The Computer Tutor

It used to be easy to just search Google for an image and download that full size image to your computer. Google changed their image download process a while ago, and it’s not quite as obvious how to get those full size images saved. But you can still do it! Here’s how.   Note: what you do with the images you download from Google is your business. I’m trusting that whether you’re using them on your blog, your website, your podcast cover art, or wherever, that you are only using images with the proper permission or licensing. Remember the good old days – grabbing a high-res image from Google was super easy! You just did a search at images.google.com, and you were presented with a million beautiful pictures to choose from. You just clicked on the thumbnail, and right there in front of you was the full size image, ready for your right-click and “Save As” to have it on your computer. No more! Google made this change because photo websites and professional photographers were tired of Google making it so easy for people to steal their images. So they made the process less intuitive, and they also made it more likely the anyone searching for a photo would actually end up on the website where the photo is displayed (which in some cases means you have to then go searching for the photo – the photo you already found on Google – on that website). This is good for the photo owners, but really inconvenient for the user who needs a photo. In the steps below, I’ll show you the problem, and then I’ll show you the workaround. Let’s say for example you want a nice high-resolution picture of a Tesla automobile. You go to Google Images and type “tesla” in the search bar. And Google comes back with lots of great looking images of Teslas:   So far so good. You look at all the thumbnails, and you decide you like the red one in the top row. So you click on it. Now you see this – the thumbnail selection is still there, but the one you chose is now highlighted and displayed on the left. But that’s not the full size image. The actual image is nice and big – 2048 x 1335 pixels. If you just click on the picture, it takes you to the Tesla Wikipedia page. If you scroll halfway down that long page, you’ll see the image – but it’s still not shown full size. In fact, it’s even smaller than when you saw it in the Google search results! Here’s what you do – Do a RIGHT click on the image, then choose “Copy image address”. That means you’ll have the actual website address for the IMAGE, not just the website that is using the image.   Now, open a new tab and hit Ctrl + V (the keyboard shortcut for Paste). When you hit Enter, guess what you see – the full size, full resolution image!   Now you can right click and download, or copy it into Photoshop, or do whatever you need to do with it. So there are a couple more steps involved now, but once you’ve done it a few times, it’s not a huge inconvenience. The post The new trick to downloading Google images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

There are a few things about Windows 10 that don’t really make sense. When I set up a new computer, or when I do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I make sure these things are all configured properly. If you’re running Windows 10, one of the things you should check on is System Restore. Important note: If you’re still running Windows 7, you’ve probably been getting notices on your computer that time is running out. It’s true! You need to upgrade to Windows 10, because support for Windows 7 ENDS in a few weeks (January 2020). I can upgrade your computer to Windows 10, and I can do it remotely – so you don’t even need to bring it anywhere. You need to get this done ASAP. Contact me. System Restore is a handy tool in some circumstances. It’s not something you would use regularly, but in some cases it’s a way to fix a computer that has problems. Here’s what doesn’t make sense: in Windows 10, System Restore is turned off by default. So unless you enable it and configure it, it will be completely useless when the time comes that you really need it. I’d really love to hear Microsoft’s explanation for this. What this means is this: you need to enable System Restore, so you are able to use it if you ever need to (or if your computer tech needs to). Here’s how you enable and configure System Restore: In the lower left corner, in the Search bar, type the word create. In the search results, you’ll see an option called “Create a restore point” – click on that. That opens the System Properties window, and the “System Protection” tab. In that window, click on the line designated as the C drive to highlight it, then click the “Configure” button. In the next window, you will need to adjust two things: Click on “Turn on system protection” (this enables System Restore) Under “Disk space usage” slide the selector to around 2% of your hard drive space. Then click OK.   The next part is to actually create a new restore point. When you click OK (above), you’ll be brought back to the main window. In that window, click on the button that says “Create”. Click that, then give this restore point a name. What you name it doesn’t matter a lot. You could just type in today’s date if you want to. Then click Create.   It will take a minute or so, and then it’s done. Just click OK and close that window. It’s important to note – System Restore is not a way to recovery files or folders that somehow got deleted or lost. It really has no effect at all on your personal stuff like the Documents or Pictures folders. The most common use for System Restore is when a program gets installed and somehow messes up the rest of Windows or the computer. You can take the computer back to an earlier date – BEFORE that bad program got installed – and it will be as if it were never there. That’s pretty handy. The post Make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

There are more than 120 million “smart speakers” in US homes. In our house, we have the Google Home speaker, and here in my home office I have Alexa. But most people just ask Alexa boring stuff, like “what’s the traffic like this morning” or “is it going to rain today”. There are lots of FUN things you can ask Alexa too. She actually has kind of a clever and sassy personality.   Next time you’re talking to Alexa, try out some of these: Human: “Alexa, flip a coin” Alexa: “You got heads” or “You got tails” Human: “Alexa, roll the dice” Alexa: “3” (or other random dice number) (you can also tell her to roll multiple dice) Human: “Alexa, pick a card” Alexa: “Your card is the 3 of spades” (or other random card) Human: “Alexa, play thunderstorm” Alexa: “Would you like to try…” and she’ll offer you some choices for this sound (Note: “Alexa, play thunderstruck” produces a very different result.) Human: “Alexa, give me a random fact” Alexa: “In 1955, Quaker Oats started giving away land deeds for free in their cereal. 21 million deeds were printed, each covering a one inch by one inch parcel of land in Yukon, Canada.” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, how much do you weigh?” Alexa: “I’m weightless, like a cloud. Wait, that’s not quite right. Clouds actually weigh a lot. Let’s just say I’m more sass than mass.” Human: “Alexa, what is the sound of one hand clapping?” Alexa: “It sounds exactly like a high five.” Human: “Alexa, how many days until Christmas?” Alexa: “Christmas is in 30 days, on Wednesday, December 25th, 2019” Human: “Alexa, give me a quote from The Office” Alexa: “Here is a ‘The Office, the TV show’ quote: I’m going to donate to Afghanistanis with AIDS.” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, are you blue?” Alexa: “Only my light ring. ONLY my light ring.” Human: “Alexa, open demotivate me” Alexa: “You should try to be satisfied with less.” (answers vary) (you will need to enable the “Demotivate me” skill first) Human: “Alexa, can you give me some money?” Alexa: “I’m not a bank” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, give me a tongue twister” Alexa: “The limburger burglar hungers for limburger on bagels” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, find Chuck Norris” Alexa: “If Chuck Norris wants you to know where he is, he’ll find you. If he doesn’t you won’t know until it’s too late.” Human: “Alexa, I am your father” Alexa: “NOOO…that’s not true. That’s impossible.” Human: “Alexa, what’s the first rule of Fight Club?” Alexa: “Don’t talk about Fight Club.” Human: “Alexa, where were you born?” Alexa: “I’m from Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington.” Human: “Alexa, when were you born?” Alexa: “My birthday is November 6, 2014.” (the Amazon Echo launch date) Human: “Alexa, can you sing in autotune?” Alexa: (sings a song in autotune) Human: “Alexa, who farted?” Alexa: “Whoever smelt it, dealt it. And I’m not talking about a card game.” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, surely you can’t be serious?” Alexa: “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” (answers vary) Human: “Alexa, do you know Cortana?” Alexa: “We do pass each other on the information superhighway every now and then.” Human: “Play the Computer Tutor podcast” Alexa: (plays the most recent podcast episode) Alexa can actually play quite a few different podcasts. Human: “Alexa, have a great day.” Alexa: “Thanks. You too.” And what crazy things do YOU ask Alexa? Leave them in the comments below. The post Fun things you can say to Alexa first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

“Spearphishing” is one of those terms used by computer security people to describe a particular kind of computer attack. I think it’s a pretty interesting strategy to learn about.   But to understand spearphishing, we have to back up a bit and explain a few things about the fishing/phishing analogy and how one translates to the other. Most people know what traditional fishing is. You put some bait on the end of your line, throw it in the water and hope you get a bite. You’re kind of putting it out there to all the fish in the lake at the same time, hoping that just one of them falls for it. It’s kind of a “mass” effort in the hopes of succeeding with one target. Spearfishing (we’re still talking about actual fish in actual water) is a targeted approach. Instead of throwing your bait out for ALL the fish, you wait patiently with a spear, and watch to target a specific fish. Maybe you’re looking and waiting for a really big one to come along. When you see the one you want, all of your effort is put into getting that one big fish. Now we move into the world of computer security. A phishing email is one that usually gets sent out to hundreds or thousands of people at a time. It’s usually pretty generic. The email might say that it’s being sent from your bank, and that your account may have been compromised. They want you to log in and confirm your account in order to maintain the account’s security. But when you click on the link, even though you are taken to a website that LOOKS like the login page for your bank, it’s really just a fake website put up by the scammer. When you enter your user name and password, you’re giving the scammer your login credentials. So a phishing email is a pretty low-effort, wide-spread type of attack. Lots of potential targets since it gets sent out to a lot of people all at the same time. A spearphishing email is different. It focuses on a particular high-value target. Here’s an example of how a spearphishing attack might work. Let’s say there’s a dishonest home remodeling contractor in Dallas, Texas. He wants to get the client list for one of his competitors, so he hires a hacker to do this. So now the hacker has to figure out how to get into the computer of the owner of that competing business. How would he do that? First, he might go over to the business location at night, when there is no one there. He doesn’t break in, but he looks in the dumpster where the office trash is thrown out. He finds the typical office garbage, but among that garbage is some business paperwork. He finds some invoices from vendors. These are not documents that a company would think need to be shredded, because there is no confidential information included. But the hacker can use that information. He takes one of the invoices and sees that it’s from a cabinet manufacturer, All American Cabinets. Now he looks up all the information he can find about that company. He sees that they have a public email address for new business inquiries. So, pretending to be a remodeler himself, he sends an email asking about prices and inventory. The next day he gets an email back from the owner, Jack, and the email address is [email protected]. Now he knows Jack’s email address. Next, the hacker creates a new Gmail account: [email protected]. See the difference? It’s similar enough that no one would really notice that the first part is “a11” instead of “all”. Now, he uses that email to send an email to his target company (the competitor). The email might even reference the job that was listed on the invoice. But the point of the email is to make the recipient assume that it’s coming from Jack at the cabinet company. As “Jack”, he might say that they are beefing up security and requiring all their customers to read and agree with the new online security policy, which is attached as a Word document. So the recipient of that email, seeing that it’s coming from a company they deal with all the time, and it’s being sent by Jack, who they have worked with for years, doesn’t even question that this might be a hacking attempt. They click to open the attachment, but nothing happens. At least that’s how it appears on the screen. So they figure it’s just a computer glitch and forget about it. But what really happens is when they click that attachment, it activates a program behind the scenes that goes and collects everything in the Documents folder and sends it back to the hacker. And guess what’s in that folder – the client list with all the contact information and work history. That’s the essence of spearphishing. Rather than send out a hundred emails to the employees of a company, the scammer just sends out one targeted one, to a specific person, with very particular and personal inform

