clear and easy to read. But what if you want all of your documents to be in Times New Roman, size 14?

It’s also a nice font, very classic style. You could type your whole document in the default Calibri 11, and then highlight the entire thing and change it to Times New Roman 14. But that only fixes the document you’re working on right now. Using that strategy, you have to go through that process every single time.

There’s a better way! You can just change Word to automatically default to the font and size you want to use, every time.

Here’s how to change the default font and font size in MS Word:

First, open a new, blank Word document.

Up in the toolbar at the top, find the section labeled “Font”, and click on that little arrow in the lower right corner of that section:

That opens up the font dialogue box. You’ll see three columns – this is where you choose the font itself, the font style (regular, italic, bold) and the size. You can see I’ve chosen Times New Roman, regular, size 14:

And the final step is to just click the “Set as Default” button in the lower left corner:

Oops, one more step – you need to tell Word if you want this to be the default font for just THIS document, or for all future documents:

If you choose for it to be all documents, click OK and close Word. Then open a new blank document, and you should see that it’s already in your chosen default font and size. Easy!

The post How to change the default font and size in Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Calibri 11 — How to change the default font and size in Word Oct 26, 2020
I used to have a routine whenever I would open Word and create a new document. I would always start by changing the font to one that I like, and also the font size. What a waste of time!

The default font in Word, if you don’t change anything, is Calibri. The font size is 11. It looks like this:

It’s not a bad font. Pretty clear and easy to read. But what if you want all of your documents to be in Times New Roman, size 14?

It’s also a nice font, very classic style. You could type your whole document in the default Calibri 11, and then highlight the entire thing and change it to Times New Roman 14. But that only fixes the document you’re working on right now. Using that strategy, you have to go through that process every single time.

There’s a better way! You can just change Word to automatically default to the font and size you want to use, every time.

Here’s how to change the default font and font size in MS Word:

First, open a new, blank Word document.

Up in the toolbar at the top, find the section labeled “Font”, and click on that little arrow in the lower right corner of that section:

That opens up the font dialogue box. You’ll see three columns – this is where you choose the font itself, the font style (regular, italic, bold) and the size. You can see I’ve chosen Times New Roman, regular, size 14:

And the final step is to just click the “Set as Default” button in the lower left corner:

Oops, one more step – you need to tell Word if you want this to be the default font for just THIS document, or for all future documents:

If you choose for it to be all documents, click OK and close Word. Then open a new blank document, and you should see that it’s already in your chosen default font and size. Easy!

The post How to change the default font and size in Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome — How to show full URL in the Chrome address bar Oct 12, 2020
Sometimes it’s the little things, you know? Why does Chrome, by default, only show part of a website address in the address bar? I don’t know, but here’s how to fix that.

This one is pretty simple. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about here, just open Chrome and go to any website. As an example, we can visit my own website, ComputerTutorFlorida.com.

The actual, full website address is this: https://ComputerTutorFlorida.com. But this is what is shown in the address bar in Chrome:

Why doesn’t it show the full URL? I don’t know. But for me, I just like to have the full website address displayed there. I like seeing the https:// to clearly show that the site is secure, and if a site is not secure, I want to see the http:// (even though Chrome will show a message that says “not secure” on sites that don’t have a valid security certificate).

Fortunately, it’s easy to force Chrome to show the full address each time.

Type the following line into the Chrome address bar:

chrome://flags/#omnibox-context-menu-show-full-urls

Of course, you could just copy and paste it as well. When that text is in the address bar, hit Enter on the keyboard.

You’ll see some options come up in Chrome, and the first one listed will say “Context menu show full URLs”. Out to the right will be a drop down menu – in that menu, choose “Enabled”:

Now go to the bottom of Chrome and click on “Relaunch”.

When Chrome opens again, do a RIGHT click on the address bar, and choose “Always show full URLs”:

Now you’ll see the complete website address for any site you visit!

The post How to show full URL in the Chrome address bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome address bar — How to show full URL in the Chrome address bar Oct 12, 2020
Sometimes it’s the little things, you know? Why does Chrome, by default, only show part of a website address in the address bar? I don’t know, but here’s how to fix that.

This one is pretty simple. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about here, just open Chrome and go to any website. As an example, we can visit my own website, ComputerTutorFlorida.com.

The actual, full website address is this: https://ComputerTutorFlorida.com. But this is what is shown in the address bar in Chrome:

Why doesn’t it show the full URL? I don’t know. But for me, I just like to have the full website address displayed there. I like seeing the https:// to clearly show that the site is secure, and if a site is not secure, I want to see the http:// (even though Chrome will show a message that says “not secure” on sites that don’t have a valid security certificate).

Fortunately, it’s easy to force Chrome to show the full address each time.

Type the following line into the Chrome address bar:

chrome://flags/#omnibox-context-menu-show-full-urls

Of course, you could just copy and paste it as well. When that text is in the address bar, hit Enter on the keyboard.

You’ll see some options come up in Chrome, and the first one listed will say “Context menu show full URLs”. Out to the right will be a drop down menu – in that menu, choose “Enabled”:

Now go to the bottom of Chrome and click on “Relaunch”.

When Chrome opens again, do a RIGHT click on the address bar, and choose “Always show full URLs”:

Now you’ll see the complete website address for any site you visit!

The post How to show full URL in the Chrome address bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Craigslist — Best way to search Craigslist nationwide Sep 28, 2020
If you’re looking to buy something from an individual, one of the best places to find a bargain is on Craigslist. But what if you want to shop on Craigslist outside of your local area? You have another option!

I have made a LOT of purchases over the years on Craigslist (craigslist.org). It was the original online classified ads site, and it’s still going strong (even though there are some other good options such as OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace).

If you’re looking for something like a lawnmower, a used car, a bedroom set, a bike – Craigslist will have lots of listings. These are things that are common enough that you can almost always find someone selling it within 5-10 miles of where you live. If you don’t mind shopping around for a bit, you can get a bargain. For some items, I do a search on Craigslist using my criteria (location, price, etc) and then I save that search and set an alert. So when something that matches is listed, I get an email within 20-30 minutes of when it goes live, so I have often been the first call on an item and gotten a deal just by being quick.

But what about if you’re searching for something that’s not quite as common? Maybe you’re a collector of first edition books. Or perhaps you’re shopping for a particular model Rolex watch. Yes, you might find what you’re looking for within a 20-mile radius of where you live, but your chances are much better if you expand your geographic area much farther than that – like the entire country.

But Craigslist itself doesn’t offer that option. You can pick and choose other cities to do your search one at a time, but that could get very tedious. Instead, there is another site that allows you to do this.

It’s called Search Tempest – SearchTempest.com.

Right there on the home page, you just enter the item you want to find, the category, your local zip code, and the farthest distance the search should include.

So let’s say I’m looking for a John Grisham first edition book. I enter the relevant information:

And when I click the Search button, it shows me what’s available. And guess what – there’s a first edition John Grisham book available for just $5. And it’s at the other end of the country, in the Sacramento, California area. I certainly never would have found that just searching the traditional way on Craigslist.

Of course, at this point, it’s up to me to contact the seller and explain that I’m not in their local area. Usually when you list something for sale on Craigslist, you either get local calls from prospective buyers, or you get emails from scammers. So this seller might be a bit hesitant when my email says I’m in Florida and I want to purchase that book. Most likely, I would need to send the money first, and I would need to cover the cost of shipping.

In addition to showing you what’s available on Craigslist, you’ll also see the search results for your item in eBay. You could do that directly in eBay obviously, but it’s definitely convenient being able to do both in one place.

And if you want to try out another universal Craigslist search engine, check All Craigslist Search (https://AllCraigslistSearch.com). I haven’t tried that one yet but it looks like it would work as well.

The post Best way to search Craigslist nationwide first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

SearchTempest — Best way to search Craigslist nationwide Sep 28, 2020
If you’re looking to buy something from an individual, one of the best places to find a bargain is on Craigslist. But what if you want to shop on Craigslist outside of your local area? You have another option!

I have made a LOT of purchases over the years on Craigslist (craigslist.org). It was the original online classified ads site, and it’s still going strong (even though there are some other good options such as OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace).

If you’re looking for something like a lawnmower, a used car, a bedroom set, a bike – Craigslist will have lots of listings. These are things that are common enough that you can almost always find someone selling it within 5-10 miles of where you live. If you don’t mind shopping around for a bit, you can get a bargain. For some items, I do a search on Craigslist using my criteria (location, price, etc) and then I save that search and set an alert. So when something that matches is listed, I get an email within 20-30 minutes of when it goes live, so I have often been the first call on an item and gotten a deal just by being quick.

But what about if you’re searching for something that’s not quite as common? Maybe you’re a collector of first edition books. Or perhaps you’re shopping for a particular model Rolex watch. Yes, you might find what you’re looking for within a 20-mile radius of where you live, but your chances are much better if you expand your geographic area much farther than that – like the entire country.

But Craigslist itself doesn’t offer that option. You can pick and choose other cities to do your search one at a time, but that could get very tedious. Instead, there is another site that allows you to do this.

It’s called Search Tempest – SearchTempest.com.

Right there on the home page, you just enter the item you want to find, the category, your local zip code, and the farthest distance the search should include.

So let’s say I’m looking for a John Grisham first edition book. I enter the relevant information:

And when I click the Search button, it shows me what’s available. And guess what – there’s a first edition John Grisham book available for just $5. And it’s at the other end of the country, in the Sacramento, California area. I certainly never would have found that just searching the traditional way on Craigslist.

Of course, at this point, it’s up to me to contact the seller and explain that I’m not in their local area. Usually when you list something for sale on Craigslist, you either get local calls from prospective buyers, or you get emails from scammers. So this seller might be a bit hesitant when my email says I’m in Florida and I want to purchase that book. Most likely, I would need to send the money first, and I would need to cover the cost of shipping.

In addition to showing you what’s available on Craigslist, you’ll also see the search results for your item in eBay. You could do that directly in eBay obviously, but it’s definitely convenient being able to do both in one place.

And if you want to try out another universal Craigslist search engine, check All Craigslist Search (https://AllCraigslistSearch.com). I haven’t tried that one yet but it looks like it would work as well.

The post Best way to search Craigslist nationwide first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What to do when you see the “new” Microsoft Edge Sep 14, 2020
With some recent updates, you might see a new icon on your screen – the icon for Microsoft Edge. What do you do with it?

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft Edge is the web browser that comes with Windows 10. Microsoft doesn’t want you to use Chrome or Firefox (the high-quality web browsers) – they want you to use their crappy browser, Edge. That’s why, sometimes after a Windows Update, you might find that your default browser has been changed to Edge.

Here’s an interesting bit of information.

When you get a new Windows computer, the default web browser is set to be Microsoft Edge. So if you don’t do anything, that’s the program you’ll be using to view websites. So you’d think, since Edge is the default, that a lot of computers would still have it as their web browser. Often in situations like this, people are just lazy and don’t bother to change a program, they just go with what is already there because it’s convenient.

But not in this case. As I write this, roughly 70% of computer users around the world have their default web browser set to be Google Chrome. Only 7% are using Edge.

What does that tell us? It tells us that Edge is so awful, one of the first things people do when they get a new computer is download and install Google Chrome, and set that as their default browser. The vast majority of people do that, so that they don’t have to use Edge. Installing Chrome is definitely one of the things I do every time I set up a new computer – I put Chrome on there, and set it up with ad blockers so you don’t have to see all the junky ads when you visit websites. Chrome has all kinds of great extensions and ways you can customize it for the way you want to work and how you want to view websites.

But here’s what I want to tell you today. With a recent update, you might see the Microsoft Edge icon as a new icon on your desktop screen. You might also see it down at the bottom of your screen, on the taskbar. It looks like this:

Microsoft Edge icon

In fact, you might even see a full size window filling your screen, telling you to download the new Edge:

If you see that full size screen, just close it with the X in the top right corner.

If you see the Edge icon at the bottom of your screen on the taskbar, do a RIGHT click on it, and choose “Unpin from taskbar”.

If you see the Edge icon as a new icon on your desktop screen, do a RIGHT click on it, and choose Delete.

If you find that Microsoft has changed your default browser from Chrome (or Firefox) to Edge, you can just change it back:

Click the Start button, then click the Settings icon.

Click on Apps, then click on the Default Apps section on the left.

Scroll down and click on “Web browser”, and choose Chrome (or Firefox if you prefer) from the list.

By doing these things, you aren’t actually removing Edge from your computer. You can’t really do that easily, since it’s part of Windows 10. But these steps will at least move it out of sight so you don’t accidentally click on it.

And don’t be surprised if you have to do these things again after another Windows Update.

The post What to do when you see the “new” Microsoft Edge first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Edge icon — What to do when you see the “new” Microsoft Edge Sep 14, 2020
With some recent updates, you might see a new icon on your screen – the icon for Microsoft Edge. What do you do with it?

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft Edge is the web browser that comes with Windows 10. Microsoft doesn’t want you to use Chrome or Firefox (the high-quality web browsers) – they want you to use their crappy browser, Edge. That’s why, sometimes after a Windows Update, you might find that your default browser has been changed to Edge.

Here’s an interesting bit of information.

When you get a new Windows computer, the default web browser is set to be Microsoft Edge. So if you don’t do anything, that’s the program you’ll be using to view websites. So you’d think, since Edge is the default, that a lot of computers would still have it as their web browser. Often in situations like this, people are just lazy and don’t bother to change a program, they just go with what is already there because it’s convenient.

But not in this case. As I write this, roughly 70% of computer users around the world have their default web browser set to be Google Chrome. Only 7% are using Edge.

What does that tell us? It tells us that Edge is so awful, one of the first things people do when they get a new computer is download and install Google Chrome, and set that as their default browser. The vast majority of people do that, so that they don’t have to use Edge. Installing Chrome is definitely one of the things I do every time I set up a new computer – I put Chrome on there, and set it up with ad blockers so you don’t have to see all the junky ads when you visit websites. Chrome has all kinds of great extensions and ways you can customize it for the way you want to work and how you want to view websites.

But here’s what I want to tell you today. With a recent update, you might see the Microsoft Edge icon as a new icon on your desktop screen. You might also see it down at the bottom of your screen, on the taskbar. It looks like this:

Microsoft Edge icon

In fact, you might even see a full size window filling your screen, telling you to download the new Edge:

If you see that full size screen, just close it with the X in the top right corner.

If you see the Edge icon at the bottom of your screen on the taskbar, do a RIGHT click on it, and choose “Unpin from taskbar”.

If you see the Edge icon as a new icon on your desktop screen, do a RIGHT click on it, and choose Delete.

If you find that Microsoft has changed your default browser from Chrome (or Firefox) to Edge, you can just change it back:

Click the Start button, then click the Settings icon.

Click on Apps, then click on the Default Apps section on the left.

Scroll down and click on “Web browser”, and choose Chrome (or Firefox if you prefer) from the list.

By doing these things, you aren’t actually removing Edge from your computer. You can’t really do that easily, since it’s part of Windows 10. But these steps will at least move it out of sight so you don’t accidentally click on it.

And don’t be surprised if you have to do these things again after another Windows Update.

The post What to do when you see the “new” Microsoft Edge first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

The RV giveaway scam Aug 31, 2020
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve most likely seen the posts talking about the Jayco RV company having a promotion and offering to give away a free RV to some lucky winner. Well… I have some bad news for you.

The Facebook post that you see was most likely shared by one of your friends. And they shared it because they saw one of their other friends share it. It’s crazy how fast these things blow up.

The original post reads like this:

With a lot of people out of work and Covid-19 keeping them out of work, we know money is tighter more now than ever! So by 9 pm Thursday, someone who shares and also comments will be the new owner of this Jayco Embark 2020 RV, paid off and ready to drive away, keys in hand!

And of course it’s accompanied by some beautiful pictures of the $150k RV, which of course is designed to make everyone salivate and really, really want to be the winner. So the eager “contestants” do as instructed, and click the Like button, and make a really creative comment like “I’d love to have this” and click the Share button.

The sad thing is, they have only accomplished two things. They have cluttered their friends’ Facebook news feed with (yet another) hoax, and they’ve told all their friends that they’re kind of gullible for believing this is actually real.

Jayco is not giving away an RV. There is no contest or drawing. Don’t comment and don’t share it. If anything, tell the person who shared it that they should delete it.

This has become so common, and so many people have shared it in order to win, that the Jayco RV company had to actually come out with a statement explaining that it was all fake. This is what they posted on their company Facebook page:

So what’s the point of this? Why would someone create a fake Facebook page about giving away an RV?

Well, the scammers usually have one of these plans in mind:

First, they might get thousands or hundreds of thousands of Likes and Shares. That means that the content that gets posted on that Facebook page will get seen by a lot of those people. So they’ll eventually change it from the RV giveaway to something else, like a spammy product they want to sell. The “RV Giveaway” might change to “Get free quote on your auto insurance!”. And since it cost them nothing to get all of these followers, it’s free advertising.

Second, they might just build up the Facebook page with a lot of likes and follows, and then just sell the page on the black market. Any Facebook page that has a high number of followers has value, so it is something that certain people will pay for.

So when you see something like this, know that it’s just a scam. Don’t help the scammers! Click the 3 dots at the top, then click on “Report page”. Hopefully Facebook will agree that it’s just a hoax and take it down quickly.

The post The RV giveaway scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

no rv giveaway — The RV giveaway scam Aug 31, 2020
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve most likely seen the posts talking about the Jayco RV company having a promotion and offering to give away a free RV to some lucky winner. Well… I have some bad news for you.

The Facebook post that you see was most likely shared by one of your friends. And they shared it because they saw one of their other friends share it. It’s crazy how fast these things blow up.

The original post reads like this:

With a lot of people out of work and Covid-19 keeping them out of work, we know money is tighter more now than ever! So by 9 pm Thursday, someone who shares and also comments will be the new owner of this Jayco Embark 2020 RV, paid off and ready to drive away, keys in hand!

And of course it’s accompanied by some beautiful pictures of the $150k RV, which of course is designed to make everyone salivate and really, really want to be the winner. So the eager “contestants” do as instructed, and click the Like button, and make a really creative comment like “I’d love to have this” and click the Share button.

The sad thing is, they have only accomplished two things. They have cluttered their friends’ Facebook news feed with (yet another) hoax, and they’ve told all their friends that they’re kind of gullible for believing this is actually real.

Jayco is not giving away an RV. There is no contest or drawing. Don’t comment and don’t share it. If anything, tell the person who shared it that they should delete it.

This has become so common, and so many people have shared it in order to win, that the Jayco RV company had to actually come out with a statement explaining that it was all fake. This is what they posted on their company Facebook page:

So what’s the point of this? Why would someone create a fake Facebook page about giving away an RV?

Well, the scammers usually have one of these plans in mind:

First, they might get thousands or hundreds of thousands of Likes and Shares. That means that the content that gets posted on that Facebook page will get seen by a lot of those people. So they’ll eventually change it from the RV giveaway to something else, like a spammy product they want to sell. The “RV Giveaway” might change to “Get free quote on your auto insurance!”. And since it cost them nothing to get all of these followers, it’s free advertising.

Second, they might just build up the Facebook page with a lot of likes and follows, and then just sell the page on the black market. Any Facebook page that has a high number of followers has value, so it is something that certain people will pay for.

So when you see something like this, know that it’s just a scam. Don’t help the scammers! Click the 3 dots at the top, then click on “Report page”. Hopefully Facebook will agree that it’s just a hoax and take it down quickly.

The post The RV giveaway scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

How to resize the Windows 10 Start Menu Aug 17, 2020
Did you know that the Windows 10 Start menu is re-sizable? It’s really easy to do too.

Microsoft seems to be obsessed with making the Windows 10 Start Menu be so large that it takes up much of the desktop screen. Of course, it doesn’t help that they fill it by default with a bunch of junk like XBox games and Candy Crush and Bing News. But we can fix all of that.

There are actually a couple of ways you can configure it so that the Windows 10 Start Menu takes up less space on your screen.

First, you can get rid of all the tiles they stick in there. This is one of the things I do as standard procedure when I’m setting up a new computer – either a computer that a client has just purchased new, or a laptop that I’m setting up for resale. None of those tiles are needed, so I get rid of all of them. All you have to do is right click on each tile individually, and in the little menu that comes up, click on “Unpin from Start”. And that tile is gone. When you’re done, open the Start Menu again and you’ll see that all that’s there is the scrollable list of all your apps and programs. Much cleaner.

The second thing you can do is physically re-size the Start Menu. You’re able to actually make it taller or shorter, as well as wider or thinner.

To do this, just click the Start button so that the Start Menu appears on the screen. Then put your cursor at the top edge of the Start Menu. You’ll see that the cursor changes to an up-arrow and down-arrow icon, and when it’s like that, you can click and drag the top edge of the Start Menu up or down. Just move it to where you like it and let go. You can do the same thing with the right edge of the Start Menu – just click and drag left or right and make it the size you prefer.

For me, I like for the Start Menu to be as small and inconspicuous as possible. But that’s just my personal preference. You can set yours to look the way you want. And I’ll bet if you show your friends this Start Menu resizing trick, it’s probably something they didn’t even know was possible.

The post How to resize the Windows 10 Start Menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

clean Start Menu — How to resize the Windows 10 Start Menu Aug 17, 2020
Did you know that the Windows 10 Start menu is re-sizable? It’s really easy to do too.

Microsoft seems to be obsessed with making the Windows 10 Start Menu be so large that it takes up much of the desktop screen. Of course, it doesn’t help that they fill it by default with a bunch of junk like XBox games and Candy Crush and Bing News. But we can fix all of that.

There are actually a couple of ways you can configure it so that the Windows 10 Start Menu takes up less space on your screen.

First, you can get rid of all the tiles they stick in there. This is one of the things I do as standard procedure when I’m setting up a new computer – either a computer that a client has just purchased new, or a laptop that I’m setting up for resale. None of those tiles are needed, so I get rid of all of them. All you have to do is right click on each tile individually, and in the little menu that comes up, click on “Unpin from Start”. And that tile is gone. When you’re done, open the Start Menu again and you’ll see that all that’s there is the scrollable list of all your apps and programs. Much cleaner.

The second thing you can do is physically re-size the Start Menu. You’re able to actually make it taller or shorter, as well as wider or thinner.

To do this, just click the Start button so that the Start Menu appears on the screen. Then put your cursor at the top edge of the Start Menu. You’ll see that the cursor changes to an up-arrow and down-arrow icon, and when it’s like that, you can click and drag the top edge of the Start Menu up or down. Just move it to where you like it and let go. You can do the same thing with the right edge of the Start Menu – just click and drag left or right and make it the size you prefer.

For me, I like for the Start Menu to be as small and inconspicuous as possible. But that’s just my personal preference. You can set yours to look the way you want. And I’ll bet if you show your friends this Start Menu resizing trick, it’s probably something they didn’t even know was possible.

The post How to resize the Windows 10 Start Menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 May 2020 update — Back up your files BEFORE this forced update comes in Aug 03, 2020
Quick tip today – big Windows Update is coming, so be ready for it by backing up your computer.

This update was actually released a few months ago, and is referred to by two names:

The May 2020 Update

Windows 10 version 2004

Even though it is called both names, it’s the same update. Some Windows 10 computers have already received it, but many have not.

Here’s how to check to see if your computer has already received it:

Hold down the Windows key on the keyboard, and tap the letter “r”

In the Open box, type: winver and click OK

This will open a new window which will show your version number for Windows 10:

If you already have the update, it will say Version 2004. The version just prior to that is 1909. The one before that is 1903.

What to do:

If your computer is at version 1903 or earlier, I recommend that you get updated to at least version 1909 (it’s quite stable).

If your computer is running version 2004 and not showing any problems, that’s good.

If your computer is running version 1909, you don’t need to get the newest update yet – but it’s coming. You need to be ready for it.

In some cases, the newest big Windows Update can cause problems for Windows 10 computers. So you need to have a full system image backup in place, so you are ready in case your computer gets stuck in an endless loop during a Windows update.

The program I use for this update is called Macrium Reflect. It’s free for personal use, and it works great. I have quite a few clients who have avoided losing data after a hard drive crash, because they had this backup. It’s a bit complex to set up initially, but once it’s in place, doing a backup is super simple. You just plug in the backup drive at night, and unplug it in the morning. It’s an incredibly easy thing to do, in order to avoid the huge headache that comes with losing all of your important files and folders.

So my challenge to you today is this: get your backup in place. If you need help with this, I can do the whole thing remotely. So you don’t have to have anyone come in to your home or office, and you don’t have to bring your computer anywhere.

AND – if you are one of my many clients who already has Macrium Reflect set up to do that overnight backup – when was the last time you did it? I do mine every single night, because it’s just easier to be in that habit. Do your backup tonight, and don’t worry about what a Windows Update might do to your computer.

The post Back up your files BEFORE this forced update comes in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 version — Back up your files BEFORE this forced update comes in Aug 03, 2020
Quick tip today – big Windows Update is coming, so be ready for it by backing up your computer.

This update was actually released a few months ago, and is referred to by two names:

The May 2020 Update

Windows 10 version 2004

Even though it is called both names, it’s the same update. Some Windows 10 computers have already received it, but many have not.

Here’s how to check to see if your computer has already received it:

Hold down the Windows key on the keyboard, and tap the letter “r”

In the Open box, type: winver and click OK

This will open a new window which will show your version number for Windows 10:

If you already have the update, it will say Version 2004. The version just prior to that is 1909. The one before that is 1903.

What to do:

If your computer is at version 1903 or earlier, I recommend that you get updated to at least version 1909 (it’s quite stable).

If your computer is running version 2004 and not showing any problems, that’s good.

If your computer is running version 1909, you don’t need to get the newest update yet – but it’s coming. You need to be ready for it.

In some cases, the newest big Windows Update can cause problems for Windows 10 computers. So you need to have a full system image backup in place, so you are ready in case your computer gets stuck in an endless loop during a Windows update.

The program I use for this update is called Macrium Reflect. It’s free for personal use, and it works great. I have quite a few clients who have avoided losing data after a hard drive crash, because they had this backup. It’s a bit complex to set up initially, but once it’s in place, doing a backup is super simple. You just plug in the backup drive at night, and unplug it in the morning. It’s an incredibly easy thing to do, in order to avoid the huge headache that comes with losing all of your important files and folders.

So my challenge to you today is this: get your backup in place. If you need help with this, I can do the whole thing remotely. So you don’t have to have anyone come in to your home or office, and you don’t have to bring your computer anywhere.

AND – if you are one of my many clients who already has Macrium Reflect set up to do that overnight backup – when was the last time you did it? I do mine every single night, because it’s just easier to be in that habit. Do your backup tonight, and don’t worry about what a Windows Update might do to your computer.

The post Back up your files BEFORE this forced update comes in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

A scam that sounds very convincing Jul 20, 2020
If you read this blog or listen to my podcast regularly, you should probably by now be pretty good at spotting a scam. Or at least being suspicious enough to investigate further. But what if the scammer shows that he has your actual password?

This is one that I get calls about pretty regularly. Many of my long-term clients and readers of this blog or listeners to the podcast can catch when a scam is fairly obvious, but this one makes them think twice. Or in some cases, they believe that the message that they received is actually true (it isn’t).

Here’s the email that usually gets sent (for this example, we’ll assume that the recipient of the email has used the word “pineapple89” as one of their passwords, either in the past or currently):

From: scammer@email.com
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020
To: recipient@email.com
Subject: Your password pineapple89

Your password is pineapple89. I know a lot more things about you than that.

How?

I placed a malware on the porn website and guess what, you visited this website to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching the video, your web browser acted as an RDP (Remote Desktop) and a keylogger, which provided me access to your display screen and webcam. Right after that, my software gathered all your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook account, and email account.

What exactly did I do?

I made a split-screen video. The first part recorded the video you were viewing (you’ve got an exceptional taste haha), and the next part recorded your webcam (Yep! It’s you doing nasty things!).

What should you do?

Well, I believe $4900 is a fair price for our little secret. You’ll make the payment via Bitcoin to the below address (if you don’t know this, search “how to buy Bitcoin” in Google).

Bitcoin Address:

gb399Hi492hEN7Gvq99jum4WMt4956PcG
(it is cAsE sensitive, so copy and paste it)

Important: You have 24 hours to make the payment. (I have a unique pixel within this email message, and right now I know that you have read this email). If I don’t get the payment, I will send your video to all of your contacts, including relatives, co-workers, and so forth. Nonetheless, if I do get paid, I will erase the video immediately. If you want evidence, reply with “Yes!” and I will send your video recording to your five friends. This is a non-negotiable offer, so don’t waste my time and yours by replying to this email.

Some observations about that email message:

First, if you suspected this was a scam, what would be the first thing you would want? Proof that they have this alleged video. So they knock down that objection right in the message. You want evidence, ok – we’ll send the video to five of your friends. Of course the victim does not want that to happen.

Second, payment is requested to be made by Bitcoin. This way, the scammers can get the money and still remain anonymous.

Third, what is the real kicker that makes some recipients think it might be real? The fact that the scammer has the actual, legitimate password that the recipient has used in the past, or might still be using on some accounts currently. How is that possible?

You’ve probably heard of the massive data breaches, like the ones that happened at Target, or the multiple times Yahoo! has gotten hacked into. There are lots of other companies that have had this happen.

When the hackers get this data, they are holding in their hands a large database of customer information. In a lot of cases, each record includes the email address for the customer, as well as the password connected with that email address. This information is sold on the black market to scammers.

So the scammers have that list of email addresses, most of which are still actively being used. And they have a password that was also used for that account, whether it was with Yahoo! or whatever the online account was.

And the scammers know one very important fact: many people use the same password for all of their accounts.

So they know that when they send out that email to hundreds or thousands of people, a LOT of those recipients are going to see that password right there, and think, “Oh no – this must be for real”. But of course there is no video, and the whole thing is a bluff.

Many people will read it and ignore it, but if the scammer sends out 1000 of those emails, and just 1/100th of a percent of the recipients fall for it and pay, that’s still a $4900 payday. And if 2 or 3 of those pay, that’s a ridiculous payoff.

What should you do if you get one of these scam emails?

The one thing you should do right away is to change your password for any accounts that still have that password. One of the things scammers are known to do is to try that email and password to log in to bank accounts, Paypal accounts, email accounts, anything that could potentially have value for them. So change that password and never use it again, anywhere.

And more fundamentally – don’t use the same password on more than one account. If you use a password (or a slight variation of that same password), it’s likely you’ll regret it some day.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/04/30/new-sextortion-scam-claims-know-your-password/
The post A scam that sounds very convincing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — A scam that sounds very convincing Jul 20, 2020
If you read this blog or listen to my podcast regularly, you should probably by now be pretty good at spotting a scam. Or at least being suspicious enough to investigate further. But what if the scammer shows that he has your actual password?

This is one that I get calls about pretty regularly. Many of my long-term clients and readers of this blog or listeners to the podcast can catch when a scam is fairly obvious, but this one makes them think twice. Or in some cases, they believe that the message that they received is actually true (it isn’t).

Here’s the email that usually gets sent (for this example, we’ll assume that the recipient of the email has used the word “pineapple89” as one of their passwords, either in the past or currently):

From: scammer@email.com
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020
To: recipient@email.com
Subject: Your password pineapple89

Your password is pineapple89. I know a lot more things about you than that.

How?

I placed a malware on the porn website and guess what, you visited this website to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching the video, your web browser acted as an RDP (Remote Desktop) and a keylogger, which provided me access to your display screen and webcam. Right after that, my software gathered all your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook account, and email account.

What exactly did I do?

I made a split-screen video. The first part recorded the video you were viewing (you’ve got an exceptional taste haha), and the next part recorded your webcam (Yep! It’s you doing nasty things!).

What should you do?

Well, I believe $4900 is a fair price for our little secret. You’ll make the payment via Bitcoin to the below address (if you don’t know this, search “how to buy Bitcoin” in Google).

Bitcoin Address:

gb399Hi492hEN7Gvq99jum4WMt4956PcG
(it is cAsE sensitive, so copy and paste it)

Important: You have 24 hours to make the payment. (I have a unique pixel within this email message, and right now I know that you have read this email). If I don’t get the payment, I will send your video to all of your contacts, including relatives, co-workers, and so forth. Nonetheless, if I do get paid, I will erase the video immediately. If you want evidence, reply with “Yes!” and I will send your video recording to your five friends. This is a non-negotiable offer, so don’t waste my time and yours by replying to this email.

Some observations about that email message:

First, if you suspected this was a scam, what would be the first thing you would want? Proof that they have this alleged video. So they knock down that objection right in the message. You want evidence, ok – we’ll send the video to five of your friends. Of course the victim does not want that to happen.

Second, payment is requested to be made by Bitcoin. This way, the scammers can get the money and still remain anonymous.

Third, what is the real kicker that makes some recipients think it might be real? The fact that the scammer has the actual, legitimate password that the recipient has used in the past, or might still be using on some accounts currently. How is that possible?

You’ve probably heard of the massive data breaches, like the ones that happened at Target, or the multiple times Yahoo! has gotten hacked into. There are lots of other companies that have had this happen.

When the hackers get this data, they are holding in their hands a large database of customer information. In a lot of cases, each record includes the email address for the customer, as well as the password connected with that email address. This information is sold on the black market to scammers.

So the scammers have that list of email addresses, most of which are still actively being used. And they have a password that was also used for that account, whether it was with Yahoo! or whatever the online account was.

And the scammers know one very important fact: many people use the same password for all of their accounts.

So they know that when they send out that email to hundreds or thousands of people, a LOT of those recipients are going to see that password right there, and think, “Oh no – this must be for real”. But of course there is no video, and the whole thing is a bluff.

Many people will read it and ignore it, but if the scammer sends out 1000 of those emails, and just 1/100th of a percent of the recipients fall for it and pay, that’s still a $4900 payday. And if 2 or 3 of those pay, that’s a ridiculous payoff.

What should you do if you get one of these scam emails?

The one thing you should do right away is to change your password for any accounts that still have that password. One of the things scammers are known to do is to try that email and password to log in to bank accounts, Paypal accounts, email accounts, anything that could potentially have value for them. So change that password and never use it again, anywhere.

And more fundamentally – don’t use the same password on more than one account. If you use a password (or a slight variation of that same password), it’s likely you’ll regret it some day.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/04/30/new-sextortion-scam-claims-know-your-password/
The post A scam that sounds very convincing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

don't do these things — Some important computer DON’Ts Jul 06, 2020
Want to avoid getting into trouble with your computer? Here are some things you DON’T want to do.

Don’t have Chrome (or any browser) store your passwords. Yes, it makes it really easy to access all your website accounts. But it’s also really dangerous, because if your computer ever got hacked into, or lost, or stolen, all of your passwords are right there in plain text.

Don’t use the backup software that came with your portable or external hard drive. Every company that makes hard drives also offers backup software – Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, etc. None of those programs are as reliable as Macrium Reflect, the one I use and recommend (I’ve installed and configured it on hundreds of computers).

Don’t talk to scammers when they call you. If someone calls and says they’re with Microsoft, just hang up immediately. It might be tempting to explain that you know it’s a scam, but these guys are clever. They know that the longer you stay on the phone, the more likely they are to actually convince you that they ARE Microsoft tech support. Just hang up.

Don’t call a tech support number that pops up on your screen along with some kind of error message or alert. Especially if that pop-up is accompanied by a robotic voice telling you about this terrible problem with your computer. And the message always includes the warning to NOT TURN OFF OR RESTART THE COMPUTER. If that happens, don’t call the phone number. Just restart the computer.

Don’t open email attachments. That’s my policy. The only exception is when I get an email with an attachment, and I’m already expecting that email, and I already know what the attachment is. Otherwise, it just gets deleted. It’s kind of amazing, but one of the primary ways to deliver a virus to a computer these is still by sending an email with an attached file that contains a virus.

Don’t search Google for a tech support phone number. The scammers have made LOTS of websites that are designed to look like “Dell Tech Support” or “HP Printer Tech Support”, and they design those websites to come up in the search results in Google. When you call them, they are of course happy to “help” you – but you’re talking to a scammer, not Dell or HP.

Don’t do your online banking while connected to a public wifi. This is pretty much common sense, but people still do it. In fact, don’t connect to anything that involves personal or private information when you’re at Starbucks or McDonalds or any other public wifi provider. It’s not secure.

Don’t re-use the same password (or a slight variation of it) on multiple accounts. The hackers know that most people do this, and they know that it makes their job much easier. All they have to do is get into ONE of your accounts – and now they have the password for ALL of your accounts. Yes, it’s inconvenient to have a different password for every account, but only if you’re trying to remember all of them. You don’t have to though – just use LastPass. That’s what I use. I can set it up for you remotely if you want.

What other computer “don’ts” do you follow?

The post Some important computer DON’Ts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — Some important computer DON’Ts Jul 06, 2020
Want to avoid getting into trouble with your computer? Here are some things you DON’T want to do.

Don’t have Chrome (or any browser) store your passwords. Yes, it makes it really easy to access all your website accounts. But it’s also really dangerous, because if your computer ever got hacked into, or lost, or stolen, all of your passwords are right there in plain text.

Don’t use the backup software that came with your portable or external hard drive. Every company that makes hard drives also offers backup software – Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, etc. None of those programs are as reliable as Macrium Reflect, the one I use and recommend (I’ve installed and configured it on hundreds of computers).

Don’t talk to scammers when they call you. If someone calls and says they’re with Microsoft, just hang up immediately. It might be tempting to explain that you know it’s a scam, but these guys are clever. They know that the longer you stay on the phone, the more likely they are to actually convince you that they ARE Microsoft tech support. Just hang up.

Don’t call a tech support number that pops up on your screen along with some kind of error message or alert. Especially if that pop-up is accompanied by a robotic voice telling you about this terrible problem with your computer. And the message always includes the warning to NOT TURN OFF OR RESTART THE COMPUTER. If that happens, don’t call the phone number. Just restart the computer.

Don’t open email attachments. That’s my policy. The only exception is when I get an email with an attachment, and I’m already expecting that email, and I already know what the attachment is. Otherwise, it just gets deleted. It’s kind of amazing, but one of the primary ways to deliver a virus to a computer these is still by sending an email with an attached file that contains a virus.

Don’t search Google for a tech support phone number. The scammers have made LOTS of websites that are designed to look like “Dell Tech Support” or “HP Printer Tech Support”, and they design those websites to come up in the search results in Google. When you call them, they are of course happy to “help” you – but you’re talking to a scammer, not Dell or HP.

Don’t do your online banking while connected to a public wifi. This is pretty much common sense, but people still do it. In fact, don’t connect to anything that involves personal or private information when you’re at Starbucks or McDonalds or any other public wifi provider. It’s not secure.

Don’t re-use the same password (or a slight variation of it) on multiple accounts. The hackers know that most people do this, and they know that it makes their job much easier. All they have to do is get into ONE of your accounts – and now they have the password for ALL of your accounts. Yes, it’s inconvenient to have a different password for every account, but only if you’re trying to remember all of them. You don’t have to though – just use LastPass. That’s what I use. I can set it up for you remotely if you want.

What other computer “don’ts” do you follow?

The post Some important computer DON’Ts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Reddit — 3 subreddits you never knew existed Jun 22, 2020
If you have never visited Reddit, you are missing out on one of the biggest and most popular sites on the internet. Today we’ll talk about a few of the unknown corners of that world.

What is Reddit?

Basically, it’s a social media site. But this is no Facebook. One big way it’s different is that most people don’t use their real name on Reddit like they do on Facebook. So the relative anonymity creates a “freer” environment for discussion. And of course, that can be good or bad.

Another difference is how you vote on things. In Facebook, you can click the “Like” for something you like, but there’s no “Dislike” button (even though people have wanted one for a long time). On Reddit, every post and comment has an up arrow and a down arrow, and you can express your opinion just by clicking one of them.

The best way to figure out what Reddit’s all about is to just go there: Reddit.com. You can browse without having an account, but you will need an account in order to post something or to give an upvote or downvote.

Reddit is made up of thousands of discussion groups, and each one has it’s own topic or theme. There are probably around 150,000 of these now, and each one is called a subreddit. There are subreddits for almost any topic you can think of. Some of the more popular ones are r/funny (each post is something humorous), r/pics (interesting pictures), or r/politics (anything related to the US government).

Something fun is that anyone with an account can create their own subreddit. So, as you can imagine on a social site with over 300 million users, there are some very unusual and niche groups. I even have a subreddit for my other podcast (r/WhatWasThatLike).

As you explore Reddit, you’ll come across some very interesting and unusual subreddits. Here are a few that even veteran Redditors aren’t usually aware of:

r/HostileArchitecture
Hostile Architecture is actually a subject I’ve been intrigued by for quite some time. Have you ever been outside in some public place, like walking on a sidewalk in the downtown area of a city, and you want to sit down and rest for a bit? You look around, and there’s a building nearby, and there’s a sort of horizontal ledge that is part of the building, and it sticks out maybe 6 inches or so. Yes, you can sort of sit on it to take the weight off your feet for a few minutes, but it’s such an uncomfortable place to sit, you can’t stay there very long.

It was constructed that way deliberately. If that ledge stuck out maybe 18 inches, you could sit there for a long time. But that business doesn’t want people sitting out there all day. A lot of times, this kind of thing is created with the plan for keeping homeless people away. Flat surfaces are constructed at an angle so that no one can sleep there. In some cases, jagged edges or large bumps are built into the cement to make it uncomfortable.

An example of this would be this bench, in Arlington, Virginia. The armrest in the middle is there so that no one can lie prone on the bench:

In the Hostile Architecture subreddit, anyone that sees something like this can take a picture and submit it. And there’s a LOT of this – it’s just something that most people don’t really think about.

r/FormerPizzaHuts
If there’s any public building that has a visually identifiable shape, it’s a Pizza Hut restaurant. Everyone knows what they look like:

But what about when a Pizza Hut restaurant closes, and another restaurant, or even another totally different type of business, moves in? The design of the roof usually stays the same, so no matter what business currently occupies the building, everyone knows that it was formerly a Pizza Hut.

In this subreddit, everyone submits pictures of former Pizza Huts that are now a different business.

Like this one – formerly Pizza Hut, now Domino’s:

r/UpliftingNews/
Okay, this one is a little more practical. Or at least inspiring. As you might guess by the name, in this group every post is some type of news article that is comprised of GOOD news. I mean, aren’t we all sick of the negative, depressing news that gets broadcast 24 hours a day? I am, which is why I don’t even watch the news.

Here are a few examples of things recently posted in this subreddit:

Teenager saves the life of a 74-year old woman – this elderly lady was home alone, and fell in her garage. She broke her femur and was unable to get up. She managed to open the garage door with a broom, and yelled for help for a while. A 16 year old girl who lives nearby saw the woman’s dog running loose, and brought it back home. That’s when she found the lady and called for an ambulance. Since then the two have become good friends.

Florida’s highway welcome centers will once again offer orange juice – When I was a kid living in Ohio, we would sometimes drive to Florida for vacation. One of the things we would always do is stop at the Welcome Center when we crossed the Florida state line, to get that complimentary cup of orange juice. Last year (2019) that program was ended due to budget cuts. But now, the Florida Citrus Commission just approved a $250k contract to start offering that free orange juice again.

There’s good news happening all over the place, but we just don’t usually hear about it. Now you know where to find it!

Do you use Reddit? Do you know about any unusual or little-known subreddits that people would be interested in? Let us know about them in the comments!

The post 3 subreddits you never knew existed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hostile architecture — 3 subreddits you never knew existed Jun 22, 2020
If you have never visited Reddit, you are missing out on one of the biggest and most popular sites on the internet. Today we’ll talk about a few of the unknown corners of that world.

What is Reddit?

Basically, it’s a social media site. But this is no Facebook. One big way it’s different is that most people don’t use their real name on Reddit like they do on Facebook. So the relative anonymity creates a “freer” environment for discussion. And of course, that can be good or bad.

Another difference is how you vote on things. In Facebook, you can click the “Like” for something you like, but there’s no “Dislike” button (even though people have wanted one for a long time). On Reddit, every post and comment has an up arrow and a down arrow, and you can express your opinion just by clicking one of them.

The best way to figure out what Reddit’s all about is to just go there: Reddit.com. You can browse without having an account, but you will need an account in order to post something or to give an upvote or downvote.

Reddit is made up of thousands of discussion groups, and each one has it’s own topic or theme. There are probably around 150,000 of these now, and each one is called a subreddit. There are subreddits for almost any topic you can think of. Some of the more popular ones are r/funny (each post is something humorous), r/pics (interesting pictures), or r/politics (anything related to the US government).

Something fun is that anyone with an account can create their own subreddit. So, as you can imagine on a social site with over 300 million users, there are some very unusual and niche groups. I even have a subreddit for my other podcast (r/WhatWasThatLike).

As you explore Reddit, you’ll come across some very interesting and unusual subreddits. Here are a few that even veteran Redditors aren’t usually aware of:

r/HostileArchitecture
Hostile Architecture is actually a subject I’ve been intrigued by for quite some time. Have you ever been outside in some public place, like walking on a sidewalk in the downtown area of a city, and you want to sit down and rest for a bit? You look around, and there’s a building nearby, and there’s a sort of horizontal ledge that is part of the building, and it sticks out maybe 6 inches or so. Yes, you can sort of sit on it to take the weight off your feet for a few minutes, but it’s such an uncomfortable place to sit, you can’t stay there very long.

It was constructed that way deliberately. If that ledge stuck out maybe 18 inches, you could sit there for a long time. But that business doesn’t want people sitting out there all day. A lot of times, this kind of thing is created with the plan for keeping homeless people away. Flat surfaces are constructed at an angle so that no one can sleep there. In some cases, jagged edges or large bumps are built into the cement to make it uncomfortable.

An example of this would be this bench, in Arlington, Virginia. The armrest in the middle is there so that no one can lie prone on the bench:

In the Hostile Architecture subreddit, anyone that sees something like this can take a picture and submit it. And there’s a LOT of this – it’s just something that most people don’t really think about.

r/FormerPizzaHuts
If there’s any public building that has a visually identifiable shape, it’s a Pizza Hut restaurant. Everyone knows what they look like:

But what about when a Pizza Hut restaurant closes, and another restaurant, or even another totally different type of business, moves in? The design of the roof usually stays the same, so no matter what business currently occupies the building, everyone knows that it was formerly a Pizza Hut.

In this subreddit, everyone submits pictures of former Pizza Huts that are now a different business.

Like this one – formerly Pizza Hut, now Domino’s:

r/UpliftingNews/
Okay, this one is a little more practical. Or at least inspiring. As you might guess by the name, in this group every post is some type of news article that is comprised of GOOD news. I mean, aren’t we all sick of the negative, depressing news that gets broadcast 24 hours a day? I am, which is why I don’t even watch the news.

Here are a few examples of things recently posted in this subreddit:

Teenager saves the life of a 74-year old woman – this elderly lady was home alone, and fell in her garage. She broke her femur and was unable to get up. She managed to open the garage door with a broom, and yelled for help for a while. A 16 year old girl who lives nearby saw the woman’s dog running loose, and brought it back home. That’s when she found the lady and called for an ambulance. Since then the two have become good friends.

Florida’s highway welcome centers will once again offer orange juice – When I was a kid living in Ohio, we would sometimes drive to Florida for vacation. One of the things we would always do is stop at the Welcome Center when we crossed the Florida state line, to get that complimentary cup of orange juice. Last year (2019) that program was ended due to budget cuts. But now, the Florida Citrus Commission just approved a $250k contract to start offering that free orange juice again.

There’s good news happening all over the place, but we just don’t usually hear about it. Now you know where to find it!

Do you use Reddit? Do you know about any unusual or little-known subreddits that people would be interested in? Let us know about them in the comments!

The post 3 subreddits you never knew existed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

important files — How to find your important files Jun 08, 2020
Today I’ll show you the absolute quickest way to get to all of your important files on your Windows computer.

You might already know that you can click on the little “file folder” icon at the bottom of the screen to open Windows File Explorer. It looks like this:

That opens a window (File Explorer) that shows some of your personal folders such as Documents, Pictures, etc. But it doesn’t show ALL of your personal files and folders. So how do you see all of them?

It’s easy to do this:

Hold down the Windows key (lower left area of the keyboard) and tap the letter “r”

In the search box, type “.” (just a period, without the quotes)

Hit Enter

What you see next is your user profile folder. This displays ALL of the files and folders in your Windows user profile.

A couple of things to note:

That window will only show the contents for the user profile you are signed into at the moment. If there is more than one user profile in this computer, you would need to go to the other user profile(s) to see the contents of that profile.

Some programs store data in weird places. One example is Quickbooks. More than once, I have seen the Quickbooks company files stored in the user profile called “Public” – completely outside the user profile being used. This is not only confusing, it could also be dangerous – since that folder might not be included in a backup process. You really should check and see where Quickbooks is storing your data.

The post How to find your important files first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

File explorer — How to find your important files Jun 08, 2020
Today I’ll show you the absolute quickest way to get to all of your important files on your Windows computer.

You might already know that you can click on the little “file folder” icon at the bottom of the screen to open Windows File Explorer. It looks like this:

That opens a window (File Explorer) that shows some of your personal folders such as Documents, Pictures, etc. But it doesn’t show ALL of your personal files and folders. So how do you see all of them?

It’s easy to do this:

Hold down the Windows key (lower left area of the keyboard) and tap the letter “r”

In the search box, type “.” (just a period, without the quotes)

Hit Enter

What you see next is your user profile folder. This displays ALL of the files and folders in your Windows user profile.

A couple of things to note:

That window will only show the contents for the user profile you are signed into at the moment. If there is more than one user profile in this computer, you would need to go to the other user profile(s) to see the contents of that profile.

Some programs store data in weird places. One example is Quickbooks. More than once, I have seen the Quickbooks company files stored in the user profile called “Public” – completely outside the user profile being used. This is not only confusing, it could also be dangerous – since that folder might not be included in a backup process. You really should check and see where Quickbooks is storing your data.

The post How to find your important files first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Honey Chrome extension — This Chrome extension will save you money May 25, 2020
If you order anything online (and don’t we all?) you definitely should be using this Chrome extension. It will save you money.

I’ll tell you this up front – I don’t usually get involved with this kind of thing. In many cases – actually I would say in MOST cases – if you get something that pops up asking you to install it and promising to save you money on all your purchases, it’s just junk. When you install it, you’re likely to get all kinds of bad stuff added to your computer, and you definitely won’t be saving any money.

But this one is different.

I had heard about Honey before, but never really paid much attention to it. But not too long ago, I was buying something online and the total came to around $300, and added to that was sales tax and about $30 shipping cost. I don’t know what made me think of it, but before I completed the checkout process, I thought, “I wonder if Honey can save me any money on this.”

So I went to the Honey website (joinhoney.com) and searched on the name of the item I was about to purchase. And I was surprised to find that Honey came up with a promo code for me to try. So I copied that promo code, and went back to the checkout screen where I was about to make that purchase, and entered it in the “Promo code” box and hit “Apply”.

And that quick little experiment gave me a 10% discount on that purchase! So I saved $30, which in effect means I got free shipping. And it never would have happened if I had not given Honey a shot to see if it really works. That’s when I became a believer.

I’ve used Honey since then and saved money on other purchases as well. And the best thing is, it’s free. You don’t have to join any silly “shopping club” or get a paid membership on the website, or anything.

If you want to try it out, you can use the Honey website like I did my first time using it. But it’s a whole lot easier to just get the extension and have it running in Chrome all the time. You can get the Chrome extension here. I think there’s one for Firefox as well, and probably some other browsers.

Once you have the extension installed, if you look up at the top of Chrome in the right corner, you should see the little Honey “h” icon up there. It looks like this:

Then, whenever you are shopping for something online, and about to check out, you can click that icon and it will search the internet for any promo codes that are available for whatever you’re about to buy. It only takes a couple of seconds. With that extension always there, you can be confident that you’re getting the best price possible on your online purchases.

And Honey also works whenever you buy anything on Amazon too! I have not yet tried it on take-out orders for restaurants, but I think it would work for that.

If you are a Honey user, or just became one after reading this, let me know what your experience has been. How much money have you saved?

The post This Chrome extension will save you money first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Honey icon — This Chrome extension will save you money May 25, 2020
If you order anything online (and don’t we all?) you definitely should be using this Chrome extension. It will save you money.

I’ll tell you this up front – I don’t usually get involved with this kind of thing. In many cases – actually I would say in MOST cases – if you get something that pops up asking you to install it and promising to save you money on all your purchases, it’s just junk. When you install it, you’re likely to get all kinds of bad stuff added to your computer, and you definitely won’t be saving any money.

But this one is different.

I had heard about Honey before, but never really paid much attention to it. But not too long ago, I was buying something online and the total came to around $300, and added to that was sales tax and about $30 shipping cost. I don’t know what made me think of it, but before I completed the checkout process, I thought, “I wonder if Honey can save me any money on this.”

So I went to the Honey website (joinhoney.com) and searched on the name of the item I was about to purchase. And I was surprised to find that Honey came up with a promo code for me to try. So I copied that promo code, and went back to the checkout screen where I was about to make that purchase, and entered it in the “Promo code” box and hit “Apply”.

And that quick little experiment gave me a 10% discount on that purchase! So I saved $30, which in effect means I got free shipping. And it never would have happened if I had not given Honey a shot to see if it really works. That’s when I became a believer.

I’ve used Honey since then and saved money on other purchases as well. And the best thing is, it’s free. You don’t have to join any silly “shopping club” or get a paid membership on the website, or anything.

If you want to try it out, you can use the Honey website like I did my first time using it. But it’s a whole lot easier to just get the extension and have it running in Chrome all the time. You can get the Chrome extension here. I think there’s one for Firefox as well, and probably some other browsers.

Once you have the extension installed, if you look up at the top of Chrome in the right corner, you should see the little Honey “h” icon up there. It looks like this:

Then, whenever you are shopping for something online, and about to check out, you can click that icon and it will search the internet for any promo codes that are available for whatever you’re about to buy. It only takes a couple of seconds. With that extension always there, you can be confident that you’re getting the best price possible on your online purchases.

And Honey also works whenever you buy anything on Amazon too! I have not yet tried it on take-out orders for restaurants, but I think it would work for that.

If you are a Honey user, or just became one after reading this, let me know what your experience has been. How much money have you saved?

The post This Chrome extension will save you money first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

If you prefer talking instead of typing – try Speechtexter May 11, 2020
Today we’ll learn about a free service that let’s you talk into your computer, and have those words made into a document.

Since I type on my computer keyboard all the time, I’m able to type pretty quickly. I haven’t measured my typing speed lately but I do okay. Which is kind of funny, since I absolutely despised typing class in high school.

But here is something that’s true for me, and probably for almost anyone: you can talk faster that you can type.

So if you would prefer to just talk to your computer and have it translate your spoken words into digital words (such as in a document, a blog post, etc), the Speechtexter service let’s you do that.

And they make it pretty easy. If you go to Speechtexter.com, you’ll see a pretty obvious button right in the middle of the page that says “Start dictating”:

When you click that, you’re immediately presented with a big white space, similar to a blank document. Then you can tap the ESC key on your keyboard, and start talking (assuming you have a microphone connected to the computer, or that you’re using the laptop’s built-in mic).

This is when you’ll want to start experimenting. Just say a few words and watch them appear on the screen. When I played with it, it didn’t really seem odd since I often speak into my phone to dictate a text message. It’s just much faster than typing it on my phone.

One of the big conveniences with Speechtexter is that you can also say what punctuation you want to use. There’s a chart just to the right of white area that lists what the program recognizes:

And when you’re all done and all your words are on the screen, you can click the Download icon in the top right corner, and choose whether or not you want to download it as a plain text file (.txt) or as a Word document (.doc). And now you have literally spoken something into existence!

I think the way I would be most likely to use this is if I have a long letter or document that is in print form, and I need to get it into digital form. So I could just read the document into SpeechTexter, then save it. Would you use this online service? What kind of situation could you imagine it being a handy tool? Let me know in the comments below.

The post If you prefer talking instead of typing – try Speechtexter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

start dictating — If you prefer talking instead of typing – try Speechtexter May 11, 2020
Today we’ll learn about a free service that let’s you talk into your computer, and have those words made into a document.

Since I type on my computer keyboard all the time, I’m able to type pretty quickly. I haven’t measured my typing speed lately but I do okay. Which is kind of funny, since I absolutely despised typing class in high school.

But here is something that’s true for me, and probably for almost anyone: you can talk faster that you can type.

So if you would prefer to just talk to your computer and have it translate your spoken words into digital words (such as in a document, a blog post, etc), the Speechtexter service let’s you do that.

And they make it pretty easy. If you go to Speechtexter.com, you’ll see a pretty obvious button right in the middle of the page that says “Start dictating”:

When you click that, you’re immediately presented with a big white space, similar to a blank document. Then you can tap the ESC key on your keyboard, and start talking (assuming you have a microphone connected to the computer, or that you’re using the laptop’s built-in mic).

This is when you’ll want to start experimenting. Just say a few words and watch them appear on the screen. When I played with it, it didn’t really seem odd since I often speak into my phone to dictate a text message. It’s just much faster than typing it on my phone.

One of the big conveniences with Speechtexter is that you can also say what punctuation you want to use. There’s a chart just to the right of white area that lists what the program recognizes:

And when you’re all done and all your words are on the screen, you can click the Download icon in the top right corner, and choose whether or not you want to download it as a plain text file (.txt) or as a Word document (.doc). And now you have literally spoken something into existence!

I think the way I would be most likely to use this is if I have a long letter or document that is in print form, and I need to get it into digital form. So I could just read the document into SpeechTexter, then save it. Would you use this online service? What kind of situation could you imagine it being a handy tool? Let me know in the comments below.

The post If you prefer talking instead of typing – try Speechtexter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Computer myths — 3 common computer myths Apr 27, 2020
Today we’re talking about three things that a lot of people believe to be true about computers, but in fact they are not true.

Myth #1: Turning the computer off, then powering it up again, is a restart. FALSE

I always tell people, you need to restart your computer every day or two. This resets the uptime counter, refreshes the memory, just gives the whole thing a fresh start. And often when I tell them that, the response is, “Oh, I do that every night!” Meaning, they turn the computer off at night, and turn it back on the next morning. But doing that is not a restart. Intuitively, you’d think it would be a more THOROUGH restart, but the opposite is true. You need to click the Start button, then the power Icon, and then click on the word “Restart”.

Myth #2: Formatting wipes all the data off the hard drive. FALSE

If you have a portable drive, and you plug it in to your computer, you can look and see exactly what is on that drive. All the files and folders are there for you to look at. Then, if you do a right click on that drive letter and choose “Format”, you can wait a minute until it’s done, and if you look again, you won’t see any files or folders listed there now. They must be all gone, right? Nope. They are still there. Formatting just tells the computer that all of that space is now open for you to put new files and folders on there. So if you have sensitive data on a drive and you’re planning to dispose of it, don’t just format it and assume that data is gone.

Myth #3: If your computer is running too slowly, you must need to defrag. FALSE

This is something every computer tech has heard. A client walks in the door with their computer, and the complaint is that it is running very slowly. “I tried defragging it, but it didn’t seem to make any difference!” That is correct. Defragging will almost never make any difference, for two reasons. First, your hard drive would have to be extremely fragmented in order for defragmentation (the actual term) to make any difference. Second, your computer is already defragging on its own, on a regular schedule. It’s part of the default maintenance that’s already set up in Windows.

Did you believe any of these myths before reading this? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

The post 3 common computer myths first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

the true way to restart — 3 common computer myths Apr 27, 2020
Today we’re talking about three things that a lot of people believe to be true about computers, but in fact they are not true.

Myth #1: Turning the computer off, then powering it up again, is a restart. FALSE

I always tell people, you need to restart your computer every day or two. This resets the uptime counter, refreshes the memory, just gives the whole thing a fresh start. And often when I tell them that, the response is, “Oh, I do that every night!” Meaning, they turn the computer off at night, and turn it back on the next morning. But doing that is not a restart. Intuitively, you’d think it would be a more THOROUGH restart, but the opposite is true. You need to click the Start button, then the power Icon, and then click on the word “Restart”.

Myth #2: Formatting wipes all the data off the hard drive. FALSE

If you have a portable drive, and you plug it in to your computer, you can look and see exactly what is on that drive. All the files and folders are there for you to look at. Then, if you do a right click on that drive letter and choose “Format”, you can wait a minute until it’s done, and if you look again, you won’t see any files or folders listed there now. They must be all gone, right? Nope. They are still there. Formatting just tells the computer that all of that space is now open for you to put new files and folders on there. So if you have sensitive data on a drive and you’re planning to dispose of it, don’t just format it and assume that data is gone.

Myth #3: If your computer is running too slowly, you must need to defrag. FALSE

This is something every computer tech has heard. A client walks in the door with their computer, and the complaint is that it is running very slowly. “I tried defragging it, but it didn’t seem to make any difference!” That is correct. Defragging will almost never make any difference, for two reasons. First, your hard drive would have to be extremely fragmented in order for defragmentation (the actual term) to make any difference. Second, your computer is already defragging on its own, on a regular schedule. It’s part of the default maintenance that’s already set up in Windows.

Did you believe any of these myths before reading this? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

The post 3 common computer myths first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook — Animated GIFs on Facebook desktop – GONE! Apr 13, 2020
If you do Facebook on your desktop or laptop computer, you probably see a lot of posts that have a bunch of comments that are just animated GIFs. I find nothing more annoying than that. But now I don’t see them any more!

There are actually a lot of things that I find really annoying about Facebook:

People who create a new post that says something like, “Well, here I am at the emergency room again!” with no context or details. It’s like they want all their friends to immediately comment, “Oh no, are you okay??”. There’s actually a term for that kind of post: vaguebooking.

People who post in a local group and ask for recommendations for a good pizza place, or a good vet, or whatever – and they end the post with “… and GO!” like we’re all just waiting at the starting line to provide what they’re asking for.

“News” or “life hacks” that are completely fake. I’ve seen so much of this especially recently with the COVID-19 situation. People see something that sounds like a great medical tip, and they don’t bother to check it out or verify, they just click the “Share” button to spread the misinformation to more people. No, sitting in the sauna does not kill the coronavirus.

Fortunately for those kinds of posts, I have one tried and true solution. I just unfollow that person. So we’re still Facebook friends, but I never see anything they post after that. And they can still see what I post. And they have no idea that I have unfollowed them. Quick and easy.

But there’s a different annoyance that cannot be fixed by unfollowing. It’s the animated GIFs in comments.

You probably know what I’m talking about. Someone will create a post in Facebook, like usual. But then someone will reply with a comment that’s just this animated GIF image, like a person clapping their hands, or a cat jumping up and down, or something with lots of movement. And the movement repeats like every 2 seconds, over and over and over. For me, this is incredibly distracting and annoying. Yes, you can click on the moving image itself to make it stop, but there could be a whole barrage of those images in separate replies to the same post, so you have to click on each one individually to make them stop moving.

And guess what – even if you click to make them all stop bouncing around, that same post will probably show up in your Facebook feed in a few hours, and they’re all moving again. It was driving me bonkers. And Facebook does not offer any setting to be able to turn those things off. Yes, you can turn off having video automatically play in a FB post, but that does not apply to these images that are added through the comments.

But recently I found a wonderful solution. It’s a Chrome extension called FB Purity. Now I’m sure if you took a guess you might think that stands for Facebook Purity, right? But I think the app developers were concerned about using the name “Facebook” in the app, so the actual name is Fluff Busting Purity. But everyone knows that the whole purpose of it is to clean up a bunch of junk in Facebook. And it does a LOT more than just what we’re talking about here today.

You can get the Chrome extension here: https://www.fbpurity.com/install.htm (it also works with Firefox and some other browsers).

Just download and install, then the next time you open Facebook, you’ll see the FBP icon at the top:

When you click that, you’ll see a new window with a HUGE variety of options for you to choose from, about how you want Facebook to be displayed. This is what mine looks like:

You might notice some of the choices I’ve made – I have hidden all Sponsored Posts – so on my Facebook I don’t see any ads. I love that! Then, further down the list, I have chosen to always display the items in my News Feed with the Most Recent ones starting at the top. And then you’ll see that I’ve checked “Show Full Date/Time on posts” – so if you see an older post, it doesn’t just say “3 weeks ago”. It will give me the actual date and time it was posted. Not a big deal, just my preference.

So let’s get to wiping out the animated GIFs. Over on the left side, click on the category “Font, Colour and Design”. You’ll see in this section you have all kinds of control over the size and color of the text in Facebook. But when you look way down the list, you’ll see the checkbox for “Hide Animated GIFs”. Just check that and click on Save and Close (on the right).

So that solves that problem. But as you can see, there are MANY other options available for you to tweak how Facebook works and displays on your computer. Play around with FB Purity, and let everyone know in the comments which setting you like the best.

And please note – FB Purity is offered free, but by donation. So you aren’t required to pay anything, but the developer has put a LOT of work into getting this thing working so it would be nice to send over a few dollars or whatever you’re comfortable with.

How to hide all animated GIFs in Facebook comments
The post Animated GIFs on Facebook desktop – GONE! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

FB Purity — Animated GIFs on Facebook desktop – GONE! Apr 13, 2020
If you do Facebook on your desktop or laptop computer, you probably see a lot of posts that have a bunch of comments that are just animated GIFs. I find nothing more annoying than that. But now I don’t see them any more!

There are actually a lot of things that I find really annoying about Facebook:

People who create a new post that says something like, “Well, here I am at the emergency room again!” with no context or details. It’s like they want all their friends to immediately comment, “Oh no, are you okay??”. There’s actually a term for that kind of post: vaguebooking.

People who post in a local group and ask for recommendations for a good pizza place, or a good vet, or whatever – and they end the post with “… and GO!” like we’re all just waiting at the starting line to provide what they’re asking for.

“News” or “life hacks” that are completely fake. I’ve seen so much of this especially recently with the COVID-19 situation. People see something that sounds like a great medical tip, and they don’t bother to check it out or verify, they just click the “Share” button to spread the misinformation to more people. No, sitting in the sauna does not kill the coronavirus.

Fortunately for those kinds of posts, I have one tried and true solution. I just unfollow that person. So we’re still Facebook friends, but I never see anything they post after that. And they can still see what I post. And they have no idea that I have unfollowed them. Quick and easy.

But there’s a different annoyance that cannot be fixed by unfollowing. It’s the animated GIFs in comments.

You probably know what I’m talking about. Someone will create a post in Facebook, like usual. But then someone will reply with a comment that’s just this animated GIF image, like a person clapping their hands, or a cat jumping up and down, or something with lots of movement. And the movement repeats like every 2 seconds, over and over and over. For me, this is incredibly distracting and annoying. Yes, you can click on the moving image itself to make it stop, but there could be a whole barrage of those images in separate replies to the same post, so you have to click on each one individually to make them stop moving.

And guess what – even if you click to make them all stop bouncing around, that same post will probably show up in your Facebook feed in a few hours, and they’re all moving again. It was driving me bonkers. And Facebook does not offer any setting to be able to turn those things off. Yes, you can turn off having video automatically play in a FB post, but that does not apply to these images that are added through the comments.

But recently I found a wonderful solution. It’s a Chrome extension called FB Purity. Now I’m sure if you took a guess you might think that stands for Facebook Purity, right? But I think the app developers were concerned about using the name “Facebook” in the app, so the actual name is Fluff Busting Purity. But everyone knows that the whole purpose of it is to clean up a bunch of junk in Facebook. And it does a LOT more than just what we’re talking about here today.

You can get the Chrome extension here: https://www.fbpurity.com/install.htm (it also works with Firefox and some other browsers).

Just download and install, then the next time you open Facebook, you’ll see the FBP icon at the top:

When you click that, you’ll see a new window with a HUGE variety of options for you to choose from, about how you want Facebook to be displayed. This is what mine looks like:

You might notice some of the choices I’ve made – I have hidden all Sponsored Posts – so on my Facebook I don’t see any ads. I love that! Then, further down the list, I have chosen to always display the items in my News Feed with the Most Recent ones starting at the top. And then you’ll see that I’ve checked “Show Full Date/Time on posts” – so if you see an older post, it doesn’t just say “3 weeks ago”. It will give me the actual date and time it was posted. Not a big deal, just my preference.

So let’s get to wiping out the animated GIFs. Over on the left side, click on the category “Font, Colour and Design”. You’ll see in this section you have all kinds of control over the size and color of the text in Facebook. But when you look way down the list, you’ll see the checkbox for “Hide Animated GIFs”. Just check that and click on Save and Close (on the right).

So that solves that problem. But as you can see, there are MANY other options available for you to tweak how Facebook works and displays on your computer. Play around with FB Purity, and let everyone know in the comments which setting you like the best.

And please note – FB Purity is offered free, but by donation. So you aren’t required to pay anything, but the developer has put a LOT of work into getting this thing working so it would be nice to send over a few dollars or whatever you’re comfortable with.

How to hide all animated GIFs in Facebook comments
The post Animated GIFs on Facebook desktop – GONE! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 S mode — How to get out of Windows 10 “S mode” Mar 30, 2020
If you buy a brand new computer, there’s a chance you might turn it on and find that it’s not just running Windows 10. It might be running Windows 10 in S Mode. Most people don’t want that. Here’s how to get out of S Mode.

What exactly IS “S Mode” anyway?

You could think of S Mode as being sort of Windows 10 in “Lockdown”. Maybe with the recent Coronavirus situation, “lockdown” might not be a good term to use. But it’s accurate though.

Windows 10 S Mode means you cannot install the software that you might normally use. You can ONLY install apps from the Microsoft Store. You can’t use Chrome or Firefox – you’re pretty much stuck using Microsoft Edge, which almost no one uses willingly. And you can’t even set your default search engine as Google – you are forced to search by default using Bing, since that’s Microsoft’s search engine.

What if you want to use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc)? Of course you can do that – because Office is a product of Microsoft!

But seriously, for most users, the restrictions on a computer running Windows 10 S Mode are just too much. So if you buy a computer that happens to come with S Mode already running, you’ll probably want to get it out of that status and back into “regular” Windows 10 like you’re used to.

How to get your computer out of Windows 10 S Mode

First a warning: once you get out of S Mode, you can’t go back. It will never be able to go back to S Mode again. I’m guessing you’re probably okay with that, since you’re about to learn how to get it out of S Mode to start with.

You need to go to the Microsoft Store. To do that, you can either click the Start button in the lower left and scroll down alphabetically and click on “Microsoft Store”:

Or, you could just click the Microsoft Store icon that is probably on your taskbar:

When you click that and go to the Store, find the search function in the upper right (the magnifying glass), then click on it and search the phrase “Switch out of S Mode”. When you see it, click on “Learn More” and it will just take you right through the process. You don’t have to pay anything for this.

After you’re done (just takes a few clicks), it would be good to restart your computer (in fact, it’s always a good idea to restart your computer). Now the fun part starts – getting all your software installed!

The post How to get out of Windows 10 “S mode” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Store — How to get out of Windows 10 “S mode” Mar 30, 2020
If you buy a brand new computer, there’s a chance you might turn it on and find that it’s not just running Windows 10. It might be running Windows 10 in S Mode. Most people don’t want that. Here’s how to get out of S Mode.

What exactly IS “S Mode” anyway?

You could think of S Mode as being sort of Windows 10 in “Lockdown”. Maybe with the recent Coronavirus situation, “lockdown” might not be a good term to use. But it’s accurate though.

Windows 10 S Mode means you cannot install the software that you might normally use. You can ONLY install apps from the Microsoft Store. You can’t use Chrome or Firefox – you’re pretty much stuck using Microsoft Edge, which almost no one uses willingly. And you can’t even set your default search engine as Google – you are forced to search by default using Bing, since that’s Microsoft’s search engine.

What if you want to use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc)? Of course you can do that – because Office is a product of Microsoft!

But seriously, for most users, the restrictions on a computer running Windows 10 S Mode are just too much. So if you buy a computer that happens to come with S Mode already running, you’ll probably want to get it out of that status and back into “regular” Windows 10 like you’re used to.

How to get your computer out of Windows 10 S Mode

First a warning: once you get out of S Mode, you can’t go back. It will never be able to go back to S Mode again. I’m guessing you’re probably okay with that, since you’re about to learn how to get it out of S Mode to start with.

You need to go to the Microsoft Store. To do that, you can either click the Start button in the lower left and scroll down alphabetically and click on “Microsoft Store”:

Or, you could just click the Microsoft Store icon that is probably on your taskbar:

When you click that and go to the Store, find the search function in the upper right (the magnifying glass), then click on it and search the phrase “Switch out of S Mode”. When you see it, click on “Learn More” and it will just take you right through the process. You don’t have to pay anything for this.

After you’re done (just takes a few clicks), it would be good to restart your computer (in fact, it’s always a good idea to restart your computer). Now the fun part starts – getting all your software installed!

The post How to get out of Windows 10 “S mode” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

My YouTube favorites — 3 of my favorite YouTube channels Mar 16, 2020
Fun topic today! I watch a bit of Youtube each night before I drift off to sleep. I have a few channels that I subscribe to, and these are some that I think you might find entertaining as well. I’ll tell you about them below, and include one of my favorite videos from each one. Warning – some videos have swearing.

Favorite #1: The Lock Picking Lawyer
View it here
Subscribers: 1.38 million
I’ve always had a minor interest in lock picking (as a hobby, not anything sketchy). For those that are more serious about learning how to do it, the hobby itself is called Locksport. But this guy, The Lock Picking Lawyer, takes it to a whole new level.

For most of his videos, he takes a particular brand and model of lock and shows how ridiculously simple it is to bypass. And wait til you see what he does. He uses a simple lock pick and I don’t think there is ANY lock he can’t open. It’s really incredible. All the major brands – Master Lock, Brinks, any of them. He especially likes to take the ones that are advertised as “pick proof”. Even if you’re not really into lock picking yourself, this guy is very entertaining to watch what he does.

In this video, he gets into a home safe – using a coat hanger.

Favorite #2: Gas Station Encounters
View it here
Subscribers: 1.24 million
This one combines comedy and petty theft, and it turns out to be a pretty entertaining result!

There’s a gas station/convenience store located somewhere in northeast Ohio (I don’t know exactly where). They have cameras mounted throughout the store so that virtually every square inch of space can be seen and recorded (it’s not a huge place, just a typical convenience store). And the guy that runs the place, Brandon, takes huge pleasure in catching shoplifters. There are two big monitors right next to each cash register, so he can actually be watching someone steal something even while ringing up another customer. If he is 100% sure of a theft, he’ll follow the person outside and confront them, and make them come back in and pay for the item.

What’s really funny is Brandon’s narration when he edits the video to be posted on YouTube. Here’s one where he catches a guy stealing some nail clippers.

Favorite #3: Jose Barrientos
View it here
Subscribers: 94,500
Another channel that combines two of my favorite things – comedy and hacking. Jose is literally a comedian (he does stand-up comedy at clubs all over the country), and a hacker. But he’s the GOOD kind of hacker – he is what’s called a Penetration Tester. Companies hire Penetration Testers to see how vulnerable their security is. So Jose gets PAID to try to hack into the computer networks of big companies.

Normally you wouldn’t think that a computer geek would have much of a sense of humor, right? Well, Jose is the exception. In fact, in the videos he makes, he often uses his sense of humor and his computer skills to bring justice and entertainment wherever it’s needed. And Jose has a heart for helping people: I work with a local non-profit group that gets things for the big homeless population here in Florida, and Jose bought and donated a brand new pair of work boots so that a man could be able to get a construction job.

This video is one of my favorites from a while back, and it went viral. Jose played a little prank on his speech class all semester, then did the big reveal during the final class.

Bonus favorite: Surveillance Camera Man
View it here
Subscribers: 91,000
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit this one is kind of weird. This guy just goes out in public and films people for no reason. What would you do if a stranger just walked up to you and was recording a video, without saying anything? Naturally, people are initially confused and ask him what’s going on. His standard response is, “just taking a video” without giving a reason why. That’s when most people get angry and tell him to leave. But he doesn’t leave, and he doesn’t answer their questions. He just keeps recording video.

In some cases, he’s out in public, so he could probably say he has the right to be there and people can’t really have a reasonable expectation of privacy. But in other situations he’s kind of a jerk, walking into private establishments and not leaving when he’s asked to.

I believe the person that created this sees it as “art” and I guess you could make that argument. Or maybe it’s a social experiment. I also think I saw somewhere that he did this to increase awareness that there are already cameras everywhere, so we are already being watched all the time – it shouldn’t make any difference that an actual person is holding the camera and doing the filming right in front of you.

Whatever the story is behind it, I find it entertaining. It’s one of those videos that you just can’t stop watching because you want to see more reactions from the people.

https://youtu.be/mP5ZVPwP7bg

And what is YOUR favorite YouTube channel? Leave it in the comments below.

The post 3 of my favorite YouTube channels first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — 3 of my favorite YouTube channels Mar 16, 2020
Fun topic today! I watch a bit of Youtube each night before I drift off to sleep. I have a few channels that I subscribe to, and these are some that I think you might find entertaining as well. I’ll tell you about them below, and include one of my favorite videos from each one. Warning – some videos have swearing.

Favorite #1: The Lock Picking Lawyer
View it here
Subscribers: 1.38 million
I’ve always had a minor interest in lock picking (as a hobby, not anything sketchy). For those that are more serious about learning how to do it, the hobby itself is called Locksport. But this guy, The Lock Picking Lawyer, takes it to a whole new level.

For most of his videos, he takes a particular brand and model of lock and shows how ridiculously simple it is to bypass. And wait til you see what he does. He uses a simple lock pick and I don’t think there is ANY lock he can’t open. It’s really incredible. All the major brands – Master Lock, Brinks, any of them. He especially likes to take the ones that are advertised as “pick proof”. Even if you’re not really into lock picking yourself, this guy is very entertaining to watch what he does.

In this video, he gets into a home safe – using a coat hanger.

Favorite #2: Gas Station Encounters
View it here
Subscribers: 1.24 million
This one combines comedy and petty theft, and it turns out to be a pretty entertaining result!

There’s a gas station/convenience store located somewhere in northeast Ohio (I don’t know exactly where). They have cameras mounted throughout the store so that virtually every square inch of space can be seen and recorded (it’s not a huge place, just a typical convenience store). And the guy that runs the place, Brandon, takes huge pleasure in catching shoplifters. There are two big monitors right next to each cash register, so he can actually be watching someone steal something even while ringing up another customer. If he is 100% sure of a theft, he’ll follow the person outside and confront them, and make them come back in and pay for the item.

What’s really funny is Brandon’s narration when he edits the video to be posted on YouTube. Here’s one where he catches a guy stealing some nail clippers.

Favorite #3: Jose Barrientos
View it here
Subscribers: 94,500
Another channel that combines two of my favorite things – comedy and hacking. Jose is literally a comedian (he does stand-up comedy at clubs all over the country), and a hacker. But he’s the GOOD kind of hacker – he is what’s called a Penetration Tester. Companies hire Penetration Testers to see how vulnerable their security is. So Jose gets PAID to try to hack into the computer networks of big companies.

Normally you wouldn’t think that a computer geek would have much of a sense of humor, right? Well, Jose is the exception. In fact, in the videos he makes, he often uses his sense of humor and his computer skills to bring justice and entertainment wherever it’s needed. And Jose has a heart for helping people: I work with a local non-profit group that gets things for the big homeless population here in Florida, and Jose bought and donated a brand new pair of work boots so that a man could be able to get a construction job.

This video is one of my favorites from a while back, and it went viral. Jose played a little prank on his speech class all semester, then did the big reveal during the final class.

Bonus favorite: Surveillance Camera Man
View it here
Subscribers: 91,000
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit this one is kind of weird. This guy just goes out in public and films people for no reason. What would you do if a stranger just walked up to you and was recording a video, without saying anything? Naturally, people are initially confused and ask him what’s going on. His standard response is, “just taking a video” without giving a reason why. That’s when most people get angry and tell him to leave. But he doesn’t leave, and he doesn’t answer their questions. He just keeps recording video.

In some cases, he’s out in public, so he could probably say he has the right to be there and people can’t really have a reasonable expectation of privacy. But in other situations he’s kind of a jerk, walking into private establishments and not leaving when he’s asked to.

I believe the person that created this sees it as “art” and I guess you could make that argument. Or maybe it’s a social experiment. I also think I saw somewhere that he did this to increase awareness that there are already cameras everywhere, so we are already being watched all the time – it shouldn’t make any difference that an actual person is holding the camera and doing the filming right in front of you.

Whatever the story is behind it, I find it entertaining. It’s one of those videos that you just can’t stop watching because you want to see more reactions from the people.

https://youtu.be/mP5ZVPwP7bg

And what is YOUR favorite YouTube channel? Leave it in the comments below.

The post 3 of my favorite YouTube channels first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

eyesight — How to make everything on your screen bigger Mar 02, 2020
If you have any kind of vision challenge, or if your eyesight is just gradually getting worse over time, you aren’t the only one. One nice feature of Windows 10 – you can make everything bigger and easier to read.

I grew up wearing glasses since I was 8 years old. I could see things fine up close, but everything was blurry far away. About 12 years ago I had LASIK surgery to correct my vision. LASIK stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis” and it’s amazing. The whole procedure lasted about 15 minutes and the next day I just couldn’t believe it. I could go outside here in sunny Florida and see faraway things, perfectly clearly, without glasses.

But there was a downside. After I had the surgery, I did not have the same close-up vision I had before. So I could see things far away with no problem, but I needed to wear reading glasses to read a book or to see something up close.

And to be fair, the doctor told me this would most likely happen. In fact, he said that if I wanted to, I could have one eye corrected to see far away, and the other eye corrected just to see things up close. That was an option I pretty quickly declined. I knew I would probably eventually get used to it, but I just didn’t like the idea of having drastically different vision in each eye. And I really don’t mind too much having to wear reading glasses.

Quality of vision definitely comes into play when you’re using a computer. I’m on my computer most of the day so it’s a big factor. I actually have a particular pair of readers for when I’m using the computer, and I use a different strength for when I’m reading a book. This is because the computer screen is farther away from my eyes than a book I’m holding.

One thing Microsoft has done well with Windows 10 is allowing adjustments to be made for people with different eyesight abilities. There are several settings available to make it easy to see what’s on the screen.

And here’s how you get to those settings: hold down the Windows key, and tap the letter U.

This brings up the Display options, and there are a few controls on here you might want to experiment with.

First, you’ll see a slide bar where you can make the text on the screen bigger. When it’s the size you like, click Apply.

Then below that is the option to make everything bigger – this includes the apps AND the text that you see on the screen.

You’ll also notice an option to make the cursor bigger, in case you have trouble seeing it on the screen:

And finally, you’ll see a link where you can control the brightness of the screen. For me, everything is easier to see when it’s brighter.

If you’re on a computer for much of the day like I am, it makes a big difference when everything is easier to see and read. And it’s better for the health of your eyesight in the long run too.

The post How to make everything on your screen bigger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

make text bigger — How to make everything on your screen bigger Mar 02, 2020
If you have any kind of vision challenge, or if your eyesight is just gradually getting worse over time, you aren’t the only one. One nice feature of Windows 10 – you can make everything bigger and easier to read.

I grew up wearing glasses since I was 8 years old. I could see things fine up close, but everything was blurry far away. About 12 years ago I had LASIK surgery to correct my vision. LASIK stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis” and it’s amazing. The whole procedure lasted about 15 minutes and the next day I just couldn’t believe it. I could go outside here in sunny Florida and see faraway things, perfectly clearly, without glasses.

But there was a downside. After I had the surgery, I did not have the same close-up vision I had before. So I could see things far away with no problem, but I needed to wear reading glasses to read a book or to see something up close.

And to be fair, the doctor told me this would most likely happen. In fact, he said that if I wanted to, I could have one eye corrected to see far away, and the other eye corrected just to see things up close. That was an option I pretty quickly declined. I knew I would probably eventually get used to it, but I just didn’t like the idea of having drastically different vision in each eye. And I really don’t mind too much having to wear reading glasses.

Quality of vision definitely comes into play when you’re using a computer. I’m on my computer most of the day so it’s a big factor. I actually have a particular pair of readers for when I’m using the computer, and I use a different strength for when I’m reading a book. This is because the computer screen is farther away from my eyes than a book I’m holding.

One thing Microsoft has done well with Windows 10 is allowing adjustments to be made for people with different eyesight abilities. There are several settings available to make it easy to see what’s on the screen.

And here’s how you get to those settings: hold down the Windows key, and tap the letter U.

This brings up the Display options, and there are a few controls on here you might want to experiment with.

First, you’ll see a slide bar where you can make the text on the screen bigger. When it’s the size you like, click Apply.

Then below that is the option to make everything bigger – this includes the apps AND the text that you see on the screen.

You’ll also notice an option to make the cursor bigger, in case you have trouble seeing it on the screen:

And finally, you’ll see a link where you can control the brightness of the screen. For me, everything is easier to see when it’s brighter.

If you’re on a computer for much of the day like I am, it makes a big difference when everything is easier to see and read. And it’s better for the health of your eyesight in the long run too.

The post How to make everything on your screen bigger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word frustration — How to make MS Word single-space all the time Feb 17, 2020
It’s one of the big frustrations with MS Word – you hit the Enter key, and the next line in your document is a DOUBLE space down from the last line. There are two ways to fix this.

You know what I’m talking about. You open a new blank document and start typing a letter, and the first time you hit Enter, there’s that huge space between the lines and it looks like you are double-spacing the whole thing. Why does Microsoft set that as the default? Are there that many people who are actually double-spacing every document they create? No idea.

To fix this, there are a couple of options.

The quick, “right now” fix is this: hold down the Shift key while you’re tapping the Enter key. This will cause that line return to just be a single space so you won’t have that big gap. But that only solves the problem for the document you are typing right now. Next time you open a new blank Word document, it will still be double spaced.

The permanent solution is this:

Open a new blank Word document. With the Home tab selected, look over to the Paragraph section.

In the Paragraph section, find the drop down menu called Line and Paragraph spacing and click the drop-down menu, then choose “Line Spacing Options”.

In the Spacing section, make sure the “Before” and “After” numbers are set to zero. Then, at the bottom click on “Set as Default”.

You’ll get a little question that pops up asking if you want to set this as the default for just THIS document, or for all Word documents. For me, I chose all documents since that’s the way I prefer to create documents.

Then just click OK, and you’re done. Now, on the probably rare occasion you need to have a double-spaced line in Word document, you can just hit Enter twice.

The post How to make MS Word single-space all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word spacing — How to make MS Word single-space all the time Feb 17, 2020
It’s one of the big frustrations with MS Word – you hit the Enter key, and the next line in your document is a DOUBLE space down from the last line. There are two ways to fix this.

You know what I’m talking about. You open a new blank document and start typing a letter, and the first time you hit Enter, there’s that huge space between the lines and it looks like you are double-spacing the whole thing. Why does Microsoft set that as the default? Are there that many people who are actually double-spacing every document they create? No idea.

To fix this, there are a couple of options.

The quick, “right now” fix is this: hold down the Shift key while you’re tapping the Enter key. This will cause that line return to just be a single space so you won’t have that big gap. But that only solves the problem for the document you are typing right now. Next time you open a new blank Word document, it will still be double spaced.

The permanent solution is this:

Open a new blank Word document. With the Home tab selected, look over to the Paragraph section.

In the Paragraph section, find the drop down menu called Line and Paragraph spacing and click the drop-down menu, then choose “Line Spacing Options”.

In the Spacing section, make sure the “Before” and “After” numbers are set to zero. Then, at the bottom click on “Set as Default”.

You’ll get a little question that pops up asking if you want to set this as the default for just THIS document, or for all Word documents. For me, I chose all documents since that’s the way I prefer to create documents.

Then just click OK, and you’re done. Now, on the probably rare occasion you need to have a double-spaced line in Word document, you can just hit Enter twice.

The post How to make MS Word single-space all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Outlook — Why isn’t Outlook search working? Here’s why Feb 03, 2020
Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email software in the world. But there’s one thing about it that sometimes frustrates users – the search function. Today we’ll talk about a common way to fix Outlook’s search process when it doesn’t seem to be working.

You know how it’s SUPPOSED to work – you type something in the little search field, and Outlook is supposed to find the emails that match that search:

And they give you that nice drop-down menu so you can limit where you are actually searching. It can be in the current folder that you have open at the time, or you can include subfolders, or you can search all of the folders in a particular mail account, or you can search all of your mail accounts, or you can search everything in Outlook (this would include calendar entries, contact list, etc.)

But what about those times when you KNOW you have a particular email from someone, and you have not deleted it, but you just don’t know where to find it? It could be in your “Business” folder among the other 10,000 emails in there, or it could be somewhere in your inbox, or who knows where. But you know you have it, yet when you enter that person’s email address in the Outlook search field, the results come up with nothing.

There are a couple of reasons why this might be happening:

If Outlook was just installed recently, it could be that the program has not finished indexing all of your email data. In this case, you can just wait for it to finish (you can still use Outlook while it’s indexing) and eventually it will work.

It’s possible that Outlook’s search index has become corrupted. But don’t worry – you can rebuild it.

It might sound a little intimidating to think about a project like “rebuilding Outlook’s search index”, but it’s really pretty easy. Here’s how you do it.

1. Open Outlook, then click on File up in the top left corner, then click on Options

2. This will open a new window. In this window, click on the Search tab on the left, then click on the button that says “Indexing options”:

3. In the next window, click on Advanced:

4. In the next window, click on Rebuild. That’s it!

Now you just wait for Outlook to rebuild its entire index. But fair warning – you might be waiting a while. But it’s not really a problem, because Outlook will do that rebuilding in the background, and you can continue to use Outlook to send and receive email while it’s doing that.

The post Why isn’t Outlook search working? Here’s why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Outlook search — Why isn’t Outlook search working? Here’s why Feb 03, 2020
Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email software in the world. But there’s one thing about it that sometimes frustrates users – the search function. Today we’ll talk about a common way to fix Outlook’s search process when it doesn’t seem to be working.

You know how it’s SUPPOSED to work – you type something in the little search field, and Outlook is supposed to find the emails that match that search:

And they give you that nice drop-down menu so you can limit where you are actually searching. It can be in the current folder that you have open at the time, or you can include subfolders, or you can search all of the folders in a particular mail account, or you can search all of your mail accounts, or you can search everything in Outlook (this would include calendar entries, contact list, etc.)

But what about those times when you KNOW you have a particular email from someone, and you have not deleted it, but you just don’t know where to find it? It could be in your “Business” folder among the other 10,000 emails in there, or it could be somewhere in your inbox, or who knows where. But you know you have it, yet when you enter that person’s email address in the Outlook search field, the results come up with nothing.

There are a couple of reasons why this might be happening:

If Outlook was just installed recently, it could be that the program has not finished indexing all of your email data. In this case, you can just wait for it to finish (you can still use Outlook while it’s indexing) and eventually it will work.

It’s possible that Outlook’s search index has become corrupted. But don’t worry – you can rebuild it.

It might sound a little intimidating to think about a project like “rebuilding Outlook’s search index”, but it’s really pretty easy. Here’s how you do it.

1. Open Outlook, then click on File up in the top left corner, then click on Options

2. This will open a new window. In this window, click on the Search tab on the left, then click on the button that says “Indexing options”:

3. In the next window, click on Advanced:

4. In the next window, click on Rebuild. That’s it!

Now you just wait for Outlook to rebuild its entire index. But fair warning – you might be waiting a while. But it’s not really a problem, because Outlook will do that rebuilding in the background, and you can continue to use Outlook to send and receive email while it’s doing that.

The post Why isn’t Outlook search working? Here’s why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

slow — Computer slowdown? Check these two things first Jan 20, 2020
This tip is based on what is probably the most common question I get, which is “Why is my computer running so slowly??” It is definitely frustrating when the computer lags behind. If your computer suddenly starts to run a lot more slowly than you think it should, there are a couple of things for you to check on.

First, you need to check on how long it’s been since the computer has been restarted. It’s important to note, I’m not saying how long since you turned it off, and then powered it back up again. I’m talking an actual restart. This means you clicked the Start button, then right above that you click the Power button, then in the menu options you click on the word Restart. This is what actually resets everything, refreshes the memory, and can resolve a lot of issues.

To see how long it’s been since you last restarted, just hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, and tap the Escape key. That brings up Task Manager. Then click on the Performance tab, and look for the Up time counter. It will show Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds since the last restart:

I just checked it on my own computer, and you can see that mine has been running for 19 hours, 31 minutes and 15 seconds in that screenshot.

A good guideline is to restart your computer every day or two. So many times, I’ve been asked to check a computer that’s doing all kinds of haywire things and running really slowly, then when I check the Up Time counter, it’s been running straight for like 51 days. For that computer, a restart will be like a drink of cold water to a man who’s been crawling in the desert sun all day.

Second, you need to see if the hard drive is failing. Hard drives can fail gradually over time, or they can just stop working and not boot up again. So if it suddenly gets really slow, or some programs don’t open, or some programs take forever to finally run, those are often signs that the hard drive could be failing. Hopefully you have a backup, if there is anything important stored on your computer!

To check the hard drive, we use a little program called Crystal Disk Info. It’s free, and you can download it here.

Once you have downloaded the installation file, double click to run it and just follow the instructions for installing it. It’s very straightforward, and it doesn’t try to add any junkware or bad stuff to your computer.

The very last screen on the installation process will give you the option to launch the program, and that box will already be checked, so go ahead and do it.

When it runs, it will come up and show you a window full of numbers and other details. You can ignore all of that. The only thing you really need to look at is the big button on the left side. It will either say Good, Caution or Bad. This is mine:

Of course, you want that button to say Good. If it says Caution or Bad, that means you will need to replace your hard drive. And at that point if you don’t have your important stuff backed up, now would be a good time to try to do it, if you still can. Once that drive completely fails, you may not be able to get your stuff from it. Or you may have to hire someone to recover the data from it. Having a backup ahead of time is much less expensive, and much less stressful.

There are other factors that can contribute to a computer slowing down, but these two things are a couple of the big ones. Definitely check them first.

The post Computer slowdown? Check these two things first first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

uptime counter — Computer slowdown? Check these two things first Jan 20, 2020
This tip is based on what is probably the most common question I get, which is “Why is my computer running so slowly??” It is definitely frustrating when the computer lags behind. If your computer suddenly starts to run a lot more slowly than you think it should, there are a couple of things for you to check on.

First, you need to check on how long it’s been since the computer has been restarted. It’s important to note, I’m not saying how long since you turned it off, and then powered it back up again. I’m talking an actual restart. This means you clicked the Start button, then right above that you click the Power button, then in the menu options you click on the word Restart. This is what actually resets everything, refreshes the memory, and can resolve a lot of issues.

To see how long it’s been since you last restarted, just hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, and tap the Escape key. That brings up Task Manager. Then click on the Performance tab, and look for the Up time counter. It will show Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds since the last restart:

I just checked it on my own computer, and you can see that mine has been running for 19 hours, 31 minutes and 15 seconds in that screenshot.

A good guideline is to restart your computer every day or two. So many times, I’ve been asked to check a computer that’s doing all kinds of haywire things and running really slowly, then when I check the Up Time counter, it’s been running straight for like 51 days. For that computer, a restart will be like a drink of cold water to a man who’s been crawling in the desert sun all day.

Second, you need to see if the hard drive is failing. Hard drives can fail gradually over time, or they can just stop working and not boot up again. So if it suddenly gets really slow, or some programs don’t open, or some programs take forever to finally run, those are often signs that the hard drive could be failing. Hopefully you have a backup, if there is anything important stored on your computer!

To check the hard drive, we use a little program called Crystal Disk Info. It’s free, and you can download it here.

Once you have downloaded the installation file, double click to run it and just follow the instructions for installing it. It’s very straightforward, and it doesn’t try to add any junkware or bad stuff to your computer.

The very last screen on the installation process will give you the option to launch the program, and that box will already be checked, so go ahead and do it.

When it runs, it will come up and show you a window full of numbers and other details. You can ignore all of that. The only thing you really need to look at is the big button on the left side. It will either say Good, Caution or Bad. This is mine:

Of course, you want that button to say Good. If it says Caution or Bad, that means you will need to replace your hard drive. And at that point if you don’t have your important stuff backed up, now would be a good time to try to do it, if you still can. Once that drive completely fails, you may not be able to get your stuff from it. Or you may have to hire someone to recover the data from it. Having a backup ahead of time is much less expensive, and much less stressful.

There are other factors that can contribute to a computer slowing down, but these two things are a couple of the big ones. Definitely check them first.

The post Computer slowdown? Check these two things first first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wyze camera — Security cameras that are easy to set up – and cheap Jan 06, 2020
If you think having security cameras in your home would be expensive and complicated, I have good news! I got some recently and they were really easy and affordable.

When you’re not at home, it’s nice to know that everything is okay. And even when you are at home, being able to see in another room, or outside, can be pretty convenient. When I’ve thought about implementing security cameras inside and outside my house in the past, I just put it off because it seemed like a “big project” – research all the cameras, compare features and cost, make the purchase, figure out where to put the cameras, and get all the alerts in place. I always have a bunch of things going on, and I never really wanted to set aside the hours I thought it would take to make this happen.

But I happily discovered that it’s not really that difficult or expensive at all.

I came across the Wyze cameras and found that they are fairly popular, and the people that use them are happy with them. So I dug a little deeper, found more good reviews, and decided to try them out myself. Now I have them, and I’m happy with them too.

One note: to really use these, you will need a smart phone because everything is controlled through an app on the phone. But just about everyone uses a smart phone these days anyway.

Here’s what I got. I purchased two of these on Amazon:

WyzeC2 camera

And I got one of these:

Wyze Cam Pan

You can see right in the image that the pricing is very affordable. And as I mentioned earlier, all you have to do is get the Wyze app on your phone. It walks you through the whole setup. You can set the cameras to record everything, or you can have the recording process start when motion is detected. And you can upload everything to the cloud, so even if someone broke into your home and destroyed the camera(s), their picture would already be recorded and accessible.

The difference between these two models is that the second one offers the ability to pan left and right, and tilt up and down. This way you can see more of the room. You might not need that feature though, since the cameras have a “fisheye” quality that really enables quite a wide viewing area.

And both models also have full 2-way audio. So you can also hear what is going on in the room, and you can also speak to someone in the room if you want to. Again, this is all live-streamed through your phone, so it doesn’t matter if your camera is in your house in Texas, and you’re on vacation in Hong Kong. As long as you can get on the internet, you can see and hear what is happening in front of those cameras.

For me, I’m using two for viewing a couple of rooms in my house. The third one I have mounted on my office window, pointing outward. So I can see when someone is in the driveway, or if an Amazon delivery truck has stopped.

This is a screenshot from that camera:

I even figured out a way to have the app send that live picture to a TV in my office (through an app that is connected with the Amazon FireTV device), so just to the left of my two computer monitors is an always-on screen showing what’s going on outside.

At a cost of USD $24 or $35, you don’t have the excuse of “too expensive”, and the app makes it so easy, anyone can set these things up.

The post Security cameras that are easy to set up – and cheap first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

WyzeC2 camera — Security cameras that are easy to set up – and cheap Jan 06, 2020
If you think having security cameras in your home would be expensive and complicated, I have good news! I got some recently and they were really easy and affordable.

When you’re not at home, it’s nice to know that everything is okay. And even when you are at home, being able to see in another room, or outside, can be pretty convenient. When I’ve thought about implementing security cameras inside and outside my house in the past, I just put it off because it seemed like a “big project” – research all the cameras, compare features and cost, make the purchase, figure out where to put the cameras, and get all the alerts in place. I always have a bunch of things going on, and I never really wanted to set aside the hours I thought it would take to make this happen.

But I happily discovered that it’s not really that difficult or expensive at all.

I came across the Wyze cameras and found that they are fairly popular, and the people that use them are happy with them. So I dug a little deeper, found more good reviews, and decided to try them out myself. Now I have them, and I’m happy with them too.

One note: to really use these, you will need a smart phone because everything is controlled through an app on the phone. But just about everyone uses a smart phone these days anyway.

Here’s what I got. I purchased two of these on Amazon:

WyzeC2 camera

And I got one of these:

Wyze Cam Pan

You can see right in the image that the pricing is very affordable. And as I mentioned earlier, all you have to do is get the Wyze app on your phone. It walks you through the whole setup. You can set the cameras to record everything, or you can have the recording process start when motion is detected. And you can upload everything to the cloud, so even if someone broke into your home and destroyed the camera(s), their picture would already be recorded and accessible.

The difference between these two models is that the second one offers the ability to pan left and right, and tilt up and down. This way you can see more of the room. You might not need that feature though, since the cameras have a “fisheye” quality that really enables quite a wide viewing area.

And both models also have full 2-way audio. So you can also hear what is going on in the room, and you can also speak to someone in the room if you want to. Again, this is all live-streamed through your phone, so it doesn’t matter if your camera is in your house in Texas, and you’re on vacation in Hong Kong. As long as you can get on the internet, you can see and hear what is happening in front of those cameras.

For me, I’m using two for viewing a couple of rooms in my house. The third one I have mounted on my office window, pointing outward. So I can see when someone is in the driveway, or if an Amazon delivery truck has stopped.

This is a screenshot from that camera:

I even figured out a way to have the app send that live picture to a TV in my office (through an app that is connected with the Amazon FireTV device), so just to the left of my two computer monitors is an always-on screen showing what’s going on outside.

At a cost of USD $24 or $35, you don’t have the excuse of “too expensive”, and the app makes it so easy, anyone can set these things up.

The post Security cameras that are easy to set up – and cheap first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google images — The new trick to downloading Google images Dec 23, 2019
It used to be easy to just search Google for an image and download that full size image to your computer. Google changed their image download process a while ago, and it’s not quite as obvious how to get those full size images saved. But you can still do it! Here’s how.

Note: what you do with the images you download from Google is your business. I’m trusting that whether you’re using them on your blog, your website, your podcast cover art, or wherever, that you are only using images with the proper permission or licensing.

Remember the good old days – grabbing a high-res image from Google was super easy! You just did a search at images.google.com, and you were presented with a million beautiful pictures to choose from. You just clicked on the thumbnail, and right there in front of you was the full size image, ready for your right-click and “Save As” to have it on your computer. No more!

Google made this change because photo websites and professional photographers were tired of Google making it so easy for people to steal their images. So they made the process less intuitive, and they also made it more likely the anyone searching for a photo would actually end up on the website where the photo is displayed (which in some cases means you have to then go searching for the photo – the photo you already found on Google – on that website). This is good for the photo owners, but really inconvenient for the user who needs a photo.

In the steps below, I’ll show you the problem, and then I’ll show you the workaround.

Let’s say for example you want a nice high-resolution picture of a Tesla automobile.

You go to Google Images and type “tesla” in the search bar. And Google comes back with lots of great looking images of Teslas:

So far so good. You look at all the thumbnails, and you decide you like the red one in the top row. So you click on it. Now you see this – the thumbnail selection is still there, but the one you chose is now highlighted and displayed on the left. But that’s not the full size image. The actual image is nice and big – 2048 x 1335 pixels.

If you just click on the picture, it takes you to the Tesla Wikipedia page. If you scroll halfway down that long page, you’ll see the image – but it’s still not shown full size. In fact, it’s even smaller than when you saw it in the Google search results!

Here’s what you do –

Do a RIGHT click on the image, then choose “Copy image address”. That means you’ll have the actual website address for the IMAGE, not just the website that is using the image.

Now, open a new tab and hit Ctrl + V (the keyboard shortcut for Paste). When you hit Enter, guess what you see – the full size, full resolution image!

Now you can right click and download, or copy it into Photoshop, or do whatever you need to do with it.

So there are a couple more steps involved now, but once you’ve done it a few times, it’s not a huge inconvenience.

The post The new trick to downloading Google images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google image search results — The new trick to downloading Google images Dec 23, 2019
It used to be easy to just search Google for an image and download that full size image to your computer. Google changed their image download process a while ago, and it’s not quite as obvious how to get those full size images saved. But you can still do it! Here’s how.

Note: what you do with the images you download from Google is your business. I’m trusting that whether you’re using them on your blog, your website, your podcast cover art, or wherever, that you are only using images with the proper permission or licensing.

Remember the good old days – grabbing a high-res image from Google was super easy! You just did a search at images.google.com, and you were presented with a million beautiful pictures to choose from. You just clicked on the thumbnail, and right there in front of you was the full size image, ready for your right-click and “Save As” to have it on your computer. No more!

Google made this change because photo websites and professional photographers were tired of Google making it so easy for people to steal their images. So they made the process less intuitive, and they also made it more likely the anyone searching for a photo would actually end up on the website where the photo is displayed (which in some cases means you have to then go searching for the photo – the photo you already found on Google – on that website). This is good for the photo owners, but really inconvenient for the user who needs a photo.

In the steps below, I’ll show you the problem, and then I’ll show you the workaround.

Let’s say for example you want a nice high-resolution picture of a Tesla automobile.

You go to Google Images and type “tesla” in the search bar. And Google comes back with lots of great looking images of Teslas:

So far so good. You look at all the thumbnails, and you decide you like the red one in the top row. So you click on it. Now you see this – the thumbnail selection is still there, but the one you chose is now highlighted and displayed on the left. But that’s not the full size image. The actual image is nice and big – 2048 x 1335 pixels.

If you just click on the picture, it takes you to the Tesla Wikipedia page. If you scroll halfway down that long page, you’ll see the image – but it’s still not shown full size. In fact, it’s even smaller than when you saw it in the Google search results!

Here’s what you do –

Do a RIGHT click on the image, then choose “Copy image address”. That means you’ll have the actual website address for the IMAGE, not just the website that is using the image.

Now, open a new tab and hit Ctrl + V (the keyboard shortcut for Paste). When you hit Enter, guess what you see – the full size, full resolution image!

Now you can right click and download, or copy it into Photoshop, or do whatever you need to do with it.

So there are a couple more steps involved now, but once you’ve done it a few times, it’s not a huge inconvenience.

The post The new trick to downloading Google images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

System Restore — Make sure System Restore is set up properly Dec 09, 2019
There are a few things about Windows 10 that don’t really make sense. When I set up a new computer, or when I do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I make sure these things are all configured properly. If you’re running Windows 10, one of the things you should check on is System Restore.

Important note: If you’re still running Windows 7, you’ve probably been getting notices on your computer that time is running out. It’s true! You need to upgrade to Windows 10, because support for Windows 7 ENDS in a few weeks (January 2020). I can upgrade your computer to Windows 10, and I can do it remotely – so you don’t even need to bring it anywhere. You need to get this done ASAP. Contact me.

System Restore is a handy tool in some circumstances. It’s not something you would use regularly, but in some cases it’s a way to fix a computer that has problems. Here’s what doesn’t make sense: in Windows 10, System Restore is turned off by default. So unless you enable it and configure it, it will be completely useless when the time comes that you really need it. I’d really love to hear Microsoft’s explanation for this.

What this means is this: you need to enable System Restore, so you are able to use it if you ever need to (or if your computer tech needs to).

Here’s how you enable and configure System Restore:

In the lower left corner, in the Search bar, type the word create. In the search results, you’ll see an option called “Create a restore point” – click on that. That opens the System Properties window, and the “System Protection” tab.

In that window, click on the line designated as the C drive to highlight it, then click the “Configure” button.

In the next window, you will need to adjust two things:

Click on “Turn on system protection” (this enables System Restore)

Under “Disk space usage” slide the selector to around 2% of your hard drive space. Then click OK.

The next part is to actually create a new restore point. When you click OK (above), you’ll be brought back to the main window. In that window, click on the button that says “Create”. Click that, then give this restore point a name. What you name it doesn’t matter a lot. You could just type in today’s date if you want to. Then click Create.

It will take a minute or so, and then it’s done. Just click OK and close that window.

It’s important to note – System Restore is not a way to recovery files or folders that somehow got deleted or lost. It really has no effect at all on your personal stuff like the Documents or Pictures folders. The most common use for System Restore is when a program gets installed and somehow messes up the rest of Windows or the computer. You can take the computer back to an earlier date – BEFORE that bad program got installed – and it will be as if it were never there. That’s pretty handy.

The post Make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

system restore — Make sure System Restore is set up properly Dec 09, 2019
There are a few things about Windows 10 that don’t really make sense. When I set up a new computer, or when I do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I make sure these things are all configured properly. If you’re running Windows 10, one of the things you should check on is System Restore.

Important note: If you’re still running Windows 7, you’ve probably been getting notices on your computer that time is running out. It’s true! You need to upgrade to Windows 10, because support for Windows 7 ENDS in a few weeks (January 2020). I can upgrade your computer to Windows 10, and I can do it remotely – so you don’t even need to bring it anywhere. You need to get this done ASAP. Contact me.

System Restore is a handy tool in some circumstances. It’s not something you would use regularly, but in some cases it’s a way to fix a computer that has problems. Here’s what doesn’t make sense: in Windows 10, System Restore is turned off by default. So unless you enable it and configure it, it will be completely useless when the time comes that you really need it. I’d really love to hear Microsoft’s explanation for this.

What this means is this: you need to enable System Restore, so you are able to use it if you ever need to (or if your computer tech needs to).

Here’s how you enable and configure System Restore:

In the lower left corner, in the Search bar, type the word create. In the search results, you’ll see an option called “Create a restore point” – click on that. That opens the System Properties window, and the “System Protection” tab.

In that window, click on the line designated as the C drive to highlight it, then click the “Configure” button.

In the next window, you will need to adjust two things:

Click on “Turn on system protection” (this enables System Restore)

Under “Disk space usage” slide the selector to around 2% of your hard drive space. Then click OK.

The next part is to actually create a new restore point. When you click OK (above), you’ll be brought back to the main window. In that window, click on the button that says “Create”. Click that, then give this restore point a name. What you name it doesn’t matter a lot. You could just type in today’s date if you want to. Then click Create.

It will take a minute or so, and then it’s done. Just click OK and close that window.

It’s important to note – System Restore is not a way to recovery files or folders that somehow got deleted or lost. It really has no effect at all on your personal stuff like the Documents or Pictures folders. The most common use for System Restore is when a program gets installed and somehow messes up the rest of Windows or the computer. You can take the computer back to an earlier date – BEFORE that bad program got installed – and it will be as if it were never there. That’s pretty handy.

The post Make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Alexa — Fun things you can say to Alexa Nov 25, 2019
There are more than 120 million “smart speakers” in US homes. In our house, we have the Google Home speaker, and here in my home office I have Alexa. But most people just ask Alexa boring stuff, like “what’s the traffic like this morning” or “is it going to rain today”. There are lots of FUN things you can ask Alexa too. She actually has kind of a clever and sassy personality.

Next time you’re talking to Alexa, try out some of these:

Human: “Alexa, flip a coin”
Alexa: “You got heads” or “You got tails”

Human: “Alexa, roll the dice”
Alexa: “3” (or other random dice number)
(you can also tell her to roll multiple dice)

Human: “Alexa, pick a card”
Alexa: “Your card is the 3 of spades” (or other random card)

Human: “Alexa, play thunderstorm”
Alexa: “Would you like to try…” and she’ll offer you some choices for this sound
(Note: “Alexa, play thunderstruck” produces a very different result.)

Human: “Alexa, give me a random fact”
Alexa: “In 1955, Quaker Oats started giving away land deeds for free in their cereal. 21 million deeds were printed, each covering a one inch by one inch parcel of land in Yukon, Canada.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, how much do you weigh?”
Alexa: “I’m weightless, like a cloud. Wait, that’s not quite right. Clouds actually weigh a lot. Let’s just say I’m more sass than mass.”

Human: “Alexa, what is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Alexa: “It sounds exactly like a high five.”

Human: “Alexa, how many days until Christmas?”
Alexa: “Christmas is in 30 days, on Wednesday, December 25th, 2019”

Human: “Alexa, give me a quote from The Office”
Alexa: “Here is a ‘The Office, the TV show’ quote: I’m going to donate to Afghanistanis with AIDS.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, are you blue?”
Alexa: “Only my light ring. ONLY my light ring.”

Human: “Alexa, open demotivate me”
Alexa: “You should try to be satisfied with less.” (answers vary)
(you will need to enable the “Demotivate me” skill first)

Human: “Alexa, can you give me some money?”
Alexa: “I’m not a bank” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, give me a tongue twister”
Alexa: “The limburger burglar hungers for limburger on bagels” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, find Chuck Norris”
Alexa: “If Chuck Norris wants you to know where he is, he’ll find you. If he doesn’t you won’t know until it’s too late.”

Human: “Alexa, I am your father”
Alexa: “NOOO…that’s not true. That’s impossible.”

Human: “Alexa, what’s the first rule of Fight Club?”
Alexa: “Don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Human: “Alexa, where were you born?”
Alexa: “I’m from Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington.”

Human: “Alexa, when were you born?”
Alexa: “My birthday is November 6, 2014.” (the Amazon Echo launch date)

Human: “Alexa, can you sing in autotune?”
Alexa: (sings a song in autotune)

Human: “Alexa, who farted?”
Alexa: “Whoever smelt it, dealt it. And I’m not talking about a card game.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, surely you can’t be serious?”
Alexa: “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, do you know Cortana?”
Alexa: “We do pass each other on the information superhighway every now and then.”

Human: “Play the Computer Tutor podcast”
Alexa: (plays the most recent podcast episode)
Alexa can actually play quite a few different podcasts.

Human: “Alexa, have a great day.”
Alexa: “Thanks. You too.”

And what crazy things do YOU ask Alexa? Leave them in the comments below.

The post Fun things you can say to Alexa first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — Fun things you can say to Alexa Nov 25, 2019
There are more than 120 million “smart speakers” in US homes. In our house, we have the Google Home speaker, and here in my home office I have Alexa. But most people just ask Alexa boring stuff, like “what’s the traffic like this morning” or “is it going to rain today”. There are lots of FUN things you can ask Alexa too. She actually has kind of a clever and sassy personality.

Next time you’re talking to Alexa, try out some of these:

Human: “Alexa, flip a coin”
Alexa: “You got heads” or “You got tails”

Human: “Alexa, roll the dice”
Alexa: “3” (or other random dice number)
(you can also tell her to roll multiple dice)

Human: “Alexa, pick a card”
Alexa: “Your card is the 3 of spades” (or other random card)

Human: “Alexa, play thunderstorm”
Alexa: “Would you like to try…” and she’ll offer you some choices for this sound
(Note: “Alexa, play thunderstruck” produces a very different result.)

Human: “Alexa, give me a random fact”
Alexa: “In 1955, Quaker Oats started giving away land deeds for free in their cereal. 21 million deeds were printed, each covering a one inch by one inch parcel of land in Yukon, Canada.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, how much do you weigh?”
Alexa: “I’m weightless, like a cloud. Wait, that’s not quite right. Clouds actually weigh a lot. Let’s just say I’m more sass than mass.”

Human: “Alexa, what is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Alexa: “It sounds exactly like a high five.”

Human: “Alexa, how many days until Christmas?”
Alexa: “Christmas is in 30 days, on Wednesday, December 25th, 2019”

Human: “Alexa, give me a quote from The Office”
Alexa: “Here is a ‘The Office, the TV show’ quote: I’m going to donate to Afghanistanis with AIDS.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, are you blue?”
Alexa: “Only my light ring. ONLY my light ring.”

Human: “Alexa, open demotivate me”
Alexa: “You should try to be satisfied with less.” (answers vary)
(you will need to enable the “Demotivate me” skill first)

Human: “Alexa, can you give me some money?”
Alexa: “I’m not a bank” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, give me a tongue twister”
Alexa: “The limburger burglar hungers for limburger on bagels” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, find Chuck Norris”
Alexa: “If Chuck Norris wants you to know where he is, he’ll find you. If he doesn’t you won’t know until it’s too late.”

Human: “Alexa, I am your father”
Alexa: “NOOO…that’s not true. That’s impossible.”

Human: “Alexa, what’s the first rule of Fight Club?”
Alexa: “Don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Human: “Alexa, where were you born?”
Alexa: “I’m from Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington.”

Human: “Alexa, when were you born?”
Alexa: “My birthday is November 6, 2014.” (the Amazon Echo launch date)

Human: “Alexa, can you sing in autotune?”
Alexa: (sings a song in autotune)

Human: “Alexa, who farted?”
Alexa: “Whoever smelt it, dealt it. And I’m not talking about a card game.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, surely you can’t be serious?”
Alexa: “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” (answers vary)

Human: “Alexa, do you know Cortana?”
Alexa: “We do pass each other on the information superhighway every now and then.”

Human: “Play the Computer Tutor podcast”
Alexa: (plays the most recent podcast episode)
Alexa can actually play quite a few different podcasts.

Human: “Alexa, have a great day.”
Alexa: “Thanks. You too.”

And what crazy things do YOU ask Alexa? Leave them in the comments below.

The post Fun things you can say to Alexa first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

spear[hishing — What is spearphishing? Nov 11, 2019
“Spearphishing” is one of those terms used by computer security people to describe a particular kind of computer attack. I think it’s a pretty interesting strategy to learn about.

But to understand spearphishing, we have to back up a bit and explain a few things about the fishing/phishing analogy and how one translates to the other.

Most people know what traditional fishing is. You put some bait on the end of your line, throw it in the water and hope you get a bite. You’re kind of putting it out there to all the fish in the lake at the same time, hoping that just one of them falls for it. It’s kind of a “mass” effort in the hopes of succeeding with one target.

Spearfishing (we’re still talking about actual fish in actual water) is a targeted approach. Instead of throwing your bait out for ALL the fish, you wait patiently with a spear, and watch to target a specific fish. Maybe you’re looking and waiting for a really big one to come along. When you see the one you want, all of your effort is put into getting that one big fish.

Now we move into the world of computer security.

A phishing email is one that usually gets sent out to hundreds or thousands of people at a time. It’s usually pretty generic. The email might say that it’s being sent from your bank, and that your account may have been compromised. They want you to log in and confirm your account in order to maintain the account’s security. But when you click on the link, even though you are taken to a website that LOOKS like the login page for your bank, it’s really just a fake website put up by the scammer. When you enter your user name and password, you’re giving the scammer your login credentials.

So a phishing email is a pretty low-effort, wide-spread type of attack. Lots of potential targets since it gets sent out to a lot of people all at the same time.

A spearphishing email is different. It focuses on a particular high-value target. Here’s an example of how a spearphishing attack might work.

Let’s say there’s a dishonest home remodeling contractor in Dallas, Texas. He wants to get the client list for one of his competitors, so he hires a hacker to do this. So now the hacker has to figure out how to get into the computer of the owner of that competing business. How would he do that?

First, he might go over to the business location at night, when there is no one there. He doesn’t break in, but he looks in the dumpster where the office trash is thrown out. He finds the typical office garbage, but among that garbage is some business paperwork. He finds some invoices from vendors. These are not documents that a company would think need to be shredded, because there is no confidential information included. But the hacker can use that information.

He takes one of the invoices and sees that it’s from a cabinet manufacturer, All American Cabinets. Now he looks up all the information he can find about that company. He sees that they have a public email address for new business inquiries. So, pretending to be a remodeler himself, he sends an email asking about prices and inventory. The next day he gets an email back from the owner, Jack, and the email address is allamericancabinets@gmail.com. Now he knows Jack’s email address.

Next, the hacker creates a new Gmail account: a11americancabinets@gmail.com. See the difference? It’s similar enough that no one would really notice that the first part is “a11” instead of “all”.

Now, he uses that email to send an email to his target company (the competitor). The email might even reference the job that was listed on the invoice. But the point of the email is to make the recipient assume that it’s coming from Jack at the cabinet company. As “Jack”, he might say that they are beefing up security and requiring all their customers to read and agree with the new online security policy, which is attached as a Word document.

So the recipient of that email, seeing that it’s coming from a company they deal with all the time, and it’s being sent by Jack, who they have worked with for years, doesn’t even question that this might be a hacking attempt. They click to open the attachment, but nothing happens. At least that’s how it appears on the screen. So they figure it’s just a computer glitch and forget about it.

But what really happens is when they click that attachment, it activates a program behind the scenes that goes and collects everything in the Documents folder and sends it back to the hacker. And guess what’s in that folder – the client list with all the contact information and work history.

That’s the essence of spearphishing. Rather than send out a hundred emails to the employees of a company, the scammer just sends out one targeted one, to a specific person, with very particular and personal information on it, to avoid any suspicion in the hopes that that one person doesn’t suspect anything. It’s a lot of work for just that one email, but the payoff is potentially much larger because of the high-value target.

But you can prevent either of these types of attacks from being successful, by following these two rules:

Don’t open email attachments

Don’t click on a link unless you KNOW for sure where it will take you

There are a few exceptions to rule #1, but in general I just don’t open attachments. The exception would be when I know ahead of time to expect that email with that attachment, and I know exactly what the attached file is, and I trust the person who sent it to me.

The post What is spearphishing? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — What is spearphishing? Nov 11, 2019
“Spearphishing” is one of those terms used by computer security people to describe a particular kind of computer attack. I think it’s a pretty interesting strategy to learn about.

But to understand spearphishing, we have to back up a bit and explain a few things about the fishing/phishing analogy and how one translates to the other.

Most people know what traditional fishing is. You put some bait on the end of your line, throw it in the water and hope you get a bite. You’re kind of putting it out there to all the fish in the lake at the same time, hoping that just one of them falls for it. It’s kind of a “mass” effort in the hopes of succeeding with one target.

Spearfishing (we’re still talking about actual fish in actual water) is a targeted approach. Instead of throwing your bait out for ALL the fish, you wait patiently with a spear, and watch to target a specific fish. Maybe you’re looking and waiting for a really big one to come along. When you see the one you want, all of your effort is put into getting that one big fish.

Now we move into the world of computer security.

A phishing email is one that usually gets sent out to hundreds or thousands of people at a time. It’s usually pretty generic. The email might say that it’s being sent from your bank, and that your account may have been compromised. They want you to log in and confirm your account in order to maintain the account’s security. But when you click on the link, even though you are taken to a website that LOOKS like the login page for your bank, it’s really just a fake website put up by the scammer. When you enter your user name and password, you’re giving the scammer your login credentials.

So a phishing email is a pretty low-effort, wide-spread type of attack. Lots of potential targets since it gets sent out to a lot of people all at the same time.

A spearphishing email is different. It focuses on a particular high-value target. Here’s an example of how a spearphishing attack might work.

Let’s say there’s a dishonest home remodeling contractor in Dallas, Texas. He wants to get the client list for one of his competitors, so he hires a hacker to do this. So now the hacker has to figure out how to get into the computer of the owner of that competing business. How would he do that?

First, he might go over to the business location at night, when there is no one there. He doesn’t break in, but he looks in the dumpster where the office trash is thrown out. He finds the typical office garbage, but among that garbage is some business paperwork. He finds some invoices from vendors. These are not documents that a company would think need to be shredded, because there is no confidential information included. But the hacker can use that information.

He takes one of the invoices and sees that it’s from a cabinet manufacturer, All American Cabinets. Now he looks up all the information he can find about that company. He sees that they have a public email address for new business inquiries. So, pretending to be a remodeler himself, he sends an email asking about prices and inventory. The next day he gets an email back from the owner, Jack, and the email address is allamericancabinets@gmail.com. Now he knows Jack’s email address.

Next, the hacker creates a new Gmail account: a11americancabinets@gmail.com. See the difference? It’s similar enough that no one would really notice that the first part is “a11” instead of “all”.

Now, he uses that email to send an email to his target company (the competitor). The email might even reference the job that was listed on the invoice. But the point of the email is to make the recipient assume that it’s coming from Jack at the cabinet company. As “Jack”, he might say that they are beefing up security and requiring all their customers to read and agree with the new online security policy, which is attached as a Word document.

So the recipient of that email, seeing that it’s coming from a company they deal with all the time, and it’s being sent by Jack, who they have worked with for years, doesn’t even question that this might be a hacking attempt. They click to open the attachment, but nothing happens. At least that’s how it appears on the screen. So they figure it’s just a computer glitch and forget about it.

But what really happens is when they click that attachment, it activates a program behind the scenes that goes and collects everything in the Documents folder and sends it back to the hacker. And guess what’s in that folder – the client list with all the contact information and work history.

That’s the essence of spearphishing. Rather than send out a hundred emails to the employees of a company, the scammer just sends out one targeted one, to a specific person, with very particular and personal information on it, to avoid any suspicion in the hopes that that one person doesn’t suspect anything. It’s a lot of work for just that one email, but the payoff is potentially much larger because of the high-value target.

But you can prevent either of these types of attacks from being successful, by following these two rules:

Don’t open email attachments

Don’t click on a link unless you KNOW for sure where it will take you

There are a few exceptions to rule #1, but in general I just don’t open attachments. The exception would be when I know ahead of time to expect that email with that attachment, and I know exactly what the attached file is, and I trust the person who sent it to me.

The post What is spearphishing? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 setup — 3 things I do when setting up a new computer Oct 28, 2019
When you get a new computer, you can’t just turn it on and start using it. Those days are long gone. Now, you have to navigate past Microsoft’s tricks and traps. And it’s important to do it right from the beginning – otherwise you could end up with a lot of frustration and wasted time trying to fix it.

Today I’ll tell you 3 of the important steps in the process I use for setting up a new computer. I go through the same process when I’m prepping a laptop for resale also.

Install Chrome and set it as the default browser

When you get a new Windows 10 computer, the browser that’s set to be the default is Edge. Edge is awful. How awful is it? It’s so bad, only about 5% of Windows users use it – even though it’s the one that comes as the default browser. This means the vast majority of people install a different browser when they get a new computer.

The one I use is Chrome. It’s easy to use, and it’s also easy to use my ad blocking extension (uBlock Origin). Just go to Google.com/chrome and click the Download button, and follow the steps. At some point it will ask you to make Chrome the default browser, so go ahead and do that. Microsoft Edge will still be on your computer; you just won’t use it. In fact, Internet Explorer is even still in there (even though you don’t see it) but of course you won’t want to use it either. Chrome is all you need. If you prefer Firefox, it’s good too.

Turn on System Restore and create a restore point

It makes no sense whatsoever, but when you install Windows 10, System Restore is turned OFF by default. If your computer has a problem, or if you install software that causes a glitch, it’s so nice to have the option of taking the computer back to an earlier date and time. When you take it back to a time that was before the problem started, the problem is gone.

BUT – you don’t have that option when System Restore is not enabled and configured. So you need to do that on any new computer. In the search bar in the bottom left, type the word “create” and then in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. That takes you to the System Restore dialog box, where you will choose the “C” drive and click Configure. In that new window you can enable System Restore, configure it to use about 2% of your drive space, and then go ahead and create a restore point just in case you might need it.

Turn off ads in the Start menu

This is another example of Microsoft’s sliminess. Click the Start button, then the Settings icon (it looks like a gear). Then click the Personalization category, and click the Start tab in the left column. In that windows, you’ll see an option that says “Show suggestions occasionally in Start” and it’s turned ON by default. Well, by “suggestions”, Microsoft really means “advertisements”. You want your Start menu clogged with their ads? Of course not. No one does. Slide that switch to the left to turn it off.

And here’s a bonus tip (which just might be more important than any of the other three we already talked about) – don’t connect your new computer to the internet until you get to the desktop screen. When you first turn it on, Microsoft will really – REALLY – want you to connect it to the internet before doing anything else. In fact, if you don’t want to do that, the phrase you have to click on isn’t “Don’t connect” or something simple. What you have to click on is “I don’t have internet”. Which of course will confuse some people, which means they might actually go back and choose to connect to the internet, which is exactly what Microsoft wants them to do.

When you set up a new computer that’s online, that means you have to sign in to your Microsoft account in order to get into your computer. Oh, you don’t have a Microsoft account? Well then, you’ll need to create one. And create a password for that account. And create security questions for recovering that password. And if you install Office later, that means your documents and other files will by default be stored in OneDrive, rather than in your computer’s Documents folder. Once Microsoft has its hooks in you like that, it’s a cumbersome process to undo it. That’s by design.

I prefer to not engage in any of that nonsense. Just don’t connect it to the internet, and don’t bother with a password. You can add one later if you need one, and it doesn’t have to be your Microsoft account – it can just be a local user account on your computer.

KEEP IN MIND – the things I talked about today are just a few of the MANY configurations I make when setting up a computer. If you buy a laptop from me, that stuff is already all done for you. And I do New PC Setup for many of my clients when they get a new computer (this can all be done remotely). If you need help just let me know.

The post 3 things I do when setting up a new computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — 3 things I do when setting up a new computer Oct 28, 2019
When you get a new computer, you can’t just turn it on and start using it. Those days are long gone. Now, you have to navigate past Microsoft’s tricks and traps. And it’s important to do it right from the beginning – otherwise you could end up with a lot of frustration and wasted time trying to fix it.

Today I’ll tell you 3 of the important steps in the process I use for setting up a new computer. I go through the same process when I’m prepping a laptop for resale also.

Install Chrome and set it as the default browser

When you get a new Windows 10 computer, the browser that’s set to be the default is Edge. Edge is awful. How awful is it? It’s so bad, only about 5% of Windows users use it – even though it’s the one that comes as the default browser. This means the vast majority of people install a different browser when they get a new computer.

The one I use is Chrome. It’s easy to use, and it’s also easy to use my ad blocking extension (uBlock Origin). Just go to Google.com/chrome and click the Download button, and follow the steps. At some point it will ask you to make Chrome the default browser, so go ahead and do that. Microsoft Edge will still be on your computer; you just won’t use it. In fact, Internet Explorer is even still in there (even though you don’t see it) but of course you won’t want to use it either. Chrome is all you need. If you prefer Firefox, it’s good too.

Turn on System Restore and create a restore point

It makes no sense whatsoever, but when you install Windows 10, System Restore is turned OFF by default. If your computer has a problem, or if you install software that causes a glitch, it’s so nice to have the option of taking the computer back to an earlier date and time. When you take it back to a time that was before the problem started, the problem is gone.

BUT – you don’t have that option when System Restore is not enabled and configured. So you need to do that on any new computer. In the search bar in the bottom left, type the word “create” and then in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. That takes you to the System Restore dialog box, where you will choose the “C” drive and click Configure. In that new window you can enable System Restore, configure it to use about 2% of your drive space, and then go ahead and create a restore point just in case you might need it.

Turn off ads in the Start menu

This is another example of Microsoft’s sliminess. Click the Start button, then the Settings icon (it looks like a gear). Then click the Personalization category, and click the Start tab in the left column. In that windows, you’ll see an option that says “Show suggestions occasionally in Start” and it’s turned ON by default. Well, by “suggestions”, Microsoft really means “advertisements”. You want your Start menu clogged with their ads? Of course not. No one does. Slide that switch to the left to turn it off.

And here’s a bonus tip (which just might be more important than any of the other three we already talked about) – don’t connect your new computer to the internet until you get to the desktop screen. When you first turn it on, Microsoft will really – REALLY – want you to connect it to the internet before doing anything else. In fact, if you don’t want to do that, the phrase you have to click on isn’t “Don’t connect” or something simple. What you have to click on is “I don’t have internet”. Which of course will confuse some people, which means they might actually go back and choose to connect to the internet, which is exactly what Microsoft wants them to do.

When you set up a new computer that’s online, that means you have to sign in to your Microsoft account in order to get into your computer. Oh, you don’t have a Microsoft account? Well then, you’ll need to create one. And create a password for that account. And create security questions for recovering that password. And if you install Office later, that means your documents and other files will by default be stored in OneDrive, rather than in your computer’s Documents folder. Once Microsoft has its hooks in you like that, it’s a cumbersome process to undo it. That’s by design.

I prefer to not engage in any of that nonsense. Just don’t connect it to the internet, and don’t bother with a password. You can add one later if you need one, and it doesn’t have to be your Microsoft account – it can just be a local user account on your computer.

KEEP IN MIND – the things I talked about today are just a few of the MANY configurations I make when setting up a computer. If you buy a laptop from me, that stuff is already all done for you. And I do New PC Setup for many of my clients when they get a new computer (this can all be done remotely). If you need help just let me know.

The post 3 things I do when setting up a new computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

phishing email scam — Case Study – identifying a phishing email Oct 14, 2019
I recently had a client forward an email to me. The email told her she had to confirm her agreement to the AOL Terms of Service, or she could no longer use her email account. She was concerned that her email would get cut off. She had nothing to worry about.

The email she got was a typical phishing email. That means it was just trying to trick her into clicking through and giving out her email password, which would give the scammer control over her email account.

I wanted to show you this actual email, and how it was identifiable as a scam.

The email she received supposedly came from AOL. But look at the “From” address:

If an email comes from the actual AOL, the email address will end with “@aol.com”. This one ends with “prodigy.net.mx” which indicates that the sender is not only NOT with AOL, he’s also somewhere in Mexico, using the ancient Prodigy email service.

The second big giveaway are the links in the email. In the screenshot below, you can see that there are 6 links:

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

here

FAQs

Click here to start

here

Guess what – every one of those links goes to the same place. They don’t care which one you click on, they just want you to click.

That’s the one mistake my client made – she clicked on the link to see where it took her. You should never click on ANY link if you are not sure of where that link goes. Which brings up the question that I get sometimes: “Well how can I know where a link goes if I don’t click on it??”. Great question.

You RIGHT-click on the link, then choose “Copy hyperlink” or something similar.

Then, you open NotePad on your computer. In the blank area, do a right click and choose “Paste”. That will display the actual website address where that link would have taken you to. In this case, this was the link’s destination:

Hmmm…doesn’t really look like an AOL website address, does it? It’s not.

What the scammer did is create a fake form in Excel, and just uploaded it to his OneDrive account. This scammer is really lazy. But guess what – he doesn’t really HAVE to put a lot of effort into concealing the fake nature of this, because people still fall for it. This is what the fake form looked like (anyone can create these, for free):

You can see it’s pretty basic. When you fill out this form with your email address and password, now he has your login information.

And the irony is right there at the bottom of the form – Microsoft (who owns OneDrive) knows that their forms are often used for this scam, so they put the warning on every one – “Never give out your password.” Not to mention grammatical errors that are a common clue. But some people still type in their password because they just assume it’s real.

Fortunately, my client did not enter her password. Instead, she became suspicious and forwarded the email to me so I could check it out. You are welcome to do the same thing, if you get one you’re not sure about – just forward it to me at pctutor@gmail.com.
The post Case Study – identifying a phishing email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

phishing email — Case Study – identifying a phishing email Oct 14, 2019
I recently had a client forward an email to me. The email told her she had to confirm her agreement to the AOL Terms of Service, or she could no longer use her email account. She was concerned that her email would get cut off. She had nothing to worry about.

The email she got was a typical phishing email. That means it was just trying to trick her into clicking through and giving out her email password, which would give the scammer control over her email account.

I wanted to show you this actual email, and how it was identifiable as a scam.

The email she received supposedly came from AOL. But look at the “From” address:

If an email comes from the actual AOL, the email address will end with “@aol.com”. This one ends with “prodigy.net.mx” which indicates that the sender is not only NOT with AOL, he’s also somewhere in Mexico, using the ancient Prodigy email service.

The second big giveaway are the links in the email. In the screenshot below, you can see that there are 6 links:

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

here

FAQs

Click here to start

here

Guess what – every one of those links goes to the same place. They don’t care which one you click on, they just want you to click.

That’s the one mistake my client made – she clicked on the link to see where it took her. You should never click on ANY link if you are not sure of where that link goes. Which brings up the question that I get sometimes: “Well how can I know where a link goes if I don’t click on it??”. Great question.

You RIGHT-click on the link, then choose “Copy hyperlink” or something similar.

Then, you open NotePad on your computer. In the blank area, do a right click and choose “Paste”. That will display the actual website address where that link would have taken you to. In this case, this was the link’s destination:

Hmmm…doesn’t really look like an AOL website address, does it? It’s not.

What the scammer did is create a fake form in Excel, and just uploaded it to his OneDrive account. This scammer is really lazy. But guess what – he doesn’t really HAVE to put a lot of effort into concealing the fake nature of this, because people still fall for it. This is what the fake form looked like (anyone can create these, for free):

You can see it’s pretty basic. When you fill out this form with your email address and password, now he has your login information.

And the irony is right there at the bottom of the form – Microsoft (who owns OneDrive) knows that their forms are often used for this scam, so they put the warning on every one – “Never give out your password.” Not to mention grammatical errors that are a common clue. But some people still type in their password because they just assume it’s real.

Fortunately, my client did not enter her password. Instead, she became suspicious and forwarded the email to me so I could check it out. You are welcome to do the same thing, if you get one you’re not sure about – just forward it to me at pctutor@gmail.com.
The post Case Study – identifying a phishing email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google space — How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account Sep 30, 2019
Well, it finally happened. I’m almost out of storage space on my Google/Gmail account.

I actually got this Google account back when the Gmail email service was first introduced, which was in 2004. So it’s taken me 15 years to almost fill it up. Google gives you 15 gb of storage space with each account, and I archive the majority of my emails, so that kind of tells you how much you can fit in 15 gb. It’s a lot.

But your Google account doesn’t just store emails. That 15 gb of space is also used by whatever you have stored in Google Drive and in Google Photos. To see the status of your account’s storage, go to this link: https://one.google.com/storage

When I go there for my account, this is what it shows me:

So you can see about 1/3 of my usage is in Google Drive, and 2/3 is used by my 15 years worth of emails. I also store all of my photos in Google Photos, but if you let them optimize the images to reduce the file size, that doesn’t count toward your storage limit

And here’s an important thing to note: you definitely DON’T want to let that storage get to 100%, especially if you use Gmail as your primary email account. If you use ALL of your storage space, you won’t be able to send or receive any emails until you clear some of it out.

I’ll tell you right up front, the quickest and easiest way to fix this is to upgrade to a Google One account. It’s only $20 per year, and you get these benefits:

100 gb of storage space – in my case, that’s more than a lifetime supply

help from Google experts – you can actually contact someone from Google if you need help

option to share – you can share your storage space with up to 5 other people

In my case, that’s probably what I’ll do. But what if you don’t want to pay Google for more storage? You can just delete some of the things you are currently storing. I’ll do that with my own account and we’ll see how it works.

First up, Google Drive. You may not even be using Google Drive for anything, but I do have several things stored there – documents, spreadsheets, videos, etc. Most of these things I don’t use now, so I don’t need them any more.

I went through and deleted a bunch of files from Google Drive, and checked my total storage again. Guess what – it made no difference at all. Documents take up very little space, so deleting them didn’t save space.

So now we move on to Gmail.

With email, it’s important to note that a standard email message does not take up much space at all. But if an email has an attachment – that’s what uses storage space. So my first thing to try is to find all of my old Gmail emails that have attachments bigger than 5 mb get rid of the ones I don’t need (which is probably most of them).

To find all of the emails larger than 5 mb, go to Gmail.com and sign in, then go up to the search bar and do this search:

In my case, I had 142 emails that were 5 mb or larger. I deleted the 42 oldest ones. Still no difference. BUT – that’s because deleting them really just puts them in the Trash folder, and that still counts toward your storage limit. So I emptied the Trash. Now we’re seeing progress.

My new report:

Overall down to 86%, so that definitely gives me some breathing room. In my case, it probably gives me another year before I need to deal with this again.

There are also some third-party programs that can help you clean up your Gmail account. One of the more popular ones is called Find Big Mail (https://www.findbigmail.com/). In the past, you had to pay for this service, but at the time of this post it is free. They may start charging again in the future. They will ask you for a donation though, so you can decide if it’s worth paying for.

Just go to the website and follow the instructions. You’ll end up with a report that tells you what was found, and some of your biggest emails will have a new label, so you can just view them (and delete them if you want to). When I did this, and emptied Trash again, I got this revised storage report:

So I got it down to 81%. Not bad! Definitely better than almost full at 98%. When it starts to get full again, I probably will just go ahead and buy more storage space since it’s so cheap. But for now, I don’t have to worry about it.

Did you get rid of some stuff in your Google account? How much space did you save?

The post How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google storage — How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account Sep 30, 2019
Well, it finally happened. I’m almost out of storage space on my Google/Gmail account.

I actually got this Google account back when the Gmail email service was first introduced, which was in 2004. So it’s taken me 15 years to almost fill it up. Google gives you 15 gb of storage space with each account, and I archive the majority of my emails, so that kind of tells you how much you can fit in 15 gb. It’s a lot.

But your Google account doesn’t just store emails. That 15 gb of space is also used by whatever you have stored in Google Drive and in Google Photos. To see the status of your account’s storage, go to this link: https://one.google.com/storage

When I go there for my account, this is what it shows me:

So you can see about 1/3 of my usage is in Google Drive, and 2/3 is used by my 15 years worth of emails. I also store all of my photos in Google Photos, but if you let them optimize the images to reduce the file size, that doesn’t count toward your storage limit

And here’s an important thing to note: you definitely DON’T want to let that storage get to 100%, especially if you use Gmail as your primary email account. If you use ALL of your storage space, you won’t be able to send or receive any emails until you clear some of it out.

I’ll tell you right up front, the quickest and easiest way to fix this is to upgrade to a Google One account. It’s only $20 per year, and you get these benefits:

100 gb of storage space – in my case, that’s more than a lifetime supply

help from Google experts – you can actually contact someone from Google if you need help

option to share – you can share your storage space with up to 5 other people

In my case, that’s probably what I’ll do. But what if you don’t want to pay Google for more storage? You can just delete some of the things you are currently storing. I’ll do that with my own account and we’ll see how it works.

First up, Google Drive. You may not even be using Google Drive for anything, but I do have several things stored there – documents, spreadsheets, videos, etc. Most of these things I don’t use now, so I don’t need them any more.

I went through and deleted a bunch of files from Google Drive, and checked my total storage again. Guess what – it made no difference at all. Documents take up very little space, so deleting them didn’t save space.

So now we move on to Gmail.

With email, it’s important to note that a standard email message does not take up much space at all. But if an email has an attachment – that’s what uses storage space. So my first thing to try is to find all of my old Gmail emails that have attachments bigger than 5 mb get rid of the ones I don’t need (which is probably most of them).

To find all of the emails larger than 5 mb, go to Gmail.com and sign in, then go up to the search bar and do this search:

In my case, I had 142 emails that were 5 mb or larger. I deleted the 42 oldest ones. Still no difference. BUT – that’s because deleting them really just puts them in the Trash folder, and that still counts toward your storage limit. So I emptied the Trash. Now we’re seeing progress.

My new report:

Overall down to 86%, so that definitely gives me some breathing room. In my case, it probably gives me another year before I need to deal with this again.

There are also some third-party programs that can help you clean up your Gmail account. One of the more popular ones is called Find Big Mail (https://www.findbigmail.com/). In the past, you had to pay for this service, but at the time of this post it is free. They may start charging again in the future. They will ask you for a donation though, so you can decide if it’s worth paying for.

Just go to the website and follow the instructions. You’ll end up with a report that tells you what was found, and some of your biggest emails will have a new label, so you can just view them (and delete them if you want to). When I did this, and emptied Trash again, I got this revised storage report:

So I got it down to 81%. Not bad! Definitely better than almost full at 98%. When it starts to get full again, I probably will just go ahead and buy more storage space since it’s so cheap. But for now, I don’t have to worry about it.

Did you get rid of some stuff in your Google account? How much space did you save?

The post How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 — How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars Sep 16, 2019
I didn’t like Windows 10 when it first came out several years ago. I’m fine with it now, since it has improved a lot since then. But there’s still one thing I can’t stand – the way it hides the scroll bars. Fortunately, this is fixable. I think you’ll enjoy using Windows 10 more if you make this little adjustment.

To see what I’m talking about, all you have to do is hit the Start button (the white Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen). See that thin little line at the top?

That’s where the regular scroll bar USED to be. In Windows 10 though, you have to put your cursor right in that EXACT spot, and you’re rewarded with the actual scroll bar that expands out so you can use it:

Better make sure you don’t accidentally move that cursor over by a pixel or two though, because then the scroll bar goes hidden again. Then you have to find it with your cursor again.

I know, for this particular example, I could just use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down the list. But not everyone has that option (a lot of laptop touchpads don’t have the ability to scroll). But more importantly, there’s just no need for that scroll bar to disappear and have to be manually brought back by pinpoint-accuracy cursor placement. Some goofball coder at Microsoft just thought it up as a new “feature” and no one gave any thought to how impractical it is.

But you do have the ability to disable it!

Here’s how you UN-hide the Windows 10 scroll bars:

Click the Start button, then click Settings (the gear icon)

In the Settings window, click on the Ease of Access group

Click the “Display” section on the left, then look for the setting that says “Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows” – and slide that to the left to turn it off.

As soon as you turn it to the Off position, all your scroll bars will come back because they are no longer hidden. For most people, that’s a welcome sight!

The post How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 scroll bar — How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars Sep 16, 2019
I didn’t like Windows 10 when it first came out several years ago. I’m fine with it now, since it has improved a lot since then. But there’s still one thing I can’t stand – the way it hides the scroll bars. Fortunately, this is fixable. I think you’ll enjoy using Windows 10 more if you make this little adjustment.

To see what I’m talking about, all you have to do is hit the Start button (the white Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen). See that thin little line at the top?

That’s where the regular scroll bar USED to be. In Windows 10 though, you have to put your cursor right in that EXACT spot, and you’re rewarded with the actual scroll bar that expands out so you can use it:

Better make sure you don’t accidentally move that cursor over by a pixel or two though, because then the scroll bar goes hidden again. Then you have to find it with your cursor again.

I know, for this particular example, I could just use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down the list. But not everyone has that option (a lot of laptop touchpads don’t have the ability to scroll). But more importantly, there’s just no need for that scroll bar to disappear and have to be manually brought back by pinpoint-accuracy cursor placement. Some goofball coder at Microsoft just thought it up as a new “feature” and no one gave any thought to how impractical it is.

But you do have the ability to disable it!

Here’s how you UN-hide the Windows 10 scroll bars:

Click the Start button, then click Settings (the gear icon)

In the Settings window, click on the Ease of Access group

Click the “Display” section on the left, then look for the setting that says “Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows” – and slide that to the left to turn it off.

As soon as you turn it to the Off position, all your scroll bars will come back because they are no longer hidden. For most people, that’s a welcome sight!

The post How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly Sep 02, 2019
Sometimes when you’re experimenting or learning how to do something in Microsoft Word, it helps to have a “dummy” document that has several pages of text to work with.

This came up recently with one of my long-term clients. In fact, this lady was probably one of my very first clients when I started my computer business up in Maine.

She works with Microsoft Word all the time, and recently upgraded to Office 365. Her previous version was very outdated, so there were a number of changes in the way Word was laid out – quite different than what she was used to using for the last 10-15 years.

She had a very specific need. She needed to be able to have page numbers appear on each page of a document, but with one exception. Page 1 would have NO page number, then the numbers would start on page 2 and continue from there. Kind of an unusual thing, but that’s how she always did it and apparently it was easy to do in MS Word 2007.

Turns out it’s not so easy in the new version of Word! I had to do a bit of research, but I figured out how to do it. The next step was to remote in to her computer and show her how to do it.

But for this instruction, I did not want to use one of her documents. I just wanted a “dummy” document of about 10 pages, so it wouldn’t matter if it got all messed up.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this: the old way, and the easier way.

The old way is to use the Lorem Ipsum website (lipsum.com). What is Lorem Ipsum? The website explains it. But all you have to do is choose how many characters or paragraphs you want in your document, and click the Generate button. There are roughly 5 paragraphs per page, so if you opt for 50 paragraphs, you’ll get 10 pages of Latin text. Then you can just copy and paste that into a Word document, and there you have it – your 10 page dummy document.

But I think the new way is much easier.

Just open a new blank Word document, and type this:

=lorem(50,20)

When you type that and hit Enter, you will immediately see that this formerly blank document now has 50 paragraphs of Latin text, with each paragraph containing 20 sentences.

Depending on how much dummy text you need, you can put whatever numbers you want in the parentheses. The first number is how many paragraphs you want, and the second one is the number of sentences in each of those paragraphs.

Go ahead, open Word and try it out!

The post How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly Sep 02, 2019
Sometimes when you’re experimenting or learning how to do something in Microsoft Word, it helps to have a “dummy” document that has several pages of text to work with.

This came up recently with one of my long-term clients. In fact, this lady was probably one of my very first clients when I started my computer business up in Maine.

She works with Microsoft Word all the time, and recently upgraded to Office 365. Her previous version was very outdated, so there were a number of changes in the way Word was laid out – quite different than what she was used to using for the last 10-15 years.

She had a very specific need. She needed to be able to have page numbers appear on each page of a document, but with one exception. Page 1 would have NO page number, then the numbers would start on page 2 and continue from there. Kind of an unusual thing, but that’s how she always did it and apparently it was easy to do in MS Word 2007.

Turns out it’s not so easy in the new version of Word! I had to do a bit of research, but I figured out how to do it. The next step was to remote in to her computer and show her how to do it.

But for this instruction, I did not want to use one of her documents. I just wanted a “dummy” document of about 10 pages, so it wouldn’t matter if it got all messed up.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this: the old way, and the easier way.

The old way is to use the Lorem Ipsum website (lipsum.com). What is Lorem Ipsum? The website explains it. But all you have to do is choose how many characters or paragraphs you want in your document, and click the Generate button. There are roughly 5 paragraphs per page, so if you opt for 50 paragraphs, you’ll get 10 pages of Latin text. Then you can just copy and paste that into a Word document, and there you have it – your 10 page dummy document.

But I think the new way is much easier.

Just open a new blank Word document, and type this:

=lorem(50,20)

When you type that and hit Enter, you will immediately see that this formerly blank document now has 50 paragraphs of Latin text, with each paragraph containing 20 sentences.

Depending on how much dummy text you need, you can put whatever numbers you want in the parentheses. The first number is how many paragraphs you want, and the second one is the number of sentences in each of those paragraphs.

Go ahead, open Word and try it out!

The post How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

clutter — How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter Aug 19, 2019
Have you ever tried to read a serious article online, and you were just constantly distracted by the sidebars, the ads, and all the other “clutter” on the screen? Chrome has a secret “reader” mode to get rid of all that so you can focus on the content.

Most people don’t know about this option because it’s not all that easy to get to it in Chrome. In fact, Google still considers it to be “experimental” so that’s why it’s not yet on the regular Chrome menu. But you can put it there.

But first, you need to get Chrome version 75 or above. The good news is, if you use Chrome, you probably already have the current version. To check it, click the Options button (the 3 dots in the top right), then go to Help, then click on About Google Chrome. That screen will tell you what version you have, and even offer to update it for you if needed. As I write this, the current version is 76 dot something dot something. As long as you have 75 or higher you’re okay.

Now, you need to go up to the address bar in Chrome, and type this in and then hit Enter:

Note that it’s all lower case, and there are no spaces between any letters or characters.

When you hit Enter, you’ll see a page full of settings, including one called Enable Reader Mode. For that one, you just click the drop-down menu and choose Enabled:

You have now added a new item to your Chrome Options. If you click the Options button again (3 dots), you’ll see a new item there, called Distill:

Next time you’re on a web page and you’re trying to read an article, but there’s too much “web page clutter” that’s distracting you, click the Distill button and see what happens. Peaceful reading returns!

The post How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome version — How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter Aug 19, 2019
Have you ever tried to read a serious article online, and you were just constantly distracted by the sidebars, the ads, and all the other “clutter” on the screen? Chrome has a secret “reader” mode to get rid of all that so you can focus on the content.

Most people don’t know about this option because it’s not all that easy to get to it in Chrome. In fact, Google still considers it to be “experimental” so that’s why it’s not yet on the regular Chrome menu. But you can put it there.

But first, you need to get Chrome version 75 or above. The good news is, if you use Chrome, you probably already have the current version. To check it, click the Options button (the 3 dots in the top right), then go to Help, then click on About Google Chrome. That screen will tell you what version you have, and even offer to update it for you if needed. As I write this, the current version is 76 dot something dot something. As long as you have 75 or higher you’re okay.

Now, you need to go up to the address bar in Chrome, and type this in and then hit Enter:

Note that it’s all lower case, and there are no spaces between any letters or characters.

When you hit Enter, you’ll see a page full of settings, including one called Enable Reader Mode. For that one, you just click the drop-down menu and choose Enabled:

You have now added a new item to your Chrome Options. If you click the Options button again (3 dots), you’ll see a new item there, called Distill:

Next time you’re on a web page and you’re trying to read an article, but there’s too much “web page clutter” that’s distracting you, click the Distill button and see what happens. Peaceful reading returns!

The post How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Be My Eyes — Get a free app and help a blind person! Aug 05, 2019
I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.

There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those of us who are fortunate to have good vision, it’s hard to imagine how it would be to navigate the world without sight.

Think about this. What if you were in a grocery store, shopping for the regular stuff you buy each week. As you walk down the bread aisle, you see a person who is obviously visually impaired who is having trouble figuring out which loaf of bread to buy. You offer to help. The person, holding two loaves of bread, asks which one is wheat and which is white. You point out which is which, and the purchase decision is easily made. This is something that took less than 30 seconds of your time, but was a big help.

Now there’s an app for your phone that enables you to help blind and visually impaired people, anywhere.

The app is called Be My Eyes, and it’s available for Android and iPhones. It uses the power of your phone to make a video call, and you lend your eyes to someone who needs them.

From the website:

For those who need assistance:

For those who wish to volunteer:

Signing up as a volunteer is easy:

Get the app

agree to terms

designate yourself as blind or a volunteer

choose “I am new” (or “sign in”)

sign up to create account

choose language, give access to your phone’s microphone and camera

stand by for calls!

I’m still waiting for my first call for assistance but I’m looking forward to it! Here’s a video that also explains how it works:

The post Get a free app and help a blind person! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Be my eyes — Get a free app and help a blind person! Aug 05, 2019
I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.

There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those of us who are fortunate to have good vision, it’s hard to imagine how it would be to navigate the world without sight.

Think about this. What if you were in a grocery store, shopping for the regular stuff you buy each week. As you walk down the bread aisle, you see a person who is obviously visually impaired who is having trouble figuring out which loaf of bread to buy. You offer to help. The person, holding two loaves of bread, asks which one is wheat and which is white. You point out which is which, and the purchase decision is easily made. This is something that took less than 30 seconds of your time, but was a big help.

Now there’s an app for your phone that enables you to help blind and visually impaired people, anywhere.

The app is called Be My Eyes, and it’s available for Android and iPhones. It uses the power of your phone to make a video call, and you lend your eyes to someone who needs them.

From the website:

For those who need assistance:

For those who wish to volunteer:

Signing up as a volunteer is easy:

Get the app

agree to terms

designate yourself as blind or a volunteer

choose “I am new” (or “sign in”)

sign up to create account

choose language, give access to your phone’s microphone and camera

stand by for calls!

I’m still waiting for my first call for assistance but I’m looking forward to it! Here’s a video that also explains how it works:

The post Get a free app and help a blind person! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

shortcut — How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! Jul 22, 2019
If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!

In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the shortcut to go to. Then you move Chrome off to the side of the screen so you could see the desktop area. Then you find the little “padlock” up in the address bar, and you click and drag that padlock to the desktop area and drop it. That creates a new icon on the desktop that takes you directly to that web page.

But sometimes people would get confused about how to have Chrome open at the same time you’re viewing the desktop screen so it didn’t work well for everyone.

But Chrome has this feature built in and it’s really easy!

Let’s say you find this great website and you want to be able to get back to it whenever you want, quickly and easily. Of course you would – it’s a web page about a cow who thinks it’s a family pet!

In case you want to look at it, the actual web address for that page is:
https://laughingsquid.com/cow-relaxing-on-couch/

So your goal is to have a simple, single icon on your desktop screen that will take you directly to that web page. Here’s how you do it in Chrome:

1. Go to that page in Chrome

2. Click the 3 dots in the top right, go down to “More tools”, then go over and click on “Create shortcut”

All done! Now you can minimize or close any windows you have open, and you’ll see a new icon on your desktop screen. Double clicking that icon will take you directly to that web page whenever you want.

The post How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cow who thinks its a dog — How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! Jul 22, 2019
If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!

In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the shortcut to go to. Then you move Chrome off to the side of the screen so you could see the desktop area. Then you find the little “padlock” up in the address bar, and you click and drag that padlock to the desktop area and drop it. That creates a new icon on the desktop that takes you directly to that web page.

But sometimes people would get confused about how to have Chrome open at the same time you’re viewing the desktop screen so it didn’t work well for everyone.

But Chrome has this feature built in and it’s really easy!

Let’s say you find this great website and you want to be able to get back to it whenever you want, quickly and easily. Of course you would – it’s a web page about a cow who thinks it’s a family pet!

In case you want to look at it, the actual web address for that page is:
https://laughingsquid.com/cow-relaxing-on-couch/

So your goal is to have a simple, single icon on your desktop screen that will take you directly to that web page. Here’s how you do it in Chrome:

1. Go to that page in Chrome

2. Click the 3 dots in the top right, go down to “More tools”, then go over and click on “Create shortcut”

All done! Now you can minimize or close any windows you have open, and you’ll see a new icon on your desktop screen. Double clicking that icon will take you directly to that web page whenever you want.

The post How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome — How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters Jul 08, 2019
Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.

What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people won’t care about at all, since their computer has not had this particular problem. This tip resolves an issue that’s not even an issue for them.

But for other people, the ones who are experiencing this problem, the solution I’ll provide today is probably a Hallelujah Moment, and they will be overjoyed to finally find the solution.

Here’s what the problem looks like when it shows up:

The first time one of my clients saw this, she assumed it was a virus or some type of malicious software that had gotten into Chrome. She called me immediately and had me remote in and check on it.

But she didn’t have a virus. Actually it would have been very unlikely for her computer to be infected, since she’s on my Managed Service Plan (link).

This is just related to a setting in Chrome called Hardware Acceleration.

Without getting all techy, the Acceleration feature allows Chrome to offload some of the graphics work to the hardware on your computer (meaning the graphics card) rather than forcing the browser (Chrome) to do all the work. Usually this means smoother graphics. But sometimes, on some computers, it just doesn’t work that way – that’s when you see those funky character that don’t make any sense. When that happens, the best solution is to just disable Acceleration.

How to disable Acceleration in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the 3 dots in the top right corner:

2. In the menu that drops down, click on Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced

4. Scroll down to the “Systems” section, and find the setting called “Use hardware acceleration when available” and slide that option to the left to turn it off:

Now go back to the website where the weird characters were showing in Chrome, and see if the problem is solved. Chances are things will be back to normal again!

The post How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome messed up text — How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters Jul 08, 2019
Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.

What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people won’t care about at all, since their computer has not had this particular problem. This tip resolves an issue that’s not even an issue for them.

But for other people, the ones who are experiencing this problem, the solution I’ll provide today is probably a Hallelujah Moment, and they will be overjoyed to finally find the solution.

Here’s what the problem looks like when it shows up:

The first time one of my clients saw this, she assumed it was a virus or some type of malicious software that had gotten into Chrome. She called me immediately and had me remote in and check on it.

But she didn’t have a virus. Actually it would have been very unlikely for her computer to be infected, since she’s on my Managed Service Plan (link).

This is just related to a setting in Chrome called Hardware Acceleration.

Without getting all techy, the Acceleration feature allows Chrome to offload some of the graphics work to the hardware on your computer (meaning the graphics card) rather than forcing the browser (Chrome) to do all the work. Usually this means smoother graphics. But sometimes, on some computers, it just doesn’t work that way – that’s when you see those funky character that don’t make any sense. When that happens, the best solution is to just disable Acceleration.

How to disable Acceleration in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the 3 dots in the top right corner:

2. In the menu that drops down, click on Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced

4. Scroll down to the “Systems” section, and find the setting called “Use hardware acceleration when available” and slide that option to the left to turn it off:

Now go back to the website where the weird characters were showing in Chrome, and see if the problem is solved. Chances are things will be back to normal again!

The post How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email attachments — My policy on email attachments Jun 24, 2019
I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.

There are several ways for your computer to get infected with a virus or malware. But do you know what the #1 most common method still is? Email attachments.

Yes, here we are in 2019, when you’d think everyone in the world knows that a virus can come in via a file attached to an email, and we still see that method of delivery as the most successful one for the scammers and hackers to infect someone’s computer.

As a computer tech, I talk to clients about this pretty regularly. And I often hear the same thing from a lot of different people, who think they have the whole “email attachment safety process” figured out. Here’s what they tell me:

“I don’t open an email attachment,
unless it’s from someone I know”

WRONG. If that’s the policy they go by, they’re probably going to have an infected computer at some point. It is fundamentally flawed.

This is my policy on opening attachments:

That sounds kind of counter-intuitve, right? I mean, someone you know wouldn’t send you an email, would they?

Here’s why this makes sense. Let’s say your best friend is Bob. You trust Bob completely. Bob is the godfather to your children. Bob once rescued you from a burning building. He’s even honest enough to tell you when you have food on your face at dinner. So you know you can trust Bob, and you know that he wouldn’t send you a virus by email.

But then one day Bob opens an email attachment. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he clicked and opened it, he saw that nothing happened. So he just figured it was some kind of mistake, deleted the email and forgot about it.

What Bob doesn’t know is that his computer is now infected. He didn’t see anything happen on the screen when he clicked that attached file, and that is exactly what he was supposed to see – nothing. That means he did not become suspicious and did not see any reason to investigate it further. That is exactly the response the hacker wants.

But behind the scenes, not visible on the screen, the virus is now working hard to do whatever it was programmed to do. It might be installing a keylogger (to track whatever is typed, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers) or other malicious software.

And the OTHER thing that virus is doing is sending out an email to everyone in Bob’s email contact list. Probably the same email that Bob received, with the virus attached. And Bob does not even know these emails are being sent.

So even though he’s your best friend and you trust Bob with your life, you should not open that email attachment that just got sent to you from his account.

For me, I don’t care who sent it. My own mother could send me an email attachment and I would not open it. Sorry mom!

And of course, here’s the objection: “But sometimes I have to open attachments! It’s stuff I need to see!”

That’s fine. If you need to open an attachment, and you know what it is before opening it, go for it. But that’s the key – knowing what it is ahead of time.

The scammers are very clever about making you THINK you know what it is, when you really don’t know. You might get that email from Bob, and the message says, “Check out this picture I found of us!” but that doesn’t make it safe to open. The virus wrote that message, not Bob.

Or you might get an email that is apparently from Fedex, saying, “We’re trying to deliver your package, but cannot find your address – please check the attached invoice to verify your address.” This one is especially clever, since half the people that get this actually ARE expecting a package delivery, so they just click the attached file without thinking about it – and immediately they are infected. And now their computer is sending out that same email to THEIR contact list. And it goes on and on.

All it takes is a half-second of inattention. You might click and then suddenly realize, you just clicked on something and you don’t REALLY know what it is. Hopefully at that point you have a good strong antivirus, and someone you trust to check out your computer and get rid of the bad stuff.

The post My policy on email attachments first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email attachments — My policy on email attachments Jun 24, 2019
I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.

There are several ways for your computer to get infected with a virus or malware. But do you know what the #1 most common method still is? Email attachments.

Yes, here we are in 2019, when you’d think everyone in the world knows that a virus can come in via a file attached to an email, and we still see that method of delivery as the most successful one for the scammers and hackers to infect someone’s computer.

As a computer tech, I talk to clients about this pretty regularly. And I often hear the same thing from a lot of different people, who think they have the whole “email attachment safety process” figured out. Here’s what they tell me:

“I don’t open an email attachment,
unless it’s from someone I know”

WRONG. If that’s the policy they go by, they’re probably going to have an infected computer at some point. It is fundamentally flawed.

This is my policy on opening attachments:

That sounds kind of counter-intuitve, right? I mean, someone you know wouldn’t send you an email, would they?

Here’s why this makes sense. Let’s say your best friend is Bob. You trust Bob completely. Bob is the godfather to your children. Bob once rescued you from a burning building. He’s even honest enough to tell you when you have food on your face at dinner. So you know you can trust Bob, and you know that he wouldn’t send you a virus by email.

But then one day Bob opens an email attachment. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he clicked and opened it, he saw that nothing happened. So he just figured it was some kind of mistake, deleted the email and forgot about it.

What Bob doesn’t know is that his computer is now infected. He didn’t see anything happen on the screen when he clicked that attached file, and that is exactly what he was supposed to see – nothing. That means he did not become suspicious and did not see any reason to investigate it further. That is exactly the response the hacker wants.

But behind the scenes, not visible on the screen, the virus is now working hard to do whatever it was programmed to do. It might be installing a keylogger (to track whatever is typed, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers) or other malicious software.

And the OTHER thing that virus is doing is sending out an email to everyone in Bob’s email contact list. Probably the same email that Bob received, with the virus attached. And Bob does not even know these emails are being sent.

So even though he’s your best friend and you trust Bob with your life, you should not open that email attachment that just got sent to you from his account.

For me, I don’t care who sent it. My own mother could send me an email attachment and I would not open it. Sorry mom!

And of course, here’s the objection: “But sometimes I have to open attachments! It’s stuff I need to see!”

That’s fine. If you need to open an attachment, and you know what it is before opening it, go for it. But that’s the key – knowing what it is ahead of time.

The scammers are very clever about making you THINK you know what it is, when you really don’t know. You might get that email from Bob, and the message says, “Check out this picture I found of us!” but that doesn’t make it safe to open. The virus wrote that message, not Bob.

Or you might get an email that is apparently from Fedex, saying, “We’re trying to deliver your package, but cannot find your address – please check the attached invoice to verify your address.” This one is especially clever, since half the people that get this actually ARE expecting a package delivery, so they just click the attached file without thinking about it – and immediately they are infected. And now their computer is sending out that same email to THEIR contact list. And it goes on and on.

All it takes is a half-second of inattention. You might click and then suddenly realize, you just clicked on something and you don’t REALLY know what it is. Hopefully at that point you have a good strong antivirus, and someone you trust to check out your computer and get rid of the bad stuff.

The post My policy on email attachments first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netflix — How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix Jun 10, 2019
Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.

To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.

Here is what my home page on Netflix looks like:

The issue I’m talking about today is that first section at the bottom of the screen, called “Continue watching for Scott”:

Whenever you start watching something, but don’t get all the way to the end, it shows up in that section the next time you open Netflix. This is actually there for convenience, and usually it is convenient.

Recently I’ve been going through The Office again (probably my fourth or fifth time). So it’s nice when it’s there, I just click and it goes right to the next episode waiting for me.

The problem is Kevin Hart, the other entry there. I recently heard Kevin Hart when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I had never really heard much of his stand-up comedy, but on the podcast I was impressed by his conversation and work ethic, and he’s obviously very successful. So I saw his Netflix special “Irresponsible” come up as a suggestion and I figured I would watch that.

Well…I know he is very popular, but I honestly did not find him funny. At all. I got through about 20 minutes, waiting to laugh, and finally gave up on it. That’s okay – he has a big fan base so I’m sure he’ll get along fine without me.

And that’s where the problem comes up. Netflix saw that I watched some of it, and didn’t finish it – so every time I open Netflix, there’s Kevin Hart waiting for me to come back. Even though I’m not coming back. This was okay for a while, but after a couple of weeks I decided I need to figure out how to get it off my main screen.

Here’s how you do it:

First, on your computer go to Netflix.com and log in to your account. As you can see, on my page there’s The Office and Kevin Hart “Irresponsible” under the Continue Watching section:

Now, go to the top right corner where your profile image is located, and in the drop down menu, click on Account:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the My Profile section, and click on “Viewing Activity”:

Now you’ll see your activity, and you just find the one you want to remove and click the circle with the line through it out at the right side:

All done! Now your Continue Watching section will only display what you want to see there.

The post How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netflix home screen — How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix Jun 10, 2019
Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.

To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.

Here is what my home page on Netflix looks like:

The issue I’m talking about today is that first section at the bottom of the screen, called “Continue watching for Scott”:

Whenever you start watching something, but don’t get all the way to the end, it shows up in that section the next time you open Netflix. This is actually there for convenience, and usually it is convenient.

Recently I’ve been going through The Office again (probably my fourth or fifth time). So it’s nice when it’s there, I just click and it goes right to the next episode waiting for me.

The problem is Kevin Hart, the other entry there. I recently heard Kevin Hart when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I had never really heard much of his stand-up comedy, but on the podcast I was impressed by his conversation and work ethic, and he’s obviously very successful. So I saw his Netflix special “Irresponsible” come up as a suggestion and I figured I would watch that.

Well…I know he is very popular, but I honestly did not find him funny. At all. I got through about 20 minutes, waiting to laugh, and finally gave up on it. That’s okay – he has a big fan base so I’m sure he’ll get along fine without me.

And that’s where the problem comes up. Netflix saw that I watched some of it, and didn’t finish it – so every time I open Netflix, there’s Kevin Hart waiting for me to come back. Even though I’m not coming back. This was okay for a while, but after a couple of weeks I decided I need to figure out how to get it off my main screen.

Here’s how you do it:

First, on your computer go to Netflix.com and log in to your account. As you can see, on my page there’s The Office and Kevin Hart “Irresponsible” under the Continue Watching section:

Now, go to the top right corner where your profile image is located, and in the drop down menu, click on Account:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the My Profile section, and click on “Viewing Activity”:

Now you’ll see your activity, and you just find the one you want to remove and click the circle with the line through it out at the right side:

All done! Now your Continue Watching section will only display what you want to see there.

The post How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What happens to Windows 7 in January? May 27, 2019
I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.

The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.

Every month, on the second Tuesday, Microsoft sends out Windows Updates. This is called Patch Tuesday, because many of the updates being sent are to “patch” security problems that have been discovered. New issues are always being found and fixed by Microsoft. This is part of their ongoing support of their Windows operating systems.

This coming January is when that support ends. January 14, 2020 will be the final Patch Tuesday for Windows 7. After that, no more updates, no more security fixes.

If you’re still using Windows 7 on January 15, 2020, your computer will still run. In fact, you will probably not notice any difference other than Microsoft might display a pop-up window on your screen at each bootup, reminding you that Windows 7 support has ended. That actually might start even BEFORE it expires. This is the message Windows XP users saw when that operating system was about to retire:

But even though your computer and Windows 7 will still function, don’t be deceived into thinking that all is okay. It’s not okay.

Security holes and flaws will still continue to be found in Windows 7, no different than what’s been happening for years. The difference now is – they won’t be fixed.

So when Microsoft comes out each month with all the new security patches to fix those vulnerabilities, Windows 7 users won’t get them. And guess what – the hackers know about those security problems, and will be hard at work creating ways to exploit them.

For home users, this creates a situation where your computer is not safe to use. For business users, you are exposing yourself (and your clients) to potential legal and liability risks that could be disastrous.

So if you are currently using a computer that runs Windows 7, you have two options:

Upgrade your computer to Windows 10. Right now, I can do this for you remotely for $180. On July 1, 2019 the fee goes to $225. Before we do the upgrade, we’ll create a backup to your portable drive. So if you don’t have a backup for your computer already, that will be another good outcome for this. Upgrading is much less expensive than buying a new computer.

Buy a new computer. Of course, any new PC you buy now will already be running Windows 10. A new computer will come with a bunch of stuff you don’t need (bloatware), and something things you DO need won’t be on there. And we’ll need to get all of your files and folders moved over from your old computer. I can do all of this remotely for you as well. If your computer is old, replacing it might be the more cost-effective solution.

Some people who have never used Windows 10 are still a bit wary about doing this upgrade. Here’s my take on that: you have nothing to worry about.

When Windows 10 first came out, it had problems. And Microsoft was practically forcing everyone to upgrade, whether you wanted it or not. It was one of the most clumsy and scummy product rollouts I’ve ever seen, and back then I was telling everyone to stay with Windows 7, and actively block that upgrade. Not now.

Windows 10 has been out for almost 4 years now, and a lot of the original problems have been fixed. It still has some “features” baked in that most people would consider privacy invasions, but I disable many of those are part of the setup. And, it’s very intuitive to use. There’s the old reliable Start button where you can see all your programs, and putting a program shortcut on the desktop is even easier than it is in Windows 7 (you just drag and drop it there).

So what are you waiting for? Time to move to Windows 10!

The post What happens to Windows 7 in January? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What happens to Windows 7 in January? May 27, 2019
I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.

The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.

Every month, on the second Tuesday, Microsoft sends out Windows Updates. This is called Patch Tuesday, because many of the updates being sent are to “patch” security problems that have been discovered. New issues are always being found and fixed by Microsoft. This is part of their ongoing support of their Windows operating systems.

This coming January is when that support ends. January 14, 2020 will be the final Patch Tuesday for Windows 7. After that, no more updates, no more security fixes.

If you’re still using Windows 7 on January 15, 2020, your computer will still run. In fact, you will probably not notice any difference other than Microsoft might display a pop-up window on your screen at each bootup, reminding you that Windows 7 support has ended. That actually might start even BEFORE it expires. This is the message Windows XP users saw when that operating system was about to retire:

But even though your computer and Windows 7 will still function, don’t be deceived into thinking that all is okay. It’s not okay.

Security holes and flaws will still continue to be found in Windows 7, no different than what’s been happening for years. The difference now is – they won’t be fixed.

So when Microsoft comes out each month with all the new security patches to fix those vulnerabilities, Windows 7 users won’t get them. And guess what – the hackers know about those security problems, and will be hard at work creating ways to exploit them.

For home users, this creates a situation where your computer is not safe to use. For business users, you are exposing yourself (and your clients) to potential legal and liability risks that could be disastrous.

So if you are currently using a computer that runs Windows 7, you have two options:

Upgrade your computer to Windows 10. Right now, I can do this for you remotely for $180. On July 1, 2019 the fee goes to $225. Before we do the upgrade, we’ll create a backup to your portable drive. So if you don’t have a backup for your computer already, that will be another good outcome for this. Upgrading is much less expensive than buying a new computer.

Buy a new computer. Of course, any new PC you buy now will already be running Windows 10. A new computer will come with a bunch of stuff you don’t need (bloatware), and something things you DO need won’t be on there. And we’ll need to get all of your files and folders moved over from your old computer. I can do all of this remotely for you as well. If your computer is old, replacing it might be the more cost-effective solution.

Some people who have never used Windows 10 are still a bit wary about doing this upgrade. Here’s my take on that: you have nothing to worry about.

When Windows 10 first came out, it had problems. And Microsoft was practically forcing everyone to upgrade, whether you wanted it or not. It was one of the most clumsy and scummy product rollouts I’ve ever seen, and back then I was telling everyone to stay with Windows 7, and actively block that upgrade. Not now.

Windows 10 has been out for almost 4 years now, and a lot of the original problems have been fixed. It still has some “features” baked in that most people would consider privacy invasions, but I disable many of those are part of the setup. And, it’s very intuitive to use. There’s the old reliable Start button where you can see all your programs, and putting a program shortcut on the desktop is even easier than it is in Windows 7 (you just drag and drop it there).

So what are you waiting for? Time to move to Windows 10!

The post What happens to Windows 7 in January? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Avengers — Two great services for movie/TV watchers May 13, 2019
Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super heroes” thing. But congratulations to Marvel for such a huge success.

Today’s tip is for those that love watching movies and/or TV shows. I found a couple of online services that could be pretty handy.

The first one is called Just Watch. You can see it at JustWatch.com.

The premise is simple. You already know what you want to watch. You just don’t know where to get it. Just Watch will tell you where you can find that movie or TV show you’re looking for.

For example – want to binge watch The Office? Just do a quick search, and you’ll see all the places that offer it:

Or maybe you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, like Breaking Bad. No problem:

Even old classics like Gilligan’s Island are still available for streaming:

And the other service is called After Credits. You can see it at AfterCredits.com.

After Credits is more oriented toward movies. Have you ever sat through a movie at a theater, then at the end you’re not sure if you should get up and leave, because you might miss something that comes up during (or even after) the credits? Seems like that’s pretty popular now. And you definitely don’t want to be talking with your co-workers the next day about that movie, and find out you missed something amazing that happened after the credits rolled.

This site tells you if something is there, and you should stay, or if it’s okay to just leave. These special scenes even have a bunch of nicknames – Stinger, Egg, Tag, etc. And there are different TYPES of stingers. From the site:

For example, in the movie Apollo 11, throughout the credits you will see actual NASA footage, including a voiceover of a Walter Cronkite news broadcast.

Or in the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, during the credits there is footage of the actual band Queen, performing the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

And if you know of anything that happens in the credits for a movie and it’s not listed on the site, you can submit that information so it’s added to their database.

Are you aware of any other services like this that help people who want to watch or find out more about TV shows or movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Two great services for movie/TV watchers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Just Watch — Two great services for movie/TV watchers May 13, 2019
Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super heroes” thing. But congratulations to Marvel for such a huge success.

Today’s tip is for those that love watching movies and/or TV shows. I found a couple of online services that could be pretty handy.

The first one is called Just Watch. You can see it at JustWatch.com.

The premise is simple. You already know what you want to watch. You just don’t know where to get it. Just Watch will tell you where you can find that movie or TV show you’re looking for.

For example – want to binge watch The Office? Just do a quick search, and you’ll see all the places that offer it:

Or maybe you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, like Breaking Bad. No problem:

Even old classics like Gilligan’s Island are still available for streaming:

And the other service is called After Credits. You can see it at AfterCredits.com.

After Credits is more oriented toward movies. Have you ever sat through a movie at a theater, then at the end you’re not sure if you should get up and leave, because you might miss something that comes up during (or even after) the credits? Seems like that’s pretty popular now. And you definitely don’t want to be talking with your co-workers the next day about that movie, and find out you missed something amazing that happened after the credits rolled.

This site tells you if something is there, and you should stay, or if it’s okay to just leave. These special scenes even have a bunch of nicknames – Stinger, Egg, Tag, etc. And there are different TYPES of stingers. From the site:

For example, in the movie Apollo 11, throughout the credits you will see actual NASA footage, including a voiceover of a Walter Cronkite news broadcast.

Or in the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, during the credits there is footage of the actual band Queen, performing the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

And if you know of anything that happens in the credits for a movie and it’s not listed on the site, you can submit that information so it’s added to their database.

Are you aware of any other services like this that help people who want to watch or find out more about TV shows or movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Two great services for movie/TV watchers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

audiobooks — Turn any online article into audio or a podcast Apr 29, 2019
Why do you think audio books are so popular now? I think it’s because people want to read, but they simply don’t have time to sit down and visually read a book. With audio books, you can “read” a book while you’re driving, or biking, or walking the dog.

But here’s the problem. There are lots of blogs and articles on the internet that are full of amazing content – but they are only available as text. Not audio. So you might miss out on a lot of good stuff, just because it takes too long to read and you don’t have time.

Now there’s a solution for that.

I recently discovered a service called Blog Reader. You can get it at blogreader.com.au.

Turns out, this service was created by a guy in Australia, Matt Segal, to solve his own problem. This is what he wrote on the website:

The way it works is pretty simple:

You find a web page with content you want to listen to, and copy that page’s URL

You submit the URL on the Blog Reader website

The site reads the content on that webpage

The site converts that content into an audio file

The audio file gets added to a podcast feed that is only for you to see and use (use any podcast player)

When you open that podcast feed, you see it there automatically.

If you’re not into podcasts – you also have the option to download the audio or listen to it right in your web browser.

Unfortunately this is not a completely free service, but it is very affordable. The cost is 2 AUD for each hour of audio (this currently converts to about $1.43 in US dollars). But you are able to try it out for free and see what you think – you get 5 free hours of audio when you create an account.

I tried it by sending it one of Seth Godin’s blog posts. I was actually surprised at the quality of the audio – the narration did not sound robotic, even though the voice was a computer reading it. The quality of computerized voices has really improved recently. You can also listen to a sample right on the website, without sending it any content to convert.

If you try it out, let us know what you think in the comments below!

The post Turn any online article into audio or a podcast first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

blog reader — Turn any online article into audio or a podcast Apr 29, 2019
Why do you think audio books are so popular now? I think it’s because people want to read, but they simply don’t have time to sit down and visually read a book. With audio books, you can “read” a book while you’re driving, or biking, or walking the dog.

But here’s the problem. There are lots of blogs and articles on the internet that are full of amazing content – but they are only available as text. Not audio. So you might miss out on a lot of good stuff, just because it takes too long to read and you don’t have time.

Now there’s a solution for that.

I recently discovered a service called Blog Reader. You can get it at blogreader.com.au.

Turns out, this service was created by a guy in Australia, Matt Segal, to solve his own problem. This is what he wrote on the website:

The way it works is pretty simple:

You find a web page with content you want to listen to, and copy that page’s URL

You submit the URL on the Blog Reader website

The site reads the content on that webpage

The site converts that content into an audio file

The audio file gets added to a podcast feed that is only for you to see and use (use any podcast player)

When you open that podcast feed, you see it there automatically.

If you’re not into podcasts – you also have the option to download the audio or listen to it right in your web browser.

Unfortunately this is not a completely free service, but it is very affordable. The cost is 2 AUD for each hour of audio (this currently converts to about $1.43 in US dollars). But you are able to try it out for free and see what you think – you get 5 free hours of audio when you create an account.

I tried it by sending it one of Seth Godin’s blog posts. I was actually surprised at the quality of the audio – the narration did not sound robotic, even though the voice was a computer reading it. The quality of computerized voices has really improved recently. You can also listen to a sample right on the website, without sending it any content to convert.

If you try it out, let us know what you think in the comments below!

The post Turn any online article into audio or a podcast first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

printer — How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file Apr 15, 2019
Something I hear from clients from time to time – “I tried to print this web page, and when it printed it’s all messed up! What’s wrong with my printer?” However, the problem is not with the printer – it’s working fine. But there is a solution.

Here’s the underlying problem. A web page is designed to look good when viewed in a specific way: on your monitor. Or on your phone (actually, a properly created website will know if it’s being viewed on a computer or on a mobile device, and adapt the content so it gets displayed properly). A web page is usually not designed to look great on paper. So if you’re looking at a website, and you just click File – Print in your web browser, the results may not be what you expect. What you see on the screen is not necessarily what you’ll get on the printed page.

But regardless of all that, you might still have a need to print content from a website. There are a couple of possible solutions.

The first option would be to see if the website itself offers a printer-friendly version of that content. Some websites do this for each page, if the content is such that people might want to print it. If a website offers this option, it’s usually seen as a little printer icon somewhere near the article to be printed:

If you get your email at the Gmail website, you can print one of your email messages by clicking the printer icon in the top right corner of that email:

But what if the website does not offer this? That brings us to option 2: printfriendly

All you have to do is highlight the website address of the page you want to print and copy it, then go to printfriendly.com and paste it there:

When you click “Preview”, you have the option to print that page, or make it a PDF file, or even send it by email:

And if you find yourself needing this feature regularly, you might consider getting the browser extension to make the whole process even faster. That eliminates the need to copy and paste, and you can use it directly on the web page.

And another bonus – if you have a blog or some other type of website that your visitors might want to print, you can get the Print/PDF/Email button right on your site, to make it easy! And you might notice that the Computer Tutor website now offers that option at the top of each blog post.

What do you think – is this something you will use? Let us know in the comments.

The post How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

printer icon — How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file Apr 15, 2019
Something I hear from clients from time to time – “I tried to print this web page, and when it printed it’s all messed up! What’s wrong with my printer?” However, the problem is not with the printer – it’s working fine. But there is a solution.

Here’s the underlying problem. A web page is designed to look good when viewed in a specific way: on your monitor. Or on your phone (actually, a properly created website will know if it’s being viewed on a computer or on a mobile device, and adapt the content so it gets displayed properly). A web page is usually not designed to look great on paper. So if you’re looking at a website, and you just click File – Print in your web browser, the results may not be what you expect. What you see on the screen is not necessarily what you’ll get on the printed page.

But regardless of all that, you might still have a need to print content from a website. There are a couple of possible solutions.

The first option would be to see if the website itself offers a printer-friendly version of that content. Some websites do this for each page, if the content is such that people might want to print it. If a website offers this option, it’s usually seen as a little printer icon somewhere near the article to be printed:

If you get your email at the Gmail website, you can print one of your email messages by clicking the printer icon in the top right corner of that email:

But what if the website does not offer this? That brings us to option 2: printfriendly

All you have to do is highlight the website address of the page you want to print and copy it, then go to printfriendly.com and paste it there:

When you click “Preview”, you have the option to print that page, or make it a PDF file, or even send it by email:

And if you find yourself needing this feature regularly, you might consider getting the browser extension to make the whole process even faster. That eliminates the need to copy and paste, and you can use it directly on the web page.

And another bonus – if you have a blog or some other type of website that your visitors might want to print, you can get the Print/PDF/Email button right on your site, to make it easy! And you might notice that the Computer Tutor website now offers that option at the top of each blog post.

What do you think – is this something you will use? Let us know in the comments.

The post How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

audiobooks — Great sources for free audiobooks Apr 01, 2019
Everyone knows about Audible, the audio book subscription service at audible.com. For $14.95 per month, you get one audiobook and 2 “audible originals”. It’s a great service for people who don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to actually read a book. You can listen to a popular or best-selling book while doing something else, just like many people do with podcasts.

But what if you don’t want to pay $14.95 per month? What if you don’t want to pay ANYTHING per month? Turns out there are still some great options for you to get your audiobooks.

Your local library
If you’re in the US, I think this is service is really amazing. All you need is a library card for your local library, and an app on your smartphone called Overdrive. With this service, you have access to hundreds of audiobooks, many of them best sellers, from all categories. Seriously, if you have not yet checked this out, you need to go to the website, get the app, and start listening.
Link: https://www.overdrive.com/

Learn Out Loud
Another great resource – this one focuses more on audiobooks that are oriented toward some type of instruction or learning. You can choose from almost any category you can think of, based on what you want to learn, and it’s probably there. And all free.
Link: https://www.learnoutloud.com/

ThoughtAudio
For this one, the content is a little different from the previous two services. ThoughtAudio has audio books that are more in the areas of classic literature and philosophy, rather than modern day books. Not quite as large a selection here, but if you ever get the idea that you want to read something classic, like The Art of War, it’s here for you to listen to!
Link: https://Thoughtaudio.com

Storynory
And here’s one for the kids! Storynory has been around since 2005. They have a podcast and also audio streaming from their website. Lots and lots of content here for a younger audience, with a lot being original stories by the site’s owner, Hugh Fraser. Everything here is free. Lately, they have focused a bit more on factual content, including history and interviews. The idea is to stimulate kids’ curiosity about the world – nothing wrong with that!
Link: https://Storynory.com

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
Obviously you’ve heard of the BBC. It’s a worldwide presence and has been putting out content to listeners since way back in 1922 when it was founded. I kind of think of the BBC as “the NPR of Europe” even though with the internet and podcasts, geographic designations don’t really mean much any more. The BBC offers a LOT of audio content, from a variety of authors, as you’ll see when you look at the site. One that looked particularly interesting was “Blackwater” – a multi-voiced dark story about secrets and lies in a small town.
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/categories/readings

Loyal Books
And finally we have Loyal Books. Their philosophy is “Books should be free” – an idea that might be a bit impractical overall for the publishing industry since people need to be paid for their work. But regardless of that, almost all the audiobooks and e-Books on their site are indeed free. Many are classics that are in the public domain, and there is almost certain to be something of interest for everyone here. They also include content in LOTS of different languages.
Link: https://loyalbooks.com

Do you have a favorite site to get free audiobooks that I overlooked in this list? Tell us about it in the comments below!

The post Great sources for free audiobooks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

overdrive app — Great sources for free audiobooks Apr 01, 2019
Everyone knows about Audible, the audio book subscription service at audible.com. For $14.95 per month, you get one audiobook and 2 “audible originals”. It’s a great service for people who don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to actually read a book. You can listen to a popular or best-selling book while doing something else, just like many people do with podcasts.

But what if you don’t want to pay $14.95 per month? What if you don’t want to pay ANYTHING per month? Turns out there are still some great options for you to get your audiobooks.

Your local library
If you’re in the US, I think this is service is really amazing. All you need is a library card for your local library, and an app on your smartphone called Overdrive. With this service, you have access to hundreds of audiobooks, many of them best sellers, from all categories. Seriously, if you have not yet checked this out, you need to go to the website, get the app, and start listening.
Link: https://www.overdrive.com/

Learn Out Loud
Another great resource – this one focuses more on audiobooks that are oriented toward some type of instruction or learning. You can choose from almost any category you can think of, based on what you want to learn, and it’s probably there. And all free.
Link: https://www.learnoutloud.com/

ThoughtAudio
For this one, the content is a little different from the previous two services. ThoughtAudio has audio books that are more in the areas of classic literature and philosophy, rather than modern day books. Not quite as large a selection here, but if you ever get the idea that you want to read something classic, like The Art of War, it’s here for you to listen to!
Link: https://Thoughtaudio.com

Storynory
And here’s one for the kids! Storynory has been around since 2005. They have a podcast and also audio streaming from their website. Lots and lots of content here for a younger audience, with a lot being original stories by the site’s owner, Hugh Fraser. Everything here is free. Lately, they have focused a bit more on factual content, including history and interviews. The idea is to stimulate kids’ curiosity about the world – nothing wrong with that!
Link: https://Storynory.com

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
Obviously you’ve heard of the BBC. It’s a worldwide presence and has been putting out content to listeners since way back in 1922 when it was founded. I kind of think of the BBC as “the NPR of Europe” even though with the internet and podcasts, geographic designations don’t really mean much any more. The BBC offers a LOT of audio content, from a variety of authors, as you’ll see when you look at the site. One that looked particularly interesting was “Blackwater” – a multi-voiced dark story about secrets and lies in a small town.
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/categories/readings

Loyal Books
And finally we have Loyal Books. Their philosophy is “Books should be free” – an idea that might be a bit impractical overall for the publishing industry since people need to be paid for their work. But regardless of that, almost all the audiobooks and e-Books on their site are indeed free. Many are classics that are in the public domain, and there is almost certain to be something of interest for everyone here. They also include content in LOTS of different languages.
Link: https://loyalbooks.com

Do you have a favorite site to get free audiobooks that I overlooked in this list? Tell us about it in the comments below!

The post Great sources for free audiobooks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Print My Fonts — How to easily print a list of all your FONTS Mar 18, 2019
You probably have a ton of fonts stored in your computer. Probably more than you’ll ever use. I know I do. Wouldn’t it be easy to choose a font if you could see all of them together? Here’s how to do that.

This is a free little program that runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s called Print My Fonts, and you can download it here. It will download in a .zip folder, so you’ll need to open that folder and drag the file to your desktop and run it. The nice thing is, it does not need to install anything, and it doesn’t put any extra junk on your computer (at least not when I ran it).

When you double click the program to run it, you’ll see this window:

Lots of things on this page. But really, just a couple of settings you’ll probably want to take notice of.

About halfway down, it says “Which text should be written?” That’s where you can change the words “Example Text” to anything you want to type in there. This is where you’d normally enter “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs” since that sentence uses every letter in the English alphabet.

The other items is the section at the bottom – you can choose to print your sentence to paper, save it as an image on your computer, export it to a Word document or whatever you prefer.

And here’s a great bonus – the computer that created this great little free program has lots of other programs that are pretty useful. When you have PrintMyFonts open, go up to the top and click on “Software” – and you’ll see the other applications that you might be interested in:

If you try out any of those other programs, I’d love to hear what you think of it!

The post How to easily print a list of all your FONTS first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Print My Fonts window — How to easily print a list of all your FONTS Mar 18, 2019
You probably have a ton of fonts stored in your computer. Probably more than you’ll ever use. I know I do. Wouldn’t it be easy to choose a font if you could see all of them together? Here’s how to do that.

This is a free little program that runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s called Print My Fonts, and you can download it here. It will download in a .zip folder, so you’ll need to open that folder and drag the file to your desktop and run it. The nice thing is, it does not need to install anything, and it doesn’t put any extra junk on your computer (at least not when I ran it).

When you double click the program to run it, you’ll see this window:

Lots of things on this page. But really, just a couple of settings you’ll probably want to take notice of.

