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The Computer Tutor — Software How-To
The Computer Tutor

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

Latest Episodes:

Windows 10 — How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars Sep 16, 2019
Show notes

I didn’t like Windows 10 when it first came out several years ago. I’m fine with it now, since it has improved a lot since then. But there’s still one thing I can’t stand – the way it hides the scroll bars. Fortunately, this is fixable. I think you’ll enjoy using Windows 10 more if you make this little adjustment.

To see what I’m talking about, all you have to do is hit the Start button (the white Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen). See that thin little line at the top?

That’s where the regular scroll bar USED to be. In Windows 10 though, you have to put your cursor right in that EXACT spot, and you’re rewarded with the actual scroll bar that expands out so you can use it:

Better make sure you don’t accidentally move that cursor over by a pixel or two though, because then the scroll bar goes hidden again. Then you have to find it with your cursor again.

I know, for this particular example, I could just use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down the list. But not everyone has that option (a lot of laptop touchpads don’t have the ability to scroll). But more importantly, there’s just no need for that scroll bar to disappear and have to be manually brought back by pinpoint-accuracy cursor placement. Some goofball coder at Microsoft just thought it up as a new “feature” and no one gave any thought to how impractical it is.

But you do have the ability to disable it!

Here’s how you UN-hide the Windows 10 scroll bars:

Click the Start button, then click Settings (the gear icon)

In the Settings window, click on the Ease of Access group

Click the “Display” section on the left, then look for the setting that says “Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows” – and slide that to the left to turn it off.

As soon as you turn it to the Off position, all your scroll bars will come back because they are no longer hidden. For most people, that’s a welcome sight!

The post How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 scroll bar — How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars Sep 16, 2019
Show notes

I didn’t like Windows 10 when it first came out several years ago. I’m fine with it now, since it has improved a lot since then. But there’s still one thing I can’t stand – the way it hides the scroll bars. Fortunately, this is fixable. I think you’ll enjoy using Windows 10 more if you make this little adjustment.

To see what I’m talking about, all you have to do is hit the Start button (the white Microsoft logo in the bottom left corner of the screen). See that thin little line at the top?

That’s where the regular scroll bar USED to be. In Windows 10 though, you have to put your cursor right in that EXACT spot, and you’re rewarded with the actual scroll bar that expands out so you can use it:

Better make sure you don’t accidentally move that cursor over by a pixel or two though, because then the scroll bar goes hidden again. Then you have to find it with your cursor again.

I know, for this particular example, I could just use the scroll wheel on my mouse to scroll down the list. But not everyone has that option (a lot of laptop touchpads don’t have the ability to scroll). But more importantly, there’s just no need for that scroll bar to disappear and have to be manually brought back by pinpoint-accuracy cursor placement. Some goofball coder at Microsoft just thought it up as a new “feature” and no one gave any thought to how impractical it is.

But you do have the ability to disable it!

Here’s how you UN-hide the Windows 10 scroll bars:

Click the Start button, then click Settings (the gear icon)

In the Settings window, click on the Ease of Access group

Click the “Display” section on the left, then look for the setting that says “Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows” – and slide that to the left to turn it off.

As soon as you turn it to the Off position, all your scroll bars will come back because they are no longer hidden. For most people, that’s a welcome sight!

The post How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

MS Word — How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly Sep 02, 2019
Show notes

Sometimes when you’re experimenting or learning how to do something in Microsoft Word, it helps to have a “dummy” document that has several pages of text to work with.

This came up recently with one of my long-term clients. In fact, this lady was probably one of my very first clients when I started my computer business up in Maine.

She works with Microsoft Word all the time, and recently upgraded to Office 365. Her previous version was very outdated, so there were a number of changes in the way Word was laid out – quite different than what she was used to using for the last 10-15 years.

She had a very specific need. She needed to be able to have page numbers appear on each page of a document, but with one exception. Page 1 would have NO page number, then the numbers would start on page 2 and continue from there. Kind of an unusual thing, but that’s how she always did it and apparently it was easy to do in MS Word 2007.

Turns out it’s not so easy in the new version of Word! I had to do a bit of research, but I figured out how to do it. The next step was to remote in to her computer and show her how to do it.

But for this instruction, I did not want to use one of her documents. I just wanted a “dummy” document of about 10 pages, so it wouldn’t matter if it got all messed up.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this: the old way, and the easier way.

The old way is to use the Lorem Ipsum website (lipsum.com). What is Lorem Ipsum? The website explains it. But all you have to do is choose how many characters or paragraphs you want in your document, and click the Generate button. There are roughly 5 paragraphs per page, so if you opt for 50 paragraphs, you’ll get 10 pages of Latin text. Then you can just copy and paste that into a Word document, and there you have it – your 10 page dummy document.