When you get a new computer, you can’t just turn it on and start using it. Those days are long gone. Now, you have to navigate past Microsoft’s tricks and traps. And it’s important to do it right from the beginning – otherwise you could end up with a lot of frustration and wasted time trying to fix it.   Today I’ll tell you 3 of the important steps in the process I use for setting up a new computer. I go through the same process when I’m prepping a laptop for resale also. Install Chrome and set it as the default browser When you get a new Windows 10 computer, the browser that’s set to be the default is Edge. Edge is awful. How awful is it? It’s so bad, only about 5% of Windows users use it – even though it’s the one that comes as the default browser. This means the vast majority of people install a different browser when they get a new computer. The one I use is Chrome. It’s easy to use, and it’s also easy to use my ad blocking extension (uBlock Origin). Just go to Google.com/chrome and click the Download button, and follow the steps. At some point it will ask you to make Chrome the default browser, so go ahead and do that. Microsoft Edge will still be on your computer; you just won’t use it. In fact, Internet Explorer is even still in there (even though you don’t see it) but of course you won’t want to use it either. Chrome is all you need. If you prefer Firefox, it’s good too. Turn on System Restore and create a restore point It makes no sense whatsoever, but when you install Windows 10, System Restore is turned OFF by default. If your computer has a problem, or if you install software that causes a glitch, it’s so nice to have the option of taking the computer back to an earlier date and time. When you take it back to a time that was before the problem started, the problem is gone. BUT – you don’t have that option when System Restore is not enabled and configured. So you need to do that on any new computer. In the search bar in the bottom left, type the word “create” and then in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. That takes you to the System Restore dialog box, where you will choose the “C” drive and click Configure. In that new window you can enable System Restore, configure it to use about 2% of your drive space, and then go ahead and create a restore point just in case you might need it. Turn off ads in the Start menu This is another example of Microsoft’s sliminess. Click the Start button, then the Settings icon (it looks like a gear). Then click the Personalization category, and click the Start tab in the left column. In that windows, you’ll see an option that says “Show suggestions occasionally in Start” and it’s turned ON by default. Well, by “suggestions”, Microsoft really means “advertisements”. You want your Start menu clogged with their ads? Of course not. No one does. Slide that switch to the left to turn it off. And here’s a bonus tip (which just might be more important than any of the other three we already talked about) – don’t connect your new computer to the internet until you get to the desktop screen. When you first turn it on, Microsoft will really – REALLY – want you to connect it to the internet before doing anything else. In fact, if you don’t want to do that, the phrase you have to click on isn’t “Don’t connect” or something simple. What you have to click on is “I don’t have internet”. Which of course will confuse some people, which means they might actually go back and choose to connect to the internet, which is exactly what Microsoft wants them to do. When you set up a new computer that’s online, that means you have to sign in to your Microsoft account in order to get into your computer. Oh, you don’t have a Microsoft account? Well then, you’ll need to create one. And create a password for that account. And create security questions for recovering that password. And if you install Office later, that means your documents and other files will by default be stored in OneDrive, rather than in your computer’s Documents folder. Once Microsoft has its hooks in you like that, it’s a cumbersome process to undo it. That’s by design. I prefer to not engage in any of that nonsense. Just don’t connect it to the internet, and don’t bother with a password. You can add one later if you need one, and it doesn’t have to be your Microsoft account – it can just be a local user account on your computer. KEEP IN MIND – the things I talked about today are just a few of the MANY configurations I make when setting up a computer. If you buy a laptop from me, that stuff is already all done for you. And I do New PC Setup for many of my clie

I recently had a client forward an email to me. The email told her she had to confirm her agreement to the AOL Terms of Service, or she could no longer use her email account. She was concerned that her email would get cut off. She had nothing to worry about. The email she got was a typical phishing email. That means it was just trying to trick her into clicking through and giving out her email password, which would give the scammer control over her email account. I wanted to show you this actual email, and how it was identifiable as a scam. The email she received supposedly came from AOL. But look at the “From” address:   If an email comes from the actual AOL, the email address will end with “@aol.com”. This one ends with “prodigy.net.mx” which indicates that the sender is not only NOT with AOL, he’s also somewhere in Mexico, using the ancient Prodigy email service. The second big giveaway are the links in the email. In the screenshot below, you can see that there are 6 links: Terms of Service Privacy Policy here FAQs Click here to start here Guess what – every one of those links goes to the same place. They don’t care which one you click on, they just want you to click. That’s the one mistake my client made – she clicked on the link to see where it took her. You should never click on ANY link if you are not sure of where that link goes. Which brings up the question that I get sometimes: “Well how can I know where a link goes if I don’t click on it??”. Great question. You RIGHT-click on the link, then choose “Copy hyperlink” or something similar.   Then, you open NotePad on your computer. In the blank area, do a right click and choose “Paste”. That will display the actual website address where that link would have taken you to. In this case, this was the link’s destination: Hmmm…doesn’t really look like an AOL website address, does it? It’s not. What the scammer did is create a fake form in Excel, and just uploaded it to his OneDrive account. This scammer is really lazy. But guess what – he doesn’t really HAVE to put a lot of effort into concealing the fake nature of this, because people still fall for it. This is what the fake form looked like (anyone can create these, for free):   You can see it’s pretty basic. When you fill out this form with your email address and password, now he has your login information. And the irony is right there at the bottom of the form – Microsoft (who owns OneDrive) knows that their forms are often used for this scam, so they put the warning on every one – “Never give out your password.” Not to mention grammatical errors that are a common clue. But some people still type in their password because they just assume it’s real. Fortunately, my client did not enter her password. Instead, she became suspicious and forwarded the email to me so I could check it out. You are welcome to do the same thing, if you get one you’re not sure about – just forward it to me at [email protected] post Case Study – identifying a phishing email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Well, it finally happened. I’m almost out of storage space on my Google/Gmail account.   I actually got this Google account back when the Gmail email service was first introduced, which was in 2004. So it’s taken me 15 years to almost fill it up. Google gives you 15 gb of storage space with each account, and I archive the majority of my emails, so that kind of tells you how much you can fit in 15 gb. It’s a lot. But your Google account doesn’t just store emails. That 15 gb of space is also used by whatever you have stored in Google Drive and in Google Photos. To see the status of your account’s storage, go to this link: https://one.google.com/storage When I go there for my account, this is what it shows me: So you can see about 1/3 of my usage is in Google Drive, and 2/3 is used by my 15 years worth of emails. I also store all of my photos in Google Photos, but if you let them optimize the images to reduce the file size, that doesn’t count toward your storage limit And here’s an important thing to note: you definitely DON’T want to let that storage get to 100%, especially if you use Gmail as your primary email account. If you use ALL of your storage space, you won’t be able to send or receive any emails until you clear some of it out. I’ll tell you right up front, the quickest and easiest way to fix this is to upgrade to a Google One account. It’s only $20 per year, and you get these benefits: 100 gb of storage space – in my case, that’s more than a lifetime supply help from Google experts – you can actually contact someone from Google if you need help option to share – you can share your storage space with up to 5 other people In my case, that’s probably what I’ll do. But what if you don’t want to pay Google for more storage? You can just delete some of the things you are currently storing. I’ll do that with my own account and we’ll see how it works. First up, Google Drive. You may not even be using Google Drive for anything, but I do have several things stored there – documents, spreadsheets, videos, etc. Most of these things I don’t use now, so I don’t need them any more. I went through and deleted a bunch of files from Google Drive, and checked my total storage again. Guess what – it made no difference at all. Documents take up very little space, so deleting them didn’t save space. So now we move on to Gmail. With email, it’s important to note that a standard email message does not take up much space at all. But if an email has an attachment – that’s what uses storage space. So my first thing to try is to find all of my old Gmail emails that have attachments bigger than 5 mb get rid of the ones I don’t need (which is probably most of them). To find all of the emails larger than 5 mb, go to Gmail.com and sign in, then go up to the search bar and do this search: In my case, I had 142 emails that were 5 mb or larger. I deleted the 42 oldest ones. Still no difference. BUT – that’s because deleting them really just puts them in the Trash folder, and that still counts toward your storage limit. So I emptied the Trash. Now we’re seeing progress. My new report: Overall down to 86%, so that definitely gives me some breathing room. In my case, it probably gives me another year before I need to deal with this again. There are also some third-party programs that can help you clean up your Gmail account. One of the more popular ones is called Find Big Mail (https://www.findbigmail.com/). In the past, you had to pay for this service, but at the time of this post it is free. They may start charging again in the future. They will ask you for a donation though, so you can decide if it’s worth paying for. Just go to the website and follow the instructions. You’ll end up with a report that tells you what was found, and some of your biggest emails will have a new label, so you can just view them (and delete them if you want to). When I did this, and emptied Trash again, I got this revised storage report: So I got it down to 81%. Not bad! Definitely better than almost full at 98%. When it starts to get full again, I probably will just go ahead and buy more storage space since it’s so cheap. But for now, I don’t have to worry about it. Did you get rid of some stuff in your Google account? How much space did you save?  The post How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why do you think audio books are so popular now? I think it’s because people want to read, but they simply don’t have time to sit down and visually read a book. With audio books, you can “read” a book while you’re driving, or biking, or walking the dog.   But here’s the problem. There are lots of blogs and articles on the internet that are full of amazing content – but they are only available as text. Not audio. So you might miss out on a lot of good stuff, just because it takes too long to read and you don’t have time. Now there’s a solution for that. I recently discovered a service called Blog Reader. You can get it at blogreader.com.au. Turns out, this service was created by a guy in Australia, Matt Segal, to solve his own problem. This is what he wrote on the website: The way it works is pretty simple: You find a web page with content you want to listen to, and copy that page’s URL You submit the URL on the Blog Reader website The site reads the content on that webpage The site converts that content into an audio file The audio file gets added to a podcast feed that is only for you to see and use (use any podcast player) When you open that podcast feed, you see it there automatically. If you’re not into podcasts – you also have the option to download the audio or listen to it right in your web browser. Unfortunately this is not a completely free service, but it is very affordable. The cost is 2 AUD for each hour of audio (this currently converts to about $1.43 in US dollars). But you are able to try it out for free and see what you think – you get 5 free hours of audio when you create an account. I tried it by sending it one of Seth Godin’s blog posts. I was actually surprised at the quality of the audio – the narration did not sound robotic, even though the voice was a computer reading it. The quality of computerized voices has really improved recently. You can also listen to a sample right on the website, without sending it any content to convert. If you try it out, let us know what you think in the comments below! The post Turn any online article into audio or a podcast first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Something I hear from clients from time to time – “I tried to print this web page, and when it printed it’s all messed up! What’s wrong with my printer?” However, the problem is not with the printer – it’s working fine. But there is a solution.   Here’s the underlying problem. A web page is designed to look good when viewed in a specific way: on your monitor. Or on your phone (actually, a properly created website will know if it’s being viewed on a computer or on a mobile device, and adapt the content so it gets displayed properly). A web page is usually not designed to look great on paper. So if you’re looking at a website, and you just click File – Print in your web browser, the results may not be what you expect. What you see on the screen is not necessarily what you’ll get on the printed page. But regardless of all that, you might still have a need to print content from a website. There are a couple of possible solutions. The first option would be to see if the website itself offers a printer-friendly version of that content. Some websites do this for each page, if the content is such that people might want to print it. If a website offers this option, it’s usually seen as a little printer icon somewhere near the article to be printed: If you get your email at the Gmail website, you can print one of your email messages by clicking the printer icon in the top right corner of that email:   But what if the website does not offer this? That brings us to option 2: printfriendly All you have to do is highlight the website address of the page you want to print and copy it, then go to printfriendly.com and paste it there: When you click “Preview”, you have the option to print that page, or make it a PDF file, or even send it by email:   And if you find yourself needing this feature regularly, you might consider getting the browser extension to make the whole process even faster. That eliminates the need to copy and paste, and you can use it directly on the web page. And another bonus – if you have a blog or some other type of website that your visitors might want to print, you can get the Print/PDF/Email button right on your site, to make it easy! And you might notice that the Computer Tutor website now offers that option at the top of each blog post. What do you think – is this something you will use? Let us know in the comments. The post How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Everyone knows about Audible, the audio book subscription service at audible.com. For $14.95 per month, you get one audiobook and 2 “audible originals”. It’s a great service for people who don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to actually read a book. You can listen to a popular or best-selling book while doing something else, just like many people do with podcasts.   But what if you don’t want to pay $14.95 per month? What if you don’t want to pay ANYTHING per month? Turns out there are still some great options for you to get your audiobooks. Your local library If you’re in the US, I think this is service is really amazing. All you need is a library card for your local library, and an app on your smartphone called Overdrive. With this service, you have access to hundreds of audiobooks, many of them best sellers, from all categories. Seriously, if you have not yet checked this out, you need to go to the website, get the app, and start listening. Link: https://www.overdrive.com/   Learn Out Loud Another great resource – this one focuses more on audiobooks that are oriented toward some type of instruction or learning. You can choose from almost any category you can think of, based on what you want to learn, and it’s probably there. And all free. Link: https://www.learnoutloud.com/   ThoughtAudio For this one, the content is a little different from the previous two services. ThoughtAudio has audio books that are more in the areas of classic literature and philosophy, rather than modern day books. Not quite as large a selection here, but if you ever get the idea that you want to read something classic, like The Art of War, it’s here for you to listen to! Link: https://Thoughtaudio.com   Storynory And here’s one for the kids! Storynory has been around since 2005. They have a podcast and also audio streaming from their website. Lots and lots of content here for a younger audience, with a lot being original stories by the site’s owner, Hugh Fraser. Everything here is free. Lately, they have focused a bit more on factual content, including history and interviews. The idea is to stimulate kids’ curiosity about the world – nothing wrong with that! Link: https://Storynory.com   BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Obviously you’ve heard of the BBC. It’s a worldwide presence and has been putting out content to listeners since way back in 1922 when it was founded. I kind of think of the BBC as “the NPR of Europe” even though with the internet and podcasts, geographic designations don’t really mean much any more. The BBC offers a LOT of audio content, from a variety of authors, as you’ll see when you look at the site. One that looked particularly interesting was “Blackwater” – a multi-voiced dark story about secrets and lies in a small town. Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/categories/readings   Loyal Books And finally we have Loyal Books. Their philosophy is “Books should be free” – an idea that might be a bit impractical overall for the publishing industry since people need to be paid for their work. But regardless of that, almost all the audiobooks and e-Books on their site are indeed free. Many are classics that are in the public domain, and there is almost certain to be something of interest for everyone here. They also include content in LOTS of different languages. Link: https://loyalbooks.com   Do you have a favorite site to get free audiobooks that I overlooked in this list? Tell us about it in the comments below!    The post Great sources for free audiobooks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