About halfway down, it says “Which text should be written?” That’s where you can change the words “Example Text” to anything you want to type in there. This is where you’d normally enter “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs” since that sentence uses every letter in the English alphabet.

The other items is the section at the bottom – you can choose to print your sentence to paper, save it as an image on your computer, export it to a Word document or whatever you prefer.

And here’s a great bonus – the computer that created this great little free program has lots of other programs that are pretty useful. When you have PrintMyFonts open, go up to the top and click on “Software” – and you’ll see the other applications that you might be interested in:

If you try out any of those other programs, I’d love to hear what you think of it!

The post How to easily print a list of all your FONTS first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows shortcuts — TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts Mar 04, 2019
Windows 10 is just LOADED with some really great shortcuts, and a lot of people don’t know about many of them. I’m sure I don’t know about all of them. But here are ten shortcuts that I (and others) have found really handy.

Shortcut #1
If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, with a bunch of tabs open, and you accidentally close one – don’t panic! Just hit Ctrl + Shift + T and the tab that got closed will automatically re-open.

Shortcut #2
In just about every program, Ctrl + Z will undo your last action.

Shortcut #3
If you want to open Task Manager, you don’t have to hit Ctrl + Alt +Delete and then click it. You just have to hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

Shortcut #4
If you’re searching Google for a word or name, and you find yourself on a website that has a mile of text, don’t scroll down the page trying to spot that word. Hit Ctrl + F and type the word, and you’ll see every place that word appears on that entire page.

Shortcut #5
If you drag a file with the RIGHT mouse button instead of the left, when you let go you’ll get a little menu asking if you want to copy that file, move it, or create a shortcut to it.

Shortcut #6
If you have several windows open but need to get to a file or icon on the desktop screen, hit the Windows key + D. All windows will be minimized so you can see the desktop.

Shortcut #7
After you hit the Windows key + D in tip #6 to minimize all your windows, hit it again and they’re all back again.

Shortcut #8
If you want to make sure your Google search results DON’T include anything from Pinterest, just put this in front of your search word(s): -site:pinterest.com

Shortcut #9
If you get a pop-up window with audio telling you your computer has major problems and that you should not shut it down, shut down the computer. Just hold in the power button for 10 seconds or until the computer shuts off. Wait a minute, then turn it back on. That pop-up and audio message is just a scam.

Shortcut #10
This one will blow your mind if you don’t already know about it. Hit Ctrl + Windows key + D to create a new virtual desktop. It’s like a whole separate desktop screen, but no windows are open. So now you have two separate, usable desktop screens. You can switch back and forth between them by hitting Ctrl + Windows key + left/right arrow. If you want to close the one you’re in, it’s Ctrl + Windows key + F4. OR, you can just hit Windows key + Tab to see all of your virtual desktops and manually close them or add new ones.

Virtual desktops are handy if you want to have a bunch of research windows open on one desktop, and the paper you’re writing on the other desktop. Or if you want to let someone else use your computer temporarily without having all of your windows available to be seen.

And a BONUS Shortcut:
Hit the Windows key + “.” (just the period, without the quotes). Go ahead, it’s safe.

The post TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast Apple Podcasts — TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts Mar 04, 2019
Windows 10 is just LOADED with some really great shortcuts, and a lot of people don’t know about many of them. I’m sure I don’t know about all of them. But here are ten shortcuts that I (and others) have found really handy.

Shortcut #1
If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, with a bunch of tabs open, and you accidentally close one – don’t panic! Just hit Ctrl + Shift + T and the tab that got closed will automatically re-open.

Shortcut #2
In just about every program, Ctrl + Z will undo your last action.

Shortcut #3
If you want to open Task Manager, you don’t have to hit Ctrl + Alt +Delete and then click it. You just have to hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

Shortcut #4
If you’re searching Google for a word or name, and you find yourself on a website that has a mile of text, don’t scroll down the page trying to spot that word. Hit Ctrl + F and type the word, and you’ll see every place that word appears on that entire page.

Shortcut #5
If you drag a file with the RIGHT mouse button instead of the left, when you let go you’ll get a little menu asking if you want to copy that file, move it, or create a shortcut to it.

Shortcut #6
If you have several windows open but need to get to a file or icon on the desktop screen, hit the Windows key + D. All windows will be minimized so you can see the desktop.

Shortcut #7
After you hit the Windows key + D in tip #6 to minimize all your windows, hit it again and they’re all back again.

Shortcut #8
If you want to make sure your Google search results DON’T include anything from Pinterest, just put this in front of your search word(s): -site:pinterest.com

Shortcut #9
If you get a pop-up window with audio telling you your computer has major problems and that you should not shut it down, shut down the computer. Just hold in the power button for 10 seconds or until the computer shuts off. Wait a minute, then turn it back on. That pop-up and audio message is just a scam.

Shortcut #10
This one will blow your mind if you don’t already know about it. Hit Ctrl + Windows key + D to create a new virtual desktop. It’s like a whole separate desktop screen, but no windows are open. So now you have two separate, usable desktop screens. You can switch back and forth between them by hitting Ctrl + Windows key + left/right arrow. If you want to close the one you’re in, it’s Ctrl + Windows key + F4. OR, you can just hit Windows key + Tab to see all of your virtual desktops and manually close them or add new ones.

Virtual desktops are handy if you want to have a bunch of research windows open on one desktop, and the paper you’re writing on the other desktop. Or if you want to let someone else use your computer temporarily without having all of your windows available to be seen.

And a BONUS Shortcut:
Hit the Windows key + “.” (just the period, without the quotes). Go ahead, it’s safe.

The post TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Bitly — The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely Feb 18, 2019
Have you seen clickable links that show the address as bit.ly followed by some random letters or numbers? Bitly is a legitimate link-shortening service, but you shouldn’t just click on one of them unless you know for sure where it will take you. Here’s how to check it ahead of time.

If you’re not familiar with Bitly, what it does is pretty simple.

Let’s say you want to send someone a link to an article, but the link is one of those URLs that are just ridiculously long, like this:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/02/04/suicides-among-active-duty-soldiers-are-up-about-20-percent/?fbclid=IwAR1eac6l6GYuxevGX4TyQeyhv0Xg4EpvJHoKCYLObsrPcuE7oSGLPfTt8J4#.XFufds06avg.facebook

What you can do is go to Bit.ly and paste in that super-long link, and it comes back with this:

https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG

Both of those links go to the same place, but obviously the shorter one is much easier to deal with.

The problem with the short link, however, is that if you didn’t create it, you don’t really know where it will take you. All you see is the “bit.ly”, so the actual ultimate address is a mystery until you get there. And you know, of course, that you should never click on a link unless you KNOW ahead of time where it will take you. Clicking on blind links is very dangerous. Don’t do it.

But there is a safe way to click on a Bitly link: all you have to do is add a “+” to the end of it (a “plus” sign).

So if you saw the link above – https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG – you wouldn’t just click on it and hope for the best. You would highlight it, then copy and paste it into your web browser’s address bar, and add that “+” to the end. So this is the address you would actually be going to:

https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG+

When you go to that revised address, you’ll be taken to a preview the Bitly website, where it will show you the ACTUAL link that you’ll be forwarded to, so that you can decide if it’s a legitimate website page you want to visit. In this case, since the final destination is a news article, Bitly also shows you the title for the article:

I do this “Bitly preview” for every shortened link I’m asked to click on, regardless of who sent it to me or where someone says it’s “supposed” to go. The preview only takes a second and can save you lots of headaches!

The post The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Bitly preview — The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely Feb 18, 2019
Have you seen clickable links that show the address as bit.ly followed by some random letters or numbers? Bitly is a legitimate link-shortening service, but you shouldn’t just click on one of them unless you know for sure where it will take you. Here’s how to check it ahead of time.

If you’re not familiar with Bitly, what it does is pretty simple.

Let’s say you want to send someone a link to an article, but the link is one of those URLs that are just ridiculously long, like this:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/02/04/suicides-among-active-duty-soldiers-are-up-about-20-percent/?fbclid=IwAR1eac6l6GYuxevGX4TyQeyhv0Xg4EpvJHoKCYLObsrPcuE7oSGLPfTt8J4#.XFufds06avg.facebook

What you can do is go to Bit.ly and paste in that super-long link, and it comes back with this:

https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG

Both of those links go to the same place, but obviously the shorter one is much easier to deal with.

The problem with the short link, however, is that if you didn’t create it, you don’t really know where it will take you. All you see is the “bit.ly”, so the actual ultimate address is a mystery until you get there. And you know, of course, that you should never click on a link unless you KNOW ahead of time where it will take you. Clicking on blind links is very dangerous. Don’t do it.

But there is a safe way to click on a Bitly link: all you have to do is add a “+” to the end of it (a “plus” sign).

So if you saw the link above – https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG – you wouldn’t just click on it and hope for the best. You would highlight it, then copy and paste it into your web browser’s address bar, and add that “+” to the end. So this is the address you would actually be going to:

https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG+

When you go to that revised address, you’ll be taken to a preview the Bitly website, where it will show you the ACTUAL link that you’ll be forwarded to, so that you can decide if it’s a legitimate website page you want to visit. In this case, since the final destination is a news article, Bitly also shows you the title for the article:

I do this “Bitly preview” for every shortened link I’m asked to click on, regardless of who sent it to me or where someone says it’s “supposed” to go. The preview only takes a second and can save you lots of headaches!

The post The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 timeline — How to disable Windows 10 Timeline Feb 04, 2019
Do you know about the Timeline feature in Windows 10? Most people don’t. Here’s what it is and the steps to disable it, if you want to.

You can think of Timeline as being kind of similar to your internet browser history. You know, in Chrome or Firefox (or any browser) you can go back and see all the websites you’ve visited over the last hour, the last day or however long you go back. Unless you have cleared that history at some point.

Windows 10 Timeline is kind of like that, but it includes the other activities on your computer (not just the web browser history). So it will show the websites visited, and the apps you used.

Here’s how you can see this in Windows 10:

Look for the Windows key on your keyboard. It’s in the lower left area and has the Windows logo on it. Hold down the Windows key and tap the “Tab” key.

Now you’re looking at Timeline. Each item is a “mini window” of various activities. You’ll see the first row are activities that you have currently running – maybe different web browser tabs, your email, or other programs that are running.

Below your currently running items are the things you were doing earlier – like earlier today, or yesterday, or a few days ago. You can just scroll down and see all of them. So if you used Skype 3 days ago, you’ll see it there and you can click on it and be back in Skype.

For some people, this is a very handy thing – you can easily find what you were doing on a previous day, and get back to it quickly without having to do a lot of searching.

For other people, it’s Windows keeping track of what you do on your computer.

For me, I’ve been kind of on the fence about it. But now I’m kind of leaning toward disabling it, since I don’t really use it personally. I have already turned it off on my own computer, and will be disabling it for future new PCs that I set up as part of that overall process.

How to disable Windows 10 Timeline and clear the history:

Click the Start button, then click the Settings icon:

In Windows Settings, click on Privacy:

In the Privacy section, click on the left side where it says “Activity history”:

Now you’ll see the Activity History page. This is where you configure Timeline to work or not work. To turn it off, you want to uncheck the top two boxes, then turn off the connection to your Microsoft account, and click the “Clear” button if you want to wipe out what activities have already been recorded and stored:

And of course if you decide you want to use it again, just go back in the same settings and check those boxes again.

The post How to disable Windows 10 Timeline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Settings — How to disable Windows 10 Timeline Feb 04, 2019
Do you know about the Timeline feature in Windows 10? Most people don’t. Here’s what it is and the steps to disable it, if you want to.

You can think of Timeline as being kind of similar to your internet browser history. You know, in Chrome or Firefox (or any browser) you can go back and see all the websites you’ve visited over the last hour, the last day or however long you go back. Unless you have cleared that history at some point.

Windows 10 Timeline is kind of like that, but it includes the other activities on your computer (not just the web browser history). So it will show the websites visited, and the apps you used.

Here’s how you can see this in Windows 10:

Look for the Windows key on your keyboard. It’s in the lower left area and has the Windows logo on it. Hold down the Windows key and tap the “Tab” key.

Now you’re looking at Timeline. Each item is a “mini window” of various activities. You’ll see the first row are activities that you have currently running – maybe different web browser tabs, your email, or other programs that are running.

Below your currently running items are the things you were doing earlier – like earlier today, or yesterday, or a few days ago. You can just scroll down and see all of them. So if you used Skype 3 days ago, you’ll see it there and you can click on it and be back in Skype.

For some people, this is a very handy thing – you can easily find what you were doing on a previous day, and get back to it quickly without having to do a lot of searching.

For other people, it’s Windows keeping track of what you do on your computer.

For me, I’ve been kind of on the fence about it. But now I’m kind of leaning toward disabling it, since I don’t really use it personally. I have already turned it off on my own computer, and will be disabling it for future new PCs that I set up as part of that overall process.

How to disable Windows 10 Timeline and clear the history:

Click the Start button, then click the Settings icon:

In Windows Settings, click on Privacy:

In the Privacy section, click on the left side where it says “Activity history”:

Now you’ll see the Activity History page. This is where you configure Timeline to work or not work. To turn it off, you want to uncheck the top two boxes, then turn off the connection to your Microsoft account, and click the “Clear” button if you want to wipe out what activities have already been recorded and stored:

And of course if you decide you want to use it again, just go back in the same settings and check those boxes again.

The post How to disable Windows 10 Timeline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

backup — The OTHER big reason you need a local backup Jan 21, 2019
Many times on my blog and podcast I’ve encouraged everyone to make sure they have a backup of anything important on their computer. For most people, the big reason for having a backup is to make sure you don’t lose anything important, like documents and pictures, if your hard drive fails. But there’s another really important reason!

Of course you don’t want to lose all your important pictures, and your Outlook emails, and your whole Documents folder, and your music collection or anything else.

It’s a sick feeling when you DO lose all of that, and it’s also an amazing feeling when your drive crashes but you know that you WON’T lose anything – and I can tell you I’ve experienced both of those situations personally.

But sometimes I come across a client who says this:

I don’t really save anything on my computer that’s actually critical. I do depend on my laptop because I use it every day for work, and it has programs on it that I use all the time, but I don’t save things like pictures or documents on there. Do I really need to do a backup?

And the answer to that is a definite YES. You still need a backup.

To understand why you still need to do a backup, let’s look at it kind of in reverse.

Let’s say you don’t have anything important stored on your computer, but your hard drive fails so the computer won’t boot up.

If you DON’T have a local backup, here’s what you have to do:

install the replacement hard drive

install Windows 10

enable System Restore (disabled by default on Windows 10)

install Windows 10 updates

install your antivirus

install web browsers (such as Chrome and Firefox) and configure them

log in to your Microsoft account to download and install MS Office

go to Adobe and get Adobe Reader so you can open PDF files properly

disable the Windows 10 privacy invasion “features”

configure Windows 10 settings

In other words, it’s like starting with a new, blank computer. Doing all of this can take hours (I know, because I do all of these things and more, each time I set up a new computer).

If you DO have a local backup, here’s what you have to do:

install the replacement hard drive

restore the last backup

And with that, everything is back to the way it was – your software, your files, your desktop icons, EVERYTHING. It’s as if nothing happened. And that means your computer is back up and usable within an hour or two.

So even if you don’t store any important pictures or documents on your computer, the question is – when your computer goes down and needs a new hard drive, how fast do you want it to be back up so you can use it again? A local backup is what enables that. And by “local” I mean a full system image backup to a portable USB drive that sits next to your computer. Once the software is set up, all you have to do is plug in that drive at night and unplug it in the morning.

And I have to put out this warning: when you buy a portable drive, it will come with it’s own backup software. I don’t recommend using that software. The software I use is Macrium Reflect, and it’s free for personal use, and I’m very familiar with how it works. I can set it up for you remotely, so you don’t even have to bring your computer anywhere.

The post The OTHER big reason you need a local backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast Apple Podcasts — The OTHER big reason you need a local backup Jan 21, 2019
Many times on my blog and podcast I’ve encouraged everyone to make sure they have a backup of anything important on their computer. For most people, the big reason for having a backup is to make sure you don’t lose anything important, like documents and pictures, if your hard drive fails. But there’s another really important reason!

Of course you don’t want to lose all your important pictures, and your Outlook emails, and your whole Documents folder, and your music collection or anything else.

It’s a sick feeling when you DO lose all of that, and it’s also an amazing feeling when your drive crashes but you know that you WON’T lose anything – and I can tell you I’ve experienced both of those situations personally.

But sometimes I come across a client who says this:

I don’t really save anything on my computer that’s actually critical. I do depend on my laptop because I use it every day for work, and it has programs on it that I use all the time, but I don’t save things like pictures or documents on there. Do I really need to do a backup?

And the answer to that is a definite YES. You still need a backup.

To understand why you still need to do a backup, let’s look at it kind of in reverse.

Let’s say you don’t have anything important stored on your computer, but your hard drive fails so the computer won’t boot up.

If you DON’T have a local backup, here’s what you have to do:

install the replacement hard drive

install Windows 10

enable System Restore (disabled by default on Windows 10)

install Windows 10 updates

install your antivirus

install web browsers (such as Chrome and Firefox) and configure them

log in to your Microsoft account to download and install MS Office

go to Adobe and get Adobe Reader so you can open PDF files properly

disable the Windows 10 privacy invasion “features”

configure Windows 10 settings

In other words, it’s like starting with a new, blank computer. Doing all of this can take hours (I know, because I do all of these things and more, each time I set up a new computer).

If you DO have a local backup, here’s what you have to do:

install the replacement hard drive

restore the last backup

And with that, everything is back to the way it was – your software, your files, your desktop icons, EVERYTHING. It’s as if nothing happened. And that means your computer is back up and usable within an hour or two.

So even if you don’t store any important pictures or documents on your computer, the question is – when your computer goes down and needs a new hard drive, how fast do you want it to be back up so you can use it again? A local backup is what enables that. And by “local” I mean a full system image backup to a portable USB drive that sits next to your computer. Once the software is set up, all you have to do is plug in that drive at night and unplug it in the morning.

And I have to put out this warning: when you buy a portable drive, it will come with it’s own backup software. I don’t recommend using that software. The software I use is Macrium Reflect, and it’s free for personal use, and I’m very familiar with how it works. I can set it up for you remotely, so you don’t even have to bring your computer anywhere.

The post The OTHER big reason you need a local backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Verification code — The Verification Code scam Jan 07, 2019
Today we’re talking about a scam that’s making the rounds but a lot of people aren’t aware of how it works, or even the fact that it IS a scam. But it can cause you some headaches if you fall for it.

We’ve all become pretty accustomed to verification codes. If a company or website needs to verify your identity, they will commonly send a text message with a 6-digit verification code, which you then need to enter on the website to prove that you are the person you say you are. (Really, it just proves that you have access to that person’s phone, but usually that’s good enough).

But now, the scammers are using the verification code process for their own nefarious purposes. Specifically, they want to create new online accounts, such as a Craigslist account, using YOUR phone number.

When a scammer does this, there are basically two main steps to the process.

Step One – start creating the Craigslist account

The scammer will go in to the Craigslist site and start the process of creating a new account. Of course, he only wants to use this account to scam people. Craigslist knows that this is very common, so they require any new account to have a phone number, and they have to VERIFY that phone number.

So the scammer gets most of the way in to the process of creating the new account, right up to where Craigslist is asking for the phone number. That’s where they pause for a minute.

Step Two – hijacking your phone number

The most common victim for this scam is someone who is selling something on Craigslist, and includes their phone number in the contact info.

The scammer sends you a text message saying, “Hey I want to buy your ____ ” (whatever you’re selling).

You respond, but then he comes back and says “There’s a lot of scammers on Craigslist these days. I’d like to verify you first. I just sent a code on your phone. Reply to this text and tell me the code, to prove you’re a real person!”

But of course, the code that got sent didn’t really come from him. It came from Craigslist, because he used YOUR phone number to verify his new account. When you send him the code, he enters it on his Craigslist application and this “confirms” to Craigslist that he owns that phone number. Even though he doesn’t own it – you own it.

At this point, your phone number is associated with the scammer’s new account. This means that he can now post ads on Craigslist for the next 90 days without any further verification. Any spam or illegal activities done on that account will be connected to your phone number. And that also means if you try to register for your OWN account on Craigslist, you probably won’t be able to do so, since your phone number has a bad history.

This process can also be used with Google, and that means the scammer can use your phone number to get their own Google Voice number, so they can make phone calls and send text messages to scam other people.

In the worst cases, illegal activity done on these fake/scam accounts might involve law enforcement investigating who is responsible. Don’t put yourself in the position of having to explain why your phone number is the “verified” number on a scammer’s account.

Bottom line: don’t give any verification code to anyone.

The post The Verification Code scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast Apple Podcasts — The Verification Code scam Jan 07, 2019
Today we’re talking about a scam that’s making the rounds but a lot of people aren’t aware of how it works, or even the fact that it IS a scam. But it can cause you some headaches if you fall for it.

We’ve all become pretty accustomed to verification codes. If a company or website needs to verify your identity, they will commonly send a text message with a 6-digit verification code, which you then need to enter on the website to prove that you are the person you say you are. (Really, it just proves that you have access to that person’s phone, but usually that’s good enough).

But now, the scammers are using the verification code process for their own nefarious purposes. Specifically, they want to create new online accounts, such as a Craigslist account, using YOUR phone number.

When a scammer does this, there are basically two main steps to the process.

Step One – start creating the Craigslist account

The scammer will go in to the Craigslist site and start the process of creating a new account. Of course, he only wants to use this account to scam people. Craigslist knows that this is very common, so they require any new account to have a phone number, and they have to VERIFY that phone number.

So the scammer gets most of the way in to the process of creating the new account, right up to where Craigslist is asking for the phone number. That’s where they pause for a minute.

Step Two – hijacking your phone number

The most common victim for this scam is someone who is selling something on Craigslist, and includes their phone number in the contact info.

The scammer sends you a text message saying, “Hey I want to buy your ____ ” (whatever you’re selling).

You respond, but then he comes back and says “There’s a lot of scammers on Craigslist these days. I’d like to verify you first. I just sent a code on your phone. Reply to this text and tell me the code, to prove you’re a real person!”

But of course, the code that got sent didn’t really come from him. It came from Craigslist, because he used YOUR phone number to verify his new account. When you send him the code, he enters it on his Craigslist application and this “confirms” to Craigslist that he owns that phone number. Even though he doesn’t own it – you own it.

At this point, your phone number is associated with the scammer’s new account. This means that he can now post ads on Craigslist for the next 90 days without any further verification. Any spam or illegal activities done on that account will be connected to your phone number. And that also means if you try to register for your OWN account on Craigslist, you probably won’t be able to do so, since your phone number has a bad history.

This process can also be used with Google, and that means the scammer can use your phone number to get their own Google Voice number, so they can make phone calls and send text messages to scam other people.

In the worst cases, illegal activity done on these fake/scam accounts might involve law enforcement investigating who is responsible. Don’t put yourself in the position of having to explain why your phone number is the “verified” number on a scammer’s account.

Bottom line: don’t give any verification code to anyone.

The post The Verification Code scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Sites — How to create a personal website using Google Sites Dec 24, 2018
What if I told you that five minutes from now you could have your own website? It’s true. If you have a Google account (a Gmail email account is a Google account), creating and publishing your own website is as easy as creating a Word document.

Want to see what’s possible with Google Sites? Here’s a collection of websites that were created with the service: https://sites.google.com/site/gsitesgallery/ You’ll see lots of thumbnail images for websites – just click on each one to view the site itself.

For this example, I’ll make a website about my two little Yorkie dogs, Lilly and Fenway.

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to the Google Sites website: site.new. If you haven’t already signed in to your Google account, it will ask you to sign in (or create an account if you don’t already have one). The opening page looks like this:

When you click on “Header type” you’ll see you have four options:

Cover

Large banner

Banner

Title only

You can click on each of them to get an idea of what each one means. For this example, I’ll choose “Large banner” (you can change it later if you want).

And when you click in the “Your page title” area, you can type the title of this web page. You can also click on “Change image”, and upload a picture from your computer as a background image. And “Enter site name” is where you would put the overall name of the website. So here’s our site so far:

Over on the right side, you see 3 tabs:

Insert – this is where you would decide what content goes on this page that we’re working on

Pages – this is where you add more pages to this website

Themes – you will see several options for the design of the site

So I went to Themes and chose the “Aristotle” option.

Then I went back to Insert, and chose to insert a text box. This gives you a place to type whatever written content you want to put on this page. I typed a couple of sentences, which now appear under the main header image (you can type as much text as you want):

Now I’ll go back to Insert, and choose to insert a picture. You can upload an image from your hard drive, or you can choose from your albums on Google Photos.

Then, I’ll write a little about that picture and drag that text to be right next to the image.

So you can see, just about anything you would want to add to your web page is available in that tool section on the right side. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see lots more options:

The best way to get a feel for these things is to just click on each one and see what it does. You can create a button that links to some other website. You can put in a divider line to separate groups of content. You can embed a YouTube video. You can put in a form, where you can ask questions and people can fill out the form and submit it to you. You can insert documents, spreadsheets, all kinds of stuff.

At the top of the page you also have some other controls. In the middle is an icon of an eyeball.

You can click the eyeball to get a preview of your site at any point. So you can try adding something, preview it, then go back to editing until you get it exactly how you want it to look.

And when you’re done, click the big “Publish” button to take your site live for the world to see.

That will give you some options. The primary one is to determine the actual address (URL) for your site. Since I typed lillyandfenway that means the address for my site is:

https://sites.google.com/view/lillyandfenway (that link takes you to the actual site I created)

You could also get a domain name so that it looks more personal or professional. Such as, “lillyandfenway.com” or something similar, depending on what domain names are available. That just makes it easier to tell people the website and have them remember it.

You can also set a limit on who can view the website. In most cases “Anyone” is fine since that makes it public for anyone to be able to see it.

So there you have it – creating your own website with Google Sites.

Keep this in mind: a website that looks really great and has lots of content and features means that whoever created that site put in the time and effort to make it that way. Google Sites just gives you the technology and the tools to create a great website. It’s kind of like writing. If you have a computer and Microsoft Word, you have the opportunity to write a NY Times best-selling book. But most of that depends on you, not your computer.

The post How to create a personal website using Google Sites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google sites examples — How to create a personal website using Google Sites Dec 24, 2018
What if I told you that five minutes from now you could have your own website? It’s true. If you have a Google account (a Gmail email account is a Google account), creating and publishing your own website is as easy as creating a Word document.

Want to see what’s possible with Google Sites? Here’s a collection of websites that were created with the service: https://sites.google.com/site/gsitesgallery/ You’ll see lots of thumbnail images for websites – just click on each one to view the site itself.

For this example, I’ll make a website about my two little Yorkie dogs, Lilly and Fenway.

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to the Google Sites website: site.new. If you haven’t already signed in to your Google account, it will ask you to sign in (or create an account if you don’t already have one). The opening page looks like this:

When you click on “Header type” you’ll see you have four options:

Cover

Large banner

Banner

Title only

You can click on each of them to get an idea of what each one means. For this example, I’ll choose “Large banner” (you can change it later if you want).

And when you click in the “Your page title” area, you can type the title of this web page. You can also click on “Change image”, and upload a picture from your computer as a background image. And “Enter site name” is where you would put the overall name of the website. So here’s our site so far:

Over on the right side, you see 3 tabs:

Insert – this is where you would decide what content goes on this page that we’re working on

Pages – this is where you add more pages to this website

Themes – you will see several options for the design of the site

So I went to Themes and chose the “Aristotle” option.

Then I went back to Insert, and chose to insert a text box. This gives you a place to type whatever written content you want to put on this page. I typed a couple of sentences, which now appear under the main header image (you can type as much text as you want):

Now I’ll go back to Insert, and choose to insert a picture. You can upload an image from your hard drive, or you can choose from your albums on Google Photos.

Then, I’ll write a little about that picture and drag that text to be right next to the image.

So you can see, just about anything you would want to add to your web page is available in that tool section on the right side. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see lots more options:

The best way to get a feel for these things is to just click on each one and see what it does. You can create a button that links to some other website. You can put in a divider line to separate groups of content. You can embed a YouTube video. You can put in a form, where you can ask questions and people can fill out the form and submit it to you. You can insert documents, spreadsheets, all kinds of stuff.

At the top of the page you also have some other controls. In the middle is an icon of an eyeball.

You can click the eyeball to get a preview of your site at any point. So you can try adding something, preview it, then go back to editing until you get it exactly how you want it to look.

And when you’re done, click the big “Publish” button to take your site live for the world to see.

That will give you some options. The primary one is to determine the actual address (URL) for your site. Since I typed lillyandfenway that means the address for my site is:

https://sites.google.com/view/lillyandfenway (that link takes you to the actual site I created)

You could also get a domain name so that it looks more personal or professional. Such as, “lillyandfenway.com” or something similar, depending on what domain names are available. That just makes it easier to tell people the website and have them remember it.

You can also set a limit on who can view the website. In most cases “Anyone” is fine since that makes it public for anyone to be able to see it.

So there you have it – creating your own website with Google Sites.

Keep this in mind: a website that looks really great and has lots of content and features means that whoever created that site put in the time and effort to make it that way. Google Sites just gives you the technology and the tools to create a great website. It’s kind of like writing. If you have a computer and Microsoft Word, you have the opportunity to write a NY Times best-selling book. But most of that depends on you, not your computer.

The post How to create a personal website using Google Sites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

system restore — How to make sure System Restore is set up properly Dec 10, 2018
One way PC problems can sometimes be fixed is by using the built-in function called System Restore. It’s not the answer for every situation, but in certain situations it can be the perfect solution. But in order for it to work, it has to be set up correctly ahead of time.

Here’s what happens. A client will bring me a computer and maybe some malware has wormed its way in or some unwanted software has gotten installed, something like that. The client knows that the problem happened within the last 24 hours. So in this case, we can probably use System Restore to take the computer back to an earlier date – meaning longer than 24 hours ago – and the problem is likely to go away.

But with System Restore, there are a couple of things that are needed in order for that to work.

First, System Restore has to be enabled and configured properly.

Second, you will need what’s called a “restore point” – which just means a date that the computer can be brought back to. For example, usually when Microsoft sends out a Windows Update, the first step in that process is that the update will first create a restore point – so that if there’s a problem with the update, System Restore can be used to take the computer back to that point (before the troublesome update).

So what happens sometimes is I’ll go to use System Restore, and the message that comes back is “No restore points found”. When there are no restore points, System Restore is useless.

So here are the two things you need to do in order to make sure System Restore is ready to use when you need it:

First, enable and configure System Restore:

Click in the search field in the bottom left and type: Create a restore point. Then, in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. This will open the System Restore window.

In that window, click once to highlight the C drive, and click on “Configure”.

In the next window, there are two things you need to do:

Check the button that says “Turn on system protection”

Slide the “Max usage” selector to something like 5gb or maybe 10gb, and click OK

Second, set a restore point:

After you click ok in the last step, you’re taken back to the main window. At the bottom of that window is a button named “Create”. Click that, and then give this system restore point a name. It can be as simple as today’s date.

Finally, click OK and you’re done.

It’s not a bad idea to just create a new restore point every once in a while, as long as your computer seems to be working well. Windows is supposed to set one automatically each time new Windows Updates come in, but that is not something I would rely on.

Some things you should know about System Restore:

In Windows 10, System Restore is NOT turned on by default. This is just another goof by Microsoft that just baffles me. So you have to be aware of this, and enable it yourself. If you buy a laptop from me, that’s already been done.

If you use System Restore to take the computer back to a previous date, it does not have any effect on your personal files such as Documents, Pictures, etc. That’s a good thing, since you can use it without worrying about losing anything important. But it’s a bad thing, because if you accidentally delete a document, you can’t use System Restore to get it back. System Restore does not negate the need for a backup.

System Restore is not something you should use all the time. I have a few clients who, at the first sign of any computer issue, immediately run System Restore and go back a day or a few days. Not a good idea. Resolving computer problems should be done strategically, giving consideration to all potential solutions, and the ramifications of each one.

The post How to make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

system restore — How to make sure System Restore is set up properly Dec 10, 2018
One way PC problems can sometimes be fixed is by using the built-in function called System Restore. It’s not the answer for every situation, but in certain situations it can be the perfect solution. But in order for it to work, it has to be set up correctly ahead of time.

Here’s what happens. A client will bring me a computer and maybe some malware has wormed its way in or some unwanted software has gotten installed, something like that. The client knows that the problem happened within the last 24 hours. So in this case, we can probably use System Restore to take the computer back to an earlier date – meaning longer than 24 hours ago – and the problem is likely to go away.

But with System Restore, there are a couple of things that are needed in order for that to work.

First, System Restore has to be enabled and configured properly.

Second, you will need what’s called a “restore point” – which just means a date that the computer can be brought back to. For example, usually when Microsoft sends out a Windows Update, the first step in that process is that the update will first create a restore point – so that if there’s a problem with the update, System Restore can be used to take the computer back to that point (before the troublesome update).

So what happens sometimes is I’ll go to use System Restore, and the message that comes back is “No restore points found”. When there are no restore points, System Restore is useless.

So here are the two things you need to do in order to make sure System Restore is ready to use when you need it:

First, enable and configure System Restore:

Click in the search field in the bottom left and type: Create a restore point. Then, in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. This will open the System Restore window.

In that window, click once to highlight the C drive, and click on “Configure”.

In the next window, there are two things you need to do:

Check the button that says “Turn on system protection”

Slide the “Max usage” selector to something like 5gb or maybe 10gb, and click OK

Second, set a restore point:

After you click ok in the last step, you’re taken back to the main window. At the bottom of that window is a button named “Create”. Click that, and then give this system restore point a name. It can be as simple as today’s date.

Finally, click OK and you’re done.

It’s not a bad idea to just create a new restore point every once in a while, as long as your computer seems to be working well. Windows is supposed to set one automatically each time new Windows Updates come in, but that is not something I would rely on.

Some things you should know about System Restore:

In Windows 10, System Restore is NOT turned on by default. This is just another goof by Microsoft that just baffles me. So you have to be aware of this, and enable it yourself. If you buy a laptop from me, that’s already been done.

If you use System Restore to take the computer back to a previous date, it does not have any effect on your personal files such as Documents, Pictures, etc. That’s a good thing, since you can use it without worrying about losing anything important. But it’s a bad thing, because if you accidentally delete a document, you can’t use System Restore to get it back. System Restore does not negate the need for a backup.

System Restore is not something you should use all the time. I have a few clients who, at the first sign of any computer issue, immediately run System Restore and go back a day or a few days. Not a good idea. Resolving computer problems should be done strategically, giving consideration to all potential solutions, and the ramifications of each one.

The post How to make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

desktop icons — How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout Nov 26, 2018
I’m kind of picky about where I keep the icons on my desktop screen. Not all of them, but a few that I click on regularly. I have a couple of spreadsheets I use all the time, and a link to run Evernote, and a link to my Google contacts. I keep these icons in a certain place so I know where to find them. But then something happens, and they’re not where they’re supposed to be.

What causes this?

If you ever play around with your display resolution, that will move your icons to different places. I have heard that certain games require a particular resolution, so some people have to change the resolution to play the game, then change it back again.

But for me, it seems that the most common reason for icons getting moved around is because of Windows Updates. At least that’s what appears to be the culprit, since I notice the rearrangement right after Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month, when Microsoft sends out the monthly updates). After the overnight updates, I turn on the screen and all of my icons are arranged in solid columns on the left side of my left monitor. So I have to drag some of them back to their “right” place.

But a while ago, I discovered a little program that solves that problem. It’s called ReIcon.

The idea behind this program is pretty simple. You tell it how you want your icons to be displayed on your screen, and it remembers that layout. If something changes the layout, you just tell it to go back to the layout you want.

The program is free. You can get it by going to the developer’s website page here:
https://www.sordum.org/8366/reicon-v1-9-restore-desktop-icon-layouts/

That page describes what it does, the benefits of using it, and how to use it. At the bottom of the page you’ll see a link to download. When you click that, it will take you to a page that automatically downloads a zipped folder to your computer. When you open that zipped folder, you’ll see a folder called ReIcon in there – just drag that to your desktop screen and keep it there.

When you open that ReIcon folder, double click on the file called ReIcon_x64.

That opens the program window. Now click on File – Save Icon Layout:

You’ve now saved the current layout of your desktop icons. That’s the new entry you see in the program window:

Want to test it? Drag some random desktop icon to some other place on your screen. Then, in the ReIcon program window, click on File – Restore Icon Layout. That icon you moved goes right back where it was supposed to be!

When you look at the website for the program (above), you’ll see in the description that it does offer a number of other configuration options. For example, on my computer, I added the “restore icon layout” to my right click menu. So whenever I want to restore the icons back to their correct arrangement, all I have to do is right-click on the desktop screen and choose “Restore Icon Layout”. Makes things quick and easy after a Windows Update has messed up the order.

I do like this program because:

It requires no installation

It doesn’t try to put malware or other junk on your computer

It performs a needed service that solves a problem

If you want to use this program but find it to be a little too confusing, contact me and I can help you set it up through my Remote Support service.

The post How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ReIcon — How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout Nov 26, 2018
I’m kind of picky about where I keep the icons on my desktop screen. Not all of them, but a few that I click on regularly. I have a couple of spreadsheets I use all the time, and a link to run Evernote, and a link to my Google contacts. I keep these icons in a certain place so I know where to find them. But then something happens, and they’re not where they’re supposed to be.

What causes this?

If you ever play around with your display resolution, that will move your icons to different places. I have heard that certain games require a particular resolution, so some people have to change the resolution to play the game, then change it back again.

But for me, it seems that the most common reason for icons getting moved around is because of Windows Updates. At least that’s what appears to be the culprit, since I notice the rearrangement right after Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month, when Microsoft sends out the monthly updates). After the overnight updates, I turn on the screen and all of my icons are arranged in solid columns on the left side of my left monitor. So I have to drag some of them back to their “right” place.

But a while ago, I discovered a little program that solves that problem. It’s called ReIcon.

The idea behind this program is pretty simple. You tell it how you want your icons to be displayed on your screen, and it remembers that layout. If something changes the layout, you just tell it to go back to the layout you want.

The program is free. You can get it by going to the developer’s website page here:
https://www.sordum.org/8366/reicon-v1-9-restore-desktop-icon-layouts/

That page describes what it does, the benefits of using it, and how to use it. At the bottom of the page you’ll see a link to download. When you click that, it will take you to a page that automatically downloads a zipped folder to your computer. When you open that zipped folder, you’ll see a folder called ReIcon in there – just drag that to your desktop screen and keep it there.

When you open that ReIcon folder, double click on the file called ReIcon_x64.

That opens the program window. Now click on File – Save Icon Layout:

You’ve now saved the current layout of your desktop icons. That’s the new entry you see in the program window:

Want to test it? Drag some random desktop icon to some other place on your screen. Then, in the ReIcon program window, click on File – Restore Icon Layout. That icon you moved goes right back where it was supposed to be!

When you look at the website for the program (above), you’ll see in the description that it does offer a number of other configuration options. For example, on my computer, I added the “restore icon layout” to my right click menu. So whenever I want to restore the icons back to their correct arrangement, all I have to do is right-click on the desktop screen and choose “Restore Icon Layout”. Makes things quick and easy after a Windows Update has messed up the order.

I do like this program because:

It requires no installation

It doesn’t try to put malware or other junk on your computer

It performs a needed service that solves a problem

If you want to use this program but find it to be a little too confusing, contact me and I can help you set it up through my Remote Support service.

The post How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Cloud — New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets Nov 12, 2018
A lot of people use Google’s cloud services to create documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations and forms. Recently, Google introduced a new way to create this things very quickly. And once you set it up, you can literally do it with a single click.

Quick summary if you’re not familiar with Google Cloud –

If you use Microsoft Word, you know you can create a new Word document and save it on your computer’s hard drive.

With Google Cloud, you can create a new document right there on your screen using your Google account. It will look just like a Word document. You can edit it, save it, print it, or send it to someone.

But a Google Cloud document has a couple of key differences:

It’s not stored by default on your computer’s hard drive. It’s stored on Google’s computer’s hard drive. That’s the fundamental definition of “the cloud” – some computer other than your own. This means that in order to work on that document, you don’t need to be at your computer. You can log in to your Google account from anywhere in the world, on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, and create and edit Google documents.

You can give other people access to that document. So if you want to collaborate on the content, or have someone proofread or edit it for you, you can give them access. And of course they can do all of this on their own computer, since the document is stored in the cloud. You don’t need to email it to them or have them get on your computer – just send them a link to access it.

So you can do these things with Google:

Create a Google Doc (comparable to a Word document)

Create a Google Sheet (comparable to an Excel spreadsheet)

Create a Google Slide (comparable to a Powerpoint presentation)

Create a Google Form (an online form you can use on your website or other places)

Create a Google Site (make your own website)

Up until recently, in order to create any of the above items, you had to log in to your Google account, go to Google Drive, figure out what you wanted to create, click on My Drive, then go down to Google Docs, and click on Blank Document. Multiple steps.

Now it’s much easier!

You’re probably already signed in to your Google account. So just open Chrome and up in the address bar, type: docs.new

And immediately on your screen you are presented with a brand new blank Google document, ready for you to enter your content.

Pretty cool, right?

Now we can take it a step further to make it even EASIER. When that blank document comes up on your screen, take the URL (the address in the address bar at the top) and drag that to your Bookmarks bar. Now you have a bookmark link right there on Chrome, named “Untitled Document”. So whenever you want to create a new document, all it takes is a SINGLE CLICK on that link, and you have your new blank document ready and waiting for you to start working on it.

And that’s just to create a new text document.

To create a new spreadsheet: go to sheet.new

To create a new slideshow: go to slide.new

To create a new website: go to site.new

To create a new online form: go to form.new

The post New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

new Google doc — New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets Nov 12, 2018
A lot of people use Google’s cloud services to create documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations and forms. Recently, Google introduced a new way to create this things very quickly. And once you set it up, you can literally do it with a single click.

Quick summary if you’re not familiar with Google Cloud –

If you use Microsoft Word, you know you can create a new Word document and save it on your computer’s hard drive.

With Google Cloud, you can create a new document right there on your screen using your Google account. It will look just like a Word document. You can edit it, save it, print it, or send it to someone.

But a Google Cloud document has a couple of key differences:

It’s not stored by default on your computer’s hard drive. It’s stored on Google’s computer’s hard drive. That’s the fundamental definition of “the cloud” – some computer other than your own. This means that in order to work on that document, you don’t need to be at your computer. You can log in to your Google account from anywhere in the world, on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, and create and edit Google documents.

You can give other people access to that document. So if you want to collaborate on the content, or have someone proofread or edit it for you, you can give them access. And of course they can do all of this on their own computer, since the document is stored in the cloud. You don’t need to email it to them or have them get on your computer – just send them a link to access it.

So you can do these things with Google:

Create a Google Doc (comparable to a Word document)

Create a Google Sheet (comparable to an Excel spreadsheet)

Create a Google Slide (comparable to a Powerpoint presentation)

Create a Google Form (an online form you can use on your website or other places)

Create a Google Site (make your own website)

Up until recently, in order to create any of the above items, you had to log in to your Google account, go to Google Drive, figure out what you wanted to create, click on My Drive, then go down to Google Docs, and click on Blank Document. Multiple steps.

Now it’s much easier!

You’re probably already signed in to your Google account. So just open Chrome and up in the address bar, type: docs.new

And immediately on your screen you are presented with a brand new blank Google document, ready for you to enter your content.

Pretty cool, right?

Now we can take it a step further to make it even EASIER. When that blank document comes up on your screen, take the URL (the address in the address bar at the top) and drag that to your Bookmarks bar. Now you have a bookmark link right there on Chrome, named “Untitled Document”. So whenever you want to create a new document, all it takes is a SINGLE CLICK on that link, and you have your new blank document ready and waiting for you to start working on it.

And that’s just to create a new text document.

To create a new spreadsheet: go to sheet.new

To create a new slideshow: go to slide.new

To create a new website: go to site.new

To create a new online form: go to form.new

The post New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

live streaming — The best live-streaming webcams around the world Oct 29, 2018
All over the globe, there are live cameras set up and streaming the content of whatever happens to be in their view. Here are some of the ones that I think are pretty interesting.

The Sea Otter Cam
https://www.vanaqua.org/visit/live-cams-sea-otter-cam
Watch the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The Garden Bubble Cam
http://andieandmike.org/bubblecam/
Andie and Mike live somewhere in south Florida, and in their back yard, they have a bubble machine. It’s connected to the internet, and right under the webcam picture is a button labeled “Bubbles”. When you click that button, it activates the machine and bubbles blow out. Isn’t it amazing what we’re doing with technology these days?

Decorah Bald Eagles
https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/
This is definitely a popular webcam. In fact you may have seen it on the news from January to sometime in June. This is an eagle nest in Iowa. Eggs are usually laid in late February and hatch 4-6 weeks later. And you can watch it all happen live.

Watching Grass Grow
http://www.watching-grass-grow.com/
You’ve heard the phrase “that’s about as exciting as watching grass grow”? Well, apparently a lot of people ARE entertained by that activity. Even the site calls itself “the most boring/exciting website in the world”. It’s just a view of some guy’s front lawn in Colorado. And if you’re thinking, “no way would anyone watch that!” – when I checked the site recently, there were 49 other people watching it.

Jackson Hole Wyoming Town Square
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-F4CeVsWHA&feature=youtu.be
This is a live view of the main intersection in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Traffic lights, cars, pedestrians. When I viewed it, 99 people were also watching.

San Diego Zoo Ape Cam
https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/cams/ape-cam
You guessed it, apes in a zoo, live on camera. The same site has cameras for their condors, elephants, koalas, pandas, penguins, polar bears, and tigers. Maybe if enough people discover the webcam, fewer people will visit the zoo!

Senior Dog Gathering Room
https://explore.org/livecams/dog-bless-you/senior-dog-gathering-room
This is great if you’re a dog lover like I am. This is from the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This particular camera is in a room where the older dogs eat, play and relax. I love how this place has all the furniture set up with steps for access, and lots of blankets and pillows to these senior dogs can enjoy their retirement! The sanctuary has cameras all over the place. When I visited, I was one of 158 watching at the time.

Animal Planet L!VE Kittens
http://www.ustream.tv/toocute
Maybe you’re a fan of kittens. This is a live camera showing kittens playing with each other. (the camera was down temporarily when I went to get a screenshot for this post)

The Africam
http://www.africam.com/wildlife/
They have several live cameras set up to see the wildlife in Africa. You can click on whatever thumbnail image looks like it has some action.

Giant Panda Cam
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/panda-cam
The Smithsonian National Zoo has set up cameras so you can watch their giant pandas – Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Bei Bei. You can toggle back and forth between two cameras, depending on what’s going on at the time.

The Temple Bar
https://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=dublinpub
This is a live shot of a pub in Dublin, Ireland. Great if you like live Irish music and the pub atmosphere.

West Texas Hummingbirds
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/50/West_Texas_Hummingbirds/
Definitely the webcam to watch if you like hummingbirds. Of course, you’ll only see them if it’s daytime in Texas.

The post The best live-streaming webcams around the world first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sea otters — The best live-streaming webcams around the world Oct 29, 2018
All over the globe, there are live cameras set up and streaming the content of whatever happens to be in their view. Here are some of the ones that I think are pretty interesting.

The Sea Otter Cam
https://www.vanaqua.org/visit/live-cams-sea-otter-cam
Watch the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The Garden Bubble Cam
http://andieandmike.org/bubblecam/
Andie and Mike live somewhere in south Florida, and in their back yard, they have a bubble machine. It’s connected to the internet, and right under the webcam picture is a button labeled “Bubbles”. When you click that button, it activates the machine and bubbles blow out. Isn’t it amazing what we’re doing with technology these days?

Decorah Bald Eagles
https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/
This is definitely a popular webcam. In fact you may have seen it on the news from January to sometime in June. This is an eagle nest in Iowa. Eggs are usually laid in late February and hatch 4-6 weeks later. And you can watch it all happen live.

Watching Grass Grow
http://www.watching-grass-grow.com/
You’ve heard the phrase “that’s about as exciting as watching grass grow”? Well, apparently a lot of people ARE entertained by that activity. Even the site calls itself “the most boring/exciting website in the world”. It’s just a view of some guy’s front lawn in Colorado. And if you’re thinking, “no way would anyone watch that!” – when I checked the site recently, there were 49 other people watching it.

Jackson Hole Wyoming Town Square
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-F4CeVsWHA&feature=youtu.be
This is a live view of the main intersection in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Traffic lights, cars, pedestrians. When I viewed it, 99 people were also watching.

San Diego Zoo Ape Cam
https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/cams/ape-cam
You guessed it, apes in a zoo, live on camera. The same site has cameras for their condors, elephants, koalas, pandas, penguins, polar bears, and tigers. Maybe if enough people discover the webcam, fewer people will visit the zoo!

Senior Dog Gathering Room
https://explore.org/livecams/dog-bless-you/senior-dog-gathering-room
This is great if you’re a dog lover like I am. This is from the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This particular camera is in a room where the older dogs eat, play and relax. I love how this place has all the furniture set up with steps for access, and lots of blankets and pillows to these senior dogs can enjoy their retirement! The sanctuary has cameras all over the place. When I visited, I was one of 158 watching at the time.

Animal Planet L!VE Kittens
http://www.ustream.tv/toocute
Maybe you’re a fan of kittens. This is a live camera showing kittens playing with each other. (the camera was down temporarily when I went to get a screenshot for this post)

The Africam
http://www.africam.com/wildlife/
They have several live cameras set up to see the wildlife in Africa. You can click on whatever thumbnail image looks like it has some action.

Giant Panda Cam
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/panda-cam
The Smithsonian National Zoo has set up cameras so you can watch their giant pandas – Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Bei Bei. You can toggle back and forth between two cameras, depending on what’s going on at the time.

The Temple Bar
https://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=dublinpub
This is a live shot of a pub in Dublin, Ireland. Great if you like live Irish music and the pub atmosphere.

West Texas Hummingbirds
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/50/West_Texas_Hummingbirds/
Definitely the webcam to watch if you like hummingbirds. Of course, you’ll only see them if it’s daytime in Texas.

The post The best live-streaming webcams around the world first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

credit freeze — New information about protecting your identity Oct 15, 2018
About a year ago I did a blog post and podcast about the absolute best way to protect the valuable personal identity information that’s stored in your credit files. Today I’ll let you know about an update to that, which makes it much easier to take action on this.

You can read my last blog post here. But the basic idea of it was this: You should freeze your credit file with each of the 3 main credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. There are a variety of benefits to this, but the main one is that a scammer couldn’t use your credit report to create new accounts and steal your good rating.

The cost for this was just $10 to freeze your file at each of the bureaus, so $30 total. And that’s $30 per person, so a couple would be $60. And since children have a social security number and other personal information that could be stolen, it would be $30 for each of your kids.

Then, if you do apply for a loan or need to have your credit checked for a specific purpose, you could just go in an UNfreeze it temporarily to get that done. But to unfreeze it, the same fees would be paid again. So some consumers just didn’t bother with any of it simply because of the cost.

Well, the cost is no longer a factor. You can now freeze your credit file and that of your dependents, in any state in the US, at no cost. No more $10 charge per bureau, per person, to freeze or lift a freeze from your file.

This change came about as part of a new law called the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which went into effect on May 24 of this year. If you want to be put to sleep by the actual full text of this law, you can read it here.

In addition to eliminating the fees mentioned above, the new law also requires the three bureaus to offer credit monitoring services for free to all active duty military personnel.

You can freeze your credit file by phone or by mail, but really the easiest way to do it is online. Just follow the instructions in my last post about this (linked above) but just skip the part about making a payment.

The post New information about protecting your identity first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast Apple Podcasts — New information about protecting your identity Oct 15, 2018
About a year ago I did a blog post and podcast about the absolute best way to protect the valuable personal identity information that’s stored in your credit files. Today I’ll let you know about an update to that, which makes it much easier to take action on this.

You can read my last blog post here. But the basic idea of it was this: You should freeze your credit file with each of the 3 main credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. There are a variety of benefits to this, but the main one is that a scammer couldn’t use your credit report to create new accounts and steal your good rating.

The cost for this was just $10 to freeze your file at each of the bureaus, so $30 total. And that’s $30 per person, so a couple would be $60. And since children have a social security number and other personal information that could be stolen, it would be $30 for each of your kids.

Then, if you do apply for a loan or need to have your credit checked for a specific purpose, you could just go in an UNfreeze it temporarily to get that done. But to unfreeze it, the same fees would be paid again. So some consumers just didn’t bother with any of it simply because of the cost.

Well, the cost is no longer a factor. You can now freeze your credit file and that of your dependents, in any state in the US, at no cost. No more $10 charge per bureau, per person, to freeze or lift a freeze from your file.

This change came about as part of a new law called the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which went into effect on May 24 of this year. If you want to be put to sleep by the actual full text of this law, you can read it here.

In addition to eliminating the fees mentioned above, the new law also requires the three bureaus to offer credit monitoring services for free to all active duty military personnel.

You can freeze your credit file by phone or by mail, but really the easiest way to do it is online. Just follow the instructions in my last post about this (linked above) but just skip the part about making a payment.

The post New information about protecting your identity first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

me with Dave Jackson — Start your own podcast – interview with Dave Jackson Oct 01, 2018
I’ve been doing my Computer Tutor podcast for over 6 years now. My new podcast, What Was That Like, has been live for just a couple of months and has a steadily growing audience. So I’ve been asked by some of my friends and clients, “How do you start a podcast?”. For that answer, I went to the podcast expert: Dave Jackson.

Dave Jackson has been podcasting since 2005 – that’s back when podcasting had barely begun to even exist. Since then, he’s created many shows of his own and they’ve been downloaded more than a million times (maybe close to two million by now).

He still does several shows regularly. The 3 that I listen to – every episode – are:

School of Podcasting – this is a podcast about podcasting, every Monday. It’s great information for anyone who is just starting to think about doing a podcast, or anyone who already has a podcast. Usually 45-60 minutes.

Podcast Rodeo Show – Dave picks a show, listens to it for a short time, then gives his honest opinion about what’s good and what could be improved. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Usually around 10 minutes.

Building a Better Dave – this is Dave’s personal podcast where he gets really transparent and talks about stuff he’s observed, what’s going on in his life, or whatever he wants to talk about. No set schedule. Usually 15-20 minutes.

The thing about Dave is that in addition to being very knowledgeable about almost any aspect of podcasting, he’s also just a really nice guy. He’s someone you’d look forward to just hanging out with.

And recently, he was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame. It’s safe to say he’s a great source of information about podcasting.

So for this week’s Computer Tutor blog and podcast, I actually invited Dave in and I asked him a bunch of questions about starting a podcast:

What do you like most about doing a podcast?

If someone asks you, “What is a podcast?”, what’s your quick answer?

What does it cost to start doing a podcast?

What mistake do most people make when starting their own podcast?

What was one of your shows that completely bombed?

How long before a new show starts making any money?

Why should a new podcaster hire you to help them get started?

And then I wanted to ask him a few non-podcast-related questions just to keep things interesting:

What’s something that most people don’t know about you, that they might find surprising?

What’s your biggest fear?

If you could say something to your 20 year old self, what would it be?

What are you excited about right now?

You’ll know when you listen to this that we had a lot of fun talking about podcasting and a variety of other things. To listen to our conversation right here on this page, just look at the podcast player that’s at the top of this blog post, make sure your speakers are on, and hit the Play button. Or you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts.

And let me know what you think in the comments below!
The post Start your own podcast – interview with Dave Jackson first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

CCleaner — Time to get rid of CCleaner Sep 17, 2018
In the world of computers and security, there are some companies that once had a decent reputation but went downhill and now cannot be recommended or trusted. I would now put CCleaner in that category. Here’s the story.

CCleaner was actually introduced in 2003 – 15 years ago. But it wasn’t rolled out under that name initially. Its original name was Crap Cleaner. This was because it was supposed to get rid of a lot of the things that might be clogging up your computer, such as registry errors and temp files. After a while, I guess the software developers decided that the word “crap” was offensive to some people so they just changed it to CCleaner.

Even back then, CCleaner was one of those programs that it SOUNDS like you might need for your computer. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to clear out those files and things to keep your computer running nice and fast? But in reality, it’s not something you ever needed. Cleaning out temp files and fixing registry errors (even though that initial scan might show hundreds or thousands of registry issues) just won’t make any noticeable difference in how your computer runs.

But it was free, so no harm done at that point, right?

Then a few years ago, it started to get obnoxious. I noticed when I saw it on a computer, there would be the CCleaner icon in the lower right corner – meaning that it was running all the time in the background. Apparently it was now “monitoring” the computer for problems. Well, that was not acceptable. The more programs you have running at the same time, the slower they all run. And since CCleaner does not provide any needed service anyway, I certainly didn’t want it to be slowing down the computer.

But since then, CCleaner has taken another step in the wrong direction.

Brief backstory – you may have read here or heard me on the podcast talking about AVG. A long time ago, it was a decent free antivirus program. For the past few years, however, it has been more of a distributor of malware rather than a preventer of it (I wrote about that here). It’s a bad thing to have on your computer. Well, AVG is owned by Avast (another bad antivirus). And as of about a year ago, CCleaner is also owned by Avast. So they are moving the same direction, and it’s not a good one.

Consider these observations:

By default, when you install CCleaner, it automatically runs in the background every time you boot up. This is the “monitoring feature” and in more recent versions it’s not easy to disable this.

You also can’t easily terminate the program when it’s running – there’s no option to “Exit” or “Quit”.

Avast purchased CCleaner in July 2017. Within a month, they were distributing a hacked, infected version to anyone who downloaded it. They didn’t even discover or correct this for 4 weeks. And Avast is supposed to be a security company.

The Avast web browser is designed to look very much like Chrome, and in some cases users think they are using Chrome but they are actually using this other inferior, bordering-on-malware browser.

CCleaner now comes with those wonderful pop-up advertisements that we all know and love.

When you consider all of those factors, on top of the fact that CCleaner’s functions aren’t even needed in the first place, it’s a no-brainer – get rid of it.

Fortunately, removal is easy – just go to Control Panel or Settings, find it in the list and Uninstall.

The post Time to get rid of CCleaner first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast Apple Podcasts — Time to get rid of CCleaner Sep 17, 2018
In the world of computers and security, there are some companies that once had a decent reputation but went downhill and now cannot be recommended or trusted. I would now put CCleaner in that category. Here’s the story.

CCleaner was actually introduced in 2003 – 15 years ago. But it wasn’t rolled out under that name initially. Its original name was Crap Cleaner. This was because it was supposed to get rid of a lot of the things that might be clogging up your computer, such as registry errors and temp files. After a while, I guess the software developers decided that the word “crap” was offensive to some people so they just changed it to CCleaner.

Even back then, CCleaner was one of those programs that it SOUNDS like you might need for your computer. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to clear out those files and things to keep your computer running nice and fast? But in reality, it’s not something you ever needed. Cleaning out temp files and fixing registry errors (even though that initial scan might show hundreds or thousands of registry issues) just won’t make any noticeable difference in how your computer runs.

But it was free, so no harm done at that point, right?

Then a few years ago, it started to get obnoxious. I noticed when I saw it on a computer, there would be the CCleaner icon in the lower right corner – meaning that it was running all the time in the background. Apparently it was now “monitoring” the computer for problems. Well, that was not acceptable. The more programs you have running at the same time, the slower they all run. And since CCleaner does not provide any needed service anyway, I certainly didn’t want it to be slowing down the computer.

But since then, CCleaner has taken another step in the wrong direction.

Brief backstory – you may have read here or heard me on the podcast talking about AVG. A long time ago, it was a decent free antivirus program. For the past few years, however, it has been more of a distributor of malware rather than a preventer of it (I wrote about that here). It’s a bad thing to have on your computer. Well, AVG is owned by Avast (another bad antivirus). And as of about a year ago, CCleaner is also owned by Avast. So they are moving the same direction, and it’s not a good one.

Consider these observations:

By default, when you install CCleaner, it automatically runs in the background every time you boot up. This is the “monitoring feature” and in more recent versions it’s not easy to disable this.

You also can’t easily terminate the program when it’s running – there’s no option to “Exit” or “Quit”.

Avast purchased CCleaner in July 2017. Within a month, they were distributing a hacked, infected version to anyone who downloaded it. They didn’t even discover or correct this for 4 weeks. And Avast is supposed to be a security company.

The Avast web browser is designed to look very much like Chrome, and in some cases users think they are using Chrome but they are actually using this other inferior, bordering-on-malware browser.

CCleaner now comes with those wonderful pop-up advertisements that we all know and love.

When you consider all of those factors, on top of the fact that CCleaner’s functions aren’t even needed in the first place, it’s a no-brainer – get rid of it.

Fortunately, removal is easy – just go to Control Panel or Settings, find it in the list and Uninstall.

The post Time to get rid of CCleaner first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

folders — Have folders re-open automatically after each restart Sep 03, 2018
If you’re working on files in a certain folder and you have to do a restart, would you like to have that same folder open up automatically for you after that restart? It’s possible, and it’s really simple to do.

Sometimes I find myself in a predicament. I know it’s been a while since my computer was restarted, so I know I really need to do it. But…I’m working on my blog, or my podcast (or my new podcast) and I have these particular folders open. I know if I restart I’ll have to go back and open all these same folders again, and that just makes me think, “I’ll restart later”.

But with this Windows setting that I’m talking about today, I could do a restart, and all of those folders that I have open before the restart will automatically be open right there on my screen, after the restart!

And really, you probably know already that there are times when Windows decides to do some updates, and your computer is going to go ahead and restart whether you like it or not. Same benefit – after the restart, you can just start right up where you were working previously.

Here’s how you do this:

First, open the search function in the lower left corner of your Windows 10 screen, and type “file explorer options” – then click on File Explorer Options in the menu that comes up:

In the new window that opens, click the View tab, then look all the way to the right for the “Options” button. Click the drop-down and choose “Change folder and search options”:

Now you see the “Folder options” window. Click the “View” tab, then scroll down a little and check the box that says “Restore previous folder windows at logon”.

Then click OK, and you’re done.

Now you can test it. Open a few windows, then restart your computer. When it boots up again, there are your chosen windows, open and ready for you to use.

And this works for more than just File Explorer windows. You can do it with your Outlook email window, or your web browser. I have done it with Chrome, and it opens back up with the same tabs as before the restart. Pretty handy!

The post Have folders re-open automatically after each restart first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

file explorer options — Have folders re-open automatically after each restart Sep 03, 2018
If you’re working on files in a certain folder and you have to do a restart, would you like to have that same folder open up automatically for you after that restart? It’s possible, and it’s really simple to do.

Sometimes I find myself in a predicament. I know it’s been a while since my computer was restarted, so I know I really need to do it. But…I’m working on my blog, or my podcast (or my new podcast) and I have these particular folders open. I know if I restart I’ll have to go back and open all these same folders again, and that just makes me think, “I’ll restart later”.

But with this Windows setting that I’m talking about today, I could do a restart, and all of those folders that I have open before the restart will automatically be open right there on my screen, after the restart!

And really, you probably know already that there are times when Windows decides to do some updates, and your computer is going to go ahead and restart whether you like it or not. Same benefit – after the restart, you can just start right up where you were working previously.

Here’s how you do this:

First, open the search function in the lower left corner of your Windows 10 screen, and type “file explorer options” – then click on File Explorer Options in the menu that comes up:

In the new window that opens, click the View tab, then look all the way to the right for the “Options” button. Click the drop-down and choose “Change folder and search options”:

Now you see the “Folder options” window. Click the “View” tab, then scroll down a little and check the box that says “Restore previous folder windows at logon”.

Then click OK, and you’re done.

Now you can test it. Open a few windows, then restart your computer. When it boots up again, there are your chosen windows, open and ready for you to use.

And this works for more than just File Explorer windows. You can do it with your Outlook email window, or your web browser. I have done it with Chrome, and it opens back up with the same tabs as before the restart. Pretty handy!

The post Have folders re-open automatically after each restart first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 fast startup — What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? Aug 20, 2018
In a recent blog/podcast, I talked about the importance of restarting your computer in order to refresh the memory and speed it up. But some people actually powered down their computers and powered up again, and the “Up time” counter did not reset. That’s because of the Windows 10 “Fast Startup” option so we’ll talk about that today.

Thanks to my friend Larry for reminding me about this feature!

If you’re running Windows 10, there’s a built-in feature called Fast Startup. Guess what it does. That’s right, it helps your computer start up faster!

But you might not want it to do that.

Think of it like this. If you wanted to be dressed and ready to go in the morning as fast as possible, one way to achieve that would be to just not take off your clothes from the day before. Just sleep in them. So when you wake up and get out of bed, BOOM – you’re already dressed! So you’ve achieved the goal of being dressed quickly, but there’s a cost – your clothes are all wrinkled, and not really clean because you wore them the day before.

That’s kind of what this Fast Startup option does with Windows. You hit the power button and choose the Shut Down option, to turn off your computer. But what Windows 10 does is, it takes a “picture” of your computer’s state, and then puts it into a hybrid state between powered off and powered on.

The thing is, your computer DOES need to completely power down sometimes (as discussed in this blog back on July 9). So it might be a good idea if you disabled the Fast Startup option (though there is an exception, which I’ll cover in a minute). And in reality, you might not even see a noticeable difference in the bootup time when Fast Startup is turned off – especially if your computer has a solid state drive, which means it’s already really fast.

Here’s how you check the Fast Startup option and disable it if you want to:

Do a RIGHT click on the Start button, and choose Power Options.

In the new window that opens, click on “Additional power settings”:

In the next window, click on “Choose what the power buttons do”:

In the new window, look in the section called “Shutdown settings”. There will be a few options there, and one of them is “Turn on fast startup”. It’s probably already checked. If you can just uncheck it, go ahead.

If you can’t uncheck it, you might need to find “Change settings that are currently unavailable” in the top part of that window and click that first, THEN uncheck the Fast Startup box.

After that, just click “Save changes” and you’re all done.

Now, when you click “Shut down”, your computer will actually shut completely down.

NOTE: Here’s the exception. If you choose the “Restart” option, that actually DOES fully turn off your computer and turn it back on again. For some people, this may be sufficient. Since I do a restart pretty regularly, the Fast Startup option is not a critical thing.

The post What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Quick menu — What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? Aug 20, 2018
In a recent blog/podcast, I talked about the importance of restarting your computer in order to refresh the memory and speed it up. But some people actually powered down their computers and powered up again, and the “Up time” counter did not reset. That’s because of the Windows 10 “Fast Startup” option so we’ll talk about that today.

Thanks to my friend Larry for reminding me about this feature!

If you’re running Windows 10, there’s a built-in feature called Fast Startup. Guess what it does. That’s right, it helps your computer start up faster!

But you might not want it to do that.

Think of it like this. If you wanted to be dressed and ready to go in the morning as fast as possible, one way to achieve that would be to just not take off your clothes from the day before. Just sleep in them. So when you wake up and get out of bed, BOOM – you’re already dressed! So you’ve achieved the goal of being dressed quickly, but there’s a cost – your clothes are all wrinkled, and not really clean because you wore them the day before.

That’s kind of what this Fast Startup option does with Windows. You hit the power button and choose the Shut Down option, to turn off your computer. But what Windows 10 does is, it takes a “picture” of your computer’s state, and then puts it into a hybrid state between powered off and powered on.

The thing is, your computer DOES need to completely power down sometimes (as discussed in this blog back on July 9). So it might be a good idea if you disabled the Fast Startup option (though there is an exception, which I’ll cover in a minute). And in reality, you might not even see a noticeable difference in the bootup time when Fast Startup is turned off – especially if your computer has a solid state drive, which means it’s already really fast.

Here’s how you check the Fast Startup option and disable it if you want to:

Do a RIGHT click on the Start button, and choose Power Options.

In the new window that opens, click on “Additional power settings”:

In the next window, click on “Choose what the power buttons do”:

In the new window, look in the section called “Shutdown settings”. There will be a few options there, and one of them is “Turn on fast startup”. It’s probably already checked. If you can just uncheck it, go ahead.

If you can’t uncheck it, you might need to find “Change settings that are currently unavailable” in the top part of that window and click that first, THEN uncheck the Fast Startup box.

After that, just click “Save changes” and you’re all done.

Now, when you click “Shut down”, your computer will actually shut completely down.

NOTE: Here’s the exception. If you choose the “Restart” option, that actually DOES fully turn off your computer and turn it back on again. For some people, this may be sufficient. Since I do a restart pretty regularly, the Fast Startup option is not a critical thing.

The post What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Dog kissing booth — Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC Aug 06, 2018
Back in Windows 7, it was easy to get a “Preview” of an image file that was stored on your computer. Just right click on the file, and choose Preview. That went away in Windows 10. But you can get back the preview option again – and not just for picture files.

Honestly I can’t figure out why Microsoft would do away with the ability to “Preview” an image file on your computer. It was so handy. When I started using Windows 10, I couldn’t believe it. If there was a picture file on my computer, and I wanted to see what it was, I would have to actually double click and OPEN it in a program. For me, that program is Photoshop. So if I wanted to see a picture, I had to wait for Photoshop to open and display it.

Yes, before people start emailing me – I know I could have just changed the display to the largest icons, but those thumbnail images aren’t the same as actually previewing the image in a larger window. So that wasn’t a solution.

So once again, Microsoft had something that was a great feature and very handy to use, and they eliminated it. So many things they do just defy logic.

AND, once again, some brilliant coder has come up with a way to not only bring back that feature that Microsoft took away, but make it so much better.

What I’m talking about is a little program called QuickLook.

It’s available for free download from the Windows Store (here). Just click the button that says “Get” and let it download and install.

I think it’s set by default to run each time you boot up your computer. That’s not something you want to set for every program without thinking about it, but for this program I’ve found that I use it so often it might as well just be running in the background all the time. I don’t notice that it slows down the computer. The icon looks like this in the lower right corner of your screen:

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you have a folder with some pictures and you want to preview one of them. Like this one, where the first 4 files don’t have a meaningful file name:

All you have to do is click once on a file name to highlight it (like I’ve done in that picture above). Then hit the Space bar.

A new window opens immediately, showing a preview of that picture:

Now I am able to see a larger preview of that picture so I know what it is. And that’s not all! There are buttons across the top of the preview window.

Going from left to right, these buttons allow me to:

Force the preview window to stay on top of any other window I open

Prevent the preview window from closing

Open the image file with the program of my choice

See the file name

Open with Windows Photo Viewer

Make the preview window full screen

Close the preview window

That’s a LOT more than you used to be able to do with the traditional Windows Preview function. And that’s just with an image preview.

If you have an audio file, such as an mp3, you can preview and actually listen to it from the preview window.

If you have a video file, such as an mp4, you can watch it from the preview window.

You can also preview documents, such as Word or PDF files, or even Excel spreadsheets.

So you can probably see why I think this little app is pretty handy to have available. Try it out and let me know what you think of it.

The post Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

QuickLook — Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC Aug 06, 2018
Back in Windows 7, it was easy to get a “Preview” of an image file that was stored on your computer. Just right click on the file, and choose Preview. That went away in Windows 10. But you can get back the preview option again – and not just for picture files.

Honestly I can’t figure out why Microsoft would do away with the ability to “Preview” an image file on your computer. It was so handy. When I started using Windows 10, I couldn’t believe it. If there was a picture file on my computer, and I wanted to see what it was, I would have to actually double click and OPEN it in a program. For me, that program is Photoshop. So if I wanted to see a picture, I had to wait for Photoshop to open and display it.

Yes, before people start emailing me – I know I could have just changed the display to the largest icons, but those thumbnail images aren’t the same as actually previewing the image in a larger window. So that wasn’t a solution.

So once again, Microsoft had something that was a great feature and very handy to use, and they eliminated it. So many things they do just defy logic.

AND, once again, some brilliant coder has come up with a way to not only bring back that feature that Microsoft took away, but make it so much better.

What I’m talking about is a little program called QuickLook.

It’s available for free download from the Windows Store (here). Just click the button that says “Get” and let it download and install.

I think it’s set by default to run each time you boot up your computer. That’s not something you want to set for every program without thinking about it, but for this program I’ve found that I use it so often it might as well just be running in the background all the time. I don’t notice that it slows down the computer. The icon looks like this in the lower right corner of your screen:

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you have a folder with some pictures and you want to preview one of them. Like this one, where the first 4 files don’t have a meaningful file name:

All you have to do is click once on a file name to highlight it (like I’ve done in that picture above). Then hit the Space bar.

A new window opens immediately, showing a preview of that picture:

Now I am able to see a larger preview of that picture so I know what it is. And that’s not all! There are buttons across the top of the preview window.

Going from left to right, these buttons allow me to:

Force the preview window to stay on top of any other window I open

Prevent the preview window from closing

Open the image file with the program of my choice

See the file name

Open with Windows Photo Viewer

Make the preview window full screen

Close the preview window

That’s a LOT more than you used to be able to do with the traditional Windows Preview function. And that’s just with an image preview.

If you have an audio file, such as an mp3, you can preview and actually listen to it from the preview window.

If you have a video file, such as an mp4, you can watch it from the preview window.

You can also preview documents, such as Word or PDF files, or even Excel spreadsheets.

So you can probably see why I think this little app is pretty handy to have available. Try it out and let me know what you think of it.

The post Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer search — Quickest way to search your PC Jul 23, 2018
Windows has its own search function built in. You just click in the Search field, type a file name or a program name, and hit Enter. The problem is, a search can take a long time – especially if you have a lot of data stored on your computer. But there’s a new way to search your computer now – and it’s a LOT faster than the one that comes with Windows.

Thanks to my friend Roger for tipping me off to this great tool, called “Everything”. You can get it (free of course) at voidtools.com.

When you get to that site, you’ll have a few options about which version to download. Unless your computer is pretty old, you’ll want the 64-bit version (if you have problems with that one, go back and try the plain “Download Installer” option).

Once downloaded, click to run the installer. It’s pretty straightforward and it doesn’t try to sneak anything bad into your computer.

These are the default options for installation, but you can choose based on your preferences.

Using Everything couldn’t really be any easier. When you first run it, you’ll see a window that lists a bunch of folder names and file names, like this:

Don’t worry about none of those names looking familiar. Doesn’t matter. My auto mechanic could dig into my car’s engine and pull out a part and I would have no idea what it is or what it does – but it doesn’t matter because I don’t need to know. Same thing with your computer – there’s a lot going on in the background that you really don’t need to know about.

To try out this program, just type in the name of a file on your computer (or just part of the file name) in the search bar at the top, and hit Enter on your keyboard. You’ll see, anything that matches that search comes up almost immediately. It’s pretty awesome how fast this thing is!

When I ran it, I did a little test to see how quickly it could find something – a file that I really had no idea where it was stored on my computer. Years ago when I lived in Maine, I did some advertising in a local newspaper called the Lincoln County News. So I knew, “somewhere” in my computer was a copy of those old ads.

All I did was type the word “Lincoln” and immediately there were about a dozen different files, all of my ads from back in 2003 and 2004. This is what they looked like back then:

That was even before I had my current website, and I didn’t even need to include the area code in my phone number (since the whole state of Maine has just one area code).

The point is, I didn’t know where to go looking for those files, but the Everything program found them and displayed them for me in less than one second. Incredible!

And whatever you see displayed in the search results, you can double click to open it right from there.

Here’s the warning: this program searches your entire hard drive. So it might show you some search results that you have no idea what they are. Leave them alone. I’ve had some people see something on their computer and think, “Hmm, I have no idea what that is – better just delete it.” That’s a bad idea! You might be deleting a file that Windows or some other program needs in order to run properly.

So go ahead and try out this great little program and see if you’re as impressed with it as I am. The real question is, if a free program can search your whole computer and show results almost instantaneously, why can’t Microsoft just build that same function into Windows to start with?

The post Quickest way to search your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

everything download — Quickest way to search your PC Jul 23, 2018
Windows has its own search function built in. You just click in the Search field, type a file name or a program name, and hit Enter. The problem is, a search can take a long time – especially if you have a lot of data stored on your computer. But there’s a new way to search your computer now – and it’s a LOT faster than the one that comes with Windows.

Thanks to my friend Roger for tipping me off to this great tool, called “Everything”. You can get it (free of course) at voidtools.com.

When you get to that site, you’ll have a few options about which version to download. Unless your computer is pretty old, you’ll want the 64-bit version (if you have problems with that one, go back and try the plain “Download Installer” option).

Once downloaded, click to run the installer. It’s pretty straightforward and it doesn’t try to sneak anything bad into your computer.

These are the default options for installation, but you can choose based on your preferences.

Using Everything couldn’t really be any easier. When you first run it, you’ll see a window that lists a bunch of folder names and file names, like this:

Don’t worry about none of those names looking familiar. Doesn’t matter. My auto mechanic could dig into my car’s engine and pull out a part and I would have no idea what it is or what it does – but it doesn’t matter because I don’t need to know. Same thing with your computer – there’s a lot going on in the background that you really don’t need to know about.

To try out this program, just type in the name of a file on your computer (or just part of the file name) in the search bar at the top, and hit Enter on your keyboard. You’ll see, anything that matches that search comes up almost immediately. It’s pretty awesome how fast this thing is!

When I ran it, I did a little test to see how quickly it could find something – a file that I really had no idea where it was stored on my computer. Years ago when I lived in Maine, I did some advertising in a local newspaper called the Lincoln County News. So I knew, “somewhere” in my computer was a copy of those old ads.

All I did was type the word “Lincoln” and immediately there were about a dozen different files, all of my ads from back in 2003 and 2004. This is what they looked like back then:

That was even before I had my current website, and I didn’t even need to include the area code in my phone number (since the whole state of Maine has just one area code).

The point is, I didn’t know where to go looking for those files, but the Everything program found them and displayed them for me in less than one second. Incredible!

And whatever you see displayed in the search results, you can double click to open it right from there.

Here’s the warning: this program searches your entire hard drive. So it might show you some search results that you have no idea what they are. Leave them alone. I’ve had some people see something on their computer and think, “Hmm, I have no idea what that is – better just delete it.” That’s a bad idea! You might be deleting a file that Windows or some other program needs in order to run properly.

So go ahead and try out this great little program and see if you’re as impressed with it as I am. The real question is, if a free program can search your whole computer and show results almost instantaneously, why can’t Microsoft just build that same function into Windows to start with?

The post Quickest way to search your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

restart — How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? Jul 09, 2018
Do you know how long it’s been since you restarted your Windows computer? There’s an easy way to check.

You probably already know that restarting your computer will often resolve a problem or error that has come up. I’ve often referred to restarting as a “magic pill” for computer repair since it fixes so many issues.

And along the same lines, restarting the computer on a regular basis is a good idea to proactively avoid some computer problems that can come up. I recommend restarting the computer every 1-2 days as a good practice.

When you restart your PC:

your computer can run faster

memory is freed up

memory leaks are stopped

internet connection issues can be resolved

you get more done because your computer is working better!

But here’s the big question – do you know when you last restarted your computer? In other words, how long has your computer been running continuously?

This is kind of a fun little quiz. Before you check this, take a guess as to how long ago you restarted the computer. 8 hours? 2 days? I’ve found that most people underestimate this. Once I asked a client how long ago the last restart was and she said she didn’t really know. When we checked, it was 45 days! Not a big surprised that her computer was acting funny.

Here’s how you find out when the last restart was (works the same on Windows 7 or Windows 10):

The taskbar is the bar that runs across the bottom of your screen:

Just do a RIGHT click on a blank part of the taskbar, and in the menu that comes up, click to run Task Manager:

When Task Manager opens, click on the “Performance” tab and look for the number indicating “Up time”:

The “Up time” number is configured as Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. So in the above screenshot from my own computer, it’s been 8 hours and 24 minutes since my PC was last booted up.

And remember – a restart is not just turning the computer off, then hitting the Power button to turn it back on. You have to actually click the “Restart” option.

Did you check your “Up time”? Let us know what it was in the comments!

The post How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

taskbar — How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? Jul 09, 2018
Do you know how long it’s been since you restarted your Windows computer? There’s an easy way to check.

You probably already know that restarting your computer will often resolve a problem or error that has come up. I’ve often referred to restarting as a “magic pill” for computer repair since it fixes so many issues.

And along the same lines, restarting the computer on a regular basis is a good idea to proactively avoid some computer problems that can come up. I recommend restarting the computer every 1-2 days as a good practice.

When you restart your PC:

your computer can run faster

memory is freed up

memory leaks are stopped

internet connection issues can be resolved

you get more done because your computer is working better!

But here’s the big question – do you know when you last restarted your computer? In other words, how long has your computer been running continuously?

This is kind of a fun little quiz. Before you check this, take a guess as to how long ago you restarted the computer. 8 hours? 2 days? I’ve found that most people underestimate this. Once I asked a client how long ago the last restart was and she said she didn’t really know. When we checked, it was 45 days! Not a big surprised that her computer was acting funny.

Here’s how you find out when the last restart was (works the same on Windows 7 or Windows 10):

The taskbar is the bar that runs across the bottom of your screen:

Just do a RIGHT click on a blank part of the taskbar, and in the menu that comes up, click to run Task Manager:

When Task Manager opens, click on the “Performance” tab and look for the number indicating “Up time”:

The “Up time” number is configured as Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. So in the above screenshot from my own computer, it’s been 8 hours and 24 minutes since my PC was last booted up.

And remember – a restart is not just turning the computer off, then hitting the Power button to turn it back on. You have to actually click the “Restart” option.

Did you check your “Up time”? Let us know what it was in the comments!

The post How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

classified ad bargains — My system for getting deals from online classified ads Jun 25, 2018
Everyone wants to find a good deal on Craigslist or one of the other online classified listing sites. But most people just go about it “hit or miss” and hope to be lucky and come across an amazing bargain. For me, I want to make this process as easy as possible, and also increase my chances for getting a deal before someone else does. Here’s how I do that.

(Note: if you want to use this system yourself but would rather have me set it up for you, I can do that remotely. Just email me at pctutor@gmail.com.)

To show you how I do this, the example I’ll use is the process I implement every day: my search for bikes.

My wife and I work with an organization called Blanket Tampa Bay, which provides clothing, toiletries and other necessities for people here in this area that are experiencing homelessness. Every Monday night we see 100-150 people and provide them with a hot meal, clothes, personal items, etc. A few months ago, I thought it would be a great idea to work on getting some bikes for these people. So many of them just walk everywhere, so a bike is a huge help. Just having some form of transportation opens up more job opportunities as well.

So I have gotten several bikes donated from local people by posting on Facebook, etc. But to continue getting more, I have to go online and look at the online ad sites where people are selling bikes. I have found that if someone is selling an adult bike in decent shape for $30 or less, there’s a fair chance that they’d be willing to donate it to a good cause. So far I’ve been able to bring 3 bikes each Monday for the last several weeks.

BUT – that means if there’s a good bike for sale at a low price, I need to be the first one to contact the owner, before someone else just goes there and buys it. For that, I’ve developed a pretty efficient system. And you can adapt this same system for whatever YOU want to buy – whether it’s a bike, a car, a computer, or anything else that’s for sale from a local person.

For this process, I use 4 online classified ad sites:

Facebook Marketplace (facebook.com/marketplace) –
This is my favorite.

OfferUp (offerup.com)
Also a good site, pretty close to FB Marketplace.

Craigslist (craigslist.org)
Classic classified ads site, has some pros and cons.

LetGo (letgo.com)
Definitely my least favorite, but there are some bargains on there.

And to view all these sites the way I want to view them, I use the Chrome web browser.

So far, no big secret really. LOTS of people use these sites to find things for sale. The difference is HOW these sites get used.

For me, I have very specific search criteria. I want to see bikes for sale that are $30 or less, and are within 20 miles of my location. So anyone can go on a site, do a search for the word “bike” and then set the search filters for price and location. For most people, they do that manually. Which means sometimes they don’t do it – they just type in “bike” and hope to get lucky. That means they’re going to miss some of the ads, which is good for me. The ads that they miss, I want to definitely see.

So here’s how we set this up.

Open Chrome, and make sure the Bookmarks bar is being shown (you can do this in Settings). On the bookmarks bar, do a right click and choose “Add folder”. We’ll call this folder “Bikes <30” since it will only show us bikes that are under $30.

Now, we go to Facebook Marketplace. I type my search term “bike” and see all the bikes displayed. Then I go over on the left column and set my location to Safety Harbor, Florida. I also set my maximum price at $30, and the distance to within 20 miles.

So now my search results are much more specific. If I wanted to, I could also put in a “minimum” price of maybe $5. That’s because in this search, I’m also going to see things like bike air pumps, bike seats, etc. which of course I don’t want to see. But that’s optional.

Now that you have the search set up the way you want, you just need to drag that website address into the “Bikes <30” folder. Look up in the address bar where you see the padlock or the word “Secure”. You can click and drag that to the folder and drop it there. Now that specific search on Facebook Marketplace is in that folder – you just need to go there and open it (but there’s a specific way to do that also, which we’ll cover in a minute).

Next up is OfferUp. We’re going to do the same thing here – set the search, set the filters, and once that’s all in place we drag that site to the same folder. For some reason, I set my distance in OfferUp to 10 miles. I really can’t remember if I had a reason for that or not, but that’s what it is.

Then we do the same thing with LetGo. I really don’t like LetGo, mainly because you have to actually click on the ad in order to see the price. And, you can’t filter for maximum price. So the search results are just a big list of bikes, most of which don’t fall into my criteria. But sometimes I do come across a bargain on there, so I include it.

And finally we have Craigslist. We will add the Craigslist search to the folder as well, but with this one we’ll be able to be a lot more specific in our search results.

For the other sites, since I’m searching for low-priced bikes, a lot of the ads that come up in the search results are kids bikes. So I have to just scroll past all those ads and just look for pictures of adult bikes. But with Craigslist, we can do a more specific search.

Here’s how I set up my Craigslist search. Go to Craigslist for my area (the Tampa Bay area of Florida) and click on the “Bikes” category. Add maximum price and distance from my zip code, and click “Update Search”. And now, I can enter the filtering words in the search field. You do that just by typing the “minus” sign followed by the search word (no space in between).

For example, I don’t want to see any ads with the word “girls” in it (because most bikes advertised as a “girls bike” is a bike for a kid). So I type: -girls

Same thing for the search words boys, girl’s, boy’s, childs, child’s, kids, kid’s and whatever else might eliminate some of the ads that don’t meet your criteria. I’ve found that this set of search filters narrows it down pretty nicely for me:

And Craigslist has another feature that is really handy. Most people don’t use it but it can give you a HUGE advantage in finding deals faster than other people. You have the ability to save your search in your Craigslist account, and then tell Craigslist to EMAIL you whenever a new ad is created that matches your search!

At the end of your search field, click on “Save Search”:

In the next window, make sure the “Alert” box for that search is checked:

There have been cases where an ad is posted, I get an email within minutes, and I contact the seller and immediately go and look at the item being sold. So I’ve purchased the item before most other people have even seen the ad!

And now the final step: making this super easy in Chrome.

You have your folder on the Chrome bookmarks bar, with all 4 of your filtered search stored there. So whenever you want to do a quick search, you RIGHT click on the folder name, and choose “Open all 4 in a new window”:

When you do that, a new Chrome window will open, and that window has 4 tabs already created – and each one is one of your special searches:

All your filtered searches, right there for a quick check whenever you have a spare minute. And since all of these are open in a new window, it has no effect on your original Chrome window. When you’re done checking for bargains, just close this window and you’re back to whatever you were working on.

That folder is always there on your Chrome bookmarks bar, so it’s convenient to do a quick check at any time, and in a lot of cases you’ll see a new listing before a lot of other people see it. Anything you can do to get an edge like that over your “competition” will help to ensure you’re getting bargains more often!

And check this out – just now I clicked to take a look at my “Bikes” folder, and this came up –

Just listed 2 minutes ago! Pretty sure I’m one of the first, if not THE first to see it – which means I already have a better chance of grabbing that deal.

Do you have any tips on shopping the online classified ad sites? Share them in the comments below!

The post My system for getting deals from online classified ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

search folder — My system for getting deals from online classified ads Jun 25, 2018
Everyone wants to find a good deal on Craigslist or one of the other online classified listing sites. But most people just go about it “hit or miss” and hope to be lucky and come across an amazing bargain. For me, I want to make this process as easy as possible, and also increase my chances for getting a deal before someone else does. Here’s how I do that.

(Note: if you want to use this system yourself but would rather have me set it up for you, I can do that remotely. Just email me at pctutor@gmail.com.)

To show you how I do this, the example I’ll use is the process I implement every day: my search for bikes.

My wife and I work with an organization called Blanket Tampa Bay, which provides clothing, toiletries and other necessities for people here in this area that are experiencing homelessness. Every Monday night we see 100-150 people and provide them with a hot meal, clothes, personal items, etc. A few months ago, I thought it would be a great idea to work on getting some bikes for these people. So many of them just walk everywhere, so a bike is a huge help. Just having some form of transportation opens up more job opportunities as well.

So I have gotten several bikes donated from local people by posting on Facebook, etc. But to continue getting more, I have to go online and look at the online ad sites where people are selling bikes. I have found that if someone is selling an adult bike in decent shape for $30 or less, there’s a fair chance that they’d be willing to donate it to a good cause. So far I’ve been able to bring 3 bikes each Monday for the last several weeks.

BUT – that means if there’s a good bike for sale at a low price, I need to be the first one to contact the owner, before someone else just goes there and buys it. For that, I’ve developed a pretty efficient system. And you can adapt this same system for whatever YOU want to buy – whether it’s a bike, a car, a computer, or anything else that’s for sale from a local person.

For this process, I use 4 online classified ad sites:

Facebook Marketplace (facebook.com/marketplace) –
This is my favorite.

OfferUp (offerup.com)
Also a good site, pretty close to FB Marketplace.

Craigslist (craigslist.org)
Classic classified ads site, has some pros and cons.

LetGo (letgo.com)
Definitely my least favorite, but there are some bargains on there.

And to view all these sites the way I want to view them, I use the Chrome web browser.

So far, no big secret really. LOTS of people use these sites to find things for sale. The difference is HOW these sites get used.

For me, I have very specific search criteria. I want to see bikes for sale that are $30 or less, and are within 20 miles of my location. So anyone can go on a site, do a search for the word “bike” and then set the search filters for price and location. For most people, they do that manually. Which means sometimes they don’t do it – they just type in “bike” and hope to get lucky. That means they’re going to miss some of the ads, which is good for me. The ads that they miss, I want to definitely see.

So here’s how we set this up.

Open Chrome, and make sure the Bookmarks bar is being shown (you can do this in Settings). On the bookmarks bar, do a right click and choose “Add folder”. We’ll call this folder “Bikes <30” since it will only show us bikes that are under $30.

Now, we go to Facebook Marketplace. I type my search term “bike” and see all the bikes displayed. Then I go over on the left column and set my location to Safety Harbor, Florida. I also set my maximum price at $30, and the distance to within 20 miles.

So now my search results are much more specific. If I wanted to, I could also put in a “minimum” price of maybe $5. That’s because in this search, I’m also going to see things like bike air pumps, bike seats, etc. which of course I don’t want to see. But that’s optional.

Now that you have the search set up the way you want, you just need to drag that website address into the “Bikes <30” folder. Look up in the address bar where you see the padlock or the word “Secure”. You can click and drag that to the folder and drop it there. Now that specific search on Facebook Marketplace is in that folder – you just need to go there and open it (but there’s a specific way to do that also, which we’ll cover in a minute).

Next up is OfferUp. We’re going to do the same thing here – set the search, set the filters, and once that’s all in place we drag that site to the same folder. For some reason, I set my distance in OfferUp to 10 miles. I really can’t remember if I had a reason for that or not, but that’s what it is.

Then we do the same thing with LetGo. I really don’t like LetGo, mainly because you have to actually click on the ad in order to see the price. And, you can’t filter for maximum price. So the search results are just a big list of bikes, most of which don’t fall into my criteria. But sometimes I do come across a bargain on there, so I include it.

And finally we have Craigslist. We will add the Craigslist search to the folder as well, but with this one we’ll be able to be a lot more specific in our search results.

For the other sites, since I’m searching for low-priced bikes, a lot of the ads that come up in the search results are kids bikes. So I have to just scroll past all those ads and just look for pictures of adult bikes. But with Craigslist, we can do a more specific search.

Here’s how I set up my Craigslist search. Go to Craigslist for my area (the Tampa Bay area of Florida) and click on the “Bikes” category. Add maximum price and distance from my zip code, and click “Update Search”. And now, I can enter the filtering words in the search field. You do that just by typing the “minus” sign followed by the search word (no space in between).

For example, I don’t want to see any ads with the word “girls” in it (because most bikes advertised as a “girls bike” is a bike for a kid). So I type: -girls

Same thing for the search words boys, girl’s, boy’s, childs, child’s, kids, kid’s and whatever else might eliminate some of the ads that don’t meet your criteria. I’ve found that this set of search filters narrows it down pretty nicely for me:

And Craigslist has another feature that is really handy. Most people don’t use it but it can give you a HUGE advantage in finding deals faster than other people. You have the ability to save your search in your Craigslist account, and then tell Craigslist to EMAIL you whenever a new ad is created that matches your search!

At the end of your search field, click on “Save Search”:

In the next window, make sure the “Alert” box for that search is checked:

There have been cases where an ad is posted, I get an email within minutes, and I contact the seller and immediately go and look at the item being sold. So I’ve purchased the item before most other people have even seen the ad!

And now the final step: making this super easy in Chrome.

You have your folder on the Chrome bookmarks bar, with all 4 of your filtered search stored there. So whenever you want to do a quick search, you RIGHT click on the folder name, and choose “Open all 4 in a new window”:

When you do that, a new Chrome window will open, and that window has 4 tabs already created – and each one is one of your special searches:

All your filtered searches, right there for a quick check whenever you have a spare minute. And since all of these are open in a new window, it has no effect on your original Chrome window. When you’re done checking for bargains, just close this window and you’re back to whatever you were working on.

That folder is always there on your Chrome bookmarks bar, so it’s convenient to do a quick check at any time, and in a lot of cases you’ll see a new listing before a lot of other people see it. Anything you can do to get an edge like that over your “competition” will help to ensure you’re getting bargains more often!

And check this out – just now I clicked to take a look at my “Bikes” folder, and this came up –

Just listed 2 minutes ago! Pretty sure I’m one of the first, if not THE first to see it – which means I already have a better chance of grabbing that deal.

Do you have any tips on shopping the online classified ad sites? Share them in the comments below!

The post My system for getting deals from online classified ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

lost Word document — How to recover an unsaved Word document Jun 11, 2018
Some surprises are fun. Something that is NOT fun is working on a Word document for a while, then a sudden power outage shuts off your computer, and you realize you never saved that document. But there’s good news! You can probably get it back!

Actually this alarming situation might happen due to a brief loss of electricity, but sometimes it can happen just because of user error. You create this big document, then you go to close it, and in a brief lapse of focus you click on “Don’t Save”. So guess what – Word doesn’t save it. It’s just gone. Or rather, it APPEARS to be gone. There is still hope!

On this blog and on my podcast, I do complain a lot about Microsoft because of the way they do things. And it’s deserved. But in this case, Microsoft got it right. This feature has saved a lot of hours of work for MS Word users.

To show you how it works, I’ll go through the exact process of losing and recovering.

First, I’ll create a new Word document. I started it with one line: “This is my sample document” Then I just added 5000 words of Latin “filler text” that I copied and pasted from Lipsum.com (a great source if you ever need a bunch of dummy text for a document or a website).

This is a large document. Typically if a document is 5000 words, it means I’ve spent a lot of time creating it, and I definitely don’t want to do something stupid and lose it.

And speaking of stupid, even though I theoretically have spent so much time on this, I have never once clicked “Save” to save the document and give it a file name.

Now I’m going to click the X in the top right corner to exit this document and close the MS Word program. Of course I get the question, “Want to save your changes to Document1?” but I absent-mindedly click “Don’t Save”.

And of course, that’s when the panic would suddenly strike. Did I really just delete hours of work with a single click? Do I have to do it all over again?

When that happens, here’s what you do:

Click to open MS Word. Then look at your list of recent documents. At the bottom of that list, click on “Open Other Documents”.

On the next screen, you’ll see a list of your recent documents, and at the bottom of that list is a button that has inspired hope and relief in a lot of scared people. It says “Recover Unsaved Documents”:

And there it is – a new window opens, and displays my recent unsaved documents. If there are several listed there, you can identify the one you want by the date. In this case, I can also identify it by the name (Word just takes the first words in the document to create the file name):

So I select that document and click Open, and I have the file back on my screen so I can actually save it with the proper name and in the right location in the Documents folder. Disaster averted!

WARNING: Word does not save documents like this forever, so don’t wait! As soon as you realize what you’ve done, go through this process and save it the correct way so you’re sure you have it back.

The post How to recover an unsaved Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sample Word document — How to recover an unsaved Word document Jun 11, 2018
Some surprises are fun. Something that is NOT fun is working on a Word document for a while, then a sudden power outage shuts off your computer, and you realize you never saved that document. But there’s good news! You can probably get it back!

Actually this alarming situation might happen due to a brief loss of electricity, but sometimes it can happen just because of user error. You create this big document, then you go to close it, and in a brief lapse of focus you click on “Don’t Save”. So guess what – Word doesn’t save it. It’s just gone. Or rather, it APPEARS to be gone. There is still hope!

On this blog and on my podcast, I do complain a lot about Microsoft because of the way they do things. And it’s deserved. But in this case, Microsoft got it right. This feature has saved a lot of hours of work for MS Word users.

To show you how it works, I’ll go through the exact process of losing and recovering.

First, I’ll create a new Word document. I started it with one line: “This is my sample document” Then I just added 5000 words of Latin “filler text” that I copied and pasted from Lipsum.com (a great source if you ever need a bunch of dummy text for a document or a website).

This is a large document. Typically if a document is 5000 words, it means I’ve spent a lot of time creating it, and I definitely don’t want to do something stupid and lose it.

And speaking of stupid, even though I theoretically have spent so much time on this, I have never once clicked “Save” to save the document and give it a file name.

Now I’m going to click the X in the top right corner to exit this document and close the MS Word program. Of course I get the question, “Want to save your changes to Document1?” but I absent-mindedly click “Don’t Save”.

And of course, that’s when the panic would suddenly strike. Did I really just delete hours of work with a single click? Do I have to do it all over again?

When that happens, here’s what you do:

Click to open MS Word. Then look at your list of recent documents. At the bottom of that list, click on “Open Other Documents”.

On the next screen, you’ll see a list of your recent documents, and at the bottom of that list is a button that has inspired hope and relief in a lot of scared people. It says “Recover Unsaved Documents”:

And there it is – a new window opens, and displays my recent unsaved documents. If there are several listed there, you can identify the one you want by the date. In this case, I can also identify it by the name (Word just takes the first words in the document to create the file name):

So I select that document and click Open, and I have the file back on my screen so I can actually save it with the proper name and in the right location in the Documents folder. Disaster averted!

WARNING: Word does not save documents like this forever, so don’t wait! As soon as you realize what you’ve done, go through this process and save it the correct way so you’re sure you have it back.

The post How to recover an unsaved Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

fake Amazon reviews — How to identify fake Amazon reviews May 28, 2018
I buy stuff from Amazon all the time. A lot of my purchases are things I already know about because I’ve bought them before. But sometimes I’m buying something new, comparing prices, maybe comparing different models of the same item, trying to decide which would be best to buy. It’s great that most Amazon products have lots of reviews – but should you trust them?

Here’s the short answer: no. You should not trust the reviews on Amazon. At least not without doing a bit of extra research on your own.

You might be surprised to find that there’s a whole underground economy based on Amazon sellers actually paying people to write 5-star reviews for their products (and 1-star negative reviews for their competition). To get a more thorough understanding of how it works check out this article that came out earlier this month.

Originally, Amazon actually allowed people to post “incentivized” reviews. The seller would either give someone their product for free, or sell it at a huge discount, in exchange for a review. For those reviews, the writer had to state clearly that “I was provided this product for free or at a discount, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review”. Well, of course those reviews were skewed to “positive” rather than “negative” because the reviewers obviously wanted to keep the gig going.

So a couple of years ago, Amazon stopped allowing incentivized or paid reviews. Think that stopped it from happening? No way. It’s probably bigger now than ever, but even worse – now there are no disclaimer statements in the reviews, so it’s very difficult for Amazon to stop it from happening.

There are private Facebook groups, Slack channels and Discord channels that function specifically for Amazon sellers to hire people to post fake reviews. It’s a big industry, because Amazon is so big and sells such a high volume of products.

So what do you do when you want to make a purchase?

Fortunately, even though you can’t necessarily determine the authenticity of a review just by reading it, there is some software that can essentially do that.

Fakespot (Fakespot.com) is one of the better-known services that does this. They’ve created software that analyzes trends and patterns that fake reviewers create, and present that information for shoppers to use.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you’re shopping for a pair of oven mitts. You come across this listing on Amazon:

Good price, and they have 126 reviews, with almost all of them being 5 stars. Good deal, right?

But before you make that purchase, go up and do a right-click in the address bar (on the Amazon listing page) and choose “Copy”. Then go to Fakespot.com and right-click and Paste that address and click on “Analyze”.

And here’s what Fakespot found:

If this were an actual purchase situation, I would probably decide to NOT get that product, since it appears likely that about half of the reviews are not genuine.

Fakespot offers this service for free. They also have browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari to make it easier to check on products, but the extensions are $1.99 per month. Pretty cheap price if it saves you the hassle of buying a poor-quality product and having to return it.

The post How to identify fake Amazon reviews first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Fakespot — How to identify fake Amazon reviews May 28, 2018
I buy stuff from Amazon all the time. A lot of my purchases are things I already know about because I’ve bought them before. But sometimes I’m buying something new, comparing prices, maybe comparing different models of the same item, trying to decide which would be best to buy. It’s great that most Amazon products have lots of reviews – but should you trust them?

Here’s the short answer: no. You should not trust the reviews on Amazon. At least not without doing a bit of extra research on your own.

You might be surprised to find that there’s a whole underground economy based on Amazon sellers actually paying people to write 5-star reviews for their products (and 1-star negative reviews for their competition). To get a more thorough understanding of how it works check out this article that came out earlier this month.

Originally, Amazon actually allowed people to post “incentivized” reviews. The seller would either give someone their product for free, or sell it at a huge discount, in exchange for a review. For those reviews, the writer had to state clearly that “I was provided this product for free or at a discount, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review”. Well, of course those reviews were skewed to “positive” rather than “negative” because the reviewers obviously wanted to keep the gig going.

So a couple of years ago, Amazon stopped allowing incentivized or paid reviews. Think that stopped it from happening? No way. It’s probably bigger now than ever, but even worse – now there are no disclaimer statements in the reviews, so it’s very difficult for Amazon to stop it from happening.

There are private Facebook groups, Slack channels and Discord channels that function specifically for Amazon sellers to hire people to post fake reviews. It’s a big industry, because Amazon is so big and sells such a high volume of products.

So what do you do when you want to make a purchase?

Fortunately, even though you can’t necessarily determine the authenticity of a review just by reading it, there is some software that can essentially do that.

Fakespot (Fakespot.com) is one of the better-known services that does this. They’ve created software that analyzes trends and patterns that fake reviewers create, and present that information for shoppers to use.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you’re shopping for a pair of oven mitts. You come across this listing on Amazon:

Good price, and they have 126 reviews, with almost all of them being 5 stars. Good deal, right?

But before you make that purchase, go up and do a right-click in the address bar (on the Amazon listing page) and choose “Copy”. Then go to Fakespot.com and right-click and Paste that address and click on “Analyze”.

And here’s what Fakespot found:

If this were an actual purchase situation, I would probably decide to NOT get that product, since it appears likely that about half of the reviews are not genuine.

Fakespot offers this service for free. They also have browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari to make it easier to check on products, but the extensions are $1.99 per month. Pretty cheap price if it saves you the hassle of buying a poor-quality product and having to return it.

The post How to identify fake Amazon reviews first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

melted keys — One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop May 14, 2018
Unfortunately, it’s an accident that happens way more often than it should – a liquid gets spilled on a laptop. Water, soda, wine, beer, lemonade, whatever – obviously none of these things are a good thing for a computer. But then, in some cases, the owner of the laptop makes things worse by trying to “dry out” the laptop with a hair dryer.

Makes sense, right? A hair dryer (blow dryer) is designed specifically to blow air and dry things out, so logically it would seem like it’s a good choice to quickly dry out your laptop after a spill.

Blow dryers work fine on hair, which is what they are designed for. But your hair isn’t made of plastic like your laptop keyboard is. Plastic has a lower melting point, and unfortunately some people are surprised at how quickly that can happen.

To demonstrate this, I picked out an old, non-working laptop from my collection (every tech has a few of these around). And I used a standard blow dryer, like you’d buy from your local Walmart. You probably have one in your bathroom right now.

Here’s a picture of the lower left section of the keyboard before our experiment:

Just a regular keyboard on an old computer.

Now, here’s the same laptop keyboard after 60 seconds of blow-drying:

It’s pretty surprising how quickly it can happen. Laptop keyboards are just not designed to handle hot air coming at them. And that’s after just one minute. Think about how long it would take to actually dry out the entire keyboard (IF the liquid was contained to just the keyboard and didn’t seep further down, on to the motherboard and other components).

I was going to show you some other pictures of keyboards that were inadvertently destroyed by blow dryers, but I cannot post them here on my site due to copyright concerns. But if you want to see the damage that can be done by hot air, do a Google Image search on “hair dryer keyboard damage”.

So if you do accidentally spill something on your laptop, don’t run for the blow dryers. Instead:

Immediately turn it off

Flip it over and remove the battery

Disconnect anything that’s plugged in to it – power cable, portable drive, flash drive, printer cable – pull everything out of all the USB ports and other slots

If you see any water that can be wiped off with a cloth, wipe it off

Flip the laptop upside down (so the keyboard is facing down) and let it dry for 48 hours.

Yes, that means you won’t be able to use it for 2 days. Do not try to shortcut this and boot it up sooner just to see if it works!

After 48 hours and the liquid has dried, put the battery back in and reconnect the power cord and see if it turns on. If it boots up, you’re probably okay. If it doesn’t, contact your local computer tech.

And you might also check to see if you happened to have purchased an extended warranty when you bought the laptop. If you have coverage that includes accidental spills, it might be time to make a claim on that plan. Personally, I never buy those accident policies. My insurance plan is just not drinking near my laptop.

The post One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

blow dryer — One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop May 14, 2018
Unfortunately, it’s an accident that happens way more often than it should – a liquid gets spilled on a laptop. Water, soda, wine, beer, lemonade, whatever – obviously none of these things are a good thing for a computer. But then, in some cases, the owner of the laptop makes things worse by trying to “dry out” the laptop with a hair dryer.

Makes sense, right? A hair dryer (blow dryer) is designed specifically to blow air and dry things out, so logically it would seem like it’s a good choice to quickly dry out your laptop after a spill.

Blow dryers work fine on hair, which is what they are designed for. But your hair isn’t made of plastic like your laptop keyboard is. Plastic has a lower melting point, and unfortunately some people are surprised at how quickly that can happen.

To demonstrate this, I picked out an old, non-working laptop from my collection (every tech has a few of these around). And I used a standard blow dryer, like you’d buy from your local Walmart. You probably have one in your bathroom right now.

Here’s a picture of the lower left section of the keyboard before our experiment:

Just a regular keyboard on an old computer.

Now, here’s the same laptop keyboard after 60 seconds of blow-drying:

It’s pretty surprising how quickly it can happen. Laptop keyboards are just not designed to handle hot air coming at them. And that’s after just one minute. Think about how long it would take to actually dry out the entire keyboard (IF the liquid was contained to just the keyboard and didn’t seep further down, on to the motherboard and other components).

I was going to show you some other pictures of keyboards that were inadvertently destroyed by blow dryers, but I cannot post them here on my site due to copyright concerns. But if you want to see the damage that can be done by hot air, do a Google Image search on “hair dryer keyboard damage”.

So if you do accidentally spill something on your laptop, don’t run for the blow dryers. Instead:

Immediately turn it off

Flip it over and remove the battery

Disconnect anything that’s plugged in to it – power cable, portable drive, flash drive, printer cable – pull everything out of all the USB ports and other slots

If you see any water that can be wiped off with a cloth, wipe it off

Flip the laptop upside down (so the keyboard is facing down) and let it dry for 48 hours.

Yes, that means you won’t be able to use it for 2 days. Do not try to shortcut this and boot it up sooner just to see if it works!

After 48 hours and the liquid has dried, put the battery back in and reconnect the power cord and see if it turns on. If it boots up, you’re probably okay. If it doesn’t, contact your local computer tech.

And you might also check to see if you happened to have purchased an extended warranty when you bought the laptop. If you have coverage that includes accidental spills, it might be time to make a claim on that plan. Personally, I never buy those accident policies. My insurance plan is just not drinking near my laptop.

The post One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word font — How to change the default font in Word 2016 Apr 30, 2018
When you open Microsoft Word to create a new document, the default font that’s in place and ready to be used is Calibri. But did you know that you can change that, so that a new Word document will start off in whatever font you prefer?

This sounds like an interesting 2-part trivia question.

Question: What is the default font in MS Word 2016?
Answer: Calibri

Question: What was the default font BEFORE it was Calibri?
Answer: Times New Roman

Calibri has actually been around for a while. It was introduced as the standard Word font way back in Office 2007 (and if you’re still using Office 2007, you really need to get your life in order). Before that, as you just read in the question above, the default was Times New Roman.

Why did Microsoft change it? Couple of reasons:

Times New Roman looks okay on the printed page, but more and more things were being displayed on digital devices as opposed to just paper. Calibri is a “sans serif” font, which means it shows up more clearly on laptops and smartphones.

They also wanted a font that looked more “modern”. Times New Roman had been around for a long time and Calibri just looks like a newer, more up to date font style.

But what if you don’t like Calibri? Maybe you WANT Times New Roman on all your documents. Or you might just prefer one of the other hundreds or thousands of fonts that are widely available. If that’s the case, it’s an easy change to make.

Here’s how you change the default font in Word 2016:

1. Under the “Home” tab, click the little pop-out arrow in the Fonts section:

2. That will open a new window with lots of choices – font, size, style, etc. Just choose what you want and check it in the preview at the bottom, then click “Set as Default”.

3. You’ll get a little pop-up asking if you want to set the new font as the default for just this document, or all documents. Make that choice and click OK.

If you’re not sure if you want to change the default font for ALL future documents, you might try it out on your next few documents just to see how you like it. Of course, even if you do change the default for all documents, you can use this same procedure to change it back.

The post How to change the default font in Word 2016 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word font — How to change the default font in Word 2016 Apr 30, 2018
When you open Microsoft Word to create a new document, the default font that’s in place and ready to be used is Calibri. But did you know that you can change that, so that a new Word document will start off in whatever font you prefer?

This sounds like an interesting 2-part trivia question.

Question: What is the default font in MS Word 2016?
Answer: Calibri

Question: What was the default font BEFORE it was Calibri?
Answer: Times New Roman

Calibri has actually been around for a while. It was introduced as the standard Word font way back in Office 2007 (and if you’re still using Office 2007, you really need to get your life in order). Before that, as you just read in the question above, the default was Times New Roman.

Why did Microsoft change it? Couple of reasons:

Times New Roman looks okay on the printed page, but more and more things were being displayed on digital devices as opposed to just paper. Calibri is a “sans serif” font, which means it shows up more clearly on laptops and smartphones.

They also wanted a font that looked more “modern”. Times New Roman had been around for a long time and Calibri just looks like a newer, more up to date font style.

But what if you don’t like Calibri? Maybe you WANT Times New Roman on all your documents. Or you might just prefer one of the other hundreds or thousands of fonts that are widely available. If that’s the case, it’s an easy change to make.

Here’s how you change the default font in Word 2016:

1. Under the “Home” tab, click the little pop-out arrow in the Fonts section:

2. That will open a new window with lots of choices – font, size, style, etc. Just choose what you want and check it in the preview at the bottom, then click “Set as Default”.

3. You’ll get a little pop-up asking if you want to set the new font as the default for just this document, or all documents. Make that choice and click OK.

If you’re not sure if you want to change the default font for ALL future documents, you might try it out on your next few documents just to see how you like it. Of course, even if you do change the default for all documents, you can use this same procedure to change it back.

The post How to change the default font in Word 2016 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

old laptops — What do you do with an old laptop? Apr 16, 2018
Most people get a new computer every 3-5 years. Sometimes they might go longer than that, but that’s probably about the average. But I see a lot of people that have a stack of old laptops sitting in their office or their garage, just because they don’t know exactly how to get rid of them.

What do you do with an old laptop? You have a few options.

If it still works:

Keep it as a backup
If your primary computer dies, it’s good to at least have something you can use while you’re shopping for another one or waiting for yours to be repaired. It won’t be up to date of course, and it won’t have all of your files and folders, but it’s definitely better than nothing.

Give it away
Many of my clients will take their old computer and give it to someone who needs one but cannot afford a new one. Or, they’ll give it to a child or grandchild to play with. This keeps the youngster occupied with their own little games machine, and off the “real” computer. The internet can be disabled of course if that’s a concern.

Sell it
If the computer still boots up and runs Windows or some other operating system, it may well be something of value to someone, which means you can get some money for it. Not usually much, but something. You can list it for sale on Facebook, Craigslist, OfferUp, LetGo, or some other online sale site.

Install the Chrome operating system and keep using it
This is another option I like, in order to get more life out of a computer that would otherwise be discarded. Most older computers will run the free Chrome operating system (it would be installed instead of Windows). You don’t need a fast computer or a big hard drive to run it, since it’s mostly web-based. Sometimes when I get a computer that’s too old or dated to refurb and resell, I’ll put on the Chrome OS and give the laptop to a high school kid who doesn’t have one.

If it does not work:

Check on getting it fixed
That’s right – you might not want to write it off as “dead” too quickly. If it just needs new memory, that’s a relatively inexpensive solution to have it working again. In some cases, even a replacement hard drive might be worthwhile in order to get it functional again. But if the screen is cracked or not showing any picture, that’s a repair that is probably not going to make financial sense.

Strip it for parts
In some cases, the components of your previous laptop can be used as spare parts for your new one. Or, if your old laptop had a solid state drive, you could put that in your new laptop and make the new one much faster. Also, some high-end laptops, even though they are older, are sellable “as-is” because of the value of those parts.

Recycle it
Yep, last resort. It doesn’t work, not worth repairing, and no one wants to buy it for parts. Time to get rid of it. Of course, you can’t just drop it in the trash can. Check your local area for recyclers. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there are often events in a nearby community where you can drop off things you can’t throw away – computers, old monitors, old paint cans, etc. You might even be able to bring it to a “big box” store (Best Buy and some other stores will accept old computers for recycling).

Whatever you end up deciding, here’s the most important thing to consider: get your data OFF the laptop before you get rid of it. If you used this laptop for any length of time, it probably has some documents, pictures, PDF files (such as tax returns), videos, and maybe some old emails. Stuff you would not want some random person to find. Once the computer is out of your hands, you really don’t know where it will go or who will go “exploring” the hard drive for data. Make sure there’s nothing on there for anyone to find.

And keep in mind that simply doing a quick format of the drive does NOT delete your data. Anyone that’s just a little bit tech savvy can use software to make that “formatted” data readable again. So if you’re not sure how to REALLY delete your files, take it to someone who does.

The post What do you do with an old laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — What do you do with an old laptop? Apr 16, 2018
Most people get a new computer every 3-5 years. Sometimes they might go longer than that, but that’s probably about the average. But I see a lot of people that have a stack of old laptops sitting in their office or their garage, just because they don’t know exactly how to get rid of them.

What do you do with an old laptop? You have a few options.

If it still works:

Keep it as a backup
If your primary computer dies, it’s good to at least have something you can use while you’re shopping for another one or waiting for yours to be repaired. It won’t be up to date of course, and it won’t have all of your files and folders, but it’s definitely better than nothing.

Give it away
Many of my clients will take their old computer and give it to someone who needs one but cannot afford a new one. Or, they’ll give it to a child or grandchild to play with. This keeps the youngster occupied with their own little games machine, and off the “real” computer. The internet can be disabled of course if that’s a concern.

Sell it
If the computer still boots up and runs Windows or some other operating system, it may well be something of value to someone, which means you can get some money for it. Not usually much, but something. You can list it for sale on Facebook, Craigslist, OfferUp, LetGo, or some other online sale site.

Install the Chrome operating system and keep using it
This is another option I like, in order to get more life out of a computer that would otherwise be discarded. Most older computers will run the free Chrome operating system (it would be installed instead of Windows). You don’t need a fast computer or a big hard drive to run it, since it’s mostly web-based. Sometimes when I get a computer that’s too old or dated to refurb and resell, I’ll put on the Chrome OS and give the laptop to a high school kid who doesn’t have one.

If it does not work:

Check on getting it fixed
That’s right – you might not want to write it off as “dead” too quickly. If it just needs new memory, that’s a relatively inexpensive solution to have it working again. In some cases, even a replacement hard drive might be worthwhile in order to get it functional again. But if the screen is cracked or not showing any picture, that’s a repair that is probably not going to make financial sense.

Strip it for parts
In some cases, the components of your previous laptop can be used as spare parts for your new one. Or, if your old laptop had a solid state drive, you could put that in your new laptop and make the new one much faster. Also, some high-end laptops, even though they are older, are sellable “as-is” because of the value of those parts.

Recycle it
Yep, last resort. It doesn’t work, not worth repairing, and no one wants to buy it for parts. Time to get rid of it. Of course, you can’t just drop it in the trash can. Check your local area for recyclers. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there are often events in a nearby community where you can drop off things you can’t throw away – computers, old monitors, old paint cans, etc. You might even be able to bring it to a “big box” store (Best Buy and some other stores will accept old computers for recycling).

Whatever you end up deciding, here’s the most important thing to consider: get your data OFF the laptop before you get rid of it. If you used this laptop for any length of time, it probably has some documents, pictures, PDF files (such as tax returns), videos, and maybe some old emails. Stuff you would not want some random person to find. Once the computer is out of your hands, you really don’t know where it will go or who will go “exploring” the hard drive for data. Make sure there’s nothing on there for anyone to find.

And keep in mind that simply doing a quick format of the drive does NOT delete your data. Anyone that’s just a little bit tech savvy can use software to make that “formatted” data readable again. So if you’re not sure how to REALLY delete your files, take it to someone who does.

The post What do you do with an old laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Outlook attachment — Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word Apr 02, 2018
Did you know you can create a document in Microsoft Word and send it from Outlook as an attachment, and you never even need to click to open Outlook? It’s true, and it’s pretty easy.

And why would you want to do this? The main reason is simple: fewer clicks. This makes it faster and easier than the traditional way of attaching a file to an email. Normally, you would create the email in Outlook, then tell Outlook you want to attach a file, then navigate to that file and choose it. None of that is necessary, since you’ll be doing the entire thing without even directly opening Outlook.

The other reason is that it prevents you from attaching the wrong document to the email. In some cases it can be a bit embarrassing to send an email with an attachment and then find out that you sent the wrong file. Or the situation that happens to all of us at some point – you sent an email that says the file is attached, but you end up forgetting to attach it completely. I’ve definitely done that more than once.

This process eliminates all those errors. That’s because you do everything inside MS Word, right in the very document you want to attach.

Here’s how you do this in Word 2016:

1. Open MS Word and create a document, and save it. The document should still be open there on your screen after you have saved it. For this example we’ll call the document “Resume of Chef Artie Bucco.docx”.

2. Click on File – Share

3. A new little window will open up. At the bottom, you have the option of attaching that file as a Word document, or as a PDF file:

If you click on Word document, here’s what happens immediately. A new MS Outlook email opens. The subject line for this new email is the name of the document (you can change it if you want). And your Word document is already attached.

So all you have to do is enter the email address of the recipient, type whatever you want to go in the actual message of the email, and send it. Super easy. And if you are actually sending a resume, it does look more professional to send it as a PDF file. That’s as easy as clicking to share as a PDF instead:

And incidentally, you can use this same process to attach other MS Office files to an Outlook email – Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, etc.

The post Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Attach a Word file — Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word Apr 02, 2018
Did you know you can create a document in Microsoft Word and send it from Outlook as an attachment, and you never even need to click to open Outlook? It’s true, and it’s pretty easy.

And why would you want to do this? The main reason is simple: fewer clicks. This makes it faster and easier than the traditional way of attaching a file to an email. Normally, you would create the email in Outlook, then tell Outlook you want to attach a file, then navigate to that file and choose it. None of that is necessary, since you’ll be doing the entire thing without even directly opening Outlook.

The other reason is that it prevents you from attaching the wrong document to the email. In some cases it can be a bit embarrassing to send an email with an attachment and then find out that you sent the wrong file. Or the situation that happens to all of us at some point – you sent an email that says the file is attached, but you end up forgetting to attach it completely. I’ve definitely done that more than once.

This process eliminates all those errors. That’s because you do everything inside MS Word, right in the very document you want to attach.

Here’s how you do this in Word 2016:

1. Open MS Word and create a document, and save it. The document should still be open there on your screen after you have saved it. For this example we’ll call the document “Resume of Chef Artie Bucco.docx”.

2. Click on File – Share

3. A new little window will open up. At the bottom, you have the option of attaching that file as a Word document, or as a PDF file:

If you click on Word document, here’s what happens immediately. A new MS Outlook email opens. The subject line for this new email is the name of the document (you can change it if you want). And your Word document is already attached.

So all you have to do is enter the email address of the recipient, type whatever you want to go in the actual message of the email, and send it. Super easy. And if you are actually sending a resume, it does look more professional to send it as a PDF file. That’s as easy as clicking to share as a PDF instead:

And incidentally, you can use this same process to attach other MS Office files to an Outlook email – Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, etc.

The post Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool wallpaper changer — The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers Mar 19, 2018
A while back I came across this great free software that will go out on the web and grab a bunch of really cool photographs, and use them to create a new Windows wallpaper for your computer which continuously changes as often as you wish. It’s pretty cool!

The program is called John’s Background Switcher. Guess who created it. That’s right, it was John! You can get it free here: https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/.

Getting the program installed is easy – just go to the link I mentioned above, and click on the download link based on what kind of computer you are using (Windows or Mac). We’ll be talking about the Windows version but I assume the program works similarly on a Mac.

The download and installation process are pretty straightforward and just a matter of clicking Next a couple of times, then Install. When I installed it, there was no attempt by the software to sneak anything in that was unwanted, so hopefully that will continue.

After it’s installed and running, just a little bit of setup is needed. The setup window might open automatically, but if it doesn’t, look for the little icon down in the lower right corner:

Do a right click on that little icon and choose “Settings”:

That will open up the program and allow you to choose some options.

First, the big thing is where the program will find the photos to put on your computer. There are lots of sources of free pictures online, and John’s Background Switcher knows all of them! If you click the “Add” button at the top right, you’ll see what the optional sources are.

You can choose any of those photo websites, or even have it grab pictures from your own hard drive. For me, I keep it simple – I choose Flickr, and then in the main window I check the box “Top 250 photos from the last 7 days”. You’re pretty much guaranteed to never see the same image twice that way.

You’ll some other options on that screen as well. You can choose how often a picture changes – as often as every 10 seconds, or just once a week. You also have the option of how big the picture should be on your screen. That’s something you probably just want to play with and see what you prefer.

For me, I use it a little differently. If you right click on the icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, you’ll see that the first option in that menu is “Next background”. I like clicking that and just viewing a few of them until I get to one that really strikes me, then I actually pause the program so that it just stays on that picture until I change it. I keep it on a background for a day or a few days maybe, then I go back in and click through until I find another one I like, and keep it on that one for a few days.

I’ve been using this program on my own computer for several months now, without any negative stuff like malware or ads coming in with it. Looks like a good one. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

The post The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Johns background switcher — The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers Mar 19, 2018
A while back I came across this great free software that will go out on the web and grab a bunch of really cool photographs, and use them to create a new Windows wallpaper for your computer which continuously changes as often as you wish. It’s pretty cool!

The program is called John’s Background Switcher. Guess who created it. That’s right, it was John! You can get it free here: https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/.

Getting the program installed is easy – just go to the link I mentioned above, and click on the download link based on what kind of computer you are using (Windows or Mac). We’ll be talking about the Windows version but I assume the program works similarly on a Mac.

The download and installation process are pretty straightforward and just a matter of clicking Next a couple of times, then Install. When I installed it, there was no attempt by the software to sneak anything in that was unwanted, so hopefully that will continue.

After it’s installed and running, just a little bit of setup is needed. The setup window might open automatically, but if it doesn’t, look for the little icon down in the lower right corner:

Do a right click on that little icon and choose “Settings”:

That will open up the program and allow you to choose some options.

First, the big thing is where the program will find the photos to put on your computer. There are lots of sources of free pictures online, and John’s Background Switcher knows all of them! If you click the “Add” button at the top right, you’ll see what the optional sources are.

You can choose any of those photo websites, or even have it grab pictures from your own hard drive. For me, I keep it simple – I choose Flickr, and then in the main window I check the box “Top 250 photos from the last 7 days”. You’re pretty much guaranteed to never see the same image twice that way.

You’ll some other options on that screen as well. You can choose how often a picture changes – as often as every 10 seconds, or just once a week. You also have the option of how big the picture should be on your screen. That’s something you probably just want to play with and see what you prefer.

For me, I use it a little differently. If you right click on the icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, you’ll see that the first option in that menu is “Next background”. I like clicking that and just viewing a few of them until I get to one that really strikes me, then I actually pause the program so that it just stays on that picture until I change it. I keep it on a background for a day or a few days maybe, then I go back in and click through until I find another one I like, and keep it on that one for a few days.

I’ve been using this program on my own computer for several months now, without any negative stuff like malware or ads coming in with it. Looks like a good one. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

The post The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome save passwords — How to remove stored passwords from your web browser Mar 05, 2018
Today we’re talking about how to remove saved passwords from your web browser.

You shouldn’t have Chrome or Firefox store passwords for you. It’s not safe. If anyone ever got access to your computer, they would see a full list of all your accounts and passwords – definitely not good! Use LastPass instead. But sometimes you might get a popup asking if you want the browser to save the password and you might just click “Save” without thinking, to get the window out of the way.

So you might have some (or many) passwords saved in Chrome or Firefox. Here’s how to get them out of there.

Removing saved passwords in Chrome:

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Settings

2. Scroll down and click on Advanced

3. Scroll down to the “Passwords and Forms” section and click on “Manage Passwords”

4. Make sure both toggle switches are in the “Off” position. Then look a little further down, and you’ll see a list of saved passwords. Delete all of them.

When you’re done, it should look like this (because there are no saved passwords listed):

Removing saved passwords in Firefox:

1. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Options

2. Click the Privacy and Security link on the left side

3. Under the “Forms and Passwords” section, make sure “Remember logins and passwords for websites is UNchecked, then click on “Saved Logins”

4. You’ll see a list of whatever passwords are saved – delete each one

When you’re done, it should look like this:

It’s important to get these lists cleared of all your passwords. If your computer gets compromised, those lists of user names and passwords in your web browser is one of the first places the bad guys (or their automated software) will look and copy. It only takes a few seconds, and then they have access to all of those accounts. Don’t risk it.

The post How to remove stored passwords from your web browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome saved passwords — How to remove stored passwords from your web browser Mar 05, 2018
Today we’re talking about how to remove saved passwords from your web browser.

You shouldn’t have Chrome or Firefox store passwords for you. It’s not safe. If anyone ever got access to your computer, they would see a full list of all your accounts and passwords – definitely not good! Use LastPass instead. But sometimes you might get a popup asking if you want the browser to save the password and you might just click “Save” without thinking, to get the window out of the way.

So you might have some (or many) passwords saved in Chrome or Firefox. Here’s how to get them out of there.

Removing saved passwords in Chrome:

1. Click the 3 dots in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Settings

2. Scroll down and click on Advanced

3. Scroll down to the “Passwords and Forms” section and click on “Manage Passwords”

4. Make sure both toggle switches are in the “Off” position. Then look a little further down, and you’ll see a list of saved passwords. Delete all of them.

When you’re done, it should look like this (because there are no saved passwords listed):

Removing saved passwords in Firefox:

1. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Options

2. Click the Privacy and Security link on the left side

3. Under the “Forms and Passwords” section, make sure “Remember logins and passwords for websites is UNchecked, then click on “Saved Logins”

4. You’ll see a list of whatever passwords are saved – delete each one

When you’re done, it should look like this:

It’s important to get these lists cleared of all your passwords. If your computer gets compromised, those lists of user names and passwords in your web browser is one of the first places the bad guys (or their automated software) will look and copy. It only takes a few seconds, and then they have access to all of those accounts. Don’t risk it.

The post How to remove stored passwords from your web browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

echo dot stores history — Alexa stores your voice recordings Feb 26, 2018
It’s great to be able to speak into your device, such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to get some information. But did you know, every one of those voice commands is stored by Amazon? You might find it handy to know how to delete that history.

How to VIEW your Alexa recordings:

It’s easiest to do this on your computer. Go to the website alexa.amazon.com and over on the left side, click on Settings:

Then over on the right side, scroll down to the “Alexa account” section and click on History:

Now you’ll see a full list of everything you’ve said to Alexa. You’ll probably see some common trends. My Alexa search list is pretty boring – mostly it’s “Play Neil Young on Pandora”. Alexa does a whole lot more than that.

Click on any of the recordings in the list and it will take you to that specific recording. Also on that page is an option to “Delete voice recordings”. You can do this here, but only one at a time. This really is not a viable option for most people, since you probably have hundreds or thousands of voice recordings. But it is kind of interesting to see the list here.

How to DELETE your Alexa recordings:

To delete all of the recordings at once, you would do that from the Amazon site.

You just go to the Amazon “Manage your Content and Devices” page, here: amazon.com/mycd and click on the “Your Devices” tab:

Then you find your device in the list and click on the left-side icon with the 3 dots in it. This will show you your device, and you want to click on “Manage voice recordings”:

Now you’ll get a little alert window that comes up before you can actually delete your voice recordings. The alert will tell you that Amazon uses your past history of talking to Alexa to allow her to “learn” your voice and improve the accuracy of the results. This means your future results “might” not be as accurate without that history of learning that has been built up. This all might be true, but it’s up to you if it makes any difference or not.

Once you click on Delete, a new message appears to let you know the delete request has been received:

The actual full deletion will probably not be immediate. It might take less than a minute if you have just a few voice recordings, or it might take several minutes (or possibly longer) if you’ve recorded a lot of commands. But there’s nothing else you need to do from this point.

As a side note, Amazon’s Echo and Dot are not the only devices that store these recordings. Your voice commands are also stored by Google each time you say “OK Google” and give a command, as well as when you give commands to Siri (Apple devices) and Cortana (Windows 10 devices). But those processes are different so I might cover some or all of them in a different post.

The post Alexa stores your voice recordings first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Alexa settings — Alexa stores your voice recordings Feb 26, 2018
It’s great to be able to speak into your device, such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to get some information. But did you know, every one of those voice commands is stored by Amazon? You might find it handy to know how to delete that history.

How to VIEW your Alexa recordings:

It’s easiest to do this on your computer. Go to the website alexa.amazon.com and over on the left side, click on Settings:

Then over on the right side, scroll down to the “Alexa account” section and click on History:

Now you’ll see a full list of everything you’ve said to Alexa. You’ll probably see some common trends. My Alexa search list is pretty boring – mostly it’s “Play Neil Young on Pandora”. Alexa does a whole lot more than that.

Click on any of the recordings in the list and it will take you to that specific recording. Also on that page is an option to “Delete voice recordings”. You can do this here, but only one at a time. This really is not a viable option for most people, since you probably have hundreds or thousands of voice recordings. But it is kind of interesting to see the list here.

How to DELETE your Alexa recordings:

To delete all of the recordings at once, you would do that from the Amazon site.

You just go to the Amazon “Manage your Content and Devices” page, here: amazon.com/mycd and click on the “Your Devices” tab:

Then you find your device in the list and click on the left-side icon with the 3 dots in it. This will show you your device, and you want to click on “Manage voice recordings”:

Now you’ll get a little alert window that comes up before you can actually delete your voice recordings. The alert will tell you that Amazon uses your past history of talking to Alexa to allow her to “learn” your voice and improve the accuracy of the results. This means your future results “might” not be as accurate without that history of learning that has been built up. This all might be true, but it’s up to you if it makes any difference or not.

Once you click on Delete, a new message appears to let you know the delete request has been received:

The actual full deletion will probably not be immediate. It might take less than a minute if you have just a few voice recordings, or it might take several minutes (or possibly longer) if you’ve recorded a lot of commands. But there’s nothing else you need to do from this point.

As a side note, Amazon’s Echo and Dot are not the only devices that store these recordings. Your voice commands are also stored by Google each time you say “OK Google” and give a command, as well as when you give commands to Siri (Apple devices) and Cortana (Windows 10 devices). But those processes are different so I might cover some or all of them in a different post.

The post Alexa stores your voice recordings first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

annoying website sound — New Chrome feature to make websites shut up Feb 19, 2018
Sometimes when I’m browsing the web, I get annoyed and confused. Annoyed at websites that automatically start playing sound, and confused as to why the creator of that site thought it was a good idea.

I mean seriously – websites auto-playing sound became a trend maybe 15 years ago, but users made it very clear that the practice was not acceptable. Any course, class or seminar on website development will make it clear, you don’t start playing audio automatically when someone visits your website. So, for a long time, professional websites didn’t do it.

But now it’s back! And even the major online sites are joining in. As an example, take a look at this news story from CNN. You might want to visit that link just to READ the story like a civilized person. But no. As soon as the page loads, there’s the reporter in your face with a full-sound video, TELLING you the story.

And now there’s a new thing. What, you’re going to scroll down the page so you don’t have to watch the video? Here, we’ll make it smaller and stick it in the corner, and make it stay visible on the screen, even as you try to scroll away from it. YOU VILL VATCH ZE VIDEO!

And these are major websites doing this. The example is from CNN, but Fox News does the exact same thing, along with lots of other websites.

So it’s an ongoing fight between what the websites want to make us see and hear, and what we the visitors want to NOT see and hear. We’ve already won that battle in terms of display advertisements – the uBlock Origin ad blocker extension for Chrome has given us the freedom and added security of not having to look at ads.

And now Chrome has been updated to give us the added pleasure of being able to say SHUT UP to websites that auto-play music or any other type of audio.

A while back they gave us the little “speaker” icon – so if you happen to have a bunch of tabs open and one of them is a website that suddenly starts to play audio, you can quickly see which tab it is just by looking for the speaker icon:

And now you can actually mute the sound being generated by a website – just do a right click on the tab, and in the drop-down menu, choose “Mute site”:

And it’s not just the sound for that particular web page, or that particular news article on the site – it means all of the sound on that entire website.

And the nice thing is, Chrome remembers that selection. So you can close the tab and open that site in a different tab, or you could even close Chrome completely and then run it again and go back to that website – and that site will still be muted. So you don’t have to click “Mute site” every time you go there.

(Also, I just checked on Firefox and you can do the same thing – the menu item is called “Mute tab”. Should work the same way.)

And it’s actually kind of gratifying – if you are on the site and there’s some idiot news reporter blathering on and on, and you click to mute the site, the video part just keeps playing. So you’ll SEE the person speaking, you just won’t hear any of the sound. On the rare occasion that I might watch something on TV, that’s exactly the same effect as when I hit the “Mute” button every time a commercial comes on. Wonderful, blessed silence…

The post New Chrome feature to make websites shut up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

annoying cnn video — New Chrome feature to make websites shut up Feb 19, 2018
Sometimes when I’m browsing the web, I get annoyed and confused. Annoyed at websites that automatically start playing sound, and confused as to why the creator of that site thought it was a good idea.

I mean seriously – websites auto-playing sound became a trend maybe 15 years ago, but users made it very clear that the practice was not acceptable. Any course, class or seminar on website development will make it clear, you don’t start playing audio automatically when someone visits your website. So, for a long time, professional websites didn’t do it.

But now it’s back! And even the major online sites are joining in. As an example, take a look at this news story from CNN. You might want to visit that link just to READ the story like a civilized person. But no. As soon as the page loads, there’s the reporter in your face with a full-sound video, TELLING you the story.

And now there’s a new thing. What, you’re going to scroll down the page so you don’t have to watch the video? Here, we’ll make it smaller and stick it in the corner, and make it stay visible on the screen, even as you try to scroll away from it. YOU VILL VATCH ZE VIDEO!

And these are major websites doing this. The example is from CNN, but Fox News does the exact same thing, along with lots of other websites.

So it’s an ongoing fight between what the websites want to make us see and hear, and what we the visitors want to NOT see and hear. We’ve already won that battle in terms of display advertisements – the uBlock Origin ad blocker extension for Chrome has given us the freedom and added security of not having to look at ads.

And now Chrome has been updated to give us the added pleasure of being able to say SHUT UP to websites that auto-play music or any other type of audio.

A while back they gave us the little “speaker” icon – so if you happen to have a bunch of tabs open and one of them is a website that suddenly starts to play audio, you can quickly see which tab it is just by looking for the speaker icon:

And now you can actually mute the sound being generated by a website – just do a right click on the tab, and in the drop-down menu, choose “Mute site”:

And it’s not just the sound for that particular web page, or that particular news article on the site – it means all of the sound on that entire website.

And the nice thing is, Chrome remembers that selection. So you can close the tab and open that site in a different tab, or you could even close Chrome completely and then run it again and go back to that website – and that site will still be muted. So you don’t have to click “Mute site” every time you go there.

(Also, I just checked on Firefox and you can do the same thing – the menu item is called “Mute tab”. Should work the same way.)

And it’s actually kind of gratifying – if you are on the site and there’s some idiot news reporter blathering on and on, and you click to mute the site, the video part just keeps playing. So you’ll SEE the person speaking, you just won’t hear any of the sound. On the rare occasion that I might watch something on TV, that’s exactly the same effect as when I hit the “Mute” button every time a commercial comes on. Wonderful, blessed silence…

The post New Chrome feature to make websites shut up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook messenger virus — Watch out for this fake Facebook video message Feb 12, 2018
There is yet another virus making the rounds on Facebook, and it’s tricking a lot of users into clicking on it and infecting their computers.

Here’s what the message looks like:

I’ve gotten these Facebook Messenger messages from several of my FB friends. It always has the same content – your first name, followed by “it’s you?“, along with what looks like a link to a YouTube video.

This is a very common tactic in virus emails as well – it’s specifically designed to arouse your curiosity. In fact, one of the most effective tools for spreading malware is the curiosity of the recipient. Lots of people read that and think, “What is this? My friend found a video of me on YouTube?” Of course, they could reply to the message asking about the video and wait for a response from their friend. But that might take too long, right? Curiosity demands an answer now!

The easiest thing to do, to satisfy that curiosity quickly, is to just click on the link and see that video. Except it’s not a video. The image in the email is created to look just like what a YouTube video link looks like, but instead of taking you to YouTube, the user gets redirected to a website that LOOKS just like YouTube (or some other video sharing site), but then a pop-up appears that says you need to install something to allow you to view videos. Completely fake of course, but it’s designed to look completely authentic.

Again, for some people this could still seem to be legitimate, since there are often pop-up messages telling you you need to update this or that software. So they figure they’ll just get this quick update and then be able to view that video they’re dying to see.

But rather than installing or updating a video player, the link they just clicked instead installs malicious software that compromises their Facebook account. And then guess what happens? They start unknowingly sending Facebook message to all of THEIR Facebook friends, with the same link and the same vague “___, it’s you?” message. And the cycle continues.

Except now instead of your friend sending out the fake, malicious messages, now it’s YOUR Facebook account doing this to all of YOUR Facebook friends.

This goes back to one of my top rules for using the internet: Don’t click on any link unless you know exactly, with certainty, where it will take you.

And for the people that “only click on something if it came from someone I know” – this fake Facebook message will ONLY come from someone you know. So the criteria of “someone I know” is not relevant.

You’d think after this same message keeps sending out the same malicious link and download, Facebook might get the hint and block those messages. But so far that has not happened. It’s up to you to be vigilant.

If you do find that your Facebook account has been infected like this (or with any other malicious software) get in touch with me (or whoever you use for computer service) to get it cleaned up. This can be handled remotely so you shouldn’t have to bring your computer anywhere to get it resolved.

The post Watch out for this fake Facebook video message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook messenger virus — Watch out for this fake Facebook video message Feb 12, 2018
There is yet another virus making the rounds on Facebook, and it’s tricking a lot of users into clicking on it and infecting their computers.

Here’s what the message looks like:

I’ve gotten these Facebook Messenger messages from several of my FB friends. It always has the same content – your first name, followed by “it’s you?“, along with what looks like a link to a YouTube video.

This is a very common tactic in virus emails as well – it’s specifically designed to arouse your curiosity. In fact, one of the most effective tools for spreading malware is the curiosity of the recipient. Lots of people read that and think, “What is this? My friend found a video of me on YouTube?” Of course, they could reply to the message asking about the video and wait for a response from their friend. But that might take too long, right? Curiosity demands an answer now!

The easiest thing to do, to satisfy that curiosity quickly, is to just click on the link and see that video. Except it’s not a video. The image in the email is created to look just like what a YouTube video link looks like, but instead of taking you to YouTube, the user gets redirected to a website that LOOKS just like YouTube (or some other video sharing site), but then a pop-up appears that says you need to install something to allow you to view videos. Completely fake of course, but it’s designed to look completely authentic.

Again, for some people this could still seem to be legitimate, since there are often pop-up messages telling you you need to update this or that software. So they figure they’ll just get this quick update and then be able to view that video they’re dying to see.

But rather than installing or updating a video player, the link they just clicked instead installs malicious software that compromises their Facebook account. And then guess what happens? They start unknowingly sending Facebook message to all of THEIR Facebook friends, with the same link and the same vague “___, it’s you?” message. And the cycle continues.

Except now instead of your friend sending out the fake, malicious messages, now it’s YOUR Facebook account doing this to all of YOUR Facebook friends.

This goes back to one of my top rules for using the internet: Don’t click on any link unless you know exactly, with certainty, where it will take you.

And for the people that “only click on something if it came from someone I know” – this fake Facebook message will ONLY come from someone you know. So the criteria of “someone I know” is not relevant.

You’d think after this same message keeps sending out the same malicious link and download, Facebook might get the hint and block those messages. But so far that has not happened. It’s up to you to be vigilant.

If you do find that your Facebook account has been infected like this (or with any other malicious software) get in touch with me (or whoever you use for computer service) to get it cleaned up. This can be handled remotely so you shouldn’t have to bring your computer anywhere to get it resolved.

The post Watch out for this fake Facebook video message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

attach photos — Don’t send pictures by email! Feb 05, 2018
Scott –

You’ve piqued my interest with this sentence that you sneaked into a recent podcast:

“Really, sending pictures by email is a bad idea to start with, but that’s a story for another day.”

How about making that day next week’s podcast? I want to know what you recommend. Photos are a problem I constantly struggle with – both sending and receiving.

Keep up the good work. Cheers, Terry

You shouldn’t send photos as email attachments. Especially if you have a lot of photos you want to send. Here are a few reasons why not:

It’s inconvenient for you.
If you have several pictures on your computer, and you want them to also be on someone else’s computer for viewing, it’s not a simple one-click process. Especially if the pictures are in different folders on your computer. You either have to send all of them at once (which might be too big), or you have to send one or two at a time, in several separate emails. And your email program (such as Outlook) is slowed down while it sends all those pictures out. Pain in the butt.

It’s inconvenient for the recipient.
After you’ve gone through the whole process on your end of attaching all those pictures, now your recipient has to go through the process of receiving them. The same slowdown your Outlook had when you were sending them, the recipient’s Outlook also slows down as it brings in all those emails with attachments. This is less of an issue with high-speed internet, but I remember a while back I would just have to walk away for a while all those pictures downloaded.

They might not get sent.
Aside from all inconvenience on both ends, you have to also consider the actual rules of your email provider. For most of the web-based email, there’s a limit on the size of attachments. Most of them run 10 mb to 25 mb. If you have a few high-res photos, that won’t work. I believe Google raised their limit to 50 mb, but that’s still pretty limiting. Which means you are forced to split up the files and send several emails.

They might not get opened.
Here’s my policy on email attachments: I don’t open them. What if I get an email from someone I know, and it has an attachment? I don’t open it. What if my own mother sends me an email, with an attachment? I don’t open it.

Email attachments are still one of the best ways of spreading a virus, only because people are so easily tricked into clicking to open them. You might get an email from Fedex saying they are having trouble delivering your package, and the invoice is attached. Even if you are actually expecting a package by Fedex, that email did not come from Fedex and the attachment is actually a virus.

The only exception I make to opening an attachment is if the person sending it to me tells me ahead of time what it is and that they have sent it. This information cannot be in the email itself – it has to be knowledge or information I have gotten separate from the email (such as by a phone call or by speaking to that sender in person). That’s the only way you can know for sure what an attachment is, and that it’s safe to open.

Imagine mailing a full-size brick by sticking it in a padded envelope. It’s a pain for you to send it, a pain for the recipient to receive it, and it most likely won’t make the trip. That’s how inefficient it is to send a set of photos by email.

So how DO you get a picture (or group of pictures) from your computer to another person?

The basic process is this: you upload the pictures to the “cloud”, then get a link you can share for those pictures you just uploaded, and you send an email that includes that link.

That sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

If you saw last week’s blog post, that was when I showed you how easy it is to automatically backup the photos on your phone (and on your computer) using Google Photos. Google Photos is an example of cloud storage (“cloud” just means some other computer than yours – your pictures are on Google’s computers).

When you go to photos.google.com, there are all of your pictures, available for viewing. You just need to choose which ones you want to send, and get a link to just those pictures.

Here’s an example. In my Google Photos, here are a couple of pics of my little Fenway. These were taken shortly after he came back from having some dental work done, so he was still a little sedated. Anyway, let’s say I want to send these two pictures to someone:

When you move your mouse over a picture there, you’ll see a little checkmark appear in the top left corner. Click that for each picture you want to send. You’ll see how many you’ve selected:

Now go up to the top of the window and click on the “Share” button:

In the new window, in the options at the bottom, click on “Get Link”:

Next window will display the link – that’s what you want to include in your email. But you don’t even have to highlight it – just click the word “COPY”:

Now go to your new email and in the body of the email, do a right click and choose “Paste”. That places that special link right in your message. All you need to do is address the email to your recipient, put in a subject line, and maybe add some text to the message so that person knows what you’re sending.

And when your recipient clicks on that link in your email, what will be displayed is your Google Photos page – but only those two pictures:

Of course, if you wanted to, you could just as easily have put a checkmark on 10 pictures, or 50 pictures. No matter how many pictures you want to show him, you still only need to send the one link that gets generated.

At that point he can just look at the pictures, or he can download them and save them to his computer if he wants to. Or he can share them with other people. And he never had to open an email attachment.

What do you think of this? Let me know in the comments.

The post Don’t send pictures by email! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Photos — Don’t send pictures by email! Feb 05, 2018
Scott –

You’ve piqued my interest with this sentence that you sneaked into a recent podcast:

“Really, sending pictures by email is a bad idea to start with, but that’s a story for another day.”

How about making that day next week’s podcast? I want to know what you recommend. Photos are a problem I constantly struggle with – both sending and receiving.

Keep up the good work. Cheers, Terry

You shouldn’t send photos as email attachments. Especially if you have a lot of photos you want to send. Here are a few reasons why not:

It’s inconvenient for you.
If you have several pictures on your computer, and you want them to also be on someone else’s computer for viewing, it’s not a simple one-click process. Especially if the pictures are in different folders on your computer. You either have to send all of them at once (which might be too big), or you have to send one or two at a time, in several separate emails. And your email program (such as Outlook) is slowed down while it sends all those pictures out. Pain in the butt.

It’s inconvenient for the recipient.
After you’ve gone through the whole process on your end of attaching all those pictures, now your recipient has to go through the process of receiving them. The same slowdown your Outlook had when you were sending them, the recipient’s Outlook also slows down as it brings in all those emails with attachments. This is less of an issue with high-speed internet, but I remember a while back I would just have to walk away for a while all those pictures downloaded.

They might not get sent.
Aside from all inconvenience on both ends, you have to also consider the actual rules of your email provider. For most of the web-based email, there’s a limit on the size of attachments. Most of them run 10 mb to 25 mb. If you have a few high-res photos, that won’t work. I believe Google raised their limit to 50 mb, but that’s still pretty limiting. Which means you are forced to split up the files and send several emails.

They might not get opened.
Here’s my policy on email attachments: I don’t open them. What if I get an email from someone I know, and it has an attachment? I don’t open it. What if my own mother sends me an email, with an attachment? I don’t open it.

Email attachments are still one of the best ways of spreading a virus, only because people are so easily tricked into clicking to open them. You might get an email from Fedex saying they are having trouble delivering your package, and the invoice is attached. Even if you are actually expecting a package by Fedex, that email did not come from Fedex and the attachment is actually a virus.

The only exception I make to opening an attachment is if the person sending it to me tells me ahead of time what it is and that they have sent it. This information cannot be in the email itself – it has to be knowledge or information I have gotten separate from the email (such as by a phone call or by speaking to that sender in person). That’s the only way you can know for sure what an attachment is, and that it’s safe to open.

Imagine mailing a full-size brick by sticking it in a padded envelope. It’s a pain for you to send it, a pain for the recipient to receive it, and it most likely won’t make the trip. That’s how inefficient it is to send a set of photos by email.

So how DO you get a picture (or group of pictures) from your computer to another person?

The basic process is this: you upload the pictures to the “cloud”, then get a link you can share for those pictures you just uploaded, and you send an email that includes that link.

That sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

If you saw last week’s blog post, that was when I showed you how easy it is to automatically backup the photos on your phone (and on your computer) using Google Photos. Google Photos is an example of cloud storage (“cloud” just means some other computer than yours – your pictures are on Google’s computers).

When you go to photos.google.com, there are all of your pictures, available for viewing. You just need to choose which ones you want to send, and get a link to just those pictures.

Here’s an example. In my Google Photos, here are a couple of pics of my little Fenway. These were taken shortly after he came back from having some dental work done, so he was still a little sedated. Anyway, let’s say I want to send these two pictures to someone:

When you move your mouse over a picture there, you’ll see a little checkmark appear in the top left corner. Click that for each picture you want to send. You’ll see how many you’ve selected:

Now go up to the top of the window and click on the “Share” button:

In the new window, in the options at the bottom, click on “Get Link”:

Next window will display the link – that’s what you want to include in your email. But you don’t even have to highlight it – just click the word “COPY”:

Now go to your new email and in the body of the email, do a right click and choose “Paste”. That places that special link right in your message. All you need to do is address the email to your recipient, put in a subject line, and maybe add some text to the message so that person knows what you’re sending.

And when your recipient clicks on that link in your email, what will be displayed is your Google Photos page – but only those two pictures:

Of course, if you wanted to, you could just as easily have put a checkmark on 10 pictures, or 50 pictures. No matter how many pictures you want to show him, you still only need to send the one link that gets generated.

At that point he can just look at the pictures, or he can download them and save them to his computer if he wants to. Or he can share them with other people. And he never had to open an email attachment.

What do you think of this? Let me know in the comments.

The post Don’t send pictures by email! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Photos — Automatically backup your photos online for FREE Jan 29, 2018
For a lot of people, the most valuable thing stored on their computer (or their phone) is the collection of photos. A lot of things can be replaced, but not the photos. In case you didn’t know, there’s a way to back up your photos that is 100% automated and completely free. You should be taking advantage of this.

This is one of those things that I do as second nature now, and for that type of thing I sometimes forget that not everyone knows about it so it might not occur to me to do a blog post about it. But recently I’ve talked to some clients that were completely unaware of this service, so it reminded me that I need to talk about it here.

For a quick overview, here’s what I am able to do now. Once this is set up, you can do the same thing.

Like most people, I take pictures on my phone. It’s an Android phone, but iPhone can do this same process.

So let’s say I walk out my front door and take a picture of my car:

I can then walk back inside to my office, and see that the picture I just took is already viewable on my computer. I didn’t have to click “upload” on any program, I didn’t have to connect my phone to my computer with a USB cable, and I didn’t have to pull out the phone’s memory card and plug it in to the computer. It’s all automated.

So that means even though I might have a ton of important, irreplaceable family pictures on my phone, they wouldn’t be lost forever if my phone got dropped in the ocean or run over by a truck. I can still get them on my computer (or any computer with an internet connection).

To do this, you’ll need a Google account. If you have Gmail, that’s the same thing so you already have the account you need. If you don’t have a Google account, just go to Google.com and create one (it’s free).

On your phone, go to the Google Play Store (Android) or the App Store (iPhone) and get the Google Photos app and install it.

Open the app, click the 3 horizontal lines in the top left, and choose Settings. The very first one in the list is called “Back up and sync”. Click that and make sure it is enabled.

This means that any picture you take will be automatically uploaded to Google Photos (photos.google.com) immediately after you take the picture. And the fact that it’s automated is critical. I mean, if you had to remember every so often to manually back up the pictures on your phone, how often would that happen? If you’re like me, not very often. Automation means you don’t have to worry about forgetting to do it.

And this isn’t just for your phone – you can upload all your pictures from your computer to Google Photos as well. Think about that – a free, automated backup for all your pictures. No more excuses for not backing up!

I would definitely not recommend that Google Photos be your ONLY backup, but it should absolutely be PART of your overall backup strategy at least. If you need help setting it up, get in touch with me.

The post Automatically backup your photos online for FREE first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Photos — Automatically backup your photos online for FREE Jan 29, 2018
For a lot of people, the most valuable thing stored on their computer (or their phone) is the collection of photos. A lot of things can be replaced, but not the photos. In case you didn’t know, there’s a way to back up your photos that is 100% automated and completely free. You should be taking advantage of this.

This is one of those things that I do as second nature now, and for that type of thing I sometimes forget that not everyone knows about it so it might not occur to me to do a blog post about it. But recently I’ve talked to some clients that were completely unaware of this service, so it reminded me that I need to talk about it here.

For a quick overview, here’s what I am able to do now. Once this is set up, you can do the same thing.

Like most people, I take pictures on my phone. It’s an Android phone, but iPhone can do this same process.

So let’s say I walk out my front door and take a picture of my car:

I can then walk back inside to my office, and see that the picture I just took is already viewable on my computer. I didn’t have to click “upload” on any program, I didn’t have to connect my phone to my computer with a USB cable, and I didn’t have to pull out the phone’s memory card and plug it in to the computer. It’s all automated.

So that means even though I might have a ton of important, irreplaceable family pictures on my phone, they wouldn’t be lost forever if my phone got dropped in the ocean or run over by a truck. I can still get them on my computer (or any computer with an internet connection).

To do this, you’ll need a Google account. If you have Gmail, that’s the same thing so you already have the account you need. If you don’t have a Google account, just go to Google.com and create one (it’s free).

On your phone, go to the Google Play Store (Android) or the App Store (iPhone) and get the Google Photos app and install it.

Open the app, click the 3 horizontal lines in the top left, and choose Settings. The very first one in the list is called “Back up and sync”. Click that and make sure it is enabled.

This means that any picture you take will be automatically uploaded to Google Photos (photos.google.com) immediately after you take the picture. And the fact that it’s automated is critical. I mean, if you had to remember every so often to manually back up the pictures on your phone, how often would that happen? If you’re like me, not very often. Automation means you don’t have to worry about forgetting to do it.

And this isn’t just for your phone – you can upload all your pictures from your computer to Google Photos as well. Think about that – a free, automated backup for all your pictures. No more excuses for not backing up!

I would definitely not recommend that Google Photos be your ONLY backup, but it should absolutely be PART of your overall backup strategy at least. If you need help setting it up, get in touch with me.

The post Automatically backup your photos online for FREE first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft tech support — Chat live with a real Microsoft agent, right from your Windows 10 PC Jan 22, 2018
If you’re using Windows 10, your computer has the built-in ability to bring up a chat window so you can communicate with an actual person from Microsoft. You don’t have to go to their website, and you don’t have to pick up your phone.

All too often, someone will contact me about a computer problem, and the conversation starts with that person saying, “I was just talking with Microsoft on the phone, and they told me…”. At that point I already know what has happened. In most cases, I’ll let them continue and tell the rest of the story though. A lot of these people really want to tell me the details.

But in the end, I already know that the person they spoke with was not Microsoft, it was just a scammer pretending to be Microsoft. So I always have two questions:

Did you allow this person to remote in to your computer?

Did you give this person your credit card number?

The answers to those two questions will determine how we proceed. I still find it pretty amazing that people will still believe and trust a random stranger on the phone who claims to be with Microsoft, even though the scam is so widely known now.

But what if you need to actually talk with someone who really does work at Microsoft?

Maybe you got a new computer, and you’re trying to install Office 365, and it keeps coming up with an error. Well, Office 365 is a Microsoft product, and you paid them money for it, so they should be available to help you install it, right? Of course.

Rule #1 is don’t do a Google search to find their phone number. If you do that, it’s very likely you’ll be talking to another scammer.

And the truth is, you don’t even need to call them at all. And you don’t need to try to navigate the Microsoft website trying to get to tech support. You can bring up a Microsoft tech support agent in a chat window – right from your computer.

Here’s how you do it:

1. In the search box in the lower left corner, type: Support

2. In the search results that come up, click on “Contact Support”

3. Now you’ll see a chat window come up:

Don’t get too excited yet though, because you still haven’t contact a real person from Microsoft. This is just their artificial intelligence robot that they would like you to try to use first.

4. At this point, you can try typing your actual question, such as “I can’t install Office”. But that means you’re going to continue to have to work with the robot as it tries to figure out what your problem is. Instead, if you want to get to a real person, just type “I want to talk to a real person”. Then type it again.

5. They’ll still want you to at least indicate what kind of problem you’re having by choosing from a couple of dropdown menus:

So just choose the proper selections. In this case, in the first menu you would choose “Office” and in the second list you would choose “Tech Support”.

Then you get to find out how long you’ll be waiting. In this example, it was prime time – 8:30 pm on a weeknight – and I would have either been waiting about 1 1/2 hours for a call back by phone, or for the 15 people ahead of me in chat to get finished.

I usually prefer to use the chat window, since I then have a record of the conversation that I can refer back to if needed. And I don’t have to try to understand what the agent is saying if his non-US accent makes conversation difficult.

When you choose Chat, you’ll see a countdown so you’ll know when it’s getting close to being your turn. For some reason, even though there were 15 people ahead of me, in the chat window my position was 22. Not sure how that happened.

When your turn comes up, you’ll actually be chatting with a real live person from Microsoft! Well, more likely someone working from their home in India or the Philippines, as a contractor for Microsoft. But at least you’ll know you’re not speaking to a scammer.

The post Chat live with a real Microsoft agent, right from your Windows 10 PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Tech Support — Chat live with a real Microsoft agent, right from your Windows 10 PC Jan 22, 2018
If you’re using Windows 10, your computer has the built-in ability to bring up a chat window so you can communicate with an actual person from Microsoft. You don’t have to go to their website, and you don’t have to pick up your phone.

All too often, someone will contact me about a computer problem, and the conversation starts with that person saying, “I was just talking with Microsoft on the phone, and they told me…”. At that point I already know what has happened. In most cases, I’ll let them continue and tell the rest of the story though. A lot of these people really want to tell me the details.

But in the end, I already know that the person they spoke with was not Microsoft, it was just a scammer pretending to be Microsoft. So I always have two questions:

Did you allow this person to remote in to your computer?

Did you give this person your credit card number?

The answers to those two questions will determine how we proceed. I still find it pretty amazing that people will still believe and trust a random stranger on the phone who claims to be with Microsoft, even though the scam is so widely known now.

But what if you need to actually talk with someone who really does work at Microsoft?

Maybe you got a new computer, and you’re trying to install Office 365, and it keeps coming up with an error. Well, Office 365 is a Microsoft product, and you paid them money for it, so they should be available to help you install it, right? Of course.

Rule #1 is don’t do a Google search to find their phone number. If you do that, it’s very likely you’ll be talking to another scammer.

And the truth is, you don’t even need to call them at all. And you don’t need to try to navigate the Microsoft website trying to get to tech support. You can bring up a Microsoft tech support agent in a chat window – right from your computer.

Here’s how you do it:

1. In the search box in the lower left corner, type: Support

2. In the search results that come up, click on “Contact Support”

3. Now you’ll see a chat window come up:

Don’t get too excited yet though, because you still haven’t contact a real person from Microsoft. This is just their artificial intelligence robot that they would like you to try to use first.

4. At this point, you can try typing your actual question, such as “I can’t install Office”. But that means you’re going to continue to have to work with the robot as it tries to figure out what your problem is. Instead, if you want to get to a real person, just type “I want to talk to a real person”. Then type it again.

5. They’ll still want you to at least indicate what kind of problem you’re having by choosing from a couple of dropdown menus:

So just choose the proper selections. In this case, in the first menu you would choose “Office” and in the second list you would choose “Tech Support”.

Then you get to find out how long you’ll be waiting. In this example, it was prime time – 8:30 pm on a weeknight – and I would have either been waiting about 1 1/2 hours for a call back by phone, or for the 15 people ahead of me in chat to get finished.

I usually prefer to use the chat window, since I then have a record of the conversation that I can refer back to if needed. And I don’t have to try to understand what the agent is saying if his non-US accent makes conversation difficult.

When you choose Chat, you’ll see a countdown so you’ll know when it’s getting close to being your turn. For some reason, even though there were 15 people ahead of me, in the chat window my position was 22. Not sure how that happened.

When your turn comes up, you’ll actually be chatting with a real live person from Microsoft! Well, more likely someone working from their home in India or the Philippines, as a contractor for Microsoft. But at least you’ll know you’re not speaking to a scammer.

The post Chat live with a real Microsoft agent, right from your Windows 10 PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cookies — How to clear cookies for a specific website Jan 15, 2018
You probably already know you can go in to your web browser’s settings and clear ALL your cookies for every website you’ve visited. But did you know you can also go in and clear out the cookies for a specific website? You sure can.

And why would you want to do that? In some cases, a website might be using an app that is not working properly and you want to view the site “cleanly” (without cookies from previous visits to the site). In my situation as a tech, sometimes a client will tell me that they’re having trouble with a particular website, and if I have visited that site in the past, the cookies from that site might prevent me from seeing the same thing my client is seeing.

You certainly could go in and just clear ALL the cookies from ALL the websites you’ve visited, but that becomes really inconvenient because it might cause you to have to log in to all those sites again when you go back. In this case, clearing all your cookies is kind of like demolishing a house and rebuilding it just to replace a broken window (yes, there are other options which I’ll cover at the end of this post).

So rather than clear the cookies from every website, you want to just clear the cookies from the one website that is giving you the problem. Here’s how you do that.

How to clear cookies from a single site in Chrome:

1. Click on the Settings icon in Chrome (the 3 dots in the top right)

2. Click on Settings, then scroll down and click on Advanced

3. Scroll down to the Privacy section and click on Content Settings

4. Click on Cookies

5. Click on See all cookies and site data

Now you’ll see a (probably long) list of the websites that have stored cookies on your computer. If you want, you can scroll down the list and find the site you’re working with. But the easier way is to just put the domain name (or part of it) in the “Search cookies” field to go straight to the cookies for that site.

Then when you see that site name, just click the trash can to the right of it to delete the cookies for just that website. When you’re done, just close the Settings tab.

How to clear cookies from a single site in Firefox:

1. In Firefox, click the settings button (3 horizontal lines in the top right)

2. Click on Options

3. On the left side of the window, click on “Privacy and Security”

4. In the History section, click on “remove individual cookies”:

Then you’ll see the list of the individual sites. Just like in Chrome, you can scroll down the list and remove the one you’re looking for, or you can type the domain name in the search at the top.

There are a couple other considerations when thinking about this process.

If you don’t want to clear ALL the cookies and other information because your browser stores all your passwords and you’d have to log in to each site again, I would encourage you to rethink your password storage process. If your browser stores your passwords, they are not secure. Anyone that uses your computer (or hacks into it) can have your entire list of passwords within a few seconds. You should use LastPass instead. It’s free and secure. I wrote about LastPass here.

Also, there’s a different way to view a website and not have it affected by cookies, history, passwords, cache, or anything. Just use your browser’s “incognito” mode. In Chrome, click the Settings button and choose “New Incognito window”. In Firefox, it’s the Settings button, then “New Private Window”. When you open a website that way, it’s as if you have never visited that site before – so no cookies will be in effect (and visiting that site will also not be stored in your browser history).

The post How to clear cookies for a specific website first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Website cookies list — How to clear cookies for a specific website Jan 15, 2018
You probably already know you can go in to your web browser’s settings and clear ALL your cookies for every website you’ve visited. But did you know you can also go in and clear out the cookies for a specific website? You sure can.

And why would you want to do that? In some cases, a website might be using an app that is not working properly and you want to view the site “cleanly” (without cookies from previous visits to the site). In my situation as a tech, sometimes a client will tell me that they’re having trouble with a particular website, and if I have visited that site in the past, the cookies from that site might prevent me from seeing the same thing my client is seeing.

You certainly could go in and just clear ALL the cookies from ALL the websites you’ve visited, but that becomes really inconvenient because it might cause you to have to log in to all those sites again when you go back. In this case, clearing all your cookies is kind of like demolishing a house and rebuilding it just to replace a broken window (yes, there are other options which I’ll cover at the end of this post).

So rather than clear the cookies from every website, you want to just clear the cookies from the one website that is giving you the problem. Here’s how you do that.

How to clear cookies from a single site in Chrome:

1. Click on the Settings icon in Chrome (the 3 dots in the top right)

2. Click on Settings, then scroll down and click on Advanced

3. Scroll down to the Privacy section and click on Content Settings

4. Click on Cookies

5. Click on See all cookies and site data

Now you’ll see a (probably long) list of the websites that have stored cookies on your computer. If you want, you can scroll down the list and find the site you’re working with. But the easier way is to just put the domain name (or part of it) in the “Search cookies” field to go straight to the cookies for that site.

Then when you see that site name, just click the trash can to the right of it to delete the cookies for just that website. When you’re done, just close the Settings tab.

How to clear cookies from a single site in Firefox:

1. In Firefox, click the settings button (3 horizontal lines in the top right)

2. Click on Options

3. On the left side of the window, click on “Privacy and Security”

4. In the History section, click on “remove individual cookies”:

Then you’ll see the list of the individual sites. Just like in Chrome, you can scroll down the list and remove the one you’re looking for, or you can type the domain name in the search at the top.

There are a couple other considerations when thinking about this process.

If you don’t want to clear ALL the cookies and other information because your browser stores all your passwords and you’d have to log in to each site again, I would encourage you to rethink your password storage process. If your browser stores your passwords, they are not secure. Anyone that uses your computer (or hacks into it) can have your entire list of passwords within a few seconds. You should use LastPass instead. It’s free and secure. I wrote about LastPass here.

Also, there’s a different way to view a website and not have it affected by cookies, history, passwords, cache, or anything. Just use your browser’s “incognito” mode. In Chrome, click the Settings button and choose “New Incognito window”. In Firefox, it’s the Settings button, then “New Private Window”. When you open a website that way, it’s as if you have never visited that site before – so no cookies will be in effect (and visiting that site will also not be stored in your browser history).

The post How to clear cookies for a specific website first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

zip file — What’s a ZIP file anyway? Jan 08, 2018
A lot of people have HEARD of “zip files” but are not really familiar with what they are specifically. Here’s how they work.

Part of the confusion with this is that it’s not really obvious or clear what is meant by a folder being “zipped”. I mean, everyone knows what a zipper does, but how does that relate to computer files?

It might be easier if “zipped” were replaced with the word “compressed”. A zipped folder is just a folder that holds other files or folders, but compresses them so that they take up less space.

Think of it like this. Imagine you’re out camping, and you spend the night in your sleeping bag.

When you wake up in the morning and you’re packing up to hike for the day, do you just scoop up the sleeping bag and start stuffing it into your backpack? Of course not. It’s going to take up too much space, and it will be awkward and frustrating to carry it around like that.

Instead you carefully and strategically fold it, then roll it up to be as small and compacted (compresses) as possible:

Now you can fit it in your backpack for easy transport, and still have room for all your other essentials. I love efficiency!

A zipped/compressed folder does pretty much the same thing.

Let’s say you have a folder on your computer, and there are 20 pictures in that folder. You want to send those pictures to someone through email. Well, it would be pretty cumbersome to attach 20 pictures to an email. Or send 20 emails, each one with an attached photo. (Really, sending pictures by email is a bad idea to start with, but that’s a story for another day.)

Instead, you could “zip” all 20 photos into a single folder, then just attach that one zipped folder to your email. Not only is this more efficient, it’s actually going to be a smaller overall file size. The 20 pictures might have a total size of 9 mb, but compressed into a single folder you might have a total size of 7 mb.

The email recipient gets the email and opens the zipped folder (we’ll talk about this process in a minute), and there are all 20 pictures.

Another practical use: You have thousands of pictures and you want to put all of them on a little flash drive to carry with you, but your flash drive is an older one that only holds 4 GB. Putting the pictures on there directly would mean they wouldn’t be able to fit. But in a zipped folder, you can get them all on there.

You also sometimes see zipped files being used on websites, for downloading software. Rather than having you download the full (uncompressed) file, the website might offer the option of downloading a zipped file. Since that file size will be smaller, the download will be faster.

Here’s how you can create your own ZIPPED folder:

First, you start with a folder on your computer that has several files in it. This can be a folder full of Word documents, or PDF files, or pictures. Doesn’t really matter what type of files you use.

With that folder open, hold down CTRL and tap the letter “a”. This highlights all of the files.

Now, do a right click on one of the highlighted files and choose Send To – Compressed (zipped) folder. You’ll see a new folder there on your screen. That’s your newly-created zipped folder, and it has all those files in it (even though you still see all the files in the same place they were in that folder already). That’s how easy it is!

Now you can do whatever you want with that zipped folder. And if you delete the zipped folder, all of your original files will still be in the original folder just like they were when you started.

The post What’s a ZIP file anyway? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sleeping bag spread out — What’s a ZIP file anyway? Jan 08, 2018
A lot of people have HEARD of “zip files” but are not really familiar with what they are specifically. Here’s how they work.

Part of the confusion with this is that it’s not really obvious or clear what is meant by a folder being “zipped”. I mean, everyone knows what a zipper does, but how does that relate to computer files?

It might be easier if “zipped” were replaced with the word “compressed”. A zipped folder is just a folder that holds other files or folders, but compresses them so that they take up less space.

Think of it like this. Imagine you’re out camping, and you spend the night in your sleeping bag.

When you wake up in the morning and you’re packing up to hike for the day, do you just scoop up the sleeping bag and start stuffing it into your backpack? Of course not. It’s going to take up too much space, and it will be awkward and frustrating to carry it around like that.

Instead you carefully and strategically fold it, then roll it up to be as small and compacted (compresses) as possible:

Now you can fit it in your backpack for easy transport, and still have room for all your other essentials. I love efficiency!

A zipped/compressed folder does pretty much the same thing.

Let’s say you have a folder on your computer, and there are 20 pictures in that folder. You want to send those pictures to someone through email. Well, it would be pretty cumbersome to attach 20 pictures to an email. Or send 20 emails, each one with an attached photo. (Really, sending pictures by email is a bad idea to start with, but that’s a story for another day.)

Instead, you could “zip” all 20 photos into a single folder, then just attach that one zipped folder to your email. Not only is this more efficient, it’s actually going to be a smaller overall file size. The 20 pictures might have a total size of 9 mb, but compressed into a single folder you might have a total size of 7 mb.

The email recipient gets the email and opens the zipped folder (we’ll talk about this process in a minute), and there are all 20 pictures.

Another practical use: You have thousands of pictures and you want to put all of them on a little flash drive to carry with you, but your flash drive is an older one that only holds 4 GB. Putting the pictures on there directly would mean they wouldn’t be able to fit. But in a zipped folder, you can get them all on there.

You also sometimes see zipped files being used on websites, for downloading software. Rather than having you download the full (uncompressed) file, the website might offer the option of downloading a zipped file. Since that file size will be smaller, the download will be faster.

Here’s how you can create your own ZIPPED folder:

First, you start with a folder on your computer that has several files in it. This can be a folder full of Word documents, or PDF files, or pictures. Doesn’t really matter what type of files you use.

With that folder open, hold down CTRL and tap the letter “a”. This highlights all of the files.

Now, do a right click on one of the highlighted files and choose Send To – Compressed (zipped) folder. You’ll see a new folder there on your screen. That’s your newly-created zipped folder, and it has all those files in it (even though you still see all the files in the same place they were in that folder already). That’s how easy it is!

Now you can do whatever you want with that zipped folder. And if you delete the zipped folder, all of your original files will still be in the original folder just like they were when you started.

The post What’s a ZIP file anyway? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

data transfer — How to move all your files and folders to a new PC Jan 01, 2018
Hello Scott,

My daughter got me addicted to podcasts, and I follow about 15 different ones. Yours is the one I look forward to the most. You provide a great service to a growing audience. Thank you.

I have a Windows 7 desktop and it’s time for a new one. I am planning to buy a Windows 10 PC in a month or two. I am very concerned about how to get all my files (Word/Excel documents, photos, music, videos, etc.) onto my new PC. When I upgraded to Windows 7, I recall purchasing software that came with a cable. I connected the two computers together, and my files magically appeared on my new PC.

I don’t see such a device being available today. What is the best way for a novice like me to get all my files to my new PC? And how can I confirm they all actually arrived?

Thanks, Scott, and I hope you find my question to be of general interest! -Richard

Thanks Richard! This is a good question, and probably a timely one since lots of people got new computers at Christmas and might be wondering how to get all their “stuff” over to the new one.

Richard mentioned previously using a type of “data transfer cable” and a program that somehow moved everything over. Personally, I don’t recommending doing that. I don’t know if they are even still available. I experimented with something like that many years ago and it didn’t work very well.

The process that I use is pretty simple. The only extra equipment you’ll need is a USB portable drive, such as this one (which is available on Amazon):

This little drive comes with one short cable, which plugs into any of the USB ports on your computer. When you plug it in, it will show up as another drive (such as drive E or drive F, whatever the next available drive letter is alphabetically).

Here’s the process (and remember, we can only copy files and folders – actual programs such as Microsoft Word, etc. will have to be installed directly on the new computer from a disc or a download):

1. Plug the portable drive in to your old computer. On that portable drive, make a new folder called “Documents”, and open it (it’s empty of course). Drag that window to the right side of your screen.

2. Open a new File Explorer window (Windows key + E) and move this window to the left side of your screen. Open the Documents folder so that you can see all of your files and folders in that window.

3. Select everything in that folder by clicking Ctrl + A. On one of the selected items, do a right click and choose “Copy”.

4. Now click back over to the other window – the one showing the empty “Documents” folder on the portable drive. In the middle of that window, do a right click and choose “Paste”.

At this point, you’ll see the computer go through the process of copying the contents of your old computer’s Documents folder over to the Documents folder on the portable drive

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each folder you want to move over to the new computer. This usually includes Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Desktop. Those folders are easily found. Website Favorites/Bookmarks can be moved over but the process is different based on what web browser you use. Outlook emails can also be moved over but the process is more involved than what this blog post is covering today.

6. Connect the portable drive to the new computer and open it in a window which you’ll move over to the left side of the screen. Open the “Documents” folder on that drive so that you can see all of your documents. Hit Ctrl + A to select all of the documents, then do a right click and choose Copy.

7. Open a new File Explorer window and move it to the right side of your screen. In that window, click to open the Documents folder (which of course would be empty at this point). Somewhere in the middle of that window, do a right click and choose “Paste”. Now you’ll see the Documents that are stored on the portable drive being copied to the Documents folder on the computer.

Repeat that process for each folder on the portable drive. When that’s done, your computer will now have your data in the right place and ready to use.

Of course, there are a lot of other things that need to be done when setting up a new PC (particularly a Windows 10 computer) but following the process above will at least get your important files and folders copied to the new computer so you can use them.

The post How to move all your files and folders to a new PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

USB portable drive — How to move all your files and folders to a new PC Jan 01, 2018
Hello Scott,

My daughter got me addicted to podcasts, and I follow about 15 different ones. Yours is the one I look forward to the most. You provide a great service to a growing audience. Thank you.

I have a Windows 7 desktop and it’s time for a new one. I am planning to buy a Windows 10 PC in a month or two. I am very concerned about how to get all my files (Word/Excel documents, photos, music, videos, etc.) onto my new PC. When I upgraded to Windows 7, I recall purchasing software that came with a cable. I connected the two computers together, and my files magically appeared on my new PC.

I don’t see such a device being available today. What is the best way for a novice like me to get all my files to my new PC? And how can I confirm they all actually arrived?

Thanks, Scott, and I hope you find my question to be of general interest! -Richard

Thanks Richard! This is a good question, and probably a timely one since lots of people got new computers at Christmas and might be wondering how to get all their “stuff” over to the new one.

Richard mentioned previously using a type of “data transfer cable” and a program that somehow moved everything over. Personally, I don’t recommending doing that. I don’t know if they are even still available. I experimented with something like that many years ago and it didn’t work very well.

The process that I use is pretty simple. The only extra equipment you’ll need is a USB portable drive, such as this one (which is available on Amazon):

This little drive comes with one short cable, which plugs into any of the USB ports on your computer. When you plug it in, it will show up as another drive (such as drive E or drive F, whatever the next available drive letter is alphabetically).

Here’s the process (and remember, we can only copy files and folders – actual programs such as Microsoft Word, etc. will have to be installed directly on the new computer from a disc or a download):

1. Plug the portable drive in to your old computer. On that portable drive, make a new folder called “Documents”, and open it (it’s empty of course). Drag that window to the right side of your screen.

2. Open a new File Explorer window (Windows key + E) and move this window to the left side of your screen. Open the Documents folder so that you can see all of your files and folders in that window.

3. Select everything in that folder by clicking Ctrl + A. On one of the selected items, do a right click and choose “Copy”.

4. Now click back over to the other window – the one showing the empty “Documents” folder on the portable drive. In the middle of that window, do a right click and choose “Paste”.

At this point, you’ll see the computer go through the process of copying the contents of your old computer’s Documents folder over to the Documents folder on the portable drive

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each folder you want to move over to the new computer. This usually includes Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Desktop. Those folders are easily found. Website Favorites/Bookmarks can be moved over but the process is different based on what web browser you use. Outlook emails can also be moved over but the process is more involved than what this blog post is covering today.

6. Connect the portable drive to the new computer and open it in a window which you’ll move over to the left side of the screen. Open the “Documents” folder on that drive so that you can see all of your documents. Hit Ctrl + A to select all of the documents, then do a right click and choose Copy.

7. Open a new File Explorer window and move it to the right side of your screen. In that window, click to open the Documents folder (which of course would be empty at this point). Somewhere in the middle of that window, do a right click and choose “Paste”. Now you’ll see the Documents that are stored on the portable drive being copied to the Documents folder on the computer.

Repeat that process for each folder on the portable drive. When that’s done, your computer will now have your data in the right place and ready to use.

Of course, there are a lot of other things that need to be done when setting up a new PC (particularly a Windows 10 computer) but following the process above will at least get your important files and folders copied to the new computer so you can use them.

The post How to move all your files and folders to a new PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Word Captions — How to move captions with pictures in MS Word Dec 25, 2017
If you use Word and sometimes put pictures and captions in your documents, you will probably find today’s tip helpful. Sometimes when you have a picture and a caption in Word, and you try to move the picture, the caption doesn’t get moved like you would expect it to. Here’s how to fix that (and thanks to reader Marloes for suggesting this as a tip).

Here’s a little background, if you’re not familiar with this.

Let’s say I have a blank Word document, and I put in a picture of my dog, Fenway:

I can right-click on the picture to get a menu, and you can see that one of the options is that I can “Insert Caption”:

So I do that and type in his name, and now my picture has a caption:

But here’s the problem. If I decide later on, maybe after I’ve typed up 10 pages in this document, that I want to move that picture to a different spot, it doesn’t work properly. I can drag that picture wherever I want it to go, but the caption still stays back in its original place. Why is that? That’s a good question to ask Microsoft, since they designed Word to work this way. I cannot think of any logical reason for it. Obviously if you made a caption for a picture, the caption should move with the picture. But it doesn’t.

But here’s the fix.

Before inserting the picture, you just insert a 1×1 table:

Then, you put the cursor inside the table and insert the picture there.

Then you add the caption.

By default, the table’s borders will be visible in the document. If you don’t want that, you can right click on the table and choose Table Properties – Borders and Shading and choose “none”. When you do that, anyone reading the document would not even know a table is there – they will just see the picture and the caption.

So now you have a table, with your picture inside the table, and the caption under the picture. If you want to move the picture somewhere else in the document, you don’t move the picture – you move the table. And whatever is inside the table (the picture AND the caption) just comes right along with it!

It’s unfortunate that we have to create workarounds like this just to make a Word document appear like we want it to appear, but that’s the way it is. At least this particular problem is solved.

The post How to move captions with pictures in MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Word captions — How to move captions with pictures in MS Word Dec 25, 2017
If you use Word and sometimes put pictures and captions in your documents, you will probably find today’s tip helpful. Sometimes when you have a picture and a caption in Word, and you try to move the picture, the caption doesn’t get moved like you would expect it to. Here’s how to fix that (and thanks to reader Marloes for suggesting this as a tip).

Here’s a little background, if you’re not familiar with this.

Let’s say I have a blank Word document, and I put in a picture of my dog, Fenway:

I can right-click on the picture to get a menu, and you can see that one of the options is that I can “Insert Caption”:

So I do that and type in his name, and now my picture has a caption:

But here’s the problem. If I decide later on, maybe after I’ve typed up 10 pages in this document, that I want to move that picture to a different spot, it doesn’t work properly. I can drag that picture wherever I want it to go, but the caption still stays back in its original place. Why is that? That’s a good question to ask Microsoft, since they designed Word to work this way. I cannot think of any logical reason for it. Obviously if you made a caption for a picture, the caption should move with the picture. But it doesn’t.

But here’s the fix.

Before inserting the picture, you just insert a 1×1 table:

Then, you put the cursor inside the table and insert the picture there.

Then you add the caption.

By default, the table’s borders will be visible in the document. If you don’t want that, you can right click on the table and choose Table Properties – Borders and Shading and choose “none”. When you do that, anyone reading the document would not even know a table is there – they will just see the picture and the caption.

So now you have a table, with your picture inside the table, and the caption under the picture. If you want to move the picture somewhere else in the document, you don’t move the picture – you move the table. And whatever is inside the table (the picture AND the caption) just comes right along with it!

It’s unfortunate that we have to create workarounds like this just to make a Word document appear like we want it to appear, but that’s the way it is. At least this particular problem is solved.

The post How to move captions with pictures in MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

view fonts — How to display all your font samples in one place Dec 18, 2017
Today’s tip comes from a question I got recently:

Is there a simple way to type a single word and have it list the font name and display the word, so you have a sample of all your font styles? Thanks – Stephen

Yes, Stephen, that is possible!

A few years ago I did this in MS Word, the hard way. I typed out the alphabet and the numbers 0 through 9 in a Word document, then copied and pasted it so I had that same set of characters displayed like 60 times. Each one was on its own line.

Then I went back to the first one, highlighted it, and changed the font to the first font in the list. Then I went to the second one and changed that one to the second font in the list. I went through that process for every line, so that I could see all of my fonts displayed in the same place. What a pain that was! But I only had to do it once, then I printed that multi-page document and kept it around for handy reference.

I don’t need to go through that time-consuming process any more, and neither do you. Let your computer do this work for you, like it’s supposed to!

You do this through a little piece of software called FontViewOK. You can download it free, here. When you are at that page, be sure to click on this link to download it:

If you’re not using an ad blocker (and why aren’t you??) you’ll see a few fake “download” buttons and links so be careful.

When you have the .zip file downloaded, double click to open it. When you see the file inside called “FontViewOK.exe”, just click and drag that to your desktop. That’s it – there’s nothing to install.

Now you have this icon on your desktop:

Just double click that to run it. When the window opens, you can type the alphabet or anything you want into this field:

You also have the option of formatting the text like italic, bold, etc. You can also control the size of the font being displayed, but it defaults at 48 and I thought that was a pretty good size.

The end result is that you have a scrollable list of all your fonts showing whatever text you typed in the sample box:

And it’s handy to have the actual name of the font right under the words in that font.

If you click “FontViewOK” at the top of the window, you’ll see you also have the option to print that whole thing.

For mine, I have 208 installed fonts so it would have been a 19 page printed document. I declined to do that, but you might want to have a printed copy for easy reference.

And why would this program have an option at the top that says “Coffee”? Because it’s free for you to use. But if you get some use from it and want to thank the software developer, a man named Nenad in Germany. You can click the “Coffee” button and it will take you to a purchase page where you can send a few dollars to buy Nenad a cup of coffee.

Nenad and his son

Nenad has actually created quite a few cool little Windows programs like this one. You can see all of them listed at the home page of his website: http://www.softwareok.com/

The post How to display all your font samples in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

FontView OK download — How to display all your font samples in one place Dec 18, 2017
Today’s tip comes from a question I got recently:

Is there a simple way to type a single word and have it list the font name and display the word, so you have a sample of all your font styles? Thanks – Stephen

Yes, Stephen, that is possible!

A few years ago I did this in MS Word, the hard way. I typed out the alphabet and the numbers 0 through 9 in a Word document, then copied and pasted it so I had that same set of characters displayed like 60 times. Each one was on its own line.

Then I went back to the first one, highlighted it, and changed the font to the first font in the list. Then I went to the second one and changed that one to the second font in the list. I went through that process for every line, so that I could see all of my fonts displayed in the same place. What a pain that was! But I only had to do it once, then I printed that multi-page document and kept it around for handy reference.

I don’t need to go through that time-consuming process any more, and neither do you. Let your computer do this work for you, like it’s supposed to!

You do this through a little piece of software called FontViewOK. You can download it free, here. When you are at that page, be sure to click on this link to download it:

If you’re not using an ad blocker (and why aren’t you??) you’ll see a few fake “download” buttons and links so be careful.

When you have the .zip file downloaded, double click to open it. When you see the file inside called “FontViewOK.exe”, just click and drag that to your desktop. That’s it – there’s nothing to install.

Now you have this icon on your desktop:

Just double click that to run it. When the window opens, you can type the alphabet or anything you want into this field:

You also have the option of formatting the text like italic, bold, etc. You can also control the size of the font being displayed, but it defaults at 48 and I thought that was a pretty good size.

The end result is that you have a scrollable list of all your fonts showing whatever text you typed in the sample box:

And it’s handy to have the actual name of the font right under the words in that font.

If you click “FontViewOK” at the top of the window, you’ll see you also have the option to print that whole thing.

For mine, I have 208 installed fonts so it would have been a 19 page printed document. I declined to do that, but you might want to have a printed copy for easy reference.

And why would this program have an option at the top that says “Coffee”? Because it’s free for you to use. But if you get some use from it and want to thank the software developer, a man named Nenad in Germany. You can click the “Coffee” button and it will take you to a purchase page where you can send a few dollars to buy Nenad a cup of coffee.

Nenad and his son

Nenad has actually created quite a few cool little Windows programs like this one. You can see all of them listed at the home page of his website: http://www.softwareok.com/

The post How to display all your font samples in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Bitcoin — How to get started with Bitcoin Dec 11, 2017
In my podcast a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Bitcoin just in passing, and I had some listener inquiries about it. Obviously it’s been in the news quite a bit recently, and some people are asking about what it is, how it works, and how someone can actually purchase it. So today I’ll provide on overview, and some resources you might find helpful.

First things first: This post is not being offered as investment advice. I am not an investment or cryptocurrency expert and this article is presented without any legal or financial recommendation or advice. All investments have a certain level of risk, and you can lose money.

As you might imagine, a discussion about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency has the potential to get VERY technical. That’s not what I do here and it’s not my intention. The idea with today’s blog post and podcast is to present the basics and answer the most common questions, then if you want to pursue more in-depth research I’ll provide some resources for that.

Interesting story: If you had purchased $10 worth of Bitcoin back in July 2010, and kept it until today, do you know what it would be worth now? $2.1 million. That’s over two million US dollars that you would have right now, for a $10 investment. You know what they say, hindsight is 20/20.

What is Bitcoin?

In simple terminology, Bitcoin is currency that is digital rather than physical. It is decentralized, so transactions can take place using Bitcoin without the need for a bank, and without the need for a government and politicians to create and regulate the money.

Here’s a video that gives a simple explanation in 3 minutes:

https://youtu.be/gi_AbgkCYfc

How do I get Bitcoin?

That’s the big question. Bitcoin is obviously very popular now, so everyone is asking, “How can I get some?”. Basically there are 3 ways you can get Bitcoin:

You can buy it from a person, or by creating an account with an online exchange. Create your account and connect a credit card or a checking account, and you can purchase Bitcoin using US dollars or whatever your local currency is.

You can earn it. If you’re a business, you could tell your customer base that they can now pay you for your products and services in Bitcoin, rather than your traditional local currency.

You can “mine” it. This means you can set up a computer that’s dedicated to solving complex cryptographic problems and finding bitcoins that way. With lots of people now doing this, and some people or companies set up dozens or hundreds of computers for this purpose, this can still be profitable but requires a little more technical expertise. It is doable though (if you’re interested in mining, I invite you to join my Facebook group “Custom Mining Rigs” here).

There are actually even Bitcoin ATMs located in certain areas. You put in cash, you get Bitcoins in return.

Interesting story: In the early days, Bitcoin had very little value and only a very few people had even heard of it. It was kind of a “geek” thing. So there was this computer programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz who owned some Bitcoins, and on May 22, 2010 he purchased two Papa John’s pizzas from a fellow programmer for 10,000 of them. At the time, that translated into about $25 US dollars. Today, it would be around $110 million – making those two pizzas probably the most expensive pizzas in history. And May 22 is still known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.

Is it risky?

Yes. It is risky. There are people saying that the Bitcoin bubble is about to burst. And others are saying Bitcoin will continue to increase in value, with the value of a single Bitcoin hitting $50k or $100k within the next year or two (it’s currently around $12,000). The truth is, no one really knows. As with any purchase, don’t risk more than you can afford to lose. But the returns so far have been incredible.

There are people that play the ups and downs and try to time their purchases to buy Bitcoin when it dips slightly, then sell when it skyrockets. To me, that’s a very high-stress method. Those guys spend every minute of the day watching graphs go up and down and hoping they guess correctly.

Then there are others who just buy and hold. Just purchase a certain amount on a regular basis, on the assumption that it will continue to go up over time. This strategy has made some people Bitcoin millionaires. Again, whatever method you choose, understand the risks involved.

Interesting story: James Howells is another name that is significant in the history of Bitcoin. He was one of the people who used his computer to “mine” Bitcoin. Remember, since Bitcoin is digital, you can actually store it on your computer’s hard drive. But if that drive dies or gets destroyed, the Bitcoins are gone. Howells mined about 7500 coins, and eventually stopped because his girlfriend at the time didn’t like the constant sound of the computer running. He pulled the hard drive out of that computer and put it in a drawer and kind of forgot about it. A few years later, he mistakenly threw it into a general waste bin at his local landfill. That was in 2013, so that hard drive is still there, but with more than 4 years of trash that’s been dumped on top of it. If that hard drive ever gets found, it’s currently worth over $100 million.

How do I get started?

The easiest way to get started with Bitcoin is to open an account at an exchange called Coinbase (here). This is the service that I use, and it’s the only one I know of that actually has your funds insured. That link is an affiliate/bonus link, which means that when you buy or sell $100 worth of a Bitcoin, you and I each get $10 worth of Bitcoin as a bonus.

