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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:

mess up your pc — 6 ways to really mess up your computer Aug 31, 2015
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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
Show notes

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.

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