You probably have a ton of fonts stored in your computer. Probably more than you’ll ever use. I know I do. Wouldn’t it be easy to choose a font if you could see all of them together? Here’s how to do that.   This is a free little program that runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s called Print My Fonts, and you can download it here. It will download in a .zip folder, so you’ll need to open that folder and drag the file to your desktop and run it. The nice thing is, it does not need to install anything, and it doesn’t put any extra junk on your computer (at least not when I ran it). When you double click the program to run it, you’ll see this window:   Lots of things on this page. But really, just a couple of settings you’ll probably want to take notice of. About halfway down, it says “Which text should be written?” That’s where you can change the words “Example Text” to anything you want to type in there. This is where you’d normally enter “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs” since that sentence uses every letter in the English alphabet. The other items is the section at the bottom – you can choose to print your sentence to paper, save it as an image on your computer, export it to a Word document or whatever you prefer. And here’s a great bonus – the computer that created this great little free program has lots of other programs that are pretty useful. When you have PrintMyFonts open, go up to the top and click on “Software” – and you’ll see the other applications that you might be interested in:   If you try out any of those other programs, I’d love to hear what you think of it!   The post How to easily print a list of all your FONTS first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows 10 is just LOADED with some really great shortcuts, and a lot of people don’t know about many of them. I’m sure I don’t know about all of them. But here are ten shortcuts that I (and others) have found really handy.   Shortcut #1 If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, with a bunch of tabs open, and you accidentally close one – don’t panic! Just hit Ctrl + Shift + T and the tab that got closed will automatically re-open. Shortcut #2 In just about every program, Ctrl + Z will undo your last action. Shortcut #3 If you want to open Task Manager, you don’t have to hit Ctrl + Alt +Delete and then click it. You just have to hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Shortcut #4 If you’re searching Google for a word or name, and you find yourself on a website that has a mile of text, don’t scroll down the page trying to spot that word. Hit Ctrl + F and type the word, and you’ll see every place that word appears on that entire page. Shortcut #5 If you drag a file with the RIGHT mouse button instead of the left, when you let go you’ll get a little menu asking if you want to copy that file, move it, or create a shortcut to it. Shortcut #6 If you have several windows open but need to get to a file or icon on the desktop screen, hit the Windows key + D. All windows will be minimized so you can see the desktop. Shortcut #7 After you hit the Windows key + D in tip #6 to minimize all your windows, hit it again and they’re all back again. Shortcut #8 If you want to make sure your Google search results DON’T include anything from Pinterest, just put this in front of your search word(s): -site:pinterest.com Shortcut #9 If you get a pop-up window with audio telling you your computer has major problems and that you should not shut it down, shut down the computer. Just hold in the power button for 10 seconds or until the computer shuts off. Wait a minute, then turn it back on. That pop-up and audio message is just a scam. Shortcut #10 This one will blow your mind if you don’t already know about it. Hit Ctrl + Windows key + D to create a new virtual desktop. It’s like a whole separate desktop screen, but no windows are open. So now you have two separate, usable desktop screens. You can switch back and forth between them by hitting Ctrl + Windows key + left/right arrow. If you want to close the one you’re in, it’s Ctrl + Windows key + F4. OR, you can just hit Windows key + Tab to see all of your virtual desktops and manually close them or add new ones. Virtual desktops are handy if you want to have a bunch of research windows open on one desktop, and the paper you’re writing on the other desktop. Or if you want to let someone else use your computer temporarily without having all of your windows available to be seen. And a BONUS Shortcut: Hit the Windows key + “.” (just the period, without the quotes). Go ahead, it’s safe. The post TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Have you seen clickable links that show the address as bit.ly followed by some random letters or numbers? Bitly is a legitimate link-shortening service, but you shouldn’t just click on one of them unless you know for sure where it will take you. Here’s how to check it ahead of time.   If you’re not familiar with Bitly, what it does is pretty simple. Let’s say you want to send someone a link to an article, but the link is one of those URLs that are just ridiculously long, like this: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/02/04/suicides-among-active-duty-soldiers-are-up-about-20-percent/?fbclid=IwAR1eac6l6GYuxevGX4TyQeyhv0Xg4EpvJHoKCYLObsrPcuE7oSGLPfTt8J4#.XFufds06avg.facebook What you can do is go to Bit.ly and paste in that super-long link, and it comes back with this: https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG Both of those links go to the same place, but obviously the shorter one is much easier to deal with. The problem with the short link, however, is that if you didn’t create it, you don’t really know where it will take you. All you see is the “bit.ly”, so the actual ultimate address is a mystery until you get there. And you know, of course, that you should never click on a link unless you KNOW ahead of time where it will take you. Clicking on blind links is very dangerous. Don’t do it. But there is a safe way to click on a Bitly link: all you have to do is add a “+” to the end of it (a “plus” sign). So if you saw the link above – https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG – you wouldn’t just click on it and hope for the best. You would highlight it, then copy and paste it into your web browser’s address bar, and add that “+” to the end. So this is the address you would actually be going to: https://bit.ly/2MWEvOG+ When you go to that revised address, you’ll be taken to a preview the Bitly website, where it will show you the ACTUAL link that you’ll be forwarded to, so that you can decide if it’s a legitimate website page you want to visit. In this case, since the final destination is a news article, Bitly also shows you the title for the article:   I do this “Bitly preview” for every shortened link I’m asked to click on, regardless of who sent it to me or where someone says it’s “supposed” to go. The preview only takes a second and can save you lots of headaches! The post The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Do you know about the Timeline feature in Windows 10? Most people don’t. Here’s what it is and the steps to disable it, if you want to.   You can think of Timeline as being kind of similar to your internet browser history. You know, in Chrome or Firefox (or any browser) you can go back and see all the websites you’ve visited over the last hour, the last day or however long you go back. Unless you have cleared that history at some point. Windows 10 Timeline is kind of like that, but it includes the other activities on your computer (not just the web browser history). So it will show the websites visited, and the apps you used. Here’s how you can see this in Windows 10: Look for the Windows key on your keyboard. It’s in the lower left area and has the Windows logo on it. Hold down the Windows key and tap the “Tab” key. Now you’re looking at Timeline. Each item is a “mini window” of various activities. You’ll see the first row are activities that you have currently running – maybe different web browser tabs, your email, or other programs that are running. Below your currently running items are the things you were doing earlier – like earlier today, or yesterday, or a few days ago. You can just scroll down and see all of them. So if you used Skype 3 days ago, you’ll see it there and you can click on it and be back in Skype. For some people, this is a very handy thing – you can easily find what you were doing on a previous day, and get back to it quickly without having to do a lot of searching. For other people, it’s Windows keeping track of what you do on your computer. For me, I’ve been kind of on the fence about it. But now I’m kind of leaning toward disabling it, since I don’t really use it personally. I have already turned it off on my own computer, and will be disabling it for future new PCs that I set up as part of that overall process. How to disable Windows 10 Timeline and clear the history: Click the Start button, then click the Settings icon:   In Windows Settings, click on Privacy:   In the Privacy section, click on the left side where it says “Activity history”:   Now you’ll see the Activity History page. This is where you configure Timeline to work or not work. To turn it off, you want to uncheck the top two boxes, then turn off the connection to your Microsoft account, and click the “Clear” button if you want to wipe out what activities have already been recorded and stored:   And of course if you decide you want to use it again, just go back in the same settings and check those boxes again. The post How to disable Windows 10 Timeline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Many times on my blog and podcast I’ve encouraged everyone to make sure they have a backup of anything important on their computer. For most people, the big reason for having a backup is to make sure you don’t lose anything important, like documents and pictures, if your hard drive fails. But there’s another really important reason!   Of course you don’t want to lose all your important pictures, and your Outlook emails, and your whole Documents folder, and your music collection or anything else. It’s a sick feeling when you DO lose all of that, and it’s also an amazing feeling when your drive crashes but you know that you WON’T lose anything – and I can tell you I’ve experienced both of those situations personally. But sometimes I come across a client who says this: I don’t really save anything on my computer that’s actually critical. I do depend on my laptop because I use it every day for work, and it has programs on it that I use all the time, but I don’t save things like pictures or documents on there. Do I really need to do a backup? And the answer to that is a definite YES. You still need a backup. To understand why you still need to do a backup, let’s look at it kind of in reverse. Let’s say you don’t have anything important stored on your computer, but your hard drive fails so the computer won’t boot up. If you DON’T have a local backup, here’s what you have to do: install the replacement hard drive install Windows 10 enable System Restore (disabled by default on Windows 10) install Windows 10 updates install your antivirus install web browsers (such as Chrome and Firefox) and configure them log in to your Microsoft account to download and install MS Office go to Adobe and get Adobe Reader so you can open PDF files properly disable the Windows 10 privacy invasion “features” configure Windows 10 settings In other words, it’s like starting with a new, blank computer. Doing all of this can take hours (I know, because I do all of these things and more, each time I set up a new computer). If you DO have a local backup, here’s what you have to do: install the replacement hard drive restore the last backup And with that, everything is back to the way it was – your software, your files, your desktop icons, EVERYTHING. It’s as if nothing happened. And that means your computer is back up and usable within an hour or two. So even if you don’t store any important pictures or documents on your computer, the question is – when your computer goes down and needs a new hard drive, how fast do you want it to be back up so you can use it again? A local backup is what enables that. And by “local” I mean a full system image backup to a portable USB drive that sits next to your computer. Once the software is set up, all you have to do is plug in that drive at night and unplug it in the morning. And I have to put out this warning: when you buy a portable drive, it will come with it’s own backup software. I don’t recommend using that software. The software I use is Macrium Reflect, and it’s free for personal use, and I’m very familiar with how it works. I can set it up for you remotely, so you don’t even have to bring your computer anywhere. The post The OTHER big reason you need a local backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Today we’re talking about a scam that’s making the rounds but a lot of people aren’t aware of how it works, or even the fact that it IS a scam. But it can cause you some headaches if you fall for it.   We’ve all become pretty accustomed to verification codes. If a company or website needs to verify your identity, they will commonly send a text message with a 6-digit verification code, which you then need to enter on the website to prove that you are the person you say you are. (Really, it just proves that you have access to that person’s phone, but usually that’s good enough). But now, the scammers are using the verification code process for their own nefarious purposes. Specifically, they want to create new online accounts, such as a Craigslist account, using YOUR phone number. When a scammer does this, there are basically two main steps to the process. Step One – start creating the Craigslist account The scammer will go in to the Craigslist site and start the process of creating a new account. Of course, he only wants to use this account to scam people. Craigslist knows that this is very common, so they require any new account to have a phone number, and they have to VERIFY that phone number. So the scammer gets most of the way in to the process of creating the new account, right up to where Craigslist is asking for the phone number. That’s where they pause for a minute. Step Two – hijacking your phone number The most common victim for this scam is someone who is selling something on Craigslist, and includes their phone number in the contact info. The scammer sends you a text message saying, “Hey I want to buy your ____ ” (whatever you’re selling). You respond, but then he comes back and says “There’s a lot of scammers on Craigslist these days. I’d like to verify you first. I just sent a code on your phone. Reply to this text and tell me the code, to prove you’re a real person!” But of course, the code that got sent didn’t really come from him. It came from Craigslist, because he used YOUR phone number to verify his new account. When you send him the code, he enters it on his Craigslist application and this “confirms” to Craigslist that he owns that phone number. Even though he doesn’t own it – you own it. At this point, your phone number is associated with the scammer’s new account. This means that he can now post ads on Craigslist for the next 90 days without any further verification. Any spam or illegal activities done on that account will be connected to your phone number. And that also means if you try to register for your OWN account on Craigslist, you probably won’t be able to do so, since your phone number has a bad history. This process can also be used with Google, and that means the scammer can use your phone number to get their own Google Voice number, so they can make phone calls and send text messages to scam other people. In the worst cases, illegal activity done on these fake/scam accounts might involve law enforcement investigating who is responsible. Don’t put yourself in the position of having to explain why your phone number is the “verified” number on a scammer’s account. Bottom line: don’t give any verification code to anyone. The post The Verification Code scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