But I think the new way is much easier.

Just open a new blank Word document, and type this:

=lorem(50,20)

When you type that and hit Enter, you will immediately see that this formerly blank document now has 50 paragraphs of Latin text, with each paragraph containing 20 sentences.

Depending on how much dummy text you need, you can put whatever numbers you want in the parentheses. The first number is how many paragraphs you want, and the second one is the number of sentences in each of those paragraphs.

Go ahead, open Word and try it out!

The post How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

listen to my podcast in Apple Podcasts — How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly Sep 02, 2019
Show notes

Sometimes when you’re experimenting or learning how to do something in Microsoft Word, it helps to have a “dummy” document that has several pages of text to work with.

This came up recently with one of my long-term clients. In fact, this lady was probably one of my very first clients when I started my computer business up in Maine.

She works with Microsoft Word all the time, and recently upgraded to Office 365. Her previous version was very outdated, so there were a number of changes in the way Word was laid out – quite different than what she was used to using for the last 10-15 years.

She had a very specific need. She needed to be able to have page numbers appear on each page of a document, but with one exception. Page 1 would have NO page number, then the numbers would start on page 2 and continue from there. Kind of an unusual thing, but that’s how she always did it and apparently it was easy to do in MS Word 2007.

Turns out it’s not so easy in the new version of Word! I had to do a bit of research, but I figured out how to do it. The next step was to remote in to her computer and show her how to do it.

But for this instruction, I did not want to use one of her documents. I just wanted a “dummy” document of about 10 pages, so it wouldn’t matter if it got all messed up.

There are actually a couple of ways to do this: the old way, and the easier way.

The old way is to use the Lorem Ipsum website (lipsum.com). What is Lorem Ipsum? The website explains it. But all you have to do is choose how many characters or paragraphs you want in your document, and click the Generate button. There are roughly 5 paragraphs per page, so if you opt for 50 paragraphs, you’ll get 10 pages of Latin text. Then you can just copy and paste that into a Word document, and there you have it – your 10 page dummy document.

But I think the new way is much easier.

Just open a new blank Word document, and type this:

=lorem(50,20)

When you type that and hit Enter, you will immediately see that this formerly blank document now has 50 paragraphs of Latin text, with each paragraph containing 20 sentences.

Depending on how much dummy text you need, you can put whatever numbers you want in the parentheses. The first number is how many paragraphs you want, and the second one is the number of sentences in each of those paragraphs.

Go ahead, open Word and try it out!

The post How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

clutter — How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter Aug 19, 2019
Show notes

Have you ever tried to read a serious article online, and you were just constantly distracted by the sidebars, the ads, and all the other “clutter” on the screen? Chrome has a secret “reader” mode to get rid of all that so you can focus on the content.

Most people don’t know about this option because it’s not all that easy to get to it in Chrome. In fact, Google still considers it to be “experimental” so that’s why it’s not yet on the regular Chrome menu. But you can put it there.

But first, you need to get Chrome version 75 or above. The good news is, if you use Chrome, you probably already have the current version. To check it, click the Options button (the 3 dots in the top right), then go to Help, then click on About Google Chrome. That screen will tell you what version you have, and even offer to update it for you if needed. As I write this, the current version is 76 dot something dot something. As long as you have 75 or higher you’re okay.

Now, you need to go up to the address bar in Chrome, and type this in and then hit Enter:

Note that it’s all lower case, and there are no spaces between any letters or characters.

When you hit Enter, you’ll see a page full of settings, including one called Enable Reader Mode. For that one, you just click the drop-down menu and choose Enabled:

You have now added a new item to your Chrome Options. If you click the Options button again (3 dots), you’ll see a new item there, called Distill:

Next time you’re on a web page and you’re trying to read an article, but there’s too much “web page clutter” that’s distracting you, click the Distill button and see what happens. Peaceful reading returns!

The post How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome version — How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter Aug 19, 2019
Show notes

Have you ever tried to read a serious article online, and you were just constantly distracted by the sidebars, the ads, and all the other “clutter” on the screen? Chrome has a secret “reader” mode to get rid of all that so you can focus on the content.

Most people don’t know about this option because it’s not all that easy to get to it in Chrome. In fact, Google still considers it to be “experimental” so that’s why it’s not yet on the regular Chrome menu. But you can put it there.

But first, you need to get Chrome version 75 or above. The good news is, if you use Chrome, you probably already have the current version. To check it, click the Options button (the 3 dots in the top right), then go to Help, then click on About Google Chrome. That screen will tell you what version you have, and even offer to update it for you if needed. As I write this, the current version is 76 dot something dot something. As long as you have 75 or higher you’re okay.