Set up your account, and then at least connect a credit card to it to provide the funding. You’ll start with a fairly low daily transactions limit, like $250 or $500 maybe. That’s fine for getting started. If you want to connect your regular checking account with your Coinbase account, your trading limit will be higher from the start.

Once that is in place, buy some Bitcoin. $100, $200 worth, or whatever you’re comfortable with. You’ll see that Coinbase has a couple of other currencies available to purchase – Ethereum and Litecoin. I own some of those too, and they have also had great returns just like Bitcoin has. So you can buy just one or all three if you want, and watch as they change value each day. It’s kind of fun to watch, as long as you aren’t betting your rent money or something stupid like that.

Is Bitcoin really legitimate?

You’ll have to decide that for yourself. But more and more major companies are adopting Bitcoin as one of the payment options to purchase goods and services. Here are some:

Wikipedia (donations)

Intuit (Quickbooks)

Dish Network

Subway (some locations)

Newegg (online retailer)

Etsy (some sellers)

Square (point of sale company)

Express VPN

PureVPN

Expedia (travel)

CheapAir (travel)

Virgin Galactic (space travel)

Overstock

eGifter (gift cards)

Mint.com (online budgeting tool)

Harvard and MIT campus stores

Evermore Health (health and fitness)

Microsoft (you’ve probably heard of them)

And I will also accept Bitcoin as payment for my own computer services.

What are some good resources to learn more?

One thing to keep in mind – there’s a lot of good information out there, and a lot of really bad information. And a lot of scams. It seems like the nature of cryptocurrency just invites in the scammers. Do your research and stay safe.

Coinbase – This is a user-friendly site to purchase Bitcoin using your local currency such as US dollars.

Binance (affiliate link) – This is the site I use to purchase other cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin. If you want to diversify, or you want to try making some quick money by trading, this is a good site to use.

Custom Mining Rigs – this is the Facebook group I just started for people interested in mining for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

My Crypto Guide – This is a great site for a more in-depth discussion of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how they work. Starts with an overview, then goes into all of the specific topics. I particularly like chapter 4, where the author describes several of the most popular coins, and the pros and cons of each one.

CoinDesk – This is a pretty good news site, with probably all relevant news you’ll need to keep up with what’s going on in the crypto world. Very visual. Kind of reminds me of MSN but without the overwhelming ads and idiotic celebrity news. I guess I can’t comment about the ads since I use an ad blocker and wouldn’t see them anyway.

Crypto 101 podcast – This podcast just started this past July but has already made a good name for itself as a place to learn the basics. You might want to go back and listen to some of the earlier episodes for some good “starting out” information.

There are lots of other good ones, but these are the ones I like the best.

And one other thing. As you read some of these online sites and maybe join some Bitcoin Facebook groups, you might notice something that doesn’t seem to make sense. In general, there are two types of investors. Those who like to trade a lot and try to grab profits, and those that like to just buy and hold for the long term. But what you’ll see are people saying they are planning to “buy and HODL” (an intentional misspelling).

A few years ago, someone posted a message in a Bitcoin forum and said he was going to “buy and hodl”, then he saw the typo and re-typed it and made the same typo again. So he just left it. For some reason, people found it humorous so now a lot of people in the Bitcoin world type “hodl”. Personally, I think it’s just stupid. I mean, it wasn’t even amusing the first time so how can it be funny when you see it hundreds of times? But everyone’s different and some people still seem to get a kick out of it, so whatever.

So that’s hopefully enough information to get you started down the road to investing in Bitcoin or other coins, if that’s a journey you want to take. Who knows, maybe we’ll be millionaires in cryptocurrency someday!

The post How to get started with Bitcoin first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How to get started with Bitcoin Dec 11, 2017
In my podcast a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Bitcoin just in passing, and I had some listener inquiries about it. Obviously it’s been in the news quite a bit recently, and some people are asking about what it is, how it works, and how someone can actually purchase it. So today I’ll provide on overview, and some resources you might find helpful.

First things first: This post is not being offered as investment advice. I am not an investment or cryptocurrency expert and this article is presented without any legal or financial recommendation or advice. All investments have a certain level of risk, and you can lose money.

As you might imagine, a discussion about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency has the potential to get VERY technical. That’s not what I do here and it’s not my intention. The idea with today’s blog post and podcast is to present the basics and answer the most common questions, then if you want to pursue more in-depth research I’ll provide some resources for that.

Interesting story: If you had purchased $10 worth of Bitcoin back in July 2010, and kept it until today, do you know what it would be worth now? $2.1 million. That’s over two million US dollars that you would have right now, for a $10 investment. You know what they say, hindsight is 20/20.

What is Bitcoin?

In simple terminology, Bitcoin is currency that is digital rather than physical. It is decentralized, so transactions can take place using Bitcoin without the need for a bank, and without the need for a government and politicians to create and regulate the money.

Here’s a video that gives a simple explanation in 3 minutes:

https://youtu.be/gi_AbgkCYfc

How do I get Bitcoin?

That’s the big question. Bitcoin is obviously very popular now, so everyone is asking, “How can I get some?”. Basically there are 3 ways you can get Bitcoin:

You can buy it from a person, or by creating an account with an online exchange. Create your account and connect a credit card or a checking account, and you can purchase Bitcoin using US dollars or whatever your local currency is.

You can earn it. If you’re a business, you could tell your customer base that they can now pay you for your products and services in Bitcoin, rather than your traditional local currency.

You can “mine” it. This means you can set up a computer that’s dedicated to solving complex cryptographic problems and finding bitcoins that way. With lots of people now doing this, and some people or companies set up dozens or hundreds of computers for this purpose, this can still be profitable but requires a little more technical expertise. It is doable though (if you’re interested in mining, I invite you to join my Facebook group “Custom Mining Rigs” here).

There are actually even Bitcoin ATMs located in certain areas. You put in cash, you get Bitcoins in return.

Interesting story: In the early days, Bitcoin had very little value and only a very few people had even heard of it. It was kind of a “geek” thing. So there was this computer programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz who owned some Bitcoins, and on May 22, 2010 he purchased two Papa John’s pizzas from a fellow programmer for 10,000 of them. At the time, that translated into about $25 US dollars. Today, it would be around $110 million – making those two pizzas probably the most expensive pizzas in history. And May 22 is still known as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.

Is it risky?

Yes. It is risky. There are people saying that the Bitcoin bubble is about to burst. And others are saying Bitcoin will continue to increase in value, with the value of a single Bitcoin hitting $50k or $100k within the next year or two (it’s currently around $12,000). The truth is, no one really knows. As with any purchase, don’t risk more than you can afford to lose. But the returns so far have been incredible.

There are people that play the ups and downs and try to time their purchases to buy Bitcoin when it dips slightly, then sell when it skyrockets. To me, that’s a very high-stress method. Those guys spend every minute of the day watching graphs go up and down and hoping they guess correctly.

Then there are others who just buy and hold. Just purchase a certain amount on a regular basis, on the assumption that it will continue to go up over time. This strategy has made some people Bitcoin millionaires. Again, whatever method you choose, understand the risks involved.

Interesting story: James Howells is another name that is significant in the history of Bitcoin. He was one of the people who used his computer to “mine” Bitcoin. Remember, since Bitcoin is digital, you can actually store it on your computer’s hard drive. But if that drive dies or gets destroyed, the Bitcoins are gone. Howells mined about 7500 coins, and eventually stopped because his girlfriend at the time didn’t like the constant sound of the computer running. He pulled the hard drive out of that computer and put it in a drawer and kind of forgot about it. A few years later, he mistakenly threw it into a general waste bin at his local landfill. That was in 2013, so that hard drive is still there, but with more than 4 years of trash that’s been dumped on top of it. If that hard drive ever gets found, it’s currently worth over $100 million.

How do I get started?

The easiest way to get started with Bitcoin is to open an account at an exchange called Coinbase (here). This is the service that I use, and it’s the only one I know of that actually has your funds insured. That link is an affiliate/bonus link, which means that when you buy or sell $100 worth of a Bitcoin, you and I each get $10 worth of Bitcoin as a bonus.

Set up your account, and then at least connect a credit card to it to provide the funding. You’ll start with a fairly low daily transactions limit, like $250 or $500 maybe. That’s fine for getting started. If you want to connect your regular checking account with your Coinbase account, your trading limit will be higher from the start.

Once that is in place, buy some Bitcoin. $100, $200 worth, or whatever you’re comfortable with. You’ll see that Coinbase has a couple of other currencies available to purchase – Ethereum and Litecoin. I own some of those too, and they have also had great returns just like Bitcoin has. So you can buy just one or all three if you want, and watch as they change value each day. It’s kind of fun to watch, as long as you aren’t betting your rent money or something stupid like that.

Is Bitcoin really legitimate?

You’ll have to decide that for yourself. But more and more major companies are adopting Bitcoin as one of the payment options to purchase goods and services. Here are some:

Wikipedia (donations)

Intuit (Quickbooks)

Dish Network

Subway (some locations)

Newegg (online retailer)

Etsy (some sellers)

Square (point of sale company)

Express VPN

PureVPN

Expedia (travel)

CheapAir (travel)

Virgin Galactic (space travel)

Overstock

eGifter (gift cards)

Mint.com (online budgeting tool)

Harvard and MIT campus stores

Evermore Health (health and fitness)

Microsoft (you’ve probably heard of them)

And I will also accept Bitcoin as payment for my own computer services.

What are some good resources to learn more?

One thing to keep in mind – there’s a lot of good information out there, and a lot of really bad information. And a lot of scams. It seems like the nature of cryptocurrency just invites in the scammers. Do your research and stay safe.

Coinbase – This is a user-friendly site to purchase Bitcoin using your local currency such as US dollars.

Binance (affiliate link) – This is the site I use to purchase other cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin. If you want to diversify, or you want to try making some quick money by trading, this is a good site to use.

Custom Mining Rigs – this is the Facebook group I just started for people interested in mining for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

My Crypto Guide – This is a great site for a more in-depth discussion of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how they work. Starts with an overview, then goes into all of the specific topics. I particularly like chapter 4, where the author describes several of the most popular coins, and the pros and cons of each one.

CoinDesk – This is a pretty good news site, with probably all relevant news you’ll need to keep up with what’s going on in the crypto world. Very visual. Kind of reminds me of MSN but without the overwhelming ads and idiotic celebrity news. I guess I can’t comment about the ads since I use an ad blocker and wouldn’t see them anyway.

Crypto 101 podcast – This podcast just started this past July but has already made a good name for itself as a place to learn the basics. You might want to go back and listen to some of the earlier episodes for some good “starting out” information.

There are lots of other good ones, but these are the ones I like the best.

And one other thing. As you read some of these online sites and maybe join some Bitcoin Facebook groups, you might notice something that doesn’t seem to make sense. In general, there are two types of investors. Those who like to trade a lot and try to grab profits, and those that like to just buy and hold for the long term. But what you’ll see are people saying they are planning to “buy and HODL” (an intentional misspelling).

A few years ago, someone posted a message in a Bitcoin forum and said he was going to “buy and hodl”, then he saw the typo and re-typed it and made the same typo again. So he just left it. For some reason, people found it humorous so now a lot of people in the Bitcoin world type “hodl”. Personally, I think it’s just stupid. I mean, it wasn’t even amusing the first time so how can it be funny when you see it hundreds of times? But everyone’s different and some people still seem to get a kick out of it, so whatever.

So that’s hopefully enough information to get you started down the road to investing in Bitcoin or other coins, if that’s a journey you want to take. Who knows, maybe we’ll be millionaires in cryptocurrency someday!

The post How to get started with Bitcoin first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome font size — How to change the font size when viewing websites Dec 04, 2017
It’s the weirdest thing – as I get older, a lot of websites have decided to make their print size smaller and more difficult to read. So rude of them! But in Chrome (and Firefox), I have the option to make the words bigger.

I get this request fairly often from clients. Sometimes they think they’ve figured out how to do it themselves. But that’s only temporary.

They’ll open Chrome, click on the 3 dots, and spot the menu item that says “Zoom” with a percentage next to it. They’ll adjust it to 125% or 150% which makes everything on the page larger (including any images), and it all looks great. Problem solved, right? No – it only changes the appearance of that one website. When a different website is opened, it will be reset back to the standard 100% and everything is back to small size again.

But you CAN adjust the size of what you see on the screen, and have it stay that way for every website you open with Chrome. You just have to get into the Settings section.

So you need to click on the 3 dots in the top right, then click on Settings.

Scroll down a little to the “Appearance” section and you’ll see a couple of places where you can make this adjustment:

If you want, you can change just the font size. The options are:

very small

small

medium

large

very large

So you can experiment with it, and see which one you like the best. For some people, this is the only adjustment needed. If you’re reading a blog, or an online article, or your Facebook news feed, you might only need for the text itself to be larger. This will solve that problem.

The other option you can see listed is page zoom. You can zoom out (meaning everything on the web page gets smaller) or you can zoom in (everything gets larger). Again, this is something you can experiment with to see how you like it. You have options ranging from 25% of the normal size, all the way up to 500%.

Once you have these things set to your preference, just close the Settings tab (there’s no “Save” button to lock in your choices). Now you can close Chrome, or even restart your computer, and when you come back you will still have those Font Size and Page Zoom settings the way you like them.

And what if you’re using Firefox and need to make these adjustments? You have the option there as well, although it works a little differently.

For page zoom, you can click on the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner, and in the menu that drops down you’ll see Page Zoom percentage options. You can change the settings here, but you can only change this on a page-by-page basis. So if you want to adjust Page Zoom on a different website, you’ll have to go to that website and make the same adjustment.

For font size, you can make that change and have it in effect for ANY websites you visit. Just click the 3 horizontal lines, then click Options. Scroll down to the “Language and Appearance” section and choose the font size you want:

For both Chrome and Firefox, you also have the option to change the actual font (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.). I wouldn’t recommend this in most cases, unless the font being used by the website makes the text too difficult to read.

The post How to change the font size when viewing websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome font size — How to change the font size when viewing websites Dec 04, 2017
It’s the weirdest thing – as I get older, a lot of websites have decided to make their print size smaller and more difficult to read. So rude of them! But in Chrome (and Firefox), I have the option to make the words bigger.

I get this request fairly often from clients. Sometimes they think they’ve figured out how to do it themselves. But that’s only temporary.

They’ll open Chrome, click on the 3 dots, and spot the menu item that says “Zoom” with a percentage next to it. They’ll adjust it to 125% or 150% which makes everything on the page larger (including any images), and it all looks great. Problem solved, right? No – it only changes the appearance of that one website. When a different website is opened, it will be reset back to the standard 100% and everything is back to small size again.

But you CAN adjust the size of what you see on the screen, and have it stay that way for every website you open with Chrome. You just have to get into the Settings section.

So you need to click on the 3 dots in the top right, then click on Settings.

Scroll down a little to the “Appearance” section and you’ll see a couple of places where you can make this adjustment:

If you want, you can change just the font size. The options are:

very small

small

medium

large

very large

So you can experiment with it, and see which one you like the best. For some people, this is the only adjustment needed. If you’re reading a blog, or an online article, or your Facebook news feed, you might only need for the text itself to be larger. This will solve that problem.

The other option you can see listed is page zoom. You can zoom out (meaning everything on the web page gets smaller) or you can zoom in (everything gets larger). Again, this is something you can experiment with to see how you like it. You have options ranging from 25% of the normal size, all the way up to 500%.

Once you have these things set to your preference, just close the Settings tab (there’s no “Save” button to lock in your choices). Now you can close Chrome, or even restart your computer, and when you come back you will still have those Font Size and Page Zoom settings the way you like them.

And what if you’re using Firefox and need to make these adjustments? You have the option there as well, although it works a little differently.

For page zoom, you can click on the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner, and in the menu that drops down you’ll see Page Zoom percentage options. You can change the settings here, but you can only change this on a page-by-page basis. So if you want to adjust Page Zoom on a different website, you’ll have to go to that website and make the same adjustment.

For font size, you can make that change and have it in effect for ANY websites you visit. Just click the 3 horizontal lines, then click Options. Scroll down to the “Language and Appearance” section and choose the font size you want:

For both Chrome and Firefox, you also have the option to change the actual font (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.). I wouldn’t recommend this in most cases, unless the font being used by the website makes the text too difficult to read.

The post How to change the font size when viewing websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Firefox Quantum — The new Firefox – better than Chrome? Nov 27, 2017
For quite a while, Firefox was my default browser. I’ve been using Chrome as my default for several years now and I really like it. But the new super-fast version of Firefox might be tempting.

When your Firefox gets upgraded to the new version (version 57) this is the message you’ll get on the screen from Chris Beard (CEO of Mozilla, the company that creates and distributes Firefox);

What are the pros and cons for using the new Firefox?

PROS:

First, it’s just faster. I have not run any scientific side-by-side tests comparing the speed to older versions of Firefox, but it’s clear to me that the new Quantum is absolutely, noticeably faster. I have Firefox set to open a certain set of websites (11 sites, each one in its own tab). Until now, I’ve waited for all those pages to load each time so I know about how long it takes. Now, it takes much less time. You’ll notice the difference.

Second, it uses less memory. This means if you’re running Firefox with a bunch of tabs open, it won’t slow down the other programs running on your computer. The developers claim that Firefox Quantum uses 30% less memory than Chrome uses (I have not verified that claim).

Third, it just looks cool. The new Firefox has a new design that leans toward “minimalistic” which I like. But it’s more than just a change in the appearance. With the newer displays using high-resolution, this Firefox works better and appears “crisper” on the screen.

CONS:

Some extensions might not work. I have a client who loves an extension that puts her bookmarks in 3 rows right there at the top of the screen. With the new Firefox, that no longer works. On the other hand, some extensions that did not work previously with Firefox might work with the new version.

I recently wrote about QClean, a browser extension that blocks Facebook ads (such as Sponsored Posts). At the time, that extension worked fine in Chrome but not in Firefox. But it works in the new Firefox. And a lot of developers are working on getting their extensions updated so they too will work going forward with Firefox.

There are other changes that add new benefits (such as the new “Library” feature, and the built-in ability to take screenshots) which add to the allure of Firefox Quantum. Are these changes enough to lure me away from Chrome and change my default browser to Firefox? The jury is still out on that, but I definitely like these new changes.

You can get Firefox (free of course) here: getfirefox.com

The post The new Firefox – better than Chrome? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Firefox Quantum — The new Firefox – better than Chrome? Nov 27, 2017
For quite a while, Firefox was my default browser. I’ve been using Chrome as my default for several years now and I really like it. But the new super-fast version of Firefox might be tempting.

When your Firefox gets upgraded to the new version (version 57) this is the message you’ll get on the screen from Chris Beard (CEO of Mozilla, the company that creates and distributes Firefox);

What are the pros and cons for using the new Firefox?

PROS:

First, it’s just faster. I have not run any scientific side-by-side tests comparing the speed to older versions of Firefox, but it’s clear to me that the new Quantum is absolutely, noticeably faster. I have Firefox set to open a certain set of websites (11 sites, each one in its own tab). Until now, I’ve waited for all those pages to load each time so I know about how long it takes. Now, it takes much less time. You’ll notice the difference.

Second, it uses less memory. This means if you’re running Firefox with a bunch of tabs open, it won’t slow down the other programs running on your computer. The developers claim that Firefox Quantum uses 30% less memory than Chrome uses (I have not verified that claim).

Third, it just looks cool. The new Firefox has a new design that leans toward “minimalistic” which I like. But it’s more than just a change in the appearance. With the newer displays using high-resolution, this Firefox works better and appears “crisper” on the screen.

CONS:

Some extensions might not work. I have a client who loves an extension that puts her bookmarks in 3 rows right there at the top of the screen. With the new Firefox, that no longer works. On the other hand, some extensions that did not work previously with Firefox might work with the new version.

I recently wrote about QClean, a browser extension that blocks Facebook ads (such as Sponsored Posts). At the time, that extension worked fine in Chrome but not in Firefox. But it works in the new Firefox. And a lot of developers are working on getting their extensions updated so they too will work going forward with Firefox.

There are other changes that add new benefits (such as the new “Library” feature, and the built-in ability to take screenshots) which add to the allure of Firefox Quantum. Are these changes enough to lure me away from Chrome and change my default browser to Firefox? The jury is still out on that, but I definitely like these new changes.

You can get Firefox (free of course) here: getfirefox.com

The post The new Firefox – better than Chrome? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Western Union — Scam victims can get some of their money back Nov 20, 2017
I write about scams fairly frequently on this blog. Sometimes it’s because of a new one I’ve just heard about, and I want to warn my readers to be aware of it and not get taken. In some cases, it’s because I’ve just had to deal with a client who has become the most recent victim and lost money or had their computer compromised or infected. Those stories don’t usually have a happy ending. But today, I’m writing with some good news.

With a lot of scams, there is one common element: Western Union. When a scammer wants you to send money, there are a lot of different reasons they come up with but usually only one method, which is Western Union. When you send money to someone via Western Union, it’s pretty much the same as handing over cash. There is no identity tracking to determine who got the money, so after you pay the money and then later on realize you’ve been scammed, you have no recourse to try to get your money back. It’s just gone.

Until now.

It appears that Western Union was at least partially at fault. They received “hundreds of thousands” of complaints about money transfers related to fraudulent lottery schemes, fake family emergencies, advance-fee loans, online dating and other scams. In spite of being aware of these things, they failed to act. They also failed to discipline problem agents, and they failed to have effective anti-fraud policies. In the face of all that evidence, Western Union has settled with the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to pay $586 million to victims that file a claim.

Here’s a summary of how the claim process works:

So if you were a victim of a scam and lost money by using Western Union, be sure to file your claim. You start this process at FTC.gov/WU and just follow the instructions there. Don’t procrastinate, because your claim must be filed by February 12, 2018.

Some people are asking, “What if I don’t have any documentation proving I was scammed?” This would not necessarily be that unusual, since the scammers don’t typically provide a lot of paperwork for a trail. And the scam may have happened years ago, so you might not still have copies of those old emails that went back and forth. File your claim anyway, and provide as many details as you possibly can. Even without documentation, the Department of Justice will try to verify your claim, and if they do, you could get some money back.

Now here’s an interesting little twist. This settlement will probably result in a NEW scam. Obviously, anyone filing a claim in this situation, by definition is someone that has been scammed before. The scammers know this and will be counting on the possibility that those people are still susceptible to being scammed again – so these crooks will be offering to “help” in the claim process by filing the claim on the behalf of the victim – for a fee, of course. Don’t pay anyone to file the claim for you! Filing your claim is free and it’s not difficult, so don’t get scammed a second time.

You might not get back ALL the money you lost, and the money you do get back could take a year before you actually see a check. But it’s worth taking a minute to put in your claim. And hopefully Western Union will get its act together so this stops happening so frequently.

The post Scam victims can get some of their money back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Western Union claims — Scam victims can get some of their money back Nov 20, 2017
I write about scams fairly frequently on this blog. Sometimes it’s because of a new one I’ve just heard about, and I want to warn my readers to be aware of it and not get taken. In some cases, it’s because I’ve just had to deal with a client who has become the most recent victim and lost money or had their computer compromised or infected. Those stories don’t usually have a happy ending. But today, I’m writing with some good news.

With a lot of scams, there is one common element: Western Union. When a scammer wants you to send money, there are a lot of different reasons they come up with but usually only one method, which is Western Union. When you send money to someone via Western Union, it’s pretty much the same as handing over cash. There is no identity tracking to determine who got the money, so after you pay the money and then later on realize you’ve been scammed, you have no recourse to try to get your money back. It’s just gone.

Until now.

It appears that Western Union was at least partially at fault. They received “hundreds of thousands” of complaints about money transfers related to fraudulent lottery schemes, fake family emergencies, advance-fee loans, online dating and other scams. In spite of being aware of these things, they failed to act. They also failed to discipline problem agents, and they failed to have effective anti-fraud policies. In the face of all that evidence, Western Union has settled with the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to pay $586 million to victims that file a claim.

Here’s a summary of how the claim process works:

So if you were a victim of a scam and lost money by using Western Union, be sure to file your claim. You start this process at FTC.gov/WU and just follow the instructions there. Don’t procrastinate, because your claim must be filed by February 12, 2018.

Some people are asking, “What if I don’t have any documentation proving I was scammed?” This would not necessarily be that unusual, since the scammers don’t typically provide a lot of paperwork for a trail. And the scam may have happened years ago, so you might not still have copies of those old emails that went back and forth. File your claim anyway, and provide as many details as you possibly can. Even without documentation, the Department of Justice will try to verify your claim, and if they do, you could get some money back.

Now here’s an interesting little twist. This settlement will probably result in a NEW scam. Obviously, anyone filing a claim in this situation, by definition is someone that has been scammed before. The scammers know this and will be counting on the possibility that those people are still susceptible to being scammed again – so these crooks will be offering to “help” in the claim process by filing the claim on the behalf of the victim – for a fee, of course. Don’t pay anyone to file the claim for you! Filing your claim is free and it’s not difficult, so don’t get scammed a second time.

You might not get back ALL the money you lost, and the money you do get back could take a year before you actually see a check. But it’s worth taking a minute to put in your claim. And hopefully Western Union will get its act together so this stops happening so frequently.

The post Scam victims can get some of their money back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

download facebook videos — How to easily download Facebook videos to your computer Nov 13, 2017
Lots of people are posting videos on Facebook these days. Videos tend to catch a little more attention than a static photo, and a LOT more attention than a simple text post. What if you want to download someone’s video from Facebook and save it to your computer? In the past it was not very easy to do that, but now there’s a really easy way.

I’ve been downloading Facebook videos for a long time. In fact, that’s how I ended up with a video going viral a couple of years ago (seriously viral – way over 50 million views), which netted me over 14,000 followers on my Facebook profile page. That might be a good case study story for a future blog post (if it’s of interest, email me and let me know).

But back then, downloading a video from Facebook to your computer was complicated. You had to get the actual URL for the video, then change the URL so that it displayed the “mobile” view, then save the video to your computer. Not very intuitive.

Now you can get a video from Facebook much more easily, just by using a Chrome extension called “Facebook Video Downloader – Save FB Video”. At least that’s what I think it’s called (more on that in a minute).

Here’s how you do it. Using the Chrome browser, go to this website: https://fbvideodownload.space

Up in the top right corner of the page, click to add the Chrome extension:

Then you’ll see a little pop-up window to confirm, and you’ll click on the “Add extension” button.

Now if you look up in the top right corner, you have a new icon on your Chrome toolbar. It’s a blue circle:

What confuses me a little is that the creators of the extension seem like they couldn’t really decide what to call it. In the Chrome store, it’s called Facebook Video Downloader – Save FB Video. On the website, the title at the top of the page says Online Facebook Video Downloader. And if you just mouse-over that new icon on the Chrome toolbar, you’ll see Social Video Downloader. I guess they just don’t know about the concept of consistent branding.

Anyway, now you’re ready to download a video from Facebook. When you see a video on a friend’s page, nothing will look different – until you move your mouse over the video. When you do that, you’ll see a little “Download” button in the top right corner:

When you click that button, you’ll be taken back to the website where you got the extension, and you’ll see the name of the video. And just to the right of that, you’ll see a big green button that says “Download video in SD”:

So you just click that to download the video to your computer. NOTE: if you’re not using an ad blocker (and why in the world wouldn’t you be using an ad blocker??), be very careful because there will be ads that have a big green “Download” button. These are designed to trick you into clicking on that ad, rather than the actual Download button for the video.

As with all downloads in Chrome, it will show up in the bottom left corner of the browser window. You can open it there, or open the folder where it’s stored and move it to where you want it.

This particular extension does not have a version for Firefox (at least not that I could see). I’m pretty sure there is a similar extension for Firefox that would download videos though. There are others that work in Chrome as well, but this one works fine and is pretty easy to use so this is the one I’m sticking with (until it stops working anyway).

The post How to easily download Facebook videos to your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook videos extension — How to easily download Facebook videos to your computer Nov 13, 2017
Lots of people are posting videos on Facebook these days. Videos tend to catch a little more attention than a static photo, and a LOT more attention than a simple text post. What if you want to download someone’s video from Facebook and save it to your computer? In the past it was not very easy to do that, but now there’s a really easy way.

I’ve been downloading Facebook videos for a long time. In fact, that’s how I ended up with a video going viral a couple of years ago (seriously viral – way over 50 million views), which netted me over 14,000 followers on my Facebook profile page. That might be a good case study story for a future blog post (if it’s of interest, email me and let me know).

But back then, downloading a video from Facebook to your computer was complicated. You had to get the actual URL for the video, then change the URL so that it displayed the “mobile” view, then save the video to your computer. Not very intuitive.

Now you can get a video from Facebook much more easily, just by using a Chrome extension called “Facebook Video Downloader – Save FB Video”. At least that’s what I think it’s called (more on that in a minute).

Here’s how you do it. Using the Chrome browser, go to this website: https://fbvideodownload.space

Up in the top right corner of the page, click to add the Chrome extension:

Then you’ll see a little pop-up window to confirm, and you’ll click on the “Add extension” button.

Now if you look up in the top right corner, you have a new icon on your Chrome toolbar. It’s a blue circle:

What confuses me a little is that the creators of the extension seem like they couldn’t really decide what to call it. In the Chrome store, it’s called Facebook Video Downloader – Save FB Video. On the website, the title at the top of the page says Online Facebook Video Downloader. And if you just mouse-over that new icon on the Chrome toolbar, you’ll see Social Video Downloader. I guess they just don’t know about the concept of consistent branding.

Anyway, now you’re ready to download a video from Facebook. When you see a video on a friend’s page, nothing will look different – until you move your mouse over the video. When you do that, you’ll see a little “Download” button in the top right corner:

When you click that button, you’ll be taken back to the website where you got the extension, and you’ll see the name of the video. And just to the right of that, you’ll see a big green button that says “Download video in SD”:

So you just click that to download the video to your computer. NOTE: if you’re not using an ad blocker (and why in the world wouldn’t you be using an ad blocker??), be very careful because there will be ads that have a big green “Download” button. These are designed to trick you into clicking on that ad, rather than the actual Download button for the video.

As with all downloads in Chrome, it will show up in the bottom left corner of the browser window. You can open it there, or open the folder where it’s stored and move it to where you want it.

This particular extension does not have a version for Firefox (at least not that I could see). I’m pretty sure there is a similar extension for Firefox that would download videos though. There are others that work in Chrome as well, but this one works fine and is pretty easy to use so this is the one I’m sticking with (until it stops working anyway).

The post How to easily download Facebook videos to your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool websites — Some more cool websites you might like Nov 06, 2017
It’s that time again – today we’re featuring some websites I’ve come across recently that I think you might find useful or entertaining.

Fotoforensics
http://fotoforensics.com/

These days, you can’t really say for sure if a photo you’re looking at is the real thing, or if it’s been “doctored” with Photoshop or some other photo editing software. Well, at least you can’t be sure with just your human eyes. At the Fotoforensics website, you can upload a photo and have it analyzed for editing. Personally, I’m not really convinced of its accuracy. You be the judge.

The Hemingway Editor
http://hemingwayapp.com/

Great tool for writers. Helps you avoid bad sentence structure, weak phrases, mixed use of passive and active voices, etc. The site actually has a desktop app you can download so that it runs directly from your computer. From the site:

Family Watchdog
http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp

Ever wonder about your neighbors? Maybe not your next door or across-the-street neighbors, but what about those that are in your neighborhood but you don’t really know? If you’re concerned about where the registered sex offenders are living in your city, this is the site to check on. And believe me, when you put in your address or zip code, you’ll be surprised to see how many of them are living right there in your area.

Go Remote jobs
https://goremotejobs.com/

This site helps you find work that you can do from anywhere, simply because it is all digital. Think about it – no commute, flexible working hours, and you can live anywhere in the world you want to! Working remotely is not for everyone. You have to treat the business hours the same as if you were working for an employer. But if you have a skill that’s appropriate for it, you should consider doing it.

Soapbox for video creation
https://wistia.com/soapbox

Soapbox is a great little tool if you want to make “talking head” videos that look professional. You just install it as an extension for Chrome (it’s free). Record your video using the webcam built in to your laptop, edit it, and upload it to share with anyone who needs to see it. Watch the video on the home page of the site to get an overview of how it works.

Online Solitaire
http://www.solitairebliss.com/

Nothing too amazing here, but if you find yourself with an internet connection and some time to kill, this site offers you the Solitaire you are craving.

Awkward family photos
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Every family has them. The one photo, that when you’re looking back at it, makes you think “What were we thinking?”. This website is full of these awkward photos – some intentional, some not. Here’s one that the family thought was so funny they used it as a Christmas card.

Legal documents
https://www.wonder.legal/us/

What if you need a simple legal document, but you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars having an attorney draft it for you? That’s the idea behind this site. The document templates here actually WERE created by attorneys and legal experts (the website’s FAQ claims). You just answer the questions that need to be included in the document to make it specific to your use. It’s not a free service – the documents range in price from $1.99 to $19.99. Is this a substitute for a lawyer? No. But for some people and some situations it might be sufficient (and a lot less expensive).

Hacker Typer
http://hackertyper.com/

This one’s fun. Just go there and start typing. You’ll see.

The post Some more cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

fotoforensics — Some more cool websites you might like Nov 06, 2017
It’s that time again – today we’re featuring some websites I’ve come across recently that I think you might find useful or entertaining.

Fotoforensics
http://fotoforensics.com/

These days, you can’t really say for sure if a photo you’re looking at is the real thing, or if it’s been “doctored” with Photoshop or some other photo editing software. Well, at least you can’t be sure with just your human eyes. At the Fotoforensics website, you can upload a photo and have it analyzed for editing. Personally, I’m not really convinced of its accuracy. You be the judge.

The Hemingway Editor
http://hemingwayapp.com/

Great tool for writers. Helps you avoid bad sentence structure, weak phrases, mixed use of passive and active voices, etc. The site actually has a desktop app you can download so that it runs directly from your computer. From the site:

Family Watchdog
http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp

Ever wonder about your neighbors? Maybe not your next door or across-the-street neighbors, but what about those that are in your neighborhood but you don’t really know? If you’re concerned about where the registered sex offenders are living in your city, this is the site to check on. And believe me, when you put in your address or zip code, you’ll be surprised to see how many of them are living right there in your area.

Go Remote jobs
https://goremotejobs.com/

This site helps you find work that you can do from anywhere, simply because it is all digital. Think about it – no commute, flexible working hours, and you can live anywhere in the world you want to! Working remotely is not for everyone. You have to treat the business hours the same as if you were working for an employer. But if you have a skill that’s appropriate for it, you should consider doing it.

Soapbox for video creation
https://wistia.com/soapbox

Soapbox is a great little tool if you want to make “talking head” videos that look professional. You just install it as an extension for Chrome (it’s free). Record your video using the webcam built in to your laptop, edit it, and upload it to share with anyone who needs to see it. Watch the video on the home page of the site to get an overview of how it works.

Online Solitaire
http://www.solitairebliss.com/

Nothing too amazing here, but if you find yourself with an internet connection and some time to kill, this site offers you the Solitaire you are craving.

Awkward family photos
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Every family has them. The one photo, that when you’re looking back at it, makes you think “What were we thinking?”. This website is full of these awkward photos – some intentional, some not. Here’s one that the family thought was so funny they used it as a Christmas card.

Legal documents
https://www.wonder.legal/us/

What if you need a simple legal document, but you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars having an attorney draft it for you? That’s the idea behind this site. The document templates here actually WERE created by attorneys and legal experts (the website’s FAQ claims). You just answer the questions that need to be included in the document to make it specific to your use. It’s not a free service – the documents range in price from $1.99 to $19.99. Is this a substitute for a lawyer? No. But for some people and some situations it might be sufficient (and a lot less expensive).

Hacker Typer
http://hackertyper.com/

This one’s fun. Just go there and start typing. You’ll see.

The post Some more cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

offerup — This classified ads service is better than Craigslist Oct 30, 2017
Everyone knows Craigslist as “the” online classified ads site. It’s been around forever. But now there are other options so we’re not stuck with the limitations of Craigslist anymore. The site I really like is called OfferUp.

You can use OfferUp from your computer (just go to offerup.com) but it’s really designed to be used from your phone. That’s what makes it so incredibly easy and fast to use, whenever you want to sell something.

From your phone (Android or iPhone) get the OfferUp app, then just follow these steps in the app:

Click on Post

Choose a picture to display (you can use up to 5 pictures). You can either take a picture with your phone right then and use it, or select from pictures that are already on your phone.

Write the title, like “full size mattress, great condition”

Write the description and selling price

Click “Post” and your ad is live

So simple!

And a lot better (in my opinion anyway) than Craigslist. Here’s why I say that:

– OfferUp has a much more modern user interface. If you look at the Craigslist website, you’ll see that it is using the same boring format that was there when it was originally created.

– When you post on OfferUp, the item for sale is immediately live. With Craigslist, it’s usually at least 15 minutes before it shows up in searches. And sometimes when Craigslist “ghosts” your ad, it NEVER shows up. And they don’t contact you to tell you that.

– OfferUp has user ratings. This is one of my pet peeves about Craigslist – when I set a time to meet someone who is either selling something, or buying something from me, at least half the time the other person just doesn’t show up. Even people that email and say “I’m on my way now” somehow never make it to the meeting spot and don’t call or email to say they won’t be there. With OfferUp, if someone does that, you can include that information in the rating/review so that other people will know about it before they decide to deal with this person. When someone knows their reputation is at stake, they are probably going to act more responsibly. Craigslist has no user rating system and both parties can remain anonymous if they want to).

– OfferUp has it’s own messaging system, built right into the app. This is very convenient. Craigslist still relies on its antiquated “anonymous email” process.

– With Craigslist you cannot repost or “bump” an item for sale more than once every 48 hours. OfferUp gives you the option to do this more often (at a cost of $1.99). This just means your item goes back to the top of the list, so that users who are browsing are more likely to see it.

– OfferUp gives you a real-time display of how many people have viewed your item’s listing. This is nice to know. With Craigslist, you can add some code and display a counter in the listing itself I think (or at least you used to be able to) but it’s not a part of Craigslist’s process and it’s definitely not as easy.

I think the only advantage for Craigslist is the fact that it has been around longer, so more people are aware of it. However, OfferUp has become a dominate player in this game so when you list something, it will be seen by a lot of people. I recently did list a mattress on OfferUp, like I mentioned in the example above. This was late one afternoon. It ended up getting 82 views, and someone came and purchased it the next morning. Can’t complain about that.

There is another popular app that works similarly to OfferUp. It’s called LetGo. Pretty much the same process, but I just like OfferUp better. If you are really serious about selling something, probably the best strategy would be to OfferUp, LetGo, AND Craigslist. They’re all free, and the more eyeballs you can put on your item, the better, right?

Do you use an online selling service such as these, that I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments.
The post This classified ads service is better than Craigslist first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Amazon scam — New Amazon scam to watch out for Oct 23, 2017
Everyone knows to be careful of scammers when shopping on Craigslist (actually everyone doesn’t know that, but they should). And lots of people are aware of potential scams on eBay, since just about anyone can sign up as an eBay seller. But Amazon – now that’s a place with a great reputation for excellent customer service, so it must always be a safe place to shop, right? Not always.

There are a couple of things that most people assume when shopping on Amazon:

The product being offered for the stated price is a legitimate product that will be shipped to you after you purchase it.

If there are any problems or you are not satisfied, Amazon’s great customer service will immediately take care of the problem – usually with a refund.

And there’s a good reason why most people assume those two things; because that’s what usually happens. But there are some Amazon shoppers who are waking up to the surprising fact that things don’t always go that way.

In a lot of ways, Amazon is kind of like eBay. Anyone can sign up to be a seller on Amazon. Just like anyone can sign up to sell on eBay. And since anyone can do it, there are scammers that create Amazon seller accounts just for the purpose of defrauding buyers.

Here’s how it works:

Mr. Scammer signs up to be an Amazon seller. He creates a new listing page where he is selling iPhone 8 smartphones for $699. Personally, I don’t use an iPhone, but for anyone who’s shopping for a new iPhone, that’s an amazing bargain (if it were genuine). So someone shopping for a phone finds that deal and immediately plunk down a credit card and makes the purchase, thinking they just got the deal of a lifetime.

A day or two later, the buyer gets a notification from Amazon that the item has been delivered. But the buyer is confused, because nothing has been received. Check the front porch, check the mailbox, nothing there. But Amazon’s notice says it was delivered by Fedex – it even says someone signed for it. Huh?

So the buyer goes to the Fedex website, with the tracking number. Sure enough, Fedex says the package was delivered and signed for right on time. But when the buyer checks more closely, he sees that the package was in fact delivered – just to a different address in the same city. In fact, it went to a business address. So someone from that business signed for it.

And that’s what makes this scam work – when Fedex tells Amazon that the package has been delivered, they don’t tell Amazon what ADDRESS it was delivered to. All Amazon knows is that the package was shipped, and Fedex confirms that it was delivered.

But when the buyer contacts Amazon to explain the problem, Amazon will just immediately refund, correct? No, they probably won’t. From their standpoint, your purchase was delivered (even though they don’t know where it was actually delivered to). So the scammer keeps the money and you have nothing.

Some buyers who have been scammed this way have actually gone to the business where the package was delivered. Of course, the employees who work there are completely confused because Fedex brought them a package and had them sign for it, but the box was just empty with no contact information. So it doesn’t really help to go there to try to track it down.

This is a growing problem, so I’m sure Amazon will figure out a way to keep it from happening. One clue obviously is the address for the delivery, but another suspicious factor is the weight of the package. An iPhone and accessories should obviously weigh more than an empty box. But at the moment, Amazon is usually siding with the seller since it looks like everything went as planned, from their perspective.

How can you avoid this scam?

First, if an item is obviously WAY underpriced, that should raise a red flag. Yes, Amazon does have some bargains sometimes and items can be sale priced to clear out inventory from time to time. But the iPhone is one of the most in-demand products in the world, so seeing it priced substantially lower than the norm should tell you something.

Second, check on the seller. If the seller is brand new and has a bunch of products listed that are too-good-to-be-true bargains, just keep looking. It’s tempting to buy anyway even if you’re suspicious, but just know that you might be throwing money away. Don’t be a victim.

The post New Amazon scam to watch out for first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — New Amazon scam to watch out for Oct 23, 2017
Everyone knows to be careful of scammers when shopping on Craigslist (actually everyone doesn’t know that, but they should). And lots of people are aware of potential scams on eBay, since just about anyone can sign up as an eBay seller. But Amazon – now that’s a place with a great reputation for excellent customer service, so it must always be a safe place to shop, right? Not always.

There are a couple of things that most people assume when shopping on Amazon:

The product being offered for the stated price is a legitimate product that will be shipped to you after you purchase it.

If there are any problems or you are not satisfied, Amazon’s great customer service will immediately take care of the problem – usually with a refund.

And there’s a good reason why most people assume those two things; because that’s what usually happens. But there are some Amazon shoppers who are waking up to the surprising fact that things don’t always go that way.

In a lot of ways, Amazon is kind of like eBay. Anyone can sign up to be a seller on Amazon. Just like anyone can sign up to sell on eBay. And since anyone can do it, there are scammers that create Amazon seller accounts just for the purpose of defrauding buyers.

Here’s how it works:

Mr. Scammer signs up to be an Amazon seller. He creates a new listing page where he is selling iPhone 8 smartphones for $699. Personally, I don’t use an iPhone, but for anyone who’s shopping for a new iPhone, that’s an amazing bargain (if it were genuine). So someone shopping for a phone finds that deal and immediately plunk down a credit card and makes the purchase, thinking they just got the deal of a lifetime.

A day or two later, the buyer gets a notification from Amazon that the item has been delivered. But the buyer is confused, because nothing has been received. Check the front porch, check the mailbox, nothing there. But Amazon’s notice says it was delivered by Fedex – it even says someone signed for it. Huh?

So the buyer goes to the Fedex website, with the tracking number. Sure enough, Fedex says the package was delivered and signed for right on time. But when the buyer checks more closely, he sees that the package was in fact delivered – just to a different address in the same city. In fact, it went to a business address. So someone from that business signed for it.

And that’s what makes this scam work – when Fedex tells Amazon that the package has been delivered, they don’t tell Amazon what ADDRESS it was delivered to. All Amazon knows is that the package was shipped, and Fedex confirms that it was delivered.

But when the buyer contacts Amazon to explain the problem, Amazon will just immediately refund, correct? No, they probably won’t. From their standpoint, your purchase was delivered (even though they don’t know where it was actually delivered to). So the scammer keeps the money and you have nothing.

Some buyers who have been scammed this way have actually gone to the business where the package was delivered. Of course, the employees who work there are completely confused because Fedex brought them a package and had them sign for it, but the box was just empty with no contact information. So it doesn’t really help to go there to try to track it down.

This is a growing problem, so I’m sure Amazon will figure out a way to keep it from happening. One clue obviously is the address for the delivery, but another suspicious factor is the weight of the package. An iPhone and accessories should obviously weigh more than an empty box. But at the moment, Amazon is usually siding with the seller since it looks like everything went as planned, from their perspective.

How can you avoid this scam?

First, if an item is obviously WAY underpriced, that should raise a red flag. Yes, Amazon does have some bargains sometimes and items can be sale priced to clear out inventory from time to time. But the iPhone is one of the most in-demand products in the world, so seeing it priced substantially lower than the norm should tell you something.

Second, check on the seller. If the seller is brand new and has a bunch of products listed that are too-good-to-be-true bargains, just keep looking. It’s tempting to buy anyway even if you’re suspicious, but just know that you might be throwing money away. Don’t be a victim.

The post New Amazon scam to watch out for first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

control panel — Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 Oct 16, 2017
For some reason, Microsoft doesn’t want us getting in to the Control Panel on our computers. In Windows 10, they’ve created a different thing called “Settings”, but Control Panel is still there (at least for now) if you know where to find it. Here’s how to get to it easily in Windows 10.

Depending on how recent your Windows 10 updates are, you might be able to get to Control Panel by just holding down the Windows key and tapping the letter X. That brings up this quick menu, and Control Panel is right there.

But that only works if you DON’T have the most recent major Windows Update, called the Creator’s Update. Not everyone has it yet, so that’s okay. You’ll get it eventually. If you do have that recent update, you can still pull up the Windows key + X quick menu, but Control Panel is no longer listed there.

So what we want to do is get access to it initially, then set it up so that it’s EASILY accessible from now on.

The way to get to it is to click the “Search” option in the lower left corner (the magnifying glass icon) and in the search field, just type the word “control” (without the quotes). You’ll see Control Panel as an option to click in the search results:

And when you click it, you’ll see the old familiar Control Panel window there.

But do you really want to go through that whole process each time, just to get to Control Panel? I don’t. It would be much easier and faster if you could just find it in one of these locations:

listed in the Start menu

as an icon on the desktop

pinned at the bottom of the screen on the taskbar

Or if you want, you can put it in all three of those places! Here’s how you do that.

To pin Control Panel to the Start menu:

Search for “control” as above, but this time RIGHT click on it and choose “Pin to Start”:

Now when you click the Start button, you’ll see a new tile in the menu named Control Panel.

To make Control Panel an icon on the desktop:

Right click on it in the search results again like above, but this time choose “Open file location”. That shows you a window with some files listed, and one of them is Control Panel. Do a right click and choose Send to – Desktop (create shortcut):

To pin Control Panel to the taskbar:

The taskbar is the toolbar that runs across the bottom of your screen. It’s a handy place to put program icons that you want to have easy access to.

Once again you’re going to right click on Control Panel after searching, and this time choose “Pin to taskbar”. Now you’ll see the Control Panel icon, sitting on the taskbar waiting for you to open it whenever you want:

So now you have easy, quick access to Control Panel. Here’s the funny thing. On my computer, I don’t really even go into Control Panel very often. But I still like knowing that I have easy access to it. Maybe it’s just a psychological thing – Microsoft says they don’t want me to use it, so that makes me want it even more than I otherwise would.

The post Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Control Panel — Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 Oct 16, 2017
For some reason, Microsoft doesn’t want us getting in to the Control Panel on our computers. In Windows 10, they’ve created a different thing called “Settings”, but Control Panel is still there (at least for now) if you know where to find it. Here’s how to get to it easily in Windows 10.

Depending on how recent your Windows 10 updates are, you might be able to get to Control Panel by just holding down the Windows key and tapping the letter X. That brings up this quick menu, and Control Panel is right there.

But that only works if you DON’T have the most recent major Windows Update, called the Creator’s Update. Not everyone has it yet, so that’s okay. You’ll get it eventually. If you do have that recent update, you can still pull up the Windows key + X quick menu, but Control Panel is no longer listed there.

So what we want to do is get access to it initially, then set it up so that it’s EASILY accessible from now on.

The way to get to it is to click the “Search” option in the lower left corner (the magnifying glass icon) and in the search field, just type the word “control” (without the quotes). You’ll see Control Panel as an option to click in the search results:

And when you click it, you’ll see the old familiar Control Panel window there.

But do you really want to go through that whole process each time, just to get to Control Panel? I don’t. It would be much easier and faster if you could just find it in one of these locations:

listed in the Start menu

as an icon on the desktop

pinned at the bottom of the screen on the taskbar

Or if you want, you can put it in all three of those places! Here’s how you do that.

To pin Control Panel to the Start menu:

Search for “control” as above, but this time RIGHT click on it and choose “Pin to Start”:

Now when you click the Start button, you’ll see a new tile in the menu named Control Panel.

To make Control Panel an icon on the desktop:

Right click on it in the search results again like above, but this time choose “Open file location”. That shows you a window with some files listed, and one of them is Control Panel. Do a right click and choose Send to – Desktop (create shortcut):

To pin Control Panel to the taskbar:

The taskbar is the toolbar that runs across the bottom of your screen. It’s a handy place to put program icons that you want to have easy access to.

Once again you’re going to right click on Control Panel after searching, and this time choose “Pin to taskbar”. Now you’ll see the Control Panel icon, sitting on the taskbar waiting for you to open it whenever you want:

So now you have easy, quick access to Control Panel. Here’s the funny thing. On my computer, I don’t really even go into Control Panel very often. But I still like knowing that I have easy access to it. Maybe it’s just a psychological thing – Microsoft says they don’t want me to use it, so that makes me want it even more than I otherwise would.

The post Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 settings — 3 settings I always change in Windows 10 Oct 09, 2017
Windows 10 is created and distributed by Microsoft, so it has its own agenda about what programs and settings should be the defaults and how you should use your computer. In my opinion, it’s MY computer so I want to set it the way I want to use it. This isn’t always consistent with Microsoft’s wishes but I sure hope they’ll get over it.

I have a whole routine I go through whenever I set up a Windows 10 computer (whether it’s a brand new one a client just bought, or a laptop I’m refurbishing to sell). But the 3 things I’m talking about today are changes you can make (and should make, in my opinion) as a bare minimum. They’re pretty easy to do, and the more we can push away Microsoft’s advances, the better.

1. Change Chrome to the default browser
When you first run Windows 10, the default web browser will be Edge. Of course it will, since Microsoft makes Windows 10, and Microsoft makes Edge. But most people don’t like Edge. For me, I use Chrome for almost everything (and if you prefer Firefox, that’s a good option too although it does have some limitations).

To make Chrome your default browser, click the Start button, then click on Settings. Click on the “System” option. On the left side, click on “Default apps”. Look down the list to find the “web browser” option and click on Edge. You’ll get a little window that looks like this:

Click to choose Chrome. You’ll probably get a little window asking you to at least TRY using Edge, but click on “Switch anyway”. Chrome is now your default browser.

2. Change Adobe Reader to the default PDF viewer
This one really ticks me off. Windows 10 by default is set up so that when you click to open a PDF file, it opens in… the Edge web browser. Why, Microsoft? Why would anyone want to open a PDF document in a program that’s designed to view websites? It’s just nuts. But we’ll take care of it.

And if you did just now get a new Windows 10 computer, chances are it doesn’t have Adobe Reader even installed on it. You can get it at Adobe.com – just scroll to the bottom of the page to find the download link. And watch out for the pre-checked boxes during the installation – make sure you UNcheck all of them so you don’t get any extra junk on your computer.

This one starts off the same as the first one – click the Start button, then click on Settings. Click on the “System” option. On the left side, click on “Default apps”. Look down the list toward the bottom, to find the link that says “Set defaults by app” and click it.

In the next window, click on the Adobe Acrobat name in the list, then click on “Set this program by default” at the bottom:

Now if you want to check it, just go to your Documents folder and open a PDF file. It should open in Adobe Reader.

3. Get rid of the Edge tab in Internet Explorer
This one could be considered kind of a minor thing, but it’s still something I always change. When you get a Windows 10 computer now, it will come with both the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers installed. Of course Microsoft wants you to use their newest one, Edge. So when you open Internet Explorer, there’s an extra tab at the top with the Edge logo, and you can “conveniently” click that tab to open the Edge browser. It looks like this before changing the setting:

To get rid of it: In Internet Explorer, click Tools – Internet Options. In the new window, click on the “Advanced” tab and scroll down a short way to see the option called “Hide the button (next to the New Tab button) that opens Edge”. Check that box and click OK.

Like I said, that “Edge” tab in Internet Explorer is not a big thing. I don’t even use IE so I would never see it. But sometimes Microsoft’s advances seem like mosquitoes that we have to keep swatting away. And I’ll swat Edge away any chance I get.

Remember, the 3 things I listed here are only 3 things. There are lots of other things I do when setting up a Windows 10 computer to make it as easy and safe to use as possible. If you need help with that, I can do a full setup remotely – so it doesn’t matter if you’re here in Safety Harbor, Florida or anywhere else.

The post 3 settings I always change in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

WIndows 10 settings — 3 settings I always change in Windows 10 Oct 09, 2017
Windows 10 is created and distributed by Microsoft, so it has its own agenda about what programs and settings should be the defaults and how you should use your computer. In my opinion, it’s MY computer so I want to set it the way I want to use it. This isn’t always consistent with Microsoft’s wishes but I sure hope they’ll get over it.

I have a whole routine I go through whenever I set up a Windows 10 computer (whether it’s a brand new one a client just bought, or a laptop I’m refurbishing to sell). But the 3 things I’m talking about today are changes you can make (and should make, in my opinion) as a bare minimum. They’re pretty easy to do, and the more we can push away Microsoft’s advances, the better.

1. Change Chrome to the default browser
When you first run Windows 10, the default web browser will be Edge. Of course it will, since Microsoft makes Windows 10, and Microsoft makes Edge. But most people don’t like Edge. For me, I use Chrome for almost everything (and if you prefer Firefox, that’s a good option too although it does have some limitations).

To make Chrome your default browser, click the Start button, then click on Settings. Click on the “System” option. On the left side, click on “Default apps”. Look down the list to find the “web browser” option and click on Edge. You’ll get a little window that looks like this:

Click to choose Chrome. You’ll probably get a little window asking you to at least TRY using Edge, but click on “Switch anyway”. Chrome is now your default browser.

2. Change Adobe Reader to the default PDF viewer
This one really ticks me off. Windows 10 by default is set up so that when you click to open a PDF file, it opens in… the Edge web browser. Why, Microsoft? Why would anyone want to open a PDF document in a program that’s designed to view websites? It’s just nuts. But we’ll take care of it.

And if you did just now get a new Windows 10 computer, chances are it doesn’t have Adobe Reader even installed on it. You can get it at Adobe.com – just scroll to the bottom of the page to find the download link. And watch out for the pre-checked boxes during the installation – make sure you UNcheck all of them so you don’t get any extra junk on your computer.

This one starts off the same as the first one – click the Start button, then click on Settings. Click on the “System” option. On the left side, click on “Default apps”. Look down the list toward the bottom, to find the link that says “Set defaults by app” and click it.

In the next window, click on the Adobe Acrobat name in the list, then click on “Set this program by default” at the bottom:

Now if you want to check it, just go to your Documents folder and open a PDF file. It should open in Adobe Reader.

3. Get rid of the Edge tab in Internet Explorer
This one could be considered kind of a minor thing, but it’s still something I always change. When you get a Windows 10 computer now, it will come with both the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers installed. Of course Microsoft wants you to use their newest one, Edge. So when you open Internet Explorer, there’s an extra tab at the top with the Edge logo, and you can “conveniently” click that tab to open the Edge browser. It looks like this before changing the setting:

To get rid of it: In Internet Explorer, click Tools – Internet Options. In the new window, click on the “Advanced” tab and scroll down a short way to see the option called “Hide the button (next to the New Tab button) that opens Edge”. Check that box and click OK.

Like I said, that “Edge” tab in Internet Explorer is not a big thing. I don’t even use IE so I would never see it. But sometimes Microsoft’s advances seem like mosquitoes that we have to keep swatting away. And I’ll swat Edge away any chance I get.

Remember, the 3 things I listed here are only 3 things. There are lots of other things I do when setting up a Windows 10 computer to make it as easy and safe to use as possible. If you need help with that, I can do a full setup remotely – so it doesn’t matter if you’re here in Safety Harbor, Florida or anywhere else.

The post 3 settings I always change in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

identity theft — How to virtually eliminate identity theft Oct 02, 2017
So many people are worried about identity theft now. Especially with the recent problem with Equifax, where the personal information of 143 million people was hacked into. What should you do? Should you hire a company like Lifelock to protect your credit file? In my opinion, definitely not (for more than one reason, which I’ll cover).

Imagine this scenario.

Your friend comes to you and he’s very worried that someone will get into his house and steal his valuable items such as his computer, his television, his jewelry, etc. He’s frantic and he doesn’t know what to do.

So you ask him: “Do you have good, strong locks on all your doors?”

He confirms, he has good locks that are very strong.

“And you keep all your doors locked at all times?”

And your friend says, “Oh no, of course not. I keep them unlocked all the time. It would be too inconvenient to have to unlock a door every time I come home!”

How would you even respond to that kind of logic?

He continues – “Actually I was thinking about hiring a security guard, and the guard could let me know if someone does break in to my house while I’m not there. Then I can come home and see if anything was stolen.”

Doesn’t that sound like complete nonsense? He’s going to leave the doors unlocked (even though they each have a strong lock that could be used). And then he’s going to pay a security guard – not to keep the bad guys out, but just to let you know when someone has broken in so your friend can go in later and assess the damage.

Any reasonable person would say that’s a really foolish plan. But that’s exactly the plan that most people have with their credit file, and all of the personal information it contains.

If you’re like the vast majority of consumers, your credit file is like an unlocked door. Anyone with a little bit of information (like the information that was leaked from Equifax recently) can use your information to get a credit card, take out a loan, get a new cell phone, and all kinds of other things. You would have no idea it’s happening. And there’s a very good chance your information was part of what the bad guys have in their possession.

Oh, you have a “credit monitoring” service like Lifelock? That doesn’t lock the door. It’s like the security guard in the example above – it just notifies you when someone breaks in.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to PREVENT anyone from getting in, in the first place?

There’s a way to do that, and it’s not difficult or expensive. It’s called freezing your credit file.

When you put a freeze on your credit file, it means no one – not even you – can do a credit check, open any new credit accounts, or anything else that requires access to your credit file. This is the lock that keeps your credit file and all of your personal information safe.

But what about when you DO want to open a new credit account? Then you just temporarily “unfreeze” your file. When that’s done, the freeze goes back into place so that you’re again fully protected.

You will need to do this with each of the 3 credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. (Don’t be surprised when they try to scare you with the “inconvenience” of freezing your file. Each of them make a lot of money selling their “credit protection” services – and when your credit file is frozen, you probably don’t have any use for those services.)

What does it cost? Currently, Equifax is not charging to do this (how nice of them, since they completely screwed things up with their weak security). For the other two credit bureaus, it can vary state by state. For me, I paid $10 each for Experian and TransUnion.

How to freeze your credit file

First up, we’ll do Equifax.

First thing to do is make sure you have Adobe PDF Reader installed on your computer. Equifax is going to show you a PDF document that includes your PIN. You’ll need that PIN to get back in to your credit file, and they’re only going to show it ONCE – so make sure you have Adobe PDF Reader installed and ready.

Now, go to https://www.freeze.equifax.com/

Fill out your personal information and submit:

Then confirm you want to place a security freeze:

You’ll get a confirmation that the freeze has been processed:

Then, click the link to view the PDF document that includes your PIN:

REMEMBER – store that PIN in a safe and secure place, because you’ll need it in order to get back in to your file.

Next up, let’s freeze Experian.

Go to: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

Click on “Add a security freeze” and then choose “Apply online”:

Fill out your information. For the selection of the PIN, I recommend letting them choose the PIN for you rather than creating your own.

Submit the form, and if necessary in your state, enter your credit card information to pay for it (in Florida, it’s $10).

At this point, Experian may want to ask you a few questions to verify your identity. These questions would be related to things that they already know are in your credit file – auto loans, mortgage amounts, previous addresses, etc.

When you have answered those questions correctly, you’ll get the confirmation that the freeze has been successfully added. Again, either print this or write down the PIN for safekeeping.

And finally, we’ll freeze TransUnion.

Go here: https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp

TransUnion is slightly different in that you need to create an account with them in order to do any of what we’re trying to do.

Fill out all of the information they ask for, and make sure you use a strong and unique password for this account. Once the account is created, go back to the original site address (https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp) to add the security freeze.

Then you will need to submit the payment information (if this is required in your state), and you will also then need to create a 6-digit PIN to allow future access to the account:

Like the previous two, store that PIN in a safe place so you can access it when needed.

NOTE: if you’re married, it would be a good idea to go through this same process (all three bureaus) to put a freeze on your spouse’s credit file as well.

At this point you’ve locked the door to your credit file. Chances are you don’t need to open new credit accounts all that often, so the inconvenience of “unfreezing” your file shouldn’t really be that bad. And it’s a small price to pay to protect your identity.

Of course, doing this is not a 100% guarantee of anything. And I’m not an identity theft specialist, nor am I offering any type of legal advice. Consult with your trusted experts in these areas to make sure you do what is right for your situation.

The post How to virtually eliminate identity theft first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Equifax info — How to virtually eliminate identity theft Oct 02, 2017
So many people are worried about identity theft now. Especially with the recent problem with Equifax, where the personal information of 143 million people was hacked into. What should you do? Should you hire a company like Lifelock to protect your credit file? In my opinion, definitely not (for more than one reason, which I’ll cover).

Imagine this scenario.

Your friend comes to you and he’s very worried that someone will get into his house and steal his valuable items such as his computer, his television, his jewelry, etc. He’s frantic and he doesn’t know what to do.

So you ask him: “Do you have good, strong locks on all your doors?”

He confirms, he has good locks that are very strong.

“And you keep all your doors locked at all times?”

And your friend says, “Oh no, of course not. I keep them unlocked all the time. It would be too inconvenient to have to unlock a door every time I come home!”

How would you even respond to that kind of logic?

He continues – “Actually I was thinking about hiring a security guard, and the guard could let me know if someone does break in to my house while I’m not there. Then I can come home and see if anything was stolen.”

Doesn’t that sound like complete nonsense? He’s going to leave the doors unlocked (even though they each have a strong lock that could be used). And then he’s going to pay a security guard – not to keep the bad guys out, but just to let you know when someone has broken in so your friend can go in later and assess the damage.

Any reasonable person would say that’s a really foolish plan. But that’s exactly the plan that most people have with their credit file, and all of the personal information it contains.

If you’re like the vast majority of consumers, your credit file is like an unlocked door. Anyone with a little bit of information (like the information that was leaked from Equifax recently) can use your information to get a credit card, take out a loan, get a new cell phone, and all kinds of other things. You would have no idea it’s happening. And there’s a very good chance your information was part of what the bad guys have in their possession.

Oh, you have a “credit monitoring” service like Lifelock? That doesn’t lock the door. It’s like the security guard in the example above – it just notifies you when someone breaks in.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to PREVENT anyone from getting in, in the first place?

There’s a way to do that, and it’s not difficult or expensive. It’s called freezing your credit file.

When you put a freeze on your credit file, it means no one – not even you – can do a credit check, open any new credit accounts, or anything else that requires access to your credit file. This is the lock that keeps your credit file and all of your personal information safe.

But what about when you DO want to open a new credit account? Then you just temporarily “unfreeze” your file. When that’s done, the freeze goes back into place so that you’re again fully protected.

You will need to do this with each of the 3 credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. (Don’t be surprised when they try to scare you with the “inconvenience” of freezing your file. Each of them make a lot of money selling their “credit protection” services – and when your credit file is frozen, you probably don’t have any use for those services.)

What does it cost? Currently, Equifax is not charging to do this (how nice of them, since they completely screwed things up with their weak security). For the other two credit bureaus, it can vary state by state. For me, I paid $10 each for Experian and TransUnion.

How to freeze your credit file

First up, we’ll do Equifax.

First thing to do is make sure you have Adobe PDF Reader installed on your computer. Equifax is going to show you a PDF document that includes your PIN. You’ll need that PIN to get back in to your credit file, and they’re only going to show it ONCE – so make sure you have Adobe PDF Reader installed and ready.

Now, go to https://www.freeze.equifax.com/

Fill out your personal information and submit:

Then confirm you want to place a security freeze:

You’ll get a confirmation that the freeze has been processed:

Then, click the link to view the PDF document that includes your PIN:

REMEMBER – store that PIN in a safe and secure place, because you’ll need it in order to get back in to your file.

Next up, let’s freeze Experian.

Go to: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

Click on “Add a security freeze” and then choose “Apply online”:

Fill out your information. For the selection of the PIN, I recommend letting them choose the PIN for you rather than creating your own.

Submit the form, and if necessary in your state, enter your credit card information to pay for it (in Florida, it’s $10).

At this point, Experian may want to ask you a few questions to verify your identity. These questions would be related to things that they already know are in your credit file – auto loans, mortgage amounts, previous addresses, etc.

When you have answered those questions correctly, you’ll get the confirmation that the freeze has been successfully added. Again, either print this or write down the PIN for safekeeping.

And finally, we’ll freeze TransUnion.

Go here: https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp

TransUnion is slightly different in that you need to create an account with them in order to do any of what we’re trying to do.

Fill out all of the information they ask for, and make sure you use a strong and unique password for this account. Once the account is created, go back to the original site address (https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp) to add the security freeze.

Then you will need to submit the payment information (if this is required in your state), and you will also then need to create a 6-digit PIN to allow future access to the account:

Like the previous two, store that PIN in a safe place so you can access it when needed.

NOTE: if you’re married, it would be a good idea to go through this same process (all three bureaus) to put a freeze on your spouse’s credit file as well.

At this point you’ve locked the door to your credit file. Chances are you don’t need to open new credit accounts all that often, so the inconvenience of “unfreezing” your file shouldn’t really be that bad. And it’s a small price to pay to protect your identity.

Of course, doing this is not a 100% guarantee of anything. And I’m not an identity theft specialist, nor am I offering any type of legal advice. Consult with your trusted experts in these areas to make sure you do what is right for your situation.

The post How to virtually eliminate identity theft first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop lid — What happens when you close the lid on your laptop? Sep 25, 2017
Do you know what your laptop does when you close the lid without powering it down first? Does it shut it off, or put it to Sleep mode, or Hibernate, or maybe it does nothing at all?

It’s interesting to find out what people think about this process. Some people assume that when they close the lid, it shuts off the power to the computer. For others, all they know is that when they open the lid the next time, they can just click to sign in and they can use the computer again (without having to wait for it to do a full bootup process).

The truth is this: shutting the lid on your laptop can make the computer do whatever you want it to do. It’s fully configurable!

If you don’t do anything or change anything, in most laptops the default setting is that the laptop goes into Sleep mode when the lid is closed. For some users, that’s fine.

What if you want it to go into Hibernate mode, or actually fully power down, when you shut the lid? You can change that by making an adjustment in the Power Options area.

To get to Power Options:

In Windows 7 – click the Start button and in the search field type “power options” and you’ll see the Power Options link show up at the top of the Start menu. Click that.

In Windows 8 – hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “x”. In the menu that comes up, click on Power Options.

In Windows 10 – hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “x”. In the menu that comes up, click on Power Options. Then click on “Additional power settings”.

At that point you should see an option on the left side that says “Choose what closing the lid does”. Doesn’t get any clearer than that, right?

When you click that, you’ll be presented with a screen that gives you a drop-down menu for what you want to happen when you close the lid – whether running on battery, or plugged in:

Your options are:

Do nothing (laptop stays full powered on even when lid is closed)

Sleep mode

Hibernate mode

Shut down (go through the Shut down process and completely power off)

You might want to have it do something different if it’s running on battery, to conserve the power. But there is no right or wrong choice here – it’s whatever you prefer, based on your usage and preference.

And as you can see in that screenshot, you can also choose what you want to have happen when you hit the Power button, or when you hit the Sleep button (if your laptop has one). You are in control!

The post What happens when you close the lid on your laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop lid — What happens when you close the lid on your laptop? Sep 25, 2017
Do you know what your laptop does when you close the lid without powering it down first? Does it shut it off, or put it to Sleep mode, or Hibernate, or maybe it does nothing at all?

It’s interesting to find out what people think about this process. Some people assume that when they close the lid, it shuts off the power to the computer. For others, all they know is that when they open the lid the next time, they can just click to sign in and they can use the computer again (without having to wait for it to do a full bootup process).

The truth is this: shutting the lid on your laptop can make the computer do whatever you want it to do. It’s fully configurable!

If you don’t do anything or change anything, in most laptops the default setting is that the laptop goes into Sleep mode when the lid is closed. For some users, that’s fine.

What if you want it to go into Hibernate mode, or actually fully power down, when you shut the lid? You can change that by making an adjustment in the Power Options area.

To get to Power Options:

In Windows 7 – click the Start button and in the search field type “power options” and you’ll see the Power Options link show up at the top of the Start menu. Click that.

In Windows 8 – hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “x”. In the menu that comes up, click on Power Options.

In Windows 10 – hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “x”. In the menu that comes up, click on Power Options. Then click on “Additional power settings”.

At that point you should see an option on the left side that says “Choose what closing the lid does”. Doesn’t get any clearer than that, right?

When you click that, you’ll be presented with a screen that gives you a drop-down menu for what you want to happen when you close the lid – whether running on battery, or plugged in:

Your options are:

Do nothing (laptop stays full powered on even when lid is closed)

Sleep mode

Hibernate mode

Shut down (go through the Shut down process and completely power off)

You might want to have it do something different if it’s running on battery, to conserve the power. But there is no right or wrong choice here – it’s whatever you prefer, based on your usage and preference.

And as you can see in that screenshot, you can also choose what you want to have happen when you hit the Power button, or when you hit the Sleep button (if your laptop has one). You are in control!

The post What happens when you close the lid on your laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

search by date — How to narrow your search results by date range Sep 18, 2017
Recently I got a message from one of my readers, Mike –

Boo. I asked a question some months back which you mentioned, but did not answer. Perhaps I can ask again? I need to limit my search results by date. For example, I want to search for mythtv. This is sort of useless and I find many old out of date results. Some info is outdated, some is flat wrong, some companies or web sites have closed down. I waste lots of time checking the results. Is there a way to search for mythtv, but use a date limiter of ONLY the last 3 years and not all the old useless junk? I mostly use the search engine duckduckgo but sometimes use Bing, Google, or Yahoo. I am on your mail list and have enjoyed your weekly mail for the past 2 years. Thanks.

I don’t know how Mike’s question slipped through the cracks but I told him we would get it answered, so here it is.

(Side note: I asked Mike about MythTV since I had never heard of it. He said: It looks a great deal like Windows Media Center and allows you to play all your media files like movies and TV shows. But if you add a TV tuner card, it becomes a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). Using PVR functions, it goes online and gets the TV schedule data, uses mysql, and presents the results for you to search. Once you find what you want to record, it sets the timers, records your shows, and chops out the commercials for you. All this is called the backend. The frontend portion can be used for playback on as many of your network machines as you like. You can also install both front and back ends on the same machine.“)

Sounds like interesting software. If you use it, let me know in the comments below what you think of it. But this isn’t a software review post.

Mike wants to know how to do a search, and limit the search results to a particular period of time. He specifically wants to see only the things that are from within the past 3 years. And he mentioned that the search engines he uses are DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo and Google. Here’s how it works for each one of these.

DuckDuckGo
Summary: can’t do it.
DuckDuckGo.com is the search engine for people concerned about privacy. Their policy is: “We don’t store your personal info, we don’t follow you around with ads, and we don’t track you.”

Unfortunately, they aren’t set up to do what Mike is requesting. If you do a search with DuckDuckGo, you’ll see the search results and right up above that there’s a drop-down menu that says “Any Time”. When you click that, you can choose to narrow your search results to the past day, week or month:

Bing
Summary: able to do it.
Bing.com is the search engine owned by Microsoft. They do everything they can to promote it and encourage people to use it, but it still only gets used by about 7% of internet searches globally (by comparison, Google gets about 81% of searches). Personally, I don’t like Bing at all.

However, Bing can be configured to narrow search results to specific dates. You do your regular search, then look for the drop-down manu that says “Any time”. At the bottom of that menu is the place where you can enter the dates you want to use for your search results:

Yahoo
Summary: can’t do it.
Yahoo.com is one of the oldest search engines. In fact, I remember it being the first one I used when I first got on the internet. But back then it was called a “search directory”. If you use Firefox, the default search engine it uses is Yahoo (I usually change that to Google when I’m setting up a new PC).

Unfortunately, Yahoo is also not able to filter search results by specific dates. It offers basically the same options as DuckDuckGo. When you do your search, click on “Anytime” and you’ll see the options for day, week or month – but nothing more specific than that:

Google
Summary: able to do it.
Google.com – you’ve probably heard of it. It’s the 800 pound gorillas in the search engine industry. And why do so many people use it? Not because they force it on people like Bing tries to. It’s because their search results are the most relevant.

To get search results based on a particular set of dates, first do your regular search. Then click on “Tools”, then click on “Any time”. In that menu there’s an option for “custom range” where you can enter the dates you want to use:

As you have probably guessed, out of these 4, I prefer Google just because the search results usually give me what I’m looking for. Want to try a comparison for yourself? Do a search in Bing, then open a new tab and do the same search in Google.

For example – I searched on “did the red sox win their last game?”.

Bing search results gave me generic information:

Google search results specifically answered my question:

I know that’s not a comprehensive evaluation, and in some cases Bing search results might be better. But overall I think Google does a much better job. What do you think? Comment below.

The post How to narrow your search results by date range first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

narrow search — How to narrow your search results by date range Sep 18, 2017
Recently I got a message from one of my readers, Mike –

Boo. I asked a question some months back which you mentioned, but did not answer. Perhaps I can ask again? I need to limit my search results by date. For example, I want to search for mythtv. This is sort of useless and I find many old out of date results. Some info is outdated, some is flat wrong, some companies or web sites have closed down. I waste lots of time checking the results. Is there a way to search for mythtv, but use a date limiter of ONLY the last 3 years and not all the old useless junk? I mostly use the search engine duckduckgo but sometimes use Bing, Google, or Yahoo. I am on your mail list and have enjoyed your weekly mail for the past 2 years. Thanks.

I don’t know how Mike’s question slipped through the cracks but I told him we would get it answered, so here it is.

(Side note: I asked Mike about MythTV since I had never heard of it. He said: It looks a great deal like Windows Media Center and allows you to play all your media files like movies and TV shows. But if you add a TV tuner card, it becomes a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). Using PVR functions, it goes online and gets the TV schedule data, uses mysql, and presents the results for you to search. Once you find what you want to record, it sets the timers, records your shows, and chops out the commercials for you. All this is called the backend. The frontend portion can be used for playback on as many of your network machines as you like. You can also install both front and back ends on the same machine.“)

Sounds like interesting software. If you use it, let me know in the comments below what you think of it. But this isn’t a software review post.

Mike wants to know how to do a search, and limit the search results to a particular period of time. He specifically wants to see only the things that are from within the past 3 years. And he mentioned that the search engines he uses are DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo and Google. Here’s how it works for each one of these.

DuckDuckGo
Summary: can’t do it.
DuckDuckGo.com is the search engine for people concerned about privacy. Their policy is: “We don’t store your personal info, we don’t follow you around with ads, and we don’t track you.”

Unfortunately, they aren’t set up to do what Mike is requesting. If you do a search with DuckDuckGo, you’ll see the search results and right up above that there’s a drop-down menu that says “Any Time”. When you click that, you can choose to narrow your search results to the past day, week or month:

Bing
Summary: able to do it.
Bing.com is the search engine owned by Microsoft. They do everything they can to promote it and encourage people to use it, but it still only gets used by about 7% of internet searches globally (by comparison, Google gets about 81% of searches). Personally, I don’t like Bing at all.

However, Bing can be configured to narrow search results to specific dates. You do your regular search, then look for the drop-down manu that says “Any time”. At the bottom of that menu is the place where you can enter the dates you want to use for your search results:

Yahoo
Summary: can’t do it.
Yahoo.com is one of the oldest search engines. In fact, I remember it being the first one I used when I first got on the internet. But back then it was called a “search directory”. If you use Firefox, the default search engine it uses is Yahoo (I usually change that to Google when I’m setting up a new PC).

Unfortunately, Yahoo is also not able to filter search results by specific dates. It offers basically the same options as DuckDuckGo. When you do your search, click on “Anytime” and you’ll see the options for day, week or month – but nothing more specific than that:

Google
Summary: able to do it.
Google.com – you’ve probably heard of it. It’s the 800 pound gorillas in the search engine industry. And why do so many people use it? Not because they force it on people like Bing tries to. It’s because their search results are the most relevant.

To get search results based on a particular set of dates, first do your regular search. Then click on “Tools”, then click on “Any time”. In that menu there’s an option for “custom range” where you can enter the dates you want to use:

As you have probably guessed, out of these 4, I prefer Google just because the search results usually give me what I’m looking for. Want to try a comparison for yourself? Do a search in Bing, then open a new tab and do the same search in Google.

For example – I searched on “did the red sox win their last game?”.

Bing search results gave me generic information:

Google search results specifically answered my question:

I know that’s not a comprehensive evaluation, and in some cases Bing search results might be better. But overall I think Google does a much better job. What do you think? Comment below.

The post How to narrow your search results by date range first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook ads — How to get rid of sponsored posts (ads) on Facebook Sep 11, 2017
Thanks to a really good ad blocker (Ublock Origin), I see almost no display ads on most websites. It’s wonderful. But if that’s the only ad blocker you use, you’ll still see ads on one popular website – Facebook. Here’s how you can get rid of the ads on Facebook as well.

Facebook is kind of tricky about how ads are displayed. They try to make the ads sort of “blend in” with the other content so you’ll maybe not notice that it’s an ad and you’ll just keep reading it. And they put ads all over the place:

Suggested pages and Sponsored posts:

Right-side column on newsfeed:

Right-side column on profile page:

Under comments in photo view:

What I really hate is when I’m scrolling down the news feed and come across something that seems like it could be interesting. I start to read, then I notice that word: “Sponsored”. Just someone trying to sell me something. I think Ublock Origin might get rid of some of these ads, but those “Sponsored Posts” seem to fly under the radar for most traditional ad blockers. But not any more!

When I use Facebook now, I don’t see any of those ads. That’s because I use a browser extension called QClean. You can get it free at http://qcl.github.io/QClean/. At that page, just scroll down and choose the download based on the web browser you use:

Update: apparently this extension is not compatible with the current version of Firefox.

Just follow the directions to install it. Mine is installed to use with Chrome of course, since it’s my default web browser. Once it is installed, go to Facebook and you’ll see the QClean icon light up right there in the top right corner (might show up somewhere else in browsers other than Chrome, I’m not sure):

What you WON’T see are all the ads that used to show up all over your Facebook pages. I’ll bet you won’t even miss them. I sure don’t!

The post How to get rid of sponsored posts (ads) on Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook sponsored posts — How to get rid of sponsored posts (ads) on Facebook Sep 11, 2017
Thanks to a really good ad blocker (Ublock Origin), I see almost no display ads on most websites. It’s wonderful. But if that’s the only ad blocker you use, you’ll still see ads on one popular website – Facebook. Here’s how you can get rid of the ads on Facebook as well.

Facebook is kind of tricky about how ads are displayed. They try to make the ads sort of “blend in” with the other content so you’ll maybe not notice that it’s an ad and you’ll just keep reading it. And they put ads all over the place:

Suggested pages and Sponsored posts:

Right-side column on newsfeed:

Right-side column on profile page:

Under comments in photo view:

What I really hate is when I’m scrolling down the news feed and come across something that seems like it could be interesting. I start to read, then I notice that word: “Sponsored”. Just someone trying to sell me something. I think Ublock Origin might get rid of some of these ads, but those “Sponsored Posts” seem to fly under the radar for most traditional ad blockers. But not any more!

When I use Facebook now, I don’t see any of those ads. That’s because I use a browser extension called QClean. You can get it free at http://qcl.github.io/QClean/. At that page, just scroll down and choose the download based on the web browser you use:

Update: apparently this extension is not compatible with the current version of Firefox.

Just follow the directions to install it. Mine is installed to use with Chrome of course, since it’s my default web browser. Once it is installed, go to Facebook and you’ll see the QClean icon light up right there in the top right corner (might show up somewhere else in browsers other than Chrome, I’m not sure):

What you WON’T see are all the ads that used to show up all over your Facebook pages. I’ll bet you won’t even miss them. I sure don’t!

The post How to get rid of sponsored posts (ads) on Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

slide show — Watch a slide show of your pictures in Windows 10 Sep 04, 2017
Do you have a bunch of pictures saved on your Windows 10 computer? It’s really easy to view them in a slide show, full screen.

(yes, those are my pups – Lilly and Fenway – in that picture)

There are lots of ways to view the images stored on your computer. You can see them on your actual monitor, you can connect your computer to your large screen television, or you could even connect a projector to your laptop and put them up on a big screen if you want.

But you still need a way to have the pictures rotate one after the other without your having to manually open one, close it, then open the next one. All of them should display in order, automatically.

In Windows 10 this is pretty easy. Here’s how you play a slide show in Windows 10:

1. Go to your Pictures folder, then open a sub-folder of pictures that’s in there (or you could just view pictures that are in the root level of your Pictures folder). Ideally, your pictures will be sorted into folders such as a particular vacation, or Christmas, or an event you attended, that kind of thing.

2. Click one time on one of the pictures in the folder.

3. At the top of the window, look for the “Manage” tab and click on it. Then click “Slide show”, and just sit back and watch the show!

You know when I find things like this the most useful? At family events, such as birthdays, wedding receptions, or funerals. You can hire a company to create a slide show with an audio soundtrack for you, and spend a few hundred dollars. Or you can use the process outlined above – put all your chosen pictures in a designated folder, and play the slide show while your music plays from iTunes or a few mp3 files that you have picked from what’s stored on your computer. It works wonderfully and costs you nothing.

The post Watch a slide show of your pictures in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

slide show — Watch a slide show of your pictures in Windows 10 Sep 04, 2017
Do you have a bunch of pictures saved on your Windows 10 computer? It’s really easy to view them in a slide show, full screen.

(yes, those are my pups – Lilly and Fenway – in that picture)

There are lots of ways to view the images stored on your computer. You can see them on your actual monitor, you can connect your computer to your large screen television, or you could even connect a projector to your laptop and put them up on a big screen if you want.

But you still need a way to have the pictures rotate one after the other without your having to manually open one, close it, then open the next one. All of them should display in order, automatically.

In Windows 10 this is pretty easy. Here’s how you play a slide show in Windows 10:

1. Go to your Pictures folder, then open a sub-folder of pictures that’s in there (or you could just view pictures that are in the root level of your Pictures folder). Ideally, your pictures will be sorted into folders such as a particular vacation, or Christmas, or an event you attended, that kind of thing.

2. Click one time on one of the pictures in the folder.

3. At the top of the window, look for the “Manage” tab and click on it. Then click “Slide show”, and just sit back and watch the show!

You know when I find things like this the most useful? At family events, such as birthdays, wedding receptions, or funerals. You can hire a company to create a slide show with an audio soundtrack for you, and spend a few hundred dollars. Or you can use the process outlined above – put all your chosen pictures in a designated folder, and play the slide show while your music plays from iTunes or a few mp3 files that you have picked from what’s stored on your computer. It works wonderfully and costs you nothing.

The post Watch a slide show of your pictures in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

mailman — How to get a daily email preview of your snail mail delivery Aug 28, 2017
A little while back I discovered a service that doesn’t cost anything and can sometimes be useful. Now my post office sends me a picture of what the letter carrier will be putting in my mailbox later that day.

I don’t know how long the US Postal Service has offered this service, but I just discovered it and I like it.

My snail-mail delivery is in the afternoon. Sometimes as early as 2:30 pm, sometimes as late as 5:30 pm. I don’t know why there is such a difference in time each day, but that’s how it happens.

There are a few situations where it would be nice to know ahead of time what the mailman is going to deliver that day:

If someone has mailed me something (such as an eBay purchase) and it’s taking longer than expected to show up, the sender might call or email me in the morning or mid-day to see if it has arrived yet. If the mail has not yet been delivered for that day, I wouldn’t know yet if the product would be coming that day or not.

I have some clients that still pay me by writing a check and putting it in the mail. I usually get a few of these in the mail each week, so I try to “group” them in a single deposit in order to just make one trip to the bank instead of several trips. Problem is, even though I want to go to the bank AFTER I see if any checks show up in today’s mail, my bank closes most days at 5 pm. So if the mail is delivered later, or this is a day that no checks were in the mail delivery, I waited for nothing.

If I’m away from home for a few days and something important gets delivered, I might prefer to have a friend or neighbor go and pick it up rather than have it sit there in the mailbox until I get back home.

Not to mention, I just like knowing what’s coming in the mail later today! With this service, all of that is taken care of.

Every morning between 7 and 7:30, I get an email from the post office. The email tells me what mail will be showing up in my mailbox later that day. The first part of the email looks like this:

Then below that, there are actual scans of the pieces of mail that are scheduled to be delivered that day. They look like this:

As you can see, this isn’t just an email “telling” me what mail is supposed to be delivered today – it actually shows me pictures of the mail pieces.

I had no idea that the US Postal Service actually created a scanned image of each piece of mail. But since they’re already doing that, might as well take advantage of it and have them notify you what to expect in your mailbox.

NOTE: this is only for letter-size mail pieces. Packages, magazines, etc. are not included in the notification.

To set this up for your address, go here: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action. It’s completely free for US residents.

And I’m curious – have you heard of this service before? Or was this the first time you were made aware of it? Leave a comment below.

The post How to get a daily email preview of your snail mail delivery first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

mail delivery — How to get a daily email preview of your snail mail delivery Aug 28, 2017
A little while back I discovered a service that doesn’t cost anything and can sometimes be useful. Now my post office sends me a picture of what the letter carrier will be putting in my mailbox later that day.

I don’t know how long the US Postal Service has offered this service, but I just discovered it and I like it.

My snail-mail delivery is in the afternoon. Sometimes as early as 2:30 pm, sometimes as late as 5:30 pm. I don’t know why there is such a difference in time each day, but that’s how it happens.

There are a few situations where it would be nice to know ahead of time what the mailman is going to deliver that day:

If someone has mailed me something (such as an eBay purchase) and it’s taking longer than expected to show up, the sender might call or email me in the morning or mid-day to see if it has arrived yet. If the mail has not yet been delivered for that day, I wouldn’t know yet if the product would be coming that day or not.

I have some clients that still pay me by writing a check and putting it in the mail. I usually get a few of these in the mail each week, so I try to “group” them in a single deposit in order to just make one trip to the bank instead of several trips. Problem is, even though I want to go to the bank AFTER I see if any checks show up in today’s mail, my bank closes most days at 5 pm. So if the mail is delivered later, or this is a day that no checks were in the mail delivery, I waited for nothing.

If I’m away from home for a few days and something important gets delivered, I might prefer to have a friend or neighbor go and pick it up rather than have it sit there in the mailbox until I get back home.

Not to mention, I just like knowing what’s coming in the mail later today! With this service, all of that is taken care of.

Every morning between 7 and 7:30, I get an email from the post office. The email tells me what mail will be showing up in my mailbox later that day. The first part of the email looks like this:

Then below that, there are actual scans of the pieces of mail that are scheduled to be delivered that day. They look like this:

As you can see, this isn’t just an email “telling” me what mail is supposed to be delivered today – it actually shows me pictures of the mail pieces.

I had no idea that the US Postal Service actually created a scanned image of each piece of mail. But since they’re already doing that, might as well take advantage of it and have them notify you what to expect in your mailbox.

NOTE: this is only for letter-size mail pieces. Packages, magazines, etc. are not included in the notification.

To set this up for your address, go here: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action. It’s completely free for US residents.

And I’m curious – have you heard of this service before? Or was this the first time you were made aware of it? Leave a comment below.

The post How to get a daily email preview of your snail mail delivery first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

airbnb scam — Watch out for this tricky AirBnB scam Aug 21, 2017
I love Airbnb and I’ve used the service several times. But unfortunately, like with many things today, the scammers have figured out a way to trick you out of your money using the Airbnb service. Here’s how it works and how you can avoid it.

I love Airbnb (use this link to get $40 off your first trip if you want to try it out) and have used it several times. If you’re not familiar with it, Airbnb is basically an alternative to staying in a hotel. Anyone that has a home with a spare bedroom, or a condo they’re not using, or even a whole house, can list that space on the Airbnb website and rent it out for whatever price they want to put on it.

I tend to be pretty open to trying things like this, and every time I’ve used it has been a positive experience. It saves me money, and I get to meet new people who are sharing part of their home with me. My wife was a little hesitant the first time we used it when traveling together, but she’s a fan of it now too.

The main concern for most people who hear about it for the first time is safety. Not just for the guest, but also for the homeowner who is apparently just inviting random strangers to spend the night (or several nights). But there are security measures built in to the process, mainly based on reviews. Both hosts and guests get rated and reviewed (by each other) after a visit, so you can look at that information before you make a reservation. It’s nice to hear what other people have said about a host before you go there.

But like almost every other area of our lives, the scammers have figured out a way to manipulate it. The way they do this is actually kind of clever, but you can easily avoid getting caught if you know what to look for.

To fully understand this, you need to know that when a host lists their location for booking on Airbnb, one of the things they decide on is how they want to handle cancellations. There are 3 standardized options:

Flexible – this means a guest can cancel a reservation up to 1 day prior to arrival and get a full refund (except for the Airbnb fees, which are minimal).

Moderate – this means that to get a full refund (less fees), a guest would need to cancel at least 5 days before arrival.

Strict – cancellation by a guest must be at least one week before arrival, and the guest would still only receive a 50% refund.

The policies listed above are all in reference to when a guest cancels a reservation. But what if the host cancels the reservation? That means the guest is entitled to a full refund. And that makes sense. If you book and pay for a room, and the host cancels your reservation, of course you should get all your money back.

So here’s what the scammer does:

They list their location as available for rent, and they choose the Strict cancellation policy.

They take a reservation, and the guest makes the payment.

A week or two before arrival, the host sends an email to the guest, saying “I’m really sorry, but I’ve had a medical emergency come up and won’t be here – can you go in to Airbnb and cancel your reservation?”

The guest, not paying any attention to what the cancellation policy is (and feeling sorry for the host and their sad story), cancels the reservation. The guest gets a 50% refund, and the host keeps 50% – for never having a guest.

So for example if the room was $50 per night, and the guest booked and paid for 3 nights, that’s $150. The scammer “host” makes $75 for doing nothing.

And remember, this is just one reservation – the scammer can fill up a calendar with these.

And think about this other possible plot twist: since the scammer will never host anyone, he doesn’t even need to list his own house. Anyone can go on Google and get pictures of a really nice house, full interior and exterior shots, and just list it as their own house. And at a discounted price too – they can list a $200 per night property and only ask for $125 per night, just to get more reservations.

Now you might be thinking, “Great scam, but how long would it go on? If someone gets scammed, they’re going to leave a bad review, so future guests will read that and not book with this host any more.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You can only leave a review for a host if you actually stayed as a guest with that host. Since the visit never took place, you can’t leave a review.

As you might imagine, the most common victims of this scam are people who are new to Airbnb and are not really familiar with the cancellation policies. For a guest that initiates a cancellation of this type, Airbnb does tell them that they will be losing 50% of their payment – but some people just don’t pay attention and don’t think about it. That’s what the scammers are counting on.

How to avoid this Airbnb scam:

First, you can just avoid using any hosts that have chosen the “Strict” cancellation policy. Lots of hosts use the “Flexible” option so that’s what I always look for.

Second, if a host contacts you and asks you to cancel your reservation, don’t do it. If they are unable to provide accommodations, let them cancel it.

Third, and perhaps most important, only book with hosts that have several positive reviews. The vast majority of hosts on Airbnb are good people (in my experience) and their ratings and reviews from previous guests will usually reflect that.

In some cases, you might find it necessary to book a reservation with a host using the “Strict” cancellation policy. What if they ask you to cancel after you’ve paid? You don’t have the option of leaving a negative review, but you can definitely report them to the service. Airbnb is aware of this scam, and if they see a trend of this type of complaint against a host they will cancel that account. Of course, the same scammer can just create a new account under a different name, but at least you did your part to help future guests to avoid being a victim.

The post Watch out for this tricky AirBnB scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Watch out for this tricky AirBnB scam Aug 21, 2017
I love Airbnb and I’ve used the service several times. But unfortunately, like with many things today, the scammers have figured out a way to trick you out of your money using the Airbnb service. Here’s how it works and how you can avoid it.

I love Airbnb (use this link to get $40 off your first trip if you want to try it out) and have used it several times. If you’re not familiar with it, Airbnb is basically an alternative to staying in a hotel. Anyone that has a home with a spare bedroom, or a condo they’re not using, or even a whole house, can list that space on the Airbnb website and rent it out for whatever price they want to put on it.

I tend to be pretty open to trying things like this, and every time I’ve used it has been a positive experience. It saves me money, and I get to meet new people who are sharing part of their home with me. My wife was a little hesitant the first time we used it when traveling together, but she’s a fan of it now too.

The main concern for most people who hear about it for the first time is safety. Not just for the guest, but also for the homeowner who is apparently just inviting random strangers to spend the night (or several nights). But there are security measures built in to the process, mainly based on reviews. Both hosts and guests get rated and reviewed (by each other) after a visit, so you can look at that information before you make a reservation. It’s nice to hear what other people have said about a host before you go there.

But like almost every other area of our lives, the scammers have figured out a way to manipulate it. The way they do this is actually kind of clever, but you can easily avoid getting caught if you know what to look for.

To fully understand this, you need to know that when a host lists their location for booking on Airbnb, one of the things they decide on is how they want to handle cancellations. There are 3 standardized options:

Flexible – this means a guest can cancel a reservation up to 1 day prior to arrival and get a full refund (except for the Airbnb fees, which are minimal).

Moderate – this means that to get a full refund (less fees), a guest would need to cancel at least 5 days before arrival.

Strict – cancellation by a guest must be at least one week before arrival, and the guest would still only receive a 50% refund.

The policies listed above are all in reference to when a guest cancels a reservation. But what if the host cancels the reservation? That means the guest is entitled to a full refund. And that makes sense. If you book and pay for a room, and the host cancels your reservation, of course you should get all your money back.

So here’s what the scammer does:

They list their location as available for rent, and they choose the Strict cancellation policy.

They take a reservation, and the guest makes the payment.

A week or two before arrival, the host sends an email to the guest, saying “I’m really sorry, but I’ve had a medical emergency come up and won’t be here – can you go in to Airbnb and cancel your reservation?”

The guest, not paying any attention to what the cancellation policy is (and feeling sorry for the host and their sad story), cancels the reservation. The guest gets a 50% refund, and the host keeps 50% – for never having a guest.

So for example if the room was $50 per night, and the guest booked and paid for 3 nights, that’s $150. The scammer “host” makes $75 for doing nothing.

And remember, this is just one reservation – the scammer can fill up a calendar with these.

And think about this other possible plot twist: since the scammer will never host anyone, he doesn’t even need to list his own house. Anyone can go on Google and get pictures of a really nice house, full interior and exterior shots, and just list it as their own house. And at a discounted price too – they can list a $200 per night property and only ask for $125 per night, just to get more reservations.

Now you might be thinking, “Great scam, but how long would it go on? If someone gets scammed, they’re going to leave a bad review, so future guests will read that and not book with this host any more.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You can only leave a review for a host if you actually stayed as a guest with that host. Since the visit never took place, you can’t leave a review.

As you might imagine, the most common victims of this scam are people who are new to Airbnb and are not really familiar with the cancellation policies. For a guest that initiates a cancellation of this type, Airbnb does tell them that they will be losing 50% of their payment – but some people just don’t pay attention and don’t think about it. That’s what the scammers are counting on.

How to avoid this Airbnb scam:

First, you can just avoid using any hosts that have chosen the “Strict” cancellation policy. Lots of hosts use the “Flexible” option so that’s what I always look for.

Second, if a host contacts you and asks you to cancel your reservation, don’t do it. If they are unable to provide accommodations, let them cancel it.

Third, and perhaps most important, only book with hosts that have several positive reviews. The vast majority of hosts on Airbnb are good people (in my experience) and their ratings and reviews from previous guests will usually reflect that.

In some cases, you might find it necessary to book a reservation with a host using the “Strict” cancellation policy. What if they ask you to cancel after you’ve paid? You don’t have the option of leaving a negative review, but you can definitely report them to the service. Airbnb is aware of this scam, and if they see a trend of this type of complaint against a host they will cancel that account. Of course, the same scammer can just create a new account under a different name, but at least you did your part to help future guests to avoid being a victim.

The post Watch out for this tricky AirBnB scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

panic — The secret repair trick that techs don’t want you to know Aug 14, 2017
Recently a client called me in a panic, because he was in the middle of using his laptop and suddenly it shut off and now it wouldn’t boot up again. By all appearances, his laptop was just dead. Here’s how we handled it.

I have to tell you, I really love using this trick. To someone that watches it happen, it’s like magic. One minute their computer is completely dead – no lights, no fan, nothing on the screen, and pushing the power button has no effect at all. Many times when people contact me with this situation, they are already thinking “Great, now I have to buy a new laptop”. That just makes the effect that much more impressive when their laptop is suddenly working fine again.

What happens is that sometimes the computer can slip into a Hibernate mode and not be able to come out of it on its own. Kind of like a person with a traumatic injury that goes into a coma. Except with a person, usually you have to just wait and hope they come out of it. With your laptop, we can snap it back into reality with this little trick.

Here’s the process:

1. Unplug the power cord

2. Remove the battery (you’ll need to flip the laptop over to get to the battery)

3. Turn the laptop back over as if you’re going to use it, then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds (yes, you won’t see anything happen since the battery and power cord are disconnected)

4. Plug in the power cord (with the battery still removed)

5. Tap the power button as you normally would to turn on the computer, and watch it boot up like normal (magic!)

6. After it is fully booted up, go through the shut down procedure to turn it off

7. Reinsert the battery

8. Boot it up again, and you’re back in business

This works on both PC and Mac laptops, although the problem that sometimes arises is that some are poorly designed and you aren’t able to easily remove the battery without disassembling the laptop. You can blame the manufacturer for that inconvenience.

The post The secret repair trick that techs don’t want you to know first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — The secret repair trick that techs don’t want you to know Aug 14, 2017
Recently a client called me in a panic, because he was in the middle of using his laptop and suddenly it shut off and now it wouldn’t boot up again. By all appearances, his laptop was just dead. Here’s how we handled it.

I have to tell you, I really love using this trick. To someone that watches it happen, it’s like magic. One minute their computer is completely dead – no lights, no fan, nothing on the screen, and pushing the power button has no effect at all. Many times when people contact me with this situation, they are already thinking “Great, now I have to buy a new laptop”. That just makes the effect that much more impressive when their laptop is suddenly working fine again.

What happens is that sometimes the computer can slip into a Hibernate mode and not be able to come out of it on its own. Kind of like a person with a traumatic injury that goes into a coma. Except with a person, usually you have to just wait and hope they come out of it. With your laptop, we can snap it back into reality with this little trick.

Here’s the process:

1. Unplug the power cord

2. Remove the battery (you’ll need to flip the laptop over to get to the battery)

3. Turn the laptop back over as if you’re going to use it, then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds (yes, you won’t see anything happen since the battery and power cord are disconnected)

4. Plug in the power cord (with the battery still removed)

5. Tap the power button as you normally would to turn on the computer, and watch it boot up like normal (magic!)

6. After it is fully booted up, go through the shut down procedure to turn it off

7. Reinsert the battery

8. Boot it up again, and you’re back in business

This works on both PC and Mac laptops, although the problem that sometimes arises is that some are poorly designed and you aren’t able to easily remove the battery without disassembling the laptop. You can blame the manufacturer for that inconvenience.

The post The secret repair trick that techs don’t want you to know first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google — Google wants your phone number – so give it to them Aug 07, 2017
Everyone seems to be in a panic about privacy these days. All the big companies want to know everything about you, and most people are reluctant to give up any more information than they really need to (with one exception – we willingly tell Facebook everything about ourselves). But when Google asks you for your phone number – you definitely should give it to them.

“What??”

“Google is evil! They want to know too much about me!”

“I don’t want to give them any more personal details!”

That’s fine. I understand that. And in general, I agree with the idea that protecting your personal information is a good thing. But this is an exception.

First of all, this only applies if you have a Google account. How would you answer these questions:

Do you use Gmail?

Do you use a Google Calendar?

Do you use Google Photos?

Do you have a YouTube account?

Do you use Google Drive?

Do you get apps from the Play Store for your Android phone?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you have a Google account.

Now the big question: why does Google want your phone number? What are they going to do with it?

Well, they aren’t going to call you at dinner time to sell you a time share or ask for a charity donation.

Google wants your phone number, so they can help you get your account back if for some reason you are unable to log in.

For me, all of my email comes in through Gmail (I actually have several Gmail accounts, for different purposes). What if suddenly you could not access your email account? How big of a problem would that be for you? That means you can’t get new emails coming in now, which is an issue in itself. But you also cannot go to Gmail.com and access any of your PAST emails (although you still could see the old emails if you have them stored on your computer). You also don’t have access to your Gmail contact list. Or your Google calendar. Or any of the photos you have backed up in Google Photos (a great way to backup all of your photos, by the way). Or anything else you use your Google account for.

This would be an issue you would want to get resolved as soon as possible. And the way to get it fixed is for Google to either send you a text message with a special one-time code, or to call you and give you that code. You enter that code on their site, and you then have access to change your password to a new one. And you’re back in business that quick.

But if Google doesn’t have your phone number, it’s not that easy.

They could also send that code to an alternate email address that you provide them (yes, you should give them that information as well). Hopefully you still have access to that old email account – you might not though, if it was from an internet provider you cancelled 10 years ago.

You can also resolve this by answering some security questions that Google has on file. Assuming you remember those answers. I had a client recently that had to answer one of those. The question was “What is your favorite movie?” and she had to think about it for a minute because she originally answered that question a few years earlier. Fortunately she was able to get it right after a few tries, but it was a little risky to depend on that one thing.

Giving Google your phone number and the other information they need is really easy. Just go to Google.com and sign in to your account. Then click on your picture up in the top right, and in the drop-down menu click on “My Account”.

On the next page, look on the left side for the “Security Checkup” area and click on “Get Started”. Google will walk you through the rest from there.

Keep this in mind: you can only do this BEFORE you lose access to your Google or Gmail account. That means you need to do it now!

The post Google wants your phone number – so give it to them first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google security checkup — Google wants your phone number – so give it to them Aug 07, 2017
Everyone seems to be in a panic about privacy these days. All the big companies want to know everything about you, and most people are reluctant to give up any more information than they really need to (with one exception – we willingly tell Facebook everything about ourselves). But when Google asks you for your phone number – you definitely should give it to them.

“What??”

“Google is evil! They want to know too much about me!”

“I don’t want to give them any more personal details!”

That’s fine. I understand that. And in general, I agree with the idea that protecting your personal information is a good thing. But this is an exception.

First of all, this only applies if you have a Google account. How would you answer these questions:

Do you use Gmail?

Do you use a Google Calendar?

Do you use Google Photos?

Do you have a YouTube account?

Do you use Google Drive?

Do you get apps from the Play Store for your Android phone?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you have a Google account.

Now the big question: why does Google want your phone number? What are they going to do with it?

Well, they aren’t going to call you at dinner time to sell you a time share or ask for a charity donation.

Google wants your phone number, so they can help you get your account back if for some reason you are unable to log in.

For me, all of my email comes in through Gmail (I actually have several Gmail accounts, for different purposes). What if suddenly you could not access your email account? How big of a problem would that be for you? That means you can’t get new emails coming in now, which is an issue in itself. But you also cannot go to Gmail.com and access any of your PAST emails (although you still could see the old emails if you have them stored on your computer). You also don’t have access to your Gmail contact list. Or your Google calendar. Or any of the photos you have backed up in Google Photos (a great way to backup all of your photos, by the way). Or anything else you use your Google account for.

This would be an issue you would want to get resolved as soon as possible. And the way to get it fixed is for Google to either send you a text message with a special one-time code, or to call you and give you that code. You enter that code on their site, and you then have access to change your password to a new one. And you’re back in business that quick.

But if Google doesn’t have your phone number, it’s not that easy.

They could also send that code to an alternate email address that you provide them (yes, you should give them that information as well). Hopefully you still have access to that old email account – you might not though, if it was from an internet provider you cancelled 10 years ago.

You can also resolve this by answering some security questions that Google has on file. Assuming you remember those answers. I had a client recently that had to answer one of those. The question was “What is your favorite movie?” and she had to think about it for a minute because she originally answered that question a few years earlier. Fortunately she was able to get it right after a few tries, but it was a little risky to depend on that one thing.

Giving Google your phone number and the other information they need is really easy. Just go to Google.com and sign in to your account. Then click on your picture up in the top right, and in the drop-down menu click on “My Account”.

On the next page, look on the left side for the “Security Checkup” area and click on “Get Started”. Google will walk you through the rest from there.

Keep this in mind: you can only do this BEFORE you lose access to your Google or Gmail account. That means you need to do it now!

The post Google wants your phone number – so give it to them first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

fake tech support — Case study of a client who was (almost) scammed Jul 31, 2017
Online scams are a huge problem, and it seems like they won’t be going away anytime soon. I recently had a client who almost got scammed and wasn’t even aware of it until I explained what happened.

Laura contacted me about buying one of my refurbished laptops. Her laptop had been running really badly recently so she was considering getting a new one. I answered some questions (we were communicating via Facebook chat) and eventually we were talking about her current laptop and the possibility of getting it repaired rather than replacing it.

I explained to her that diagnosis was free, so it really would make sense to at least explore that option rather than just giving up on it and buying a new one. So a couple of days later she brought it to me.

Whenever someone brings me a computer for repair, I try to ask a lot of questions and get as much information as possible. Sometimes just one question, one little bit of info, can make a huge difference in the outcome of a project. That was very true in this case.

So she brought me the laptop, and the first thing I noticed was that it looked fairly new. Of course, outward appearance is not always an indicator of what kind of condition a computer is in, but it’s often a pretty good sign.

Also, I could tell from my communications with Laura that she is someone who is very attentive to detail – the type of person who is careful, organized, and would take good care of her things.

As part of our conversation, it came up that she had purchased the laptop new about a year ago. That naturally lead to my question, “Is it still under warranty?” Typically the manufacturer’s warranty is one year from the date of purchase.

Her response: “No, I called HP and they said the warranty has expired.”

Whenever someone says they have called and talked to some large online company (HP, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, etc.), my next question is: “How did you get their phone number?”

Laura: “I found it online.”

<alarm bells – warning – alert – Danger, Will Robinson!>

From experience, I know that when someone looks up a “tech support” number online, the number they find is most likely NOT going to be a phone number for the actual computer manufacturer’s tech support department. Of course, when they call that number, the answer will be something like “HP Tech Support” or “Microsoft Tech Support” or something similar, so there would be no reason to suspect anything. But on the other end of that line is a scammer ready to steal your money.

I asked Laura for more details about what the “HP” representative told her. She explained that he was sorry to inform her that the warranty had expired, but that she could purchase an extended warranty. Laura didn’t recall how much the new “warranty” would cost, but typically these things sell for $200 – $300. Fortunately, she did not purchase from the scammer, but contacted me instead to talk about getting a new computer.

I explained to Laura that she was most likely NOT talking to an actual HP representative. She was pretty surprised to find out that she had probably been talking to a scammer. These criminals are really getting pretty good at fooling people into thinking they’re legitimate, and in many cases they are successful. Just not this time.

At this point I couldn’t be 100% certain until I did some more research. So I told her I would check into it, as well as diagnose the laptop’s problems, and get back to her.

My next 3 steps:

Back up her important data. The computer was not working properly, and there was critical data on it, and she had no backup. So the first priority in any case like this is to make sure whatever data is still accessible gets saved to a separate drive. I was able to save all of her important stuff.

Check the hard drive health. My diagnostic testing came back with the result that the hard drive was failing. This is also known as a hard drive crash. This would explain all of the problems the computer was having when Laura was trying to use it.

Check on the warranty situation with HP (the REAL company this time).

Turns out Laura’s laptop was actually still under warranty. And how much time was left on the warranty? TWO DAYS. No time to waste.

I contacted Laura immediately (this was still the same day she dropped it off) and told her what I had found out. She came back right away and picked up the laptop as well as the portable drive that was now safely storing her Documents, Pictures, etc.

I heard from her later that day. She had called the actual HP phone number (which I gave to her) and they confirmed that the laptop was under warranty. They will be sending her a shipping box to pack up her laptop for shipment to HP, for them to repair at no cost to Laura whatsoever. What I expect they will do is replace the hard drive with a new one and send it back to her with a fresh installation of Windows 10 (same as it was when she first got it).

What can we learn from this? Three things:

First: Don’t Google for tech support phone numbers. The scammers know that many thousands of people, every day, are searching on Google for a tech support phone number. So they create websites to match those searches. Those websites can have very convincing content, even including the actual logos of the large computer companies, to make you think you are genuinely talking with someone from that company. Don’t fall for it.

Second: When hiring a tech, make sure it’s someone you can trust. I hate to say it, but there are some techs that run their business without integrity. In a case like this, the client is usually expecting to pay a few hundred dollars for the data backup and hard drive replacement, so the less-than-honest techs will just do the repair and get paid for it. Especially when the client already “knows” the warranty has expired. Find a tech who you know will do the right thing.

Third: Back up your important files. I say this repeatedly and without apology. Laura’s hard drive was failing gradually, which allowed us to grab the data before it completely died. Some hard drives don’t give you that luxury – they just crash without warning. Setting up a mostly automated backup is not expensive, and I can do it for you remotely. If you have stuff on your computer that you would not want to lose, get this done. No excuses!

The post Case study of a client who was (almost) scammed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

alarm bells — Case study of a client who was (almost) scammed Jul 31, 2017
Online scams are a huge problem, and it seems like they won’t be going away anytime soon. I recently had a client who almost got scammed and wasn’t even aware of it until I explained what happened.

Laura contacted me about buying one of my refurbished laptops. Her laptop had been running really badly recently so she was considering getting a new one. I answered some questions (we were communicating via Facebook chat) and eventually we were talking about her current laptop and the possibility of getting it repaired rather than replacing it.

I explained to her that diagnosis was free, so it really would make sense to at least explore that option rather than just giving up on it and buying a new one. So a couple of days later she brought it to me.

Whenever someone brings me a computer for repair, I try to ask a lot of questions and get as much information as possible. Sometimes just one question, one little bit of info, can make a huge difference in the outcome of a project. That was very true in this case.

So she brought me the laptop, and the first thing I noticed was that it looked fairly new. Of course, outward appearance is not always an indicator of what kind of condition a computer is in, but it’s often a pretty good sign.

Also, I could tell from my communications with Laura that she is someone who is very attentive to detail – the type of person who is careful, organized, and would take good care of her things.

As part of our conversation, it came up that she had purchased the laptop new about a year ago. That naturally lead to my question, “Is it still under warranty?” Typically the manufacturer’s warranty is one year from the date of purchase.

Her response: “No, I called HP and they said the warranty has expired.”

Whenever someone says they have called and talked to some large online company (HP, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, etc.), my next question is: “How did you get their phone number?”

Laura: “I found it online.”

<alarm bells – warning – alert – Danger, Will Robinson!>

From experience, I know that when someone looks up a “tech support” number online, the number they find is most likely NOT going to be a phone number for the actual computer manufacturer’s tech support department. Of course, when they call that number, the answer will be something like “HP Tech Support” or “Microsoft Tech Support” or something similar, so there would be no reason to suspect anything. But on the other end of that line is a scammer ready to steal your money.

I asked Laura for more details about what the “HP” representative told her. She explained that he was sorry to inform her that the warranty had expired, but that she could purchase an extended warranty. Laura didn’t recall how much the new “warranty” would cost, but typically these things sell for $200 – $300. Fortunately, she did not purchase from the scammer, but contacted me instead to talk about getting a new computer.

I explained to Laura that she was most likely NOT talking to an actual HP representative. She was pretty surprised to find out that she had probably been talking to a scammer. These criminals are really getting pretty good at fooling people into thinking they’re legitimate, and in many cases they are successful. Just not this time.

At this point I couldn’t be 100% certain until I did some more research. So I told her I would check into it, as well as diagnose the laptop’s problems, and get back to her.

My next 3 steps:

Back up her important data. The computer was not working properly, and there was critical data on it, and she had no backup. So the first priority in any case like this is to make sure whatever data is still accessible gets saved to a separate drive. I was able to save all of her important stuff.

Check the hard drive health. My diagnostic testing came back with the result that the hard drive was failing. This is also known as a hard drive crash. This would explain all of the problems the computer was having when Laura was trying to use it.

Check on the warranty situation with HP (the REAL company this time).

Turns out Laura’s laptop was actually still under warranty. And how much time was left on the warranty? TWO DAYS. No time to waste.

I contacted Laura immediately (this was still the same day she dropped it off) and told her what I had found out. She came back right away and picked up the laptop as well as the portable drive that was now safely storing her Documents, Pictures, etc.

I heard from her later that day. She had called the actual HP phone number (which I gave to her) and they confirmed that the laptop was under warranty. They will be sending her a shipping box to pack up her laptop for shipment to HP, for them to repair at no cost to Laura whatsoever. What I expect they will do is replace the hard drive with a new one and send it back to her with a fresh installation of Windows 10 (same as it was when she first got it).

What can we learn from this? Three things:

First: Don’t Google for tech support phone numbers. The scammers know that many thousands of people, every day, are searching on Google for a tech support phone number. So they create websites to match those searches. Those websites can have very convincing content, even including the actual logos of the large computer companies, to make you think you are genuinely talking with someone from that company. Don’t fall for it.

Second: When hiring a tech, make sure it’s someone you can trust. I hate to say it, but there are some techs that run their business without integrity. In a case like this, the client is usually expecting to pay a few hundred dollars for the data backup and hard drive replacement, so the less-than-honest techs will just do the repair and get paid for it. Especially when the client already “knows” the warranty has expired. Find a tech who you know will do the right thing.

Third: Back up your important files. I say this repeatedly and without apology. Laura’s hard drive was failing gradually, which allowed us to grab the data before it completely died. Some hard drives don’t give you that luxury – they just crash without warning. Setting up a mostly automated backup is not expensive, and I can do it for you remotely. If you have stuff on your computer that you would not want to lose, get this done. No excuses!

The post Case study of a client who was (almost) scammed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email time zones — Why do my incoming emails show the wrong time? Jul 24, 2017
Had this come up with a client recently. His email inbox was constantly showing the wrong time for incoming emails. He could receive an email at 2 pm, and yet when he looked at that email, it would show that it arrived at 9 pm. In fact, he demonstrated the problem while he was here at my home office. I sent him an email, it showed up in his inbox, but the “arrival time” displayed was several hours into the future.

He had been dealing with this mystery for quite some time before telling me about it. Of course, the first thing he checked was the date and time for the computer itself. Those were correct.

The problem was that his time/date was incorrect inside his email settings.

This applies to any of the Microsoft-related email services: MSN, Hotmail, and Outlook.com (note: Outlook.com is Microsoft’s web-based email service – not the MS Outlook software that comes with Office).

For each of these services, there’s a setting that allows you to designate a particular time zone that you want to use just for email purposes. This is a separate setting from the traditional time zone setting in Windows.

Here’s how you change that time zone setting in a Microsoft web-based email account:

1. Sign in to your MSN, Hotmail, or Outlook.com email account. (These screenshots are from my Outlook.com account. I don’t have an MSN or Hotmail account, but the process should be pretty similar since these are all Microsoft services.) Click on the gear icon in the top right:

2. In the drop down menu, choose “Options”

3. In the window that opens, look over on the left side and click on “General”, then click “Region and time zone”:

4. Now you’ll see a screen where you have a drop-down menu to choose your correct time zone. Once you’ve done that, click Save:

Now you can click on “Options” in the top left and you’ll go back to your email Inbox, ready to work.

Here’s a question for you – why would you want to change the time zone in your email program, but not for your computer in general? Leave a comment below with your opinion.

The post Why do my incoming emails show the wrong time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft email services — Why do my incoming emails show the wrong time? Jul 24, 2017
Had this come up with a client recently. His email inbox was constantly showing the wrong time for incoming emails. He could receive an email at 2 pm, and yet when he looked at that email, it would show that it arrived at 9 pm. In fact, he demonstrated the problem while he was here at my home office. I sent him an email, it showed up in his inbox, but the “arrival time” displayed was several hours into the future.

He had been dealing with this mystery for quite some time before telling me about it. Of course, the first thing he checked was the date and time for the computer itself. Those were correct.

The problem was that his time/date was incorrect inside his email settings.

This applies to any of the Microsoft-related email services: MSN, Hotmail, and Outlook.com (note: Outlook.com is Microsoft’s web-based email service – not the MS Outlook software that comes with Office).

For each of these services, there’s a setting that allows you to designate a particular time zone that you want to use just for email purposes. This is a separate setting from the traditional time zone setting in Windows.

Here’s how you change that time zone setting in a Microsoft web-based email account:

1. Sign in to your MSN, Hotmail, or Outlook.com email account. (These screenshots are from my Outlook.com account. I don’t have an MSN or Hotmail account, but the process should be pretty similar since these are all Microsoft services.) Click on the gear icon in the top right:

2. In the drop down menu, choose “Options”

3. In the window that opens, look over on the left side and click on “General”, then click “Region and time zone”:

4. Now you’ll see a screen where you have a drop-down menu to choose your correct time zone. Once you’ve done that, click Save:

Now you can click on “Options” in the top left and you’ll go back to your email Inbox, ready to work.

Here’s a question for you – why would you want to change the time zone in your email program, but not for your computer in general? Leave a comment below with your opinion.

The post Why do my incoming emails show the wrong time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook fakes — Finding and destroying Facebook hoaxes Jul 17, 2017
Recently, Facebook has been overrun with all kinds of warnings about hackers and viruses. I’ve gotten numerous direct Facebook messages from friends, alerting me of these problems and encouraging me to forward the same message to all of my contacts. I won’t be doing that.

Here are a couple that I’ve received recently –

This reminds me of the old days when people would get these “alerts” by email, with the instructions to forward them to everyone in their email contact list. And believe it or not, this stuff still actually remains in email circulation, even though it seems to have died down some. But I might have a skewed perception of this, since whenever I get one I immediately reply with the request to never send me those things.

In addition to Anwar Jitou and Jayden K. Smith, other names that you might see in these warning messages are Tanner Dwyer, Christopher Butterfield, Stefania Colac, Alejando Spiljner and Bobby Roberts.

What you might notice is that all of these messages contain 3 common elements:

A big warning

Potential disastrous consequences

Instructions to share/forward to everyone you know

Oh, and they have one other thing in common: THEY ARE ALL HOAXES.

None of these things have any shred of truth or reality. You can’t get “hacked” by accepting a friend request. You can’t get “hacked” by one of your friends accepting a friend request from a hacker.

Here’s another one that’s still making the rounds:

You’ve probably seen some Facebook users copy and paste this as a post to “protect” their online pictures. Complete hogwash.

Maybe you’ve seen this one, where Facebook is now charging fees to users in order to retain privacy:

I repeat: THESE ARE ALL FALSE.

So what should you do if you get a message like this?

Do not forward it, like it, love it or share it. Do not copy and paste it as a post. Do not send it as a message to any of your friends. Just delete it.

If you want, you can send a message to the person that posted it and link to this blog post. Then at least they will know that what they are sending out is 100% false. People do this with good intentions, so most would probably not post this stuff if they already knew it was completely made up. They just don’t know.

“But Scott, what if I get one that is actually true?”

You won’t. But if it makes you feel better, just do a Google search on one of those “hacker” names and the word “hoax” and see what comes up.

What you will see are dozens – maybe hundreds – of blog posts and articles and news reports, all telling you that it’s just a stupid hoax. Then you can go back to Facebook and delete it. But you can save some time, because this requires no research. Just delete it.

The post Finding and destroying Facebook hoaxes first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

facebook hoax — Finding and destroying Facebook hoaxes Jul 17, 2017
Recently, Facebook has been overrun with all kinds of warnings about hackers and viruses. I’ve gotten numerous direct Facebook messages from friends, alerting me of these problems and encouraging me to forward the same message to all of my contacts. I won’t be doing that.

Here are a couple that I’ve received recently –

This reminds me of the old days when people would get these “alerts” by email, with the instructions to forward them to everyone in their email contact list. And believe it or not, this stuff still actually remains in email circulation, even though it seems to have died down some. But I might have a skewed perception of this, since whenever I get one I immediately reply with the request to never send me those things.

In addition to Anwar Jitou and Jayden K. Smith, other names that you might see in these warning messages are Tanner Dwyer, Christopher Butterfield, Stefania Colac, Alejando Spiljner and Bobby Roberts.

What you might notice is that all of these messages contain 3 common elements:

A big warning

Potential disastrous consequences

Instructions to share/forward to everyone you know

Oh, and they have one other thing in common: THEY ARE ALL HOAXES.

None of these things have any shred of truth or reality. You can’t get “hacked” by accepting a friend request. You can’t get “hacked” by one of your friends accepting a friend request from a hacker.

Here’s another one that’s still making the rounds:

You’ve probably seen some Facebook users copy and paste this as a post to “protect” their online pictures. Complete hogwash.

Maybe you’ve seen this one, where Facebook is now charging fees to users in order to retain privacy:

I repeat: THESE ARE ALL FALSE.

So what should you do if you get a message like this?

Do not forward it, like it, love it or share it. Do not copy and paste it as a post. Do not send it as a message to any of your friends. Just delete it.

If you want, you can send a message to the person that posted it and link to this blog post. Then at least they will know that what they are sending out is 100% false. People do this with good intentions, so most would probably not post this stuff if they already knew it was completely made up. They just don’t know.

“But Scott, what if I get one that is actually true?”

You won’t. But if it makes you feel better, just do a Google search on one of those “hacker” names and the word “hoax” and see what comes up.

What you will see are dozens – maybe hundreds – of blog posts and articles and news reports, all telling you that it’s just a stupid hoax. Then you can go back to Facebook and delete it. But you can save some time, because this requires no research. Just delete it.

The post Finding and destroying Facebook hoaxes first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

customize chrome — How I customize Chrome Jul 10, 2017
Chrome is great even if you just leave it alone and use it with the default settings. But I like to customize and “tweak” it a few different ways to make it even better.

Basically what I’m describing here today is the process I go through when I’m setting up Chrome on a client’s computer they’ve just purchased, or on a laptop that I’ll have available for sale.

The following steps involve going in to the Chrome Settings. To get to that area, you need to click the 3 little dots in the top right area of the Chrome window (see below). That will give you a menu, and in that menu you can click on “Settings”.

1. Set Chrome as the default browser. In a new computer, Windows 10 REALLY wants you to use their Edge browser to view websites. So if you don’t change anything, Edge will be the default browser. In Windows 7 or 8, the default is Internet Explorer. We don’t want that; we want Chrome. So go into Settings , scroll down to the “Default browser” section and click on “Make Default”:

For Windows 7 or 8, that’s just about all you have to do. For Windows 10, it will take you to a “Default Programs” page in the Windows settings, and you have to choose Chrome from a list. They’ll pop up a message about how great Edge is to talk you out of it, but you just click on “Switch anyway” and it’s done.

2. Set your home page tabs. When Chrome opens, you can have it open just one tab to whatever website you want (such as just the plain Google search page, or Facebook, or something else). Or, you can have it open a bunch of tabs with a different website in each one. For me, I have about a half-dozen tabs open each time I open Chrome (these are websites I visit regularly).

So the first thing you do is open up whatever websites you want, one in each tab. You just need to get Chrome set with those websites. Then click to the Settings area, and scroll down to the “On Startup” section, and click on “Open a specific page or set of pages”, then click on “Use Current Pages”.

Now close Chrome and open it again, and you’ll see all of your tabs are right there, and they’ll be there like that every time you open Chrome.

3. Set your default search engine to Google, and get rid of the others. Of course, since Chrome is a Google product, the default search should be Google already. So just go to Settings and scroll down to the “Search Engine” section. Make sure Google is the one displayed like this:

Then click on the “Manage Search Engines” arrow and you’ll see a list of the “other” search engines that are available (like below). Click on the 3 dots out at the right side of each one, and choose to remove them one by one (except for Google, of course).

Why Google even includes those other search engines, I don’t know (especially junk like Ask).

4. Set up your ad blocker. I wrote a whole blog post about this recently. The ad blocker I use and recommend is uBlock Origin. If you open Chrome and do a Google search for “ublock origin” it will be the first thing that comes up. Just click it and follow the instructions for installing it as an extension in Chrome. It’s the best thing in the world for blocking ads on almost any website you visit.

For my own computer, the other extension that I definitely install is LastPass. This is the program that stores all of my passwords for me. This means that I can use really long, random passwords – and LastPass actually creates them for me as well. I don’t set up LastPass on the laptops that I sell because you have to have a LastPass account (which is free). But I definitely recommend it.

5. Display the bookmarks toolbar. For websites I check on regularly, I like the convenience of having them right at the top of my Chrome window, ready for me to click at any time. To do that, you have to tell Chrome to display that toolbar all the time. To do that, just hold down Ctrl and Shift, and tap the letter “b” (for bookmarks). You’ll see the toolbar show up right under the address bar in Chrome. And you can drag any website address there you want, and it will always show up there for quick, easy access.

These are the things I do as part of my routine when setting up Chrome. But of course, there are LOTS more ways you can customize it. There are thousands of Chrome extensions that do all kinds of cool things (in fact, I’ll probably do a blog post about the best Chrome extensions at some point – if you have a great one, let me know about it).

The post How I customize Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome settings — How I customize Chrome Jul 10, 2017
Chrome is great even if you just leave it alone and use it with the default settings. But I like to customize and “tweak” it a few different ways to make it even better.

Basically what I’m describing here today is the process I go through when I’m setting up Chrome on a client’s computer they’ve just purchased, or on a laptop that I’ll have available for sale.

The following steps involve going in to the Chrome Settings. To get to that area, you need to click the 3 little dots in the top right area of the Chrome window (see below). That will give you a menu, and in that menu you can click on “Settings”.

1. Set Chrome as the default browser. In a new computer, Windows 10 REALLY wants you to use their Edge browser to view websites. So if you don’t change anything, Edge will be the default browser. In Windows 7 or 8, the default is Internet Explorer. We don’t want that; we want Chrome. So go into Settings , scroll down to the “Default browser” section and click on “Make Default”:

For Windows 7 or 8, that’s just about all you have to do. For Windows 10, it will take you to a “Default Programs” page in the Windows settings, and you have to choose Chrome from a list. They’ll pop up a message about how great Edge is to talk you out of it, but you just click on “Switch anyway” and it’s done.

2. Set your home page tabs. When Chrome opens, you can have it open just one tab to whatever website you want (such as just the plain Google search page, or Facebook, or something else). Or, you can have it open a bunch of tabs with a different website in each one. For me, I have about a half-dozen tabs open each time I open Chrome (these are websites I visit regularly).

So the first thing you do is open up whatever websites you want, one in each tab. You just need to get Chrome set with those websites. Then click to the Settings area, and scroll down to the “On Startup” section, and click on “Open a specific page or set of pages”, then click on “Use Current Pages”.

Now close Chrome and open it again, and you’ll see all of your tabs are right there, and they’ll be there like that every time you open Chrome.

3. Set your default search engine to Google, and get rid of the others. Of course, since Chrome is a Google product, the default search should be Google already. So just go to Settings and scroll down to the “Search Engine” section. Make sure Google is the one displayed like this:

Then click on the “Manage Search Engines” arrow and you’ll see a list of the “other” search engines that are available (like below). Click on the 3 dots out at the right side of each one, and choose to remove them one by one (except for Google, of course).

Why Google even includes those other search engines, I don’t know (especially junk like Ask).

4. Set up your ad blocker. I wrote a whole blog post about this recently. The ad blocker I use and recommend is uBlock Origin. If you open Chrome and do a Google search for “ublock origin” it will be the first thing that comes up. Just click it and follow the instructions for installing it as an extension in Chrome. It’s the best thing in the world for blocking ads on almost any website you visit.

For my own computer, the other extension that I definitely install is LastPass. This is the program that stores all of my passwords for me. This means that I can use really long, random passwords – and LastPass actually creates them for me as well. I don’t set up LastPass on the laptops that I sell because you have to have a LastPass account (which is free). But I definitely recommend it.

5. Display the bookmarks toolbar. For websites I check on regularly, I like the convenience of having them right at the top of my Chrome window, ready for me to click at any time. To do that, you have to tell Chrome to display that toolbar all the time. To do that, just hold down Ctrl and Shift, and tap the letter “b” (for bookmarks). You’ll see the toolbar show up right under the address bar in Chrome. And you can drag any website address there you want, and it will always show up there for quick, easy access.

These are the things I do as part of my routine when setting up Chrome. But of course, there are LOTS more ways you can customize it. There are thousands of Chrome extensions that do all kinds of cool things (in fact, I’ll probably do a blog post about the best Chrome extensions at some point – if you have a great one, let me know about it).

The post How I customize Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS office — MS Office not working properly? Here’s a quick fix Jul 03, 2017
Microsoft Office is a group of programs, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and others. Most of the time these programs work fine, but occasionally they can misbehave. What a lot of people don’t know is that there’s a quick fix you should try before you call your computer tech for a repair.

The programs in Microsoft Office are large and complex. Most people, including myself, use just a very few features out of all that are available. I might use MS Word to write a letter to the Safety Harbor city commission, or document a recipe, or print the customer intake sheet that I fill out when someone brings me a computer to repair. Nothing fancy.

But there’s a lot going on behind the scenes with any of the Office programs – and that means there’s also a lot that can go wrong.

Maybe Outlook decides it won’t send a new email you just created. Or your new PowerPoint presentation won’t run when you tell it to. Or a formula isn’t working right in an Excel spreadsheet.

What do you do when that happens? For a lot of people, that’s when I get a phone call. Usually I can remote in and figure out what’s going on and get it fixed.

But before you spend money on a software repair, there’s something you can try on your own. It’s very simple, and in a surprising number of cases, it takes care of the problem very quickly (and no, I’m not talking about restarting the computer – although it can’t hurt to try that too).

Microsoft Office has a built-in “self repair” function that most people have never tried. So when an Office program starts acting up, do this:

1. Go to Control Panel, to the “Programs and Features” section. In Windows 10 you can just click Search and type “uninstall” and click on that item in the menu that comes up.

2. In the list of programs, find Microsoft Office:

3. Do a right-click on Office, and in the little menu, choose “Change”:

4. Now a new window opens, giving you the option for a Quick Repair or an Online Repair. I usually try the Quick Repair first and see if it does the trick. If the problem persists, go back through this same process and choose Online Repair. Click the Repair button.

5. You’ll get another window reminding you that you can’t use the program while it’s being repaired. So click “Repair” again:

6. If you have any Office programs open at the time, you’ll get the notice that they need to be closed:

7. You’ll get a little progress window that you can watch for the brief time that it takes to run. When I ran this it took less than 30 seconds to finish. Your mileage may vary.

8. And before you have time to get bored, it’s done:

That’s how easy this is. These screenshot images are from my own computer which is running Office365, but the process is very similar even for earlier versions of Office.

The post MS Office not working properly? Here’s a quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Office — MS Office not working properly? Here’s a quick fix Jul 03, 2017
Microsoft Office is a group of programs, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and others. Most of the time these programs work fine, but occasionally they can misbehave. What a lot of people don’t know is that there’s a quick fix you should try before you call your computer tech for a repair.

The programs in Microsoft Office are large and complex. Most people, including myself, use just a very few features out of all that are available. I might use MS Word to write a letter to the Safety Harbor city commission, or document a recipe, or print the customer intake sheet that I fill out when someone brings me a computer to repair. Nothing fancy.

But there’s a lot going on behind the scenes with any of the Office programs – and that means there’s also a lot that can go wrong.

Maybe Outlook decides it won’t send a new email you just created. Or your new PowerPoint presentation won’t run when you tell it to. Or a formula isn’t working right in an Excel spreadsheet.

What do you do when that happens? For a lot of people, that’s when I get a phone call. Usually I can remote in and figure out what’s going on and get it fixed.

But before you spend money on a software repair, there’s something you can try on your own. It’s very simple, and in a surprising number of cases, it takes care of the problem very quickly (and no, I’m not talking about restarting the computer – although it can’t hurt to try that too).

Microsoft Office has a built-in “self repair” function that most people have never tried. So when an Office program starts acting up, do this:

1. Go to Control Panel, to the “Programs and Features” section. In Windows 10 you can just click Search and type “uninstall” and click on that item in the menu that comes up.

2. In the list of programs, find Microsoft Office:

3. Do a right-click on Office, and in the little menu, choose “Change”:

4. Now a new window opens, giving you the option for a Quick Repair or an Online Repair. I usually try the Quick Repair first and see if it does the trick. If the problem persists, go back through this same process and choose Online Repair. Click the Repair button.

5. You’ll get another window reminding you that you can’t use the program while it’s being repaired. So click “Repair” again:

6. If you have any Office programs open at the time, you’ll get the notice that they need to be closed:

7. You’ll get a little progress window that you can watch for the brief time that it takes to run. When I ran this it took less than 30 seconds to finish. Your mileage may vary.

8. And before you have time to get bored, it’s done:

That’s how easy this is. These screenshot images are from my own computer which is running Office365, but the process is very similar even for earlier versions of Office.

The post MS Office not working properly? Here’s a quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Is it time for you to upgrade to Windows 10? Jun 26, 2017
Windows 10 has been out for almost 2 years now. If you’re still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, is it time for you to upgrade? Maybe.

A little background first. If you’ve been reading this blog or listening to my podcast for the past couple of years or longer, you know that I did not take kindly to Microsoft’s rollout of Windows 10 back in the summer of 2015. They were forcing the “free upgrade” on Windows 7 or 8 users, even if people specifically opted to NOT take it. And many of those that ended up with Windows 10 had all kinds of problems with it. It was a nightmare, and Microsoft lost a lot of credibility with their users because of it. During that first year, I voiced my disgust with Microsoft and Windows 10 loudly and often to my readers and listeners.

As a result, many of those that follow me online are still using Windows 7. And I still get the question sometimes, “Should I upgrade to Windows 10 now? Is it safe?”. This is especially compounded by the fact that my OWN computer now is running Windows 10. But that came about rather unexpectedly. My previous computer died and its replacement happened to be running Windows 10. I didn’t intentionally just do the upgrade.

Should you upgrade now?

If you’re using Windows 7 – you probably don’t need to yet – but there are some disclaimers. Frankly, there’s nothing wrong with Windows 7. It works great. So if your computer is working okay (and the hard drive has been tested and is not showing signs of failure), you can stick with Windows 7 for now. But keep in mind, sometime in the next couple of years, you’ll need to start thinking about either upgrading your computer to Windows 10, or replacing that computer (and the new computer would have Windows 10).

Windows 7 will be supported until January 2020, but you DON’T want to wait until December 2019 to start thinking about this. There’s no big hurry at the moment, but get it done before the rush.

If you’re using Windows 8.1 – you probably should upgrade – but there are some disclaimers here too. This is not because Windows 10 is so great, but rather because Windows 8 or 8.1 is just so awful. It was a goof-up by Microsoft. They screwed up the whole Start button and Start menu, making Windows confusing and difficult to navigate. Of course, if you’re used to using it and it’s no big deal, then don’t worry about upgrading right away. But in my opinion, Windows 10 is working well enough that you would probably like it better than the crummy design of Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 2023 so you’ve got lots of time to make that decision. But for me, I’d much rather be using Windows 10.

And, it’s not like the upgrade is perfect either. Windows 10 still has issues, and not all of them are just bugs in the software – some are built right in to the operating system intentionally by Microsoft. Some of the things I don’t like:

Telemetry – this is the big set of “features” that most people consider an invasion of privacy. It’s actually listening for you to do a voice search, it tracks all kinds of stuff about what you do, and it sends all that information back to Microsoft. Not cool. When I’m setting up a new Windows 10 computer, I disable all of those “features”.

The junk in the Start Menu – When you click the Windows 10 Start button, the menu is filled with junk like Candy Crush, XBox games, ads to buy MS Office, movies, TV, Minecraft, and lots of other stuff. Just lots of visual noise. I delete most of that junk.

System Restore off – this makes no sense, but in many computers I’ve found that System Restore is turned OFF by default. System Restore is a great tool to use in solving problems, but it has to be turned on before the problem occurs in order to be useful.

Cortana and the talking installation – Cortana is the “artificial intelligence” component that allows you to “speak” with your computer. When Windows 10 is first installed on a computer, the Cortana icon (a circle) is bouncing up and down on the screen, offering to help you search and whatever else you need to do on the computer. Personally, I find it really annoying. It reminds me of the old Microsoft Office mascot “Clippy” (the annoying paper clip that was always bouncing up and down and offering to help you write a letter).

Changing default programs – this is just Microsoft being Microsoft again. 99% of computer users, when clicking a PDF file, expect it to open in Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is the worldwide standard for opening and viewing PDF files. But in Microsoft’s twisted logic, the user would rather have a PDF file open by default in their crappy web browser, Edge. Why? It makes no sense other than to annoy people. And if you do change the default PDF program to Adobe Reader, at some point in the future, Microsoft will change it back to opening in Edge. It’s infuriating. But there’s third-party software that will fix this as well. I’ll probably do a blog post about that at some point.

No more photo Preview option – you used to be able to right-click on an image file and get the option to “Preview”. This was great if you just wanted to take a quick look to see what the photo was, rather than actually opening it in a program like Photoshop or something. Well, apparently that was just too useful and practical, because Microsoft eliminated that in Windows 10. But I have a way to get that back also (it’s a registry edit so you probably don’t want to experiment with this yourself).

That might seem like a lot of bad features, but in reality most can be reconfigured and avoided, either with a third-party program or by a setting in Windows 10 itself. And these things are nothing compared to the problems I saw when Windows 10 was first introduced – printers stopped working, peripheral items like keyboards, mice and optical drives weren’t compatible, etc. Those things are pretty much taken care of now, unless your printer is really old. You can check your printer’s manufacturer website to make sure it will work with Windows 10.

So the bottom line is this: If you’re using Windows 7 and everything is working fine, you don’t need to upgrade to Windows 10 – yet. If you’re using Windows 8.1, you can upgrade to get a version of Windows that’s easier to use. And if you buy a new PC now, it’s going to come with Windows 10 anyway (including some of those bad “features” I listed), but it can be customized and it’s a lot better than it used to be.

The post Is it time for you to upgrade to Windows 10? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

traffickam — Smartphone app that could literally save someone’s life Jun 19, 2017
Now that most people have smart phones, and we all have a high-resolution camera with us at all times, there are new ways to use them popping up all the time. What we’re talking about today is a great example of that. Who would have thought that your cell phone could actually save someone’s life – but it’s true.

What we’re talking about here is human trafficking. This is something that’s easy to not really think about much because most of us don’t see it happening. But it is definitely happening, and most likely it’s going on right there wherever you live.

Some numbers:

Up to 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.

Human trafficking is a $32 BILLION-a-year industry. The only bigger industry in the world is drug trafficking.

Sex trafficking is in all 50 states.

75% of underage sex trafficking victims said they had been advertised or sold online.

The most common venue where traffickers exploit their victims: hotels.

It’s easy for law enforcement to go undercover and find the online and underground forums and websites where these kids are being advertised. They can see pictures of the child. And they can also see the hotel room where the pictures were taken. But that’s not enough – what’s needed is a database of pictures of hotel rooms all around the country (or world).

That’s where you come in. This is a good example of crowdsourcing.

Millions of people are traveling and staying in hotel rooms every day. What if everyone just snapped a few pictures of their hotel room, then uploaded those pictures to a common location? Then, when cops see a child being advertised, they can use their computers to compare that picture with the database of pictures already stored, and possibly find out exactly where that child is.

This is now happening! It’s been made possible through a smartphone app called Traffickcam. The website is https://traffickcam.com/ but you can get the app directly from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. It’s free of course.

Once you have the app on your phone, you use it to take a few pictures of your room every time you stay in a hotel. Those pictures are automatically uploaded to the database, so that authorities can use it to find these young people being trafficked.

When I first heard about this, I was questioning in my mind whether it could actually be useful. I mean, my work doesn’t usually require me to do overnight travel so I’m usually in my own bed here in Safety Harbor each night. But I have been in a bunch of hotels, and in my mind the rooms all kind of look the same. You know – you walk in, bathroom is immediately to your right or left, then the closet, then the room with the bed, and the window on the far wall with the AC/heater unit under it. How would you differentiate among tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of rooms?

But they are different. Especially when you take 4 pictures of each room, including different angles of the main room, and the bathroom. There are lots of points of comparison that a computer program can run through very quickly, and hopefully come up with a match that can lead cops to where the trafficking picture was taken.

Currently, the Traffickcam database has 157,616 hotels in its database, and there are over 1.6 million photos. And it’s still relatively new – it was only introduced a year ago. There are about 85,000 iPhone users, and 35,000 Android users. That’s such a small percentage of smartphone users – which means there’s a whole lot more potential for this to be really effective! So get the app on your phone, and then tell your friends and family to use it as well, whenever they travel.

And don’t waste your pictures – if your hotel room pictures include any people, they’ll be rejected for use in the database.

The post Smartphone app that could literally save someone’s life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Traffickcam — Smartphone app that could literally save someone’s life Jun 19, 2017
Now that most people have smart phones, and we all have a high-resolution camera with us at all times, there are new ways to use them popping up all the time. What we’re talking about today is a great example of that. Who would have thought that your cell phone could actually save someone’s life – but it’s true.

What we’re talking about here is human trafficking. This is something that’s easy to not really think about much because most of us don’t see it happening. But it is definitely happening, and most likely it’s going on right there wherever you live.

Some numbers:

Up to 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.

Human trafficking is a $32 BILLION-a-year industry. The only bigger industry in the world is drug trafficking.

Sex trafficking is in all 50 states.

75% of underage sex trafficking victims said they had been advertised or sold online.

The most common venue where traffickers exploit their victims: hotels.

It’s easy for law enforcement to go undercover and find the online and underground forums and websites where these kids are being advertised. They can see pictures of the child. And they can also see the hotel room where the pictures were taken. But that’s not enough – what’s needed is a database of pictures of hotel rooms all around the country (or world).

That’s where you come in. This is a good example of crowdsourcing.

Millions of people are traveling and staying in hotel rooms every day. What if everyone just snapped a few pictures of their hotel room, then uploaded those pictures to a common location? Then, when cops see a child being advertised, they can use their computers to compare that picture with the database of pictures already stored, and possibly find out exactly where that child is.

This is now happening! It’s been made possible through a smartphone app called Traffickcam. The website is https://traffickcam.com/ but you can get the app directly from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. It’s free of course.

Once you have the app on your phone, you use it to take a few pictures of your room every time you stay in a hotel. Those pictures are automatically uploaded to the database, so that authorities can use it to find these young people being trafficked.

When I first heard about this, I was questioning in my mind whether it could actually be useful. I mean, my work doesn’t usually require me to do overnight travel so I’m usually in my own bed here in Safety Harbor each night. But I have been in a bunch of hotels, and in my mind the rooms all kind of look the same. You know – you walk in, bathroom is immediately to your right or left, then the closet, then the room with the bed, and the window on the far wall with the AC/heater unit under it. How would you differentiate among tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of rooms?

But they are different. Especially when you take 4 pictures of each room, including different angles of the main room, and the bathroom. There are lots of points of comparison that a computer program can run through very quickly, and hopefully come up with a match that can lead cops to where the trafficking picture was taken.

Currently, the Traffickcam database has 157,616 hotels in its database, and there are over 1.6 million photos. And it’s still relatively new – it was only introduced a year ago. There are about 85,000 iPhone users, and 35,000 Android users. That’s such a small percentage of smartphone users – which means there’s a whole lot more potential for this to be really effective! So get the app on your phone, and then tell your friends and family to use it as well, whenever they travel.

And don’t waste your pictures – if your hotel room pictures include any people, they’ll be rejected for use in the database.

The post Smartphone app that could literally save someone’s life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netreset — New device to speed up your internet consistently Jun 12, 2017
Think about when your internet connection isn’t working properly. Maybe you’re getting a “Page cannot be found” error, or your computer can’t find the wifi signal, or perhaps websites are just loading reeeaaallly slowly. If you call your internet provider, what’s the first thing they’ll tell you to do? Restart your modem and router. But even better than that – have your modem and router restarted automatically for you, every single day.

Sometimes my clients will call me when their internet is not doing what it’s supposed to do. Here in Safety Harbor, we have a few good options for high-speed internet, so we can get kind of spoiled with that super fast connection so when it slows down or something goes wrong, I get a phone call.

My advice for this is the same thing the actual internet service would say – restart the modem and/or router. In many cases, that solves the problem and the connection is nice and fast again.

So it makes sense to restart your modem and router every day – proactively – to just avoid having to do it when the speed or the connection drops. But who wants to do that manually? Modems and routers aren’t always located in the most convenient places. In some cases, you have to get on the floor or behind a desk just to access it. Then you’ll have to unplug it, wait a while, and plug it back in. Pain in the butt! And even if you do have easy access, you won’t do it every day. And that’s the whole point – the daily reset is the key to getting the benefit from this.

No worries! Now you can have it happen automatically for you. You don’t have to unplug and re-plug. You don’t even have to remember it!

All of this is done through a little device that just plugs into your wall outlet. It’s called a NetReset and you can get it at Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2rWqAjn

It’s pretty simple. This is what the front looks like:

And this is the back:

This is the NetReset plugged into the wall, and of course Lilly (one of my two Yorkies) has to inspect it:

Using this thing is really simple. You plug it into the wall, and then you plug your modem in one side, and your router in the other side. I use this here in my office in Safety Harbor every day. In my case, my modem and router are all in one unit, so I only need to use one of the outlets.

Then there’s the little display at the top with the small white buttons. You use the “Clock” button and then Hours/Minutes to set the current time. You use the “Prog” button and then Hours/Minutes to set the time of day you want your modem/router to be shut down and then restarted. I set mine for 4 am since no one in our house would be using the internet at that time. Since the internet will be cut off briefly while the reset is happening, you want to make sure it happens at a time that’s convenient. For most people, that’s sometime in the middle of the night.

A daily 4 am reset does cut the internet off but only for a few minutes, so it should have no effect at all on any antivirus updates or Windows Updates. The GOOD effect is that your modem and router will start each day fresh, and ready to deliver all the goodness of the internet to you all day!

When you order yours from Amazon here (http://amzn.to/2rWqAjn) Amazon pays me a small commission, which helps support this blog and my podcast. Of course, I only recommend things I use and approve of personally. If you get one, I’d love to hear what you think of it.

The post New device to speed up your internet consistently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

NetReset — New device to speed up your internet consistently Jun 12, 2017
Think about when your internet connection isn’t working properly. Maybe you’re getting a “Page cannot be found” error, or your computer can’t find the wifi signal, or perhaps websites are just loading reeeaaallly slowly. If you call your internet provider, what’s the first thing they’ll tell you to do? Restart your modem and router. But even better than that – have your modem and router restarted automatically for you, every single day.

Sometimes my clients will call me when their internet is not doing what it’s supposed to do. Here in Safety Harbor, we have a few good options for high-speed internet, so we can get kind of spoiled with that super fast connection so when it slows down or something goes wrong, I get a phone call.

My advice for this is the same thing the actual internet service would say – restart the modem and/or router. In many cases, that solves the problem and the connection is nice and fast again.

So it makes sense to restart your modem and router every day – proactively – to just avoid having to do it when the speed or the connection drops. But who wants to do that manually? Modems and routers aren’t always located in the most convenient places. In some cases, you have to get on the floor or behind a desk just to access it. Then you’ll have to unplug it, wait a while, and plug it back in. Pain in the butt! And even if you do have easy access, you won’t do it every day. And that’s the whole point – the daily reset is the key to getting the benefit from this.

No worries! Now you can have it happen automatically for you. You don’t have to unplug and re-plug. You don’t even have to remember it!

All of this is done through a little device that just plugs into your wall outlet. It’s called a NetReset and you can get it at Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2rWqAjn

It’s pretty simple. This is what the front looks like:

And this is the back:

This is the NetReset plugged into the wall, and of course Lilly (one of my two Yorkies) has to inspect it:

Using this thing is really simple. You plug it into the wall, and then you plug your modem in one side, and your router in the other side. I use this here in my office in Safety Harbor every day. In my case, my modem and router are all in one unit, so I only need to use one of the outlets.

Then there’s the little display at the top with the small white buttons. You use the “Clock” button and then Hours/Minutes to set the current time. You use the “Prog” button and then Hours/Minutes to set the time of day you want your modem/router to be shut down and then restarted. I set mine for 4 am since no one in our house would be using the internet at that time. Since the internet will be cut off briefly while the reset is happening, you want to make sure it happens at a time that’s convenient. For most people, that’s sometime in the middle of the night.

A daily 4 am reset does cut the internet off but only for a few minutes, so it should have no effect at all on any antivirus updates or Windows Updates. The GOOD effect is that your modem and router will start each day fresh, and ready to deliver all the goodness of the internet to you all day!

When you order yours from Amazon here (http://amzn.to/2rWqAjn) Amazon pays me a small commission, which helps support this blog and my podcast. Of course, I only recommend things I use and approve of personally. If you get one, I’d love to hear what you think of it.

The post New device to speed up your internet consistently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer mystery — That window that keeps flashing on the screen every hour – here’s the fix Jun 05, 2017
Recently I got some reports from people that something weird was happening on their Windows computer. Every so often a window would appear on the screen and then immediately disappear. It would happen so quickly there was no chance of seeing any words or error message – it would just flash on then disappear. Then I noticed it also happening on my screen. What is this weird thing that’s happening to our computers?

Honestly, when I first heard about it, I kind of assumed it was virus or at least some type of malware. But it was too coincidental that all of these people were having this same issue. And even though I would never say anyone is 100% “immune” to a computer infection, I would be very surprised if I got one because I am so aware of them and my computer is so well-protected.

Turns out, we can thank Microsoft for this one.

This is happening as a function of Microsoft Office. There is a computer task related to Office, called “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration”. None of us really need to know what this thing does from a technical standpoint, but it’s basic job is to update “relevant Office data”. And it does this every hour pretty consistently, as long as an Office program (such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) is running.

The fact that the window flashes on the screen every time it runs, then disappears immediately, is just a bug in the software. Eventually it will be fixed with a regular Office update.

In the meantime, here’s how to prevent it from happening:

1. Open Task Scheduler. In most cases, to do this you can just click the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen, and in the search field type Task Scheduler, then click on it when it shows up in the menu above.

2. In the next window, click the little “greater than” sign next to “Task Scheduler Library”:

3. When you do that, it will expand. Now click the same thing next to “Microsoft”, then click to highlight “Office”. You should now see a window that looks like this:

4. You will see that list in the middle has an entry called “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration”. Do a right-click on that and choose “Properties”. Now you should see this window:

5. Right in the middle of that window, you see that there’s a button called “Change User or Group”. Click that. In the next window, in the white area, type the word “SYSTEM” and click OK:

6. Then click OK again to close the remaining window, and click the X in the top right corner to close the Task Scheduler window.

That’s it! No more mystery flashing window.

The post That window that keeps flashing on the screen every hour – here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Task Scheduler — That window that keeps flashing on the screen every hour – here’s the fix Jun 05, 2017
Recently I got some reports from people that something weird was happening on their Windows computer. Every so often a window would appear on the screen and then immediately disappear. It would happen so quickly there was no chance of seeing any words or error message – it would just flash on then disappear. Then I noticed it also happening on my screen. What is this weird thing that’s happening to our computers?

Honestly, when I first heard about it, I kind of assumed it was virus or at least some type of malware. But it was too coincidental that all of these people were having this same issue. And even though I would never say anyone is 100% “immune” to a computer infection, I would be very surprised if I got one because I am so aware of them and my computer is so well-protected.

Turns out, we can thank Microsoft for this one.

This is happening as a function of Microsoft Office. There is a computer task related to Office, called “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration”. None of us really need to know what this thing does from a technical standpoint, but it’s basic job is to update “relevant Office data”. And it does this every hour pretty consistently, as long as an Office program (such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) is running.

The fact that the window flashes on the screen every time it runs, then disappears immediately, is just a bug in the software. Eventually it will be fixed with a regular Office update.

In the meantime, here’s how to prevent it from happening:

1. Open Task Scheduler. In most cases, to do this you can just click the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen, and in the search field type Task Scheduler, then click on it when it shows up in the menu above.

2. In the next window, click the little “greater than” sign next to “Task Scheduler Library”:

3. When you do that, it will expand. Now click the same thing next to “Microsoft”, then click to highlight “Office”. You should now see a window that looks like this:

4. You will see that list in the middle has an entry called “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration”. Do a right-click on that and choose “Properties”. Now you should see this window:

5. Right in the middle of that window, you see that there’s a button called “Change User or Group”. Click that. In the next window, in the white area, type the word “SYSTEM” and click OK:

6. Then click OK again to close the remaining window, and click the X in the top right corner to close the Task Scheduler window.

That’s it! No more mystery flashing window.

The post That window that keeps flashing on the screen every hour – here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook friend hack — What to do when your Facebook friend gets hacked May 29, 2017
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen this happen. You suddenly get a friend request from someone you’ve already been friends with for a long time. What’s the best thing to do in this situation?

First off, I want to say up front that when this happens, it is not a “hack”. I put that phrase in the title of this blog post and in the graphic above mainly so that people would have an idea of what I’m talking about. That’s because whenever I see this happen on Facebook, the thing that happens most is that other friends will post a message on the victim’s Facebook profile: “I just got a friend request from you. Your Facebook has been hacked!” And of course that is followed up by all the well-meaning but misguided suggestions that the person should immediately change their passwords and check for viruses.

In reality, no Facebook account has been hacked or compromised at all. All that has happened is that a scammer decided to create a new Facebook account using your friend’s name and your friend’s profile picture. That way, at first glance, it does actually look like your friend’s Facebook profile.

Then the next step for the scammer is to send out friend requests from the fake profile to all of the people that are actual Facebook friends with that person already. The scammer knows that a bunch of people will know immediately that it’s fake. But he also knows that there will be some people that say “Hmm, a friend request from Bob. I thought I was already friends with him. Oh well, *ACCEPT*” There might be only 5% or 10% that just automatically accept the fake friend request. But if someone has 500 friends, that’s 25 to 50 people that get suckered in. These are the people that typically click on just about anything. We all know people like this.

So what’s the end game here for the scammer? What do they hope to achieve by tricking all these people into becoming friends with a fake profile? There are actually a lot of different strategies here. The key element here, however, is trust. If the “Fake Bob” account sends these people a direct message, as far as they’re concerned, they are communicating with the ACTUAL Bob. So maybe Fake Bob tells all his “friends” about this great website where you can get new iPads for $10 (scam) or maybe he pleads for his “friends” to wire money for a short term emergency loan (also a scam). The point is, the “friend” is more likely to go along with it since there is already some trust between the two people on Facebook, and maybe even in real life.

Usually when I get a fake friend request, I go to the fake profile to see who has already fallen for it and just accepted the friend request without checking it out. Usually there are a few people already listed there as “friends”. This is the proof that it’s really easy to trick people on Facebook. Almost effortless.

So what should you do when you see this happen? Obviously you don’t want to just join the crowd and post on your friend’s profile “Hey, your Facebook got hacked!” since that does no one any good. Fortunately, Facebook has created a pretty simple process that allows you to report the problem, have Facebook check it, and get the fake profile taken down very quickly.

Here’s how to handle a fake Facebook friend request:

1. Go to the fake friend request, and click on the name:

2. This takes you to the fake profile page (the profile created by the scammer). Click the 3 dots, and in the drop-down menu, choose “Report”:

3. This will bring up the beginning of a multi-part form that allows you to tell Facebook what’s going on so that they can check it out. First thing to check is “Report this profile”:

4. Next window, check “They’re pretending to be me or someone I know”:

5. Next window, check “Someone I know”:

6. Next window, click on “Submit to Facebook for review”:

7. Facebook will then ask you to tell them which friend’s profile is being faked. You can start typing in the name and then just choose from the option listed:

8. At this point you’re pretty much done. The next screen will give you a few other options but really all you have to do is click “Done”:

9. Within a short time (usually a few minutes), you’ll get this notification from Facebook:

That’s just automated but at least it confirms that they received your submission.

And that’s really all you need to do. Facebook will check it out (and it’s possible that other friends have reported the same fake profile). What usually surprises me now is how quickly Facebook deletes the fake profile page. I usually go back to the fake profile and check on it every so often (and I usually see new friends being added each time). Sometimes I’ve seen a fake profile removed within just a few minutes of reporting it. Sometimes it takes longer but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it take more than an hour. Facebook has this process pretty much automated on their end and they are very serious about getting these scammers taken down.

Does this stop the scammers? No. They know the fake profile will be taken down eventually. They’re just hoping it stays up long enough to get a scam going. And in reality, they most likely have software that just creates hundreds or thousands of these fake accounts around the clock. But at least you did your part to help your friend out and get the fake account deleted quickly.

Should you notify your friend that this has happened? It’s up to you. I usually don’t bother with it. In many cases the fake profile is removed before the friend (or any of their friends) even knew what was happening, so there’s really no point getting people agitated about something they really don’t need to be concerned over.

The post What to do when your Facebook friend gets hacked first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook hack — What to do when your Facebook friend gets hacked May 29, 2017
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen this happen. You suddenly get a friend request from someone you’ve already been friends with for a long time. What’s the best thing to do in this situation?

First off, I want to say up front that when this happens, it is not a “hack”. I put that phrase in the title of this blog post and in the graphic above mainly so that people would have an idea of what I’m talking about. That’s because whenever I see this happen on Facebook, the thing that happens most is that other friends will post a message on the victim’s Facebook profile: “I just got a friend request from you. Your Facebook has been hacked!” And of course that is followed up by all the well-meaning but misguided suggestions that the person should immediately change their passwords and check for viruses.

In reality, no Facebook account has been hacked or compromised at all. All that has happened is that a scammer decided to create a new Facebook account using your friend’s name and your friend’s profile picture. That way, at first glance, it does actually look like your friend’s Facebook profile.

Then the next step for the scammer is to send out friend requests from the fake profile to all of the people that are actual Facebook friends with that person already. The scammer knows that a bunch of people will know immediately that it’s fake. But he also knows that there will be some people that say “Hmm, a friend request from Bob. I thought I was already friends with him. Oh well, *ACCEPT*” There might be only 5% or 10% that just automatically accept the fake friend request. But if someone has 500 friends, that’s 25 to 50 people that get suckered in. These are the people that typically click on just about anything. We all know people like this.

So what’s the end game here for the scammer? What do they hope to achieve by tricking all these people into becoming friends with a fake profile? There are actually a lot of different strategies here. The key element here, however, is trust. If the “Fake Bob” account sends these people a direct message, as far as they’re concerned, they are communicating with the ACTUAL Bob. So maybe Fake Bob tells all his “friends” about this great website where you can get new iPads for $10 (scam) or maybe he pleads for his “friends” to wire money for a short term emergency loan (also a scam). The point is, the “friend” is more likely to go along with it since there is already some trust between the two people on Facebook, and maybe even in real life.

Usually when I get a fake friend request, I go to the fake profile to see who has already fallen for it and just accepted the friend request without checking it out. Usually there are a few people already listed there as “friends”. This is the proof that it’s really easy to trick people on Facebook. Almost effortless.

So what should you do when you see this happen? Obviously you don’t want to just join the crowd and post on your friend’s profile “Hey, your Facebook got hacked!” since that does no one any good. Fortunately, Facebook has created a pretty simple process that allows you to report the problem, have Facebook check it, and get the fake profile taken down very quickly.

Here’s how to handle a fake Facebook friend request:

1. Go to the fake friend request, and click on the name:

2. This takes you to the fake profile page (the profile created by the scammer). Click the 3 dots, and in the drop-down menu, choose “Report”:

3. This will bring up the beginning of a multi-part form that allows you to tell Facebook what’s going on so that they can check it out. First thing to check is “Report this profile”:

4. Next window, check “They’re pretending to be me or someone I know”:

5. Next window, check “Someone I know”:

6. Next window, click on “Submit to Facebook for review”:

7. Facebook will then ask you to tell them which friend’s profile is being faked. You can start typing in the name and then just choose from the option listed:

8. At this point you’re pretty much done. The next screen will give you a few other options but really all you have to do is click “Done”:

9. Within a short time (usually a few minutes), you’ll get this notification from Facebook:

That’s just automated but at least it confirms that they received your submission.

And that’s really all you need to do. Facebook will check it out (and it’s possible that other friends have reported the same fake profile). What usually surprises me now is how quickly Facebook deletes the fake profile page. I usually go back to the fake profile and check on it every so often (and I usually see new friends being added each time). Sometimes I’ve seen a fake profile removed within just a few minutes of reporting it. Sometimes it takes longer but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it take more than an hour. Facebook has this process pretty much automated on their end and they are very serious about getting these scammers taken down.

Does this stop the scammers? No. They know the fake profile will be taken down eventually. They’re just hoping it stays up long enough to get a scam going. And in reality, they most likely have software that just creates hundreds or thousands of these fake accounts around the clock. But at least you did your part to help your friend out and get the fake account deleted quickly.

Should you notify your friend that this has happened? It’s up to you. I usually don’t bother with it. In many cases the fake profile is removed before the friend (or any of their friends) even knew what was happening, so there’s really no point getting people agitated about something they really don’t need to be concerned over.

The post What to do when your Facebook friend gets hacked first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Flash — Should you be using Flash? May 22, 2017
I recently got this voice mail from one of my podcast listeners:

“Hi, my name is Bridget and I’m calling from Oregon and I appreciate your show so much. I do love my computer, but there is one thing I just don’t understand. But first – let me admit, I am over 50 (haha). What I don’t understand is Flash. I’ve been warned to remove Flash completely but then I go to websites that say you have to have Flash. Should I have this? Thank you Scott, tell me what to do.”

Thanks Bridget! You’re definitely not the only one asking this question and getting mixed messages.

Flash has been around a long time. In the early days, the websites that displayed video content did all of that by using the Flash technology. But then as it became increasingly popular, it also became more of a target for hackers. Unfortunately, Flash is not all that safe. New security problems are found all the time. So many websites are doing away with using it, in favor of safer ways of displaying video. Even YouTube used to use Flash to show their videos, and now they use a different technology called HTML5.

However, some sites do still display content using Flash. So that’s the problem – I could make a kind of all-encompassing statement like “Flash is not safe! Never use it again!” but I would immediately get feedback from people because the websites they go to regularly still rely on Flash to some degree. I’m talking highly-trafficked websites like CNN, Huffington Post, Fox News, Starbucks, etc.

But I also can’t in good conscience just tell everyone “Flash is fine, use it all you want, don’t worry about it” because then there would be people whose computers get compromised because their Flash player is outdated and not secure. Even if you keep it as updated as possible, sometimes the updates are released a while after a security flaw is discovered.

With that in mind, my recommendation is this: disable Flash in your web browser(s) unless you actually need it based on particular websites you visit. You could disable Flash as a sort of “trial run” to see if you can get by without it. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t even miss it, and your computer is safer if you don’t have it.

How to disable Flash in your browser:

(and of course I’m talking primarily about Chrome and Firefox since those are the two best and most popular browsers – in my opinion)

To disable Flash in Firefox:

First, click the Settings icon (the 3 horizontal lines in the top right), then click the Add-ons button:

On the left side of the next screen, click on the “Plugins” link, and you’ll see that one of the listings is “Shockwave Flash”:

In the drop-down menu next to Shockwave Flash, choose “Ask to Activate”

Now, if you come across Flash content in websites, Firefox will notify you and you can decide if you want to view the Flash content or not. Only allow it if you trust the website and you need to see that content.

To disable Flash in Google Chrome:

Click the Settings icon in the top right (the 3 vertical dots), then in the drop-down menu choose “Settings”:

On the next screen, scroll to the bottom and click on “Show advanced settings”

Now go down to the section called “Privacy” and click on the “Content Settings” button:

A new window opens, and now you scroll down to the section called “Flash” and choose “Ask first before allowing sites to run Flash”. Then click “Done” to close that window.

And here’s another important tip: If you happen to land on a website and it immediately pops up a warning that says “In order to view this content, you need to update your Flash player (recommended)” or something similar, don’t follow the instructions given by that pop-up. Don’t click “OK” or “Update” or whatever it wants you to click on. These are mostly fake warnings, designed to get you to click and download bad stuff to your computer.

If you feel you need to get an updated version of Adobe Flash, get it straight from the Adobe.com website (and be sure to uncheck the pre-selected boxes during the process, because Adobe also tries to sneak junk into your computer).

The post Should you be using Flash? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

disable Flash in Firefox — Should you be using Flash? May 22, 2017
I recently got this voice mail from one of my podcast listeners:

“Hi, my name is Bridget and I’m calling from Oregon and I appreciate your show so much. I do love my computer, but there is one thing I just don’t understand. But first – let me admit, I am over 50 (haha). What I don’t understand is Flash. I’ve been warned to remove Flash completely but then I go to websites that say you have to have Flash. Should I have this? Thank you Scott, tell me what to do.”

Thanks Bridget! You’re definitely not the only one asking this question and getting mixed messages.

Flash has been around a long time. In the early days, the websites that displayed video content did all of that by using the Flash technology. But then as it became increasingly popular, it also became more of a target for hackers. Unfortunately, Flash is not all that safe. New security problems are found all the time. So many websites are doing away with using it, in favor of safer ways of displaying video. Even YouTube used to use Flash to show their videos, and now they use a different technology called HTML5.

However, some sites do still display content using Flash. So that’s the problem – I could make a kind of all-encompassing statement like “Flash is not safe! Never use it again!” but I would immediately get feedback from people because the websites they go to regularly still rely on Flash to some degree. I’m talking highly-trafficked websites like CNN, Huffington Post, Fox News, Starbucks, etc.

But I also can’t in good conscience just tell everyone “Flash is fine, use it all you want, don’t worry about it” because then there would be people whose computers get compromised because their Flash player is outdated and not secure. Even if you keep it as updated as possible, sometimes the updates are released a while after a security flaw is discovered.

With that in mind, my recommendation is this: disable Flash in your web browser(s) unless you actually need it based on particular websites you visit. You could disable Flash as a sort of “trial run” to see if you can get by without it. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t even miss it, and your computer is safer if you don’t have it.

How to disable Flash in your browser:

(and of course I’m talking primarily about Chrome and Firefox since those are the two best and most popular browsers – in my opinion)

To disable Flash in Firefox:

First, click the Settings icon (the 3 horizontal lines in the top right), then click the Add-ons button:

On the left side of the next screen, click on the “Plugins” link, and you’ll see that one of the listings is “Shockwave Flash”:

In the drop-down menu next to Shockwave Flash, choose “Ask to Activate”

Now, if you come across Flash content in websites, Firefox will notify you and you can decide if you want to view the Flash content or not. Only allow it if you trust the website and you need to see that content.

To disable Flash in Google Chrome:

Click the Settings icon in the top right (the 3 vertical dots), then in the drop-down menu choose “Settings”:

On the next screen, scroll to the bottom and click on “Show advanced settings”

Now go down to the section called “Privacy” and click on the “Content Settings” button:

A new window opens, and now you scroll down to the section called “Flash” and choose “Ask first before allowing sites to run Flash”. Then click “Done” to close that window.

And here’s another important tip: If you happen to land on a website and it immediately pops up a warning that says “In order to view this content, you need to update your Flash player (recommended)” or something similar, don’t follow the instructions given by that pop-up. Don’t click “OK” or “Update” or whatever it wants you to click on. These are mostly fake warnings, designed to get you to click and download bad stuff to your computer.

If you feel you need to get an updated version of Adobe Flash, get it straight from the Adobe.com website (and be sure to uncheck the pre-selected boxes during the process, because Adobe also tries to sneak junk into your computer).

The post Should you be using Flash? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ublock origin — The ad-blocker I use and recommend May 15, 2017
After last week’s post about the website with the large volume of ads that would have normally been eliminated by my ad-blockers, I got some inquiries asking what software I use to avoid seeing any website advertisements.

For me, there are 3 basic reasons to use an ad-blocker:

To stop seeing all the annoying ads. Of course, this is the big reason most people decide to use an ad-blocker. Many ads are disruptive, and are designed specifically to be that way. After all, if the ad just blended nicely into the background, no one would notice it, right? Apparently the obnoxious ads are the most effective. So lots of people love having something that will squash those stupid things into oblivion.

To allow web pages to load more quickly. For some websites, much of the content are the advertisement images. If a web page has 10 ads, that means those 10 things have to load before you can view the entire page. Why wait for something to load, when it’s something you don’t even want to see in the first place? Ads that are blocked don’t load, so the web page finishes loading more quickly.

To browse websites more safely. This is one that most people don’t even think about, but it might be the most important factor. Even when you visit a well-known, legitimate website, there could be an ad on that site that is malicious. Your computer could get infected by that ad – even if you don’t click on the ad itself. If the ad is blocked, the infection is also blocked (most likely).

To handle all of these issues, I use a popular ad-blocker called uBlock Origin. It’s free. I use it in conjunction with both Firefox and Chrome, since those are the two browsers I use most often (mostly Chrome). uBlock Origin works as a browser extension.

When I set up a new PC, part of the configuration is to include uBlock Origin in those two browsers. When it’s running in Chrome or Firefox, you’ll see this little icon up in the toolbar:

To get it for Firefox, open Firefox and go to:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Then click on “Add to Firefox” then click on “Install”. You’ll get the notification that it has been added to Firefox.

To get it for Chrome, open Chrome and go to:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en

Then click on “Add to Chrome” and confirm that you want to add it as an extension. You’ll get a notification that it has been added to Chrome.

If you use the Microsoft Edge browser you can also get the uBlock Origin app from the Microsoft Store. I don’t like Edge at all and therefore don’t use it, so I can’t really comment first hand on how well uBlock Origin works with it.

To show you the difference this little extension makes, here’s a website that I use frequently to get a piece of software that checks hard drive health. This first image is with NO ad-blocker. Those 3 display ads take up much of the screen, not to mention they have the fake “Download” button to mislead you into clicking on the ad:

And here’s the same website with uBlock Origin running and blocking the ads:

Really makes the website more user-friendly and easier to look at without all the junk ads cluttering up the page, don’t you think?

Originally, I was using an ad-blocker called AdBlock Plus. It works okay, but the default settings don’t block ALL the ads on each website. AdBlock Plus is configured initially to allow ads to be displayed if they aren’t seen as “annoying”. So if you want to actually block all the ads, you have to go in and change the settings to tell it to do that. Since I set up ad-blocking on multiple computers each day, I got tired of doing that. uBlock Origin works great right out of the box.

No ad-blocker is 100% effective so even with uBlock Origin running you might see the occasional ad. But if you really want to see the difference, use it for a while and then go use a friend’s computer to view a few websites like MSN or Yahoo. You’ll wonder how you ever put up with that garbage for so long!

The post The ad-blocker I use and recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ublock origin — The ad-blocker I use and recommend May 15, 2017
After last week’s post about the website with the large volume of ads that would have normally been eliminated by my ad-blockers, I got some inquiries asking what software I use to avoid seeing any website advertisements.

For me, there are 3 basic reasons to use an ad-blocker:

To stop seeing all the annoying ads. Of course, this is the big reason most people decide to use an ad-blocker. Many ads are disruptive, and are designed specifically to be that way. After all, if the ad just blended nicely into the background, no one would notice it, right? Apparently the obnoxious ads are the most effective. So lots of people love having something that will squash those stupid things into oblivion.

To allow web pages to load more quickly. For some websites, much of the content are the advertisement images. If a web page has 10 ads, that means those 10 things have to load before you can view the entire page. Why wait for something to load, when it’s something you don’t even want to see in the first place? Ads that are blocked don’t load, so the web page finishes loading more quickly.

To browse websites more safely. This is one that most people don’t even think about, but it might be the most important factor. Even when you visit a well-known, legitimate website, there could be an ad on that site that is malicious. Your computer could get infected by that ad – even if you don’t click on the ad itself. If the ad is blocked, the infection is also blocked (most likely).

To handle all of these issues, I use a popular ad-blocker called uBlock Origin. It’s free. I use it in conjunction with both Firefox and Chrome, since those are the two browsers I use most often (mostly Chrome). uBlock Origin works as a browser extension.

When I set up a new PC, part of the configuration is to include uBlock Origin in those two browsers. When it’s running in Chrome or Firefox, you’ll see this little icon up in the toolbar:

To get it for Firefox, open Firefox and go to:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Then click on “Add to Firefox” then click on “Install”. You’ll get the notification that it has been added to Firefox.

To get it for Chrome, open Chrome and go to:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en

Then click on “Add to Chrome” and confirm that you want to add it as an extension. You’ll get a notification that it has been added to Chrome.

If you use the Microsoft Edge browser you can also get the uBlock Origin app from the Microsoft Store. I don’t like Edge at all and therefore don’t use it, so I can’t really comment first hand on how well uBlock Origin works with it.

To show you the difference this little extension makes, here’s a website that I use frequently to get a piece of software that checks hard drive health. This first image is with NO ad-blocker. Those 3 display ads take up much of the screen, not to mention they have the fake “Download” button to mislead you into clicking on the ad:

And here’s the same website with uBlock Origin running and blocking the ads:

Really makes the website more user-friendly and easier to look at without all the junk ads cluttering up the page, don’t you think?

Originally, I was using an ad-blocker called AdBlock Plus. It works okay, but the default settings don’t block ALL the ads on each website. AdBlock Plus is configured initially to allow ads to be displayed if they aren’t seen as “annoying”. So if you want to actually block all the ads, you have to go in and change the settings to tell it to do that. Since I set up ad-blocking on multiple computers each day, I got tired of doing that. uBlock Origin works great right out of the box.

No ad-blocker is 100% effective so even with uBlock Origin running you might see the occasional ad. But if you really want to see the difference, use it for a while and then go use a friend’s computer to view a few websites like MSN or Yahoo. You’ll wonder how you ever put up with that garbage for so long!

The post The ad-blocker I use and recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

should I remove it — Great way to decide which programs to uninstall from your PC May 08, 2017
Last Monday we talked about taking some non-essential programs out of the “auto-startup” process in order to speed up your computer. Today we’ll go over an easy way to figure out if you should actually uninstall a program from your Windows computer.

You know how it is – when you go into Control Panel to the area where it lists all the programs that are there (it’s in the “Programs and Features” section), it can be a little overwhelming to decide what programs are not needed. On the other hand, you don’t want to just forever accumulate more and more software and never get rid of any of it. In most of the computers I see, there are programs installed that the owner didn’t even intentionally put on there – they just “slithered in” with some other program – so you definitely want to get rid of those.

There are probably several programs installed on your computer that have names you aren’t familiar with. How do you know if it’s something you can get rid of, or if it’s something you need? That’s where ShouldIRemoveIt comes in. It’s free software you can get at ShouldIRemoveIt.com. It’s free.

I found out about this from my podcast listener Ron, who sent this email after last Monday’s blog/podcast:

Hi, Scott. In my old age I can’t remember whether I heard about the Should I Remove It program from your podcast or not! You can download it from www.shouldiremoveit.com. It kind of goes along with this week’s suggestion about background programs and it might help folks decide whether or not to disable them from the startup area. Best regards, Ron

Thanks Ron!

I checked out the program and it seems to do a pretty good job. But here’s the trick – the program itself doesn’t make a particular recommendation about whether or not you should uninstall something from your computer. It just gives you more information about it, AND it tells you what most other people have done with it. Then you can decide for yourself if you want to keep it or get rid of it.

Go to the website and just click to download the program. Watch out for some misleading ads on the site – they’ll have a big green “Download” button to, in hopes that you’ll mistakenly click on that instead. Hate those ads. If you use an ad blocker, you won’t see them. I disabled my ad blocker just for this review, and believe me – this site is pretty bad with the deceptive ads.

Download and run the installer as normal. I was happy to see that it didn’t try to sneak any junk in with it.

When the installation finishes, you can choose to launch the program immediately. At that time, it will also open a new webpage with an invitation to download some other program that you don’t want (the one I was presented with was some program to check for outdated drivers and update them – those are always junk). That’s some irony – the website that’s showing you how to get rid of unwanted programs is also advertising unwanted programs.

When you run the program, it immediately shows you a list of the programs installed on your computer:

As you can see, for each program it also displays a column for “Ratings” and another column showing the percentage of people who removed that particular program from their computer.

When you click on one of the programs, you can get more information about it. For example, I clicked on the first one in my list, called CDBurnerXP. This is what it shows me then:

So I can see that 29% of other users have removed it, and also some other information such as what version it is, when I installed it, and the size of the installation.

If I want to, I can just click to uninstall it. But there’s that other button that says “What is it?”. That’s where you can get more information about that program… but only after you view and close another obnoxious ad for crappy “driver update” software. This one is a huge display ad right in the middle of the page, covering all the text. Just click the “X” to close the ad (or better yet, use an ad blocker and never see that junk).

I was surprised at how much information is actually provided on this page – much more detail than I expected to find. It tells me:

What the program is and what it does

The software creator’s own description of the program

Overview

If the software bundles other stuff with it during the installation

A list of the files installed

Program behaviors

An analysis of how it uses resources on your computer when running

Comments from other users about this program

As I said, that’s a lot of data about one program. I don’t know if all of the other programs in their database are covered in that much detail. Most users probably wouldn’t even need that much information, but it’s nice to know it’s there if you do need it.

There’s one other thing about this program that’s good – it doesn’t run all the time in the background. It just gets installed on your computer and you can run it when you want to use it, so it’s not constantly using your memory and processor and slowing things down. And of course, you can uninstall it whenever you want to.

So overall, I would recommend giving this one a try – just make sure your ad blocker is ready for the barrage.

The post Great way to decide which programs to uninstall from your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

should I remove it — Great way to decide which programs to uninstall from your PC May 08, 2017
Last Monday we talked about taking some non-essential programs out of the “auto-startup” process in order to speed up your computer. Today we’ll go over an easy way to figure out if you should actually uninstall a program from your Windows computer.

You know how it is – when you go into Control Panel to the area where it lists all the programs that are there (it’s in the “Programs and Features” section), it can be a little overwhelming to decide what programs are not needed. On the other hand, you don’t want to just forever accumulate more and more software and never get rid of any of it. In most of the computers I see, there are programs installed that the owner didn’t even intentionally put on there – they just “slithered in” with some other program – so you definitely want to get rid of those.

There are probably several programs installed on your computer that have names you aren’t familiar with. How do you know if it’s something you can get rid of, or if it’s something you need? That’s where ShouldIRemoveIt comes in. It’s free software you can get at ShouldIRemoveIt.com. It’s free.

I found out about this from my podcast listener Ron, who sent this email after last Monday’s blog/podcast:

Hi, Scott. In my old age I can’t remember whether I heard about the Should I Remove It program from your podcast or not! You can download it from www.shouldiremoveit.com. It kind of goes along with this week’s suggestion about background programs and it might help folks decide whether or not to disable them from the startup area. Best regards, Ron

Thanks Ron!

I checked out the program and it seems to do a pretty good job. But here’s the trick – the program itself doesn’t make a particular recommendation about whether or not you should uninstall something from your computer. It just gives you more information about it, AND it tells you what most other people have done with it. Then you can decide for yourself if you want to keep it or get rid of it.

Go to the website and just click to download the program. Watch out for some misleading ads on the site – they’ll have a big green “Download” button to, in hopes that you’ll mistakenly click on that instead. Hate those ads. If you use an ad blocker, you won’t see them. I disabled my ad blocker just for this review, and believe me – this site is pretty bad with the deceptive ads.

Download and run the installer as normal. I was happy to see that it didn’t try to sneak any junk in with it.

When the installation finishes, you can choose to launch the program immediately. At that time, it will also open a new webpage with an invitation to download some other program that you don’t want (the one I was presented with was some program to check for outdated drivers and update them – those are always junk). That’s some irony – the website that’s showing you how to get rid of unwanted programs is also advertising unwanted programs.

When you run the program, it immediately shows you a list of the programs installed on your computer:

As you can see, for each program it also displays a column for “Ratings” and another column showing the percentage of people who removed that particular program from their computer.

When you click on one of the programs, you can get more information about it. For example, I clicked on the first one in my list, called CDBurnerXP. This is what it shows me then:

So I can see that 29% of other users have removed it, and also some other information such as what version it is, when I installed it, and the size of the installation.

If I want to, I can just click to uninstall it. But there’s that other button that says “What is it?”. That’s where you can get more information about that program… but only after you view and close another obnoxious ad for crappy “driver update” software. This one is a huge display ad right in the middle of the page, covering all the text. Just click the “X” to close the ad (or better yet, use an ad blocker and never see that junk).

I was surprised at how much information is actually provided on this page – much more detail than I expected to find. It tells me:

What the program is and what it does

The software creator’s own description of the program

Overview

If the software bundles other stuff with it during the installation

A list of the files installed

Program behaviors

An analysis of how it uses resources on your computer when running

Comments from other users about this program

As I said, that’s a lot of data about one program. I don’t know if all of the other programs in their database are covered in that much detail. Most users probably wouldn’t even need that much information, but it’s nice to know it’s there if you do need it.

There’s one other thing about this program that’s good – it doesn’t run all the time in the background. It just gets installed on your computer and you can run it when you want to use it, so it’s not constantly using your memory and processor and slowing things down. And of course, you can uninstall it whenever you want to.

So overall, I would recommend giving this one a try – just make sure your ad blocker is ready for the barrage.

The post Great way to decide which programs to uninstall from your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

speed up your pc — Speed up your PC by optimizing the startup programs May 01, 2017
When a Windows computer is running slowly, one of the first things I check is this: How many programs are running at the same time, both visibly and in the background? The more programs are running, the slower they all run. So let’s streamline your computer and run only those programs that are needed.

This is something I see all the time, and it’s an issue that eventually returns even after it’s fixed.

On a new computer – software companies pay to have Dell or HP or any other computer manufacturer include their software on any newly built PC. It’s bad enough that the machines are loaded with this bloatware, but in addition the computers are instructed to automatically run a lot of these programs every time the computer boots up.

On an already-in-use computer – Got a new HP printer? After you install the software for it on your computer, check that startup list – you’ll find several HP programs that have been added. Do you need these things running in order to print? No. All they do is slow down your computer. And HP isn’t the only culprit here – most printer manufacturers do the same thing.

So the end goal here is to make sure that the only programs running on your computer at any given time are the ones that you need to have running.

Here’s how you do that:

For Windows 7:

Click the start button, and in the search field, type msconfig, then click on msconfig in the menu above when it shows up.

In the new window, click the Startup tab.

Go down the list and UNcheck the programs that don’t need to be running all the time in the background.

Click OK, and restart your computer.

For Windows 8 or Windows 10:

Hold down CTRL and SHIFT, and tap the ESC key.

Click on the Startup tab. (If you don’t see any tabs, click “More details”).

For each item in the list that does not need to run all the time, do a right click and choose “Disable”. (some of them might already have the disabled status – that’s fine).

Close the window and restart your computer.

And the big question: What should I uncheck or disable? In most cases, you can disable:

any HP or Dell programs

iTunes

Adobe Reader

MS Office

Any printer-related software

OneDrive

Skype

Logitech

QuickTime

Google Chrome

Cyberlink

Apple Push

Spotify or Pandora

Any toolbars

Things to remember:

Don’t disable everything in the list. Some things SHOULD be running all the time, such as your antivirus, or your online backup service, or maybe Teamviewer (if you have a service that monitors your computer’s security).

By disabling or unchecking a program, you aren’t removing it from your computer. If it turns out a particular program does need to run in the background, you can just go back in an re-enable it.

If you see something in the list and you don’t know what it is, leave it enabled. If you want, you can research the file name and see if it should be running or not.

The post Speed up your PC by optimizing the startup programs first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Speed up your PC by optimizing the startup programs May 01, 2017
When a Windows computer is running slowly, one of the first things I check is this: How many programs are running at the same time, both visibly and in the background? The more programs are running, the slower they all run. So let’s streamline your computer and run only those programs that are needed.

This is something I see all the time, and it’s an issue that eventually returns even after it’s fixed.

On a new computer – software companies pay to have Dell or HP or any other computer manufacturer include their software on any newly built PC. It’s bad enough that the machines are loaded with this bloatware, but in addition the computers are instructed to automatically run a lot of these programs every time the computer boots up.

On an already-in-use computer – Got a new HP printer? After you install the software for it on your computer, check that startup list – you’ll find several HP programs that have been added. Do you need these things running in order to print? No. All they do is slow down your computer. And HP isn’t the only culprit here – most printer manufacturers do the same thing.

So the end goal here is to make sure that the only programs running on your computer at any given time are the ones that you need to have running.

Here’s how you do that:

For Windows 7:

Click the start button, and in the search field, type msconfig, then click on msconfig in the menu above when it shows up.

In the new window, click the Startup tab.

Go down the list and UNcheck the programs that don’t need to be running all the time in the background.

Click OK, and restart your computer.

For Windows 8 or Windows 10:

Hold down CTRL and SHIFT, and tap the ESC key.

Click on the Startup tab. (If you don’t see any tabs, click “More details”).

For each item in the list that does not need to run all the time, do a right click and choose “Disable”. (some of them might already have the disabled status – that’s fine).

Close the window and restart your computer.

And the big question: What should I uncheck or disable? In most cases, you can disable:

any HP or Dell programs

iTunes

Adobe Reader

MS Office

Any printer-related software

OneDrive

Skype

Logitech

QuickTime

Google Chrome

Cyberlink

Apple Push

Spotify or Pandora

Any toolbars

Things to remember:

Don’t disable everything in the list. Some things SHOULD be running all the time, such as your antivirus, or your online backup service, or maybe Teamviewer (if you have a service that monitors your computer’s security).

By disabling or unchecking a program, you aren’t removing it from your computer. If it turns out a particular program does need to run in the background, you can just go back in an re-enable it.

If you see something in the list and you don’t know what it is, leave it enabled. If you want, you can research the file name and see if it should be running or not.

The post Speed up your PC by optimizing the startup programs first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Outlook — How to schedule sending an email in Outlook Apr 24, 2017
All of my email is sent and received using Microsoft Outlook, and there’s one feature of Outlook that I use all the time – the ability to send an email at a future date and time, rather than having it go out immediately.

Why would I want to create a new email, or reply to an email, but then send it at a later time? Mainly, to avoid getting into an email-based “chat” situation.

Here’s what that means.

I’m in my home office, working on various things, and an email comes in. Could be from a client, a friend, a relative, doesn’t matter. They’re asking a simple question, like “Do I need to bring my computer to you for a virus removal?”. On the surface, that seems like a “yes or no” question, and that’s kind of true. The answer is no, I don’t need to have physical access to the computer in order to remove a virus. But really, in order to give a thorough answer, I need to ask other questions, such as

What are the symptoms?

How long has this been happening?

Did your antivirus program report it?

Is your backup current?

This is because in some cases, people might THINK they have a virus when it’s something completely different.

So when that question comes in by email, I COULD immediately reply with those questions and then just go back to what I was doing. But guess what – since I responded immediately, there is always going to be another email following up on those questions with answers and more questions. And this person knows I’m at my computer, and will naturally expect another quick response. And it continues back and forth – I call this “email chat”.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind communicating by email, and I certainly don’t mind when someone inquires about hiring me for my computer services. The problem arises when I’m in the middle of doing something else that requires a certain degree of concentration, and every 3 minutes I have to stop and reply to the most recent email.

So why not just ignore that first email, and reply later? That’s an option, but the problem with that is that I’ll forget about it, and more emails will come in, and before long that first email is buried in the mix and I don’t notice it until a few days later. That’s not professional and I don’t want to make anyone wait that long for an answer.

But there is a solution, thanks to Outlook.

When you use Outlook for your email, you have the option to create an email now, but send it at a later time. Or even a later date. That solves the problem! I can write the email now and schedule it for later in the day. So I don’t forget to reply, but I also don’t get caught in the immediate back-and-forth email discussion right at the moment.

Here’s how you schedule an email in Outlook (images are from Outlook 2016 but are similar for Outlook 2013 and 2010 – and if you’re still using 2010 you really should upgrade):

1. In Outlook, click to create a new email.

2. In that window, look up in the top left and click on this icon. The icon is like a landscape note in the front and a portrait note behind it:

3. When you click that, you’ll see a new window open with lots of options. You might have fun checking out all the stuff in this window, but the one we’re concerned with now is down in the “Delivery options” section. Check the box that says “Do not deliver before” and then just choose your date and time when you want the email to be sent. Then click Close.

4. Now, that email will sit in your Outlook outbox until it’s time for it to be sent.

A couple of things to be aware of with this:

First, if you have an email scheduled for a future date or time, and you click to close Outlook, you’ll get a little warning telling you that you still have emails in the Outbox waiting to be sent. Don’t worry about that, just tell Outlook you want to exit and send them later.

Second, Outlook has to be open and running at the scheduled time in order for a scheduled email to get sent at that time. If your computer is turned off, or not connected to the internet, or Outlook is not running, it won’t get sent at that time. But it will get sent the next time Outlook is running.

The post How to schedule sending an email in Outlook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Outlook schedule email — How to schedule sending an email in Outlook Apr 24, 2017
All of my email is sent and received using Microsoft Outlook, and there’s one feature of Outlook that I use all the time – the ability to send an email at a future date and time, rather than having it go out immediately.

Why would I want to create a new email, or reply to an email, but then send it at a later time? Mainly, to avoid getting into an email-based “chat” situation.

Here’s what that means.

I’m in my home office, working on various things, and an email comes in. Could be from a client, a friend, a relative, doesn’t matter. They’re asking a simple question, like “Do I need to bring my computer to you for a virus removal?”. On the surface, that seems like a “yes or no” question, and that’s kind of true. The answer is no, I don’t need to have physical access to the computer in order to remove a virus. But really, in order to give a thorough answer, I need to ask other questions, such as

What are the symptoms?

How long has this been happening?

Did your antivirus program report it?

Is your backup current?

This is because in some cases, people might THINK they have a virus when it’s something completely different.

So when that question comes in by email, I COULD immediately reply with those questions and then just go back to what I was doing. But guess what – since I responded immediately, there is always going to be another email following up on those questions with answers and more questions. And this person knows I’m at my computer, and will naturally expect another quick response. And it continues back and forth – I call this “email chat”.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind communicating by email, and I certainly don’t mind when someone inquires about hiring me for my computer services. The problem arises when I’m in the middle of doing something else that requires a certain degree of concentration, and every 3 minutes I have to stop and reply to the most recent email.

So why not just ignore that first email, and reply later? That’s an option, but the problem with that is that I’ll forget about it, and more emails will come in, and before long that first email is buried in the mix and I don’t notice it until a few days later. That’s not professional and I don’t want to make anyone wait that long for an answer.