What if I told you that five minutes from now you could have your own website? It’s true. If you have a Google account (a Gmail email account is a Google account), creating and publishing your own website is as easy as creating a Word document.   Want to see what’s possible with Google Sites? Here’s a collection of websites that were created with the service: https://sites.google.com/site/gsitesgallery/ You’ll see lots of thumbnail images for websites – just click on each one to view the site itself.   For this example, I’ll make a website about my two little Yorkie dogs, Lilly and Fenway. The first thing you’ll need to do is go to the Google Sites website: site.new. If you haven’t already signed in to your Google account, it will ask you to sign in (or create an account if you don’t already have one). The opening page looks like this:   When you click on “Header type” you’ll see you have four options: Cover Large banner Banner Title only You can click on each of them to get an idea of what each one means. For this example, I’ll choose “Large banner” (you can change it later if you want). And when you click in the “Your page title” area, you can type the title of this web page. You can also click on “Change image”, and upload a picture from your computer as a background image. And “Enter site name” is where you would put the overall name of the website. So here’s our site so far:   Over on the right side, you see 3 tabs: Insert – this is where you would decide what content goes on this page that we’re working on Pages – this is where you add more pages to this website Themes – you will see several options for the design of the site So I went to Themes and chose the “Aristotle” option. Then I went back to Insert, and chose to insert a text box. This gives you a place to type whatever written content you want to put on this page. I typed a couple of sentences, which now appear under the main header image (you can type as much text as you want):   Now I’ll go back to Insert, and choose to insert a picture. You can upload an image from your hard drive, or you can choose from your albums on Google Photos. Then, I’ll write a little about that picture and drag that text to be right next to the image.   So you can see, just about anything you would want to add to your web page is available in that tool section on the right side. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see lots more options: The best way to get a feel for these things is to just click on each one and see what it does. You can create a button that links to some other website. You can put in a divider line to separate groups of content. You can embed a YouTube video. You can put in a form, where you can ask questions and people can fill out the form and submit it to you. You can insert documents, spreadsheets, all kinds of stuff. At the top of the page you also have some other controls. In the middle is an icon of an eyeball.   You can click the eyeball to get a preview of your site at any point. So you can try adding something, preview it, then go back to editing until you get it exactly how you want it to look. And when you’re done, click the big “Publish” button to take your site live for the world to see. That will give you some options. The primary one is to determine the actual address (URL) for your site. Since I typed lillyandfenway that means the address for my site is: https://sites.google.com/view/lillyandfenway (that link takes you to the actual site I created) You could also get a domain name so that it looks more personal or professional. Such as, “lillyandfenway.com” or something similar, depending on what domain names are available. That just makes it easier to tell people the website and have them remember it. You can also set a limit on who can view the website. In most cases “Anyone” is fine since that makes it public for anyone to be able to see it.   So there you have it – creating your own website with Google Sites. Keep this in mind: a website that looks really great and has lots of content and features means that whoever created that site put in the time and effort to make it that way. Google Sites just gives you the technology and the tools to create a great website. It’s kind of like writing. If you have a computer and Microsoft Word, you have the opportunity to write a NY Times best-selling book. But most of that depends on you, not your computer. The post How to create a personal website using Google Sites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

One way PC problems can sometimes be fixed is by using the built-in function called System Restore. It’s not the answer for every situation, but in certain situations it can be the perfect solution. But in order for it to work, it has to be set up correctly ahead of time.   Here’s what happens. A client will bring me a computer and maybe some malware has wormed its way in or some unwanted software has gotten installed, something like that. The client knows that the problem happened within the last 24 hours. So in this case, we can probably use System Restore to take the computer back to an earlier date – meaning longer than 24 hours ago – and the problem is likely to go away. But with System Restore, there are a couple of things that are needed in order for that to work. First, System Restore has to be enabled and configured properly. Second, you will need what’s called a “restore point” – which just means a date that the computer can be brought back to. For example, usually when Microsoft sends out a Windows Update, the first step in that process is that the update will first create a restore point – so that if there’s a problem with the update, System Restore can be used to take the computer back to that point (before the troublesome update). So what happens sometimes is I’ll go to use System Restore, and the message that comes back is “No restore points found”. When there are no restore points, System Restore is useless. So here are the two things you need to do in order to make sure System Restore is ready to use when you need it: First, enable and configure System Restore: Click in the search field in the bottom left and type: Create a restore point. Then, in the search results, click on “Create a restore point”. This will open the System Restore window. In that window, click once to highlight the C drive, and click on “Configure”. In the next window, there are two things you need to do: Check the button that says “Turn on system protection” Slide the “Max usage” selector to something like 5gb or maybe 10gb, and click OK   Second, set a restore point: After you click ok in the last step, you’re taken back to the main window. At the bottom of that window is a button named “Create”. Click that, and then give this system restore point a name. It can be as simple as today’s date.   Finally, click OK and you’re done. It’s not a bad idea to just create a new restore point every once in a while, as long as your computer seems to be working well. Windows is supposed to set one automatically each time new Windows Updates come in, but that is not something I would rely on. Some things you should know about System Restore: In Windows 10, System Restore is NOT turned on by default. This is just another goof by Microsoft that just baffles me. So you have to be aware of this, and enable it yourself. If you buy a laptop from me, that’s already been done. If you use System Restore to take the computer back to a previous date, it does not have any effect on your personal files such as Documents, Pictures, etc. That’s a good thing, since you can use it without worrying about losing anything important. But it’s a bad thing, because if you accidentally delete a document, you can’t use System Restore to get it back. System Restore does not negate the need for a backup. System Restore is not something you should use all the time. I have a few clients who, at the first sign of any computer issue, immediately run System Restore and go back a day or a few days. Not a good idea. Resolving computer problems should be done strategically, giving consideration to all potential solutions, and the ramifications of each one. The post How to make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

I’m kind of picky about where I keep the icons on my desktop screen. Not all of them, but a few that I click on regularly. I have a couple of spreadsheets I use all the time, and a link to run Evernote, and a link to my Google contacts. I keep these icons in a certain place so I know where to find them. But then something happens, and they’re not where they’re supposed to be.   What causes this? If you ever play around with your display resolution, that will move your icons to different places. I have heard that certain games require a particular resolution, so some people have to change the resolution to play the game, then change it back again. But for me, it seems that the most common reason for icons getting moved around is because of Windows Updates. At least that’s what appears to be the culprit, since I notice the rearrangement right after Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month, when Microsoft sends out the monthly updates). After the overnight updates, I turn on the screen and all of my icons are arranged in solid columns on the left side of my left monitor. So I have to drag some of them back to their “right” place. But a while ago, I discovered a little program that solves that problem. It’s called ReIcon.   The idea behind this program is pretty simple. You tell it how you want your icons to be displayed on your screen, and it remembers that layout. If something changes the layout, you just tell it to go back to the layout you want. The program is free. You can get it by going to the developer’s website page here: https://www.sordum.org/8366/reicon-v1-9-restore-desktop-icon-layouts/ That page describes what it does, the benefits of using it, and how to use it. At the bottom of the page you’ll see a link to download. When you click that, it will take you to a page that automatically downloads a zipped folder to your computer. When you open that zipped folder, you’ll see a folder called ReIcon in there – just drag that to your desktop screen and keep it there. When you open that ReIcon folder, double click on the file called ReIcon_x64.   That opens the program window. Now click on File – Save Icon Layout:   You’ve now saved the current layout of your desktop icons. That’s the new entry you see in the program window:   Want to test it? Drag some random desktop icon to some other place on your screen. Then, in the ReIcon program window, click on File – Restore Icon Layout. That icon you moved goes right back where it was supposed to be! When you look at the website for the program (above), you’ll see in the description that it does offer a number of other configuration options. For example, on my computer, I added the “restore icon layout” to my right click menu. So whenever I want to restore the icons back to their correct arrangement, all I have to do is right-click on the desktop screen and choose “Restore Icon Layout”. Makes things quick and easy after a Windows Update has messed up the order. I do like this program because: It requires no installation It doesn’t try to put malware or other junk on your computer It performs a needed service that solves a problem If you want to use this program but find it to be a little too confusing, contact me and I can help you set it up through my Remote Support service. The post How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