Now, you need to go up to the address bar in Chrome, and type this in and then hit Enter:

Note that it’s all lower case, and there are no spaces between any letters or characters.

When you hit Enter, you’ll see a page full of settings, including one called Enable Reader Mode. For that one, you just click the drop-down menu and choose Enabled:

You have now added a new item to your Chrome Options. If you click the Options button again (3 dots), you’ll see a new item there, called Distill:

Next time you’re on a web page and you’re trying to read an article, but there’s too much “web page clutter” that’s distracting you, click the Distill button and see what happens. Peaceful reading returns!

The post How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Be My Eyes — Get a free app and help a blind person! Aug 05, 2019
Show notes

I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.

There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those of us who are fortunate to have good vision, it’s hard to imagine how it would be to navigate the world without sight.

Think about this. What if you were in a grocery store, shopping for the regular stuff you buy each week. As you walk down the bread aisle, you see a person who is obviously visually impaired who is having trouble figuring out which loaf of bread to buy. You offer to help. The person, holding two loaves of bread, asks which one is wheat and which is white. You point out which is which, and the purchase decision is easily made. This is something that took less than 30 seconds of your time, but was a big help.

Now there’s an app for your phone that enables you to help blind and visually impaired people, anywhere.

The app is called Be My Eyes, and it’s available for Android and iPhones. It uses the power of your phone to make a video call, and you lend your eyes to someone who needs them.

From the website:

For those who need assistance:

For those who wish to volunteer:

Signing up as a volunteer is easy:

Get the app

agree to terms

designate yourself as blind or a volunteer

choose “I am new” (or “sign in”)

sign up to create account

choose language, give access to your phone’s microphone and camera

stand by for calls!

I’m still waiting for my first call for assistance but I’m looking forward to it! Here’s a video that also explains how it works:

The post Get a free app and help a blind person! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Be my eyes — Get a free app and help a blind person! Aug 05, 2019
Show notes

I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.

There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those of us who are fortunate to have good vision, it’s hard to imagine how it would be to navigate the world without sight.

Think about this. What if you were in a grocery store, shopping for the regular stuff you buy each week. As you walk down the bread aisle, you see a person who is obviously visually impaired who is having trouble figuring out which loaf of bread to buy. You offer to help. The person, holding two loaves of bread, asks which one is wheat and which is white. You point out which is which, and the purchase decision is easily made. This is something that took less than 30 seconds of your time, but was a big help.

Now there’s an app for your phone that enables you to help blind and visually impaired people, anywhere.

The app is called Be My Eyes, and it’s available for Android and iPhones. It uses the power of your phone to make a video call, and you lend your eyes to someone who needs them.

From the website:

For those who need assistance:

For those who wish to volunteer:

Signing up as a volunteer is easy:

Get the app

agree to terms

designate yourself as blind or a volunteer

choose “I am new” (or “sign in”)

sign up to create account

choose language, give access to your phone’s microphone and camera

stand by for calls!

I’m still waiting for my first call for assistance but I’m looking forward to it! Here’s a video that also explains how it works:

The post Get a free app and help a blind person! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

shortcut — How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! Jul 22, 2019
Show notes

If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!

In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the shortcut to go to. Then you move Chrome off to the side of the screen so you could see the desktop area. Then you find the little “padlock” up in the address bar, and you click and drag that padlock to the desktop area and drop it. That creates a new icon on the desktop that takes you directly to that web page.

But sometimes people would get confused about how to have Chrome open at the same time you’re viewing the desktop screen so it didn’t work well for everyone.

But Chrome has this feature built in and it’s really easy!

Let’s say you find this great website and you want to be able to get back to it whenever you want, quickly and easily. Of course you would – it’s a web page about a cow who thinks it’s a family pet!

In case you want to look at it, the actual web address for that page is:
https://laughingsquid.com/cow-relaxing-on-couch/

So your goal is to have a simple, single icon on your desktop screen that will take you directly to that web page. Here’s how you do it in Chrome:

1. Go to that page in Chrome

2. Click the 3 dots in the top right, go down to “More tools”, then go over and click on “Create shortcut”

All done! Now you can minimize or close any windows you have open, and you’ll see a new icon on your desktop screen. Double clicking that icon will take you directly to that web page whenever you want.

The post How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

cow who thinks its a dog — How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! Jul 22, 2019
Show notes

If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!