But there is a solution, thanks to Outlook.

When you use Outlook for your email, you have the option to create an email now, but send it at a later time. Or even a later date. That solves the problem! I can write the email now and schedule it for later in the day. So I don’t forget to reply, but I also don’t get caught in the immediate back-and-forth email discussion right at the moment.

Here’s how you schedule an email in Outlook (images are from Outlook 2016 but are similar for Outlook 2013 and 2010 – and if you’re still using 2010 you really should upgrade):

1. In Outlook, click to create a new email.

2. In that window, look up in the top left and click on this icon. The icon is like a landscape note in the front and a portrait note behind it:

3. When you click that, you’ll see a new window open with lots of options. You might have fun checking out all the stuff in this window, but the one we’re concerned with now is down in the “Delivery options” section. Check the box that says “Do not deliver before” and then just choose your date and time when you want the email to be sent. Then click Close.

4. Now, that email will sit in your Outlook outbox until it’s time for it to be sent.

A couple of things to be aware of with this:

First, if you have an email scheduled for a future date or time, and you click to close Outlook, you’ll get a little warning telling you that you still have emails in the Outbox waiting to be sent. Don’t worry about that, just tell Outlook you want to exit and send them later.

Second, Outlook has to be open and running at the scheduled time in order for a scheduled email to get sent at that time. If your computer is turned off, or not connected to the internet, or Outlook is not running, it won’t get sent at that time. But it will get sent the next time Outlook is running.

The post How to schedule sending an email in Outlook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Simplenote new note — This computer/smartphone app is really handy Apr 17, 2017
Usually I talk about stuff that pertains specifically to computers, but I recently started using a really handy program that will work on computers, tablets and phones (PC or Mac). It’s called Simplenote.

For comparison, this is “kind of” a competitor to Evernote. If you haven’t used Evernote, it’s a program for capturing information and storing it no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For example, if you see a news article online that looks interesting but you don’t have time to read it at the moment, you can click to store it in Evernote and read it later. It runs on all your devices (including your phone) so you have all your stored notes with you all the time.

There have been a few times that I’ve tried to really get into using Evernote because it offers SO much in terms of what it can do. The funny thing is, Evernote has so many “bells and whistles” that it became kind of overwhelming. There is a bit of a learning curve in using it because of all that it does. There are whole books written about how to use it, and Evernote has its own podcast about using it. For some people, it’s more than is needed. And, in order to use all the features, it costs between $35 and $120 per user, per year.

Then recently I came across Simplenote. You can get it free at Simplenote.com. It’s free.

Using Simplenote really couldn’t be any easier. Just set up a free account at the website, then download the program to your computer. You might use it primarily on your smartphone, but it’s good to have a copy on your computer also. It installs without trying to sneak any bad stuff in.

When you run it on your computer, you’ll see how clean and simple the interface is. To create your first note, click File – New note:

You’ll see “New note” listed on the left side, and the cursor is flashing out in the main part of the window. Whatever you type on the first line will be the name of the note. Everything on the next line and following will be the contents of the note.

So let’s say I wanted to make a grocery list. I might call the note “Shopping” which means it will also be in a larger font. Then below that, I’ll make my list of items. So the screen will look like this:

So far, nothing too exciting, right? I mean you could use good ol’ Notepad on your computer if all you needed to do was make a list.

BUT now go to your smartphone and get the Simplenote app (either from Google Play, or from the Apple Store, depending on what kind of phone you have). With the app open, log in to your Simplenote account, and what do you see? Your grocery list, that you created on your computer. So you can have this ongoing grocery list that you can update whether you’re at home in front of the computer, or out somewhere when you just have your phone.

But that’s not all!

Once I have this list created, there’s something else I can do with it. I can share it.

Now my wife creates an account and gets the Simplenote app on her phone. Then I go back to my computer and click on the “Share” button in the top right corner:

That gives me this new window, where I just enter her email address (the one she used to create her account).

Now, that particular note (the grocery list) shows up on BOTH of our phones and computers. And we can each edit it in real time. So if I think of something to add, I put it on the list, and it’s on the list on her phone almost immediately. So each of us always has the most current version of the list.

So far, that’s what we’ve used this for mostly. But for me, I have lots of computer stuff I’ll make lists for (such as email server settings for the various local internet providers). But the uses for this are endless –

names for Christmas shopping

a simple daily to-do list

various date reminders (such as when you last changed the AC filters)

Step by step processes for things you don’t do very often

I haven’t been using Simplenote for very long, but I can imagine it’s going to become an important part of my daily routine. What would YOU use it for?

The post This computer/smartphone app is really handy first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook follow — How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it Apr 10, 2017
I’m on Facebook quite often, and it’s not just to talk about my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida. I’m in groups with a variety of topics, including ultramarathon running, using diet to avoid preventable diseases such as cancer and heart disease, cooking with my Instant Pot, and lots of others.

When someone posts a really good question or idea on Facebook, and you want to hear what others have to say about it and make sure you don’t miss anything, what do you do? A lot of people think they need to post a comment in order to be notified about future comments, but that’s completely unnecessary.

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve probably seen this. You might be in a Facebook group about cooking, and someone posts a question like “What’s your favorite recipe for a quick and easy evening meal?”. Well, you know that’s going to prompt a lot of answers and input, and the people in that group want to be sure to not miss any of the comments. And everyone knows, if you comment on a post, then you get notifications when someone else comments on the same post.

That means that everyone sees things like people commenting with the single word “Following” –

Or the more “minimalist” people who feel like they have to leave a comment but don’t want to write a whole word, so they just type a few dots –

And here’s the most obnoxious one – someone took it upon themselves to create a large image of a dot. So instead of just typing a few dots, some people actually post this large image as a comment:

As a result, it’s disappointing and frustrating when you see an interesting post on Facebook and it shows lots of comments, but then you find out that lots of them aren’t really comments at all.

Or even worse, you get a notification on your computer or phone like, “Robert has commented on your post” or “Jill has replied on a post you are following” so you click over to read what they had to say, and it was just “following” or a few dots. Waste of everyone’s time.

The solution is really easy, if people just knew about it. Facebook has a system already in place that will notify you of any new comments or replies on any post you want to follow.

How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it:

1. Look in the top right corner of the post for the link that gives you a drop-down menu:

2. When you click that drop down menu, find and click the option that says “Turn on notifications for this post” –

That’s all you have to do. Now you’ll get a notification each time someone comments, or replies to your comments, anywhere in that particular post.

And now you can spread this tip! Whenever you see someone post “following” as a comment, just reply to their comment with this link:

ComputerTutorFlorida.com/followtip

That will lead them right to this article so that they can know how to get notifications without commenting, just like you now know how to do.

The post How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook following comment — How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it Apr 10, 2017
I’m on Facebook quite often, and it’s not just to talk about my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida. I’m in groups with a variety of topics, including ultramarathon running, using diet to avoid preventable diseases such as cancer and heart disease, cooking with my Instant Pot, and lots of others.

When someone posts a really good question or idea on Facebook, and you want to hear what others have to say about it and make sure you don’t miss anything, what do you do? A lot of people think they need to post a comment in order to be notified about future comments, but that’s completely unnecessary.

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve probably seen this. You might be in a Facebook group about cooking, and someone posts a question like “What’s your favorite recipe for a quick and easy evening meal?”. Well, you know that’s going to prompt a lot of answers and input, and the people in that group want to be sure to not miss any of the comments. And everyone knows, if you comment on a post, then you get notifications when someone else comments on the same post.

That means that everyone sees things like people commenting with the single word “Following” –

Or the more “minimalist” people who feel like they have to leave a comment but don’t want to write a whole word, so they just type a few dots –

And here’s the most obnoxious one – someone took it upon themselves to create a large image of a dot. So instead of just typing a few dots, some people actually post this large image as a comment:

As a result, it’s disappointing and frustrating when you see an interesting post on Facebook and it shows lots of comments, but then you find out that lots of them aren’t really comments at all.

Or even worse, you get a notification on your computer or phone like, “Robert has commented on your post” or “Jill has replied on a post you are following” so you click over to read what they had to say, and it was just “following” or a few dots. Waste of everyone’s time.

The solution is really easy, if people just knew about it. Facebook has a system already in place that will notify you of any new comments or replies on any post you want to follow.

How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it:

1. Look in the top right corner of the post for the link that gives you a drop-down menu:

2. When you click that drop down menu, find and click the option that says “Turn on notifications for this post” –

That’s all you have to do. Now you’ll get a notification each time someone comments, or replies to your comments, anywhere in that particular post.

And now you can spread this tip! Whenever you see someone post “following” as a comment, just reply to their comment with this link:

ComputerTutorFlorida.com/followtip

That will lead them right to this article so that they can know how to get notifications without commenting, just like you now know how to do.

The post How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

killer flash drive — The flash drive that will KILL your computer Apr 03, 2017
If you found a flash drive on the ground or someplace out in public, what would you do with it? A kind-hearted person would of course want to get it back to its rightful owner. But to do that, you would need to connect it to a computer and see if anything on the drive might indicate who the owner is. But… you might want to think twice about doing that.

There’s a new kind of flash drive being made now, and anyone can buy one for $50. But it doesn’t store any files or folders. In fact, you couldn’t put any data on there even if you wanted to. The purpose of this flash drive – the actual reason it is built – is to kill your computer. Or any computer into which it’s inserted.

Here’s how it works:

The USB port on your computer actually has a little bit of electricity in it. That’s why you can plug some things into a USB port, and you don’t have to plug them into an electrical outlet (like a portable drive for doing a backup). Some things require just a little bit of voltage, so they can run on just the power that’s being delivered by that USB port.

But this new drive has an electrical part on the inside known as a capacitor. A capacitor stores electricity. So when you plug this “killer” flash drive in to a computer, the capacitor takes that little bit of electricity being delivered, and it stores it. Then it gets some more and stores it too. And again, and again. It just keeps storing up more and more electricity until it eventually has a very large electrical charge being stored.

When it gets to that point, where it’s storing lots of electrical energy, it suddenly releases all of it at once. All of that voltage and current is way more than a computer can handle, so it fries the motherboard and that computer is dead.

And how long does it take for that entire process to happen? A small fraction of a second. It’s pretty much instantaneous.

And of course, the big question – why would anyone buy one of these things? Supposedly, for techs to use for “testing”. There are all kinds of warnings about how you shouldn’t use this device to destroy anyone’s computer, but you know those warnings are only there for legal protection and to avoid liability. People are going to use these things to kill the computers of people they don’t like, or maybe as some kind of a “prank” – but it’s sure not a very funny one.

An interesting aspect of this is that there are people who know what this thing does, and yet they still stick it in their own computer just to watch it happen. Check the video below – it shows a bunch of these guys doing just that. And one of them even sticks it in the USB port on his CAR.

So if you happen to see a flash drive that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone, and you’re curious about what is on it, you might want to just toss it in the trash. Or at least try it on a computer you don’t care about.
The post The flash drive that will KILL your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — The flash drive that will KILL your computer Apr 03, 2017
If you found a flash drive on the ground or someplace out in public, what would you do with it? A kind-hearted person would of course want to get it back to its rightful owner. But to do that, you would need to connect it to a computer and see if anything on the drive might indicate who the owner is. But… you might want to think twice about doing that.

There’s a new kind of flash drive being made now, and anyone can buy one for $50. But it doesn’t store any files or folders. In fact, you couldn’t put any data on there even if you wanted to. The purpose of this flash drive – the actual reason it is built – is to kill your computer. Or any computer into which it’s inserted.

Here’s how it works:

The USB port on your computer actually has a little bit of electricity in it. That’s why you can plug some things into a USB port, and you don’t have to plug them into an electrical outlet (like a portable drive for doing a backup). Some things require just a little bit of voltage, so they can run on just the power that’s being delivered by that USB port.

But this new drive has an electrical part on the inside known as a capacitor. A capacitor stores electricity. So when you plug this “killer” flash drive in to a computer, the capacitor takes that little bit of electricity being delivered, and it stores it. Then it gets some more and stores it too. And again, and again. It just keeps storing up more and more electricity until it eventually has a very large electrical charge being stored.

When it gets to that point, where it’s storing lots of electrical energy, it suddenly releases all of it at once. All of that voltage and current is way more than a computer can handle, so it fries the motherboard and that computer is dead.

And how long does it take for that entire process to happen? A small fraction of a second. It’s pretty much instantaneous.

And of course, the big question – why would anyone buy one of these things? Supposedly, for techs to use for “testing”. There are all kinds of warnings about how you shouldn’t use this device to destroy anyone’s computer, but you know those warnings are only there for legal protection and to avoid liability. People are going to use these things to kill the computers of people they don’t like, or maybe as some kind of a “prank” – but it’s sure not a very funny one.

An interesting aspect of this is that there are people who know what this thing does, and yet they still stick it in their own computer just to watch it happen. Check the video below – it shows a bunch of these guys doing just that. And one of them even sticks it in the USB port on his CAR.

So if you happen to see a flash drive that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone, and you’re curious about what is on it, you might want to just toss it in the trash. Or at least try it on a computer you don’t care about.
The post The flash drive that will KILL your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Notification Area — How to see ALL your Notification Area icons, all the time Mar 27, 2017
That area in the bottom right corner of your Windows screen is just loaded with valuable information. But in a lot of cases you don’t see everything that’s going on down there because some of the icons are hidden. Here’s how to get all those icons to be visible all the time.

The image shown above is the Notification Area on my main computer. I don’t always have all of those icons there, but what I like is that whatever is running there at any given time is visible at a glance. Microsoft does not have it set that way by default.

If you don’t make any changes, you’ll be able to see some of the icons down in that area, but not all of them. There will be a little triangle icon at the left end of that row, and when you click that you’ll have the option to see all of the icons that aren’t displayed naturally. But that’s a pain! What if you just want all of them to show, all of the time, without having to making any extra clicks to view the hidden ones?

Easy!

Here’s how you get all of the Notification Area icons to be visible, all the time:

In Windows 7 or 8:

Click the little triangle, then in the new small window click on “Customize”.

In the new window, at the bottom, check the box that says “Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar” and click OK:

In Windows 10:

Anywhere in the taskbar, do a right-click and choose Properties (or on some computers, “Settings”). In the new window, click on Customize:

On the next screen, click “Select which icons appear on the taskbar”:

On the next screen, turn on “Always show all icons in the notification area”:

That’s it! Now, you will always see what icons are there without having to click on anything else to see the “hidden” icons, since none of them will be hidden.

The post How to see ALL your Notification Area icons, all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Always show all icons — How to see ALL your Notification Area icons, all the time Mar 27, 2017
That area in the bottom right corner of your Windows screen is just loaded with valuable information. But in a lot of cases you don’t see everything that’s going on down there because some of the icons are hidden. Here’s how to get all those icons to be visible all the time.

The image shown above is the Notification Area on my main computer. I don’t always have all of those icons there, but what I like is that whatever is running there at any given time is visible at a glance. Microsoft does not have it set that way by default.

If you don’t make any changes, you’ll be able to see some of the icons down in that area, but not all of them. There will be a little triangle icon at the left end of that row, and when you click that you’ll have the option to see all of the icons that aren’t displayed naturally. But that’s a pain! What if you just want all of them to show, all of the time, without having to making any extra clicks to view the hidden ones?

Easy!

Here’s how you get all of the Notification Area icons to be visible, all the time:

In Windows 7 or 8:

Click the little triangle, then in the new small window click on “Customize”.

In the new window, at the bottom, check the box that says “Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar” and click OK:

In Windows 10:

Anywhere in the taskbar, do a right-click and choose Properties (or on some computers, “Settings”). In the new window, click on Customize:

On the next screen, click “Select which icons appear on the taskbar”:

On the next screen, turn on “Always show all icons in the notification area”:

That’s it! Now, you will always see what icons are there without having to click on anything else to see the “hidden” icons, since none of them will be hidden.

The post How to see ALL your Notification Area icons, all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

delete browser history — Delete your history in less than 5 seconds – in any browser Mar 20, 2017
Sometimes it’s nice to know how to do things really quickly on your computer. And sometimes you might need to delete your browser history (the list of all the websites you’ve visited in a certain period of time).

Why would you need to delete your browser history? Lots of reasons. Maybe you’re shopping for a Christmas or birthday gift and you don’t want your spouse to see that you’ve been visiting some jewelry websites. Maybe you borrowed a friend’s computer and you don’t want your web history mixed in with his. Or how about this – you’re writing a novel that includes some terrorists or a serial killer, and you’re researching “how to kill someone and not get caught” – that’s not really a Google search that you want your spouse to stumble across, right?

Whatever your reason is for needing to delete your browser history, that’s your business. What I’m explaining today is how to do that as quickly as possible, no matter what web browser you’re using. That’s the thing – when you try to do this by the “regular” way, each web browser has a different process. You have to find the History section in the toolbar or the drop-down menu, then you have to get to the spot where you can clear the history, and these things are different in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Here’s the simple way to clear your browser history:

Open your web browser

Click CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE

Clear history

In Chrome, when you hold down Ctrl and Shift and tap the Delete button, you get this window:

That drop-down menu gives you the option to clear your history for the last hour, the last day, the last week, the last 4 weeks, or the entire browser history.

In Firefox, that keyboard combination gives you this window:

As you can see very similar and pretty intuitive. For Internet Explorer, also similar (but you don’t really still use Internet Explorer, do you?):

So whatever your reason, now you know how to very quickly get in and delete your browser history.

And before I get a bunch of email – yes, there are ways of searching the internet via one of the above-mentioned browsers, and have it not record any of the history in the first place. That’s a different tip for a different day.

The post Delete your history in less than 5 seconds – in any browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome browser history — Delete your history in less than 5 seconds – in any browser Mar 20, 2017
Sometimes it’s nice to know how to do things really quickly on your computer. And sometimes you might need to delete your browser history (the list of all the websites you’ve visited in a certain period of time).

Why would you need to delete your browser history? Lots of reasons. Maybe you’re shopping for a Christmas or birthday gift and you don’t want your spouse to see that you’ve been visiting some jewelry websites. Maybe you borrowed a friend’s computer and you don’t want your web history mixed in with his. Or how about this – you’re writing a novel that includes some terrorists or a serial killer, and you’re researching “how to kill someone and not get caught” – that’s not really a Google search that you want your spouse to stumble across, right?

Whatever your reason is for needing to delete your browser history, that’s your business. What I’m explaining today is how to do that as quickly as possible, no matter what web browser you’re using. That’s the thing – when you try to do this by the “regular” way, each web browser has a different process. You have to find the History section in the toolbar or the drop-down menu, then you have to get to the spot where you can clear the history, and these things are different in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Here’s the simple way to clear your browser history:

Open your web browser

Click CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE

Clear history

In Chrome, when you hold down Ctrl and Shift and tap the Delete button, you get this window:

That drop-down menu gives you the option to clear your history for the last hour, the last day, the last week, the last 4 weeks, or the entire browser history.

In Firefox, that keyboard combination gives you this window:

As you can see very similar and pretty intuitive. For Internet Explorer, also similar (but you don’t really still use Internet Explorer, do you?):

So whatever your reason, now you know how to very quickly get in and delete your browser history.

And before I get a bunch of email – yes, there are ways of searching the internet via one of the above-mentioned browsers, and have it not record any of the history in the first place. That’s a different tip for a different day.

The post Delete your history in less than 5 seconds – in any browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome virus trick — New virus trick to watch for – the “missing font” hack Mar 13, 2017
The hackers and scammers continue to come up with new ideas to trick you into downloading a virus to your computer. The latest scheme is a pop-up in Chrome that says the page won’t display properly because you’re missing a font. Here are the details so you don’t fall for it.

This is targeted at people who use the Chrome web browser (which is currently over half of all computer users). Here’s how it works:

You’re browsing whatever sites you normally visit, and maybe a few you haven’t visited before. Suddenly the site you’re on has text that is not readable – just a bunch of characters that don’t make any sense.

Then an error message comes up in the middle of the page, looking like this:

I have to admit, this error message is pretty well crafted. It has the “clean” look of a message from Google. The spelling and grammar are much better than we usually see from virus creators. The “Update” button looks accurate, as does the Chrome logo in the top right. And since the text on the screen (behind the error message) is unreadable, it makes perfect sense that the website is using a particular font that you don’t have installed as part of Chrome. So there is seemingly nothing suspicious about the message that tells you you need to update your Chrome Font Pack.

So it’s pretty easy to understand why someone would just click on the “Update” button without really thinking anything nefarious is going on. But when the update button click leads to a file being downloaded called “Chrome Font v7.5.1.exe”, that should start to raise some concerns. First, you should never download a .exe file and run it unless you are 100% sure what it is and what it will do. Second, the “Help” prompt on the screen says you should see the download file called “Chrome_Font.exe” which is different from the actual downloaded file name.

Also, Chrome might even pop up a little warning to tell you that this file is kind of suspicious so you might want to think twice before running it. As this virus becomes more well-known, the antivirus programs in use will be more likely to catch it as well. But your best first defense is to follow the best guidelines, and never download anything if you’re not sure what it is.

The post New virus trick to watch for – the “missing font” hack first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome virus trick — New virus trick to watch for – the “missing font” hack Mar 13, 2017
The hackers and scammers continue to come up with new ideas to trick you into downloading a virus to your computer. The latest scheme is a pop-up in Chrome that says the page won’t display properly because you’re missing a font. Here are the details so you don’t fall for it.

This is targeted at people who use the Chrome web browser (which is currently over half of all computer users). Here’s how it works:

You’re browsing whatever sites you normally visit, and maybe a few you haven’t visited before. Suddenly the site you’re on has text that is not readable – just a bunch of characters that don’t make any sense.

Then an error message comes up in the middle of the page, looking like this:

I have to admit, this error message is pretty well crafted. It has the “clean” look of a message from Google. The spelling and grammar are much better than we usually see from virus creators. The “Update” button looks accurate, as does the Chrome logo in the top right. And since the text on the screen (behind the error message) is unreadable, it makes perfect sense that the website is using a particular font that you don’t have installed as part of Chrome. So there is seemingly nothing suspicious about the message that tells you you need to update your Chrome Font Pack.

So it’s pretty easy to understand why someone would just click on the “Update” button without really thinking anything nefarious is going on. But when the update button click leads to a file being downloaded called “Chrome Font v7.5.1.exe”, that should start to raise some concerns. First, you should never download a .exe file and run it unless you are 100% sure what it is and what it will do. Second, the “Help” prompt on the screen says you should see the download file called “Chrome_Font.exe” which is different from the actual downloaded file name.

Also, Chrome might even pop up a little warning to tell you that this file is kind of suspicious so you might want to think twice before running it. As this virus becomes more well-known, the antivirus programs in use will be more likely to catch it as well. But your best first defense is to follow the best guidelines, and never download anything if you’re not sure what it is.

The post New virus trick to watch for – the “missing font” hack first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Start menu billboard — Make the Windows 10 Start Menu less annoying Mar 06, 2017
In Windows 7 (and earlier versions of Windows), the Start menu was simply a way to navigate to whatever program or file you needed to open. In Windows 10, Microsoft seems to think that it should now be used as their own private little billboard on your computer. Today we’ll talk about how to take back some control of that space.

One thing that I really, really dislike is advertising being forced on to me. It’s one of the reasons I don’t watch television, and it’s the primary reason I don’t listen to commercial radio while I’m driving (I either have a podcast on (and I can fast forward through the commercials), or Pandora (the $3.99/month ad-free version).

So when I got my Windows 10 desktop computer several months ago, I was less than pleased to see how Microsoft freely posted all kinds of stuff I don’t need or want all over the Start menu by default. Stuff like:

X-Box

Minecraft

Flipboard

OneNote

Get Office on your phone or tablet

PicsArt Photo Studio

Groove Music

Microsoft Solitaire Collection

Politically biased “news” articles

Cortana

Windows Mail

Twitter

Microsoft Edge browser

MSN Weather

Not to mention the actual ads that Microsoft throws in there unless you disable that “feature”, which is turned on by default.

The good news – it’s easy to get rid of all that junk if you know how.

First thing you need to do is turn off the blatant ads that Microsoft wants to push to you (of course, MS doesn’t call them “ads” – they’re merely “suggestions”. Whatever.)

To do that, get to Settings. You can click the Start button, then click on Settings, or you can just hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “I”. Then click Personalization, then Start.

Look for the “Occasionally show suggestions in Start” and turn it off:

Then, the second thing to do is clean up all the clutter that Microsoft puts in your Start menu. This is really easy.

Click the Start button (lower left corner, the Microsoft Windows logo) so that the Start menu appears:

Now pick one of the tiles you want to get rid of. I’ll start with the green X-Box tile in the top row. Do a right click on it, so that this little menu comes up, and choose “Unpin from Start”:

As soon as you click that, you’ll now see an empty space where that tile used to be displayed. So just go through and do that for every tile you don’t want to see, until the Start menu is trimmed down the stuff that might actually be useful.

Now, with your Start menu having a fresh “start”, you can drag the tiles around in whatever order you like. You can also add things the Start menu, just by right-clicking and choosing “Pin to Start”.

See – Windows can actually be useful when you kick Microsoft’s junk out of the way and put your own stuff there!

The post Make the Windows 10 Start Menu less annoying first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

disable start menu ads — Make the Windows 10 Start Menu less annoying Mar 06, 2017
In Windows 7 (and earlier versions of Windows), the Start menu was simply a way to navigate to whatever program or file you needed to open. In Windows 10, Microsoft seems to think that it should now be used as their own private little billboard on your computer. Today we’ll talk about how to take back some control of that space.

One thing that I really, really dislike is advertising being forced on to me. It’s one of the reasons I don’t watch television, and it’s the primary reason I don’t listen to commercial radio while I’m driving (I either have a podcast on (and I can fast forward through the commercials), or Pandora (the $3.99/month ad-free version).

So when I got my Windows 10 desktop computer several months ago, I was less than pleased to see how Microsoft freely posted all kinds of stuff I don’t need or want all over the Start menu by default. Stuff like:

X-Box

Minecraft

Flipboard

OneNote

Get Office on your phone or tablet

PicsArt Photo Studio

Groove Music

Microsoft Solitaire Collection

Politically biased “news” articles

Cortana

Windows Mail

Twitter

Microsoft Edge browser

MSN Weather

Not to mention the actual ads that Microsoft throws in there unless you disable that “feature”, which is turned on by default.

The good news – it’s easy to get rid of all that junk if you know how.

First thing you need to do is turn off the blatant ads that Microsoft wants to push to you (of course, MS doesn’t call them “ads” – they’re merely “suggestions”. Whatever.)

To do that, get to Settings. You can click the Start button, then click on Settings, or you can just hold down the Windows key and tap the letter “I”. Then click Personalization, then Start.

Look for the “Occasionally show suggestions in Start” and turn it off:

Then, the second thing to do is clean up all the clutter that Microsoft puts in your Start menu. This is really easy.

Click the Start button (lower left corner, the Microsoft Windows logo) so that the Start menu appears:

Now pick one of the tiles you want to get rid of. I’ll start with the green X-Box tile in the top row. Do a right click on it, so that this little menu comes up, and choose “Unpin from Start”:

As soon as you click that, you’ll now see an empty space where that tile used to be displayed. So just go through and do that for every tile you don’t want to see, until the Start menu is trimmed down the stuff that might actually be useful.

Now, with your Start menu having a fresh “start”, you can drag the tiles around in whatever order you like. You can also add things the Start menu, just by right-clicking and choosing “Pin to Start”.

See – Windows can actually be useful when you kick Microsoft’s junk out of the way and put your own stuff there!

The post Make the Windows 10 Start Menu less annoying first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

happy computer user — 3 top tips for using your computer safely Feb 27, 2017
There are lots of things you can do to stay safe while using your computer. Probably hundreds. But a few things I keep seeing come up over and over. I really believe that if everyone at least kept these three rules while using their computers, a lot of problems would be avoided and everyone would be a happier computer user.

Tip 1: If you know a website’s address, don’t type it in the search bar

A lot of people have their home page on their web browser set to be a Google search page. Nothing wrong with that. So whenever they open Chrome or Firefox, the first thing they see is the opportunity to do a Google search.

The problem comes up when they are trying to access a specific website. For example, they might need to go to my own website, ComputerTutorFlorida.com. If I’m on the phone with them, I’ll give them that address so they can open their web browser of choice and go to my website.

I wait a little bit on the phone, and in many cases the next thing I hear is, “Hmm, well I see “computer instruction”, “computer tutor jobs”… which one is your website?” That’s when I know they didn’t actually type the website address in the address bar; instead, they did a search on Google.

There’s a big difference in going straight to a website, and just doing a Google search. If you wanted to get to my website and you didn’t know the address, you might search Google for computer repair Safety Harbor and hopefully you would find me at or near the top of the results.

But if you know the actual website address for the site you want to visit, like ComputerTutorFlorida.com, you can just type it in the address bar (at the top of the screen) and hit Enter, and you’ll be taken directly to that website. That way is much more reliable, because if you do a search, you’ll come up with a list of Google search results – and in many cases, most of those options are websites designed to infect your computer or scam you out of some of your money. The scammers are very excited for people to do a search – don’t let them catch you there!

Tip 2: Don’t search Google for anything free

This is kind of related to the first one, because it’s a good example of the actual dangers awaiting you in the Google search results.

These are some of the really common Google searches that people around the world do every day:

free music

free games

free screensavers

free wallpaper

free video player

free movies

free audiobooks

See any connection among those search phrases? You got it – everyone wants to get something for free. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with free things, but in this case it can really get you in trouble.

You see, the scammers know that people search Google with these phrases many thousands of times each day. So they make websites that match those search, in order to come up at the top of the search results. The average person usually doesn’t know the difference between a legitimate website and a malicious one (since the scammers work very hard to make their sites look completely innocent).

As an example, I did a Google search on the phrase “free screensavers” and checked all ten of the websites that came up on page 1 of the search results. SEVEN out of those ten were malicious and tried to get me to download junk software to my computer. So unless you are good at identifying those malicious sites, I would recommend you not do any Google searches that include the word “free”.

Tip 3: When an error comes up, don’t wait to tell your tech about it

This one is unrelated to the first two, but still pretty important.

Sometimes a client will come to me with a computer problem, maybe some oddball thing that their computer is doing that just doesn’t make any sense. Like it might restart at random times. Or a certain program won’t open (or won’t close). In some cases, the most practical way to fix this is through a Windows process called System Restore. As you use your computer, Windows can create “restore points” that allows you, if needed, to take the computer back to the state it was in on the date of that restore point. Usually there will be restore points available for the previous few days or a week or two (this can vary widely though).

So, in looking at the problem, I might think it could be a nice quick fix if we just took the computer back a few days – before the problem started happening – and that might just resolve it. I ask the client, “Do you remember when this started happening?” (it really helps if they know the actual date and even the time they first noticed the strange behavior).

But then, the response I often get is, “Well, I guess it was maybe 4 or 5 months ago. Could have been longer than that though, I don’t really recall.” So that kills the idea of using System Restore as the easy fix, since there are no restore points that go back that far. And, too many other things have happened in the last 5 months to be able to use System Restore to fix this one specific problem.

That means when something weird starts happening on your computer, don’t wait and just hope it will go away (these things very rarely fix themselves). The sooner your tech can check it out, the less time it usually takes to get it fixed (and that normally means the repair cost is lower as well).

The post 3 top tips for using your computer safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google search vs address bar — 3 top tips for using your computer safely Feb 27, 2017
There are lots of things you can do to stay safe while using your computer. Probably hundreds. But a few things I keep seeing come up over and over. I really believe that if everyone at least kept these three rules while using their computers, a lot of problems would be avoided and everyone would be a happier computer user.

Tip 1: If you know a website’s address, don’t type it in the search bar

A lot of people have their home page on their web browser set to be a Google search page. Nothing wrong with that. So whenever they open Chrome or Firefox, the first thing they see is the opportunity to do a Google search.

The problem comes up when they are trying to access a specific website. For example, they might need to go to my own website, ComputerTutorFlorida.com. If I’m on the phone with them, I’ll give them that address so they can open their web browser of choice and go to my website.

I wait a little bit on the phone, and in many cases the next thing I hear is, “Hmm, well I see “computer instruction”, “computer tutor jobs”… which one is your website?” That’s when I know they didn’t actually type the website address in the address bar; instead, they did a search on Google.

There’s a big difference in going straight to a website, and just doing a Google search. If you wanted to get to my website and you didn’t know the address, you might search Google for computer repair Safety Harbor and hopefully you would find me at or near the top of the results.

But if you know the actual website address for the site you want to visit, like ComputerTutorFlorida.com, you can just type it in the address bar (at the top of the screen) and hit Enter, and you’ll be taken directly to that website. That way is much more reliable, because if you do a search, you’ll come up with a list of Google search results – and in many cases, most of those options are websites designed to infect your computer or scam you out of some of your money. The scammers are very excited for people to do a search – don’t let them catch you there!

Tip 2: Don’t search Google for anything free

This is kind of related to the first one, because it’s a good example of the actual dangers awaiting you in the Google search results.

These are some of the really common Google searches that people around the world do every day:

free music

free games

free screensavers

free wallpaper

free video player

free movies

free audiobooks

See any connection among those search phrases? You got it – everyone wants to get something for free. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with free things, but in this case it can really get you in trouble.

You see, the scammers know that people search Google with these phrases many thousands of times each day. So they make websites that match those search, in order to come up at the top of the search results. The average person usually doesn’t know the difference between a legitimate website and a malicious one (since the scammers work very hard to make their sites look completely innocent).

As an example, I did a Google search on the phrase “free screensavers” and checked all ten of the websites that came up on page 1 of the search results. SEVEN out of those ten were malicious and tried to get me to download junk software to my computer. So unless you are good at identifying those malicious sites, I would recommend you not do any Google searches that include the word “free”.

Tip 3: When an error comes up, don’t wait to tell your tech about it

This one is unrelated to the first two, but still pretty important.

Sometimes a client will come to me with a computer problem, maybe some oddball thing that their computer is doing that just doesn’t make any sense. Like it might restart at random times. Or a certain program won’t open (or won’t close). In some cases, the most practical way to fix this is through a Windows process called System Restore. As you use your computer, Windows can create “restore points” that allows you, if needed, to take the computer back to the state it was in on the date of that restore point. Usually there will be restore points available for the previous few days or a week or two (this can vary widely though).

So, in looking at the problem, I might think it could be a nice quick fix if we just took the computer back a few days – before the problem started happening – and that might just resolve it. I ask the client, “Do you remember when this started happening?” (it really helps if they know the actual date and even the time they first noticed the strange behavior).

But then, the response I often get is, “Well, I guess it was maybe 4 or 5 months ago. Could have been longer than that though, I don’t really recall.” So that kills the idea of using System Restore as the easy fix, since there are no restore points that go back that far. And, too many other things have happened in the last 5 months to be able to use System Restore to fix this one specific problem.

That means when something weird starts happening on your computer, don’t wait and just hope it will go away (these things very rarely fix themselves). The sooner your tech can check it out, the less time it usually takes to get it fixed (and that normally means the repair cost is lower as well).

The post 3 top tips for using your computer safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook messenger — How to hide the fact that you’ve viewed a Facebook message Feb 20, 2017
One of the annoyances about chatting with someone in Facebook Messenger on your computer is the fact that they other person knows when you’ve seen their most recent message. So you kind of feel obligated to go ahead and reply sooner, since you know the other person knows you’ve read that last message. Too much pressure to keep the conversation going! Here’s how you stop that.

Since I’m at my computer much of the time, this happens to me fairly regularly.

If a friend or a client sends me a message on Facebook, it’s often about a computer repair or to inquire about buying one of my refurbished laptops. I’ll see the message show up, and I know that if I don’t answer it then, I’ll probably forget about it until I happen to notice it a few days later and that’s not good. So I respond. Then the person sends a follow-up message or question. And now I’m in an ongoing chat, even though I might have lots of work to do and really don’t have the time available to chat.

But when the other person sends a message and it shows up on my screen, that person gets the immediate notification that the message has been seen by me. Since he knows I’ve read the message, it looks rude if I don’t reply.

But now there’s a way around that social awkwardness!

It’s an extension for Google Chrome called Unseen. And what it does is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to do. It removes the “Message Seen” notification from the Facebook chat. And it does a few other things too.

Here’s how you get it:

Open Chrome, and go here. Click to install the extension in Chrome. It will tell you when it’s been installed, and you’ll also see a little blue and white icon, like this:

When you do one left click on that little icon, you’ll see what options are available to you in the menu:

You can play around with those various functions to see what they do, but really the first one is the one we’re talking about – you can read the most recent message, and the sender won’t get any notification that you’ve read it.

I also like the “block the typing indicator” option too. My chat buddies don’t need to know when I’m in the process of typing a message! Let them wonder!

I think there’s an extension like this for Firefox also, but I haven’t investigated that since I use Chrome almost all the time. BUT – since most people now use Facebook Messenger on their phone – you might be excited to know that there’s also an Android app that does the same thing this Chrome extension does. Just go to the Google Play Store and search for Unseen – No Last Seen. It’s free but of course there will be ads. I assume there’s also an app for iOS but I don’t use an iPhone so can’t really tell you about that.

The post How to hide the fact that you’ve viewed a Facebook message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Unseen extension — How to hide the fact that you’ve viewed a Facebook message Feb 20, 2017
One of the annoyances about chatting with someone in Facebook Messenger on your computer is the fact that they other person knows when you’ve seen their most recent message. So you kind of feel obligated to go ahead and reply sooner, since you know the other person knows you’ve read that last message. Too much pressure to keep the conversation going! Here’s how you stop that.

Since I’m at my computer much of the time, this happens to me fairly regularly.

If a friend or a client sends me a message on Facebook, it’s often about a computer repair or to inquire about buying one of my refurbished laptops. I’ll see the message show up, and I know that if I don’t answer it then, I’ll probably forget about it until I happen to notice it a few days later and that’s not good. So I respond. Then the person sends a follow-up message or question. And now I’m in an ongoing chat, even though I might have lots of work to do and really don’t have the time available to chat.

But when the other person sends a message and it shows up on my screen, that person gets the immediate notification that the message has been seen by me. Since he knows I’ve read the message, it looks rude if I don’t reply.

But now there’s a way around that social awkwardness!

It’s an extension for Google Chrome called Unseen. And what it does is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to do. It removes the “Message Seen” notification from the Facebook chat. And it does a few other things too.

Here’s how you get it:

Open Chrome, and go here. Click to install the extension in Chrome. It will tell you when it’s been installed, and you’ll also see a little blue and white icon, like this:

When you do one left click on that little icon, you’ll see what options are available to you in the menu:

You can play around with those various functions to see what they do, but really the first one is the one we’re talking about – you can read the most recent message, and the sender won’t get any notification that you’ve read it.

I also like the “block the typing indicator” option too. My chat buddies don’t need to know when I’m in the process of typing a message! Let them wonder!

I think there’s an extension like this for Firefox also, but I haven’t investigated that since I use Chrome almost all the time. BUT – since most people now use Facebook Messenger on their phone – you might be excited to know that there’s also an Android app that does the same thing this Chrome extension does. Just go to the Google Play Store and search for Unseen – No Last Seen. It’s free but of course there will be ads. I assume there’s also an app for iOS but I don’t use an iPhone so can’t really tell you about that.

The post How to hide the fact that you’ve viewed a Facebook message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sneaky Adobe — Watch out for Adobe’s latest trick Feb 13, 2017
For a while, Adobe has proven that they are a software company not worthy of our trust or respect. And recently they provided us with another reason to question their integrity. This applies mainly to people using the Chrome web browser.

For quite some time, Adobe has been trying to sneak unwanted software on to all of our computers. If you go to their website and install Adobe Flash, or Adobe Reader, partway through the installation process you have to be careful to UNcheck a couple of boxes that they have “conveniently” pre-checked for you. If you don’t notice that (as they are hoping you won’t) you’ll end up with extra junk software on your computer. Of course, they make money from that so it doesn’t really matter to them that you didn’t want those programs installed.

In addition to this, one of the ways you can keep your computer running fast is to make sure no programs are running in the background other than the ones that NEED to be running all the time (such as your antivirus, your online backup, etc.). When you check that list of auto-startup programs, you’ll see Adobe Reader in the list. No problem, just uncheck it so it doesn’t run all the time, right? That’s fine, until the next time it updates – then it goes right back on the list so it’s running in the background and slowing down your computer. Adobe doesn’t really care what you want.

And now their newest scheme…Adobe adds their own browser extension to your Chrome web browser.

You read that correctly.

When you go to Adobe.com, and choose to install the latest version of Adobe Reader, we already know you have to be very careful to UNcheck those checkboxes. Otherwise you’ll end up with stuff from McAfee and other companies installed on your computer. So you go through the whole process, and not a word is said about putting other things on your computer.

Of course, Adobe puts the useless “Adobe Reader” icon on the desktop, but that’s easily deleted right after the installation is done.

But watch what happens next time you open Chrome. Up in the top right corner of the Chrome web browser, you’ll see Chrome’s security pop up and alert you that a new browser extension has been added:

Remember, this is not Adobe telling you about the sneaky installation – it’s Chrome telling you. And they’re warning you that the extension is not only already added, but what the Adobe extension is able to do. This is unbelievable. For 99% of the population, the only reason we want Adobe Reader on our computer at all is to be able to open PDF files. Do you really want this program to be able to “Read and change all your data on the websites you visit”? Not a chance.

When you see this alert come up, all you have to do is click on “Remove from Chrome”. Just speaking for myself here, but I personally don’t need or want this extension. When you remove the extension from Chrome, Adobe Reader will still be on your computer, and you’ll still be able to click on PDF files and open and read them. We don’t need Adobe infiltrating Chrome to do those things.

And what if you already saw that warning come up, but you clicked “Enable extension”? No problem, you can still get rid of it. Open Chrome, and click the 3 little dots up in the top right corner. In that drop down menu, click on Settings, and in the new window click on Extensions (over on the left). Find the Adobe Reader extension in the list and trash it.

Always gotta stay one step ahead of these guys!

If you need computer repair in Safety Harbor, Florida or Palm Harbor (or any nearby location) just give me a call. I also do Remote Support repairs for clients all over the U.S. Happy to help if you need me.

The post Watch out for Adobe’s latest trick first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Adobe Reader extension warning — Watch out for Adobe’s latest trick Feb 13, 2017
For a while, Adobe has proven that they are a software company not worthy of our trust or respect. And recently they provided us with another reason to question their integrity. This applies mainly to people using the Chrome web browser.

For quite some time, Adobe has been trying to sneak unwanted software on to all of our computers. If you go to their website and install Adobe Flash, or Adobe Reader, partway through the installation process you have to be careful to UNcheck a couple of boxes that they have “conveniently” pre-checked for you. If you don’t notice that (as they are hoping you won’t) you’ll end up with extra junk software on your computer. Of course, they make money from that so it doesn’t really matter to them that you didn’t want those programs installed.

In addition to this, one of the ways you can keep your computer running fast is to make sure no programs are running in the background other than the ones that NEED to be running all the time (such as your antivirus, your online backup, etc.). When you check that list of auto-startup programs, you’ll see Adobe Reader in the list. No problem, just uncheck it so it doesn’t run all the time, right? That’s fine, until the next time it updates – then it goes right back on the list so it’s running in the background and slowing down your computer. Adobe doesn’t really care what you want.

And now their newest scheme…Adobe adds their own browser extension to your Chrome web browser.

You read that correctly.

When you go to Adobe.com, and choose to install the latest version of Adobe Reader, we already know you have to be very careful to UNcheck those checkboxes. Otherwise you’ll end up with stuff from McAfee and other companies installed on your computer. So you go through the whole process, and not a word is said about putting other things on your computer.

Of course, Adobe puts the useless “Adobe Reader” icon on the desktop, but that’s easily deleted right after the installation is done.

But watch what happens next time you open Chrome. Up in the top right corner of the Chrome web browser, you’ll see Chrome’s security pop up and alert you that a new browser extension has been added:

Remember, this is not Adobe telling you about the sneaky installation – it’s Chrome telling you. And they’re warning you that the extension is not only already added, but what the Adobe extension is able to do. This is unbelievable. For 99% of the population, the only reason we want Adobe Reader on our computer at all is to be able to open PDF files. Do you really want this program to be able to “Read and change all your data on the websites you visit”? Not a chance.

When you see this alert come up, all you have to do is click on “Remove from Chrome”. Just speaking for myself here, but I personally don’t need or want this extension. When you remove the extension from Chrome, Adobe Reader will still be on your computer, and you’ll still be able to click on PDF files and open and read them. We don’t need Adobe infiltrating Chrome to do those things.

And what if you already saw that warning come up, but you clicked “Enable extension”? No problem, you can still get rid of it. Open Chrome, and click the 3 little dots up in the top right corner. In that drop down menu, click on Settings, and in the new window click on Extensions (over on the left). Find the Adobe Reader extension in the list and trash it.

Always gotta stay one step ahead of these guys!

If you need computer repair in Safety Harbor, Florida or Palm Harbor (or any nearby location) just give me a call. I also do Remote Support repairs for clients all over the U.S. Happy to help if you need me.

The post Watch out for Adobe’s latest trick first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 problem — How to create a recovery drive for Windows 10 Feb 06, 2017
Recently I had a client with a Windows 10 computer that would power on, but it wouldn’t boot all the way into the Windows operating system. Sometimes Windows will run self-diagnosis and repair the problem and reboot. But what if you reboot, and it just keeps coming up to the same error screen? That’s when you need a Windows 10 recovery drive.

If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about with that bootup error screen, here’s what it might look like:

Of course, the one you might see may not look exactly like that. Especially the error code, since there are lots of different ones. But what this type of error message means is that without some type of repair, the computer won’t be able to boot into the Windows 10 operating system.

Unless… unless you have a Windows 10 recovery drive.

Here’s the catch – if you see that error screen and you haven’t created your recovery drive, it’s too late to create one using this computer (though you could go to a different Windows 10 computer and create one). So the best time to create one of these is right now, while your Windows 10 computer is booting up and working properly.

You only need two things to create this recovery drive – your working Windows 10 computer, and a flash drive. One of these:

A 16 gb flash drive should be plenty big enough (here’s a 16gb flash drive on Amazon). Even 8 gb would probably be okay. That is, unless you’re going to back up the system files from your computer to the flash drive (that might sound complicated but it’s just a matter of checking a box – you’ll see in the process below). If you want to do that, you should probably get a 32 gb flash drive (here’s a 32gb flash drive on Amazon).

Keep in mind, you may not be creating this recovery drive with plans to use it yourself. You might not know how to get your computer to boot up to a flash drive, and you might not know how to use it once it is booted up. That doesn’t matter – even if you see that error code and have your computer tech come over to fix it, it will be a help to him if you have this recovery drive already created. Or if you have everyone over to your house for Thanksgiving dinner and your computer gives this error message, there’s a chance that one of your family members might know enough about computers to use this recovery drive and solve the problem.

Here’s how to create the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

1. Insert your flash drive into a USB port, and once it is recognized, note what drive letter gets assigned to it (such as drive E, drive F, etc.).

2. In the search field (lower left area of the screen), type: recovery drive. It will come up in the search results:

3. Now you’ll see the window where you’ll actually start the process to create the recovery drive. Either check the box or don’t check it, and click Next.

(If you don’t choose to back up the system files to the recovery drive, that’s fine. Without the system files, you can still repair Windows with this recovery drive. The advantage of having the system files copied to the recovery drive is that you can then actually reinstall Windows from that flash drive if you ever needed to. As I mentioned earlier, if you opt for that, it will take more space on the flash drive so you’ll need a bigger one. If the one you have isn’t big enough, you’ll get an alert about that.)

4. Now you wait for a few seconds while your computer looks for your flash drive

5. Now it finds the flash drive (and maybe some other drives you might have connected). Choose the flash drive and make sure there’s nothing important on there, because whatever is on there will be wiped out when the recovery drive creation process kicks in. Then click Next.

6. You’ll get another warning about all of the files on the flash drive being deleted, then click Create:

7. You’ll see the progress bar as the Recovery Drive is created on your flash drive:

This will take several minutes. Go walk your dog, or just walk yourself to take a break from the computer for a bit. Might take maybe 15 minutes (just a rough guess). When you come back, you’ll see that it’s all done:

Now just label that drive as “Windows 10 recovery drive” and keep it in a safe place, where you can access it easily. But hopefully you’ll never need it!

The post How to create a recovery drive for Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 boot error — How to create a recovery drive for Windows 10 Feb 06, 2017
Recently I had a client with a Windows 10 computer that would power on, but it wouldn’t boot all the way into the Windows operating system. Sometimes Windows will run self-diagnosis and repair the problem and reboot. But what if you reboot, and it just keeps coming up to the same error screen? That’s when you need a Windows 10 recovery drive.

If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about with that bootup error screen, here’s what it might look like:

Of course, the one you might see may not look exactly like that. Especially the error code, since there are lots of different ones. But what this type of error message means is that without some type of repair, the computer won’t be able to boot into the Windows 10 operating system.

Unless… unless you have a Windows 10 recovery drive.

Here’s the catch – if you see that error screen and you haven’t created your recovery drive, it’s too late to create one using this computer (though you could go to a different Windows 10 computer and create one). So the best time to create one of these is right now, while your Windows 10 computer is booting up and working properly.

You only need two things to create this recovery drive – your working Windows 10 computer, and a flash drive. One of these:

A 16 gb flash drive should be plenty big enough (here’s a 16gb flash drive on Amazon). Even 8 gb would probably be okay. That is, unless you’re going to back up the system files from your computer to the flash drive (that might sound complicated but it’s just a matter of checking a box – you’ll see in the process below). If you want to do that, you should probably get a 32 gb flash drive (here’s a 32gb flash drive on Amazon).

Keep in mind, you may not be creating this recovery drive with plans to use it yourself. You might not know how to get your computer to boot up to a flash drive, and you might not know how to use it once it is booted up. That doesn’t matter – even if you see that error code and have your computer tech come over to fix it, it will be a help to him if you have this recovery drive already created. Or if you have everyone over to your house for Thanksgiving dinner and your computer gives this error message, there’s a chance that one of your family members might know enough about computers to use this recovery drive and solve the problem.

Here’s how to create the Windows 10 Recovery Drive

1. Insert your flash drive into a USB port, and once it is recognized, note what drive letter gets assigned to it (such as drive E, drive F, etc.).

2. In the search field (lower left area of the screen), type: recovery drive. It will come up in the search results:

3. Now you’ll see the window where you’ll actually start the process to create the recovery drive. Either check the box or don’t check it, and click Next.

(If you don’t choose to back up the system files to the recovery drive, that’s fine. Without the system files, you can still repair Windows with this recovery drive. The advantage of having the system files copied to the recovery drive is that you can then actually reinstall Windows from that flash drive if you ever needed to. As I mentioned earlier, if you opt for that, it will take more space on the flash drive so you’ll need a bigger one. If the one you have isn’t big enough, you’ll get an alert about that.)

4. Now you wait for a few seconds while your computer looks for your flash drive

5. Now it finds the flash drive (and maybe some other drives you might have connected). Choose the flash drive and make sure there’s nothing important on there, because whatever is on there will be wiped out when the recovery drive creation process kicks in. Then click Next.

6. You’ll get another warning about all of the files on the flash drive being deleted, then click Create:

7. You’ll see the progress bar as the Recovery Drive is created on your flash drive:

This will take several minutes. Go walk your dog, or just walk yourself to take a break from the computer for a bit. Might take maybe 15 minutes (just a rough guess). When you come back, you’ll see that it’s all done:

Now just label that drive as “Windows 10 recovery drive” and keep it in a safe place, where you can access it easily. But hopefully you’ll never need it!

The post How to create a recovery drive for Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google calendar — How to stop Gmail from adding events to your Google calendar Jan 30, 2017
I use my Google calendar for just about everything that goes on in my life. This includes all of my onsite computer repair appointments here in Safety Harbor of course, but also birthday and anniversary reminders, dentist appointments, online webinars, etc. So I don’t like it when I get an email to remind me of an appointment, and it automatically ADDS that appointment to my Google calendar. Here’s how to disable that from happening.

Here’s what usually happens.

I’ll go to the dentist for the 6-month checkup, and before I leave, we set an appointment for the next visit. So I enter that in my Google calendar on that date 6 months into the future. That way I won’t accidentally book anything else into that time.

Then, 5 months and 3 weeks later, my dentist office sends me an email to remind me of that appointment. And just to double check, I go to my Google calendar and look, and in that time slot I now have TWO appointments booked for the dentist at that date and time. One is the appointment I entered 6 months previously, and the other one was just put there by that email that came in. So I have to delete one of them.

The same thing happens when I sign up to attend an online webinar. I’ll put it on my calendar so I don’t forget, but inevitably the webinar system automatically sends out a reminder to everyone that registered. So I end up with two entries for that one event again.

I just want these “convenient” reminder emails to leave my calendar alone! Fortunately there’s an easy solution.

You can just disable Gmail from being able to add those events to your calendar automatically. Here’s how:

1. In your Google Calendar, click on the Settings gear icon in the top right corner, and click on “Settings” in the drop down menu:

2. Scroll down until you see “Events from Gmail”, and UNcheck the box next to “Add automatically”:

3. You’ll get this little warning pop-up, so you should obviously click on “Continue”:

4. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Save.

All done! Now the only entries you’ll find in your Google Calendar are ones that you deliberately created yourself.

The post How to stop Gmail from adding events to your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Calendar — How to stop Gmail from adding events to your Google calendar Jan 30, 2017
I use my Google calendar for just about everything that goes on in my life. This includes all of my onsite computer repair appointments here in Safety Harbor of course, but also birthday and anniversary reminders, dentist appointments, online webinars, etc. So I don’t like it when I get an email to remind me of an appointment, and it automatically ADDS that appointment to my Google calendar. Here’s how to disable that from happening.

Here’s what usually happens.

I’ll go to the dentist for the 6-month checkup, and before I leave, we set an appointment for the next visit. So I enter that in my Google calendar on that date 6 months into the future. That way I won’t accidentally book anything else into that time.

Then, 5 months and 3 weeks later, my dentist office sends me an email to remind me of that appointment. And just to double check, I go to my Google calendar and look, and in that time slot I now have TWO appointments booked for the dentist at that date and time. One is the appointment I entered 6 months previously, and the other one was just put there by that email that came in. So I have to delete one of them.

The same thing happens when I sign up to attend an online webinar. I’ll put it on my calendar so I don’t forget, but inevitably the webinar system automatically sends out a reminder to everyone that registered. So I end up with two entries for that one event again.

I just want these “convenient” reminder emails to leave my calendar alone! Fortunately there’s an easy solution.

You can just disable Gmail from being able to add those events to your calendar automatically. Here’s how:

1. In your Google Calendar, click on the Settings gear icon in the top right corner, and click on “Settings” in the drop down menu:

2. Scroll down until you see “Events from Gmail”, and UNcheck the box next to “Add automatically”:

3. You’ll get this little warning pop-up, so you should obviously click on “Continue”:

4. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Save.

All done! Now the only entries you’ll find in your Google Calendar are ones that you deliberately created yourself.

The post How to stop Gmail from adding events to your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Crystal Disk Info — How to check your computer’s hard drive for failure Jan 23, 2017
Did you know there’s a free program you can run, and it will check your computer’s hard drive to see if it’s showing any signs of failure?

Disclaimer: This software is not foolproof, it’s just one of the best at detecting signs of hard drive failure.

The program I’m referring to is called Crystal Disk Info. It’s actually the hard disk checking program that many computer techs use, especially when the test is being done remotely. You can check the website here. The download you want is the Standard Edition (3.8 MB).

It’s super simple to run this software and do this test. In fact, when you run the software, you are actually doing the test so the first thing you’ll see is the test result, telling you if your hard drive has any issues. It looks like this:

The “health status” indicator is the primary thing you want to look at. There are 3 main possible statuses:

You can probably guess that the one you really want to see is “Good”. If that’s the case, you’re all set and you can just close the program. If you don’t have a backup, get one. Your hard drive can go from good to bad very quickly.

If you see “Caution”, this means that your hard drive is showing early signs of failure. I always see this as a friendly warning or alert. If you have important files or folders on this computer, you should make sure they are backed up. Then you should plan on at least replacing the hard drive. Depending on the age and condition of the rest of the computer, it might make sense to just replace the whole computer. There are several factors to consider in this decision (I can help with that).

If you see “Bad” that means that the hard drive is on its last legs and could finally crash at any time. If you are able to get a backup from a drive such as this, consider yourself lucky and go ahead and save whatever files you can. Then, make the decision to replace the drive.

When you install Crystal Disk Info, at the end it gives you the option to create a desktop icon. I recommend doing that so that you notice it sometimes. When you think of it, just click to run the program and do a quick check on the hard drive. Can’t hurt to do it once a week, but you could even do it every day if you wanted to. Just don’t assume that you’ll have time to do a backup AFTER you find out the drive is failing – because sometimes there is no warning.

The post How to check your computer’s hard drive for failure first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Crystal Disk Info — How to check your computer’s hard drive for failure Jan 23, 2017
Did you know there’s a free program you can run, and it will check your computer’s hard drive to see if it’s showing any signs of failure?

Disclaimer: This software is not foolproof, it’s just one of the best at detecting signs of hard drive failure.

The program I’m referring to is called Crystal Disk Info. It’s actually the hard disk checking program that many computer techs use, especially when the test is being done remotely. You can check the website here. The download you want is the Standard Edition (3.8 MB).

It’s super simple to run this software and do this test. In fact, when you run the software, you are actually doing the test so the first thing you’ll see is the test result, telling you if your hard drive has any issues. It looks like this:

The “health status” indicator is the primary thing you want to look at. There are 3 main possible statuses:

You can probably guess that the one you really want to see is “Good”. If that’s the case, you’re all set and you can just close the program. If you don’t have a backup, get one. Your hard drive can go from good to bad very quickly.

If you see “Caution”, this means that your hard drive is showing early signs of failure. I always see this as a friendly warning or alert. If you have important files or folders on this computer, you should make sure they are backed up. Then you should plan on at least replacing the hard drive. Depending on the age and condition of the rest of the computer, it might make sense to just replace the whole computer. There are several factors to consider in this decision (I can help with that).

If you see “Bad” that means that the hard drive is on its last legs and could finally crash at any time. If you are able to get a backup from a drive such as this, consider yourself lucky and go ahead and save whatever files you can. Then, make the decision to replace the drive.

When you install Crystal Disk Info, at the end it gives you the option to create a desktop icon. I recommend doing that so that you notice it sometimes. When you think of it, just click to run the program and do a quick check on the hard drive. Can’t hurt to do it once a week, but you could even do it every day if you wanted to. Just don’t assume that you’ll have time to do a backup AFTER you find out the drive is failing – because sometimes there is no warning.

The post How to check your computer’s hard drive for failure first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Moon landing — Things that seem right but are really wrong Jan 16, 2017
Sometimes there are things that on the surface seem to be true, but when you dig a little deeper you find out they aren’t true at all. Or, there might be something that you know in your head is false, but your mind still thinks about a different way. For example – what’s the moon made of? Obviously you know it’s not made of green cheese, but for most people that’s the first answer that pops in your head.

In the world of computers, there are things like that as well. Here are a few.

Myth: “I can’t have a virus. I have an antivirus program!”
The facts: Unfortunately, no antivirus is 100% effective. There are a few reasons for this.

First, there are new viruses every single day. The best antiviruses do update their list of known viruses (also called “definitions”) multiple times each day, but there is always that chance that a brand new one will slip through.

The other big reason is that even the best antivirus can’t completely protect against bad behavior by the computer user. If you deliberately open every email attachment, search Google for “free games” and click on every link, and allow strangers (scammers) to access your computer remotely, you’re very likely to have virus or malware problems. It’s kind of like if you bought the best, most expensive tires for your car – if you drive through a pile of nails, you’ll still get a flat tire.

Myth: It’s good to move files from the computer to an external drive to save space
The facts: There are a couple of problems with this idea.

First, if you’re trying to save space, my first response would be, “Why move those files somewhere else? Why not just delete them?” If you delete them, you are definitely achieving the goal of saving space. But your response might be “But they are things I want to keep.” If that’s the case, then they should be backed up. And if you simply move them from your computer to an external hard drive, they’re still only going to exist in one place – which means you don’t have a backup. If you don’t want to lose them, you have to back them up. This means your important stuff is on your computer AND stored somewhere else as well.

Second, for most people, deleting the whole Documents folder contents on the computer wouldn’t really free up much space. Word documents, text documents, PDF files – they just aren’t that big (usually). Even pictures, unless you have thousands of high-resolution images, won’t free up enough space on your hard drive to make a difference. If you’re running out of space, you need a bigger hard drive or a new computer.

Myth: No one would ever guess my password
The facts: Yes they would.

Sometimes people will tell me that their password includes random things such as a city they lived in as a child combined with the name of their cousin’s cat. From a simple human perspective this seems like it would be foolproof, because another person would never guess the combination of those two words. But a guy that’s trying to get your password isn’t just sitting at a desk somewhere trying to come up with these things. They do it with very powerful software.

A computer can try hundreds or thousands of combinations of words and numbers every minute, around the clock, without ever needing to take a break or sleep or eat. This strategy is called a “dictionary attack” because it can try every word in the dictionary in a very short amount of time. In most cases, the hacker’s work is easy since so many people use very simple passwords (like “password” or “123456” or “monkey”). And they use the same 1 or 2 passwords for all of their accounts.

You need to be smarter than that. If your password is easy to remember, it’s easy for a computer to figure it out.

Myth: I plug in my portable drive, so I must have a backup.
The facts: Unless you can view the contents on that portable drive and see all your stuff there, you cannot assume you have a backup.

When you buy a portable drive, most likely it will already have some software on it that’s ready to be installed on your computer when you plug it in. This software is supposed to automatically run and back up your data every time you connect the drive to your computer. I recommend that you DON’T use that software as your backup program.

When I talk to someone who is using that drive manufacturer’s backup software, I ask them:

Is the backup working?

What files are being backed up?

Does it backup just your files, or does it backup your programs also?

What do you do when your hard drive crashes and you have to restore from the backup?

Every time I ask those questions, the answer is either “I don’t know” or “I hope it’s working…”. Not good! A backup is supposed to give you peace of mind, but how is that possible when you don’t know what it’s doing or if it’s even working?

So when I set up a backup to a new portable drive, the first thing I do is get rid of everything on that drive. Start fresh, clean slate. Then I install the Macrium Reflect program because I use it every single day and I know what it does and how reliable it is. It’s the software I recommend for regular system image backups.

I recently did a data recovery for a client here in Safety Harbor, because she THOUGHT she had a backup when she really didn’t. Fortunately I was able to recover all of the files for her, but it doesn’t turn out that way every time. Don’t take a chance with your important stuff!

The post Things that seem right but are really wrong first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Things that seem right but are really wrong Jan 16, 2017
Sometimes there are things that on the surface seem to be true, but when you dig a little deeper you find out they aren’t true at all. Or, there might be something that you know in your head is false, but your mind still thinks about a different way. For example – what’s the moon made of? Obviously you know it’s not made of green cheese, but for most people that’s the first answer that pops in your head.

In the world of computers, there are things like that as well. Here are a few.

Myth: “I can’t have a virus. I have an antivirus program!”
The facts: Unfortunately, no antivirus is 100% effective. There are a few reasons for this.

First, there are new viruses every single day. The best antiviruses do update their list of known viruses (also called “definitions”) multiple times each day, but there is always that chance that a brand new one will slip through.

The other big reason is that even the best antivirus can’t completely protect against bad behavior by the computer user. If you deliberately open every email attachment, search Google for “free games” and click on every link, and allow strangers (scammers) to access your computer remotely, you’re very likely to have virus or malware problems. It’s kind of like if you bought the best, most expensive tires for your car – if you drive through a pile of nails, you’ll still get a flat tire.

Myth: It’s good to move files from the computer to an external drive to save space
The facts: There are a couple of problems with this idea.

First, if you’re trying to save space, my first response would be, “Why move those files somewhere else? Why not just delete them?” If you delete them, you are definitely achieving the goal of saving space. But your response might be “But they are things I want to keep.” If that’s the case, then they should be backed up. And if you simply move them from your computer to an external hard drive, they’re still only going to exist in one place – which means you don’t have a backup. If you don’t want to lose them, you have to back them up. This means your important stuff is on your computer AND stored somewhere else as well.

Second, for most people, deleting the whole Documents folder contents on the computer wouldn’t really free up much space. Word documents, text documents, PDF files – they just aren’t that big (usually). Even pictures, unless you have thousands of high-resolution images, won’t free up enough space on your hard drive to make a difference. If you’re running out of space, you need a bigger hard drive or a new computer.

Myth: No one would ever guess my password
The facts: Yes they would.

Sometimes people will tell me that their password includes random things such as a city they lived in as a child combined with the name of their cousin’s cat. From a simple human perspective this seems like it would be foolproof, because another person would never guess the combination of those two words. But a guy that’s trying to get your password isn’t just sitting at a desk somewhere trying to come up with these things. They do it with very powerful software.

A computer can try hundreds or thousands of combinations of words and numbers every minute, around the clock, without ever needing to take a break or sleep or eat. This strategy is called a “dictionary attack” because it can try every word in the dictionary in a very short amount of time. In most cases, the hacker’s work is easy since so many people use very simple passwords (like “password” or “123456” or “monkey”). And they use the same 1 or 2 passwords for all of their accounts.

You need to be smarter than that. If your password is easy to remember, it’s easy for a computer to figure it out.

Myth: I plug in my portable drive, so I must have a backup.
The facts: Unless you can view the contents on that portable drive and see all your stuff there, you cannot assume you have a backup.

When you buy a portable drive, most likely it will already have some software on it that’s ready to be installed on your computer when you plug it in. This software is supposed to automatically run and back up your data every time you connect the drive to your computer. I recommend that you DON’T use that software as your backup program.

When I talk to someone who is using that drive manufacturer’s backup software, I ask them:

Is the backup working?

What files are being backed up?

Does it backup just your files, or does it backup your programs also?

What do you do when your hard drive crashes and you have to restore from the backup?

Every time I ask those questions, the answer is either “I don’t know” or “I hope it’s working…”. Not good! A backup is supposed to give you peace of mind, but how is that possible when you don’t know what it’s doing or if it’s even working?

So when I set up a backup to a new portable drive, the first thing I do is get rid of everything on that drive. Start fresh, clean slate. Then I install the Macrium Reflect program because I use it every single day and I know what it does and how reliable it is. It’s the software I recommend for regular system image backups.

I recently did a data recovery for a client here in Safety Harbor, because she THOUGHT she had a backup when she really didn’t. Fortunately I was able to recover all of the files for her, but it doesn’t turn out that way every time. Don’t take a chance with your important stuff!

The post Things that seem right but are really wrong first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows Live Mail — Using Windows Live Mail? It’s now dead – time to switch Jan 09, 2017
If you’re still using Windows Live Mail as your email program, you need to be aware that Microsoft support for this program ends on January 10, 2017. This means that there will be no more security updates – so when security problems are discovered, they won’t be patched. Translation: it’s time to go to an alternative.

You know the email program that lots of people really loved? Outlook Express. It was easy to use, didn’t have a lot of confusing bells and whistles, and millions of people used it. Unfortunately, it ended with Windows XP. But Microsoft offered a replacement, which was Windows Live Mail. It worked pretty similarly to Outlook Express so a lot of people made that switch.

Windows Live Mail is actually just one component of a group of programs that Microsoft called Windows Essentials. Those programs are:

Windows Live Mail

Movie Maker

Photo Gallery

OneDrive

Family Safety

Live Writer

So after January 10, 2017 you won’t be able to download those from Microsoft and install them on your computer (though there are other ways to get them if you really need one or more of them).

That may not be important to you, if you already have Windows Live Mail installed (so you don’t need to download it again anyway). But what IS important is the fact that Microsoft will no longer be supporting it from a security standpoint. New security holes are discovered pretty regularly in all software, particularly programs that are in such wide use around the world as Windows Live Mail. But now, instead of patching those security problems, they will just be left unfixed – and ripe picking for hackers to exploit. That’s not good in any software, but it’s especially dangerous in an email program.

So if you have to stop using Windows Live Mail, what are your options? Well, there are a few.

First, you could switch to a web-based email such as Gmail. Or even Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail/MSN/Live). On any web-based email service, you can log in to your account from any computer in the world and get your emails, see your contacts list, and of course send and receive messages. Web-based email has become extremely common since people see how easy it is, and the fact that it doesn’t require a special “email program” (such as Live Mail) to be installed.

Second, If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, both of those come with a “Mail” application that’s built in to the operating system. Frankly, I have not used that Mail app for either Windows 8 or 10, so I really can’t say anything good or bad from personal experience. I’ve heard from some reliable sources that both are pretty good, and other people have told me they’re awful. But at least it’s an option, if you really need an email program.

Third, if you have Office 365 (or an earlier “Business” version of Office), you might consider using Microsoft Outlook. I’ve been using Outlook for years and I like it. You should keep in mind that Outlook has LOTS of features that you will probably never use. It’s designed so that the busiest professional person can use it for a thorough contact list, email communication, and a full-featured calendar system. But you don’t have to use all that it offers if you don’t want to. Just set up your folders, keep your address book, and send and receive emails. In that way, it works fairly similarly to Windows Live Mail, so the learning curve isn’t too steep.

And finally, you could just go out and get one of the third-party email programs that are free to download and use. Probably the most popular one in this group is Thunderbird (created by Mozilla, the same people that give us Firefox). I have a few clients that use Thunderbird, but personally I’ve never really been a big fan of it. Can’t really say anything specific against it, just that I didn’t find it to be very intuitive when setting up an email account. But you might like it, who knows.

So those are your options. One thing to note – Windows Live Mail isn’t just going to stop working on January 10. You will still be able to send and receive emails just like you already do. But as more time goes by, it will become less and less safe to use. So don’t procrastinate in finding another solution.

I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida and I’ve been in the computer repair business since 1999. I also work with clients all over the country (through remote access) so wherever you are, I can probably help!

The post Using Windows Live Mail? It’s now dead – time to switch first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Using Windows Live Mail? It’s now dead – time to switch Jan 09, 2017
If you’re still using Windows Live Mail as your email program, you need to be aware that Microsoft support for this program ends on January 10, 2017. This means that there will be no more security updates – so when security problems are discovered, they won’t be patched. Translation: it’s time to go to an alternative.

You know the email program that lots of people really loved? Outlook Express. It was easy to use, didn’t have a lot of confusing bells and whistles, and millions of people used it. Unfortunately, it ended with Windows XP. But Microsoft offered a replacement, which was Windows Live Mail. It worked pretty similarly to Outlook Express so a lot of people made that switch.

Windows Live Mail is actually just one component of a group of programs that Microsoft called Windows Essentials. Those programs are:

Windows Live Mail

Movie Maker

Photo Gallery

OneDrive

Family Safety

Live Writer

So after January 10, 2017 you won’t be able to download those from Microsoft and install them on your computer (though there are other ways to get them if you really need one or more of them).

That may not be important to you, if you already have Windows Live Mail installed (so you don’t need to download it again anyway). But what IS important is the fact that Microsoft will no longer be supporting it from a security standpoint. New security holes are discovered pretty regularly in all software, particularly programs that are in such wide use around the world as Windows Live Mail. But now, instead of patching those security problems, they will just be left unfixed – and ripe picking for hackers to exploit. That’s not good in any software, but it’s especially dangerous in an email program.

So if you have to stop using Windows Live Mail, what are your options? Well, there are a few.

First, you could switch to a web-based email such as Gmail. Or even Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail/MSN/Live). On any web-based email service, you can log in to your account from any computer in the world and get your emails, see your contacts list, and of course send and receive messages. Web-based email has become extremely common since people see how easy it is, and the fact that it doesn’t require a special “email program” (such as Live Mail) to be installed.

Second, If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, both of those come with a “Mail” application that’s built in to the operating system. Frankly, I have not used that Mail app for either Windows 8 or 10, so I really can’t say anything good or bad from personal experience. I’ve heard from some reliable sources that both are pretty good, and other people have told me they’re awful. But at least it’s an option, if you really need an email program.

Third, if you have Office 365 (or an earlier “Business” version of Office), you might consider using Microsoft Outlook. I’ve been using Outlook for years and I like it. You should keep in mind that Outlook has LOTS of features that you will probably never use. It’s designed so that the busiest professional person can use it for a thorough contact list, email communication, and a full-featured calendar system. But you don’t have to use all that it offers if you don’t want to. Just set up your folders, keep your address book, and send and receive emails. In that way, it works fairly similarly to Windows Live Mail, so the learning curve isn’t too steep.

And finally, you could just go out and get one of the third-party email programs that are free to download and use. Probably the most popular one in this group is Thunderbird (created by Mozilla, the same people that give us Firefox). I have a few clients that use Thunderbird, but personally I’ve never really been a big fan of it. Can’t really say anything specific against it, just that I didn’t find it to be very intuitive when setting up an email account. But you might like it, who knows.

So those are your options. One thing to note – Windows Live Mail isn’t just going to stop working on January 10. You will still be able to send and receive emails just like you already do. But as more time goes by, it will become less and less safe to use. So don’t procrastinate in finding another solution.

I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida and I’ve been in the computer repair business since 1999. I also work with clients all over the country (through remote access) so wherever you are, I can probably help!

The post Using Windows Live Mail? It’s now dead – time to switch first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Paste Options box — What does the Paste Options box do in MS Word? Jan 02, 2017
I use the Copy – Paste process every day, and you probably do as well. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward – you choose a word or section of text and copy it from one location, then you go to another location and paste it. But when you’re pasting into a Word document, there’s another thing that comes up – the “Paste Options” box. What is that thing?

You’ve probably seen this thing, even if you don’t know it by that specific name.

Let’s say you get something in an email, like an address of a person, and you want to copy it from the email and paste it into a Word document. When you right-click in Word to paste it, you get something like this:

How do you know which one you want?

The first step is to just move your mouse over each of the little clipboards. When you do that, you’ll see the name of each of those options:

So now you know what your 4 options are – but what do those titles mean?

Use Destination Theme: This means that the text you are copying will take on the theme that is already being used in the Word document.

Keep Source Formatting: This means that whatever formatting was in the original (in this case, the email), that formatting will be brought over with the text that is being copied.

Merge Formatting: This means that the text being copied will not necessarily take on the look of the entire Word theme, but that it will take on the formatting style of the text that surrounds it (if any).

Keep Text Only: This removes all of the formatting, and just brings over the content in plain text format.

The best way to really see how this works and what those options mean in practical, daily use is to practice. Copy and paste and try out every one of those.

Also, keep in mind that those four options that I listed are not the only four options you’ll ever get when you do a Copy – Paste into a Word document. Microsoft goes into more detail on all of the options you might see, here.

But what if you just don’t want to see the Paste Options box at all?

It’s easy to get rid of the Paste Options box. In Word, click File – Options – Advanced and go to the “Cut, copy and paste” section. Find the box next to “Show Paste Options” and just uncheck it.

If you need help with your computer on this subject or anything related, I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida and all around the country via Remote Support. Just give me a call.

The post What does the Paste Options box do in MS Word? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

paste options box — What does the Paste Options box do in MS Word? Jan 02, 2017
I use the Copy – Paste process every day, and you probably do as well. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward – you choose a word or section of text and copy it from one location, then you go to another location and paste it. But when you’re pasting into a Word document, there’s another thing that comes up – the “Paste Options” box. What is that thing?

You’ve probably seen this thing, even if you don’t know it by that specific name.

Let’s say you get something in an email, like an address of a person, and you want to copy it from the email and paste it into a Word document. When you right-click in Word to paste it, you get something like this:

How do you know which one you want?

The first step is to just move your mouse over each of the little clipboards. When you do that, you’ll see the name of each of those options:

So now you know what your 4 options are – but what do those titles mean?

Use Destination Theme: This means that the text you are copying will take on the theme that is already being used in the Word document.

Keep Source Formatting: This means that whatever formatting was in the original (in this case, the email), that formatting will be brought over with the text that is being copied.

Merge Formatting: This means that the text being copied will not necessarily take on the look of the entire Word theme, but that it will take on the formatting style of the text that surrounds it (if any).

Keep Text Only: This removes all of the formatting, and just brings over the content in plain text format.

The best way to really see how this works and what those options mean in practical, daily use is to practice. Copy and paste and try out every one of those.

Also, keep in mind that those four options that I listed are not the only four options you’ll ever get when you do a Copy – Paste into a Word document. Microsoft goes into more detail on all of the options you might see, here.

But what if you just don’t want to see the Paste Options box at all?

It’s easy to get rid of the Paste Options box. In Word, click File – Options – Advanced and go to the “Cut, copy and paste” section. Find the box next to “Show Paste Options” and just uncheck it.

If you need help with your computer on this subject or anything related, I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida and all around the country via Remote Support. Just give me a call.

The post What does the Paste Options box do in MS Word? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Yahoo email — Time to delete your Yahoo! account and all the data Dec 26, 2016
I created my first Yahoo email account back in the late 1990s, but I stopped actively using it when Gmail introduced their email service and I made that switch. So that Yahoo account is still there, just not being used.

I recently got an email from Yahoo that was pretty outrageous in light of recent events. That email started like this: “Dear Scott, We’re committed to your account security…“. If there’s any company that is unable to keep my account secure, it’s Yahoo.

A few months ago, I wrote about Yahoo’s revealing that they had been hacked by some other country’s government back in 2014. Over 500 million Yahoo users had their data potentially stolen. This included email addresses, passwords, and security questions. This was not revealed to their user base until 2016.

It has also been revealed that Yahoo built a software tool that allowed them to search through their users’ private email messages, at the request of some of our own US government agencies.

And now, most recently, Yahoo has admitted ANOTHER attack on their servers that resulted in the private information of more than ONE BILLION of their users being compromised.

So, dear Yahoo, I hope you’ll forgive me if I question how committed you really are to keeping my account secure.

In fact, at this point, I’ll be actually deleting my Yahoo account and all of the data contained in it – and I recommend you do the same. In the past, I’ve told my clients that if you want to switch email addresses you don’t really need to do anything with the old email account other than just don’t use it any more. But with Yahoo demonstrating time after time that they are incapable of keeping anything secure, we need to take it one step farther and just get rid of those accounts completely.

Important note: before you delete your Yahoo account, it’s a good idea to check and make sure you don’t need it any more. For example, on my Gmail account, I still had the Yahoo email as the alternative email address to use for account recovery (in case I forgot my password, for example). You need to check this and make sure you definitely don’t need to use this Yahoo account for anything whatsoever.

Another important note: when you abandon your Yahoo account, there is the possibility that someone else could come along and create their own account with that email address. Just something to be aware of.

And – when you delete your Yahoo account, you are also deleting your Flickr account.

With all that being said, here’s how to delete your Yahoo account:

1. Go to their termination page – https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user (you’ll have to sign in to your account)

2. Then you’ll see all of the warnings and disclaimers, so read that and then they’ll ask for your password once again:

3. And finally, you’ll need to enter the “prove you’re human” letters and click the “Terminate this account” button:

If the termination was successful, you’ll be taken to a confirmation screen that tells you the account is scheduled for deletion and you no longer have access to it. It actually doesn’t get deleted from Yahoo’s servers for about 90 days.

What if you want your data removed from Yahoo sooner than 90 days? In that case, go through your emails and folders and whatever information you want gone and delete it manually before you actually delete the account itself.

The post Time to delete your Yahoo! account and all the data first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

yahoo close account — Time to delete your Yahoo! account and all the data Dec 26, 2016
I created my first Yahoo email account back in the late 1990s, but I stopped actively using it when Gmail introduced their email service and I made that switch. So that Yahoo account is still there, just not being used.

I recently got an email from Yahoo that was pretty outrageous in light of recent events. That email started like this: “Dear Scott, We’re committed to your account security…“. If there’s any company that is unable to keep my account secure, it’s Yahoo.

A few months ago, I wrote about Yahoo’s revealing that they had been hacked by some other country’s government back in 2014. Over 500 million Yahoo users had their data potentially stolen. This included email addresses, passwords, and security questions. This was not revealed to their user base until 2016.

It has also been revealed that Yahoo built a software tool that allowed them to search through their users’ private email messages, at the request of some of our own US government agencies.

And now, most recently, Yahoo has admitted ANOTHER attack on their servers that resulted in the private information of more than ONE BILLION of their users being compromised.

So, dear Yahoo, I hope you’ll forgive me if I question how committed you really are to keeping my account secure.

In fact, at this point, I’ll be actually deleting my Yahoo account and all of the data contained in it – and I recommend you do the same. In the past, I’ve told my clients that if you want to switch email addresses you don’t really need to do anything with the old email account other than just don’t use it any more. But with Yahoo demonstrating time after time that they are incapable of keeping anything secure, we need to take it one step farther and just get rid of those accounts completely.

Important note: before you delete your Yahoo account, it’s a good idea to check and make sure you don’t need it any more. For example, on my Gmail account, I still had the Yahoo email as the alternative email address to use for account recovery (in case I forgot my password, for example). You need to check this and make sure you definitely don’t need to use this Yahoo account for anything whatsoever.

Another important note: when you abandon your Yahoo account, there is the possibility that someone else could come along and create their own account with that email address. Just something to be aware of.

And – when you delete your Yahoo account, you are also deleting your Flickr account.

With all that being said, here’s how to delete your Yahoo account:

1. Go to their termination page – https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user (you’ll have to sign in to your account)

2. Then you’ll see all of the warnings and disclaimers, so read that and then they’ll ask for your password once again:

3. And finally, you’ll need to enter the “prove you’re human” letters and click the “Terminate this account” button:

If the termination was successful, you’ll be taken to a confirmation screen that tells you the account is scheduled for deletion and you no longer have access to it. It actually doesn’t get deleted from Yahoo’s servers for about 90 days.

What if you want your data removed from Yahoo sooner than 90 days? In that case, go through your emails and folders and whatever information you want gone and delete it manually before you actually delete the account itself.

The post Time to delete your Yahoo! account and all the data first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 tip — How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 Dec 19, 2016
One of the changes Microsoft made with Windows 10 was how to create a shortcut to a file or a program and have that shortcut on the desktop screen.

A lot of people – myself included – weren’t too happy the first time we tried to make a shortcut to the desktop using Windows 10.

The “old” way, which was used for years with Windows XP and Windows 7, was to just find the file or the program in the “All Programs” list on the Start menu, do a right click and choose “Send to” then “Desktop – create shortcut”.

Try to do that with Windows 10, and you’ll see that you can still right click on a program name in the “All apps” list, but there is no more “Send to” option in the right-click menu. For a while in the beginning I just wrote it off as Microsoft taking away something handy for no good reason. I actually figured out a different (more complicated) way of putting shortcuts on the desktop – until I discovered the better and easier way to do it.

This is so simple it’s ridiculous:

Click the Start button and All Files, then find the program you want to make a shortcut for. Then, use your left mouse button and just drag it to the desktop area. Done!

You can do the same thing with any of the tiles that are in the Windows Start menu – just drag them to the desktop.

BUT – Microsoft actually has not completely done away with the old process. If you have a file in your Documents folder, or a picture in your Pictures folder, or any other type of file or sub-folder in one of those areas, you would use the old process for making a shortcut to it on your desktop. Just do a right-click, put the cursor over “Send to”, and in the menu that slides out, choose “Desktop – create shortcut”.

The post How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 Dec 19, 2016
One of the changes Microsoft made with Windows 10 was how to create a shortcut to a file or a program and have that shortcut on the desktop screen.

A lot of people – myself included – weren’t too happy the first time we tried to make a shortcut to the desktop using Windows 10.

The “old” way, which was used for years with Windows XP and Windows 7, was to just find the file or the program in the “All Programs” list on the Start menu, do a right click and choose “Send to” then “Desktop – create shortcut”.

Try to do that with Windows 10, and you’ll see that you can still right click on a program name in the “All apps” list, but there is no more “Send to” option in the right-click menu. For a while in the beginning I just wrote it off as Microsoft taking away something handy for no good reason. I actually figured out a different (more complicated) way of putting shortcuts on the desktop – until I discovered the better and easier way to do it.

This is so simple it’s ridiculous:

Click the Start button and All Files, then find the program you want to make a shortcut for. Then, use your left mouse button and just drag it to the desktop area. Done!

You can do the same thing with any of the tiles that are in the Windows Start menu – just drag them to the desktop.

BUT – Microsoft actually has not completely done away with the old process. If you have a file in your Documents folder, or a picture in your Pictures folder, or any other type of file or sub-folder in one of those areas, you would use the old process for making a shortcut to it on your desktop. Just do a right-click, put the cursor over “Send to”, and in the menu that slides out, choose “Desktop – create shortcut”.

The post How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google advanced search — How to get super-specific Google search results Dec 12, 2016
Today’s tip came about as a result of a question from a reader, Mike. He wrote:

“A topic for your podcast: How to limit search results. I use Google, Yahoo, and Duckduckgo for making searches. Today I happened to search for “episodic dvd ripper” and got many hits as old as 15 years back. Is there a way to limit searches to only posts from 2015 and newer? The older stuff is out of date, wrong, or misleading. Thanks.”

Yes, you can narrow down your searches based on lots of different criteria.

For Google searches, this is really easy. Just go to Google.com and before you type anything in the search field, look down in the bottom right corner of the screen and click on “Settings”:

Then, in the little menu that comes up, click on Advanced Search:

Here’s the fun part! You’re going to see a whole lot of options to filter or narrow down your search results:

The top section is where you specify filters for your actual search word or phrase.

The bottom section is to narrow down your search results to a specific language, geographical region, last update date and more. When you have the filters you want, click the Advanced Search button at the bottom and see what comes up.

For Yahoo, it doesn’t seem quite as easy or as thorough as that, but you can still narrow down your searches.

You need to go to search.Yahoo.com and just do a regular search. In this example I did a search on computer repair in Safety Harbor, Florida.

When you see the search results come up, look just under the search field and you’ll see that you can narrow down the results based on how recent they are:

This of course isn’t nearly as specific as you can be with Google, but it may be sufficient if you like using Yahoo for web searching (most people don’t).

And finally, DuckDuckGo. For anyone concerned about online privacy, DuckDuckGo.com is a great option because the searches are not tracked and your personal information is not stored anywhere.

This one is also not nearly as customizable as Google, but there are some options. At the main home page, look in the top right corner for the 3 horizontal lines. Click on that and choose “Settings” and you’ll see what your choices are:

These filters are more general and are mainly designed to apply to ALL searches, not specifically to a particular search.

I’m guessing there is probably some way for Yahoo and DuckDuckGo search results to be filtered more specifically than what I showed above, but if there is, they don’t make it very obvious.

So, if you really want to be exact in your search results, Google is your best choice. That could be why they currently have about 76% market share for searches, and the other search engines are just scrambling for the leftovers.

The post How to get super-specific Google search results first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Advanced Search — How to get super-specific Google search results Dec 12, 2016
Today’s tip came about as a result of a question from a reader, Mike. He wrote:

“A topic for your podcast: How to limit search results. I use Google, Yahoo, and Duckduckgo for making searches. Today I happened to search for “episodic dvd ripper” and got many hits as old as 15 years back. Is there a way to limit searches to only posts from 2015 and newer? The older stuff is out of date, wrong, or misleading. Thanks.”

Yes, you can narrow down your searches based on lots of different criteria.

For Google searches, this is really easy. Just go to Google.com and before you type anything in the search field, look down in the bottom right corner of the screen and click on “Settings”:

Then, in the little menu that comes up, click on Advanced Search:

Here’s the fun part! You’re going to see a whole lot of options to filter or narrow down your search results:

The top section is where you specify filters for your actual search word or phrase.

The bottom section is to narrow down your search results to a specific language, geographical region, last update date and more. When you have the filters you want, click the Advanced Search button at the bottom and see what comes up.

For Yahoo, it doesn’t seem quite as easy or as thorough as that, but you can still narrow down your searches.

You need to go to search.Yahoo.com and just do a regular search. In this example I did a search on computer repair in Safety Harbor, Florida.

When you see the search results come up, look just under the search field and you’ll see that you can narrow down the results based on how recent they are:

This of course isn’t nearly as specific as you can be with Google, but it may be sufficient if you like using Yahoo for web searching (most people don’t).

And finally, DuckDuckGo. For anyone concerned about online privacy, DuckDuckGo.com is a great option because the searches are not tracked and your personal information is not stored anywhere.

This one is also not nearly as customizable as Google, but there are some options. At the main home page, look in the top right corner for the 3 horizontal lines. Click on that and choose “Settings” and you’ll see what your choices are:

These filters are more general and are mainly designed to apply to ALL searches, not specifically to a particular search.

I’m guessing there is probably some way for Yahoo and DuckDuckGo search results to be filtered more specifically than what I showed above, but if there is, they don’t make it very obvious.

So, if you really want to be exact in your search results, Google is your best choice. That could be why they currently have about 76% market share for searches, and the other search engines are just scrambling for the leftovers.

The post How to get super-specific Google search results first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

send to menu — How to add “Desktop shortcut” back to your “Sendto” menu Dec 05, 2016
One of the most commonly-used processes on my computer is the ability to create a shortcut icon on the desktop. Just right-click on a a file and choose “Send to” and then “Desktop-create shortcut”. But sometimes that little “create shortcut” item can disappear from your “Send to” menu. Here’s how to get it back.

If there’s a particular program or file that you need access to all the time, the easiest and quickest way to get to it is if you have an icon for it on your desktop. But that icon should not be the actual file or folder – it should just be a shortcut to the file or folder.

So you just do a right click on the file name, then you put your mouse over “Send to” and in the menu that appears, you click on “Desktop – create shortcut”. And like magic, there is now an icon on your desktop for quick access to that program or file. This is something I do all the time, either for my own for computer or for a client, and it’s really handy.

But at some point when you try to do this, your computer might throw you a little curveball.

You put your mouse over “Send to” – but in the Send To menu, there is no option to create a shortcut on the desktop. It has just disappeared. The other items are listed there, but not that one.

What’s going on? Why is it gone? Where did it go? I wish I could tell you. I don’t see this happen all that often, and I don’t know what causes it to disappear. But I do know how to get it back.

If this happens to you, here’s how to add “desktop shortcut” back to your “Send to” menu:

1. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard, and tap the letter R to bring up the RUN dialog box.

2. In that box, type shell:sendto and hit Enter. This opens the “Send To” folder. In the computer’s file structure, that Send To menu is just that, a folder. Which means you can put things in it.

3. Somewhere in the blank area of that folder, do a RIGHT click and select New – Text document.

Now you’ll have a new text file there with the name New Text Document.txt.

4. Final step is to right click on that new text document, and choose Rename. Then you rename it to Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink

Note: on that rename process, you have to make sure you rename the entire file AND the “.txt” extension. You will probably get a warning that changing the extension of a file might make it work differently, etc. but that’s fine. So when you’re done, this file won’t end with “.txt” any more – it will just be “Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink”.

And that’s it. Try it out by creating a desktop shortcut to a program or file, and you’ll see that you have that great feature back again and available to be used.

The post How to add “Desktop shortcut” back to your “Sendto” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Run dialog box — How to add “Desktop shortcut” back to your “Sendto” menu Dec 05, 2016
One of the most commonly-used processes on my computer is the ability to create a shortcut icon on the desktop. Just right-click on a a file and choose “Send to” and then “Desktop-create shortcut”. But sometimes that little “create shortcut” item can disappear from your “Send to” menu. Here’s how to get it back.

If there’s a particular program or file that you need access to all the time, the easiest and quickest way to get to it is if you have an icon for it on your desktop. But that icon should not be the actual file or folder – it should just be a shortcut to the file or folder.

So you just do a right click on the file name, then you put your mouse over “Send to” and in the menu that appears, you click on “Desktop – create shortcut”. And like magic, there is now an icon on your desktop for quick access to that program or file. This is something I do all the time, either for my own for computer or for a client, and it’s really handy.

But at some point when you try to do this, your computer might throw you a little curveball.

You put your mouse over “Send to” – but in the Send To menu, there is no option to create a shortcut on the desktop. It has just disappeared. The other items are listed there, but not that one.

What’s going on? Why is it gone? Where did it go? I wish I could tell you. I don’t see this happen all that often, and I don’t know what causes it to disappear. But I do know how to get it back.

If this happens to you, here’s how to add “desktop shortcut” back to your “Send to” menu:

1. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard, and tap the letter R to bring up the RUN dialog box.

2. In that box, type shell:sendto and hit Enter. This opens the “Send To” folder. In the computer’s file structure, that Send To menu is just that, a folder. Which means you can put things in it.

3. Somewhere in the blank area of that folder, do a RIGHT click and select New – Text document.

Now you’ll have a new text file there with the name New Text Document.txt.

4. Final step is to right click on that new text document, and choose Rename. Then you rename it to Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink

Note: on that rename process, you have to make sure you rename the entire file AND the “.txt” extension. You will probably get a warning that changing the extension of a file might make it work differently, etc. but that’s fine. So when you’re done, this file won’t end with “.txt” any more – it will just be “Desktop (create shortcut).DeskLink”.

And that’s it. Try it out by creating a desktop shortcut to a program or file, and you’ll see that you have that great feature back again and available to be used.

The post How to add “Desktop shortcut” back to your “Sendto” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Use CHKDSK like a geek — Use CHKDSK like a geek to fix hard drive problems! Nov 28, 2016
Want to check your hard drive for problems and have your computer fix them? Today I’ll show you how to do this using a method that’s usually only used by technicians, because the typical computer user is not aware of it. Maybe you are a geek after all!

At my computer repair office here in Safety Harbor, Florida, I regularly have people that bring me their computer because it won’t boot up. Or it suddenly started running very slowly. Or it has lately been doing some very odd, random things. These things are often evidence of a hard drive that is failing (or has crashed completely).

If I test the drive and find that it is indeed failing, the repair for that situation is to just replace the hard drive. Hopefully the computer’s owner has a recent system image backup (a backup that saves EVERYTHING on the hard drive) so we can put all of the important documents, pictures, etc. on the replacement drive.

BUT – did you know that you can actually do regular maintenance on your computer’s hard drive, to help it last longer? It’s true. When you run this process, you are going to feel like a True Geek! And it’s surprisingly easy!

The process is known as CHKDSK, an abbreviated form of “Check Disk”, because that’s what it does – it checks your hard disk for problems, and fixes them.

Here’s how you use it (and this applies for Windows 7, 8 or 10):

First, click the Start button (the MS logo in the bottom left corner). For Windows 10, just click in the “Search” box in the bottom left. Then type these 3 letters: cmd

You’ll see the “Command Prompt” option come up at the top of the Start Menu:

Now do a RIGHT click on that Command Prompt menu item, and choose “Run as Administrator”:

You’ll need to click to approve that it should run as administrator, then you’ll see the Command Prompt window:

You can see that the cursor is flashing at the end of the line so you can just start typing. Here is what you need to type:

chkdsk c: /r

To clarify, that’s “chkdsk”, then a space, then “c:”, then another space, then “/r” (of course without the quotation marks).

This tells the computer to run the chkdsk, and the drive to run it on is drive C, and if it finds any errors, to repair them.

When you type that line and hit Enter, you’ll get a message that CHKDSK cannot run right now, but you can request that it runs the next time you restart the computer. Click Y for Yes, and hit enter.

Final step is to restart the computer, so do that now.

This will not be a normal computer restart. When the computer comes back up, before going into Windows, it will tell you that disk checking will run in X seconds unless you hit a key (any key) on your keyboard. If you do that, of course, it will skip the disk check and just boot into Windows. So in order to have the CHKDSK process run, just let it run.

If your computer’s drive does not have any errors, disk checking will be done pretty quickly (a few minutes or less). I’ve had some computers with lots of hard drive errors take several hours to run. If that happens, don’t be surprised if the percentage showing seems to be stuck at a certain level for quite some time. It’s just finding problems in a certain spot on the hard drive and fixing them, so it has to spend some time there. When it’s done, the computer will just continue and boot into Windows.

If you find that your computer does take a long time to run CHKDSK because it is fixing lots of problems, it might be an early sign that the hard drive is failing. That means you better make sure you have a good backup NOW. You should have a good backup anyway, but when your hard drive is trying to tell you it’s having problems, it’s that much more important to make sure your critical files and folders are safely stored somewhere else so you don’t lose anything.

The post Use CHKDSK like a geek to fix hard drive problems! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Command Prompt — Use CHKDSK like a geek to fix hard drive problems! Nov 28, 2016
Want to check your hard drive for problems and have your computer fix them? Today I’ll show you how to do this using a method that’s usually only used by technicians, because the typical computer user is not aware of it. Maybe you are a geek after all!

At my computer repair office here in Safety Harbor, Florida, I regularly have people that bring me their computer because it won’t boot up. Or it suddenly started running very slowly. Or it has lately been doing some very odd, random things. These things are often evidence of a hard drive that is failing (or has crashed completely).

If I test the drive and find that it is indeed failing, the repair for that situation is to just replace the hard drive. Hopefully the computer’s owner has a recent system image backup (a backup that saves EVERYTHING on the hard drive) so we can put all of the important documents, pictures, etc. on the replacement drive.

BUT – did you know that you can actually do regular maintenance on your computer’s hard drive, to help it last longer? It’s true. When you run this process, you are going to feel like a True Geek! And it’s surprisingly easy!

The process is known as CHKDSK, an abbreviated form of “Check Disk”, because that’s what it does – it checks your hard disk for problems, and fixes them.

Here’s how you use it (and this applies for Windows 7, 8 or 10):

First, click the Start button (the MS logo in the bottom left corner). For Windows 10, just click in the “Search” box in the bottom left. Then type these 3 letters: cmd

You’ll see the “Command Prompt” option come up at the top of the Start Menu:

Now do a RIGHT click on that Command Prompt menu item, and choose “Run as Administrator”:

You’ll need to click to approve that it should run as administrator, then you’ll see the Command Prompt window:

You can see that the cursor is flashing at the end of the line so you can just start typing. Here is what you need to type:

chkdsk c: /r

To clarify, that’s “chkdsk”, then a space, then “c:”, then another space, then “/r” (of course without the quotation marks).

This tells the computer to run the chkdsk, and the drive to run it on is drive C, and if it finds any errors, to repair them.

When you type that line and hit Enter, you’ll get a message that CHKDSK cannot run right now, but you can request that it runs the next time you restart the computer. Click Y for Yes, and hit enter.

Final step is to restart the computer, so do that now.

This will not be a normal computer restart. When the computer comes back up, before going into Windows, it will tell you that disk checking will run in X seconds unless you hit a key (any key) on your keyboard. If you do that, of course, it will skip the disk check and just boot into Windows. So in order to have the CHKDSK process run, just let it run.

If your computer’s drive does not have any errors, disk checking will be done pretty quickly (a few minutes or less). I’ve had some computers with lots of hard drive errors take several hours to run. If that happens, don’t be surprised if the percentage showing seems to be stuck at a certain level for quite some time. It’s just finding problems in a certain spot on the hard drive and fixing them, so it has to spend some time there. When it’s done, the computer will just continue and boot into Windows.

If you find that your computer does take a long time to run CHKDSK because it is fixing lots of problems, it might be an early sign that the hard drive is failing. That means you better make sure you have a good backup NOW. You should have a good backup anyway, but when your hard drive is trying to tell you it’s having problems, it’s that much more important to make sure your critical files and folders are safely stored somewhere else so you don’t lose anything.

The post Use CHKDSK like a geek to fix hard drive problems! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

web of trust claims 140 million users — Web of Trust – no longer worthy of your trust Nov 21, 2016
Millions of people use the service called “Web of Trust”. It’s a crowdsourced process that is supposed to tell you if a website you’re about to click on is trustworthy or malicious, based on the input of the other Web of Trust users. Recently, information has been uncovered about Web of Trust that indicates this service itself is not to be trusted.

I tried Web of Trust a while ago but stopped using it after a short time. However, I know a lot of people do use it.

The theory behind it is good. It’s based on a large group of people, pooling their information. If you visit a website and find that it pops up a fake virus alert, or tries to sneak software on to your computer, you can give it a negative rating in the Web of Trust browser extension database. Presumably, lots of other people are doing the same thing with websites they visit.

So when you do a Google search and you see all the search results listed there waiting for you to click on them, each one of them has the little Web of Trust indicator right next to it, telling you if other users have determined it’s safe to click through, or a site that should be avoided.

As I mentioned, this is a great idea in theory. The problem comes up when there are humans involved, and they get tempted by cash. It appears that this is what has happened with WOT.

Web of Trust claims that their browser extension has been downloaded by over 140 million users:

When a database is that large, it is very attractive to companies that want to target those users with advertising. Web of Trust was clear up front that some information about users was collected, but that it was collected anonymously. That information included geographic location, websites visited, computer operating system, IP address and other details.

But it turns out that linking that data to individual users of the WOT service was very simple to do. This means Web of Trust users could have a lot of private information divulged about them, including:

confidential information about work

future travel plans

medical history

sexual preference

use of drugs

criminal investigations

mailing address

Not good! Think about how valuable it would be to have that kind of specific information for 140 million people. From what we can tell, WOT could not just keep it to themselves. They sold this information (which could then be connected to specific individuals) to third parties.

When confronted with this, Web of Trust responded with a statement that really didn’t do much. The statement said they are taking the following steps:

Reviewing our privacy policy to determine which changes need to be made in order to enhance and ensure that our users privacy rights are properly addressed.

For the user browsing data used to enable WOT’s website reputation service, we intend to provide users the ability to opt-out from having such data saved in our database or shared. This opt-out will be available from the settings menu, as we want to provide each user with a clear choice at all times.

For people who agree to let us use their browsing data in order to support WOT, we will implement a complete overhaul of our data ‘cleaning’ process, to optimize our data anonymization and aggregation objectives to minimize any risk of exposure for our users.

That’s fine, but it’s probably too late for that. Trust is earned, and it’s not easy to recover once it’s lost. I recommend that you uninstall the Web of Trust browser extension.

The post Web of Trust – no longer worthy of your trust first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Outlook — Outlook – how to delete lots of emails with a couple of clicks Nov 14, 2016
Outlook has so many great features, and a lot of Outlook users are not aware of many things that Outlook can do. One of the greatest time-savers is the ability to delete large amounts of email in a very short time.

If you use Outlook for your email, and your inbox or some other folder has gotten out of control with too many emails, today’s tip is for you.

Sometimes email can get a little out of control. Or maybe a LOT out of control. And suddenly you see your inbox or one of your email folders have hundreds of emails that you don’t need or want. And at that point it might appear to be such an overwhelming project, it’s easier to ignore the growing mess and vow to deal with it another day. But it only gets worse because the emails just keep coming.

But guess what – it’s not as bad as it seems!

When I’m dealing with a client who has this problem, and they show me the only way they know to solve it, I can understand why they would feel so discouraged. That’s because they think they need to click once to highlight one email in the list, then click Delete. Then when the pop-up asks “Do you really want to delete this email?” they click “Yes”. There it goes, one email gone. 857 emails to go.

Hey, if that was the only way to do this, I would feel discouraged too! But there’s a faster way – much faster.

Here’s an image of an old folder of emails in my Outlook. These are 27 emails that I no longer need, but what I’m going to show you could just as easily apply to 270 emails or 2700 emails.

Yes, I could delete them one by one. But instead, I can:

click on the first email in that list to highlight it.

Hold the SHIFT key and click on the last email in the list

See what that does? Every email in between the first one and the last one is now highlighted.

(Hint: you can achieve the same effect by holding down the CTRL key and tapping the letter “a”.)

Now, since they are all highlighted, whatever action I take will apply to all of them instead of just a single one. If I hit the Delete key, they will all be deleted. MUCH faster than doing it one at a time.

One word of caution – if you have a folder with a HUGE quantity of emails, like more than 10,000, you might not want to do all 10k at the same time. Maybe do 3,000 or 5,000 at a time. The number of simultaneous deletions your computer can handle depends on your computer (memory, processor speed, etc.) so if you try to do too many at once, your PC may not be able to handle it and might freeze up. Or it might take so long to do all those emails at one time, you might THINK it has frozen even though it’s still working.

The post Outlook – how to delete lots of emails with a couple of clicks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

outlook emails — Outlook – how to delete lots of emails with a couple of clicks Nov 14, 2016
Outlook has so many great features, and a lot of Outlook users are not aware of many things that Outlook can do. One of the greatest time-savers is the ability to delete large amounts of email in a very short time.

If you use Outlook for your email, and your inbox or some other folder has gotten out of control with too many emails, today’s tip is for you.

Sometimes email can get a little out of control. Or maybe a LOT out of control. And suddenly you see your inbox or one of your email folders have hundreds of emails that you don’t need or want. And at that point it might appear to be such an overwhelming project, it’s easier to ignore the growing mess and vow to deal with it another day. But it only gets worse because the emails just keep coming.

But guess what – it’s not as bad as it seems!

When I’m dealing with a client who has this problem, and they show me the only way they know to solve it, I can understand why they would feel so discouraged. That’s because they think they need to click once to highlight one email in the list, then click Delete. Then when the pop-up asks “Do you really want to delete this email?” they click “Yes”. There it goes, one email gone. 857 emails to go.

Hey, if that was the only way to do this, I would feel discouraged too! But there’s a faster way – much faster.

Here’s an image of an old folder of emails in my Outlook. These are 27 emails that I no longer need, but what I’m going to show you could just as easily apply to 270 emails or 2700 emails.

Yes, I could delete them one by one. But instead, I can:

click on the first email in that list to highlight it.

Hold the SHIFT key and click on the last email in the list

See what that does? Every email in between the first one and the last one is now highlighted.

(Hint: you can achieve the same effect by holding down the CTRL key and tapping the letter “a”.)

Now, since they are all highlighted, whatever action I take will apply to all of them instead of just a single one. If I hit the Delete key, they will all be deleted. MUCH faster than doing it one at a time.

One word of caution – if you have a folder with a HUGE quantity of emails, like more than 10,000, you might not want to do all 10k at the same time. Maybe do 3,000 or 5,000 at a time. The number of simultaneous deletions your computer can handle depends on your computer (memory, processor speed, etc.) so if you try to do too many at once, your PC may not be able to handle it and might freeze up. Or it might take so long to do all those emails at one time, you might THINK it has frozen even though it’s still working.

The post Outlook – how to delete lots of emails with a couple of clicks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Cool Websites — More cool websites to check out Nov 07, 2016
Time for another set of cool websites! I like to do this every once in a while, just to tell you about some websites I’ve run across that I think you might find interesting, informative or entertaining.

1. Online solitaire for free
http://solitaireforfree.com/
Everyone’s favorite game – and now you can play directly on a website. In the early days of computers, I remember browsing the local office supply stores and computer stores for software that was delivered via a CD that you would use to install whatever program you wanted. Then everything migrated to the download option, which was much more convenient but also brought with it some downsides. Now, you don’t even have to download or install anything – just play your Solitaire right there on the website.

2. All PDF tools online
http://www.ilovepdf.com/
Just discovered this one recently. This is an amazing resource. This is the website to go to if you need to:

Merge two or more PDF files into one

Split a PDF into two or more separate files

Convert a PDF to Powerpoint

Convert PDF to Excel spreadsheet

Convert Word to PDF (this can be done from MS Word itself though)

Convert PDF to JPG

Add page numbers to a PDF file

Add a watermark to your PDF file

Unlock a PDF file

Rotate a PDF (landscape to portrait or vice versa)

And that’s not even all the options! All kinds of stuff you can do with PDFs at this site.

3. Old cereal boxes
http://theimaginaryworld.com/cbarch.html
Wow, did this bring back some memories. When I was a kid I often had cereal for breakfast (like most kids in the US I guess). And what was there to do while eating a bowl of cereal, other than read the cereal box. No wonder the cereal manufacturers market to kids – that’s who’s reading it in the store, and again at the breakfast table. This website is an archive of many hundreds of cereal boxes. I remember a bunch of these.

4. Dumb laws
http://www.dumblaws.com/
Every state has laws that defy explanation. This site has collected lots of those seemingly idiotic laws so that you can see them all gathered in one stupid pile. For example, any resident of Hawaii may be fined for not owning a boat. In Augusta, Maine it’s illegal to stroll down the street while playing a violin. And in Carmel, California, a man cannot go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match. Check your state and find out how your tax dollars have been spent by the politicians that come up with this stuff.

5. Convert YouTube videos
https://www.convyoutube.com/
This is pretty handy. I’ve talked about some other online services that can help you in downloading YouTube videos to your computer, but this one seems to be more all-encompassing. You just go to the website and enter the YouTube URL. You have the option to convert it to an MP4 video which you can download and save to your computer, or an MP3 (audio only) file that you can put on your phone or your iPod to listen to, or a GIF if you want to just grab part of the action and no audio. It’s nice to be able to do all that at one place.

6. Iditarod film
http://outthere.canada-goose.com/
One of my passions is endurance sports. In fact, this past weekend I was scheduled to do my first 100-mile ultramarathon. Unfortunately, a family event came up unexpectedly and I was not able to attend. This website is not about running though. It’s about another extreme endurance event – the Iditarod. Just click the link and watch the movie trailer and see if you get a little dose of adrenalin like I did. Looks like a great film.

7. Test your internet speed
https://fast.com
I have traditionally used a different website, speedtest.net, to test my internet connection speed. But here’s a little secret – many internet service providers give preferential bandwidth treatment to that website, so that your actual connection speed might seem faster than it normally is. When you go to Fast.com, there is nothing to click, nothing to configure. You just go there and it checks your speed and displays it on the screen.

8. Making things fun
http://thefuntheory.com
I love this idea. If doing the right thing were actually fun, wouldn’t more people choose to do the right thing? I think so. This website is a showcase of ideas like that. Here’s a video that tells about one of them. Check the website for several more. We need more of this kind of thing!

Do you know of a really cool website? Let me know about it and I might include it in my next list.

The post More cool websites to check out first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

online solitaire — More cool websites to check out Nov 07, 2016
Time for another set of cool websites! I like to do this every once in a while, just to tell you about some websites I’ve run across that I think you might find interesting, informative or entertaining.

1. Online solitaire for free
http://solitaireforfree.com/
Everyone’s favorite game – and now you can play directly on a website. In the early days of computers, I remember browsing the local office supply stores and computer stores for software that was delivered via a CD that you would use to install whatever program you wanted. Then everything migrated to the download option, which was much more convenient but also brought with it some downsides. Now, you don’t even have to download or install anything – just play your Solitaire right there on the website.

2. All PDF tools online
http://www.ilovepdf.com/
Just discovered this one recently. This is an amazing resource. This is the website to go to if you need to:

Merge two or more PDF files into one

Split a PDF into two or more separate files

Convert a PDF to Powerpoint

Convert PDF to Excel spreadsheet

Convert Word to PDF (this can be done from MS Word itself though)

Convert PDF to JPG

Add page numbers to a PDF file

Add a watermark to your PDF file

Unlock a PDF file

Rotate a PDF (landscape to portrait or vice versa)

And that’s not even all the options! All kinds of stuff you can do with PDFs at this site.

3. Old cereal boxes
http://theimaginaryworld.com/cbarch.html
Wow, did this bring back some memories. When I was a kid I often had cereal for breakfast (like most kids in the US I guess). And what was there to do while eating a bowl of cereal, other than read the cereal box. No wonder the cereal manufacturers market to kids – that’s who’s reading it in the store, and again at the breakfast table. This website is an archive of many hundreds of cereal boxes. I remember a bunch of these.

4. Dumb laws
http://www.dumblaws.com/
Every state has laws that defy explanation. This site has collected lots of those seemingly idiotic laws so that you can see them all gathered in one stupid pile. For example, any resident of Hawaii may be fined for not owning a boat. In Augusta, Maine it’s illegal to stroll down the street while playing a violin. And in Carmel, California, a man cannot go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match. Check your state and find out how your tax dollars have been spent by the politicians that come up with this stuff.

5. Convert YouTube videos
https://www.convyoutube.com/
This is pretty handy. I’ve talked about some other online services that can help you in downloading YouTube videos to your computer, but this one seems to be more all-encompassing. You just go to the website and enter the YouTube URL. You have the option to convert it to an MP4 video which you can download and save to your computer, or an MP3 (audio only) file that you can put on your phone or your iPod to listen to, or a GIF if you want to just grab part of the action and no audio. It’s nice to be able to do all that at one place.

6. Iditarod film
http://outthere.canada-goose.com/
One of my passions is endurance sports. In fact, this past weekend I was scheduled to do my first 100-mile ultramarathon. Unfortunately, a family event came up unexpectedly and I was not able to attend. This website is not about running though. It’s about another extreme endurance event – the Iditarod. Just click the link and watch the movie trailer and see if you get a little dose of adrenalin like I did. Looks like a great film.

7. Test your internet speed
https://fast.com
I have traditionally used a different website, speedtest.net, to test my internet connection speed. But here’s a little secret – many internet service providers give preferential bandwidth treatment to that website, so that your actual connection speed might seem faster than it normally is. When you go to Fast.com, there is nothing to click, nothing to configure. You just go there and it checks your speed and displays it on the screen.

8. Making things fun
http://thefuntheory.com
I love this idea. If doing the right thing were actually fun, wouldn’t more people choose to do the right thing? I think so. This website is a showcase of ideas like that. Here’s a video that tells about one of them. Check the website for several more. We need more of this kind of thing!

Do you know of a really cool website? Let me know about it and I might include it in my next list.

The post More cool websites to check out first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

speed up your PC — 4 things that actually WILL supercharge your PC Oct 31, 2016
Last week we talked about all the nonsense things that are thought to be the “magic pill” to speed up your Windows computer (clean the registry, defrag, etc). Today we’ll talk about what actually DOES speed up your Windows computer.

1. Stop programs from running in the background
When you install software, in many cases it designates itself to start up and run every time you turn on your computer. You might not see a window on your screen that shows it running, but it’s running. And the more programs you have running at the same time, the slower they ALL run. So you need to tell your computer that when you boot it up, it doesn’t need to run all those programs.

In Windows 7, click the Start button and type MSCONFIG and click that when it shows up in the menu. Click the Startup tab, and uncheck anything that doesn’t always need to run.

In Windows 8.1 or 10, hold down Ctrl + Shift and tap Escape. If necessary, click “More details”. Click the Startup tab, then right-click and disable anything that doesn’t always need to run.

Now the big question – which programs need to run all the time and which ones don’t? I can’t really answer that specifically for you, since your list is specific to your computer. Of course you want to always have your antivirus program running, and probably your automated backup software, and programs that are related to the actual functioning of your computer (such as the audio, the touchpad, etc.). If you’re not sure about something, better just leave it there. I can take care of this remotely if you want.

2. Remove viruses – malware – browser junk
If you don’t have a good antivirus program, you might have all kinds of viruses and malware running on your system. These things will really slow things down. If you’re using Norton or McAfee, you need to replace that with a good antivirus. Has your browser home page changed recently? Have you noticed that your searches that used to be on Google are now using some search engine site you’ve never heard of before? Does some odd site show up when you click to open a new tab? These are all signs that your browser is infected with this junk. You need to get rid of that stuff.

There are lots of programs that are designed to remove viruses and malware from your computer. But most of them are created with the idea that it will probably be a technician using them. If you don’t know how to do this, there is the possibility that you could mess things up. This is a process that I can handle for you remotely if you aren’t familiar with how to do it.

3. Add more memory
Memory (also known as RAM) is a different thing from storage space. If you want to know how much memory you have, open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and do a right click on “Computer” or “This PC” and choose Properties.

Most computers being sold today have at least 4 gb of memory. In general, the more memory your computer has, the faster it will run. Most machines will run okay on 4 gb, but if it’s in the budget and you can get 8 gb, that’s even better. Doubling the memory will usually create a noticeable increase in speed.

Memory isn’t something you can download. It’s a physical thing that goes inside the computer. It looks like this:

And you will probably be surprised at how easy it is to install. You can go to YouTube and look up videos on how to install memory in laptop or desktop computers and you’ll see the process is not difficult at all and only takes a few minutes. Definitely worth the effort.

4. Upgrade your hard drive to a solid state drive
You might say I’ve saved the best for last. One of my favorite upgrade projects is replacing a traditional hard disk drive with a solid state drive, because I know the client’s reaction will be amazement at how much faster the computer operates.

Your current desktop computer’s hard drive is basically a metal box, about the size of a paperback book, with some spinning platters on the inside. That’s where your data is stored. If you use a laptop, the drive is smaller but the same mechanical principle applies. With those moving parts, the computer takes longer to boot up and longer to open programs and access your data.

A solid state drive has no moving parts. The data is stored in flash memory, kind of like the storage that’s on your thumb drive. They’re still more expensive than a regular disk drive, but those prices continue to come down and a lot of people are making the switch.

So how much faster is it? Well, think about when you turn on your computer – how long does it take from the time you hit the power button, until the computer is completely booted up, everything is displayed, all of the programs that are supposed to be running (such as your antivirus) are running, and you’re connected to the internet? Some people hit the power button and then go make a cup of coffee and come back rather than sit there and watch it.

With a solid state drive, that process can take as little as 20 seconds. Total. I’ve done several recently that were that fast after the upgrade. In addition to a fast boot time, you’ll also find that individual programs open more quickly, and they also process information more quickly when they’re running. It’s pretty amazing.

Upgrading to a solid state drive is not a project that the average person would want to take on. In addition to physically taking out the current drive and installing and connecting the new drive in the computer, you have to consider the fact that the new drive is blank. All of your software and files and folders need to be brought over. In most cases, I can do that in such a way that everything on your computer looks just like it does now. It will just be a lot faster. If this is of interest, get in touch with me. I just need to get a bit of information from you and then I can let you know what it would cost.

One final thought – even though doing one or all four of these things will speed up your computer, none of them will speed up your internet connection. That’s a separate issue and is directly related to your internet provider and the speed they are able to give you from the modem or router.

The post 4 things that actually WILL supercharge your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

memory — 4 things that actually WILL supercharge your PC Oct 31, 2016
Last week we talked about all the nonsense things that are thought to be the “magic pill” to speed up your Windows computer (clean the registry, defrag, etc). Today we’ll talk about what actually DOES speed up your Windows computer.

1. Stop programs from running in the background
When you install software, in many cases it designates itself to start up and run every time you turn on your computer. You might not see a window on your screen that shows it running, but it’s running. And the more programs you have running at the same time, the slower they ALL run. So you need to tell your computer that when you boot it up, it doesn’t need to run all those programs.

In Windows 7, click the Start button and type MSCONFIG and click that when it shows up in the menu. Click the Startup tab, and uncheck anything that doesn’t always need to run.

In Windows 8.1 or 10, hold down Ctrl + Shift and tap Escape. If necessary, click “More details”. Click the Startup tab, then right-click and disable anything that doesn’t always need to run.

Now the big question – which programs need to run all the time and which ones don’t? I can’t really answer that specifically for you, since your list is specific to your computer. Of course you want to always have your antivirus program running, and probably your automated backup software, and programs that are related to the actual functioning of your computer (such as the audio, the touchpad, etc.). If you’re not sure about something, better just leave it there. I can take care of this remotely if you want.

2. Remove viruses – malware – browser junk
If you don’t have a good antivirus program, you might have all kinds of viruses and malware running on your system. These things will really slow things down. If you’re using Norton or McAfee, you need to replace that with a good antivirus. Has your browser home page changed recently? Have you noticed that your searches that used to be on Google are now using some search engine site you’ve never heard of before? Does some odd site show up when you click to open a new tab? These are all signs that your browser is infected with this junk. You need to get rid of that stuff.

There are lots of programs that are designed to remove viruses and malware from your computer. But most of them are created with the idea that it will probably be a technician using them. If you don’t know how to do this, there is the possibility that you could mess things up. This is a process that I can handle for you remotely if you aren’t familiar with how to do it.

3. Add more memory
Memory (also known as RAM) is a different thing from storage space. If you want to know how much memory you have, open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and do a right click on “Computer” or “This PC” and choose Properties.

Most computers being sold today have at least 4 gb of memory. In general, the more memory your computer has, the faster it will run. Most machines will run okay on 4 gb, but if it’s in the budget and you can get 8 gb, that’s even better. Doubling the memory will usually create a noticeable increase in speed.

Memory isn’t something you can download. It’s a physical thing that goes inside the computer. It looks like this:

And you will probably be surprised at how easy it is to install. You can go to YouTube and look up videos on how to install memory in laptop or desktop computers and you’ll see the process is not difficult at all and only takes a few minutes. Definitely worth the effort.

4. Upgrade your hard drive to a solid state drive
You might say I’ve saved the best for last. One of my favorite upgrade projects is replacing a traditional hard disk drive with a solid state drive, because I know the client’s reaction will be amazement at how much faster the computer operates.

Your current desktop computer’s hard drive is basically a metal box, about the size of a paperback book, with some spinning platters on the inside. That’s where your data is stored. If you use a laptop, the drive is smaller but the same mechanical principle applies. With those moving parts, the computer takes longer to boot up and longer to open programs and access your data.

A solid state drive has no moving parts. The data is stored in flash memory, kind of like the storage that’s on your thumb drive. They’re still more expensive than a regular disk drive, but those prices continue to come down and a lot of people are making the switch.

So how much faster is it? Well, think about when you turn on your computer – how long does it take from the time you hit the power button, until the computer is completely booted up, everything is displayed, all of the programs that are supposed to be running (such as your antivirus) are running, and you’re connected to the internet? Some people hit the power button and then go make a cup of coffee and come back rather than sit there and watch it.

With a solid state drive, that process can take as little as 20 seconds. Total. I’ve done several recently that were that fast after the upgrade. In addition to a fast boot time, you’ll also find that individual programs open more quickly, and they also process information more quickly when they’re running. It’s pretty amazing.

Upgrading to a solid state drive is not a project that the average person would want to take on. In addition to physically taking out the current drive and installing and connecting the new drive in the computer, you have to consider the fact that the new drive is blank. All of your software and files and folders need to be brought over. In most cases, I can do that in such a way that everything on your computer looks just like it does now. It will just be a lot faster. If this is of interest, get in touch with me. I just need to get a bit of information from you and then I can let you know what it would cost.

One final thought – even though doing one or all four of these things will speed up your computer, none of them will speed up your internet connection. That’s a separate issue and is directly related to your internet provider and the speed they are able to give you from the modem or router.

The post 4 things that actually WILL supercharge your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

junkware — 5 Things you DON’T need to do for your computer Oct 24, 2016
For a long time, there have been programs advertised on the internet that promise to speed up your computer. They usually go by names like “PC Optimizer”, “Perfect Speed”, “Ultimate Optimizer” or other similar sounding names, and they want you to think that if you just buy this program, your computer will be SOOO much faster. Sorry, not true.

Here are 5 common things these junk programs offer to do:

Clean the Registry. Ah, of course, the infamous Windows Registry. Most people don’t even know what the Registry is, but some program says it needs to be “cleaned” so it must need to be cleaned, right? No. Virtually every Windows computer has stray registry entries or other little inconsistencies, but the effect of this on your computer’s speed is trivial. You don’t need to clean your Registry.

Update the drivers. “Drivers” isn’t really a descriptive name for what these things are. It really just means the software that lets your computer communicate with other devices such as your printer, your monitor, your mouse, etc. I’m a pretty firm believer in “if it’s working, leave it alone”. So if you get something that says “you need to update your drivers to speed up your computer!” I recommend just ignoring it. In fact, sometimes “updated” drivers actually do more harm than good.

Clean out temp files. Another mostly useless task. “Temp” files are just what the name implies – temporary. When you view a web page, your computer might be storing all of the images on that page temporarily on your hard drive. That means if you go back to that same web page tomorrow, it will load more quickly because the images are being pulled from your hard drive instead of downloading from the internet again. But you could have hundreds or thousands of temp files on your computer, and getting rid of them won’t usually make any noticeable difference in speed. Not that it’s a bad thing to do; it just doesn’t do a lot.

Clear your website history and search history. This is basically just a list of websites you’ve visited and searches you’ve done. This information takes up virtually no space on your drive, so deleting these things won’t free up any space. And sometimes it’s handy if you’re trying to think of something you saw on a website a few days ago, to go back in your browser history and find it. Of course, deleting your website and search history would keep other people on your computer from seeing it, which might be a reason. But it’s not going to improve your computer’s performance.

Run a separate defrag program. If you’re running Windows 7 or later, your computer defrags itself on a regular basis. No need to have a third-party software installed to do this.

So when you see these junkware programs telling you to do all these things, just ignore them. If you do want to do these things anyway, you could do it yourself from within Windows.

Or, if you are dead-set on having software to do it for you, you can do it with CCleaner – which is free here. But be careful installing it, because it will try to put other stuff on your computer. And when you’re done with it, uninstall it or it will want to run in the background all the time. It will clean your registry, and remove temp files, and delete your history, but since none of that has any real effect, why bother?

The post 5 Things you DON’T need to do for your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — 5 Things you DON’T need to do for your computer Oct 24, 2016
For a long time, there have been programs advertised on the internet that promise to speed up your computer. They usually go by names like “PC Optimizer”, “Perfect Speed”, “Ultimate Optimizer” or other similar sounding names, and they want you to think that if you just buy this program, your computer will be SOOO much faster. Sorry, not true.

Here are 5 common things these junk programs offer to do:

Clean the Registry. Ah, of course, the infamous Windows Registry. Most people don’t even know what the Registry is, but some program says it needs to be “cleaned” so it must need to be cleaned, right? No. Virtually every Windows computer has stray registry entries or other little inconsistencies, but the effect of this on your computer’s speed is trivial. You don’t need to clean your Registry.

Update the drivers. “Drivers” isn’t really a descriptive name for what these things are. It really just means the software that lets your computer communicate with other devices such as your printer, your monitor, your mouse, etc. I’m a pretty firm believer in “if it’s working, leave it alone”. So if you get something that says “you need to update your drivers to speed up your computer!” I recommend just ignoring it. In fact, sometimes “updated” drivers actually do more harm than good.

Clean out temp files. Another mostly useless task. “Temp” files are just what the name implies – temporary. When you view a web page, your computer might be storing all of the images on that page temporarily on your hard drive. That means if you go back to that same web page tomorrow, it will load more quickly because the images are being pulled from your hard drive instead of downloading from the internet again. But you could have hundreds or thousands of temp files on your computer, and getting rid of them won’t usually make any noticeable difference in speed. Not that it’s a bad thing to do; it just doesn’t do a lot.

Clear your website history and search history. This is basically just a list of websites you’ve visited and searches you’ve done. This information takes up virtually no space on your drive, so deleting these things won’t free up any space. And sometimes it’s handy if you’re trying to think of something you saw on a website a few days ago, to go back in your browser history and find it. Of course, deleting your website and search history would keep other people on your computer from seeing it, which might be a reason. But it’s not going to improve your computer’s performance.

Run a separate defrag program. If you’re running Windows 7 or later, your computer defrags itself on a regular basis. No need to have a third-party software installed to do this.

So when you see these junkware programs telling you to do all these things, just ignore them. If you do want to do these things anyway, you could do it yourself from within Windows.

Or, if you are dead-set on having software to do it for you, you can do it with CCleaner – which is free here. But be careful installing it, because it will try to put other stuff on your computer. And when you’re done with it, uninstall it or it will want to run in the background all the time. It will clean your registry, and remove temp files, and delete your history, but since none of that has any real effect, why bother?

The post 5 Things you DON’T need to do for your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

HP printers — The HP printer fiasco and what I recommend Oct 17, 2016
A lot of major corporations these days are doing some pretty sketchy things. Recently HP confirmed that they are definitely on the list of companies who don’t mind doing sneaky/slimy things to their customers just to make more money.

I’ve been wary of HP for a long time, mainly because of what I see when I install an HP printer. They use the same subversive methods as a lot of other companies do, in trying to sneak software on to your computer. If you just go through the “default” installation process, you’ll end up with the “Shop for HP Supplies” icon on the desktop, the Yahoo toolbar in your web browsers, and a few other things that most people would decline if they were aware of the option to decline. To avoid those things you have to find the “customize” link during the installation and UNcheck all those things you don’t want. It’s the same slimy method used by the people that put malware and adware on the computers of unsuspecting people.

But a few weeks ago, HP really let their true colors shine through.

A little background first. Do you know why inkjet printers are so cheap these days? It’s because all the profit is made through the ink cartridge sales. HP doesn’t really care if they practically give away the printers, since they are planning on making such a huge profit on that darn ink.

To put this in perspective…

Human blood costs about USD $1500 per gallon. Not that it’s expensive to acquire, but the processing after the acquisition is what comprises a lot of that cost. That makes paying $3 for a gallon of gasoline seem really cheap. But regular black ink – the kind you purchase by the ounce wherever you buy your inkjet cartridges – comes in at a whopping $2700 per gallon. No wonder HP wants to sell a lot of that ink! And of course they want you to keep buying it regularly.

What HP really hates is when those high profit margins are cut into by the non-HP ink cartridges. You know, those third-party cartridges that are much less expensive but in many cases produce just as good a result as the high-priced “genuine” HP ink cartridges.

So, HP came up with this scheme to make their printers actually NOT WORK when a non-HP ink cartridge is used. And they even took it a step further by implementing a time-delay feature. They sent out what they called a “security update” this past March, which had the “printer time bomb” in it, but didn’t activate it until just last month (September). When this was activated, users who had third-party ink cartridges in their HP printers found themselves with a printer that would only display error messages. HP effectively broke their printer.

Obviously this resulted in a LOT of very angry and frustrated customers. And rightly so.

The good guys in this situation is a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (you can learn more about this great organization at www.eff.org). EFF wrote an open letter to HP very quickly, pointing out the problems with what HP had done. The major points of the letter are:

HP deprived its customers of a useful, legitimate feature. HP customers should choose HP ink because it’s the best, not because their printer won’t work with a competitor’s brand of ink.

HP abused its security update mechanism to trick its customers. People expect a “security update” to be a necessary patch to prevent security problems, not a tool to deliver an anti-feature. This means that many people will now doubt the patch process (as they should).

The time-delay feature was a bait-and-switch. People bought HP printers with the assumption that they would work with third-party ink cartridges. Now they are left with a less-useful printer, and perhaps a pile of useless competitor cartridges.

In response to all the backlash to this stupid move, HP has been forced to announce that they will offer another firmware update (optional of course) that would reverse the one that broke a lot of printers last month. But in true “corporate” fashion, they defended this dumb move by saying they only wanted the “best printing experience” for their customers, and they were trying to protect consumers from “potential security risks”. Yeah right.

What should you do? I can only tell you what I’ve done and what I recommend:

I use a Brother all-in-one printer and love it. No more HP printers for me.

Sign the EFF petition here to tell HP what you think of this.

Get away from buying ink cartridges completely, by using a laser printer. My Brother is a laser printer that only uses black toner, which is MUCH cheaper than ink, and I only replace the toner cartridge maybe once every 12-18 months (that might be different for you, depending on how much printing you do). You can also get laser printers that print in color if you need that.

The post The HP printer fiasco and what I recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — The HP printer fiasco and what I recommend Oct 17, 2016
A lot of major corporations these days are doing some pretty sketchy things. Recently HP confirmed that they are definitely on the list of companies who don’t mind doing sneaky/slimy things to their customers just to make more money.

I’ve been wary of HP for a long time, mainly because of what I see when I install an HP printer. They use the same subversive methods as a lot of other companies do, in trying to sneak software on to your computer. If you just go through the “default” installation process, you’ll end up with the “Shop for HP Supplies” icon on the desktop, the Yahoo toolbar in your web browsers, and a few other things that most people would decline if they were aware of the option to decline. To avoid those things you have to find the “customize” link during the installation and UNcheck all those things you don’t want. It’s the same slimy method used by the people that put malware and adware on the computers of unsuspecting people.

But a few weeks ago, HP really let their true colors shine through.

A little background first. Do you know why inkjet printers are so cheap these days? It’s because all the profit is made through the ink cartridge sales. HP doesn’t really care if they practically give away the printers, since they are planning on making such a huge profit on that darn ink.

To put this in perspective…

Human blood costs about USD $1500 per gallon. Not that it’s expensive to acquire, but the processing after the acquisition is what comprises a lot of that cost. That makes paying $3 for a gallon of gasoline seem really cheap. But regular black ink – the kind you purchase by the ounce wherever you buy your inkjet cartridges – comes in at a whopping $2700 per gallon. No wonder HP wants to sell a lot of that ink! And of course they want you to keep buying it regularly.

What HP really hates is when those high profit margins are cut into by the non-HP ink cartridges. You know, those third-party cartridges that are much less expensive but in many cases produce just as good a result as the high-priced “genuine” HP ink cartridges.

So, HP came up with this scheme to make their printers actually NOT WORK when a non-HP ink cartridge is used. And they even took it a step further by implementing a time-delay feature. They sent out what they called a “security update” this past March, which had the “printer time bomb” in it, but didn’t activate it until just last month (September). When this was activated, users who had third-party ink cartridges in their HP printers found themselves with a printer that would only display error messages. HP effectively broke their printer.

Obviously this resulted in a LOT of very angry and frustrated customers. And rightly so.

The good guys in this situation is a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (you can learn more about this great organization at www.eff.org). EFF wrote an open letter to HP very quickly, pointing out the problems with what HP had done. The major points of the letter are:

HP deprived its customers of a useful, legitimate feature. HP customers should choose HP ink because it’s the best, not because their printer won’t work with a competitor’s brand of ink.

HP abused its security update mechanism to trick its customers. People expect a “security update” to be a necessary patch to prevent security problems, not a tool to deliver an anti-feature. This means that many people will now doubt the patch process (as they should).

The time-delay feature was a bait-and-switch. People bought HP printers with the assumption that they would work with third-party ink cartridges. Now they are left with a less-useful printer, and perhaps a pile of useless competitor cartridges.

In response to all the backlash to this stupid move, HP has been forced to announce that they will offer another firmware update (optional of course) that would reverse the one that broke a lot of printers last month. But in true “corporate” fashion, they defended this dumb move by saying they only wanted the “best printing experience” for their customers, and they were trying to protect consumers from “potential security risks”. Yeah right.

What should you do? I can only tell you what I’ve done and what I recommend:

I use a Brother all-in-one printer and love it. No more HP printers for me.

Sign the EFF petition here to tell HP what you think of this.

Get away from buying ink cartridges completely, by using a laser printer. My Brother is a laser printer that only uses black toner, which is MUCH cheaper than ink, and I only replace the toner cartridge maybe once every 12-18 months (that might be different for you, depending on how much printing you do). You can also get laser printers that print in color if you need that.

The post The HP printer fiasco and what I recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook hidden features — 3 little-known things you can do with Facebook Oct 10, 2016
Most of us are on Facebook every day and pretty much do the same things – look at what our friends have posted, maybe post a new status of our own sometimes. But there are some things you can do with Facebook that a lot of people don’t know about. Today I’ll show you 3 of them.

1. Get a copy of everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook

For some people, that’s a TON of stuff – photos, videos and status updates. Just click the drop-down menu that shows the “Settings” option, click on that and look at the “General” tab:

When you click that, you see this:

Click “Start my Archive”. You’ll have to enter your Facebook password again, then Facebook will start organizing your entire archive of content and they’ll send you an email when it’s ready for you. Mine took about 10 minutes.

When it’s ready, click the link in the email to download, enter your password again, and you can download everything in a .zip folder. Open it up and there’s all your stuff!

2. Designate what happens to your Facebook account after you die

If you have had a Facebook friend who has passed away, you might have wondered this yourself. Wouldn’t it be ideal to have some kind of final post on your Facebook status to let all your friends know when you have died? I mean, obviously some of your real-life friends and family would already know, but a lot of them would have no idea. In anticipation of this, you can designate someone to be what Facebook calls your “Legacy Contact”. You just choose someone who will be able to log in to your account and write a pinned post (meaning that post stays at the top) to let everyone know you are no longer around.

To do this, log in to Facebook and go to Settings -> Security -> Legacy Contact. Find the Legacy Contact “Edit” option and you can enter one of your friends to have this job. Of course, it needs to be someone you trust.

3. Upload a 360 degree picture or video

You’ve probably seen some of those cool pictures or videos that a friend has uploaded to Facebook. As you move your phone around, you can see a full 360 degree view – just like you’re standing where the person was when they took the picture.

This doesn’t require any expensive equipment. You just need your smartphone and the Google Street View app (free for Android and iOS). Basically you just run that app and open the Camera option within the app. Then you take a picture, move to the right a little and the app takes a picture on its own when it’s lined up properly with the previous one. You just keep doing that, save the file, and then upload the picture to Facebook.

Here’s a video showing how to do this:

The post 3 little-known things you can do with Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook general settings — 3 little-known things you can do with Facebook Oct 10, 2016
Most of us are on Facebook every day and pretty much do the same things – look at what our friends have posted, maybe post a new status of our own sometimes. But there are some things you can do with Facebook that a lot of people don’t know about. Today I’ll show you 3 of them.

1. Get a copy of everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook

For some people, that’s a TON of stuff – photos, videos and status updates. Just click the drop-down menu that shows the “Settings” option, click on that and look at the “General” tab:

When you click that, you see this:

Click “Start my Archive”. You’ll have to enter your Facebook password again, then Facebook will start organizing your entire archive of content and they’ll send you an email when it’s ready for you. Mine took about 10 minutes.

When it’s ready, click the link in the email to download, enter your password again, and you can download everything in a .zip folder. Open it up and there’s all your stuff!

2. Designate what happens to your Facebook account after you die

If you have had a Facebook friend who has passed away, you might have wondered this yourself. Wouldn’t it be ideal to have some kind of final post on your Facebook status to let all your friends know when you have died? I mean, obviously some of your real-life friends and family would already know, but a lot of them would have no idea. In anticipation of this, you can designate someone to be what Facebook calls your “Legacy Contact”. You just choose someone who will be able to log in to your account and write a pinned post (meaning that post stays at the top) to let everyone know you are no longer around.

To do this, log in to Facebook and go to Settings -> Security -> Legacy Contact. Find the Legacy Contact “Edit” option and you can enter one of your friends to have this job. Of course, it needs to be someone you trust.

3. Upload a 360 degree picture or video

You’ve probably seen some of those cool pictures or videos that a friend has uploaded to Facebook. As you move your phone around, you can see a full 360 degree view – just like you’re standing where the person was when they took the picture.

This doesn’t require any expensive equipment. You just need your smartphone and the Google Street View app (free for Android and iOS). Basically you just run that app and open the Camera option within the app. Then you take a picture, move to the right a little and the app takes a picture on its own when it’s lined up properly with the previous one. You just keep doing that, save the file, and then upload the picture to Facebook.

Here’s a video showing how to do this:

The post 3 little-known things you can do with Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Yahoo hack — The Yahoo data hack – what it means to YOU Oct 03, 2016
Yahoo recently announced that hackers were able to get into their system and steal a lot of personal information. Here’s what you need to know, and what you need to do.

When did the data breach take place?

This is one of the more concerning factors about this problem. Yahoo says that the hack into their servers actually happened back in 2014 – 2 years ago. This means that the 500 million users that were affected by this have gone for two years not even knowing there was a problem. The real question is, when did Yahoo find out about it? If they knew about it in 2014, then they have acted quite irresponsibly in not announcing it. If they just found out about it, how can their security systems and processes be so lax that a breach of this magnitude can go unnoticed for two years?

What information was stolen?

Yahoo has concluded from their investigation that these things may have been stolen:

User’s names

User’s email addresses

User’s dates of birth

User’s telephone numbers

User’s passwords

User’s security questions and answers

Does this only affect Yahoo email users?

Unfortunately, probably not. Yahoo owns several other popular websites, including Flickr and Tumblr. They also own the popular fantasy football site called Rivals. If you currently have, or have ever had, an account at any of those sites, you need to change your password and security questions right away.

What do you need to do?

If you have ever had a Yahoo account, or an account with any of the sites mentioned above, yes you need to do a few things:

1. Change your password
This might seem obvious, but it is something you need to do. And as long as you’re changing your password, make it a strong one (just random letters and numbers that don’t have any meaning) and don’t use any password that you’ve used on any other account.

2. Create new security questions
You might be prompted to do this anyway when you change your password. But if not, it would be a good idea to change those questions that are used to confirm your identity (like your mother’s maiden name, what was your first car, etc.) since the hackers could have those questions (and the answers). They could potentially still use those questions and answers to get into some of your other accounts, but changing them on Yahoo is just another precaution.

3. Change password on other sites where that password was used
This might be the most important step. Think about the original password that you had with Yahoo (before you just changed it). If you have used that password on any other online accounts, you need to go to THOSE accounts and change the password there as well. Think about it. If your Yahoo email was “redsoxfan1975@yahoo.com” it’s possible that you used that email as the user name on lots of other accounts, such as Facebook, your bank account, YouTube, medical records, the power company, etc. So the hacker will use software to try logging in to tons of other accounts using that email address and the password they stole from the Yahoo records. This is the danger of using the same password across multiple accounts. I know it’s much easier to just remember one password for everything, but it also makes it a lot easier for the hackers.

4. Don’t use Yahoo
If this were the only data breach Yahoo has had, that would be one thing. But this happens repeatedly to them. They have proven that they are incapable of keeping your data private and secure. I would even go so far to say Yahoo may be almost as incompetent as AOL. I opened a Yahoo account many years ago, before Gmail even existed, and one of the big reasons I switched to Gmail was because Yahoo’s email spam filters were worthless – my inbox was constantly filled with emails that were clearly spam, but Yahoo couldn’t figure out how to filter them out. That was just one of several reasons I switched to Gmail in 2004 and have been very happy with Gmail since then.

The post The Yahoo data hack – what it means to YOU first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — The Yahoo data hack – what it means to YOU Oct 03, 2016
Yahoo recently announced that hackers were able to get into their system and steal a lot of personal information. Here’s what you need to know, and what you need to do.

When did the data breach take place?

This is one of the more concerning factors about this problem. Yahoo says that the hack into their servers actually happened back in 2014 – 2 years ago. This means that the 500 million users that were affected by this have gone for two years not even knowing there was a problem. The real question is, when did Yahoo find out about it? If they knew about it in 2014, then they have acted quite irresponsibly in not announcing it. If they just found out about it, how can their security systems and processes be so lax that a breach of this magnitude can go unnoticed for two years?

What information was stolen?

Yahoo has concluded from their investigation that these things may have been stolen:

User’s names

User’s email addresses

User’s dates of birth

User’s telephone numbers

User’s passwords

User’s security questions and answers

Does this only affect Yahoo email users?

Unfortunately, probably not. Yahoo owns several other popular websites, including Flickr and Tumblr. They also own the popular fantasy football site called Rivals. If you currently have, or have ever had, an account at any of those sites, you need to change your password and security questions right away.

What do you need to do?

If you have ever had a Yahoo account, or an account with any of the sites mentioned above, yes you need to do a few things:

1. Change your password
This might seem obvious, but it is something you need to do. And as long as you’re changing your password, make it a strong one (just random letters and numbers that don’t have any meaning) and don’t use any password that you’ve used on any other account.

2. Create new security questions
You might be prompted to do this anyway when you change your password. But if not, it would be a good idea to change those questions that are used to confirm your identity (like your mother’s maiden name, what was your first car, etc.) since the hackers could have those questions (and the answers). They could potentially still use those questions and answers to get into some of your other accounts, but changing them on Yahoo is just another precaution.

3. Change password on other sites where that password was used
This might be the most important step. Think about the original password that you had with Yahoo (before you just changed it). If you have used that password on any other online accounts, you need to go to THOSE accounts and change the password there as well. Think about it. If your Yahoo email was “redsoxfan1975@yahoo.com” it’s possible that you used that email as the user name on lots of other accounts, such as Facebook, your bank account, YouTube, medical records, the power company, etc. So the hacker will use software to try logging in to tons of other accounts using that email address and the password they stole from the Yahoo records. This is the danger of using the same password across multiple accounts. I know it’s much easier to just remember one password for everything, but it also makes it a lot easier for the hackers.

4. Don’t use Yahoo
If this were the only data breach Yahoo has had, that would be one thing. But this happens repeatedly to them. They have proven that they are incapable of keeping your data private and secure. I would even go so far to say Yahoo may be almost as incompetent as AOL. I opened a Yahoo account many years ago, before Gmail even existed, and one of the big reasons I switched to Gmail was because Yahoo’s email spam filters were worthless – my inbox was constantly filled with emails that were clearly spam, but Yahoo couldn’t figure out how to filter them out. That was just one of several reasons I switched to Gmail in 2004 and have been very happy with Gmail since then.

The post The Yahoo data hack – what it means to YOU first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Frustrated user waiting on Windows Updates — Shut down your Windows computer WITHOUT waiting for updates to finish Sep 26, 2016
It’s one of the most frustrating things about Windows. You go to shut off your computer, and rather than just shut down, it decides it’s time to install a bunch of updates. So you wait and wait while this happens, all the while wondering why your computer is forcing you to stand there and watch it until it says you can go. There’s an easier way!

Don’t get me wrong – Windows Updates are important. They are sent out on the second Tuesday of each month, which is called Patch Tuesday because most Windows Updates are little pieces of code that patch up security holes or software bugs that have been recently discovered. In a few rare cases, a Windows Update has been known to cause a problem, but that’s very uncommon. So you should get those updates when they come out, in order to keep your computer as safe and secure as possible.

There are two steps in the Windows Update process:

Downloading the updates

Installing the updates

The downloading part of the process you probably don’t even notice, since it happens in the background even when you’re using the computer. Or it might happen overnight, when you’re not using the computer.

So the updates are downloaded, and then they’re just sitting there waiting to be installed. At this point, if you don’t do anything with your computer, those updates will be installed automatically at 3 am the next day. BUT – if you happen to decide to shut down your computer or restart it before that, the updates will want to install right then.

For me, this usually happens at a really inconvenient time. Like when a client is coming to pick up their computer and they’ve checked it all out and everything is repaired and working properly, so we go to shut it down and now we have to wait for the updates to install. I actually try to get any Windows Updates while I’m working on it, but sometimes that happens. Or, if I hear thunder or see lightning, I immediately go around and unplug all the computers from the wall in order to avoid any voltage surge problems. At a time like that, I really don’t like waiting for the computer to finish getting all the updates while there’s an electrical storm happening.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn off your computer and SKIP installing those updates. You’ll still need to get them, but you just don’t have to get them right that minute.

Here’s how you shut down your computer and skip the installation of Windows Updates.

Close all open windows so you are just looking at the desktop with the icons.

Hold down the ALT key and tap the F4 key. This brings up the Windows Shutdown dialogue. In the drop-down menu, just choose “Shut down”. If there are updates waiting, there will be other menu options such as “Update and shut down” or “Update and restart”, which of course you don’t want to use.

This is the menu in Windows 10 (just not showing those other two update options since my computer isn’t currently waiting to install any updates):

This is what it looks like in Windows 7:

What you DON’T want to do is to get in the habit of just using this shut down menu to continually put off getting those Windows Updates. This is just a way to get around it at the moment if you’re in a hurry and can’t wait for them to install.

The post Shut down your Windows computer WITHOUT waiting for updates to finish first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 shutdown menu — Shut down your Windows computer WITHOUT waiting for updates to finish Sep 26, 2016
It’s one of the most frustrating things about Windows. You go to shut off your computer, and rather than just shut down, it decides it’s time to install a bunch of updates. So you wait and wait while this happens, all the while wondering why your computer is forcing you to stand there and watch it until it says you can go. There’s an easier way!

Don’t get me wrong – Windows Updates are important. They are sent out on the second Tuesday of each month, which is called Patch Tuesday because most Windows Updates are little pieces of code that patch up security holes or software bugs that have been recently discovered. In a few rare cases, a Windows Update has been known to cause a problem, but that’s very uncommon. So you should get those updates when they come out, in order to keep your computer as safe and secure as possible.

There are two steps in the Windows Update process:

Downloading the updates

Installing the updates

The downloading part of the process you probably don’t even notice, since it happens in the background even when you’re using the computer. Or it might happen overnight, when you’re not using the computer.

So the updates are downloaded, and then they’re just sitting there waiting to be installed. At this point, if you don’t do anything with your computer, those updates will be installed automatically at 3 am the next day. BUT – if you happen to decide to shut down your computer or restart it before that, the updates will want to install right then.

For me, this usually happens at a really inconvenient time. Like when a client is coming to pick up their computer and they’ve checked it all out and everything is repaired and working properly, so we go to shut it down and now we have to wait for the updates to install. I actually try to get any Windows Updates while I’m working on it, but sometimes that happens. Or, if I hear thunder or see lightning, I immediately go around and unplug all the computers from the wall in order to avoid any voltage surge problems. At a time like that, I really don’t like waiting for the computer to finish getting all the updates while there’s an electrical storm happening.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn off your computer and SKIP installing those updates. You’ll still need to get them, but you just don’t have to get them right that minute.

Here’s how you shut down your computer and skip the installation of Windows Updates.

Close all open windows so you are just looking at the desktop with the icons.

Hold down the ALT key and tap the F4 key. This brings up the Windows Shutdown dialogue. In the drop-down menu, just choose “Shut down”. If there are updates waiting, there will be other menu options such as “Update and shut down” or “Update and restart”, which of course you don’t want to use.

This is the menu in Windows 10 (just not showing those other two update options since my computer isn’t currently waiting to install any updates):

This is what it looks like in Windows 7:

What you DON’T want to do is to get in the habit of just using this shut down menu to continually put off getting those Windows Updates. This is just a way to get around it at the moment if you’re in a hurry and can’t wait for them to install.

The post Shut down your Windows computer WITHOUT waiting for updates to finish first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

padlock — How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 2 Sep 19, 2016
Last week we talked about a “low-security” way to keep someone out of a particular file or folder, just by “hiding” it. Today is part 2, and this procedure uses a separate program to provide a much higher level of security.

Rather than just protecting a file by making not readily visible, this process encrypts it so that in order to be viewed, a password needs to be entered.

The program we’re using for this is called AxCrypt, and you can download it at AxCrypt.net.

AxCrypt has both a free version, and a paid version. Obviously you get more features with the paid version, but the biggest difference I can see is that the paid version allows you to encrypt entire folders, whereas the free version only allows individual files to be encrypted. The paid version is 24 Euros per year, which currently converts to about $27 in US dollars.

So, in order to use the free version, you just need to encrypt all of your individual files (pictures, documents, spreadsheets, etc). You might find it easier to just create a folder for all of those files. Someone would still be able to get into the folder, but they wouldn’t be able to open any of those files unless they have the password.

Here’s how you get AxCrypt set up on your Windows computer:

1) Go to the website AxCrypt.net and click the Download link at the top

2) Click the download button that is appropriate for your computer. For most people it would be 64 bit, unless you’re using a computer that is pretty old.

3) After the download has completed, double click to run it and follow the standard installation process:

4) When AxCrypt runs for the first time, you have to enter your email address:

5) Then you’ll get an email with a 6-digit code to confirm that it’s actually your email:

6) This is the email:

7) After you have confirmed your email, you’ll need to create a password. Remember, as with all passwords, it should be strong and unique (not a password you have used anywhere else). That will activate your account.

8) Finally, you can now sign in to your account:

Now you can start using the program. To try it out, create a test file such as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet, or just a regular text file with Notepad. Save that test file in your Documents folder. In the example below, I created a text document called “TEST FILE.txt”. When you right click on that file, the menu that comes up will have an entry for AxCrypt. Just mouse over that menu, and another one will fly out to the size, and you can choose to Encrypt that test file.

When that file becomes encrypted, you will notice two things about it. First, the icon changes to the AxCrypt icon (the padlock). And the file extension changes to “.axx”. These things are how you can tell at a glance that a file has been encrypted with AxCrypt:

Whenever you’re working on your computer, it’s good to make sure you are signed OUT of your AxCrypt account. You can do that by right-clicking on a file and this time choosing “Sign out”. That way, if someone tries to get into any of your encrypted files, they will need to sign in with your password in order to gain access.

And of course, you can decrypt a file by going through the same right-click process and choosing “Decrypt”. You’ll be asked for your AxCrypt password, and that file will be decrypted and viewable by anyone.

If you have a need to encrypt a specific folder, or multiple folders, it might make sense for you to get the paid version. Otherwise, for most people with just a single file or a few files that need to be protected, the free version is sufficient.

Here are a couple of videos from the AxCrypt website that show more detail. The first one is for setting up your AxCrypt account, and the second one is getting started with using it.

https://youtu.be/grEu_gglHB4

https://youtu.be/FXa7RnikL7Q

The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

axcrypt — How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 2 Sep 19, 2016
Last week we talked about a “low-security” way to keep someone out of a particular file or folder, just by “hiding” it. Today is part 2, and this procedure uses a separate program to provide a much higher level of security.

Rather than just protecting a file by making not readily visible, this process encrypts it so that in order to be viewed, a password needs to be entered.

The program we’re using for this is called AxCrypt, and you can download it at AxCrypt.net.

AxCrypt has both a free version, and a paid version. Obviously you get more features with the paid version, but the biggest difference I can see is that the paid version allows you to encrypt entire folders, whereas the free version only allows individual files to be encrypted. The paid version is 24 Euros per year, which currently converts to about $27 in US dollars.

So, in order to use the free version, you just need to encrypt all of your individual files (pictures, documents, spreadsheets, etc). You might find it easier to just create a folder for all of those files. Someone would still be able to get into the folder, but they wouldn’t be able to open any of those files unless they have the password.

Here’s how you get AxCrypt set up on your Windows computer:

1) Go to the website AxCrypt.net and click the Download link at the top

2) Click the download button that is appropriate for your computer. For most people it would be 64 bit, unless you’re using a computer that is pretty old.

3) After the download has completed, double click to run it and follow the standard installation process:

4) When AxCrypt runs for the first time, you have to enter your email address:

5) Then you’ll get an email with a 6-digit code to confirm that it’s actually your email:

6) This is the email:

7) After you have confirmed your email, you’ll need to create a password. Remember, as with all passwords, it should be strong and unique (not a password you have used anywhere else). That will activate your account.

8) Finally, you can now sign in to your account:

Now you can start using the program. To try it out, create a test file such as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet, or just a regular text file with Notepad. Save that test file in your Documents folder. In the example below, I created a text document called “TEST FILE.txt”. When you right click on that file, the menu that comes up will have an entry for AxCrypt. Just mouse over that menu, and another one will fly out to the size, and you can choose to Encrypt that test file.

When that file becomes encrypted, you will notice two things about it. First, the icon changes to the AxCrypt icon (the padlock). And the file extension changes to “.axx”. These things are how you can tell at a glance that a file has been encrypted with AxCrypt:

Whenever you’re working on your computer, it’s good to make sure you are signed OUT of your AxCrypt account. You can do that by right-clicking on a file and this time choosing “Sign out”. That way, if someone tries to get into any of your encrypted files, they will need to sign in with your password in order to gain access.

And of course, you can decrypt a file by going through the same right-click process and choosing “Decrypt”. You’ll be asked for your AxCrypt password, and that file will be decrypted and viewable by anyone.

If you have a need to encrypt a specific folder, or multiple folders, it might make sense for you to get the paid version. Otherwise, for most people with just a single file or a few files that need to be protected, the free version is sufficient.

Here are a couple of videos from the AxCrypt website that show more detail. The first one is for setting up your AxCrypt account, and the second one is getting started with using it.

https://youtu.be/grEu_gglHB4

https://youtu.be/FXa7RnikL7Q

The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

lock a folder — How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 1 Sep 12, 2016
I recently got this email from a podcast listener:

Dear Scott, I live in Dubai and I enjoy your weekly podcast, which is simple and informative. Please keep up the good work! Scott, could you please cover in a future podcast how I can create (in Windows 10) a normal file folder but one that can be password protected. So, for example, if I hand over my laptop to a friend or colleague, I can simple shift my personal files to that folder and then move them back when I need to. Or else, all those files that are private I can file in my password protected folder and not have to worry about password protecting each and every file. Can you help? Best wishes and thanks once again for a great podcast. Regards, Faisal

Thanks for the great question, Faisal! I know the podcast is heard all around the world but I’m still a little taken aback when I hear from listeners from so far away as Dubai.

There are actually a couple of ways to protect a file from being viewed by some other person – a low-security way, and a high-security way. Both are free, and neither one is very difficult. I’ll talk about the low-security process today, and next Monday I’ll go over the more secure process.

The low-security way to protect a file or folder

This process does not require any other software other than Windows, and it will work on Windows 7, 8 or 10. It is based on the premise that a nosy person can’t peek at a file if they don’t know it exists.

Now, I should say up front that this method will not stop anyone that is even a little bit tech-savvy or knows a little bit about how Windows works. But it would be effective for a large percentage of computer users.

Let’s say if you go into your computer and open the Documents folder, you see the following folders:

Does anything there stand out to you? Of course, the “Private files” folder. Anyone who’s even a little curious would probably click on that to see what’s in there. Which is exactly what you DON’T want them to do.

So what you need to do is HIDE that folder so that it’s still there, just not visible in that list.

It’s easy to do that. Just do a RIGHT click on the folder name, and choose Properties at the bottom of the menu. In the new window, under the “General” tab, check the box labeled “Hidden” and click OK:

Now if you look at that same list of folders, this is what you see:

Keep in mind, you didn’t DELETE that private folder, you simple designated it as HIDDEN. So no one sees it, not even you.

“Great, Scott. But now how do it get it back?”

In order to see it again and access it, you have to tell your computer that you want it to display any files or folders that are designated as “Hidden”.

To see the “hidden” files and folders, go to Control Panel and click on Folder Options (in Windows 10, it’s called File Explorer Options). Then click the View tab, and check the button that says “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and click OK:

Now go back to the list of folders and here’s what you see:

You can kind of see that the “Private” folder is visible, but the icon is a different color than the other icons. That is just the indication that the folder is designated as “hidden” but you can still see it because you told the computer to show you the hidden files.

If you want it to not be seen at all, just go back to the previous step and choose “Don’t show hidden files, folders or drives”.

Like I mentioned earlier, and you can probably tell, this is not a very secure way of keeping someone out of your private files and folders. Anyone that knows how to tell the computer to display hidden files will be able to find that private folder. Only you can decide if this method is sufficient for you. Two factors to consider:

How critical is it that no one sees that file or folder?

How “computer smart” is the person you’re trying to hide it from?

If the file is super-duper private, or the person might know how to do what I just showed above, you probably won’t want to use this method. A week from now, I’ll show you another process that uses a free piece of software and it’s much more secure.

The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

lock files — How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 1 Sep 12, 2016
I recently got this email from a podcast listener:

Dear Scott, I live in Dubai and I enjoy your weekly podcast, which is simple and informative. Please keep up the good work! Scott, could you please cover in a future podcast how I can create (in Windows 10) a normal file folder but one that can be password protected. So, for example, if I hand over my laptop to a friend or colleague, I can simple shift my personal files to that folder and then move them back when I need to. Or else, all those files that are private I can file in my password protected folder and not have to worry about password protecting each and every file. Can you help? Best wishes and thanks once again for a great podcast. Regards, Faisal

Thanks for the great question, Faisal! I know the podcast is heard all around the world but I’m still a little taken aback when I hear from listeners from so far away as Dubai.

There are actually a couple of ways to protect a file from being viewed by some other person – a low-security way, and a high-security way. Both are free, and neither one is very difficult. I’ll talk about the low-security process today, and next Monday I’ll go over the more secure process.

The low-security way to protect a file or folder

This process does not require any other software other than Windows, and it will work on Windows 7, 8 or 10. It is based on the premise that a nosy person can’t peek at a file if they don’t know it exists.

Now, I should say up front that this method will not stop anyone that is even a little bit tech-savvy or knows a little bit about how Windows works. But it would be effective for a large percentage of computer users.

Let’s say if you go into your computer and open the Documents folder, you see the following folders:

Does anything there stand out to you? Of course, the “Private files” folder. Anyone who’s even a little curious would probably click on that to see what’s in there. Which is exactly what you DON’T want them to do.

So what you need to do is HIDE that folder so that it’s still there, just not visible in that list.

It’s easy to do that. Just do a RIGHT click on the folder name, and choose Properties at the bottom of the menu. In the new window, under the “General” tab, check the box labeled “Hidden” and click OK:

Now if you look at that same list of folders, this is what you see:

Keep in mind, you didn’t DELETE that private folder, you simple designated it as HIDDEN. So no one sees it, not even you.

“Great, Scott. But now how do it get it back?”

In order to see it again and access it, you have to tell your computer that you want it to display any files or folders that are designated as “Hidden”.

To see the “hidden” files and folders, go to Control Panel and click on Folder Options (in Windows 10, it’s called File Explorer Options). Then click the View tab, and check the button that says “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and click OK:

Now go back to the list of folders and here’s what you see:

You can kind of see that the “Private” folder is visible, but the icon is a different color than the other icons. That is just the indication that the folder is designated as “hidden” but you can still see it because you told the computer to show you the hidden files.

If you want it to not be seen at all, just go back to the previous step and choose “Don’t show hidden files, folders or drives”.

Like I mentioned earlier, and you can probably tell, this is not a very secure way of keeping someone out of your private files and folders. Anyone that knows how to tell the computer to display hidden files will be able to find that private folder. Only you can decide if this method is sufficient for you. Two factors to consider:

How critical is it that no one sees that file or folder?

How “computer smart” is the person you’re trying to hide it from?

If the file is super-duper private, or the person might know how to do what I just showed above, you probably won’t want to use this method. A week from now, I’ll show you another process that uses a free piece of software and it’s much more secure.

The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hard drive crash — Why would you need TWO backups? Sep 05, 2016
For some of my clients, I have a hard time convincing them that they need to have a backup process in place. Usually these are people that have not (yet) experienced a hard drive crash and lost some, or all, of their important files. Their computer is working fine at the moment, they’ve never had a problem, so setting up a backup is not very high on their priority list. Those people are likely to have an unpleasant surprise some day.

So you can imagine, if they don’t think a backup process is all that important, there’s no way they would see the need to have TWO backups in place.

But for a lot of people, having two different backups is definitely the right solution. That’s because they do two different things.

The two types of backups are local backup, and cloud backup.

Local backup means you use a portable hard drive that sits next to your computer, and it plugs into a USB port to do the backup. I usually set this to happen overnight, like from 1 am to 3 am, while the computer is not being used. This local backup takes everything – EVERYTHING – on your hard drive and puts it into a single file on that portable drive. So this means your Documents, your Pictures, your wallpaper, your MS Office software, your antivirus, everything on that hard drive is backed up.

For the local backup, you just need a portable drive like the one I linked to above. The software I use for this, Macrium Reflect, is free for personal use. And if you want me to set it up for you, I can do that remotely (takes about 30 minutes).

Cloud backup means you are backing up your important files on a different computer. That’s really all “cloud” means – it’s storage space on a computer other than your own. Cloud backup is completely automated. Once it’s set up, you don’t have to do anything. This type of backup safely stores your important files, such as Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Outlook emails, that kind of thing. It does not backup your software such as MS Word or your antivirus program.

For the cloud backup, your cost for your personal computer is $60 per year (that goes to the backup service I recommend, which is Carbonite).

Now back to the initial question: why do you need both of these backups? Why not just choose one of them?

To answer that, let’s say you only have one of these backups when your hard drive crashes:

If you only have the cloud backup, your documents and pictures and other files are safe. So you just take out the crashed drive and put in a new one, but before you can do anything, you have to install Windows. Do you have your Windows installation disc? Do you have the product key required to activate Windows after it’s installed? Do you have your installation disc for Microsoft Office? You can download Office and install it – but for that you need your user name and password for the Microsoft account. And you need to install all the other software, such as Chrome or Firefox, your antivirus, and any other software you normally use. THEN you can go to your cloud backup service and download all of your files such as documents and pictures.

As you can imagine, this whole thing is quite a lengthy process and it can be a while before your computer is back up and running with all of your programs and important data. If you use your laptop for your everyday work, you might find that you don’t have use of it for a few days while all of this is being restored to the new drive. So it’s good to have the cloud backup service, but it’s not that convenient if that’s the ONLY backup you have.

On the other hand…

If you only have the local backup to your portable drive when your computer’s hard drive crashes, you can just put in the new replacement hard drive, and then restore everything from the last local backup to the new drive. Everything will be there – all of your programs, your documents, your screen saver, everything is exactly like it was when that most recent backup was done.

But what if you haven’t done a local backup in a month? or 6 months? The process for doing a local backup is simple – just plugging in the USB cable at night and unplugging it in the morning – but you do have to remember to do it. If you don’t, your most recent backup might not be very recent.

And here’s another factor. Usually, that portable drive is going to sit next to the computer. So the original hard drive (in your computer) is right next to the backup drive. What if you have a fire? The computer AND the backup could get destroyed at the same time since they’re in the same place. Or remember the recent massive floods in Louisiana? Lots of computers were destroyed, and if the portable drive with the backup was in the same location, the backup was destroyed as well.

Also, that portable drive can get lost, stolen, dropped, stepped on, etc. even under normal conditions. So it’s good to have the local backup to the portable drive, but it’s kind of risky to have that as your ONLY backup.

So, if A) you want to be really sure that your files are safe, and B) you want to be able to be back up and running as soon as possible after a hard drive crash, it really makes sense to do both of these backups.

And finally, the other question I get sometimes after I explain all of this to clients – if I were only going to do one type of backup, which one would be better?

My answer would be the local backup would be the one I would prefer, if I could only do one. But that choice comes with one qualifier – that you are disciplined enough to do it. If you don’t think you’ll remember to plug that portable drive into your computer at night, and unplug it in the morning, then don’t rely on that type of backup. The cloud backup is completely automated so you don’t have to do anything.

The post Why would you need TWO backups? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Why would you need TWO backups? Sep 05, 2016
For some of my clients, I have a hard time convincing them that they need to have a backup process in place. Usually these are people that have not (yet) experienced a hard drive crash and lost some, or all, of their important files. Their computer is working fine at the moment, they’ve never had a problem, so setting up a backup is not very high on their priority list. Those people are likely to have an unpleasant surprise some day.

So you can imagine, if they don’t think a backup process is all that important, there’s no way they would see the need to have TWO backups in place.

But for a lot of people, having two different backups is definitely the right solution. That’s because they do two different things.

The two types of backups are local backup, and cloud backup.

Local backup means you use a portable hard drive that sits next to your computer, and it plugs into a USB port to do the backup. I usually set this to happen overnight, like from 1 am to 3 am, while the computer is not being used. This local backup takes everything – EVERYTHING – on your hard drive and puts it into a single file on that portable drive. So this means your Documents, your Pictures, your wallpaper, your MS Office software, your antivirus, everything on that hard drive is backed up.

For the local backup, you just need a portable drive like the one I linked to above. The software I use for this, Macrium Reflect, is free for personal use. And if you want me to set it up for you, I can do that remotely (takes about 30 minutes).

Cloud backup means you are backing up your important files on a different computer. That’s really all “cloud” means – it’s storage space on a computer other than your own. Cloud backup is completely automated. Once it’s set up, you don’t have to do anything. This type of backup safely stores your important files, such as Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Outlook emails, that kind of thing. It does not backup your software such as MS Word or your antivirus program.

For the cloud backup, your cost for your personal computer is $60 per year (that goes to the backup service I recommend, which is Carbonite).

Now back to the initial question: why do you need both of these backups? Why not just choose one of them?

To answer that, let’s say you only have one of these backups when your hard drive crashes:

If you only have the cloud backup, your documents and pictures and other files are safe. So you just take out the crashed drive and put in a new one, but before you can do anything, you have to install Windows. Do you have your Windows installation disc? Do you have the product key required to activate Windows after it’s installed? Do you have your installation disc for Microsoft Office? You can download Office and install it – but for that you need your user name and password for the Microsoft account. And you need to install all the other software, such as Chrome or Firefox, your antivirus, and any other software you normally use. THEN you can go to your cloud backup service and download all of your files such as documents and pictures.

As you can imagine, this whole thing is quite a lengthy process and it can be a while before your computer is back up and running with all of your programs and important data. If you use your laptop for your everyday work, you might find that you don’t have use of it for a few days while all of this is being restored to the new drive. So it’s good to have the cloud backup service, but it’s not that convenient if that’s the ONLY backup you have.

On the other hand…

If you only have the local backup to your portable drive when your computer’s hard drive crashes, you can just put in the new replacement hard drive, and then restore everything from the last local backup to the new drive. Everything will be there – all of your programs, your documents, your screen saver, everything is exactly like it was when that most recent backup was done.

But what if you haven’t done a local backup in a month? or 6 months? The process for doing a local backup is simple – just plugging in the USB cable at night and unplugging it in the morning – but you do have to remember to do it. If you don’t, your most recent backup might not be very recent.

And here’s another factor. Usually, that portable drive is going to sit next to the computer. So the original hard drive (in your computer) is right next to the backup drive. What if you have a fire? The computer AND the backup could get destroyed at the same time since they’re in the same place. Or remember the recent massive floods in Louisiana? Lots of computers were destroyed, and if the portable drive with the backup was in the same location, the backup was destroyed as well.

Also, that portable drive can get lost, stolen, dropped, stepped on, etc. even under normal conditions. So it’s good to have the local backup to the portable drive, but it’s kind of risky to have that as your ONLY backup.

So, if A) you want to be really sure that your files are safe, and B) you want to be able to be back up and running as soon as possible after a hard drive crash, it really makes sense to do both of these backups.

And finally, the other question I get sometimes after I explain all of this to clients – if I were only going to do one type of backup, which one would be better?

My answer would be the local backup would be the one I would prefer, if I could only do one. But that choice comes with one qualifier – that you are disciplined enough to do it. If you don’t think you’ll remember to plug that portable drive into your computer at night, and unplug it in the morning, then don’t rely on that type of backup. The cloud backup is completely automated so you don’t have to do anything.

The post Why would you need TWO backups? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook Messenger — The personal Facebook messages you didn’t even know you had Aug 29, 2016
If a friend sends you a Facebook message, you see the notification at the top of the Facebook page, click on it and read it. Simple. What if someone sends you a message, and you actually do know that person in real life but you aren’t yet Facebook friends? You might never even realize that message exists, unless you know where to look for it.

This happened to me a few times before I got wise and started checking it regularly. It would be nice if Facebook popped up some kind of notification that there was a message waiting for you somewhere other than your “regular” inbox, but they don’t (as far as I know). When you check this, you might be surprised to find messages that people sent to you months or even years ago!

There are a couple of types of messages that you won’t be notified about: Filtered Messages, and Message Requests.

If Facebook’s algorithm detects that the message might be from a spammer or a scammer, they just put it in the Filtered Messages area.

If you get a message from someone you might know, that one will go in the Message Requests area. The sender might be someone you aren’t friends with, but maybe you have some mutual friends so there’s a connection. Or maybe both of you are also members of a few different Facebook groups.

Every so often, I’ll get a reply from someone on Facebook, and it’s a reply to a message I sent them a LONG time ago (sometimes more than a year). That just means that person just now figured out how to see those hidden messages.

Here’s how to check for these messages:

Open Facebook, and click on the “Messages” icon in the top right area of the page:

When you click on that, you’ll see a list of your most recent messages. At the bottom, click on “See All”:

Then look up in the top left area. When you click the “More” button you’ll get a drop-down menu and one of the options is “Filtered”. If there’s a number in parentheses there, that’s how many Filtered messages are waiting for you.

Just to the left of the “More” button is the “Message Requests” button. When you click that, you’ll see a list of the people that have sent you a message, along with the message they sent.

At this point, if you have messages in either of these categories, you can respond to them, ignore them, or delete them.

This is a good thing to keep in mind when you send someone a Facebook message, but you’re not friends with them on Facebook. They might not be ignoring you – they might just have no idea that your message is sitting there in hiding, waiting to be read!

The post The personal Facebook messages you didn’t even know you had first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook hidden messages — The personal Facebook messages you didn’t even know you had Aug 29, 2016
If a friend sends you a Facebook message, you see the notification at the top of the Facebook page, click on it and read it. Simple. What if someone sends you a message, and you actually do know that person in real life but you aren’t yet Facebook friends? You might never even realize that message exists, unless you know where to look for it.

This happened to me a few times before I got wise and started checking it regularly. It would be nice if Facebook popped up some kind of notification that there was a message waiting for you somewhere other than your “regular” inbox, but they don’t (as far as I know). When you check this, you might be surprised to find messages that people sent to you months or even years ago!

There are a couple of types of messages that you won’t be notified about: Filtered Messages, and Message Requests.

If Facebook’s algorithm detects that the message might be from a spammer or a scammer, they just put it in the Filtered Messages area.

If you get a message from someone you might know, that one will go in the Message Requests area. The sender might be someone you aren’t friends with, but maybe you have some mutual friends so there’s a connection. Or maybe both of you are also members of a few different Facebook groups.

Every so often, I’ll get a reply from someone on Facebook, and it’s a reply to a message I sent them a LONG time ago (sometimes more than a year). That just means that person just now figured out how to see those hidden messages.

Here’s how to check for these messages:

Open Facebook, and click on the “Messages” icon in the top right area of the page:

When you click on that, you’ll see a list of your most recent messages. At the bottom, click on “See All”:

Then look up in the top left area. When you click the “More” button you’ll get a drop-down menu and one of the options is “Filtered”. If there’s a number in parentheses there, that’s how many Filtered messages are waiting for you.

Just to the left of the “More” button is the “Message Requests” button. When you click that, you’ll see a list of the people that have sent you a message, along with the message they sent.

At this point, if you have messages in either of these categories, you can respond to them, ignore them, or delete them.

This is a good thing to keep in mind when you send someone a Facebook message, but you’re not friends with them on Facebook. They might not be ignoring you – they might just have no idea that your message is sitting there in hiding, waiting to be read!

The post The personal Facebook messages you didn’t even know you had first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer problems — My new computer, and an important Windows tip Aug 22, 2016
What a week this has been. It started with a simple process: replacing a monitor. By the end, I had to replace my primary computer. And I discovered something very important for you to know about Windows – especially Windows 10.

I’ll give a brief summary of what happened.

I use 2 monitors on my main desktop computer. I’ve done this for years. If you ever set up your computer to use dual monitors, you’ll never go back to one because it’s so nice to have all that space for everything.

My left monitor had been dying a slow death for several weeks. I knew it was going bad, because every time I restarted my computer, the right monitor would come on fine, but the left monitor would come on for about a half second, then shut off, then come back on for a half second, and that cycle would continue. When it first started doing that, it would go through that cycle for about 30 to 60 seconds before it would come on and all would be fine. But as time went by, that cycle would last for a longer period of time. Last week it had gotten to the point where I was waiting about 10 or 15 minutes for it to be completely powered up, so I decided to go ahead and switch it out.

I had another set of dual monitors that I really like, so I went ahead and switched out both of my current monitors for this other matching set. Got them all hooked up, and got no video signal from the computer to either monitor. I knew the monitors were working, so this was kind of odd. Tried various connection changes, still no luck. So I tried putting a different video card in my computer. In fact, I tried a few video cards. Not only did this not work to get a video signal, now my computer won’t boot up properly. It would start up, run for about 30 seconds (with no video signal), then power down and start up again. This cycle continued indefinitely.

So now this has gone from a simple monitor switch to a major computer issue. And this was on Friday. I usually write my blog and record my podcast on Saturday, for publication on Monday. Looked like that was going to be a tough deadline to meet now.

As a side note, I’ve had some people ask, “Why not just use a different computer to do the blog and podcast?” It’s true, I have other computers, including the ones I have for sale. The problem is the software. I use Adobe Audition to record my podcast, and I also use Photoshop to edit the photos on my blog. Getting those installed on different computers, as well as the time it takes to write the blog and record the podcast, was just too much to fit in while I was in the process of buying a new computer and getting it all set up. So I just sent out an email to my subscribers (and posted on my website and on Facebook) to let everyone know there would be no blog or podcast on Monday. First time I’ve ever had to do that so it felt kind of weird.

Finally found a computer on Sunday night. This was a Craigslist ad and it was about 20 minutes away from me. The seller was nice enough to let me come and look at it even though it was like 9 pm on Sunday night. I verified it had all the specs I needed (including the option to use 2 monitors) and brought it back home that night. Looks like this:

Even before this purchase, Lenovo has been becoming my favorite brand of computer. They look nice and they work so well. This desktop computer (so far) further confirms this and I’m very happy with it. It has an i5 processor, and although I got it with 8 gb of memory (RAM), I took some of the memory sticks from my old computer and upgraded the memory on this new one to 20 gb. Nice and fast, and very quiet. Fan noise is a factor, since it sits on my desk and I really don’t want the sound of computer fans to provide the background noise for my podcast.

The only thing that made me hesitate about buying this computer is the operating system on it: Windows 10.

You probably already know my feelings about Windows 10. For over a year I’ve been telling people to avoid upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10. Partly this was because of the obnoxious practices Microsoft was using to get Windows on every computer. Partly it was because Windows 10 has caused compatibility issues with so many of my clients. And partly it was because I just don’t like the user interface (mainly the Start button/Start menu).

I’ve also said that for some people, Windows 10 functions properly. Fortunately I can (so far) count myself among those people. My printer was compatible with it (I’ll come back to that in a minute) and all of the drivers were there with no issues. And from a practical standpoint, I needed a computer sooner rather than later, and Windows 7 computers are gradually becoming harder to find. This Lenovo met all of my other requirements, so I went ahead and made the decision. I also knew that if it were a total disaster, I could at least try to wipe it and install Windows 7 on it (that doesn’t always work either, but it was a potential option).

The next step was to get the new computer all set up with my stuff. As you probably know, I do several backups every day so I definitely was not going to lose any of my important files or folders. Those were all safely stored on 2 different drives as well as the cloud (Carbonite). The real issue was getting all of my software on the new computer.

I had recently learned about a piece of software that will take everything from an old computer and transfer it to a new one (including Windows, all of the programs, all of the data, everything). But rather than use that, I made the decision to just manually reinstall all of my software on the new computer. Over the years, I had a lot of programs on my old computer that I really didn’t use any more. This slowed things down, and it also made my backup very large (my overnight system image backup was taking about 7 hours every night).

So I figured this was a good opportunity to start “clean” with this new computer and just put on the stuff I needed and used regularly. This also meant a huge amount of time-consuming work, but now that it is mostly done I think it was worth it. My backup overnight now takes about 2 hours and this computer is also super-fast.

(Printer update: about a week after my computer died, my printer took a jolt of electricity and died also. Replaced that the same day with a Brother laser printer (after verifying that it too is compatible with Windows 10, and it works fine.)

In the middle of all this, one thing made me laugh. After I sent out the email telling everyone my computer crashed and I had to replace it, I got a few responses expressing some surprise that MY computer – the Computer Tutor computer – could crash just like everyone else’s. This one in particular struck me funny, from Chester:

“Wishing you the best in getting a new PC
but have to admit I smiled knowing it also happens to the pros.”

Maybe a little sadistic, but I thought it was funny. So thanks for the laugh Chester!

And the important thing I discovered in this process
is something you should check on right now: System Restore

System Restore is a function that’s built into Windows. It allows you to take your computer back to the state it was in at an earlier point in time (hours, days or even weeks earlier). It does not affect your Documents or Pictures or other personal files, just your computer’s software, the registry, etc. System Restore is a very handy tool for technicians to use in a variety of situations, so you want to make sure it’s always enabled.

For some reason, Microsoft has set up Windows 10 so that System Restore is disabled by default.

That means you need to go in and enable it manually. To do this, hold down the Windows key and tap the letter X, then click on Control Panel. Click on “System”, then in the top left click on “System Protection”. Look in the middle under “Protection Settings” for your C drive and see if the protection is on or off. If it’s on already, you’re fine.

If it is designated as off, you can turn it on by just clicking the “Configure” button and in the next window, click “Turn on system protection”. I also usually set my disk space for this to about 5% but you might want more or less than that, depending on how much free space you have. Then just click OK.

And by the way, you shouldn’t only check this setting if you have Windows 10 – you should check it and make sure it’s enabled no matter what version of Windows you are using. In some cases, when I’m fixing a computer, System Restore can mean the difference between a 15 minute fix and a 3 hour fix. When you’re paying by the hour, that’s a big difference!

The post My new computer, and an important Windows tip first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Lenovo K450e — My new computer, and an important Windows tip Aug 22, 2016
What a week this has been. It started with a simple process: replacing a monitor. By the end, I had to replace my primary computer. And I discovered something very important for you to know about Windows – especially Windows 10.

I’ll give a brief summary of what happened.

I use 2 monitors on my main desktop computer. I’ve done this for years. If you ever set up your computer to use dual monitors, you’ll never go back to one because it’s so nice to have all that space for everything.

My left monitor had been dying a slow death for several weeks. I knew it was going bad, because every time I restarted my computer, the right monitor would come on fine, but the left monitor would come on for about a half second, then shut off, then come back on for a half second, and that cycle would continue. When it first started doing that, it would go through that cycle for about 30 to 60 seconds before it would come on and all would be fine. But as time went by, that cycle would last for a longer period of time. Last week it had gotten to the point where I was waiting about 10 or 15 minutes for it to be completely powered up, so I decided to go ahead and switch it out.

I had another set of dual monitors that I really like, so I went ahead and switched out both of my current monitors for this other matching set. Got them all hooked up, and got no video signal from the computer to either monitor. I knew the monitors were working, so this was kind of odd. Tried various connection changes, still no luck. So I tried putting a different video card in my computer. In fact, I tried a few video cards. Not only did this not work to get a video signal, now my computer won’t boot up properly. It would start up, run for about 30 seconds (with no video signal), then power down and start up again. This cycle continued indefinitely.

So now this has gone from a simple monitor switch to a major computer issue. And this was on Friday. I usually write my blog and record my podcast on Saturday, for publication on Monday. Looked like that was going to be a tough deadline to meet now.

As a side note, I’ve had some people ask, “Why not just use a different computer to do the blog and podcast?” It’s true, I have other computers, including the ones I have for sale. The problem is the software. I use Adobe Audition to record my podcast, and I also use Photoshop to edit the photos on my blog. Getting those installed on different computers, as well as the time it takes to write the blog and record the podcast, was just too much to fit in while I was in the process of buying a new computer and getting it all set up. So I just sent out an email to my subscribers (and posted on my website and on Facebook) to let everyone know there would be no blog or podcast on Monday. First time I’ve ever had to do that so it felt kind of weird.

Finally found a computer on Sunday night. This was a Craigslist ad and it was about 20 minutes away from me. The seller was nice enough to let me come and look at it even though it was like 9 pm on Sunday night. I verified it had all the specs I needed (including the option to use 2 monitors) and brought it back home that night. Looks like this:

Even before this purchase, Lenovo has been becoming my favorite brand of computer. They look nice and they work so well. This desktop computer (so far) further confirms this and I’m very happy with it. It has an i5 processor, and although I got it with 8 gb of memory (RAM), I took some of the memory sticks from my old computer and upgraded the memory on this new one to 20 gb. Nice and fast, and very quiet. Fan noise is a factor, since it sits on my desk and I really don’t want the sound of computer fans to provide the background noise for my podcast.

The only thing that made me hesitate about buying this computer is the operating system on it: Windows 10.

You probably already know my feelings about Windows 10. For over a year I’ve been telling people to avoid upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10. Partly this was because of the obnoxious practices Microsoft was using to get Windows on every computer. Partly it was because Windows 10 has caused compatibility issues with so many of my clients. And partly it was because I just don’t like the user interface (mainly the Start button/Start menu).

I’ve also said that for some people, Windows 10 functions properly. Fortunately I can (so far) count myself among those people. My printer was compatible with it (I’ll come back to that in a minute) and all of the drivers were there with no issues. And from a practical standpoint, I needed a computer sooner rather than later, and Windows 7 computers are gradually becoming harder to find. This Lenovo met all of my other requirements, so I went ahead and made the decision. I also knew that if it were a total disaster, I could at least try to wipe it and install Windows 7 on it (that doesn’t always work either, but it was a potential option).

The next step was to get the new computer all set up with my stuff. As you probably know, I do several backups every day so I definitely was not going to lose any of my important files or folders. Those were all safely stored on 2 different drives as well as the cloud (Carbonite). The real issue was getting all of my software on the new computer.

I had recently learned about a piece of software that will take everything from an old computer and transfer it to a new one (including Windows, all of the programs, all of the data, everything). But rather than use that, I made the decision to just manually reinstall all of my software on the new computer. Over the years, I had a lot of programs on my old computer that I really didn’t use any more. This slowed things down, and it also made my backup very large (my overnight system image backup was taking about 7 hours every night).

So I figured this was a good opportunity to start “clean” with this new computer and just put on the stuff I needed and used regularly. This also meant a huge amount of time-consuming work, but now that it is mostly done I think it was worth it. My backup overnight now takes about 2 hours and this computer is also super-fast.

(Printer update: about a week after my computer died, my printer took a jolt of electricity and died also. Replaced that the same day with a Brother laser printer (after verifying that it too is compatible with Windows 10, and it works fine.)

In the middle of all this, one thing made me laugh. After I sent out the email telling everyone my computer crashed and I had to replace it, I got a few responses expressing some surprise that MY computer – the Computer Tutor computer – could crash just like everyone else’s. This one in particular struck me funny, from Chester:

“Wishing you the best in getting a new PC
but have to admit I smiled knowing it also happens to the pros.”

Maybe a little sadistic, but I thought it was funny. So thanks for the laugh Chester!

And the important thing I discovered in this process
is something you should check on right now: System Restore

System Restore is a function that’s built into Windows. It allows you to take your computer back to the state it was in at an earlier point in time (hours, days or even weeks earlier). It does not affect your Documents or Pictures or other personal files, just your computer’s software, the registry, etc. System Restore is a very handy tool for technicians to use in a variety of situations, so you want to make sure it’s always enabled.

For some reason, Microsoft has set up Windows 10 so that System Restore is disabled by default.

That means you need to go in and enable it manually. To do this, hold down the Windows key and tap the letter X, then click on Control Panel. Click on “System”, then in the top left click on “System Protection”. Look in the middle under “Protection Settings” for your C drive and see if the protection is on or off. If it’s on already, you’re fine.

If it is designated as off, you can turn it on by just clicking the “Configure” button and in the next window, click “Turn on system protection”. I also usually set my disk space for this to about 5% but you might want more or less than that, depending on how much free space you have. Then just click OK.

And by the way, you shouldn’t only check this setting if you have Windows 10 – you should check it and make sure it’s enabled no matter what version of Windows you are using. In some cases, when I’m fixing a computer, System Restore can mean the difference between a 15 minute fix and a 3 hour fix. When you’re paying by the hour, that’s a big difference!

The post My new computer, and an important Windows tip first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

copyright photos — A warning about copyrighted images, and a great story Aug 08, 2016
If you ever have a need to publish photos online, such as on your website or a social media account, you need to be VERY careful to make sure you have the right to do that. Otherwise, it could be a very expensive lesson.

When you need a picture for some project such as a business website, or your blog, or a Twitter post, what’s the easiest way to find that perfect image? Google image search, of course! I mean, Google has many millions of images indexed so you’re sure to find LOTS of photos that will serve the purpose.

But you better not do that.

There’s a company called Getty Images, and their entire business model is based on catching people who use digital images online without having the right to do so. Getty has purchased the copyright license to a huge collection of images, and they spend their days searching websites and blogs and social media sites looking for any of “their” pictures that are being used without authorization.

If you are using one of their images, they’ll find you and the first thing you’ll get is a very direct letter stating that they own the rights to the image, you don’t own the rights, you used the image without permission, you owe us money. The amount being demanded can range from $100 up to thousands of dollars, depending on the image and the usage. I had a client who received a letter from Getty demanding $700, and they ended up just paying it rather than trying to figure out who was right or wrong in the situation.

And I would guess that’s what most people or companies do – for a payment of a few hundred dollars, it’s cheaper to just pay it rather than hire a lawyer to fight it in court. So Getty probably goes unchallenged in most of these cases.

And really, even if you do have the rights to the photo, could you actually come up with the proof of that? Or could you produce evidence that you purchased the usage rights from the actual owner? If you can’t (or don’t want to bother with it), the only other option is to just pay the bill and get on with your life.

So today’s tip is just that – only use images that you have the right to use, and keep the paperwork and proof of purchase in case your rights ever get challenged.

(Thanks to reader Tim, who recommended this article on how to respond to a Getty letter: read it here.)

As you might imagine, Getty is not very popular with a lot of people. They make their money by sending large invoices to people that aren’t expecting them, so many of their transactions involve parties that are very upset at this unexpected bill that they’re being forced to pay.

That’s what makes this recent story so wonderful.

One of Getty’s recent targets was Carol Highsmith. Highsmith runs a nonprofit called the This Is America! Foundation, and posted an image on the group’s website. Getty Images sent her a letter, just like they usually do, accusing her of copyright infringement, and demanding a $120 “settlement payment”.

Except this situation was a little different. In this case, Carol Highsmith actually DID have the rights to publish the image that the Getty letter referred to. And how did she have the right to publish the image? Because she was the photographer that created it.

Yeah, you might say that Getty Images kind of stepped in it that time.

This is the image that was the subject of that demand letter:

Carol Highsmith is a professional American photographer who has traveled across the country, documenting life in America through her amazing images. The photo of the abandoned gas station at the top of this article is one of hers. And she doesn’t even do this to make money – she is actually donating all of those images to the general public, through the Library of Congress. So anyone can go to the Library of Congress’ website and access any of the pictures in that archive, completely royalty-free.

So it’s kind of ironic that she would donate this collection of her images for anyone to use, and then Getty Images accuses her of copyright infringement and demands payment for her use of her own photo. In fact, there are several publications that have used her images and credited Getty Images since Getty claimed the rights and required the purchase of a copyright license.

This is kind of like if I stole a book from the public library, then threatened the author of the book with a lawsuit if he claimed any rights to “my” book.

The fun part of this story is that Carol Highsmith has filed a lawsuit against Getty Images in federal court. She accuses Getty Images of illegally claiming the rights to her 18,755 donated images, and the lawsuit is asking the court for over $1 billion in damages. This is not the first time Getty has been accused of doing this (last time it cost them $1.5 million). It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

So remember to never use images if you don’t have the rights to them, but if they’re images that you own, stand up for those rights.

The post A warning about copyrighted images, and a great story first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

copyright laws — A warning about copyrighted images, and a great story Aug 08, 2016
If you ever have a need to publish photos online, such as on your website or a social media account, you need to be VERY careful to make sure you have the right to do that. Otherwise, it could be a very expensive lesson.

When you need a picture for some project such as a business website, or your blog, or a Twitter post, what’s the easiest way to find that perfect image? Google image search, of course! I mean, Google has many millions of images indexed so you’re sure to find LOTS of photos that will serve the purpose.

But you better not do that.

There’s a company called Getty Images, and their entire business model is based on catching people who use digital images online without having the right to do so. Getty has purchased the copyright license to a huge collection of images, and they spend their days searching websites and blogs and social media sites looking for any of “their” pictures that are being used without authorization.

If you are using one of their images, they’ll find you and the first thing you’ll get is a very direct letter stating that they own the rights to the image, you don’t own the rights, you used the image without permission, you owe us money. The amount being demanded can range from $100 up to thousands of dollars, depending on the image and the usage. I had a client who received a letter from Getty demanding $700, and they ended up just paying it rather than trying to figure out who was right or wrong in the situation.

And I would guess that’s what most people or companies do – for a payment of a few hundred dollars, it’s cheaper to just pay it rather than hire a lawyer to fight it in court. So Getty probably goes unchallenged in most of these cases.

And really, even if you do have the rights to the photo, could you actually come up with the proof of that? Or could you produce evidence that you purchased the usage rights from the actual owner? If you can’t (or don’t want to bother with it), the only other option is to just pay the bill and get on with your life.

So today’s tip is just that – only use images that you have the right to use, and keep the paperwork and proof of purchase in case your rights ever get challenged.

(Thanks to reader Tim, who recommended this article on how to respond to a Getty letter: read it here.)