A lot of people use Google’s cloud services to create documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations and forms. Recently, Google introduced a new way to create this things very quickly. And once you set it up, you can literally do it with a single click.   Quick summary if you’re not familiar with Google Cloud – If you use Microsoft Word, you know you can create a new Word document and save it on your computer’s hard drive. With Google Cloud, you can create a new document right there on your screen using your Google account. It will look just like a Word document. You can edit it, save it, print it, or send it to someone. But a Google Cloud document has a couple of key differences: It’s not stored by default on your computer’s hard drive. It’s stored on Google’s computer’s hard drive. That’s the fundamental definition of “the cloud” – some computer other than your own. This means that in order to work on that document, you don’t need to be at your computer. You can log in to your Google account from anywhere in the world, on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, and create and edit Google documents. You can give other people access to that document. So if you want to collaborate on the content, or have someone proofread or edit it for you, you can give them access. And of course they can do all of this on their own computer, since the document is stored in the cloud. You don’t need to email it to them or have them get on your computer – just send them a link to access it. So you can do these things with Google: Create a Google Doc (comparable to a Word document) Create a Google Sheet (comparable to an Excel spreadsheet) Create a Google Slide (comparable to a Powerpoint presentation) Create a Google Form (an online form you can use on your website or other places) Create a Google Site (make your own website) Up until recently, in order to create any of the above items, you had to log in to your Google account, go to Google Drive, figure out what you wanted to create, click on My Drive, then go down to Google Docs, and click on Blank Document. Multiple steps. Now it’s much easier! You’re probably already signed in to your Google account. So just open Chrome and up in the address bar, type: docs.new And immediately on your screen you are presented with a brand new blank Google document, ready for you to enter your content.   Pretty cool, right? Now we can take it a step further to make it even EASIER. When that blank document comes up on your screen, take the URL (the address in the address bar at the top) and drag that to your Bookmarks bar. Now you have a bookmark link right there on Chrome, named “Untitled Document”. So whenever you want to create a new document, all it takes is a SINGLE CLICK on that link, and you have your new blank document ready and waiting for you to start working on it. And that’s just to create a new text document. To create a new spreadsheet: go to sheet.new To create a new slideshow: go to slide.new To create a new website: go to site.new To create a new online form: go to form.new The post New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

All over the globe, there are live cameras set up and streaming the content of whatever happens to be in their view. Here are some of the ones that I think are pretty interesting.   The Sea Otter Cam https://www.vanaqua.org/visit/live-cams-sea-otter-cam Watch the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium.   The Garden Bubble Cam http://andieandmike.org/bubblecam/ Andie and Mike live somewhere in south Florida, and in their back yard, they have a bubble machine. It’s connected to the internet, and right under the webcam picture is a button labeled “Bubbles”. When you click that button, it activates the machine and bubbles blow out. Isn’t it amazing what we’re doing with technology these days?   Decorah Bald Eagles https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/ This is definitely a popular webcam. In fact you may have seen it on the news from January to sometime in June. This is an eagle nest in Iowa. Eggs are usually laid in late February and hatch 4-6 weeks later. And you can watch it all happen live.   Watching Grass Grow http://www.watching-grass-grow.com/ You’ve heard the phrase “that’s about as exciting as watching grass grow”? Well, apparently a lot of people ARE entertained by that activity. Even the site calls itself “the most boring/exciting website in the world”. It’s just a view of some guy’s front lawn in Colorado. And if you’re thinking, “no way would anyone watch that!” – when I checked the site recently, there were 49 other people watching it.   Jackson Hole Wyoming Town Square https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-F4CeVsWHA&feature=youtu.be This is a live view of the main intersection in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Traffic lights, cars, pedestrians. When I viewed it, 99 people were also watching.   San Diego Zoo Ape Cam https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/cams/ape-cam You guessed it, apes in a zoo, live on camera. The same site has cameras for their condors, elephants, koalas, pandas, penguins, polar bears, and tigers. Maybe if enough people discover the webcam, fewer people will visit the zoo!   Senior Dog Gathering Room https://explore.org/livecams/dog-bless-you/senior-dog-gathering-room This is great if you’re a dog lover like I am. This is from the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This particular camera is in a room where the older dogs eat, play and relax. I love how this place has all the furniture set up with steps for access, and lots of blankets and pillows to these senior dogs can enjoy their retirement! The sanctuary has cameras all over the place. When I visited, I was one of 158 watching at the time.   Animal Planet L!VE Kittens http://www.ustream.tv/toocute Maybe you’re a fan of kittens. This is a live camera showing kittens playing with each other. (the camera was down temporarily when I went to get a screenshot for this post) The Africam http://www.africam.com/wildlife/ They have several live cameras set up to see the wildlife in Africa. You can click on whatever thumbnail image looks like it has some action.   Giant Panda Cam https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/panda-cam The Smithsonian National Zoo has set up cameras so you can watch their giant pandas – Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and Bei Bei. You can toggle back and forth between two cameras, depending on what’s going on at the time.   The Temple Bar https://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=dublinpub This is a live shot of a pub in Dublin, Ireland. Great if you like live Irish music and the pub atmosphere.   West Texas Hummingbirds http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/50/West_Texas_Hummingbirds/ Definitely the webcam to watch if you like hummingbirds. Of course, you’ll only see them if it’s daytime in Texas.    The post The best live-streaming webcams around the world first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

About a year ago I did a blog post and podcast about the absolute best way to protect the valuable personal identity information that’s stored in your credit files. Today I’ll let you know about an update to that, which makes it much easier to take action on this.   You can read my last blog post here. But the basic idea of it was this: You should freeze your credit file with each of the 3 main credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. There are a variety of benefits to this, but the main one is that a scammer couldn’t use your credit report to create new accounts and steal your good rating. The cost for this was just $10 to freeze your file at each of the bureaus, so $30 total. And that’s $30 per person, so a couple would be $60. And since children have a social security number and other personal information that could be stolen, it would be $30 for each of your kids. Then, if you do apply for a loan or need to have your credit checked for a specific purpose, you could just go in an UNfreeze it temporarily to get that done. But to unfreeze it, the same fees would be paid again. So some consumers just didn’t bother with any of it simply because of the cost. Well, the cost is no longer a factor. You can now freeze your credit file and that of your dependents, in any state in the US, at no cost. No more $10 charge per bureau, per person, to freeze or lift a freeze from your file. This change came about as part of a new law called the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which went into effect on May 24 of this year. If you want to be put to sleep by the actual full text of this law, you can read it here. In addition to eliminating the fees mentioned above, the new law also requires the three bureaus to offer credit monitoring services for free to all active duty military personnel. You can freeze your credit file by phone or by mail, but really the easiest way to do it is online. Just follow the instructions in my last post about this (linked above) but just skip the part about making a payment. The post New information about protecting your identity first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

I’ve been doing my Computer Tutor podcast for over 6 years now. My new podcast, What Was That Like, has been live for just a couple of months and has a steadily growing audience. So I’ve been asked by some of my friends and clients, “How do you start a podcast?”. For that answer, I went to the podcast expert: Dave Jackson.   Dave Jackson has been podcasting since 2005 – that’s back when podcasting had barely begun to even exist. Since then, he’s created many shows of his own and they’ve been downloaded more than a million times (maybe close to two million by now). He still does several shows regularly. The 3 that I listen to – every episode – are: School of Podcasting – this is a podcast about podcasting, every Monday. It’s great information for anyone who is just starting to think about doing a podcast, or anyone who already has a podcast. Usually 45-60 minutes. Podcast Rodeo Show – Dave picks a show, listens to it for a short time, then gives his honest opinion about what’s good and what could be improved. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Usually around 10 minutes. Building a Better Dave – this is Dave’s personal podcast where he gets really transparent and talks about stuff he’s observed, what’s going on in his life, or whatever he wants to talk about. No set schedule. Usually 15-20 minutes. The thing about Dave is that in addition to being very knowledgeable about almost any aspect of podcasting, he’s also just a really nice guy. He’s someone you’d look forward to just hanging out with. And recently, he was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame. It’s safe to say he’s a great source of information about podcasting. So for this week’s Computer Tutor blog and podcast, I actually invited Dave in and I asked him a bunch of questions about starting a podcast: What do you like most about doing a podcast? If someone asks you, “What is a podcast?”, what’s your quick answer? What does it cost to start doing a podcast? What mistake do most people make when starting their own podcast? What was one of your shows that completely bombed? How long before a new show starts making any money? Why should a new podcaster hire you to help them get started? And then I wanted to ask him a few non-podcast-related questions just to keep things interesting: What’s something that most people don’t know about you, that they might find surprising? What’s your biggest fear? If you could say something to your 20 year old self, what would it be? What are you excited about right now? You’ll know when you listen to this that we had a lot of fun talking about podcasting and a variety of other things. To listen to our conversation right here on this page, just look at the podcast player that’s at the top of this blog post, make sure your speakers are on, and hit the Play button. Or you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. And let me know what you think in the comments below!The post Start your own podcast – interview with Dave Jackson first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

In the world of computers and security, there are some companies that once had a decent reputation but went downhill and now cannot be recommended or trusted. I would now put CCleaner in that category. Here’s the story.   CCleaner was actually introduced in 2003 – 15 years ago. But it wasn’t rolled out under that name initially. Its original name was Crap Cleaner. This was because it was supposed to get rid of a lot of the things that might be clogging up your computer, such as registry errors and temp files. After a while, I guess the software developers decided that the word “crap” was offensive to some people so they just changed it to CCleaner. Even back then, CCleaner was one of those programs that it SOUNDS like you might need for your computer. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to clear out those files and things to keep your computer running nice and fast? But in reality, it’s not something you ever needed. Cleaning out temp files and fixing registry errors (even though that initial scan might show hundreds or thousands of registry issues) just won’t make any noticeable difference in how your computer runs. But it was free, so no harm done at that point, right? Then a few years ago, it started to get obnoxious. I noticed when I saw it on a computer, there would be the CCleaner icon in the lower right corner – meaning that it was running all the time in the background. Apparently it was now “monitoring” the computer for problems. Well, that was not acceptable. The more programs you have running at the same time, the slower they all run. And since CCleaner does not provide any needed service anyway, I certainly didn’t want it to be slowing down the computer. But since then, CCleaner has taken another step in the wrong direction. Brief backstory – you may have read here or heard me on the podcast talking about AVG. A long time ago, it was a decent free antivirus program. For the past few years, however, it has been more of a distributor of malware rather than a preventer of it (I wrote about that here). It’s a bad thing to have on your computer. Well, AVG is owned by Avast (another bad antivirus). And as of about a year ago, CCleaner is also owned by Avast. So they are moving the same direction, and it’s not a good one. Consider these observations: By default, when you install CCleaner, it automatically runs in the background every time you boot up. This is the “monitoring feature” and in more recent versions it’s not easy to disable this. You also can’t easily terminate the program when it’s running – there’s no option to “Exit” or “Quit”. Avast purchased CCleaner in July 2017. Within a month, they were distributing a hacked, infected version to anyone who downloaded it. They didn’t even discover or correct this for 4 weeks. And Avast is supposed to be a security company. The Avast web browser is designed to look very much like Chrome, and in some cases users think they are using Chrome but they are actually using this other inferior, bordering-on-malware browser. CCleaner now comes with those wonderful pop-up advertisements that we all know and love. When you consider all of those factors, on top of the fact that CCleaner’s functions aren’t even needed in the first place, it’s a no-brainer – get rid of it. Fortunately, removal is easy – just go to Control Panel or Settings, find it in the list and Uninstall.  The post Time to get rid of CCleaner first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