In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the shortcut to go to. Then you move Chrome off to the side of the screen so you could see the desktop area. Then you find the little “padlock” up in the address bar, and you click and drag that padlock to the desktop area and drop it. That creates a new icon on the desktop that takes you directly to that web page.

But sometimes people would get confused about how to have Chrome open at the same time you’re viewing the desktop screen so it didn’t work well for everyone.

But Chrome has this feature built in and it’s really easy!

Let’s say you find this great website and you want to be able to get back to it whenever you want, quickly and easily. Of course you would – it’s a web page about a cow who thinks it’s a family pet!

In case you want to look at it, the actual web address for that page is:
https://laughingsquid.com/cow-relaxing-on-couch/

So your goal is to have a simple, single icon on your desktop screen that will take you directly to that web page. Here’s how you do it in Chrome:

1. Go to that page in Chrome

2. Click the 3 dots in the top right, go down to “More tools”, then go over and click on “Create shortcut”

All done! Now you can minimize or close any windows you have open, and you’ll see a new icon on your desktop screen. Double clicking that icon will take you directly to that web page whenever you want.

The post How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome — How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters Jul 08, 2019
Show notes

Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.

What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people won’t care about at all, since their computer has not had this particular problem. This tip resolves an issue that’s not even an issue for them.

But for other people, the ones who are experiencing this problem, the solution I’ll provide today is probably a Hallelujah Moment, and they will be overjoyed to finally find the solution.

Here’s what the problem looks like when it shows up:

The first time one of my clients saw this, she assumed it was a virus or some type of malicious software that had gotten into Chrome. She called me immediately and had me remote in and check on it.

But she didn’t have a virus. Actually it would have been very unlikely for her computer to be infected, since she’s on my Managed Service Plan (link).

This is just related to a setting in Chrome called Hardware Acceleration.

Without getting all techy, the Acceleration feature allows Chrome to offload some of the graphics work to the hardware on your computer (meaning the graphics card) rather than forcing the browser (Chrome) to do all the work. Usually this means smoother graphics. But sometimes, on some computers, it just doesn’t work that way – that’s when you see those funky character that don’t make any sense. When that happens, the best solution is to just disable Acceleration.

How to disable Acceleration in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the 3 dots in the top right corner:

2. In the menu that drops down, click on Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced

4. Scroll down to the “Systems” section, and find the setting called “Use hardware acceleration when available” and slide that option to the left to turn it off:

Now go back to the website where the weird characters were showing in Chrome, and see if the problem is solved. Chances are things will be back to normal again!

The post How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Chrome messed up text — How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters Jul 08, 2019
Show notes

Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.

What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people won’t care about at all, since their computer has not had this particular problem. This tip resolves an issue that’s not even an issue for them.

But for other people, the ones who are experiencing this problem, the solution I’ll provide today is probably a Hallelujah Moment, and they will be overjoyed to finally find the solution.

Here’s what the problem looks like when it shows up:

The first time one of my clients saw this, she assumed it was a virus or some type of malicious software that had gotten into Chrome. She called me immediately and had me remote in and check on it.

But she didn’t have a virus. Actually it would have been very unlikely for her computer to be infected, since she’s on my Managed Service Plan (link).

This is just related to a setting in Chrome called Hardware Acceleration.

Without getting all techy, the Acceleration feature allows Chrome to offload some of the graphics work to the hardware on your computer (meaning the graphics card) rather than forcing the browser (Chrome) to do all the work. Usually this means smoother graphics. But sometimes, on some computers, it just doesn’t work that way – that’s when you see those funky character that don’t make any sense. When that happens, the best solution is to just disable Acceleration.

How to disable Acceleration in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the 3 dots in the top right corner:

2. In the menu that drops down, click on Settings.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Advanced

4. Scroll down to the “Systems” section, and find the setting called “Use hardware acceleration when available” and slide that option to the left to turn it off:

Now go back to the website where the weird characters were showing in Chrome, and see if the problem is solved. Chances are things will be back to normal again!

The post How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email attachments — My policy on email attachments Jun 24, 2019
Show notes

I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.

There are several ways for your computer to get infected with a virus or malware. But do you know what the #1 most common method still is? Email attachments.

Yes, here we are in 2019, when you’d think everyone in the world knows that a virus can come in via a file attached to an email, and we still see that method of delivery as the most successful one for the scammers and hackers to infect someone’s computer.

As a computer tech, I talk to clients about this pretty regularly. And I often hear the same thing from a lot of different people, who think they have the whole “email attachment safety process” figured out. Here’s what they tell me:

“I don’t open an email attachment,
unless it’s from someone I know”

WRONG. If that’s the policy they go by, they’re probably going to have an infected computer at some point. It is fundamentally flawed.