As you might imagine, Getty is not very popular with a lot of people. They make their money by sending large invoices to people that aren’t expecting them, so many of their transactions involve parties that are very upset at this unexpected bill that they’re being forced to pay.

That’s what makes this recent story so wonderful.

One of Getty’s recent targets was Carol Highsmith. Highsmith runs a nonprofit called the This Is America! Foundation, and posted an image on the group’s website. Getty Images sent her a letter, just like they usually do, accusing her of copyright infringement, and demanding a $120 “settlement payment”.

Except this situation was a little different. In this case, Carol Highsmith actually DID have the rights to publish the image that the Getty letter referred to. And how did she have the right to publish the image? Because she was the photographer that created it.

Yeah, you might say that Getty Images kind of stepped in it that time.

This is the image that was the subject of that demand letter:

Carol Highsmith is a professional American photographer who has traveled across the country, documenting life in America through her amazing images. The photo of the abandoned gas station at the top of this article is one of hers. And she doesn’t even do this to make money – she is actually donating all of those images to the general public, through the Library of Congress. So anyone can go to the Library of Congress’ website and access any of the pictures in that archive, completely royalty-free.

So it’s kind of ironic that she would donate this collection of her images for anyone to use, and then Getty Images accuses her of copyright infringement and demands payment for her use of her own photo. In fact, there are several publications that have used her images and credited Getty Images since Getty claimed the rights and required the purchase of a copyright license.

This is kind of like if I stole a book from the public library, then threatened the author of the book with a lawsuit if he claimed any rights to “my” book.

The fun part of this story is that Carol Highsmith has filed a lawsuit against Getty Images in federal court. She accuses Getty Images of illegally claiming the rights to her 18,755 donated images, and the lawsuit is asking the court for over $1 billion in damages. This is not the first time Getty has been accused of doing this (last time it cost them $1.5 million). It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

So remember to never use images if you don’t have the rights to them, but if they’re images that you own, stand up for those rights.

The post A warning about copyrighted images, and a great story first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Outlook red X — Why is Outlook not showing images in your emails? Aug 01, 2016
For many people that use Outlook as their email program, it’s very frustrating when you get an email that’s supposed to have pictures in it, but Outlook doesn’t display those pictures – it only shows a red “X”.

And in all of Microsoft’s wisdom, they didn’t create a clear or intuitive way to fix this problem. But here’s how you do it.

(Note: the instructions and screenshots here are for Outlook 2016, but they are very similar for Outlook 2013 or 2010. If you are using an older version than that, you really need to upgrade anyway.)

In Outlook, click on File, then Options.

In the new window, click on Trust Center:

Then click on Trust Center Settings:

Now go to the “Automatic Download” section and UNcheck the box that says “Don’t download pictures automatically in HTML email”

Then click OK in the two open windows, and you’re back in Outlook. You might need to restart Outlook in order for this to take effect. And, this change may only apply to new emails that come in from now on, not the emails that are already downloaded. But that should solve the “Red X” problem in Outlook.

The post Why is Outlook not showing images in your emails? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

outlook red x — Why is Outlook not showing images in your emails? Aug 01, 2016
For many people that use Outlook as their email program, it’s very frustrating when you get an email that’s supposed to have pictures in it, but Outlook doesn’t display those pictures – it only shows a red “X”.

And in all of Microsoft’s wisdom, they didn’t create a clear or intuitive way to fix this problem. But here’s how you do it.

(Note: the instructions and screenshots here are for Outlook 2016, but they are very similar for Outlook 2013 or 2010. If you are using an older version than that, you really need to upgrade anyway.)

In Outlook, click on File, then Options.

In the new window, click on Trust Center:

Then click on Trust Center Settings:

Now go to the “Automatic Download” section and UNcheck the box that says “Don’t download pictures automatically in HTML email”

Then click OK in the two open windows, and you’re back in Outlook. You might need to restart Outlook in order for this to take effect. And, this change may only apply to new emails that come in from now on, not the emails that are already downloaded. But that should solve the “Red X” problem in Outlook.

The post Why is Outlook not showing images in your emails? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ublock origin ad blocker — Recommended ad blockers Jul 25, 2016
After last week’s post about a big reason WHY you should use an ad blocker when you visit websites, I got several inquiries asking, “What ad blocker should I use? Where do I find it? How do I get it on my computer?”. So this week we’ll talk about a couple of the popular ones, including the one I use on my own primary computer.

For either of these ad blockers, you’ll need to install them as an extension to your web browser(s). That just means it will run as sort of an “add-on” feature of Chrome or Firefox. So you can either get the ad blocker from within Chrome or Firefox, using this basic procedure:

In Firefox:

Click the icon in the top right that looks like 3 horizontal lines and choose “Add-ons”

Type the name of the ad blocker in the search bar in the top right area

When it comes up in the search results, click the “Install” button and follow the prompts

In Chrome:

Click the icon in the top right that looks like 3 horizontal lines and choose “Settings”

On the left side, click “Extensions”

At the bottom of the list of current extension, click on the link that says “Get more extension”

Type the name of the ad blocker in the search bar in the top left

When you see it in the search results, click on “Add to Chrome” and follow the prompts

(If you use Internet Explorer, the first step is to quit using Internet Explorer. But if you do want to keep using it as your web browser, you can go straight to the AdBlock Plus website and click on the green button that says “Install for Internet Explorer”. I don’t think uBlock Origin is compatible with Internet Explorer.)

uBlock Origin
Website: https://www.ublock.org/

uBlock Origin is the one I have been using for quite some time. It does a great job keeping the ads from popping up on the various websites I visit.

It also knows to alert me when I click on something in Google search results that is actually an ad. Like if I search for “Altra Instinct 2.0” (the running shoe that I use), Google displays these offers from various vendors because it knows I’m probably shopping for shoes:

But when I click on one of them, uBlock alerts me that I just clicked on an advertisement and shows the following options. I usually just click on “Temporarily” so I can go through and see the website. But if I wanted to just always allow ads from Google searches such as this, I could click on “Permanently” and the ads would take me straight to the website. Or I can just click “Go back”.

AdBlock Plus
Website: https://adblockplus.org/

AdBlock Plus is an ad blocking program that has been around for a long time. In fact, it may have been the first ad blocker available. It also works well. One thing to keep in mind with this one though – you might notice that the tag line does not say “surf the web without ads”. No, instead it says “Surf the web without annoying ads”. This might seem like an insignificant distinction, but it does have meaning. AdBlock Plus, by default, lets SOME ads be displayed – the “nice” ones. If an ad has obnoxious blinking text or it’s jumping around on the page or it’s otherwise too distracting, it will be blocked. So you will see a few ads still, unless you go into the configuration and tell it, “No, I don’t want to see ANY ads”. At least they do give you that option.

The one you end up using would just be a personal preference. You might want to try one of them for a week, then remove it and put the other one on for a week. No matter which one you use, your web experience will be much more enjoyable (and safe) with most or all of the ads not displaying.

Here’s a video talking about these two ad blocking extensions:

The post Recommended ad blockers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ads — Recommended ad blockers Jul 25, 2016
After last week’s post about a big reason WHY you should use an ad blocker when you visit websites, I got several inquiries asking, “What ad blocker should I use? Where do I find it? How do I get it on my computer?”. So this week we’ll talk about a couple of the popular ones, including the one I use on my own primary computer.

For either of these ad blockers, you’ll need to install them as an extension to your web browser(s). That just means it will run as sort of an “add-on” feature of Chrome or Firefox. So you can either get the ad blocker from within Chrome or Firefox, using this basic procedure:

In Firefox:

Click the icon in the top right that looks like 3 horizontal lines and choose “Add-ons”

Type the name of the ad blocker in the search bar in the top right area

When it comes up in the search results, click the “Install” button and follow the prompts

In Chrome:

Click the icon in the top right that looks like 3 horizontal lines and choose “Settings”

On the left side, click “Extensions”

At the bottom of the list of current extension, click on the link that says “Get more extension”

Type the name of the ad blocker in the search bar in the top left

When you see it in the search results, click on “Add to Chrome” and follow the prompts

(If you use Internet Explorer, the first step is to quit using Internet Explorer. But if you do want to keep using it as your web browser, you can go straight to the AdBlock Plus website and click on the green button that says “Install for Internet Explorer”. I don’t think uBlock Origin is compatible with Internet Explorer.)

uBlock Origin
Website: https://www.ublock.org/

uBlock Origin is the one I have been using for quite some time. It does a great job keeping the ads from popping up on the various websites I visit.

It also knows to alert me when I click on something in Google search results that is actually an ad. Like if I search for “Altra Instinct 2.0” (the running shoe that I use), Google displays these offers from various vendors because it knows I’m probably shopping for shoes:

But when I click on one of them, uBlock alerts me that I just clicked on an advertisement and shows the following options. I usually just click on “Temporarily” so I can go through and see the website. But if I wanted to just always allow ads from Google searches such as this, I could click on “Permanently” and the ads would take me straight to the website. Or I can just click “Go back”.

AdBlock Plus
Website: https://adblockplus.org/

AdBlock Plus is an ad blocking program that has been around for a long time. In fact, it may have been the first ad blocker available. It also works well. One thing to keep in mind with this one though – you might notice that the tag line does not say “surf the web without ads”. No, instead it says “Surf the web without annoying ads”. This might seem like an insignificant distinction, but it does have meaning. AdBlock Plus, by default, lets SOME ads be displayed – the “nice” ones. If an ad has obnoxious blinking text or it’s jumping around on the page or it’s otherwise too distracting, it will be blocked. So you will see a few ads still, unless you go into the configuration and tell it, “No, I don’t want to see ANY ads”. At least they do give you that option.

The one you end up using would just be a personal preference. You might want to try one of them for a week, then remove it and put the other one on for a week. No matter which one you use, your web experience will be much more enjoyable (and safe) with most or all of the ads not displaying.

Here’s a video talking about these two ad blocking extensions:

The post Recommended ad blockers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

ad blocker — Another big reason to use an ad blocker Jul 18, 2016
I’ve used ad blockers for years. If you’re not familiar with that, what this means is that when I visit a website that has advertising, I don’t see the ads. I just see the website content.

As you might know, ad blocking software has generated a controversy. Website visitors like the blockers because websites are so much more pleasant without all the obnoxious ads in your face all the time (sometimes even obscuring the content). Website owners dislike them because ad-viewing is what brings revenue to their website.

One large newspaper site (you may have heard of it – The New York Times) has gone so far as to say this:

“No one who refuses to contribute to the creation of
high quality journalism has the right to consume it.”

That’s a quote direct from the President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Mark Thompson. You can read his full content here.

I’m not writing this piece to weigh in on the traditional pros and cons of blocking ads. There are good arguments to be made on both sides. What I want to make known, however, is that there is another very good and valid reason to block ads, aside from the fact that you just don’t want to see them.

Ads can deliver malware –
viruses – ransomware – all kinds
of bad stuff to your computer.

If you click the link above and read the full statement by Mark Thompson, he fully addresses the need for users to view ads in order to help cover the cost of the website and the creation of good journalism. But he fails to mention the fact that many visitors to the New York Times website earlier this year were infected with ransomware, which was delivered directly from ads on the site.

Here’s the basic process:

The website contracts with an advertising network, who handles the creation and insertion of the ads.

The ad network gets compromised and malicious code is included “behind the scenes” in the ads that are displayed.

A computer user visits the website, using a computer that is not completely up to date with third-party security patches (have you ever ignored the common little pop-up that says “Adobe has an update”?)

The malicious ad uses the unpatched security hole to infect the computer with ransomware (note: you do NOT have to click on the ad for this to happen).

The computer’s files are all encrypted – Documents, Pictures, Music, Emails, etc. All the stuff that’s important to you.

The bad guys then display a message that if you want your files back, you have to pay 1-2 bitcoins (as of this writing, 1 bitcoin is equal to about $660 in US dollars). So you either pay the criminals and hope they come through and give you your stuff back, or you just lose all those files.

I can’t let this opportunity go by without saying – if you had a backup before you got infected, you could get all your stuff back (including all of your programs) without having to pay the crooks anything. You do have a backup, right? In fact, to be fully protected, you should have TWO backups (and they are mostly automated, and I can set it up for you, so no excuses).

And, if your other software (Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Firefox, Chrome, Windows Updates, etc. etc.) were all up to date, you would have been much less likely to get infected. This can be automated too, through the Managed Service Plan.

But do you know how ELSE you could have avoided this mess? By using an ad blocker, and not allowing those infected ads to be displayed in the first place. To be fair, the New York Times was not the only high-traffic website that got hit with this problem a few months ago. Also included were the BBC, the NFL, and good old AOL.

By the way, here’s what AOL looks like if you block all the ads:

(Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.)

So, even though the debate will continue to rage about how annoying the advertisements are, but how website users should recognize their social responsibility to not block the ads, this fact remains. Website owners that depend on ad revenue cannot expect their users to just blindly “hope” that the ads are safe. There need to be much more serious safety measures in place to prevent these infections.

It’s kind of like when you go out to eat. The owner of the restaurant can give you free samples, but if you go there for a full meal he expects you to pay the regular price for it. In return, you expect the food to be safe to eat and not give you food poisoning.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

The post Another big reason to use an ad blocker first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

AOL with ad blocker — Another big reason to use an ad blocker Jul 18, 2016
I’ve used ad blockers for years. If you’re not familiar with that, what this means is that when I visit a website that has advertising, I don’t see the ads. I just see the website content.

As you might know, ad blocking software has generated a controversy. Website visitors like the blockers because websites are so much more pleasant without all the obnoxious ads in your face all the time (sometimes even obscuring the content). Website owners dislike them because ad-viewing is what brings revenue to their website.

One large newspaper site (you may have heard of it – The New York Times) has gone so far as to say this:

“No one who refuses to contribute to the creation of
high quality journalism has the right to consume it.”

That’s a quote direct from the President and CEO of The New York Times Company, Mark Thompson. You can read his full content here.

I’m not writing this piece to weigh in on the traditional pros and cons of blocking ads. There are good arguments to be made on both sides. What I want to make known, however, is that there is another very good and valid reason to block ads, aside from the fact that you just don’t want to see them.

Ads can deliver malware –
viruses – ransomware – all kinds
of bad stuff to your computer.

If you click the link above and read the full statement by Mark Thompson, he fully addresses the need for users to view ads in order to help cover the cost of the website and the creation of good journalism. But he fails to mention the fact that many visitors to the New York Times website earlier this year were infected with ransomware, which was delivered directly from ads on the site.

Here’s the basic process:

The website contracts with an advertising network, who handles the creation and insertion of the ads.

The ad network gets compromised and malicious code is included “behind the scenes” in the ads that are displayed.

A computer user visits the website, using a computer that is not completely up to date with third-party security patches (have you ever ignored the common little pop-up that says “Adobe has an update”?)

The malicious ad uses the unpatched security hole to infect the computer with ransomware (note: you do NOT have to click on the ad for this to happen).

The computer’s files are all encrypted – Documents, Pictures, Music, Emails, etc. All the stuff that’s important to you.

The bad guys then display a message that if you want your files back, you have to pay 1-2 bitcoins (as of this writing, 1 bitcoin is equal to about $660 in US dollars). So you either pay the criminals and hope they come through and give you your stuff back, or you just lose all those files.

I can’t let this opportunity go by without saying – if you had a backup before you got infected, you could get all your stuff back (including all of your programs) without having to pay the crooks anything. You do have a backup, right? In fact, to be fully protected, you should have TWO backups (and they are mostly automated, and I can set it up for you, so no excuses).

And, if your other software (Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Firefox, Chrome, Windows Updates, etc. etc.) were all up to date, you would have been much less likely to get infected. This can be automated too, through the Managed Service Plan.

But do you know how ELSE you could have avoided this mess? By using an ad blocker, and not allowing those infected ads to be displayed in the first place. To be fair, the New York Times was not the only high-traffic website that got hit with this problem a few months ago. Also included were the BBC, the NFL, and good old AOL.

By the way, here’s what AOL looks like if you block all the ads:

(Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.)

So, even though the debate will continue to rage about how annoying the advertisements are, but how website users should recognize their social responsibility to not block the ads, this fact remains. Website owners that depend on ad revenue cannot expect their users to just blindly “hope” that the ads are safe. There need to be much more serious safety measures in place to prevent these infections.

It’s kind of like when you go out to eat. The owner of the restaurant can give you free samples, but if you go there for a full meal he expects you to pay the regular price for it. In return, you expect the food to be safe to eat and not give you food poisoning.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

The post Another big reason to use an ad blocker first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Word — Fix one of MS Word’s most annoying problems Jul 11, 2016
Mostly, Word works well. I’ve used it for many years and been pretty happy with it. But ever since I first started using it, there has been this one thing that has driven me nuts until I learned how to fix it.

What happens is this. I’ll be typing along in MS Word, everything seems to be working fine, no problem. Then I decide I need to have some kind of small divider in between a couple of paragraphs. Nothing big, just a few dashes to separate those paragraphs.

So I hit Enter to go to a new line, and I hit the old “hyphen” key 3 or 4 times, and I hit Enter again to start the next paragraph.

But when I look up and see what’s on the screen, what is there is definitely NOT what I typed. Instead of the 4 “dashes” to separate those two paragraphs, there’s a solid line all the way across the document – from the left margin to the right margin. How in the world did that happen?? I know for sure I didn’t type it that way (you don’t plan to type the hyphen key 3 or 4 times and “accidentally” hit it 50 times!).

Here’s what has happened: Microsoft Word is trying to give you what it THINKS you want (a solid line). Why it would think that, I can’t really tell you. But the odd thing is, that thing that looks like just a regular line is not really a line at all. Or I should say, Word doesn’t picture it as a standard “line”. To verify this, go up to that line and try to highlight it so you can delete it. Or try putting your cursor at the end of the line, so you can backspace and delete it. You can’t. Although, if you hit backspace immediately after that line appears on the page, you can get rid of it – but that doesn’t keep it from happening again in the future

In order to understand how to get rid of that thing, you have to know what Word thinks it is: a border.

Huh?

I know, it doesn’t really make any sense. But that’s the way it is. We just have to work around it.

So when you find yourself with that long, silly line in the middle of the page that you don’t want, put your cursor on the line ABOVE that long line, then find the Paragraph section in the ribbon above and click the drop-down menu in the “Borders” icon:

When you choose “No borders” that line disappears. So your problem is solved – but only for this specific Word document. Next time you type those 3 dashes on a line again, the same thing is going to happen. Chances are you don’t really want to have this happening all the time.

Fortunately, you can change your preferences in Word so that this doesn’t happen again. To do that, click File – Options – Proofing and click on the button called “AutoCorrect Options”. In the new window, click the tab called “AutoFormat as you type” and UN-check the box next to “Border lines”, then click Ok:

The steps I just listed above are based on Word 2016. If you have a previous version, your steps might be somewhat different, but if you can at least get to the “AutoCorrect” options you should be able to figure it out from there.

What’s kind of ironic is that Word sets it up to do that document-wide line by default, and has done it that way for years. The idea is that it’s trying to predict what you want and be helpful by providing it immediately and saving you time. The irony is that this “time saver” that’s built into Word has been an annoyance for a very long time for lots of people, and you end up wasting time just trying to figure out how to fix it. Now you know how!

The post Fix one of MS Word’s most annoying problems first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word problem — Fix one of MS Word’s most annoying problems Jul 11, 2016
Mostly, Word works well. I’ve used it for many years and been pretty happy with it. But ever since I first started using it, there has been this one thing that has driven me nuts until I learned how to fix it.

What happens is this. I’ll be typing along in MS Word, everything seems to be working fine, no problem. Then I decide I need to have some kind of small divider in between a couple of paragraphs. Nothing big, just a few dashes to separate those paragraphs.

So I hit Enter to go to a new line, and I hit the old “hyphen” key 3 or 4 times, and I hit Enter again to start the next paragraph.

But when I look up and see what’s on the screen, what is there is definitely NOT what I typed. Instead of the 4 “dashes” to separate those two paragraphs, there’s a solid line all the way across the document – from the left margin to the right margin. How in the world did that happen?? I know for sure I didn’t type it that way (you don’t plan to type the hyphen key 3 or 4 times and “accidentally” hit it 50 times!).

Here’s what has happened: Microsoft Word is trying to give you what it THINKS you want (a solid line). Why it would think that, I can’t really tell you. But the odd thing is, that thing that looks like just a regular line is not really a line at all. Or I should say, Word doesn’t picture it as a standard “line”. To verify this, go up to that line and try to highlight it so you can delete it. Or try putting your cursor at the end of the line, so you can backspace and delete it. You can’t. Although, if you hit backspace immediately after that line appears on the page, you can get rid of it – but that doesn’t keep it from happening again in the future

In order to understand how to get rid of that thing, you have to know what Word thinks it is: a border.

Huh?

I know, it doesn’t really make any sense. But that’s the way it is. We just have to work around it.

So when you find yourself with that long, silly line in the middle of the page that you don’t want, put your cursor on the line ABOVE that long line, then find the Paragraph section in the ribbon above and click the drop-down menu in the “Borders” icon:

When you choose “No borders” that line disappears. So your problem is solved – but only for this specific Word document. Next time you type those 3 dashes on a line again, the same thing is going to happen. Chances are you don’t really want to have this happening all the time.

Fortunately, you can change your preferences in Word so that this doesn’t happen again. To do that, click File – Options – Proofing and click on the button called “AutoCorrect Options”. In the new window, click the tab called “AutoFormat as you type” and UN-check the box next to “Border lines”, then click Ok:

The steps I just listed above are based on Word 2016. If you have a previous version, your steps might be somewhat different, but if you can at least get to the “AutoCorrect” options you should be able to figure it out from there.

What’s kind of ironic is that Word sets it up to do that document-wide line by default, and has done it that way for years. The idea is that it’s trying to predict what you want and be helpful by providing it immediately and saving you time. The irony is that this “time saver” that’s built into Word has been an annoyance for a very long time for lots of people, and you end up wasting time just trying to figure out how to fix it. Now you know how!

The post Fix one of MS Word’s most annoying problems first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Chrome trick — A little-known feature of Google Chrome Jul 04, 2016
I use Google Chrome as my primary web browser, and not long ago I came across something I could do with Chrome that I thought was pretty cool. And sometimes even useful.

A little background first.

Practically since the beginning of time, computer users have known about the keyboard combination CTRL + ALT + Delete. If your computer has a problem, or a window freezes, or just about anything, that’s what you try (or used to try anyway). That 3-key combination had the nickname – it was called the “3 Finger Salute”. Usually, when you click CTRL + ALT + Delete, you then clicked on “Start Task Manager” to show a list of the processes running on the computer. You could find the one that froze up in that list, then click on it to close it so that you could use your computer again. It was just quicker than doing a full power down and starting up again (especially in the old days when computers would take forever to finish booting up).

What a lot of people don’t know is that you can get directly to the Windows Task Manager without doing the CTRL + ALT + Delete key combination. All you have to do is hit CTRL + Shift + Escape. And there it is, Windows Task Manager right in front of you immediately. Look at that, I just saved you that extra click and added years of productivity to your life.

Now, back to Google Chrome.

What most people don’t know is that Chrome has it’s OWN Task Manager. Try this out. Open Google Chrome, and open a few tabs to various websites. Now, hit Shift + Escape. You’ll see something like this:

It actually looks almost identical to the Windows Task Manager, but this one ONLY shows the various tabs, extensions and processes that are active inside of Chrome at the moment.

So if one particular tab is not working right (like when a web page freezes up) and you can’t close it, you can close it from this window. Or if you want to temporarily disable an extension, you can do that from here as well. Just highlight the tab or extension, and click “End Process” – just like you would in Windows Task Manager.

And for those of you that really like to get geeky, you can choose any of those items in the list with a RIGHT click, and select other categories of more in-depth information about that particular tab or extension:

Chances are most users are not going to have a need to dig that deep into the recesses of Chrome to find out what the CSS cache is for a particular running extension. But should you ever have a need for that, it’s there, ready and waiting for you!

The post A little-known feature of Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Chrome trick — A little-known feature of Google Chrome Jul 04, 2016
I use Google Chrome as my primary web browser, and not long ago I came across something I could do with Chrome that I thought was pretty cool. And sometimes even useful.

A little background first.

Practically since the beginning of time, computer users have known about the keyboard combination CTRL + ALT + Delete. If your computer has a problem, or a window freezes, or just about anything, that’s what you try (or used to try anyway). That 3-key combination had the nickname – it was called the “3 Finger Salute”. Usually, when you click CTRL + ALT + Delete, you then clicked on “Start Task Manager” to show a list of the processes running on the computer. You could find the one that froze up in that list, then click on it to close it so that you could use your computer again. It was just quicker than doing a full power down and starting up again (especially in the old days when computers would take forever to finish booting up).

What a lot of people don’t know is that you can get directly to the Windows Task Manager without doing the CTRL + ALT + Delete key combination. All you have to do is hit CTRL + Shift + Escape. And there it is, Windows Task Manager right in front of you immediately. Look at that, I just saved you that extra click and added years of productivity to your life.

Now, back to Google Chrome.

What most people don’t know is that Chrome has it’s OWN Task Manager. Try this out. Open Google Chrome, and open a few tabs to various websites. Now, hit Shift + Escape. You’ll see something like this:

It actually looks almost identical to the Windows Task Manager, but this one ONLY shows the various tabs, extensions and processes that are active inside of Chrome at the moment.

So if one particular tab is not working right (like when a web page freezes up) and you can’t close it, you can close it from this window. Or if you want to temporarily disable an extension, you can do that from here as well. Just highlight the tab or extension, and click “End Process” – just like you would in Windows Task Manager.

And for those of you that really like to get geeky, you can choose any of those items in the list with a RIGHT click, and select other categories of more in-depth information about that particular tab or extension:

Chances are most users are not going to have a need to dig that deep into the recesses of Chrome to find out what the CSS cache is for a particular running extension. But should you ever have a need for that, it’s there, ready and waiting for you!

The post A little-known feature of Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google news archives — Google’s incredible newspaper archive Jun 27, 2016
At one point in time, I was an avid newspaper reader. I enjoyed being informed about what was going on locally and around the world, and the newspaper had it all right there in one place, every day. This was back when I was working in an office. I would get to the office about 30 minutes before work started so I would have time to read the paper and feel like I was up to date on current events.

Of course, that was before the age of the internet and the 24 hour news cycle. I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in years. And that’s the overall trend for print journalism, which is why newspaper are gradually declining and going out of business. When all the news is available and up to the minute right on your computer or phone, why would you buy a piece of paper that was printed yesterday? I do have some friends who continue to hold out hope that printed newspapers are going to make a comeback, but I really don’t see that happening.

Still, the newspaper was the public’s best source for news for the past roughly 400 years. That means that the last few centuries of our world is actually documented in those newspapers – from major world events all the way down to tiny local stories. Wouldn’t it be great if most of that information could be seen in one centralized location?

Yep – and the Google News Archive has done just that. You can see it here: https://news.google.com/newspapers

If you’re a history buff, this is a gold mine. There are newspapers here from all over the world. Major cities to small towns and everything in between. For example, if you live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania you can read over 28,000 issues of the Pittsburgh Press – from July 1819 to July of 1992. Not to mention the Pittsburgh Commercial, the Pittsburgh Gazette, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Sun-Telegraph. That’s a lot of news about Pittsburgh!

Here’s the Cambridge Times (Cambridge, Ohio) edition from June 5, 1908:

If you lived in Montreal in October of 1909, you would have had to cough up 5 cents to read The Canadian Times. Now you can read it for free!

The archives are laid out in such a way that they are easy to navigate. The basic structure is alphabetical by the name of the newspaper. But you can also search within the archive in order to get more specific information. Once you click on the name of the newspaper, you’re taken to a page that is laid out so you can scroll through to the decade/year/month you want to see. Here’s part of the page that’s displayed when I click on the Akron Hometowner (Akron, Ohio):

From there, you can use a drop-down menu to choose a more specific time period (such as the month), the size you want to have the thumbnail images appear on this page, or even a specific date.

It’s funny how we kind of take for granted that Google takes on projects like this that are overwhelmingly huge. Can you imagine the meeting in Google’s headquarters that day? “Hey guys, why don’t we just get all the old issues of all the newspapers and make them viewable and searchable on the website?”. I mean, where do you even start with a project like that? Then again, this is the company that has pioneered the idea of cars with no human driver, and has given us a street-view map of just about the whole world. Archiving old newspapers is a walk in the park.

Pretty amazing resource.

The post Google’s incredible newspaper archive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google news — Google’s incredible newspaper archive Jun 27, 2016
At one point in time, I was an avid newspaper reader. I enjoyed being informed about what was going on locally and around the world, and the newspaper had it all right there in one place, every day. This was back when I was working in an office. I would get to the office about 30 minutes before work started so I would have time to read the paper and feel like I was up to date on current events.

Of course, that was before the age of the internet and the 24 hour news cycle. I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in years. And that’s the overall trend for print journalism, which is why newspaper are gradually declining and going out of business. When all the news is available and up to the minute right on your computer or phone, why would you buy a piece of paper that was printed yesterday? I do have some friends who continue to hold out hope that printed newspapers are going to make a comeback, but I really don’t see that happening.

Still, the newspaper was the public’s best source for news for the past roughly 400 years. That means that the last few centuries of our world is actually documented in those newspapers – from major world events all the way down to tiny local stories. Wouldn’t it be great if most of that information could be seen in one centralized location?

Yep – and the Google News Archive has done just that. You can see it here: https://news.google.com/newspapers

If you’re a history buff, this is a gold mine. There are newspapers here from all over the world. Major cities to small towns and everything in between. For example, if you live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania you can read over 28,000 issues of the Pittsburgh Press – from July 1819 to July of 1992. Not to mention the Pittsburgh Commercial, the Pittsburgh Gazette, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Sun-Telegraph. That’s a lot of news about Pittsburgh!

Here’s the Cambridge Times (Cambridge, Ohio) edition from June 5, 1908:

If you lived in Montreal in October of 1909, you would have had to cough up 5 cents to read The Canadian Times. Now you can read it for free!

The archives are laid out in such a way that they are easy to navigate. The basic structure is alphabetical by the name of the newspaper. But you can also search within the archive in order to get more specific information. Once you click on the name of the newspaper, you’re taken to a page that is laid out so you can scroll through to the decade/year/month you want to see. Here’s part of the page that’s displayed when I click on the Akron Hometowner (Akron, Ohio):

From there, you can use a drop-down menu to choose a more specific time period (such as the month), the size you want to have the thumbnail images appear on this page, or even a specific date.

It’s funny how we kind of take for granted that Google takes on projects like this that are overwhelmingly huge. Can you imagine the meeting in Google’s headquarters that day? “Hey guys, why don’t we just get all the old issues of all the newspapers and make them viewable and searchable on the website?”. I mean, where do you even start with a project like that? Then again, this is the company that has pioneered the idea of cars with no human driver, and has given us a street-view map of just about the whole world. Archiving old newspapers is a walk in the park.

Pretty amazing resource.

The post Google’s incredible newspaper archive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 sucks — How to easily roll back from Windows 10 Jun 20, 2016
As the free period for upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 comes closer to ending (July 29), Microsoft is getting more desperate. They want to push Windows 10 into as many computers as possible, whether the owner of the computer wants it or not. I’m still getting calls and emails all the time from people that are surprised to wake up one morning and find that their computer has been “upgraded” against their wishes.

As I have written here previously (here), Windows 10 has a built-in function that allows you to revert back to your previous version of Windows, if you do the rollback within 30 days. That rollback function usually works, but not always.

Consider these scenarios:

What if the built-in reversion process does not want to work or comes up with an error?

What if you don’t know how to proceed with reverting back to Windows 7 or 8 after the computer has upgraded to 10?

What if the Windows 10 upgrade runs into problems and now the computer won’t even boot into Windows? I’ve seen this several times.

And these headaches may all be happening to you, in spite of the fact that you didn’t even want Windows 10 in the first place!

I just came across a way that could resolve all of those issues. Neosmart Technologies has come up with a little piece of software called Windows 10 Rollback Utility (pretty clever name, right?). You can get it at https://neosmart.net/Win10Rollback/.

Disclaimer: I only recently discovered this program, and I’ve only tried it on one computer so far. On that computer it worked fine. Normally I try to use a program extensively before I blog about it or recommend it, but in this situation there are so many people getting scammed into the Windows 10 upgrade I felt that I should go ahead and tell you about it now. There are no indicators so far that it won’t work properly, just keep in mind that I have not tested it exhaustively.

When you visit that website, you can watch the brief demo video that gives you an overview of what is involved. This is what it shows:

Basically there are a couple of different ways you can use this program:

You can install it on your computer that is currently running Windows 10, and use it to take the computer back to Windows 7 or Windows 8. But you can ONLY do that within 30 days after the upgrade to Windows 10 took place. If it has been longer than that, this “easy rollback” option is gone. There are still options to get back to 7 or 8, but they are just more involved.

If your computer somehow got corrupted during the Windows 10 installation and now it won’t boot up to either version of Windows, you can create a bootable disc using the Windows 10 Rollback Utility. Your computer can boot up to that, and take it back to the previous version of Windows (if you’re not familiar with how to create a bootable disc and boot your computer with it, I can help you with that).

One thing to remember: any work that you have done (documents created, pictures, etc.) from the time of the upgrade until now will be wiped out when you revert back to the previous version of Windows. So make sure you back up everything important BEFORE you do the rollback.

The post How to easily roll back from Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 rollback — How to easily roll back from Windows 10 Jun 20, 2016
As the free period for upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 comes closer to ending (July 29), Microsoft is getting more desperate. They want to push Windows 10 into as many computers as possible, whether the owner of the computer wants it or not. I’m still getting calls and emails all the time from people that are surprised to wake up one morning and find that their computer has been “upgraded” against their wishes.

As I have written here previously (here), Windows 10 has a built-in function that allows you to revert back to your previous version of Windows, if you do the rollback within 30 days. That rollback function usually works, but not always.

Consider these scenarios:

What if the built-in reversion process does not want to work or comes up with an error?

What if you don’t know how to proceed with reverting back to Windows 7 or 8 after the computer has upgraded to 10?

What if the Windows 10 upgrade runs into problems and now the computer won’t even boot into Windows? I’ve seen this several times.

And these headaches may all be happening to you, in spite of the fact that you didn’t even want Windows 10 in the first place!

I just came across a way that could resolve all of those issues. Neosmart Technologies has come up with a little piece of software called Windows 10 Rollback Utility (pretty clever name, right?). You can get it at https://neosmart.net/Win10Rollback/.

Disclaimer: I only recently discovered this program, and I’ve only tried it on one computer so far. On that computer it worked fine. Normally I try to use a program extensively before I blog about it or recommend it, but in this situation there are so many people getting scammed into the Windows 10 upgrade I felt that I should go ahead and tell you about it now. There are no indicators so far that it won’t work properly, just keep in mind that I have not tested it exhaustively.

When you visit that website, you can watch the brief demo video that gives you an overview of what is involved. This is what it shows:

Basically there are a couple of different ways you can use this program:

You can install it on your computer that is currently running Windows 10, and use it to take the computer back to Windows 7 or Windows 8. But you can ONLY do that within 30 days after the upgrade to Windows 10 took place. If it has been longer than that, this “easy rollback” option is gone. There are still options to get back to 7 or 8, but they are just more involved.

If your computer somehow got corrupted during the Windows 10 installation and now it won’t boot up to either version of Windows, you can create a bootable disc using the Windows 10 Rollback Utility. Your computer can boot up to that, and take it back to the previous version of Windows (if you’re not familiar with how to create a bootable disc and boot your computer with it, I can help you with that).

One thing to remember: any work that you have done (documents created, pictures, etc.) from the time of the upgrade until now will be wiped out when you revert back to the previous version of Windows. So make sure you back up everything important BEFORE you do the rollback.

The post How to easily roll back from Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer crash — A file on your desktop that you should NOT back up Jun 13, 2016
You know I am always preaching about doing backups. And even people that don’t have a backup process in place know that they SHOULD, but until that unexpected problem comes up and they lose their important documents or irreplaceable pictures, they just say that they’ll do that “someday”. Today I’m not going to tell you about all the files you SHOULD be backing up – instead I’ll tell you about a particular type of file that you should NOT back up.

Question: What’s worse than having your computer crash when you have no backup?

Answer: A computer crash when you THINK you have a backup, but you don’t.

The scenario:

I’ve seen this happen a few times and it’s not good. Client calls me and says the computer won’t boot up, or it’s giving an error message like “Operating system not found” or “Boot device not found” or something similar. That almost always means a hard drive crash.

Client: “But the good news is, I was just working on my novel yesterday – you know, the one I’ve been working on for the last couple of years – and when I was done working, I backed it up to my thumb drive. So glad I did that! Sure wouldn’t want to lose two years of work!”

So I go over and check the computer, and yep, it’s a hard drive crash. We replace the hard drive and get Windows and Office reinstalled, then it’s time to restore the recently-backed-up novel from the flash drive back to the computer.

So I plug in the flash drive and I see this:

That’s when my heart sinks. Because I’m going to have to tell the client that this backup is not a backup.

Do you see the telltale clue in that image? It’s the little arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon. That little arrow means what we’re looking at is not the actual Word file. Rather, it’s a shortcut to the main file. It just points to the main file. It’s really nothing more than an icon. It’s not the Word document.

Really, it’s a pretty easy mistake to make. You have the actual important document saved in the Documents folder, where it should be. But you want quick, one-click access to it, so you make a shortcut to it on the desktop. The only file you ever click on to open it is that desktop shortcut. So it kind of follows logically that if you want to make sure you have that file backed up, you backup the file that’s on the desktop – the one you see all the time, and click on all the time. WRONG.

You have to back up the actual file – the actual document. How do you make sure you back up the right thing? There are a few ways:

If you are backing up just a single file to a flash drive, make sure the icon does not have that little arrow in the lower left corner.

Have an online backup process in place – so even if you forget to back up an important file, it’s going to be backed up anyway. This is 100% automated.

Don’t just back up a single file – back up the entire Documents folder (or whatever folders contain your important stuff).

The post A file on your desktop that you should NOT back up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer crash — A file on your desktop that you should NOT back up Jun 13, 2016
You know I am always preaching about doing backups. And even people that don’t have a backup process in place know that they SHOULD, but until that unexpected problem comes up and they lose their important documents or irreplaceable pictures, they just say that they’ll do that “someday”. Today I’m not going to tell you about all the files you SHOULD be backing up – instead I’ll tell you about a particular type of file that you should NOT back up.

Question: What’s worse than having your computer crash when you have no backup?

Answer: A computer crash when you THINK you have a backup, but you don’t.

The scenario:

I’ve seen this happen a few times and it’s not good. Client calls me and says the computer won’t boot up, or it’s giving an error message like “Operating system not found” or “Boot device not found” or something similar. That almost always means a hard drive crash.

Client: “But the good news is, I was just working on my novel yesterday – you know, the one I’ve been working on for the last couple of years – and when I was done working, I backed it up to my thumb drive. So glad I did that! Sure wouldn’t want to lose two years of work!”

So I go over and check the computer, and yep, it’s a hard drive crash. We replace the hard drive and get Windows and Office reinstalled, then it’s time to restore the recently-backed-up novel from the flash drive back to the computer.

So I plug in the flash drive and I see this:

That’s when my heart sinks. Because I’m going to have to tell the client that this backup is not a backup.

Do you see the telltale clue in that image? It’s the little arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon. That little arrow means what we’re looking at is not the actual Word file. Rather, it’s a shortcut to the main file. It just points to the main file. It’s really nothing more than an icon. It’s not the Word document.

Really, it’s a pretty easy mistake to make. You have the actual important document saved in the Documents folder, where it should be. But you want quick, one-click access to it, so you make a shortcut to it on the desktop. The only file you ever click on to open it is that desktop shortcut. So it kind of follows logically that if you want to make sure you have that file backed up, you backup the file that’s on the desktop – the one you see all the time, and click on all the time. WRONG.

You have to back up the actual file – the actual document. How do you make sure you back up the right thing? There are a few ways:

If you are backing up just a single file to a flash drive, make sure the icon does not have that little arrow in the lower left corner.

Have an online backup process in place – so even if you forget to back up an important file, it’s going to be backed up anyway. This is 100% automated.

Don’t just back up a single file – back up the entire Documents folder (or whatever folders contain your important stuff).

The post A file on your desktop that you should NOT back up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook memories — How to disable the Facebook nostalgia posts Jun 06, 2016
I’ve been really trying to filter out all the stuff that shows up on my Facebook news feed. Facebook does have some positive benefits, but wow – there is so much stuff on there that I don’t care about. Not that it’s necessarily bad stuff (although some of it is really terrible) – it’s just content that I decide I don’t want to waste my time or thought processes on. For me, one of those things is the constant reminders of my “memories” – the stuff that was on Facebook a year ago or 5 years ago, or longer. Fortunately, there’s a way to stop it from displaying for a while.

Sometimes it shows up and looks like this too:

I know for some people it’s great to take a trip down memory lane right there on Facebook. It’s just not for me. If you feel the same way, here’s how to keep that from showing up in your news feed:

– Go to https://www.facebook.com/onthisday and click on “Preferences” in the top right corner

– Click to edit the Dates:

– Enter a start date from a looooong time ago, and make the end date whatever today’s date is, then click Save:

This tells Facebook that you don’t want to see any “nostalgia” or “memories” that happened to take place between those two dates.

It would be must better if Facebook just offered a switch to disable the nostalgia stuff from appearing, regardless of what the date was. By entering the date range as we did in the example above, it just means that a year from day you might start seeing those silly things again. Maybe by that time there will be a way to just turn it off completely.

The post How to disable the Facebook nostalgia posts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook memories — How to disable the Facebook nostalgia posts Jun 06, 2016
I’ve been really trying to filter out all the stuff that shows up on my Facebook news feed. Facebook does have some positive benefits, but wow – there is so much stuff on there that I don’t care about. Not that it’s necessarily bad stuff (although some of it is really terrible) – it’s just content that I decide I don’t want to waste my time or thought processes on. For me, one of those things is the constant reminders of my “memories” – the stuff that was on Facebook a year ago or 5 years ago, or longer. Fortunately, there’s a way to stop it from displaying for a while.

Sometimes it shows up and looks like this too:

I know for some people it’s great to take a trip down memory lane right there on Facebook. It’s just not for me. If you feel the same way, here’s how to keep that from showing up in your news feed:

– Go to https://www.facebook.com/onthisday and click on “Preferences” in the top right corner

– Click to edit the Dates:

– Enter a start date from a looooong time ago, and make the end date whatever today’s date is, then click Save:

This tells Facebook that you don’t want to see any “nostalgia” or “memories” that happened to take place between those two dates.

It would be must better if Facebook just offered a switch to disable the nostalgia stuff from appearing, regardless of what the date was. By entering the date range as we did in the example above, it just means that a year from day you might start seeing those silly things again. Maybe by that time there will be a way to just turn it off completely.

The post How to disable the Facebook nostalgia posts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

verify link — Case study: Verifying a link before clicking on it May 30, 2016
One of the most dangerous things you can do with your computer is to click on a link when you don’t know where that link will take you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Facebook link from someone you barely know, or a loving email from your dear sweet mother – don’t click on a link without knowing where it goes!

This is wonderfully illustrated this past week in an email I got from my friend and long-time client Marge. She got an email that was supposedly from Paypal Customer Service, asking her to verify her account using a link that just said “CLICK HERE”. She wisely did not click on it and just forwarded it to me to verify that it was a scam.

Here’s the email:

With a lot of scams, the email sender will at least spoof the “From” address so that it looks like it came from Paypal. In this case, the scammer was just too lazy I guess. Obviously that is not an email address for Paypal Support.

But more importantly, the message in the email asked her to click on a link to “verify” her account (this was another red flag, since Marge does not have a Paypal account). And even if she did have a Paypal account, Paypal would never ask you to do this. They know that any security-conscious user would not click that link. Here’s why.

There are two components to any link: the link text and the link address.

The link text are the words you can actually see; the text that you are supposed to click on. In this case, the link text is “CLICK HERE”. That text can be anything the writer wants it to be. It doesn’t have to be anything related to where the link address goes.

The link address is the actual website where you’ll be sent when you click on the link text. In a lot of cases you can’t see the link address; you can only see the link text. That’s what makes this a little tricky.

In fact, the link text could even be a website address, and you could click on it thinking that was also the link address, but the link address could be completely different. For example, the link below says it’s supposed to be for the Ford automobile website, right? But if you actually click on it (it’s safe if you want to try it), it will instead take you to the Chevrolet website. That’s because the text says Ford, but the address is for Chevy.

http://www.Ford.com

In the case of the email shown above, all we see is the link text. How do we find out what the actual address is? Well, the WORST way to find out is to just click the link and see where it takes you – don’t do that, no matter how tempting it might be!

What you should do instead is RIGHT click on the link text, and choose “Copy Hyperlink” or “Copy link address” or something similar:

Then, open up a plain text editing program on your computer. In Windows, Notepad is perfect for this. When you have that open you can click Edit – Paste, or just right-click in the white area and choose Paste from the menu that pops up. In this case, here is what was shown as the link address:

Well, isn’t that interesting! Sure doesn’t look like a Paypal website address, does it?

Bitly is actually what’s called a link-shortening service. If you want to send a link to someone but it’s one of those really long ones, you can paste it in at the Bitly website (www.Bit.ly) and they’ll create a much shorter link for you, which will actually redirect to your longer link address. It’s a legitimate and useful service, but unfortunately it gets used by scammers in order to hide the REAL website address where they want to send you.

So we have the Bit.ly address – how do we know where that’s going to lead? There’s a little trick to that. When you copy and paste a Bitly address into your web browser (such as Firefox or Chrome), add a “+” (a plus sign) after it and hit Enter. Instead of taking you directly to the end website address, Bitly will instead give you a preview of where it leads, and THEN you can decide if you want to go there or not. It’s a handy security feature built into Bitly, which you should definitely take advantage of. So we put this into the web browser:

and here’s the preview that Bitly provides for us:

It doesn’t take much of a security expert to determine that “huytv.ml.silentroom.cf” is not a website address for Paypal Customer Support.

I was curious about the “.CF” that came at the end of that address though. It was not one that I was familiar with. The more common ones are easy to identify – .CA means it’s based in Canada, .gov means it’s either the federal or state government here in the US, etc. When I checked on what the “.CF” originated, here’s what I found:

Unfortunately, it’s not a big surprise to see that it came from Africa – that’s where a lot of internet scams originate. Probably the biggest majority are in Nigeria though. So this email could have come from an organized spammer/scammer group that’s raking in a lot of money from this activity, or it could be some teenager sitting in an internet cafe, sending out emails and hoping to get lucky when someone clicks on one of them. Stay alert and suspicious so that you’re not a victim!

The post Case study: Verifying a link before clicking on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

blind links — Case study: Verifying a link before clicking on it May 30, 2016
One of the most dangerous things you can do with your computer is to click on a link when you don’t know where that link will take you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Facebook link from someone you barely know, or a loving email from your dear sweet mother – don’t click on a link without knowing where it goes!

This is wonderfully illustrated this past week in an email I got from my friend and long-time client Marge. She got an email that was supposedly from Paypal Customer Service, asking her to verify her account using a link that just said “CLICK HERE”. She wisely did not click on it and just forwarded it to me to verify that it was a scam.

Here’s the email:

With a lot of scams, the email sender will at least spoof the “From” address so that it looks like it came from Paypal. In this case, the scammer was just too lazy I guess. Obviously that is not an email address for Paypal Support.

But more importantly, the message in the email asked her to click on a link to “verify” her account (this was another red flag, since Marge does not have a Paypal account). And even if she did have a Paypal account, Paypal would never ask you to do this. They know that any security-conscious user would not click that link. Here’s why.

There are two components to any link: the link text and the link address.

The link text are the words you can actually see; the text that you are supposed to click on. In this case, the link text is “CLICK HERE”. That text can be anything the writer wants it to be. It doesn’t have to be anything related to where the link address goes.

The link address is the actual website where you’ll be sent when you click on the link text. In a lot of cases you can’t see the link address; you can only see the link text. That’s what makes this a little tricky.

In fact, the link text could even be a website address, and you could click on it thinking that was also the link address, but the link address could be completely different. For example, the link below says it’s supposed to be for the Ford automobile website, right? But if you actually click on it (it’s safe if you want to try it), it will instead take you to the Chevrolet website. That’s because the text says Ford, but the address is for Chevy.

http://www.Ford.com

In the case of the email shown above, all we see is the link text. How do we find out what the actual address is? Well, the WORST way to find out is to just click the link and see where it takes you – don’t do that, no matter how tempting it might be!

What you should do instead is RIGHT click on the link text, and choose “Copy Hyperlink” or “Copy link address” or something similar:

Then, open up a plain text editing program on your computer. In Windows, Notepad is perfect for this. When you have that open you can click Edit – Paste, or just right-click in the white area and choose Paste from the menu that pops up. In this case, here is what was shown as the link address:

Well, isn’t that interesting! Sure doesn’t look like a Paypal website address, does it?

Bitly is actually what’s called a link-shortening service. If you want to send a link to someone but it’s one of those really long ones, you can paste it in at the Bitly website (www.Bit.ly) and they’ll create a much shorter link for you, which will actually redirect to your longer link address. It’s a legitimate and useful service, but unfortunately it gets used by scammers in order to hide the REAL website address where they want to send you.

So we have the Bit.ly address – how do we know where that’s going to lead? There’s a little trick to that. When you copy and paste a Bitly address into your web browser (such as Firefox or Chrome), add a “+” (a plus sign) after it and hit Enter. Instead of taking you directly to the end website address, Bitly will instead give you a preview of where it leads, and THEN you can decide if you want to go there or not. It’s a handy security feature built into Bitly, which you should definitely take advantage of. So we put this into the web browser:

and here’s the preview that Bitly provides for us:

It doesn’t take much of a security expert to determine that “huytv.ml.silentroom.cf” is not a website address for Paypal Customer Support.

I was curious about the “.CF” that came at the end of that address though. It was not one that I was familiar with. The more common ones are easy to identify – .CA means it’s based in Canada, .gov means it’s either the federal or state government here in the US, etc. When I checked on what the “.CF” originated, here’s what I found:

Unfortunately, it’s not a big surprise to see that it came from Africa – that’s where a lot of internet scams originate. Probably the biggest majority are in Nigeria though. So this email could have come from an organized spammer/scammer group that’s raking in a lot of money from this activity, or it could be some teenager sitting in an internet cafe, sending out emails and hoping to get lucky when someone clicks on one of them. Stay alert and suspicious so that you’re not a victim!

The post Case study: Verifying a link before clicking on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 free — How to get Windows 10 for free even after the deadline May 23, 2016
I still don’t recommend Windows 10. I’ll be staying with Windows 7 for as long as possible (at least until January of 2020, when Microsoft will no longer offer security updates for it). But I know there are some people that are concerned that someday they might HAVE to upgrade, and the deadline for getting the FREE upgrade to Windows 10 is July 29 – just a couple of months away. It would be silly to pay for Windows 10 (which will probably be $119) if you could have gotten it for free, right?

Here’s the timeline:

Windows 10 was first introduced at the end of July, 2015.

For anyone that has Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1, the upgrade to Windows 10 is free if you do it by July 29, 2016.

After July 29, if you want to upgrade to Windows 10, it will cost you $119. But there’s a way around that, if you’re concerned about it.

Disclaimer: As a general rule, I don’t recommend that the “novice” computer user should do either one of these things. It’s true that if you know all the steps involved, and you’re familiar with how the system image software works, you could probably do either of these successfully. But we’re talking about your computer’s operating system here. If something goes wrong, or you’re presented with an error message or an option that you aren’t familiar with, you’re might be kind of stuck in a difficult place. I’m only presenting this today for the users that are considering doing the upgrade now specifically to avoid having to spend $119 later.

Actually there are two ways to keep using Windows 7, but get Windows 10 free even after the deadline. There are pros and cons to both.

Method #1: Upgrade and roll back

Of the two methods, this is the easier one – but it’s not 100% guaranteed. Windows 10 has a built-in process that allows you to go back to your previous version of Windows, if you decide you don’t like Windows 10 or it doesn’t work properly (both are likely scenarios). But you have to do the rollback within 30 days of the upgrade. And here’s the catch: that rollback option has been known not to work on some computers. And it can make a difference if you do it 1 day after the upgrade, or 29 days after; whatever work you’ve done during the Windows 10 period will likely be lost when you go back to Windows 7 or 8.

Here are the basic steps for this process:

Use Macrium Reflect to create a system image backup of your entire hard drive. Macrium Reflect can be downloaded free for personal use here. That system image should be stored on an external/portable drive. Also, be sure to create the Rescue Media disc when the program prompts you to do so. When it’s finished, disconnect the portable drive from the computer.

Go through the Windows 10 upgrade process. If you have the Windows 10 nag icon in the lower right corner, you can click that to do it. Otherwise, you can go to Microsoft.com and you’ll be bombarded with messages to get that upgrade. (Note: if the Windows 10 upgrade has already been disabled on your computer through a program such as GWX Control Panel, or Never10, you will need to open that program an re-enable the upgrade ability.) After the upgrade is fully done, restart the computer and make sure it boots up to the newly-installed Windows 10. Maybe you’ll want to click the “Start” button and browse for a while just to cement the fact that you don’t really like Windows 10.

Now do the rollback to your previous version of Windows. I’ve done a full blog post about this, which you can see here. If the rollback doesn’t work for some reason, you still have your system image that we created in step 1, so you should be able to re-install Windows 7 or 8 from that.

Method #2: Upgrade and restore a system image

This one is the more reliable of the two methods – but not quite as simple. It’s only more reliable due to the fact that the “rollback process” built into Windows 10 just doesn’t always work properly. As you can see, the software we use for this is the same as we used in Method #1 – Macrium Reflect. It’s very reliable and I love it. Personally, I bought the paid version just to support the developers (and in case I ever need their tech support, which is not included in the free version).

Here are the basic steps for this process:

Use Macrium Reflect to create a system image backup of your entire hard drive. Macrium Reflect can be downloaded free for personal use here. That system image should be stored on an external/portable drive. Also, be sure to create the Rescue Media disc when the program prompts you to do so.

Go through the Windows 10 upgrade process. If you have the Windows 10 nag icon in the lower right corner, you can click that to do it. Otherwise, you can go to Microsoft.com and you’ll be bombarded with messages to get that upgrade. (Note: if the Windows 10 upgrade has already been disabled on your computer through a program such as GWX Control Panel, or Never10, you will need to open that program an re-enable the upgrade ability.) After the upgrade is fully done, restart the computer and make sure it boots up to the newly-installed Windows 10.

Put in the Macrium Reflect Rescue Media disc that you created in step 1, and boot the computer up to that disc. With the portable drive connected, restore the system image that you created in step 1. When that is finished, your computer should be back in the same state it was in before you did any of this (in other words, it is back to Windows 7 or 8).

The big question: why does this work?

You might read the steps in these processes and wonder, “What does this actually accomplish?” And that’s a valid question. I mean, you’re basically just upgrading to Windows 10 and then going back to what you have now.

Here’s the key: when the upgrade to Windows 10 happens, Microsoft makes a note of it on their end. You don’t have to enter a product key or go through any manual activation process – it all happens in the background. This is called a “digital entitlement”. This just means that Microsoft knows that your specific, unique computer is eligible for Windows 10. And that status stays on Microsoft’s records – EVEN IF you then go back to using Windows 7 or 8. By doing the upgrade, you’re kind of “reserving your place” so that if you ever want to actually upgrade and start using Windows 10 in the future, you’ll be able to do that without having to purchase it.

I’ll probably do this on my own computers, and on my wife’s computer, just to be covered for the possibility that someday we might somehow be forced to upgrade to Windows 10. But as I said earlier, Windows 7 will be supported through January 2020 – and who knows what the Windows situation will look like in 3 1/2 years.

The post How to get Windows 10 for free even after the deadline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How to get Windows 10 for free even after the deadline May 23, 2016
I still don’t recommend Windows 10. I’ll be staying with Windows 7 for as long as possible (at least until January of 2020, when Microsoft will no longer offer security updates for it). But I know there are some people that are concerned that someday they might HAVE to upgrade, and the deadline for getting the FREE upgrade to Windows 10 is July 29 – just a couple of months away. It would be silly to pay for Windows 10 (which will probably be $119) if you could have gotten it for free, right?

Here’s the timeline:

Windows 10 was first introduced at the end of July, 2015.

For anyone that has Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1, the upgrade to Windows 10 is free if you do it by July 29, 2016.

After July 29, if you want to upgrade to Windows 10, it will cost you $119. But there’s a way around that, if you’re concerned about it.

Disclaimer: As a general rule, I don’t recommend that the “novice” computer user should do either one of these things. It’s true that if you know all the steps involved, and you’re familiar with how the system image software works, you could probably do either of these successfully. But we’re talking about your computer’s operating system here. If something goes wrong, or you’re presented with an error message or an option that you aren’t familiar with, you’re might be kind of stuck in a difficult place. I’m only presenting this today for the users that are considering doing the upgrade now specifically to avoid having to spend $119 later.

Actually there are two ways to keep using Windows 7, but get Windows 10 free even after the deadline. There are pros and cons to both.

Method #1: Upgrade and roll back

Of the two methods, this is the easier one – but it’s not 100% guaranteed. Windows 10 has a built-in process that allows you to go back to your previous version of Windows, if you decide you don’t like Windows 10 or it doesn’t work properly (both are likely scenarios). But you have to do the rollback within 30 days of the upgrade. And here’s the catch: that rollback option has been known not to work on some computers. And it can make a difference if you do it 1 day after the upgrade, or 29 days after; whatever work you’ve done during the Windows 10 period will likely be lost when you go back to Windows 7 or 8.

Here are the basic steps for this process:

Use Macrium Reflect to create a system image backup of your entire hard drive. Macrium Reflect can be downloaded free for personal use here. That system image should be stored on an external/portable drive. Also, be sure to create the Rescue Media disc when the program prompts you to do so. When it’s finished, disconnect the portable drive from the computer.

Go through the Windows 10 upgrade process. If you have the Windows 10 nag icon in the lower right corner, you can click that to do it. Otherwise, you can go to Microsoft.com and you’ll be bombarded with messages to get that upgrade. (Note: if the Windows 10 upgrade has already been disabled on your computer through a program such as GWX Control Panel, or Never10, you will need to open that program an re-enable the upgrade ability.) After the upgrade is fully done, restart the computer and make sure it boots up to the newly-installed Windows 10. Maybe you’ll want to click the “Start” button and browse for a while just to cement the fact that you don’t really like Windows 10.

Now do the rollback to your previous version of Windows. I’ve done a full blog post about this, which you can see here. If the rollback doesn’t work for some reason, you still have your system image that we created in step 1, so you should be able to re-install Windows 7 or 8 from that.

Method #2: Upgrade and restore a system image

This one is the more reliable of the two methods – but not quite as simple. It’s only more reliable due to the fact that the “rollback process” built into Windows 10 just doesn’t always work properly. As you can see, the software we use for this is the same as we used in Method #1 – Macrium Reflect. It’s very reliable and I love it. Personally, I bought the paid version just to support the developers (and in case I ever need their tech support, which is not included in the free version).

Here are the basic steps for this process:

Use Macrium Reflect to create a system image backup of your entire hard drive. Macrium Reflect can be downloaded free for personal use here. That system image should be stored on an external/portable drive. Also, be sure to create the Rescue Media disc when the program prompts you to do so.

Go through the Windows 10 upgrade process. If you have the Windows 10 nag icon in the lower right corner, you can click that to do it. Otherwise, you can go to Microsoft.com and you’ll be bombarded with messages to get that upgrade. (Note: if the Windows 10 upgrade has already been disabled on your computer through a program such as GWX Control Panel, or Never10, you will need to open that program an re-enable the upgrade ability.) After the upgrade is fully done, restart the computer and make sure it boots up to the newly-installed Windows 10.

Put in the Macrium Reflect Rescue Media disc that you created in step 1, and boot the computer up to that disc. With the portable drive connected, restore the system image that you created in step 1. When that is finished, your computer should be back in the same state it was in before you did any of this (in other words, it is back to Windows 7 or 8).

The big question: why does this work?

You might read the steps in these processes and wonder, “What does this actually accomplish?” And that’s a valid question. I mean, you’re basically just upgrading to Windows 10 and then going back to what you have now.

Here’s the key: when the upgrade to Windows 10 happens, Microsoft makes a note of it on their end. You don’t have to enter a product key or go through any manual activation process – it all happens in the background. This is called a “digital entitlement”. This just means that Microsoft knows that your specific, unique computer is eligible for Windows 10. And that status stays on Microsoft’s records – EVEN IF you then go back to using Windows 7 or 8. By doing the upgrade, you’re kind of “reserving your place” so that if you ever want to actually upgrade and start using Windows 10 in the future, you’ll be able to do that without having to purchase it.

I’ll probably do this on my own computers, and on my wife’s computer, just to be covered for the possibility that someday we might somehow be forced to upgrade to Windows 10. But as I said earlier, Windows 7 will be supported through January 2020 – and who knows what the Windows situation will look like in 3 1/2 years.

The post How to get Windows 10 for free even after the deadline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google is cool — 3 cool things you can do with Google May 16, 2016
Everyone uses Google all the time to find something online. It’s still by far the best and most comprehensive search engine available, which is why it’s also the most popular (Bing doesn’t even come close, in spite of Microsoft’s marketing machine telling you it’s so great). But did you know that Google does a lot more than just find websites and look up information?

Google does a TON of things that are interesting, educational and maybe even a little bizarre. Here are three things that you can do with Google that I’ll bet you didn’t know about.

You can view high-resolution images of important art (click here)
I’m certainly not well-educated in the field of art, but I do enjoy viewing it. The Salvador Dali Museum is here in my area and I’ve visited it a few times. I’ve also always enjoyed Norman Rockwell’s work, although I’ve been told that he would be more accurately referred to as an “illustrator” rather than an artist. He was pretty talented regardless of title. At the link above, you can just browse what is there, or you can search based on artist, piece, date, etc. Then when you’re viewing, you can zoom way in to see it up close.

You can build a Lego masterpiece (click here)
Personally, I’ve never really understood the fascination with Legos. They’re just manufactured bits of plastic that connect. I guess the real entertainment value from Legos is based on what your imagination can dream up for you to create with them. And now you don’t even need the actual Legos in order to build something – you can do it right on your screen. When you first visit the site, click on “Start building”. You’ll get an option to sign in with your Google account but you only need to do that if you want to publish what you build. Otherwise it’s pretty intuitive.

You can play Atari Breakout (click here)
Breakout is one of the early classic video games. I used to play it for long stretches of time. I think one of the big appeals is that it is really simple to understand – it doesn’t take a big explanation of the rules in order to just start playing and enjoying it. You can control the paddle with the left-right keys on the keyboard, or with your mouse (mouse is easier).

The post 3 cool things you can do with Google first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google art — 3 cool things you can do with Google May 16, 2016
Everyone uses Google all the time to find something online. It’s still by far the best and most comprehensive search engine available, which is why it’s also the most popular (Bing doesn’t even come close, in spite of Microsoft’s marketing machine telling you it’s so great). But did you know that Google does a lot more than just find websites and look up information?

Google does a TON of things that are interesting, educational and maybe even a little bizarre. Here are three things that you can do with Google that I’ll bet you didn’t know about.

You can view high-resolution images of important art (click here)
I’m certainly not well-educated in the field of art, but I do enjoy viewing it. The Salvador Dali Museum is here in my area and I’ve visited it a few times. I’ve also always enjoyed Norman Rockwell’s work, although I’ve been told that he would be more accurately referred to as an “illustrator” rather than an artist. He was pretty talented regardless of title. At the link above, you can just browse what is there, or you can search based on artist, piece, date, etc. Then when you’re viewing, you can zoom way in to see it up close.

You can build a Lego masterpiece (click here)
Personally, I’ve never really understood the fascination with Legos. They’re just manufactured bits of plastic that connect. I guess the real entertainment value from Legos is based on what your imagination can dream up for you to create with them. And now you don’t even need the actual Legos in order to build something – you can do it right on your screen. When you first visit the site, click on “Start building”. You’ll get an option to sign in with your Google account but you only need to do that if you want to publish what you build. Otherwise it’s pretty intuitive.

You can play Atari Breakout (click here)
Breakout is one of the early classic video games. I used to play it for long stretches of time. I think one of the big appeals is that it is really simple to understand – it doesn’t take a big explanation of the rules in order to just start playing and enjoying it. You can control the paddle with the left-right keys on the keyboard, or with your mouse (mouse is easier).

The post 3 cool things you can do with Google first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

change drive letter — How to change the letter assigned to a drive – and why May 09, 2016
Every drive on your Windows computer has a letter of the alphabet assigned to it. The hard drive is probably drive C, and the CD/DVD drive (if you have one) is probably drive D. If you plug in a flash drive, it would most likely be drive E, since a new drive will take the next available drive letter. But if you set up a regular backup to a portable USB drive, you need to change the drive letter of that drive first. Here’s why.

When you set up a backup that goes to a portable or external hard drive, you have to tell the backup software a few things.

What files and folders to back up

How often to back up

What time of day to back up

Where to send the files and folders for the backup

That last item – where to send the backed-up files and folders – is the key element here.

So you have your external drive plugged in, and let’s say it takes the drive letter “E” since that is the next letter available, alphabetically. This means that each day, your backup program will take those selected files and folders and put them in their proper place on drive E, your backup drive.

And that’s all fine, until something different happens.

When you’re using the computer, you should not have the external drive connected to it. But let’s say you are using the computer, and for whatever reason, you plug in a flash drive to see what’s on it. Then you leave that flash drive sitting in the USB port. That means the flash drive is now drive “E”.

Later on, you plug in your external drive so that the computer can do its backup. Maybe the backup is set to happen at 1 am (a popular time for overnight backups to start). BUT – what you didn’t notice is that the external hard drive is now drive “F” – the next available letter in the alphabet.

So when your backup program fires up at 1 am, it’s going to look for drive “E” – just like it’s supposed to – but drive “E” is the flash drive. There are several problems that could arise from this:

the flash drive probably doesn’t have enough available space to do the backup

the flash drive might not have the folder the backup program would be looking for to store the backup

if you forget the flash drive is there, you might think everything is fine and not realize for several days or even weeks that you haven’t been doing a backup

All of those problems can be avoided if you just do one thing when you’re setting up the backup. This is something I do every time I set up a backup for a client. You should change the drive letter for the external/portable drive, and you should assign it a letter that’s way up in the alphabet, like “P” or “M”. That way, it will always stay that letter when you plug it into your computer. The only way you could “bump” that external drive off of one of those letters would be to plug in so many other flash drives or other things that all the other letters are used up. That won’t happen, so you’re safe with a letter that is near the end of the alphabet.

Here’s how you change the drive letter:

Plug in your portable drive

Click the Start button, and RIGHT click on either “Computer” (Windows 7 or 8) or “This PC” (Windows 10)

In the little menu that comes up, click on “Manage”

4. In the new window that opens, click on “Disk Management”

5. Now you’ll see a list of all your drives, including the external drive

6. Do a RIGHT click on the external drive and choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths”

7. Now click the Change button:

8. Click the drop-down menu and choose the letter you want to use, and click OK:

You might get an alert that pops up saying that some programs may not work properly if you change the drive letter for this drive. That’s fine, because the only program that will use this external drive is your backup program (I use Macrium Reflect), and you’re going to tell it the new drive letter anyway.

Remember, you need to do this BEFORE you set up the backup. Otherwise, you’ll have to go back into the backup program and tell it the new drive letter too.

And as always, if you want to set up a backup and this all sounds like more than you want to deal with, I can do all of this for you remotely. So you don’t have to bother with it, you don’t have to bring your computer anywhere, and you don’t have to have someone come in to your home or business.

The post How to change the letter assigned to a drive – and why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

change drive letter — How to change the letter assigned to a drive – and why May 09, 2016
Every drive on your Windows computer has a letter of the alphabet assigned to it. The hard drive is probably drive C, and the CD/DVD drive (if you have one) is probably drive D. If you plug in a flash drive, it would most likely be drive E, since a new drive will take the next available drive letter. But if you set up a regular backup to a portable USB drive, you need to change the drive letter of that drive first. Here’s why.

When you set up a backup that goes to a portable or external hard drive, you have to tell the backup software a few things.

What files and folders to back up

How often to back up

What time of day to back up

Where to send the files and folders for the backup

That last item – where to send the backed-up files and folders – is the key element here.

So you have your external drive plugged in, and let’s say it takes the drive letter “E” since that is the next letter available, alphabetically. This means that each day, your backup program will take those selected files and folders and put them in their proper place on drive E, your backup drive.

And that’s all fine, until something different happens.

When you’re using the computer, you should not have the external drive connected to it. But let’s say you are using the computer, and for whatever reason, you plug in a flash drive to see what’s on it. Then you leave that flash drive sitting in the USB port. That means the flash drive is now drive “E”.

Later on, you plug in your external drive so that the computer can do its backup. Maybe the backup is set to happen at 1 am (a popular time for overnight backups to start). BUT – what you didn’t notice is that the external hard drive is now drive “F” – the next available letter in the alphabet.

So when your backup program fires up at 1 am, it’s going to look for drive “E” – just like it’s supposed to – but drive “E” is the flash drive. There are several problems that could arise from this:

the flash drive probably doesn’t have enough available space to do the backup

the flash drive might not have the folder the backup program would be looking for to store the backup

if you forget the flash drive is there, you might think everything is fine and not realize for several days or even weeks that you haven’t been doing a backup

All of those problems can be avoided if you just do one thing when you’re setting up the backup. This is something I do every time I set up a backup for a client. You should change the drive letter for the external/portable drive, and you should assign it a letter that’s way up in the alphabet, like “P” or “M”. That way, it will always stay that letter when you plug it into your computer. The only way you could “bump” that external drive off of one of those letters would be to plug in so many other flash drives or other things that all the other letters are used up. That won’t happen, so you’re safe with a letter that is near the end of the alphabet.

Here’s how you change the drive letter:

Plug in your portable drive

Click the Start button, and RIGHT click on either “Computer” (Windows 7 or 8) or “This PC” (Windows 10)

In the little menu that comes up, click on “Manage”

4. In the new window that opens, click on “Disk Management”

5. Now you’ll see a list of all your drives, including the external drive

6. Do a RIGHT click on the external drive and choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths”

7. Now click the Change button:

8. Click the drop-down menu and choose the letter you want to use, and click OK:

You might get an alert that pops up saying that some programs may not work properly if you change the drive letter for this drive. That’s fine, because the only program that will use this external drive is your backup program (I use Macrium Reflect), and you’re going to tell it the new drive letter anyway.

Remember, you need to do this BEFORE you set up the backup. Otherwise, you’ll have to go back into the backup program and tell it the new drive letter too.

And as always, if you want to set up a backup and this all sounds like more than you want to deal with, I can do all of this for you remotely. So you don’t have to bother with it, you don’t have to bring your computer anywhere, and you don’t have to have someone come in to your home or business.

The post How to change the letter assigned to a drive – and why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netflix secret categories — Your computer can find secret Netflix categories May 02, 2016
I love Netflix. And so do millions of other people. There are so many choices of what to watch, it’s almost overwhelming. But the “standard” Netflix content categories that you normally see on the screen are often too broad to really make a specific selection. However, when you know this little trick and the proper category codes, you can choose EXACTLY the type of movie you want to watch.

You know if you just go to Netflix.com to choose something to watch, you get the standard list of categories such as Action, Drama, Comedy, Documentary, etc. Those categories are sometimes just way too broad! What if you want to watch a political documentary? or an Irish movie? or a Korean TV show? You can actually find those things on Netflix, if you know this little trick!

You just have to go on your computer, open a web browser such as Chrome or Firefox, and type this in the address bar at the top:

http://netflix.com/browse/genre/xxxxx

BUT – instead of that series of Xs at the end, type a number. The number you put there will depend on what you want to watch. To use the examples I mentioned above, let’s say you want to watch a political documentary. That number is 7018. So you would enter this address in your web browser:

http://netflix.com/browse/genre/7018

When you do that, Netflix offers up all kinds of choices (this image only shows a few of the options):

Then you just go to Netflix on your TV, search for the name of the movie you want, and watch it.

For an Irish movie, the code is 58750, so you would enter http://netflix.com/browse/genre/58750. That gives us loads of Irish movies:

And for Korean TV shows, the address would be http://netflix.com/browse/genre/67879 and you would get even more choices:

So here it is – a list of all the codes for the “other” Netflix categories:

Action & Adventure: 1365
Action Comedies: 43040
Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1568
Action Thrillers: 43048
Adult Animation: 11881
Adventures: 7442
African Movies: 3761
Alien Sci-Fi: 3327
Animal Tales: 5507
Anime: 7424
Anime Action: 2653
Anime Comedies: 9302
Anime Dramas: 452
Anime Fantasy: 11146
Anime Features: 3063
Anime Horror: 10695
Anime Sci-Fi: 2729
Anime Series: 6721
Art House Movies: 29764
Asian Action Movies: 77232
Australian Movies: 5230
B-Horror Movies: 8195
Baseball Movies: 12339
Basketball Movies: 12762
Belgian Movies: 262
Biographical Documentaries: 3652
Biographical Dramas: 3179
Boxing Movies: 12443
British Movies: 10757
British TV Shows: 52117
Campy Movies: 1252
Children & Family Movies: 783
Chinese Movies: 3960
Classic Action & Adventure: 46576
Classic Comedies: 31694
Classic Dramas: 29809
Classic Foreign Movies: 32473
Classic Movies: 31574
Classic Musicals: 32392
Classic Romantic Movies: 31273
Classic Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 47147
Classic Thrillers: 46588
Classic TV Shows: 46553
Classic War Movies: 48744
Classic Westerns: 47465
Comedies: 6548
Comic Book and Superhero Movies: 10118
Country & Western/Folk: 1105
Courtroom Dramas: 2748
Creature Features: 6895
Crime Action & Adventure: 9584
Crime Documentaries: 9875
Crime Dramas: 6889
Crime Thrillers: 10499
Crime TV Shows: 26146
Cult Comedies: 9434
Cult Horror Movies: 10944
Cult Movies: 7627
Cult Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 4734
Cult TV Shows: 74652
Dark Comedies: 869
Deep Sea Horror Movies: 45028
Disney: 67673
Disney Musicals: 59433
Documentaries: 6839
Dramas: 5763
Dramas based on Books: 4961
Dramas based on real life: 3653
Dutch Movies: 10606
Eastern European Movies: 5254
Education for Kids: 10659
Epics: 52858
Experimental Movies: 11079
Faith & Spirituality: 26835
Faith & Spirituality Movies: 52804
Family Features: 51056
Fantasy Movies: 9744
Film Noir: 7687
Food & Travel TV: 72436
Football Movies: 12803
Foreign Action & Adventure: 11828
Foreign Comedies: 4426
Foreign Documentaries: 5161
Foreign Dramas: 2150
Foreign Gay & Lesbian Movies: 8243
Foreign Horror Movies: 8654
Foreign Movies: 7462
Foreign Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 6485
Foreign Thrillers: 10306
French Movies: 58807
Gangster Movies: 31851
Gay & Lesbian Dramas: 500
German Movies: 58886
Greek Movies: 61115
Historical Documentaries: 5349
Horror Comedy: 89585
Horror Movies: 8711
Independent Action & Adventure: 11804
Independent Comedies: 4195
Independent Dramas: 384
Independent Movies: 7077
Independent Thrillers: 3269
Indian Movies: 10463
Irish Movies: 58750
Italian Movies: 8221
Japanese Movies: 10398
Jazz & Easy Listening: 10271
Kids Faith & Spirituality: 751423
Kids Music: 52843
Kids’ TV: 27346
Korean Movies: 5685
Korean TV Shows: 67879
Late Night Comedies: 1402
Latin American Movies: 1613
Latin Music: 10741
Martial Arts Movies: 8985
Martial Arts, Boxing & Wrestling: 6695
Middle Eastern Movies: 5875
Military Action & Adventure: 2125
Military Documentaries: 4006
Military Dramas: 11
Military TV Shows: 25804
Miniseries: 4814
Mockumentaries: 26
Monster Movies: 947
Movies based on children’s books: 10056
Movies for ages 0 to 2: 6796
Movies for ages 2 to 4: 6218
Movies for ages 5 to 7: 5455
Movies for ages 8 to 10: 561
Movies for ages 11 to 12: 6962
Music & Concert Documentaries: 90361
Music: 1701
Musicals: 13335
Mysteries: 9994
New Zealand Movies: 63782
Period Pieces: 12123
Political Comedies: 2700
Political Documentaries: 7018
Political Dramas: 6616
Political Thrillers: 10504
Psychological Thrillers: 5505
Quirky Romance: 36103
Reality TV: 9833
Religious Documentaries: 10005
Rock & Pop Concerts: 3278
Romantic Comedies: 5475
Romantic Dramas: 1255
Romantic Favorites: 502675
Romantic Foreign Movies: 7153
Romantic Independent Movies: 9916
Romantic Movies: 8883
Russian: 11567
Satanic Stories: 6998
Satires: 4922
Scandinavian Movies: 9292
Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1492
Sci-Fi Adventure: 6926
Sci-Fi Dramas: 3916
Sci-Fi Horror Movies: 1694
Sci-Fi Thrillers: 11014
Science & Nature Documentaries: 2595
Science & Nature TV: 52780
Screwball Comedies: 9702
Showbiz Dramas: 5012
Showbiz Musicals: 13573
Silent Movies: 53310
Slapstick Comedies: 10256
Slasher and Serial Killer Movies: 8646
Soccer Movies: 12549
Social & Cultural Documentaries: 3675
Social Issue Dramas: 3947
Southeast Asian Movies: 9196
Spanish Movies: 58741
Spiritual Documentaries: 2760
Sports & Fitness: 9327
Sports Comedies: 5286
Sports Documentaries: 180
Sports Dramas: 7243
Sports Movies: 4370
Spy Action & Adventure: 10702
Spy Thrillers: 9147
Stage Musicals: 55774
Stand-up Comedy: 11559
Steamy Romantic Movies: 35800
Steamy Thrillers: 972
Supernatural Horror Movies: 42023
Supernatural Thrillers: 11140
Tearjerkers: 6384
Teen Comedies: 3519
Teen Dramas: 9299
Teen Screams: 52147
Teen TV Shows: 60951
Thrillers: 8933
Travel & Adventure Documentaries: 1159
TV Action & Adventure: 10673
TV Cartoons: 11177
TV Comedies: 10375
TV Documentaries: 10105
TV Dramas: 11714
TV Horror: 83059
TV Mysteries: 4366
TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1372
TV Shows: 83
Urban & Dance Concerts: 9472
Vampire Horror Movies: 75804
Werewolf Horror Movies: 75930
Westerns: 7700
World Music Concerts: 2856
Zombie Horror Movies: 75405

Now you definitely can’t complain that there’s nothing to watch!

The post Your computer can find secret Netflix categories first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

netflix secret categories — Your computer can find secret Netflix categories May 02, 2016
I love Netflix. And so do millions of other people. There are so many choices of what to watch, it’s almost overwhelming. But the “standard” Netflix content categories that you normally see on the screen are often too broad to really make a specific selection. However, when you know this little trick and the proper category codes, you can choose EXACTLY the type of movie you want to watch.

You know if you just go to Netflix.com to choose something to watch, you get the standard list of categories such as Action, Drama, Comedy, Documentary, etc. Those categories are sometimes just way too broad! What if you want to watch a political documentary? or an Irish movie? or a Korean TV show? You can actually find those things on Netflix, if you know this little trick!

You just have to go on your computer, open a web browser such as Chrome or Firefox, and type this in the address bar at the top:

http://netflix.com/browse/genre/xxxxx

BUT – instead of that series of Xs at the end, type a number. The number you put there will depend on what you want to watch. To use the examples I mentioned above, let’s say you want to watch a political documentary. That number is 7018. So you would enter this address in your web browser:

http://netflix.com/browse/genre/7018

When you do that, Netflix offers up all kinds of choices (this image only shows a few of the options):

Then you just go to Netflix on your TV, search for the name of the movie you want, and watch it.

For an Irish movie, the code is 58750, so you would enter http://netflix.com/browse/genre/58750. That gives us loads of Irish movies:

And for Korean TV shows, the address would be http://netflix.com/browse/genre/67879 and you would get even more choices:

So here it is – a list of all the codes for the “other” Netflix categories:

Action & Adventure: 1365
Action Comedies: 43040
Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1568
Action Thrillers: 43048
Adult Animation: 11881
Adventures: 7442
African Movies: 3761
Alien Sci-Fi: 3327
Animal Tales: 5507
Anime: 7424
Anime Action: 2653
Anime Comedies: 9302
Anime Dramas: 452
Anime Fantasy: 11146
Anime Features: 3063
Anime Horror: 10695
Anime Sci-Fi: 2729
Anime Series: 6721
Art House Movies: 29764
Asian Action Movies: 77232
Australian Movies: 5230
B-Horror Movies: 8195
Baseball Movies: 12339
Basketball Movies: 12762
Belgian Movies: 262
Biographical Documentaries: 3652
Biographical Dramas: 3179
Boxing Movies: 12443
British Movies: 10757
British TV Shows: 52117
Campy Movies: 1252
Children & Family Movies: 783
Chinese Movies: 3960
Classic Action & Adventure: 46576
Classic Comedies: 31694
Classic Dramas: 29809
Classic Foreign Movies: 32473
Classic Movies: 31574
Classic Musicals: 32392
Classic Romantic Movies: 31273
Classic Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 47147
Classic Thrillers: 46588
Classic TV Shows: 46553
Classic War Movies: 48744
Classic Westerns: 47465
Comedies: 6548
Comic Book and Superhero Movies: 10118
Country & Western/Folk: 1105
Courtroom Dramas: 2748
Creature Features: 6895
Crime Action & Adventure: 9584
Crime Documentaries: 9875
Crime Dramas: 6889
Crime Thrillers: 10499
Crime TV Shows: 26146
Cult Comedies: 9434
Cult Horror Movies: 10944
Cult Movies: 7627
Cult Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 4734
Cult TV Shows: 74652
Dark Comedies: 869
Deep Sea Horror Movies: 45028
Disney: 67673
Disney Musicals: 59433
Documentaries: 6839
Dramas: 5763
Dramas based on Books: 4961
Dramas based on real life: 3653
Dutch Movies: 10606
Eastern European Movies: 5254
Education for Kids: 10659
Epics: 52858
Experimental Movies: 11079
Faith & Spirituality: 26835
Faith & Spirituality Movies: 52804
Family Features: 51056
Fantasy Movies: 9744
Film Noir: 7687
Food & Travel TV: 72436
Football Movies: 12803
Foreign Action & Adventure: 11828
Foreign Comedies: 4426
Foreign Documentaries: 5161
Foreign Dramas: 2150
Foreign Gay & Lesbian Movies: 8243
Foreign Horror Movies: 8654
Foreign Movies: 7462
Foreign Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 6485
Foreign Thrillers: 10306
French Movies: 58807
Gangster Movies: 31851
Gay & Lesbian Dramas: 500
German Movies: 58886
Greek Movies: 61115
Historical Documentaries: 5349
Horror Comedy: 89585
Horror Movies: 8711
Independent Action & Adventure: 11804
Independent Comedies: 4195
Independent Dramas: 384
Independent Movies: 7077
Independent Thrillers: 3269
Indian Movies: 10463
Irish Movies: 58750
Italian Movies: 8221
Japanese Movies: 10398
Jazz & Easy Listening: 10271
Kids Faith & Spirituality: 751423
Kids Music: 52843
Kids’ TV: 27346
Korean Movies: 5685
Korean TV Shows: 67879
Late Night Comedies: 1402
Latin American Movies: 1613
Latin Music: 10741
Martial Arts Movies: 8985
Martial Arts, Boxing & Wrestling: 6695
Middle Eastern Movies: 5875
Military Action & Adventure: 2125
Military Documentaries: 4006
Military Dramas: 11
Military TV Shows: 25804
Miniseries: 4814
Mockumentaries: 26
Monster Movies: 947
Movies based on children’s books: 10056
Movies for ages 0 to 2: 6796
Movies for ages 2 to 4: 6218
Movies for ages 5 to 7: 5455
Movies for ages 8 to 10: 561
Movies for ages 11 to 12: 6962
Music & Concert Documentaries: 90361
Music: 1701
Musicals: 13335
Mysteries: 9994
New Zealand Movies: 63782
Period Pieces: 12123
Political Comedies: 2700
Political Documentaries: 7018
Political Dramas: 6616
Political Thrillers: 10504
Psychological Thrillers: 5505
Quirky Romance: 36103
Reality TV: 9833
Religious Documentaries: 10005
Rock & Pop Concerts: 3278
Romantic Comedies: 5475
Romantic Dramas: 1255
Romantic Favorites: 502675
Romantic Foreign Movies: 7153
Romantic Independent Movies: 9916
Romantic Movies: 8883
Russian: 11567
Satanic Stories: 6998
Satires: 4922
Scandinavian Movies: 9292
Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1492
Sci-Fi Adventure: 6926
Sci-Fi Dramas: 3916
Sci-Fi Horror Movies: 1694
Sci-Fi Thrillers: 11014
Science & Nature Documentaries: 2595
Science & Nature TV: 52780
Screwball Comedies: 9702
Showbiz Dramas: 5012
Showbiz Musicals: 13573
Silent Movies: 53310
Slapstick Comedies: 10256
Slasher and Serial Killer Movies: 8646
Soccer Movies: 12549
Social & Cultural Documentaries: 3675
Social Issue Dramas: 3947
Southeast Asian Movies: 9196
Spanish Movies: 58741
Spiritual Documentaries: 2760
Sports & Fitness: 9327
Sports Comedies: 5286
Sports Documentaries: 180
Sports Dramas: 7243
Sports Movies: 4370
Spy Action & Adventure: 10702
Spy Thrillers: 9147
Stage Musicals: 55774
Stand-up Comedy: 11559
Steamy Romantic Movies: 35800
Steamy Thrillers: 972
Supernatural Horror Movies: 42023
Supernatural Thrillers: 11140
Tearjerkers: 6384
Teen Comedies: 3519
Teen Dramas: 9299
Teen Screams: 52147
Teen TV Shows: 60951
Thrillers: 8933
Travel & Adventure Documentaries: 1159
TV Action & Adventure: 10673
TV Cartoons: 11177
TV Comedies: 10375
TV Documentaries: 10105
TV Dramas: 11714
TV Horror: 83059
TV Mysteries: 4366
TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 1372
TV Shows: 83
Urban & Dance Concerts: 9472
Vampire Horror Movies: 75804
Werewolf Horror Movies: 75930
Westerns: 7700
World Music Concerts: 2856
Zombie Horror Movies: 75405

Now you definitely can’t complain that there’s nothing to watch!

The post Your computer can find secret Netflix categories first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

no more QuickTime — Time to get rid of QuickTime Apr 25, 2016
Popular programs come and go. What was highly used a few years ago may no longer be used much at all, and in fact could even be inviting hackers into your computer. Why keep an unsecure program that you don’t even use anymore?

The program I’m referring to specifically today is QuickTime.

QuickTime is a media player, which means it can play audio or video files. It’s made by Apple, but it is commonly seen on both Mac and Windows computers. It used to be very popular and was often used to play movie files that ended with the “.mov” extension.

These days it’s not really used much. Apple has not come out with a new version of the software in more than 10 years, and in terms of computer software that means it’s very outdated. They also just announced recently that they won’t be issuing any new security updates for QuickTime programs running on Windows computers. They are going to continue to support it on Apple computers.

That means whenever a new security flaw is found in QuickTime, it won’t get fixed if you’re running Windows. So hackers or scammers would be free to exploit that security problem on your Windows computer, because they know the problem is not going to be fixed by Apple. So you should just get rid of it.

To remove QuickTime, just go to Control Panel – Programs and Features and find it in the list. Do a right-click on the name and choose “uninstall”. Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Of course, the next question might be “If I have some .MOV video files saved on my computer, and I no longer have QuickTime to play those video files, how can I play them?” Good question! You have a couple of options, at least:

Windows Media Player can play .MOV files

VLC Media Player can play .MOV files

Windows Media Player is already on your Windows computer, and VLC Media Player is a free download at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

The post Time to get rid of QuickTime first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Time to get rid of QuickTime Apr 25, 2016
Popular programs come and go. What was highly used a few years ago may no longer be used much at all, and in fact could even be inviting hackers into your computer. Why keep an unsecure program that you don’t even use anymore?

The program I’m referring to specifically today is QuickTime.

QuickTime is a media player, which means it can play audio or video files. It’s made by Apple, but it is commonly seen on both Mac and Windows computers. It used to be very popular and was often used to play movie files that ended with the “.mov” extension.

These days it’s not really used much. Apple has not come out with a new version of the software in more than 10 years, and in terms of computer software that means it’s very outdated. They also just announced recently that they won’t be issuing any new security updates for QuickTime programs running on Windows computers. They are going to continue to support it on Apple computers.

That means whenever a new security flaw is found in QuickTime, it won’t get fixed if you’re running Windows. So hackers or scammers would be free to exploit that security problem on your Windows computer, because they know the problem is not going to be fixed by Apple. So you should just get rid of it.

To remove QuickTime, just go to Control Panel – Programs and Features and find it in the list. Do a right-click on the name and choose “uninstall”. Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Of course, the next question might be “If I have some .MOV video files saved on my computer, and I no longer have QuickTime to play those video files, how can I play them?” Good question! You have a couple of options, at least:

Windows Media Player can play .MOV files

VLC Media Player can play .MOV files

Windows Media Player is already on your Windows computer, and VLC Media Player is a free download at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

The post Time to get rid of QuickTime first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

windows-confusion — The key to hit when you’re lost in Windows 8 or Windows 10 Apr 18, 2016
When Windows 8 first came out and people sat down at their computer to use it, the first common reaction was just plain confusion. Everything had changed. The Start button didn’t do what it did in Windows 7, and people didn’t know how to get to the places they used to be very familiar with. If they had known this little secret key combination, they probably would have felt less stress and they may have actually gotten some work done.

Windows 10 is similar. Microsoft thinks we should be so grateful that they “gave” us back the Start menu, but the Windows 10 Start button and Start menu aren’t nearly as functional and practical as the one that came with Windows 7. It’s just one of the reasons I don’t recommend “upgrading” to Windows 10.

But even Microsoft has its fleeting moments of good judgement. Part of the design of Windows 8 includes a secret key combination that gives you a menu of the common places in your computer that you might want to find. That key combination works in Windows 10 also, and I use it quite often when I’m working with either of those versions of Windows on a client’s computer.

The key combination is: Windows key + X

Just hold down the Windows key (lower left area of the keyboard) and tap the letter “x”. This only works with Windows 8 and 10, so if you have Windows 7 you can’t use it (but if you have Windows 7, you don’t need this).

When you hit Windows + X, you’ll see a neat little “common places” menu pop up that looks like this:

This handy little menu is commonly called the Power User Menu, but it is also sometimes known as:

Win + X menu

Windows Tools menu

WinX menu

Power User Hotkeys

As you can see, there are some handy locations on there. Some of them you might not be all that familiar with. Here’s what I recommend, as an “educational exercise” and it won’t take long: Open the Power User menu, and click on the first place in the list. That way you’ll be able to see exactly that that is, so that you can access it in the future when you need to. Then open it again, and check the second one in the list and so on.

Here are a few examples:

Want to uninstall a program on your computer that you no longer need? Programs and Features

Want to set your laptop so that it goes into Sleep mode after 60 minutes of inactivity? Power Options

Want to see how much memory your computer has, or what version of Windows you’re using? System

Want to see all of your various drives, folders, etc.? File Explorer

Saved a Word document but you don’t remember where? Search

Are you lost and just want to get back to your icon screen? Desktop

It actually is a pretty handy thing to know about.

Even better is a tool called ClassicShell (get it free here). That’s a free program that actually gives you back the old Windows 7 Start Menu, on your Windows 8 or Windows 10 computer. When Windows 10 first came out, it didn’t work well with ClassicShell. That may have been resolved now.

The post The key to hit when you’re lost in Windows 8 or Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

power user menu — The key to hit when you’re lost in Windows 8 or Windows 10 Apr 18, 2016
When Windows 8 first came out and people sat down at their computer to use it, the first common reaction was just plain confusion. Everything had changed. The Start button didn’t do what it did in Windows 7, and people didn’t know how to get to the places they used to be very familiar with. If they had known this little secret key combination, they probably would have felt less stress and they may have actually gotten some work done.

Windows 10 is similar. Microsoft thinks we should be so grateful that they “gave” us back the Start menu, but the Windows 10 Start button and Start menu aren’t nearly as functional and practical as the one that came with Windows 7. It’s just one of the reasons I don’t recommend “upgrading” to Windows 10.

But even Microsoft has its fleeting moments of good judgement. Part of the design of Windows 8 includes a secret key combination that gives you a menu of the common places in your computer that you might want to find. That key combination works in Windows 10 also, and I use it quite often when I’m working with either of those versions of Windows on a client’s computer.

The key combination is: Windows key + X

Just hold down the Windows key (lower left area of the keyboard) and tap the letter “x”. This only works with Windows 8 and 10, so if you have Windows 7 you can’t use it (but if you have Windows 7, you don’t need this).

When you hit Windows + X, you’ll see a neat little “common places” menu pop up that looks like this:

This handy little menu is commonly called the Power User Menu, but it is also sometimes known as:

Win + X menu

Windows Tools menu

WinX menu

Power User Hotkeys

As you can see, there are some handy locations on there. Some of them you might not be all that familiar with. Here’s what I recommend, as an “educational exercise” and it won’t take long: Open the Power User menu, and click on the first place in the list. That way you’ll be able to see exactly that that is, so that you can access it in the future when you need to. Then open it again, and check the second one in the list and so on.

Here are a few examples:

Want to uninstall a program on your computer that you no longer need? Programs and Features

Want to set your laptop so that it goes into Sleep mode after 60 minutes of inactivity? Power Options

Want to see how much memory your computer has, or what version of Windows you’re using? System

Want to see all of your various drives, folders, etc.? File Explorer

Saved a Word document but you don’t remember where? Search

Are you lost and just want to get back to your icon screen? Desktop

It actually is a pretty handy thing to know about.

Even better is a tool called ClassicShell (get it free here). That’s a free program that actually gives you back the old Windows 7 Start Menu, on your Windows 8 or Windows 10 computer. When Windows 10 first came out, it didn’t work well with ClassicShell. That may have been resolved now.

The post The key to hit when you’re lost in Windows 8 or Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Never 10 — A simpler way to block the Windows 10 “upgrade” Apr 11, 2016
Microsoft is still trying to “upgrade” all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers to their newest concoction, Windows 10. We’ve been battling that with free software (GWX Control Panel) and it’s a constant fight. Now there’s a new program (also free) to put an end to the threat of upgrade.

A little background first.

When Microsoft started getting really aggressive about pushing Windows 10 onto computers even when people didn’t want it, they got some strong pushback. And rightly so. Some people, including myself, like Windows 7 (or even Windows 8.1) and want to keep using it. We choose NOT to go to Windows 10.

So Microsoft announced that they were ever so graciously offering the option to disable operating system upgrades. This can be done on a computer-by-computer basis. All you have to do is follow their steps. Easy, right?

No, not easy. The process required configuring the Windows Group Policy Editor. If you don’t know what that is, you’re in good company because most people don’t. And in some cases it also involves editing the Windows Registry – something that the average user should never attempt, as a mistake could completely mess up your computer. So Microsoft technically did offer a way to not get Windows 10, but then they made it so technical and difficult that most people couldn’t do it. It’s even been called “user-hostile”.

A few months ago, an independent programmer came out with the free program GWX Control Panel, which has been better than nothing. It monitors for whenever Windows 10 tries to sneak in and alerts the user so you can swat it away again like a mosquito. But Windows 10 is a pesky and persistent mosquito so it keeps trying to get back in, and GWX CP alerts pop up, and things need to be reset. It’s a constant battle.

So now we have Never10. It’s a free program, created by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research. Steve does a weekly podcast with Leo Laporte called Security Now, and he’s been in the computer security industry for decades. He’s definitely someone to trust, and he knows what he’s doing. And he also does not want Windows 10 on his computer.

You can get Never10 here: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm (just click the green “Download now” button on that page).

Never10 does not install anything on your computer. You just download it, and run it. You know that difficult process from Microsoft that I mentioned earlier? That’s exactly what Never10 does. It takes care of those steps for you, and it disables the Windows 10 operating system upgrade for your computer.

When you first run it, you will probably see a window like this:

If you see that window, just click the button at the bottom that says “Disable Win10 upgrade”. When you do that, it will do what it needs to do in about a 1/2 second, and you’ll see this message:

Click “Exit” and you’re done. Of course, if Windows 10 upgrades are already disabled on your computer, you might see that second message right off the bat.

Once you see the green message, you can delete Never10 or you can leave it wherever it downloaded to (it takes up almost no space). You can then also uninstall GWX Control Panel. And if your’e really geeky and want to see all the technical stuff about Never10, you can see that here.

If you’re uncomfortable with running Never10 on your computer, I can take care of it for you through my Remote Support service. Details on that are here: http://ComputerTutorFlorida.com/remote

The post A simpler way to block the Windows 10 “upgrade” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Never10 — A simpler way to block the Windows 10 “upgrade” Apr 11, 2016
Microsoft is still trying to “upgrade” all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers to their newest concoction, Windows 10. We’ve been battling that with free software (GWX Control Panel) and it’s a constant fight. Now there’s a new program (also free) to put an end to the threat of upgrade.

A little background first.

When Microsoft started getting really aggressive about pushing Windows 10 onto computers even when people didn’t want it, they got some strong pushback. And rightly so. Some people, including myself, like Windows 7 (or even Windows 8.1) and want to keep using it. We choose NOT to go to Windows 10.

So Microsoft announced that they were ever so graciously offering the option to disable operating system upgrades. This can be done on a computer-by-computer basis. All you have to do is follow their steps. Easy, right?

No, not easy. The process required configuring the Windows Group Policy Editor. If you don’t know what that is, you’re in good company because most people don’t. And in some cases it also involves editing the Windows Registry – something that the average user should never attempt, as a mistake could completely mess up your computer. So Microsoft technically did offer a way to not get Windows 10, but then they made it so technical and difficult that most people couldn’t do it. It’s even been called “user-hostile”.

A few months ago, an independent programmer came out with the free program GWX Control Panel, which has been better than nothing. It monitors for whenever Windows 10 tries to sneak in and alerts the user so you can swat it away again like a mosquito. But Windows 10 is a pesky and persistent mosquito so it keeps trying to get back in, and GWX CP alerts pop up, and things need to be reset. It’s a constant battle.

So now we have Never10. It’s a free program, created by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research. Steve does a weekly podcast with Leo Laporte called Security Now, and he’s been in the computer security industry for decades. He’s definitely someone to trust, and he knows what he’s doing. And he also does not want Windows 10 on his computer.

You can get Never10 here: https://www.grc.com/never10.htm (just click the green “Download now” button on that page).

Never10 does not install anything on your computer. You just download it, and run it. You know that difficult process from Microsoft that I mentioned earlier? That’s exactly what Never10 does. It takes care of those steps for you, and it disables the Windows 10 operating system upgrade for your computer.

When you first run it, you will probably see a window like this:

If you see that window, just click the button at the bottom that says “Disable Win10 upgrade”. When you do that, it will do what it needs to do in about a 1/2 second, and you’ll see this message:

Click “Exit” and you’re done. Of course, if Windows 10 upgrades are already disabled on your computer, you might see that second message right off the bat.

Once you see the green message, you can delete Never10 or you can leave it wherever it downloaded to (it takes up almost no space). You can then also uninstall GWX Control Panel. And if your’e really geeky and want to see all the technical stuff about Never10, you can see that here.

If you’re uncomfortable with running Never10 on your computer, I can take care of it for you through my Remote Support service. Details on that are here: http://ComputerTutorFlorida.com/remote

The post A simpler way to block the Windows 10 “upgrade” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

customize send to menu — How to customize your Send To menu Apr 04, 2016
Last week we talked about how to access the secret expanded Send To menu, and I mentioned that it was possible to also add folders and locations to the Send To menu. You can also delete some of the ones that are there by default if you don’t need them. Some people have asked about how to do this, so that’s what we’ll do today.

As a quick review, here are the main things to know about the Send To menu:

You get to the Send To menu by right-clicking on a file or folder, then moving your mouse down to where it says “Send to” – then you’ll see the standard “Send To” menu pop out to the side.

The most common use (for me anyway) is to make a desktop shortcut. So instead of storing a folder full of pictures on your desktop (which will slow down the computer), you can store that folder in… oh, I don’t know… maybe the PICTURES FOLDER, and then just have a shortcut to it on the desktop. Same one-click access to that folder, but without cluttering up the desktop and slowing down the computer.

You can “Send To” a location, or a program. If you choose to send a file to “Documents”, then a copy of that file will be saved in the Documents folder. If you choose to send a file to “mail recipient”, then a new email compose window will open with that file already attached (to do this, you need to be using an email program such as Outlook or Windows Live Mail – it won’t work with web-based email, like if you go to Yahoo.com to get your email).

You can customize what shows up on the Send To menu! So you can delete the junk you don’t need, and add locations and programs that you would use.

Here’s how you customize the Send To menu.

First, you need to actually get to the folder that IS the Send To menu. If you’re geeky, you could do it the old-fashioned way and drill down in Windows until you get to it:

But really the easier way is to hold the Windows key and tap the letter R. In the window that comes up, type: shell:sendto

That takes you directly to the folder where all of your “send to” options are. As you can see, it looks like any other folder on your computer:

At this point, you can add or remove items from this folder based on what you want in your “Send To” menu.

If something is there currently that you would never use (I’m guessing you probably don’t send too many things to a “fax recipient”), just right-click and delete it.

To add a new folder or a new location here, you just create a shortcut for that folder or location inside the Send To folder. For example, let’s say you want to add the Pictures folder as a destination in your Send To menu. With the Send To folder open, do a right-click in the main open area and choose New – Shortcut. Then click on Browse and choose your Pictures folder. Now, when you right click and choose Send To on a picture, you can opt to send it to the Pictures folder. Easy!

It just takes a minute to get the Send To menu just the way you want it, but it can save you a lot of time in the future because it makes the process a lot more efficient.

The post How to customize your Send To menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

send to location — How to customize your Send To menu Apr 04, 2016
Last week we talked about how to access the secret expanded Send To menu, and I mentioned that it was possible to also add folders and locations to the Send To menu. You can also delete some of the ones that are there by default if you don’t need them. Some people have asked about how to do this, so that’s what we’ll do today.

As a quick review, here are the main things to know about the Send To menu:

You get to the Send To menu by right-clicking on a file or folder, then moving your mouse down to where it says “Send to” – then you’ll see the standard “Send To” menu pop out to the side.

The most common use (for me anyway) is to make a desktop shortcut. So instead of storing a folder full of pictures on your desktop (which will slow down the computer), you can store that folder in… oh, I don’t know… maybe the PICTURES FOLDER, and then just have a shortcut to it on the desktop. Same one-click access to that folder, but without cluttering up the desktop and slowing down the computer.

You can “Send To” a location, or a program. If you choose to send a file to “Documents”, then a copy of that file will be saved in the Documents folder. If you choose to send a file to “mail recipient”, then a new email compose window will open with that file already attached (to do this, you need to be using an email program such as Outlook or Windows Live Mail – it won’t work with web-based email, like if you go to Yahoo.com to get your email).

You can customize what shows up on the Send To menu! So you can delete the junk you don’t need, and add locations and programs that you would use.

Here’s how you customize the Send To menu.

First, you need to actually get to the folder that IS the Send To menu. If you’re geeky, you could do it the old-fashioned way and drill down in Windows until you get to it:

But really the easier way is to hold the Windows key and tap the letter R. In the window that comes up, type: shell:sendto

That takes you directly to the folder where all of your “send to” options are. As you can see, it looks like any other folder on your computer:

At this point, you can add or remove items from this folder based on what you want in your “Send To” menu.

If something is there currently that you would never use (I’m guessing you probably don’t send too many things to a “fax recipient”), just right-click and delete it.

To add a new folder or a new location here, you just create a shortcut for that folder or location inside the Send To folder. For example, let’s say you want to add the Pictures folder as a destination in your Send To menu. With the Send To folder open, do a right-click in the main open area and choose New – Shortcut. Then click on Browse and choose your Pictures folder. Now, when you right click and choose Send To on a picture, you can opt to send it to the Pictures folder. Easy!

It just takes a minute to get the Send To menu just the way you want it, but it can save you a lot of time in the future because it makes the process a lot more efficient.

The post How to customize your Send To menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

secret menu — Windows has a secret “Send to” menu Mar 28, 2016
You’re probably already familiar with the “Send to” menu in Windows. What most people don’t know is that there’s a hidden, expanded “Send to” menu that gives you a lot more options.

The regular Send To menu is certainly no secret. In fact, I use it all the time – most commonly, to put shortcuts to often-used programs right on the desktop for easy access.

Just about any file or folder can be “Sent” somewhere. When you right-click on a file or folder, you get a short menu that pops up, and one of those options is “Send to”. When you put your mouse over the words “Send to”, you’ll see another menu fly out – and you can choose where you want to send that file.

It looks like this:

So you can see I have the option to send that Word document to Adobe Audition, or a compressed folder, or Dropbox, or Evernote, or any other of the locations or programs in that list.

But what you’re seeing there is just the REGULAR “Send to” menu.

We’re looking for the Secret Super Duper EXPANDED “Sent to” menu.

To get to that, you just add one small step to the process. Before you right click on the file or folder that you want to send somewhere, hold down the SHIFT key. Then right click on the file or folder (you can release the Shift key after you do the right click). When the menu appears, move your mouse down to the Send To line, and you’ll now see this:

As you can see, lots more options! Instead of 12 locations or programs that we had in the first one, the “Secret Send To Menu” has 28 – more than double. Most of the additional options are the commonly used folders on your Windows computer

Of course, what shows up as options in the “Send to” menu (either one) will vary somewhat between different computers. In my case, I have added a few of the options manually on the shorter version. You can add to that menu or delete items from it so that it’s customized the way you want it.

The post Windows has a secret “Send to” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

secret send to menu — Windows has a secret “Send to” menu Mar 28, 2016
You’re probably already familiar with the “Send to” menu in Windows. What most people don’t know is that there’s a hidden, expanded “Send to” menu that gives you a lot more options.

The regular Send To menu is certainly no secret. In fact, I use it all the time – most commonly, to put shortcuts to often-used programs right on the desktop for easy access.

Just about any file or folder can be “Sent” somewhere. When you right-click on a file or folder, you get a short menu that pops up, and one of those options is “Send to”. When you put your mouse over the words “Send to”, you’ll see another menu fly out – and you can choose where you want to send that file.

It looks like this:

So you can see I have the option to send that Word document to Adobe Audition, or a compressed folder, or Dropbox, or Evernote, or any other of the locations or programs in that list.

But what you’re seeing there is just the REGULAR “Send to” menu.

We’re looking for the Secret Super Duper EXPANDED “Sent to” menu.

To get to that, you just add one small step to the process. Before you right click on the file or folder that you want to send somewhere, hold down the SHIFT key. Then right click on the file or folder (you can release the Shift key after you do the right click). When the menu appears, move your mouse down to the Send To line, and you’ll now see this:

As you can see, lots more options! Instead of 12 locations or programs that we had in the first one, the “Secret Send To Menu” has 28 – more than double. Most of the additional options are the commonly used folders on your Windows computer

Of course, what shows up as options in the “Send to” menu (either one) will vary somewhat between different computers. In my case, I have added a few of the options manually on the shorter version. You can add to that menu or delete items from it so that it’s customized the way you want it.

The post Windows has a secret “Send to” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows dialogue box — How to copy and paste the contents of a Windows dialogue box Mar 21, 2016
This is so simple and so useful, I can’t believe it’s not more widely known. It would be really handy for when a client is trying to tell me what an error message says, or what the content is in some other Windows message.

The way this comes up most of the time is this: a client gets some kind of error message that pops up on their computer, and they don’t know what it means or what to do with it. So they call me. Sometimes by the time they call, the message has disappeared on its own, or they have clicked on something and caused it to close, so they can no longer tell me what the message actually said.

Or, if the message is still on the screen, they don’t read me the exact wording – they just sort of “summarize” what it says. This doesn’t work, since their summary doesn’t necessarily include all of the critical content that could tell me what is going on.

What I need is a quick relay of ALL the actual text and what buttons are available to click. What most people don’t realize is that you can do that with a simple copy and paste.

To show how it works, I’ll use a dialogue box that I created:

When you see something like that come up on your Windows computer screen, here’s what you do:

Click anywhere inside the box – EXCEPT on any of the buttons. One left click anywhere else, inside the box.

Hold down the CTRL button and tap the letter C. So far, it will seem like nothing has happened because you didn’t see anything change.

Open up Notepad (or any word processor program) and click CTRL + V. There it is – all the text from the dialogue box:

And rather than open a word processor program, you could just as easily open your email, compose a new email message and paste the content of the box right there.

The nice thing is that the copy/pasted content includes everything – the title at the top, the content of the message itself, and the names of all the buttons that are available. This way it leaves no margin for error – your tech can easily and accurately see what the dialogue box is telling you.

Of course, if someone knows how to do it, it’s possible to just take a screenshot of the dialogue box and save that image, then email that. But that’s not nearly as easy as a simple copy and paste!

The post How to copy and paste the contents of a Windows dialogue box first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows dialogue box — How to copy and paste the contents of a Windows dialogue box Mar 21, 2016
This is so simple and so useful, I can’t believe it’s not more widely known. It would be really handy for when a client is trying to tell me what an error message says, or what the content is in some other Windows message.

The way this comes up most of the time is this: a client gets some kind of error message that pops up on their computer, and they don’t know what it means or what to do with it. So they call me. Sometimes by the time they call, the message has disappeared on its own, or they have clicked on something and caused it to close, so they can no longer tell me what the message actually said.

Or, if the message is still on the screen, they don’t read me the exact wording – they just sort of “summarize” what it says. This doesn’t work, since their summary doesn’t necessarily include all of the critical content that could tell me what is going on.

What I need is a quick relay of ALL the actual text and what buttons are available to click. What most people don’t realize is that you can do that with a simple copy and paste.

To show how it works, I’ll use a dialogue box that I created:

When you see something like that come up on your Windows computer screen, here’s what you do:

Click anywhere inside the box – EXCEPT on any of the buttons. One left click anywhere else, inside the box.

Hold down the CTRL button and tap the letter C. So far, it will seem like nothing has happened because you didn’t see anything change.

Open up Notepad (or any word processor program) and click CTRL + V. There it is – all the text from the dialogue box:

And rather than open a word processor program, you could just as easily open your email, compose a new email message and paste the content of the box right there.

The nice thing is that the copy/pasted content includes everything – the title at the top, the content of the message itself, and the names of all the buttons that are available. This way it leaves no margin for error – your tech can easily and accurately see what the dialogue box is telling you.

Of course, if someone knows how to do it, it’s possible to just take a screenshot of the dialogue box and save that image, then email that. But that’s not nearly as easy as a simple copy and paste!

The post How to copy and paste the contents of a Windows dialogue box first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Laptop care — How to make sure your laptop has a long life Mar 14, 2016
Obviously you want to make sure your computer lasts as many years as possible. And now, this is especially true if you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8 because if you buy a computer right off the shelf now it will most likely be running Windows 10. The laptops I sell are almost all Windows 7 since that is still the preferred operating system (in my humble opinion) and it will be supported through January of 2020. But it’s all the better if you can keep your current laptop running well for as long as possible.

Here are 6 things you can do to help your laptop to have a long life:

1. Never use it on a soft surface. You might see ads for laptops showing someone in bed but that’s just marketing nonsense. A laptop by nature runs hotter than a desktop computer because all of the components are crammed into a small space. There are exhaust vents on the bottom or sides that need to be kept open for the hot air to escape. If it doesn’t, your laptop will overheat – this can damage it, and it might even shut down if it gets too hot.

2. Always use a cooling pad. This kind of goes along with #1 – it keeps your laptop nice and cool. A cooling pad is basically just a small “platform” that your laptop sits on while you use it. The cooling pad has one big fan or 2-3 smaller fans built in, so that it automatically sucks the hot air away from the laptop. A cooling pad is less than $20 and you can get them anywhere computer supplies are sold (here’s a nice one for $15 on Amazon).

3. Don’t lift up just one side of the laptop. This is something I see all the time. When a laptop is brand new, the connection that the power cord has when plugged in to the back of the laptop is nice and solid. But if you tilt up the laptop from the front (to retrieve a piece of paper, or to look under it, etc.) the power plug is stressed. Doing it once might not matter, but when you do that more than a few times, eventually it will mean that the power cord plug won’t make contact with the power jack inside the laptop. That’s when you have to wiggle it or hold it a certain way in order for it to make contact and provide power. You can eliminate most of that problem ahead of time though – if you want to get under the laptop, just lift up the whole thing at the same time.

4. Thunder or lightning? Unplug! In our house, whenever we hear thunder or see lightning, we unplug all of the computers as well as the big screen TV. You should unplug anything you would not want to have to replace. Voltage surges can happen anytime, but they are usually the worst during an electrical storm. And don’t tell me, “It’s okay, I have a surge protector.” If lightning strikes nearby, your little surge protector is no match for it. The nice thing about a laptop is, assuming your battery is good, you can still keep using it even during the storm. I also leave my Verizon FIOS modem plugged in, so I can still go online with my laptop. If the modem gets fried, Verizon will just send me a new one.

5. Remove the battery for extended periods of non-use. If you’re planning to not use the laptop for 30 days or longer, it’s best to just take the battery out during that time. Depending on how strong the battery is, it might be low (or dead) when you put it back in, but just let it charge up and start using it again.

6. Keep liquids away! It’s always a shame when someone brings me their computer after it’s had something spilled on it. Coffee, beer, milk, Coke, Kool Aid – it’s all bad and has the potential to permanently destroy your expensive laptop. If you’re going to spill anything on it, spill water – it’s the least destructive and at least it will dry completely. But if it short-circuits something on the motherboard, even spilled water can mean you’re about to replace your laptop. And it’s so easily preventable! If you must have a drink nearby while you’re working on your laptop, make it something like a bottled water that has a lid. Replacing the lid each time you take a drink is a whole lot better than replacing your laptop!

The post How to make sure your laptop has a long life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop care — How to make sure your laptop has a long life Mar 14, 2016
Obviously you want to make sure your computer lasts as many years as possible. And now, this is especially true if you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8 because if you buy a computer right off the shelf now it will most likely be running Windows 10. The laptops I sell are almost all Windows 7 since that is still the preferred operating system (in my humble opinion) and it will be supported through January of 2020. But it’s all the better if you can keep your current laptop running well for as long as possible.

Here are 6 things you can do to help your laptop to have a long life:

1. Never use it on a soft surface. You might see ads for laptops showing someone in bed but that’s just marketing nonsense. A laptop by nature runs hotter than a desktop computer because all of the components are crammed into a small space. There are exhaust vents on the bottom or sides that need to be kept open for the hot air to escape. If it doesn’t, your laptop will overheat – this can damage it, and it might even shut down if it gets too hot.

2. Always use a cooling pad. This kind of goes along with #1 – it keeps your laptop nice and cool. A cooling pad is basically just a small “platform” that your laptop sits on while you use it. The cooling pad has one big fan or 2-3 smaller fans built in, so that it automatically sucks the hot air away from the laptop. A cooling pad is less than $20 and you can get them anywhere computer supplies are sold (here’s a nice one for $15 on Amazon).

3. Don’t lift up just one side of the laptop. This is something I see all the time. When a laptop is brand new, the connection that the power cord has when plugged in to the back of the laptop is nice and solid. But if you tilt up the laptop from the front (to retrieve a piece of paper, or to look under it, etc.) the power plug is stressed. Doing it once might not matter, but when you do that more than a few times, eventually it will mean that the power cord plug won’t make contact with the power jack inside the laptop. That’s when you have to wiggle it or hold it a certain way in order for it to make contact and provide power. You can eliminate most of that problem ahead of time though – if you want to get under the laptop, just lift up the whole thing at the same time.

4. Thunder or lightning? Unplug! In our house, whenever we hear thunder or see lightning, we unplug all of the computers as well as the big screen TV. You should unplug anything you would not want to have to replace. Voltage surges can happen anytime, but they are usually the worst during an electrical storm. And don’t tell me, “It’s okay, I have a surge protector.” If lightning strikes nearby, your little surge protector is no match for it. The nice thing about a laptop is, assuming your battery is good, you can still keep using it even during the storm. I also leave my Verizon FIOS modem plugged in, so I can still go online with my laptop. If the modem gets fried, Verizon will just send me a new one.

5. Remove the battery for extended periods of non-use. If you’re planning to not use the laptop for 30 days or longer, it’s best to just take the battery out during that time. Depending on how strong the battery is, it might be low (or dead) when you put it back in, but just let it charge up and start using it again.

6. Keep liquids away! It’s always a shame when someone brings me their computer after it’s had something spilled on it. Coffee, beer, milk, Coke, Kool Aid – it’s all bad and has the potential to permanently destroy your expensive laptop. If you’re going to spill anything on it, spill water – it’s the least destructive and at least it will dry completely. But if it short-circuits something on the motherboard, even spilled water can mean you’re about to replace your laptop. And it’s so easily preventable! If you must have a drink nearby while you’re working on your laptop, make it something like a bottled water that has a lid. Replacing the lid each time you take a drink is a whole lot better than replacing your laptop!

The post How to make sure your laptop has a long life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome tricks — A couple of handy features in Google Chrome Mar 07, 2016
My default web browser is Google Chrome. I also use Firefox for some things and it’s fine, but I really like Chrome. Recently I came across a couple of interesting things in Chrome.

Feature #1: Customize website zoom level

Have you noticed that as you get older, some of the text on certain websites gets smaller and harder to read? It’s an interesting phenomenon. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my eyesight changing as I age. Must just be a defect in the computer, right? Of course.

I’ve found this to be an issue only with some websites, not all. So certain websites I view at 100%, some 125%, some 150%. The nice thing with Chrome is that you don’t have to adjust the zoom each time you visit a particular website – you can set the preferred zoom level, and Chrome remembers it.

Here’s how you do it:

Go to a website for which you need to adjust the size of the text (make sure this is the only tab open in Chrome).

Hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard, and roll the wheel on your mouse to adjust the size of the text. Rolling the mouse wheel away from you makes the text larger, and rolling it toward you makes the text smaller.

When the text is at a comfortable size for reading, close Chrome.

Open Chrome and go back to that same website, and you’ll see that it stays at the zoom level you chose.

Note: as an alternative to scrolling with the mouse wheel, you can click the Customize button (the 3 horizontal lines in the top right of the Chrome window), go down to the “Zoom” area and hit the “+” or “-” buttons to adjust screen content size.

You can do this for every website you visit. And if you want to see all of the websites that Chrome is storing for you at customized zoom levels, you can click the Customize button, then click Settings, Show Advanced Settings. Under Privacy, click Content Settings, then scroll all the way to the end and click on “Manage” under the Zoom Levels section. Nice list of all your customized sites:

Feature #2: Customize website notifications

I had a client ask me about this recently. He kept having a recurring, annoying problem:

Scott – I do like to use Facebook sometimes. But when I’m doing some actual work or research on my computer, I close Facebook and email and other distracting websites so that I can focus on my work. But then while I’m working, all of a sudden I see a little window pop-up on my screen, and it’s a Facebook notification that someone has liked my post, or someone commented, or something else has just happened on Facebook. I don’t know how this is happening when I don’t even have Facebook open! How do I get rid of that?”

Yes, sometimes it does seem like Facebook follows us everywhere even when we want to get away from it. I noticed this same thing happening a while back. Fortunately, there is a way to turn off those Facebook notifications.

Click the Customize button and click on Settings, and Show Advanced Settings.

Find the Privacy section, and click on Content Settings.

Scroll about halfway down that list to the section called Notifications, and click on Manage Exceptions

Find Facebook in that list, and out to the right you can click on “Allow” and it will give you a drop-down menu where you can choose “Block”

Click the “Done” button in the lower right corner.

And now you can work without Facebook popping up every 30 seconds to distract you!

And of course, you can probably customize Firefox to resolve these issues as well but I have not really researched that specifically since I usually use Chrome.

The post A couple of handy features in Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

chrome tips — A couple of handy features in Google Chrome Mar 07, 2016
My default web browser is Google Chrome. I also use Firefox for some things and it’s fine, but I really like Chrome. Recently I came across a couple of interesting things in Chrome.

Feature #1: Customize website zoom level

Have you noticed that as you get older, some of the text on certain websites gets smaller and harder to read? It’s an interesting phenomenon. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my eyesight changing as I age. Must just be a defect in the computer, right? Of course.

I’ve found this to be an issue only with some websites, not all. So certain websites I view at 100%, some 125%, some 150%. The nice thing with Chrome is that you don’t have to adjust the zoom each time you visit a particular website – you can set the preferred zoom level, and Chrome remembers it.

Here’s how you do it:

Go to a website for which you need to adjust the size of the text (make sure this is the only tab open in Chrome).

Hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard, and roll the wheel on your mouse to adjust the size of the text. Rolling the mouse wheel away from you makes the text larger, and rolling it toward you makes the text smaller.

When the text is at a comfortable size for reading, close Chrome.

Open Chrome and go back to that same website, and you’ll see that it stays at the zoom level you chose.

Note: as an alternative to scrolling with the mouse wheel, you can click the Customize button (the 3 horizontal lines in the top right of the Chrome window), go down to the “Zoom” area and hit the “+” or “-” buttons to adjust screen content size.

You can do this for every website you visit. And if you want to see all of the websites that Chrome is storing for you at customized zoom levels, you can click the Customize button, then click Settings, Show Advanced Settings. Under Privacy, click Content Settings, then scroll all the way to the end and click on “Manage” under the Zoom Levels section. Nice list of all your customized sites:

Feature #2: Customize website notifications

I had a client ask me about this recently. He kept having a recurring, annoying problem:

Scott – I do like to use Facebook sometimes. But when I’m doing some actual work or research on my computer, I close Facebook and email and other distracting websites so that I can focus on my work. But then while I’m working, all of a sudden I see a little window pop-up on my screen, and it’s a Facebook notification that someone has liked my post, or someone commented, or something else has just happened on Facebook. I don’t know how this is happening when I don’t even have Facebook open! How do I get rid of that?”

Yes, sometimes it does seem like Facebook follows us everywhere even when we want to get away from it. I noticed this same thing happening a while back. Fortunately, there is a way to turn off those Facebook notifications.

Click the Customize button and click on Settings, and Show Advanced Settings.

Find the Privacy section, and click on Content Settings.

Scroll about halfway down that list to the section called Notifications, and click on Manage Exceptions

Find Facebook in that list, and out to the right you can click on “Allow” and it will give you a drop-down menu where you can choose “Block”

Click the “Done” button in the lower right corner.

And now you can work without Facebook popping up every 30 seconds to distract you!

And of course, you can probably customize Firefox to resolve these issues as well but I have not really researched that specifically since I usually use Chrome.

The post A couple of handy features in Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email scam — An email scam that’s often effective Feb 29, 2016
There’s an email scam that’s not new, but a lot of people have not heard about it and it has some elements that make it seem very legitimate. I was a target in this scam recently so I’m laying out the details here so you can avoid being taken.

This is the email that was sent to me:

The interesting thing here is that this email actually WAS sent from the email account of my friend (for the purpose of this blog post, I’ll call him Steve). Steve either inadvertently revealed his email password at some point, or (more likely) the password he used when he created his account was a simple one and easy to remember. This means it was also easy for the scammer to guess.

In this situation, I know Steve primarily from church. He also owns a local business. We definitely don’t have the type of personal relationship where he would ask me to loan him money. Because of that, and the fact that I have heard of this scam before, I knew it was not a legitimate email.

The first thing I did was to call Steve’s office and make sure he was aware of what was happening. But beyond that, I wanted to “play along” with the scammer and see how it played out. I replied to the email:

Not too long after that I get the whole scam story:

Poor Steve. His mother is dying and he is without the needed funds to pay the doctors to save her life. There are a few things about this email that are important to note:

He is specific about the name of the disease – this makes it sound more legitimate

He is appealing to my sympathy – if I don’t help, his mother may actually die

The loan request is not because he’s broke, but because he’s in a temporary difficulty

There is a sense of urgency – I must make a quick decision

The request for privacy – this makes sense because of the nature of a request to borrow money, but in reality he doesn’t want me to check around with any of our mutual friends and find out that the whole story is a fake

He has not yet stated a dollar amount. This is because A. He wants me to agree to the loan first, and B. He’s judging by my communication how much money he should ask for

So I respond:

I really wanted to see if he would give me a dollar amount at this point. When I ask him directly about this, it would be difficult for him to avoid the question because obviously the hospital or doctor would have already told him how much is needed for the medical procedure. Also, I played dumb about the actual money transfer process – in almost every case it’s through Western Union since that’s worldwide and cash can be retrieved anonymously (which is why scammers love Western Union).

He replied:

As predicted, he requests that I send the money via Western Union. If you send someone money via WU, then realize later that it was a scam, there is no way you are getting that money back. It’s like walking through a crowd in Times Square and handing people $100 bills – you could never hope to get anything back, or even know who actually ended up with the money. It’s just gone. He’s asking me for 2000 pounds – roughly about $2800 in US dollars.

Usually when I’m stringing a scammer along, this is where the story ends. Obviously I’m not going to send the money and he doesn’t want to waste any more time on me since he is playing with a bunch of other targets at the same time. But I wanted to see how he would react if I told him WU was not an option. I told him I didn’t know how to use Western Union and asked if there were any other way to get the money to him. He replied:

Ah, here we go. He’s hinting that there may actually be a way possible other than Western Union. In reality, what he is suggesting is really silly though. He’s supposed to be in a foreign country, without any resources, and yet he’s saying that in this strange city he will be able to locate someone who has an offshore account and can receive the money from me, then transfer the money to Steve after deducting a commission. Pretty unlikely scenario, but at this point he probably figures he has nothing to lose since Western Union is out of the question.

So I told him yes, please set it up. Shortly after that, he emailed me with the new arrangement:

I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see this. He has apparently given me an actual bank account number with Bank of America. This doesn’t quite make sense, since obviously a bank account can be traced back to a person. I reported the incident to Bank of America but I never heard back from them in any way (not a big surprise).

What I suspect is that the actual account holder is also being scammed. The scammer could have gotten her account number from a check or by some other means, and he is playing a scam on her such that she will be expecting $5000 to be deposited in her bank account for some type of purchase, then she needs to forward on $3000 to the scammer via Western Union.

There are a lot of different ways for this to be explained, but that’s where it ended for me. Heard nothing more from the scammer, and I guess Bank of America can’t be bothered with something so trivial as this.

Think about this from Steve’s point of view – he has no idea anything unusual is happening until he starts getting phone calls from a bunch of his friends asking about this. But what if he has 300 friends in his email contact list? They will all get that same email. And even if most of them realize it’s fake, all it takes is ONE person to fall for it and the scammer has had a very profitable day.

The keys to remember from this situation:

if you get an unusual email from a friend, verify it with them directly by phone or in person (NOT by replying to the email)

if someone proposes a deal to you that involves Western Union, assume it’s a scam

use strong passwords and don’t use the same password for more than one account (Steve could have avoided this whole situation just by using a strong, unique password for his email account)

The post An email scam that’s often effective first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email scam — An email scam that’s often effective Feb 29, 2016
There’s an email scam that’s not new, but a lot of people have not heard about it and it has some elements that make it seem very legitimate. I was a target in this scam recently so I’m laying out the details here so you can avoid being taken.

This is the email that was sent to me:

The interesting thing here is that this email actually WAS sent from the email account of my friend (for the purpose of this blog post, I’ll call him Steve). Steve either inadvertently revealed his email password at some point, or (more likely) the password he used when he created his account was a simple one and easy to remember. This means it was also easy for the scammer to guess.

In this situation, I know Steve primarily from church. He also owns a local business. We definitely don’t have the type of personal relationship where he would ask me to loan him money. Because of that, and the fact that I have heard of this scam before, I knew it was not a legitimate email.

The first thing I did was to call Steve’s office and make sure he was aware of what was happening. But beyond that, I wanted to “play along” with the scammer and see how it played out. I replied to the email:

Not too long after that I get the whole scam story:

Poor Steve. His mother is dying and he is without the needed funds to pay the doctors to save her life. There are a few things about this email that are important to note:

He is specific about the name of the disease – this makes it sound more legitimate

He is appealing to my sympathy – if I don’t help, his mother may actually die

The loan request is not because he’s broke, but because he’s in a temporary difficulty

There is a sense of urgency – I must make a quick decision

The request for privacy – this makes sense because of the nature of a request to borrow money, but in reality he doesn’t want me to check around with any of our mutual friends and find out that the whole story is a fake

He has not yet stated a dollar amount. This is because A. He wants me to agree to the loan first, and B. He’s judging by my communication how much money he should ask for

So I respond:

I really wanted to see if he would give me a dollar amount at this point. When I ask him directly about this, it would be difficult for him to avoid the question because obviously the hospital or doctor would have already told him how much is needed for the medical procedure. Also, I played dumb about the actual money transfer process – in almost every case it’s through Western Union since that’s worldwide and cash can be retrieved anonymously (which is why scammers love Western Union).

He replied:

As predicted, he requests that I send the money via Western Union. If you send someone money via WU, then realize later that it was a scam, there is no way you are getting that money back. It’s like walking through a crowd in Times Square and handing people $100 bills – you could never hope to get anything back, or even know who actually ended up with the money. It’s just gone. He’s asking me for 2000 pounds – roughly about $2800 in US dollars.

Usually when I’m stringing a scammer along, this is where the story ends. Obviously I’m not going to send the money and he doesn’t want to waste any more time on me since he is playing with a bunch of other targets at the same time. But I wanted to see how he would react if I told him WU was not an option. I told him I didn’t know how to use Western Union and asked if there were any other way to get the money to him. He replied:

Ah, here we go. He’s hinting that there may actually be a way possible other than Western Union. In reality, what he is suggesting is really silly though. He’s supposed to be in a foreign country, without any resources, and yet he’s saying that in this strange city he will be able to locate someone who has an offshore account and can receive the money from me, then transfer the money to Steve after deducting a commission. Pretty unlikely scenario, but at this point he probably figures he has nothing to lose since Western Union is out of the question.

So I told him yes, please set it up. Shortly after that, he emailed me with the new arrangement:

I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to see this. He has apparently given me an actual bank account number with Bank of America. This doesn’t quite make sense, since obviously a bank account can be traced back to a person. I reported the incident to Bank of America but I never heard back from them in any way (not a big surprise).

What I suspect is that the actual account holder is also being scammed. The scammer could have gotten her account number from a check or by some other means, and he is playing a scam on her such that she will be expecting $5000 to be deposited in her bank account for some type of purchase, then she needs to forward on $3000 to the scammer via Western Union.

There are a lot of different ways for this to be explained, but that’s where it ended for me. Heard nothing more from the scammer, and I guess Bank of America can’t be bothered with something so trivial as this.

Think about this from Steve’s point of view – he has no idea anything unusual is happening until he starts getting phone calls from a bunch of his friends asking about this. But what if he has 300 friends in his email contact list? They will all get that same email. And even if most of them realize it’s fake, all it takes is ONE person to fall for it and the scammer has had a very profitable day.

The keys to remember from this situation:

if you get an unusual email from a friend, verify it with them directly by phone or in person (NOT by replying to the email)

if someone proposes a deal to you that involves Western Union, assume it’s a scam

use strong passwords and don’t use the same password for more than one account (Steve could have avoided this whole situation just by using a strong, unique password for his email account)

The post An email scam that’s often effective first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer instruction — Comparison of 5 ways to learn computer stuff Feb 22, 2016
A lot of people want to be reasonably knowledgeable about one or more aspects of their computer. Not like a computer programmer or someone that works on computers all day, but familiar enough to use popular software and be able to handle things that come up from time to time. But how do you learn? There are several ways to learn, and today I’ll compare the pros and cons of 5 methods of learning.

Learning Method #1: Books
If you walk into any Barnes & Noble, you’ll see a big section of books on just about every computer-related topic you can think of. For every popular computer program, there are several books available to teach you how to use it. Usually these books range from $20 to $50. Some might even include a DVD with some additional content.

Pros: Books are readily available. You can find one or several online and have it in your hand very quickly. Often, there is a book available specifically for what you want to learn. And once you own it, you always have it for easy reference.

Cons: Not all books are very well written so the instruction given might be confusing. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of the “For Dummies” series of books. The ones I’ve read seem to be trying too hard to be humorous. Not to mention the whole “you need this book because you’re a dummy” idea is kind of condescending. Also, a book is “one size fits all” – the instruction is not personalized for you.

Learning Method #2: Website tutorials
For most subjects, there are several websites that have some basic instruction. In fact, this is the kind of thing I post on my website most Mondays – step by step instructions on how to perform a particular task on your computer.

Pros: There are lots of websites available that can offer instruction on a particular topic, and the vast majority of them are free.

Cons: Since anyone with a computer and an internet connection can create a blog or a website, there’s really no telling how accurate the information is. The person that created the site might be the foremost authority on the subject, or it could be written by a teenager living in a basement in Cleveland. In some cases you can research the author’s credentials, which is a good idea. Also, a website can be taking down at any time so this might not be a permanent or even long-term source of information.

Learning Method #3: Instructional videos
Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine (after Google of course)? You can go to YouTube and do a search there on just about anything, even very specific things, and it’s likely you find that someone has made a video about it. Want to replace the power supply on your Dell desktop computer? Watch someone else doing it, and just do what they do.

Pros: Probably the biggest advantage with online videos is the fact that they are visual. You can actually watch “over the shoulder” so to speak while someone does what you want to learn to do. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in many cases a video is even better.

Cons: If anything is incorrect or unclear about the video, you might be kind of stuck. On YouTube, there’s no button for “Contact the video creator” and many people don’t include their contact information with the video. So if you have a question there’s no one to ask. Also, like a website, a video can be removed from YouTube at any time so you might go back to watch it a second time and find that it’s gone.

Learning Method #4: Classroom
Obviously, the classroom setting has been a popular method of teaching for a long time. This is often considered the “standard” teaching model – a classroom of students who are there to learn about a particular subject, and a teacher who is an authority on that subject.

Pros: The biggest advantage of this process is the more personal approach. You are actually being taught by a human. In most cases, you can also ask the instructor questions and get personalized answers.

Cons: Class size can be an issue. If you are one of 200 students, the teacher may not have enough time available to give personalized help to you or any of the other students. Also, the teacher may or may not be an expert on the subject (though you can research this before enrolling usually). Finally (and this is a big one), not everyone in the class will be at the same level. So even though you grasp the material and want to move on, there may be several others that are constantly asking very fundamental questions and keeping the rest of the class from moving forward. Or the reverse – you could be struggling but the instructor is moving ahead with new material and you could feel left behind.

Learning Method #5: One on one tutoring
With this method, there are only two people involved: you and the instructor. You have a specific thing you want to learn, and you hire an instructor who knows about that area, and you are taught personally.

Pros: The biggest advantage is that you learn exactly what you want to learn, and at your own pace. If something confuses you, you can stop the instructor right there and ask a question. And with only one student, the teacher will have a better idea of how well you are grasping the material. This is the kind of instruction I do. If there’s a particular task someone wants to learn, for example, how to format a cell in an Excel spreadsheet – we do it three times. First, I do it and the student just watches. Second, I do it again but slowly and step-by-step, so that the student can write down each step. Third, we switch seats and the student performs the task following those notes that were just written down. That way we know that task can be done after I leave.

Cons: Personal computer instruction is generally more expensive than taking a class or buying a book and learning on your own – that’s part of the price for learning the material more quickly and more efficiently.

With remote access technology, personal computer tutoring can be done without you or the instructor leaving home.

The post Comparison of 5 ways to learn computer stuff first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer instruction — Comparison of 5 ways to learn computer stuff Feb 22, 2016
A lot of people want to be reasonably knowledgeable about one or more aspects of their computer. Not like a computer programmer or someone that works on computers all day, but familiar enough to use popular software and be able to handle things that come up from time to time. But how do you learn? There are several ways to learn, and today I’ll compare the pros and cons of 5 methods of learning.

Learning Method #1: Books
If you walk into any Barnes & Noble, you’ll see a big section of books on just about every computer-related topic you can think of. For every popular computer program, there are several books available to teach you how to use it. Usually these books range from $20 to $50. Some might even include a DVD with some additional content.

Pros: Books are readily available. You can find one or several online and have it in your hand very quickly. Often, there is a book available specifically for what you want to learn. And once you own it, you always have it for easy reference.

Cons: Not all books are very well written so the instruction given might be confusing. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of the “For Dummies” series of books. The ones I’ve read seem to be trying too hard to be humorous. Not to mention the whole “you need this book because you’re a dummy” idea is kind of condescending. Also, a book is “one size fits all” – the instruction is not personalized for you.

Learning Method #2: Website tutorials
For most subjects, there are several websites that have some basic instruction. In fact, this is the kind of thing I post on my website most Mondays – step by step instructions on how to perform a particular task on your computer.

Pros: There are lots of websites available that can offer instruction on a particular topic, and the vast majority of them are free.

Cons: Since anyone with a computer and an internet connection can create a blog or a website, there’s really no telling how accurate the information is. The person that created the site might be the foremost authority on the subject, or it could be written by a teenager living in a basement in Cleveland. In some cases you can research the author’s credentials, which is a good idea. Also, a website can be taking down at any time so this might not be a permanent or even long-term source of information.

Learning Method #3: Instructional videos
Did you know that YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine (after Google of course)? You can go to YouTube and do a search there on just about anything, even very specific things, and it’s likely you find that someone has made a video about it. Want to replace the power supply on your Dell desktop computer? Watch someone else doing it, and just do what they do.

Pros: Probably the biggest advantage with online videos is the fact that they are visual. You can actually watch “over the shoulder” so to speak while someone does what you want to learn to do. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in many cases a video is even better.

Cons: If anything is incorrect or unclear about the video, you might be kind of stuck. On YouTube, there’s no button for “Contact the video creator” and many people don’t include their contact information with the video. So if you have a question there’s no one to ask. Also, like a website, a video can be removed from YouTube at any time so you might go back to watch it a second time and find that it’s gone.

Learning Method #4: Classroom
Obviously, the classroom setting has been a popular method of teaching for a long time. This is often considered the “standard” teaching model – a classroom of students who are there to learn about a particular subject, and a teacher who is an authority on that subject.

Pros: The biggest advantage of this process is the more personal approach. You are actually being taught by a human. In most cases, you can also ask the instructor questions and get personalized answers.

Cons: Class size can be an issue. If you are one of 200 students, the teacher may not have enough time available to give personalized help to you or any of the other students. Also, the teacher may or may not be an expert on the subject (though you can research this before enrolling usually). Finally (and this is a big one), not everyone in the class will be at the same level. So even though you grasp the material and want to move on, there may be several others that are constantly asking very fundamental questions and keeping the rest of the class from moving forward. Or the reverse – you could be struggling but the instructor is moving ahead with new material and you could feel left behind.

Learning Method #5: One on one tutoring
With this method, there are only two people involved: you and the instructor. You have a specific thing you want to learn, and you hire an instructor who knows about that area, and you are taught personally.

Pros: The biggest advantage is that you learn exactly what you want to learn, and at your own pace. If something confuses you, you can stop the instructor right there and ask a question. And with only one student, the teacher will have a better idea of how well you are grasping the material. This is the kind of instruction I do. If there’s a particular task someone wants to learn, for example, how to format a cell in an Excel spreadsheet – we do it three times. First, I do it and the student just watches. Second, I do it again but slowly and step-by-step, so that the student can write down each step. Third, we switch seats and the student performs the task following those notes that were just written down. That way we know that task can be done after I leave.

Cons: Personal computer instruction is generally more expensive than taking a class or buying a book and learning on your own – that’s part of the price for learning the material more quickly and more efficiently.

With remote access technology, personal computer tutoring can be done without you or the instructor leaving home.

The post Comparison of 5 ways to learn computer stuff first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool websites — More cool websites Feb 15, 2016
Enough Windows 10 nonsense – let’s have some fun with some great websites!

Every few months I do a blog and podcast about some interesting websites I’ve come across. There’s no exact criteria for what makes the list. I just look for ones I find interesting, entertaining, or educational.

FotoJet
www.FotoJet.com
If you want a place that will make you look like a super creative person on social media, this is it. If you have a YouTube channel, or an Instagram account, or a Twitter account, or virtually any other type of social media account, you want it to look nice with professional photos. But it’s difficult to do that unless you have good photo editing software, and the skills to use it correctly.

FotoJet makes it easy to make really nice images with overlaid text, and they know exactly what size the photo needs to be for each type of social media account. For example, a header image on a YouTube channel should be 2560 pixels wide and 1440 pixels high. FotoJet already knows those types of details so you don’t have to learn through trial and error. To see what is available for you to create, click on the “Samples” link at the top of the website.

Twitter headers

YouTube covers

Facebook covers

Facebook posts

Google Plus covers

Pinterest graphics

Instagram posts

Photo magazine covers

Photo comics

Run Pee
www.RunPee.com
Everyone watches movies, and everyone has to pee eventually. But what about when you’re with a group of friends watching a great movie, and you have to use the bathroom? If the movie is really good, you don’t want to leave for a few minutes and miss something that’s critical to the story line. But you know you can’t wait another hour or more until it’s over. That’s where the RunPee app comes in handy. You can access this on a computer, but it’s probably more effective using the app on your phone.

When you run the app, it displays a list of movies. New movies are added every week on the day the open in theaters. Through the magic of crowdsourcing, each listing will tell you when there is a 3-5 minute stretch where you can leave and come back without missing anything important. Most films have a few of these, and they are summarized in a sentence or two.

If you start the app and start the timer when the movie starts, you can even get a vibrate alert on your phone when one of the “pee times” comes up!

All My Faves
www.AllMyFaves.com
This is one of those sites that is REALLY useful. They’ve taken just about every type of website (such as videos, maps, news, weather, car rental, photos, movies, genealogy, lots more) and put them in a list down the left side. Then, for each category, they have the most popular websites in that category displayed via the logo. Each logo is a link that takes you to that site.

They’re laid out like this:

And they fit all of it on one page! Here’s a smaller, abbreviated version but you should just go to the website to see all that’s there.

Status History
www.StatusHistory.com
This one is Facebook-related, since almost everyone on the planet now has a Facebook account. Except my dad – he refuses to participate.

The Status History site allows you to see all of your previous Facebook status updates – right back to when you first got on Facebook. It took about 6 minutes for it to find all of mine (2196 total). Pretty interesting to see what I was posting back as far as 2008.

You can also see some other interesting numbers:

How many “likes” you’ve received

Who has made the most comments on your posts

How many times you’ve commented on friends’ posts

Who has given you the most likes

It’s interesting to see this information, but when I see these historical totals, I also can’t help but think about how much time is wasted on Facebook. Maybe my dad has the right idea.

InnerBody
www.InnerBody.com
I love this one because it is so educational, and so easy to use. And it is useful for just about everyone, since we all have a body. And most of us have very little knowledge about how organs and body systems work, or even where they are. This website changes all that, and in a very visual way.

When you first see the website, there’s a human body displayed, and you can mouse over (without clicking) the list on the left to highlight a particular system:

Then when you actually click on the system you want to explore, you’ll find much more detailed information on that area. And the image also becomes interactive – you can even see a 3D image, which you can rotate and zoom in on with your mouse.

There is a LOT of information here so you could spend a lot of time on this site. And the graphics, while anatomically correct, are done tastefully. Very useful and informative.

The Kitty Convict Project
http://www.explodingkittens.com/kittyconvict
This makes so much sense – as long as people are aware of it. Check these facts:

Here in the US, over 7 million pets go missing every year (I had no idea it was that many).

For dogs, about 26% are reported and end up returning home. But for cats, it’s less than 5%! Here’s why:

More dogs have ID collars on than cats do.

Cats are better at hiding.

When someone sees a dog running around the neighborhood, they assume it’s lost. When they see a cat running around the neighborhood, they assume it’s just an outdoor cat, so it never gets reported.

This website offers a solution to that problem: If your cat is an indoor cat, dress them in orange – such as an orange collar or an orange scarf.

One reason for orange is that it’s easy to see. But more importantly, it brands your cat as a “Kitty Convict”. This tells anyone that might happen to see it that this cat belongs INSIDE, so it has probably escaped its home and needs to be reported.

If you have a cat, you can get an orange collar on Amazon, here: http://amzn.to/1mv4BJu and it can have a custom ID tag, or you can get your phone number embroidered right on the collar itself.

Google Feud
www.GoogleFeud.com
This one is kind of fun and kind of addicting. As I was researching this blog post, this is the site I ~~spent~~ wasted the most time on. You know how Family Feud works, right? They take a survey of 100 people and make a list of the top 6-10 answers for a particular question. And you have to guess as many of those as you can. If you guess one that’s not up there, that’s a strike. When you have 3 strikes, you’re done.

This game works pretty much like that. But what you’re trying to guess are the top ways a Google search is autocompleted. You know, when you’re typing in Google and before you do an actual search, Google tries to predict what you’re wanting to search for. This is based on what thousands or millions of people before you have searched on. For example, if you type in Google “Baseball is” you’ll see some potential searches that might match what you want.

So on GoogleFeud, you’re trying to guess what the top “autocompletes” were for a given phrase. You have 4 categories to choose from:

Culture

People

Names

Questions

When you go there and try it, you’ll see it’s pretty easy to figure out. The game keeps score for you so you can try to beat your previous high score.

And if YOU know of a website that you think people might like to hear about, send me an email and it just might get featured in an upcoming blog post.

The post More cool websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool websites — More cool websites Feb 15, 2016
Enough Windows 10 nonsense – let’s have some fun with some great websites!

Every few months I do a blog and podcast about some interesting websites I’ve come across. There’s no exact criteria for what makes the list. I just look for ones I find interesting, entertaining, or educational.

FotoJet
www.FotoJet.com
If you want a place that will make you look like a super creative person on social media, this is it. If you have a YouTube channel, or an Instagram account, or a Twitter account, or virtually any other type of social media account, you want it to look nice with professional photos. But it’s difficult to do that unless you have good photo editing software, and the skills to use it correctly.

FotoJet makes it easy to make really nice images with overlaid text, and they know exactly what size the photo needs to be for each type of social media account. For example, a header image on a YouTube channel should be 2560 pixels wide and 1440 pixels high. FotoJet already knows those types of details so you don’t have to learn through trial and error. To see what is available for you to create, click on the “Samples” link at the top of the website.

Twitter headers

YouTube covers

Facebook covers

Facebook posts

Google Plus covers

Pinterest graphics

Instagram posts

Photo magazine covers

Photo comics

Run Pee
www.RunPee.com
Everyone watches movies, and everyone has to pee eventually. But what about when you’re with a group of friends watching a great movie, and you have to use the bathroom? If the movie is really good, you don’t want to leave for a few minutes and miss something that’s critical to the story line. But you know you can’t wait another hour or more until it’s over. That’s where the RunPee app comes in handy. You can access this on a computer, but it’s probably more effective using the app on your phone.

When you run the app, it displays a list of movies. New movies are added every week on the day the open in theaters. Through the magic of crowdsourcing, each listing will tell you when there is a 3-5 minute stretch where you can leave and come back without missing anything important. Most films have a few of these, and they are summarized in a sentence or two.

If you start the app and start the timer when the movie starts, you can even get a vibrate alert on your phone when one of the “pee times” comes up!

All My Faves
www.AllMyFaves.com
This is one of those sites that is REALLY useful. They’ve taken just about every type of website (such as videos, maps, news, weather, car rental, photos, movies, genealogy, lots more) and put them in a list down the left side. Then, for each category, they have the most popular websites in that category displayed via the logo. Each logo is a link that takes you to that site.

They’re laid out like this:

And they fit all of it on one page! Here’s a smaller, abbreviated version but you should just go to the website to see all that’s there.

Status History
www.StatusHistory.com
This one is Facebook-related, since almost everyone on the planet now has a Facebook account. Except my dad – he refuses to participate.

The Status History site allows you to see all of your previous Facebook status updates – right back to when you first got on Facebook. It took about 6 minutes for it to find all of mine (2196 total). Pretty interesting to see what I was posting back as far as 2008.

You can also see some other interesting numbers:

How many “likes” you’ve received

Who has made the most comments on your posts

How many times you’ve commented on friends’ posts

Who has given you the most likes

It’s interesting to see this information, but when I see these historical totals, I also can’t help but think about how much time is wasted on Facebook. Maybe my dad has the right idea.

InnerBody
www.InnerBody.com
I love this one because it is so educational, and so easy to use. And it is useful for just about everyone, since we all have a body. And most of us have very little knowledge about how organs and body systems work, or even where they are. This website changes all that, and in a very visual way.

When you first see the website, there’s a human body displayed, and you can mouse over (without clicking) the list on the left to highlight a particular system:

Then when you actually click on the system you want to explore, you’ll find much more detailed information on that area. And the image also becomes interactive – you can even see a 3D image, which you can rotate and zoom in on with your mouse.

There is a LOT of information here so you could spend a lot of time on this site. And the graphics, while anatomically correct, are done tastefully. Very useful and informative.

The Kitty Convict Project
http://www.explodingkittens.com/kittyconvict
This makes so much sense – as long as people are aware of it. Check these facts:

Here in the US, over 7 million pets go missing every year (I had no idea it was that many).

For dogs, about 26% are reported and end up returning home. But for cats, it’s less than 5%! Here’s why:

More dogs have ID collars on than cats do.

Cats are better at hiding.

When someone sees a dog running around the neighborhood, they assume it’s lost. When they see a cat running around the neighborhood, they assume it’s just an outdoor cat, so it never gets reported.

This website offers a solution to that problem: If your cat is an indoor cat, dress them in orange – such as an orange collar or an orange scarf.

One reason for orange is that it’s easy to see. But more importantly, it brands your cat as a “Kitty Convict”. This tells anyone that might happen to see it that this cat belongs INSIDE, so it has probably escaped its home and needs to be reported.

If you have a cat, you can get an orange collar on Amazon, here: http://amzn.to/1mv4BJu and it can have a custom ID tag, or you can get your phone number embroidered right on the collar itself.

Google Feud
www.GoogleFeud.com
This one is kind of fun and kind of addicting. As I was researching this blog post, this is the site I ~~spent~~ wasted the most time on. You know how Family Feud works, right? They take a survey of 100 people and make a list of the top 6-10 answers for a particular question. And you have to guess as many of those as you can. If you guess one that’s not up there, that’s a strike. When you have 3 strikes, you’re done.

This game works pretty much like that. But what you’re trying to guess are the top ways a Google search is autocompleted. You know, when you’re typing in Google and before you do an actual search, Google tries to predict what you’re wanting to search for. This is based on what thousands or millions of people before you have searched on. For example, if you type in Google “Baseball is” you’ll see some potential searches that might match what you want.

So on GoogleFeud, you’re trying to guess what the top “autocompletes” were for a given phrase. You have 4 categories to choose from:

Culture

People

Names

Questions

When you go there and try it, you’ll see it’s pretty easy to figure out. The game keeps score for you so you can try to beat your previous high score.

And if YOU know of a website that you think people might like to hear about, send me an email and it just might get featured in an upcoming blog post.

The post More cool websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Is Windows 10 a virus? — Microsoft’s newest tactic for force-feeding Windows 10 Feb 08, 2016
With an announcement this past week, Microsoft made sure that millions of unsuspecting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will be surprised to find their computer “upgraded” to Windows 10. You can stop it, though.

What Microsoft announced is that they are now going to re-categorize the Windows 10 “upgrade” as a Recommended update. (sorry, but I always have to put that term in quotation marks in reference to Windows 10 because “upgrade” usually implies that what you’re getting is an improvement).

Here’s what this means.

Microsoft sends out Windows Updates monthly. It’s on the second Tuesday of each month and has become known as Patch Tuesday. This month, it’s February 9.

When those updates are sent out, they are classified as either “Important” or “Optional”. An Important update would be something like a security hole that’s discovered in Windows that needs to be patched so that hackers cannot exploit it and cause problems. An Optional update would perhaps be a driver update for your mouse – might be good to have, but not critical.

But in addition, Microsoft designates some Windows Updates as “recommended”. These are the ones that THEY think you should get. And in your computer, in the Windows Update settings, there’s an option related to how your computer handles the “Recommended” updates. You have the option to either get the recommended updates the same way you get your Important updates (which for most people is automatically installed at 3 am the day after they come in), or you can choose NOT to get them automatically. Here’s what the option looks like. It’s just a simple check box:

Here’s the key point in this discussion: When you get your computer, that box is already checked by default. Therefore, unless you have unchecked that box, you are going to get whatever updates Microsoft categorizes as “Recommended”. And they just classified the Windows 10 “upgrade”as “Recommended” with this recent announcement.

So, lots of people – probably millions – will be getting Windows 10 this week, even though they really don’t want it.

Here are three things you can do to prevent Windows 10 from getting into your computer:

In Control Panel, open Windows Update. On the left side, click on Change Settings. UNcheck the box that says “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” and click OK. (If you’re on my Managed Service Plan, ignore this step.)

Get GWX Control Panel installed (it’s free) and make sure “Monitor Mode” is enabled. I did a full post about GWX Control Panel, which you can read here.

I would also recommend getting on my Managed Service Plan (description and pricing here). This is the best security protection you can have for your computer, and it handles the Windows Updates for you, so you won’t get any unexpected ones. But even with that, I would still want GWX Control Panel installed.

The more I hear about Windows 10, the more it really sounds like a computer virus.

What are the characteristics of a virus?

Sneaks on to your computer against your will

Code written poorly, so it often doesn’t run properly

Spies on the user

Created to exploit the user for financial gain

Frustrates its victims

Difficult to remove once it gets in

Those things all describe any common computer virus, but they also describe Windows 10. Not something I would want on my computer.

The post Microsoft’s newest tactic for force-feeding Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows updates — Microsoft’s newest tactic for force-feeding Windows 10 Feb 08, 2016
With an announcement this past week, Microsoft made sure that millions of unsuspecting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will be surprised to find their computer “upgraded” to Windows 10. You can stop it, though.

What Microsoft announced is that they are now going to re-categorize the Windows 10 “upgrade” as a Recommended update. (sorry, but I always have to put that term in quotation marks in reference to Windows 10 because “upgrade” usually implies that what you’re getting is an improvement).

Here’s what this means.

Microsoft sends out Windows Updates monthly. It’s on the second Tuesday of each month and has become known as Patch Tuesday. This month, it’s February 9.

When those updates are sent out, they are classified as either “Important” or “Optional”. An Important update would be something like a security hole that’s discovered in Windows that needs to be patched so that hackers cannot exploit it and cause problems. An Optional update would perhaps be a driver update for your mouse – might be good to have, but not critical.

But in addition, Microsoft designates some Windows Updates as “recommended”. These are the ones that THEY think you should get. And in your computer, in the Windows Update settings, there’s an option related to how your computer handles the “Recommended” updates. You have the option to either get the recommended updates the same way you get your Important updates (which for most people is automatically installed at 3 am the day after they come in), or you can choose NOT to get them automatically. Here’s what the option looks like. It’s just a simple check box:

Here’s the key point in this discussion: When you get your computer, that box is already checked by default. Therefore, unless you have unchecked that box, you are going to get whatever updates Microsoft categorizes as “Recommended”. And they just classified the Windows 10 “upgrade”as “Recommended” with this recent announcement.

So, lots of people – probably millions – will be getting Windows 10 this week, even though they really don’t want it.

Here are three things you can do to prevent Windows 10 from getting into your computer:

In Control Panel, open Windows Update. On the left side, click on Change Settings. UNcheck the box that says “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates” and click OK. (If you’re on my Managed Service Plan, ignore this step.)

Get GWX Control Panel installed (it’s free) and make sure “Monitor Mode” is enabled. I did a full post about GWX Control Panel, which you can read here.

I would also recommend getting on my Managed Service Plan (description and pricing here). This is the best security protection you can have for your computer, and it handles the Windows Updates for you, so you won’t get any unexpected ones. But even with that, I would still want GWX Control Panel installed.

The more I hear about Windows 10, the more it really sounds like a computer virus.

What are the characteristics of a virus?

Sneaks on to your computer against your will

Code written poorly, so it often doesn’t run properly

Spies on the user

Created to exploit the user for financial gain

Frustrates its victims

Difficult to remove once it gets in

Those things all describe any common computer virus, but they also describe Windows 10. Not something I would want on my computer.

The post Microsoft’s newest tactic for force-feeding Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Wizmouse — A little program that I now can’t live without Feb 01, 2016
I love little pieces of software that focus on a single problem and solve it efficiently. A while back I found something that does this, and now I use it every day. In fact, if it’s turned off for some reason, I notice the difference almost immediately. And it’s free.

Here’s the problem:

Windows has this thing called “focus”. This basically just means that one window is always “in front of” any other open windows. Whatever window you’re currently working on, that’s the window that is in front of the others – it has the focus. Even if two windows are side by side, only one of them can have the focus at a time.

If you’re working in one window and then move your mouse over to a website and try to scroll down the website page, nothing will happen because that window doesn’t have focus. In order to do anything in the web browser window, you have to first click somewhere in that window to tell the computer “Hey, give this window the focus now” – and then you can scroll down the page.

It’s just one of those weird things that has been in effect in Windows computers for many years. Most people have gotten so used to it that it might not even seem like an inconvenience.

But wait til you get used to NOT having that inconvenience!

Wizmouse is a free program (get it here) and it’s very small so it uses almost no resources. When it’s running, it eliminates the “focus” feature in Windows. You don’t have to keep clicking on whatever window you want to work with in order to do anything – all you have to do is move the cursor to that window and start working.

Wherever your mouse is, that window has the focus!

When you download and install Wizmouse, you’ll have a window that has some options available to you. For me, I just check the boxes to make sure Wizmouse is enabled, and I have it start with Windows so that it’s running all the time. And I have it run as Administrator.

Sometimes when I’m recording my podcast, before I hit “Record” I’ll go through and shut down whatever programs are running in order to give the audio recording the full use of the processor and memory. Later on, when I start using the computer for other things, it’s a very short time before I realize Wizmouse is disabled and I need to start it up again because I am so used to the way it makes windows work. I’ll bet you get spoiled by it pretty quickly too.

Also – Wizmouse is free, but you’ll notice on the website and on the settings screen in the program, there’s a button to click if you want to donate to the programmer who created it. Always a nice thing to do.

The post A little program that I now can’t live without first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Wizmouse — A little program that I now can’t live without Feb 01, 2016
I love little pieces of software that focus on a single problem and solve it efficiently. A while back I found something that does this, and now I use it every day. In fact, if it’s turned off for some reason, I notice the difference almost immediately. And it’s free.

Here’s the problem:

Windows has this thing called “focus”. This basically just means that one window is always “in front of” any other open windows. Whatever window you’re currently working on, that’s the window that is in front of the others – it has the focus. Even if two windows are side by side, only one of them can have the focus at a time.

If you’re working in one window and then move your mouse over to a website and try to scroll down the website page, nothing will happen because that window doesn’t have focus. In order to do anything in the web browser window, you have to first click somewhere in that window to tell the computer “Hey, give this window the focus now” – and then you can scroll down the page.

It’s just one of those weird things that has been in effect in Windows computers for many years. Most people have gotten so used to it that it might not even seem like an inconvenience.

But wait til you get used to NOT having that inconvenience!

Wizmouse is a free program (get it here) and it’s very small so it uses almost no resources. When it’s running, it eliminates the “focus” feature in Windows. You don’t have to keep clicking on whatever window you want to work with in order to do anything – all you have to do is move the cursor to that window and start working.

Wherever your mouse is, that window has the focus!

When you download and install Wizmouse, you’ll have a window that has some options available to you. For me, I just check the boxes to make sure Wizmouse is enabled, and I have it start with Windows so that it’s running all the time. And I have it run as Administrator.

Sometimes when I’m recording my podcast, before I hit “Record” I’ll go through and shut down whatever programs are running in order to give the audio recording the full use of the processor and memory. Later on, when I start using the computer for other things, it’s a very short time before I realize Wizmouse is disabled and I need to start it up again because I am so used to the way it makes windows work. I’ll bet you get spoiled by it pretty quickly too.

Also – Wizmouse is free, but you’ll notice on the website and on the settings screen in the program, there’s a button to click if you want to donate to the programmer who created it. Always a nice thing to do.

The post A little program that I now can’t live without first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

rename pictures — How to rename 1000 images in 32 seconds or less Jan 25, 2016
You just got back from the trip of a lifetime. For some people that would be a cruise to Alaska, for others it might be a guided tour through the Holy Land of Israel, and for some it could be visiting some of the old castles of Ireland. Personally, I would enjoy any of them. But now that you’re back home, you have a computer folder full of pictures, and each one has a name like “DCF2016070901.jpg” which of course tells you nothing about the pictures itself. Those pictures – all 1000 of them – need to be renamed.

Of course, one option is to open up the folder that has all your pictures, and start at the beginning. On the first picture, do a right click, then choose “Rename”, type “Disney1” and hit Enter. Then do the same thing with the next picture and call it “Disney2” and hit Enter. Yeah! Only 998 to go!

As you might guess, that’s not really the most efficient way to go about this since it would take a very long time and most people would just get tired of it and quit before they got all thousand pictures renamed.

Here’s the much easier way. This process assumes you have all of your Disney pictures in one folder.

With that folder open, so you see the entire group of pictures, hold down the CTRL key and tap the letter “a” (for “all”). Now all of the pictures are selected (highlighted).

On the first picture in the list, do a right-click and choose “Rename” and type the word “Disney” (no number, just the name Disney). Hit Enter.

In just a few seconds, every picture you see in that folder is renamed. So now the list is Disney1, Disney2, Disney3 all the way up to Disney1000. So much easier to have the computer to that work!

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “But Scott, our vacation was divided up and we weren’t at Disney the whole time. We went to Disney for 4 days, and Sea World for 3 days, then we went to Busch Gardens for a day.”

That’s fine. This just means you have to divide them into their own folders first. Just make 3 folders:

Disney

Sea World

Busch Gardens

Then just drag each of the pictures into the appropriate folder based on what you see in the thumbnail image. Once the large group of folders is divided into those 3 folders, then go into each of those folders and do the same renaming process as before.

You can really narrow it down as much as you want, although the more specific you want the file names to be, the more time it will take to get it that way. Even so, the process I outlined here (called “batch renaming”) is a whole lot faster than just renaming each image individually.

The post How to rename 1000 images in 32 seconds or less first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How to rename 1000 images in 32 seconds or less Jan 25, 2016
You just got back from the trip of a lifetime. For some people that would be a cruise to Alaska, for others it might be a guided tour through the Holy Land of Israel, and for some it could be visiting some of the old castles of Ireland. Personally, I would enjoy any of them. But now that you’re back home, you have a computer folder full of pictures, and each one has a name like “DCF2016070901.jpg” which of course tells you nothing about the pictures itself. Those pictures – all 1000 of them – need to be renamed.

Of course, one option is to open up the folder that has all your pictures, and start at the beginning. On the first picture, do a right click, then choose “Rename”, type “Disney1” and hit Enter. Then do the same thing with the next picture and call it “Disney2” and hit Enter. Yeah! Only 998 to go!

As you might guess, that’s not really the most efficient way to go about this since it would take a very long time and most people would just get tired of it and quit before they got all thousand pictures renamed.

Here’s the much easier way. This process assumes you have all of your Disney pictures in one folder.

With that folder open, so you see the entire group of pictures, hold down the CTRL key and tap the letter “a” (for “all”). Now all of the pictures are selected (highlighted).

On the first picture in the list, do a right-click and choose “Rename” and type the word “Disney” (no number, just the name Disney). Hit Enter.

In just a few seconds, every picture you see in that folder is renamed. So now the list is Disney1, Disney2, Disney3 all the way up to Disney1000. So much easier to have the computer to that work!

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “But Scott, our vacation was divided up and we weren’t at Disney the whole time. We went to Disney for 4 days, and Sea World for 3 days, then we went to Busch Gardens for a day.”

That’s fine. This just means you have to divide them into their own folders first. Just make 3 folders:

Disney

Sea World

Busch Gardens

Then just drag each of the pictures into the appropriate folder based on what you see in the thumbnail image. Once the large group of folders is divided into those 3 folders, then go into each of those folders and do the same renaming process as before.

You can really narrow it down as much as you want, although the more specific you want the file names to be, the more time it will take to get it that way. Even so, the process I outlined here (called “batch renaming”) is a whole lot faster than just renaming each image individually.

The post How to rename 1000 images in 32 seconds or less first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

CTRL key in MS Word — The magical CTRL key in Microsoft Word Jan 18, 2016
Microsoft Word does so much more than any of us can imagine. I could probably create a whole blog just on MS Word tips and tricks. Today, I’ll show you some of the cool things you can do in Word by using the CTRL key in combination with some other keys.

The Control key (usually abbreviated on the keyboard as “Ctrl”) does a lot of things that most people aren’t aware of. If you use these shortcuts, it can definitely save you some time. If you’re using a Mac keyboard, I believe the key you would use for these functions is the Apple key (also known as the Command key or cmd key).

Note: for this list, I did not include the commonly-known Ctrl key functions such as Ctrl+C for copying or Ctrl+P for printing.

Action: [Ctrl] + [k]
Effect: make selected text a clickable link
If you’re writing in word and you have the phrase “my website” in there, you might want to just make that phrase clickable – without having to type out the entire URL. So you can highlight the phrase, then Ctrl + K and in the new window enter your website address in the “Address” field.

Action: [Ctrl] + [m]
Effect: indent the entire paragraph
Put your cursor anywhere in a paragraph and Ctrl + M, and that paragraph alone is indented. In the example below, I did this with the second paragraph:

Action: [Ctrl] + [click]
Effect: select (highlight) a whole sentence
When you need to highlight an entire sentence, this is so much easier than dragging the cursor across every letter. Just hold down Ctrl and click anywhere in a sentence, and the whole sentence is highlighted.

Action: [Ctrl] + [backspace]
Effect: delete the preceding word
Just put the cursor at the end of the word you don’t want (if you just typed that word, you’re already in the right spot). Hold down Ctrl and hit the Backspace key. That word is gone. (Technically, the computer is just deleting from wherever the cursor is back to the first “space” entry. So if your cursor is in the middle of a word at the start, the letters to the right side of the cursor will remain afterward.)

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [>]
Effect: increase font size of selected text
This is another time saver in a specific situation. You have a single sentence and you want to change the font size. First you have to highlight that sentence (Ctrl + click, remember?). The old way would be to go up to the toolbar, click the font size drop-down list, and choose a number. If that doesn’t look right, go through the same thing again. This Ctrl shortcut is much easier – just hold down Ctrl and Shift, and tap the “>” key until it looks big enough.

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [<]
Effect: decrease font size of selected text
Same as above, but if the text gets too big and you need to reduce it you just use the “<” key.

Action: [Ctrl] + [=]
Effect: makes selected text subscript
Useful in certain situations, such as some mathematical equations. In the example below, the second sentence is subscript.

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [=]
Effect: makes selected text superscript
Same as above, but the selected text is superscript. Second sentence below is superscript.

Action: [Ctrl] + [a]
Effect: select the entire contents of a document
This is one I use all the time. If you need to take some action on the entire contents of a document – such as copying to paste it, or changing the font size, or the font itself, etc. this is the best way to do it. Don’t drag your cursor over multiple pages. Just hit Ctrl + A, and the whole document is highlighted.

Action: [Ctrl] + [z]
Effect: undo last action
Everyone makes mistakes. The key is recognizing a mistake quickly enough. Ctrl + Z fixes whatever you just did – it only affects your most recent action. So if you accidentally highlight and delete an entire paragraph, you can immediately Ctrl + Z and get it back. But if you delete the entire paragraph and then do just one other thing (like typing a single letter), this “undo” shortcut won’t help.

The post The magical CTRL key in Microsoft Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Control key shortcuts — The magical CTRL key in Microsoft Word Jan 18, 2016
Microsoft Word does so much more than any of us can imagine. I could probably create a whole blog just on MS Word tips and tricks. Today, I’ll show you some of the cool things you can do in Word by using the CTRL key in combination with some other keys.

The Control key (usually abbreviated on the keyboard as “Ctrl”) does a lot of things that most people aren’t aware of. If you use these shortcuts, it can definitely save you some time. If you’re using a Mac keyboard, I believe the key you would use for these functions is the Apple key (also known as the Command key or cmd key).

Note: for this list, I did not include the commonly-known Ctrl key functions such as Ctrl+C for copying or Ctrl+P for printing.

Action: [Ctrl] + [k]
Effect: make selected text a clickable link
If you’re writing in word and you have the phrase “my website” in there, you might want to just make that phrase clickable – without having to type out the entire URL. So you can highlight the phrase, then Ctrl + K and in the new window enter your website address in the “Address” field.

Action: [Ctrl] + [m]
Effect: indent the entire paragraph
Put your cursor anywhere in a paragraph and Ctrl + M, and that paragraph alone is indented. In the example below, I did this with the second paragraph:

Action: [Ctrl] + [click]
Effect: select (highlight) a whole sentence
When you need to highlight an entire sentence, this is so much easier than dragging the cursor across every letter. Just hold down Ctrl and click anywhere in a sentence, and the whole sentence is highlighted.

Action: [Ctrl] + [backspace]
Effect: delete the preceding word
Just put the cursor at the end of the word you don’t want (if you just typed that word, you’re already in the right spot). Hold down Ctrl and hit the Backspace key. That word is gone. (Technically, the computer is just deleting from wherever the cursor is back to the first “space” entry. So if your cursor is in the middle of a word at the start, the letters to the right side of the cursor will remain afterward.)

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [>]
Effect: increase font size of selected text
This is another time saver in a specific situation. You have a single sentence and you want to change the font size. First you have to highlight that sentence (Ctrl + click, remember?). The old way would be to go up to the toolbar, click the font size drop-down list, and choose a number. If that doesn’t look right, go through the same thing again. This Ctrl shortcut is much easier – just hold down Ctrl and Shift, and tap the “>” key until it looks big enough.

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [<]
Effect: decrease font size of selected text
Same as above, but if the text gets too big and you need to reduce it you just use the “<” key.

Action: [Ctrl] + [=]
Effect: makes selected text subscript
Useful in certain situations, such as some mathematical equations. In the example below, the second sentence is subscript.

Action: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [=]
Effect: makes selected text superscript
Same as above, but the selected text is superscript. Second sentence below is superscript.

Action: [Ctrl] + [a]
Effect: select the entire contents of a document
This is one I use all the time. If you need to take some action on the entire contents of a document – such as copying to paste it, or changing the font size, or the font itself, etc. this is the best way to do it. Don’t drag your cursor over multiple pages. Just hit Ctrl + A, and the whole document is highlighted.

Action: [Ctrl] + [z]
Effect: undo last action
Everyone makes mistakes. The key is recognizing a mistake quickly enough. Ctrl + Z fixes whatever you just did – it only affects your most recent action. So if you accidentally highlight and delete an entire paragraph, you can immediately Ctrl + Z and get it back. But if you delete the entire paragraph and then do just one other thing (like typing a single letter), this “undo” shortcut won’t help.

The post The magical CTRL key in Microsoft Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

microsoft — Microsoft simultaneously issues some good news and some deceit Jan 11, 2016
I’m not sure what to think about Microsoft lately. They’re sending good and bad messages. Recently, they issued some really good news about Internet Explorer, but they also made some statements about Windows 7 that seem to be designed to deceive.

The good news:

Internet Explorer, the web browser that we love to hate, will only be supported if you have the most recent version (which is Internet Explorer 11). Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 will no longer be supported – so if your computer still has an old version, you need to update it. You need to do this even if you don’t usually use Internet Explorer.

Why is this good news? Because the older versions are full of security problems and are a constant source of headaches for people that make a living creating websites. Not to mention the risk to the people who actually still use those outdated versions of IE.

To check what version you have, open Internet Explorer and click on the gear-shaped icon in the top right, then click on “About Internet Explorer”. If you see this, you’re good to go:

Note: this change of support goes into effect Tuesday, January 12, 2015 – that’s Patch Tuesday, the day Microsoft sends out all Windows Updates for the month. So you should check this and make any necessary changes right away. Unfortunately, there are lots of people – millions probably – that still use outdated versions of IE and won’t bother to get the update. That’s what keeps computer repair shops in business.

The deceit:

Microsoft is so laser-focused on getting every computer worldwide on Windows 10, they are now starting to look really desperate. And usually desperation means you start to do stupid things, like making statements that are pretty misleading.

In a recent episode of Windows Weekly (podcast), there were some comments made by Chris Capossela, the Marketing Chief of Microsoft. He said that Windows users that continue to use Windows 7, do so “at your own risk, at your own peril“.

He went on to say, “We do worry when people are running an operating system that’s 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn’t going to work very well, or they buy a new game, they buy Fallout 4, a very popular game, and it doesn’t work on a bunch of older machines.”

That is just irresponsible, fearmongering nonsense.

The printer issue: If you were a printer manufacturer, would you build printers that are incompatible with over half of the computers currently in use? Currently, 55% of computers worldwide are running Windows 7. Virtually any printer you buy today (or next year, or the year after) will be compatible with Windows 7. Nothing to worry about.

Here’s the irony in this statement – many people have “upgraded” to Windows 10, only to find out that they can no longer use their printer. That’s because the printer was designed to be compatible with Windows 7. When their printer was built, Windows 10 didn’t exist so there are no Windows 10 drivers for that printer. So if you like your printer and you want to keep using it, better think twice before moving to Windows 10.

The game issue: This statement is just as ridiculous. First, just do a Google search for “Fallout 4 minimum requirements” and you’ll see that the game is compatible with Windows 7, 8 or 10. If a game doesn’t work on a particular computer, it’s not usually because of the version of Windows (and obviously that wouldn’t be an issue with Windows 7 and Fallout 4). The problem is most often hardware-related – meaning there’s not enough video memory, or the processor isn’t fast enough, that kind of thing. Clearly, this guy – a software company executive – knows this already. This really amounts to nothing more than deliberate misinformation.

Oh, and the line about “an operating system that’s 10 years old“? Windows 7 was released to the public in July of 2009. So it’s not yet even 7 years old. Sounds like Mr. Capossela might be better suited for a career in used car sales or politics.

Windows 7 is stable, secure, and will be fully supported through January 14, 2020. I’m not upgrading yet, and I don’t think you should either.

The post Microsoft simultaneously issues some good news and some deceit first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Internet Explorer 11 — Microsoft simultaneously issues some good news and some deceit Jan 11, 2016
I’m not sure what to think about Microsoft lately. They’re sending good and bad messages. Recently, they issued some really good news about Internet Explorer, but they also made some statements about Windows 7 that seem to be designed to deceive.

The good news:

Internet Explorer, the web browser that we love to hate, will only be supported if you have the most recent version (which is Internet Explorer 11). Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 will no longer be supported – so if your computer still has an old version, you need to update it. You need to do this even if you don’t usually use Internet Explorer.

Why is this good news? Because the older versions are full of security problems and are a constant source of headaches for people that make a living creating websites. Not to mention the risk to the people who actually still use those outdated versions of IE.

To check what version you have, open Internet Explorer and click on the gear-shaped icon in the top right, then click on “About Internet Explorer”. If you see this, you’re good to go:

Note: this change of support goes into effect Tuesday, January 12, 2015 – that’s Patch Tuesday, the day Microsoft sends out all Windows Updates for the month. So you should check this and make any necessary changes right away. Unfortunately, there are lots of people – millions probably – that still use outdated versions of IE and won’t bother to get the update. That’s what keeps computer repair shops in business.

The deceit:

Microsoft is so laser-focused on getting every computer worldwide on Windows 10, they are now starting to look really desperate. And usually desperation means you start to do stupid things, like making statements that are pretty misleading.

In a recent episode of Windows Weekly (podcast), there were some comments made by Chris Capossela, the Marketing Chief of Microsoft. He said that Windows users that continue to use Windows 7, do so “at your own risk, at your own peril“.

He went on to say, “We do worry when people are running an operating system that’s 10 years old that the next printer they buy isn’t going to work very well, or they buy a new game, they buy Fallout 4, a very popular game, and it doesn’t work on a bunch of older machines.”

That is just irresponsible, fearmongering nonsense.

The printer issue: If you were a printer manufacturer, would you build printers that are incompatible with over half of the computers currently in use? Currently, 55% of computers worldwide are running Windows 7. Virtually any printer you buy today (or next year, or the year after) will be compatible with Windows 7. Nothing to worry about.

Here’s the irony in this statement – many people have “upgraded” to Windows 10, only to find out that they can no longer use their printer. That’s because the printer was designed to be compatible with Windows 7. When their printer was built, Windows 10 didn’t exist so there are no Windows 10 drivers for that printer. So if you like your printer and you want to keep using it, better think twice before moving to Windows 10.

The game issue: This statement is just as ridiculous. First, just do a Google search for “Fallout 4 minimum requirements” and you’ll see that the game is compatible with Windows 7, 8 or 10. If a game doesn’t work on a particular computer, it’s not usually because of the version of Windows (and obviously that wouldn’t be an issue with Windows 7 and Fallout 4). The problem is most often hardware-related – meaning there’s not enough video memory, or the processor isn’t fast enough, that kind of thing. Clearly, this guy – a software company executive – knows this already. This really amounts to nothing more than deliberate misinformation.

Oh, and the line about “an operating system that’s 10 years old“? Windows 7 was released to the public in July of 2009. So it’s not yet even 7 years old. Sounds like Mr. Capossela might be better suited for a career in used car sales or politics.

Windows 7 is stable, secure, and will be fully supported through January 14, 2020. I’m not upgrading yet, and I don’t think you should either.

The post Microsoft simultaneously issues some good news and some deceit first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

change facebook font — How to change your font in a Facebook post Jan 04, 2016
Part of the fun of Facebook is seeing something new, or learning to do something you never knew was possible. Unfortunately, most of what is posted on Facebook is just fake junk that gets repeatedly posted because people don’t research or verify; they just click the “Share” button. But what I’m telling you about today is definitely real, and I’ll bet you didn’t know you could do this. Plus, you can verify it works by trying it yourself.

If you use Facebook, you obviously know what a status update looks like. It’s very plain. You can’t make any changes to what the letters look like – all of the billions of posts on Facebook look exactly the same.

Until now.

If you want to make YOUR Facebook update stand out from the crowd, now you can – through a free website called FB Font Changer. You can check it at FBFontChanger.com.

At that website, you just enter your Facebook status content in the field at the top of the page, then hit the “Convert” button. Let’s say for example you want to post on Facebook “Taking my dogs to play at the park”. When you enter that and convert it, you now have these options to choose from, depending on how you want it to display:

As you can see, you get lots of choices. When you see one that you like, you just click the “Copy” button out to the right of that particular line. Then go to Facebook and in the status update box, do a right click and choose “Paste”. There it is!

Obviously this is not something earth-shattering, but not every computer trick has the ability to change the world. Do a few posts with some of these fonts though, and I’ll bet you have some friends that will ask, “Hey, how did you do that?”.

The post How to change your font in a Facebook post first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook font changer — How to change your font in a Facebook post Jan 04, 2016
Part of the fun of Facebook is seeing something new, or learning to do something you never knew was possible. Unfortunately, most of what is posted on Facebook is just fake junk that gets repeatedly posted because people don’t research or verify; they just click the “Share” button. But what I’m telling you about today is definitely real, and I’ll bet you didn’t know you could do this. Plus, you can verify it works by trying it yourself.

If you use Facebook, you obviously know what a status update looks like. It’s very plain. You can’t make any changes to what the letters look like – all of the billions of posts on Facebook look exactly the same.

Until now.

If you want to make YOUR Facebook update stand out from the crowd, now you can – through a free website called FB Font Changer. You can check it at FBFontChanger.com.

At that website, you just enter your Facebook status content in the field at the top of the page, then hit the “Convert” button. Let’s say for example you want to post on Facebook “Taking my dogs to play at the park”. When you enter that and convert it, you now have these options to choose from, depending on how you want it to display:

As you can see, you get lots of choices. When you see one that you like, you just click the “Copy” button out to the right of that particular line. Then go to Facebook and in the status update box, do a right click and choose “Paste”. There it is!

Obviously this is not something earth-shattering, but not every computer trick has the ability to change the world. Do a few posts with some of these fonts though, and I’ll bet you have some friends that will ask, “Hey, how did you do that?”.

The post How to change your font in a Facebook post first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows Explorer — How to show folder sizes in Windows Dec 28, 2015
Some things seem so obvious. But, just about every week (if not every day) some new “research study” comes out with an end result that any reasonable person with half a brain could have come up with. And we the taxpayers are often paying for these ridiculous things! Some important “findings” include “students who do their homework get higher grades” (study), “pigs do love mud” (study), “weight gain is caused by overeating” (study), and “reading is good for your brain” (study). Well, here’s something that I think is obvious: Windows Explorer should display folder size by default. But it doesn’t.

Here’s what I’m talking about. On your Windows computer, click the Start button (the MS orb in the lower left) and choose the Documents folder. For this example, I’m assuming you have some sub-folders inside the Documents folder. Mine looks like the image below (yours may display slightly different if you choose to display Large Icons, Small Icons, etc. I choose to display in the “Details” format).

How am I supposed to know how much data is in each of those folders? Microsoft goes to all the trouble to have that column there titled “Size” and then for any of the folders, it is just left blank – no information! This just does not make any sense. But that’s how it has always been, and Microsoft probably doesn’t have any plans to display that info, regardless of how OBVIOUS it is that it should be shown there.

As is often the case, someone recognized this need and created a solution. The fix is a little program called Folder Size Explorer. It’s free, and you can get it at folder-size-explorer.com.

Folder Size Explorer runs on any recent version of Windows (although I only have it installed on my Windows 7 machine). Just go to the website and click the “Download” tab and you’ll see the link to download the file in .zip format. You can extract the files from the zipped folder and run Setup, and you’ll see that the installation is pretty routine.

Once it’s installed, you should see an icon for it on your desktop, and it’s also in your “All Programs” list in the Start menu. Just click to run it, and see what the difference is when you’re looking at your Documents folder (or any folder). Here’s what information is displayed:

As you can see, for each folder, it shows the total size of the data in that folder. In addition to that, it tells you how many individual files are in that folder, as well as how many subfolders are there. It’s beautifully simple. I really don’t know why Microsoft can’t figure out how to do this in Windows by default.

And that’s it! No fancy bells or whistles, it just does what it’s supposed to do. You probably also noticed on the Download page there’s a link to Donate. The software is free, but I always like to give some money to the developer when I find a program like this that does a great job and doesn’t try to sneak a bunch of other junk into your computer.

The post How to show folder sizes in Windows first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows Explorer — How to show folder sizes in Windows Dec 28, 2015
Some things seem so obvious. But, just about every week (if not every day) some new “research study” comes out with an end result that any reasonable person with half a brain could have come up with. And we the taxpayers are often paying for these ridiculous things! Some important “findings” include “students who do their homework get higher grades” (study), “pigs do love mud” (study), “weight gain is caused by overeating” (study), and “reading is good for your brain” (study). Well, here’s something that I think is obvious: Windows Explorer should display folder size by default. But it doesn’t.

Here’s what I’m talking about. On your Windows computer, click the Start button (the MS orb in the lower left) and choose the Documents folder. For this example, I’m assuming you have some sub-folders inside the Documents folder. Mine looks like the image below (yours may display slightly different if you choose to display Large Icons, Small Icons, etc. I choose to display in the “Details” format).

How am I supposed to know how much data is in each of those folders? Microsoft goes to all the trouble to have that column there titled “Size” and then for any of the folders, it is just left blank – no information! This just does not make any sense. But that’s how it has always been, and Microsoft probably doesn’t have any plans to display that info, regardless of how OBVIOUS it is that it should be shown there.

As is often the case, someone recognized this need and created a solution. The fix is a little program called Folder Size Explorer. It’s free, and you can get it at folder-size-explorer.com.

Folder Size Explorer runs on any recent version of Windows (although I only have it installed on my Windows 7 machine). Just go to the website and click the “Download” tab and you’ll see the link to download the file in .zip format. You can extract the files from the zipped folder and run Setup, and you’ll see that the installation is pretty routine.

Once it’s installed, you should see an icon for it on your desktop, and it’s also in your “All Programs” list in the Start menu. Just click to run it, and see what the difference is when you’re looking at your Documents folder (or any folder). Here’s what information is displayed:

As you can see, for each folder, it shows the total size of the data in that folder. In addition to that, it tells you how many individual files are in that folder, as well as how many subfolders are there. It’s beautifully simple. I really don’t know why Microsoft can’t figure out how to do this in Windows by default.

And that’s it! No fancy bells or whistles, it just does what it’s supposed to do. You probably also noticed on the Download page there’s a link to Donate. The software is free, but I always like to give some money to the developer when I find a program like this that does a great job and doesn’t try to sneak a bunch of other junk into your computer.

The post How to show folder sizes in Windows first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook filter — Filter out the garbage in Facebook’s news feed Dec 21, 2015
I like Facebook. It has a lot of good and useful features. But it also has a lot of stuff I don’t want or need. There are a couple of tools I use to filter out all the garbage in Facebook so I don’t waste time on stuff I’m not interested in.

Anyone that’s on Facebook knows what I’m talking about. These days, you can’t hardly look at the news feed without having to wade through the latest thing that Donald Trump said. Or one of your friends post the results of a quiz that tells them which Disney “Frozen” character they are. Or there’s a “news” story about the Kardashians. All of this is of zero importance to me, but my Facebook news feed is cluttered with it all the time.

Here are the two ways I clean that up (both are free). The first one you might know about.

Tool #1 for Facebook news feed cleanup: Unfollow

I use this liberally. Every time you see someone post something in Facebook, there’s a link in the top right corner of their post. When you click it, you have a few options. It looks like this:

When you click “Unfollow” it just means that whatever that person posts in the future, you won’t see it. Two important factors here:

You will still be Facebook friends with that person.

That person will not know that you unfollowed them.

So it really is the perfect solution, if you have someone you’re friends with but they are constantly posting their high score in Mafia Wars, or their status is always about how great their new Amway business is, you can finally declare yourself free of all of that.

Personally, I am very liberal with the Unfollow option. I might give someone a second chance (based on how annoying they are, and how close our relationship is in real life). But it really doesn’t take a whole lot for me to just Unfollow and filter someone right out of my news feed. Facebook is enough of a time waster already – there’s no point in having to see stuff I don’t want to see.

And I know the question that some people are already thinking – if a person is that annoying on Facebook, why not just unfriend them? Fair enough. For some people, unfriending is an option. In my case, I use Facebook as a marketing tool for my computer services and laptop sales. So even though I might not want to see what someone is posting, I do want them to see what I’m posting. So I keep them as a Facebook friend but unfollow.

Tool #2 for Facebook news feed cleanup: FilterFeed

This one is a browser extension. I just discovered it recently and I like how it works. Unfortunately, it is only available for the Chrome browser so if you use Firefox you’re out of luck (although there are other options for those browsers).

To get this, open Chrome and go here. You can install the extension into Chrome right from that page and it just takes a few seconds.

Once it is installed, go to Facebook. You’ll see up at the top there will be a an icon that looks like a funnel:

Now that you know it’s running, you have to decide – what do you NOT want to see in your Facebook news feed?

A good example at the moment might be Star Wars. Obviously the new movie is about to be released, and of course there are LOTS of conversations about it on Facebook. But you know you won’t be able to see it on opening night, so you definitely don’t want to accidentally read a Facebook post that reveals anything.

So you do a single left click on the Facebook FilterFeed funnel icon, and you type Star Wars and hit Enter.

You can enter lots of words (I don’t know if there is a limit). Just type the word and hit Enter, and you won’t see any posts that contain that word.

Maybe you get tired of all the political arguments. It’s so bad now especially, with the presidential election and all the campaigning and the televised debates. I get really sick of it. For something like that, you could enter all of the relevant names:

One thing you want to be careful about is to not enter a keyword that is too generic. In this case, it was probably a mistake to have just “Hillary” by itself. In politics, it’s obvious who that means but I also have some friends named Hillary and their posts would be blocked also.

And of course, the little “X” you see next to each name means you can remove that word from the filter whenever you want. But that list does look like a nice selection of things to not see any more.

The possible uses for this filter are endless. So whenever you find yourself scrolling past a bunch of junk in Facebook, don’t just stay frustrated – get rid of it for good!

The post Filter out the garbage in Facebook’s news feed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook filter — Filter out the garbage in Facebook’s news feed Dec 21, 2015
I like Facebook. It has a lot of good and useful features. But it also has a lot of stuff I don’t want or need. There are a couple of tools I use to filter out all the garbage in Facebook so I don’t waste time on stuff I’m not interested in.

Anyone that’s on Facebook knows what I’m talking about. These days, you can’t hardly look at the news feed without having to wade through the latest thing that Donald Trump said. Or one of your friends post the results of a quiz that tells them which Disney “Frozen” character they are. Or there’s a “news” story about the Kardashians. All of this is of zero importance to me, but my Facebook news feed is cluttered with it all the time.

Here are the two ways I clean that up (both are free). The first one you might know about.

Tool #1 for Facebook news feed cleanup: Unfollow

I use this liberally. Every time you see someone post something in Facebook, there’s a link in the top right corner of their post. When you click it, you have a few options. It looks like this:

When you click “Unfollow” it just means that whatever that person posts in the future, you won’t see it. Two important factors here:

You will still be Facebook friends with that person.

That person will not know that you unfollowed them.

So it really is the perfect solution, if you have someone you’re friends with but they are constantly posting their high score in Mafia Wars, or their status is always about how great their new Amway business is, you can finally declare yourself free of all of that.

Personally, I am very liberal with the Unfollow option. I might give someone a second chance (based on how annoying they are, and how close our relationship is in real life). But it really doesn’t take a whole lot for me to just Unfollow and filter someone right out of my news feed. Facebook is enough of a time waster already – there’s no point in having to see stuff I don’t want to see.

And I know the question that some people are already thinking – if a person is that annoying on Facebook, why not just unfriend them? Fair enough. For some people, unfriending is an option. In my case, I use Facebook as a marketing tool for my computer services and laptop sales. So even though I might not want to see what someone is posting, I do want them to see what I’m posting. So I keep them as a Facebook friend but unfollow.

Tool #2 for Facebook news feed cleanup: FilterFeed

This one is a browser extension. I just discovered it recently and I like how it works. Unfortunately, it is only available for the Chrome browser so if you use Firefox you’re out of luck (although there are other options for those browsers).

To get this, open Chrome and go here. You can install the extension into Chrome right from that page and it just takes a few seconds.

Once it is installed, go to Facebook. You’ll see up at the top there will be a an icon that looks like a funnel:

Now that you know it’s running, you have to decide – what do you NOT want to see in your Facebook news feed?

A good example at the moment might be Star Wars. Obviously the new movie is about to be released, and of course there are LOTS of conversations about it on Facebook. But you know you won’t be able to see it on opening night, so you definitely don’t want to accidentally read a Facebook post that reveals anything.

So you do a single left click on the Facebook FilterFeed funnel icon, and you type Star Wars and hit Enter.

You can enter lots of words (I don’t know if there is a limit). Just type the word and hit Enter, and you won’t see any posts that contain that word.

Maybe you get tired of all the political arguments. It’s so bad now especially, with the presidential election and all the campaigning and the televised debates. I get really sick of it. For something like that, you could enter all of the relevant names:

One thing you want to be careful about is to not enter a keyword that is too generic. In this case, it was probably a mistake to have just “Hillary” by itself. In politics, it’s obvious who that means but I also have some friends named Hillary and their posts would be blocked also.