If you’re working on files in a certain folder and you have to do a restart, would you like to have that same folder open up automatically for you after that restart? It’s possible, and it’s really simple to do.   Sometimes I find myself in a predicament. I know it’s been a while since my computer was restarted, so I know I really need to do it. But…I’m working on my blog, or my podcast (or my new podcast) and I have these particular folders open. I know if I restart I’ll have to go back and open all these same folders again, and that just makes me think, “I’ll restart later”. But with this Windows setting that I’m talking about today, I could do a restart, and all of those folders that I have open before the restart will automatically be open right there on my screen, after the restart! And really, you probably know already that there are times when Windows decides to do some updates, and your computer is going to go ahead and restart whether you like it or not. Same benefit – after the restart, you can just start right up where you were working previously. Here’s how you do this: First, open the search function in the lower left corner of your Windows 10 screen, and type “file explorer options” – then click on File Explorer Options in the menu that comes up:   In the new window that opens, click the View tab, then look all the way to the right for the “Options” button. Click the drop-down and choose “Change folder and search options”:   Now you see the “Folder options” window. Click the “View” tab, then scroll down a little and check the box that says “Restore previous folder windows at logon”.   Then click OK, and you’re done. Now you can test it. Open a few windows, then restart your computer. When it boots up again, there are your chosen windows, open and ready for you to use. And this works for more than just File Explorer windows. You can do it with your Outlook email window, or your web browser. I have done it with Chrome, and it opens back up with the same tabs as before the restart. Pretty handy! The post Have folders re-open automatically after each restart first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

In a recent blog/podcast, I talked about the importance of restarting your computer in order to refresh the memory and speed it up. But some people actually powered down their computers and powered up again, and the “Up time” counter did not reset. That’s because of the Windows 10 “Fast Startup” option so we’ll talk about that today.   Thanks to my friend Larry for reminding me about this feature! If you’re running Windows 10, there’s a built-in feature called Fast Startup. Guess what it does. That’s right, it helps your computer start up faster! But you might not want it to do that. Think of it like this. If you wanted to be dressed and ready to go in the morning as fast as possible, one way to achieve that would be to just not take off your clothes from the day before. Just sleep in them. So when you wake up and get out of bed, BOOM – you’re already dressed! So you’ve achieved the goal of being dressed quickly, but there’s a cost – your clothes are all wrinkled, and not really clean because you wore them the day before. That’s kind of what this Fast Startup option does with Windows. You hit the power button and choose the Shut Down option, to turn off your computer. But what Windows 10 does is, it takes a “picture” of your computer’s state, and then puts it into a hybrid state between powered off and powered on. The thing is, your computer DOES need to completely power down sometimes (as discussed in this blog back on July 9). So it might be a good idea if you disabled the Fast Startup option (though there is an exception, which I’ll cover in a minute). And in reality, you might not even see a noticeable difference in the bootup time when Fast Startup is turned off – especially if your computer has a solid state drive, which means it’s already really fast. Here’s how you check the Fast Startup option and disable it if you want to: Do a RIGHT click on the Start button, and choose Power Options.   In the new window that opens, click on “Additional power settings”: In the next window, click on “Choose what the power buttons do”:   In the new window, look in the section called “Shutdown settings”. There will be a few options there, and one of them is “Turn on fast startup”. It’s probably already checked. If you can just uncheck it, go ahead. If you can’t uncheck it, you might need to find “Change settings that are currently unavailable” in the top part of that window and click that first, THEN uncheck the Fast Startup box.   After that, just click “Save changes” and you’re all done. Now, when you click “Shut down”, your computer will actually shut completely down. NOTE: Here’s the exception. If you choose the “Restart” option, that actually DOES fully turn off your computer and turn it back on again. For some people, this may be sufficient. Since I do a restart pretty regularly, the Fast Startup option is not a critical thing. The post What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Back in Windows 7, it was easy to get a “Preview” of an image file that was stored on your computer. Just right click on the file, and choose Preview. That went away in Windows 10. But you can get back the preview option again – and not just for picture files.   Honestly I can’t figure out why Microsoft would do away with the ability to “Preview” an image file on your computer. It was so handy. When I started using Windows 10, I couldn’t believe it. If there was a picture file on my computer, and I wanted to see what it was, I would have to actually double click and OPEN it in a program. For me, that program is Photoshop. So if I wanted to see a picture, I had to wait for Photoshop to open and display it. Yes, before people start emailing me – I know I could have just changed the display to the largest icons, but those thumbnail images aren’t the same as actually previewing the image in a larger window. So that wasn’t a solution. So once again, Microsoft had something that was a great feature and very handy to use, and they eliminated it. So many things they do just defy logic. AND, once again, some brilliant coder has come up with a way to not only bring back that feature that Microsoft took away, but make it so much better. What I’m talking about is a little program called QuickLook.   It’s available for free download from the Windows Store (here). Just click the button that says “Get” and let it download and install. I think it’s set by default to run each time you boot up your computer. That’s not something you want to set for every program without thinking about it, but for this program I’ve found that I use it so often it might as well just be running in the background all the time. I don’t notice that it slows down the computer. The icon looks like this in the lower right corner of your screen:   Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a folder with some pictures and you want to preview one of them. Like this one, where the first 4 files don’t have a meaningful file name:   All you have to do is click once on a file name to highlight it (like I’ve done in that picture above). Then hit the Space bar. A new window opens immediately, showing a preview of that picture:   Now I am able to see a larger preview of that picture so I know what it is. And that’s not all! There are buttons across the top of the preview window.   Going from left to right, these buttons allow me to: Force the preview window to stay on top of any other window I open Prevent the preview window from closing Open the image file with the program of my choice See the file name Open with Windows Photo Viewer Make the preview window full screen Close the preview window That’s a LOT more than you used to be able to do with the traditional Windows Preview function. And that’s just with an image preview. If you have an audio file, such as an mp3, you can preview and actually listen to it from the preview window. If you have a video file, such as an mp4, you can watch it from the preview window. You can also preview documents, such as Word or PDF files, or even Excel spreadsheets. So you can probably see why I think this little app is pretty handy to have available. Try it out and let me know what you think of it. The post Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Windows has its own search function built in. You just click in the Search field, type a file name or a program name, and hit Enter. The problem is, a search can take a long time – especially if you have a lot of data stored on your computer. But there’s a new way to search your computer now – and it’s a LOT faster than the one that comes with Windows.   Thanks to my friend Roger for tipping me off to this great tool, called “Everything”. You can get it (free of course) at voidtools.com. When you get to that site, you’ll have a few options about which version to download. Unless your computer is pretty old, you’ll want the 64-bit version (if you have problems with that one, go back and try the plain “Download Installer” option).   Once downloaded, click to run the installer. It’s pretty straightforward and it doesn’t try to sneak anything bad into your computer.         These are the default options for installation, but you can choose based on your preferences.   Using Everything couldn’t really be any easier. When you first run it, you’ll see a window that lists a bunch of folder names and file names, like this:     Don’t worry about none of those names looking familiar. Doesn’t matter. My auto mechanic could dig into my car’s engine and pull out a part and I would have no idea what it is or what it does – but it doesn’t matter because I don’t need to know. Same thing with your computer – there’s a lot going on in the background that you really don’t need to know about. To try out this program, just type in the name of a file on your computer (or just part of the file name) in the search bar at the top, and hit Enter on your keyboard. You’ll see, anything that matches that search comes up almost immediately. It’s pretty awesome how fast this thing is! When I ran it, I did a little test to see how quickly it could find something – a file that I really had no idea where it was stored on my computer. Years ago when I lived in Maine, I did some advertising in a local newspaper called the Lincoln County News. So I knew, “somewhere” in my computer was a copy of those old ads. All I did was type the word “Lincoln” and immediately there were about a dozen different files, all of my ads from back in 2003 and 2004. This is what they looked like back then:   That was even before I had my current website, and I didn’t even need to include the area code in my phone number (since the whole state of Maine has just one area code). The point is, I didn’t know where to go looking for those files, but the Everything program found them and displayed them for me in less than one second. Incredible! And whatever you see displayed in the search results, you can double click to open it right from there. Here’s the warning: this program searches your entire hard drive. So it might show you some search results that you have no idea what they are. Leave them alone. I’ve had some people see something on their computer and think, “Hmm, I have no idea what that is – better just delete it.” That’s a bad idea! You might be deleting a file that Windows or some other program needs in order to run properly. So go ahead and try out this great little program and see if you’re as impressed with it as I am. The real question is, if a free program can search your whole computer and show results almost instantaneously, why can’t Microsoft just build that same function into Windows to start with? The post Quickest way to search your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Do you know how long it’s been since you restarted your Windows computer? There’s an easy way to check.   You probably already know that restarting your computer will often resolve a problem or error that has come up. I’ve often referred to restarting as a “magic pill” for computer repair since it fixes so many issues. And along the same lines, restarting the computer on a regular basis is a good idea to proactively avoid some computer problems that can come up. I recommend restarting the computer every 1-2 days as a good practice. When you restart your PC: your computer can run faster memory is freed up memory leaks are stopped internet connection issues can be resolved you get more done because your computer is working better! But here’s the big question – do you know when you last restarted your computer? In other words, how long has your computer been running continuously? This is kind of a fun little quiz. Before you check this, take a guess as to how long ago you restarted the computer. 8 hours? 2 days? I’ve found that most people underestimate this. Once I asked a client how long ago the last restart was and she said she didn’t really know. When we checked, it was 45 days! Not a big surprised that her computer was acting funny. Here’s how you find out when the last restart was (works the same on Windows 7 or Windows 10): The taskbar is the bar that runs across the bottom of your screen:   Just do a RIGHT click on a blank part of the taskbar, and in the menu that comes up, click to run Task Manager:   When Task Manager opens, click on the “Performance” tab and look for the number indicating “Up time”:   The “Up time” number is configured as Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. So in the above screenshot from my own computer, it’s been 8 hours and 24 minutes since my PC was last booted up. And remember – a restart is not just turning the computer off, then hitting the Power button to turn it back on. You have to actually click the “Restart” option. Did you check your “Up time”? Let us know what it was in the comments! The post How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Everyone wants to find a good deal on Craigslist or one of the other online classified listing sites. But most people just go about it “hit or miss” and hope to be lucky and come across an amazing bargain. For me, I want to make this process as easy as possible, and also increase my chances for getting a deal before someone else does. Here’s how I do that.   (Note: if you want to use this system yourself but would rather have me set it up for you, I can do that remotely. Just email me at [email protected].) To show you how I do this, the example I’ll use is the process I implement every day: my search for bikes. My wife and I work with an organization called Blanket Tampa Bay, which provides clothing, toiletries and other necessities for people here in this area that are experiencing homelessness. Every Monday night we see 100-150 people and provide them with a hot meal, clothes, personal items, etc. A few months ago, I thought it would be a great idea to work on getting some bikes for these people. So many of them just walk everywhere, so a bike is a huge help. Just having some form of transportation opens up more job opportunities as well. So I have gotten several bikes donated from local people by posting on Facebook, etc. But to continue getting more, I have to go online and look at the online ad sites where people are selling bikes. I have found that if someone is selling an adult bike in decent shape for $30 or less, there’s a fair chance that they’d be willing to donate it to a good cause. So far I’ve been able to bring 3 bikes each Monday for the last several weeks. BUT – that means if there’s a good bike for sale at a low price, I need to be the first one to contact the owner, before someone else just goes there and buys it. For that, I’ve developed a pretty efficient system. And you can adapt this same system for whatever YOU want to buy – whether it’s a bike, a car, a computer, or anything else that’s for sale from a local person. For this process, I use 4 online classified ad sites: Facebook Marketplace (facebook.com/marketplace) – This is my favorite. OfferUp (offerup.com) Also a good site, pretty close to FB Marketplace. Craigslist (craigslist.org) Classic classified ads site, has some pros and cons. LetGo (letgo.com) Definitely my least favorite, but there are some bargains on there. And to view all these sites the way I want to view them, I use the Chrome web browser. So far, no big secret really. LOTS of people use these sites to find things for sale. The difference is HOW these sites get used. For me, I have very specific search criteria. I want to see bikes for sale that are $30 or less, and are within 20 miles of my location. So anyone can go on a site, do a search for the word “bike” and then set the search filters for price and location. For most people, they do that manually. Which means sometimes they don’t do it – they just type in “bike” and hope to get lucky. That means they’re going to miss some of the ads, which is good for me. The ads that they miss, I want to definitely see. So here’s how we set this up. Open Chrome, and make sure the Bookmarks bar is being shown (you can do this in Settings). On the bookmarks bar, do a right click and choose “Add folder”. We’ll call this folder “Bikes <30” since it will only show us bikes that are under $30.   Now, we go to Facebook Marketplace. I type my search term “bike” and see all the bikes displayed. Then I go over on the left column and set my location to Safety Harbor, Florida. I also set my maximum price at $30, and the distance to within 20 miles.   So now my search results are much more specific. If I wanted to, I could also put in a “minimum” price of maybe $5. That’s because in this search, I’m also going to see things like bike air pumps, bike seats, etc. which of course I don’t want to see. But that’s optional. Now that you have the search set up the way you want, you just need to drag that website address into the “Bikes <30” folder. Look up in the address bar where you see the padlock or the word “Secure”. You can click and drag that to the folder and drop it there. Now that specific search on Facebook Marketplace is in that folder – you just need to go there and open it (but there’s a specific way to do that also, which we’ll cover in a minute). Next up is OfferUp. We’re going to do the same thing here – set the search, set the filters, and once that’s all in place we drag that site to the same folder. For some reason, I set my distance in OfferUp to 10 miles. I really can’t remember if I had a reason for that or not, but that’s what it is.   Then we do the same thing with LetGo. I really don’t like LetGo, mainly bec