This is my policy on opening attachments:

That sounds kind of counter-intuitve, right? I mean, someone you know wouldn’t send you an email, would they?

Here’s why this makes sense. Let’s say your best friend is Bob. You trust Bob completely. Bob is the godfather to your children. Bob once rescued you from a burning building. He’s even honest enough to tell you when you have food on your face at dinner. So you know you can trust Bob, and you know that he wouldn’t send you a virus by email.

But then one day Bob opens an email attachment. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he clicked and opened it, he saw that nothing happened. So he just figured it was some kind of mistake, deleted the email and forgot about it.

What Bob doesn’t know is that his computer is now infected. He didn’t see anything happen on the screen when he clicked that attached file, and that is exactly what he was supposed to see – nothing. That means he did not become suspicious and did not see any reason to investigate it further. That is exactly the response the hacker wants.

But behind the scenes, not visible on the screen, the virus is now working hard to do whatever it was programmed to do. It might be installing a keylogger (to track whatever is typed, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers) or other malicious software.

And the OTHER thing that virus is doing is sending out an email to everyone in Bob’s email contact list. Probably the same email that Bob received, with the virus attached. And Bob does not even know these emails are being sent.

So even though he’s your best friend and you trust Bob with your life, you should not open that email attachment that just got sent to you from his account.

For me, I don’t care who sent it. My own mother could send me an email attachment and I would not open it. Sorry mom!

And of course, here’s the objection: “But sometimes I have to open attachments! It’s stuff I need to see!”

That’s fine. If you need to open an attachment, and you know what it is before opening it, go for it. But that’s the key – knowing what it is ahead of time.

The scammers are very clever about making you THINK you know what it is, when you really don’t know. You might get that email from Bob, and the message says, “Check out this picture I found of us!” but that doesn’t make it safe to open. The virus wrote that message, not Bob.

Or you might get an email that is apparently from Fedex, saying, “We’re trying to deliver your package, but cannot find your address – please check the attached invoice to verify your address.” This one is especially clever, since half the people that get this actually ARE expecting a package delivery, so they just click the attached file without thinking about it – and immediately they are infected. And now their computer is sending out that same email to THEIR contact list. And it goes on and on.

All it takes is a half-second of inattention. You might click and then suddenly realize, you just clicked on something and you don’t REALLY know what it is. Hopefully at that point you have a good strong antivirus, and someone you trust to check out your computer and get rid of the bad stuff.

The post My policy on email attachments first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

email attachments — My policy on email attachments Jun 24, 2019
Show notes

I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.

There are several ways for your computer to get infected with a virus or malware. But do you know what the #1 most common method still is? Email attachments.

Yes, here we are in 2019, when you’d think everyone in the world knows that a virus can come in via a file attached to an email, and we still see that method of delivery as the most successful one for the scammers and hackers to infect someone’s computer.

As a computer tech, I talk to clients about this pretty regularly. And I often hear the same thing from a lot of different people, who think they have the whole “email attachment safety process” figured out. Here’s what they tell me:

“I don’t open an email attachment,
unless it’s from someone I know”

WRONG. If that’s the policy they go by, they’re probably going to have an infected computer at some point. It is fundamentally flawed.

This is my policy on opening attachments:

That sounds kind of counter-intuitve, right? I mean, someone you know wouldn’t send you an email, would they?

Here’s why this makes sense. Let’s say your best friend is Bob. You trust Bob completely. Bob is the godfather to your children. Bob once rescued you from a burning building. He’s even honest enough to tell you when you have food on your face at dinner. So you know you can trust Bob, and you know that he wouldn’t send you a virus by email.

But then one day Bob opens an email attachment. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when he clicked and opened it, he saw that nothing happened. So he just figured it was some kind of mistake, deleted the email and forgot about it.

What Bob doesn’t know is that his computer is now infected. He didn’t see anything happen on the screen when he clicked that attached file, and that is exactly what he was supposed to see – nothing. That means he did not become suspicious and did not see any reason to investigate it further. That is exactly the response the hacker wants.

But behind the scenes, not visible on the screen, the virus is now working hard to do whatever it was programmed to do. It might be installing a keylogger (to track whatever is typed, such as social security numbers or credit card numbers) or other malicious software.

And the OTHER thing that virus is doing is sending out an email to everyone in Bob’s email contact list. Probably the same email that Bob received, with the virus attached. And Bob does not even know these emails are being sent.

So even though he’s your best friend and you trust Bob with your life, you should not open that email attachment that just got sent to you from his account.

For me, I don’t care who sent it. My own mother could send me an email attachment and I would not open it. Sorry mom!