And of course, the little “X” you see next to each name means you can remove that word from the filter whenever you want. But that list does look like a nice selection of things to not see any more.

The possible uses for this filter are endless. So whenever you find yourself scrolling past a bunch of junk in Facebook, don’t just stay frustrated – get rid of it for good!

The post Filter out the garbage in Facebook’s news feed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

charge phone with coffee — Charge your phone with a cup of coffee (someday) Dec 14, 2015
I love new technology and I just heard about this recently. It’s not available to the general public yet, but it’s a good possibility that you’ll see this (or something similar) in the future.

This is a project called Heat Harvest. The Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design gave 12 people a couple of weeks to come up with some ideas on how to save energy and promote a healthier lifestyle. Two of the participants, Sergey Komardenkov and Vihanga Gore (both of whom are much smarter than I am) came up with this idea.

You know when you have a cup of coffee sitting on the table, and you’re chatting or watching the news or checking Facebook or something – what happens to the coffee? Over time, it loses its warmth and will eventually get to room temperature. Hopefully you will have finished drinking it before it gets cold.

The point is this: in terms of physics, heat = energy. So the heat that is lost from your coffee into the air in the room is really just energy that is lost and wasted. So these two people thought, “How can we put this energy into use, instead of wasting it?”.

So they came up with a process that converts the heat from an object (whether it’s your cup of coffee or any other hot dish sitting on the table) into electricity. That electricity is released at a certain point on the same table using a concept called thermal electricity. It’s been around for hundreds of years, but some recent developments have made it possible to be more efficient to actually harvest wasted heat and use it to power up or charge the objects that we use every day.

One of the sponsors for this project is Ikea – you’ve probably heard of them. We have an Ikea store here in the Tampa Bay area, and they do have some pretty cool furniture and household items. There have been times when I wish it came preassembled, but I guess that’s part of the fun. So I guess the most likely place to first see the Heat Harvest in action could be in an Ikea dining room table. Pretty smart!

Here’s a video that explains more about it:

https://youtu.be/JZ3B68rxkf4
The post Charge your phone with a cup of coffee (someday) first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Get Windows 10 icon — How to disable the “Get Windows 10” icon Dec 07, 2015
There are some things in life that are really obnoxious and annoying.

Car dealer commercials.

A dog that’s left outside and barks for hours on end early in the morning or late at night.

Politicians who will promise anything to get elected.

Computerized telemarketing calls on your cell phone.

People who make an appointment then don’t show up and don’t call.

People who feel entitled.

And last but not least – the Get Windows 10 nag icon in the bottom right corner of Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers.

When Windows 10 was first made publicly available at the end of July, I made it very clear more than a month ahead of time that my recommendation was to NOT upgrade yet. I know some people who went ahead and got Windows 10. Some are okay with it, and I’ve talked to many people who have regretted the decision to “upgrade”. Some of my clients even purchased brand new computers with Windows 10 already installed, and ended up sending them back to the manufacturer (in this case, Dell) for a refund.

And now, each week I get the question – “Is it safe to upgrade to Windows 10 yet?” And my recommendation is still the same: not yet. When will I recommend you upgrade to Windows 10? I don’t know.

One thing I do know is this. Microsoft has been extremely and obnoxiously aggressive in pushing Windows 10 down the throats of Windows computer users. In some cases, they included it in a Windows Update and computers were upgraded to Windows 10 even without the permission of the user. Lots of Windows computers have already downloaded (silently, in the background) the Win10 installation files and folders so that all it takes is a click from an unknowing user, and the installation begins. Even if it doesn’t get installed, that download takes up several gigabytes of space on the computer’s hard drive.

When this first started happening, I found a way to fix it on my client’s computers. I would just go into the Windows folder on their computer, and rename the GWX (for Get Windows 10) folder to something else. With the folder showing a different name, the upgrade app and icon was not able to run automatically when you turned on the computer, so the icon would not be displayed.

Unfortunately, Microsoft caught on to that pretty quickly. Soon Windows got another update and the folder was renamed to the original name, and that icon started popping up again.

Well now we have a more permanent solution, and you can do this on your own.

A software developer in Portland, Oregon has created a small program that solves this problem, and he has made it available for free. It’s called GWX Control Panel.

There are a couple of ways you can get this program:

You can go to the website ultimateoutsider.com and click on “Software”, and you’ll see GWX control panel listed as one of the programs available for download. If you want to read about the program itself, what it does, and all of those details, you can do that at the website.

The other option is to just use a shortcut I created – ComputerTutorFlorida.com/gwx – as a direct link to download the program. That link takes you to a Dropbox file, so you can just click “Download”, and then run it to install.

You can run the installation file and just leave everything as default – it won’t try to sneak anything in with it. When it’s done and you run the program, you’ll first see the Agreement window:

After that you’ll see the main program window. This is what mine looks like now, since I have already installed and run it. For most people, the first time you run it, the answers to the questions will be “Yes”.

While it may look like a lot of items to contend with here, it’s really this simple: the first 2 wide buttons near the bottom of the screen directly correlate with the first 3 questions at the top of the screen.

So you just click the first 2 wide buttons:

Click “Disable Windows 10 App” and the first 2 questions questions at the top change from Yes to No.

Click “Disable Operating System Upgrades in Windows Update” and the third question changes from Yes to No.

Optionally, if there are Windows 10 download folders found, you can click “Delete Windows 10 Download Folders” to free up that space on your hard drive.

Two other options:

If you want the program to run in the background and monitor if any Windows 10 related settings or features somehow gets on your computer, you can click “Enable Monitor Mode”. If something does show up, the little icon in the lower right will flash to alert you of this.

If you are interested in more details of how this program works, you can click on “Display the User Guide” to see the full set of instructions and a more detailed explanation.

I’ve been using this on client computers for a while now, and I’ve been very pleased with the results. No spyware, no bugs (that I have found) and it just works for the purpose it was intended – keeping Windows 10 off the computer, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to get it on there.

As a disclaimer, I did not create this program and have no control over it, so if you decide to use it, you do so at your own risk. But I use it on my own computers and I think it’s great.

And by running this program, it does not eliminate your opportunity to EVER upgrade to Windows 10 in the future. You can click the same buttons and enable that upgrade option whenever you want to. I just wouldn’t recommend doing it right now.

The post How to disable the “Get Windows 10” icon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

GWX Control Panel — How to disable the “Get Windows 10” icon Dec 07, 2015
There are some things in life that are really obnoxious and annoying.

Car dealer commercials.

A dog that’s left outside and barks for hours on end early in the morning or late at night.

Politicians who will promise anything to get elected.

Computerized telemarketing calls on your cell phone.

People who make an appointment then don’t show up and don’t call.

People who feel entitled.

And last but not least – the Get Windows 10 nag icon in the bottom right corner of Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers.

When Windows 10 was first made publicly available at the end of July, I made it very clear more than a month ahead of time that my recommendation was to NOT upgrade yet. I know some people who went ahead and got Windows 10. Some are okay with it, and I’ve talked to many people who have regretted the decision to “upgrade”. Some of my clients even purchased brand new computers with Windows 10 already installed, and ended up sending them back to the manufacturer (in this case, Dell) for a refund.

And now, each week I get the question – “Is it safe to upgrade to Windows 10 yet?” And my recommendation is still the same: not yet. When will I recommend you upgrade to Windows 10? I don’t know.

One thing I do know is this. Microsoft has been extremely and obnoxiously aggressive in pushing Windows 10 down the throats of Windows computer users. In some cases, they included it in a Windows Update and computers were upgraded to Windows 10 even without the permission of the user. Lots of Windows computers have already downloaded (silently, in the background) the Win10 installation files and folders so that all it takes is a click from an unknowing user, and the installation begins. Even if it doesn’t get installed, that download takes up several gigabytes of space on the computer’s hard drive.

When this first started happening, I found a way to fix it on my client’s computers. I would just go into the Windows folder on their computer, and rename the GWX (for Get Windows 10) folder to something else. With the folder showing a different name, the upgrade app and icon was not able to run automatically when you turned on the computer, so the icon would not be displayed.

Unfortunately, Microsoft caught on to that pretty quickly. Soon Windows got another update and the folder was renamed to the original name, and that icon started popping up again.

Well now we have a more permanent solution, and you can do this on your own.

A software developer in Portland, Oregon has created a small program that solves this problem, and he has made it available for free. It’s called GWX Control Panel.

There are a couple of ways you can get this program:

You can go to the website ultimateoutsider.com and click on “Software”, and you’ll see GWX control panel listed as one of the programs available for download. If you want to read about the program itself, what it does, and all of those details, you can do that at the website.

The other option is to just use a shortcut I created – ComputerTutorFlorida.com/gwx – as a direct link to download the program. That link takes you to a Dropbox file, so you can just click “Download”, and then run it to install.

You can run the installation file and just leave everything as default – it won’t try to sneak anything in with it. When it’s done and you run the program, you’ll first see the Agreement window:

After that you’ll see the main program window. This is what mine looks like now, since I have already installed and run it. For most people, the first time you run it, the answers to the questions will be “Yes”.

While it may look like a lot of items to contend with here, it’s really this simple: the first 2 wide buttons near the bottom of the screen directly correlate with the first 3 questions at the top of the screen.

So you just click the first 2 wide buttons:

Click “Disable Windows 10 App” and the first 2 questions questions at the top change from Yes to No.

Click “Disable Operating System Upgrades in Windows Update” and the third question changes from Yes to No.

Optionally, if there are Windows 10 download folders found, you can click “Delete Windows 10 Download Folders” to free up that space on your hard drive.

Two other options:

If you want the program to run in the background and monitor if any Windows 10 related settings or features somehow gets on your computer, you can click “Enable Monitor Mode”. If something does show up, the little icon in the lower right will flash to alert you of this.

If you are interested in more details of how this program works, you can click on “Display the User Guide” to see the full set of instructions and a more detailed explanation.

I’ve been using this on client computers for a while now, and I’ve been very pleased with the results. No spyware, no bugs (that I have found) and it just works for the purpose it was intended – keeping Windows 10 off the computer, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to get it on there.

As a disclaimer, I did not create this program and have no control over it, so if you decide to use it, you do so at your own risk. But I use it on my own computers and I think it’s great.

And by running this program, it does not eliminate your opportunity to EVER upgrade to Windows 10 in the future. You can click the same buttons and enable that upgrade option whenever you want to. I just wouldn’t recommend doing it right now.

The post How to disable the “Get Windows 10” icon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hard drive space — How to save disk space, and reduce the size of your backup Nov 30, 2015
Last week I told you about how my backup process saved all of my critical data twice in the last couple of months. One of those backups is called a system image backup and it saves EVERYTHING on your hard drive. As a result, that backup can be pretty big. Today we’ll talk about an easy way for you to reduce the size of that backup, and also save some space on your hard drive.

I have a TON of files and folders on my computer, including a lot of pictures and videos. Those types of files take up a chunk of space, not to mention all of the audio podcast files as well as the typical documents, spreadsheets, etc. That means whenever I do a system image backup (which is overnight, every night) it takes several hours to complete. This works out fine for me since it happens during the night when I’m not using the computer. But what if you want to just do the system image backup during the day? The longer it takes, the longer you are without the use of your computer.

Not to mention, the more files and folders that are stored on your computer, the less free space there is on your hard drive. Of course, with hard drives today being quite large, space might not be an issue for everyone. But there are some people that would benefit from freeing up some hard drive space.

Here’s how you free up some space, and make your system image backup smaller:

In Windows, click the Start button (the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner), then click on “Computer” (or click on “This PC” if you are using a newer version of Windows).

When you see the drive icons with letters, do a RIGHT click on the C drive and choose “Properties”. That brings up this window:

Now click on the little button labeled “Disk Cleanup”. You’ll see a small window that calculates how much space you are using and how much you can save. This might be here for a few seconds or a few minutes:

When it’s done with the calculation, you’ll see a window that shows you how much space you can potentially save on your hard drive, by removing some files and folders that are not needed:

As you can see, in my case it came up with a lot of files that I could get rid of and free up some space – 106 gb in fact. That’s a lot of space! For some perspective, the first Windows computer I bought had a hard drive that could hold 40 gb of data – that means I had to store the Windows operating system, all of my other programs, and all of my own files and folders inside that 40 gb of space. And today, I have “throwaway” files that are more than 100 gb! How things change!

You might want to go down the list and see what types of files and folders are included in this total. If you’re not sure about something, or if you definitely DON’T want to delete a particular item, just uncheck the box and it won’t be included in the total and it won’t be deleted.

But Scott, how do I know if I can delete something or if I should keep it?

You can click on the name of each item in the list, and in the area at the bottom of the window you’ll see an explanation of what that particular item is. That should give you some idea of whether it’s important or not (it’s probably not).

Best rule is this: if you’re not sure, keep it. But practically speaking, the reason the items in this list are in this list are because they aren’t really critical for the continued operation of the computer. So you probably won’t be hurting anything if you delete these things.

Once you have the preferred boxes checked or unchecked, click OK and the Disk Cleanup process will begin. It might take a while if you have a lot of non-essential things to remove. The progress bar will tell you how it’s getting along:

When it’s done, just close the open windows and you’re all set.

You may save a lot of hard drive space doing this, or you may not save much. It’s worth checking out though, especially if you have never checked it (or have not checked it in a while). I don’t check mine very often, which is why there were over 100 gb that could be eliminated. By doing this, the size of my system image backup went way down. Prior to this, my backup process overnight would take almost 7 hours. Now, with the smaller backup, it only takes 5 1/2 hours. That’s a significant difference!

The post How to save disk space, and reduce the size of your backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hard drive space — How to save disk space, and reduce the size of your backup Nov 30, 2015
Last week I told you about how my backup process saved all of my critical data twice in the last couple of months. One of those backups is called a system image backup and it saves EVERYTHING on your hard drive. As a result, that backup can be pretty big. Today we’ll talk about an easy way for you to reduce the size of that backup, and also save some space on your hard drive.

I have a TON of files and folders on my computer, including a lot of pictures and videos. Those types of files take up a chunk of space, not to mention all of the audio podcast files as well as the typical documents, spreadsheets, etc. That means whenever I do a system image backup (which is overnight, every night) it takes several hours to complete. This works out fine for me since it happens during the night when I’m not using the computer. But what if you want to just do the system image backup during the day? The longer it takes, the longer you are without the use of your computer.

Not to mention, the more files and folders that are stored on your computer, the less free space there is on your hard drive. Of course, with hard drives today being quite large, space might not be an issue for everyone. But there are some people that would benefit from freeing up some hard drive space.

Here’s how you free up some space, and make your system image backup smaller:

In Windows, click the Start button (the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner), then click on “Computer” (or click on “This PC” if you are using a newer version of Windows).

When you see the drive icons with letters, do a RIGHT click on the C drive and choose “Properties”. That brings up this window:

Now click on the little button labeled “Disk Cleanup”. You’ll see a small window that calculates how much space you are using and how much you can save. This might be here for a few seconds or a few minutes:

When it’s done with the calculation, you’ll see a window that shows you how much space you can potentially save on your hard drive, by removing some files and folders that are not needed:

As you can see, in my case it came up with a lot of files that I could get rid of and free up some space – 106 gb in fact. That’s a lot of space! For some perspective, the first Windows computer I bought had a hard drive that could hold 40 gb of data – that means I had to store the Windows operating system, all of my other programs, and all of my own files and folders inside that 40 gb of space. And today, I have “throwaway” files that are more than 100 gb! How things change!

You might want to go down the list and see what types of files and folders are included in this total. If you’re not sure about something, or if you definitely DON’T want to delete a particular item, just uncheck the box and it won’t be included in the total and it won’t be deleted.

But Scott, how do I know if I can delete something or if I should keep it?

You can click on the name of each item in the list, and in the area at the bottom of the window you’ll see an explanation of what that particular item is. That should give you some idea of whether it’s important or not (it’s probably not).

Best rule is this: if you’re not sure, keep it. But practically speaking, the reason the items in this list are in this list are because they aren’t really critical for the continued operation of the computer. So you probably won’t be hurting anything if you delete these things.

Once you have the preferred boxes checked or unchecked, click OK and the Disk Cleanup process will begin. It might take a while if you have a lot of non-essential things to remove. The progress bar will tell you how it’s getting along:

When it’s done, just close the open windows and you’re all set.

You may save a lot of hard drive space doing this, or you may not save much. It’s worth checking out though, especially if you have never checked it (or have not checked it in a while). I don’t check mine very often, which is why there were over 100 gb that could be eliminated. By doing this, the size of my system image backup went way down. Prior to this, my backup process overnight would take almost 7 hours. Now, with the smaller backup, it only takes 5 1/2 hours. That’s a significant difference!

The post How to save disk space, and reduce the size of your backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer crash — How my backup saved me TWICE in the last two months Nov 23, 2015
Yes, here I am again preaching to you about backing up your computer. But this time, it’s from a personal point of view and it has to do with my own primary desktop computer. I’ve had two different, major problems in the last two months so I wanted to tell you about what happened and how each of them turned out.

Problem #1 was about 2 months ago. Everything seemed to be going along fine, then I started to get the Blue Screen of Death on my computer every so often. Maybe once every 7 to 10 days. I could be right in the middle of something, and all of a sudden my cursor would freeze, then both monitors would go black, then the blue screen would flash up there and the computer would immediately restart. I wasn’t too happy about this obviously. Otherwise, it seemed to be working okay.

When I checked the error codes, it looked like the problem might be related to an outdated video card driver. So I updated all the drivers, and yet it still kept happening.

I knew I would have to do something about it at some point, but I just hadn’t decided exactly what. Then, that decision was made for me one day when I got the blue screen, and this time it didn’t reboot. I would make sure it’s completely turned off, then when I would go to power it up, it would not boot to Windows at all. It just got stuck in that “Repair Windows” cycle but the Self-Repair was not able to accomplish anything.

Now just for a minute, I want you to put yourself in that situation. Your computer won’t boot up. You cannot access any of the data on your computer – no documents, emails, pictures, nothing. How bad would that be if it happened to you? Would losing all of your files and folders be a really bad thing?

Solution to Problem #1 : replace the hard drive

As I said, this is a desktop computer. In this computer, I have a second physical hard drive. Every night, my main hard drive is completely cloned to that second hard drive. So, when my main hard drive crashed, all I had to do was switch over to that second drive and everything was there. Then I just replaced the first hard drive. Hard drives crash all the time – sometimes gradually, and sometimes with no warning at all.

This might sound complicated, but it’s really not. The process of cloning that drive every night is completely automated by software, so I don’t have to do a thing. This might be more of an effort than some people are willing to exert, but for me I like having it this way. And this cloning process is just one of the 4 ways my computer is backed up every single day. As I said, for some that would be overkill. Just personal preference.

Problem #2 was just a couple of weeks ago. The second Tuesday of each month is called Patch Tuesday. This is the day Microsoft sends out their monthly Windows Updates, to patch up problems and security issues that have been discovered in Windows. For my computer, those updates were installed on Wednesday November 11.

That day, I noticed I was having a lot of trouble with MS Outlook. Every time I would get an email that had any images embedded, Outlook would crash. Then I noticed that Skype would not run – it just would not open at all. I also use Sony Vegas, a video editing program, and that would also not open. There were a few other screwy things going on that I don’t recall specifically right now.

I checked the hard drive, and it was not showing any signs of crashing or failure. With a little research, I found out that one or more of the updates that Microsoft had sent out that week had a problem. It was crashing Outlook and other programs. For some of my clients, it was just a matter of removing the bad update. For me, it was worse – my computer went downhill pretty rapidly and before I could repair it, it would not boot up to Windows at all. I couldn’t even use System Restore to take it back to an earlier date.

So there I was with a perfectly good hard drive, but a completely screwed up Windows installation and unable to boot up, even in Safe Mode.

What would you do in that situation?

Solution to Problem #2: restore Windows from a system image backup

One of the other mostly automated backups I do each night is what’s called a System Image backup, using a program called Macrium Reflect (free). All I have to do is plug in my external drive at night, and unplug it in the morning. Overnight, Macrium Reflect takes everything on my main hard drive – programs, files, folders, settings, EVERYTHING – and puts it in a single file on my external hard drive.

So all I had to do was restore that System Image backup from a couple days earlier, and everything was back like it was on that day (Tuesday, before the Windows Updates came in).

This type of backup is one of two backups that I recommend for everyone. It allows you to get back in business within an hour or two after replacing a crashed hard drive. In my case, the hard drive didn’t even need to be replaced – I just need to restore a system image backup to get everything back the way it was.

So that’s what has happened to me recently. Yes, it was a slight inconvenience to deal with it – BUT I was back up and running very quickly in both cases, and I lost no data. I have gone through this same procedure with many of my clients who had a regular automated backup, and experienced a major problem. Let me tell you, they were very happy that I had encouraged them to have a backup process in place.

If you want help with setting up a backup for your computer, just email me at pctutor@gmail.com or call me at 727-254-9078.

The post How my backup saved me TWICE in the last two months first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How my backup saved me TWICE in the last two months Nov 23, 2015
Yes, here I am again preaching to you about backing up your computer. But this time, it’s from a personal point of view and it has to do with my own primary desktop computer. I’ve had two different, major problems in the last two months so I wanted to tell you about what happened and how each of them turned out.

Problem #1 was about 2 months ago. Everything seemed to be going along fine, then I started to get the Blue Screen of Death on my computer every so often. Maybe once every 7 to 10 days. I could be right in the middle of something, and all of a sudden my cursor would freeze, then both monitors would go black, then the blue screen would flash up there and the computer would immediately restart. I wasn’t too happy about this obviously. Otherwise, it seemed to be working okay.

When I checked the error codes, it looked like the problem might be related to an outdated video card driver. So I updated all the drivers, and yet it still kept happening.

I knew I would have to do something about it at some point, but I just hadn’t decided exactly what. Then, that decision was made for me one day when I got the blue screen, and this time it didn’t reboot. I would make sure it’s completely turned off, then when I would go to power it up, it would not boot to Windows at all. It just got stuck in that “Repair Windows” cycle but the Self-Repair was not able to accomplish anything.

Now just for a minute, I want you to put yourself in that situation. Your computer won’t boot up. You cannot access any of the data on your computer – no documents, emails, pictures, nothing. How bad would that be if it happened to you? Would losing all of your files and folders be a really bad thing?

Solution to Problem #1 : replace the hard drive

As I said, this is a desktop computer. In this computer, I have a second physical hard drive. Every night, my main hard drive is completely cloned to that second hard drive. So, when my main hard drive crashed, all I had to do was switch over to that second drive and everything was there. Then I just replaced the first hard drive. Hard drives crash all the time – sometimes gradually, and sometimes with no warning at all.

This might sound complicated, but it’s really not. The process of cloning that drive every night is completely automated by software, so I don’t have to do a thing. This might be more of an effort than some people are willing to exert, but for me I like having it this way. And this cloning process is just one of the 4 ways my computer is backed up every single day. As I said, for some that would be overkill. Just personal preference.

Problem #2 was just a couple of weeks ago. The second Tuesday of each month is called Patch Tuesday. This is the day Microsoft sends out their monthly Windows Updates, to patch up problems and security issues that have been discovered in Windows. For my computer, those updates were installed on Wednesday November 11.

That day, I noticed I was having a lot of trouble with MS Outlook. Every time I would get an email that had any images embedded, Outlook would crash. Then I noticed that Skype would not run – it just would not open at all. I also use Sony Vegas, a video editing program, and that would also not open. There were a few other screwy things going on that I don’t recall specifically right now.

I checked the hard drive, and it was not showing any signs of crashing or failure. With a little research, I found out that one or more of the updates that Microsoft had sent out that week had a problem. It was crashing Outlook and other programs. For some of my clients, it was just a matter of removing the bad update. For me, it was worse – my computer went downhill pretty rapidly and before I could repair it, it would not boot up to Windows at all. I couldn’t even use System Restore to take it back to an earlier date.

So there I was with a perfectly good hard drive, but a completely screwed up Windows installation and unable to boot up, even in Safe Mode.

What would you do in that situation?

Solution to Problem #2: restore Windows from a system image backup

One of the other mostly automated backups I do each night is what’s called a System Image backup, using a program called Macrium Reflect (free). All I have to do is plug in my external drive at night, and unplug it in the morning. Overnight, Macrium Reflect takes everything on my main hard drive – programs, files, folders, settings, EVERYTHING – and puts it in a single file on my external hard drive.

So all I had to do was restore that System Image backup from a couple days earlier, and everything was back like it was on that day (Tuesday, before the Windows Updates came in).

This type of backup is one of two backups that I recommend for everyone. It allows you to get back in business within an hour or two after replacing a crashed hard drive. In my case, the hard drive didn’t even need to be replaced – I just need to restore a system image backup to get everything back the way it was.

So that’s what has happened to me recently. Yes, it was a slight inconvenience to deal with it – BUT I was back up and running very quickly in both cases, and I lost no data. I have gone through this same procedure with many of my clients who had a regular automated backup, and experienced a major problem. Let me tell you, they were very happy that I had encouraged them to have a backup process in place.

If you want help with setting up a backup for your computer, just email me at pctutor@gmail.com or call me at 727-254-9078.

The post How my backup saved me TWICE in the last two months first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email scam — Analysis of a scam email Nov 16, 2015
If no one ever opened a scam/spam email, the spammers would stop sending them. If you have checked your spam folder lately, you know that the flow of spam doesn’t seem to have slowed down much. One reason I like Gmail is that their excellent spam filters keep that garbage out of my inbox. But what if one slips through? How do you identify an email as a scam?

Let’s take a look at one of these that showed up in my email recently.

Gmail correctly sent it directly to the Spam folder, but I pulled it out of there just for the purpose of this blog post. Four things on this email jump out to me right away.

First, it does not state clearly who is sending the email. It just says that it’s being sent from “mailminion.net” on behalf “Payments Dept”. This is just an email sending service, not a person. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a scam, since many legitimate online businesses use an email service. I use one of the most popular ones, Aweber, to send out my Monday morning emails. But they fact that they have chosen the display name “Payments Dept” is suspicious.

Second factor is the blind link within the email message. This is exactly the type of link you should never click on, and for that reason alone this email is one that should just get deleted. But in the interest of investigation, I followed that link to see where it would go. Don’t try this at home!

The actual link behind that text is this:

http://mm-s399.com/campaigns/yc483c9l3taac/track-url/a621ea4bb5e6c/b63d0cc529d45c8aba3dba1cdcef66e03f0a5703

but once it was clicked, it forwarded from that address to this actual website address:

http://sarahsconfession.com/c/?clickID=2786033600&aff=StrongLead&c=US&tid=1023b209664a379305b8caeec13444&aff_id=5662#

So now we can actually see where we’re going with this junk.

On that page is a video sales pitch for some stock trading software that the video claims is currently making its other users $10,000, $20,000 or even up to $60,000 each month. And it’s all automated! You just click one button in the morning, and go out and do whatever you want to do during the day, and by the end of that day you will have thousands of dollars in your bank account. To any resaonable thinking person, this is obviously all garbage and a complete scam. Unfortunately, there are many people that buy it simply because they want so badly for it to be true.

But what about the Paypal payment that was already “processed”, that the original email talked about? Just a lie to get me to click on the link and hopefully get sucked into the scam.

Just what we’ve already talked about is enough to prove that this is not a legitimate email. But there’s more.

The third item – you can’t see it very well in the image, but at the bottom of the email there is what is supposed to look like a US mailing address. That’s designed to add some credibility and make it more believable. After all, a scammer wouldn’t actually give out his address, right?

Well, what it says is this:

Finance Rewards Society, 2205 Rose Avenue,, LA, 70171

They’re hoping people see that and just assume that it’s in Los Angeles, California. Except there is no 70171 in California. In fact, that zip code does not exist anywhere in the United States.

The fourth tipoff is that you can “unsubscribe” and you can even “report abuse”. But the place you’re reporting the abuse is the very place that’s sending you the email. They’re giving you the opportunity to THINK you have reported them, so you don’t actually report the spam/scam to any authority or group that can take action against them. They allow this type of scam email to be sent through their service, so your “report” doesn’t do any good. It’s like reporting a burglary to the burglar’s accomplice.

The other factor that is common in a lot of scam emails is bad grammar and misspelled words. It’s usually very clear that whoever wrote it is not a native speaker of English. In the email example above, there are only a few sentences so they didn’t really have any glaring grammatical errors. But I’ve often said this: if a convincing scammer ever teams up with someone that knows proper written English, that’s a team that will be able to scam a lot of people. The bad guys already snag a lot of people even with their broken English; who knows what they would be capable of if it sounded legitimate.

The post Analysis of a scam email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email scam — Analysis of a scam email Nov 16, 2015
If no one ever opened a scam/spam email, the spammers would stop sending them. If you have checked your spam folder lately, you know that the flow of spam doesn’t seem to have slowed down much. One reason I like Gmail is that their excellent spam filters keep that garbage out of my inbox. But what if one slips through? How do you identify an email as a scam?

Let’s take a look at one of these that showed up in my email recently.

Gmail correctly sent it directly to the Spam folder, but I pulled it out of there just for the purpose of this blog post. Four things on this email jump out to me right away.

First, it does not state clearly who is sending the email. It just says that it’s being sent from “mailminion.net” on behalf “Payments Dept”. This is just an email sending service, not a person. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a scam, since many legitimate online businesses use an email service. I use one of the most popular ones, Aweber, to send out my Monday morning emails. But they fact that they have chosen the display name “Payments Dept” is suspicious.

Second factor is the blind link within the email message. This is exactly the type of link you should never click on, and for that reason alone this email is one that should just get deleted. But in the interest of investigation, I followed that link to see where it would go. Don’t try this at home!

The actual link behind that text is this:

http://mm-s399.com/campaigns/yc483c9l3taac/track-url/a621ea4bb5e6c/b63d0cc529d45c8aba3dba1cdcef66e03f0a5703

but once it was clicked, it forwarded from that address to this actual website address:

http://sarahsconfession.com/c/?clickID=2786033600&aff=StrongLead&c=US&tid=1023b209664a379305b8caeec13444&aff_id=5662#

So now we can actually see where we’re going with this junk.

On that page is a video sales pitch for some stock trading software that the video claims is currently making its other users $10,000, $20,000 or even up to $60,000 each month. And it’s all automated! You just click one button in the morning, and go out and do whatever you want to do during the day, and by the end of that day you will have thousands of dollars in your bank account. To any resaonable thinking person, this is obviously all garbage and a complete scam. Unfortunately, there are many people that buy it simply because they want so badly for it to be true.

But what about the Paypal payment that was already “processed”, that the original email talked about? Just a lie to get me to click on the link and hopefully get sucked into the scam.

Just what we’ve already talked about is enough to prove that this is not a legitimate email. But there’s more.

The third item – you can’t see it very well in the image, but at the bottom of the email there is what is supposed to look like a US mailing address. That’s designed to add some credibility and make it more believable. After all, a scammer wouldn’t actually give out his address, right?

Well, what it says is this:

Finance Rewards Society, 2205 Rose Avenue,, LA, 70171

They’re hoping people see that and just assume that it’s in Los Angeles, California. Except there is no 70171 in California. In fact, that zip code does not exist anywhere in the United States.

The fourth tipoff is that you can “unsubscribe” and you can even “report abuse”. But the place you’re reporting the abuse is the very place that’s sending you the email. They’re giving you the opportunity to THINK you have reported them, so you don’t actually report the spam/scam to any authority or group that can take action against them. They allow this type of scam email to be sent through their service, so your “report” doesn’t do any good. It’s like reporting a burglary to the burglar’s accomplice.

The other factor that is common in a lot of scam emails is bad grammar and misspelled words. It’s usually very clear that whoever wrote it is not a native speaker of English. In the email example above, there are only a few sentences so they didn’t really have any glaring grammatical errors. But I’ve often said this: if a convincing scammer ever teams up with someone that knows proper written English, that’s a team that will be able to scam a lot of people. The bad guys already snag a lot of people even with their broken English; who knows what they would be capable of if it sounded legitimate.

The post Analysis of a scam email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

malicious website — Quick way to see if a website is malicious Nov 09, 2015
Every day, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of new malicious websites coming into existence on the internet. It’s very common now, when you do a Google search, for many of the search results to be websites that you should definitely not click on. You’d think Google would have that figured out by now, so that those sites don’t show up so well in the rankings. But they are still there, so you have to be very careful.

The question is: How can you know if a site is safe or not, unless you click on it?

The answer is: Let Google check it for you

Not many people know about it, but Google offers a “safe browsing” check so that you can get their evaluation of whether or not a site is malicious – and you never have to visit the website itself to do that.

Here’s an example of how you would check on the safety of visiting a particular website:

Let’s say your computer starts crashing sometimes, and it’s starting to happen often enough to become annoying. And, you don’t really know what is causing it to crash. But every time it freezes up, it comes up with this error message that seems to be giving you some kind of report of what happened, but it looks like a bunch of computer code that doesn’t mean anything unless you’re a computer geek that knows that language.

So you do a Google search for “Windows crash report” to see if you can find any helpful information. And what do you know – there’s a website that comes up in that Google search that seems to be just what you’re looking for. The website is Windows-Crash-Report.info. Wow, it sounds like exactly what you need, right? It must have all the answers! WRONG.

When a scammer is creating a website, he wants you to think it’s a legitimate website. He wants you to think this site has the answers you are searching for. He wants you to think it’s safe to click and view the website. Don’t fall into that trap – because in some cases, as soon as you click, you’re in trouble.

Instead, check the site using this website address format:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=SuspiciousWebsite.com

But instead of “suspiciouswebsite.com” at the end, you would just put in the website you want to check on. Note that you don’t include “http” or “www” or anything like that, and nothing after the “.com”. Just the domain name by itself.

So if we wanted to check on the site I mentioned above, we would type this address into the address bar:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=windows-crash-report.info

When you hit enter, Google comes up immediately with a brief report that tells you what their evaluation is for that site and whether it’s probably safe to go there.

In this case, Google has this to say about that website:

As you can see, Google is not coming out and clearly stating “this site is dangerous”, but they do state that the site had some suspicious activity detected over 90 days ago, and for me that’s enough to keep me from clicking through to it.

Does this seem like a lot of hassle to go through, just to see if a website is malicious before you visit it? Yeah, maybe. But from my standpoint, I can tell you that I have people bring me computers all the time that have gotten infected just because someone decided to click an unknown link “just this once” out of curiosity, and almost immediately they regretted it. You can avoid that. Be safe!

The post Quick way to see if a website is malicious first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

malicious website report — Quick way to see if a website is malicious Nov 09, 2015
Every day, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of new malicious websites coming into existence on the internet. It’s very common now, when you do a Google search, for many of the search results to be websites that you should definitely not click on. You’d think Google would have that figured out by now, so that those sites don’t show up so well in the rankings. But they are still there, so you have to be very careful.

The question is: How can you know if a site is safe or not, unless you click on it?

The answer is: Let Google check it for you

Not many people know about it, but Google offers a “safe browsing” check so that you can get their evaluation of whether or not a site is malicious – and you never have to visit the website itself to do that.

Here’s an example of how you would check on the safety of visiting a particular website:

Let’s say your computer starts crashing sometimes, and it’s starting to happen often enough to become annoying. And, you don’t really know what is causing it to crash. But every time it freezes up, it comes up with this error message that seems to be giving you some kind of report of what happened, but it looks like a bunch of computer code that doesn’t mean anything unless you’re a computer geek that knows that language.

So you do a Google search for “Windows crash report” to see if you can find any helpful information. And what do you know – there’s a website that comes up in that Google search that seems to be just what you’re looking for. The website is Windows-Crash-Report.info. Wow, it sounds like exactly what you need, right? It must have all the answers! WRONG.

When a scammer is creating a website, he wants you to think it’s a legitimate website. He wants you to think this site has the answers you are searching for. He wants you to think it’s safe to click and view the website. Don’t fall into that trap – because in some cases, as soon as you click, you’re in trouble.

Instead, check the site using this website address format:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=SuspiciousWebsite.com

But instead of “suspiciouswebsite.com” at the end, you would just put in the website you want to check on. Note that you don’t include “http” or “www” or anything like that, and nothing after the “.com”. Just the domain name by itself.

So if we wanted to check on the site I mentioned above, we would type this address into the address bar:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=windows-crash-report.info

When you hit enter, Google comes up immediately with a brief report that tells you what their evaluation is for that site and whether it’s probably safe to go there.

In this case, Google has this to say about that website:

As you can see, Google is not coming out and clearly stating “this site is dangerous”, but they do state that the site had some suspicious activity detected over 90 days ago, and for me that’s enough to keep me from clicking through to it.

Does this seem like a lot of hassle to go through, just to see if a website is malicious before you visit it? Yeah, maybe. But from my standpoint, I can tell you that I have people bring me computers all the time that have gotten infected just because someone decided to click an unknown link “just this once” out of curiosity, and almost immediately they regretted it. You can avoid that. Be safe!

The post Quick way to see if a website is malicious first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

GIF video — Transform a YouTube video into a GIF Nov 02, 2015
Everyone knows what a YouTube video is. But not everyone knows what a GIF video is (even though just about everyone has seen one on Facebook or somewhere on the internet). Did you know that you can easily take a YouTube video, and create a GIF video out of that? Today I’ll show you how.

A GIF video is pretty much just a short video that usually plays on an endless loop. Here’s an example of one. In this, you first see the dog get up and run out of the camera range, for no apparent reason. Then you see what he sensed before any of the humans did (an earthquake):

Sometimes short little videos like this can be pretty handy. Since this one appears to be a video that was taken by an office security camera system, the original video was probably hours long and full of just boring footage that showed nothing of any interest to anyone. But that little animated section of it is interesting. It’s true that animals sense something like this before a human ever would, and that dog clearly jumps up and runs before anything starts happening visually.

The good news is – you can make your own GIF videos, and it’s really easy! Here’s how.

Let’s say you find this great video on YouTube. For our example, we’ll use this “military homecoming surprise” video. This father was deployed for 9 months and his young daughter was not expecting him to come home already, and he surprised her by showing up at her baseball game. Here’s the full video:

That video is almost 2 minutes long. A lot of that is the silent intro, then the narrator sets up the story, then the actual reunion of father and daughter, and then the long wrap-up. But you might only want to make a quick GIF video of just the actual reunion.

First, while you’re at YouTube on this video, look up at the address bar at the top of your web browser. It should show a website address that looks like this:

Now, click your mouse so that the cursor is flashing just in front of the “y” in “youtube”. Then, type the 3 letters “gif” (without the quotes). So now the website address looks like this:

Now hit the Enter key on the keyboard, and you’ll be taken to a video editing page and you can decide how long the GIF video will be, and exactly where it will start and end. You can also put a title at the top of the video, and you can even create a caption to last for a certain period of time (I just put the caption “Wow” for a short time in the middle of the GIF). Then you click the big button at the bottom that says “Create GIF”.

Shouldn’t take long for the GIF video to be created. Then you are presented with a menu that gives you the link to the actual GIF file, and a website link where you can send people to view it, and a few other things. The first time you play it, it might play in sort of slow motion, because it is also loading at the same time. After the first play, it should be at normal speed.

You can see what my final creation looked like here: https://gifs.com/gif/mLrV27

They also give you the option to share your new video on all the social media sites. The nice thing about this whole process is that there is no software to download or install on your computer, so you probably don’t have to worry about malware or viruses sneaking in. I would guess they are making some money from ads, but I didn’t see any because they were blocked by my ad-blocker software.

The post Transform a YouTube video into a GIF first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

GIF video example — Transform a YouTube video into a GIF Nov 02, 2015
Everyone knows what a YouTube video is. But not everyone knows what a GIF video is (even though just about everyone has seen one on Facebook or somewhere on the internet). Did you know that you can easily take a YouTube video, and create a GIF video out of that? Today I’ll show you how.

A GIF video is pretty much just a short video that usually plays on an endless loop. Here’s an example of one. In this, you first see the dog get up and run out of the camera range, for no apparent reason. Then you see what he sensed before any of the humans did (an earthquake):

Sometimes short little videos like this can be pretty handy. Since this one appears to be a video that was taken by an office security camera system, the original video was probably hours long and full of just boring footage that showed nothing of any interest to anyone. But that little animated section of it is interesting. It’s true that animals sense something like this before a human ever would, and that dog clearly jumps up and runs before anything starts happening visually.

The good news is – you can make your own GIF videos, and it’s really easy! Here’s how.

Let’s say you find this great video on YouTube. For our example, we’ll use this “military homecoming surprise” video. This father was deployed for 9 months and his young daughter was not expecting him to come home already, and he surprised her by showing up at her baseball game. Here’s the full video:

That video is almost 2 minutes long. A lot of that is the silent intro, then the narrator sets up the story, then the actual reunion of father and daughter, and then the long wrap-up. But you might only want to make a quick GIF video of just the actual reunion.

First, while you’re at YouTube on this video, look up at the address bar at the top of your web browser. It should show a website address that looks like this:

Now, click your mouse so that the cursor is flashing just in front of the “y” in “youtube”. Then, type the 3 letters “gif” (without the quotes). So now the website address looks like this:

Now hit the Enter key on the keyboard, and you’ll be taken to a video editing page and you can decide how long the GIF video will be, and exactly where it will start and end. You can also put a title at the top of the video, and you can even create a caption to last for a certain period of time (I just put the caption “Wow” for a short time in the middle of the GIF). Then you click the big button at the bottom that says “Create GIF”.

Shouldn’t take long for the GIF video to be created. Then you are presented with a menu that gives you the link to the actual GIF file, and a website link where you can send people to view it, and a few other things. The first time you play it, it might play in sort of slow motion, because it is also loading at the same time. After the first play, it should be at normal speed.

You can see what my final creation looked like here: https://gifs.com/gif/mLrV27

They also give you the option to share your new video on all the social media sites. The nice thing about this whole process is that there is no software to download or install on your computer, so you probably don’t have to worry about malware or viruses sneaking in. I would guess they are making some money from ads, but I didn’t see any because they were blocked by my ad-blocker software.

The post Transform a YouTube video into a GIF first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool websites — More cool websites you might like Oct 26, 2015
Every so often I do a post where I feature several websites that are interesting, informative, funny or just somehow intriguing in some way.

Documentary Addict
http://documentaryaddict.com/
Whenever I go on Netflix, and I don’t have anything specific in mind to watch, I tend to browse through the documentaries. And Netflix does have a lot of documentaries in their library of things to view. I don’t know the exact number they have, but I would bet that Documentary Addict has a lot more. The current total they show is 5,257 but that is changing pretty regularly as they add new ones. There are documentary films here on just about any subject you can imagine.

If you’re not looking for anything in particular, it can be a little overwhelming. But if that’s the case, you can also check out their subsections such as “Just Added”, or “The Week’s MOST RIVETING” or the “Top 100” and you’re sure to find some really good content. Or, you can just pick one of 26 categories to narrow it down to a particular field of interest.

And one other advantage of Documentary Addict – it’s completely free.

FaxZero
http://faxzero.com/
The technology of faxing was pretty amazing when the first standard office fax machines were introduced back in the late 1980s. But let’s face it – faxing is now an outdated form of transmitting/receiving documents. Fax machines that originally cost hundreds or thousands of dollars can hardly be given away now, because there are just other ways to accomplish this more efficiently and with higher resolution.

BUT – there are still some businesses and some individuals that use faxes. If you are dealing with one of them, it’s rather unhandy if you don’t have a way to send a fax from your location.

FaxZero allows you to have this ability, and it’s free for most situations. You can create a document in Word, then go to the FaxZero website and upload that document with the fax number you want to send it to. It’s free to send up to 3 pages + the cover page, and you are allowed to send up to 5 free faxes per DAY. This is probably perfect for that one time in 5 years that you need to do this (it certainly wouldn’t make sense to own a fax machine for those rare occasions, not to mention you would need a regular telephone line and many people don’t even have those at home anymore).

If you need to send a longer fax, it’s just $1.99 per fax for up to 25 pages – still a bargain.

SuperCook Recipes
http://www.supercook.com/#/recipes
If you like to cook and you like trying new things, and you don’t always feel very creative, this website could be a great tool for you. All you have to do is tell the website what ingredients you have on hand, and it will come up with a bunch of recipes for dishes that only use those ingredients.

For example, I went on the site and told it that I only have American cheese, eggs, a potato, and some sausage – and it came up with 70 different ideas for a meal. These included:

Swedish sausage potato cakes

Sausage and potato frittata

Salt-baked potatoes

And a bunch more. Of course, the more ingredients you have, the more options it will come back with. But for nights when it’s suppertime and your brain is too tired to come up with something on its own, this website could help.

Amazon Filler Items
http://www.filleritem.com/
If you shop at Amazon, and of course you do because everyone does, you know that if your purchase is over $35 you probably qualify for free shipping (Amazon Prime members ignore this because you usually get free shipping anyway). So what if you want to buy something that’s $33.99? Just a little bit more in your shopping cart and you’d get free shipping, but how do you find an item that costs just $1.01?

That’s where the Amazon Filler Items website comes in. You go to the site, and enter the dollar amount that you need in order to get your total purchase up to $35. The site comes back with a list of dozens or even hundreds of “filler” items that fit the bill. It’s almost a certainty that one of them will be one that you would have to buy at some point in the future, so you’re not really just wasting money.

Flight Radar
http://www.flightradar24.com
This website can be handy if you want to track a particular flight to know where it is or when it’s taking off or landing. What you’re looking at on the screen is a basic map of your location. Flying all over that screen are little images of airplanes. But these aren’t just random plane icons – each one represents an actual flight that is happening right now. When you see one near your location, click on it and it will tell you what flight it is and where it’s headed, along with some other details. Pretty handy.

Stuff in Space
http://stuffin.space/
I’m pretty sure you have no idea how much junk is floating around in space around Planet Earth. I certainly didn’t. This website tracks that space junk in real time.

When you go to the site, you’ll see a black screen with Earth in the middle. You can click and drag to rotate the earth left and right, or up and down. What you’ll also see are little dots – many thousands of them. Each one of those dots is a piece of junk floating around. You can click on it and get the details. There are leftover rocket bodies, payloads, or some things just labeled “debris”. Space exploration sure leaves a trail of garbage behind.

Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/
Taking classes can help you learn a lot of things. But it can be expensive. If you want to learn about all the various subjects you would take in high school or college, you can do it for free – online – at Khan Academy.

The site offers multiple classes in categories such as Math, Science, Economics and Finance, Arts and Humanities, Computing and more.

Then if you just take one category, such as Math, you can zero in on specifics such as what grade level or what areas of math you want to learn, or just take the fundamentals:

And that’s just the one category of Math. Each category has multiple sub-areas like that. And it’s all free.

Don’t throw my package
http://dontthrowmypackage.com/
We are about to roll into the holiday season, which means many people will be ordering packages and having them delivered via Fedex, UPS, the US Mail, and other couriers. Nothing is more frustrating than having a valuable item show up and then find that it’s been damaged in the delivery process. How does this happen? Well, one way is through the carelessness of the delivery drivers.

The “Don’t Throw My Package” website is a collection of videos in which delivery people have been caught mishandling the packages they’re supposed to be taking care of. With home security cameras becoming more common, you’d think they would be aware that they could be “on stage” at any time during their daily deliveries.

This is what I think of whenever I’m shipping a laptop to a client. Fortunately, in the hundreds of laptops I’ve shipped over the years, I’ve only had two instances where packages were damaged in delivery. I always send them insured, and in both cases UPS paid the full claim amount.

For an example of the videos you’ll see on this website, check this one out.

For the websites featured here on my blog today, some of them are ones that I found and some were suggested to me by readers and listeners to my podcast. If you know of a website that is interesting, funny, educational or unusual in some way, let me know about it so I can tell everyone else!

The post More cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cool websites — More cool websites you might like Oct 26, 2015
Every so often I do a post where I feature several websites that are interesting, informative, funny or just somehow intriguing in some way.

Documentary Addict
http://documentaryaddict.com/
Whenever I go on Netflix, and I don’t have anything specific in mind to watch, I tend to browse through the documentaries. And Netflix does have a lot of documentaries in their library of things to view. I don’t know the exact number they have, but I would bet that Documentary Addict has a lot more. The current total they show is 5,257 but that is changing pretty regularly as they add new ones. There are documentary films here on just about any subject you can imagine.

If you’re not looking for anything in particular, it can be a little overwhelming. But if that’s the case, you can also check out their subsections such as “Just Added”, or “The Week’s MOST RIVETING” or the “Top 100” and you’re sure to find some really good content. Or, you can just pick one of 26 categories to narrow it down to a particular field of interest.

And one other advantage of Documentary Addict – it’s completely free.

FaxZero
http://faxzero.com/
The technology of faxing was pretty amazing when the first standard office fax machines were introduced back in the late 1980s. But let’s face it – faxing is now an outdated form of transmitting/receiving documents. Fax machines that originally cost hundreds or thousands of dollars can hardly be given away now, because there are just other ways to accomplish this more efficiently and with higher resolution.

BUT – there are still some businesses and some individuals that use faxes. If you are dealing with one of them, it’s rather unhandy if you don’t have a way to send a fax from your location.

FaxZero allows you to have this ability, and it’s free for most situations. You can create a document in Word, then go to the FaxZero website and upload that document with the fax number you want to send it to. It’s free to send up to 3 pages + the cover page, and you are allowed to send up to 5 free faxes per DAY. This is probably perfect for that one time in 5 years that you need to do this (it certainly wouldn’t make sense to own a fax machine for those rare occasions, not to mention you would need a regular telephone line and many people don’t even have those at home anymore).

If you need to send a longer fax, it’s just $1.99 per fax for up to 25 pages – still a bargain.

SuperCook Recipes
http://www.supercook.com/#/recipes
If you like to cook and you like trying new things, and you don’t always feel very creative, this website could be a great tool for you. All you have to do is tell the website what ingredients you have on hand, and it will come up with a bunch of recipes for dishes that only use those ingredients.

For example, I went on the site and told it that I only have American cheese, eggs, a potato, and some sausage – and it came up with 70 different ideas for a meal. These included:

Swedish sausage potato cakes

Sausage and potato frittata

Salt-baked potatoes

And a bunch more. Of course, the more ingredients you have, the more options it will come back with. But for nights when it’s suppertime and your brain is too tired to come up with something on its own, this website could help.

Amazon Filler Items
http://www.filleritem.com/
If you shop at Amazon, and of course you do because everyone does, you know that if your purchase is over $35 you probably qualify for free shipping (Amazon Prime members ignore this because you usually get free shipping anyway). So what if you want to buy something that’s $33.99? Just a little bit more in your shopping cart and you’d get free shipping, but how do you find an item that costs just $1.01?

That’s where the Amazon Filler Items website comes in. You go to the site, and enter the dollar amount that you need in order to get your total purchase up to $35. The site comes back with a list of dozens or even hundreds of “filler” items that fit the bill. It’s almost a certainty that one of them will be one that you would have to buy at some point in the future, so you’re not really just wasting money.

Flight Radar
http://www.flightradar24.com
This website can be handy if you want to track a particular flight to know where it is or when it’s taking off or landing. What you’re looking at on the screen is a basic map of your location. Flying all over that screen are little images of airplanes. But these aren’t just random plane icons – each one represents an actual flight that is happening right now. When you see one near your location, click on it and it will tell you what flight it is and where it’s headed, along with some other details. Pretty handy.

Stuff in Space
http://stuffin.space/
I’m pretty sure you have no idea how much junk is floating around in space around Planet Earth. I certainly didn’t. This website tracks that space junk in real time.

When you go to the site, you’ll see a black screen with Earth in the middle. You can click and drag to rotate the earth left and right, or up and down. What you’ll also see are little dots – many thousands of them. Each one of those dots is a piece of junk floating around. You can click on it and get the details. There are leftover rocket bodies, payloads, or some things just labeled “debris”. Space exploration sure leaves a trail of garbage behind.

Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/
Taking classes can help you learn a lot of things. But it can be expensive. If you want to learn about all the various subjects you would take in high school or college, you can do it for free – online – at Khan Academy.

The site offers multiple classes in categories such as Math, Science, Economics and Finance, Arts and Humanities, Computing and more.

Then if you just take one category, such as Math, you can zero in on specifics such as what grade level or what areas of math you want to learn, or just take the fundamentals:

And that’s just the one category of Math. Each category has multiple sub-areas like that. And it’s all free.

Don’t throw my package
http://dontthrowmypackage.com/
We are about to roll into the holiday season, which means many people will be ordering packages and having them delivered via Fedex, UPS, the US Mail, and other couriers. Nothing is more frustrating than having a valuable item show up and then find that it’s been damaged in the delivery process. How does this happen? Well, one way is through the carelessness of the delivery drivers.

The “Don’t Throw My Package” website is a collection of videos in which delivery people have been caught mishandling the packages they’re supposed to be taking care of. With home security cameras becoming more common, you’d think they would be aware that they could be “on stage” at any time during their daily deliveries.

This is what I think of whenever I’m shipping a laptop to a client. Fortunately, in the hundreds of laptops I’ve shipped over the years, I’ve only had two instances where packages were damaged in delivery. I always send them insured, and in both cases UPS paid the full claim amount.

For an example of the videos you’ll see on this website, check this one out.

For the websites featured here on my blog today, some of them are ones that I found and some were suggested to me by readers and listeners to my podcast. If you know of a website that is interesting, funny, educational or unusual in some way, let me know about it so I can tell everyone else!

The post More cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

YouTube secrets — Hidden features of YouTube Oct 19, 2015
Everyone visits YouTube at one time or another. Some people visit it and watch videos every day. There are even people that spend HOURS each day watching those videos. But I’ll bet there are a lot of people, even those that use YouTube every day, that don’t know some of these shortcuts that work in YouTube.

For most media players, such as Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player, the standard keyboard key for pausing the video and starting it again is the space bar. That doesn’t work with YouTube. YouTube is a website. When you’re viewing a website, and you hit the space bar on your keyboard, it just makes the website you’re looking at scroll down by one page length.

For YouTube, the key to Pause/Play a video is:

I don’t know about you, but when I first discovered this, my reaction was, “Why K?” It seems like “P” might make more sense since it could stand for “play” or “pause”. Maybe because K is right there in the center of the keyboard. I mean, if you look at your overall keyboard from left to right, K is just about right in the middle. But whatever the reason is, K is what you tap if you want to pause a YouTube video or start it up playing again. Go watch a YouTube video now and try it out.

And that’s not all. If you’re watching a video and you want to go back 10 seconds and replay, hit the letter J (that one does make sense, since it is immediately to the left of K). And if the video has a boring part you want to skip over, tap L to fast forward 10 seconds (again, just to the right of K so it’s the obvious choice).

Want to rewind just 5 seconds back? Hit the left arrow key. And as you might guess, the right arrow key fast forwards 5 seconds.

And the up and down arrows are useful too – they increase or decrease the audio volume.

Most YouTube videos are much easier to watch, and more entertaining, when they take up the full screen. If you’re watching a video and it’s just the regular YouTube window, you can tap the letter F (for Full screen) and have the video fill up your screen. Tap it again to go back to the original view.

This:

is not nearly as impressive or as fun to watch as this:

Want to quickly shut off just the audio portion of a YouTube video? Hit M for Mute.

You can also turn on Closed Captions for almost any YouTube video just by hitting the letter C. Tapping it again turns captioning off.

Here’s a fun one – you can speed up or slow down a video by using the “less than” or “greater than” keys:

Of course, with those keys, you need to hold down the Shift key at the same time since the symbols are at the top of the key. Otherwise you would just be hitting the comma or the period.

And finally – quickly navigating through a video. You can do this with the number keys 1 through 9. YouTube divides every video into 10 equal parts, no matter how long the video is overall. So if you want to go immediately to the halfway point on a video, you just hit the number 5. If you want to be at the point where the video is 80% done, you hit 8. This can be really handy if you have a long video and you want to just sort of skim it for certain content but you’re not sure exactly where it is.

So here’s a summary of these shortcuts, in case you want to print it:

K = Play/Pause
J = Back 10 seconds
L = Forward 10 seconds
Left arrow = back 5 seconds
Right arrow = forward 5 seconds
Up arrow = increase volume
Down arrow = decrease volume
F = full screen
M = Mute
C = toggle Closed Captions on and off
< = slow down a video
> = speed up a video
1-9 = navigate through the video

Once you practice these shortcuts for a little while, you’ll probably end up using some of them all the time since it’s a lot easier and quicker than using a mouse. And now you know some cool things that your friends don’t know!

The post Hidden features of YouTube first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

YouTube secrets — Hidden features of YouTube Oct 19, 2015
Everyone visits YouTube at one time or another. Some people visit it and watch videos every day. There are even people that spend HOURS each day watching those videos. But I’ll bet there are a lot of people, even those that use YouTube every day, that don’t know some of these shortcuts that work in YouTube.

For most media players, such as Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player, the standard keyboard key for pausing the video and starting it again is the space bar. That doesn’t work with YouTube. YouTube is a website. When you’re viewing a website, and you hit the space bar on your keyboard, it just makes the website you’re looking at scroll down by one page length.

For YouTube, the key to Pause/Play a video is:

I don’t know about you, but when I first discovered this, my reaction was, “Why K?” It seems like “P” might make more sense since it could stand for “play” or “pause”. Maybe because K is right there in the center of the keyboard. I mean, if you look at your overall keyboard from left to right, K is just about right in the middle. But whatever the reason is, K is what you tap if you want to pause a YouTube video or start it up playing again. Go watch a YouTube video now and try it out.

And that’s not all. If you’re watching a video and you want to go back 10 seconds and replay, hit the letter J (that one does make sense, since it is immediately to the left of K). And if the video has a boring part you want to skip over, tap L to fast forward 10 seconds (again, just to the right of K so it’s the obvious choice).

Want to rewind just 5 seconds back? Hit the left arrow key. And as you might guess, the right arrow key fast forwards 5 seconds.

And the up and down arrows are useful too – they increase or decrease the audio volume.

Most YouTube videos are much easier to watch, and more entertaining, when they take up the full screen. If you’re watching a video and it’s just the regular YouTube window, you can tap the letter F (for Full screen) and have the video fill up your screen. Tap it again to go back to the original view.

This:

is not nearly as impressive or as fun to watch as this:

Want to quickly shut off just the audio portion of a YouTube video? Hit M for Mute.

You can also turn on Closed Captions for almost any YouTube video just by hitting the letter C. Tapping it again turns captioning off.

Here’s a fun one – you can speed up or slow down a video by using the “less than” or “greater than” keys:

Of course, with those keys, you need to hold down the Shift key at the same time since the symbols are at the top of the key. Otherwise you would just be hitting the comma or the period.

And finally – quickly navigating through a video. You can do this with the number keys 1 through 9. YouTube divides every video into 10 equal parts, no matter how long the video is overall. So if you want to go immediately to the halfway point on a video, you just hit the number 5. If you want to be at the point where the video is 80% done, you hit 8. This can be really handy if you have a long video and you want to just sort of skim it for certain content but you’re not sure exactly where it is.

So here’s a summary of these shortcuts, in case you want to print it:

K = Play/Pause
J = Back 10 seconds
L = Forward 10 seconds
Left arrow = back 5 seconds
Right arrow = forward 5 seconds
Up arrow = increase volume
Down arrow = decrease volume
F = full screen
M = Mute
C = toggle Closed Captions on and off
< = slow down a video
> = speed up a video
1-9 = navigate through the video

Once you practice these shortcuts for a little while, you’ll probably end up using some of them all the time since it’s a lot easier and quicker than using a mouse. And now you know some cool things that your friends don’t know!

The post Hidden features of YouTube first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

function keys — What do the Function keys do? Oct 12, 2015
Every Windows keyboard has the same row of keys across the top – the Function keys. Those are the keys at the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3 and so on up to F12. One of the questions I get asked sometimes is, “What do the function keys actually do?” As with a lot of questions about computers, the answer is: it depends.

What it depends on primarily is what you’re doing on the computer at the time. Each one of them could have a specific task in one program, but a completely different task in a different program.

For example, if you’re using Microsoft Word, here’s what the F1 key can do:

If you just hit F1 by itself, it opens the Help window so you can search for help on a particular aspect of Word:

But – if you hold down Shift, then tap F1, Word will open the “Reveal Formatting” window off to the right side, so you can see all of the formatting information for the document that’s open:

And – if you hold down CTRL and tap F1, it will alternatively close and re-open the ribbon at the top of the window. Makes it easy to toggle that on and off if you want to do that.

There are other things you can do with F1, but you get the idea. And that’s just ONE of the function keys, and that’s JUST for Microsoft Word. All of the other Function keys do different things in Word, and ALL of the Function keys do completely different things in other programs. It would be impossible to literally list all of the things that you can do with the Function keys on all the different software.

However, several of the Function keys are kind of “known for” certain types of functions. Here are some of the more common tasks that are assigned to some of the Function keys:

F1 – in most programs (and in any version of Windows) the F1 key will usually open a “Help” window. So if you’re stuck and not sure what to do, try F1.

F2 – used to rename a file or folder – if you’re in your Documents folder or Pictures folder, highlight a folder or an individual file, and just type the name you want to use.

F3 – opens a search field in many programs. If you’re looking at a website page with lots of text and you need to find a particular word, hit F3 and type the word so search for it on that web page.

F4 – not so much this key by itself, but if you hold down ALT and tap F4, it will close the window that is “in focus” – the one that is in front of any other open windows.

F5 – this key refreshes your web browser window – like if you’re watching an eBay item that’s about to close and you want to see if the high bid amount changes, you can just keep tapping F5 to update the screen.

F6 – highlights the address bar in your web browser – so if you need to type in a new web address, you don’t need to move your cursor up to the address bar and click on it – just tap F6.

F7 – the spellchecker – F7 activates spellchecker function in most Office and email programs.

F8 – in Windows 7 and earlier, this is the key you tap when you want to boot up the computer in Safe Mode. Windows 8 and later made it a little more complicated (one more reason to stick with Windows 7).

F9 – if you use Outlook, you can use F9 to tell it to Send/Receive email, instead of using the cursor on the Send/Receive icon in the toolbar.

F10 – F10 does a few things, but not really too much that the average person would use.

F11 – one of my favorites – it puts your web browser in full screen mode. Go visit a website, and tap F11 to see what happens. You can tap it again to bring it back to normal.

F12 – this one has some functions in MS Word for opening and saving documents, but not much else that you would probably use. Don’t tap it while you’re using a web browser – unless you’re a web developer and you really want to work with computer code. Yeah, me neither.

The post What do the Function keys do? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

function keys — What do the Function keys do? Oct 12, 2015
Every Windows keyboard has the same row of keys across the top – the Function keys. Those are the keys at the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3 and so on up to F12. One of the questions I get asked sometimes is, “What do the function keys actually do?” As with a lot of questions about computers, the answer is: it depends.

What it depends on primarily is what you’re doing on the computer at the time. Each one of them could have a specific task in one program, but a completely different task in a different program.

For example, if you’re using Microsoft Word, here’s what the F1 key can do:

If you just hit F1 by itself, it opens the Help window so you can search for help on a particular aspect of Word:

But – if you hold down Shift, then tap F1, Word will open the “Reveal Formatting” window off to the right side, so you can see all of the formatting information for the document that’s open:

And – if you hold down CTRL and tap F1, it will alternatively close and re-open the ribbon at the top of the window. Makes it easy to toggle that on and off if you want to do that.

There are other things you can do with F1, but you get the idea. And that’s just ONE of the function keys, and that’s JUST for Microsoft Word. All of the other Function keys do different things in Word, and ALL of the Function keys do completely different things in other programs. It would be impossible to literally list all of the things that you can do with the Function keys on all the different software.

However, several of the Function keys are kind of “known for” certain types of functions. Here are some of the more common tasks that are assigned to some of the Function keys:

F1 – in most programs (and in any version of Windows) the F1 key will usually open a “Help” window. So if you’re stuck and not sure what to do, try F1.

F2 – used to rename a file or folder – if you’re in your Documents folder or Pictures folder, highlight a folder or an individual file, and just type the name you want to use.

F3 – opens a search field in many programs. If you’re looking at a website page with lots of text and you need to find a particular word, hit F3 and type the word so search for it on that web page.

F4 – not so much this key by itself, but if you hold down ALT and tap F4, it will close the window that is “in focus” – the one that is in front of any other open windows.

F5 – this key refreshes your web browser window – like if you’re watching an eBay item that’s about to close and you want to see if the high bid amount changes, you can just keep tapping F5 to update the screen.

F6 – highlights the address bar in your web browser – so if you need to type in a new web address, you don’t need to move your cursor up to the address bar and click on it – just tap F6.

F7 – the spellchecker – F7 activates spellchecker function in most Office and email programs.

F8 – in Windows 7 and earlier, this is the key you tap when you want to boot up the computer in Safe Mode. Windows 8 and later made it a little more complicated (one more reason to stick with Windows 7).

F9 – if you use Outlook, you can use F9 to tell it to Send/Receive email, instead of using the cursor on the Send/Receive icon in the toolbar.

F10 – F10 does a few things, but not really too much that the average person would use.

F11 – one of my favorites – it puts your web browser in full screen mode. Go visit a website, and tap F11 to see what happens. You can tap it again to bring it back to normal.

F12 – this one has some functions in MS Word for opening and saving documents, but not much else that you would probably use. Don’t tap it while you’re using a web browser – unless you’re a web developer and you really want to work with computer code. Yeah, me neither.

The post What do the Function keys do? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows password — How to skip the Windows sign-in password Oct 05, 2015
When you get a new computer, especially if you get one of the more recent ones that are running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, part of the set-up process is setting a Windows password. Most people don’t realize that you don’t NEED to have a Windows password on your computer, but the wording on the screen makes it sound like you are required to create one. I’ve even had some people go through this process without really thinking about it, then the next time they boot up their computer, they get prompted for the Windows password – and they don’t remember what it is.

We have ways of getting around the problem of a forgotten password. Most techs will know how to bypass a Windows password (which should tell you something about how well it secures your computer). Of course, the easiest solution is to never create the password requirement when you are first setting up the computer. When I’m setting up a new PC for a client, I always set it so there is no Windows password. The owner of the computer can always add one later on if it’s necessary.

But what if you’ve already set up your computer, and it requires you to enter a password every time you boot up Windows?

Here’s how you turn off the Windows password requirement:

Click the Start button (Microsoft logo) in the bottom left corner of the screen, and in the search field, type:

netplwiz

then hit the Enter button. This is going to bring up a window called “User Accounts” which looks like this:

At this point, you could probably figure out what to do just by looking at the contents of that window. First, look at the list of users. In my case, there are 3 entries. On your computer, it might only list a single user profile name. Either way, click once to highlight the user name for whom you want to skip the password entry requirement. Then UNcheck the box next to “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” and click OK at the bottom of the window.

Then you will be prompted to enter your current password, and confirm it:

After you click OK on that screen, you’re done. Next time you boot up into that user profile on Windows, you won’t have to put in a password.

A couple of things to remember about this:

The “netplwiz” process works with Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10. If you’re using a version of Windows older than Vista, you have bigger problems than being bothered with a password.

You should only disable the Windows password requirement if you are not concerned about safety/security in relation to someone else having physical access to your computer. If it’s just you and your computer in your home, that’s one thing. If your computer sits in an office or some other place where other people are nearby, you might want to keep the password requirement in place. It’s not foolproof, but it would at least slow someone down if they are trying to access your files without permission.

The post How to skip the Windows sign-in password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows password — How to skip the Windows sign-in password Oct 05, 2015
When you get a new computer, especially if you get one of the more recent ones that are running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, part of the set-up process is setting a Windows password. Most people don’t realize that you don’t NEED to have a Windows password on your computer, but the wording on the screen makes it sound like you are required to create one. I’ve even had some people go through this process without really thinking about it, then the next time they boot up their computer, they get prompted for the Windows password – and they don’t remember what it is.

We have ways of getting around the problem of a forgotten password. Most techs will know how to bypass a Windows password (which should tell you something about how well it secures your computer). Of course, the easiest solution is to never create the password requirement when you are first setting up the computer. When I’m setting up a new PC for a client, I always set it so there is no Windows password. The owner of the computer can always add one later on if it’s necessary.

But what if you’ve already set up your computer, and it requires you to enter a password every time you boot up Windows?

Here’s how you turn off the Windows password requirement:

Click the Start button (Microsoft logo) in the bottom left corner of the screen, and in the search field, type:

netplwiz

then hit the Enter button. This is going to bring up a window called “User Accounts” which looks like this:

At this point, you could probably figure out what to do just by looking at the contents of that window. First, look at the list of users. In my case, there are 3 entries. On your computer, it might only list a single user profile name. Either way, click once to highlight the user name for whom you want to skip the password entry requirement. Then UNcheck the box next to “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” and click OK at the bottom of the window.

Then you will be prompted to enter your current password, and confirm it:

After you click OK on that screen, you’re done. Next time you boot up into that user profile on Windows, you won’t have to put in a password.

A couple of things to remember about this:

The “netplwiz” process works with Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10. If you’re using a version of Windows older than Vista, you have bigger problems than being bothered with a password.

You should only disable the Windows password requirement if you are not concerned about safety/security in relation to someone else having physical access to your computer. If it’s just you and your computer in your home, that’s one thing. If your computer sits in an office or some other place where other people are nearby, you might want to keep the password requirement in place. It’s not foolproof, but it would at least slow someone down if they are trying to access your files without permission.

The post How to skip the Windows sign-in password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Paypal me — Grab your personalized Paypal.me account name while you can Sep 28, 2015
I’ve used Paypal for years, and you probably have too. If you don’t yet have a Paypal account, you can set one up for free at www.Paypal.com. And with a recent change, Paypal has made it easier for people to send you money.

For my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida, I have an online accounting program that sends out invoices, which makes things really easy. Of course, I have to pay for that service. What we’re talking about here is not so much for business (although it could be used for that) – this is more designed for when individuals want to send or receive money from each other.

In the past, if you wanted to send someone money through Paypal, you had to get the person’s email address, then go to the Paypal website, log in to your account, and click on “Send money” and put in the email address and the dollar amount. Not what you might actually call “difficult” but it did involve a few steps and it required the sender to know the Paypal email address of the recipient.

Just recently, Paypal added a new feature that made it a lot simpler. You can create your own customized Paypal address, so that people can just click a link to send you money. You can even customize that link, so that the proper dollar amount is already configured.

But you need to get your customized Paypal.me address as soon as possible, in order to get the name you want to use.

Here’s how you set it up:

1. Go to the website www.Paypal.me and click on “Get started”

2. On the next screen, you will need to choose your link name. This is the name that will come at the end of your customized Paypal payment link.

When you type in the name you want to use, Paypal will automatically check and see if someone else has already grabbed that link name. Of course, just about all of the common names have been taken (I had virtually no chance of getting “Scott” for example). For me, I choose “PCTutor” so my full link is: Paypal.me/pctutor – you can actually click that link and send me money through Paypal. I encourage you to try that out! 🙂

3. Once you have chosen your link name, and Paypal has confirmed that it’s available, you just click “Grab This Link”. After that, Paypal will prompt you to sign in to your Paypal account so that they can connect your new link name with your account. If you don’t yet have a Paypal account, you can create one at this time.

And you’re done!

Now, if you want to make it easy for someone to send you money to your Paypal account, you just send them that link. And for even MORE customization, you can pre-select the dollar amount you want the person to send. For example, if someone owes me $15, I can send this link:

http://paypal.me/pctutor/15

And it when someone clicks on that link, it takes them directly to the Paypal site to send that amount to me:

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

You should also know that even though all you need in order to send someone money via Paypal is their email address, they do need to create a Paypal account in order to claim that money. But most people have a Paypal account anyway.

The post Grab your personalized Paypal.me account name while you can first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Paypal me — Grab your personalized Paypal.me account name while you can Sep 28, 2015
I’ve used Paypal for years, and you probably have too. If you don’t yet have a Paypal account, you can set one up for free at www.Paypal.com. And with a recent change, Paypal has made it easier for people to send you money.

For my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida, I have an online accounting program that sends out invoices, which makes things really easy. Of course, I have to pay for that service. What we’re talking about here is not so much for business (although it could be used for that) – this is more designed for when individuals want to send or receive money from each other.

In the past, if you wanted to send someone money through Paypal, you had to get the person’s email address, then go to the Paypal website, log in to your account, and click on “Send money” and put in the email address and the dollar amount. Not what you might actually call “difficult” but it did involve a few steps and it required the sender to know the Paypal email address of the recipient.

Just recently, Paypal added a new feature that made it a lot simpler. You can create your own customized Paypal address, so that people can just click a link to send you money. You can even customize that link, so that the proper dollar amount is already configured.

But you need to get your customized Paypal.me address as soon as possible, in order to get the name you want to use.

Here’s how you set it up:

1. Go to the website www.Paypal.me and click on “Get started”

2. On the next screen, you will need to choose your link name. This is the name that will come at the end of your customized Paypal payment link.

When you type in the name you want to use, Paypal will automatically check and see if someone else has already grabbed that link name. Of course, just about all of the common names have been taken (I had virtually no chance of getting “Scott” for example). For me, I choose “PCTutor” so my full link is: Paypal.me/pctutor – you can actually click that link and send me money through Paypal. I encourage you to try that out! 🙂

3. Once you have chosen your link name, and Paypal has confirmed that it’s available, you just click “Grab This Link”. After that, Paypal will prompt you to sign in to your Paypal account so that they can connect your new link name with your account. If you don’t yet have a Paypal account, you can create one at this time.

And you’re done!

Now, if you want to make it easy for someone to send you money to your Paypal account, you just send them that link. And for even MORE customization, you can pre-select the dollar amount you want the person to send. For example, if someone owes me $15, I can send this link:

http://paypal.me/pctutor/15

And it when someone clicks on that link, it takes them directly to the Paypal site to send that amount to me:

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

You should also know that even though all you need in order to send someone money via Paypal is their email address, they do need to create a Paypal account in order to claim that money. But most people have a Paypal account anyway.

The post Grab your personalized Paypal.me account name while you can first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

remove Google birthdays — How to get all those birthdays off your Google calendar Sep 21, 2015
I use the Google calendar to keep track of all of my activities, both business and personal. It’s super convenient because it automatically syncs between my computer, my phone and my iPad. And since I also use Gmail (another Google product) I can set the calendar to easily send me email reminders for anything.

But recently I came across a really annoying problem with the Google calendar – it was tagging each day with names of people having a birthday on that day. Some of the people I knew. But some I didn’t know – they weren’t computer repair clients, they weren’t fellow Safety Harbor residents. But there they were, in my calendar that I use each day – even though I didn’t ask for them to be there.

It would be nice if you could just do a right-click on a particular birthday and choose an option like “Remove all birthdays from my Google calendar” but they don’t offer that as a solution. In fact, for a while there actually was no solution – you were just stuck with having them there, cluttering up your calendar.

But now there is a way to do it. Here’s how to get those stupid birthdays off your Google calendar:

While viewing your Google calendar, click on the gear icon in the top right, and in the drop-down menu, choose Settings.

2. On the Settings page, click the Calendars link:

3. Then, find the “Birthdays” calendar and uncheck that box:

And that solves the problem. No more birthday reminders for people you don’t (or barely) know.

The post How to get all those birthdays off your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google calendar birthdays — How to get all those birthdays off your Google calendar Sep 21, 2015
I use the Google calendar to keep track of all of my activities, both business and personal. It’s super convenient because it automatically syncs between my computer, my phone and my iPad. And since I also use Gmail (another Google product) I can set the calendar to easily send me email reminders for anything.

But recently I came across a really annoying problem with the Google calendar – it was tagging each day with names of people having a birthday on that day. Some of the people I knew. But some I didn’t know – they weren’t computer repair clients, they weren’t fellow Safety Harbor residents. But there they were, in my calendar that I use each day – even though I didn’t ask for them to be there.

It would be nice if you could just do a right-click on a particular birthday and choose an option like “Remove all birthdays from my Google calendar” but they don’t offer that as a solution. In fact, for a while there actually was no solution – you were just stuck with having them there, cluttering up your calendar.

But now there is a way to do it. Here’s how to get those stupid birthdays off your Google calendar:

While viewing your Google calendar, click on the gear icon in the top right, and in the drop-down menu, choose Settings.

2. On the Settings page, click the Calendars link:

3. Then, find the “Birthdays” calendar and uncheck that box:

And that solves the problem. No more birthday reminders for people you don’t (or barely) know.

The post How to get all those birthdays off your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

starkist tuna settlement — Use your computer to get $25 cash – if you are a tuna eater Sep 14, 2015
Yes, today’s tip is a little different than our typical “computer” tip. But by using the information I’ll give you today, you can go online and get $25 in cash, or $50 in Starkist tuna – if you meet the requirements.

Here’s what happened:

A few years ago, Starkist Tuna faced a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit accused Starkist of “under-filling” each of their cans of tuna, by just a few tenths of an ounce each. Who cares, right? Well, apparently someone cared enough to go all the way with a lawsuit to get their “justice”. And when you think about the millions of cans of tuna fish that Starkist puts out each year, that minor amount of shortage in each can really could add up to a lot.

So even though Starkist has not admitted that they did this, they have agreed to settle the lawsuit by offering their customers some compensation.

What you can receive:

$25 cash, OR

Vouchers for $50 worth of Starkist Tuna

How you qualify:

In order to be eligible for one of the above, you have to have purchased at least one 5-ounce can of Starkist tuna between the dates of February 19, 2009 and October 31, 2014. You don’t need to show a receipt or any proof of purchase, but you will be required to state (under penalty of perjury) that you did indeed make the required purchase within that period of time.

How to file a claim:

Go to the website www.TunaLawsuit.com and click on “File a claim” in the menu on the left side. Then just follow the instructions on the screen. You will need to provide your contact information, and whether you want the cash or the vouchers. Make sure you complete it all the way to the end. After the claim form is submitted online, you will have the opportunity to print the final page as your receipt, which includes your claim number. It looks like this:

See, I told you this week would be a little different than what I usually do. But hey, if you qualify and you can get $25 cash or $50 in tuna, you should know about it, right? So if you’re eligible, go get it!

And if your computer has a problem, you know where to find me for computer repair – right here in Safety Harbor (of course, I can fix most computers remotely so it doesn’t matter where you are).
The post Use your computer to get $25 cash – if you are a tuna eater first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Starkist tuna lawsuit — Use your computer to get $25 cash – if you are a tuna eater Sep 14, 2015
Yes, today’s tip is a little different than our typical “computer” tip. But by using the information I’ll give you today, you can go online and get $25 in cash, or $50 in Starkist tuna – if you meet the requirements.

Here’s what happened:

A few years ago, Starkist Tuna faced a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit accused Starkist of “under-filling” each of their cans of tuna, by just a few tenths of an ounce each. Who cares, right? Well, apparently someone cared enough to go all the way with a lawsuit to get their “justice”. And when you think about the millions of cans of tuna fish that Starkist puts out each year, that minor amount of shortage in each can really could add up to a lot.

So even though Starkist has not admitted that they did this, they have agreed to settle the lawsuit by offering their customers some compensation.

What you can receive:

$25 cash, OR

Vouchers for $50 worth of Starkist Tuna

How you qualify:

In order to be eligible for one of the above, you have to have purchased at least one 5-ounce can of Starkist tuna between the dates of February 19, 2009 and October 31, 2014. You don’t need to show a receipt or any proof of purchase, but you will be required to state (under penalty of perjury) that you did indeed make the required purchase within that period of time.

How to file a claim:

Go to the website www.TunaLawsuit.com and click on “File a claim” in the menu on the left side. Then just follow the instructions on the screen. You will need to provide your contact information, and whether you want the cash or the vouchers. Make sure you complete it all the way to the end. After the claim form is submitted online, you will have the opportunity to print the final page as your receipt, which includes your claim number. It looks like this:

See, I told you this week would be a little different than what I usually do. But hey, if you qualify and you can get $25 cash or $50 in tuna, you should know about it, right? So if you’re eligible, go get it!

And if your computer has a problem, you know where to find me for computer repair – right here in Safety Harbor (of course, I can fix most computers remotely so it doesn’t matter where you are).
The post Use your computer to get $25 cash – if you are a tuna eater first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Ambient Light Sensor — Fix for Dell laptop display brightness randomly changing Sep 07, 2015
If you have a Dell laptop, it might have a built-in “feature” called Ambient Light Sensor (I put “feature” in quotation marks intentionally). This is not really a widely advertised function so a lot of people don’t know about it. In fact, I personally was not aware of it until my friend Bob did some research and discovered it. Love it when the client comes up with the solution, then tells me about it. Thanks Bob!

What is the Ambient Light Sensor?

The ALS is something that Dell has built in to some of their laptops (I’m not sure all Dells have this). Basically, it’s a way for the laptop’s screen brightness to adjust based on how much light is in the room. So if the laptop is powered on, and you turn the lights up or down in the room, you will probably see the laptop’s screen get darker or brighter.

I guess some people might like it, but for most people, it’s annoying to have the screen brightness always changing even though you are not actually trying to adjust the brightness level. And for those that don’t know about this special “feature” it might even appear that the screen is defective. Nope, it’s just a computer manufacturer thinking they would offer something new and clever, but in reality it’s just something most people would prefer to turn off.

Here’s how you turn off the Ambient Light Sensor:

1. Find the “Function” key on the keyboard. It will be somewhere in the lower left area, usually between Ctrl and the Windows key:

2. Hold down the “Function” key and tap the left arrow key.

Pretty easy, right? Just a matter of knowing what keys to use, then the problem is solved.

Turns out there are a few other things you can do on your Dell laptop with that handy little Function key. In the list below, the Function key is abbreviated “Fn”. And remember, these might not work on all Dell laptops.

Fn + F1 puts your computer to sleep

Fn + F2 toggles the battery charging process on and off

Fn + F3 shows status of the battery

Fn + F8 toggles between screens if you have an external monitor connected

Fn + F11 copies a screenshot to the clipboard

Fn + Up Arrow key increases screen brightness

Fn + Down Arrow key decreases screen brightness

Fn + Right Arrow key adjusts brightness of the backlit keyboard (optional)

Fn + Left Arrow key toggles Ambient Light Sensor on and off (as described above)

The post Fix for Dell laptop display brightness randomly changing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Function key — Fix for Dell laptop display brightness randomly changing Sep 07, 2015
If you have a Dell laptop, it might have a built-in “feature” called Ambient Light Sensor (I put “feature” in quotation marks intentionally). This is not really a widely advertised function so a lot of people don’t know about it. In fact, I personally was not aware of it until my friend Bob did some research and discovered it. Love it when the client comes up with the solution, then tells me about it. Thanks Bob!

What is the Ambient Light Sensor?

The ALS is something that Dell has built in to some of their laptops (I’m not sure all Dells have this). Basically, it’s a way for the laptop’s screen brightness to adjust based on how much light is in the room. So if the laptop is powered on, and you turn the lights up or down in the room, you will probably see the laptop’s screen get darker or brighter.

I guess some people might like it, but for most people, it’s annoying to have the screen brightness always changing even though you are not actually trying to adjust the brightness level. And for those that don’t know about this special “feature” it might even appear that the screen is defective. Nope, it’s just a computer manufacturer thinking they would offer something new and clever, but in reality it’s just something most people would prefer to turn off.

Here’s how you turn off the Ambient Light Sensor:

1. Find the “Function” key on the keyboard. It will be somewhere in the lower left area, usually between Ctrl and the Windows key:

2. Hold down the “Function” key and tap the left arrow key.

Pretty easy, right? Just a matter of knowing what keys to use, then the problem is solved.

Turns out there are a few other things you can do on your Dell laptop with that handy little Function key. In the list below, the Function key is abbreviated “Fn”. And remember, these might not work on all Dell laptops.

Fn + F1 puts your computer to sleep

Fn + F2 toggles the battery charging process on and off

Fn + F3 shows status of the battery

Fn + F8 toggles between screens if you have an external monitor connected

Fn + F11 copies a screenshot to the clipboard

Fn + Up Arrow key increases screen brightness

Fn + Down Arrow key decreases screen brightness

Fn + Right Arrow key adjusts brightness of the backlit keyboard (optional)

Fn + Left Arrow key toggles Ambient Light Sensor on and off (as described above)

The post Fix for Dell laptop display brightness randomly changing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

mess up your pc — 6 ways to really mess up your computer Aug 31, 2015
Everyone at some point gets really angry at their computer. Either it’s too slow, or it doesn’t do what you expect it to do, or some other thing – and you get really frustrated with it. Want to get even with your computer? Here are some ways to really mess it up!

Whenever you see a link, click on it!
Lots of opportunities here. Someone might send you a link in an email, or better yet, a friend might put a link on Facebook when they update their status. If you see one that seems to lead to something interesting, just click on it immediately without even thinking about it. After all, it’s on Facebook and your friend wouldn’t have posted it unless it was something he wanted you to click on, right? That link just might take you to some website or download that will really teach your computer a lesson.

Let that thing overheat!
Computers have it so easy – they can go to sleep after a little while, they don’t work all the time, and most of all – they are just about always running in a comfortable, temperature-controlled environment. No more! Laptops are the worst for this, and the easiest to mess up. Just fire up your laptop, then go use it while you’re in bed. You want to just set it right on your mattress or blanket, and make sure the exhaust port (where the fan blows out the hot air) is completely covered up so that the heated air has to stay inside the machine. Now your laptop can know what it was like in the days before air conditioning!

Open every email attachment!
You get emails all day, so there are LOTS of chances sitting right there in front of you to cause problems for your computer. IRS sending you a bill? Fedex says they can’t find your house and to check the attached invoice? State government says you drove through a toll booth without paying so they’re attaching the bill to your email? These are all scams and the “invoice” is really just a virus – so just open every one of them and your computer will have all kinds of regrets at ever acting up.

Avoid all the updates for your computer!
You know those stupid updates that are always popping up – Java has an update, Adobe has an update, iTunes has an update. Why all the updates? Most of them are to patch up security holes in programs that are already installed on your computer. Well, maybe your computer could use a little INsecurity as a wake-up call. So when you see an update come up, just ignore it. Pretty soon your various programs will be so outdated and insecure, your computer won’t know what to do!

Ignore those error messages!
Everyone hates when an error message comes up. If your computer had its way, you would write down the error message so that you could relay it accurately to your computer tech, and that is one step toward solving whatever the problem is. Yeah, your computer would love to have it that easy, right? So just do the easiest thing – close that message and forget about it. Sure, it will probably keep coming back since the underlying problem hasn’t been solved – but how does your computer learn who’s in charge if you just give it whatever it asks for?

Thunderstorm? Leave that thing plugged in!
Computers are such sissies. They just don’t know how to handle a little bit of thunder and lightning. Some computer owners actually go around and unplug their computers from the wall during a thunderstorm, since that means the equipment can’t be damaged by a nearby lightning strike or voltage surge. That’s just giving in to the whims of your machine. Leave everything plugged in, even during an electrical storm. A little high-voltage could give your computer a headache it will never forget!

Okay… I hope you know that all of the above was sarcasm. If you really do want to mess up your computer, those are ways that I see happening all the time. But you should do the opposite of those things if you want your computer to run smoothly and do what it’s supposed to do.

The post 6 ways to really mess up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — 6 ways to really mess up your computer Aug 31, 2015
Everyone at some point gets really angry at their computer. Either it’s too slow, or it doesn’t do what you expect it to do, or some other thing – and you get really frustrated with it. Want to get even with your computer? Here are some ways to really mess it up!

Whenever you see a link, click on it!
Lots of opportunities here. Someone might send you a link in an email, or better yet, a friend might put a link on Facebook when they update their status. If you see one that seems to lead to something interesting, just click on it immediately without even thinking about it. After all, it’s on Facebook and your friend wouldn’t have posted it unless it was something he wanted you to click on, right? That link just might take you to some website or download that will really teach your computer a lesson.

Let that thing overheat!
Computers have it so easy – they can go to sleep after a little while, they don’t work all the time, and most of all – they are just about always running in a comfortable, temperature-controlled environment. No more! Laptops are the worst for this, and the easiest to mess up. Just fire up your laptop, then go use it while you’re in bed. You want to just set it right on your mattress or blanket, and make sure the exhaust port (where the fan blows out the hot air) is completely covered up so that the heated air has to stay inside the machine. Now your laptop can know what it was like in the days before air conditioning!

Open every email attachment!
You get emails all day, so there are LOTS of chances sitting right there in front of you to cause problems for your computer. IRS sending you a bill? Fedex says they can’t find your house and to check the attached invoice? State government says you drove through a toll booth without paying so they’re attaching the bill to your email? These are all scams and the “invoice” is really just a virus – so just open every one of them and your computer will have all kinds of regrets at ever acting up.

Avoid all the updates for your computer!
You know those stupid updates that are always popping up – Java has an update, Adobe has an update, iTunes has an update. Why all the updates? Most of them are to patch up security holes in programs that are already installed on your computer. Well, maybe your computer could use a little INsecurity as a wake-up call. So when you see an update come up, just ignore it. Pretty soon your various programs will be so outdated and insecure, your computer won’t know what to do!

Ignore those error messages!
Everyone hates when an error message comes up. If your computer had its way, you would write down the error message so that you could relay it accurately to your computer tech, and that is one step toward solving whatever the problem is. Yeah, your computer would love to have it that easy, right? So just do the easiest thing – close that message and forget about it. Sure, it will probably keep coming back since the underlying problem hasn’t been solved – but how does your computer learn who’s in charge if you just give it whatever it asks for?

Thunderstorm? Leave that thing plugged in!
Computers are such sissies. They just don’t know how to handle a little bit of thunder and lightning. Some computer owners actually go around and unplug their computers from the wall during a thunderstorm, since that means the equipment can’t be damaged by a nearby lightning strike or voltage surge. That’s just giving in to the whims of your machine. Leave everything plugged in, even during an electrical storm. A little high-voltage could give your computer a headache it will never forget!

Okay… I hope you know that all of the above was sarcasm. If you really do want to mess up your computer, those are ways that I see happening all the time. But you should do the opposite of those things if you want your computer to run smoothly and do what it’s supposed to do.

The post 6 ways to really mess up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 bugs — The easiest way to go from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 or 8 Aug 24, 2015
You read this blog. You also probably listen to my podcast. You most likely know that I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely all around the country). So you know that I’ve been telling people, “Don’t upgrade to Windows 10 yet”. It’s too early, and there are bugs (as we knew there would be). I’ve had a few clients just this past week who went ahead and upgraded to Windows 10 anyway, and now their printer isn’t recognized. Or they can’t go online because the wifi doesn’t work. I even had one newly-upgraded Windows 10 desktop computer that didn’t recognize ANY keyboard or mouse – wireless, USB or even the old-fashioned PS2 style.

NOTE: for those of you that have upgraded to Windows 10 and your computer is working fine, that’s great. I know a lot of people already have done this and so far seemingly have had no problems. This particular blog post is for the other group – for whom Windows 10 is not working as it is supposed to.

If you planned ahead properly, going back to Windows 7 or 8 is easy. You just restore from a system image backup. The catch is that you have to already have a Windows 7 system image backup created – BEFORE you do the Windows 10 upgrade.

So if you haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 10, but you’re about to go ahead and do it (not recommended), you need to create that system image backup first. To do that, I use a free program called Macrium Reflect. I’ve set up this backup process on lots of client computers, and I use it on my own computer every day. (It’s actually one of the FOUR separate backups I do daily on my main computer. Yes, perhaps I’m overdoing it on the side of caution – you don’t really need to do 4 types of backups each day.)

I’m not going to go into the full details of how to set up a system image backup with Macrium Reflect. If you want, I can help you get that in place, and I can do it remotely. You will need to have an external/portable drive just for that backup – you can get a 1 TB portable drive now for about $60. When this is created, Macrium Reflect takes a “picture” of your entire hard drive and puts it on that external drive. That’s why you want to do this BEFORE you upgrade to Windows 10, so the external drive will have that snapshot of your entire computer while it’s still running Windows 7 or 8.

Then, if you upgrade to Windows 10 and something doesn’t work, or several things don’t work, or you just don’t like it, you can just restore that Windows 7 or 8 system image and you’re back to the previous version of Windows just like nothing happened.

Important note: any work that you do while you’re in Windows 10 mode will not be carried back to the Windows 7 or 8 restore. So if you create anything important, or edit any critical documents, or make any other important changes, be sure to save them somewhere else BEFORE you run that system restore.

What if you upgraded to Windows 10 and you don’t have a system image backup?

Unfortunately, that’s the situation in which some people are finding themselves. If that’s you, you’re not completely out of luck. If you did the Windows 10 upgrade within the last 30 days, you should be able to use the “Go back to Windows 7” function that’s built in to Windows 10.

To do that, use the search function in Windows 10 and do this search (exactly):

Go back to Windows 7

or if that search does not work, try doing a search on just this one word:

recovery

In either case, what you are looking for in the search results is the option to go back to your previous installation of Windows 7. If you see that option listed, click on the “Get Started” link right under that phrase and follow the directions on the screen. It’s important that you have anything critical backed up before you start this process, and you also must know your Windows 7 login password (if you had one) – otherwise you won’t be able to log in to Windows after this is completed. It will take a few restarts and a good chunk of time, but if it is successful, you’ll be back to your previous Windows installation.

What if you don’t have a system image backup, and the “Go back” function is not an option?

If these first two processes aren’t available or don’t work, then you’re really looking at just a regular reinstallation of Windows 7 or 8. As you might suspect, this process could mean that any data that’s currently on the computer will be lost. In fact, you should assume that everything on the computer will be wiped out so you should copy anything important to an external drive or some type of backup.

The important thing to know is this – you can avoid all of this hassle just by choosing NOT to upgrade to Windows 10 yet. As I have been saying for a while, there is no advantage to upgrading right away. If you’re running Windows 7 or 8, the upgrade to Windows 10 is going to be free for a whole year. So just be patient and wait for all the impatient early upgraders (AKA guinea pigs) to find the bugs so that Microsoft can fix the bugs (the big ones anyway). You can always upgrade later. Or, you might skip Windows 10 completely, since Windows 7 will be supported up to January 2020.

The post The easiest way to go from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 or 8 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — The easiest way to go from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 or 8 Aug 24, 2015
You read this blog. You also probably listen to my podcast. You most likely know that I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely all around the country). So you know that I’ve been telling people, “Don’t upgrade to Windows 10 yet”. It’s too early, and there are bugs (as we knew there would be). I’ve had a few clients just this past week who went ahead and upgraded to Windows 10 anyway, and now their printer isn’t recognized. Or they can’t go online because the wifi doesn’t work. I even had one newly-upgraded Windows 10 desktop computer that didn’t recognize ANY keyboard or mouse – wireless, USB or even the old-fashioned PS2 style.

NOTE: for those of you that have upgraded to Windows 10 and your computer is working fine, that’s great. I know a lot of people already have done this and so far seemingly have had no problems. This particular blog post is for the other group – for whom Windows 10 is not working as it is supposed to.

If you planned ahead properly, going back to Windows 7 or 8 is easy. You just restore from a system image backup. The catch is that you have to already have a Windows 7 system image backup created – BEFORE you do the Windows 10 upgrade.

So if you haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 10, but you’re about to go ahead and do it (not recommended), you need to create that system image backup first. To do that, I use a free program called Macrium Reflect. I’ve set up this backup process on lots of client computers, and I use it on my own computer every day. (It’s actually one of the FOUR separate backups I do daily on my main computer. Yes, perhaps I’m overdoing it on the side of caution – you don’t really need to do 4 types of backups each day.)

I’m not going to go into the full details of how to set up a system image backup with Macrium Reflect. If you want, I can help you get that in place, and I can do it remotely. You will need to have an external/portable drive just for that backup – you can get a 1 TB portable drive now for about $60. When this is created, Macrium Reflect takes a “picture” of your entire hard drive and puts it on that external drive. That’s why you want to do this BEFORE you upgrade to Windows 10, so the external drive will have that snapshot of your entire computer while it’s still running Windows 7 or 8.

Then, if you upgrade to Windows 10 and something doesn’t work, or several things don’t work, or you just don’t like it, you can just restore that Windows 7 or 8 system image and you’re back to the previous version of Windows just like nothing happened.

Important note: any work that you do while you’re in Windows 10 mode will not be carried back to the Windows 7 or 8 restore. So if you create anything important, or edit any critical documents, or make any other important changes, be sure to save them somewhere else BEFORE you run that system restore.

What if you upgraded to Windows 10 and you don’t have a system image backup?

Unfortunately, that’s the situation in which some people are finding themselves. If that’s you, you’re not completely out of luck. If you did the Windows 10 upgrade within the last 30 days, you should be able to use the “Go back to Windows 7” function that’s built in to Windows 10.

To do that, use the search function in Windows 10 and do this search (exactly):

Go back to Windows 7

or if that search does not work, try doing a search on just this one word:

recovery

In either case, what you are looking for in the search results is the option to go back to your previous installation of Windows 7. If you see that option listed, click on the “Get Started” link right under that phrase and follow the directions on the screen. It’s important that you have anything critical backed up before you start this process, and you also must know your Windows 7 login password (if you had one) – otherwise you won’t be able to log in to Windows after this is completed. It will take a few restarts and a good chunk of time, but if it is successful, you’ll be back to your previous Windows installation.

What if you don’t have a system image backup, and the “Go back” function is not an option?

If these first two processes aren’t available or don’t work, then you’re really looking at just a regular reinstallation of Windows 7 or 8. As you might suspect, this process could mean that any data that’s currently on the computer will be lost. In fact, you should assume that everything on the computer will be wiped out so you should copy anything important to an external drive or some type of backup.

The important thing to know is this – you can avoid all of this hassle just by choosing NOT to upgrade to Windows 10 yet. As I have been saying for a while, there is no advantage to upgrading right away. If you’re running Windows 7 or 8, the upgrade to Windows 10 is going to be free for a whole year. So just be patient and wait for all the impatient early upgraders (AKA guinea pigs) to find the bugs so that Microsoft can fix the bugs (the big ones anyway). You can always upgrade later. Or, you might skip Windows 10 completely, since Windows 7 will be supported up to January 2020.

The post The easiest way to go from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 or 8 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to keep your MS Word toolbar from disappearing Aug 17, 2015
Today’s tip won’t take long to explain, but I can tell you that whenever I show someone how to do this, it is almost always a huge relief. People get very frustrated by MS Word because their top toolbar keeps disappearing and they don’t know how to make it stay there for good.

First off, even though many users call it a toolbar, that’s not the actual name for it. It’s called the “ribbon”. At least that’s how it’s referred to within MS Word, so that’s the term I’m going to use here.

What I’m talking about is that row of icons and command options that is usually at the top of any window when you have Word open. It looks like this:

This is the nice collection of editing tools that allows you to make your Word documents look the way you want them to look. And for most people, these icons and menus are accessed all the time – so you probably want that ribbon to always be there. But sometimes it disappears, and the top of your Word document looks like this:

That’s usually when you want to scream at your computer or throw it out the window. Don’t give in to the temptation to take a hammer to it! Getting that ribbon back is easy.

Here’s how you get the MS Word ribbon back:

Hold down the Ctrl key, and tap the F1 key

That’s it! I told you it was easy! That’s how I do it anyway, because I am much quicker using a keyboard shortcut than using the mouse to click on something. If you would prefer to click on something with your mouse, look in the top right corner of your Word document window. You’ll see a tiny icon that looks like it’s pointing up or down.

When it’s pointing upward, that means the Word ribbon is currently on display. So if you click that little icon, it makes the Word ribbon disappear, and the icon is then pointing downward. So you know if your ribbon is gone, you can click on the down-pointing icon to make the ribbon come back on display. If that sounds confusing, just do like I do and use Ctrl + F1 to make it simple to toggle back and forth.

The example I used here was with MS Word, but the same thing applies to the other Office programs such as Excel, Outlook, etc. In fact, if you want to play a little joke on someone, wait until they are away from their computer, then go over and make their ribbon disappear. Eventually you’ll hear them getting frustrated (especially if it’s a co-worker that sits near your desk). Then you can be the “hero” and go over and fix it for them. A little harmless fun in the office!

The post How to keep your MS Word toolbar from disappearing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Word ribbon — How to keep your MS Word toolbar from disappearing Aug 17, 2015
Today’s tip won’t take long to explain, but I can tell you that whenever I show someone how to do this, it is almost always a huge relief. People get very frustrated by MS Word because their top toolbar keeps disappearing and they don’t know how to make it stay there for good.

First off, even though many users call it a toolbar, that’s not the actual name for it. It’s called the “ribbon”. At least that’s how it’s referred to within MS Word, so that’s the term I’m going to use here.

What I’m talking about is that row of icons and command options that is usually at the top of any window when you have Word open. It looks like this:

This is the nice collection of editing tools that allows you to make your Word documents look the way you want them to look. And for most people, these icons and menus are accessed all the time – so you probably want that ribbon to always be there. But sometimes it disappears, and the top of your Word document looks like this:

That’s usually when you want to scream at your computer or throw it out the window. Don’t give in to the temptation to take a hammer to it! Getting that ribbon back is easy.

Here’s how you get the MS Word ribbon back:

Hold down the Ctrl key, and tap the F1 key

That’s it! I told you it was easy! That’s how I do it anyway, because I am much quicker using a keyboard shortcut than using the mouse to click on something. If you would prefer to click on something with your mouse, look in the top right corner of your Word document window. You’ll see a tiny icon that looks like it’s pointing up or down.

When it’s pointing upward, that means the Word ribbon is currently on display. So if you click that little icon, it makes the Word ribbon disappear, and the icon is then pointing downward. So you know if your ribbon is gone, you can click on the down-pointing icon to make the ribbon come back on display. If that sounds confusing, just do like I do and use Ctrl + F1 to make it simple to toggle back and forth.

The example I used here was with MS Word, but the same thing applies to the other Office programs such as Excel, Outlook, etc. In fact, if you want to play a little joke on someone, wait until they are away from their computer, then go over and make their ribbon disappear. Eventually you’ll hear them getting frustrated (especially if it’s a co-worker that sits near your desk). Then you can be the “hero” and go over and fix it for them. A little harmless fun in the office!

The post How to keep your MS Word toolbar from disappearing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

rotate video — How to rotate a video file to right side up Aug 10, 2015
These days just about everyone takes videos with their cell phone. It’s actually pretty handy to have that ability, whenever you see something happening that is worth recording, to be able to immediately make a video of it. But sometimes, you might record the video with the wrong orientation – so it plays on your computer at a 90 degree angle, or even upside down. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix this!

With a regular picture (a still image), rotating it to the proper orientation is easy. You just find the image on your computer, do a right click, and in the menu that pops up, just choose “rotate clockwise” or “rotate counterclockwise”:

But with a video file, you don’t get that option as a standard feature in Windows, so we need to use a different process.

Fortunately, some enterprising person out there on the internet has created a website service that mostly automates the whole process. And of course, it’s free (but he welcomes donations for the service).

The website I use for this is called – appropriately – Rotate My Video. You can see it at RotateMyVideo.net.

Using that website, here’s how you rotate a video:

1. First, you go to the website and click the button that says “Pick video”:

2. That opens up a window, and you need to navigate to where your video file is located on your computer. Most commonly this would be in the Videos folder, but the computer will let you store it in any of your folders. You just need to know where it is. Just click the video file once to highlight it, then click “Open”:

3. Now your video gets uploaded to the website, so they can prepare the editor for you. This shouldn’t take very long, but it can take a while if your video is a long one, or if you have a slow internet connection.

4. When the video is uploaded, you’ll see your editor screen. You’ll also see an image of your video on the right side of the screen. You just click the “Rotation” button arrows until the video on the right is displayed properly. Then you click the “Rotate video” button at the bottom to implement your change.

5. Now you just wait while the website processes your video rotation. Again, this might take a while if the video is large. When it’s all done, you’ll see the message “Your video is ready!”. You then need to click the “Download” link immediately under that “ready” message:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The website is ad-supported, and some of the ads on the screen will have a big “Download” button – they’re hoping you mistake that for the actual Download link. Be sure to ONLY click on the one shown in the image above. Clicking on an ad might take you to an infected website, or download malware to your computer.

6. Click to download the properly-rotated video file, and save it to your computer. If you save it in the same folder as the original video (the one that is not properly oriented), your computer will probably give you a little warning like “There’s already a file by that name in this folder. Do you want to replace it?” and since the new one is the one that’s been fixed, you say YES, you do want to replace it.

And that’s it! Now you can click on the new video and play it, to verify that it’s showing the way it’s supposed to.

The website has even created a quick 2-minute video to show you the whole process. Even though the steps above might seem a little complicated when you’re reading them, it’s pretty easy. Here’s the tutorial they created for it:

The post How to rotate a video file to right side up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

rotate picture — How to rotate a video file to right side up Aug 10, 2015
These days just about everyone takes videos with their cell phone. It’s actually pretty handy to have that ability, whenever you see something happening that is worth recording, to be able to immediately make a video of it. But sometimes, you might record the video with the wrong orientation – so it plays on your computer at a 90 degree angle, or even upside down. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix this!

With a regular picture (a still image), rotating it to the proper orientation is easy. You just find the image on your computer, do a right click, and in the menu that pops up, just choose “rotate clockwise” or “rotate counterclockwise”:

But with a video file, you don’t get that option as a standard feature in Windows, so we need to use a different process.

Fortunately, some enterprising person out there on the internet has created a website service that mostly automates the whole process. And of course, it’s free (but he welcomes donations for the service).

The website I use for this is called – appropriately – Rotate My Video. You can see it at RotateMyVideo.net.

Using that website, here’s how you rotate a video:

1. First, you go to the website and click the button that says “Pick video”:

2. That opens up a window, and you need to navigate to where your video file is located on your computer. Most commonly this would be in the Videos folder, but the computer will let you store it in any of your folders. You just need to know where it is. Just click the video file once to highlight it, then click “Open”:

3. Now your video gets uploaded to the website, so they can prepare the editor for you. This shouldn’t take very long, but it can take a while if your video is a long one, or if you have a slow internet connection.

4. When the video is uploaded, you’ll see your editor screen. You’ll also see an image of your video on the right side of the screen. You just click the “Rotation” button arrows until the video on the right is displayed properly. Then you click the “Rotate video” button at the bottom to implement your change.

5. Now you just wait while the website processes your video rotation. Again, this might take a while if the video is large. When it’s all done, you’ll see the message “Your video is ready!”. You then need to click the “Download” link immediately under that “ready” message:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The website is ad-supported, and some of the ads on the screen will have a big “Download” button – they’re hoping you mistake that for the actual Download link. Be sure to ONLY click on the one shown in the image above. Clicking on an ad might take you to an infected website, or download malware to your computer.

6. Click to download the properly-rotated video file, and save it to your computer. If you save it in the same folder as the original video (the one that is not properly oriented), your computer will probably give you a little warning like “There’s already a file by that name in this folder. Do you want to replace it?” and since the new one is the one that’s been fixed, you say YES, you do want to replace it.

And that’s it! Now you can click on the new video and play it, to verify that it’s showing the way it’s supposed to.

The website has even created a quick 2-minute video to show you the whole process. Even though the steps above might seem a little complicated when you’re reading them, it’s pretty easy. Here’s the tutorial they created for it:

The post How to rotate a video file to right side up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

websites — Some cool websites I’ve come across recently Aug 03, 2015
Sometimes I like to take a break from my “regular” computer tips and just show you some of the interesting websites I’ve run across recently. These are a few sites that are either helpful or informative in some way, or just plain entertaining.

Account Killer
https://www.accountkiller.com/en/#

You probably have a lot of online accounts at various social media sites. Let’s face it, they all make it very easy to sign up, and then you’re suddenly sucked in and overwhelmed by everything that comes with it. In some cases, you might decide, “Ok, I’ve had enough of this – I’m just gonna cancel that account.” Ah, but that process is not so easy or obvious, is it? You can spend hours searching the site for a “Cancel my account” link (which is very well hidden), or you can just go to the Account Killer website and get the exact instructions for how to do it. They have step-by-step processes for deleting accounts at all the most popular websites, including these and literally hundreds more:

Facebook

Twitter

Skype

Whatsapp

Yahoo

Google

Hotmail

Spotify

Dropbox

MSN

MySpace

Groupon

Down for everyone or just me?
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

If you’ve ever gone to a website and gotten the dreaded “This page cannot be displayed” message, you have to wonder if the website itself is actually down, or if your computer just has a problem and can’t connect to it at the moment. This website provides the quickest and easiest way to see if a website really is down.

Just go to the site and you’ll see there is just one thing to do there – you type in the address of the website you are trying to access. It will come back within a couple of seconds, and either tell you that the website is actually down, or that it’s just you.

ManualsLib
http://www.manualslib.com/

This site is for those times when you have said to yourself, “What did I do with that manual?” Or maybe you purchased something used, and just needed the documentation on how to use it properly. It could even be something that you’ve had for a while, and maybe forgotten how to take advantage of all the features. Whatever the case, this website has what you’re looking for.

The site’s subtitle is “The Ultimate Manuals Library” and it has over 1.7 MILLION manuals in PDF that you can download and even print if you want. These manuals cover over 1.3 million different products. You just go to the site and enter the model number of whatever appliance, TV remote, tool, car, truck or other item for which you need a manual. Pretty likely you’ll find it there. And all of the manuals are available to you at no charge.

Coffitivity
https://coffitivity.com

Some people are able to be more productive when they’re in a “coffee shop” environment”. I guess that’s why you always see so many people working away at their laptops in Starbucks. Or maybe they’re just on Facebook. I do see a lot of pictures of Starbucks drinks on Facebook. For me, I find coffee shops a little too distracting to do work that requires any degree of focus or concentration. But if you like the “background noise” of a coffee shop, you can now create that environment in your own home! The Coffitivity website is an audio website that “recreates the ambient sounds of a cafe to boost your creativity and help you work better” (that’s the description on the website).

At the site, you can choose which “ambient sounds” you like:

Morning Murmur – a gentle hum gets the day started

Lunchtime Lounge – bustling chatter of the lunchtime rush

University Undertones – the scholarly sounds of a campus cafe

There’s even an app you can get for your phone, so you can enjoy the coffeehouse background noise no matter where you are.

Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/

If you’re thinking about creating a website, and you need some images for that site, it’s very tempting to just hop on Google Images, find the perfect picture, and grab it for use on your site. Not so fast! Many of those images are owned by major photography and advertising companies, such as Getty Images. If you post one of their images on your website without purchasing the rights to use it, it’s very likely that you’ll get an invoice from them for several hundred or even thousands of dollars – and you will have a heck of a time getting out of paying that bill. Don’t fall into that trap!

There are lots of websites that offer high-quality images for commercial or public use, but most of them require payment. Not Unsplash. This site has lots of really high-quality, high-resolution images and they are all free for you to use. You can even sign up for their email list and they’ll send you a few new ones each week. Even if you don’t want to use them on a website, they are really beautiful pictures just to look at.

All About Birds
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/

If you like to watch birds, this site is a gold mine. It’s created and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and they have webcams mounted in a variety of locations, all in view of some type of bird’s nest. These include Owls, Hawks, Ospreys, Albatross and probably others. They aren’t all live all the time, because nest activity is dependent on the season of the year. But even if your favorite bird isn’t currently live, you can also watch videos from previous webcam captures. This is one way that technology is really bringing nature – LIVE – to the world.

11 foot 8
http://11foot8.com/

Saved the best for last. I predict that you’ll spend more time on this site than you will the previous ones I mentioned.

There’s a railroad trestle (overpass) in Durham, North Carolina. One-way traffic passed under it, and the height limitation to clear the trestle is – you guessed it – 11 feet, 8 inches. There are signs stating the clearance, but that doesn’t stop a lot of trucks from just barreling right through. In fact, the railroad has installed a crash bar in front of the tracks so that it takes brunt of the crash each time it happens – and they’ve already had to replace that crash bar.

The guy that created this website has an office near the intersection, and he saw this happening so often that he set up a webcam pointing that direction, figuring he would eventually capture one of them on video. That was in 2008. Since then, he has caught 95 of them on video and you can watch all of them right there on the website if you want. A lot of the crashes are rental trucks, which makes sense since the drivers are probably inexperienced with driving a truck. Some of them scrape the top of the truck but make it through, and some of them rip off the whole top edge. I don’t know why, but it’s pretty entertaining.

The post Some cool websites I’ve come across recently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

website — Some cool websites I’ve come across recently Aug 03, 2015
Sometimes I like to take a break from my “regular” computer tips and just show you some of the interesting websites I’ve run across recently. These are a few sites that are either helpful or informative in some way, or just plain entertaining.

Account Killer
https://www.accountkiller.com/en/#

You probably have a lot of online accounts at various social media sites. Let’s face it, they all make it very easy to sign up, and then you’re suddenly sucked in and overwhelmed by everything that comes with it. In some cases, you might decide, “Ok, I’ve had enough of this – I’m just gonna cancel that account.” Ah, but that process is not so easy or obvious, is it? You can spend hours searching the site for a “Cancel my account” link (which is very well hidden), or you can just go to the Account Killer website and get the exact instructions for how to do it. They have step-by-step processes for deleting accounts at all the most popular websites, including these and literally hundreds more:

Facebook

Twitter

Skype

Whatsapp

Yahoo

Google

Hotmail

Spotify

Dropbox

MSN

MySpace

Groupon

Down for everyone or just me?
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

If you’ve ever gone to a website and gotten the dreaded “This page cannot be displayed” message, you have to wonder if the website itself is actually down, or if your computer just has a problem and can’t connect to it at the moment. This website provides the quickest and easiest way to see if a website really is down.

Just go to the site and you’ll see there is just one thing to do there – you type in the address of the website you are trying to access. It will come back within a couple of seconds, and either tell you that the website is actually down, or that it’s just you.

ManualsLib
http://www.manualslib.com/

This site is for those times when you have said to yourself, “What did I do with that manual?” Or maybe you purchased something used, and just needed the documentation on how to use it properly. It could even be something that you’ve had for a while, and maybe forgotten how to take advantage of all the features. Whatever the case, this website has what you’re looking for.

The site’s subtitle is “The Ultimate Manuals Library” and it has over 1.7 MILLION manuals in PDF that you can download and even print if you want. These manuals cover over 1.3 million different products. You just go to the site and enter the model number of whatever appliance, TV remote, tool, car, truck or other item for which you need a manual. Pretty likely you’ll find it there. And all of the manuals are available to you at no charge.

Coffitivity
https://coffitivity.com

Some people are able to be more productive when they’re in a “coffee shop” environment”. I guess that’s why you always see so many people working away at their laptops in Starbucks. Or maybe they’re just on Facebook. I do see a lot of pictures of Starbucks drinks on Facebook. For me, I find coffee shops a little too distracting to do work that requires any degree of focus or concentration. But if you like the “background noise” of a coffee shop, you can now create that environment in your own home! The Coffitivity website is an audio website that “recreates the ambient sounds of a cafe to boost your creativity and help you work better” (that’s the description on the website).

At the site, you can choose which “ambient sounds” you like:

Morning Murmur – a gentle hum gets the day started

Lunchtime Lounge – bustling chatter of the lunchtime rush

University Undertones – the scholarly sounds of a campus cafe

There’s even an app you can get for your phone, so you can enjoy the coffeehouse background noise no matter where you are.

Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/

If you’re thinking about creating a website, and you need some images for that site, it’s very tempting to just hop on Google Images, find the perfect picture, and grab it for use on your site. Not so fast! Many of those images are owned by major photography and advertising companies, such as Getty Images. If you post one of their images on your website without purchasing the rights to use it, it’s very likely that you’ll get an invoice from them for several hundred or even thousands of dollars – and you will have a heck of a time getting out of paying that bill. Don’t fall into that trap!

There are lots of websites that offer high-quality images for commercial or public use, but most of them require payment. Not Unsplash. This site has lots of really high-quality, high-resolution images and they are all free for you to use. You can even sign up for their email list and they’ll send you a few new ones each week. Even if you don’t want to use them on a website, they are really beautiful pictures just to look at.

All About Birds
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/

If you like to watch birds, this site is a gold mine. It’s created and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and they have webcams mounted in a variety of locations, all in view of some type of bird’s nest. These include Owls, Hawks, Ospreys, Albatross and probably others. They aren’t all live all the time, because nest activity is dependent on the season of the year. But even if your favorite bird isn’t currently live, you can also watch videos from previous webcam captures. This is one way that technology is really bringing nature – LIVE – to the world.

11 foot 8
http://11foot8.com/

Saved the best for last. I predict that you’ll spend more time on this site than you will the previous ones I mentioned.

There’s a railroad trestle (overpass) in Durham, North Carolina. One-way traffic passed under it, and the height limitation to clear the trestle is – you guessed it – 11 feet, 8 inches. There are signs stating the clearance, but that doesn’t stop a lot of trucks from just barreling right through. In fact, the railroad has installed a crash bar in front of the tracks so that it takes brunt of the crash each time it happens – and they’ve already had to replace that crash bar.

The guy that created this website has an office near the intersection, and he saw this happening so often that he set up a webcam pointing that direction, figuring he would eventually capture one of them on video. That was in 2008. Since then, he has caught 95 of them on video and you can watch all of them right there on the website if you want. A lot of the crashes are rental trucks, which makes sense since the drivers are probably inexperienced with driving a truck. Some of them scrape the top of the truck but make it through, and some of them rip off the whole top edge. I don’t know why, but it’s pretty entertaining.

The post Some cool websites I’ve come across recently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

disable flash — The easy way to handle the Flash problem Jul 27, 2015
You’ve probably heard in the news lately that Adobe Flash continues to have security problems. There are constantly new vulnerability issues being discovered. Then they patch up those holes, and more are found. It’s a constant race to find a problem and patch it up before the hackers can exploit it and do substantial damage. Some people say you should just uninstall Flash from your computer completely. Some say you should just disable it in your web browser. Today I’ll show you what I think is the easiest solution.

What is Flash?

If we’re going to talk about it, we should first describe briefly what it is.

Flash is computer software that some websites use to display their content. Usually that content is some type of multi-media stuff, like audio or video. Some sites use it to enable some type of interactivity between the website and the visitor. If you see some type of movement on a website, it might be through the use of Flash.

There are still a lot of sites that use Flash, but it is declining in popularity. For example, YouTube videos used to be all displayed using Flash. YouTube no longer uses Flash. Like many sites, it’s using a different type of website content display called HTML5. I won’t go into all the differences between the two, but the most important one is that HTML5 is much safer.

Flash is constantly being compromised, so it’s an endless routine of updating and patching to be able to use it safely. It’s a pain for everyone involved.

To make sure your computer is safe from any Flash problems, there are 3 ways to handle it:

Just delete Flash from your computer completely (uninstall it)

Disable Flash in your web browsers

Use a browser plugin to approve Flash to run on a case-by-case basis

For the examples below, in order to see what the Flash content is supposed to look like, I’ll be using a simple website called Ultrasounds. You can see it at Ultrasounds.com. Their home page is sort of a “test page” to verify that Flash is installed and running, because the entire rest of their website is created using Flash (not a good idea if you’re a website developer). If you go to www.Ultrasounds.com and you have Flash installed and enabled in your web browser, there’s an image at the top of the page that looks like this:

Except that on the website, it will have some movement. The blue section in the middle will be constantly moving up and down. If that’s happening, you have Flash running in your web browser.

So let’s look at these and see what the pros and cons are for each option.

1. Uninstall Flash from your computer
This would definitely eliminate the problem. If Flash is not even on your computer, it certainly can’t get exploited or hacked and leave you vulnerable. And on top of that, you don’t have to every worry if it’s up to date or not. The downside is that when you visit a website that uses Flash, that website won’t work. For some sites, it means that a small portion of the page won’t be displayed. For other sites, the entire website will appear broken because it requires Flash in order to run properly.

With this option, you will probably get a message on the screen that says you need to download and install the Flash player in order to view the content. That may be true – but be very careful about this. Malicious websites will often use a message like that just to trick you into clicking through and you end up downloading viruses and malware to your computer.

2. Disable Flash in your web browsers
I would call this a “better” solution. You would still have Flash installed on your computer, but it really doesn’t do anything because Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox all have it disabled. In this case, when you visit a website that uses Flash, that website won’t work. But if you know it’s a website that you definitely need to view or use, and it’s one that you trust, you can go into the browser’s settings and enable Flash temporarily while you use that site. Then when you’re finished with it, you have to remember to disable it again.

This is what the “Flash is disabled” message looks like in Chrome:

3. Use a browser plugin
This is what I would say is the best solution. A browser plugin is just a little piece of software that runs inside your web browser (Chrome or Firefox) and gives it some added functionality. In this case, we’re going to use the plugin called Flashcontrol. It’s free.

In this scenario, you have Flash installed on your computer, and you have it enabled in your browser. But FlashBlock automatically recognizes when you are on a website that uses Flash, and wherever the Flash content is on the site, you would just see a space that is clickable. There will also be the Flashcontrol logo to remind you that this is Flash content. On our sample page, it looks like this in Chrome:

If you decide you want to see the Flash content, you just click in that area and it plays. It’s very simple, and it gives you the option every single time to see the Flash content or leave it blank. And it means you don’t have to mess with going into your browser’s settings to enable and disable it constantly. Much easier!

Here’s how to install Flashcontrol in Chrome:

1. Open Chrome, and go here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flashcontrol/mfidmkgnfgnkihnjeklbekckimkipmoe?hl=en

2. Click on “Add to Chrome”:

3. For the confirmation window, click “Add”:

Here’s how to install Flash Control in Firefox:

1. Open Firefox, and go here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-control/

2. Click on “Add to Firefox”:

3. Click “Install Now”:

The plugin is slightly different in Firefox. When you see a page with Flash content, this is what will be in that space:

You just click on the “F” and the Flash content will play.

For Internet Explorer, the process is different. No plugin is available (that I know of) but you can still block Flash content by default and then play it on a case-by-case basis. I should say here – I don’t recommend using Internet Explorer anyway. I only use it when I am forced to. But you might have to use it at work, so you should still know how to handle Flash content safely.

Here’s how you block Flash in Internet Explorer:

1. Open Internet Explorer, and click Tools – Manage Add-ons:

2. In the next window, under the “Show” dropdown menu, choose “All add-ons”:

3. In the same window, find “Shockwave Flash Object” in the list, and do a RIGHT click on it, and choose “Disable”:

4. Close the Manage Add-ons window.

Now, whenever you use Internet Explorer and come to a website that has Flash content, you’ll get this message at the bottom of the screen:

So you can choose to allow the Flash content to play, or just ignore it and it won’t play.

It’s interesting how things develop on the internet. The Flash-blocking plugins for Chrome and Firefox weren’t created initially because of all the security issues with Flash. They were created and made available because people just got sick of seeing all the stupid website ads that use Flash – those are the ones that have words and pictures flashing on and off, jumping up and down, vibrating, moving all around – it’s really annoying, and so people just wanted a way to shut off that nonsense. That’s why I’ve been using Flash-blocking plugins for a long time. And now, there’s another reason to use them – to keep your computer safe.

The post The easy way to handle the Flash problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Flash test — The easy way to handle the Flash problem Jul 27, 2015
You’ve probably heard in the news lately that Adobe Flash continues to have security problems. There are constantly new vulnerability issues being discovered. Then they patch up those holes, and more are found. It’s a constant race to find a problem and patch it up before the hackers can exploit it and do substantial damage. Some people say you should just uninstall Flash from your computer completely. Some say you should just disable it in your web browser. Today I’ll show you what I think is the easiest solution.

What is Flash?

If we’re going to talk about it, we should first describe briefly what it is.

Flash is computer software that some websites use to display their content. Usually that content is some type of multi-media stuff, like audio or video. Some sites use it to enable some type of interactivity between the website and the visitor. If you see some type of movement on a website, it might be through the use of Flash.

There are still a lot of sites that use Flash, but it is declining in popularity. For example, YouTube videos used to be all displayed using Flash. YouTube no longer uses Flash. Like many sites, it’s using a different type of website content display called HTML5. I won’t go into all the differences between the two, but the most important one is that HTML5 is much safer.

Flash is constantly being compromised, so it’s an endless routine of updating and patching to be able to use it safely. It’s a pain for everyone involved.

To make sure your computer is safe from any Flash problems, there are 3 ways to handle it:

Just delete Flash from your computer completely (uninstall it)

Disable Flash in your web browsers

Use a browser plugin to approve Flash to run on a case-by-case basis

For the examples below, in order to see what the Flash content is supposed to look like, I’ll be using a simple website called Ultrasounds. You can see it at Ultrasounds.com. Their home page is sort of a “test page” to verify that Flash is installed and running, because the entire rest of their website is created using Flash (not a good idea if you’re a website developer). If you go to www.Ultrasounds.com and you have Flash installed and enabled in your web browser, there’s an image at the top of the page that looks like this:

Except that on the website, it will have some movement. The blue section in the middle will be constantly moving up and down. If that’s happening, you have Flash running in your web browser.

So let’s look at these and see what the pros and cons are for each option.

1. Uninstall Flash from your computer
This would definitely eliminate the problem. If Flash is not even on your computer, it certainly can’t get exploited or hacked and leave you vulnerable. And on top of that, you don’t have to every worry if it’s up to date or not. The downside is that when you visit a website that uses Flash, that website won’t work. For some sites, it means that a small portion of the page won’t be displayed. For other sites, the entire website will appear broken because it requires Flash in order to run properly.

With this option, you will probably get a message on the screen that says you need to download and install the Flash player in order to view the content. That may be true – but be very careful about this. Malicious websites will often use a message like that just to trick you into clicking through and you end up downloading viruses and malware to your computer.

2. Disable Flash in your web browsers
I would call this a “better” solution. You would still have Flash installed on your computer, but it really doesn’t do anything because Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox all have it disabled. In this case, when you visit a website that uses Flash, that website won’t work. But if you know it’s a website that you definitely need to view or use, and it’s one that you trust, you can go into the browser’s settings and enable Flash temporarily while you use that site. Then when you’re finished with it, you have to remember to disable it again.

This is what the “Flash is disabled” message looks like in Chrome:

3. Use a browser plugin
This is what I would say is the best solution. A browser plugin is just a little piece of software that runs inside your web browser (Chrome or Firefox) and gives it some added functionality. In this case, we’re going to use the plugin called Flashcontrol. It’s free.

In this scenario, you have Flash installed on your computer, and you have it enabled in your browser. But FlashBlock automatically recognizes when you are on a website that uses Flash, and wherever the Flash content is on the site, you would just see a space that is clickable. There will also be the Flashcontrol logo to remind you that this is Flash content. On our sample page, it looks like this in Chrome:

If you decide you want to see the Flash content, you just click in that area and it plays. It’s very simple, and it gives you the option every single time to see the Flash content or leave it blank. And it means you don’t have to mess with going into your browser’s settings to enable and disable it constantly. Much easier!

Here’s how to install Flashcontrol in Chrome:

1. Open Chrome, and go here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flashcontrol/mfidmkgnfgnkihnjeklbekckimkipmoe?hl=en

2. Click on “Add to Chrome”:

3. For the confirmation window, click “Add”:

Here’s how to install Flash Control in Firefox:

1. Open Firefox, and go here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-control/

2. Click on “Add to Firefox”:

3. Click “Install Now”:

The plugin is slightly different in Firefox. When you see a page with Flash content, this is what will be in that space:

You just click on the “F” and the Flash content will play.

For Internet Explorer, the process is different. No plugin is available (that I know of) but you can still block Flash content by default and then play it on a case-by-case basis. I should say here – I don’t recommend using Internet Explorer anyway. I only use it when I am forced to. But you might have to use it at work, so you should still know how to handle Flash content safely.

Here’s how you block Flash in Internet Explorer:

1. Open Internet Explorer, and click Tools – Manage Add-ons:

2. In the next window, under the “Show” dropdown menu, choose “All add-ons”:

3. In the same window, find “Shockwave Flash Object” in the list, and do a RIGHT click on it, and choose “Disable”:

4. Close the Manage Add-ons window.

Now, whenever you use Internet Explorer and come to a website that has Flash content, you’ll get this message at the bottom of the screen:

So you can choose to allow the Flash content to play, or just ignore it and it won’t play.

It’s interesting how things develop on the internet. The Flash-blocking plugins for Chrome and Firefox weren’t created initially because of all the security issues with Flash. They were created and made available because people just got sick of seeing all the stupid website ads that use Flash – those are the ones that have words and pictures flashing on and off, jumping up and down, vibrating, moving all around – it’s really annoying, and so people just wanted a way to shut off that nonsense. That’s why I’ve been using Flash-blocking plugins for a long time. And now, there’s another reason to use them – to keep your computer safe.

The post The easy way to handle the Flash problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

fake check — A check that has cleared doesn’t mean it’s not a scam! Jul 20, 2015
I love exposing online scams. Really the biggest benefit is that you, the reader of this blog, is more likely to be suspicious of something if you’ve already read about similar things here. But in addition to that, I just like the idea that I’m ruining some scammer’s chance to steal money from people that actually worked to earn that money.

I try to stay up to date on the latest scams and what the bad guys are thinking up to try to trick people out of their money. But you know what? Sometimes there is a “new” type of scam or maybe a new angle to try and catch people off guard, but in reality, we just keep seeing the same things over and over again. That’s because they keep working, and a lot of people are still not aware of the basics of how these scams work. And there is still a big misconception about how our US banking system works – specifically, about depositing a check.

Let’s take a very common example of a scammer target: someone selling something on Craigslist.

If someone posts an ad on Craigslist, what does the scammer automatically know about that person?

1. They may or may not be “computer savvy” – Craigslist makes it very easy to post an ad, even for someone not very well versed in using a computer or the internet.

2. They want money – obviously, since they are wanting to sell something that they currently own. And it’s probably safe to say that even though they might be expecting to haggle a little bit, they would really love to just get the full price that they listed.

3. They are expecting inquiries from strangers about the item they are selling.

So the scammer, posing as a potential buyer, contacts the seller with some story about being out of the country and wanting to send a cashier’s check for the price of the item PLUS more, in order to cover shipping to their “associate” in some other state.

At that point, even though the newbie seller might be a little suspicious about the whole process, he might also be thinking, “I’m going to be protected, because after all, it’s a cashier’s check!”

Wrong!

Think about the extreme skill it takes to create counterfeit currency. There’s a LOT that goes into that. Well guess what – it’s a whole lot easier to create counterfeit cashier’s checks. You won’t detect that the check is fake. Your bank won’t detect that the check is fake. In fact, the bank won’t even try. They just take it as a deposit just like any other check.

And in a day or two, you can check your balance and you’ll see that the bank has fully released the entire amount of the check to you in clear funds. So you could go to the bank, withdraw the full amount of that check in cash, and they would be fine with it. For a little while.

Rest assured, that check will come back to your bank. And when it does, they will come back to you and want that money back. If you have enough in your account, they’ll take it right from there to cover the loss. If you don’t have enough to cover it, expect a phone call. And this matter is really more than just dealing with a bank overdraft – you deposited a counterfeit check. That’s going to require a pretty good and detailed explanation, and don’t be surprised if the local police get involved. Suddenly your story – “I got it from some guy on the internet” – doesn’t sound so plausible, even though it’s the truth.

There’s a really good reason why Craigslist posts so many warnings about who you decide to do business with, whether you are buying or selling. This is the warning they give to all users:

Avoiding Scams

Deal locally, face-to-face —follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts.

Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person.

Beware offers involving shipping – deal with locals you can meet in person.

Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) – anyone who asks you to is a scammer.

Don’t accept cashier/certified checks or money orders – banks cash fakes, then hold you responsible.

Transactions are between users only, no third party provides a “guarantee”.

Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, paypal account, etc).

Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen—that amazing “deal” may not exist.

Refuse background/credit checks until you have met landlord/employer in person.

Those guidelines are good to follow not just for Craigslist, but for any dealings you have online.

The post A check that has cleared doesn’t mean it’s not a scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — A check that has cleared doesn’t mean it’s not a scam! Jul 20, 2015
I love exposing online scams. Really the biggest benefit is that you, the reader of this blog, is more likely to be suspicious of something if you’ve already read about similar things here. But in addition to that, I just like the idea that I’m ruining some scammer’s chance to steal money from people that actually worked to earn that money.

I try to stay up to date on the latest scams and what the bad guys are thinking up to try to trick people out of their money. But you know what? Sometimes there is a “new” type of scam or maybe a new angle to try and catch people off guard, but in reality, we just keep seeing the same things over and over again. That’s because they keep working, and a lot of people are still not aware of the basics of how these scams work. And there is still a big misconception about how our US banking system works – specifically, about depositing a check.

Let’s take a very common example of a scammer target: someone selling something on Craigslist.

If someone posts an ad on Craigslist, what does the scammer automatically know about that person?

1. They may or may not be “computer savvy” – Craigslist makes it very easy to post an ad, even for someone not very well versed in using a computer or the internet.

2. They want money – obviously, since they are wanting to sell something that they currently own. And it’s probably safe to say that even though they might be expecting to haggle a little bit, they would really love to just get the full price that they listed.

3. They are expecting inquiries from strangers about the item they are selling.

So the scammer, posing as a potential buyer, contacts the seller with some story about being out of the country and wanting to send a cashier’s check for the price of the item PLUS more, in order to cover shipping to their “associate” in some other state.

At that point, even though the newbie seller might be a little suspicious about the whole process, he might also be thinking, “I’m going to be protected, because after all, it’s a cashier’s check!”

Wrong!

Think about the extreme skill it takes to create counterfeit currency. There’s a LOT that goes into that. Well guess what – it’s a whole lot easier to create counterfeit cashier’s checks. You won’t detect that the check is fake. Your bank won’t detect that the check is fake. In fact, the bank won’t even try. They just take it as a deposit just like any other check.

And in a day or two, you can check your balance and you’ll see that the bank has fully released the entire amount of the check to you in clear funds. So you could go to the bank, withdraw the full amount of that check in cash, and they would be fine with it. For a little while.

Rest assured, that check will come back to your bank. And when it does, they will come back to you and want that money back. If you have enough in your account, they’ll take it right from there to cover the loss. If you don’t have enough to cover it, expect a phone call. And this matter is really more than just dealing with a bank overdraft – you deposited a counterfeit check. That’s going to require a pretty good and detailed explanation, and don’t be surprised if the local police get involved. Suddenly your story – “I got it from some guy on the internet” – doesn’t sound so plausible, even though it’s the truth.

There’s a really good reason why Craigslist posts so many warnings about who you decide to do business with, whether you are buying or selling. This is the warning they give to all users:

Avoiding Scams

Deal locally, face-to-face —follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts.

Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person.

Beware offers involving shipping – deal with locals you can meet in person.

Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) – anyone who asks you to is a scammer.

Don’t accept cashier/certified checks or money orders – banks cash fakes, then hold you responsible.

Transactions are between users only, no third party provides a “guarantee”.

Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, paypal account, etc).

Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen—that amazing “deal” may not exist.

Refuse background/credit checks until you have met landlord/employer in person.

Those guidelines are good to follow not just for Craigslist, but for any dealings you have online.

The post A check that has cleared doesn’t mean it’s not a scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

your location — 3 ways to tell someone exactly where you are Jul 13, 2015
Have you ever needed to tell someone exactly where you are standing, or where you’re parked, or even where you are at the moment if you’re driving or walking or biking? If you’re not near a street sign, or at a place where you know the actual address, telling someone your location can be sort of difficult. Recently I’ve found 3 ways that make this easier.

Here’s why I am interested in this type of thing at the moment.

Later this summer, there will be a race here in the Tampa Bay area called the Pinellas Trail Challenge. It’s a 46-mile ultramarathon that takes place the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (September 5). I’m not running in it because it would be way too hot. However, I am going to work as “mobile crew” for one of the runners. I will be on my bike, and I’ll be pulling a small trailer with a cooler filled with ice and other supplies. I’ve already been incorporating the biking in with my regular training, and have about 25 pounds of weight in the cooler. This is what it looks like:

The Pinellas Trail is a paved walking/running/biking path that starts in downtown St. Pete (by the St. Pete Pier) and goes all the way up into northern Pinellas county. So this race just follows the entire 46-mile path of that trail.

The thing about this race is that it’s unsupported. This means that it’s not like a 10k or a marathon where you have aid stations set up every few miles. Your “aid stations” are public drinking fountains and the convenience stores that are located near the trail (or volunteers, such as what I’m doing). So you have to really be prepared to carry what you can, and buy whatever else you need along the way.

Inevitably, there will be people who will drop out before getting to the finish line. The Florida heat, in late summer, in the daytime, on a trail with very little shade, is no small factor. Everyone has to carry a cell phone just in case a call needs to be made for a friend or family member to come and pick up the runner.

But if the runner is just on some random stretch of pavement, how does he tell the friend where to pick him up? If you’re waiting at a business, you can use the address of the business. But otherwise, if you aren’t standing a an intersection of streets, you might not be able to verbally tell someone where you are.

So I found these 3 apps that will work on your smartphone, and each one will enable you to tell someone exactly where you are waiting to be picked up.

1. What3Words (what3words.com)

Free

I actually wrote a full blog post on this one several weeks ago (here). This app divides the entire world into a grid of 3 meter square cells. Each of these cells has a unique name, which consists of 3 common words. So no matter where you are in the world, the spot where you’re standing has a 3-word address.

You just pull out your phone, open the What3Words app, and get the 3-word location for where you are. When you tell someone else that location, they can plug it in on the same app on their phone, then just instruct their GPS to guide them to where you are.

Here’s a quick video explaining how it works:

https://youtu.be/czR4-7gP7f0

2. Glympse (Glympse.com)

Free

This is an app I’ve heard a lot of people talking about but I had not used it previously. I like it.

Basically, it just gives someone the ability to see where you are on a map. So if you “send” someone a Glympse (by choosing them from your contacts list on your phone), they can see where you are so they’ll know when you will arrive. Or, you can “request” a Glympse from someone you’re waiting on, so you can have an idea of when they’ll show up.

My daughter lives about 10 minutes away and one day last week I knew she would be coming over so I requested a Glympse from her. She accepted the request, and when I looked at the Glympse app on my phone, there was the green arrow, right at her condo. Then it started moving and I could “see” her traveling down the road. I could even tell when she was at a red light because the arrow would stop for a minute or two at an intersection.

This might sound a little creepy. But one thing to remember is that your location is only viewable by the person (or group of people) that you send it to. And, you can authorize it for a set period of time. When my daughter used it, she just set it to track her location for 15 minutes. That would probably be the most common one, if you’re just using it for when you’re meeting someone.

Here’s a video from when Glympse was featured on the Today show last year:

https://youtu.be/LlZs5uesDmw

3. Map My Ride (mapmyride.com)

$5.99/month for Pro version

Map My Ride is the program I use to keep track of my bike workouts (if you use it too, friend me and we can see each other’s progress). They do have a free version (and the free version would probably be sufficient for most people). The Pro version is $6/month (or you can pay annually and save some money). With Pro, you get some additional features – and one of those is called Live Tracking. It is shut off by default, but you can turn it on for when you will be out on your bike.

Map My Ride is sort of a social network for cyclists. You can “friend” people just like you do on Facebook or other social websites. So when you turn on Live Tracking, anyone that you’re friends with can see where you are on a map. I think the main reason people would use this is for safety reasons. If my wife were going to go biking in the dark (late at night or early morning), I would want to be able to see where she is, just in case anything happened and I needed to get to her quickly.

In a bike race, it could be handy as well because anyone watching your progress would have an idea of when you’ll be crossing the finish line, so they can be there to greet you.

I’m not sure I’ll use this feature in the September race though – mainly because the GPS would probably drain the battery on my phone when it’s tracking me for a such an extended period of time (probably 11 or 12 hours). I’ll have to experiment with that to see how quickly it uses up my battery.

MapMyRide is just one of several fitness tracking apps put out by the same company – they also have MapMyRun, MapMyFitness, MapMyWalk and MapMyHike. I couldn’t find a video that explained the MapMyRide Live Tracking feature specifically, but here is a review that talks about this app along with 4 other cycling apps:

https://youtu.be/_Wk4xDC826k

So there are 3 apps that can always be available to you on your phone, to allow you to quickly show someone else where you are at any given time. I know there are others but these are among the most popular. Do you use a different one? In what type of situation(s) would you find something like this handy? Leave a comment.

The post 3 ways to tell someone exactly where you are first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

bike crew — 3 ways to tell someone exactly where you are Jul 13, 2015
Have you ever needed to tell someone exactly where you are standing, or where you’re parked, or even where you are at the moment if you’re driving or walking or biking? If you’re not near a street sign, or at a place where you know the actual address, telling someone your location can be sort of difficult. Recently I’ve found 3 ways that make this easier.

Here’s why I am interested in this type of thing at the moment.

Later this summer, there will be a race here in the Tampa Bay area called the Pinellas Trail Challenge. It’s a 46-mile ultramarathon that takes place the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (September 5). I’m not running in it because it would be way too hot. However, I am going to work as “mobile crew” for one of the runners. I will be on my bike, and I’ll be pulling a small trailer with a cooler filled with ice and other supplies. I’ve already been incorporating the biking in with my regular training, and have about 25 pounds of weight in the cooler. This is what it looks like:

The Pinellas Trail is a paved walking/running/biking path that starts in downtown St. Pete (by the St. Pete Pier) and goes all the way up into northern Pinellas county. So this race just follows the entire 46-mile path of that trail.

The thing about this race is that it’s unsupported. This means that it’s not like a 10k or a marathon where you have aid stations set up every few miles. Your “aid stations” are public drinking fountains and the convenience stores that are located near the trail (or volunteers, such as what I’m doing). So you have to really be prepared to carry what you can, and buy whatever else you need along the way.

Inevitably, there will be people who will drop out before getting to the finish line. The Florida heat, in late summer, in the daytime, on a trail with very little shade, is no small factor. Everyone has to carry a cell phone just in case a call needs to be made for a friend or family member to come and pick up the runner.

But if the runner is just on some random stretch of pavement, how does he tell the friend where to pick him up? If you’re waiting at a business, you can use the address of the business. But otherwise, if you aren’t standing a an intersection of streets, you might not be able to verbally tell someone where you are.

So I found these 3 apps that will work on your smartphone, and each one will enable you to tell someone exactly where you are waiting to be picked up.

1. What3Words (what3words.com)

Free

I actually wrote a full blog post on this one several weeks ago (here). This app divides the entire world into a grid of 3 meter square cells. Each of these cells has a unique name, which consists of 3 common words. So no matter where you are in the world, the spot where you’re standing has a 3-word address.

You just pull out your phone, open the What3Words app, and get the 3-word location for where you are. When you tell someone else that location, they can plug it in on the same app on their phone, then just instruct their GPS to guide them to where you are.

Here’s a quick video explaining how it works:

https://youtu.be/czR4-7gP7f0

2. Glympse (Glympse.com)

Free

This is an app I’ve heard a lot of people talking about but I had not used it previously. I like it.

Basically, it just gives someone the ability to see where you are on a map. So if you “send” someone a Glympse (by choosing them from your contacts list on your phone), they can see where you are so they’ll know when you will arrive. Or, you can “request” a Glympse from someone you’re waiting on, so you can have an idea of when they’ll show up.

My daughter lives about 10 minutes away and one day last week I knew she would be coming over so I requested a Glympse from her. She accepted the request, and when I looked at the Glympse app on my phone, there was the green arrow, right at her condo. Then it started moving and I could “see” her traveling down the road. I could even tell when she was at a red light because the arrow would stop for a minute or two at an intersection.

This might sound a little creepy. But one thing to remember is that your location is only viewable by the person (or group of people) that you send it to. And, you can authorize it for a set period of time. When my daughter used it, she just set it to track her location for 15 minutes. That would probably be the most common one, if you’re just using it for when you’re meeting someone.

Here’s a video from when Glympse was featured on the Today show last year:

https://youtu.be/LlZs5uesDmw

3. Map My Ride (mapmyride.com)

$5.99/month for Pro version

Map My Ride is the program I use to keep track of my bike workouts (if you use it too, friend me and we can see each other’s progress). They do have a free version (and the free version would probably be sufficient for most people). The Pro version is $6/month (or you can pay annually and save some money). With Pro, you get some additional features – and one of those is called Live Tracking. It is shut off by default, but you can turn it on for when you will be out on your bike.

Map My Ride is sort of a social network for cyclists. You can “friend” people just like you do on Facebook or other social websites. So when you turn on Live Tracking, anyone that you’re friends with can see where you are on a map. I think the main reason people would use this is for safety reasons. If my wife were going to go biking in the dark (late at night or early morning), I would want to be able to see where she is, just in case anything happened and I needed to get to her quickly.

In a bike race, it could be handy as well because anyone watching your progress would have an idea of when you’ll be crossing the finish line, so they can be there to greet you.

I’m not sure I’ll use this feature in the September race though – mainly because the GPS would probably drain the battery on my phone when it’s tracking me for a such an extended period of time (probably 11 or 12 hours). I’ll have to experiment with that to see how quickly it uses up my battery.

MapMyRide is just one of several fitness tracking apps put out by the same company – they also have MapMyRun, MapMyFitness, MapMyWalk and MapMyHike. I couldn’t find a video that explained the MapMyRide Live Tracking feature specifically, but here is a review that talks about this app along with 4 other cycling apps:

https://youtu.be/_Wk4xDC826k

So there are 3 apps that can always be available to you on your phone, to allow you to quickly show someone else where you are at any given time. I know there are others but these are among the most popular. Do you use a different one? In what type of situation(s) would you find something like this handy? Leave a comment.

The post 3 ways to tell someone exactly where you are first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Questions — 4 computer questions that I cannot answer Jul 06, 2015
As the owner of a computer repair business, I spend my days solving computer problems for my clients. That often means removing viruses, but it also includes fixing things that no longer seem to be working properly, getting software set up correctly, getting a printer to work, those kinds of things. But there are a few questions I get from clients that just don’t have an answer.

Maybe a better way to say it is that I cannot answer without some more clarification. A lot of what I do is interpreting what the client is telling me is happening, and trying to determine what is actually happening. So I drill down and ask questions, and eventually we come up with a solution. These are things I hear all the time.

Question #1: My computer won’t do anything

I know, that’s not actually a question. But when someone says that, they are in fact presenting it as if to ask “What’s wrong with my computer, since it won’t do anything?”

To clarify, my response is: “So when you push the power button, you don’t see anything at all happen on the screen, and you don’t hear any fans or other noises, and you don’t see any lights come on?”

And in most cases, the customer replies, “Oh, well, it does turn on, but then I can’t get it to do anything after that.” So we’ve determined the computer actually is “doing something”, just maybe not what it “should” be doing.

The funny thing is, in a lot of cases we determine that the computer does in fact turn on, it goes through the initial BIOS function, it loads Windows, it connects to the wifi signal, and it loads the other software such as the antivirus, etc. But when the client clicks to open a website, the web browser shows “page cannot be found”. That I can deal with – but it’s a huge difference from “my computer won’t do anything”.

Question #2: My AOL doesn’t work

Yes, another one that’s really not a question. For this one, I have to really bite my tongue to avoid coming back with a snarky response such as, “Yes, that’s because it’s AOL” or something similar. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of AOL. In fact, I despise it on many different levels. But I usually avoid getting into that debate, because most people that use AOL are going to keep using AOL in spite of my attempts to convert them to something better.

The sad thing is, if the AOL software is screwing up, there really isn’t a lot you can do other than uninstalling it and reinstalling it. In some cases, it’s an issue with Windows or some other software that’s conflicting with AOL so it might be able to be resolved that way. But AOL is a free service (even though they make millions from the unknowing people that continue to pay for it monthly), so they don’t really offer a legitimate “tech support” service to help you figure out why their program isn’t working properly.

And if you go online looking for help with your AOL software, there’s a good chance you’ll end up talking to a scammer who will point out all kinds of “problems” with your computer, then ask you for your credit card # in order to fix those “problems” (which don’t really exist).

Question #3: What’s the best free antivirus?

This is a tough one. I am well aware that the customer is really saying, “I don’t want to pay for it, but I know I need to have some kind of protection installed.” And since most people don’t expect to get infected anyway, they might not place a very high priority on how good the software is that’s protecting their computer.

There are a couple of issues with this question.

First, many of the “free” antiviruses available now are actually purveyors of malware. It’s ironic, but the program you install to keep crap off your computer… puts crap on your computer. Because they make money from it.

Second, if I named a particular program that may be better than the others, it might come across that I am somehow “endorsing” it. Even if I include all kinds of disclaimers with it, the bottom line is that if they use that freebie antivirus and then they get infected with a virus (or several), the thing they’ll remember is, “Well, you’re the one that recommended it.” So I in fact do NOT recommend any free antivirus because none of them are sufficient to protect your computer against the wide array of threats in circulation now. If you want to keep your computer safe, you will need to purchase something.

Question #4: I keep getting an error message

This one actually might be the most frustrating, for both me and for my client.

For the client, it’s maddening because this stupid error message keeps popping up on their screen and they don’t know what it is, what it means, or what they should do with it. The easiest thing is to just close it and if nothing blows up they can just continue with what they were doing. But then it comes back – maybe 5 days later, maybe 5 minutes later, or maybe just every time they turn on their computer.

For me, the frustration is when I ask the client, “What does the error message say?” and they can’t tell me. They just see it and click it away each time, so the actual message being displayed is an unknown until it comes up again and they can write it down or take a screenshot. Without knowing what the message is, diagnosis and repair are impossible.

And the only thing worse than that is when the customer says, “Yes, it’s frustrating because it’s been popping up on my screen now for several weeks (or sometimes months)”. If something just started happening, there are some resolutions available that can be fairly simple (such as system restore). If an error message continues to show up for an extended period of time, those easy resolutions are no longer an option and the repair becomes more involved (and usually more expensive).

So when you see an error message, write down the text (or take a screenshot) and let me know as soon as possible.

The post 4 computer questions that I cannot answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer questions — 4 computer questions that I cannot answer Jul 06, 2015
As the owner of a computer repair business, I spend my days solving computer problems for my clients. That often means removing viruses, but it also includes fixing things that no longer seem to be working properly, getting software set up correctly, getting a printer to work, those kinds of things. But there are a few questions I get from clients that just don’t have an answer.

Maybe a better way to say it is that I cannot answer without some more clarification. A lot of what I do is interpreting what the client is telling me is happening, and trying to determine what is actually happening. So I drill down and ask questions, and eventually we come up with a solution. These are things I hear all the time.

Question #1: My computer won’t do anything

I know, that’s not actually a question. But when someone says that, they are in fact presenting it as if to ask “What’s wrong with my computer, since it won’t do anything?”

To clarify, my response is: “So when you push the power button, you don’t see anything at all happen on the screen, and you don’t hear any fans or other noises, and you don’t see any lights come on?”

And in most cases, the customer replies, “Oh, well, it does turn on, but then I can’t get it to do anything after that.” So we’ve determined the computer actually is “doing something”, just maybe not what it “should” be doing.

The funny thing is, in a lot of cases we determine that the computer does in fact turn on, it goes through the initial BIOS function, it loads Windows, it connects to the wifi signal, and it loads the other software such as the antivirus, etc. But when the client clicks to open a website, the web browser shows “page cannot be found”. That I can deal with – but it’s a huge difference from “my computer won’t do anything”.

Question #2: My AOL doesn’t work

Yes, another one that’s really not a question. For this one, I have to really bite my tongue to avoid coming back with a snarky response such as, “Yes, that’s because it’s AOL” or something similar. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of AOL. In fact, I despise it on many different levels. But I usually avoid getting into that debate, because most people that use AOL are going to keep using AOL in spite of my attempts to convert them to something better.

The sad thing is, if the AOL software is screwing up, there really isn’t a lot you can do other than uninstalling it and reinstalling it. In some cases, it’s an issue with Windows or some other software that’s conflicting with AOL so it might be able to be resolved that way. But AOL is a free service (even though they make millions from the unknowing people that continue to pay for it monthly), so they don’t really offer a legitimate “tech support” service to help you figure out why their program isn’t working properly.

And if you go online looking for help with your AOL software, there’s a good chance you’ll end up talking to a scammer who will point out all kinds of “problems” with your computer, then ask you for your credit card # in order to fix those “problems” (which don’t really exist).

Question #3: What’s the best free antivirus?

This is a tough one. I am well aware that the customer is really saying, “I don’t want to pay for it, but I know I need to have some kind of protection installed.” And since most people don’t expect to get infected anyway, they might not place a very high priority on how good the software is that’s protecting their computer.

There are a couple of issues with this question.

First, many of the “free” antiviruses available now are actually purveyors of malware. It’s ironic, but the program you install to keep crap off your computer… puts crap on your computer. Because they make money from it.

Second, if I named a particular program that may be better than the others, it might come across that I am somehow “endorsing” it. Even if I include all kinds of disclaimers with it, the bottom line is that if they use that freebie antivirus and then they get infected with a virus (or several), the thing they’ll remember is, “Well, you’re the one that recommended it.” So I in fact do NOT recommend any free antivirus because none of them are sufficient to protect your computer against the wide array of threats in circulation now. If you want to keep your computer safe, you will need to purchase something.

Question #4: I keep getting an error message

This one actually might be the most frustrating, for both me and for my client.

For the client, it’s maddening because this stupid error message keeps popping up on their screen and they don’t know what it is, what it means, or what they should do with it. The easiest thing is to just close it and if nothing blows up they can just continue with what they were doing. But then it comes back – maybe 5 days later, maybe 5 minutes later, or maybe just every time they turn on their computer.

For me, the frustration is when I ask the client, “What does the error message say?” and they can’t tell me. They just see it and click it away each time, so the actual message being displayed is an unknown until it comes up again and they can write it down or take a screenshot. Without knowing what the message is, diagnosis and repair are impossible.

And the only thing worse than that is when the customer says, “Yes, it’s frustrating because it’s been popping up on my screen now for several weeks (or sometimes months)”. If something just started happening, there are some resolutions available that can be fairly simple (such as system restore). If an error message continues to show up for an extended period of time, those easy resolutions are no longer an option and the repair becomes more involved (and usually more expensive).

So when you see an error message, write down the text (or take a screenshot) and let me know as soon as possible.

The post 4 computer questions that I cannot answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook video — How to stop videos in your Facebook news feed from auto-playing Jun 29, 2015
This past week I was talking to my friend Sue. She uses Facebook sometimes, and she was asking about videos that show up on her Facebook news feed. As you scroll down looking at all the things that get posted, you might notice that if someone has posted a video, it just starts automatically playing when you see it. You can turn off Facebook video auto-play if you want.

There are a couple of reasons why you might want to turn off video auto-play (there are probably others, but these two come to mind pretty quickly):

1. Data usage factor. Obviously, a high percentage of people use Facebook on their phone. If you do that, and you’re not connected to a wifi signal, you’re probably using up your monthly allotment of data on your cell phone plan. That can get expensive. In Sue’s case, she and her husband are only in this area temporarily. So rather than sign up for a full internet connection, they use a mobile hotspot just so they can get online and check email. But when they go on Facebook and start seeing all those videos start playing on their own, that means data is being downloaded and counts toward their monthly limit. Sue doesn’t care about seeing those videos, but if the videos start playing on their own, she’s paying for them.

2. Annoyance factor. Sometimes when I’m on Facebook and I’m trying to read something, there’s another post on the screen that has one of those videos. There’s no sound of course (unless I deliberately hit “Play” to watch it) but the movement can be pretty distracting. I’m trying to read a friend’s legitimate status update but an inch away from that text is a kitten chasing a laser pointer dot, even though I didn’t ask for it to start playing.

The good news is, you can turn that off. If you disable autoplay, you’ll just see a still frame of the video. If you want to watch it, just mouse over it and click play.

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your computer:

1. In Facebook, look up in the top right corner. Click on the dropdown menu at the right:

2. In the new menu that is displayed, click on Settings:

3. In the next window, click on “Videos” over on the left side:

4. In the “Video Settings” window, click the dropdown menu next to “Auto-Play videos” and choose “Off”:

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your Android phone:

1. Open the Facebook app, click on the phone’s “Menu” button, and then click on “Settings”:

2. In the Settings screen, click on “Videos play automatically” and choose “Off”:

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your iPad (iPhone is similar I think):

1. Go to the “Settings” page and scroll down, then click on Facebook

2. On the right side, click the word “Settings”, then click “Auto-play”

3. In the Auto-play settings window, choose “Off”

(can’t verify this for sure on the iPhone, since I don’t own one to test it – maybe an iPhone user could verify in the comments below)

The post How to stop videos in your Facebook news feed from auto-playing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook video — How to stop videos in your Facebook news feed from auto-playing Jun 29, 2015
This past week I was talking to my friend Sue. She uses Facebook sometimes, and she was asking about videos that show up on her Facebook news feed. As you scroll down looking at all the things that get posted, you might notice that if someone has posted a video, it just starts automatically playing when you see it. You can turn off Facebook video auto-play if you want.

There are a couple of reasons why you might want to turn off video auto-play (there are probably others, but these two come to mind pretty quickly):

1. Data usage factor. Obviously, a high percentage of people use Facebook on their phone. If you do that, and you’re not connected to a wifi signal, you’re probably using up your monthly allotment of data on your cell phone plan. That can get expensive. In Sue’s case, she and her husband are only in this area temporarily. So rather than sign up for a full internet connection, they use a mobile hotspot just so they can get online and check email. But when they go on Facebook and start seeing all those videos start playing on their own, that means data is being downloaded and counts toward their monthly limit. Sue doesn’t care about seeing those videos, but if the videos start playing on their own, she’s paying for them.

2. Annoyance factor. Sometimes when I’m on Facebook and I’m trying to read something, there’s another post on the screen that has one of those videos. There’s no sound of course (unless I deliberately hit “Play” to watch it) but the movement can be pretty distracting. I’m trying to read a friend’s legitimate status update but an inch away from that text is a kitten chasing a laser pointer dot, even though I didn’t ask for it to start playing.

The good news is, you can turn that off. If you disable autoplay, you’ll just see a still frame of the video. If you want to watch it, just mouse over it and click play.

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your computer:

1. In Facebook, look up in the top right corner. Click on the dropdown menu at the right:

2. In the new menu that is displayed, click on Settings:

3. In the next window, click on “Videos” over on the left side:

4. In the “Video Settings” window, click the dropdown menu next to “Auto-Play videos” and choose “Off”:

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your Android phone:

1. Open the Facebook app, click on the phone’s “Menu” button, and then click on “Settings”:

2. In the Settings screen, click on “Videos play automatically” and choose “Off”:

Here’s how to disable Facebook video autoplay on your iPad (iPhone is similar I think):

1. Go to the “Settings” page and scroll down, then click on Facebook

2. On the right side, click the word “Settings”, then click “Auto-play”

3. In the Auto-play settings window, choose “Off”

(can’t verify this for sure on the iPhone, since I don’t own one to test it – maybe an iPhone user could verify in the comments below)

The post How to stop videos in your Facebook news feed from auto-playing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

LastPass — Secure your LastPass account by doing these two things today Jun 22, 2015
I’ve written blog posts about LastPass, the online secure password manager. I have been using it for quite some time, and I have set it up for several of my clients. You may have heard recently that LastPass may have been compromised. I wanted to clear up what (may have) happened, and what you need to do if you use LastPass (and yes, I continue to highly recommend that you use it).

I’m not going to go into all the details of how LastPass works and why I recommend it – that is all covered in great detail in my blog post where I wrote about it (here). My purpose here today is for you to understand that it’s still fine to use, and what you need to do if you already have a LastPass account.

LastPass dominated the “tech news” headlines recently. The details can get pretty technical. The underlying important facts here are these:

1. LastPass is a high-value target. Think about it – they store all of the important passwords for probably hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. If someone with malicious intent got access to all of that information, it would be hard to place a value on what it would be worth on the black market. So it’s very important that LastPass gets their security right.

2. LastPass does it right. LastPass does everything possible to make sure that data remains confidential. In fact, even LastPass themselves cannot access it because it’s all encrypted. In fact, they take precaution to a whole new level. That’s why, if there is any entity on the internet that you can trust, it’s LastPass (in my opinion, based on what I know and have heard about them). Not only because of their integrity and business philosophy, but also because of the security measures and procedures they have in place.

You may have heard or read news stories that include phrases such as “LastPass got hacked” or “LastPass has had a data breach” or something similar. For the most part, that is media sensationalism.

What actually happened, based on a report that was in the LastPass blog announcing the incident, was this: “…our team discovered and blocked suspicious activity on our network.”

Furthermore (again, directly from LastPass): “…we have found no evidence that encrypted user vault data was taken, nor that LastPass user accounts were accessed.”

The two things that might pertain to LastPass users that could be of concern, which may have been compromised:

The user’s email address

The password hint

If a hacker has your email address, that does not give him access to your LastPass account. He also needs your password. Would your password hint give too much information about what your password is? Personally, I don’t like using password hints at all because it gives the bad guy something to work with. But frankly – for a good, strong password there is no hint anyway. I mean, if your password is “mPi4h7c$jrb&%” how do you come up with a hint for that? There is no hint that would work. But if your password is Florida, and your password hint is “the sunshine state” you might be in trouble.

This just emphasizes the importance of using a password that is both unique (not used for any other account) and strong (random numbers, characters and upper and lower case letters).

What action should you take?

To make sure you’re LastPass account is completely safe, I recommend doing at least 2 things (and I’ll suggest a third action if you like to be REALLY cautious):

First, change your master password. Make it a good one, as I mentioned above. But then that brings up the question, how do you remember it? You could write it on a little piece of paper and stick it in a drawer or in your wallet. Of course, don’t label it “LastPass master password”. Just write it down somewhere so that you know where to get it but if someone else finds it they won’t know what it is.

In fact, even if you write it down and store it somewhere, you could include some fake characters at the beginning or end of the password, and only you would know that they don’t belong there. For example, if your actual password is yT5k9&3nMdCC you could add a random 4-digit number to the end so that what is written down is yT5k9&3nMdCC8346. Then you might at some point in the future try to use that full password and when it doesn’t work, it will remind you that you added the 4 numbers at the end to make it safer.

To change your password, go to lastpass.com and log in. On the left side, click on Account Settings. In the new window, click on “Change Master Password”. Enter your old password, then your new password twice and click “Save Master Password”:

Second, enable country-restricted login. Let’s be honest here. I have nothing against the nice folks of Russia and China, but if someone is going to try to hack into your LastPass account, there’s a good chance the hacker is based in one of those two countries. You can set up your account so that LastPass only allows login from the country where you live. For me, that’s the United States. That will immediately eliminate any attempted logins from any other country, even if the foreign hackers were to figure out your password (which they won’t because it’s a good one, right?).

To restrict logins by country, go to lastpass.com and log in. On the left side, click on Account Settings. In the new window, click on “Show advanced settings”. Check the box “Only allow login from selected countries” and click Update (I also selected Ecuador since we travel there sometimes):

The third thing you can do – if you really feel like you need to go above and beyond in terms of security – is to enable two-factor authentication. I won’t go into all the details on that because it could be a whole blog post in itself. But basically, this means that if the hacker were in your same country, AND he came up with your email address and password, he still couldn’t log into your account unless he had your smartphone. Just another layer of protection if you have data in your LastPass account that is critical.

Bottom line is: LastPass is safe, and continues to be the best password manager (in my opinion). It’s also free, unless you want to use it on your smartphone too (and even then it’s only $12 annually). If you have trouble coming up with those long random passwords, it will come up with them for you. There really is no excuse for using weak passwords any more.

The post Secure your LastPass account by doing these two things today first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

lastpass — Secure your LastPass account by doing these two things today Jun 22, 2015
I’ve written blog posts about LastPass, the online secure password manager. I have been using it for quite some time, and I have set it up for several of my clients. You may have heard recently that LastPass may have been compromised. I wanted to clear up what (may have) happened, and what you need to do if you use LastPass (and yes, I continue to highly recommend that you use it).

I’m not going to go into all the details of how LastPass works and why I recommend it – that is all covered in great detail in my blog post where I wrote about it (here). My purpose here today is for you to understand that it’s still fine to use, and what you need to do if you already have a LastPass account.

LastPass dominated the “tech news” headlines recently. The details can get pretty technical. The underlying important facts here are these:

1. LastPass is a high-value target. Think about it – they store all of the important passwords for probably hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. If someone with malicious intent got access to all of that information, it would be hard to place a value on what it would be worth on the black market. So it’s very important that LastPass gets their security right.

2. LastPass does it right. LastPass does everything possible to make sure that data remains confidential. In fact, even LastPass themselves cannot access it because it’s all encrypted. In fact, they take precaution to a whole new level. That’s why, if there is any entity on the internet that you can trust, it’s LastPass (in my opinion, based on what I know and have heard about them). Not only because of their integrity and business philosophy, but also because of the security measures and procedures they have in place.

You may have heard or read news stories that include phrases such as “LastPass got hacked” or “LastPass has had a data breach” or something similar. For the most part, that is media sensationalism.

What actually happened, based on a report that was in the LastPass blog announcing the incident, was this: “…our team discovered and blocked suspicious activity on our network.”

Furthermore (again, directly from LastPass): “…we have found no evidence that encrypted user vault data was taken, nor that LastPass user accounts were accessed.”

The two things that might pertain to LastPass users that could be of concern, which may have been compromised:

The user’s email address

The password hint

If a hacker has your email address, that does not give him access to your LastPass account. He also needs your password. Would your password hint give too much information about what your password is? Personally, I don’t like using password hints at all because it gives the bad guy something to work with. But frankly – for a good, strong password there is no hint anyway. I mean, if your password is “mPi4h7c$jrb&%” how do you come up with a hint for that? There is no hint that would work. But if your password is Florida, and your password hint is “the sunshine state” you might be in trouble.

This just emphasizes the importance of using a password that is both unique (not used for any other account) and strong (random numbers, characters and upper and lower case letters).

What action should you take?

To make sure you’re LastPass account is completely safe, I recommend doing at least 2 things (and I’ll suggest a third action if you like to be REALLY cautious):

First, change your master password. Make it a good one, as I mentioned above. But then that brings up the question, how do you remember it? You could write it on a little piece of paper and stick it in a drawer or in your wallet. Of course, don’t label it “LastPass master password”. Just write it down somewhere so that you know where to get it but if someone else finds it they won’t know what it is.

In fact, even if you write it down and store it somewhere, you could include some fake characters at the beginning or end of the password, and only you would know that they don’t belong there. For example, if your actual password is yT5k9&3nMdCC you could add a random 4-digit number to the end so that what is written down is yT5k9&3nMdCC8346. Then you might at some point in the future try to use that full password and when it doesn’t work, it will remind you that you added the 4 numbers at the end to make it safer.

To change your password, go to lastpass.com and log in. On the left side, click on Account Settings. In the new window, click on “Change Master Password”. Enter your old password, then your new password twice and click “Save Master Password”:

Second, enable country-restricted login. Let’s be honest here. I have nothing against the nice folks of Russia and China, but if someone is going to try to hack into your LastPass account, there’s a good chance the hacker is based in one of those two countries. You can set up your account so that LastPass only allows login from the country where you live. For me, that’s the United States. That will immediately eliminate any attempted logins from any other country, even if the foreign hackers were to figure out your password (which they won’t because it’s a good one, right?).

To restrict logins by country, go to lastpass.com and log in. On the left side, click on Account Settings. In the new window, click on “Show advanced settings”. Check the box “Only allow login from selected countries” and click Update (I also selected Ecuador since we travel there sometimes):

The third thing you can do – if you really feel like you need to go above and beyond in terms of security – is to enable two-factor authentication. I won’t go into all the details on that because it could be a whole blog post in itself. But basically, this means that if the hacker were in your same country, AND he came up with your email address and password, he still couldn’t log into your account unless he had your smartphone. Just another layer of protection if you have data in your LastPass account that is critical.

Bottom line is: LastPass is safe, and continues to be the best password manager (in my opinion). It’s also free, unless you want to use it on your smartphone too (and even then it’s only $12 annually). If you have trouble coming up with those long random passwords, it will come up with them for you. There really is no excuse for using weak passwords any more.

The post Secure your LastPass account by doing these two things today first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 — Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions Jun 15, 2015
Last week I wrote about what to do with the little “Get Windows 10” icon that showed up, and after that I got a number of questions about Windows 10 in general. Lots of people are wondering how it will work, what it will be like, and other details. So here are the answers to some of the questions you might have about the soon-to-be-released Windows 10.

What actually happens when I click to reserve my upgrade?

It might appear that nothing happens. But in the background, the Windows 10 upgrade is downloading in bits and pieces over time. That way, by the time the actual release date gets here, you already have the full download and on that day the only thing left is to actually install it. And even the installation will happen automatically, just like other Windows Update installations. If your computer is on at 3 am, that’s when it usually happens. Otherwise it would be the next time you boot it up.

I clicked it for the reservation but changed my mind. How do I cancel it?

Click the icon again.

In the new window, click the “menu” icon in the top left:

In the new menu that slides out on the left, side, click on “View confirmation”:

In the next window, click on “Cancel reservation”:

On the next screen, confirm that you do want to cancel. Now it’s cancelled. You can get it back again in the future, and you will still be able to upgrade even though you cancelled this early reservation.

What if I didn’t get the upgrade icon?

There are a few reasons why you may not have gotten the upgrade icon. You might not have the updated Service Pack for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. You also might not have Windows Updates set to install automatically. Or maybe Microsoft just doesn’t like you (not true – they love everyone equally). You could go to Control Panel – Windows Update and run it manually if you want, and see if that brings in the upgrade icon. But the bottom line is, you don’t need that icon right now anyway because it’s best to not click it yet for the “automated” upgrade. You will always be able to get it later. The best thing to do right now is to wait.

How long will Windows 10 be free?

If you’re upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1, you can do that anytime from the day it’s released (currently scheduled for July 29, 2015) and for one year after that, and you will not have to pay anything.

If I upgrade in the first year for free, how much will I have to pay in the second year and following?

Nothing. If you upgrade in the first year, you will have the Windows 10 license and it is good for life. There is no subscription in place at this point. There have been some speculations that Microsoft might make Windows into a subscription-based product (like they have done for Office) but there is nothing to substantiate that at this point.

How much will it cost if I upgrade after the free period?

Microsoft has not yet published the pricing for upgrades after the free year. If you’re running a version of Windows that is older than Windows 7, you’ll need to purchase the full version of Windows 10 (rather than getting the free upgrade). That full version will be $119 for Windows 10 Home, and $199 for Windows 10 Professional. The pricing for upgrades would be less than these of course.

How will Windows 10 be different from Windows 7 or 8?

There will be several differences, and at some point after the release date I will probably do a full blog post on this. But here are some of the basic things that are different:

Start menu – this is probably the one that most people are excited about. The Start button and Start menu are not only back, but greatly improved and expanded.

No charms bar – if you are one of the millions of people that hated that stupid charms bar, you’ll be happy.

New web browser – this replaces Internet Explorer. Earlier, this new browser was called Spartan. Now Microsoft has renamed it the Edge browser. Internet Explorer was really crappy for a long time, which is why so many people switched to Chrome or Firefox. You’ll still be able to use those other browsers, but it will be interesting to see what Edge is like.

Do I have to backup my computer before getting the upgrade?

Technically, no. You are not required to. But the smart users will do a full system image backup before getting any Windows 10 upgrade. You want to be included among the “smart users” group, don’t you? Seriously, I cannot over-emphasize how complex a computer’s operating system is. With this upgrade, you’ll be changing out the current operating system to a whole new one – can you see where there is a potential for things to go wrong? If you have a system image backup, you can just go back to your current version with no hassle and nothing lost. For me, I do a new system image backup on my primary computer every night. So doing one before upgrading the operating system is a no-brainer.

Will I need to have a Microsoft account?

Again, this one is a “technical” no. But I think you should get one and you will probably want one anyway. Just makes everything easier, and it will also give you access to the Windows Store, where you can get all kinds of great apps for your computer. And when you have an account and sign in to it on your various devices, all of your settings and preferences are synced so you don’t have to set up each one of them individually. Just do it – go to Microsoft.com and create a new account (it’s free). Make sure you use a strong password (meaning it’s not a password you have used at any other site, and it has no pronounceable words – it should just be a random series of numbers and upper and lower case letter). Keep track of that account login information so you can use it when you need to. If you want to see the other benefits about having a Microsoft account, here’s where Microsoft talks about this.

The post Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 — Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions Jun 15, 2015
Last week I wrote about what to do with the little “Get Windows 10” icon that showed up, and after that I got a number of questions about Windows 10 in general. Lots of people are wondering how it will work, what it will be like, and other details. So here are the answers to some of the questions you might have about the soon-to-be-released Windows 10.

What actually happens when I click to reserve my upgrade?

It might appear that nothing happens. But in the background, the Windows 10 upgrade is downloading in bits and pieces over time. That way, by the time the actual release date gets here, you already have the full download and on that day the only thing left is to actually install it. And even the installation will happen automatically, just like other Windows Update installations. If your computer is on at 3 am, that’s when it usually happens. Otherwise it would be the next time you boot it up.

I clicked it for the reservation but changed my mind. How do I cancel it?

Click the icon again.

In the new window, click the “menu” icon in the top left:

In the new menu that slides out on the left, side, click on “View confirmation”:

In the next window, click on “Cancel reservation”:

On the next screen, confirm that you do want to cancel. Now it’s cancelled. You can get it back again in the future, and you will still be able to upgrade even though you cancelled this early reservation.

What if I didn’t get the upgrade icon?

There are a few reasons why you may not have gotten the upgrade icon. You might not have the updated Service Pack for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. You also might not have Windows Updates set to install automatically. Or maybe Microsoft just doesn’t like you (not true – they love everyone equally). You could go to Control Panel – Windows Update and run it manually if you want, and see if that brings in the upgrade icon. But the bottom line is, you don’t need that icon right now anyway because it’s best to not click it yet for the “automated” upgrade. You will always be able to get it later. The best thing to do right now is to wait.

How long will Windows 10 be free?

If you’re upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1, you can do that anytime from the day it’s released (currently scheduled for July 29, 2015) and for one year after that, and you will not have to pay anything.

If I upgrade in the first year for free, how much will I have to pay in the second year and following?

Nothing. If you upgrade in the first year, you will have the Windows 10 license and it is good for life. There is no subscription in place at this point. There have been some speculations that Microsoft might make Windows into a subscription-based product (like they have done for Office) but there is nothing to substantiate that at this point.

How much will it cost if I upgrade after the free period?

Microsoft has not yet published the pricing for upgrades after the free year. If you’re running a version of Windows that is older than Windows 7, you’ll need to purchase the full version of Windows 10 (rather than getting the free upgrade). That full version will be $119 for Windows 10 Home, and $199 for Windows 10 Professional. The pricing for upgrades would be less than these of course.

How will Windows 10 be different from Windows 7 or 8?

There will be several differences, and at some point after the release date I will probably do a full blog post on this. But here are some of the basic things that are different:

Start menu – this is probably the one that most people are excited about. The Start button and Start menu are not only back, but greatly improved and expanded.

No charms bar – if you are one of the millions of people that hated that stupid charms bar, you’ll be happy.

New web browser – this replaces Internet Explorer. Earlier, this new browser was called Spartan. Now Microsoft has renamed it the Edge browser. Internet Explorer was really crappy for a long time, which is why so many people switched to Chrome or Firefox. You’ll still be able to use those other browsers, but it will be interesting to see what Edge is like.

Do I have to backup my computer before getting the upgrade?

Technically, no. You are not required to. But the smart users will do a full system image backup before getting any Windows 10 upgrade. You want to be included among the “smart users” group, don’t you? Seriously, I cannot over-emphasize how complex a computer’s operating system is. With this upgrade, you’ll be changing out the current operating system to a whole new one – can you see where there is a potential for things to go wrong? If you have a system image backup, you can just go back to your current version with no hassle and nothing lost. For me, I do a new system image backup on my primary computer every night. So doing one before upgrading the operating system is a no-brainer.

Will I need to have a Microsoft account?

Again, this one is a “technical” no. But I think you should get one and you will probably want one anyway. Just makes everything easier, and it will also give you access to the Windows Store, where you can get all kinds of great apps for your computer. And when you have an account and sign in to it on your various devices, all of your settings and preferences are synced so you don’t have to set up each one of them individually. Just do it – go to Microsoft.com and create a new account (it’s free). Make sure you use a strong password (meaning it’s not a password you have used at any other site, and it has no pronounceable words – it should just be a random series of numbers and upper and lower case letter). Keep track of that account login information so you can use it when you need to. If you want to see the other benefits about having a Microsoft account, here’s where Microsoft talks about this.

The post Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 icon — What to do about Windows 10 Jun 08, 2015
On June 1, 2015 – about a week ago – you might have noticed something new on your computer. You would have seen this if you are using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. It’s the Windows 10 notification, encouraging you to “reserve” your free upgrade to Windows 10.

That morning, I started getting questions from lots of my clients who noticed it and wondered what to do about it, if anything. So I sent out a “special edition” email newsletter to advise this: You can ignore it for now. In fact, if you want to, you can remove it from your screen (I’ll show you how to do that later in this post).

The full release of Windows 10 is not out yet. The current planned release date is July 29, or roughly 2 months from now. So why is Microsoft sending out this notification already? They’re planning ahead, since on July 29 their servers will be slammed with people trying to get the upgrade on that day. It’s about a 3 gb download, which is significant even on a high-speed connection.

With this notification that popped up on your screen, you can choose to “reserve” your upgrade. That means that the installation file will download in the background AHEAD of the July 29 release date, and then once that date has passed you can choose to install it whenever you wish to.

My current recommendation: wait.

If you’re currently running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 the upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for an entire year – from July 29, 2015 to July 28, 2016. You can upgrade anytime during that year at no cost. It’s not yet known what the cost will be to upgrade after the free year.

It’s common knowledge that a new piece of software – particularly one as complicated as an operating system is – will have some bugs.

When Microsoft releases a new OS, let other people be the pioneers. Let their computers get the bugs, the crashes, the freeze-ups, and the subsequent updates to fix those problems. Then, after the dust has settled, maybe 6 months later, go ahead and get the Windows 10 upgrade if you want. Anyone that reads this blog, listens to my podcast, or gets my Monday email newsletter will know when I have begun to officially recommend getting the upgrade to Windows 10.

I’ve been checking out a “preview” version of Windows 10, and the early indications is that it will be very good. So most likely, at some point, I will be recommending the upgrade during that first year. But right now, we know Windows 7 works fine and is fast and stable. Even if you’re using the cumbersome and unpopular Windows 8 or 8.1, I really can’t recommend doing the upgrade right away. Let Microsoft get the kinks out of the system first.

In the meantime, what can you do with that little Windows 10 icon at the bottom of your screen?

Ignore it

Explore it

Remove it

Ignore it: Really, that icon sitting there doesn’t hurt anything. So you can leave it there if you just don’t want to mess with it right now.

Explore it: If you do one left-click on the icon, it brings up a new window. In that window you can click to reserve your upgrade (not recommended yet) or you can click on the “advance slide” link on the right to scroll through Microsoft’s little sales pitch on how great Windows 10 is going to be:

When you close that window, you will still see the icon sitting down there at the bottom of your screen. So you can click it anytime to reserve your upgrade, if you want to.

Remove it: if you just don’t want to have it there for whatever reason, you can just get rid of it. This doesn’t actually remove it from your computer; it just keeps it from showing up down there in the Notifications area. To do this:

– Right click in a blank area on the taskbar (the bar across the bottom of your screen, and in the new menu, choose “Properties”:

– In the new window, click the button that says “Customize”:

– Now look for “GWX” (it’s probably the first one in the list), and in the drop down menu choose “Hide icon and notifications”, then click OK

No doubt over the next couple of months, we will hear many times from Microsoft about all the cool new features in Windows 10 and why everyone should upgrade. And in time, you probably will upgrade. But there’s no real advantage to being first in line. Be a settler, not a pioneer.

The post What to do about Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

windows 10 — What to do about Windows 10 Jun 08, 2015
On June 1, 2015 – about a week ago – you might have noticed something new on your computer. You would have seen this if you are using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. It’s the Windows 10 notification, encouraging you to “reserve” your free upgrade to Windows 10.

That morning, I started getting questions from lots of my clients who noticed it and wondered what to do about it, if anything. So I sent out a “special edition” email newsletter to advise this: You can ignore it for now. In fact, if you want to, you can remove it from your screen (I’ll show you how to do that later in this post).

The full release of Windows 10 is not out yet. The current planned release date is July 29, or roughly 2 months from now. So why is Microsoft sending out this notification already? They’re planning ahead, since on July 29 their servers will be slammed with people trying to get the upgrade on that day. It’s about a 3 gb download, which is significant even on a high-speed connection.

With this notification that popped up on your screen, you can choose to “reserve” your upgrade. That means that the installation file will download in the background AHEAD of the July 29 release date, and then once that date has passed you can choose to install it whenever you wish to.

My current recommendation: wait.

If you’re currently running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 the upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for an entire year – from July 29, 2015 to July 28, 2016. You can upgrade anytime during that year at no cost. It’s not yet known what the cost will be to upgrade after the free year.

It’s common knowledge that a new piece of software – particularly one as complicated as an operating system is – will have some bugs.

When Microsoft releases a new OS, let other people be the pioneers. Let their computers get the bugs, the crashes, the freeze-ups, and the subsequent updates to fix those problems. Then, after the dust has settled, maybe 6 months later, go ahead and get the Windows 10 upgrade if you want. Anyone that reads this blog, listens to my podcast, or gets my Monday email newsletter will know when I have begun to officially recommend getting the upgrade to Windows 10.

I’ve been checking out a “preview” version of Windows 10, and the early indications is that it will be very good. So most likely, at some point, I will be recommending the upgrade during that first year. But right now, we know Windows 7 works fine and is fast and stable. Even if you’re using the cumbersome and unpopular Windows 8 or 8.1, I really can’t recommend doing the upgrade right away. Let Microsoft get the kinks out of the system first.

In the meantime, what can you do with that little Windows 10 icon at the bottom of your screen?

Ignore it

Explore it

Remove it

Ignore it: Really, that icon sitting there doesn’t hurt anything. So you can leave it there if you just don’t want to mess with it right now.

Explore it: If you do one left-click on the icon, it brings up a new window. In that window you can click to reserve your upgrade (not recommended yet) or you can click on the “advance slide” link on the right to scroll through Microsoft’s little sales pitch on how great Windows 10 is going to be:

When you close that window, you will still see the icon sitting down there at the bottom of your screen. So you can click it anytime to reserve your upgrade, if you want to.

Remove it: if you just don’t want to have it there for whatever reason, you can just get rid of it. This doesn’t actually remove it from your computer; it just keeps it from showing up down there in the Notifications area. To do this:

– Right click in a blank area on the taskbar (the bar across the bottom of your screen, and in the new menu, choose “Properties”:

– In the new window, click the button that says “Customize”:

– Now look for “GWX” (it’s probably the first one in the list), and in the drop down menu choose “Hide icon and notifications”, then click OK

No doubt over the next couple of months, we will hear many times from Microsoft about all the cool new features in Windows 10 and why everyone should upgrade. And in time, you probably will upgrade. But there’s no real advantage to being first in line. Be a settler, not a pioneer.

The post What to do about Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

vacation photos — The safest way to never lose your important vacation pictures Jun 01, 2015
Summer is almost here, time to do some traveling! When you’re on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, and taking hundreds (or thousands) of pictures, one of the worst things that could happen is for you to lose those pictures. How could this happen, and how can this be prevented?

Here are a few ways this could happen:

You drop your digital camera in the water.

Your camera gets stolen.

Your camera gets left behind in the hotel room and the staff checks and can’t find it.

Your camera’s memory card gets corrupted.

You accidentally delete the pictures you intended to save.

Of course there are other bad things that can happen to electronics while traveling, but you get the idea. A lot can happen, and the risk of loss is pretty high since these photographs are essentially irreplaceable.

But there’s a simple process you can use that will virtually guarantee the safety of your pictures.

First, you will need a few things:

1. A memory card for each day of your actual vacation. 10 day vacation, 8 memory cards (assuming the first and last days are spent in transit). If you use SD cards that are 8 GB in size, and your pictures are 10 mb each or less, that means you can take 800 pictures each day. Cost of 8 of these memory cards: around $50.

2. A laptop computer. I’m going to assume you already own one.

3. A portable USB drive. If you don’t already have one, this is something you can use at home even after you are done traveling. These are about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and the only cable is the one that plugs into the USB port of your laptop. If you get a 1 TB drive, that will provide more than enough storage space. Cost: about $55.

Here’s the strategy you use for taking pictures each day:

1. Spend the day having fun and taking as many pictures as you want.

2. At the end of the day, connect your camera to your laptop and COPY the pictures to a folder named “Day 1”. It’s important that you do not move the pictures, you just want to copy them. Now the pictures are still on the memory card in your camera, and they are also on your laptop. You would do the same thing the next day, using a folder called “Day 2”.

3. After you have copied the pictures to the “daily” folder on the laptop, connect the USB portable drive to your computer and copy the folder of pictures from the laptop to the portable drive. Then disconnect the portable drive and put it back in your suitcase or in the hotel room safe. At this point your pictures for that day are in 3 places: the memory card, your laptop, and the portable drive.

4. Take the memory card out of your camera and put it in a safe place, such as a small envelope inside a purse. Then put the next day’s memory card in the camera and you’re ready to get started the next morning, capturing a bunch of new memories for that day.

As you read through the steps detailed above, it might seem like this is a big hassle and too inconvenient. But in reality, it just takes a few minutes at the end of the day and after a couple of days it will be such an easy routine you won’t even think about it being a bother.

So if you accidentally leave your camera behind and never see it again, who cares. You have the pictures on your laptop and external drive.

If you lose your camera AND drop your laptop in the ocean, you still have the pictures on your external drive.

If you lose your camera, AND your laptop, AND your external drive, you still have all the originals on the individual memory cards.

That might seem like overkill or paranoia, but consider the alternative. You just get a 64 gb camera memory card and take a few hundred pictures each day, just adding them to that same card continually. This means all of your 800 pictures are all on that one card, in that one device. You take one last picture on the airplane flight as you head home, and stick the camera in the seatback pouch in front of you. As you are driving home from the airport, you remember it – but it’s never found. That’s when you would wish you had been a little more “paranoid”.

This is all based on the assumption that you are using a digital camera to take all these pictures. If you use your phone, you could actually use the same process and just pop a different memory card in your phone each day. But you can also set up a process so that whenever you take a picture on your phone, it’s automatically uploaded to Dropbox or Google Drive or some other online storage service. But uploading to the cloud assumes you have internet access, which may not be the case depending on how remote your vacation destination is.

The post The safest way to never lose your important vacation pictures first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

vacation photos — The safest way to never lose your important vacation pictures Jun 01, 2015
Summer is almost here, time to do some traveling! When you’re on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, and taking hundreds (or thousands) of pictures, one of the worst things that could happen is for you to lose those pictures. How could this happen, and how can this be prevented?

Here are a few ways this could happen:

You drop your digital camera in the water.

Your camera gets stolen.

Your camera gets left behind in the hotel room and the staff checks and can’t find it.

Your camera’s memory card gets corrupted.

You accidentally delete the pictures you intended to save.

Of course there are other bad things that can happen to electronics while traveling, but you get the idea. A lot can happen, and the risk of loss is pretty high since these photographs are essentially irreplaceable.

But there’s a simple process you can use that will virtually guarantee the safety of your pictures.

First, you will need a few things:

1. A memory card for each day of your actual vacation. 10 day vacation, 8 memory cards (assuming the first and last days are spent in transit). If you use SD cards that are 8 GB in size, and your pictures are 10 mb each or less, that means you can take 800 pictures each day. Cost of 8 of these memory cards: around $50.

2. A laptop computer. I’m going to assume you already own one.

3. A portable USB drive. If you don’t already have one, this is something you can use at home even after you are done traveling. These are about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and the only cable is the one that plugs into the USB port of your laptop. If you get a 1 TB drive, that will provide more than enough storage space. Cost: about $55.

Here’s the strategy you use for taking pictures each day:

1. Spend the day having fun and taking as many pictures as you want.

2. At the end of the day, connect your camera to your laptop and COPY the pictures to a folder named “Day 1”. It’s important that you do not move the pictures, you just want to copy them. Now the pictures are still on the memory card in your camera, and they are also on your laptop. You would do the same thing the next day, using a folder called “Day 2”.

3. After you have copied the pictures to the “daily” folder on the laptop, connect the USB portable drive to your computer and copy the folder of pictures from the laptop to the portable drive. Then disconnect the portable drive and put it back in your suitcase or in the hotel room safe. At this point your pictures for that day are in 3 places: the memory card, your laptop, and the portable drive.

4. Take the memory card out of your camera and put it in a safe place, such as a small envelope inside a purse. Then put the next day’s memory card in the camera and you’re ready to get started the next morning, capturing a bunch of new memories for that day.

As you read through the steps detailed above, it might seem like this is a big hassle and too inconvenient. But in reality, it just takes a few minutes at the end of the day and after a couple of days it will be such an easy routine you won’t even think about it being a bother.

So if you accidentally leave your camera behind and never see it again, who cares. You have the pictures on your laptop and external drive.

If you lose your camera AND drop your laptop in the ocean, you still have the pictures on your external drive.

If you lose your camera, AND your laptop, AND your external drive, you still have all the originals on the individual memory cards.

That might seem like overkill or paranoia, but consider the alternative. You just get a 64 gb camera memory card and take a few hundred pictures each day, just adding them to that same card continually. This means all of your 800 pictures are all on that one card, in that one device. You take one last picture on the airplane flight as you head home, and stick the camera in the seatback pouch in front of you. As you are driving home from the airport, you remember it – but it’s never found. That’s when you would wish you had been a little more “paranoid”.

This is all based on the assumption that you are using a digital camera to take all these pictures. If you use your phone, you could actually use the same process and just pop a different memory card in your phone each day. But you can also set up a process so that whenever you take a picture on your phone, it’s automatically uploaded to Dropbox or Google Drive or some other online storage service. But uploading to the cloud assumes you have internet access, which may not be the case depending on how remote your vacation destination is.

The post The safest way to never lose your important vacation pictures first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Craigslist notification — Your unfair advantage over lots of other Craigslist shoppers May 25, 2015
In the past I’ve written about third-party services that will alert you to new Craigslist postings. One of the ones I have used over the years is Blogtrottr, and I have definitely gotten some good deals as a result. But now there’s an even better way – getting new ad alerts directly from Craigslist.

What’s the value in this? Let’s talk about an example situation.

In our example, I’m looking to buy a used car. I want to get a Honda Civic. My requirements are:

model year must be 2009 or newer

no more than 50,000 miles

I only want to see ads that include pictures of the car

automatic transmission

I only want to look at cars that are priced $11,000 or less

So I go to my local Craigslist site at Craigslist.org, and I do a search based on those preferences. In that search, 5 cars come up. I call about a couple of them but don’t end up buying any of them.

Of course, people are listing cars for sale all the time on Craigslist. Sometimes they are overpriced because the owner thinks it’s worth more than it really is. But some are actually amazing bargains. Of course, it’s the bargains that you are really looking for.

But the key to getting a bargain on Craigslist is being the first (or one of the first) to see that ad. There are LOTS of people shopping on Craigslist for a good deal on a car. If someone posts their car for sale at a really good price, chances are someone looking for a car is going to just happen to search Craigslist a short time after the ad is posted, and go buy that car. They found it just because they were lucky enough to be searching right after the ad was listed, so hardly anyone else had a chance to even see that ad.

But if you check Craigslist each day at 8 am and 5 pm, what if the hugely-discounted car for sale gets listed at 9 am? That means it’s going to sit there all day, with tons of other people looking at it, before you even do your next check at 5 pm. That car would likely already be sold by then.

So you could just save that Craigslist search on your smartphone and keep checking it throughout the day, but your employer might not be too happy with that. Not to mention that it’s kind of a pain.