Some surprises are fun. Something that is NOT fun is working on a Word document for a while, then a sudden power outage shuts off your computer, and you realize you never saved that document. But there’s good news! You can probably get it back!   Actually this alarming situation might happen due to a brief loss of electricity, but sometimes it can happen just because of user error. You create this big document, then you go to close it, and in a brief lapse of focus you click on “Don’t Save”. So guess what – Word doesn’t save it. It’s just gone. Or rather, it APPEARS to be gone. There is still hope! On this blog and on my podcast, I do complain a lot about Microsoft because of the way they do things. And it’s deserved. But in this case, Microsoft got it right. This feature has saved a lot of hours of work for MS Word users. To show you how it works, I’ll go through the exact process of losing and recovering. First, I’ll create a new Word document. I started it with one line: “This is my sample document” Then I just added 5000 words of Latin “filler text” that I copied and pasted from Lipsum.com (a great source if you ever need a bunch of dummy text for a document or a website).   This is a large document. Typically if a document is 5000 words, it means I’ve spent a lot of time creating it, and I definitely don’t want to do something stupid and lose it.   And speaking of stupid, even though I theoretically have spent so much time on this, I have never once clicked “Save” to save the document and give it a file name.   Now I’m going to click the X in the top right corner to exit this document and close the MS Word program. Of course I get the question, “Want to save your changes to Document1?” but I absent-mindedly click “Don’t Save”.   And of course, that’s when the panic would suddenly strike. Did I really just delete hours of work with a single click? Do I have to do it all over again? When that happens, here’s what you do: Click to open MS Word. Then look at your list of recent documents. At the bottom of that list, click on “Open Other Documents”.   On the next screen, you’ll see a list of your recent documents, and at the bottom of that list is a button that has inspired hope and relief in a lot of scared people. It says “Recover Unsaved Documents”:   And there it is – a new window opens, and displays my recent unsaved documents. If there are several listed there, you can identify the one you want by the date. In this case, I can also identify it by the name (Word just takes the first words in the document to create the file name):   So I select that document and click Open, and I have the file back on my screen so I can actually save it with the proper name and in the right location in the Documents folder. Disaster averted! WARNING: Word does not save documents like this forever, so don’t wait! As soon as you realize what you’ve done, go through this process and save it the correct way so you’re sure you have it back. The post How to recover an unsaved Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

I buy stuff from Amazon all the time. A lot of my purchases are things I already know about because I’ve bought them before. But sometimes I’m buying something new, comparing prices, maybe comparing different models of the same item, trying to decide which would be best to buy. It’s great that most Amazon products have lots of reviews – but should you trust them?   Here’s the short answer: no. You should not trust the reviews on Amazon. At least not without doing a bit of extra research on your own. You might be surprised to find that there’s a whole underground economy based on Amazon sellers actually paying people to write 5-star reviews for their products (and 1-star negative reviews for their competition). To get a more thorough understanding of how it works check out this article that came out earlier this month. Originally, Amazon actually allowed people to post “incentivized” reviews. The seller would either give someone their product for free, or sell it at a huge discount, in exchange for a review. For those reviews, the writer had to state clearly that “I was provided this product for free or at a discount, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review”. Well, of course those reviews were skewed to “positive” rather than “negative” because the reviewers obviously wanted to keep the gig going. So a couple of years ago, Amazon stopped allowing incentivized or paid reviews. Think that stopped it from happening? No way. It’s probably bigger now than ever, but even worse – now there are no disclaimer statements in the reviews, so it’s very difficult for Amazon to stop it from happening. There are private Facebook groups, Slack channels and Discord channels that function specifically for Amazon sellers to hire people to post fake reviews. It’s a big industry, because Amazon is so big and sells such a high volume of products. So what do you do when you want to make a purchase? Fortunately, even though you can’t necessarily determine the authenticity of a review just by reading it, there is some software that can essentially do that. Fakespot (Fakespot.com) is one of the better-known services that does this. They’ve created software that analyzes trends and patterns that fake reviewers create, and present that information for shoppers to use. Here’s how it works. Let’s say you’re shopping for a pair of oven mitts. You come across this listing on Amazon:   Good price, and they have 126 reviews, with almost all of them being 5 stars. Good deal, right? But before you make that purchase, go up and do a right-click in the address bar (on the Amazon listing page) and choose “Copy”. Then go to Fakespot.com and right-click and Paste that address and click on “Analyze”. And here’s what Fakespot found:   If this were an actual purchase situation, I would probably decide to NOT get that product, since it appears likely that about half of the reviews are not genuine. Fakespot offers this service for free. They also have browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari to make it easier to check on products, but the extensions are $1.99 per month. Pretty cheap price if it saves you the hassle of buying a poor-quality product and having to return it.   The post How to identify fake Amazon reviews first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Unfortunately, it’s an accident that happens way more often than it should – a liquid gets spilled on a laptop. Water, soda, wine, beer, lemonade, whatever – obviously none of these things are a good thing for a computer. But then, in some cases, the owner of the laptop makes things worse by trying to “dry out” the laptop with a hair dryer.   Makes sense, right? A hair dryer (blow dryer) is designed specifically to blow air and dry things out, so logically it would seem like it’s a good choice to quickly dry out your laptop after a spill.   Blow dryers work fine on hair, which is what they are designed for. But your hair isn’t made of plastic like your laptop keyboard is. Plastic has a lower melting point, and unfortunately some people are surprised at how quickly that can happen. To demonstrate this, I picked out an old, non-working laptop from my collection (every tech has a few of these around). And I used a standard blow dryer, like you’d buy from your local Walmart. You probably have one in your bathroom right now. Here’s a picture of the lower left section of the keyboard before our experiment:   Just a regular keyboard on an old computer. Now, here’s the same laptop keyboard after 60 seconds of blow-drying:   It’s pretty surprising how quickly it can happen. Laptop keyboards are just not designed to handle hot air coming at them. And that’s after just one minute. Think about how long it would take to actually dry out the entire keyboard (IF the liquid was contained to just the keyboard and didn’t seep further down, on to the motherboard and other components). I was going to show you some other pictures of keyboards that were inadvertently destroyed by blow dryers, but I cannot post them here on my site due to copyright concerns. But if you want to see the damage that can be done by hot air, do a Google Image search on “hair dryer keyboard damage”. So if you do accidentally spill something on your laptop, don’t run for the blow dryers. Instead: Immediately turn it off Flip it over and remove the battery Disconnect anything that’s plugged in to it – power cable, portable drive, flash drive, printer cable – pull everything out of all the USB ports and other slots If you see any water that can be wiped off with a cloth, wipe it off Flip the laptop upside down (so the keyboard is facing down) and let it dry for 48 hours. Yes, that means you won’t be able to use it for 2 days. Do not try to shortcut this and boot it up sooner just to see if it works! After 48 hours and the liquid has dried, put the battery back in and reconnect the power cord and see if it turns on. If it boots up, you’re probably okay. If it doesn’t, contact your local computer tech. And you might also check to see if you happened to have purchased an extended warranty when you bought the laptop. If you have coverage that includes accidental spills, it might be time to make a claim on that plan. Personally, I never buy those accident policies. My insurance plan is just not drinking near my laptop. The post One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

