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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:

control panel — Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 Oct 16, 2017
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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.

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