And of course, here’s the objection: “But sometimes I have to open attachments! It’s stuff I need to see!”

That’s fine. If you need to open an attachment, and you know what it is before opening it, go for it. But that’s the key – knowing what it is ahead of time.

The scammers are very clever about making you THINK you know what it is, when you really don’t know. You might get that email from Bob, and the message says, “Check out this picture I found of us!” but that doesn’t make it safe to open. The virus wrote that message, not Bob.

Or you might get an email that is apparently from Fedex, saying, “We’re trying to deliver your package, but cannot find your address – please check the attached invoice to verify your address.” This one is especially clever, since half the people that get this actually ARE expecting a package delivery, so they just click the attached file without thinking about it – and immediately they are infected. And now their computer is sending out that same email to THEIR contact list. And it goes on and on.

All it takes is a half-second of inattention. You might click and then suddenly realize, you just clicked on something and you don’t REALLY know what it is. Hopefully at that point you have a good strong antivirus, and someone you trust to check out your computer and get rid of the bad stuff.

The post My policy on email attachments first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netflix — How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix Jun 10, 2019
Show notes

Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.

To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.

Here is what my home page on Netflix looks like:

The issue I’m talking about today is that first section at the bottom of the screen, called “Continue watching for Scott”:

Whenever you start watching something, but don’t get all the way to the end, it shows up in that section the next time you open Netflix. This is actually there for convenience, and usually it is convenient.

Recently I’ve been going through The Office again (probably my fourth or fifth time). So it’s nice when it’s there, I just click and it goes right to the next episode waiting for me.

The problem is Kevin Hart, the other entry there. I recently heard Kevin Hart when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I had never really heard much of his stand-up comedy, but on the podcast I was impressed by his conversation and work ethic, and he’s obviously very successful. So I saw his Netflix special “Irresponsible” come up as a suggestion and I figured I would watch that.

Well…I know he is very popular, but I honestly did not find him funny. At all. I got through about 20 minutes, waiting to laugh, and finally gave up on it. That’s okay – he has a big fan base so I’m sure he’ll get along fine without me.

And that’s where the problem comes up. Netflix saw that I watched some of it, and didn’t finish it – so every time I open Netflix, there’s Kevin Hart waiting for me to come back. Even though I’m not coming back. This was okay for a while, but after a couple of weeks I decided I need to figure out how to get it off my main screen.

Here’s how you do it:

First, on your computer go to Netflix.com and log in to your account. As you can see, on my page there’s The Office and Kevin Hart “Irresponsible” under the Continue Watching section:

Now, go to the top right corner where your profile image is located, and in the drop down menu, click on Account:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the My Profile section, and click on “Viewing Activity”:

Now you’ll see your activity, and you just find the one you want to remove and click the circle with the line through it out at the right side:

All done! Now your Continue Watching section will only display what you want to see there.

The post How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Netflix home screen — How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix Jun 10, 2019
Show notes

Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.

To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.

Here is what my home page on Netflix looks like:

The issue I’m talking about today is that first section at the bottom of the screen, called “Continue watching for Scott”:

Whenever you start watching something, but don’t get all the way to the end, it shows up in that section the next time you open Netflix. This is actually there for convenience, and usually it is convenient.

Recently I’ve been going through The Office again (probably my fourth or fifth time). So it’s nice when it’s there, I just click and it goes right to the next episode waiting for me.

The problem is Kevin Hart, the other entry there. I recently heard Kevin Hart when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. I had never really heard much of his stand-up comedy, but on the podcast I was impressed by his conversation and work ethic, and he’s obviously very successful. So I saw his Netflix special “Irresponsible” come up as a suggestion and I figured I would watch that.

Well…I know he is very popular, but I honestly did not find him funny. At all. I got through about 20 minutes, waiting to laugh, and finally gave up on it. That’s okay – he has a big fan base so I’m sure he’ll get along fine without me.

And that’s where the problem comes up. Netflix saw that I watched some of it, and didn’t finish it – so every time I open Netflix, there’s Kevin Hart waiting for me to come back. Even though I’m not coming back. This was okay for a while, but after a couple of weeks I decided I need to figure out how to get it off my main screen.

Here’s how you do it:

First, on your computer go to Netflix.com and log in to your account. As you can see, on my page there’s The Office and Kevin Hart “Irresponsible” under the Continue Watching section:

Now, go to the top right corner where your profile image is located, and in the drop down menu, click on Account:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page to the My Profile section, and click on “Viewing Activity”:

Now you’ll see your activity, and you just find the one you want to remove and click the circle with the line through it out at the right side:

All done! Now your Continue Watching section will only display what you want to see there.