That’s why there have been some services that have popped up, to notify you about new Craigslist ads. That way you don’t have to keep checking it all the time. You just get an email when a new ad gets posted that meets your criteria. As I said, I have used Blogtrottr for a while. It was okay, but not perfect. The emails they send have third-party advertisements, and I can’t really fault them for that since they have to make money somehow.

But the real problem with Blogtrottr and others is the fact that it’s not really an “immediate” notification. Sometimes I would get an email and check the ad on Craigslist and see that it actually got posted several hours earlier. In some cases I didn’t get the email alert until the next day. That kind of defeats the purpose if you’re trying to know about a new listing right away in order to get there before anyone else can.

Well, I don’t use Blogtrottr any more, because Craigslist now offers this alert service directly. And of course it’s free.

Of course, I wanted to be sure that the notifications were immediate, so I checked it by creating a “test” alert request. Then I posted an ad on Craigslist that matched that alert. Within a few minutes, I was sent an email telling me about that new posting. Bingo!

One of the keys to this strategy is to make your search as specific as possible, based on as many criteria as you wish. In fact, it’s even better if you create multiple detailed searches and save them in your Craigslist account, and get an alert for each one. With a specific search like that, a bargain that matches that search might not show up in Craigslist very often – but when it does, you’ll be the first to know about it!

To set up an email alert, first you have to create the search and see the results of that search on your screen. Then look for the link at the top that says “email alert”:

That will show you your list of saved searches, and you can toggle the email alert on or off if you want. You can always see all of your saved searches by clicking on the “Searches” tab when you’re logged in to your Craigslist account:

As far as I know, there is no limit to the number of searches and alerts you can save in your Craigslist account.

For those people that are sort of “entrepreneurial” by nature, this alert service could present an opportunity to make some money. Do you have some type of specialized knowledge in a particular area? If you know about certain specialty items and their value, you could use that to your advantage. You could set up an alert for a particular item that you know is worth $500. But you only get notified if someone posts one of that item for sale for $300. So you go and buy it for $300, then sell it on Craigslist to someone else for $400. The person that bought it from you is still getting a bargain price, and you make $100. Sure, you might not be notified very often for something so underpriced, but when it happens you can take action. And it actually might surprise you how often things are posted on Craigslist at prices much lower than their real value.

The post Your unfair advantage over lots of other Craigslist shoppers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Craigslist cars — Your unfair advantage over lots of other Craigslist shoppers May 25, 2015
In the past I’ve written about third-party services that will alert you to new Craigslist postings. One of the ones I have used over the years is Blogtrottr, and I have definitely gotten some good deals as a result. But now there’s an even better way – getting new ad alerts directly from Craigslist.

What’s the value in this? Let’s talk about an example situation.

In our example, I’m looking to buy a used car. I want to get a Honda Civic. My requirements are:

model year must be 2009 or newer

no more than 50,000 miles

I only want to see ads that include pictures of the car

automatic transmission

I only want to look at cars that are priced $11,000 or less

So I go to my local Craigslist site at Craigslist.org, and I do a search based on those preferences. In that search, 5 cars come up. I call about a couple of them but don’t end up buying any of them.

Of course, people are listing cars for sale all the time on Craigslist. Sometimes they are overpriced because the owner thinks it’s worth more than it really is. But some are actually amazing bargains. Of course, it’s the bargains that you are really looking for.

But the key to getting a bargain on Craigslist is being the first (or one of the first) to see that ad. There are LOTS of people shopping on Craigslist for a good deal on a car. If someone posts their car for sale at a really good price, chances are someone looking for a car is going to just happen to search Craigslist a short time after the ad is posted, and go buy that car. They found it just because they were lucky enough to be searching right after the ad was listed, so hardly anyone else had a chance to even see that ad.

But if you check Craigslist each day at 8 am and 5 pm, what if the hugely-discounted car for sale gets listed at 9 am? That means it’s going to sit there all day, with tons of other people looking at it, before you even do your next check at 5 pm. That car would likely already be sold by then.

So you could just save that Craigslist search on your smartphone and keep checking it throughout the day, but your employer might not be too happy with that. Not to mention that it’s kind of a pain.

That’s why there have been some services that have popped up, to notify you about new Craigslist ads. That way you don’t have to keep checking it all the time. You just get an email when a new ad gets posted that meets your criteria. As I said, I have used Blogtrottr for a while. It was okay, but not perfect. The emails they send have third-party advertisements, and I can’t really fault them for that since they have to make money somehow.

But the real problem with Blogtrottr and others is the fact that it’s not really an “immediate” notification. Sometimes I would get an email and check the ad on Craigslist and see that it actually got posted several hours earlier. In some cases I didn’t get the email alert until the next day. That kind of defeats the purpose if you’re trying to know about a new listing right away in order to get there before anyone else can.

Well, I don’t use Blogtrottr any more, because Craigslist now offers this alert service directly. And of course it’s free.

Of course, I wanted to be sure that the notifications were immediate, so I checked it by creating a “test” alert request. Then I posted an ad on Craigslist that matched that alert. Within a few minutes, I was sent an email telling me about that new posting. Bingo!

One of the keys to this strategy is to make your search as specific as possible, based on as many criteria as you wish. In fact, it’s even better if you create multiple detailed searches and save them in your Craigslist account, and get an alert for each one. With a specific search like that, a bargain that matches that search might not show up in Craigslist very often – but when it does, you’ll be the first to know about it!

To set up an email alert, first you have to create the search and see the results of that search on your screen. Then look for the link at the top that says “email alert”:

That will show you your list of saved searches, and you can toggle the email alert on or off if you want. You can always see all of your saved searches by clicking on the “Searches” tab when you’re logged in to your Craigslist account:

As far as I know, there is no limit to the number of searches and alerts you can save in your Craigslist account.

For those people that are sort of “entrepreneurial” by nature, this alert service could present an opportunity to make some money. Do you have some type of specialized knowledge in a particular area? If you know about certain specialty items and their value, you could use that to your advantage. You could set up an alert for a particular item that you know is worth $500. But you only get notified if someone posts one of that item for sale for $300. So you go and buy it for $300, then sell it on Craigslist to someone else for $400. The person that bought it from you is still getting a bargain price, and you make $100. Sure, you might not be notified very often for something so underpriced, but when it happens you can take action. And it actually might surprise you how often things are posted on Craigslist at prices much lower than their real value.

The post Your unfair advantage over lots of other Craigslist shoppers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

start screen — How to get Windows 8.1 to start up in the Desktop view May 18, 2015
There’s one thing that is widely hated by Windows 8 users everywhere – the Windows 8.1 Start Screen. I usually refer to it as the App Screen, since that’s what it’s filled with – each tile represents an app. Microsoft originally called it “Metro” but changed later to just “Start Screen”. And there are some people that refer to it out of frustration, using words that, in the interest of good taste, I won’t repeat here in my blog.

I think most people dislike it for a couple of primary reasons:

They’re not used to it, so using it is not really “intuitive”

It keeps showing up when they aren’t expecting it and they don’t want to see it

The Start screen is part of Windows 8.1, but you don’t have to use it. The problem is, with a lot of the Windows 8.1 computers I work on, I see that when the computer first boots up, it goes directly to that Start screen. Then you have to find the “Desktop” app to click on and get back to the more familiar environment of the Windows Desktop.

It would be much more convenient if the computer just booted up directly to the Desktop screen, right?

If that’s what you prefer (as most people do), you can set it to do that. After all, your computer is not the boss, you’re the boss! The computer has to do what you tell it to do! You just have to know how to tell it. Here’s what you do:

1. The taskbar is the bar that runs along the bottom edge of the screen. In an open area on that bar, do a RIGHT click and in the new menu that comes up, choose “Properties”.

2. In the new window that comes up, click on the “Navigation” tab.

3. Checkmark the box that says “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in”:

4. Click OK. That’s it!

Now, whenever you sign in to your Windows 8.1 computer, it will just go straight to the desktop view – no more Start Screen. Of course, if for some reason you wanted to see the Start Screen again with all the apps, you can get there – just move the cursor to the top right corner of the screen, then in the “Charms bar” that slides out from the right, you can choose the Start screen icon from there.

One thing to note – the procedure described above will only work if you have the Windows 8.1 update. If your computer is still running just Windows 8, the procedure is different and a little more complicated. But you need to get the 8.1 update anyway, so just do that.

The post How to get Windows 8.1 to start up in the Desktop view first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Start Screen — How to get Windows 8.1 to start up in the Desktop view May 18, 2015
There’s one thing that is widely hated by Windows 8 users everywhere – the Windows 8.1 Start Screen. I usually refer to it as the App Screen, since that’s what it’s filled with – each tile represents an app. Microsoft originally called it “Metro” but changed later to just “Start Screen”. And there are some people that refer to it out of frustration, using words that, in the interest of good taste, I won’t repeat here in my blog.

I think most people dislike it for a couple of primary reasons:

They’re not used to it, so using it is not really “intuitive”

It keeps showing up when they aren’t expecting it and they don’t want to see it

The Start screen is part of Windows 8.1, but you don’t have to use it. The problem is, with a lot of the Windows 8.1 computers I work on, I see that when the computer first boots up, it goes directly to that Start screen. Then you have to find the “Desktop” app to click on and get back to the more familiar environment of the Windows Desktop.

It would be much more convenient if the computer just booted up directly to the Desktop screen, right?

If that’s what you prefer (as most people do), you can set it to do that. After all, your computer is not the boss, you’re the boss! The computer has to do what you tell it to do! You just have to know how to tell it. Here’s what you do:

1. The taskbar is the bar that runs along the bottom edge of the screen. In an open area on that bar, do a RIGHT click and in the new menu that comes up, choose “Properties”.

2. In the new window that comes up, click on the “Navigation” tab.

3. Checkmark the box that says “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in”:

4. Click OK. That’s it!

Now, whenever you sign in to your Windows 8.1 computer, it will just go straight to the desktop view – no more Start Screen. Of course, if for some reason you wanted to see the Start Screen again with all the apps, you can get there – just move the cursor to the top right corner of the screen, then in the “Charms bar” that slides out from the right, you can choose the Start screen icon from there.

One thing to note – the procedure described above will only work if you have the Windows 8.1 update. If your computer is still running just Windows 8, the procedure is different and a little more complicated. But you need to get the 8.1 update anyway, so just do that.

The post How to get Windows 8.1 to start up in the Desktop view first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

what3words — Every location on earth now has a simple, 3-word address May 11, 2015
I think right now is the best time ever to be alive, because we are seeing so many amazing innovations in lots of different areas. I’ve just recently learned of something that I believe will change the way we think about location and mapping around the world. It’s called What3Words.

What3Words.com is where you can get the app, and you can play with the mapping concept it’s based on, right there on the website at what3words.com.

This innovative idea solves a big problem. The problem is trying to describe to someone where you are. This can be a problem in a variety of situations:

– You’re at the state fair. This is an event that covers hundreds of acres because there’s a lot there – all the animals, the midway with all the games, the entertainment area, the rides, the huge fields that are used for parking. Your wife might want to go and browse the 4H vegetable growing competition, and you want to take the kids to see the pig races. An hour later you are trying to find each other. You might be able to describe nearby landmarks, but it can be difficult to walk straight from where you are to where she is since the place she is standing doesn’t have an actual “address”.

– You’re in your car, driving on a long, desolate country road. Suddenly you have a flat tire, and you discover that your spare is also flat. You can call AAA to come out and change your tire, but you’re not even sure of the name of the road you’re on, much less what the address would be. How do you tell them where to come?

– You’re visiting your friend in Australia for a week. You go out for a walk, and end up walking farther than you originally planned, and now you’re out in the middle of nowhere without a sense of which direction to go. You could call or text message your friend to come and get you, but the only “landmarks” to describe are trees. How can your friend find easily find you?

What3Words has solved this problem. They have divided the entire planet into little 3 meter by 3 meter squares – 57 trillion of them in fact. And every one of those squares is designated by a unique set of just 3 words.

This is so much better than the “system” we have now:

– It’s more accurate. More specific.

– It’s universal worldwide. Currently, each country has its own system for addresses. You might know the system for the country where you live (for example, I know that each town in the US has its own 5-digit ZIP code) but if you travel somewhere else, such as Canada, that’s all different (I have no idea how the postal codes in Canada designate locations). And in third-world or developing countries they might not even have a workable system for every location. But they do now – every 3m by 3m square has an address.

– It’s MUCH easier to remember. It doesn’t even compare. For example, there’s a nearby hair salon with this mailing address: Hair Cuttery, Bayside Bridge Shopping Plaza, 1500 North McMullen-Booth Rd, Suite A15, Clearwater, Florida 33759. Instead of that long address, you could instead use these three words: weep.hilltop.myth. That would take you right to the front door of that business, and that location is the only location in the WORLD that has that 3-word address.

Of course you can pinpoint a location somewhere in the world with latitude and longitude coordinates, but words are much easier to remember.

All of the 3-word addresses for the entire world fits into an app small enough to run on your smart phone. So wherever you happen to be, it can figure out which 3-word address you’re in so that you can communicate that to AAA, your spouse, or your friend in Australia. And it even works offline, so you don’t need a data connection in order to use it.

The way this will change things is astounding. From the website:

They have also made this explanatory video that gives a good overview:

https://youtu.be/EW2PuGwYmjY

The post Every location on earth now has a simple, 3-word address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

what3words — Every location on earth now has a simple, 3-word address May 11, 2015
I think right now is the best time ever to be alive, because we are seeing so many amazing innovations in lots of different areas. I’ve just recently learned of something that I believe will change the way we think about location and mapping around the world. It’s called What3Words.

What3Words.com is where you can get the app, and you can play with the mapping concept it’s based on, right there on the website at what3words.com.

This innovative idea solves a big problem. The problem is trying to describe to someone where you are. This can be a problem in a variety of situations:

– You’re at the state fair. This is an event that covers hundreds of acres because there’s a lot there – all the animals, the midway with all the games, the entertainment area, the rides, the huge fields that are used for parking. Your wife might want to go and browse the 4H vegetable growing competition, and you want to take the kids to see the pig races. An hour later you are trying to find each other. You might be able to describe nearby landmarks, but it can be difficult to walk straight from where you are to where she is since the place she is standing doesn’t have an actual “address”.

– You’re in your car, driving on a long, desolate country road. Suddenly you have a flat tire, and you discover that your spare is also flat. You can call AAA to come out and change your tire, but you’re not even sure of the name of the road you’re on, much less what the address would be. How do you tell them where to come?

– You’re visiting your friend in Australia for a week. You go out for a walk, and end up walking farther than you originally planned, and now you’re out in the middle of nowhere without a sense of which direction to go. You could call or text message your friend to come and get you, but the only “landmarks” to describe are trees. How can your friend find easily find you?

What3Words has solved this problem. They have divided the entire planet into little 3 meter by 3 meter squares – 57 trillion of them in fact. And every one of those squares is designated by a unique set of just 3 words.

This is so much better than the “system” we have now:

– It’s more accurate. More specific.

– It’s universal worldwide. Currently, each country has its own system for addresses. You might know the system for the country where you live (for example, I know that each town in the US has its own 5-digit ZIP code) but if you travel somewhere else, such as Canada, that’s all different (I have no idea how the postal codes in Canada designate locations). And in third-world or developing countries they might not even have a workable system for every location. But they do now – every 3m by 3m square has an address.

– It’s MUCH easier to remember. It doesn’t even compare. For example, there’s a nearby hair salon with this mailing address: Hair Cuttery, Bayside Bridge Shopping Plaza, 1500 North McMullen-Booth Rd, Suite A15, Clearwater, Florida 33759. Instead of that long address, you could instead use these three words: weep.hilltop.myth. That would take you right to the front door of that business, and that location is the only location in the WORLD that has that 3-word address.

Of course you can pinpoint a location somewhere in the world with latitude and longitude coordinates, but words are much easier to remember.

All of the 3-word addresses for the entire world fits into an app small enough to run on your smart phone. So wherever you happen to be, it can figure out which 3-word address you’re in so that you can communicate that to AAA, your spouse, or your friend in Australia. And it even works offline, so you don’t need a data connection in order to use it.

The way this will change things is astounding. From the website:

They have also made this explanatory video that gives a good overview:

https://youtu.be/EW2PuGwYmjY

The post Every location on earth now has a simple, 3-word address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Drive — The easy way to email a huge file May 04, 2015
What would you do if you had a large file on your computer, and you needed to send it to someone by email? For example, you used your phone to take a video of your dog doing some tricks, and you want to email it to your friend who lives 500 miles away? To send an email by regular attachment, most email services have a strict limit on file size – and most video files are fairly big. But thanks to Google, there’s an easy way to do that now. You can use Google Drive.

For this example, I’m going to use my Gmail account. Google owns Gmail, and Google obviously owns Google Drive, so they all work together perfectly.

Google Drive is basically just data storage space that Google gives you as part of your Google account. You get 15 gb total, which is quite a bit of space. Keep in mind, however, that this 15 gb is used for your Gmail account (including any attachments such as pictures), Google Docs, Google Pictures and your Google Drive general storage. But to put things in perspective – I have had my Google account since Gmail first became available back in 2004, and I archive most of my emails. And even now after 11 years, I am using less than half of the 15 gb of space I am allowed.

And if for some reason you need more space, Google sells it cheap:

15 gb is already free with your account

100 gb is $1.99 per month

1 tb (1000 gb) is $9.99 per month

So the first step is to get your Google/Gmail account if you don’t already have one. If you want to, you can install Google Drive on your computer (you can get that free at drive.google.com). That just makes it easier if you want to put files or folders there on a regular basis, but having it on your computer is not necessary for sending a large file by email.

If you already have the large file stored in Google Drive, that’s fine. But for this example, we’ll assume you just have the file stored on your computer and not yet in Google Drive.

Here’s how you email the large file:

1. Go to gmail.com and log in to your email account.

2. Click on “Compose” in the top left, to create a new email. Put in your friend’s email address and the subject line, and any text you want to include in the message area.

3. Now you need to attach the video. Look in the bottom row, and you’ll see the Google Drive icon:

4. Click on the icon. That opens a new window, and one of the options is “Upload”.

5. When you click “Upload”, a new window opens. You want to click on “Select files from your computer”.

6. Now you need to find the dog tricks video, wherever that is stored on your computer. When you find it, double click on that file.

7. Now you will see your video file is listed as the file that will be inserted. It even shows the file size (in this case, 65 mb). If this is showing correctly, click the “upload” button at the bottom of the screen.

8. You will see the progress bar as the file uploads:

9. When it’s done (usually pretty quickly, depending on the file size) you should be back to your email “Compose” window with the file listed. If you want to, you can click to attach another file. When you are done adding files to this email, just click the “Send” button:

10. Since you just now uploaded that video file, you might get a window that comes up telling you that this particular file is not currently “Shared” with the person you are sending it to. That’s no problem. Just click “Share and send”:

And that’s it! Usually within a few minutes it will be waiting for your friend to check email and find it in their inbox, waiting to read.

But here’s the great thing – since it wasn’t actually sent as a traditional “attachment”, your friend doesn’t have to wait for it to load in his email inbox. All he sees is a link to click on. When he clicks that link, he will see your video, in your Google Drive folder. He can watch the video, or he can save it to his computer if he wants to.

So even though Gmail limits file attachments to 25 mb or smaller, you just sent your friend a 65 mb video file. And by using this method (sending via Google Drive) you can send up to TEN GIGABYTES of files (that’s 10,000 mb)! You might not need to do that, but it’s nice to know that you can if you run into that situation.

There are definitely other methods for transferring large files from one computer to another one over the internet. You can use Dropbox and share a file. You could upload the video to YouTube, and then send your friend the link to it. Using Google Drive is just one option, but it’s a very simple one. And simple is usually good.

The post The easy way to email a huge file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google drive — The easy way to email a huge file May 04, 2015
What would you do if you had a large file on your computer, and you needed to send it to someone by email? For example, you used your phone to take a video of your dog doing some tricks, and you want to email it to your friend who lives 500 miles away? To send an email by regular attachment, most email services have a strict limit on file size – and most video files are fairly big. But thanks to Google, there’s an easy way to do that now. You can use Google Drive.

For this example, I’m going to use my Gmail account. Google owns Gmail, and Google obviously owns Google Drive, so they all work together perfectly.

Google Drive is basically just data storage space that Google gives you as part of your Google account. You get 15 gb total, which is quite a bit of space. Keep in mind, however, that this 15 gb is used for your Gmail account (including any attachments such as pictures), Google Docs, Google Pictures and your Google Drive general storage. But to put things in perspective – I have had my Google account since Gmail first became available back in 2004, and I archive most of my emails. And even now after 11 years, I am using less than half of the 15 gb of space I am allowed.

And if for some reason you need more space, Google sells it cheap:

15 gb is already free with your account

100 gb is $1.99 per month

1 tb (1000 gb) is $9.99 per month

So the first step is to get your Google/Gmail account if you don’t already have one. If you want to, you can install Google Drive on your computer (you can get that free at drive.google.com). That just makes it easier if you want to put files or folders there on a regular basis, but having it on your computer is not necessary for sending a large file by email.

If you already have the large file stored in Google Drive, that’s fine. But for this example, we’ll assume you just have the file stored on your computer and not yet in Google Drive.

Here’s how you email the large file:

1. Go to gmail.com and log in to your email account.

2. Click on “Compose” in the top left, to create a new email. Put in your friend’s email address and the subject line, and any text you want to include in the message area.

3. Now you need to attach the video. Look in the bottom row, and you’ll see the Google Drive icon:

4. Click on the icon. That opens a new window, and one of the options is “Upload”.

5. When you click “Upload”, a new window opens. You want to click on “Select files from your computer”.

6. Now you need to find the dog tricks video, wherever that is stored on your computer. When you find it, double click on that file.

7. Now you will see your video file is listed as the file that will be inserted. It even shows the file size (in this case, 65 mb). If this is showing correctly, click the “upload” button at the bottom of the screen.

8. You will see the progress bar as the file uploads:

9. When it’s done (usually pretty quickly, depending on the file size) you should be back to your email “Compose” window with the file listed. If you want to, you can click to attach another file. When you are done adding files to this email, just click the “Send” button:

10. Since you just now uploaded that video file, you might get a window that comes up telling you that this particular file is not currently “Shared” with the person you are sending it to. That’s no problem. Just click “Share and send”:

And that’s it! Usually within a few minutes it will be waiting for your friend to check email and find it in their inbox, waiting to read.

But here’s the great thing – since it wasn’t actually sent as a traditional “attachment”, your friend doesn’t have to wait for it to load in his email inbox. All he sees is a link to click on. When he clicks that link, he will see your video, in your Google Drive folder. He can watch the video, or he can save it to his computer if he wants to.

So even though Gmail limits file attachments to 25 mb or smaller, you just sent your friend a 65 mb video file. And by using this method (sending via Google Drive) you can send up to TEN GIGABYTES of files (that’s 10,000 mb)! You might not need to do that, but it’s nice to know that you can if you run into that situation.

There are definitely other methods for transferring large files from one computer to another one over the internet. You can use Dropbox and share a file. You could upload the video to YouTube, and then send your friend the link to it. Using Google Drive is just one option, but it’s a very simple one. And simple is usually good.

The post The easy way to email a huge file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

handy services — I discovered 2 handy services in one place Apr 27, 2015
Many of the things I cover here on my blog and on my podcast are products or services that I discover just in my routine daily work. Recently I came across a couple of handy things – one is an online service, the other is a product that’s sold online – and I know that a lot of people will find one or both of these useful.

I was recently involved in a transaction with a client out of state, and part of the process was that the client needed to send me some money via Paypal. I know there are a few people that don’t like Paypal, but I use them all the time and so far have not had any problems.

When someone pays you money through Paypal, Paypal takes a small percentage of the amount. That’s how they make their money. But in this case, I needed for the NET amount to be a certain dollar figure, so the client had to add on the amount of the Paypal fees to what he sent so that I would actually receive the right dollar amount.

That meant we needed to figure out what Paypal would charge for their fees. I know as a rough figure Paypal is usually around 5%, but that percentage gets adjusted based on the amount being sent. So I didn’t know exactly what percentage we would have deducted. And if you go on Paypal’s website, it’s not the easiest thing to find (although I know they do publish the information somewhere). I also could have called them, but going through the phone menu with a big company can sometimes be a hassle.

So I found an easier way – the online Paypal Fee Calculator. You can try it out at TheFeeCalculator.com.

To use it, the process really couldn’t be any simpler. Right there on the front page is the place for you to enter the dollar amount of the transaction. For example, if my client is going to send me $475.00 through Paypal, and I want to know how much Paypal is going to deduct for their fees:

You enter the amount, and hit “Calculate” and it immediately gives you this answer (with a little bit of editorializing):

In most cases that’s what you need to know, what amount you will net. But there’s another little bit of information that is also processed. If you know the amount that you NEED to net, what is the amount that the sender needs to send? That calculation is also offered on the same page:

The site is run by a guy named Derek. He tells about how it came about back in 2005:

So now, whenever I need to calculate a Paypal fee, I know where I can go to get it quickly and easily.

But while I was on the site, I noticed what appeared to be an advertisement, right below the place where you enter the dollar amount:

It’s talking about nametags, like the ones that people wear when they work in a service business. Normally I don’t even notice ads such as that, much less click on them. But for some reason I clicked on this one.

I do wear a name tag. It has my company logo and my name on it. There’s no real requirement for it, but there are some benefits. When I’m doing on onsite appointment in a client’s home (or business), and it’s the first time they have met with me, a name tag with the company logo adds a degree of credibility. And actually I even wear it when I’m working at home, because sometimes first-time clients drop off their computer at my home office.

And in addition to the credibility factor, if I happen to stop in a store to pick something up, or I stop to fill up with gas, there have been several instances where people notice the name tag and comment on it. When they see “The Computer Tutor” the most common remark is “Boy, I sure need someone like YOU!” and in a few cases it has resulted in a new client.

So I do definitely find value in wearing my name tag. But I’ve had this one for a few years, so it’s starting to look a little worn. The colors are fading a bit and it’s just not as sharp as it once was.

When I clicked on the text link advertisement, it took me to a different website – Nametag Ninja (NametagNinja.com).

What caught my eye were the 3 main features displayed on the first page:

Free shipping

No setup fees

24 hour turnaround

At that point I knew that as long as the prices were reasonable, I was going to order a new nametag. When I checked into the pricing options, I saw that a new nametag was only going to cost me $8. I don’t remember what I paid for my current one but I know it was more than that, and that was from a local business that took a week to get it done.

Here’s the interesting part. In placing my order, there was a problem with the online ordering process. I was trying to customize the nametag to a particular size, and to have a magnetic attachment rather than a pin. But it wasn’t showing up that way in the final order. So before I completed the process, I sent an email to inquire about how to get this resolved.

Almost immediately I got a response back from a man named Derek, who said he was unaware of the problem but would look into it. In the meantime, he said I could just email him my requested order and he could manually invoice me, so that my order would not be delayed by the website order issue.

This is why I like dealing with small, “mom and pop” businesses.
Can you imagine getting this kind of personal service from Vistaprint?

I was planning to do the order via email the next day, but before I could even do that, Derek emailed me again to advise that the website problem had been fixed so I could order the regular way. He was also appreciative that I had let him know about the problem so that he could get it fixed.

In my communication with Derek, I came to find out that he is actually the one that created the Paypal Fees Calculator website as well. For the record, he did not ask me for this blog post or recommendation, and I don’t get any commission for sending him new customers. I did this because it’s unfortunately kind of unusual to come across a service that is reasonably priced and provides excellent attention to the customer. So when I find something like that, I like to pass it along. I know that a lot of my blog readers and podcast listeners either own a service business (like I do) or work for one, so this is a good source for employee name tags.

If you end up ordering some name tags from the site, tell Derek you heard about it here.

The post I discovered 2 handy services in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Paypal fees calculator — I discovered 2 handy services in one place Apr 27, 2015
Many of the things I cover here on my blog and on my podcast are products or services that I discover just in my routine daily work. Recently I came across a couple of handy things – one is an online service, the other is a product that’s sold online – and I know that a lot of people will find one or both of these useful.

I was recently involved in a transaction with a client out of state, and part of the process was that the client needed to send me some money via Paypal. I know there are a few people that don’t like Paypal, but I use them all the time and so far have not had any problems.

When someone pays you money through Paypal, Paypal takes a small percentage of the amount. That’s how they make their money. But in this case, I needed for the NET amount to be a certain dollar figure, so the client had to add on the amount of the Paypal fees to what he sent so that I would actually receive the right dollar amount.

That meant we needed to figure out what Paypal would charge for their fees. I know as a rough figure Paypal is usually around 5%, but that percentage gets adjusted based on the amount being sent. So I didn’t know exactly what percentage we would have deducted. And if you go on Paypal’s website, it’s not the easiest thing to find (although I know they do publish the information somewhere). I also could have called them, but going through the phone menu with a big company can sometimes be a hassle.

So I found an easier way – the online Paypal Fee Calculator. You can try it out at TheFeeCalculator.com.

To use it, the process really couldn’t be any simpler. Right there on the front page is the place for you to enter the dollar amount of the transaction. For example, if my client is going to send me $475.00 through Paypal, and I want to know how much Paypal is going to deduct for their fees:

You enter the amount, and hit “Calculate” and it immediately gives you this answer (with a little bit of editorializing):

In most cases that’s what you need to know, what amount you will net. But there’s another little bit of information that is also processed. If you know the amount that you NEED to net, what is the amount that the sender needs to send? That calculation is also offered on the same page:

The site is run by a guy named Derek. He tells about how it came about back in 2005:

So now, whenever I need to calculate a Paypal fee, I know where I can go to get it quickly and easily.

But while I was on the site, I noticed what appeared to be an advertisement, right below the place where you enter the dollar amount:

It’s talking about nametags, like the ones that people wear when they work in a service business. Normally I don’t even notice ads such as that, much less click on them. But for some reason I clicked on this one.

I do wear a name tag. It has my company logo and my name on it. There’s no real requirement for it, but there are some benefits. When I’m doing on onsite appointment in a client’s home (or business), and it’s the first time they have met with me, a name tag with the company logo adds a degree of credibility. And actually I even wear it when I’m working at home, because sometimes first-time clients drop off their computer at my home office.

And in addition to the credibility factor, if I happen to stop in a store to pick something up, or I stop to fill up with gas, there have been several instances where people notice the name tag and comment on it. When they see “The Computer Tutor” the most common remark is “Boy, I sure need someone like YOU!” and in a few cases it has resulted in a new client.

So I do definitely find value in wearing my name tag. But I’ve had this one for a few years, so it’s starting to look a little worn. The colors are fading a bit and it’s just not as sharp as it once was.

When I clicked on the text link advertisement, it took me to a different website – Nametag Ninja (NametagNinja.com).

What caught my eye were the 3 main features displayed on the first page:

Free shipping

No setup fees

24 hour turnaround

At that point I knew that as long as the prices were reasonable, I was going to order a new nametag. When I checked into the pricing options, I saw that a new nametag was only going to cost me $8. I don’t remember what I paid for my current one but I know it was more than that, and that was from a local business that took a week to get it done.

Here’s the interesting part. In placing my order, there was a problem with the online ordering process. I was trying to customize the nametag to a particular size, and to have a magnetic attachment rather than a pin. But it wasn’t showing up that way in the final order. So before I completed the process, I sent an email to inquire about how to get this resolved.

Almost immediately I got a response back from a man named Derek, who said he was unaware of the problem but would look into it. In the meantime, he said I could just email him my requested order and he could manually invoice me, so that my order would not be delayed by the website order issue.

This is why I like dealing with small, “mom and pop” businesses.
Can you imagine getting this kind of personal service from Vistaprint?

I was planning to do the order via email the next day, but before I could even do that, Derek emailed me again to advise that the website problem had been fixed so I could order the regular way. He was also appreciative that I had let him know about the problem so that he could get it fixed.

In my communication with Derek, I came to find out that he is actually the one that created the Paypal Fees Calculator website as well. For the record, he did not ask me for this blog post or recommendation, and I don’t get any commission for sending him new customers. I did this because it’s unfortunately kind of unusual to come across a service that is reasonably priced and provides excellent attention to the customer. So when I find something like that, I like to pass it along. I know that a lot of my blog readers and podcast listeners either own a service business (like I do) or work for one, so this is a good source for employee name tags.

If you end up ordering some name tags from the site, tell Derek you heard about it here.

The post I discovered 2 handy services in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

solution — A couple of handy computer tools Apr 20, 2015
Today I’m going to show you a couple of things that you might find to be pretty handy. Nothing fancy really, but each of these could definitely be a solution for someone that’s in need of either one of them.

Tool #1: Simple countdown timer

It doesn’t get much easier than this. Just go to Google, and in the search box type:

timer 1 minute

and hit Enter on the keyboard. Right away you will see a countdown timer at the top of the Google search results. But you don’t have to click on it or do anything else – it is already running, counting down from one minute.

Right under the numbers you will see the link to Stop, if you want to pause the timer. Or you can reset it back to 1 minute. When the timer gets down to zero, it sounds a little beeping alarm that sounds like a digital alarm clock. Easy and free.

You can set the time for any number of minutes or hours up to 23 hours. I couldn’t get it to work when I tried putting in 24 hours, but I didn’t mess around with it for very long so maybe there’s a way to do that.

How would you use this? The possibilities are unlimited. For me, I try to take a break from working at my computer sometimes, but I don’t want to get sucked into Facebook or YouTube for so long that it becomes a big waste of time. So when I take a break, I just open up a new tab in my browser and start the countdown timer for 5 or 10 minutes, and when I hear the beep I get back to work. But really, anything you do that needs to be tracked for time is a potential use for it.

Tool #2: Video blocker

This is an extension that works with Chrome and Firefox. I love this little thing because it solves an annoying problem.

The problem has to do with YouTube. YouTube tries to be smart about what videos it offers you when you first go to the site. If you’re subscribed to any particular YouTube channels, it will often display new videos from those channels. It tries to display up front the videos it THINKS you want to see, based on what videos you’ve looked at previously. So if you watched some videos about football yesterday, then when you go to YouTube today, you’ll see that they’ll show you some links to some other football videos. They’re just trying to give you what you want, in order to keep you on the site and viewing videos as long as possible. That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing.

The problem arises when I might click to view a video that outside my typical areas of interest. For example, a friend might tell me, “Hey, you have to check out this video of this guy – he’s the best man at his brother’s wedding and for the Best Man Toast, he SINGS a song that he wrote himself!” And to be fair, it is a pretty amazing video that has recently gone viral. You can watch it on YouTube, and right below the video itself are the lyrics so you can follow along.

So if I watch that video today, then later today or tomorrow when I go back to YouTube, it’s likely that the front page is going to be offering me more wedding videos. Actual full weddings, dancing at wedding receptions, people falling down at weddings, wedding photography services, and on and on.

This might even continue for days and weeks – every time I go to YouTube I have to wade through all the wedding-related videos in order to see the things that I actually want to see.

Video Blocker solves that problem. When you have Video Blocker installed, you can go to YouTube and right-click on any video thumbnail, and you are given the option to block all the videos from that particular channel from being displayed.

It’s great! So now, with the help of this little tool, I can have some actual control over what gets displayed whenever I open up YouTube to see what’s new.

To get Video Blocker, do a Google search for video blocker. If you’re using Chrome, you would want the Chrome extension:

If you’re using Firefox, get the Firefox version:

When you click the link to get it, it will ask you to install it as a browser extension or add-on. Go ahead and do that, then restart Chrome or Firefox and go exploring YouTube and try it out.

The post A couple of handy computer tools first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

countdown timer — A couple of handy computer tools Apr 20, 2015
Today I’m going to show you a couple of things that you might find to be pretty handy. Nothing fancy really, but each of these could definitely be a solution for someone that’s in need of either one of them.

Tool #1: Simple countdown timer

It doesn’t get much easier than this. Just go to Google, and in the search box type:

timer 1 minute

and hit Enter on the keyboard. Right away you will see a countdown timer at the top of the Google search results. But you don’t have to click on it or do anything else – it is already running, counting down from one minute.

Right under the numbers you will see the link to Stop, if you want to pause the timer. Or you can reset it back to 1 minute. When the timer gets down to zero, it sounds a little beeping alarm that sounds like a digital alarm clock. Easy and free.

You can set the time for any number of minutes or hours up to 23 hours. I couldn’t get it to work when I tried putting in 24 hours, but I didn’t mess around with it for very long so maybe there’s a way to do that.

How would you use this? The possibilities are unlimited. For me, I try to take a break from working at my computer sometimes, but I don’t want to get sucked into Facebook or YouTube for so long that it becomes a big waste of time. So when I take a break, I just open up a new tab in my browser and start the countdown timer for 5 or 10 minutes, and when I hear the beep I get back to work. But really, anything you do that needs to be tracked for time is a potential use for it.

Tool #2: Video blocker

This is an extension that works with Chrome and Firefox. I love this little thing because it solves an annoying problem.

The problem has to do with YouTube. YouTube tries to be smart about what videos it offers you when you first go to the site. If you’re subscribed to any particular YouTube channels, it will often display new videos from those channels. It tries to display up front the videos it THINKS you want to see, based on what videos you’ve looked at previously. So if you watched some videos about football yesterday, then when you go to YouTube today, you’ll see that they’ll show you some links to some other football videos. They’re just trying to give you what you want, in order to keep you on the site and viewing videos as long as possible. That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing.

The problem arises when I might click to view a video that outside my typical areas of interest. For example, a friend might tell me, “Hey, you have to check out this video of this guy – he’s the best man at his brother’s wedding and for the Best Man Toast, he SINGS a song that he wrote himself!” And to be fair, it is a pretty amazing video that has recently gone viral. You can watch it on YouTube, and right below the video itself are the lyrics so you can follow along.

So if I watch that video today, then later today or tomorrow when I go back to YouTube, it’s likely that the front page is going to be offering me more wedding videos. Actual full weddings, dancing at wedding receptions, people falling down at weddings, wedding photography services, and on and on.

This might even continue for days and weeks – every time I go to YouTube I have to wade through all the wedding-related videos in order to see the things that I actually want to see.

Video Blocker solves that problem. When you have Video Blocker installed, you can go to YouTube and right-click on any video thumbnail, and you are given the option to block all the videos from that particular channel from being displayed.

It’s great! So now, with the help of this little tool, I can have some actual control over what gets displayed whenever I open up YouTube to see what’s new.

To get Video Blocker, do a Google search for video blocker. If you’re using Chrome, you would want the Chrome extension:

If you’re using Firefox, get the Firefox version:

When you click the link to get it, it will ask you to install it as a browser extension or add-on. Go ahead and do that, then restart Chrome or Firefox and go exploring YouTube and try it out.

The post A couple of handy computer tools first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

free software — Free alternatives to expensive software Apr 13, 2015
If you buy a new computer, part of your purchase decision is what software you need to also purchase. If you have a lot of specialized needs, you could probably spend more on the additional programs than you did on the computer itself. But the fact is, you don’t necessarily NEED to do that – there are free alternatives to almost every program available today.

First a big word of warning – don’t go on Google and start searching for “free software”. If you do that, just about every website you find in the search results will almost certainly infect your computer with all kinds of malware and viruses. Searching Google for “free” anything (games, music, software, screensavers, etc.) is one of the most common ways to choke your computer with bad stuff. You need to know specifically what you’re looking for, which is what I’m going to tell you about here.

Expensive software: Microsoft Office (shelf price $115 – $200 depending on version, or by subscription)
Free alternative: LibreOffice (get it here)
LibreOffice is the suite of programs that I usually install on the refurbished laptops that I sell. It allows you to create, open or edit just about any document that would normally be associated with Office programs such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. So if you create a document in Word format and email it to someone, they will be able to open it in Word. There’s another program called Open Office, also free, which has been around for quite some time as an alternative to MS Office. For me, I just find LibreOffice to be more intuitive and easier to use. They have similar functionality, so you can try each one and see which you prefer.

Expensive software: Adobe Photoshop ($1525 for an older version, or newer one by subscription)
Free alternative: Gimp (get it here)
Gimp has been around forever and has quite a following. If you have used Photoshop before, you will probably catch on to Gimp fairly easily. However, they are both full of features that can take some practice to learn well. But there are lots of tutorials online if you are dedicated to learning it and taking advantage of all that it can do.

Expensive software: Microsoft Outlook ($110 alone, or also available as part of certain versions of Microsoft Office)
Free alternative: Windows Live Mail (get it here)
One of the most popular email programs ever used was Outlook Express, which came installed as part of Windows. But the last version of Windows that included it was XP, so Outlook Express is no more. However, Microsoft replaced it with Windows Live Mail and I think it’s just as good or better than Outlook Express. It does just about everything you would want an email application to do. But it’s not included with your Windows installation now – you have to go and download it as part of the Windows Essentials group of programs.

Expensive software: Adobe Audition ($800, or by subscription)
Free alternative: Audacity (get it here)
These programs are for creating and editing audio files. If you have any occasion to record your voice or someone else’s voice (or both), either of these would work well. Audition has a lot of “bells and whistles” that the average person would not need, which is one reason it’s pretty costly. For most people, Audacity is sufficient (and it has quite a few features itself). One of the most common uses for an audio editing program is to create a podcast, and both of these programs are very popular with podcasters around the world.

Expensive software: Acronis True Image ($50)
Free alternative: Macrium Reflect (get it here)
These programs are for backing up your computer files and folders. I use Macrium for 2 types of backup every day:
First, I clone my primary hard drive to a second internal drive in my desktop computer. So if the first one dies, I just switch over to the second one and I’m back in business. Second, I have Macrium create a system image that gets stored on an external drive. This means that everything on my computer is compressed and put into one file, in case I need to put all of it on a new hard drive after a crash. Yes, it’s sort of a duplicate effort. I do 2 other different backups each day as well – after preaching “back up your files” for so many years, it would not look good if I lost anything in a crash!
To be fair, Acronis is not that expensive at $50. And Macrium Reflect is only free for personal use, and they do have other versions with extra features that they do charge for. But for most people, the free version will work fine.

Expensive software: Windows ($75 – $200 depending on version)
Free alternative: Linux (get it here)
I know you’re probably not likely to make this switch, but I had to include it. If you have a computer that needs an operating system and you don’t want to spend money on it, this is a viable alternative to buying Windows. Works especially well on older computers that might not even have the power to run Windows. I especially like the version called “Cinnamon” – it’s very intuitive, and actually works very similarly to Windows 7, so it’s not like you have to be a programmer to be able to use it. But like most people, my primary computer runs Windows 7.

There’s one exception!
There’s one area where I cannot recommend the free alternatives: antivirus/antimalware software. I see lots of computers that still use free ones like Security Essentials, AVG, Defender, etc. The best I can say is that those things are better than not having ANY protection. But they are definitely not sufficient, and chances are you will eventually purchase a good strong antivirus solution anyway. My Managed Service Plan (details) is the best protection I know of – it not only includes strong software, but it also includes unlimited virus removal and a constant monitoring to make sure your OTHER software stays up to date and safe. I currently have over 190 clients using it and it works great.

The post Free alternatives to expensive software first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Free alternatives to expensive software Apr 13, 2015
If you buy a new computer, part of your purchase decision is what software you need to also purchase. If you have a lot of specialized needs, you could probably spend more on the additional programs than you did on the computer itself. But the fact is, you don’t necessarily NEED to do that – there are free alternatives to almost every program available today.

First a big word of warning – don’t go on Google and start searching for “free software”. If you do that, just about every website you find in the search results will almost certainly infect your computer with all kinds of malware and viruses. Searching Google for “free” anything (games, music, software, screensavers, etc.) is one of the most common ways to choke your computer with bad stuff. You need to know specifically what you’re looking for, which is what I’m going to tell you about here.

Expensive software: Microsoft Office (shelf price $115 – $200 depending on version, or by subscription)
Free alternative: LibreOffice (get it here)
LibreOffice is the suite of programs that I usually install on the refurbished laptops that I sell. It allows you to create, open or edit just about any document that would normally be associated with Office programs such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. So if you create a document in Word format and email it to someone, they will be able to open it in Word. There’s another program called Open Office, also free, which has been around for quite some time as an alternative to MS Office. For me, I just find LibreOffice to be more intuitive and easier to use. They have similar functionality, so you can try each one and see which you prefer.

Expensive software: Adobe Photoshop ($1525 for an older version, or newer one by subscription)
Free alternative: Gimp (get it here)
Gimp has been around forever and has quite a following. If you have used Photoshop before, you will probably catch on to Gimp fairly easily. However, they are both full of features that can take some practice to learn well. But there are lots of tutorials online if you are dedicated to learning it and taking advantage of all that it can do.

Expensive software: Microsoft Outlook ($110 alone, or also available as part of certain versions of Microsoft Office)
Free alternative: Windows Live Mail (get it here)
One of the most popular email programs ever used was Outlook Express, which came installed as part of Windows. But the last version of Windows that included it was XP, so Outlook Express is no more. However, Microsoft replaced it with Windows Live Mail and I think it’s just as good or better than Outlook Express. It does just about everything you would want an email application to do. But it’s not included with your Windows installation now – you have to go and download it as part of the Windows Essentials group of programs.

Expensive software: Adobe Audition ($800, or by subscription)
Free alternative: Audacity (get it here)
These programs are for creating and editing audio files. If you have any occasion to record your voice or someone else’s voice (or both), either of these would work well. Audition has a lot of “bells and whistles” that the average person would not need, which is one reason it’s pretty costly. For most people, Audacity is sufficient (and it has quite a few features itself). One of the most common uses for an audio editing program is to create a podcast, and both of these programs are very popular with podcasters around the world.

Expensive software: Acronis True Image ($50)
Free alternative: Macrium Reflect (get it here)
These programs are for backing up your computer files and folders. I use Macrium for 2 types of backup every day:
First, I clone my primary hard drive to a second internal drive in my desktop computer. So if the first one dies, I just switch over to the second one and I’m back in business. Second, I have Macrium create a system image that gets stored on an external drive. This means that everything on my computer is compressed and put into one file, in case I need to put all of it on a new hard drive after a crash. Yes, it’s sort of a duplicate effort. I do 2 other different backups each day as well – after preaching “back up your files” for so many years, it would not look good if I lost anything in a crash!
To be fair, Acronis is not that expensive at $50. And Macrium Reflect is only free for personal use, and they do have other versions with extra features that they do charge for. But for most people, the free version will work fine.

Expensive software: Windows ($75 – $200 depending on version)
Free alternative: Linux (get it here)
I know you’re probably not likely to make this switch, but I had to include it. If you have a computer that needs an operating system and you don’t want to spend money on it, this is a viable alternative to buying Windows. Works especially well on older computers that might not even have the power to run Windows. I especially like the version called “Cinnamon” – it’s very intuitive, and actually works very similarly to Windows 7, so it’s not like you have to be a programmer to be able to use it. But like most people, my primary computer runs Windows 7.

There’s one exception!
There’s one area where I cannot recommend the free alternatives: antivirus/antimalware software. I see lots of computers that still use free ones like Security Essentials, AVG, Defender, etc. The best I can say is that those things are better than not having ANY protection. But they are definitely not sufficient, and chances are you will eventually purchase a good strong antivirus solution anyway. My Managed Service Plan (details) is the best protection I know of – it not only includes strong software, but it also includes unlimited virus removal and a constant monitoring to make sure your OTHER software stays up to date and safe. I currently have over 190 clients using it and it works great.

The post Free alternatives to expensive software first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cloud backup — Recovering from your online backup – don’t make this big mistake! Apr 06, 2015
I recently got a phone call from a business client. I’ll call him Matt for this story. Several months ago, Matt had a hard drive crash on his business computer. For a lot of people, this would have been a disaster. But thankfully, Matt had allowed me to set up an automated online backup for him, so all of his important files were safely stored away from the computer. I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled Windows, and Matt said that he and his partner could download his backed-up files and get them back on the computer. So that was the last I heard of that situation, until this past week when Matt called me.

As soon as he asked me the question, I knew what had happened.

He said, “Back when we had the new hard drive put back in the computer, we downloaded all the documents from the online backup and they were all there, no problem. Now we want to go back and download the pictures, but we can’t find them. Do you know how we can get them from the backup account?”

Not good. Those pictures are now gone.

Here’s what happened:

1. Matt’s computer crashed.

2. Replacement hard drive was installed, and Windows was reinstalled on the new drive. At this point, it’s a functioning computer but all of the backed-up files are still not back on the computer.

3. Matt logs into the online backup account and downloads the Documents folder to his computer. These are the important files that he needs for his business, so he gets those documents and decides to just come back and get the rest of the files (pictures) later.

4. Now the computer starts doing the online backup again. But what does it back up? The important files that are on the computer (as it’s supposed to do). But at this point, the only important files on the computer are the Documents. So the pictures are not getting backed up.

5. Online backup services typically only save backups for 30 days. So when you do a backup today, the backup you did 30 days ago gets bumped off (deleted). So 30 days after the crash, the backup that had ALL the original files got deleted and now the only thing to be found in the online backup account is the Documents folder.

So today’s lesson is this:

When you are recovering your files
from your backup service after your hard drive crashes,
make sure you recover ALL of them at the same time –
NOT just the ones you need right away.

Or, if you aren’t sure what to do, just call me.

The post Recovering from your online backup – don’t make this big mistake! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Recovering from your online backup – don’t make this big mistake! Apr 06, 2015
I recently got a phone call from a business client. I’ll call him Matt for this story. Several months ago, Matt had a hard drive crash on his business computer. For a lot of people, this would have been a disaster. But thankfully, Matt had allowed me to set up an automated online backup for him, so all of his important files were safely stored away from the computer. I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled Windows, and Matt said that he and his partner could download his backed-up files and get them back on the computer. So that was the last I heard of that situation, until this past week when Matt called me.

As soon as he asked me the question, I knew what had happened.

He said, “Back when we had the new hard drive put back in the computer, we downloaded all the documents from the online backup and they were all there, no problem. Now we want to go back and download the pictures, but we can’t find them. Do you know how we can get them from the backup account?”

Not good. Those pictures are now gone.

Here’s what happened:

1. Matt’s computer crashed.

2. Replacement hard drive was installed, and Windows was reinstalled on the new drive. At this point, it’s a functioning computer but all of the backed-up files are still not back on the computer.

3. Matt logs into the online backup account and downloads the Documents folder to his computer. These are the important files that he needs for his business, so he gets those documents and decides to just come back and get the rest of the files (pictures) later.

4. Now the computer starts doing the online backup again. But what does it back up? The important files that are on the computer (as it’s supposed to do). But at this point, the only important files on the computer are the Documents. So the pictures are not getting backed up.

5. Online backup services typically only save backups for 30 days. So when you do a backup today, the backup you did 30 days ago gets bumped off (deleted). So 30 days after the crash, the backup that had ALL the original files got deleted and now the only thing to be found in the online backup account is the Documents folder.

So today’s lesson is this:

When you are recovering your files
from your backup service after your hard drive crashes,
make sure you recover ALL of them at the same time –
NOT just the ones you need right away.

Or, if you aren’t sure what to do, just call me.

The post Recovering from your online backup – don’t make this big mistake! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sleeping wifi — Can’t go online straight out of Sleep Mode? Here’s the fix Mar 30, 2015
I got this question from one of my clients, Jim, recently: “Scott, whenever I move the mouse to wake up my laptop from Sleep Mode, I can’t access any website. I open Internet Explorer and it just says “Page cannot be found”. If I close Internet Explorer and wait a minute or two, I’m always able to connect to a website on the second try. Why is it doing this?” This probably happens to a lot of people, but they don’t bother trying to figure it out because they know after a couple of minutes it will start working properly anyway. But there’s actually a pretty easy fix for it.

To know how to fix this issue, we have to first know why it’s happening. If you have seen this happen with your computer, it’s just because it’s configured to save power.

You read that correctly. If you want to wake up your laptop and access a website, you might have to wait 1 or 2 minutes, but overall it’s worth it because you are saving multiple pennies off your electric bill each month. (Yes, that was me being sarcastic.)

What’s happening is that your wifi adapter – the thing that connects your computer to your wireless router in order to access the internet – gets shut off when the computer goes into sleep mode. In a way, this sort of makes sense, because obviously if the computer is in sleep mode you won’t be using it to view websites, get your email, or anything else really. So there’s no reason to be connected to the internet either.

But when you “wake up” your computer, it isn’t online immediately. It has to find the wifi signal and go through the process of connecting to the internet. In some computers that happens quickly, and in others it can take a minute or so.

For Jim, it seemed like the connection was successful just because he tried a second time. But that’s kind of misleading. The reason it always works on the second try is simply because enough time has passed so that the wifi adapter has had time to connect to the router again. It really has nothing to do with how many times he tries.

It’s kind of the same idea that drinking coffee can help you sober up after you’ve had too much to drink. In reality, coffee does not speed up the process. But it does give you something to do while time passes – and really it’s only the passage of time that gets the alcohol out of your system.

So you could just wake up the computer, wait a minute, then go about the tasks that require an internet connection. But if you’re like me, that wait is just wasted time – and that time is far more valuable to me than the extremely tiny amount I’m saving in electricity each month or each year. If that’s you, then you’ll probably want to turn off this “feature”.

How to turn off wifi power-saving mode:

1. Go to Control Panel, set the view in the top right corner to “Small icons”, and double click on the “Device Manager” icon.

2. In the list, look for the “Network Adapters” section, and click on the little triangle next to it to expand the items under that section. Then you want to look for any item in the list that includes the words “wifi” or “wireless”:

3. Now, for each of the wifi or wireless entries, do a right click on the name and choose “Properties”. This will open a new window where you will click on the “Power Management” tab, and UN-check the box that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”:

4. Click OK, close the open windows, and you’re done. You just need to make sure you do this for each wifi or wireless device in the list.

Now, whenever your laptop goes into sleep mode, it will stay connected to the internet. And when you wake it up, you can immediately start getting your work done because you have access to the internet right away.

The post Can’t go online straight out of Sleep Mode? Here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wifi adapter — Can’t go online straight out of Sleep Mode? Here’s the fix Mar 30, 2015
I got this question from one of my clients, Jim, recently: “Scott, whenever I move the mouse to wake up my laptop from Sleep Mode, I can’t access any website. I open Internet Explorer and it just says “Page cannot be found”. If I close Internet Explorer and wait a minute or two, I’m always able to connect to a website on the second try. Why is it doing this?” This probably happens to a lot of people, but they don’t bother trying to figure it out because they know after a couple of minutes it will start working properly anyway. But there’s actually a pretty easy fix for it.

To know how to fix this issue, we have to first know why it’s happening. If you have seen this happen with your computer, it’s just because it’s configured to save power.

You read that correctly. If you want to wake up your laptop and access a website, you might have to wait 1 or 2 minutes, but overall it’s worth it because you are saving multiple pennies off your electric bill each month. (Yes, that was me being sarcastic.)

What’s happening is that your wifi adapter – the thing that connects your computer to your wireless router in order to access the internet – gets shut off when the computer goes into sleep mode. In a way, this sort of makes sense, because obviously if the computer is in sleep mode you won’t be using it to view websites, get your email, or anything else really. So there’s no reason to be connected to the internet either.

But when you “wake up” your computer, it isn’t online immediately. It has to find the wifi signal and go through the process of connecting to the internet. In some computers that happens quickly, and in others it can take a minute or so.

For Jim, it seemed like the connection was successful just because he tried a second time. But that’s kind of misleading. The reason it always works on the second try is simply because enough time has passed so that the wifi adapter has had time to connect to the router again. It really has nothing to do with how many times he tries.

It’s kind of the same idea that drinking coffee can help you sober up after you’ve had too much to drink. In reality, coffee does not speed up the process. But it does give you something to do while time passes – and really it’s only the passage of time that gets the alcohol out of your system.

So you could just wake up the computer, wait a minute, then go about the tasks that require an internet connection. But if you’re like me, that wait is just wasted time – and that time is far more valuable to me than the extremely tiny amount I’m saving in electricity each month or each year. If that’s you, then you’ll probably want to turn off this “feature”.

How to turn off wifi power-saving mode:

1. Go to Control Panel, set the view in the top right corner to “Small icons”, and double click on the “Device Manager” icon.

2. In the list, look for the “Network Adapters” section, and click on the little triangle next to it to expand the items under that section. Then you want to look for any item in the list that includes the words “wifi” or “wireless”:

3. Now, for each of the wifi or wireless entries, do a right click on the name and choose “Properties”. This will open a new window where you will click on the “Power Management” tab, and UN-check the box that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”:

4. Click OK, close the open windows, and you’re done. You just need to make sure you do this for each wifi or wireless device in the list.

Now, whenever your laptop goes into sleep mode, it will stay connected to the internet. And when you wake it up, you can immediately start getting your work done because you have access to the internet right away.

The post Can’t go online straight out of Sleep Mode? Here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Maps — 3 cool things you can do with Google Maps Mar 23, 2015
I use Google Maps all the time. By far, the feature I use most is the GPS aspect. When I make an appointment on my Google Calendar, I put the address in the “Location” bar. Then, when it’s time to go to that address, I open up my Waze app on my phone, and the address is listed there so I just tap it and follow the verbal street-by-street directions. It’s really an amazing process that we just take for granted now.

BUT – there are some other things that you can do with Google Maps that are really interesting. It seems like Google is always trying to come up with something new and exciting, so I wanted to share a few of these things with you today.

First we have Street View with History – http://tinyurl.com/ml3lvc8

Most people already know how Street View works. You plug in an address in Google Maps, and find that address. Then you click on Street View, and instead of looking at a map, you now have the view as if you’re standing in the street looking at that address. It’s helpful if you’re traveling to someone’s house for the first time, because now you know what their house actually looks like.

In fact, back when Street View, wasn’t quite so widely known, I would kind of enjoy freaking people out a bit. They would be giving me directions to their house by phone for an upcoming appointment, and at the same time I would be looking up their address and seeing the street view. So before they had even finished with their directions, I might say something like, “Oh, okay – so your house is the brown one with the 3 bushes in front of the screened porch?” Not such an amazing trick today, but a few years ago it was pretty awesome.

Now that Google has been sending their little Street View cars all over the place for several years, they have an archive of older street views which is pretty interesting. I believe it goes back to as early as 2008, but it really depends on the actual address being viewed.

Here’s an example that’s in my little city of Safety Harbor, Florida. This first picture is the most recent one taken by Google, and it was about a year ago. There were some condos being built at that time (they are now fully built and occupied):

But if you want to see what that lot looked like before the construction started, you just have to go to Street View for that address, then look up in the top left corner of the screen for the little clock and click it:

That gives you the option to choose a date and see what the Street View picture was for that date, at that location. In my example, I can go back to 2011 for this address, and back then it looked like this:

Next, Google Maps offers us the ability to Explore a Sunken Ship – http://tinyurl.com/lvz5ulo

The USS Mohawk was originally launched in 1934. She was used extensively during World War II, and then became a pilot boat on the Delaware River for over 30 years. You can get more details about this ship at this Wikipedia entry.

Currently, the Mohawk enjoys the status of being the first military ship reef dedicated to veterans. She was sunk in 2012 off the coast of Captiva Island. This memorial sign is on the side:

And if you click this link, that sign is one of the first things you’ll see. Google has created a “Street View” of the sunken ship so you can navigate all around just like you can use Street View in your local neighborhood. Pretty cool.

And finally, you can explore the moon. Yes, Google Maps has mapped the moon.

To do that, just go to maps.google.com and start zooming out (so your view is getting farther and farther away from the earth). When you’ve gone out as far as you can go, look in the lower left corner and click on the little window that says “Earth”:

After it changes to Earth view, keep scrolling out until you see the 3 options in the lower left corner: Earth, Moon and Mars. Click on Moon:

Now you can go exploring on the Moon just like you went to astronaut school. But without the bulky suit and breathing apparatus. Or if you choose Mars, you can visit there too.

If you’re really into this idea of exploring the world and space using your computer, you should consider getting Google Earth. Google Earth itself is not new, but they are updating it all the time. In the current one (version 5.0) here are some of the moon-related features:

And for bonus points – in the comments below, enter the phrase that this man is saying to this woman:

The post 3 cool things you can do with Google Maps first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Maps — 3 cool things you can do with Google Maps Mar 23, 2015
I use Google Maps all the time. By far, the feature I use most is the GPS aspect. When I make an appointment on my Google Calendar, I put the address in the “Location” bar. Then, when it’s time to go to that address, I open up my Waze app on my phone, and the address is listed there so I just tap it and follow the verbal street-by-street directions. It’s really an amazing process that we just take for granted now.

BUT – there are some other things that you can do with Google Maps that are really interesting. It seems like Google is always trying to come up with something new and exciting, so I wanted to share a few of these things with you today.

First we have Street View with History – http://tinyurl.com/ml3lvc8

Most people already know how Street View works. You plug in an address in Google Maps, and find that address. Then you click on Street View, and instead of looking at a map, you now have the view as if you’re standing in the street looking at that address. It’s helpful if you’re traveling to someone’s house for the first time, because now you know what their house actually looks like.

In fact, back when Street View, wasn’t quite so widely known, I would kind of enjoy freaking people out a bit. They would be giving me directions to their house by phone for an upcoming appointment, and at the same time I would be looking up their address and seeing the street view. So before they had even finished with their directions, I might say something like, “Oh, okay – so your house is the brown one with the 3 bushes in front of the screened porch?” Not such an amazing trick today, but a few years ago it was pretty awesome.

Now that Google has been sending their little Street View cars all over the place for several years, they have an archive of older street views which is pretty interesting. I believe it goes back to as early as 2008, but it really depends on the actual address being viewed.

Here’s an example that’s in my little city of Safety Harbor, Florida. This first picture is the most recent one taken by Google, and it was about a year ago. There were some condos being built at that time (they are now fully built and occupied):

But if you want to see what that lot looked like before the construction started, you just have to go to Street View for that address, then look up in the top left corner of the screen for the little clock and click it:

That gives you the option to choose a date and see what the Street View picture was for that date, at that location. In my example, I can go back to 2011 for this address, and back then it looked like this:

Next, Google Maps offers us the ability to Explore a Sunken Ship – http://tinyurl.com/lvz5ulo

The USS Mohawk was originally launched in 1934. She was used extensively during World War II, and then became a pilot boat on the Delaware River for over 30 years. You can get more details about this ship at this Wikipedia entry.

Currently, the Mohawk enjoys the status of being the first military ship reef dedicated to veterans. She was sunk in 2012 off the coast of Captiva Island. This memorial sign is on the side:

And if you click this link, that sign is one of the first things you’ll see. Google has created a “Street View” of the sunken ship so you can navigate all around just like you can use Street View in your local neighborhood. Pretty cool.

And finally, you can explore the moon. Yes, Google Maps has mapped the moon.

To do that, just go to maps.google.com and start zooming out (so your view is getting farther and farther away from the earth). When you’ve gone out as far as you can go, look in the lower left corner and click on the little window that says “Earth”:

After it changes to Earth view, keep scrolling out until you see the 3 options in the lower left corner: Earth, Moon and Mars. Click on Moon:

Now you can go exploring on the Moon just like you went to astronaut school. But without the bulky suit and breathing apparatus. Or if you choose Mars, you can visit there too.

If you’re really into this idea of exploring the world and space using your computer, you should consider getting Google Earth. Google Earth itself is not new, but they are updating it all the time. In the current one (version 5.0) here are some of the moon-related features:

And for bonus points – in the comments below, enter the phrase that this man is saying to this woman:

The post 3 cool things you can do with Google Maps first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email hack — Your email actually DID get hacked? You need to change more than just your password Mar 16, 2015
Last week we talked about the fact that even though it might appear that your email got hacked, it probably didn’t. In most cases it’s just a spammer using your email as the “From” address. But what about when your email actually DOES get hacked into – meaning some malicious person has gotten into your account and has control of it? What should you do?

The easiest solution to this problem is also probably the most obvious – take precautions so that it doesn’t happen in the first place. This means having a strong, unique password for your email account. These are some of the most commonly used passwords today, and they are really weak:

A good password is just a series of random numbers, upper and lower case letters, and maybe a character like a dollar sign or pound sign thrown in somewhere. I try to usually make mine 10 or 12 characters in length. The longer the better!

Good passwords:

zP#CuY&^Bnt8

e7PpW6!m$2vq

Rs3*JA5N&PB6

And of course you won’t be able to remember that password, so you will need to have a good password manager program to generate good passwords and keep track of all of them for you. I use LastPass and it works great.

But for today, we’re assuming it’s past the “prevention” point – your email has been compromised. Some scammer or spammer, somewhere in the world, has been able to log in to your personal or business email account. And you need to take action – quickly.

I sometimes see people with this problem, wondering what they should do next. It’s very common to see this question asked on Facebook: “My email has been hacked into. What do I do?” And the one answer offered by all of their friends (none of whom are computer security experts of course) is: “Change your password!”

Yes, you do need to change your password. But that is only part of the solution. Just changing your password does not solve the problem. A lot of people will change their password (and even the new password will be one that is easily guessed and one that they have used on dozens of other accounts). Then they’re surprised to find out that their email gets hacked into again after a short time.

In order to keep your email account safe, you also need to change your security questions.

You know what I’m talking about – the questions that your email provider asks to confirm your identity, that only YOU should know the answer to. Or at least the answers would be ones that some spammer in Russia wouldn’t know about you.

When you log into your email account online, you should see a link to your profile. That’s usually where you go to change your verification questions. In Gmail it looks like this:

The reason you MUST change your security questions is to prevent the same hacker from getting in again. One of the ways to hack into an email account is to click the “Forgot password” link, and answer the security questions. If the questions you chose originally have already been easily answered by a hacker, then they can be easily answered again by the same hacker or even a different one. In a lot of cases, the answers to those security questions can be found just by going through your Facebook page! Hackers just have it too easy these days – we need to make things at least a little difficult for them.

Bonus security: answer the security questions incorrectly

This is a trick some people use as an extra layer of security. You can answer the security questions with answers that are wrong, or even answers that don’t make sense.

Here are some examples of this:

Question: What is your mother’s maiden name?
Answer: September

Question: In what city were you born?
Answer: Peanut butter

Question: What is your favorite sports team?
Answer: Saving Private Ryan

Do you see the power in this? A hacker could guess every sports team name in the world but he would never get it right. Same for the other answers.

Obviously, just like a strong password, you won’t instinctively remember these nonsense answers. So you will need to keep a record of them. This is another great feature of LastPass – there is a whole section for each account where you can store information like this and always have access to it.

In addition to the security questions, you should also have on file:

A current phone number (preferably a cell phone that can receive text messages)

An alternate email address that you can access

With these, your email provider can send you a text message to confirm your identity, or they can email you a link to change your password if it gets compromised. HOWEVER – just like it’s too late to buy fire insurance when the house is burning down, you need to set up these things in your email account while you still have access to it. Once some lowlife gets in and controls your email account, it could be too late. Because a smart hacker, once in control, will go in and change the security questions to things that YOU won’t know how to answer.

And one final word: if you are desperate and cannot get anything done to restore your account, don’t make the mistake of searching Google for a “tech support” phone number for your free web-based email account. Most of the results that come up in a Google search like that are going to be FAKE tech support – they will want to charge you lots of money to “fix” all of the problems your computer supposedly has, and they still won’t be able to get you into your email account.

The post Your email actually DID get hacked? You need to change more than just your password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

weak passwords — Your email actually DID get hacked? You need to change more than just your password Mar 16, 2015
Last week we talked about the fact that even though it might appear that your email got hacked, it probably didn’t. In most cases it’s just a spammer using your email as the “From” address. But what about when your email actually DOES get hacked into – meaning some malicious person has gotten into your account and has control of it? What should you do?

The easiest solution to this problem is also probably the most obvious – take precautions so that it doesn’t happen in the first place. This means having a strong, unique password for your email account. These are some of the most commonly used passwords today, and they are really weak:

A good password is just a series of random numbers, upper and lower case letters, and maybe a character like a dollar sign or pound sign thrown in somewhere. I try to usually make mine 10 or 12 characters in length. The longer the better!

Good passwords:

zP#CuY&^Bnt8

e7PpW6!m$2vq

Rs3*JA5N&PB6

And of course you won’t be able to remember that password, so you will need to have a good password manager program to generate good passwords and keep track of all of them for you. I use LastPass and it works great.

But for today, we’re assuming it’s past the “prevention” point – your email has been compromised. Some scammer or spammer, somewhere in the world, has been able to log in to your personal or business email account. And you need to take action – quickly.

I sometimes see people with this problem, wondering what they should do next. It’s very common to see this question asked on Facebook: “My email has been hacked into. What do I do?” And the one answer offered by all of their friends (none of whom are computer security experts of course) is: “Change your password!”

Yes, you do need to change your password. But that is only part of the solution. Just changing your password does not solve the problem. A lot of people will change their password (and even the new password will be one that is easily guessed and one that they have used on dozens of other accounts). Then they’re surprised to find out that their email gets hacked into again after a short time.

In order to keep your email account safe, you also need to change your security questions.

You know what I’m talking about – the questions that your email provider asks to confirm your identity, that only YOU should know the answer to. Or at least the answers would be ones that some spammer in Russia wouldn’t know about you.

When you log into your email account online, you should see a link to your profile. That’s usually where you go to change your verification questions. In Gmail it looks like this:

The reason you MUST change your security questions is to prevent the same hacker from getting in again. One of the ways to hack into an email account is to click the “Forgot password” link, and answer the security questions. If the questions you chose originally have already been easily answered by a hacker, then they can be easily answered again by the same hacker or even a different one. In a lot of cases, the answers to those security questions can be found just by going through your Facebook page! Hackers just have it too easy these days – we need to make things at least a little difficult for them.

Bonus security: answer the security questions incorrectly

This is a trick some people use as an extra layer of security. You can answer the security questions with answers that are wrong, or even answers that don’t make sense.

Here are some examples of this:

Question: What is your mother’s maiden name?
Answer: September

Question: In what city were you born?
Answer: Peanut butter

Question: What is your favorite sports team?
Answer: Saving Private Ryan

Do you see the power in this? A hacker could guess every sports team name in the world but he would never get it right. Same for the other answers.

Obviously, just like a strong password, you won’t instinctively remember these nonsense answers. So you will need to keep a record of them. This is another great feature of LastPass – there is a whole section for each account where you can store information like this and always have access to it.

In addition to the security questions, you should also have on file:

A current phone number (preferably a cell phone that can receive text messages)

An alternate email address that you can access

With these, your email provider can send you a text message to confirm your identity, or they can email you a link to change your password if it gets compromised. HOWEVER – just like it’s too late to buy fire insurance when the house is burning down, you need to set up these things in your email account while you still have access to it. Once some lowlife gets in and controls your email account, it could be too late. Because a smart hacker, once in control, will go in and change the security questions to things that YOU won’t know how to answer.

And one final word: if you are desperate and cannot get anything done to restore your account, don’t make the mistake of searching Google for a “tech support” phone number for your free web-based email account. Most of the results that come up in a Google search like that are going to be FAKE tech support – they will want to charge you lots of money to “fix” all of the problems your computer supposedly has, and they still won’t be able to get you into your email account.

The post Your email actually DID get hacked? You need to change more than just your password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email hack — Help – my email got hacked! No, it probably didn’t Mar 09, 2015
A few times each month, I’ll get a phone call or an email from someone who thinks their email account has gotten hacked into. And why do they think that? Because their inbox is filling up with emails that are bouncing back, that say “This email message could not be delivered”. They might get a few of these bounced emails, or a dozen, or even a hundred. At first glance, it looks like all of these emails were sent from this person’s email account. But in most cases, no one has hacked into their email account.

Let’s say I wanted to send someone an email, and I wanted to make them think it came from someone else. For example, maybe my friend Maria is a big fan of Oprah Winfrey and I want to play a little prank on Maria by sending her an email “from” Oprah Winfrey. Do you know how easy this is to do? Pretty easy.

You do need an email program though, such as Outlook. If you don’t have Outlook, you can use Windows Live Mail (which is free). My email program is Outlook so I will use that for the example screenshots.

If you already use Outlook for your email, it’s already set up with all of your genuine account information – that’s how it’s able to send and receive your email. But for this little trick, you need to go into the email settings and change a few things. The settings window looks like this:

You can see there are 3 main sections. In order for your email to send and receive properly in your account, the “Server Information” and “Logon Information” sections cannot be changed. However, with few exceptions, you can put whatever you want in the first section, “User Information”.

So if we want to pretend we’re someone else that sent the email, we just change the information in that top section. It might look like this (I don’t actually know Oprah’s email address):

With those settings in place, I can send out an email to impersonate Oprah. When my friend Maria receives it, she would see something like this:

If she clicks “Reply”, her Reply email will be addressed to Oprah@oprah.com (not to me, even though I actually am the one that sent the email). If the email that I sent bounces, it will bounce back to the “From:” address (not to me, even though I sent it). That’s the important thing to note here – anytime an email bounces, it bounces back to whatever address is listed in the “From:” field.

So with that example in mind, let’s look at how this is used in the real world – by spammers.

A spammer might have a list of a million email addresses that he wants to send to. He wants to send his spam email out to those millions of people, but of course he doesn’t want them to know that HE is the one that sent it. So he puts a different email address in the “From:” field. He might even put YOUR email address as the “From:” address.

See where we’re going with this?

He sends out those million emails, and most of them get delivered to the proper recipient (even if they go to the Spam folder, they at least made it to the right email address). But with that many emails, some of them are going to be outdated or incorrect. So they bounce. And guess where they bounce? You guessed it – they bounce back to the “From:” address, and if that’s your email, they start showing up in your inbox.

That’s how you end up with all those bounced emails in your inbox, that appear to have been sent from you, but they really weren’t. And the spammer didn’t have to hack into your email account in order to make that happen. All he needed was an email address, and he happened to use yours. Bad luck for you, but at least your email account hasn’t been compromised.

It’s like if you mailed out 100 letters by snail mail, and instead of your own address in the top left corner of each envelope, you put your neighbor’s address. If the Post Office returned any of those, they would be returned to your neighbor, not you.

How to verify that your email account is safe: just look in the “Sent” folder and see if any of those bounced emails show up there as actually having been sent from your account. If they aren’t there, your account didn’t send them.

Disclaimer: there are exceptions (although very unlikely) to this explanation. And the scammers and spammers are constantly dreaming up new ways to game the system. But for the most part the scenario I talked about is the most common procedure.

And as always, if your email password consists of one or more pronounceable words, or is easy to remember, it’s going to be easy for the bad guys to guess – so change it to a strong one today!

The post Help – my email got hacked! No, it probably didn’t first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email hack — Help – my email got hacked! No, it probably didn’t Mar 09, 2015
A few times each month, I’ll get a phone call or an email from someone who thinks their email account has gotten hacked into. And why do they think that? Because their inbox is filling up with emails that are bouncing back, that say “This email message could not be delivered”. They might get a few of these bounced emails, or a dozen, or even a hundred. At first glance, it looks like all of these emails were sent from this person’s email account. But in most cases, no one has hacked into their email account.

Let’s say I wanted to send someone an email, and I wanted to make them think it came from someone else. For example, maybe my friend Maria is a big fan of Oprah Winfrey and I want to play a little prank on Maria by sending her an email “from” Oprah Winfrey. Do you know how easy this is to do? Pretty easy.

You do need an email program though, such as Outlook. If you don’t have Outlook, you can use Windows Live Mail (which is free). My email program is Outlook so I will use that for the example screenshots.

If you already use Outlook for your email, it’s already set up with all of your genuine account information – that’s how it’s able to send and receive your email. But for this little trick, you need to go into the email settings and change a few things. The settings window looks like this:

You can see there are 3 main sections. In order for your email to send and receive properly in your account, the “Server Information” and “Logon Information” sections cannot be changed. However, with few exceptions, you can put whatever you want in the first section, “User Information”.

So if we want to pretend we’re someone else that sent the email, we just change the information in that top section. It might look like this (I don’t actually know Oprah’s email address):

With those settings in place, I can send out an email to impersonate Oprah. When my friend Maria receives it, she would see something like this:

If she clicks “Reply”, her Reply email will be addressed to Oprah@oprah.com (not to me, even though I actually am the one that sent the email). If the email that I sent bounces, it will bounce back to the “From:” address (not to me, even though I sent it). That’s the important thing to note here – anytime an email bounces, it bounces back to whatever address is listed in the “From:” field.

So with that example in mind, let’s look at how this is used in the real world – by spammers.

A spammer might have a list of a million email addresses that he wants to send to. He wants to send his spam email out to those millions of people, but of course he doesn’t want them to know that HE is the one that sent it. So he puts a different email address in the “From:” field. He might even put YOUR email address as the “From:” address.

See where we’re going with this?

He sends out those million emails, and most of them get delivered to the proper recipient (even if they go to the Spam folder, they at least made it to the right email address). But with that many emails, some of them are going to be outdated or incorrect. So they bounce. And guess where they bounce? You guessed it – they bounce back to the “From:” address, and if that’s your email, they start showing up in your inbox.

That’s how you end up with all those bounced emails in your inbox, that appear to have been sent from you, but they really weren’t. And the spammer didn’t have to hack into your email account in order to make that happen. All he needed was an email address, and he happened to use yours. Bad luck for you, but at least your email account hasn’t been compromised.

It’s like if you mailed out 100 letters by snail mail, and instead of your own address in the top left corner of each envelope, you put your neighbor’s address. If the Post Office returned any of those, they would be returned to your neighbor, not you.

How to verify that your email account is safe: just look in the “Sent” folder and see if any of those bounced emails show up there as actually having been sent from your account. If they aren’t there, your account didn’t send them.

Disclaimer: there are exceptions (although very unlikely) to this explanation. And the scammers and spammers are constantly dreaming up new ways to game the system. But for the most part the scenario I talked about is the most common procedure.

And as always, if your email password consists of one or more pronounceable words, or is easy to remember, it’s going to be easy for the bad guys to guess – so change it to a strong one today!

The post Help – my email got hacked! No, it probably didn’t first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google search history — What information does Google store about you? You might be surprised Mar 02, 2015
Many millions of people have Google accounts. I have several myself. And whenever I want to look something up on the internet, I use Google because it seems to come up with the most accurate search results, which means I don’t have to waste a lot of time weeding out stuff that is not relevant to what I was looking for. But did you know that Google stores your history of searches – for quite some time?

There are two points I want to make you aware of today:

Google stores your search history for kind of a long time

You can control the amount of information that is being stored

To show how this works, I’ll use my own Google account. The first step is to open your web browser and go to:

http://google.com/settings/accounthistory

That will bring you to a page that shows the 6 different things that Google can keep track of for this account. Those are:

Your searches

Places you go (like if you used Google Maps for GPS)

Your voice searches and commands (usually this is the “OK Google” function, which you might not even use or be aware of)

Information about your devices (contacts, calendars and apps on your laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.)

Videos you search for on YouTube

Videos you watch on YouTube

That’s quite a bit of web activity that is possibly being tracked. Those 6 areas are displayed in sections on the page, like this:

As far as the way the “history storage” works, each of these categories works pretty much the same way so I’ll just explore the first one, “Searches and browsing history”. First step is to click on “Manage History”.

When you do that, you’ll see a list of your most recent Google searches (assuming you did those searches while you were signed in to your Google/Gmail account). And it’s a very detailed and accurate list. In fact, it shows the search term you used, and then under that is the actual site(s) you clicked on in the search results. For example, someone this afternoon was asking me about a site called Ixquick, so I did a quick Google search on it, then clicked on the Ixquick site. These two actions were recorded and stored in my Google account history, like this:

Above the list of searches, there are a couple of graphs. These show your search activity by the hour, and by the day. As you can see, I do more Google searches on weekdays rather than weekends, and I don’t do many searches between midnight and 4 am:

Now let’s get to the more interesting part. To the right of those graphs is an Activity calendar.

You can click on any day on that calendar, and it the page will show you your complete list of Google searches and clicks for that day. As you can see, it’s also color coded. Light blue means fewer searches, darker blue means more searches:

Obviously I use Google quite a bit. So I started clicking to go back to previous months, to see how far back this history goes. I was surprised to see that it goes back to May of 2013.

Almost 2 years of my Google search history – 8,044 searches to be exact.

Why does Google need to have that much detail about what I search on? Because most of their billions of dollars of revenue each year comes from advertising. And the more they know about what I’m interested in (based on what I search for), the more targeted they can make the ads, which means they can charge advertisers higher prices.

One thing you’ll see to the left of each listed search in your history is a little checkbox. If you want, you can check the searches you don’t want stored in your history, and click on “Remove items” at the top of the list. You could remove all of them if you wanted to.

In fact, if you go back to the initial screen where you clicked on “Manage history” you see another button there: Pause. This means you can actually turn off the storage of your Google searches if you want to. But if you click that, Google will really try to persuade you to leave it on. This is the explanation they give before having you confirm your decision to pause:

You can pick and choose which areas you want to have paused or enabled, or you can just pause all of them if you prefer.

So there you have it. The purpose of this is not to rekindle the continuous debate about how much privacy we do or don’t have. I just wanted to make sure that you are aware of what is happening, so that you can make an intelligent decision about how you want to handle it. More information is always a good thing.

The post What information does Google store about you? You might be surprised first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google history — What information does Google store about you? You might be surprised Mar 02, 2015
Many millions of people have Google accounts. I have several myself. And whenever I want to look something up on the internet, I use Google because it seems to come up with the most accurate search results, which means I don’t have to waste a lot of time weeding out stuff that is not relevant to what I was looking for. But did you know that Google stores your history of searches – for quite some time?

There are two points I want to make you aware of today:

Google stores your search history for kind of a long time

You can control the amount of information that is being stored

To show how this works, I’ll use my own Google account. The first step is to open your web browser and go to:

http://google.com/settings/accounthistory

That will bring you to a page that shows the 6 different things that Google can keep track of for this account. Those are:

Your searches

Places you go (like if you used Google Maps for GPS)

Your voice searches and commands (usually this is the “OK Google” function, which you might not even use or be aware of)

Information about your devices (contacts, calendars and apps on your laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.)

Videos you search for on YouTube

Videos you watch on YouTube

That’s quite a bit of web activity that is possibly being tracked. Those 6 areas are displayed in sections on the page, like this:

As far as the way the “history storage” works, each of these categories works pretty much the same way so I’ll just explore the first one, “Searches and browsing history”. First step is to click on “Manage History”.

When you do that, you’ll see a list of your most recent Google searches (assuming you did those searches while you were signed in to your Google/Gmail account). And it’s a very detailed and accurate list. In fact, it shows the search term you used, and then under that is the actual site(s) you clicked on in the search results. For example, someone this afternoon was asking me about a site called Ixquick, so I did a quick Google search on it, then clicked on the Ixquick site. These two actions were recorded and stored in my Google account history, like this:

Above the list of searches, there are a couple of graphs. These show your search activity by the hour, and by the day. As you can see, I do more Google searches on weekdays rather than weekends, and I don’t do many searches between midnight and 4 am:

Now let’s get to the more interesting part. To the right of those graphs is an Activity calendar.

You can click on any day on that calendar, and it the page will show you your complete list of Google searches and clicks for that day. As you can see, it’s also color coded. Light blue means fewer searches, darker blue means more searches:

Obviously I use Google quite a bit. So I started clicking to go back to previous months, to see how far back this history goes. I was surprised to see that it goes back to May of 2013.

Almost 2 years of my Google search history – 8,044 searches to be exact.

Why does Google need to have that much detail about what I search on? Because most of their billions of dollars of revenue each year comes from advertising. And the more they know about what I’m interested in (based on what I search for), the more targeted they can make the ads, which means they can charge advertisers higher prices.

One thing you’ll see to the left of each listed search in your history is a little checkbox. If you want, you can check the searches you don’t want stored in your history, and click on “Remove items” at the top of the list. You could remove all of them if you wanted to.

In fact, if you go back to the initial screen where you clicked on “Manage history” you see another button there: Pause. This means you can actually turn off the storage of your Google searches if you want to. But if you click that, Google will really try to persuade you to leave it on. This is the explanation they give before having you confirm your decision to pause:

You can pick and choose which areas you want to have paused or enabled, or you can just pause all of them if you prefer.

So there you have it. The purpose of this is not to rekindle the continuous debate about how much privacy we do or don’t have. I just wanted to make sure that you are aware of what is happening, so that you can make an intelligent decision about how you want to handle it. More information is always a good thing.

The post What information does Google store about you? You might be surprised first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wikipedia — How to make the Wikipedia page look much more exciting! Feb 23, 2015
Wikipedia (Wikipedia.com) is one of the most often visited websites on the internet. Virtually any topic you want to research, any well-known person, almost any city – it’s hard to imagine anyone or anything of importance not having a Wikipedia page. However, Wikipedia was launched back in 2001 – and the layout and design of the website seems to have not changed since that date.

It’s usually pretty easy to spot a website that has not been updated in a long time. In some cases, a business might have paid someone to create their website a long time ago, and now they lost contact with that person and they have no idea how to change the site or update it. Or, the website owner might just be unaware that the site looks very dated. But to most people it’s obvious.

One of the very popular sites that is extremely outdated is Craigslist. The owner of that site, Craig Newmark, doesn’t care about how it looks, and he has said so. Craigslist was started back in 1995 – can you believe it’s been 20 years? – and the site design is still virtually the same as it was then.

That’s the situation with Wikipedia. Even though Wikipedia gets millions of website visitors, the owner, Jimmy Wales, has never seen the need to update the site design to make it look nicer and more modern. It’s still the same boring layout that it’s had for the last 14 years.

But it doesn’t have to be that way on YOUR computer.

Thanks to a wonderful browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, Wikipedia can have a great new design that’s much more pleasing to the eye. The extension is called Wikiwand, and you can get it at www.Wikiwand.com. It’s free of course.

To show you how it makes a difference with the way Wikipedia pages are displayed, I took some before-Wikiwand and after-Wikiwand screenshots.

Here’s what the Wikipedia page for the Milky Way looks like usually:

Pretty bland, right? Here’s what it looks like after the Wikiwand is applied:

Having the large image across the top of the article really makes a big difference in presentation. But also, the content itself is just easier to read. It’s actually the same words on the page, but the font size is larger and clearer in the Wikiwand version.

How about this one – the Mt Everest page, before Wikiwand:

And after Wikiwand:

To get Wikiwand working in your browser, just go to Wikiwand.com and click the button to install it:

You will not see that installation button if you’re using Internet Explorer, though – it doesn’t work with that web browser. Reason #842 to quit using Internet Explorer.

And you should also know this – even after you have Wikiwand installed, if for some reason you want to go back and just see the old boring version of Wikipedia, you can. At the bottom right corner of every Wikipedia page there’s a big W, and when you mouse over it, you’ll see a slide switch to enable or disable Wikiwand:

The post How to make the Wikipedia page look much more exciting! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wikiwand — How to make the Wikipedia page look much more exciting! Feb 23, 2015
Wikipedia (Wikipedia.com) is one of the most often visited websites on the internet. Virtually any topic you want to research, any well-known person, almost any city – it’s hard to imagine anyone or anything of importance not having a Wikipedia page. However, Wikipedia was launched back in 2001 – and the layout and design of the website seems to have not changed since that date.

It’s usually pretty easy to spot a website that has not been updated in a long time. In some cases, a business might have paid someone to create their website a long time ago, and now they lost contact with that person and they have no idea how to change the site or update it. Or, the website owner might just be unaware that the site looks very dated. But to most people it’s obvious.

One of the very popular sites that is extremely outdated is Craigslist. The owner of that site, Craig Newmark, doesn’t care about how it looks, and he has said so. Craigslist was started back in 1995 – can you believe it’s been 20 years? – and the site design is still virtually the same as it was then.

That’s the situation with Wikipedia. Even though Wikipedia gets millions of website visitors, the owner, Jimmy Wales, has never seen the need to update the site design to make it look nicer and more modern. It’s still the same boring layout that it’s had for the last 14 years.

But it doesn’t have to be that way on YOUR computer.

Thanks to a wonderful browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, Wikipedia can have a great new design that’s much more pleasing to the eye. The extension is called Wikiwand, and you can get it at www.Wikiwand.com. It’s free of course.

To show you how it makes a difference with the way Wikipedia pages are displayed, I took some before-Wikiwand and after-Wikiwand screenshots.

Here’s what the Wikipedia page for the Milky Way looks like usually:

Pretty bland, right? Here’s what it looks like after the Wikiwand is applied:

Having the large image across the top of the article really makes a big difference in presentation. But also, the content itself is just easier to read. It’s actually the same words on the page, but the font size is larger and clearer in the Wikiwand version.

How about this one – the Mt Everest page, before Wikiwand:

And after Wikiwand:

To get Wikiwand working in your browser, just go to Wikiwand.com and click the button to install it:

You will not see that installation button if you’re using Internet Explorer, though – it doesn’t work with that web browser. Reason #842 to quit using Internet Explorer.

And you should also know this – even after you have Wikiwand installed, if for some reason you want to go back and just see the old boring version of Wikipedia, you can. At the bottom right corner of every Wikipedia page there’s a big W, and when you mouse over it, you’ll see a slide switch to enable or disable Wikiwand:

The post How to make the Wikipedia page look much more exciting! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

router — Do you need a new router? Feb 16, 2015
Most households and small businesses use a router to distribute the internet signal. You might have purchased the router, or your internet provider may place it with your for you to use, but they still own it. Also, your modem may also be a router (all in one box) or your router might be a separate unit. There’s really no “normal” configuration for all these factors.

What happens when your internet service provider’s router becomes old, outdated, or just worn out? That’s when they’ll call you up and say, “Hey there Mr. or Mrs. Customer – we need to get you a new router, so your internet connection is the best it can be!”, right?

Uh, no. It doesn’t usually work that way.

More often, you start to notice your internet connection speed get slower and slower, and sometimes you might get the familiar “This page cannot be found” error because the internet connection has dropped altogether. A lot of times restarting the computer or the router (or both) takes care of the problem. But if the router is just too old, that’s just a temporary fix. When a router is no longer working like it should, it needs to be replaced.

But when an ISP has many thousands of customers and a big chunk of them have old routers that need to be replaced, doing that all at once would represent a huge expense. Why would they want to spend all that money on new equipment when a lot of those people haven’t even complained about it?

Instead, they will handle each customer complaint on a case by case basis and replace the routers as needed. So you need to be proactive about it.

BUT – you can’t just call them up and say, “My internet is too slow”. That’s just an opinion. You need to have measurable proof that the internet speed is sub-par before you ever make the call.

Here’s how you check your internet connection speed:

1. Go to the website SpeedTest.net. If you don’t use an ad blocker, you’ll see some ads that will try to get you to click on them to check your speed or download something. Ignore all those ads. The only thing you want to do is run the actual internet connection speed test right in the middle of the page. After the page has fully loaded, you’ll see a big button in the middle that says “Begin Test”:

2. As you can see, the site figures out where you are located and puts a green triangle there (I’m in the Tampa Bay area of Florida). When you click “Begin Test” the analysis can get started. It only takes about 30 seconds.

3. What you want to pay attention to (you should write them down) are the download speed and upload speed. When the test is finished, it will look like this:

That’s the information you want to have on hand when you call your internet provider. But there’s a RIGHT way to ask them about this, and there’s a WRONG way.

The wrong way: “I just checked my internet speed, and I’m getting ___ download and ___ upload. Is that normal?”

This is wrong because then it’s really easy for the internet provider to say, “Oh yes, that’s right in the range of what your speed should be based on the package you have purchased.” In addition, they now have the perfect opportunity to try to UPsell you on buying a faster package. You have already indicated that you want faster speed, so you are obviously the perfect candidate for that sales pitch.

The right way: “Can you tell me, based on my monthly internet package, what kind of internet speeds should I be expecting?”

When you phrase it that way, they have to give you a number first. If it matches what Speedtest said you are getting, then you’re getting what you’re paying for. But if the ISP says you should be getting 50-60 download, and the test says you’re getting 30-40, then you have something to complain about. At that point, your internet provider has already said that you should be getting a certain level of speed and your test proves that you’re not getting it.

If that happens, usually the ISP will either have a technician come out to check your installation, or they’ll do some diagnostics on the router and/or modem (whichever is provided by them) and probably give you a new one if yours is too old or outdated.

What if YOU own the router?

If they run their tests and it comes back that the modem is working fine, the problem could be the router that you purchased and installed. It may need to be replaced. Fortunately, they are not that expensive so it might be time to get a new one. For home use, a router in the $50 – $75 range is almost always sufficient. Personally, I like Linksys routers because they’re really easy to set up, but other brands such as Netgear or Belkin will usually work fine. If you have any trouble with the installation, they’ll have a phone number for you to call their Tech Support and they can walk you through it (you’ll most likely be speaking to someone whose first language is not English though).

If you’ve had your router for a while, getting a brand new one could mean a world of difference for your internet connection.

The post Do you need a new router? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Speedtest — Do you need a new router? Feb 16, 2015
Most households and small businesses use a router to distribute the internet signal. You might have purchased the router, or your internet provider may place it with your for you to use, but they still own it. Also, your modem may also be a router (all in one box) or your router might be a separate unit. There’s really no “normal” configuration for all these factors.

What happens when your internet service provider’s router becomes old, outdated, or just worn out? That’s when they’ll call you up and say, “Hey there Mr. or Mrs. Customer – we need to get you a new router, so your internet connection is the best it can be!”, right?

Uh, no. It doesn’t usually work that way.

More often, you start to notice your internet connection speed get slower and slower, and sometimes you might get the familiar “This page cannot be found” error because the internet connection has dropped altogether. A lot of times restarting the computer or the router (or both) takes care of the problem. But if the router is just too old, that’s just a temporary fix. When a router is no longer working like it should, it needs to be replaced.

But when an ISP has many thousands of customers and a big chunk of them have old routers that need to be replaced, doing that all at once would represent a huge expense. Why would they want to spend all that money on new equipment when a lot of those people haven’t even complained about it?

Instead, they will handle each customer complaint on a case by case basis and replace the routers as needed. So you need to be proactive about it.

BUT – you can’t just call them up and say, “My internet is too slow”. That’s just an opinion. You need to have measurable proof that the internet speed is sub-par before you ever make the call.

Here’s how you check your internet connection speed:

1. Go to the website SpeedTest.net. If you don’t use an ad blocker, you’ll see some ads that will try to get you to click on them to check your speed or download something. Ignore all those ads. The only thing you want to do is run the actual internet connection speed test right in the middle of the page. After the page has fully loaded, you’ll see a big button in the middle that says “Begin Test”:

2. As you can see, the site figures out where you are located and puts a green triangle there (I’m in the Tampa Bay area of Florida). When you click “Begin Test” the analysis can get started. It only takes about 30 seconds.

3. What you want to pay attention to (you should write them down) are the download speed and upload speed. When the test is finished, it will look like this:

That’s the information you want to have on hand when you call your internet provider. But there’s a RIGHT way to ask them about this, and there’s a WRONG way.

The wrong way: “I just checked my internet speed, and I’m getting ___ download and ___ upload. Is that normal?”

This is wrong because then it’s really easy for the internet provider to say, “Oh yes, that’s right in the range of what your speed should be based on the package you have purchased.” In addition, they now have the perfect opportunity to try to UPsell you on buying a faster package. You have already indicated that you want faster speed, so you are obviously the perfect candidate for that sales pitch.

The right way: “Can you tell me, based on my monthly internet package, what kind of internet speeds should I be expecting?”

When you phrase it that way, they have to give you a number first. If it matches what Speedtest said you are getting, then you’re getting what you’re paying for. But if the ISP says you should be getting 50-60 download, and the test says you’re getting 30-40, then you have something to complain about. At that point, your internet provider has already said that you should be getting a certain level of speed and your test proves that you’re not getting it.

If that happens, usually the ISP will either have a technician come out to check your installation, or they’ll do some diagnostics on the router and/or modem (whichever is provided by them) and probably give you a new one if yours is too old or outdated.

What if YOU own the router?

If they run their tests and it comes back that the modem is working fine, the problem could be the router that you purchased and installed. It may need to be replaced. Fortunately, they are not that expensive so it might be time to get a new one. For home use, a router in the $50 – $75 range is almost always sufficient. Personally, I like Linksys routers because they’re really easy to set up, but other brands such as Netgear or Belkin will usually work fine. If you have any trouble with the installation, they’ll have a phone number for you to call their Tech Support and they can walk you through it (you’ll most likely be speaking to someone whose first language is not English though).

If you’ve had your router for a while, getting a brand new one could mean a world of difference for your internet connection.

The post Do you need a new router? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hacker — Where’s a good hacker when you need one? Feb 09, 2015
Want to find out your roommate’s Facebook password? Need to have a few “below average” grades removed from your college transcript? Would you like to have some embarrassing pictures removed from Google search results? If you find yourself in need of these or similar services, what you really need is… a hacker!

One thing you need to realize is that the term “hacker” has evolved over the years, and now it doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. In the past, if someone mentioned a hacker, it would conjure up images of someone trying to use their own computer to break into another computer somewhere, like the Pentagon or something. Of course, there are still people that try to do that, and they are still pretty much referred to as hackers.

But “hacking” has now taken on a whole new range of meanings. These days, it often means that someone has figured out a way to do something that makes it easier, or a process that just seems to make more sense.

For example – if your microwave has old particles of dried food on the inside because of splatter that has accumulated, and you want to easily clean it, here’s a kitchen “hack” – fill a bowl with water and microwave it for a couple of minutes. The steam will loosen the dried-on food, making it easier to clean off.

Here’s another one – if you notice little pieces of debris or dirt down between the keys of your computer keyboard, just take a single Post-It note and drag it in between the rows to pick up some of that junk. That’s a “hack” that I’ve been doing for a long time.

There’s actually a very popular website devoted to hacks in all areas of life – it’s Lifehacker.com. There are some great ideas on there.

BUT… what if you need one of the old-style hackers? You know, the kind of sneaky person that knows how to get into some other computer and change things around or manipulate some information in your favor? That’s when you need Hackerslist!

You can find this at Hackerslist.com, and what it’s supposed to be is just what the name indicates – a list of hackers advertising their services for whatever type of computer hacking job you need to have done.

You can post your hacking job request, and what you’re willing to pay, and then the “hackers” on the site can bid on your job. In browsing the site, here are some of the hacking jobs being requested:

Fiance Gmail Password:
“I would like the current password of my fiancé’s GMAIL email account due to work issues he is having that he will not let me help him with that are affecting our relationship. Obviously remaining discreet and professional, thank you.”
Willing to pay: $200 – $300

Need to hack a dating website:
“I want access to a person’s account on a dating website. I know the person’s full name as well as their username. I am not sure if this project is even possible. I want to be able to see/read this person’s messages and friends. If possible, I want this done without them finding out so that I can access the account multiple times.”
Willing to pay: $100 – $1000

Clean driving record:
“I need a hacker to clean my driving record in AZ. recently received a DUI and got an “Admin per se” diving with BAC > .08. Also remove any driving tickets i may have. Remove my suspention currently in place”
Willing to pay: $100 – $1000

Project Justice:
“I have been cheated by my business partner and He has managed to disconnect me from all business contracts. I wanted to find how he swindled the money.”
Willing to pay: $500 – $2000

Credit Report:
“Fix credit bureau information and erroneous data stored.”
Willing to pay: $500 – $2000

Frankly, I don’t know of some of these things are even possible. I’m sure a lot of people would like to just pay some money and have their driving record cleaned up, but my guess is that the Department of Motor Vehicles has their computer system pretty well locked down so that stuff like that just doesn’t happen. Of course, the big exception would be if the “hacker” is really just someone that works at the DMV and has access to make those changes. But would they really risk their job (and possibly jail time) just for $1000? I guess some people would.

And what about the one about removing erroneous information from a credit report? That’s something that the owner of that credit report can do for free, but I suppose some people don’t know that.

And what if someone SAYS they can hack into Gmail and get someone’s password, but then you pay the money and it turns out they are unable to do the job? The website has anticipated that problem and taken a few steps to protect its users:

1. If a hacker doesn’t maintain at least a 3-star rating or if he has too many disputes, he is removed from the site.

2. The website administrators have to approve a hacker before he is even allowed to bid on any projects.

3. Hackers with low ratings are charged a higher percentage, so they have a financial incentive to have more positive reviews.

4. Escrow – you can choose to have your payment held in escrow, so that the hacker doesn’t get paid until you say you are satisfied that he completed the job.

One of the interesting things on the site is their disclaimer – “Hackerslist is intended for legal and ethical use. If you feel a project violates our terms of service please report the listing immediately. We do our best to moderate projects however we rely on the community to aid in this process.” Of course they have to put something on there so that they can claim innocence when they are inevitably sued. But it seems to be just a formality, since I’m sure a large percentage of the jobs up for bid on the site are actually illegal, and many of them were posted several weeks or months ago.

It’s a fun thing to check out anyway, even if you would never actually hire a hacker. I’m no marriage counselor, but I would think hacking into your fiance’s email is probably not a good start for a lifelong relationship.

The post Where’s a good hacker when you need one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Where’s a good hacker when you need one? Feb 09, 2015
Want to find out your roommate’s Facebook password? Need to have a few “below average” grades removed from your college transcript? Would you like to have some embarrassing pictures removed from Google search results? If you find yourself in need of these or similar services, what you really need is… a hacker!

One thing you need to realize is that the term “hacker” has evolved over the years, and now it doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. In the past, if someone mentioned a hacker, it would conjure up images of someone trying to use their own computer to break into another computer somewhere, like the Pentagon or something. Of course, there are still people that try to do that, and they are still pretty much referred to as hackers.

But “hacking” has now taken on a whole new range of meanings. These days, it often means that someone has figured out a way to do something that makes it easier, or a process that just seems to make more sense.

For example – if your microwave has old particles of dried food on the inside because of splatter that has accumulated, and you want to easily clean it, here’s a kitchen “hack” – fill a bowl with water and microwave it for a couple of minutes. The steam will loosen the dried-on food, making it easier to clean off.

Here’s another one – if you notice little pieces of debris or dirt down between the keys of your computer keyboard, just take a single Post-It note and drag it in between the rows to pick up some of that junk. That’s a “hack” that I’ve been doing for a long time.

There’s actually a very popular website devoted to hacks in all areas of life – it’s Lifehacker.com. There are some great ideas on there.

BUT… what if you need one of the old-style hackers? You know, the kind of sneaky person that knows how to get into some other computer and change things around or manipulate some information in your favor? That’s when you need Hackerslist!

You can find this at Hackerslist.com, and what it’s supposed to be is just what the name indicates – a list of hackers advertising their services for whatever type of computer hacking job you need to have done.

You can post your hacking job request, and what you’re willing to pay, and then the “hackers” on the site can bid on your job. In browsing the site, here are some of the hacking jobs being requested:

Fiance Gmail Password:
“I would like the current password of my fiancé’s GMAIL email account due to work issues he is having that he will not let me help him with that are affecting our relationship. Obviously remaining discreet and professional, thank you.”
Willing to pay: $200 – $300

Need to hack a dating website:
“I want access to a person’s account on a dating website. I know the person’s full name as well as their username. I am not sure if this project is even possible. I want to be able to see/read this person’s messages and friends. If possible, I want this done without them finding out so that I can access the account multiple times.”
Willing to pay: $100 – $1000

Clean driving record:
“I need a hacker to clean my driving record in AZ. recently received a DUI and got an “Admin per se” diving with BAC > .08. Also remove any driving tickets i may have. Remove my suspention currently in place”
Willing to pay: $100 – $1000

Project Justice:
“I have been cheated by my business partner and He has managed to disconnect me from all business contracts. I wanted to find how he swindled the money.”
Willing to pay: $500 – $2000

Credit Report:
“Fix credit bureau information and erroneous data stored.”
Willing to pay: $500 – $2000

Frankly, I don’t know of some of these things are even possible. I’m sure a lot of people would like to just pay some money and have their driving record cleaned up, but my guess is that the Department of Motor Vehicles has their computer system pretty well locked down so that stuff like that just doesn’t happen. Of course, the big exception would be if the “hacker” is really just someone that works at the DMV and has access to make those changes. But would they really risk their job (and possibly jail time) just for $1000? I guess some people would.

And what about the one about removing erroneous information from a credit report? That’s something that the owner of that credit report can do for free, but I suppose some people don’t know that.

And what if someone SAYS they can hack into Gmail and get someone’s password, but then you pay the money and it turns out they are unable to do the job? The website has anticipated that problem and taken a few steps to protect its users:

1. If a hacker doesn’t maintain at least a 3-star rating or if he has too many disputes, he is removed from the site.

2. The website administrators have to approve a hacker before he is even allowed to bid on any projects.

3. Hackers with low ratings are charged a higher percentage, so they have a financial incentive to have more positive reviews.

4. Escrow – you can choose to have your payment held in escrow, so that the hacker doesn’t get paid until you say you are satisfied that he completed the job.

One of the interesting things on the site is their disclaimer – “Hackerslist is intended for legal and ethical use. If you feel a project violates our terms of service please report the listing immediately. We do our best to moderate projects however we rely on the community to aid in this process.” Of course they have to put something on there so that they can claim innocence when they are inevitably sued. But it seems to be just a formality, since I’m sure a large percentage of the jobs up for bid on the site are actually illegal, and many of them were posted several weeks or months ago.

It’s a fun thing to check out anyway, even if you would never actually hire a hacker. I’m no marriage counselor, but I would think hacking into your fiance’s email is probably not a good start for a lifelong relationship.

The post Where’s a good hacker when you need one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Nanny Scam — Don’t get nailed by the Nanny Scam! Feb 02, 2015
My wife Jeanne recently embarked on a new career – she is a nanny for a young couple with a newborn baby girl. She loves babies anyway, so spending her days taking care of one is pretty much her dream job. And of course the baby’s parents love Jeanne because she has tons of experience with kids (successfully raising our own two, plus she taught First Grade for 17 years).

When my wife was searching for a family in need of a nanny, one of the services she used was Care.com. That’s an online service that matches up families and nannies. Unfortunately, it’s also a site that is used by scammers to take advantage and steal from kind-hearted people. One of the ways they do that is through the Nanny Scam.

How the Nanny Scam works

There are a few variations on this scam, but the basics are usually similar. When a nanny is looking for a family, she’ll usually post a profile on Care.com that lists previous experience and availability, and perhaps a photo. The scammer finds that profile as a potential target and contacts her to offer the “job” (which doesn’t exist of course). At some point in the beginning, the scammer sends a message that is something like this one:

Of course, the made-up story really pulls on the heartstrings of anyone that reads it and believes it. A single mother who lost her husband and baby in a tragic auto accident, and now she’s trying to make it with her small son who barely survived but needs a wheelchair. And conveniently, the “mother” can only communicate through text or email so actually speaking with her is not an option.

This is the photo that is often sent along with the heartbreaking message:

As you can see, every aspect of this back story is designed to create emotion and sympathy. And it works. Now that the bait is taken, it’s time for the scammer to set the hook. The next message explains that the son – “Joe” – needs some type of new medical equipment such as a leg brace or a wheelchair. So the mother asks if she can send the prospective nanny a check to cover the purchase of the wheelchair PLUS a few hundred dollars to compensate for the nanny’s time. The nanny just needs to deposit the check and then send the money for the wheelchair on to the medical device supplier via Western Union (or some other “same as cash” service).

So the poor gullible nanny deposits the check. She might even wait for the bank to confirm that the funds are clear, just to be safe. Then she gets cash from the bank, goes to Western Union and sends the money to the “medical device supplier” for the wheelchair.

Once that money has been sent, the nanny never hears from the mother again. She DOES however hear from the bank – telling her that the check was no good and that she needs to pay back that money. Usually the check turns out to be stolen from a company or even from an individual (often taken from the back of the checkbook so it doesn’t get noticed right away). Even though the bank has said the funds are “clear” it often can take a few weeks for them to be notified that the check was no good, which is when they tell the victim that the money needs to be returned. And if she can’t pay back the money? She could very well be headed to jail for grand theft.

It’s bad enough when a scam victim gets stung because they thought they stumbled across a once-in-a-lifetime chance to snag a bunch of money. But in this case, the person is victimized because of having a good heart and wanting to help someone. It’s often devastating to finally realize that the very person she was trying to help is the one that stole thousands of dollars from her.

Here’s a news story about a young lady who was victimized by the Nanny Scam. Hopefully raising awareness will prevent some kind-hearted people from losing their their money to these scumbags.

The post Don’t get nailed by the Nanny Scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

nanny scam letter — Don’t get nailed by the Nanny Scam! Feb 02, 2015
My wife Jeanne recently embarked on a new career – she is a nanny for a young couple with a newborn baby girl. She loves babies anyway, so spending her days taking care of one is pretty much her dream job. And of course the baby’s parents love Jeanne because she has tons of experience with kids (successfully raising our own two, plus she taught First Grade for 17 years).

When my wife was searching for a family in need of a nanny, one of the services she used was Care.com. That’s an online service that matches up families and nannies. Unfortunately, it’s also a site that is used by scammers to take advantage and steal from kind-hearted people. One of the ways they do that is through the Nanny Scam.

How the Nanny Scam works

There are a few variations on this scam, but the basics are usually similar. When a nanny is looking for a family, she’ll usually post a profile on Care.com that lists previous experience and availability, and perhaps a photo. The scammer finds that profile as a potential target and contacts her to offer the “job” (which doesn’t exist of course). At some point in the beginning, the scammer sends a message that is something like this one:

Of course, the made-up story really pulls on the heartstrings of anyone that reads it and believes it. A single mother who lost her husband and baby in a tragic auto accident, and now she’s trying to make it with her small son who barely survived but needs a wheelchair. And conveniently, the “mother” can only communicate through text or email so actually speaking with her is not an option.

This is the photo that is often sent along with the heartbreaking message:

As you can see, every aspect of this back story is designed to create emotion and sympathy. And it works. Now that the bait is taken, it’s time for the scammer to set the hook. The next message explains that the son – “Joe” – needs some type of new medical equipment such as a leg brace or a wheelchair. So the mother asks if she can send the prospective nanny a check to cover the purchase of the wheelchair PLUS a few hundred dollars to compensate for the nanny’s time. The nanny just needs to deposit the check and then send the money for the wheelchair on to the medical device supplier via Western Union (or some other “same as cash” service).

So the poor gullible nanny deposits the check. She might even wait for the bank to confirm that the funds are clear, just to be safe. Then she gets cash from the bank, goes to Western Union and sends the money to the “medical device supplier” for the wheelchair.

Once that money has been sent, the nanny never hears from the mother again. She DOES however hear from the bank – telling her that the check was no good and that she needs to pay back that money. Usually the check turns out to be stolen from a company or even from an individual (often taken from the back of the checkbook so it doesn’t get noticed right away). Even though the bank has said the funds are “clear” it often can take a few weeks for them to be notified that the check was no good, which is when they tell the victim that the money needs to be returned. And if she can’t pay back the money? She could very well be headed to jail for grand theft.

It’s bad enough when a scam victim gets stung because they thought they stumbled across a once-in-a-lifetime chance to snag a bunch of money. But in this case, the person is victimized because of having a good heart and wanting to help someone. It’s often devastating to finally realize that the very person she was trying to help is the one that stole thousands of dollars from her.

Here’s a news story about a young lady who was victimized by the Nanny Scam. Hopefully raising awareness will prevent some kind-hearted people from losing their their money to these scumbags.

The post Don’t get nailed by the Nanny Scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Inspector Gadget — Cool tech gadgets that are cheap on Amazon Jan 26, 2015
This week, some fun stuff. It’s good to have computer tips and security alerts and warnings to back up your important data, but sometimes we need to take a break and check out some things that can amuse and entertain us. And really, some of these things can be considered computer-related or technical in some way.

Inspector Gadget

What we have here are some cool little items. All of them are:

Cheap – around $20, some a lot less

Amusing/entertaining – some may actually even be useful

Available on Amazon – at least it was when I wrote this

Have fun!

Wireless LED Motion Sensor Light

This little light just sticks up anywhere you have too much darkness, like in a closet or a pantry. It measures 3 inches square and is run by 3 AA batteries. Wherever it is, as soon as it sense motion (such as you getting into your closet to find something), the light comes on. When you leave the light goes off. Could be pretty handy.

$15.00

Quirky citrus spritzer

I can definitely see where this might be useful. It looks like one end is tubular with sharp edges. The other end is a pump sprayer. You just jam the sharp end into a fat piece of fresh fruit, then use the pump sprayer to spritz the fruit juice on your food. No batteries required, just finger motion. Doesn’t get much fresher than this!

$4.99

Talking Toilet Paper Holder

Seriously, who would not want one of these things? You can record your own message (and re-record it if you want). Then, when someone pulls on the toilet paper, it plays your pre-recorded message. I can think of a few message possibilities. It’s funny and creepy all in one.

$9.99

Laptop cooling pad

If you use a laptop regularly, you need one of these. Even if yours does not seem to get excessively hot, it does get hotter than the average desktop computer. The cooling pad pulls the hot air out and away from the computer, meaning it will run more efficiently, and therefore it should last longer. Whenever I am repairing a laptop, it’s on a cooling pad.

$9.99

Sport headband with built-in headphones

I would use this for when I run or walk. I wear a hat anyway, and I often use headphones. This gadget just combines the two. The only thing I see as a disadvantage is that the headphones are wired (the ones I use are bluetooth-enabled so they are wireless). But I still see a lot of people running with wired earphones anyway, so I’m guessing this would be pretty popular for those that like music and warm ears in the winter.

$19.99

Ringtone Annoy-a-tron

One of my favorites in this list. It’s a variation on the original, which was simply the Annoy-a-tron. The original was a tiny little device that you stuck somewhere in your victim’s house or office (in a place that it would not easily be found, like the underside of a table or the interior of a file cabinet). Then at random intervals, it would produce a little “beep” or “chirp”. Nothing loud or obnoxious, just enough to be heard and to make the victim wonder what in the world continues to make that noise. This new model mimics some common phone ring tones, and it’s also less expensive than the original, which currently sells for around $35.

$20.99

Mini stealth universal TV remote

I used to own one of these and it was a lot of fun. Small enough to hang on your keychain, so you can carry it with you everywhere. When you’re at someone’s house you could have the TV randomly change channels. It’s even more effective if you’re not actually one of the ones watching TV – maybe you’re sort of off to the side having a conversation with someone. It does confuse people since they can see the actual remote sitting there and no one is touching it. Even more fun – go to a sports bar on Super Bowl Sunday, and just as one team is about to score, switch the channel to a Hallmark movie. Just make sure no one EVER finds out it was you.

$2.72

Temperature sensitive LED faucet light

This is one of those things that has almost no practical value. The only real use for it is that you can see by the color whether the water is hot or cold. I guess that’s sort of handy. I just like it because it looks kind of cool, and it’s cheap. I think that whoever wrote the description on Amazon was probably not a native English speaker, as one of the lines read, “Make water colorful and beautiful to bring you good feeling”.

$4.39

Stink bombs

Now these obviously have LOTS of practical value. If you have a sense of humor like mine anyway. I have used these so many times over the years. The ingredient in these little things is ammonium sulfide. Sulfide like sulphur, or that wonderful “rotten egg” smell, and ammonium like ammonia, to make it really strong. That wonderfully funny chemical is inside a container made of very thin glass, so that all you need to do is put it on the floor and step on it to break it. That unmistakable, horrible smell will fill the room very quickly. If you’re at a dinner party and you happen to notice that one of the other guests goes into the bathroom, just go and “activate” one of these near the door and of course that person will catch the blame when they come out.

$6.01 (for a package of 36)

Runny nose shower gel dispenser

I don’t know when I stopped using bar soap in the shower, but it really does seem kind of old-fashioned now. Shower gel or body wash is my preference. And if you’re going to lather up in liquid soap, why not have it squirt out of a giant wall-mounted nose? The reviews aren’t that great though – apparently the nose leaks in between uses. At least it doesn’t cost very much to try.

$6.08

Blacklight flashlight

Looks like a regular flashlight, but it puts out ultraviolet light. When you shine one of these in the dark, it illuminates some things that you couldn’t see with the light on. For example, police use them to investigate a crime scene because it enables various bodily fluids to show up. You can also use it to spot certain types of rocks or minerals. Or if you use a particular type of invisible pen, anything you write can only be seen under a black light. And if you’re considering purchasing an expensive piece of art, you can use this to reveal any cracks or previous repairs.

$6.99

Battery-saving mousepad

I’m not yet convinced of the science that says the mouse pad you use can make your mouse battery last longer, but apparently that is what the “lab testing” has shown (according to the seller’s description). They say it can extend the life of your wireless mouse by up to 50%. A lot of the reviews had nice things to say about it but they weren’t talking about the battery-saving aspect of it; they just like the way the mouse pad feels, and the fact that it is adhesive so you can stick it to the desk and not have to be bothered with it moving around.

$6.99

Digital video recorder sunglasses

If you need to record a conversation or something else on video, and you can’t advertise the fact that you are recording, this would be a good way to do that. It’s a great example of how technology is able to keep making things smaller and smaller (except for smartphones – they’re getting bigger). These actual polarized sunglasses have a tiny hold in the center front and that’s where the camera lens is. It records HD video, and since the memory is expandable up to 32 GB, it can hold a LOT of video.

$19.99

Handerpants

The Amazon description says that these are a vaguely inappropriate fashion statement, and that they will distract enemies and prevent chafing. Good enough for me.

$19.50

Ham dogger

What do you do if you want to have hamburgers for dinner but the only buns you have on hand are hot dog buns? You just make the hamburgers into the shape of hot dogs! That’s what the ham dogger does. I’ve never actually seen one of these used before, but I would sure be willing to try it out.

$7.82

Muscle man chest plate

This is supposed to be something you put on under a T-shirt to make it look like you have a muscular chest and washboard abs. It sounds great in theory, but several of the reviews said that it’s just very thin rubber and doesn’t work as described. That’s probably why it’s only $18. Apparently you have to spend $60 or more to have the chest of a male model. Hey, even at that price it’s cheaper than a gym membership.

$18.09

The post Cool tech gadgets that are cheap on Amazon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

motion sensor light — Cool tech gadgets that are cheap on Amazon Jan 26, 2015
This week, some fun stuff. It’s good to have computer tips and security alerts and warnings to back up your important data, but sometimes we need to take a break and check out some things that can amuse and entertain us. And really, some of these things can be considered computer-related or technical in some way.

Inspector Gadget

What we have here are some cool little items. All of them are:

Cheap – around $20, some a lot less

Amusing/entertaining – some may actually even be useful

Available on Amazon – at least it was when I wrote this

Have fun!

Wireless LED Motion Sensor Light

This little light just sticks up anywhere you have too much darkness, like in a closet or a pantry. It measures 3 inches square and is run by 3 AA batteries. Wherever it is, as soon as it sense motion (such as you getting into your closet to find something), the light comes on. When you leave the light goes off. Could be pretty handy.

$15.00

Quirky citrus spritzer

I can definitely see where this might be useful. It looks like one end is tubular with sharp edges. The other end is a pump sprayer. You just jam the sharp end into a fat piece of fresh fruit, then use the pump sprayer to spritz the fruit juice on your food. No batteries required, just finger motion. Doesn’t get much fresher than this!

$4.99

Talking Toilet Paper Holder

Seriously, who would not want one of these things? You can record your own message (and re-record it if you want). Then, when someone pulls on the toilet paper, it plays your pre-recorded message. I can think of a few message possibilities. It’s funny and creepy all in one.

$9.99

Laptop cooling pad

If you use a laptop regularly, you need one of these. Even if yours does not seem to get excessively hot, it does get hotter than the average desktop computer. The cooling pad pulls the hot air out and away from the computer, meaning it will run more efficiently, and therefore it should last longer. Whenever I am repairing a laptop, it’s on a cooling pad.

$9.99

Sport headband with built-in headphones

I would use this for when I run or walk. I wear a hat anyway, and I often use headphones. This gadget just combines the two. The only thing I see as a disadvantage is that the headphones are wired (the ones I use are bluetooth-enabled so they are wireless). But I still see a lot of people running with wired earphones anyway, so I’m guessing this would be pretty popular for those that like music and warm ears in the winter.

$19.99

Ringtone Annoy-a-tron

One of my favorites in this list. It’s a variation on the original, which was simply the Annoy-a-tron. The original was a tiny little device that you stuck somewhere in your victim’s house or office (in a place that it would not easily be found, like the underside of a table or the interior of a file cabinet). Then at random intervals, it would produce a little “beep” or “chirp”. Nothing loud or obnoxious, just enough to be heard and to make the victim wonder what in the world continues to make that noise. This new model mimics some common phone ring tones, and it’s also less expensive than the original, which currently sells for around $35.

$20.99

Mini stealth universal TV remote

I used to own one of these and it was a lot of fun. Small enough to hang on your keychain, so you can carry it with you everywhere. When you’re at someone’s house you could have the TV randomly change channels. It’s even more effective if you’re not actually one of the ones watching TV – maybe you’re sort of off to the side having a conversation with someone. It does confuse people since they can see the actual remote sitting there and no one is touching it. Even more fun – go to a sports bar on Super Bowl Sunday, and just as one team is about to score, switch the channel to a Hallmark movie. Just make sure no one EVER finds out it was you.

$2.72

Temperature sensitive LED faucet light

This is one of those things that has almost no practical value. The only real use for it is that you can see by the color whether the water is hot or cold. I guess that’s sort of handy. I just like it because it looks kind of cool, and it’s cheap. I think that whoever wrote the description on Amazon was probably not a native English speaker, as one of the lines read, “Make water colorful and beautiful to bring you good feeling”.

$4.39

Stink bombs

Now these obviously have LOTS of practical value. If you have a sense of humor like mine anyway. I have used these so many times over the years. The ingredient in these little things is ammonium sulfide. Sulfide like sulphur, or that wonderful “rotten egg” smell, and ammonium like ammonia, to make it really strong. That wonderfully funny chemical is inside a container made of very thin glass, so that all you need to do is put it on the floor and step on it to break it. That unmistakable, horrible smell will fill the room very quickly. If you’re at a dinner party and you happen to notice that one of the other guests goes into the bathroom, just go and “activate” one of these near the door and of course that person will catch the blame when they come out.

$6.01 (for a package of 36)

Runny nose shower gel dispenser

I don’t know when I stopped using bar soap in the shower, but it really does seem kind of old-fashioned now. Shower gel or body wash is my preference. And if you’re going to lather up in liquid soap, why not have it squirt out of a giant wall-mounted nose? The reviews aren’t that great though – apparently the nose leaks in between uses. At least it doesn’t cost very much to try.

$6.08

Blacklight flashlight

Looks like a regular flashlight, but it puts out ultraviolet light. When you shine one of these in the dark, it illuminates some things that you couldn’t see with the light on. For example, police use them to investigate a crime scene because it enables various bodily fluids to show up. You can also use it to spot certain types of rocks or minerals. Or if you use a particular type of invisible pen, anything you write can only be seen under a black light. And if you’re considering purchasing an expensive piece of art, you can use this to reveal any cracks or previous repairs.

$6.99

Battery-saving mousepad

I’m not yet convinced of the science that says the mouse pad you use can make your mouse battery last longer, but apparently that is what the “lab testing” has shown (according to the seller’s description). They say it can extend the life of your wireless mouse by up to 50%. A lot of the reviews had nice things to say about it but they weren’t talking about the battery-saving aspect of it; they just like the way the mouse pad feels, and the fact that it is adhesive so you can stick it to the desk and not have to be bothered with it moving around.

$6.99

Digital video recorder sunglasses

If you need to record a conversation or something else on video, and you can’t advertise the fact that you are recording, this would be a good way to do that. It’s a great example of how technology is able to keep making things smaller and smaller (except for smartphones – they’re getting bigger). These actual polarized sunglasses have a tiny hold in the center front and that’s where the camera lens is. It records HD video, and since the memory is expandable up to 32 GB, it can hold a LOT of video.

$19.99

Handerpants

The Amazon description says that these are a vaguely inappropriate fashion statement, and that they will distract enemies and prevent chafing. Good enough for me.

$19.50

Ham dogger

What do you do if you want to have hamburgers for dinner but the only buns you have on hand are hot dog buns? You just make the hamburgers into the shape of hot dogs! That’s what the ham dogger does. I’ve never actually seen one of these used before, but I would sure be willing to try it out.

$7.82

Muscle man chest plate

This is supposed to be something you put on under a T-shirt to make it look like you have a muscular chest and washboard abs. It sounds great in theory, but several of the reviews said that it’s just very thin rubber and doesn’t work as described. That’s probably why it’s only $18. Apparently you have to spend $60 or more to have the chest of a male model. Hey, even at that price it’s cheaper than a gym membership.

$18.09

The post Cool tech gadgets that are cheap on Amazon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hard drive — Why does my hard drive show less space than it actually has? Jan 19, 2015
I recently got an email from my friend Preston, who had this question:

“I’m wondering why, when you get a new hard drive, you don’t get the full amount of space that it says on the box? When I got my PC a few years ago, it said I had that 500 GB hard drive, but when I look at the drive, it only says I have 465 GB.”

So what do you have to say, hard drive manufacturers? Is this some kind of scam on the computer users of the world?

Not a scam. There’s a legitimate explanation for this. Actually there are a few reasons why this happens.

In case you’re not familiar with this, here’s what Preston is talking about. Your computer has a primary hard drive, and it was built to store a certain amount of data. The data is measure in either gigabytes or terabytes (1000 GB is virtually equal to 1 TB). Common sizes of hard drives these days are 500 GB, 750GB, 1TB, 2TB and sometimes even larger.

For example, the primary drive in my main computer is 2 terabytes. If I pulled the drive physically out of the computer, you would see right on the label that it says it’s a 2 TB drive. But if I check it while it’s in the computer (you can do this by holding down the Windows key, and tapping the letter E), it shows a different capacity:

That’s telling me I still have 1.5 TB of free space, but it says that the total overall space on the drive is only 1.81 TB. Why would it say that, if it’s supposed to be a 2 TB drive? There are a few reasons for this.

First, there could be a hidden partition on the drive. The most common type of hidden partition on a hard drive is a recovery partition. That partition contains the files and folders that would be used if Windows got messed up and needed to be reinstalled.

You know how when you first boot up your computer and for a few seconds you see on the screen that it’s telling you to hit F10 or some other key for “Recovery Options”? That what that hidden partition would be used for. Not all computers have this – it really depends on the manufacturer. And why do they hide that partition? So we computer users don’t mess with it and screw it up! But it still uses some of the space on your hard drive even though you can’t see it normally.

Second, there is a function in Windows that uses some space. That function is called System Restore. You’ve probably heard of it. This is where you can take your computer back to the state it was in on a particular date in the past, in order to fix some kind of problem that has come up more recently. It’s a handy thing to have in certain situations, but it can use up a good bit of space. Even just storing a single “past date” hard drive system state can be substantial – and if you check your System Restore window, you could find that you have 5 or 10 of them stored!

The third reason is the file system of the hard drive itself. The data on your hard drive needs to be stored in an organized manner, and it doesn’t do that on its own. There has to be a system to organize all those bits and bytes. And that system takes up a bit of space on its own.

Think of a physical file cabinet, like the one you might have in your office. That file cabinet might have a certain amount of space inside. But can you really use 100% of that space to store your files and folders? Nope. You will need something to hold your folders in place. Usually you start with a frame like this:

That takes up a small amount of space on its own. But then you also need the things that hang from that wire framework:

Then after you have that all set up, NOW you can start filing away your manila folders with your important papers. Granted, the frame and hanging files don’t take up a LOT of space, but they do take up SOME space – meaning you don’t really get to use 100% of the space inside that file cabinet for storage of your stuff.

So when you see that your 500 GB hard drive only has 465 GB of usable space, don’t worry, because it’s normal.

The real scammers? Cereal manufacturers!

The post Why does my hard drive show less space than it actually has? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hard drive — Why does my hard drive show less space than it actually has? Jan 19, 2015
I recently got an email from my friend Preston, who had this question:

“I’m wondering why, when you get a new hard drive, you don’t get the full amount of space that it says on the box? When I got my PC a few years ago, it said I had that 500 GB hard drive, but when I look at the drive, it only says I have 465 GB.”

So what do you have to say, hard drive manufacturers? Is this some kind of scam on the computer users of the world?

Not a scam. There’s a legitimate explanation for this. Actually there are a few reasons why this happens.

In case you’re not familiar with this, here’s what Preston is talking about. Your computer has a primary hard drive, and it was built to store a certain amount of data. The data is measure in either gigabytes or terabytes (1000 GB is virtually equal to 1 TB). Common sizes of hard drives these days are 500 GB, 750GB, 1TB, 2TB and sometimes even larger.

For example, the primary drive in my main computer is 2 terabytes. If I pulled the drive physically out of the computer, you would see right on the label that it says it’s a 2 TB drive. But if I check it while it’s in the computer (you can do this by holding down the Windows key, and tapping the letter E), it shows a different capacity:

That’s telling me I still have 1.5 TB of free space, but it says that the total overall space on the drive is only 1.81 TB. Why would it say that, if it’s supposed to be a 2 TB drive? There are a few reasons for this.

First, there could be a hidden partition on the drive. The most common type of hidden partition on a hard drive is a recovery partition. That partition contains the files and folders that would be used if Windows got messed up and needed to be reinstalled.

You know how when you first boot up your computer and for a few seconds you see on the screen that it’s telling you to hit F10 or some other key for “Recovery Options”? That what that hidden partition would be used for. Not all computers have this – it really depends on the manufacturer. And why do they hide that partition? So we computer users don’t mess with it and screw it up! But it still uses some of the space on your hard drive even though you can’t see it normally.

Second, there is a function in Windows that uses some space. That function is called System Restore. You’ve probably heard of it. This is where you can take your computer back to the state it was in on a particular date in the past, in order to fix some kind of problem that has come up more recently. It’s a handy thing to have in certain situations, but it can use up a good bit of space. Even just storing a single “past date” hard drive system state can be substantial – and if you check your System Restore window, you could find that you have 5 or 10 of them stored!

The third reason is the file system of the hard drive itself. The data on your hard drive needs to be stored in an organized manner, and it doesn’t do that on its own. There has to be a system to organize all those bits and bytes. And that system takes up a bit of space on its own.

Think of a physical file cabinet, like the one you might have in your office. That file cabinet might have a certain amount of space inside. But can you really use 100% of that space to store your files and folders? Nope. You will need something to hold your folders in place. Usually you start with a frame like this:

That takes up a small amount of space on its own. But then you also need the things that hang from that wire framework:

Then after you have that all set up, NOW you can start filing away your manila folders with your important papers. Granted, the frame and hanging files don’t take up a LOT of space, but they do take up SOME space – meaning you don’t really get to use 100% of the space inside that file cabinet for storage of your stuff.

So when you see that your 500 GB hard drive only has 465 GB of usable space, don’t worry, because it’s normal.

The real scammers? Cereal manufacturers!

The post Why does my hard drive show less space than it actually has? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

free wifi safety — How to be safe on a public wifi connection Jan 12, 2015
After last week’s post and podcast about the dangers of sharing your wifi signal with your neighbor, I had several people contact me about how to keep a computer safe “the other way around”. Meaning, if you are using your neighbor’s wifi signal (with permission of course), what type of precautions should you be taking in order to protect and secure your own computer?

In general, the best plan is to use your computer the same way you would if you were on a public wifi connection and wanted to stay safe and secure.

So that naturally brings up the next question – how do you keep your computer safe on a public wifi connection?

1. Don’t have your computer connect to a public wifi automatically
This is something I’ve been guilty of. I could be in a place that has a free wifi signal, which I have used at some point in the past. And when I look at my laptop, it has already “remembered” the network and connected to it. Not good! Your computer should only go online when you are aware of it and you intentionally want it to connect to the internet. Usually when you click to connect to a wifi signal, there’s an option to “Connect automatically” – just make sure that box is not checked when you sign on.

2. Use 2-factor authentication for sites that offer it
This is a security feature that is becoming more and more common. Slightly inconvenient, yes, but only slightly. 2-factor authentication means that someone would not only need your password to get into an account; they would also need access to your phone. For example, you can have this enabled for a Gmail email account. So if you have your laptop connected to a public wifi network, and you want to check your email, you would go to the Gmail website like you normally would. You enter your email address and your password. But you’re not immediately logged into your account. Instead, Google asks you for a confirmation code as the final step before accessing your account. And you get that code through a text message on your phone. When you enter the code, you get into your email. So even if some hacker somewhere in the world guesses your Gmail password, they can’t get into your email because they don’t have your phone.

3. Turn off sharing
When you’re connected to the wifi at Starbucks, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be planning to share any files with the other people on that same network. So you shouldn’t have the various “Sharing” options enabled. Go to Control Panel and open the Network and Sharing Center, and click on “Advanced Sharing Settings”. Turn off Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and Public folder sharing:

4. Make sure you know the actual network name
If you’re in some public place like an airport or hotel lobby, and you check to see what wifi is available, you might see a network called “public wifi” or “free wifi” or “guest wifi”. It would be really easy to think, “Hey, that’s nice of them to offer people a free wifi connection!”. But you should not connect to one of them without FIRST verifying where it came from. Yes, it might just be a local business offering it to the community. But it could also be that guy over in the corner with his own wifi hotspot, wanting people to log in to HIS network so he can snoop around on your computer.

5. Consider using a VPN
That’s a Virtual Private Network. I’m not going to get into all the technical details about what a VPN is or how it’s set up. The bottom line for you is that you can run software on your computer, log in with your user name and password, and once you’re signed in you’re safe. So whether you’re signing in to your Facebook account or your email account or your Paypal account, all of your communication is encrypted. So no one can intercept it and read it.

There are lots of VPNs available for you to use. Some are free, some you pay for, depending on the features. If you want, use the comments section below to let me know which one you like best and why.

And in addition to those 5 practices, you should also do the things that are considered common sense:

Have strong antivirus/antimalware on your computer

Use strong passwords, and a different one for every account. And don’t store them in your browser.

Don’t click on a link unless you know where it will take you

Do you use your neighbor’s wifi? Do you use public wifi? What precautions do you take?

The post How to be safe on a public wifi connection first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wifi safety — How to be safe on a public wifi connection Jan 12, 2015
After last week’s post and podcast about the dangers of sharing your wifi signal with your neighbor, I had several people contact me about how to keep a computer safe “the other way around”. Meaning, if you are using your neighbor’s wifi signal (with permission of course), what type of precautions should you be taking in order to protect and secure your own computer?

In general, the best plan is to use your computer the same way you would if you were on a public wifi connection and wanted to stay safe and secure.

So that naturally brings up the next question – how do you keep your computer safe on a public wifi connection?

1. Don’t have your computer connect to a public wifi automatically
This is something I’ve been guilty of. I could be in a place that has a free wifi signal, which I have used at some point in the past. And when I look at my laptop, it has already “remembered” the network and connected to it. Not good! Your computer should only go online when you are aware of it and you intentionally want it to connect to the internet. Usually when you click to connect to a wifi signal, there’s an option to “Connect automatically” – just make sure that box is not checked when you sign on.

2. Use 2-factor authentication for sites that offer it
This is a security feature that is becoming more and more common. Slightly inconvenient, yes, but only slightly. 2-factor authentication means that someone would not only need your password to get into an account; they would also need access to your phone. For example, you can have this enabled for a Gmail email account. So if you have your laptop connected to a public wifi network, and you want to check your email, you would go to the Gmail website like you normally would. You enter your email address and your password. But you’re not immediately logged into your account. Instead, Google asks you for a confirmation code as the final step before accessing your account. And you get that code through a text message on your phone. When you enter the code, you get into your email. So even if some hacker somewhere in the world guesses your Gmail password, they can’t get into your email because they don’t have your phone.

3. Turn off sharing
When you’re connected to the wifi at Starbucks, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be planning to share any files with the other people on that same network. So you shouldn’t have the various “Sharing” options enabled. Go to Control Panel and open the Network and Sharing Center, and click on “Advanced Sharing Settings”. Turn off Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and Public folder sharing:

4. Make sure you know the actual network name
If you’re in some public place like an airport or hotel lobby, and you check to see what wifi is available, you might see a network called “public wifi” or “free wifi” or “guest wifi”. It would be really easy to think, “Hey, that’s nice of them to offer people a free wifi connection!”. But you should not connect to one of them without FIRST verifying where it came from. Yes, it might just be a local business offering it to the community. But it could also be that guy over in the corner with his own wifi hotspot, wanting people to log in to HIS network so he can snoop around on your computer.

5. Consider using a VPN
That’s a Virtual Private Network. I’m not going to get into all the technical details about what a VPN is or how it’s set up. The bottom line for you is that you can run software on your computer, log in with your user name and password, and once you’re signed in you’re safe. So whether you’re signing in to your Facebook account or your email account or your Paypal account, all of your communication is encrypted. So no one can intercept it and read it.

There are lots of VPNs available for you to use. Some are free, some you pay for, depending on the features. If you want, use the comments section below to let me know which one you like best and why.

And in addition to those 5 practices, you should also do the things that are considered common sense:

Have strong antivirus/antimalware on your computer

Use strong passwords, and a different one for every account. And don’t store them in your browser.

Don’t click on a link unless you know where it will take you

Do you use your neighbor’s wifi? Do you use public wifi? What precautions do you take?

The post How to be safe on a public wifi connection first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

wifi sharing — Should you share your internet with your neighbor? Jan 05, 2015
Recently I got an email from Barbara in Maine, with an interesting question. She wrote: “I have a next door neighbor who wants to hook into my internet and share expenses. Is that not legal to do? What do I need to know about it?” Great question, Barbara!

I’ll tell you right up front, if I were asked this by one of my neighbors, my answer would be no. For several reasons:

1. I don’t trust my neighbor enough to justify the risk this deal creates for me

That’s not to say my neighbor (let’s call him Daniel) is not a nice person, or would do anything intentionally malicious. On the contrary, Daniel and his wife are wonderful people. Always friendly, helpful, just nice to have as neighbors.

BUT – I don’t know how secure their computers are. I would be letting their computers into my network, and I don’t know what antivirus or antimalware they use. I don’t know if their software is up to date, or if their computers are even set to install Windows Updates at all. Their computers could already be riddled with viruses and malware, and I would be letting them into the “trusted” side of my wifi router, with the potential to infect all of the computers in my house.

2. I can’t really know who would be accessing the internet through my connection

Even if Daniel and his wife are completely up to date and totally secure against any viruses, what about someone else that comes to visit? I couldn’t possibly trust those people since I don’t even know them. Maybe Daniel’s 24 year old nephew, who just got out of prison and needs a place to stay for a little while, goes online with his laptop that is NOT fully protected. That puts all of your computers at risk again.

3. I could be compromising my privacy

This would depend on how you have your network set up, but in some scenarios, your neighbor (or his wife, or his criminal nephew Daniel, or Daniel’s buddies that come over) could access the files on your computer.

4. I’m responsible for the activity on my internet account

What if whoever is sharing your wifi signal decides to download some illegal music or software? Or maybe they make just a brief (or even an accidental) visit to an illegal porn website? Any activity like that would be traced back to the IP address – and that’s all on you. Are you willing to risk prison time just to share your monthly internet bill?

5. Your internet provider might not allow it

If you check the terms and conditions for your internet account, you might find that your internet provider does not allow you to share your wifi signal with any of your neighbors for the purpose of splitting the monthly cost. Of course they are aware that this does go on all the time, so if they do find out about it, they might cancel your internet account without notice.

6. Your internet could slow to a crawl

At 10 pm when you just want to get some emails processed, or you’re doing some research on the web, and you notice that web pages are loading really slowly. Maybe you’re just imagining it, or… maybe your neighbor has 3 computers and they’re all logged into Netflix with different people watching separate movies.

Hopefully those are enough reasons. For me, I would just rather pay for my own account and have it all to myself.

The post Should you share your internet with your neighbor? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Should you share your internet with your neighbor? Jan 05, 2015
Recently I got an email from Barbara in Maine, with an interesting question. She wrote: “I have a next door neighbor who wants to hook into my internet and share expenses. Is that not legal to do? What do I need to know about it?” Great question, Barbara!

I’ll tell you right up front, if I were asked this by one of my neighbors, my answer would be no. For several reasons:

1. I don’t trust my neighbor enough to justify the risk this deal creates for me

That’s not to say my neighbor (let’s call him Daniel) is not a nice person, or would do anything intentionally malicious. On the contrary, Daniel and his wife are wonderful people. Always friendly, helpful, just nice to have as neighbors.

BUT – I don’t know how secure their computers are. I would be letting their computers into my network, and I don’t know what antivirus or antimalware they use. I don’t know if their software is up to date, or if their computers are even set to install Windows Updates at all. Their computers could already be riddled with viruses and malware, and I would be letting them into the “trusted” side of my wifi router, with the potential to infect all of the computers in my house.

2. I can’t really know who would be accessing the internet through my connection

Even if Daniel and his wife are completely up to date and totally secure against any viruses, what about someone else that comes to visit? I couldn’t possibly trust those people since I don’t even know them. Maybe Daniel’s 24 year old nephew, who just got out of prison and needs a place to stay for a little while, goes online with his laptop that is NOT fully protected. That puts all of your computers at risk again.

3. I could be compromising my privacy

This would depend on how you have your network set up, but in some scenarios, your neighbor (or his wife, or his criminal nephew Daniel, or Daniel’s buddies that come over) could access the files on your computer.

4. I’m responsible for the activity on my internet account

What if whoever is sharing your wifi signal decides to download some illegal music or software? Or maybe they make just a brief (or even an accidental) visit to an illegal porn website? Any activity like that would be traced back to the IP address – and that’s all on you. Are you willing to risk prison time just to share your monthly internet bill?

5. Your internet provider might not allow it

If you check the terms and conditions for your internet account, you might find that your internet provider does not allow you to share your wifi signal with any of your neighbors for the purpose of splitting the monthly cost. Of course they are aware that this does go on all the time, so if they do find out about it, they might cancel your internet account without notice.

6. Your internet could slow to a crawl

At 10 pm when you just want to get some emails processed, or you’re doing some research on the web, and you notice that web pages are loading really slowly. Maybe you’re just imagining it, or… maybe your neighbor has 3 computers and they’re all logged into Netflix with different people watching separate movies.

Hopefully those are enough reasons. For me, I would just rather pay for my own account and have it all to myself.

The post Should you share your internet with your neighbor? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

hacker — Hackers’ most effective route to your computer: website ads Dec 29, 2014
There used to be a traditional set of guidelines that you could go by, and by doing so you could be reasonably sure that your computer was safe from being attacked or infected by a virus or malware. Use a good antivirus, don’t open email attachments, don’t click on a link unless you know for sure where it leads, and don’t visit sketchy websites. Those are all still good and important, and I highly recommend all of those guidelines. But hackers have another way into your computer – advertising on websites.

That’s right – your computer can get infected simply by visiting a website that displays a malicious ad. And before you say, “That’s okay – I don’t click on any of the ads” – it doesn’t matter. The attack does not require you to click on anything.

This type of attack is called “malvertising”. Here’s why it can be so effective:

1. It shows up on safe, respectable websites

One of the first rules you hear about for keeping your computer safe is that you shouldn’t visit sketchy websites – AKA “internet bad neighborhoods”. These usually include sites that are about pirating software, cracking passwords, downloading music or movies illegally, that kind of thing. When you visit places like that, you should just about expect to get infected.

But what if you go to a well-known, popular website that is popular in the mainstream and considered very safe? An infected ad can easily show up there. Websites for companies such as Yahoo!, CNN, Tumblr, eBay – they are all susceptible to this at different levels.

When an ad can appear on the most highly-visited, trusted websites, you can’t just filter it out based on the website’s domain because you’d be cutting off access to virtually all of the internet.

2. The attackers can usually remain anonymous

It would be easy if a website simply made a deal with a particular company to sell a particular advertising campaign. If that package of ads was found to be malicious, it would be clear who is at fault. But that’s not how it works. Website advertising for the large companies is done by ad networks. This means a website would purchase a “package” of advertising that includes lots of different ads from a wide range of companies. This is a convenient and efficient way of selling advertising, but it also makes it very difficult to dig down and find out which ad served up the malicious content.

3. Hacker attacks can target a very specific group of users

One of the greatest innovations in advertising is the ability to focus on a demographic. But this is also a curse, as it allows the bad guys to target just exactly who their victims are. If an attacker creates a pop-up ad that says “Your client records are infected – click here to fix this immediately” he might want to have that only show up on the computers of lawyers and doctors. When they focus on a certain type of user, they can use much more specific language, and even incorporate terminology and geographical references that make the user less suspicious because it all sounds so legitimate.

How do you avoid this problem?

Since you can’t just avoid going to the websites where malicious ads might appear, how do you keep these ads from infecting your computer? You can instruct your web browser to not display any ads.

For my computers, I use AdBlock Plus. It’s free at adblockplus.org.

AdBlock Plus is what’s known as a browser extension. This just means it gives your web browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera) additional functionality.

In this case the added functionality is the ability to block display ads. I’ve been using AdBlock Plus for quite a few years, and believe me – the web is a much nicer place without all the obnoxious ads to distract you. You can get more details about AdBlocker Plus, and install it in your preferred web browser, at the link listed above.

While you’re on that site, click on the “Features” section, and when you scroll down you’ll see this information listed:

This means that not only are the annoying ads not displayed, but also if a website displays content from a known malicious server, that would also be blocked. It’s just another layer of protection against the bad guys. Of course, they are constantly trying to figure out ways to get past security, so this type of protection may not always work (and it may not work indefinitely). So you can’t just install AdBlock Plus and assume it’s safe to visit any website and click on everything in sight.

When you are on the AdBlock Plus website and viewing the “Disable Malware Domains” as shown above, click on the “open this dialogue” link and make sure the feature is enabled. This is what mine looks like:

Those items that are checked are various lists of malware domains and ad servers that are blocked. You can subscribe to any of the lists you want, but I subscribe to all of them.

And a final word about blocking ads. There are some people who feel that ad blocking is an issue of ethics. Their position is that having a website costs the website owner money, and if the site is providing information or valuable content for free, the site has to have advertising in order to continue. It’s a valid point.

I’m still okay with using AdBlock Plus though, because they have taken this issue into account. The software does not block 100% of advertisements (although you can set it so that it does that if you want). By default, you will still see what are determined to be “acceptable” ads (guidelines here). So you definitely won’t see the ads that are flashing and jumping around on the screen, or the ones that play sound. You know the kind I mean. This way, it encourages the website owners to only display ads that the internet community as a whole considers acceptable. So the site can still make money via advertising.

And as I’ve said before, you still need a strong antivirus and antimalware system in place. And you need to make sure your other software such as Adobe, Java, web browsers, etc. are kept up to date. Don’t give the bad guys any advantage!

The post Hackers’ most effective route to your computer: website ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

adblocker plus — Hackers’ most effective route to your computer: website ads Dec 29, 2014
There used to be a traditional set of guidelines that you could go by, and by doing so you could be reasonably sure that your computer was safe from being attacked or infected by a virus or malware. Use a good antivirus, don’t open email attachments, don’t click on a link unless you know for sure where it leads, and don’t visit sketchy websites. Those are all still good and important, and I highly recommend all of those guidelines. But hackers have another way into your computer – advertising on websites.

That’s right – your computer can get infected simply by visiting a website that displays a malicious ad. And before you say, “That’s okay – I don’t click on any of the ads” – it doesn’t matter. The attack does not require you to click on anything.

This type of attack is called “malvertising”. Here’s why it can be so effective:

1. It shows up on safe, respectable websites

One of the first rules you hear about for keeping your computer safe is that you shouldn’t visit sketchy websites – AKA “internet bad neighborhoods”. These usually include sites that are about pirating software, cracking passwords, downloading music or movies illegally, that kind of thing. When you visit places like that, you should just about expect to get infected.

But what if you go to a well-known, popular website that is popular in the mainstream and considered very safe? An infected ad can easily show up there. Websites for companies such as Yahoo!, CNN, Tumblr, eBay – they are all susceptible to this at different levels.

When an ad can appear on the most highly-visited, trusted websites, you can’t just filter it out based on the website’s domain because you’d be cutting off access to virtually all of the internet.

2. The attackers can usually remain anonymous

It would be easy if a website simply made a deal with a particular company to sell a particular advertising campaign. If that package of ads was found to be malicious, it would be clear who is at fault. But that’s not how it works. Website advertising for the large companies is done by ad networks. This means a website would purchase a “package” of advertising that includes lots of different ads from a wide range of companies. This is a convenient and efficient way of selling advertising, but it also makes it very difficult to dig down and find out which ad served up the malicious content.

3. Hacker attacks can target a very specific group of users

One of the greatest innovations in advertising is the ability to focus on a demographic. But this is also a curse, as it allows the bad guys to target just exactly who their victims are. If an attacker creates a pop-up ad that says “Your client records are infected – click here to fix this immediately” he might want to have that only show up on the computers of lawyers and doctors. When they focus on a certain type of user, they can use much more specific language, and even incorporate terminology and geographical references that make the user less suspicious because it all sounds so legitimate.

How do you avoid this problem?

Since you can’t just avoid going to the websites where malicious ads might appear, how do you keep these ads from infecting your computer? You can instruct your web browser to not display any ads.

For my computers, I use AdBlock Plus. It’s free at adblockplus.org.

AdBlock Plus is what’s known as a browser extension. This just means it gives your web browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera) additional functionality.

In this case the added functionality is the ability to block display ads. I’ve been using AdBlock Plus for quite a few years, and believe me – the web is a much nicer place without all the obnoxious ads to distract you. You can get more details about AdBlocker Plus, and install it in your preferred web browser, at the link listed above.

While you’re on that site, click on the “Features” section, and when you scroll down you’ll see this information listed:

This means that not only are the annoying ads not displayed, but also if a website displays content from a known malicious server, that would also be blocked. It’s just another layer of protection against the bad guys. Of course, they are constantly trying to figure out ways to get past security, so this type of protection may not always work (and it may not work indefinitely). So you can’t just install AdBlock Plus and assume it’s safe to visit any website and click on everything in sight.

When you are on the AdBlock Plus website and viewing the “Disable Malware Domains” as shown above, click on the “open this dialogue” link and make sure the feature is enabled. This is what mine looks like:

Those items that are checked are various lists of malware domains and ad servers that are blocked. You can subscribe to any of the lists you want, but I subscribe to all of them.

And a final word about blocking ads. There are some people who feel that ad blocking is an issue of ethics. Their position is that having a website costs the website owner money, and if the site is providing information or valuable content for free, the site has to have advertising in order to continue. It’s a valid point.

I’m still okay with using AdBlock Plus though, because they have taken this issue into account. The software does not block 100% of advertisements (although you can set it so that it does that if you want). By default, you will still see what are determined to be “acceptable” ads (guidelines here). So you definitely won’t see the ads that are flashing and jumping around on the screen, or the ones that play sound. You know the kind I mean. This way, it encourages the website owners to only display ads that the internet community as a whole considers acceptable. So the site can still make money via advertising.

And as I’ve said before, you still need a strong antivirus and antimalware system in place. And you need to make sure your other software such as Adobe, Java, web browsers, etc. are kept up to date. Don’t give the bad guys any advantage!

The post Hackers’ most effective route to your computer: website ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

low disk space — 4 ways to free up space on your Windows hard drive Dec 22, 2014
Years ago, hard drive space was an issue that I dealt with more often. Back in the days of 40 gb and 80 gb hard drives, it didn’t take a whole lot to fill one up. Then you started getting the warnings “Drive C is getting low on space”. These days, with hard drives more commonly in the 1 terabyte (1000 gb) range, it’s not as big of a problem (but that creates a different problem, which I’ll talk about in a minute). But even now I sometimes see a client’s computer that is getting pretty full. And by “pretty full” I mean that less than 10% of the drive’s storage capacity is still available.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do quickly and easily to free up some space. In fact, you might even be surprised at how quick and easy it is.

First, you can delete temporary internet files. When you visit a website, your computer will often store the images from that site temporarily on your hard drive. That way, if you go back to that same site tomorrow or next week, the site will load more quickly because you’re loading all those images from your hard drive instead of downloading them from the internet again. As you might imaging, storing those images can take up a chunk of space on your hard drive. You can get rid of them.

Second, you can empty your Recycle Bin. I must confess, I don’t do this very often, and my Recycle Bin gets pretty full. Whatever is in there is taking up valuable hard drive space.

Third, you can delete temporary files. Wait a minute – isn’t that what we did in step one? Nope! In what might seem like a confusing choice of terminology, these are two different things. These temporary files don’t come from the internet, they come from programs installed on your computer. Some programs are designed to store some files on your computer for a period of time, but they aren’t really necessary for your computer to function properly, so you can get rid of them to save space.

Fourth, you can delete Windows Updates that are already installed and working. Don’t worry, deleting them doesn’t actually remove the update itself; it just removes the installer file that was originally downloaded. Sometimes these can take quite a bit of space, and you don’t need them any more since they have already been installed.

So there you are, four ways you can immediately save some space (maybe a lot of space). It sounds like you’ll have to jump through all kinds of hoops and follow a lot of complicated steps to do all those things, right? Wrong. It’s easy!

(Note: the steps below are based on Windows 7. If you have Windows 8 or 8.1, go to Control Panel and click to open Administrative Tools. Then double click on Disk Cleanup. Then start with Step 4 below. And yes, there are other ways to get to that same place. For another option on how to do this, listen to today’s podcast by clicking on the “play” button above.)

Here’s how you free up space on your Windows 7 hard drive:

1. Click the Start button (the MS logo in the lower left corner) and type: cleanmgr

2. At the top of the Start menu, click on cleanmgr.exe

3. Choose the drive you wish to clean up (usually this will be drive C):

4. The program will go through and analyze several areas of the drive:

5. Now you will see the results of the analysis. This is the window where you will look at the 4 areas we mentioned above, check the box for each one. You will see that there is a calculation of the total amount of disk space you will gain by deleting these files. In my case, it was a little over 7 gb. To proceed, click OK and then confirm by clicking “Delete Files”.

6. You’ll see a little progress window as the files are deleted:

When that’s finished, you’re done. If you want, you can go back and check it again and see that the totals have been reset back to zero (or close to zero).

You can run this and delete these files as often as you wish. But if you find yourself constantly running out of hard drive space, this is really only a temporary fix – you really need to either replace your drive with a bigger one, or add a second hard drive just for storage. Or, you could just get a new computer – the new ones come with huge hard drives and you’ll probably never lack for space.

One more thing. I mentioned above that the newer machines with the really big hard drives cause a different problem. That problem is disorganization. When your hard drive is small and you only have limited storage space, you tend to be organized, and frugal about what you put on the drive. Now, with the larger drives, many people just download everything and store stuff all over the place. Since they don’t have to be concerned with running out of space, they tend to be careless about how much they download and where it all goes.

You can of course use your computer any way you want, but my recommendation is that you keep it organized. This will save you time and potential headaches down the road, when you’re trying to remember where you stored a particular file or folder.

The post 4 ways to free up space on your Windows hard drive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

low disk space — 4 ways to free up space on your Windows hard drive Dec 22, 2014
Years ago, hard drive space was an issue that I dealt with more often. Back in the days of 40 gb and 80 gb hard drives, it didn’t take a whole lot to fill one up. Then you started getting the warnings “Drive C is getting low on space”. These days, with hard drives more commonly in the 1 terabyte (1000 gb) range, it’s not as big of a problem (but that creates a different problem, which I’ll talk about in a minute). But even now I sometimes see a client’s computer that is getting pretty full. And by “pretty full” I mean that less than 10% of the drive’s storage capacity is still available.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do quickly and easily to free up some space. In fact, you might even be surprised at how quick and easy it is.

First, you can delete temporary internet files. When you visit a website, your computer will often store the images from that site temporarily on your hard drive. That way, if you go back to that same site tomorrow or next week, the site will load more quickly because you’re loading all those images from your hard drive instead of downloading them from the internet again. As you might imaging, storing those images can take up a chunk of space on your hard drive. You can get rid of them.

Second, you can empty your Recycle Bin. I must confess, I don’t do this very often, and my Recycle Bin gets pretty full. Whatever is in there is taking up valuable hard drive space.

Third, you can delete temporary files. Wait a minute – isn’t that what we did in step one? Nope! In what might seem like a confusing choice of terminology, these are two different things. These temporary files don’t come from the internet, they come from programs installed on your computer. Some programs are designed to store some files on your computer for a period of time, but they aren’t really necessary for your computer to function properly, so you can get rid of them to save space.

Fourth, you can delete Windows Updates that are already installed and working. Don’t worry, deleting them doesn’t actually remove the update itself; it just removes the installer file that was originally downloaded. Sometimes these can take quite a bit of space, and you don’t need them any more since they have already been installed.

So there you are, four ways you can immediately save some space (maybe a lot of space). It sounds like you’ll have to jump through all kinds of hoops and follow a lot of complicated steps to do all those things, right? Wrong. It’s easy!

(Note: the steps below are based on Windows 7. If you have Windows 8 or 8.1, go to Control Panel and click to open Administrative Tools. Then double click on Disk Cleanup. Then start with Step 4 below. And yes, there are other ways to get to that same place. For another option on how to do this, listen to today’s podcast by clicking on the “play” button above.)

Here’s how you free up space on your Windows 7 hard drive:

1. Click the Start button (the MS logo in the lower left corner) and type: cleanmgr

2. At the top of the Start menu, click on cleanmgr.exe

3. Choose the drive you wish to clean up (usually this will be drive C):

4. The program will go through and analyze several areas of the drive:

5. Now you will see the results of the analysis. This is the window where you will look at the 4 areas we mentioned above, check the box for each one. You will see that there is a calculation of the total amount of disk space you will gain by deleting these files. In my case, it was a little over 7 gb. To proceed, click OK and then confirm by clicking “Delete Files”.

6. You’ll see a little progress window as the files are deleted:

When that’s finished, you’re done. If you want, you can go back and check it again and see that the totals have been reset back to zero (or close to zero).

You can run this and delete these files as often as you wish. But if you find yourself constantly running out of hard drive space, this is really only a temporary fix – you really need to either replace your drive with a bigger one, or add a second hard drive just for storage. Or, you could just get a new computer – the new ones come with huge hard drives and you’ll probably never lack for space.

One more thing. I mentioned above that the newer machines with the really big hard drives cause a different problem. That problem is disorganization. When your hard drive is small and you only have limited storage space, you tend to be organized, and frugal about what you put on the drive. Now, with the larger drives, many people just download everything and store stuff all over the place. Since they don’t have to be concerned with running out of space, they tend to be careless about how much they download and where it all goes.

You can of course use your computer any way you want, but my recommendation is that you keep it organized. This will save you time and potential headaches down the road, when you’re trying to remember where you stored a particular file or folder.

The post 4 ways to free up space on your Windows hard drive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

mystery — Questions that seem to have no answer Dec 15, 2014
I have 3 mysterious questions for you this week. Don’t worry, there will be a computer-related tip before we’re done here.

Mystery number 1: Why can’t I add simple numbers in my head?

This is just a simple addition problem. But you cannot use a calculator or a pencil and paper. This must be done completely in your head.

Try it:

Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10.

What is the total?

I’ll put the answer at the end of this post. No cheating! Come up with the answer in your head and see if you got it right.

Mystery number 2: Where did the other dollar go?

This one has been one of my favorite word problems for many years. It seems so simple, but can be so confounding.

Here’s the story:

Three men are traveling and stop for the night at a hotel.

They decided they want to save some money and share a room. The clerk tells them that a room for the night is $30.

So each man pays $10, and they go up to the room.

A little while later, the clerk realizes that he made a mistake. The room was only supposed to be $25.

So he gives the bellhop $5, and tells him, “I overcharged the 3 men – go and give them this $5 back.”

The bellhop heads toward the room, but he’s not very honest. On the way to the room, he decides to keep $2 for himself. He goes to three men and only gives them back $3 (which of course is a refund of $1 each).

Now let’s think about this. We started out with the men paying $30 total, right?

So originally each man paid $10. Now each man got a dollar back, which means that each man has now paid $9.

$9 x 3 men = $27. The bellhop kept $2. That’s $29.

Where did the other dollar go?

Mystery number 3: Why do people continue to pay for a service that they no longer use?

This question is the one that’s computer/internet related.

A long time ago, back when the internet was still a new toy to a lot of people, America Online was a very popular Internet Service Provider. Most people still had dial-up service. And no matter where you went, there was a display of AOL computer discs – always free – that would install the AOL software on your computer. This would create an account for you to connect to the internet, and back then it was like $9.95 per month. It gradually grew to $12 and later $15 per month.

That monthly fee was what allowed the customer to actually connect to the internet.

Fast forward to today. Most people now use cable or some other type of high-speed internet connection. There are still some people (like those in very rural areas) who use AOL’s dialup internet service, but that number is steadily declining as high-speed access spreads.

But guess what – many of the people that no longer use AOL to connect to the internet still pay AOL for that monthly subscription.

It’s true. The average AOL “subscriber” currently pays $21.35 per month and AOL continues to increase the monthly fee by adding on additional “services” such as antivirus and premium tech support. But millions of those people don’t even use AOL’s service because they have switched to a high-speed internet connection.

In fact, in the most recent fiscal quarter, the division of AOL that includes dialup service took in $139 million. With a continually declining user base, the one thing keeping AOL alive right now are these millions of people that are paying for nothing.

For some of these people, I know the reason why because I have talked to them personally. They think that in order to keep their AOL email address they need to keep paying their monthly subscription. This is not true. AOL email is free (and in my opinion, even that is overpriced).

So here’s the computer tip for today: if you are still paying AOL just to keep your email account, stop! Cancel your AOL subscription. You won’t lose your email address. And when you do cancel, check your credit card statement to make sure they don’t just “forget” and keep charging you anyway – that’s the standard practice for AOL.

And the correct total for the first mystery question is 4100. Most people, myself included, come up with 5000. Get a calculator and check it.

The post Questions that seem to have no answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

AOL disc — Questions that seem to have no answer Dec 15, 2014
I have 3 mysterious questions for you this week. Don’t worry, there will be a computer-related tip before we’re done here.

Mystery number 1: Why can’t I add simple numbers in my head?

This is just a simple addition problem. But you cannot use a calculator or a pencil and paper. This must be done completely in your head.

Try it:

Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10.

What is the total?

I’ll put the answer at the end of this post. No cheating! Come up with the answer in your head and see if you got it right.

Mystery number 2: Where did the other dollar go?

This one has been one of my favorite word problems for many years. It seems so simple, but can be so confounding.

Here’s the story:

Three men are traveling and stop for the night at a hotel.

They decided they want to save some money and share a room. The clerk tells them that a room for the night is $30.

So each man pays $10, and they go up to the room.

A little while later, the clerk realizes that he made a mistake. The room was only supposed to be $25.

So he gives the bellhop $5, and tells him, “I overcharged the 3 men – go and give them this $5 back.”

The bellhop heads toward the room, but he’s not very honest. On the way to the room, he decides to keep $2 for himself. He goes to three men and only gives them back $3 (which of course is a refund of $1 each).

Now let’s think about this. We started out with the men paying $30 total, right?

So originally each man paid $10. Now each man got a dollar back, which means that each man has now paid $9.

$9 x 3 men = $27. The bellhop kept $2. That’s $29.

Where did the other dollar go?

Mystery number 3: Why do people continue to pay for a service that they no longer use?

This question is the one that’s computer/internet related.

A long time ago, back when the internet was still a new toy to a lot of people, America Online was a very popular Internet Service Provider. Most people still had dial-up service. And no matter where you went, there was a display of AOL computer discs – always free – that would install the AOL software on your computer. This would create an account for you to connect to the internet, and back then it was like $9.95 per month. It gradually grew to $12 and later $15 per month.

That monthly fee was what allowed the customer to actually connect to the internet.

Fast forward to today. Most people now use cable or some other type of high-speed internet connection. There are still some people (like those in very rural areas) who use AOL’s dialup internet service, but that number is steadily declining as high-speed access spreads.

But guess what – many of the people that no longer use AOL to connect to the internet still pay AOL for that monthly subscription.

It’s true. The average AOL “subscriber” currently pays $21.35 per month and AOL continues to increase the monthly fee by adding on additional “services” such as antivirus and premium tech support. But millions of those people don’t even use AOL’s service because they have switched to a high-speed internet connection.

In fact, in the most recent fiscal quarter, the division of AOL that includes dialup service took in $139 million. With a continually declining user base, the one thing keeping AOL alive right now are these millions of people that are paying for nothing.

For some of these people, I know the reason why because I have talked to them personally. They think that in order to keep their AOL email address they need to keep paying their monthly subscription. This is not true. AOL email is free (and in my opinion, even that is overpriced).

So here’s the computer tip for today: if you are still paying AOL just to keep your email account, stop! Cancel your AOL subscription. You won’t lose your email address. And when you do cancel, check your credit card statement to make sure they don’t just “forget” and keep charging you anyway – that’s the standard practice for AOL.

And the correct total for the first mystery question is 4100. Most people, myself included, come up with 5000. Get a calculator and check it.

The post Questions that seem to have no answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

AVG sucks — AVG has gone to the dark side Dec 08, 2014
There was a time when I used and recommended AVG as a reliable option for a free antivirus. I stopped using it about 4 years ago, mainly because the software itself wasn’t really compatible with all Windows computers. When I make a recommendation, I try to make sure it’s something that won’t freeze up your PC. Now, AVG has given us some new reasons to not use their software. AVG has become one of the “bad guys” – now they’ll try to sneak malware and junkware on to your computer.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it? One of the companies that asks you to trust it to keep your computer clean of viruses and malware actually ends up trying to put that junk ON your computer.

To verify this for myself, I went through the process of installing the free AVG antivirus program on my computer.

At the AVG web page, the first button to click on is a big tipoff:

You can see that the big green button indicates that the download is not coming from the AVG website, but rather from CNET – probably better known as Download.com. Back in the early days of the internet, CNET was a great source for technology news. And I used to go to Download.com all the time to find new software and try it out. But that has all changed, a good while ago. Download.com is one of the biggest sources for deceitful junkware and malware on the internet. Rather than delivering quality content, they now make their money by sneaking garbage on to your computer.

I downloaded and ran the installer. Of course, the first thing that comes up is to accept their terms and conditions. Nothing to be surprised about there, really – just about every software installation has this now.

I was a bit surprised at the size of the Agreement, however. I copied it into a Word document and checked the size, and it came to 23 pages – 11,814 words. That’s a lot of legal talk for a free program. Wonder why their lawyers had so much to say?

Here’s the big “fork in the road” during the installation process where many people make the wrong choice. You can do the “Standard” install or the “Custom” install. Of course “Standard” is pre-checked because that’s what AVG wants you to do. And look at the “Custom” option – it says it’s for “advanced users”. How many people would consider themselves “advanced users” – just that phrase would intimidate some people and they would choose the Standard install just because they assume it will be easier.

Here’s a tip for whenever you are installing software on your computer: ALWAYS choose the custom installation option. Here’s how you should really read it:

Standard install: We have a ton of junk we want to put on your computer, and you’re agreeing that we can put ALL of it on without giving you any further warnings.

Custom install: We’ll show you the list of junk we want to put on your computer, and you can choose which ones actually get installed.

But for the purpose of this review, I chose Standard installation like a lot of people would. Now the real download begins:

When the download was completed, I was graciously offered the chance to give my email address and get another program – “Quick Tune”. It says Quick Tune can speed up my PC by fixing common computer problems. This is crapware that you don’t want, but the makers of Quick Tune have paid AVG to offer it to you as a “benefit”. I declined.

And now the onslaught begins.

Shortly after the installation, I got a pop-up on my screen:

This is where the true irony comes in.

One of the primary purposes for having security software is protect against something called browser hijacking. Browser hijacking is what has happened when you suddenly notice your home page has changed to a different website. A true hijack also changes your default search engine and your “new tab” page (the website that shows up by default whenever you open a new tab in your web browser).

That pop-up from AVG wants to do all of those things. If I allowed this (as a lot of people do, when they see the big “OK” button there), then every time I open up my web browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) it’s going to automatically go to the AVG Secure Search page, rather than whatever page I currently have it going to. And when I open a new tab, that new tab is also going to display that page. And whenever I do a web search, I won’t be searching on Google now – I’ll be searching on “AVG Secure Search”.

So by clicking on the AVG pop-up that is offering to protect my web browser, that very thing is going to infect my web browser with all those changes that I don’t want. No thanks, AVG.

What we’ve gone over so far is more than enough to tell you that AVG is no longer one of the good guys. They are just another company that has given in to the temptation of sacrificing their customers’ user experience on the altar of making money.

But they’ve only just begun!

Check out the interesting link right in the middle of their program window:

Have you ever had a problem with your computer’s performance? Maybe it was running too slow? That’s by far the biggest complaint I hear when someone brings me their computer. So of course there are TONS of people that will click that button, thinking they are going to speed up their computer. But what really happens?

When I clicked the button, I suddenly see a new program – one which I did not request, or even know about. It’s called PC Analyzer. And there it goes, supposedly checking my registry for errors, my hard drive for defragmentation, etc. And what a surprise – it found “Severe” problems with my computer. As you might already know, this is a standard practice for scam malware programs to make money. These are the basic steps:

Alert you to the “danger” areas in your computer (problems that were previously unknown, but now you know about them thanks to this lifesaving program)

Offer to fix these non-existent problems (a solution which you need to pay for, of course)

And that is exactly the process that AVG is using. It found all of these supposed dangerous errors on my computer, and right next to the “Fix Now” button was this little explanation:

So they are offering to sell me the solution to the problems that they “found”. I guess if a scam works, there’s no point in changing it. I would love to know how much money AVG makes just from this one small area. Again, so many people will just click the “Fix now” button without reading the fine print – and that’s what AVG is counting on.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go uninstall some garbage from my computer.

And if you’re looking for a really GOOD antivirus solution that truly protects your computer (and keeps your other critical software up to date), scroll to the top of this page and click on Scott’s Managed Service Plan.

The post AVG has gone to the dark side first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

AVG sucks — AVG has gone to the dark side Dec 08, 2014
There was a time when I used and recommended AVG as a reliable option for a free antivirus. I stopped using it about 4 years ago, mainly because the software itself wasn’t really compatible with all Windows computers. When I make a recommendation, I try to make sure it’s something that won’t freeze up your PC. Now, AVG has given us some new reasons to not use their software. AVG has become one of the “bad guys” – now they’ll try to sneak malware and junkware on to your computer.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it? One of the companies that asks you to trust it to keep your computer clean of viruses and malware actually ends up trying to put that junk ON your computer.

To verify this for myself, I went through the process of installing the free AVG antivirus program on my computer.

At the AVG web page, the first button to click on is a big tipoff:

You can see that the big green button indicates that the download is not coming from the AVG website, but rather from CNET – probably better known as Download.com. Back in the early days of the internet, CNET was a great source for technology news. And I used to go to Download.com all the time to find new software and try it out. But that has all changed, a good while ago. Download.com is one of the biggest sources for deceitful junkware and malware on the internet. Rather than delivering quality content, they now make their money by sneaking garbage on to your computer.

I downloaded and ran the installer. Of course, the first thing that comes up is to accept their terms and conditions. Nothing to be surprised about there, really – just about every software installation has this now.

I was a bit surprised at the size of the Agreement, however. I copied it into a Word document and checked the size, and it came to 23 pages – 11,814 words. That’s a lot of legal talk for a free program. Wonder why their lawyers had so much to say?

Here’s the big “fork in the road” during the installation process where many people make the wrong choice. You can do the “Standard” install or the “Custom” install. Of course “Standard” is pre-checked because that’s what AVG wants you to do. And look at the “Custom” option – it says it’s for “advanced users”. How many people would consider themselves “advanced users” – just that phrase would intimidate some people and they would choose the Standard install just because they assume it will be easier.

Here’s a tip for whenever you are installing software on your computer: ALWAYS choose the custom installation option. Here’s how you should really read it:

Standard install: We have a ton of junk we want to put on your computer, and you’re agreeing that we can put ALL of it on without giving you any further warnings.

Custom install: We’ll show you the list of junk we want to put on your computer, and you can choose which ones actually get installed.

But for the purpose of this review, I chose Standard installation like a lot of people would. Now the real download begins:

When the download was completed, I was graciously offered the chance to give my email address and get another program – “Quick Tune”. It says Quick Tune can speed up my PC by fixing common computer problems. This is crapware that you don’t want, but the makers of Quick Tune have paid AVG to offer it to you as a “benefit”. I declined.

And now the onslaught begins.

Shortly after the installation, I got a pop-up on my screen:

This is where the true irony comes in.

One of the primary purposes for having security software is protect against something called browser hijacking. Browser hijacking is what has happened when you suddenly notice your home page has changed to a different website. A true hijack also changes your default search engine and your “new tab” page (the website that shows up by default whenever you open a new tab in your web browser).

That pop-up from AVG wants to do all of those things. If I allowed this (as a lot of people do, when they see the big “OK” button there), then every time I open up my web browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) it’s going to automatically go to the AVG Secure Search page, rather than whatever page I currently have it going to. And when I open a new tab, that new tab is also going to display that page. And whenever I do a web search, I won’t be searching on Google now – I’ll be searching on “AVG Secure Search”.

So by clicking on the AVG pop-up that is offering to protect my web browser, that very thing is going to infect my web browser with all those changes that I don’t want. No thanks, AVG.

What we’ve gone over so far is more than enough to tell you that AVG is no longer one of the good guys. They are just another company that has given in to the temptation of sacrificing their customers’ user experience on the altar of making money.

But they’ve only just begun!

Check out the interesting link right in the middle of their program window:

Have you ever had a problem with your computer’s performance? Maybe it was running too slow? That’s by far the biggest complaint I hear when someone brings me their computer. So of course there are TONS of people that will click that button, thinking they are going to speed up their computer. But what really happens?

When I clicked the button, I suddenly see a new program – one which I did not request, or even know about. It’s called PC Analyzer. And there it goes, supposedly checking my registry for errors, my hard drive for defragmentation, etc. And what a surprise – it found “Severe” problems with my computer. As you might already know, this is a standard practice for scam malware programs to make money. These are the basic steps:

Alert you to the “danger” areas in your computer (problems that were previously unknown, but now you know about them thanks to this lifesaving program)

Offer to fix these non-existent problems (a solution which you need to pay for, of course)

And that is exactly the process that AVG is using. It found all of these supposed dangerous errors on my computer, and right next to the “Fix Now” button was this little explanation:

So they are offering to sell me the solution to the problems that they “found”. I guess if a scam works, there’s no point in changing it. I would love to know how much money AVG makes just from this one small area. Again, so many people will just click the “Fix now” button without reading the fine print – and that’s what AVG is counting on.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go uninstall some garbage from my computer.

And if you’re looking for a really GOOD antivirus solution that truly protects your computer (and keeps your other critical software up to date), scroll to the top of this page and click on Scott’s Managed Service Plan.

The post AVG has gone to the dark side first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Safe File Converter — How to convert files without getting malware Dec 01, 2014
This is a scenario that’s repeated many thousands of times on the internet, every single day. Someone has a file on their computer, and it’s in a particular format, and they need it to be in a different format. For example, they have an MP4 video, and they want it to just be an MP3 audio file. So they go on Google and search for “how to convert mp4 to mp3” and they see lots of free software that offers to do this. They click to download and install one of them, and within minutes their computer is infected with pop-ups, fake virus alerts, and in some cases, actual viruses.

There are some actual legitimate programs that will do this, but depending on what type of file conversion you need, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You could spend a lot of time experimenting with the ones you find by searching Google before you find one that does what you want without putting a bunch of garbage on your computer.

I recently came across a service that offers file conversion, and it’s entirely web-based – which means you don’t install anything on your computer in order to use it. And it’s free (though the free option has some limitations – I’ll get to that in a minute).

As you know, I don’t recommend anything here unless I’ve used it myself. So I tried it out.

The site is called Zamzar. You can see it at Zamzar.com. No idea where they came up with that name, but that doesn’t really matter. On the home page of their site, they claim to be able to do over 1200 different types of file conversions. If you click on the link at the top of the page that says “Conversion Types” you’ll see the list of the conversions they offer, and it’s pretty impressive.

As I was browsing that list, trying to decide which one I wanted to try as a test, I saw that one of the options was to convert a video file (MP4) to an audio file (MP3). That sounded like a good one to try. This would come in handy if you have a video on your computer, like maybe your nephew giving a speech in school. But you want to listen to it in the car, so you only need the audio portion rather than the whole video.

So I chose a video file that I had already stored on my computer, and began following the simple instructions on the Zamzar website:

Step 1: Choose the file

Step 2: Choose what format you want to end up with

Step 3: Enter your email address so they can send you the link for the converted file

Step 4: Click the Convert button to start the process (Zamzar’s Privacy Policy includes: “Zamzar does not rent, sell, or share your personal information or email address with any other companies.”)

Since my file size was nice and small, I almost immediately got the notification that the file was successfully uploaded to their server:

They say their goal is to do all conversions in 10 minutes or less. For this one, it was less than a minute – the email showed up with a link for me to click.

I clicked the link, downloaded my newly-created MP3 audio file, and it played perfectly in my media player program (I use VLC Media Player, but you probably already have Windows Media Player installed on your computer for this).

Overall I was pretty impressed at the speed. A larger file would probably take longer of course. But the thing I really liked about this whole process is that there was never any chance for me to accidentally click to install malware or junkware on my computer. The website is supported by ads, but I didn’t see any deceptive ones that tried to trick you into clicking. Your experience with their ads might vary (and when I turned AdBlock Plus back on, I didn’t see any of their ads anyway).

The ads are one way the site makes money. But probably the bigger revenue for them is selling the paid version of their services.

As you might expect, the free version (the one I tried out) has some limitations:

Your original file has to be less than 100 mb in size (some video or image files can be much larger than that). Paid accounts can convert files that are up to 1 gb in size.

Your converted file is only stored on their server for you to download for 24 hours. Paid accounts get up to 100 gb of storage space that you can use continuously.

Conversions for free accounts are only done if there are no “paid” conversions being processed. Paying customers go to the front of the line.

Paid accounts also get an online “inbox” where you can manage your various files.

Their least expensive paid account is $9 per month. They also have an “intermediate” account for $16 per month, and a top paid account at $49 per month. Here’s a comparison chart for the various paid accounts (click the image to see it larger):

Personally, I really can’t see that it would be cost effective to pay monthly for a service such as this. If I’m doing that much file conversion, I’m just going to go ahead and purchase the software to do it myself. Maybe for some people and some situations it would be worthwhile, just not for me. But for the occasional times that I need this, it could be handy. And like I said, the big advantage is there is nothing to install.

They also offer conversions from a URL (for example, you want a YouTube video converted and saved to your computer). And if you want, you can even get a file converted without going to their website – they’ll do it with a specially configured email (you just attach the file you want to convert). Those services are described in the Tools section of their website.

If you try out the Zamzar service, let us know your opinion in the comments section.

The post How to convert files without getting malware first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

file conversion — How to convert files without getting malware Dec 01, 2014
This is a scenario that’s repeated many thousands of times on the internet, every single day. Someone has a file on their computer, and it’s in a particular format, and they need it to be in a different format. For example, they have an MP4 video, and they want it to just be an MP3 audio file. So they go on Google and search for “how to convert mp4 to mp3” and they see lots of free software that offers to do this. They click to download and install one of them, and within minutes their computer is infected with pop-ups, fake virus alerts, and in some cases, actual viruses.

There are some actual legitimate programs that will do this, but depending on what type of file conversion you need, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. You could spend a lot of time experimenting with the ones you find by searching Google before you find one that does what you want without putting a bunch of garbage on your computer.

I recently came across a service that offers file conversion, and it’s entirely web-based – which means you don’t install anything on your computer in order to use it. And it’s free (though the free option has some limitations – I’ll get to that in a minute).

As you know, I don’t recommend anything here unless I’ve used it myself. So I tried it out.

The site is called Zamzar. You can see it at Zamzar.com. No idea where they came up with that name, but that doesn’t really matter. On the home page of their site, they claim to be able to do over 1200 different types of file conversions. If you click on the link at the top of the page that says “Conversion Types” you’ll see the list of the conversions they offer, and it’s pretty impressive.

As I was browsing that list, trying to decide which one I wanted to try as a test, I saw that one of the options was to convert a video file (MP4) to an audio file (MP3). That sounded like a good one to try. This would come in handy if you have a video on your computer, like maybe your nephew giving a speech in school. But you want to listen to it in the car, so you only need the audio portion rather than the whole video.

So I chose a video file that I had already stored on my computer, and began following the simple instructions on the Zamzar website:

Step 1: Choose the file

Step 2: Choose what format you want to end up with

Step 3: Enter your email address so they can send you the link for the converted file

Step 4: Click the Convert button to start the process (Zamzar’s Privacy Policy includes: “Zamzar does not rent, sell, or share your personal information or email address with any other companies.”)

Since my file size was nice and small, I almost immediately got the notification that the file was successfully uploaded to their server:

They say their goal is to do all conversions in 10 minutes or less. For this one, it was less than a minute – the email showed up with a link for me to click.

I clicked the link, downloaded my newly-created MP3 audio file, and it played perfectly in my media player program (I use VLC Media Player, but you probably already have Windows Media Player installed on your computer for this).

Overall I was pretty impressed at the speed. A larger file would probably take longer of course. But the thing I really liked about this whole process is that there was never any chance for me to accidentally click to install malware or junkware on my computer. The website is supported by ads, but I didn’t see any deceptive ones that tried to trick you into clicking. Your experience with their ads might vary (and when I turned AdBlock Plus back on, I didn’t see any of their ads anyway).

The ads are one way the site makes money. But probably the bigger revenue for them is selling the paid version of their services.

As you might expect, the free version (the one I tried out) has some limitations:

Your original file has to be less than 100 mb in size (some video or image files can be much larger than that). Paid accounts can convert files that are up to 1 gb in size.

Your converted file is only stored on their server for you to download for 24 hours. Paid accounts get up to 100 gb of storage space that you can use continuously.

Conversions for free accounts are only done if there are no “paid” conversions being processed. Paying customers go to the front of the line.

Paid accounts also get an online “inbox” where you can manage your various files.

Their least expensive paid account is $9 per month. They also have an “intermediate” account for $16 per month, and a top paid account at $49 per month. Here’s a comparison chart for the various paid accounts (click the image to see it larger):

Personally, I really can’t see that it would be cost effective to pay monthly for a service such as this. If I’m doing that much file conversion, I’m just going to go ahead and purchase the software to do it myself. Maybe for some people and some situations it would be worthwhile, just not for me. But for the occasional times that I need this, it could be handy. And like I said, the big advantage is there is nothing to install.

They also offer conversions from a URL (for example, you want a YouTube video converted and saved to your computer). And if you want, you can even get a file converted without going to their website – they’ll do it with a specially configured email (you just attach the file you want to convert). Those services are described in the Tools section of their website.

If you try out the Zamzar service, let us know your opinion in the comments section.

The post How to convert files without getting malware first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

slow computer — Tweak your startup list to speed up your computer Nov 24, 2014
There are a lot of reasons why your computer might be running slowly. But one of the biggest reasons is that you have too many programs running at the same time. This can be deceiving, because you might look at your screen and it seems like only a few are running. It’s the ones that are running that you DON’T see that could be causing the problem.

Here’s the basic fact: the more programs you have running, the slower they all run. That means you don’t want to have any programs running if you don’t need them at the time.

The secret is to find the list of programs that run automatically every time you boot up the computer, and tell them not to run every time.

Here’s how you find that list:

In Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Click the Start button (the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner)

2. In the field with the blinking cursor, type: msconfig and hit Enter on the keyboard

3. In the new window that comes up, click on the “Startup” tab. There’s your list.

In Windows 8 or 8.1:

1. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT, and tap the Escape key

2. Click the “Startup” tab. There’s your list.

So now you’re looking at the list of programs that run automatically, every time you boot up your computer. Getting to that list is the easy part. Now you have to decide which items you should disable.

Important note: disabling or unchecking a program in this list does NOT remove it or uninstall it from your computer. It’s still there. It just doesn’t run automatically every time you hit the power button.

The items that I see all the time and disable or uncheck include:

iTunes

QuickTime

Adobe Reader

Microsoft Office

Anything related to your printer

GoTo Meeting

Apple Push

PaperPort anything

Nuance anything

Skype

Spotify

RealPlayer anything

There are others for sure; these are just the ones that come to mind because I see them fairly often.

Of course, you might leave one or more of those checked based on your situation. Some people like to have Skype on all the time, so that the people with whom they communicate can see when they’re online. Or maybe you want Spotify to automatically start streaming your music every time you boot up. There’s no problem with that.

What causes the problem is that so many of these programs insert themselves into the “auto startup” group without needing to be there, and without even asking your permission to be there. Like Adobe Reader. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for Adobe Reader to be constantly running in the background on your computer, but if you check the MSCONFIG startup list, it’s very likely you will find it there. So what happens when you UNcheck that box to disable it? It changes nothing as far as your ability to use it. When you click on a PDF file, it will open up in Adobe Reader just like it always does.

But Adobe doesn’t care about how fast your computer runs. If you take Adobe Reader out of the startup list, guess what happens after the next Adobe Reader update? Yep, it’s right back in the list again. AND – you’ll see an icon on your desktop for Adobe Reader. This is absolutely the most useless desktop icon ever. No one clicks on that to open the program. You just click on a PDF file, and it opens in Adobe Reader by default (unless you use a different program to read PDF files). But we’ve known for a long time that Adobe doesn’t care about your computer’s performance – every time you go to Adobe.com to get an update to Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash, it will still try to sneak other junkware on to your computer – like McAfee or Ask.com garbage.

How do you know which items to uncheck or disable?

My general rule is this: if you don’t know what it is, leave it there. But even if you uncheck something that you shouldn’t have, you can always just go back to the list and check it or enable it again.

Some things are obvious. The items I listed above don’t have to run all the time, just when you need them. Other programs in the list you might not be so sure about. What you can do is note the program name, and then do a little research on it. Find out what it does. You might discover that it’s part of the software program that goes with a printer or scanner that you don’t even use any more. Or it might be malware.

On the other hand, you will probably see your antivirus program listed there – definitely want to keep that one. You should of course also keep your program that you use for automated online backup, since that should run without you having to manually activate it.

It’s a good idea to check the MSCONFIG startup list maybe once a month or so, just to be sure things haven’t gotten in there when they shouldn’t be there. Usually there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find something that you’ll want to disable.

The post Tweak your startup list to speed up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Tweak your startup list to speed up your computer Nov 24, 2014
There are a lot of reasons why your computer might be running slowly. But one of the biggest reasons is that you have too many programs running at the same time. This can be deceiving, because you might look at your screen and it seems like only a few are running. It’s the ones that are running that you DON’T see that could be causing the problem.

Here’s the basic fact: the more programs you have running, the slower they all run. That means you don’t want to have any programs running if you don’t need them at the time.

The secret is to find the list of programs that run automatically every time you boot up the computer, and tell them not to run every time.

Here’s how you find that list:

In Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Click the Start button (the Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner)

2. In the field with the blinking cursor, type: msconfig and hit Enter on the keyboard

3. In the new window that comes up, click on the “Startup” tab. There’s your list.

In Windows 8 or 8.1:

1. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT, and tap the Escape key

2. Click the “Startup” tab. There’s your list.

So now you’re looking at the list of programs that run automatically, every time you boot up your computer. Getting to that list is the easy part. Now you have to decide which items you should disable.

Important note: disabling or unchecking a program in this list does NOT remove it or uninstall it from your computer. It’s still there. It just doesn’t run automatically every time you hit the power button.

The items that I see all the time and disable or uncheck include:

iTunes

QuickTime

Adobe Reader

Microsoft Office

Anything related to your printer

GoTo Meeting

Apple Push

PaperPort anything

Nuance anything

Skype

Spotify

RealPlayer anything

There are others for sure; these are just the ones that come to mind because I see them fairly often.

Of course, you might leave one or more of those checked based on your situation. Some people like to have Skype on all the time, so that the people with whom they communicate can see when they’re online. Or maybe you want Spotify to automatically start streaming your music every time you boot up. There’s no problem with that.

What causes the problem is that so many of these programs insert themselves into the “auto startup” group without needing to be there, and without even asking your permission to be there. Like Adobe Reader. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for Adobe Reader to be constantly running in the background on your computer, but if you check the MSCONFIG startup list, it’s very likely you will find it there. So what happens when you UNcheck that box to disable it? It changes nothing as far as your ability to use it. When you click on a PDF file, it will open up in Adobe Reader just like it always does.

But Adobe doesn’t care about how fast your computer runs. If you take Adobe Reader out of the startup list, guess what happens after the next Adobe Reader update? Yep, it’s right back in the list again. AND – you’ll see an icon on your desktop for Adobe Reader. This is absolutely the most useless desktop icon ever. No one clicks on that to open the program. You just click on a PDF file, and it opens in Adobe Reader by default (unless you use a different program to read PDF files). But we’ve known for a long time that Adobe doesn’t care about your computer’s performance – every time you go to Adobe.com to get an update to Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash, it will still try to sneak other junkware on to your computer – like McAfee or Ask.com garbage.

How do you know which items to uncheck or disable?

My general rule is this: if you don’t know what it is, leave it there. But even if you uncheck something that you shouldn’t have, you can always just go back to the list and check it or enable it again.

Some things are obvious. The items I listed above don’t have to run all the time, just when you need them. Other programs in the list you might not be so sure about. What you can do is note the program name, and then do a little research on it. Find out what it does. You might discover that it’s part of the software program that goes with a printer or scanner that you don’t even use any more. Or it might be malware.

On the other hand, you will probably see your antivirus program listed there – definitely want to keep that one. You should of course also keep your program that you use for automated online backup, since that should run without you having to manually activate it.

It’s a good idea to check the MSCONFIG startup list maybe once a month or so, just to be sure things haven’t gotten in there when they shouldn’t be there. Usually there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find something that you’ll want to disable.

The post Tweak your startup list to speed up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Chrome — Combine multiple browser tabs into ONE tab to save memory Nov 17, 2014
I love Google Chrome. I use it as my default web browser and it works great. Probably what I love most about it is how I can customize it with extensions. I can put on ad blockers and all kinds of things so that websites look and behave based on my personal preferences. Chrome has one drawback though – it tends to use a lot of the computer’s memory (RAM).

Here’s how you can see this for yourself. Open Google Chrome, then open a website in a new tab. Then open another web page in another new tab. And another. And keep doing that until you have a bunch of tabs open, each one on a different web page.

For this example, I opened 15 different tabs and each one is displaying a different product on Amazon. So the top of my Google Chrome browser looks like this:

Now, with those 15 tabs open, let’s see how much memory is being used by Chrome. To do this, we need to open Windows Task Manager. The quick way to open that is to hold down the CTRL and Shift keys, and tap the Escape key. When Task Manager opens, click on the “Processes” tab. If you look in that list of processes, you should see Chrome listed several times (once for each tab you have opened in Chrome). And each one will tell you how much memory is being used. Mine looks like this:

I didn’t add up all that, but you can see that it can pretty easily get into several gigabytes of memory. That will tend to slow things down. Of course, you might not typically have that many Chrome tabs open at the same time, but there are probably situations where you have quite a few open. I certainly do sometimes.

Thankfully, there’s a way to save the website or web page addresses for each of the tabs, but combine them all into just one single tab. It’s through a Chrome extension called OneTab. You can get it free at One-Tab.com. Just go to that website (using Chrome) and click to install it. You don’t even need to restart Chrome. When it’s running, you’ll see a little blue funnel at the top of the window:

When you click that funnel, it takes all of those individual web pages and puts them into a list of clickable links – on just one single tab. At that point, you can restore each one individually if you want, or you can restore all 15 tabs back to the way they were originally.

And the big benefit – the reason we did this in the first place – was to save on memory. Take a look at Task Manager now:

That’s a big difference! If your computer has lots of memory installed, like 8 gb or 16 gb, you might not notice a huge change in the speed of operation. But if you’re working with 4 gb of memory (which is pretty common on most computers these days) but difference in speed might be very noticeable.

And by the way – OneTab is available for Firefox also.

Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!