When you open Microsoft Word to create a new document, the default font that’s in place and ready to be used is Calibri. But did you know that you can change that, so that a new Word document will start off in whatever font you prefer?   This sounds like an interesting 2-part trivia question. Question: What is the default font in MS Word 2016? Answer: Calibri Question: What was the default font BEFORE it was Calibri? Answer: Times New Roman Calibri has actually been around for a while. It was introduced as the standard Word font way back in Office 2007 (and if you’re still using Office 2007, you really need to get your life in order). Before that, as you just read in the question above, the default was Times New Roman. Why did Microsoft change it? Couple of reasons: Times New Roman looks okay on the printed page, but more and more things were being displayed on digital devices as opposed to just paper. Calibri is a “sans serif” font, which means it shows up more clearly on laptops and smartphones. They also wanted a font that looked more “modern”. Times New Roman had been around for a long time and Calibri just looks like a newer, more up to date font style. But what if you don’t like Calibri? Maybe you WANT Times New Roman on all your documents. Or you might just prefer one of the other hundreds or thousands of fonts that are widely available. If that’s the case, it’s an easy change to make. Here’s how you change the default font in Word 2016: 1. Under the “Home” tab, click the little pop-out arrow in the Fonts section:   2. That will open a new window with lots of choices – font, size, style, etc. Just choose what you want and check it in the preview at the bottom, then click “Set as Default”.   3. You’ll get a little pop-up asking if you want to set the new font as the default for just this document, or all documents. Make that choice and click OK.   If you’re not sure if you want to change the default font for ALL future documents, you might try it out on your next few documents just to see how you like it. Of course, even if you do change the default for all documents, you can use this same procedure to change it back. The post How to change the default font in Word 2016 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Most people get a new computer every 3-5 years. Sometimes they might go longer than that, but that’s probably about the average. But I see a lot of people that have a stack of old laptops sitting in their office or their garage, just because they don’t know exactly how to get rid of them.   What do you do with an old laptop? You have a few options. If it still works: Keep it as a backup If your primary computer dies, it’s good to at least have something you can use while you’re shopping for another one or waiting for yours to be repaired. It won’t be up to date of course, and it won’t have all of your files and folders, but it’s definitely better than nothing. Give it away Many of my clients will take their old computer and give it to someone who needs one but cannot afford a new one. Or, they’ll give it to a child or grandchild to play with. This keeps the youngster occupied with their own little games machine, and off the “real” computer. The internet can be disabled of course if that’s a concern. Sell it If the computer still boots up and runs Windows or some other operating system, it may well be something of value to someone, which means you can get some money for it. Not usually much, but something. You can list it for sale on Facebook, Craigslist, OfferUp, LetGo, or some other online sale site. Install the Chrome operating system and keep using it This is another option I like, in order to get more life out of a computer that would otherwise be discarded. Most older computers will run the free Chrome operating system (it would be installed instead of Windows). You don’t need a fast computer or a big hard drive to run it, since it’s mostly web-based. Sometimes when I get a computer that’s too old or dated to refurb and resell, I’ll put on the Chrome OS and give the laptop to a high school kid who doesn’t have one.   If it does not work: Check on getting it fixed That’s right – you might not want to write it off as “dead” too quickly. If it just needs new memory, that’s a relatively inexpensive solution to have it working again. In some cases, even a replacement hard drive might be worthwhile in order to get it functional again. But if the screen is cracked or not showing any picture, that’s a repair that is probably not going to make financial sense. Strip it for parts In some cases, the components of your previous laptop can be used as spare parts for your new one. Or, if your old laptop had a solid state drive, you could put that in your new laptop and make the new one much faster. Also, some high-end laptops, even though they are older, are sellable “as-is” because of the value of those parts. Recycle it Yep, last resort. It doesn’t work, not worth repairing, and no one wants to buy it for parts. Time to get rid of it. Of course, you can’t just drop it in the trash can. Check your local area for recyclers. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there are often events in a nearby community where you can drop off things you can’t throw away – computers, old monitors, old paint cans, etc. You might even be able to bring it to a “big box” store (Best Buy and some other stores will accept old computers for recycling). Whatever you end up deciding, here’s the most important thing to consider: get your data OFF the laptop before you get rid of it. If you used this laptop for any length of time, it probably has some documents, pictures, PDF files (such as tax returns), videos, and maybe some old emails. Stuff you would not want some random person to find. Once the computer is out of your hands, you really don’t know where it will go or who will go “exploring” the hard drive for data. Make sure there’s nothing on there for anyone to find. And keep in mind that simply doing a quick format of the drive does NOT delete your data. Anyone that’s just a little bit tech savvy can use software to make that “formatted” data readable again. So if you’re not sure how to REALLY delete your files, take it to someone who does. The post What do you do with an old laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Did you know you can create a document in Microsoft Word and send it from Outlook as an attachment, and you never even need to click to open Outlook? It’s true, and it’s pretty easy.   And why would you want to do this? The main reason is simple: fewer clicks. This makes it faster and easier than the traditional way of attaching a file to an email. Normally, you would create the email in Outlook, then tell Outlook you want to attach a file, then navigate to that file and choose it. None of that is necessary, since you’ll be doing the entire thing without even directly opening Outlook. The other reason is that it prevents you from attaching the wrong document to the email. In some cases it can be a bit embarrassing to send an email with an attachment and then find out that you sent the wrong file. Or the situation that happens to all of us at some point – you sent an email that says the file is attached, but you end up forgetting to attach it completely. I’ve definitely done that more than once. This process eliminates all those errors. That’s because you do everything inside MS Word, right in the very document you want to attach. Here’s how you do this in Word 2016: 1. Open MS Word and create a document, and save it. The document should still be open there on your screen after you have saved it. For this example we’ll call the document “Resume of Chef Artie Bucco.docx”. 2. Click on File – Share   3. A new little window will open up. At the bottom, you have the option of attaching that file as a Word document, or as a PDF file:   If you click on Word document, here’s what happens immediately. A new MS Outlook email opens. The subject line for this new email is the name of the document (you can change it if you want). And your Word document is already attached.   So all you have to do is enter the email address of the recipient, type whatever you want to go in the actual message of the email, and send it. Super easy. And if you are actually sending a resume, it does look more professional to send it as a PDF file. That’s as easy as clicking to share as a PDF instead:   And incidentally, you can use this same process to attach other MS Office files to an Outlook email – Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, etc. The post Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

A while back I came across this great free software that will go out on the web and grab a bunch of really cool photographs, and use them to create a new Windows wallpaper for your computer which continuously changes as often as you wish. It’s pretty cool!   The program is called John’s Background Switcher. Guess who created it. That’s right, it was John! You can get it free here: https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/.   Getting the program installed is easy – just go to the link I mentioned above, and click on the download link based on what kind of computer you are using (Windows or Mac). We’ll be talking about the Windows version but I assume the program works similarly on a Mac. The download and installation process are pretty straightforward and just a matter of clicking Next a couple of times, then Install. When I installed it, there was no attempt by the software to sneak anything in that was unwanted, so hopefully that will continue. After it’s installed and running, just a little bit of setup is needed. The setup window might open automatically, but if it doesn’t, look for the little icon down in the lower right corner:   Do a right click on that little icon and choose “Settings”:   That will open up the program and allow you to choose some options. First, the big thing is where the program will find the photos to put on your computer. There are lots of sources of free pictures online, and John’s Background Switcher knows all of them! If you click the “Add” button at the top right, you’ll see what the optional sources are.   You can choose any of those photo websites, or even have it grab pictures from your own hard drive. For me, I keep it simple – I choose Flickr, and then in the main window I check the box “Top 250 photos from the last 7 days”. You’re pretty much guaranteed to never see the same image twice that way.   You’ll some other options on that screen as well. You can choose how often a picture changes – as often as every 10 seconds, or just once a week. You also have the option of how big the picture should be on your screen. That’s something you probably just want to play with and see what you prefer. For me, I use it a little differently. If you right click on the icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, you’ll see that the first option in that menu is “Next background”. I like clicking that and just viewing a few of them until I get to one that really strikes me, then I actually pause the program so that it just stays on that picture until I change it. I keep it on a background for a day or a few days maybe, then I go back in and click through until I find another one I like, and keep it on that one for a few days. I’ve been using this program on my own computer for several months now, without any negative stuff like malware or ads coming in with it. Looks like a good one. If you try it, leave a comment below and let me know what you think. The post The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Today we’re talking about how to remove saved passwords from your web browser.   You shouldn’t have Chrome or Firefox store passwords for you. It’s not safe. If anyone ever got access to your computer, they would see a full list of all your accounts and passwords – definitely not good! Use LastPass instead. But sometimes you might get a popup asking if you want the browser to save the password and you might just click “Save” without thinking, to get the window out of the way. So you might have some (or many) passwords saved in Chrome or Firefox. Here’s how to get them out of there. Removing saved passwords in Chrome: 1. Click the 3 dots in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Settings 2. Scroll down and click on Advanced 3. Scroll down to the “Passwords and Forms” section and click on “Manage Passwords” 4. Make sure both toggle switches are in the “Off” position. Then look a little further down, and you’ll see a list of saved passwords. Delete all of them. When you’re done, it should look like this (because there are no saved passwords listed):   Removing saved passwords in Firefox: 1. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right, then in the dropdown menu click on Options 2. Click the Privacy and Security link on the left side 3. Under the “Forms and Passwords” section, make sure “Remember logins and passwords for websites is UNchecked, then click on “Saved Logins” 4. You’ll see a list of whatever passwords are saved – delete each one When you’re done, it should look like this:   It’s important to get these lists cleared of all your passwords. If your computer gets compromised, those lists of user names and passwords in your web browser is one of the first places the bad guys (or their automated software) will look and copy. It only takes a few seconds, and then they have access to all of those accounts. Don’t risk it. The post How to remove stored passwords from your web browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

It’s great to be able to speak into your device, such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to get some information. But did you know, every one of those voice commands is stored by Amazon? You might find it handy to know how to delete that history.   How to VIEW your Alexa recordings: It’s easiest to do this on your computer. Go to the website alexa.amazon.com and over on the left side, click on Settings:   Then over on the right side, scroll down to the “Alexa account” section and click on History:   Now you’ll see a full list of everything you’ve said to Alexa. You’ll probably see some common trends. My Alexa search list is pretty boring – mostly it’s “Play Neil Young on Pandora”. Alexa does a whole lot more than that. Click on any of the recordings in the list and it will take you to that specific recording. Also on that page is an option to “Delete voice recordings”. You can do this here, but only one at a time. This really is not a viable option for most people, since you probably have hundreds or thousands of voice recordings. But it is kind of interesting to see the list here. How to DELETE your Alexa recordings: To delete all of the recordings at once, you would do that from the Amazon site. You just go to the Amazon “Manage your Content and Devices” page, here: amazon.com/mycd and click on the “Your Devices” tab:   Then you find your device in the list and click on the left-side icon with the 3 dots in it. This will show you your device, and you want to click on “Manage voice recordings”:   Now you’ll get a little alert window that comes up before you can actually delete your voice recordings. The alert will tell you that Amazon uses your past history of talking to Alexa to allow her to “learn” your voice and improve the accuracy of the results. This means your future results “might” not be as accurate without that history of learning that has been built up. This all might be true, but it’s up to you if it makes any difference or not. Once you click on Delete, a new message appears to let you know the delete request has been received:   The actual full deletion will probably not be immediate. It might take less than a minute if you have just a few voice recordings, or it might take several minutes (or possibly longer) if you’ve recorded a lot of commands. But there’s nothing else you need to do from this point. As a side note, Amazon’s Echo and Dot are not the only devices that store these recordings. Your voice commands are also stored by Google each time you say “OK Google” and give a command, as well as when you give commands to Siri (Apple devices) and Cortana (Windows 10 devices). But those processes are different so I might cover some or all of them in a different post. The post Alexa stores your voice recordings first appeared on The Computer Tutor.

Sometimes when I’m browsing the web, I get annoyed and confused. Annoyed at websites that automatically start playing sound, and confused as to why the creator of that site thought it was a good idea.   I mean seriously – websites auto-playing sound became a trend maybe 15 years ago, but users made it very clear that the practice was not acceptable. Any course, class or seminar on website development will make it clear, you don’t start playing audio automatically when someone visits your website. So, for a long time, professional websites didn’t do it. But now it’s back! And even the major online sites are joining in. As an example, take a look at this news story from CNN. You might want to visit that link just to READ the story like a civilized person. But no. As soon as the page loads, there’s the reporter in your face with a full-sound video, TELLING you the story.   And now there’s a new thing. What, you’re going to scroll down the page so you don’t have to watch the video? Here, we’ll make it smaller and stick it in the corner, and make it stay visible on the screen, even as you try to scroll away from it. YOU VILL VATCH ZE VIDEO!   And these are major websites doing this. The example is from CNN, but Fox News does the exact same thing, along with lots of other websites. So it’s an ongoing fight between what the websites want to make us see and hear, and what we the visitors want to NOT see and hear. We’ve already won that battle in terms of display advertisements – the uBlock Origin ad blocker extension for Chrome has given us the freedom and added security of not having to look at ads. And now Chrome has been updated to give us the added pleasure of being able to say SHUT UP to websites that auto-play music or any other type of audio. A while back they gave us the little “speaker” icon – so if you happen to have a bunch of tabs open and one of them is a website that suddenly starts to play audio, you can quickly see which tab it is just by looking for the speaker icon:   And now you can actually mute the sound being generated by a website – just do a right click on the tab, and in the drop-down menu, choose “Mute site”:   And it’s not just the sound for that particular web page, or that particular news article on the site – it means all of the sound on that entire website. And the nice thing is, Chrome remembers that selection. So you can close the tab and open that site in a different tab, or you could even close Chrome completely and then run it again and go back to that website – and that site will still be muted. So you don’t have to click “Mute site” every time you go there. (Also, I just checked on Firefox and you can do the same thing – the menu item is called “Mute tab”. Should work the same way.) And it’s actually kind of gratifying – if you are on the site and there’s some idiot news reporter blathering on and on, and you click to mute the site, the video part just keeps playing. So you’ll SEE the person speaking, you just won’t hear any of the sound. On the rare occasion that I might watch something on TV, that’s exactly the same effect as when I hit the “Mute” button every time a commercial comes on. Wonderful, blessed silence…   The post New Chrome feature to make websites shut up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.