The post How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What happens to Windows 7 in January? May 27, 2019
Show notes

I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.

The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.

Every month, on the second Tuesday, Microsoft sends out Windows Updates. This is called Patch Tuesday, because many of the updates being sent are to “patch” security problems that have been discovered. New issues are always being found and fixed by Microsoft. This is part of their ongoing support of their Windows operating systems.

This coming January is when that support ends. January 14, 2020 will be the final Patch Tuesday for Windows 7. After that, no more updates, no more security fixes.

If you’re still using Windows 7 on January 15, 2020, your computer will still run. In fact, you will probably not notice any difference other than Microsoft might display a pop-up window on your screen at each bootup, reminding you that Windows 7 support has ended. That actually might start even BEFORE it expires. This is the message Windows XP users saw when that operating system was about to retire:

But even though your computer and Windows 7 will still function, don’t be deceived into thinking that all is okay. It’s not okay.

Security holes and flaws will still continue to be found in Windows 7, no different than what’s been happening for years. The difference now is – they won’t be fixed.

So when Microsoft comes out each month with all the new security patches to fix those vulnerabilities, Windows 7 users won’t get them. And guess what – the hackers know about those security problems, and will be hard at work creating ways to exploit them.

For home users, this creates a situation where your computer is not safe to use. For business users, you are exposing yourself (and your clients) to potential legal and liability risks that could be disastrous.

So if you are currently using a computer that runs Windows 7, you have two options:

Upgrade your computer to Windows 10. Right now, I can do this for you remotely for $180. On July 1, 2019 the fee goes to $225. Before we do the upgrade, we’ll create a backup to your portable drive. So if you don’t have a backup for your computer already, that will be another good outcome for this. Upgrading is much less expensive than buying a new computer.

Buy a new computer. Of course, any new PC you buy now will already be running Windows 10. A new computer will come with a bunch of stuff you don’t need (bloatware), and something things you DO need won’t be on there. And we’ll need to get all of your files and folders moved over from your old computer. I can do all of this remotely for you as well. If your computer is old, replacing it might be the more cost-effective solution.

Some people who have never used Windows 10 are still a bit wary about doing this upgrade. Here’s my take on that: you have nothing to worry about.

When Windows 10 first came out, it had problems. And Microsoft was practically forcing everyone to upgrade, whether you wanted it or not. It was one of the most clumsy and scummy product rollouts I’ve ever seen, and back then I was telling everyone to stay with Windows 7, and actively block that upgrade. Not now.

Windows 10 has been out for almost 4 years now, and a lot of the original problems have been fixed. It still has some “features” baked in that most people would consider privacy invasions, but I disable many of those are part of the setup. And, it’s very intuitive to use. There’s the old reliable Start button where you can see all your programs, and putting a program shortcut on the desktop is even easier than it is in Windows 7 (you just drag and drop it there).

So what are you waiting for? Time to move to Windows 10!

The post What happens to Windows 7 in January? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What happens to Windows 7 in January? May 27, 2019
Show notes

I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.

The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.

Every month, on the second Tuesday, Microsoft sends out Windows Updates. This is called Patch Tuesday, because many of the updates being sent are to “patch” security problems that have been discovered. New issues are always being found and fixed by Microsoft. This is part of their ongoing support of their Windows operating systems.

This coming January is when that support ends. January 14, 2020 will be the final Patch Tuesday for Windows 7. After that, no more updates, no more security fixes.

If you’re still using Windows 7 on January 15, 2020, your computer will still run. In fact, you will probably not notice any difference other than Microsoft might display a pop-up window on your screen at each bootup, reminding you that Windows 7 support has ended. That actually might start even BEFORE it expires. This is the message Windows XP users saw when that operating system was about to retire:

But even though your computer and Windows 7 will still function, don’t be deceived into thinking that all is okay. It’s not okay.

Security holes and flaws will still continue to be found in Windows 7, no different than what’s been happening for years. The difference now is – they won’t be fixed.

So when Microsoft comes out each month with all the new security patches to fix those vulnerabilities, Windows 7 users won’t get them. And guess what – the hackers know about those security problems, and will be hard at work creating ways to exploit them.

For home users, this creates a situation where your computer is not safe to use. For business users, you are exposing yourself (and your clients) to potential legal and liability risks that could be disastrous.

So if you are currently using a computer that runs Windows 7, you have two options:

Upgrade your computer to Windows 10. Right now, I can do this for you remotely for $180. On July 1, 2019 the fee goes to $225. Before we do the upgrade, we’ll create a backup to your portable drive. So if you don’t have a backup for your computer already, that will be another good outcome for this. Upgrading is much less expensive than buying a new computer.