The post Combine multiple browser tabs into ONE tab to save memory first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Chrome — Combine multiple browser tabs into ONE tab to save memory Nov 17, 2014
I love Google Chrome. I use it as my default web browser and it works great. Probably what I love most about it is how I can customize it with extensions. I can put on ad blockers and all kinds of things so that websites look and behave based on my personal preferences. Chrome has one drawback though – it tends to use a lot of the computer’s memory (RAM).

Here’s how you can see this for yourself. Open Google Chrome, then open a website in a new tab. Then open another web page in another new tab. And another. And keep doing that until you have a bunch of tabs open, each one on a different web page.

For this example, I opened 15 different tabs and each one is displaying a different product on Amazon. So the top of my Google Chrome browser looks like this:

Now, with those 15 tabs open, let’s see how much memory is being used by Chrome. To do this, we need to open Windows Task Manager. The quick way to open that is to hold down the CTRL and Shift keys, and tap the Escape key. When Task Manager opens, click on the “Processes” tab. If you look in that list of processes, you should see Chrome listed several times (once for each tab you have opened in Chrome). And each one will tell you how much memory is being used. Mine looks like this:

I didn’t add up all that, but you can see that it can pretty easily get into several gigabytes of memory. That will tend to slow things down. Of course, you might not typically have that many Chrome tabs open at the same time, but there are probably situations where you have quite a few open. I certainly do sometimes.

Thankfully, there’s a way to save the website or web page addresses for each of the tabs, but combine them all into just one single tab. It’s through a Chrome extension called OneTab. You can get it free at One-Tab.com. Just go to that website (using Chrome) and click to install it. You don’t even need to restart Chrome. When it’s running, you’ll see a little blue funnel at the top of the window:

When you click that funnel, it takes all of those individual web pages and puts them into a list of clickable links – on just one single tab. At that point, you can restore each one individually if you want, or you can restore all 15 tabs back to the way they were originally.

And the big benefit – the reason we did this in the first place – was to save on memory. Take a look at Task Manager now:

That’s a big difference! If your computer has lots of memory installed, like 8 gb or 16 gb, you might not notice a huge change in the speed of operation. But if you’re working with 4 gb of memory (which is pretty common on most computers these days) but difference in speed might be very noticeable.

And by the way – OneTab is available for Firefox also.

Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!

The post Combine multiple browser tabs into ONE tab to save memory first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

airbnb — Using technology to get affordable travel accommodations Nov 10, 2014
I had an experience recently that I knew almost immediately would end up as a blog post and podcast episode. It’s another example of how someone came up with a great idea about yet another use for technology, and we can all benefit from it.

When you go on vacation, what are the biggest expenses for which you have to plan? Airfare of course, if you’re flying. But the next biggest one could be where you’ll be staying. Obviously you need a place to store your stuff and a place to sleep every night. Typically for most people that means finding a hotel. The price for a week or two in a hotel can vary widely. You could stay in a very nice one and pay a few hundred dollars each night per room, or you could find a cheaper place for possibly less than $100 per night. Either way, it’s going to represent a pretty big part of your travel budget.

What’s really nice is if you’re traveling to visit family or friends, and they have extra rooms so you can just stay with them. Think about this: wouldn’t it be nice if you had some family or friends to stay with wherever you went? That’s kind of what we can do now. Kind of.

Let’s say you’re traveling to Clearwater Beach (one of the greatest beaches in the world, of course). You can obviously book a hotel room (or several) and stay right there on the beach. And you pay for that service and convenience. If it’s around Christmas, or Spring Break, you’ll pay even more.

But think about what else is in the area. There are some privately owned homes that are sitting empty. Either because the owner is traveling somewhere, or the property is no longer occupied because it’s for sale, or a variety of other reasons. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just contact the owner and stay there, at a lower rate than a hotel? It’s good for you because you’re saving money, and it’s good for the homeowner because he’s making some money from this house that would otherwise just be sitting there empty.

What’s been missing in the equation is how the property owners can be connected with the people that need a place to stay. That has now been solved, thanks to a service called AirBnB. You can access it at AirBnB.com.

The basic premise is pretty simple. The website summarizes it in 3 steps:

Step 1 is to decide where you want to go, and what kind of place you want. There are actually hosts in 190 different countries, and TONS of them here in the US. You’ll find more options in highly populated areas of course, but even in rural locations you should have a few places to choose from. You can filter your choices based on location, price range, and whether you want a private room, an entire home, or even a shared room (sharing a room – that sounds like more of an adventure than I would probably want).

Step 2 is to book the reservation. This is where you actually send a request to the host and tell them what dates you want to reserve, how many people, those kinds of details. At this point, all of your communication is done through the AirBnB website. You don’t have any direct contact with the host until your reservation is accepted (hosts have the option on whether or not they will accept a reservation). Payment is also made through the website. AirBnB will charge you the advertised room rate. Added to this in some cases is a cleaning fee charged by the host. And, AirBnB will add their own “Guest Fee”, which ranges from 6% to 12% based on the room rate.

Step 3 is – go! Show up on your check-in date, meet your host, ask any final questions, and then enjoy your stay.

As I mentioned, I recently had my own first experience with this type of travel accommodations. I was scheduled to attend a writer’s conference about a month ago over in Delray Beach, Florida (about a 4 hour drive from where I live in the Tampa Bay area). Getting there was no problem of course, since it was a reasonable driving distance. However, the conference was Wednesday through Saturday so obviously I needed to find a place to stay for 3 nights.

The conference was at the Marriott right on Delray Beach. Beautiful facility, but at $200 per night plus tax, it was more than I wanted to spend. So I started looking around for alternatives. There were hotels that were less expensive, but they weren’t very close by. That meant I would be driving 30-45 minutes each way from the my hotel to the conference hotel. Not exactly ideal either.

That’s when a friend told me about AirBnB and I started checking out the possibilities there. There were several hosts within just a few miles of the Marriott, and the prices were very reasonable. Since I was traveling alone, I only needed minimal space so I limited my search to private rooms rather than a whole house or apartment. I decided on a host that offered a private room with my own full bathroom – and it was only $60 per night.

The experience was wonderful. I had my own key so I could come and go as I needed to. I had full use of the kitchen (although I only really used the fridge to store some food). Before I showed up, I sent an email asking the host if there was a television in the room. She replied, “No, but you can always use the big TV out in the living room.” That was fine since I hardly watch television anyway. But then, when I arrived and she was showing me around, she said she went out and got a TV for the room anyway since I had asked about it. So there was a flat screen television, hooked up to cable, right there on the dresser in my room.

In my case, I got to know the host and we became friends. I’m sure not all situations are like that. In fact, you might never actually meet your host face to face if they have someone else in charge of handling the guests. Each scenario is a little different.

There is one big factor that is essential for something like this to work: trust. You have to have a sense of trust in the host, that they are going to provide a safe place to stay, and that their description and pictures are accurate. And the host has to be assured that you are not some psycho, scammer, or other manner of lowlife that they would not want to deal with.

AirBnB has safety mechanisms built into the process. As a guest, you are encouraged to provide as much information as possible. This includes linking to your social media accounts such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as providing your phone number, address and other direct contact information. Also, every time you travel and use AirBnB, the host has the opportunity to give you a rating and review as to what kind of guest you were. That gives future hosts a better idea of whether or not they want to accept your reservation.

Hosts are also encouraged to provide as much detail as possible in order to make potential guests more comfortable and likely to want to stay there. And the same rating/review system is in place for hosts. They want to build up a good collection of positive ratings in order to improve their reputation and increase the likelihood of future reservations.

I know that this type of travel arrangement is not for everyone. There are those that would say, “Just go and stay at the home of a stranger? No way!” That’s fine, that’s why hotels are in business. But if you have a little flair for trying something new, I suggest giving it a shot. You might just like the experience.

The post Using technology to get affordable travel accommodations first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

airbnb — Using technology to get affordable travel accommodations Nov 10, 2014
I had an experience recently that I knew almost immediately would end up as a blog post and podcast episode. It’s another example of how someone came up with a great idea about yet another use for technology, and we can all benefit from it.

When you go on vacation, what are the biggest expenses for which you have to plan? Airfare of course, if you’re flying. But the next biggest one could be where you’ll be staying. Obviously you need a place to store your stuff and a place to sleep every night. Typically for most people that means finding a hotel. The price for a week or two in a hotel can vary widely. You could stay in a very nice one and pay a few hundred dollars each night per room, or you could find a cheaper place for possibly less than $100 per night. Either way, it’s going to represent a pretty big part of your travel budget.

What’s really nice is if you’re traveling to visit family or friends, and they have extra rooms so you can just stay with them. Think about this: wouldn’t it be nice if you had some family or friends to stay with wherever you went? That’s kind of what we can do now. Kind of.

Let’s say you’re traveling to Clearwater Beach (one of the greatest beaches in the world, of course). You can obviously book a hotel room (or several) and stay right there on the beach. And you pay for that service and convenience. If it’s around Christmas, or Spring Break, you’ll pay even more.

But think about what else is in the area. There are some privately owned homes that are sitting empty. Either because the owner is traveling somewhere, or the property is no longer occupied because it’s for sale, or a variety of other reasons. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just contact the owner and stay there, at a lower rate than a hotel? It’s good for you because you’re saving money, and it’s good for the homeowner because he’s making some money from this house that would otherwise just be sitting there empty.

What’s been missing in the equation is how the property owners can be connected with the people that need a place to stay. That has now been solved, thanks to a service called AirBnB. You can access it at AirBnB.com.

The basic premise is pretty simple. The website summarizes it in 3 steps:

Step 1 is to decide where you want to go, and what kind of place you want. There are actually hosts in 190 different countries, and TONS of them here in the US. You’ll find more options in highly populated areas of course, but even in rural locations you should have a few places to choose from. You can filter your choices based on location, price range, and whether you want a private room, an entire home, or even a shared room (sharing a room – that sounds like more of an adventure than I would probably want).

Step 2 is to book the reservation. This is where you actually send a request to the host and tell them what dates you want to reserve, how many people, those kinds of details. At this point, all of your communication is done through the AirBnB website. You don’t have any direct contact with the host until your reservation is accepted (hosts have the option on whether or not they will accept a reservation). Payment is also made through the website. AirBnB will charge you the advertised room rate. Added to this in some cases is a cleaning fee charged by the host. And, AirBnB will add their own “Guest Fee”, which ranges from 6% to 12% based on the room rate.

Step 3 is – go! Show up on your check-in date, meet your host, ask any final questions, and then enjoy your stay.

As I mentioned, I recently had my own first experience with this type of travel accommodations. I was scheduled to attend a writer’s conference about a month ago over in Delray Beach, Florida (about a 4 hour drive from where I live in the Tampa Bay area). Getting there was no problem of course, since it was a reasonable driving distance. However, the conference was Wednesday through Saturday so obviously I needed to find a place to stay for 3 nights.

The conference was at the Marriott right on Delray Beach. Beautiful facility, but at $200 per night plus tax, it was more than I wanted to spend. So I started looking around for alternatives. There were hotels that were less expensive, but they weren’t very close by. That meant I would be driving 30-45 minutes each way from the my hotel to the conference hotel. Not exactly ideal either.

That’s when a friend told me about AirBnB and I started checking out the possibilities there. There were several hosts within just a few miles of the Marriott, and the prices were very reasonable. Since I was traveling alone, I only needed minimal space so I limited my search to private rooms rather than a whole house or apartment. I decided on a host that offered a private room with my own full bathroom – and it was only $60 per night.

The experience was wonderful. I had my own key so I could come and go as I needed to. I had full use of the kitchen (although I only really used the fridge to store some food). Before I showed up, I sent an email asking the host if there was a television in the room. She replied, “No, but you can always use the big TV out in the living room.” That was fine since I hardly watch television anyway. But then, when I arrived and she was showing me around, she said she went out and got a TV for the room anyway since I had asked about it. So there was a flat screen television, hooked up to cable, right there on the dresser in my room.

In my case, I got to know the host and we became friends. I’m sure not all situations are like that. In fact, you might never actually meet your host face to face if they have someone else in charge of handling the guests. Each scenario is a little different.

There is one big factor that is essential for something like this to work: trust. You have to have a sense of trust in the host, that they are going to provide a safe place to stay, and that their description and pictures are accurate. And the host has to be assured that you are not some psycho, scammer, or other manner of lowlife that they would not want to deal with.

AirBnB has safety mechanisms built into the process. As a guest, you are encouraged to provide as much information as possible. This includes linking to your social media accounts such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as providing your phone number, address and other direct contact information. Also, every time you travel and use AirBnB, the host has the opportunity to give you a rating and review as to what kind of guest you were. That gives future hosts a better idea of whether or not they want to accept your reservation.

Hosts are also encouraged to provide as much detail as possible in order to make potential guests more comfortable and likely to want to stay there. And the same rating/review system is in place for hosts. They want to build up a good collection of positive ratings in order to improve their reputation and increase the likelihood of future reservations.

I know that this type of travel arrangement is not for everyone. There are those that would say, “Just go and stay at the home of a stranger? No way!” That’s fine, that’s why hotels are in business. But if you have a little flair for trying something new, I suggest giving it a shot. You might just like the experience.

The post Using technology to get affordable travel accommodations first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

nameless folder — How to create a Windows folder with no name Nov 03, 2014
Every week here on my blog I talk about some type of practical tip or trick that you can do with your computer. Hopefully you find some of them practical and useful. But you know what? Being a geek, I sometimes like to come across computer tricks that may not seem to have obvious practical value. That’s what today is going to be. And who knows, maybe there is some actual usefulness for this. If you find it useful in some way, please let me know in the comments below.

You’ve probably always wondered, “How can I created a folder on my computer, and give that folder a completely blank name?” Well, you can stop wondering. Here’s how you do it.

For our example, we’ll create a folder on the desktop so it will be there along with your other icons.

First, do a right-click in an open area of the desktop. In the menu that comes up, move the cursor to “New”, and then choose “Folder”.

At this point, you have a folder called “New folder”:

Do a right click on that new folder, and choose “Rename”:

Now the folder is ready for you to give it a new name. Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard, and tap the number “9” nine times (that’s 999999999) from the number pad on the right side of your keyboard. NOTE: it won’t work if you hit the 9 in the number row at the top of the keyboard – it has to be the number pad on the right side.

Now let up on the ALT key, and hit Enter on the keyboard. There you go, a folder with no name:

And that’s it. Hey, at the very least, maybe you could bet an office co-worker that you can create a nameless folder and win a dollar. For me, I just find stuff like this interesting. It’s kind of fun when you know how to do something that most people don’t.

The post How to create a Windows folder with no name first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

new folder — How to create a Windows folder with no name Nov 03, 2014
Every week here on my blog I talk about some type of practical tip or trick that you can do with your computer. Hopefully you find some of them practical and useful. But you know what? Being a geek, I sometimes like to come across computer tricks that may not seem to have obvious practical value. That’s what today is going to be. And who knows, maybe there is some actual usefulness for this. If you find it useful in some way, please let me know in the comments below.

You’ve probably always wondered, “How can I created a folder on my computer, and give that folder a completely blank name?” Well, you can stop wondering. Here’s how you do it.

For our example, we’ll create a folder on the desktop so it will be there along with your other icons.

First, do a right-click in an open area of the desktop. In the menu that comes up, move the cursor to “New”, and then choose “Folder”.

At this point, you have a folder called “New folder”:

Do a right click on that new folder, and choose “Rename”:

Now the folder is ready for you to give it a new name. Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard, and tap the number “9” nine times (that’s 999999999) from the number pad on the right side of your keyboard. NOTE: it won’t work if you hit the 9 in the number row at the top of the keyboard – it has to be the number pad on the right side.

Now let up on the ALT key, and hit Enter on the keyboard. There you go, a folder with no name:

And that’s it. Hey, at the very least, maybe you could bet an office co-worker that you can create a nameless folder and win a dollar. For me, I just find stuff like this interesting. It’s kind of fun when you know how to do something that most people don’t.

The post How to create a Windows folder with no name first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Outlook — How to back up Outlook email and contacts Oct 27, 2014
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email programs in use today. I ‘ve been using it for years and I like it. Yes, it’s a little quirky at times but overall it’s pretty reliable and has a lot of great features. However, one of the things not included in Outlook is an easy backup process. Other programs have that built in so you can just click File – Backup and send all your data to a separate drive, but not Outlook. No problem though – I know how to do it and today I’ll show you how.

The fundamental thing you need to know about Outlook is that it stores ALL of your Outlook data in one single file, called a PST file. So that one file includes:

Emails

Email folders

Email attachments

Contacts/Address book

Calendar

Tasks

Whatever other Outlook features you use

It’s kind of convenient to have everything in that one file, so all you have to back up is that file. But it’s also a little dangerous, since if you lose that single file, you’ve lost everything. That’s why backing up your Outlook PST file is so important.

The actual backup process is not really difficult. It can be summarized like this:

How to backup Outlook:

Find the Outlook PST file

Copy and paste it to your external drive

Sounds easy, right? The trick is finding the PST file in the first place. The location of that PST file depends on what version of Outlook you are using. (Please note – the file locations listed below are the default settings. It’s possible to move the PST file to another location.)

In Outlook 2003, the PST file is found at this path (but if you’re still using Outlook 2003 you really need to upgrade to a newer version):

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

In Outlook 2007, the PST file is found at this path:

C:\Users\username\App Data\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

In Outlook 2010 and 2013, Microsoft finally woke up and decided to put the PST file in an easier location, the Documents folder:

C:\Users\username\Documents\Outlook files

The change they made in the more recent versions of Outlook was smart. Not just because the Outlook PST file is now easier to find, but because people that back up their data almost always include the Documents folder as part of the backup. And since “Outlook files” is a folder inside Documents, the email gets backed up automatically as part of that process.

Once you’ve actually located your PST file, just do a right-click on it and choose “Copy”. Then plug in your external drive and open it. Create a folder called “Outlook backup” (you could also include today’s date in the file name). Then just right-click and choose Paste to copy the PST file to that folder. Last step – disconnect the external drive. Not so difficult, right?

A few things to be aware of:

1. If your PST file is not where it “should” be (the default locations listed above), you can just do a search for it by searching for: *.pst (that’s an asterisk followed by a period followed by “pst”).

2. Having your PST file backed up to an external drive is definitely better than no backup at all. However, it would not be good to have this as your ONLY backup, if your email, contact list, etc. is critical to save. The external drive could fail, just like your computer’s hard drive can fail. And, if you have to remember to do it, it most likely won’t get done every day. An automated online backup process would be a good way to make sure it gets done every single day, without your having to even think about it.

3. A PST file can be large. If you have years of emails (some with large attachments), a big contact list, etc. the PST file might be quite large. I’ve seen some go over 1 gb in size. I just checked mine and it’s about 2.3 gb.

So now that you know how to back up your Outlook, go do it while you’re thinking about it!

The post How to back up Outlook email and contacts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — How to back up Outlook email and contacts Oct 27, 2014
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email programs in use today. I ‘ve been using it for years and I like it. Yes, it’s a little quirky at times but overall it’s pretty reliable and has a lot of great features. However, one of the things not included in Outlook is an easy backup process. Other programs have that built in so you can just click File – Backup and send all your data to a separate drive, but not Outlook. No problem though – I know how to do it and today I’ll show you how.

The fundamental thing you need to know about Outlook is that it stores ALL of your Outlook data in one single file, called a PST file. So that one file includes:

Emails

Email folders

Email attachments

Contacts/Address book

Calendar

Tasks

Whatever other Outlook features you use

It’s kind of convenient to have everything in that one file, so all you have to back up is that file. But it’s also a little dangerous, since if you lose that single file, you’ve lost everything. That’s why backing up your Outlook PST file is so important.

The actual backup process is not really difficult. It can be summarized like this:

How to backup Outlook:

Find the Outlook PST file

Copy and paste it to your external drive

Sounds easy, right? The trick is finding the PST file in the first place. The location of that PST file depends on what version of Outlook you are using. (Please note – the file locations listed below are the default settings. It’s possible to move the PST file to another location.)

In Outlook 2003, the PST file is found at this path (but if you’re still using Outlook 2003 you really need to upgrade to a newer version):

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

In Outlook 2007, the PST file is found at this path:

C:\Users\username\App Data\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

In Outlook 2010 and 2013, Microsoft finally woke up and decided to put the PST file in an easier location, the Documents folder:

C:\Users\username\Documents\Outlook files

The change they made in the more recent versions of Outlook was smart. Not just because the Outlook PST file is now easier to find, but because people that back up their data almost always include the Documents folder as part of the backup. And since “Outlook files” is a folder inside Documents, the email gets backed up automatically as part of that process.

Once you’ve actually located your PST file, just do a right-click on it and choose “Copy”. Then plug in your external drive and open it. Create a folder called “Outlook backup” (you could also include today’s date in the file name). Then just right-click and choose Paste to copy the PST file to that folder. Last step – disconnect the external drive. Not so difficult, right?

A few things to be aware of:

1. If your PST file is not where it “should” be (the default locations listed above), you can just do a search for it by searching for: *.pst (that’s an asterisk followed by a period followed by “pst”).

2. Having your PST file backed up to an external drive is definitely better than no backup at all. However, it would not be good to have this as your ONLY backup, if your email, contact list, etc. is critical to save. The external drive could fail, just like your computer’s hard drive can fail. And, if you have to remember to do it, it most likely won’t get done every day. An automated online backup process would be a good way to make sure it gets done every single day, without your having to even think about it.

3. A PST file can be large. If you have years of emails (some with large attachments), a big contact list, etc. the PST file might be quite large. I’ve seen some go over 1 gb in size. I just checked mine and it’s about 2.3 gb.

So now that you know how to back up your Outlook, go do it while you’re thinking about it!

The post How to back up Outlook email and contacts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email — What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? Oct 20, 2014
If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird or some other email software on your computer, this is something you (or your tech) has dealt with. When you set up a new email account, one of the questions is whether or not you want the email protocol to be POP or IMAP. What’s the difference between them? Does it matter which one you use?

First, you should know this: if you get your email by going to a website, the POP vs. IMAP question doesn’t really apply to you. You just go to the email website and there’s your email. You can read it, delete it, send email, whatever you want to do. The POP/IMAP issue only applies when you are running an actual email software program on your computer.

In the past, POP email protocol was the most popular choice. IMAP is now gaining in popularity mainly because of everyone getting email on their smartphones and tablets.

The main difference between the two has to do with syncing your various devices.

When you use IMAP, for example, your laptop that uses MS Outlook would always be in sync with the inbox that you access via the web (such as the one at Gmail.com). So if you open Outlook on your laptop, read an email and then delete it, the next time you go to Gmail.com you will see that it’s automatically deleted there as well. The website version of your email will always be the same as your Outlook version on the computer.

On the other hand, if you use POP, the devices don’t sync up automatically. You could check your email in Outlook on your laptop, and then if you go to the Gmail.com website, you would still see those same emails there in the Inbox.

Should you use POP or IMAP?

It’s really a personal preference. For my email, I use POP for a couple of reasons. The “not necessarily logical” reason is that I’ve always used POP and I’m used to how it works. I know what to expect. There is some value in familiarity, and it does work for me. The other reason I like it though is because it means I always have a backup of my emails on the Gmail.com web server. I know that even if I accidentally delete an email in Outlook on my computer, I can go to Gmail.com and that email will still be there. And it will really be there indefinitely, since Google gives you so much email server space to work with. I’ve had my Gmail account since they first came out in 2004, and right now I am only using about 30% of the available space.

I have to say though, the trend is moving toward IMAP. This is mainly because of people having so many different devices. One person might have a desktop, laptop, iPad and smartphone – and probably gets email on all of them. With IMAP, all of those devices are automatically synced with each other so if you get one email you don’t have to delete it from 4 different devices. That’s efficiency. But, you better make sure you have your email backed up somewhere, because once you delete it from one device, it’s gone from all of them automatically.

The post What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email cartoon — What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? Oct 20, 2014
If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird or some other email software on your computer, this is something you (or your tech) has dealt with. When you set up a new email account, one of the questions is whether or not you want the email protocol to be POP or IMAP. What’s the difference between them? Does it matter which one you use?

First, you should know this: if you get your email by going to a website, the POP vs. IMAP question doesn’t really apply to you. You just go to the email website and there’s your email. You can read it, delete it, send email, whatever you want to do. The POP/IMAP issue only applies when you are running an actual email software program on your computer.

In the past, POP email protocol was the most popular choice. IMAP is now gaining in popularity mainly because of everyone getting email on their smartphones and tablets.

The main difference between the two has to do with syncing your various devices.

When you use IMAP, for example, your laptop that uses MS Outlook would always be in sync with the inbox that you access via the web (such as the one at Gmail.com). So if you open Outlook on your laptop, read an email and then delete it, the next time you go to Gmail.com you will see that it’s automatically deleted there as well. The website version of your email will always be the same as your Outlook version on the computer.

On the other hand, if you use POP, the devices don’t sync up automatically. You could check your email in Outlook on your laptop, and then if you go to the Gmail.com website, you would still see those same emails there in the Inbox.

Should you use POP or IMAP?

It’s really a personal preference. For my email, I use POP for a couple of reasons. The “not necessarily logical” reason is that I’ve always used POP and I’m used to how it works. I know what to expect. There is some value in familiarity, and it does work for me. The other reason I like it though is because it means I always have a backup of my emails on the Gmail.com web server. I know that even if I accidentally delete an email in Outlook on my computer, I can go to Gmail.com and that email will still be there. And it will really be there indefinitely, since Google gives you so much email server space to work with. I’ve had my Gmail account since they first came out in 2004, and right now I am only using about 30% of the available space.

I have to say though, the trend is moving toward IMAP. This is mainly because of people having so many different devices. One person might have a desktop, laptop, iPad and smartphone – and probably gets email on all of them. With IMAP, all of those devices are automatically synced with each other so if you get one email you don’t have to delete it from 4 different devices. That’s efficiency. But, you better make sure you have your email backed up somewhere, because once you delete it from one device, it’s gone from all of them automatically.

The post What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer repair — First things to try when you have a computer problem Oct 13, 2014
As a computer technician, I spend a lot of time doing computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely for clients around the country). Just about everyone has a computer (or several) these days, and eventually something goes wrong with almost all of them. If there were no computer problems I would have to go look for a real job! But there are certain situations that you might be able to take care of on your own, just by trying one or two steps first.

Problem: no internet connection

First thing to do: restart your modem and router
The company that you pay for your internet access provides you with a modem. In some cases, the modem is also a router. Or, you might use the internet company’s modem along with a router that you purchased yourself. There are even some cases where all you have is a modem (this is common if you only have one desktop computer and no need for a wifi connection).

Whatever your situation is, you need to unplug the modem and router from the electrical outlet, wait a minute, then plug them back in. In many cases, this will bring back your internet connection so your computer is able to go online again.

Of course, you could just call your internet provider, navigate through their phone menu, wait on hold for a while, and then the first thing they’re going to have you do is power down the modem and router anyway. Save some time and do that first.

Another option: If your computer is a laptop that uses wifi to connect to the internet, you could check and see if the wifi is physically switched on. For some laptops, there is a simple slide switch on the front or side that may have gotten bumped into the “Off” position. Or you might see one of the keyboard keys that has a small indicator light that’s orange (meaning wifi is off) and when you tap it, the color changes to blue (meaning wifi is on).

Problem: a program won’t run

First thing to do: restart the computer
Actually, restarting the computer is sort of a “magic pill” for fixing computer problems. When someone tells me they keep clicking on an icon for a particular program and it just doesn’t do anything, I’ll ask them when was the last time the computer was restarted. Many times the answer is several days or even weeks. Not good! Your PC, whether it’s a laptop or a desktop, should be restarted each day or at least every couple of days. The easiest thing is whenever you’re done using it for a while, just do a restart then. When you come back to it, the restart will be completed and the computer will be fresh and ready to use again.

Problem: an error message appears on the screen

First thing to do: write down the actual text of the error message
So many times I’ll have someone call me and tell me that their computer needs repair. Here’s the typical dialogue:

Computer user: “My computer is acting really weird and not working right.”
Me: “How is it acting weird? What are you actually seeing on the screen?”
Computer user: “Well this error message keeps popping up telling me something something blah blah blah. Do you think it has a virus?”
Me: “What does the error message actually say?”
Computer user: “I don’t remember.”

The actual text of the error message is probably the biggest clue in diagnosing the problem, so write it down when you see it. Your computer guy, whether it’s me or someone else, will want to know what that is.

Even better – take a screenshot of it and email it to your computer tech. This might not be possible, depending on what kind of problems the computer is having, but it sure does help explain a lot of things more clearly than just a verbal description.

Problem: printer won’t print

First thing to do: check the print queue and clear it if necessary
If you try to print a document and for whatever reason it doesn’t print, then no print requests after that will be successful until you clear out that first one that didn’t work. A lot of times I’ll be on a client’s computer and they’ve been trying to print for a while without any success. Then when I look in the print queue, there are 5 or 10 files in there, all lined up but nothing printing – because they’re blocked by the first one that didn’t print.

To check the print queue, click the Start button and go to Devices and Printers. Double click your printer, then click on “See what’s printing”. Whatever is in that list needs to be cancelled. Then you can check on the printer (or have your tech check it) and see why the first document didn’t print.

Problem: Outlook won’t send an email

First thing to do: delete any emails in the Outbox folder
If you create an email and it has a mistake, it won’t be sent. A mistake could mean an email address that doesn’t make sense (like it’s missing the “@” sign), or it could mean that the email server settings in your Outlook account are not correct. Whatever the problem is, if that first email you sent has a mistake, Outlook can’t send it. And that means that any emails you create AFTER that won’t be sent – even if those subsequent emails don’t have that mistake any more. You have to delete the mistaken email first. This applies to both Outlook, and Windows Live Mail. Fix the mistake(s), empty the Outbox, and your emails will go (assuming everything else is working properly).

The post First things to try when you have a computer problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

error — First things to try when you have a computer problem Oct 13, 2014
As a computer technician, I spend a lot of time doing computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely for clients around the country). Just about everyone has a computer (or several) these days, and eventually something goes wrong with almost all of them. If there were no computer problems I would have to go look for a real job! But there are certain situations that you might be able to take care of on your own, just by trying one or two steps first.

Problem: no internet connection

First thing to do: restart your modem and router
The company that you pay for your internet access provides you with a modem. In some cases, the modem is also a router. Or, you might use the internet company’s modem along with a router that you purchased yourself. There are even some cases where all you have is a modem (this is common if you only have one desktop computer and no need for a wifi connection).

Whatever your situation is, you need to unplug the modem and router from the electrical outlet, wait a minute, then plug them back in. In many cases, this will bring back your internet connection so your computer is able to go online again.

Of course, you could just call your internet provider, navigate through their phone menu, wait on hold for a while, and then the first thing they’re going to have you do is power down the modem and router anyway. Save some time and do that first.

Another option: If your computer is a laptop that uses wifi to connect to the internet, you could check and see if the wifi is physically switched on. For some laptops, there is a simple slide switch on the front or side that may have gotten bumped into the “Off” position. Or you might see one of the keyboard keys that has a small indicator light that’s orange (meaning wifi is off) and when you tap it, the color changes to blue (meaning wifi is on).

Problem: a program won’t run

First thing to do: restart the computer
Actually, restarting the computer is sort of a “magic pill” for fixing computer problems. When someone tells me they keep clicking on an icon for a particular program and it just doesn’t do anything, I’ll ask them when was the last time the computer was restarted. Many times the answer is several days or even weeks. Not good! Your PC, whether it’s a laptop or a desktop, should be restarted each day or at least every couple of days. The easiest thing is whenever you’re done using it for a while, just do a restart then. When you come back to it, the restart will be completed and the computer will be fresh and ready to use again.

Problem: an error message appears on the screen

First thing to do: write down the actual text of the error message
So many times I’ll have someone call me and tell me that their computer needs repair. Here’s the typical dialogue:

Computer user: “My computer is acting really weird and not working right.”
Me: “How is it acting weird? What are you actually seeing on the screen?”
Computer user: “Well this error message keeps popping up telling me something something blah blah blah. Do you think it has a virus?”
Me: “What does the error message actually say?”
Computer user: “I don’t remember.”

The actual text of the error message is probably the biggest clue in diagnosing the problem, so write it down when you see it. Your computer guy, whether it’s me or someone else, will want to know what that is.

Even better – take a screenshot of it and email it to your computer tech. This might not be possible, depending on what kind of problems the computer is having, but it sure does help explain a lot of things more clearly than just a verbal description.

Problem: printer won’t print

First thing to do: check the print queue and clear it if necessary
If you try to print a document and for whatever reason it doesn’t print, then no print requests after that will be successful until you clear out that first one that didn’t work. A lot of times I’ll be on a client’s computer and they’ve been trying to print for a while without any success. Then when I look in the print queue, there are 5 or 10 files in there, all lined up but nothing printing – because they’re blocked by the first one that didn’t print.

To check the print queue, click the Start button and go to Devices and Printers. Double click your printer, then click on “See what’s printing”. Whatever is in that list needs to be cancelled. Then you can check on the printer (or have your tech check it) and see why the first document didn’t print.

Problem: Outlook won’t send an email

First thing to do: delete any emails in the Outbox folder
If you create an email and it has a mistake, it won’t be sent. A mistake could mean an email address that doesn’t make sense (like it’s missing the “@” sign), or it could mean that the email server settings in your Outlook account are not correct. Whatever the problem is, if that first email you sent has a mistake, Outlook can’t send it. And that means that any emails you create AFTER that won’t be sent – even if those subsequent emails don’t have that mistake any more. You have to delete the mistaken email first. This applies to both Outlook, and Windows Live Mail. Fix the mistake(s), empty the Outbox, and your emails will go (assuming everything else is working properly).

The post First things to try when you have a computer problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

docking station — What is a laptop docking station? Oct 06, 2014
A laptop docking station can be a pretty handy thing, if you need one for your circumstances. What kind of computer user would find value in one of these things? Anyone that uses a laptop as their home computer, and also takes it with them to work or while traveling would benefit from a laptop docking station.

A laptop docking station is a small electronic device and usually your laptop will sit on top of it.

Here’s how it’s used. A lot of people use their laptop as their primary home computer, and they like to have a lot of peripheral items connected to it. These things make the laptop easier to use, and include:

a regular keyboard (I type much faster on a “normal” keyboard, rather than the one on the laptop itself)

a mouse (easier than using the touchpad on the laptop)

an external monitor (if you want the display to be bigger than the laptop’s screen)

a printer (even if your printer is wireless, a USB connection is more reliable)

an external USB hard drive

speakers (since external speakers are almost always better than the laptop’s internal speakers)

So think about that. You have all these extra devices connected to your laptop. Then, Monday morning rolls around and you have to take the laptop in to work with you. You know what that means – you have to:

disconnect the keyboard

disconnect the mouse

disconnect the monitor

disconnect the printer

disconnect the external drive

disconnect the speakers

And then when you get back home that night, you have to reconnect all of those things if you want the convenience of using them. What a pain!

If you find yourself in that situation, you could benefit from using a laptop docking station.

Instead of constantly connecting and disconnecting all of those extra items, you just plug them into the docking station. So it holds the connecting ports for your keyboard, mouse, monitor(s), printer, other drives, and speakers. And they all STAY plugged in to the docking station. Then your laptop makes a single connection to the docking station, thereby connecting to all of those other components. When you want to take your laptop out somewhere like to work or on vacation, you just disconnect it from the docking station and take it away – nothing else to disconnect. Easy!

Here’s what some other docking stations look like:

Not all laptop docking stations are set up so that the laptop sits on top of it. Some are configured such that it just connects to the laptop via a cable.

To find out if there is a docking station available for your laptop, the easiest way is to just go to eBay.com and type in your laptop’s model number followed by “docking station” (without the quotation marks). If one exists, it’s likely to pop up for sale there.

The post What is a laptop docking station? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

docking station — What is a laptop docking station? Oct 06, 2014
A laptop docking station can be a pretty handy thing, if you need one for your circumstances. What kind of computer user would find value in one of these things? Anyone that uses a laptop as their home computer, and also takes it with them to work or while traveling would benefit from a laptop docking station.

A laptop docking station is a small electronic device and usually your laptop will sit on top of it.

Here’s how it’s used. A lot of people use their laptop as their primary home computer, and they like to have a lot of peripheral items connected to it. These things make the laptop easier to use, and include:

a regular keyboard (I type much faster on a “normal” keyboard, rather than the one on the laptop itself)

a mouse (easier than using the touchpad on the laptop)

an external monitor (if you want the display to be bigger than the laptop’s screen)

a printer (even if your printer is wireless, a USB connection is more reliable)

an external USB hard drive

speakers (since external speakers are almost always better than the laptop’s internal speakers)

So think about that. You have all these extra devices connected to your laptop. Then, Monday morning rolls around and you have to take the laptop in to work with you. You know what that means – you have to:

disconnect the keyboard

disconnect the mouse

disconnect the monitor

disconnect the printer

disconnect the external drive

disconnect the speakers

And then when you get back home that night, you have to reconnect all of those things if you want the convenience of using them. What a pain!

If you find yourself in that situation, you could benefit from using a laptop docking station.

Instead of constantly connecting and disconnecting all of those extra items, you just plug them into the docking station. So it holds the connecting ports for your keyboard, mouse, monitor(s), printer, other drives, and speakers. And they all STAY plugged in to the docking station. Then your laptop makes a single connection to the docking station, thereby connecting to all of those other components. When you want to take your laptop out somewhere like to work or on vacation, you just disconnect it from the docking station and take it away – nothing else to disconnect. Easy!

Here’s what some other docking stations look like:

Not all laptop docking stations are set up so that the laptop sits on top of it. Some are configured such that it just connects to the laptop via a cable.

To find out if there is a docking station available for your laptop, the easiest way is to just go to eBay.com and type in your laptop’s model number followed by “docking station” (without the quotation marks). If one exists, it’s likely to pop up for sale there.

The post What is a laptop docking station? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Software I use — Software I use and recommend – part 2 Sep 29, 2014
Last week I went over 11 programs and tools I use on a regular basis, and recommend to my clients. And that was only half the list! This week we’ll cover the rest. Of course, this is list is not exhaustive, and you might have other options that you prefer. Not every program is right for every user. Let me know what you think in the comments at the end.

12. Freshbooks (small business bookkeeping)
Get it here
A lot of small businesses start out with their bookkeeping by just using an Excel spreadsheet to track income and expenses. That’s better than nothing, but it’s a lot easier to use a tool that is designed just for this purpose. Freshbooks is web-based bookkeeping – this means you don’t install any software on your computer. Your account is online and you do everything through the website. They make it really easy to use so there is not a huge learning curve. You can create professional looking invoices, and then email them with a link to pay online (either through Paypal processing, or a regular merchant account). Also, any recurring monthly or annual invoices can be scheduled to get sent out automatically so you don’t have to remember to do it. For a large business, Quickbooks might be a better solution. But if you have a small business like mine, it’s worth checking Freshbooks out with their free 30-day trial. After that, their packages range from $0 to $40 per month.

13. Phrase Express (text expander)
Get it here
This is a handy little tool that’s free for personal use. It’s designed specifically to save you time if you find yourself typing the same text over and over again. For example, I get technical/repair questions regularly by email. Since I usually can’t diagnose or fix a problem without actually seeing what’s going on, I will often send this response:

“Thanks for the inquiry. This is something I would handle through my Remote Support service. You can get the full details on how that works at this page on my website: http://ComputerTutorFlorida.com/remote”

Since that same response is used many times, it’s a waste of time to type it out manually each time. Instead, I can set up Phrase Express to handle this for me. I can just designate a certain key combination, such as Shift + Control + R to trigger Phrase Express to type out that whole phrase for me in about a half second. You can set it up to remember something as short as your email address, or as long as a full page of text. It’s designed to run on Windows but can run on a Mac computer with a Windows emulator.

14. Adobe Reader (PDF reader)
Get it here
Yes, I use Adobe Reader. It’s not as bad as it used to be, even though it still requires regular updates. I’ve tried the alternative programs that will open PDF files, and I always find myself disappointed because they lack the features of Reader. And I’m pretty sure if a PDF file has been password protected when it was originally created with Adobe Acrobat, you still need to get into it by opening it in Adobe Reader and entering the password. Just make sure you keep it updated, and if you go and get the updates manually, make sure you uncheck the box that wants to install McAfee or some other software at the same time. It’s a shame that even supposedly reputable companies have caved in to taking money just to install third-party software on peoples’ computers.

15. Picasa (photo organizer)
Get it here
Picasa is a free program from Google and it’s one I install on all of the laptops I sell. It does a LOT of stuff. Primarily, it’s a way to visually organize your photos on your computer. The first time you run it, Picasa will look through all your picture folders and display all the images in thumbnail version. Beyond that there are lots of cool special effects you can add to your photos, or you can get rid of redeye, or you can lighten up a photo if it’s too dark. You can also use Picasa to upload your photos to your Google account which makes it easy to share a lot of photos with a lot of people (you just email your friends or family a link to see the photos – no more sending photos by email attachment).

One thing to note – I often hear clients say “My photos are all stored in Picasa”. This is not accurate. Picasa does not store anything. The photos are stored on your computer (usually in the Pictures folder). Picasa is just a way of displaying those images.

16. Skype (communication)
Get it here
I use Skype almost every day. There’s a common misconception about Skype – sometimes someone will tell me, “I would use Skype, but I don’t have a webcam”. You don’t need a webcam to use Skype. You can communicate with Skype using text chat, or by audio. A webcam is only required if you want to transmit video as well. The amazing thing about Skype is that any calls are free if both parties are using Skype. So if you’re in the US and you have a friend in Australia, and you both are on Skype, you can talk by voice AND video for as long as you want, and there is never any charge at all. So cool! The cost comes into play when you want to use your Skype account to make calls to non-Skype phones, such as someone’s cell phone. Even then, it’s really cheap – $3 per month for unlimited outgoing calls to any number here in the US or Canada. You’ll pay more if you want to receive incoming calls (they give you your own Skype phone number) but even that’s not very expensive at all.

17. Dropbox (file sharing)
Get it here
We certainly don’t have any shortage of online file sharing services these days. Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive, iCloud and lots of others. And that trend will probably continue, since storage space is getting cheaper all the time. And most of them do essentially the same thing. You get a certain small amount of storage space for free, then if you want to pay you get more space. I don’t know if DropBox was the actual first service, but it was definitely one of the first. I started using it years ago. Since I have like 80 gb of space available, I’ve never really bothered with using the other ones. One cool feature is having the Dropbox app on my phone – so whenever I take a picture with my phone, it’s automatically in Dropbox, which means it’s already on my computer.

18. CDBurnerXP (data CD or data DVD creation)
Get it here
This is a program I’ve used for years. Even the name indicates it’s been around for a while (since the early days of Windows XP). In spite of the name, it does work fine with Windows 7 and Windows 8. This program just simply burns CDs or DVDs. You can create a regular data disc just to store your files or folders, a video DVD, an audio CD, or you can burn an ISO image (I’ll probably do a blog post at some point on what an ISO image is). Or if you want to just copy a CD or DVD you can do that as well (unless copy protection is built in to the original). There are lots of options for burning discs but I have found this one to be very simple and reliable.

19. Adobe Audition (audio editing)
Get it here
I’ll tell you up front, this program is not for everyone. It’s fairly expensive, and the average person doesn’t need to created and edit audio files anyway. That’s what this program does – it’s a program for sound files. I use it to created and edit my podcast. It does a LOT more than what I use it for and honestly I wouldn’t even know how to describe a lot of the features it offers. I’ve figured out enough to make it do what I need it to do and I’m comfortable with it to that degree. Maybe some day I’ll get into the more advanced things it does. If you need an audio editor that is less complex but is also free, try out Audacity (a lot of podcasters use it for producing their shows).

20. Sony Vegas Pro 13 (video editing)
Get it here
This is another program that is kind of complex, but I have a lot of fun using it. I don’t really make a lot of videos, but I find that Sony Vegas is a program that is pretty intuitive so it doesn’t really take a lot of time to learn how to use it. And you can even take the video you made and create a DVD that will play in any DVD player. Like Adobe Audition, there is a lot more to this software than what I use it for, but I’m learning more and more as I use it.

21. WordPress (website creation)
Get it here
If you want to create your own website and have it look professionally done, WordPress is the way to go. Any website I make now is in WordPress. It’s free and there are thousands of free themes available, so your site can look just about however you want it to look. There are also paid themes available if you see one you want to purchase. The big advantage with WordPress is that once it’s installed, it is very user-friendly. You can use it as a blog, or a regular website with no blog component at all, or a website that includes a blog. The ways to customize it are endless.

22. TeamViewer (remote support)
Get it here
This is the program I use when I need to remote in to a client’s computer. It’s not cheap and there are other alternatives, but I have found TeamViewer works the best. And actually, if you are just using it for personal use, it’s free (like if you want to log in to your mom’s computer to help with something). But if you use it for any kind of business use and you try to just get away with using the free version, they’ll probably catch you and shut down the account. For me, it has way more than paid for itself over the years. My Remote Support service has around 350 client computers listed, and whenever any of those clients has a problem, I can usually fix it remotely.

And there you have it – the software I use and recommend. What other programs do YOU recommend? Let us know in the comments.

The post Software I use and recommend – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Software I use and recommend – part 2 Sep 29, 2014
Last week I went over 11 programs and tools I use on a regular basis, and recommend to my clients. And that was only half the list! This week we’ll cover the rest. Of course, this is list is not exhaustive, and you might have other options that you prefer. Not every program is right for every user. Let me know what you think in the comments at the end.

12. Freshbooks (small business bookkeeping)
Get it here
A lot of small businesses start out with their bookkeeping by just using an Excel spreadsheet to track income and expenses. That’s better than nothing, but it’s a lot easier to use a tool that is designed just for this purpose. Freshbooks is web-based bookkeeping – this means you don’t install any software on your computer. Your account is online and you do everything through the website. They make it really easy to use so there is not a huge learning curve. You can create professional looking invoices, and then email them with a link to pay online (either through Paypal processing, or a regular merchant account). Also, any recurring monthly or annual invoices can be scheduled to get sent out automatically so you don’t have to remember to do it. For a large business, Quickbooks might be a better solution. But if you have a small business like mine, it’s worth checking Freshbooks out with their free 30-day trial. After that, their packages range from $0 to $40 per month.

13. Phrase Express (text expander)
Get it here
This is a handy little tool that’s free for personal use. It’s designed specifically to save you time if you find yourself typing the same text over and over again. For example, I get technical/repair questions regularly by email. Since I usually can’t diagnose or fix a problem without actually seeing what’s going on, I will often send this response:

“Thanks for the inquiry. This is something I would handle through my Remote Support service. You can get the full details on how that works at this page on my website: http://ComputerTutorFlorida.com/remote”

Since that same response is used many times, it’s a waste of time to type it out manually each time. Instead, I can set up Phrase Express to handle this for me. I can just designate a certain key combination, such as Shift + Control + R to trigger Phrase Express to type out that whole phrase for me in about a half second. You can set it up to remember something as short as your email address, or as long as a full page of text. It’s designed to run on Windows but can run on a Mac computer with a Windows emulator.

14. Adobe Reader (PDF reader)
Get it here
Yes, I use Adobe Reader. It’s not as bad as it used to be, even though it still requires regular updates. I’ve tried the alternative programs that will open PDF files, and I always find myself disappointed because they lack the features of Reader. And I’m pretty sure if a PDF file has been password protected when it was originally created with Adobe Acrobat, you still need to get into it by opening it in Adobe Reader and entering the password. Just make sure you keep it updated, and if you go and get the updates manually, make sure you uncheck the box that wants to install McAfee or some other software at the same time. It’s a shame that even supposedly reputable companies have caved in to taking money just to install third-party software on peoples’ computers.

15. Picasa (photo organizer)
Get it here
Picasa is a free program from Google and it’s one I install on all of the laptops I sell. It does a LOT of stuff. Primarily, it’s a way to visually organize your photos on your computer. The first time you run it, Picasa will look through all your picture folders and display all the images in thumbnail version. Beyond that there are lots of cool special effects you can add to your photos, or you can get rid of redeye, or you can lighten up a photo if it’s too dark. You can also use Picasa to upload your photos to your Google account which makes it easy to share a lot of photos with a lot of people (you just email your friends or family a link to see the photos – no more sending photos by email attachment).

One thing to note – I often hear clients say “My photos are all stored in Picasa”. This is not accurate. Picasa does not store anything. The photos are stored on your computer (usually in the Pictures folder). Picasa is just a way of displaying those images.

16. Skype (communication)
Get it here
I use Skype almost every day. There’s a common misconception about Skype – sometimes someone will tell me, “I would use Skype, but I don’t have a webcam”. You don’t need a webcam to use Skype. You can communicate with Skype using text chat, or by audio. A webcam is only required if you want to transmit video as well. The amazing thing about Skype is that any calls are free if both parties are using Skype. So if you’re in the US and you have a friend in Australia, and you both are on Skype, you can talk by voice AND video for as long as you want, and there is never any charge at all. So cool! The cost comes into play when you want to use your Skype account to make calls to non-Skype phones, such as someone’s cell phone. Even then, it’s really cheap – $3 per month for unlimited outgoing calls to any number here in the US or Canada. You’ll pay more if you want to receive incoming calls (they give you your own Skype phone number) but even that’s not very expensive at all.

17. Dropbox (file sharing)
Get it here
We certainly don’t have any shortage of online file sharing services these days. Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive, iCloud and lots of others. And that trend will probably continue, since storage space is getting cheaper all the time. And most of them do essentially the same thing. You get a certain small amount of storage space for free, then if you want to pay you get more space. I don’t know if DropBox was the actual first service, but it was definitely one of the first. I started using it years ago. Since I have like 80 gb of space available, I’ve never really bothered with using the other ones. One cool feature is having the Dropbox app on my phone – so whenever I take a picture with my phone, it’s automatically in Dropbox, which means it’s already on my computer.

18. CDBurnerXP (data CD or data DVD creation)
Get it here
This is a program I’ve used for years. Even the name indicates it’s been around for a while (since the early days of Windows XP). In spite of the name, it does work fine with Windows 7 and Windows 8. This program just simply burns CDs or DVDs. You can create a regular data disc just to store your files or folders, a video DVD, an audio CD, or you can burn an ISO image (I’ll probably do a blog post at some point on what an ISO image is). Or if you want to just copy a CD or DVD you can do that as well (unless copy protection is built in to the original). There are lots of options for burning discs but I have found this one to be very simple and reliable.

19. Adobe Audition (audio editing)
Get it here
I’ll tell you up front, this program is not for everyone. It’s fairly expensive, and the average person doesn’t need to created and edit audio files anyway. That’s what this program does – it’s a program for sound files. I use it to created and edit my podcast. It does a LOT more than what I use it for and honestly I wouldn’t even know how to describe a lot of the features it offers. I’ve figured out enough to make it do what I need it to do and I’m comfortable with it to that degree. Maybe some day I’ll get into the more advanced things it does. If you need an audio editor that is less complex but is also free, try out Audacity (a lot of podcasters use it for producing their shows).

20. Sony Vegas Pro 13 (video editing)
Get it here
This is another program that is kind of complex, but I have a lot of fun using it. I don’t really make a lot of videos, but I find that Sony Vegas is a program that is pretty intuitive so it doesn’t really take a lot of time to learn how to use it. And you can even take the video you made and create a DVD that will play in any DVD player. Like Adobe Audition, there is a lot more to this software than what I use it for, but I’m learning more and more as I use it.

21. WordPress (website creation)
Get it here
If you want to create your own website and have it look professionally done, WordPress is the way to go. Any website I make now is in WordPress. It’s free and there are thousands of free themes available, so your site can look just about however you want it to look. There are also paid themes available if you see one you want to purchase. The big advantage with WordPress is that once it’s installed, it is very user-friendly. You can use it as a blog, or a regular website with no blog component at all, or a website that includes a blog. The ways to customize it are endless.

22. TeamViewer (remote support)
Get it here
This is the program I use when I need to remote in to a client’s computer. It’s not cheap and there are other alternatives, but I have found TeamViewer works the best. And actually, if you are just using it for personal use, it’s free (like if you want to log in to your mom’s computer to help with something). But if you use it for any kind of business use and you try to just get away with using the free version, they’ll probably catch you and shut down the account. For me, it has way more than paid for itself over the years. My Remote Support service has around 350 client computers listed, and whenever any of those clients has a problem, I can usually fix it remotely.

And there you have it – the software I use and recommend. What other programs do YOU recommend? Let us know in the comments.

The post Software I use and recommend – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Software I use — Software I use and recommend – part 1 Sep 22, 2014
Last time I did a blog post about the software I use regularly and recommend to my clients – two years ago. Time flies! So I wanted to update that information since a lot of it has changed since then. Originally I was going to cover all of these in one blog post and podcast, but it became way too much so I’m spreading it over two Mondays.

1. Windows 7 (operating system)
Get it here
Windows 7 is still the Windows operating system of choice. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it will be supported by Microsoft through the year 2020. And what are your options, anyway? Windows XP is outdated and unsupported. Windows Vista was crummy from the start. The most current operating system is Windows 8, and it is not popular at all because they changed so much about it. Windows 9 will be out at the end of this year or early 2015, and who knows – maybe it will be wonderful. I’ll reserve judgement on that for when I can check it out. But for the foreseeable future, Windows 7 is a very safe bet.

2. MS Office (documents, spreadsheets, etc. – paid)
Get it here
I still use Microsoft Office 2010 as my primary software for when I need to create a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, etc. Since it’s the standard software for use in the business world, I never have any problem with sending a file by email and the recipient not being able to read it. Of course, it’s not free. But not all software is free. If you’re using Office 2010, I can’t really think of a reason to justify upgrading to Office 2013 (I’ve used some of the 2013 programs, and I actually kind of prefer the 2010 versions – maybe because that’s what I’m used to).

3. LibreOffice (documents, spreadsheets, etc. – free)
Get it here
If you need to be able to create, open or edit Office documents such as those done in Word or Excel, but you don’t want to pay Microsoft for that privilege, LibreOffice is a good alternative. It’s free. This is usually the one I put on my laptops that I sell, unless the purchaser indicates they want Microsoft Office installed. LibreOffice is not a “MS Office knock-off” (as one of my clients recently described it without really understanding it). It’s simply an alternative way to work with these types of files. If someone creates a Word document and emails it to you, you would be able to open it in the LibreOffice app called Writer. If you created a .doc or .docx document (MS Word format) in Writer, you could email it to someone and they could open it in MS Word. It’s all compatible. The primary difference is that LibreOffice programs aren’t laid out precisely the way MS Office programs are, so you have to get used to where to find icons, controls, etc. But you’re saving around $120 to $300, so that might make up for it.

4. MyPC Backup (online file-by-file backup)
Get it here
I personally do 3 different types of backups. If you saw how many hard drives crash like I do in my day-to-day work, you might too. One of the backups I do is an online, automated backup of my important files and folders. Since it’s done online, my whole computer could be destroyed in a fire or flood and all of my data is safe because it is stored offsite. I could just download all of my stuff to a new computer. The big names you have probably heard of for online backup are Carbonite and Mozy. I have worked with both of them, and have instead chosen a service called MyPC Backup. This is the one I use myself, and I have set it up for 100+ clients over the past couple of years. For most people it costs around $60 annually for automated daily backups.

5. SecondCopy (local file-by-file backup)
Get it here
I also do a local backup of my individual files and folders to an external hard drive. You can do this manually, of course – just copy and paste from your computer to a corresponding folder on the external drive. But that’s very time consuming, which means you probably won’t do it consistently. You should also NOT use the “backup” software that came with the external drive. I use SecondCopy because it makes it so easy. You just set up a profile for each of the folders you want to back up. To do a backup, you just click on “Run All Profiles” and walk away. I have almost 300 gb of data, and mine takes about 20 minutes total. SecondCopy offers a 30-day fully functioning free trial, then if you want to keep it you pay $29.95 once.

6. Windows System Image (local system image backup)
My third type of backup is a System Image. The reason for this one is so that you can be back up and running if you have to replace your hard drive after a crash. The system image doesn’t just back up your documents and pictures. It takes EVERYTHING on your computer – documents, pictures, all of your programs, your wallpaper, all of it – and puts it into a single folder on your external drive. So if you have to put in a new blank hard drive, you can restore that image and within an hour or two, everything is back on your computer and configured just the way you like it – like it was when you created the System Image. I create a new System Image every couple of days, and to do that I use the process that is built into Windows 7. You can also use a third party software such as Acronis True Image to do this if you prefer.

7. Managed Service Plan (comprehensive antivirus, antimalware, software updater)
Get it here
It is critical that you protect your computer against viruses, malware, junkware, toolbars and all the other garbage that creeps in even when you’re trying to be careful. I use and recommend my Managed Service Plan. This plan includes unlimited virus removals (including whatever is infecting your computer right now) and a powerful antivirus/antimalware software installation. In addition, it keeps your software updated (such as Adobe Flash, Java, etc. – over 100 programs are covered). Not to mention keeping your computer tuned up by constantly fixing registry errors and eliminating the temp files that accumulate each day. This is all done remotely, and your cost is $25/month. Pay annually and get 2 months free, or just try it out for 6 months and see how it goes.

8. Google Chrome (web browser)
Get it here
My default web browser is Chrome because it is pretty fast and very customizable. For example, I have a plugin (plugins are free) that eliminates ads when I visit a website. My second choice is Firefox which is also customizable. I only use Internet Explorer when I have to (such as when some antiquated website requires it in order to view content).

9. Windows Snipping Tool (screenshot creator)
To create a screenshot, there are some third-party programs that will do the trick (some paid, some free). They might have more features than the Snipping Tool that’s built into Windows, but for me the Snipping Tool does everything I need. Just grab a screenshot of a picture or an error message and paste it right into an email. I do it all the time. It’s also how I grab screenshot images for my blog posts. Super easy, and free since it is part of Windows.

10. LastPass (password creation and storage)
Get it here
I’ve been using and recommending this one for quite a while. It’s a great program for creating really good passwords (random strings of upper and lower case letters and numbers and other characters). If you’re saying, “But I’ll never remember that!” – good! If it’s hard for you to remember, it’s hard for a hacker to figure it out. Most of my passwords I don’t even know. I don’t have to. LastPass remembers them all for me. All you need is one strong password to get into LastPass. It’s free unless you want to use it on your phone too, in which case it’s $12 per year. Very cheap (or free) defense against the bad guys.

11. Pandora (streaming music)
Get it here
I’ve been using Pandora for quite a while. When I’m in the car or here in my office, I will usually be listening to either podcasts, or Pandora. You just tell it what kind of music you like, and it creates a channel for that type of music for you. You can have several channels if you want. The music can stream in on your computer, or on your phone using the Pandora app. With the free version you get a commercial every so often. I have the paid version ($3.99 per month) so it’s commercial-free. Yes, there are other streaming music services (Spotify, Grooveshark, etc. at various price points) but I haven’t really investigated the others in depth because I’m happy with Pandora.

Next Monday we’ll cover 11 more programs that I use all the time.

The post Software I use and recommend – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Software I use and recommend – part 1 Sep 22, 2014
Last time I did a blog post about the software I use regularly and recommend to my clients – two years ago. Time flies! So I wanted to update that information since a lot of it has changed since then. Originally I was going to cover all of these in one blog post and podcast, but it became way too much so I’m spreading it over two Mondays.

1. Windows 7 (operating system)
Get it here
Windows 7 is still the Windows operating system of choice. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it will be supported by Microsoft through the year 2020. And what are your options, anyway? Windows XP is outdated and unsupported. Windows Vista was crummy from the start. The most current operating system is Windows 8, and it is not popular at all because they changed so much about it. Windows 9 will be out at the end of this year or early 2015, and who knows – maybe it will be wonderful. I’ll reserve judgement on that for when I can check it out. But for the foreseeable future, Windows 7 is a very safe bet.

2. MS Office (documents, spreadsheets, etc. – paid)
Get it here
I still use Microsoft Office 2010 as my primary software for when I need to create a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, etc. Since it’s the standard software for use in the business world, I never have any problem with sending a file by email and the recipient not being able to read it. Of course, it’s not free. But not all software is free. If you’re using Office 2010, I can’t really think of a reason to justify upgrading to Office 2013 (I’ve used some of the 2013 programs, and I actually kind of prefer the 2010 versions – maybe because that’s what I’m used to).

3. LibreOffice (documents, spreadsheets, etc. – free)
Get it here
If you need to be able to create, open or edit Office documents such as those done in Word or Excel, but you don’t want to pay Microsoft for that privilege, LibreOffice is a good alternative. It’s free. This is usually the one I put on my laptops that I sell, unless the purchaser indicates they want Microsoft Office installed. LibreOffice is not a “MS Office knock-off” (as one of my clients recently described it without really understanding it). It’s simply an alternative way to work with these types of files. If someone creates a Word document and emails it to you, you would be able to open it in the LibreOffice app called Writer. If you created a .doc or .docx document (MS Word format) in Writer, you could email it to someone and they could open it in MS Word. It’s all compatible. The primary difference is that LibreOffice programs aren’t laid out precisely the way MS Office programs are, so you have to get used to where to find icons, controls, etc. But you’re saving around $120 to $300, so that might make up for it.

4. MyPC Backup (online file-by-file backup)
Get it here
I personally do 3 different types of backups. If you saw how many hard drives crash like I do in my day-to-day work, you might too. One of the backups I do is an online, automated backup of my important files and folders. Since it’s done online, my whole computer could be destroyed in a fire or flood and all of my data is safe because it is stored offsite. I could just download all of my stuff to a new computer. The big names you have probably heard of for online backup are Carbonite and Mozy. I have worked with both of them, and have instead chosen a service called MyPC Backup. This is the one I use myself, and I have set it up for 100+ clients over the past couple of years. For most people it costs around $60 annually for automated daily backups.

5. SecondCopy (local file-by-file backup)
Get it here
I also do a local backup of my individual files and folders to an external hard drive. You can do this manually, of course – just copy and paste from your computer to a corresponding folder on the external drive. But that’s very time consuming, which means you probably won’t do it consistently. You should also NOT use the “backup” software that came with the external drive. I use SecondCopy because it makes it so easy. You just set up a profile for each of the folders you want to back up. To do a backup, you just click on “Run All Profiles” and walk away. I have almost 300 gb of data, and mine takes about 20 minutes total. SecondCopy offers a 30-day fully functioning free trial, then if you want to keep it you pay $29.95 once.

6. Windows System Image (local system image backup)
My third type of backup is a System Image. The reason for this one is so that you can be back up and running if you have to replace your hard drive after a crash. The system image doesn’t just back up your documents and pictures. It takes EVERYTHING on your computer – documents, pictures, all of your programs, your wallpaper, all of it – and puts it into a single folder on your external drive. So if you have to put in a new blank hard drive, you can restore that image and within an hour or two, everything is back on your computer and configured just the way you like it – like it was when you created the System Image. I create a new System Image every couple of days, and to do that I use the process that is built into Windows 7. You can also use a third party software such as Acronis True Image to do this if you prefer.

7. Managed Service Plan (comprehensive antivirus, antimalware, software updater)
Get it here
It is critical that you protect your computer against viruses, malware, junkware, toolbars and all the other garbage that creeps in even when you’re trying to be careful. I use and recommend my Managed Service Plan. This plan includes unlimited virus removals (including whatever is infecting your computer right now) and a powerful antivirus/antimalware software installation. In addition, it keeps your software updated (such as Adobe Flash, Java, etc. – over 100 programs are covered). Not to mention keeping your computer tuned up by constantly fixing registry errors and eliminating the temp files that accumulate each day. This is all done remotely, and your cost is $25/month. Pay annually and get 2 months free, or just try it out for 6 months and see how it goes.

8. Google Chrome (web browser)
Get it here
My default web browser is Chrome because it is pretty fast and very customizable. For example, I have a plugin (plugins are free) that eliminates ads when I visit a website. My second choice is Firefox which is also customizable. I only use Internet Explorer when I have to (such as when some antiquated website requires it in order to view content).

9. Windows Snipping Tool (screenshot creator)
To create a screenshot, there are some third-party programs that will do the trick (some paid, some free). They might have more features than the Snipping Tool that’s built into Windows, but for me the Snipping Tool does everything I need. Just grab a screenshot of a picture or an error message and paste it right into an email. I do it all the time. It’s also how I grab screenshot images for my blog posts. Super easy, and free since it is part of Windows.

10. LastPass (password creation and storage)
Get it here
I’ve been using and recommending this one for quite a while. It’s a great program for creating really good passwords (random strings of upper and lower case letters and numbers and other characters). If you’re saying, “But I’ll never remember that!” – good! If it’s hard for you to remember, it’s hard for a hacker to figure it out. Most of my passwords I don’t even know. I don’t have to. LastPass remembers them all for me. All you need is one strong password to get into LastPass. It’s free unless you want to use it on your phone too, in which case it’s $12 per year. Very cheap (or free) defense against the bad guys.

11. Pandora (streaming music)
Get it here
I’ve been using Pandora for quite a while. When I’m in the car or here in my office, I will usually be listening to either podcasts, or Pandora. You just tell it what kind of music you like, and it creates a channel for that type of music for you. You can have several channels if you want. The music can stream in on your computer, or on your phone using the Pandora app. With the free version you get a commercial every so often. I have the paid version ($3.99 per month) so it’s commercial-free. Yes, there are other streaming music services (Spotify, Grooveshark, etc. at various price points) but I haven’t really investigated the others in depth because I’m happy with Pandora.

Next Monday we’ll cover 11 more programs that I use all the time.

The post Software I use and recommend – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

browser tab sound — How to know which browser tab is playing sound Sep 15, 2014
Any website that automatically starts playing sound as soon as it loads up should be on some kind of blacklist. Whether it’s a selection of background music, or a news video, or any other kind of audio – any web designer with a clue knows to not have that stuff automatically start up. You give your website visitor the option to play sound – you don’t force it upon them. Autoplay on a website is rude and tacky, and it guarantees that I leave that site immediately.

Can you tell I have a rather strong opinion about this subject? 🙂

What’s even worse is having sound come from your computer, and not knowing where it’s coming from – which makes it very difficult to turn off.

Here’s a common scenario:

Imagine you are doing some research on a subject for a blog post or a report for work. You have Internet Explorer or Firefox opened up, and you have a lot of different webpages opened – each one in its own tab. So you might have 10 or 15 tabs open, or maybe even more. Everything’s going fine, you’re making good progress, when suddenly… you hear someone talking. You know the voice is coming from your computer speakers. It sounds like a YouTube video maybe? But you can’t tell, because it could be coming from any of the 15 or more web pages you have open in web browser tabs.

What do you do at that point?

1. You could just close Firefox or Internet Explorer completely, but then you lose all of those web pages that you want to use as part of your research. It would take a long time to find all of them again.

2. You could go through them one by one, scrolling all the way down the page until you find the source of the sound, and turn off the video or audio player to silence it. That could also take a while.

3. You could hit the Mute button on your screen, or physically turn off your speakers. This could be the quickest, most practical solution to solve the immediate problem – especially if you happen to be in a library or some other place where such noise is frowned upon.

But really, the best solution is to prevent the mystery of “which browser tab is playing the sound” from happening in the first place. The way to do that is to NOT use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Instead, use Google Chrome.

Chrome recognized this problem and solved it. When one of your browser tabs is on a webpage that is generating sound, the tab itself will display a little “speaker” icon so you can immediately see which one it is.

Here’s what it looks like. This is a screenshot of my Chrome browser with 3 tabs open. The first one is Facebook, the second one is MSN, and the third one – the one that’s playing sound at the time – is YouTube. See the little speaker icon next to the X at the right?

Here’s a larger image of the YouTube tab so you can see the speaker more clearly:

So obviously, when you have a bunch of tabs open and you see that one has the speaker icon, you know that’s the tab that is generating the sound. You can either go to that tab and stop the video or whatever is causing the sound, or just close the tab.

Internet Explorer and Firefox don’t have this feature. Just one more reason to use Chrome!

The post How to know which browser tab is playing sound first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Google Chrome — How to know which browser tab is playing sound Sep 15, 2014
Any website that automatically starts playing sound as soon as it loads up should be on some kind of blacklist. Whether it’s a selection of background music, or a news video, or any other kind of audio – any web designer with a clue knows to not have that stuff automatically start up. You give your website visitor the option to play sound – you don’t force it upon them. Autoplay on a website is rude and tacky, and it guarantees that I leave that site immediately.

Can you tell I have a rather strong opinion about this subject? 🙂

What’s even worse is having sound come from your computer, and not knowing where it’s coming from – which makes it very difficult to turn off.

Here’s a common scenario:

Imagine you are doing some research on a subject for a blog post or a report for work. You have Internet Explorer or Firefox opened up, and you have a lot of different webpages opened – each one in its own tab. So you might have 10 or 15 tabs open, or maybe even more. Everything’s going fine, you’re making good progress, when suddenly… you hear someone talking. You know the voice is coming from your computer speakers. It sounds like a YouTube video maybe? But you can’t tell, because it could be coming from any of the 15 or more web pages you have open in web browser tabs.

What do you do at that point?

1. You could just close Firefox or Internet Explorer completely, but then you lose all of those web pages that you want to use as part of your research. It would take a long time to find all of them again.

2. You could go through them one by one, scrolling all the way down the page until you find the source of the sound, and turn off the video or audio player to silence it. That could also take a while.

3. You could hit the Mute button on your screen, or physically turn off your speakers. This could be the quickest, most practical solution to solve the immediate problem – especially if you happen to be in a library or some other place where such noise is frowned upon.

But really, the best solution is to prevent the mystery of “which browser tab is playing the sound” from happening in the first place. The way to do that is to NOT use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Instead, use Google Chrome.

Chrome recognized this problem and solved it. When one of your browser tabs is on a webpage that is generating sound, the tab itself will display a little “speaker” icon so you can immediately see which one it is.

Here’s what it looks like. This is a screenshot of my Chrome browser with 3 tabs open. The first one is Facebook, the second one is MSN, and the third one – the one that’s playing sound at the time – is YouTube. See the little speaker icon next to the X at the right?

Here’s a larger image of the YouTube tab so you can see the speaker more clearly:

So obviously, when you have a bunch of tabs open and you see that one has the speaker icon, you know that’s the tab that is generating the sound. You can either go to that tab and stop the video or whatever is causing the sound, or just close the tab.

Internet Explorer and Firefox don’t have this feature. Just one more reason to use Chrome!

The post How to know which browser tab is playing sound first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

site certificate expired — Website blocked due to expired certificate? Quick fix Sep 08, 2014
Today’s tip is not going to be very long and elaborate. It’s a pretty common problem with a simple fix (most of the time). But if you don’t know the solution, it can be very frustrating because it seems like something major is wrong with your computer.

Here’s what usually happens:

You try to go to a website and instead of the website content, you see a big warning on your screen. The warning is telling you that you should not try to access that website, because the website’s security certificate has expired. The warning would look something like this:

That might look pretty scary – like the website has been hacked and taken over by the bad guys or something. Or maybe the owner of the website forgot to renew the site’s security certificate, which means it is no longer secure to use. Or what if the site has been infected by a virus, and is infecting any computers that visit that website?

The most likely explanation is that it’s none of those things. The problem isn’t with the website – the problem is with your computer. But it’s easy to fix.

Look down in the lower right corner, where the date and time are displayed. I’ll bet you’ll see the date and time are incorrect.

In fact, the date might be off by a decade or more. What happens is this: inside your computer is a small battery, about the size of a nickel. It’s called the CMOS battery. That battery is what enables the computer to remember the date and time and some other things, even when the computer is turned off and unplugged from the wall. Many times, that little internal battery will last the computer’s whole lifetime without needing to be replaced. But in some cases, that battery wears out. You wouldn’t really notice this as a problem as long as the computer is plugged in. But when you unplug the computer, and the battery cannot hold the date and time any more, the system reverts back to a way-earlier date and time. You might not even notice that the date and time are wrong, since you probably don’t look at it very often.

But when you try to access a secure website, that’s when the fun begins! Your browser automatically compares the date of the website certificate with the date and time on your computer (since it assumes your computer’s date and time are correct). When it sees that the computer says that we are in the year 2005, and the site’s certificate was created in the year 2013, that sets off the alarm bells.

To the web browser, it appears that something very suspicious is going on – so it throws up the warning to tell you it’s probably not safe to access that website.

As I mentioned, the solution to this issue is a simple one. Just correct the date and time on your computer. To do that, right-click on the actual date and time that is currently being displayed and in the menu that pops up choose “Adjust date/time”. That opens a new window – just click on the “Change date and time” button and click OK a couple of times so that the proper date and time are displayed.

Now close your web browser and open it again, and see if you can access that same website. If so, problem solved – temporarily. You may need to have that internal battery replaced. It’s a small job and the batteries aren’t that expensive so for most computers it’s no big deal. For some laptops and a few all-in-one desktops, those batteries are a real pain to access, so it might be more of a project.

If the computer is showing the proper date and time and you STILL cannot access the website, trying checking a few other sites like Facebook or Google. If the problem is only with one site, then that’s something the website owner needs to address. If you still get that same warning on those other sites, there is probably still some issue with your computer that needs to be diagnosed and fixed.

But in most cases, changing the date and time will take care of it.

The post Website blocked due to expired certificate? Quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

site certificate warning — Website blocked due to expired certificate? Quick fix Sep 08, 2014
Today’s tip is not going to be very long and elaborate. It’s a pretty common problem with a simple fix (most of the time). But if you don’t know the solution, it can be very frustrating because it seems like something major is wrong with your computer.

Here’s what usually happens:

You try to go to a website and instead of the website content, you see a big warning on your screen. The warning is telling you that you should not try to access that website, because the website’s security certificate has expired. The warning would look something like this:

That might look pretty scary – like the website has been hacked and taken over by the bad guys or something. Or maybe the owner of the website forgot to renew the site’s security certificate, which means it is no longer secure to use. Or what if the site has been infected by a virus, and is infecting any computers that visit that website?

The most likely explanation is that it’s none of those things. The problem isn’t with the website – the problem is with your computer. But it’s easy to fix.

Look down in the lower right corner, where the date and time are displayed. I’ll bet you’ll see the date and time are incorrect.

In fact, the date might be off by a decade or more. What happens is this: inside your computer is a small battery, about the size of a nickel. It’s called the CMOS battery. That battery is what enables the computer to remember the date and time and some other things, even when the computer is turned off and unplugged from the wall. Many times, that little internal battery will last the computer’s whole lifetime without needing to be replaced. But in some cases, that battery wears out. You wouldn’t really notice this as a problem as long as the computer is plugged in. But when you unplug the computer, and the battery cannot hold the date and time any more, the system reverts back to a way-earlier date and time. You might not even notice that the date and time are wrong, since you probably don’t look at it very often.

But when you try to access a secure website, that’s when the fun begins! Your browser automatically compares the date of the website certificate with the date and time on your computer (since it assumes your computer’s date and time are correct). When it sees that the computer says that we are in the year 2005, and the site’s certificate was created in the year 2013, that sets off the alarm bells.

To the web browser, it appears that something very suspicious is going on – so it throws up the warning to tell you it’s probably not safe to access that website.

As I mentioned, the solution to this issue is a simple one. Just correct the date and time on your computer. To do that, right-click on the actual date and time that is currently being displayed and in the menu that pops up choose “Adjust date/time”. That opens a new window – just click on the “Change date and time” button and click OK a couple of times so that the proper date and time are displayed.

Now close your web browser and open it again, and see if you can access that same website. If so, problem solved – temporarily. You may need to have that internal battery replaced. It’s a small job and the batteries aren’t that expensive so for most computers it’s no big deal. For some laptops and a few all-in-one desktops, those batteries are a real pain to access, so it might be more of a project.

If the computer is showing the proper date and time and you STILL cannot access the website, trying checking a few other sites like Facebook or Google. If the problem is only with one site, then that’s something the website owner needs to address. If you still get that same warning on those other sites, there is probably still some issue with your computer that needs to be diagnosed and fixed.

But in most cases, changing the date and time will take care of it.

The post Website blocked due to expired certificate? Quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

YouTube tricks — 3 Cool YouTube Tricks Sep 01, 2014
This week I’m going to show you some interesting things you can do with YouTube. You might not use all of them, but hopefully you will find one or two of them helpful, or at least fun to try out. I love “discovering” these kinds of little-known things and bringing them to you here on my blog, and on my podcast.

Trick 1: Download any YouTube video to your computer, without installing other software

Sometimes you might watch a video you really like, so you bookmark it for easy access. But then you go back to YouTube a week later or a month later, and it’s gone. That happens all that time, for a variety of reasons. You can avoid that problem though. Instead of bookmarking it to go back and watch it on YouTube, just download the video to your own computer. Then you can watch it anytime – even if you aren’t connected to the internet.

Example:

You like this video of this guy ranting about waiting in line at the post office (it actually is a pretty funny video if you want to watch it). When the video is on your screen, look up at the address bar. You’ll see the web address of the video displayed there (it’s also called the URL). It looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvaJJyUpTs

All you have to do is click in the address bar, and change the web address to this:

pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=vDvaJJyUpTs

and then hit the Enter key on your keyboard. This will take you to a page where you will see a little preview of the video, and links where you can click to download the video. Those links take you to a variety of other sites. Check them out and see which one you like best.

Yes, I know you could just go directly to any of those sites and copy/paste the URL of the video itself. The idea with these little YouTube tricks is that you don’t have to remember or bookmark all those other websites in order to download the video. Just add “pwn” to the YouTube address.

Trick 2: Download just the AUDIO from any YouTube video

Maybe you subscribe to a YouTube channel that puts out a new video each day or each week, but you don’t really need to see the video portion. For some videos, the only thing to see is the person talking to the camera. Or, maybe you want to listen to the content while you’re driving, and it’s obviously not safe to watch the video then, so all you need is the audio. When you have the audio file saved, you can listen to it on your computer, or you could put it on your MP3 player or your phone for listening at your convenience.

Example:

There’s a video of Eric Clapton performing unplugged in 1992. It’s a little over an hour long, so if you’re a Clapton fan, it would make a great sound file for while you’re out on a run, but obviously you don’t want to stream the video from YouTube and watch it while you’re running. You just need to do a little tweaking to the URL, similar to what we did in the first trick.

The web address of the video will look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24A2eesrUA

You will want to move your cursor up there and change it to this:

listentoyoutube.com/watch?v=w24A2eesrUA

That takes you to a new page. Look for this image and click the Go button. NOTE: This site has a lot of display ads and you might be tempted to click on things other than what I describe below. Don’t do that.

That will take you to a different page, where you’ll see a link to click for your Download button:

Finally, you’ll see a button to actually download the audio file in MP3 format:

When you click that, the file will be saved to your computer (usually it goes in the Downloads folder, but it might go somewhere else if you have set your preferences differently from the default).

Trick 3: Play a video from a certain starting point

You find a video on YouTube, and it shows people walking on a sidewalk where there’s a patch of ice. We all love to watch people fall down, right? The problem is, this video goes quite a way in before you actually see someone fall down. You know if you post this on Facebook, people will get bored pretty quickly if they don’t see some slipping and falling pretty quickly.

So what you need to do is “tweak” the URL so that the video doesn’t start playing at the very beginning – it starts playing at the point you want it to. Here’s the video we’ll use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCwMfUhv24

You check the video and find out that there are a bunch of people that “almost” fall, but the first person that actually hits the ground happens at the 1:32 point in the video. So that’s where you want the video to start playing.

First, you have to convert that initial stretch of time to seconds. One minute and 32 seconds translates to 92 seconds total, so “92” is the important number here. All you have to do is add #t=92 to the end of the video address. So the adjusted URL would look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCwMfUhv24#t=92

Of course, you can substitute any number at the end, depending on exactly where you want to video to start playing when someone goes to that address.

What YouTube tricks do YOU know? Put them in the comments below!

The post 3 Cool YouTube Tricks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

YouTube download — 3 Cool YouTube Tricks Sep 01, 2014
This week I’m going to show you some interesting things you can do with YouTube. You might not use all of them, but hopefully you will find one or two of them helpful, or at least fun to try out. I love “discovering” these kinds of little-known things and bringing them to you here on my blog, and on my podcast.

Trick 1: Download any YouTube video to your computer, without installing other software

Sometimes you might watch a video you really like, so you bookmark it for easy access. But then you go back to YouTube a week later or a month later, and it’s gone. That happens all that time, for a variety of reasons. You can avoid that problem though. Instead of bookmarking it to go back and watch it on YouTube, just download the video to your own computer. Then you can watch it anytime – even if you aren’t connected to the internet.

Example:

You like this video of this guy ranting about waiting in line at the post office (it actually is a pretty funny video if you want to watch it). When the video is on your screen, look up at the address bar. You’ll see the web address of the video displayed there (it’s also called the URL). It looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvaJJyUpTs

All you have to do is click in the address bar, and change the web address to this:

pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=vDvaJJyUpTs

and then hit the Enter key on your keyboard. This will take you to a page where you will see a little preview of the video, and links where you can click to download the video. Those links take you to a variety of other sites. Check them out and see which one you like best.

Yes, I know you could just go directly to any of those sites and copy/paste the URL of the video itself. The idea with these little YouTube tricks is that you don’t have to remember or bookmark all those other websites in order to download the video. Just add “pwn” to the YouTube address.

Trick 2: Download just the AUDIO from any YouTube video

Maybe you subscribe to a YouTube channel that puts out a new video each day or each week, but you don’t really need to see the video portion. For some videos, the only thing to see is the person talking to the camera. Or, maybe you want to listen to the content while you’re driving, and it’s obviously not safe to watch the video then, so all you need is the audio. When you have the audio file saved, you can listen to it on your computer, or you could put it on your MP3 player or your phone for listening at your convenience.

Example:

There’s a video of Eric Clapton performing unplugged in 1992. It’s a little over an hour long, so if you’re a Clapton fan, it would make a great sound file for while you’re out on a run, but obviously you don’t want to stream the video from YouTube and watch it while you’re running. You just need to do a little tweaking to the URL, similar to what we did in the first trick.

The web address of the video will look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24A2eesrUA

You will want to move your cursor up there and change it to this:

listentoyoutube.com/watch?v=w24A2eesrUA

That takes you to a new page. Look for this image and click the Go button. NOTE: This site has a lot of display ads and you might be tempted to click on things other than what I describe below. Don’t do that.

That will take you to a different page, where you’ll see a link to click for your Download button:

Finally, you’ll see a button to actually download the audio file in MP3 format:

When you click that, the file will be saved to your computer (usually it goes in the Downloads folder, but it might go somewhere else if you have set your preferences differently from the default).

Trick 3: Play a video from a certain starting point

You find a video on YouTube, and it shows people walking on a sidewalk where there’s a patch of ice. We all love to watch people fall down, right? The problem is, this video goes quite a way in before you actually see someone fall down. You know if you post this on Facebook, people will get bored pretty quickly if they don’t see some slipping and falling pretty quickly.

So what you need to do is “tweak” the URL so that the video doesn’t start playing at the very beginning – it starts playing at the point you want it to. Here’s the video we’ll use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCwMfUhv24

You check the video and find out that there are a bunch of people that “almost” fall, but the first person that actually hits the ground happens at the 1:32 point in the video. So that’s where you want the video to start playing.

First, you have to convert that initial stretch of time to seconds. One minute and 32 seconds translates to 92 seconds total, so “92” is the important number here. All you have to do is add #t=92 to the end of the video address. So the adjusted URL would look like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCwMfUhv24#t=92

Of course, you can substitute any number at the end, depending on exactly where you want to video to start playing when someone goes to that address.

What YouTube tricks do YOU know? Put them in the comments below!

The post 3 Cool YouTube Tricks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Facebook Messenger — Send and receive Facebook messages on your phone, WITHOUT FB Messenger Aug 25, 2014
It seems like Facebook is always involved with some type of controversy, and it usually involves the violation of the privacy of Facebook users. Of course, if you don’t like Facebook’s data collection practices, you can always just cancel your account (see last week’s blog about how to do that). The latest issue has to do with the Facebook Messenger app that works on a smartphone.

If you’re on Facebook, you have probably heard the recent uproar over the privacy settings on the Facebook Messenger app. This is the little app that goes on your smartphone that allows you to send and receive Facebook messages with other users. If you want to use that app, you have to agree to the terms that Facebook puts on it, including giving Facebook permission to have access to a variety of areas on your smartphone.

For Android phones, it wants access to your contact list, the phone’s calendar, your GPS location and your phone’s camera and microphone. That’s quite a takeover! For iPhone users I don’t think it’s quite as intrusive but I’m not sure since I don’t use an iPhone.

I’m not going to go into the whole debate about how much information is too much for Facebook to require or if the permissions they need on your phone are excessive. I will say this though – I removed Facebook Messenger from my phone.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between the Facebook app on your phone, and Facebook Messenger. The Facebook app lets you see your newsfeed and the stuff your friends are posting, and it’s what you use to make your own posts and check in from wherever you happen to be. Previously, you could also send and receive Facebook messages from within that app. Now, you can only send and receive Facebook messages from your phone if you use the separately-installed Facebook Messenger. And that’s where all the permission requirements are.

Oh, but there is one other way, although it’s kind of a hassle. You can access Facebook on your phone the same way you do at home: just open the Facebook website through a web browser. You do this just like you open any other website on your phone.

But that means you are viewing the Facebook site through the tiny screen on your phone. Yes, you can send and receive messages that way, but it’s a pain.

Hang on, I have the (almost) perfect solution. Here’s what I did:

Uninstall Facebook Messenger from my phone

Uninstall the Facebook app from my phone

Install the Tinfoil for Facebook app

Tinfoil for Facebook is a free app. It only requires a couple of minor permissions (Internet and Coarse Location) and it works ALMOST identically to the regular Facebook app. You can also send and receive Facebook messages from it.

The way it works is by accessing the Facebook website – just like your phone’s web browser does. Except the app takes the information from the site and rearranges it so that it looks just like the Facebook app. All of the data is easy to view and using the app is very intuitive. You’ll see when you try it out.

There is one difference, that I have not yet been able to resolve. When someone sends you a Facebook message, you don’t get the old notification “ding” like Facebook Messenger provides. So if you are expecting a message from someone, you will need to check it manually to see if it’s come in yet. For me, that’s not a deal killer anyway. If someone needs to reach me, I would rather they call or email. And if someone does send me a message through Facebook, I’ll see it the next time I’m on my computer. If you know of a way to make Facebook for Tinfoil automatically notify about messages, please put it in the Comments section below.

I’ve been pretty happy with this app so far. It wouldn’t surprise me if Facebook comes up with a way to keep the app from working, since it circumvents their marketing strategies. But for now it’s working fine, and Facebook isn’t squirming around my phone like bedbugs in a cheap motel.

Tinfoil for Facebook

The post Send and receive Facebook messages on your phone, WITHOUT FB Messenger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Tinfoil for Facebook — Send and receive Facebook messages on your phone, WITHOUT FB Messenger Aug 25, 2014
It seems like Facebook is always involved with some type of controversy, and it usually involves the violation of the privacy of Facebook users. Of course, if you don’t like Facebook’s data collection practices, you can always just cancel your account (see last week’s blog about how to do that). The latest issue has to do with the Facebook Messenger app that works on a smartphone.

If you’re on Facebook, you have probably heard the recent uproar over the privacy settings on the Facebook Messenger app. This is the little app that goes on your smartphone that allows you to send and receive Facebook messages with other users. If you want to use that app, you have to agree to the terms that Facebook puts on it, including giving Facebook permission to have access to a variety of areas on your smartphone.

For Android phones, it wants access to your contact list, the phone’s calendar, your GPS location and your phone’s camera and microphone. That’s quite a takeover! For iPhone users I don’t think it’s quite as intrusive but I’m not sure since I don’t use an iPhone.

I’m not going to go into the whole debate about how much information is too much for Facebook to require or if the permissions they need on your phone are excessive. I will say this though – I removed Facebook Messenger from my phone.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between the Facebook app on your phone, and Facebook Messenger. The Facebook app lets you see your newsfeed and the stuff your friends are posting, and it’s what you use to make your own posts and check in from wherever you happen to be. Previously, you could also send and receive Facebook messages from within that app. Now, you can only send and receive Facebook messages from your phone if you use the separately-installed Facebook Messenger. And that’s where all the permission requirements are.

Oh, but there is one other way, although it’s kind of a hassle. You can access Facebook on your phone the same way you do at home: just open the Facebook website through a web browser. You do this just like you open any other website on your phone.

But that means you are viewing the Facebook site through the tiny screen on your phone. Yes, you can send and receive messages that way, but it’s a pain.

Hang on, I have the (almost) perfect solution. Here’s what I did:

Uninstall Facebook Messenger from my phone

Uninstall the Facebook app from my phone

Install the Tinfoil for Facebook app

Tinfoil for Facebook is a free app. It only requires a couple of minor permissions (Internet and Coarse Location) and it works ALMOST identically to the regular Facebook app. You can also send and receive Facebook messages from it.

The way it works is by accessing the Facebook website – just like your phone’s web browser does. Except the app takes the information from the site and rearranges it so that it looks just like the Facebook app. All of the data is easy to view and using the app is very intuitive. You’ll see when you try it out.

There is one difference, that I have not yet been able to resolve. When someone sends you a Facebook message, you don’t get the old notification “ding” like Facebook Messenger provides. So if you are expecting a message from someone, you will need to check it manually to see if it’s come in yet. For me, that’s not a deal killer anyway. If someone needs to reach me, I would rather they call or email. And if someone does send me a message through Facebook, I’ll see it the next time I’m on my computer. If you know of a way to make Facebook for Tinfoil automatically notify about messages, please put it in the Comments section below.

I’ve been pretty happy with this app so far. It wouldn’t surprise me if Facebook comes up with a way to keep the app from working, since it circumvents their marketing strategies. But for now it’s working fine, and Facebook isn’t squirming around my phone like bedbugs in a cheap motel.

Tinfoil for Facebook

The post Send and receive Facebook messages on your phone, WITHOUT FB Messenger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cancel account — How to cancel any social media account Aug 18, 2014
For some people, the novelty of social media has worn thin. Facebook is constantly wanting more and more of your personal information, because that’s their biggest selling point to advertisers. Twitter hashtags are displayed on just about any television show now, and YouTube videos are showing up virtually everywhere. If you get to the point where you say, “That’s it, I’m done – no more social media” do you know how to go about cancelling those accounts? I’ll show you a really easy way today.

Actually I shouldn’t say it’s definitely “easy” – it really depends on what account(s) you want to cancel. Some sites make it a simple process, and other sites make it nearly impossible.

But thankfully, there is one website that can guide you through the process for cancelling almost ANY online accounts, social media or otherwise. That site is AccountKiller.

Using AccountKiller is free, although they encourage you to make a donation if you find the site useful (and if you want to cancel some online accounts, it is definitely useful).

The site doesn’t actually cancel the account(s) for you. It just tells you how to do it, and even provides a link to the actual cancellation page when there is one available. There is also usually some handy advice or tips on how to go about cancelling, and what ramifications there might be for cancelling your account with that particular site.

For example, let’s say you want to cancel your Yahoo.com account. AccountKiller gives you the exact URL for the cancellation page (https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user). They also tell you:

If you have publicly visible images posted, those aren’t always deleted even when you cancel your account successfully. It’s a good idea to manually delete them before you cancel the account.

Your Yahoo account is connected to your Flickr account, so if you cancel Yahoo, you also cancel Flickr. But if you want, you can go and cancel your Flickr account separately without cancelling your Yahoo account.

There are details like that for hundreds of online accounts. They have the various accounts categorized by color:

White – easy to cancel, sometimes with just a click or two

Black – very difficult or impossible to cancel

Gray – somewhere in between

If you have an account you want to cancel and you don’t see it listed there (which would be fairly unlikely), you can send it to them as a suggestion and they will research it and eventually post it along with the others. Great resource.

http://www.accountkiller.com

The post How to cancel any social media account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Account Killer — How to cancel any social media account Aug 18, 2014
For some people, the novelty of social media has worn thin. Facebook is constantly wanting more and more of your personal information, because that’s their biggest selling point to advertisers. Twitter hashtags are displayed on just about any television show now, and YouTube videos are showing up virtually everywhere. If you get to the point where you say, “That’s it, I’m done – no more social media” do you know how to go about cancelling those accounts? I’ll show you a really easy way today.

Actually I shouldn’t say it’s definitely “easy” – it really depends on what account(s) you want to cancel. Some sites make it a simple process, and other sites make it nearly impossible.

But thankfully, there is one website that can guide you through the process for cancelling almost ANY online accounts, social media or otherwise. That site is AccountKiller.

Using AccountKiller is free, although they encourage you to make a donation if you find the site useful (and if you want to cancel some online accounts, it is definitely useful).

The site doesn’t actually cancel the account(s) for you. It just tells you how to do it, and even provides a link to the actual cancellation page when there is one available. There is also usually some handy advice or tips on how to go about cancelling, and what ramifications there might be for cancelling your account with that particular site.

For example, let’s say you want to cancel your Yahoo.com account. AccountKiller gives you the exact URL for the cancellation page (https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user). They also tell you:

If you have publicly visible images posted, those aren’t always deleted even when you cancel your account successfully. It’s a good idea to manually delete them before you cancel the account.

Your Yahoo account is connected to your Flickr account, so if you cancel Yahoo, you also cancel Flickr. But if you want, you can go and cancel your Flickr account separately without cancelling your Yahoo account.

There are details like that for hundreds of online accounts. They have the various accounts categorized by color:

White – easy to cancel, sometimes with just a click or two

Black – very difficult or impossible to cancel

Gray – somewhere in between

If you have an account you want to cancel and you don’t see it listed there (which would be fairly unlikely), you can send it to them as a suggestion and they will research it and eventually post it along with the others. Great resource.

http://www.accountkiller.com

The post How to cancel any social media account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

printer — How to make ANY website printer-friendly Aug 11, 2014
Ever try to print a web page? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The reason for this is that website content is designed to be displayed on your computer screen, not sent to the printer to be put on paper. So even though it looks perfect on your monitor, the printed page is often completely messed up. I’ve even had people call me and complain that their printer isn’t working properly, because the words and images are all out of order and misaligned. The problem wasn’t the printer, though. That web page they were trying to print just wasn’t printer friendly.

Some websites are helpful and offer a “printer friendly” version of the content. This usually works, but most non-commercial websites don’t have that feature. And actually even a lot of business websites don’t offer it.

But now there’s a solution – and it’s free. It’s an online service called Print Friendly. You can see it at PrintFriendly.com.

Using this service could not be any easier. When you’re viewing a website you want to print, click one time up in the address bar to highlight the address, then do a right-click and choose “Copy”.

Then go to the Print Friendly website and paste it in the URL field and click “print preview”:

If the preview looks okay, print it!

Here’s an example. I went to an MSN news story. A screenshot of the website article is below. As you can see the screen is cluttered with all kinds of junk – navigation links, social media buttons, ads, links to other stories, and several images. There’s so much stuff that in order to read past the first few lines of the article, you have to scroll down. I don’t need all that extra stuff – all I want to print is just the words in the article.

So I copied and pasted the address, and here is what the print preview showed. Just the title and the text – ready to print!

To print, just hit the link at the top left on the preview. Next to that is the option to make the content into a PDF file, or you could click the “Email” button to send the article by email. There are some other options to control the text size and the appearance of images – you can play with those as you like.

I encourage you to experiment with it. It probably won’t be perfect each time, as there are a million different variations in the way a website can be arranged. But it should work okay in most cases.

http://www.printfriendly.com

The post How to make ANY website printer-friendly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Print Friendly — How to make ANY website printer-friendly Aug 11, 2014
Ever try to print a web page? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The reason for this is that website content is designed to be displayed on your computer screen, not sent to the printer to be put on paper. So even though it looks perfect on your monitor, the printed page is often completely messed up. I’ve even had people call me and complain that their printer isn’t working properly, because the words and images are all out of order and misaligned. The problem wasn’t the printer, though. That web page they were trying to print just wasn’t printer friendly.

Some websites are helpful and offer a “printer friendly” version of the content. This usually works, but most non-commercial websites don’t have that feature. And actually even a lot of business websites don’t offer it.

But now there’s a solution – and it’s free. It’s an online service called Print Friendly. You can see it at PrintFriendly.com.

Using this service could not be any easier. When you’re viewing a website you want to print, click one time up in the address bar to highlight the address, then do a right-click and choose “Copy”.

Then go to the Print Friendly website and paste it in the URL field and click “print preview”:

If the preview looks okay, print it!

Here’s an example. I went to an MSN news story. A screenshot of the website article is below. As you can see the screen is cluttered with all kinds of junk – navigation links, social media buttons, ads, links to other stories, and several images. There’s so much stuff that in order to read past the first few lines of the article, you have to scroll down. I don’t need all that extra stuff – all I want to print is just the words in the article.

So I copied and pasted the address, and here is what the print preview showed. Just the title and the text – ready to print!

To print, just hit the link at the top left on the preview. Next to that is the option to make the content into a PDF file, or you could click the “Email” button to send the article by email. There are some other options to control the text size and the appearance of images – you can play with those as you like.

I encourage you to experiment with it. It probably won’t be perfect each time, as there are a million different variations in the way a website can be arranged. But it should work okay in most cases.

http://www.printfriendly.com

The post How to make ANY website printer-friendly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

bad computer habits — Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 2 Aug 04, 2014
Last week I talked about 4 bad computer habits that I see happening pretty regularly. This week in part 2, I’ll cover the other 4. If you do any of these things with your computer, knock it off!

Picking up from where we left off last Monday –

5. Clicking on unknown links
Every time I get to the point where I think that by now just about all computer users must be aware of the danger of clicking on links that they aren’t sure of, I get a phone call from someone who did just that.

Just recently I got a panicked call from a client. She said she got an email from her credit card supplier, and it told her that her account had been suspended due to some suspicious activity. The email conveniently provided a link for her to click on to log in to her account and provide the necessary information. She clicked on that link, and of course the website she was taken to looked exactly like the credit card website – but it wasn’t, of course. She entered her email address and her password, and it “seemed” to log her in, because it then went to the next screen.

That next screen was where her suspicion level was raised high enough that she just closed the browser window and started to think “Have I just been scammed?”. At that point, the scammers had the login information to her credit card account. But fortunately, she logged in (to the REAL account this time) and changed her password before the bad guys tried to.

It goes back to the same fundamental rule – be suspicious of everything. An “unknown link” is any link that you don’t know for sure where it’s going to take you. If you get an email that simply offers some “generic” text such as “hey check this out” and invites you to click on a link, that’s not a known link. It doesn’t matter if it came from someone you know. It doesn’t matter if it came from your mother – don’t click it.

6. Automatically clicking “Next” when installing software
This is such an easy trap to fall into. Almost all software programs have all those legal disclaimers and Terms of Use that you have to agree to, and the simplest thing to do is just click “I agree” or “Next” without really reading what the screen says.

Unfortunately, the scammers have figured that out and they’re HOPING you just click those buttons without reading the text. In many cases, when you click those things you are telling the program to install lots of other junk software, extra toolbars, different search engines, and to change your home page to something else. So many times people will bring me their computer that is practically unusable because of all the pop-ups and other garbage, and they don’t know how it got there – “all I did was download a free desktop weather program”. There’s a reason some programs are free – they make money when you don’t pay attention and all that other stuff gets installed.

7. Going days or weeks without rebooting
Your computer should be restarted every 1-2 days. Each time it starts up, it has fresh memory and will just work better. In fact, when someone has a problem and the computer is not working properly, one of the things I will ask is, “When was the last time the computer was restarted?” Sometimes I find computers that have been on for several weeks or even months straight. Restarting often fixes whatever problem is happening.

Think about it like this – how long could you go without taking a shower or washing your hair? For most people it’s probably a day or maybe two days. Sure, you COULD go a week or even a few weeks, but think about how awful and dirty you would feel. Would you really be at your best if you went that long? And then imagine after all that time being able to take a nice long hot shower – how refreshing! That’s how your computer feels when you restart it after it’s been working for a while. It’s much happier.

8. Not having any backup
Of course – you didn’t think I could talk about bad habits and not mention the lack of a regular backup did you? That’s because it’s important!

What would you do if you hit the power button tomorrow morning, and the computer didn’t come on? Or the screen displayed the message “No disk found” (which indicates a hard drive crash). If that would cause your heart to skip a beat because of all the important documents and pictures that are stored on there that are not backed up anywhere else, it should be one of your priorities TODAY to get that taken care of.

And if I asked you right now, “Do you have all of your important stuff backed up?” and your answer is, “Well, I guess it’s backed up…” that means you don’t have a backup. The backup process doesn’t just set itself up. You have to do it deliberately. I do it all time for my clients, so let me help. Before it’s too late.

So there you have it, 8 bad computer habits that really should be avoided. If you’re not guilty of any of them, good job! Chances are a few of them applied to you though – so let’s get that fixed and avoid some headaches down the road.

The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 2 Aug 04, 2014
Last week I talked about 4 bad computer habits that I see happening pretty regularly. This week in part 2, I’ll cover the other 4. If you do any of these things with your computer, knock it off!

Picking up from where we left off last Monday –

5. Clicking on unknown links
Every time I get to the point where I think that by now just about all computer users must be aware of the danger of clicking on links that they aren’t sure of, I get a phone call from someone who did just that.

Just recently I got a panicked call from a client. She said she got an email from her credit card supplier, and it told her that her account had been suspended due to some suspicious activity. The email conveniently provided a link for her to click on to log in to her account and provide the necessary information. She clicked on that link, and of course the website she was taken to looked exactly like the credit card website – but it wasn’t, of course. She entered her email address and her password, and it “seemed” to log her in, because it then went to the next screen.

That next screen was where her suspicion level was raised high enough that she just closed the browser window and started to think “Have I just been scammed?”. At that point, the scammers had the login information to her credit card account. But fortunately, she logged in (to the REAL account this time) and changed her password before the bad guys tried to.

It goes back to the same fundamental rule – be suspicious of everything. An “unknown link” is any link that you don’t know for sure where it’s going to take you. If you get an email that simply offers some “generic” text such as “hey check this out” and invites you to click on a link, that’s not a known link. It doesn’t matter if it came from someone you know. It doesn’t matter if it came from your mother – don’t click it.

6. Automatically clicking “Next” when installing software
This is such an easy trap to fall into. Almost all software programs have all those legal disclaimers and Terms of Use that you have to agree to, and the simplest thing to do is just click “I agree” or “Next” without really reading what the screen says.

Unfortunately, the scammers have figured that out and they’re HOPING you just click those buttons without reading the text. In many cases, when you click those things you are telling the program to install lots of other junk software, extra toolbars, different search engines, and to change your home page to something else. So many times people will bring me their computer that is practically unusable because of all the pop-ups and other garbage, and they don’t know how it got there – “all I did was download a free desktop weather program”. There’s a reason some programs are free – they make money when you don’t pay attention and all that other stuff gets installed.

7. Going days or weeks without rebooting
Your computer should be restarted every 1-2 days. Each time it starts up, it has fresh memory and will just work better. In fact, when someone has a problem and the computer is not working properly, one of the things I will ask is, “When was the last time the computer was restarted?” Sometimes I find computers that have been on for several weeks or even months straight. Restarting often fixes whatever problem is happening.

Think about it like this – how long could you go without taking a shower or washing your hair? For most people it’s probably a day or maybe two days. Sure, you COULD go a week or even a few weeks, but think about how awful and dirty you would feel. Would you really be at your best if you went that long? And then imagine after all that time being able to take a nice long hot shower – how refreshing! That’s how your computer feels when you restart it after it’s been working for a while. It’s much happier.

8. Not having any backup
Of course – you didn’t think I could talk about bad habits and not mention the lack of a regular backup did you? That’s because it’s important!

What would you do if you hit the power button tomorrow morning, and the computer didn’t come on? Or the screen displayed the message “No disk found” (which indicates a hard drive crash). If that would cause your heart to skip a beat because of all the important documents and pictures that are stored on there that are not backed up anywhere else, it should be one of your priorities TODAY to get that taken care of.

And if I asked you right now, “Do you have all of your important stuff backed up?” and your answer is, “Well, I guess it’s backed up…” that means you don’t have a backup. The backup process doesn’t just set itself up. You have to do it deliberately. I do it all time for my clients, so let me help. Before it’s too late.

So there you have it, 8 bad computer habits that really should be avoided. If you’re not guilty of any of them, good job! Chances are a few of them applied to you though – so let’s get that fixed and avoid some headaches down the road.

The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

bad computer habits — Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 1 Jul 28, 2014
Since we use our computers just about every day, sometimes all day, it’s easy to get into a routine. As human beings, we have a set of habits. That means we don’t necessarily do things a certain way because it’s the safest or most efficient, but rather it’s just because we’ve always done it that way. These are some of the most common bad computer habits I see. I’ll cover 4 this week and 4 next week.

1. Weak and reused passwords
No one would ever guess your dog’s name followed by your birth date, right? Wrong. You have to get out of the mindset of thinking “this would be hard for someone to guess” or “no way could anyone ever know this about me”. That’s because in most cases, the bad guy is not sitting at his computer trying to guess your password. He has software that can do that at a much higher rate of speed, and it can work tirelessly for hours. Or days or weeks.

And even if you have a really strong password (random numbers, and upper and lower case letters and other characters), it’s just as unsafe if you use that same one across multiple accounts. If someone happens to get into one of your accounts, they can get into most of the others as well. Don’t be an easy target.

Lesson: use strong, unique passwords on every account.

2. Searching for a website when you already know the address
This one really drives me nuts. I used to work with someone who would do this. Here’s an example of how he would do it. Let’s say he wanted to go to Yahoo.com. Here’s the process he would use:

Open Internet Explorer and in the address bar, type “www.google.com”

When Google comes up, click in the search field and type “www.yahoo.com”

When the search results came up, Yahoo would be the first one listed, so he would click on that and it would take him to Yahoo

First, this is extremely inefficient. In step 1, he could have just typed “yahoo.com” and gone straight to the Yahoo website. That’s the quickest way to do it if you already know the website address (URL) that you want to visit. And if you go there regularly, make it a bookmark or you could even make it your home page.

Second, and probably more important, this is a dangerous way to visit websites. If you’re in the habit of typing a URL in Google’s search field and then just blindly clicking on the first search result in the list, there will come a day when you will click on something and it will take you to a malicious website. The scammers and hackers know that a lot of people do this, so they make websites that are designed to come up high in the search results. Or they will even purchase an actual Google ad, so that it definitely shows up at the top (it will technically labeled as an ad, but a lot of people won’t notice that and will just click on it anyway). As soon as that site is visited, the computer could be infected. Or it could pop up some fake “update” message that could trick you into clicking and downloading malware to your computer.

Lesson: If you know the actual website address, just type it in the address bar and hit Enter – no need to use Google.

3. Ignoring error messages
Sometimes I’ll get a phone call from someone, and the problem with their computer is this constant error message that keeps coming up. It’s really bugging them because it comes up every time they turn on the computer. My first question of course is, “What is the error message?”. Most of the time they don’t know because they didn’t write it down. My next question is when did this first start happening. In many cases, the client tells me that it started happening a long time ago, like several weeks or even months. They’ve just been ignoring it. Bad idea!

That error message could be indicating a serious problem – if so, it should be fixed quickly. You might not see any obvious symptoms or other things happening, but that doesn’t mean it’s having no effect. And from a practical standpoint, sometimes an error is easily remedied if we catch it right when it starts coming up. Even a System Restore could be a potential fix – but not if the error is 3 months old.

Lesson: Take action when you first see an error message.

4. Storing files and folders on the desktop
This is another pretty common one. There might be a folder that has some documents in it that you access all the time, so you want to be able to get to it quickly. So it goes on the desktop. Or maybe you download pictures from your phone regularly, and the easiest thing is to just thrown them in a folder on the desktop. Before you know it, your desktop is covered with files and folders, and you probably notice your computer running more slowly.

The desktop is not really designed for storage and having a significant amount of data there will slow down the computer. However, I understand the need for having quick access to certain files sometimes. There is a solution for that. Put the file or folder where it should really be stored (in Documents, or Pictures, or wherever appropriate). Then, do a right click on that file, move your mouse down to “Send to” and then click on “Desktop – create shortcut”. Now you will still have that same one-click access to the file or folder, but the only thing on the desktop will be the shortcut icon – which takes up almost no space at all.

Lesson: Put shortcuts on the desktop rather than the actual file or folder.

Are you guilty of these bad habits? It’s something to work on this week! Next Monday I’ll have the final four.

The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 1 Jul 28, 2014
Since we use our computers just about every day, sometimes all day, it’s easy to get into a routine. As human beings, we have a set of habits. That means we don’t necessarily do things a certain way because it’s the safest or most efficient, but rather it’s just because we’ve always done it that way. These are some of the most common bad computer habits I see. I’ll cover 4 this week and 4 next week.

1. Weak and reused passwords
No one would ever guess your dog’s name followed by your birth date, right? Wrong. You have to get out of the mindset of thinking “this would be hard for someone to guess” or “no way could anyone ever know this about me”. That’s because in most cases, the bad guy is not sitting at his computer trying to guess your password. He has software that can do that at a much higher rate of speed, and it can work tirelessly for hours. Or days or weeks.

And even if you have a really strong password (random numbers, and upper and lower case letters and other characters), it’s just as unsafe if you use that same one across multiple accounts. If someone happens to get into one of your accounts, they can get into most of the others as well. Don’t be an easy target.

Lesson: use strong, unique passwords on every account.

2. Searching for a website when you already know the address
This one really drives me nuts. I used to work with someone who would do this. Here’s an example of how he would do it. Let’s say he wanted to go to Yahoo.com. Here’s the process he would use:

Open Internet Explorer and in the address bar, type “www.google.com”

When Google comes up, click in the search field and type “www.yahoo.com”

When the search results came up, Yahoo would be the first one listed, so he would click on that and it would take him to Yahoo

First, this is extremely inefficient. In step 1, he could have just typed “yahoo.com” and gone straight to the Yahoo website. That’s the quickest way to do it if you already know the website address (URL) that you want to visit. And if you go there regularly, make it a bookmark or you could even make it your home page.

Second, and probably more important, this is a dangerous way to visit websites. If you’re in the habit of typing a URL in Google’s search field and then just blindly clicking on the first search result in the list, there will come a day when you will click on something and it will take you to a malicious website. The scammers and hackers know that a lot of people do this, so they make websites that are designed to come up high in the search results. Or they will even purchase an actual Google ad, so that it definitely shows up at the top (it will technically labeled as an ad, but a lot of people won’t notice that and will just click on it anyway). As soon as that site is visited, the computer could be infected. Or it could pop up some fake “update” message that could trick you into clicking and downloading malware to your computer.

Lesson: If you know the actual website address, just type it in the address bar and hit Enter – no need to use Google.

3. Ignoring error messages
Sometimes I’ll get a phone call from someone, and the problem with their computer is this constant error message that keeps coming up. It’s really bugging them because it comes up every time they turn on the computer. My first question of course is, “What is the error message?”. Most of the time they don’t know because they didn’t write it down. My next question is when did this first start happening. In many cases, the client tells me that it started happening a long time ago, like several weeks or even months. They’ve just been ignoring it. Bad idea!

That error message could be indicating a serious problem – if so, it should be fixed quickly. You might not see any obvious symptoms or other things happening, but that doesn’t mean it’s having no effect. And from a practical standpoint, sometimes an error is easily remedied if we catch it right when it starts coming up. Even a System Restore could be a potential fix – but not if the error is 3 months old.

Lesson: Take action when you first see an error message.

4. Storing files and folders on the desktop
This is another pretty common one. There might be a folder that has some documents in it that you access all the time, so you want to be able to get to it quickly. So it goes on the desktop. Or maybe you download pictures from your phone regularly, and the easiest thing is to just thrown them in a folder on the desktop. Before you know it, your desktop is covered with files and folders, and you probably notice your computer running more slowly.

The desktop is not really designed for storage and having a significant amount of data there will slow down the computer. However, I understand the need for having quick access to certain files sometimes. There is a solution for that. Put the file or folder where it should really be stored (in Documents, or Pictures, or wherever appropriate). Then, do a right click on that file, move your mouse down to “Send to” and then click on “Desktop – create shortcut”. Now you will still have that same one-click access to the file or folder, but the only thing on the desktop will be the shortcut icon – which takes up almost no space at all.

Lesson: Put shortcuts on the desktop rather than the actual file or folder.

Are you guilty of these bad habits? It’s something to work on this week! Next Monday I’ll have the final four.

The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

System Image backup — How to create a System Image backup (and why you should) Jul 21, 2014
You know I’m always talking about having an automated, consistent backup process in place. This is partly because I have people bring me computers just about every week with a crashed drive, and they’re in a panic because they need the files and folders that are on that drive. But it’s also from first-hand experience – just a few weeks ago my OWN primary computer had a complete hard drive crash with no recoverable data. Of course I lost nothing because of my automated backup process.

That automated online backup process (which I can set up for you remotely in about 10 minutes) saves your individual files and folders – stuff like documents, pictures, emails, music, etc. It does not back up programs, just data. This type of backup is very important to have in place, for when your computer’s hard drive crashes.

But there’s another kind of backup, called a SystemImage, that I highly recommend you implement. This one is done manually to an external drive, and it serves a different purpose. The purpose of this backup is to get you back up and running with all your files and all your programs as quickly as possible.

Let’s consider the scenario of what happens when your hard drive crashes. Nothing to worry about really, if you have your file-by-file automated backup.

You swap out the crashed drive for a new one. At that point all you have is a blank hard drive. So you first need to install Windows. Then you need to download and install all the Windows Updates (this can take hours just by itself). Then you have to install your antivirus program and ALL the other software you use, such as Chrome or Firefox, Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, iTunes, your printer software, and whatever else you use. Then you have to configure all of them to work they way they used to work before the crash. THEN you have to copy all of your documents, pictures, music and everything else back from your backup to your new hard drive.

It’s a process. You didn’t lose any of your important files, but you will lose some time because it can take a while to get everything back in place.

How do you avoid spending all that time to get back up and running? By having a recent System Image backup as well.

The System Image is an “all-inclusive” backup. It takes all of the files on your hard drive – your Windows installation, your documents, your pictures, your music, your screensaver, your programs, EVERYTHING – and wraps it up all together into one folder, then that backup is put on your external drive.

So let’s say you create a new System Image on Saturday, and your hard drive crashes the next day. All you have to do is swap out your dead drive with a new one, and then tell your computer to restore that System Image you created on Saturday. Within a very short period of time (usually less than a couple of hours), EVERYTHING is back on your computer the way it was before the crash – all of your programs, all of your files, they’re all just like they were before. And you can go on using your computer just like nothing happened.

That’s a huge difference! Instead of losing a day (or more) trying to get everything back on and set up like you had it, you start the system image restoration process and go have lunch with a friend, and when you come back it’s all done.

That might bring up a question in your mind:
“If this backup does all that, why not just use the system image as my ONLY backup?“

The system image is the ideal one to have if the whole hard drive crashes and you have to replace it with a new, blank drive. But what if you accidentally delete a picture, and you really need it back. And you can’t find it anywhere, even in the Recycle Bin. Do you really want to spend 2 hours wiping out your whole hard drive and restoring it just to replace one file? That wouldn’t make sense and it’s not very efficient at all. For a single file, you can just go to your online backup account and download that file again – all done in a few minutes. So you need BOTH types of backup.

Here’s how you do a System Image backup:

1. First, you have to get to the right screen. In Windows 7, click the Start button and type two words: back up You’ll see the menu item “Back up your computer” at the top of the Start menu – click on it. In Windows 8, go to the App screen and just type the word “recovery” then click on “Windows 7 File Recovery”. In Windows 8.1, search on “File history” and click on “File History”.

2. When you follow the steps listed above, you’ll be shown a new window. Somewhere in that window is a link for creating a System Image. Click on that link.

3. A new window opens, and it asks you where you want to save the System Image backup. You should have your external drive connected at this time, and select it from the drop-down menu under “On a hard disk”:

4. When you click Next, it will now ask you which drives to back up. Usually it’s safe to just stick with the ones it has already pre-checked, but you want to make sure you are at least backing up your primary hard drive:

5. Almost there – now it will tell you what the total size of the backup will be. It will also tell you that your previous System Image backup will be overwritten by this new one (which is what you want). So all you have to do is click the “Start backup” button.

Now your work is done. You just have to wait for the System Image backup to complete. There will be a progress bar, so you’ll be able to see it happening little by little. If you don’t have a lot of data on your drive, it might not take very long – maybe less than an hour. Mine usually take 2-3 hours so I just let it run overnight. When it’s finished, it will say “Backup completed successfully”.

Two important notes:

– Don’t use the computer while the System Image backup is being done.

– When it’s done, disconnect the external drive. Your external drive should only be connected to your computer when you’re doing a manual backup such as this.

– The first time you do a System Image backup, when it’s done it will ask if you want to create a System Repair disc. Go ahead and do that – it only takes a couple of minutes. You’ll need a blank CD-R or DVD-R to create that. Then keep that in a safe place. You’ll only need that if you need to use your System Image backup to recover from a hard drive crash. Let’s hope that never happens, but be ready when it does!

If you need help setting this up, get in touch with me. I do this for my own computer regularly, and I have set it up for lots of my clients.

The post How to create a System Image backup (and why you should) first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

system image — How to create a System Image backup (and why you should) Jul 21, 2014
You know I’m always talking about having an automated, consistent backup process in place. This is partly because I have people bring me computers just about every week with a crashed drive, and they’re in a panic because they need the files and folders that are on that drive. But it’s also from first-hand experience – just a few weeks ago my OWN primary computer had a complete hard drive crash with no recoverable data. Of course I lost nothing because of my automated backup process.

That automated online backup process (which I can set up for you remotely in about 10 minutes) saves your individual files and folders – stuff like documents, pictures, emails, music, etc. It does not back up programs, just data. This type of backup is very important to have in place, for when your computer’s hard drive crashes.

But there’s another kind of backup, called a SystemImage, that I highly recommend you implement. This one is done manually to an external drive, and it serves a different purpose. The purpose of this backup is to get you back up and running with all your files and all your programs as quickly as possible.

Let’s consider the scenario of what happens when your hard drive crashes. Nothing to worry about really, if you have your file-by-file automated backup.

You swap out the crashed drive for a new one. At that point all you have is a blank hard drive. So you first need to install Windows. Then you need to download and install all the Windows Updates (this can take hours just by itself). Then you have to install your antivirus program and ALL the other software you use, such as Chrome or Firefox, Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, iTunes, your printer software, and whatever else you use. Then you have to configure all of them to work they way they used to work before the crash. THEN you have to copy all of your documents, pictures, music and everything else back from your backup to your new hard drive.

It’s a process. You didn’t lose any of your important files, but you will lose some time because it can take a while to get everything back in place.

How do you avoid spending all that time to get back up and running? By having a recent System Image backup as well.

The System Image is an “all-inclusive” backup. It takes all of the files on your hard drive – your Windows installation, your documents, your pictures, your music, your screensaver, your programs, EVERYTHING – and wraps it up all together into one folder, then that backup is put on your external drive.

So let’s say you create a new System Image on Saturday, and your hard drive crashes the next day. All you have to do is swap out your dead drive with a new one, and then tell your computer to restore that System Image you created on Saturday. Within a very short period of time (usually less than a couple of hours), EVERYTHING is back on your computer the way it was before the crash – all of your programs, all of your files, they’re all just like they were before. And you can go on using your computer just like nothing happened.

That’s a huge difference! Instead of losing a day (or more) trying to get everything back on and set up like you had it, you start the system image restoration process and go have lunch with a friend, and when you come back it’s all done.

That might bring up a question in your mind:
“If this backup does all that, why not just use the system image as my ONLY backup?“

The system image is the ideal one to have if the whole hard drive crashes and you have to replace it with a new, blank drive. But what if you accidentally delete a picture, and you really need it back. And you can’t find it anywhere, even in the Recycle Bin. Do you really want to spend 2 hours wiping out your whole hard drive and restoring it just to replace one file? That wouldn’t make sense and it’s not very efficient at all. For a single file, you can just go to your online backup account and download that file again – all done in a few minutes. So you need BOTH types of backup.

Here’s how you do a System Image backup:

1. First, you have to get to the right screen. In Windows 7, click the Start button and type two words: back up You’ll see the menu item “Back up your computer” at the top of the Start menu – click on it. In Windows 8, go to the App screen and just type the word “recovery” then click on “Windows 7 File Recovery”. In Windows 8.1, search on “File history” and click on “File History”.

2. When you follow the steps listed above, you’ll be shown a new window. Somewhere in that window is a link for creating a System Image. Click on that link.

3. A new window opens, and it asks you where you want to save the System Image backup. You should have your external drive connected at this time, and select it from the drop-down menu under “On a hard disk”:

4. When you click Next, it will now ask you which drives to back up. Usually it’s safe to just stick with the ones it has already pre-checked, but you want to make sure you are at least backing up your primary hard drive:

5. Almost there – now it will tell you what the total size of the backup will be. It will also tell you that your previous System Image backup will be overwritten by this new one (which is what you want). So all you have to do is click the “Start backup” button.

Now your work is done. You just have to wait for the System Image backup to complete. There will be a progress bar, so you’ll be able to see it happening little by little. If you don’t have a lot of data on your drive, it might not take very long – maybe less than an hour. Mine usually take 2-3 hours so I just let it run overnight. When it’s finished, it will say “Backup completed successfully”.

Two important notes:

– Don’t use the computer while the System Image backup is being done.

– When it’s done, disconnect the external drive. Your external drive should only be connected to your computer when you’re doing a manual backup such as this.

– The first time you do a System Image backup, when it’s done it will ask if you want to create a System Repair disc. Go ahead and do that – it only takes a couple of minutes. You’ll need a blank CD-R or DVD-R to create that. Then keep that in a safe place. You’ll only need that if you need to use your System Image backup to recover from a hard drive crash. Let’s hope that never happens, but be ready when it does!

If you need help setting this up, get in touch with me. I do this for my own computer regularly, and I have set it up for lots of my clients.

The post How to create a System Image backup (and why you should) first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

speech recognition — Use the speech recognition software you already have Jul 14, 2014
Are you someone that would rather talk than type? Personally, I would rather type out words on the keyboard because then I can make sure that the message that is transmitted is exactly what I want to say. The downside of typing is that it usually takes longer since most people can speak much faster than they type. But if you prefer to control your computer by your voice, you can do that. And the software that allows that is probably already in your computer.

I remember many years ago I purchased a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking (company site). This was way back in the mid-90s, and the idea of controlling your computer with your voice was still a fairly new one. I remember that the error rate for the program was pretty high. In fact, it was high enough that I didn’t continue using it because it wasn’t worth the trouble of having to go back through every document and fix all the mistakes. It has improved a lot since then, and it’s still pretty much the standard for voice recognition software usage – IF you need to use a third-party program.

But before you go out and spend your money ($75 to $175) on that program, you should check out the speech recognition software that you probably already own – the one that is built into Windows. It’s been included with the Windows operating system since Vista, so if you use Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 you already have it to try out. In some cases, you don’t need anything more than the features that come with the Windows version.

To do this, technically all you need is a microphone connected to your computer. But ideally you will want a headset (headphones and a microphone).

Here’s how to use Windows Speech Recognition:

(these instructions and screenshots are based on Windows 7, but Windows Vista and 8 are similar)

1. Click the Start button and type (or in Windows 8, just start typing) “Speech Recognition” and you’ll see a link to click on with that name (actually you can just type the word “speech” and you’ll see it appear). Click on it and you’ll get your first screen to start the setup process:

2. Then you are asked to choose which type of microphone you will be using:

3. You’ll get a few handy tips on how to use a microphone:

4. And now here’s your chance to finally speak into the microphone. They want you to read a sentence so you can gauge if the microphone volume needs to be adjusted. You should see the volume level fluctuate as you speak – your words should mostly be in the green area. Yellow would be too quiet, and red would be too loud.

5. Microphone is all set

6. If you want the program to learn your particular patterns of speech more quickly, you can have it review your Documents and your Email. This is a good thing to do in order to improve the accuracy of the software, but some people might have concerns about a Microsoft product being able to read and review your documents. Which is kind of ironic, since Microsoft Word was most likely what created those documents in the first place. But you can skip this step if you want, and the program will still work.

7. Now you need to decide how you are going to activate the speech recognition software – manually or by voice. In the Manual Activation mode, when you are using the software and you say “Stop Listening” the program actually turns off, and you have to actually run it again in order to use it. In Voice Activation Mode, the “Stop Listening” command just puts the Speech Recognition program in a light sleep mode. When you want to use it again, just say “Start listening” and it’s running again.

8. On this next screen, you will want to view the reference sheet and print it. It’s a handy list of the common phrases that the software already understands.

9. Now you need to choose if you want to have the speech recognition software run all the time (each time you boot up) or if you just want to run it when you need it.

10. The next screen is another good thing to do, if you are planning to use this feature regularly. Take the tutorial – it will give you the basics of how to control your computer with your voice.

11. Once you are done with the tutorial, you’re ready to just start using the Windows Speech Recognition as part of your regular daily computer use. When the program is running, you will see the small window at the top of your screen, and it will say “Listening” if it is indeed listening for you to give it a command:

It’s up to you how extensively you want to use it. If you want to, you can use it to completely control your computer for just about everything. Or, you can just use it to dictate content into a Word document or an email. For most people, talking is faster than typing. It will take a little bit to get used to, but with practice you might find that you prefer it to typing.

There’s another tutorial here. It is primarily based on the Windows 8 user interface, but there is a lot of similarity there so even if you use Windows 7 you should benefit from it.

The post Use the speech recognition software you already have first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

speech recognition setup — Use the speech recognition software you already have Jul 14, 2014
Are you someone that would rather talk than type? Personally, I would rather type out words on the keyboard because then I can make sure that the message that is transmitted is exactly what I want to say. The downside of typing is that it usually takes longer since most people can speak much faster than they type. But if you prefer to control your computer by your voice, you can do that. And the software that allows that is probably already in your computer.

I remember many years ago I purchased a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking (company site). This was way back in the mid-90s, and the idea of controlling your computer with your voice was still a fairly new one. I remember that the error rate for the program was pretty high. In fact, it was high enough that I didn’t continue using it because it wasn’t worth the trouble of having to go back through every document and fix all the mistakes. It has improved a lot since then, and it’s still pretty much the standard for voice recognition software usage – IF you need to use a third-party program.

But before you go out and spend your money ($75 to $175) on that program, you should check out the speech recognition software that you probably already own – the one that is built into Windows. It’s been included with the Windows operating system since Vista, so if you use Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 you already have it to try out. In some cases, you don’t need anything more than the features that come with the Windows version.

To do this, technically all you need is a microphone connected to your computer. But ideally you will want a headset (headphones and a microphone).

Here’s how to use Windows Speech Recognition:

(these instructions and screenshots are based on Windows 7, but Windows Vista and 8 are similar)

1. Click the Start button and type (or in Windows 8, just start typing) “Speech Recognition” and you’ll see a link to click on with that name (actually you can just type the word “speech” and you’ll see it appear). Click on it and you’ll get your first screen to start the setup process:

2. Then you are asked to choose which type of microphone you will be using:

3. You’ll get a few handy tips on how to use a microphone:

4. And now here’s your chance to finally speak into the microphone. They want you to read a sentence so you can gauge if the microphone volume needs to be adjusted. You should see the volume level fluctuate as you speak – your words should mostly be in the green area. Yellow would be too quiet, and red would be too loud.

5. Microphone is all set

6. If you want the program to learn your particular patterns of speech more quickly, you can have it review your Documents and your Email. This is a good thing to do in order to improve the accuracy of the software, but some people might have concerns about a Microsoft product being able to read and review your documents. Which is kind of ironic, since Microsoft Word was most likely what created those documents in the first place. But you can skip this step if you want, and the program will still work.

7. Now you need to decide how you are going to activate the speech recognition software – manually or by voice. In the Manual Activation mode, when you are using the software and you say “Stop Listening” the program actually turns off, and you have to actually run it again in order to use it. In Voice Activation Mode, the “Stop Listening” command just puts the Speech Recognition program in a light sleep mode. When you want to use it again, just say “Start listening” and it’s running again.

8. On this next screen, you will want to view the reference sheet and print it. It’s a handy list of the common phrases that the software already understands.

9. Now you need to choose if you want to have the speech recognition software run all the time (each time you boot up) or if you just want to run it when you need it.

10. The next screen is another good thing to do, if you are planning to use this feature regularly. Take the tutorial – it will give you the basics of how to control your computer with your voice.

11. Once you are done with the tutorial, you’re ready to just start using the Windows Speech Recognition as part of your regular daily computer use. When the program is running, you will see the small window at the top of your screen, and it will say “Listening” if it is indeed listening for you to give it a command:

It’s up to you how extensively you want to use it. If you want to, you can use it to completely control your computer for just about everything. Or, you can just use it to dictate content into a Word document or an email. For most people, talking is faster than typing. It will take a little bit to get used to, but with practice you might find that you prefer it to typing.

There’s another tutorial here. It is primarily based on the Windows 8 user interface, but there is a lot of similarity there so even if you use Windows 7 you should benefit from it.

The post Use the speech recognition software you already have first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop touchpad — Cursor jumping around on your Windows laptop? Here’s the fix. Jul 07, 2014
My favorite kind of computer tips are those that address a particularly common and annoying problem, and solve that problem with a quick solution that’s easy to implement. And preferably free. Today is a great example of this kind of computer tip.

It’s a common complaint among laptop users. The cursor seems to jump around to random places on the page while you’re typing. If you happen to not be looking at the screen for a few seconds, you look up and you might see that you have typed a few words or even a whole sentence – in the wrong place.

If you don’t know what’s causing it, this problem can be very frustrating because you also won’t know how to fix it.

Quick fix:
Want to watch my screen as I implement this solution?
Full “over my shoulder” video instruction is just $2 (two bucks!)
Click here for immediate access

Having seen this happen many times, I am very familiar with it. In fact, when a client has a question to ask, and it starts out, “My laptop does the weirdest thing. I’m just typing along, and all of a sudden…” that’s usually all they have to say because I already know what they are going to tell me. The cursor moves around the screen to a different spot, seemingly with a mind of its own.

The cause of this issue is the laptop’s touchpad. That’s the little square under the keyboard with the left and right button. It’s sort of the “mouse” of a laptop since you can move your finger on it to determine where the cursor is on the screen.

What happens is that while you’re typing, your left hand or your right hand (or both) brushes the touchpad, ever so slightly. It doesn’t take much at all. That tells the laptop that you want to move the cursor, so it just does what it’s told to do. And you end up typing a bunch of text in the wrong place.

There are a few solutions to this:

Type more carefully. Hold your hands up higher so you don’t accidentally touch the touchpad. This is not really a practical solution.

Disable the touchpad and use a regular mouse instead. This solves the problem, but it’s not really ideal. If you use a laptop because its portability, you might not always be in a situation where a mouse can be easily used.

Connect a separate keyboard and type on that instead of the laptop’s keyboard. This also solves it, but again can be kind of cumbersome in some situations.

Recently I came across what I think is the best solution. It’s a little program called TouchFreeze. You can download it free here.

When I installed it to try it out, I was happy to see that the download and installation was very simple. There was no attempt to load any junkware – you just download the file, then run it to install the program.

When you run it, you won’t even see anything change on the screen. It just runs in the background. What it does is one thing: it disables the touchpad – temporarily – while you are typing. Stop typing, and you can move the cursor around with the touchpad all you want.

There isn’t even a “Settings” menu to bother with. The only setting is whether or not you want it to start automatically each time Windows starts up. Since it does just one job and does it well, you will probably want to run all the time.

After installing it, I played around with it by typing with one hand and deliberately tapping the touchpad with the other – and the cursor didn’t move from where it was supposed to be, not even once. This program is elegantly simple and just does its job. Highly recommended for anyone using the keyboard and touchpad on a Windows laptop.

The post Cursor jumping around on your Windows laptop? Here’s the fix. first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

laptop touchpad — Cursor jumping around on your Windows laptop? Here’s the fix. Jul 07, 2014
My favorite kind of computer tips are those that address a particularly common and annoying problem, and solve that problem with a quick solution that’s easy to implement. And preferably free. Today is a great example of this kind of computer tip.

It’s a common complaint among laptop users. The cursor seems to jump around to random places on the page while you’re typing. If you happen to not be looking at the screen for a few seconds, you look up and you might see that you have typed a few words or even a whole sentence – in the wrong place.

If you don’t know what’s causing it, this problem can be very frustrating because you also won’t know how to fix it.

Quick fix:
Want to watch my screen as I implement this solution?
Full “over my shoulder” video instruction is just $2 (two bucks!)
Click here for immediate access

Having seen this happen many times, I am very familiar with it. In fact, when a client has a question to ask, and it starts out, “My laptop does the weirdest thing. I’m just typing along, and all of a sudden…” that’s usually all they have to say because I already know what they are going to tell me. The cursor moves around the screen to a different spot, seemingly with a mind of its own.

The cause of this issue is the laptop’s touchpad. That’s the little square under the keyboard with the left and right button. It’s sort of the “mouse” of a laptop since you can move your finger on it to determine where the cursor is on the screen.

What happens is that while you’re typing, your left hand or your right hand (or both) brushes the touchpad, ever so slightly. It doesn’t take much at all. That tells the laptop that you want to move the cursor, so it just does what it’s told to do. And you end up typing a bunch of text in the wrong place.

There are a few solutions to this:

Type more carefully. Hold your hands up higher so you don’t accidentally touch the touchpad. This is not really a practical solution.

Disable the touchpad and use a regular mouse instead. This solves the problem, but it’s not really ideal. If you use a laptop because its portability, you might not always be in a situation where a mouse can be easily used.

Connect a separate keyboard and type on that instead of the laptop’s keyboard. This also solves it, but again can be kind of cumbersome in some situations.

Recently I came across what I think is the best solution. It’s a little program called TouchFreeze. You can download it free here.

When I installed it to try it out, I was happy to see that the download and installation was very simple. There was no attempt to load any junkware – you just download the file, then run it to install the program.

When you run it, you won’t even see anything change on the screen. It just runs in the background. What it does is one thing: it disables the touchpad – temporarily – while you are typing. Stop typing, and you can move the cursor around with the touchpad all you want.

There isn’t even a “Settings” menu to bother with. The only setting is whether or not you want it to start automatically each time Windows starts up. Since it does just one job and does it well, you will probably want to run all the time.

After installing it, I played around with it by typing with one hand and deliberately tapping the touchpad with the other – and the cursor didn’t move from where it was supposed to be, not even once. This program is elegantly simple and just does its job. Highly recommended for anyone using the keyboard and touchpad on a Windows laptop.

The post Cursor jumping around on your Windows laptop? Here’s the fix. first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

temporary email — Is your email address just a TEMPORARY one? Jun 30, 2014
What if I told you I would give you an email account, and it’s all yours to use. You can use it for personal or business email or whatever you want. There’s only one catch: you can only have it temporarily. At some undetermined point in the future, your access to that email account would be cut off and you would not be able to use it at all after that.

Would you use that email as your primary email address? Would you give that address to all of your friends and family? Would you put it on your business cards and give it to all of your clients as the best point of contact? Probably not. It wouldn’t really make sense to be tied into an email address that you will lose at some point in the future.

Guess what. YOUR email address might be a temporary one.

Does your email address end with:

tampabay.rr.com

verizon.net or verizon.com

roadrunner.net or roadrunner.com

fairpoint.net or fairpoint.com

gwi.net

knology.net or knology.com

comcast.net or comcast.com

att.net or att.com

cox.net or cox.com

Can you see what all of those have in common? Each one is an Internet Service Provider (ISP). When you sign up with a company to provide you access to the internet, they also give you an email address (or several) that you can use.

If you’re using the email address that was provided to you by your ISP, it’s only yours temporarily. When you change internet providers, you LOSE your email account.

I’ve been encouraging people for many years to NOT use the email that comes with their internet service. And it’s kind of ironic that one of the common objections to changing their email address is:

“I really can’t change my email address, because I’ve had this one for years and this is how all of my friends, family and customers know how to contact me.”

They’re kind of surprised when I tell them that at some point they are going to have to change it anyway, whenever they decide to change internet providers.

At that point they kind of throw up a defense that they know is weak –

“Well, I like my internet provider so I will just stay with them.”

Come on.

You seriously expect to be using the same internet service the rest of your life? Technically it could possibly happen, but the odds are highly against it. It’s much more likely that you will move to a different area that your current ISP does not cover, or a different ISP in town will offer a better deal or a faster connection (or both).

Or, your current provider might get bought by a larger company, meaning the domain name changes (so everyone’s email address changes). Sound familiar, Fairpoint customers?

Why put yourself through all that hassle, when you can have an email address that is yours to use for the rest of your life? And it’s completely FREE?

I’ve been using Gmail since it was introduced by Google in 2004. And even though I have changed internet providers a few times in the past ten years, my email address has always been the same one.

Of course, you don’t have to use Gmail. There are lots of web-based email providers, and many of them are free also. I like Gmail for a variety of reasons (lots of storage space, great spam filter, Outlook compatibility, etc.).

Your other option is to just get your own domain name. This costs about $10 per year. Then you can have whatever email address you want. For example, if I bought the domain name “scottjohnson.com”, I could have the email address scott@scottjohnson.com, info@scottjohnson.com, pctutor@scottjohnson.com or whatever one I wanted – because I would own that domain name.

Whatever you decide, my recommendation is that you take care of it now. When you change your email address, it’s good to do it when you have time to proceed strategically and make sure everything goes smoothly. I can help with that. If you wait until you are forced to change emails (because of one of the above mentioned situations), you might miss something important. Let’s avoid that.

The post Is your email address just a TEMPORARY one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Is your email address just a TEMPORARY one? Jun 30, 2014
What if I told you I would give you an email account, and it’s all yours to use. You can use it for personal or business email or whatever you want. There’s only one catch: you can only have it temporarily. At some undetermined point in the future, your access to that email account would be cut off and you would not be able to use it at all after that.

Would you use that email as your primary email address? Would you give that address to all of your friends and family? Would you put it on your business cards and give it to all of your clients as the best point of contact? Probably not. It wouldn’t really make sense to be tied into an email address that you will lose at some point in the future.

Guess what. YOUR email address might be a temporary one.

Does your email address end with:

tampabay.rr.com

verizon.net or verizon.com

roadrunner.net or roadrunner.com

fairpoint.net or fairpoint.com

gwi.net

knology.net or knology.com

comcast.net or comcast.com

att.net or att.com

cox.net or cox.com

Can you see what all of those have in common? Each one is an Internet Service Provider (ISP). When you sign up with a company to provide you access to the internet, they also give you an email address (or several) that you can use.

If you’re using the email address that was provided to you by your ISP, it’s only yours temporarily. When you change internet providers, you LOSE your email account.

I’ve been encouraging people for many years to NOT use the email that comes with their internet service. And it’s kind of ironic that one of the common objections to changing their email address is:

“I really can’t change my email address, because I’ve had this one for years and this is how all of my friends, family and customers know how to contact me.”

They’re kind of surprised when I tell them that at some point they are going to have to change it anyway, whenever they decide to change internet providers.

At that point they kind of throw up a defense that they know is weak –

“Well, I like my internet provider so I will just stay with them.”

Come on.

You seriously expect to be using the same internet service the rest of your life? Technically it could possibly happen, but the odds are highly against it. It’s much more likely that you will move to a different area that your current ISP does not cover, or a different ISP in town will offer a better deal or a faster connection (or both).

Or, your current provider might get bought by a larger company, meaning the domain name changes (so everyone’s email address changes). Sound familiar, Fairpoint customers?

Why put yourself through all that hassle, when you can have an email address that is yours to use for the rest of your life? And it’s completely FREE?

I’ve been using Gmail since it was introduced by Google in 2004. And even though I have changed internet providers a few times in the past ten years, my email address has always been the same one.

Of course, you don’t have to use Gmail. There are lots of web-based email providers, and many of them are free also. I like Gmail for a variety of reasons (lots of storage space, great spam filter, Outlook compatibility, etc.).

Your other option is to just get your own domain name. This costs about $10 per year. Then you can have whatever email address you want. For example, if I bought the domain name “scottjohnson.com”, I could have the email address scott@scottjohnson.com, info@scottjohnson.com, pctutor@scottjohnson.com or whatever one I wanted – because I would own that domain name.

Whatever you decide, my recommendation is that you take care of it now. When you change your email address, it’s good to do it when you have time to proceed strategically and make sure everything goes smoothly. I can help with that. If you wait until you are forced to change emails (because of one of the above mentioned situations), you might miss something important. Let’s avoid that.

The post Is your email address just a TEMPORARY one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

sleeping computer — Should you leave your computer on all the time? Jun 23, 2014
It’s a question that I get asked all the time: Should I leave my computer on all the time, or should I turn it off at night? There are valid reasons for both options, so I’ll present you with the pros and cons and you can decide what’s best for your situation.

Why you should leave it on:

Maintenance and backups
Your computer has stuff to do just to take care of itself. Your antivirus needs to update itself and do a scan regularly, and Windows Updates get downloaded and installed at least once a month (the second Tuesday of each month, which is known in the geek community as Patch Tuesday). And if you use an automated online backup process (which you should), that has to happen as well. It’s nice if all of these things can happen in the middle of the night, when you’re not using the computer.

Convenience
If your computer is a bit old and slow, it might take a while to completely boot up. There are ways of speeding up the bootup time, but it is kind of nice to just walk into the room and the computer is already on and waiting for you.

Usable life
This one is debatable (which is why it’s listed in both categories). There are some people that say it’s better to leave the computer on, because when you turn it on it heats up all the components – especially the processor, which does get pretty hot. Then you turn it off and they cool down again. This constant heating/cooling temperature change taxes the computer’s components and thereby could be shortening the life of your computer. If you leave it on all the time, the processor and other parts generally stay at a more level operating temperature, which means they might last longer.

Heat
As mentioned above, your computer generates heat when it’s running. My office is usually the hottest room in the house because of several computers running. If you live up north, this can be a nice thing in the wintertime! Granted, it’s not the same level of warmth that a space heater or wood stove would provide, but a couple of computers running can take the edge off on a cold winter morning.

Why you should turn it off:

Electricity usage
This is probably the strongest argument for turning off the computer when it’s not in use. It uses electricity, and will continue to do so all night even though you aren’t using it. It still uses a little even when it’s powered down, but not very much. So you would most likely see a savings in electricity if you turned off your computer(s) overnight.

Usable life
This is the flip side of the argument I mentioned above. Some people say that your computer has a limited number of hours that it will run over its lifetime. So theoretically, if you shut it off for 8 hours every night, you could be adding those 8 hours on to the end of its usable life.

Room noise
A laptop has at least one fan inside, so it does make a certain small amount of noise. The cooling pad that it sits on will have 2 or 3 additional fans to add to the noise. And a desktop computer can have 2 or 3 inside the tower. If your computer is in your bedroom, you might find it difficult to tolerate that noise while you’re trying to sleep. Not to mention the 3 am alert sound that you just got an email.

Heat
As I mentioned above, with several computers running in my office, it’s the hottest room in our house. Here in Florida, that’s not necessarily a great thing, especially in the summer. In addition to being uncomfortable, it also makes your AC system work harder, which of course adds to the bill each month.

So as you can see, there are good points to be made on both sides of this debate. You have to decide which factors are the most important for your situation.

There are a few more important points to consider:

First, even if you do leave the computer on all the time, you should still restart it at least every 1-2 days. This frees up the memory and allows it to be running as efficiently as possible after the restart is finished. And a restart should not inconvenience you at all – just do it at night, when you are all done with it for the evening. Then it will be nice and fresh when you come back to it in the morning.

Also, you can leave the computer on overnight but you don’t need to leave the monitor on. If you use a desktop computer, just turn off the monitor when you’re done for the evening. The computer will continue to function just like it would if the monitor were left on, but you don’t have the screen using electricity or lighting up the room all night.

Finally, if you use a laptop as your primary computer, you should always have it on a cooling pad – especially if you leave it on all the time. Laptops run hotter than desktops by nature because all of the components are crammed into that tiny space. A cooling pad (such as this one – $12.48 at Amazon) keeps your laptop running as cool as possible

The post Should you leave your computer on all the time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Should you leave your computer on all the time? Jun 23, 2014
It’s a question that I get asked all the time: Should I leave my computer on all the time, or should I turn it off at night? There are valid reasons for both options, so I’ll present you with the pros and cons and you can decide what’s best for your situation.

Why you should leave it on:

Maintenance and backups
Your computer has stuff to do just to take care of itself. Your antivirus needs to update itself and do a scan regularly, and Windows Updates get downloaded and installed at least once a month (the second Tuesday of each month, which is known in the geek community as Patch Tuesday). And if you use an automated online backup process (which you should), that has to happen as well. It’s nice if all of these things can happen in the middle of the night, when you’re not using the computer.

Convenience
If your computer is a bit old and slow, it might take a while to completely boot up. There are ways of speeding up the bootup time, but it is kind of nice to just walk into the room and the computer is already on and waiting for you.

Usable life
This one is debatable (which is why it’s listed in both categories). There are some people that say it’s better to leave the computer on, because when you turn it on it heats up all the components – especially the processor, which does get pretty hot. Then you turn it off and they cool down again. This constant heating/cooling temperature change taxes the computer’s components and thereby could be shortening the life of your computer. If you leave it on all the time, the processor and other parts generally stay at a more level operating temperature, which means they might last longer.

Heat
As mentioned above, your computer generates heat when it’s running. My office is usually the hottest room in the house because of several computers running. If you live up north, this can be a nice thing in the wintertime! Granted, it’s not the same level of warmth that a space heater or wood stove would provide, but a couple of computers running can take the edge off on a cold winter morning.

Why you should turn it off:

Electricity usage
This is probably the strongest argument for turning off the computer when it’s not in use. It uses electricity, and will continue to do so all night even though you aren’t using it. It still uses a little even when it’s powered down, but not very much. So you would most likely see a savings in electricity if you turned off your computer(s) overnight.

Usable life
This is the flip side of the argument I mentioned above. Some people say that your computer has a limited number of hours that it will run over its lifetime. So theoretically, if you shut it off for 8 hours every night, you could be adding those 8 hours on to the end of its usable life.

Room noise
A laptop has at least one fan inside, so it does make a certain small amount of noise. The cooling pad that it sits on will have 2 or 3 additional fans to add to the noise. And a desktop computer can have 2 or 3 inside the tower. If your computer is in your bedroom, you might find it difficult to tolerate that noise while you’re trying to sleep. Not to mention the 3 am alert sound that you just got an email.

Heat
As I mentioned above, with several computers running in my office, it’s the hottest room in our house. Here in Florida, that’s not necessarily a great thing, especially in the summer. In addition to being uncomfortable, it also makes your AC system work harder, which of course adds to the bill each month.

So as you can see, there are good points to be made on both sides of this debate. You have to decide which factors are the most important for your situation.

There are a few more important points to consider:

First, even if you do leave the computer on all the time, you should still restart it at least every 1-2 days. This frees up the memory and allows it to be running as efficiently as possible after the restart is finished. And a restart should not inconvenience you at all – just do it at night, when you are all done with it for the evening. Then it will be nice and fresh when you come back to it in the morning.

Also, you can leave the computer on overnight but you don’t need to leave the monitor on. If you use a desktop computer, just turn off the monitor when you’re done for the evening. The computer will continue to function just like it would if the monitor were left on, but you don’t have the screen using electricity or lighting up the room all night.

Finally, if you use a laptop as your primary computer, you should always have it on a cooling pad – especially if you leave it on all the time. Laptops run hotter than desktops by nature because all of the components are crammed into that tiny space. A cooling pad (such as this one – $12.48 at Amazon) keeps your laptop running as cool as possible

The post Should you leave your computer on all the time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Computer emergencies — Computer emergencies – Part 2 of 2 Jun 16, 2014
Last Monday I posted about how to handle a couple of specific computer emergencies (a spilled drink on your laptop, and a failing hard drive). This week in Part 2, we’ll cover two more emergency situations that require to you take action right away.

No need for panic if you plan ahead

Computer emergency #3: Thunderstorm
You’re working at your computer, and you hear a rumble of thunder off in the distance. Here in Florida, during the summer this happens almost every afternoon. A storm is coming your direction.

How to react: If you hear thunder, or see lightning, unplug your computer(s) from the wall. That’s the policy in our house – whenever there is a sign of a thunderstorm, we unplug all of the computers and the large screen TV. In other words, the expensive things.

Be aware – just turning it off does not protect it. You have to disconnect the power cord from the outlet.

“It’s okay, I have a surge protector!” Sorry, that doesn’t matter. Don’t get me wrong; a surge protector is a good thing to have. The voltage coming out of your wall outlet can go up and down, and a surge protector keeps that fluctuation from damaging your computer. But it’s no match to defend against a nearby lightning strike. I’ve seen many computers that have been fried, even behind a surge protector. It’s like saying, “I drive 160 mph on my motorcycle, but I’m safe because I always wear my helmet!”. Helmets are good, but if you hit a tree at that speed your story will not have a happy ending.

There’s one thing that I don’t bother unplugging: my router/modem. Our internet is Verizon FIOS, so the modem and router are one unit, and Verizon owns it. I leave that plugged in and turned on, which means I can still go online with my laptop (battery power of course) and I can still connect my phone to wifi. Worse case scenario is that the Verizon modem gets zapped, and I’m willing to risk that since Verizon will just replace it with a new one.

How to prevent this: If you have a way of preventing inclement weather, I’d like to talk to you.

Computer emergency #4: Your laptop is stolen
There are lots of scenarios where this happens. Laptops get stolen at the airport, in the library, at a coffee shop or restaurant, or even from your home. It’s a sick feeling when you realize that’s what has happened. Its’ one of those interesting psychological oddities. Just about everyone knows that it’s important to prepare for this happening, but since no one ever expects THEIR computer to be stolen, most people are caught completely off guard.

How to react: There are a few things you’ll need to do right away, and they won’t necessarily be in this order:

Call the police. It’s very unlikely that they will be able to use their investigation to recover your laptop and get it back to you, but you should still file a report with all the details (including the make, model and serial number of the laptop). You will need a police report if you are going to make an insurance claim for the loss.

Log in to your Prey Project account and report it as missing. This is your most likely method of getting it back. More details on Prey Project below.

Regarding your personal files and information, what you need to do depends on how critical and confidential those files are, and what steps you have taken to secure them. Do you have your passwords all stored in a Word document in the Documents folder? When you do online banking, does the computer automatically enter your login password? If so, you need to get to another computer and change all of your important passwords.

Encrypting the drive with a good password keeps everything safe from anyone trying to get in (note that I am not talking about just a Windows password here). But not everyone needs that level of security. If this is a concern, get in touch with me and I can help you with this.

How to prevent this: Preventing a laptop from getting stolen is mostly common sense. Keep an eye on it, don’t leave it unattended, that kind of thing. If you leave it in your car, cover it up with something and always lock the doors. But these things are not a guarantee. You have to be prepared for this to happen. If you don’t think about this and plan for it ahead of time, it will be much harder to deal with.

I’ve written about the Prey Project in the past. It’s free. Set up a free account and get their little background program running on your computer. When the thief goes online with your laptop, the software sends a signal out, telling its location with pretty good accuracy based on the wifi connection. And even better – it will use the webcam to take a picture of the person using it. You might even know the person, which means you can tell the police exactly where to go and recover your laptop. There are lots of stories about that happening, which you can read on the Prey Project website.

To keep the thief out of your websites and any account that requires a password, you can simply use your free LastPass account. That way, the software remembers all of your passwords for you, but the bad guy can’t log in to any of your accounts because he doesn’t know your LastPass password (so make that a good one). I can help you set that up too.

And, you have to be prepared for possibly never getting your laptop back. Which means if you have no backup, you lose all your documents, pictures, music, etc. That is 100% preventable with an automated backup.

The post Computer emergencies – Part 2 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

computer emergency — Computer emergencies – Part 2 of 2 Jun 16, 2014
Last Monday I posted about how to handle a couple of specific computer emergencies (a spilled drink on your laptop, and a failing hard drive). This week in Part 2, we’ll cover two more emergency situations that require to you take action right away.

No need for panic if you plan ahead

Computer emergency #3: Thunderstorm
You’re working at your computer, and you hear a rumble of thunder off in the distance. Here in Florida, during the summer this happens almost every afternoon. A storm is coming your direction.

How to react: If you hear thunder, or see lightning, unplug your computer(s) from the wall. That’s the policy in our house – whenever there is a sign of a thunderstorm, we unplug all of the computers and the large screen TV. In other words, the expensive things.

Be aware – just turning it off does not protect it. You have to disconnect the power cord from the outlet.

“It’s okay, I have a surge protector!” Sorry, that doesn’t matter. Don’t get me wrong; a surge protector is a good thing to have. The voltage coming out of your wall outlet can go up and down, and a surge protector keeps that fluctuation from damaging your computer. But it’s no match to defend against a nearby lightning strike. I’ve seen many computers that have been fried, even behind a surge protector. It’s like saying, “I drive 160 mph on my motorcycle, but I’m safe because I always wear my helmet!”. Helmets are good, but if you hit a tree at that speed your story will not have a happy ending.

There’s one thing that I don’t bother unplugging: my router/modem. Our internet is Verizon FIOS, so the modem and router are one unit, and Verizon owns it. I leave that plugged in and turned on, which means I can still go online with my laptop (battery power of course) and I can still connect my phone to wifi. Worse case scenario is that the Verizon modem gets zapped, and I’m willing to risk that since Verizon will just replace it with a new one.

How to prevent this: If you have a way of preventing inclement weather, I’d like to talk to you.

Computer emergency #4: Your laptop is stolen
There are lots of scenarios where this happens. Laptops get stolen at the airport, in the library, at a coffee shop or restaurant, or even from your home. It’s a sick feeling when you realize that’s what has happened. Its’ one of those interesting psychological oddities. Just about everyone knows that it’s important to prepare for this happening, but since no one ever expects THEIR computer to be stolen, most people are caught completely off guard.

How to react: There are a few things you’ll need to do right away, and they won’t necessarily be in this order:

Call the police. It’s very unlikely that they will be able to use their investigation to recover your laptop and get it back to you, but you should still file a report with all the details (including the make, model and serial number of the laptop). You will need a police report if you are going to make an insurance claim for the loss.

Log in to your Prey Project account and report it as missing. This is your most likely method of getting it back. More details on Prey Project below.

Regarding your personal files and information, what you need to do depends on how critical and confidential those files are, and what steps you have taken to secure them. Do you have your passwords all stored in a Word document in the Documents folder? When you do online banking, does the computer automatically enter your login password? If so, you need to get to another computer and change all of your important passwords.

Encrypting the drive with a good password keeps everything safe from anyone trying to get in (note that I am not talking about just a Windows password here). But not everyone needs that level of security. If this is a concern, get in touch with me and I can help you with this.

How to prevent this: Preventing a laptop from getting stolen is mostly common sense. Keep an eye on it, don’t leave it unattended, that kind of thing. If you leave it in your car, cover it up with something and always lock the doors. But these things are not a guarantee. You have to be prepared for this to happen. If you don’t think about this and plan for it ahead of time, it will be much harder to deal with.

I’ve written about the Prey Project in the past. It’s free. Set up a free account and get their little background program running on your computer. When the thief goes online with your laptop, the software sends a signal out, telling its location with pretty good accuracy based on the wifi connection. And even better – it will use the webcam to take a picture of the person using it. You might even know the person, which means you can tell the police exactly where to go and recover your laptop. There are lots of stories about that happening, which you can read on the Prey Project website.

To keep the thief out of your websites and any account that requires a password, you can simply use your free LastPass account. That way, the software remembers all of your passwords for you, but the bad guy can’t log in to any of your accounts because he doesn’t know your LastPass password (so make that a good one). I can help you set that up too.

And, you have to be prepared for possibly never getting your laptop back. Which means if you have no backup, you lose all your documents, pictures, music, etc. That is 100% preventable with an automated backup.

The post Computer emergencies – Part 2 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Emergency tv show — Computer emergencies – Part 1 of 2 Jun 09, 2014
Do you know how you react when suddenly you find yourself in an emergency situation? Some people can think calmly and do what needs to be done in spite of the chaos that may be all around them. Other people freeze up or panic and don’t really know what they should be doing – and by the time they figure it out, it could be too late for them to do anything.

When I was a kid, this was my Saturday night

What I’m talking about today is not a car accident or some other life-threatening situation – in those cases your only option might be to call 911 (or whatever the emergency number is in your country) and wait for the professionals to arrive.

What we’re covering today are computer emergencies. In fact, I will be talking about four specific situations that happen on a regular basis – two today, and two this coming Monday. Perhaps you have been involved in one or more of these already. If not, pay close attention – your turn might be coming up!

Computer emergency #1: Spilled drink
It’s late at night, you’re working on your laptop on an important project (or playing on Facebook) and you have a glass of wine/Coke/coffee/water nearby. Somehow it gets bumped and suddenly your laptop keyboard is covered in your drink of choice.

How to react: First thing you should do is unplug the power cord (if it’s plugged in). Then, remove the battery. You need to stop the flow of electrical current as quickly as you can. Then, use a dry hand towel to soak up as much of the liquid as you can see.

Avoid the temptation to wait a few minutes and see if it will power up again. That could do more damage, since there is still liquid inside – probably pooling up on the motherboard. Liquids, especially water, conduct electricity. So trying to turn it back on before it’s completely dry is likely to just do further damage. Take it to a computer professional to get it back in order.

(If you are using your desktop computer, and the only thing that got wet was the keyboard, then it’s no big deal – just go buy a new keyboard and be more careful next time.)

How to prevent this: Easiest way to prevent this from happening is to follow a strict rule – no drinks near computers. Or, if you must have your water nearby, make it a bottled water and keep the lid on except for when you’re drinking. Very few people follow this rule, which is why most are surprised when their computer takes a bath.

Computer emergency #2: Hard drive failing
You turn on your computer, and you get the message: “Hard drive failure is imminent”. Your computer’s hard drive has an internal warning system, and if it detects that it’s heading toward a crash, it will try to warn you. It might finally die a few days from now, or it could die a few minutes from now – you really have no way of knowing.

How to react: If there is anything on this computer that is important, that’s not backed up (such as Documents, Pictures, Music, emails, etc.), turn the computer off immediately and don’t turn it back on. The more you use this computer, the more chance you will destroy the data that you need to save. Bring the computer to your local computer pro so that he can get the data off the drive before it actually does crash. Then, in most cases, you can put in a new hard drive and reinstall Windows, then restore your files back from this emergency backup that was just done.

How to prevent this: Frankly, there’s not a whole lot you can do. Hard drives crash, and it’s happening more frequently now than it used to. The latest stats I’ve heard is that 80% of new hard drives will fail within the first 3 years of use. You could run a hard drive repair program on your drive as part of an ongoing maintenance program. That’s something that I do on my own computer, but I’m a tech. The average computer user isn’t going to do that.

While you might not be able to prevent the drive from crashing, you can prevent that situation from becoming a disaster. Just set up an automated backup process. I’ll set this up for you and I don’t even charge for my time to do it. I can set it up remotely in about 10 minutes. Contact me for details.

Next week: Two other types of computer emergencies that you should be ready to handle (click to read).

The post Computer emergencies – Part 1 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

emergency2 — Computer emergencies – Part 1 of 2 Jun 09, 2014
Do you know how you react when suddenly you find yourself in an emergency situation? Some people can think calmly and do what needs to be done in spite of the chaos that may be all around them. Other people freeze up or panic and don’t really know what they should be doing – and by the time they figure it out, it could be too late for them to do anything.

When I was a kid, this was my Saturday night

What I’m talking about today is not a car accident or some other life-threatening situation – in those cases your only option might be to call 911 (or whatever the emergency number is in your country) and wait for the professionals to arrive.

What we’re covering today are computer emergencies. In fact, I will be talking about four specific situations that happen on a regular basis – two today, and two this coming Monday. Perhaps you have been involved in one or more of these already. If not, pay close attention – your turn might be coming up!

Computer emergency #1: Spilled drink
It’s late at night, you’re working on your laptop on an important project (or playing on Facebook) and you have a glass of wine/Coke/coffee/water nearby. Somehow it gets bumped and suddenly your laptop keyboard is covered in your drink of choice.

How to react: First thing you should do is unplug the power cord (if it’s plugged in). Then, remove the battery. You need to stop the flow of electrical current as quickly as you can. Then, use a dry hand towel to soak up as much of the liquid as you can see.

Avoid the temptation to wait a few minutes and see if it will power up again. That could do more damage, since there is still liquid inside – probably pooling up on the motherboard. Liquids, especially water, conduct electricity. So trying to turn it back on before it’s completely dry is likely to just do further damage. Take it to a computer professional to get it back in order.

(If you are using your desktop computer, and the only thing that got wet was the keyboard, then it’s no big deal – just go buy a new keyboard and be more careful next time.)

How to prevent this: Easiest way to prevent this from happening is to follow a strict rule – no drinks near computers. Or, if you must have your water nearby, make it a bottled water and keep the lid on except for when you’re drinking. Very few people follow this rule, which is why most are surprised when their computer takes a bath.

Computer emergency #2: Hard drive failing
You turn on your computer, and you get the message: “Hard drive failure is imminent”. Your computer’s hard drive has an internal warning system, and if it detects that it’s heading toward a crash, it will try to warn you. It might finally die a few days from now, or it could die a few minutes from now – you really have no way of knowing.

How to react: If there is anything on this computer that is important, that’s not backed up (such as Documents, Pictures, Music, emails, etc.), turn the computer off immediately and don’t turn it back on. The more you use this computer, the more chance you will destroy the data that you need to save. Bring the computer to your local computer pro so that he can get the data off the drive before it actually does crash. Then, in most cases, you can put in a new hard drive and reinstall Windows, then restore your files back from this emergency backup that was just done.

How to prevent this: Frankly, there’s not a whole lot you can do. Hard drives crash, and it’s happening more frequently now than it used to. The latest stats I’ve heard is that 80% of new hard drives will fail within the first 3 years of use. You could run a hard drive repair program on your drive as part of an ongoing maintenance program. That’s something that I do on my own computer, but I’m a tech. The average computer user isn’t going to do that.

While you might not be able to prevent the drive from crashing, you can prevent that situation from becoming a disaster. Just set up an automated backup process. I’ll set this up for you and I don’t even charge for my time to do it. I can set it up remotely in about 10 minutes. Contact me for details.

Next week: Two other types of computer emergencies that you should be ready to handle (click to read).

The post Computer emergencies – Part 1 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

picture authentication — How to authenticate a picture on the internet Jun 02, 2014
Sometimes things happen during the routine course of the week, and suddenly I realize – that’s a good topic for a blog post. That’s what happened this past week.

If you’re on Facebook, you know there is a high volume of pure garbage that gets “Liked” and shared. I’m not necessarily talking about content that is inappropriate (although there is a lot of that too). What I’m referring to are all the “news” stories that are just plain fake. And especially the photos.

And the sad thing is, people post this crap because they actually believe it’s genuine and true. They see it posted by one of their friends, and the story generates some kind of emotion (sadness, anger, fear, whatever – it doesn’t really matter). So they must immediately share it with all of their friends as well. And of course there is no research done to check and see if what they are spreading around has any truth to it.

Here is what I saw this past week. Someone I am friends with on Facebook posted a link to a news article. The article was titled “Muslims crucify two teen boys for being Christians” and had a graphic image of a young man who was supposedly one of the guys talked about in the article. It’s not an “extremely” graphic image (you can see the image here and the article that used it is here).

The important thing, however, is that the image is not even a genuine part of the article. The article writer (I won’t call him a “journalist”) just grabbed an image from a different news story and used it in his own article. The image was actually originally published a few weeks prior to when this article used it.

So that brings up the question – how do you know when a website article or blog post is using an image that genuinely goes with the story? After all, if they’re faking the picture, it really casts doubt on everything else in the story too.

There is probably more than one way to check on this. But the easiest way is to use Google Chrome (that’s Google’s web browser – just another program to view websites, like Firefox and Internet Explorer). Chrome is a free download, and it’s the browser I use most of the time now. (Firefox is a close second, and Internet Explorer is a distant third.)

Here’s how to use Chrome to authenticate a picture:

Do a right-click on the image, and in the menu that appears, choose “Search Google for this image”.

At that point, Google will check and see where else this image has appeared recently. You might be surprised at the results!

In the example I mentioned above, the story about the 2 young men who had supposedly been crucified for not renouncing their Christianity, the picture that was used had actually come from a different earlier news story that had nothing to do with the one that was posted on Facebook. I figured this out in the 5 seconds it takes to do this simple process in Chrome.

In addition to verifying the truth of a news article, there are other uses for this little trick:

Craigslist shopping – Maybe you’re shopping for a car on Craigslist, and you come across what seems like an incredible deal. Low mileage, good condition, fairly new, and priced WAY too low. Is it real or is it a scam post? Most scammers on Craigslist don’t just pick one location to post their fake ads. They post in a lot of different locations. So you can search Google for the pictures in the ad. If you see those same pictures in ads in your city as well as other places throughout the US, it’s a scam.

Your website – If you have a website and you publish original content, including images, there’s a chance that someone might come across your site and take one of your images to use on their site. Or they might take several. How would you know, unless you checked on it? In the past, I have found people taking my content and reposting it, word for word, as their own. A quick Google search on some of your own original images can help you find out if this is happening, so you can take action to stop it.

And now, just for your entertainment, some pictures that were once widely believed to be genuine, and later turned out to be fakes:

This picture was supposedly found in a camera that was in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the attack on September 11, 2001. It’s fake.

After Hurricane Irene, this picture emerged and went viral, showing a shark swimming in the flooded streets of Puerto Rico. It’s fake.

And finally – check out this tennis court. The interesting part about this photo is that it is actually real. The big circle is actually a helicopter landing area in Dubai. They set it up as a tennis court for a match between Andre Agassi and Roger Federer in 2005 (story here).

The post How to authenticate a picture on the internet first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

fake picture — How to authenticate a picture on the internet Jun 02, 2014
Sometimes things happen during the routine course of the week, and suddenly I realize – that’s a good topic for a blog post. That’s what happened this past week.

If you’re on Facebook, you know there is a high volume of pure garbage that gets “Liked” and shared. I’m not necessarily talking about content that is inappropriate (although there is a lot of that too). What I’m referring to are all the “news” stories that are just plain fake. And especially the photos.

And the sad thing is, people post this crap because they actually believe it’s genuine and true. They see it posted by one of their friends, and the story generates some kind of emotion (sadness, anger, fear, whatever – it doesn’t really matter). So they must immediately share it with all of their friends as well. And of course there is no research done to check and see if what they are spreading around has any truth to it.

Here is what I saw this past week. Someone I am friends with on Facebook posted a link to a news article. The article was titled “Muslims crucify two teen boys for being Christians” and had a graphic image of a young man who was supposedly one of the guys talked about in the article. It’s not an “extremely” graphic image (you can see the image here and the article that used it is here).

The important thing, however, is that the image is not even a genuine part of the article. The article writer (I won’t call him a “journalist”) just grabbed an image from a different news story and used it in his own article. The image was actually originally published a few weeks prior to when this article used it.

So that brings up the question – how do you know when a website article or blog post is using an image that genuinely goes with the story? After all, if they’re faking the picture, it really casts doubt on everything else in the story too.

There is probably more than one way to check on this. But the easiest way is to use Google Chrome (that’s Google’s web browser – just another program to view websites, like Firefox and Internet Explorer). Chrome is a free download, and it’s the browser I use most of the time now. (Firefox is a close second, and Internet Explorer is a distant third.)

Here’s how to use Chrome to authenticate a picture:

Do a right-click on the image, and in the menu that appears, choose “Search Google for this image”.

At that point, Google will check and see where else this image has appeared recently. You might be surprised at the results!

In the example I mentioned above, the story about the 2 young men who had supposedly been crucified for not renouncing their Christianity, the picture that was used had actually come from a different earlier news story that had nothing to do with the one that was posted on Facebook. I figured this out in the 5 seconds it takes to do this simple process in Chrome.

In addition to verifying the truth of a news article, there are other uses for this little trick:

Craigslist shopping – Maybe you’re shopping for a car on Craigslist, and you come across what seems like an incredible deal. Low mileage, good condition, fairly new, and priced WAY too low. Is it real or is it a scam post? Most scammers on Craigslist don’t just pick one location to post their fake ads. They post in a lot of different locations. So you can search Google for the pictures in the ad. If you see those same pictures in ads in your city as well as other places throughout the US, it’s a scam.

Your website – If you have a website and you publish original content, including images, there’s a chance that someone might come across your site and take one of your images to use on their site. Or they might take several. How would you know, unless you checked on it? In the past, I have found people taking my content and reposting it, word for word, as their own. A quick Google search on some of your own original images can help you find out if this is happening, so you can take action to stop it.

And now, just for your entertainment, some pictures that were once widely believed to be genuine, and later turned out to be fakes:

This picture was supposedly found in a camera that was in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the attack on September 11, 2001. It’s fake.

After Hurricane Irene, this picture emerged and went viral, showing a shark swimming in the flooded streets of Puerto Rico. It’s fake.

And finally – check out this tennis court. The interesting part about this photo is that it is actually real. The big circle is actually a helicopter landing area in Dubai. They set it up as a tennis court for a match between Andre Agassi and Roger Federer in 2005 (story here).

The post How to authenticate a picture on the internet first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

electronic signature — How to sign electronically, WITHOUT printing and scanning May 26, 2014
Have you ever gotten a PDF file by email, and you had to sign it and send it back by email? For most people, that process is a real hassle. You have to print the PDF file, then you sign the printed copy, then you have to scan that paper back into a new PDF file and save it to your computer, then email it back to whoever sent it to you. It’s a lot of steps for what should be a pretty simple process.

Good news… there is a much easier way! And it does not require any printing or scanning.

This is one of the advantages of having Adobe Reader as your default PDF program. I know there are others that are “lighter” and don’t have updates as often, but Adobe Reader has some excellent features (like the one I’m about to show you) that most of the others don’t have.

The most recent time this came up with me was when I purchased a new car. My insurance agent emailed me a PDF file, which I needed to sign and return to him in order to confirm the changes to our car insurance policy. The document was very straightforward, and at the end there was a place for my signature. It looked like this:

As you can see, there’s a line that needs my signature. But it’s only on my computer screen! What to do?

There are actually a few ways to accomplish this. But they all start with this first step: Click on the “Sign” link in the top right area:

Then, in the “I Need to Sign” section, click on “Place Signature” –

This will bring up a new window, and that’s where you will find a few options about how to place your signature where the form requires it to show up:

I’ll cover each of these options individually:

Type my signature – This is probably the easiest and fastest option. The downside is that most people that look at it will be able to tell that it’s just a computer-generated signature, not one that you wrote by hand. You just type your name in the box, and the computer displays your name in 4 different fonts so you can choose which one to use. I think the 4th one is the one that would most resemble an actual signature:

Draw my signature – This is where you would actually use your mouse to drag the virtual “pen” on the screen and sign your name. The disadvantage to this one is that it will look like it was written by a monkey with a broken hand. You just can’t control the mouse the way you would control an actual pen in your hand. Here’s what my try looked like:

Use a certificate – This one doesn’t apply to most people. If you already have a digital certificate you probably don’t need an explanation about this anyway.

Use an image – This is one of two options that will result in a signature on the page that actually looks like your signature. The disadvantage to this one is that you need to sign a blank piece of paper, then scan it and save that signature image as a file on your computer (all of the common image formats are acceptable). Then you just browse your computer to find that image file and select it for use as a signature. If you sign a lot of PDF files, this might be the quickest way to get a real-looking signature, after you’ve completed the scan and save process:

Use a webcam – My favorite! First you sign your name on a white piece of paper (I just used a regular 3×5 index card, on the blank side).

Then you click “Start Webcam” and just hold up your signed index card to the camera so it can read your signature. You need to make sure the signature is on the blue line. You also need to hold it still – I just rested my elbow on my desk while I held the signature card up to the camera. When you like the way it looks in the preview box, click Accept.

When you click Accept, you are taken back to the PDF file itself, and you can drag the signature so that it sits exactly on the signature line (you should make sure that page is already displayed before you start creating the signature). There are editing corners so you can make the signature larger or smaller if needed.

Now the document is signed! At this point you can click “Signed. Proceed to Send” and then you have the option to send it by email through Adobe (requires an Adobe ID), or you can save a copy of the signed document to your computer (for your records) and then attach that to an email.

An important distinction to make here is that what we’ve done in the process above is create an electronic signature. This is not a digital signature. They might sound the same, but they are two different things.

An electronic signature is just that – your signature on a document, which you did electronically rather than signing the actual printed paper document.

A digital signature is done with a security certificate, meaning that it was verifiably signed by you and only you. In most cases this is not really a requirement. You might need to do that if you were signing documents to purchase real estate or some other situation where security is needed.

The post How to sign electronically, WITHOUT printing and scanning first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

electronic signature — How to sign electronically, WITHOUT printing and scanning May 26, 2014
Have you ever gotten a PDF file by email, and you had to sign it and send it back by email? For most people, that process is a real hassle. You have to print the PDF file, then you sign the printed copy, then you have to scan that paper back into a new PDF file and save it to your computer, then email it back to whoever sent it to you. It’s a lot of steps for what should be a pretty simple process.

Good news… there is a much easier way! And it does not require any printing or scanning.

This is one of the advantages of having Adobe Reader as your default PDF program. I know there are others that are “lighter” and don’t have updates as often, but Adobe Reader has some excellent features (like the one I’m about to show you) that most of the others don’t have.

The most recent time this came up with me was when I purchased a new car. My insurance agent emailed me a PDF file, which I needed to sign and return to him in order to confirm the changes to our car insurance policy. The document was very straightforward, and at the end there was a place for my signature. It looked like this:

As you can see, there’s a line that needs my signature. But it’s only on my computer screen! What to do?

There are actually a few ways to accomplish this. But they all start with this first step: Click on the “Sign” link in the top right area:

Then, in the “I Need to Sign” section, click on “Place Signature” –

This will bring up a new window, and that’s where you will find a few options about how to place your signature where the form requires it to show up:

I’ll cover each of these options individually:

Type my signature – This is probably the easiest and fastest option. The downside is that most people that look at it will be able to tell that it’s just a computer-generated signature, not one that you wrote by hand. You just type your name in the box, and the computer displays your name in 4 different fonts so you can choose which one to use. I think the 4th one is the one that would most resemble an actual signature:

Draw my signature – This is where you would actually use your mouse to drag the virtual “pen” on the screen and sign your name. The disadvantage to this one is that it will look like it was written by a monkey with a broken hand. You just can’t control the mouse the way you would control an actual pen in your hand. Here’s what my try looked like:

Use a certificate – This one doesn’t apply to most people. If you already have a digital certificate you probably don’t need an explanation about this anyway.

Use an image – This is one of two options that will result in a signature on the page that actually looks like your signature. The disadvantage to this one is that you need to sign a blank piece of paper, then scan it and save that signature image as a file on your computer (all of the common image formats are acceptable). Then you just browse your computer to find that image file and select it for use as a signature. If you sign a lot of PDF files, this might be the quickest way to get a real-looking signature, after you’ve completed the scan and save process:

Use a webcam – My favorite! First you sign your name on a white piece of paper (I just used a regular 3×5 index card, on the blank side).

Then you click “Start Webcam” and just hold up your signed index card to the camera so it can read your signature. You need to make sure the signature is on the blue line. You also need to hold it still – I just rested my elbow on my desk while I held the signature card up to the camera. When you like the way it looks in the preview box, click Accept.

When you click Accept, you are taken back to the PDF file itself, and you can drag the signature so that it sits exactly on the signature line (you should make sure that page is already displayed before you start creating the signature). There are editing corners so you can make the signature larger or smaller if needed.

Now the document is signed! At this point you can click “Signed. Proceed to Send” and then you have the option to send it by email through Adobe (requires an Adobe ID), or you can save a copy of the signed document to your computer (for your records) and then attach that to an email.

An important distinction to make here is that what we’ve done in the process above is create an electronic signature. This is not a digital signature. They might sound the same, but they are two different things.

An electronic signature is just that – your signature on a document, which you did electronically rather than signing the actual printed paper document.

A digital signature is done with a security certificate, meaning that it was verifiably signed by you and only you. In most cases this is not really a requirement. You might need to do that if you were signing documents to purchase real estate or some other situation where security is needed.

The post How to sign electronically, WITHOUT printing and scanning first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Charms Bar — How to disable the Windows 8 charms bar May 19, 2014
If you use Windows 8, you have probably become familiar with the thing called the Charms Bar. Or at least you know what it is and where it resides (the right side of your screen). When you put your cursor in the top right corner of the screen, the Charms Bar slides out from the right side with its “charms”. Really they’re just icons, but Microsoft must have figured since they were changing everything else about Windows they might as well come up with some cutesy names for stuff we already know as something else.

(NOTE: For the record, I am highly recommending that you stick with Windows 7 for as long as possible, which could be through the year 2020 if you want (Microsoft will support it until at least that year). But, I know that some of you already have Windows 8 computers so from time to time I will put up a tip that pertains specifically to that version of Windows.)

Not everyone likes the Windows 8 charms bar. If you happen to inadvertently move your cursor to the top right corner, the charms bar is going to slide right out whether you want it to or not. And not just that – at the same time there will be a big block in the lower left corner displaying the date and time, covering up whatever is on your desktop in that spot.

That’s what prompted my friend John to send me this email this past week:

Hi Scott – Is there a way to eliminate the charms bar in Windows 8.1 when you point the mouse to corner of the screen? I still want it to work when I press Win + C on the keyboard. I am not afraid to change values in the registry. Thanks, John

Thanks John. The good news is you don’t have to go into the registry to make this change. For the average user, editing the registry can be a little scary because just one small mistake can really screw up the computer.

Instead, Microsoft has conveniently included a setting that allows you to turn that option on and off based on your preference.

Here’s how to disable the charms bar:

1. Do a right click on the taskbar (bottom of the screen) and choose Properties

2. Click on the “Navigation” tab and uncheck the first option in the “Corner navigation” section

3. Click OK

Now just check it by moving the cursor to the upper right corner. You should be pleased to see no charms bar.

As John mentioned in his email, you can still make the charms bar pop up by holding down the Windows key and tapping the letter “c”. This will work even after you disable the screen corner option.

The post How to disable the Windows 8 charms bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

charms bar — How to disable the Windows 8 charms bar May 19, 2014
If you use Windows 8, you have probably become familiar with the thing called the Charms Bar. Or at least you know what it is and where it resides (the right side of your screen). When you put your cursor in the top right corner of the screen, the Charms Bar slides out from the right side with its “charms”. Really they’re just icons, but Microsoft must have figured since they were changing everything else about Windows they might as well come up with some cutesy names for stuff we already know as something else.

(NOTE: For the record, I am highly recommending that you stick with Windows 7 for as long as possible, which could be through the year 2020 if you want (Microsoft will support it until at least that year). But, I know that some of you already have Windows 8 computers so from time to time I will put up a tip that pertains specifically to that version of Windows.)

Not everyone likes the Windows 8 charms bar. If you happen to inadvertently move your cursor to the top right corner, the charms bar is going to slide right out whether you want it to or not. And not just that – at the same time there will be a big block in the lower left corner displaying the date and time, covering up whatever is on your desktop in that spot.

That’s what prompted my friend John to send me this email this past week:

Hi Scott – Is there a way to eliminate the charms bar in Windows 8.1 when you point the mouse to corner of the screen? I still want it to work when I press Win + C on the keyboard. I am not afraid to change values in the registry. Thanks, John

Thanks John. The good news is you don’t have to go into the registry to make this change. For the average user, editing the registry can be a little scary because just one small mistake can really screw up the computer.

Instead, Microsoft has conveniently included a setting that allows you to turn that option on and off based on your preference.

Here’s how to disable the charms bar:

1. Do a right click on the taskbar (bottom of the screen) and choose Properties

2. Click on the “Navigation” tab and uncheck the first option in the “Corner navigation” section

3. Click OK

Now just check it by moving the cursor to the upper right corner. You should be pleased to see no charms bar.

As John mentioned in his email, you can still make the charms bar pop up by holding down the Windows key and tapping the letter “c”. This will work even after you disable the screen corner option.

The post How to disable the Windows 8 charms bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

volume icon — Lost your volume icon? Here’s how to get it back May 12, 2014
Every once in a while I get a phone call from a frustrated computer user. Their complaint? The volume icon has disappeared! Which means they can’t use the on-screen icon that normally allows them to raise or lower their speaker volume. Where does it go? And more importantly, how do you get it back?

As far as how it disappears, I can’t really tell you for sure. Somehow the box gets unchecked. It’s hard to imagine someone accidentally navigating to the place where that checkbox is and inadvertently unchecking it, then clicking OK – all without really being aware of what is going on. More likely, some piece of software does it – whether by accident or design, who knows – and all of a sudden you can’t find the icon.

Of course, there are often other ways to control volume:

You might have a volume knob on your keyboard

You could adjust the volume on the external speakers themselves

Some websites, such as YouTube, have an on-screen volume control right under the video

Windows Media Player (and others such as VLC media player) have slide controls on-screen

But still, there’s nothing like the reassurance of having the little speaker icon in the System Tray, right where you always know you can find it. Unless it’s not there.

Note: the steps listed for each of the Windows versions below are based on the assumption that the volume icon is missing because of a setting (a configuration issue), which is most often the case. If you actually have some Windows files that have gotten corrupted or been deleted, the process would be more involved and you might not want to tackle this project yourself.

Here are some ways to get back your volume icon:

Windows 7 or Windows 8:
For these two newest versions of Windows, the process is the same:

Right-click on the Taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen) and choose Properties.

Under the “Taskbar” tab, look for the button that says “Customize” and click it (this is to customize the notification area).

In the new window, look for “Volume” under the list of icons. Out to the right, click the drop-down menu and choose “Show icon and notifications”.

Click OK to close that window, then OK again to close the Properties window.

Windows Vista:
For Vista, the process is similar to 7 and 8. Here’s what to do:

Right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties.

Click to view the Notification Area tab

Under System icons, check the box that is labeled “Volume”

Click OK to close any open windows

Windows XP:
Let’s face facts. If you’re still running Windows XP, you have bigger problems than a missing Volume icon. Still, you’re here for a possible solution so here is something you can try:

Click Start – Run

In the text field, type: mmsys.cpl

Check the box that says “Place the volume icon in the taskbar”

Click OK

If these steps don’t work, the fix is going to be a little more complicated and may involve editing the Registry. The average computer user does not want to edit the Registry, since a mistake can really screw up the computer. Take it to a trusted repair shop, or hire me to do it for you remotely.

The post Lost your volume icon? Here’s how to get it back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in iTunes — Lost your volume icon? Here’s how to get it back May 12, 2014
Every once in a while I get a phone call from a frustrated computer user. Their complaint? The volume icon has disappeared! Which means they can’t use the on-screen icon that normally allows them to raise or lower their speaker volume. Where does it go? And more importantly, how do you get it back?

As far as how it disappears, I can’t really tell you for sure. Somehow the box gets unchecked. It’s hard to imagine someone accidentally navigating to the place where that checkbox is and inadvertently unchecking it, then clicking OK – all without really being aware of what is going on. More likely, some piece of software does it – whether by accident or design, who knows – and all of a sudden you can’t find the icon.

Of course, there are often other ways to control volume:

You might have a volume knob on your keyboard

You could adjust the volume on the external speakers themselves

Some websites, such as YouTube, have an on-screen volume control right under the video

Windows Media Player (and others such as VLC media player) have slide controls on-screen

But still, there’s nothing like the reassurance of having the little speaker icon in the System Tray, right where you always know you can find it. Unless it’s not there.

Note: the steps listed for each of the Windows versions below are based on the assumption that the volume icon is missing because of a setting (a configuration issue), which is most often the case. If you actually have some Windows files that have gotten corrupted or been deleted, the process would be more involved and you might not want to tackle this project yourself.

Here are some ways to get back your volume icon:

Windows 7 or Windows 8:
For these two newest versions of Windows, the process is the same:

Right-click on the Taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen) and choose Properties.

Under the “Taskbar” tab, look for the button that says “Customize” and click it (this is to customize the notification area).

In the new window, look for “Volume” under the list of icons. Out to the right, click the drop-down menu and choose “Show icon and notifications”.

Click OK to close that window, then OK again to close the Properties window.

Windows Vista:
For Vista, the process is similar to 7 and 8. Here’s what to do:

Right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties.

Click to view the Notification Area tab

Under System icons, check the box that is labeled “Volume”

Click OK to close any open windows

Windows XP:
Let’s face facts. If you’re still running Windows XP, you have bigger problems than a missing Volume icon. Still, you’re here for a possible solution so here is something you can try:

Click Start – Run

In the text field, type: mmsys.cpl

Check the box that says “Place the volume icon in the taskbar”

Click OK

If these steps don’t work, the fix is going to be a little more complicated and may involve editing the Registry. The average computer user does not want to edit the Registry, since a mistake can really screw up the computer. Take it to a trusted repair shop, or hire me to do it for you remotely.

The post Lost your volume icon? Here’s how to get it back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Microsoft Word — How to remove your private info from Word documents May 05, 2014
When you create a Word document, you know exactly what you are typing. So, you are obviously in full control of what appears on the pages of that document. But did you know that Word “hides” some information in the document that doesn’t actually appear as text on any of the pages? And this might not be information you want to make public.

You can check this out for yourself. Go into your Documents folder, and open one of your Word files. At first glance, all you see is the text that you put on the page.

But what do you find if you dig a little deeper? You might see:

the size of the file

how many pages and how many words

total time spent editing the file

the title of the file (this is different from the file name)

any tags that might have been entered

any comments that were entered

date of original creation, and when it was last modified

author’s name, along with anyone else who contributed

These are all items that are typically considered “behind the scenes” and not necessarily thing that you as the author want to make available to anyone that reads the file.

In Word 2010 and Word 2013, you can see all of that information by using the “Inspect Document” tool. To do that, just open a Word document and click on File – Info. In Word 2007, click the Office “orb” in the top left corner of the document, mouse over “Prepare” and click on Inspect Document. Click the button called “Check for Issues” then click on Inspect Document. You can check the boxes for the type(s) of information you want to see, or just check all of them and see everything.

When the information is displayed, it looks something like this:

In some cases, you might not care if everyone is able to see this information. But there are some situations where you would definitely not want these details to be made public.

For example, you might be writing a book and you send this file to a publisher. You include a cover letter explaining that you have been working on this book for at least an hour a day for the last 2 weeks. But when the publisher looks at the document information, he sees: Total editing time: 5 minutes. That could be a little awkward to explain!

Or, you could be working on a document that will list you as the sole author. But what if, as part of your writing process, you send it to your friend Vanessa to proofread? She makes a few corrections and sends it back to you. At that point, if you send that Word document to anyone else, they can look at the hidden details and they’ll see you and Vanessa BOTH listed as authors on this document. That might raise a few questions about how much of this document you actually wrote.

Maybe you’re planning a trip, so you create a trip itinerary to use. At the last minute, you decide to send out the itinerary to your friends and family, just to let them know where you will be on each day in case they need to get in touch with you. But what you forgot was the fact that in the “Comments” part of the document you also noted each of your passport numbers and Social Security numbers so you would have easy access to that information. Nothing wrong with that of course, except that you really don’t need all of your friends knowing these personal identity details.

There are other examples but you get the idea. The point is, any document you create in Microsoft Word should be inspected and “cleaned” before you send it to someone else to read or review. And this is even more true if you are publishing a Word document to be visible on the internet (a website can offer a Word document as a simple download link).

How do you remove your personal information from a Word document? It’s actually pretty easy.

NOTE: this process will remove personal information from a Word document, but some of the other document properties will still be visible such as Total Editing Time.

In Word 2010 and 2013, click File – Info and then click the “Check for Issues” button. That will give you a dropdown menu – in that menu, click on Inspect Document. That brings up the Document Inspector window, which will have all of the options already checked:

Click the “Inspect” button, and it will quickly come up with a report. As you can see, this particular document has some personal information that can be removed:

Just click the “Remove all” button. Now, the same document shows these properties:

As you can see, some of the document properties are still there, but the personal information has been removed.

Obviously you might not want or need to do this with all of your Word documents, but I’ll bet there are certain instances where it would be a good idea.

Also – you might be interested to know that the process I described applies not only to Word, but to most MS Office programs, such as Excel and others.

The post How to remove your private info from Word documents first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word document info — How to remove your private info from Word documents May 05, 2014
When you create a Word document, you know exactly what you are typing. So, you are obviously in full control of what appears on the pages of that document. But did you know that Word “hides” some information in the document that doesn’t actually appear as text on any of the pages? And this might not be information you want to make public.

You can check this out for yourself. Go into your Documents folder, and open one of your Word files. At first glance, all you see is the text that you put on the page.

But what do you find if you dig a little deeper? You might see:

the size of the file

how many pages and how many words

total time spent editing the file

the title of the file (this is different from the file name)

any tags that might have been entered

any comments that were entered

date of original creation, and when it was last modified

author’s name, along with anyone else who contributed

These are all items that are typically considered “behind the scenes” and not necessarily thing that you as the author want to make available to anyone that reads the file.

In Word 2010 and Word 2013, you can see all of that information by using the “Inspect Document” tool. To do that, just open a Word document and click on File – Info. In Word 2007, click the Office “orb” in the top left corner of the document, mouse over “Prepare” and click on Inspect Document. Click the button called “Check for Issues” then click on Inspect Document. You can check the boxes for the type(s) of information you want to see, or just check all of them and see everything.

When the information is displayed, it looks something like this:

In some cases, you might not care if everyone is able to see this information. But there are some situations where you would definitely not want these details to be made public.

For example, you might be writing a book and you send this file to a publisher. You include a cover letter explaining that you have been working on this book for at least an hour a day for the last 2 weeks. But when the publisher looks at the document information, he sees: Total editing time: 5 minutes. That could be a little awkward to explain!

Or, you could be working on a document that will list you as the sole author. But what if, as part of your writing process, you send it to your friend Vanessa to proofread? She makes a few corrections and sends it back to you. At that point, if you send that Word document to anyone else, they can look at the hidden details and they’ll see you and Vanessa BOTH listed as authors on this document. That might raise a few questions about how much of this document you actually wrote.

Maybe you’re planning a trip, so you create a trip itinerary to use. At the last minute, you decide to send out the itinerary to your friends and family, just to let them know where you will be on each day in case they need to get in touch with you. But what you forgot was the fact that in the “Comments” part of the document you also noted each of your passport numbers and Social Security numbers so you would have easy access to that information. Nothing wrong with that of course, except that you really don’t need all of your friends knowing these personal identity details.

There are other examples but you get the idea. The point is, any document you create in Microsoft Word should be inspected and “cleaned” before you send it to someone else to read or review. And this is even more true if you are publishing a Word document to be visible on the internet (a website can offer a Word document as a simple download link).

How do you remove your personal information from a Word document? It’s actually pretty easy.

NOTE: this process will remove personal information from a Word document, but some of the other document properties will still be visible such as Total Editing Time.

In Word 2010 and 2013, click File – Info and then click the “Check for Issues” button. That will give you a dropdown menu – in that menu, click on Inspect Document. That brings up the Document Inspector window, which will have all of the options already checked:

Click the “Inspect” button, and it will quickly come up with a report. As you can see, this particular document has some personal information that can be removed:

Just click the “Remove all” button. Now, the same document shows these properties:

As you can see, some of the document properties are still there, but the personal information has been removed.

Obviously you might not want or need to do this with all of your Word documents, but I’ll bet there are certain instances where it would be a good idea.

Also – you might be interested to know that the process I described applies not only to Word, but to most MS Office programs, such as Excel and others.

The post How to remove your private info from Word documents first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

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