Buy a new computer. Of course, any new PC you buy now will already be running Windows 10. A new computer will come with a bunch of stuff you don’t need (bloatware), and something things you DO need won’t be on there. And we’ll need to get all of your files and folders moved over from your old computer. I can do all of this remotely for you as well. If your computer is old, replacing it might be the more cost-effective solution.

Some people who have never used Windows 10 are still a bit wary about doing this upgrade. Here’s my take on that: you have nothing to worry about.

When Windows 10 first came out, it had problems. And Microsoft was practically forcing everyone to upgrade, whether you wanted it or not. It was one of the most clumsy and scummy product rollouts I’ve ever seen, and back then I was telling everyone to stay with Windows 7, and actively block that upgrade. Not now.

Windows 10 has been out for almost 4 years now, and a lot of the original problems have been fixed. It still has some “features” baked in that most people would consider privacy invasions, but I disable many of those are part of the setup. And, it’s very intuitive to use. There’s the old reliable Start button where you can see all your programs, and putting a program shortcut on the desktop is even easier than it is in Windows 7 (you just drag and drop it there).

So what are you waiting for? Time to move to Windows 10!

The post What happens to Windows 7 in January? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Avengers — Two great services for movie/TV watchers May 13, 2019
Show notes

Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super heroes” thing. But congratulations to Marvel for such a huge success.

Today’s tip is for those that love watching movies and/or TV shows. I found a couple of online services that could be pretty handy.

The first one is called Just Watch. You can see it at JustWatch.com.

The premise is simple. You already know what you want to watch. You just don’t know where to get it. Just Watch will tell you where you can find that movie or TV show you’re looking for.

For example – want to binge watch The Office? Just do a quick search, and you’ll see all the places that offer it:

Or maybe you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, like Breaking Bad. No problem:

Even old classics like Gilligan’s Island are still available for streaming:

And the other service is called After Credits. You can see it at AfterCredits.com.

After Credits is more oriented toward movies. Have you ever sat through a movie at a theater, then at the end you’re not sure if you should get up and leave, because you might miss something that comes up during (or even after) the credits? Seems like that’s pretty popular now. And you definitely don’t want to be talking with your co-workers the next day about that movie, and find out you missed something amazing that happened after the credits rolled.

This site tells you if something is there, and you should stay, or if it’s okay to just leave. These special scenes even have a bunch of nicknames – Stinger, Egg, Tag, etc. And there are different TYPES of stingers. From the site:

For example, in the movie Apollo 11, throughout the credits you will see actual NASA footage, including a voiceover of a Walter Cronkite news broadcast.

Or in the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, during the credits there is footage of the actual band Queen, performing the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

And if you know of anything that happens in the credits for a movie and it’s not listed on the site, you can submit that information so it’s added to their database.

Are you aware of any other services like this that help people who want to watch or find out more about TV shows or movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Two great services for movie/TV watchers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Just Watch — Two great services for movie/TV watchers May 13, 2019
Show notes

Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super heroes” thing. But congratulations to Marvel for such a huge success.

Today’s tip is for those that love watching movies and/or TV shows. I found a couple of online services that could be pretty handy.

The first one is called Just Watch. You can see it at JustWatch.com.

The premise is simple. You already know what you want to watch. You just don’t know where to get it. Just Watch will tell you where you can find that movie or TV show you’re looking for.

For example – want to binge watch The Office? Just do a quick search, and you’ll see all the places that offer it:

Or maybe you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, like Breaking Bad. No problem:

Even old classics like Gilligan’s Island are still available for streaming:

And the other service is called After Credits. You can see it at AfterCredits.com.

After Credits is more oriented toward movies. Have you ever sat through a movie at a theater, then at the end you’re not sure if you should get up and leave, because you might miss something that comes up during (or even after) the credits? Seems like that’s pretty popular now. And you definitely don’t want to be talking with your co-workers the next day about that movie, and find out you missed something amazing that happened after the credits rolled.

This site tells you if something is there, and you should stay, or if it’s okay to just leave. These special scenes even have a bunch of nicknames – Stinger, Egg, Tag, etc. And there are different TYPES of stingers. From the site:

For example, in the movie Apollo 11, throughout the credits you will see actual NASA footage, including a voiceover of a Walter Cronkite news broadcast.

Or in the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody, during the credits there is footage of the actual band Queen, performing the song “Don’t Stop Me Now”.

And if you know of anything that happens in the credits for a movie and it’s not listed on the site, you can submit that information so it’s added to their database.

Are you aware of any other services like this that help people who want to watch or find out more about TV shows or movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Two great services for movie/TV watchers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

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