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A comment from Harriet
Just wanted to tell you how good your new format looks (at least it looks new and fresh to me). It is so easy to read now. Thanks.

Thanks Harriet. I believe you're referring to the change to the InfoAve Premium format as compared to the old InfoAve Free newsletter format. In any case we're glad you like the look. We hope all our former free subscribers enjoy not only the way InfoAve Premium looks, but enjoy all the extra content. EB & TC

A comment from Lynda
Bravo for Darcy!! She helped me so much today putting Windows mail on this new computer. Checking it out & fixings settings in Emsisoft. I have been getting the newsletter since it started, on my win98 & the for everlasting Vista that I just replaced finally. With the newsletter, I never had to get help for it. I just hope this windows 10 will do the same. Anyway Darcy, You sure amazed me by your knowledge & speed & I thank you so very much again for helping me with all of this. Lynda

A comment from Beverly
Thank you, Darcy, for the quick and efficient job you did on my two computers with the Windows 10 install pre and post checks. I have been a Cloudeight follower since you and TC started. Thanks to you both for most of my computer knowledge! I highly recommend Cloudeight Direct Computer Care!

A comment from Larry
Hey TC, Thanks again for your help in getting this old timers computer working again. Yes, it is an old computer but it fits this old timer. However it was getting slower than me and was freezing up more than I do so something had to be done. I have ordered the 2gb of ram from crucial.com and as soon as it gets delivered it will be installed in this old laptop. Now if you could tell me where to get some more ram to install in me things would really be looking up.  I have noticed a big change in this machine so far -- a big change for the better. Thank you so much again and I will tell everyone about the good you did for me. My son has seen the good you did for me and he was impressed too. So Keep up the good work. Till your better paid, thanks so much, Larry.

A comment from Martin
Darcy to the rescue again. Having had Windows Mail installed in Windows 7, it was sorely missed when I downloaded Windows 10. Darcy arranged a computer hook up very quickly and Windows Mail was up and running in less than 20 minutes. Both she and TC are to be treasured. Martin, Toronto.

Thanks to Lynda, Beverly, Larry, Martin and all of you who wrote about the computer services you received from Cloudeight Direct Computer Care. We are so glad we've been able to help so many people from Australia and New Zealand to Europe to North America. If you need computer service we hope you'll let us help you! TC & EB



Cloudeight Direct Computer Care - We can help you!






Val has a problem opening Settings/System on Windows 10
I was trying to access storage through my settings, to see what my puter showed as per your last newsletter, the page freezes on system window, but all others devices, etc. open up okay. Any suggestions to get the system window working?

Our answer
Hi Val. The first thing you should do if one of the Windows features isn't working the way it should is to restart your computer by clicking your Start button and choosing Restart. Restarting your computer refreshes your RAM, removes all programs from memory, clears the Windows cache and restarts the Windows shell. Restarting your computer is one of the simplest and easiest ways to fix many minor issues. It's the one thing we recommend you do anytime you have problems with your computer. While it can't fix serious system errors, for minor issues it's the first thing you should try.

If a restart doesn't to the trick, turn your computer off at the power switch -- on some computers you'll need to hold the power button in for a minute or so until all the power lights go off. Leave your computer turned off for 2 or 3 minutes, then power it back on.

Val wrote back: Hi, You guys are wonderful!!! Tried a restart, but puter wouldn't reboot, so had to literally shut down the puter, pulled the plug so to speak, then went to the settings and everything is working fine. Thanks for info and keep up the good work for this wannabee computer nerd, lol. Val.



Frank lost the ability to right click on his Windows 10 laptop
This program you are offering (Windows 10 Your Way) sounds great, but will it help me? My problem after i installed windows 10. I lost all right click function. My laptop is only 6 months old it is a Acer aspire it was upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1.

Our answer
Hi Frank. Have you tried shutting off your PC completely at the power switch? Make sure you try powering it all the way down - so no lights are on anywhere. Then wait about 2 or 3 minutes and power it back on. Now see if your right-click menus work. Try right-clicking on the start button first - does a menu appear?

If that does not work, we could take a look at your PC with our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service and see if we could find the problem. We could also help you Reset your PC without losing any of your personal files.

But first, try powering your computer all the way off and then leaving it off for a few minutes before turning it back on and let us know.

Note: Powering off the computer completely and leaving it off for a few minutes before powering it back on, fixed Frank's right-click problem.



Vivien said our advice to stop the Upgrade to Windows 10 nags worked for a while, but now it's back
How to stop the "Upgrade to Windows 10" Nags on Windows 7 and Windows 8" . Regarding the above. That worked really good and it was gone from popping up .But only lasted for one week January 13 it was back in my computer so I'll have to check and read about each download or have a great memory and watch for KB: 3035583.Why do they keep pushing this? we have till summer to install win 10. I want to thank you both for the help you give us all about our computers, I have learned all I know from your great advice and that I can always trust. Thank you so much and all the best for the coming year. Vivien

Our answer
Hi Vivien. Thanks for your nice comments!

To refresh everyone's memory, here's what we advised you to do to remove the Windows 10 upgrade nag:

1. Open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges (right-click the Command Prompt icon and select Run as administrator)
2. At the Command Prompt type:

WUSA /UNINSTALL /KB:3035583

3. Press Enter
4. Answer Yes to warning (Yes you want to uninstall KB:3035583)
5. You're done

This is not a permanent fix unless you go to Control Panel, Windows Update, and turn off Recommended updates. If you choose to receive Recommended updates along with Critical updates, whenever Windows updates, your Windows 10 upgrade nag will keep coming back. So you can either turn off Recommended updates or just use the command above to keep removing it.

Hope this solves the puzzle for you. Microsoft really, really, really, really wants everyone to upgrade to Windows 10 - so they are not going to make it easy to get rid of the reminders or "nags" as we like to call them. Why they keep pushing Windows 10 is because it's the last numbered/named version of Windows. In the future it will just be Windows. Whether new versions will be free or Microsoft will eventually charge a subscription fee, we don't know. All we know is that Windows 10 is free if you install it by July 29, 2016.


Les loves Windows 10, but has a question about Windows Defender
Hi TC & EB. I have at last installed Win 10. I am nicely surprised in the ease of the task & the outcome is, so far, great. You were right, again. :-) Should have done it sooner, no matter. However, it keeps reminding me that Windows Defender is 'turned off , at each Start up. Is there a fix, to Disable this 'Splash Page' without detracting from any other functions of Windows Defender that may be lurking in the background? My PC has all items working AOK & even the Desktop etc. ,has been retained, as in Win 7.Best outcome of any Windows version install, to date. Regards & Bouquets,Les. :-)

Our answer
Thanks so much, Les. We don't know what antivirus you have installed, but if you've installed one, it should have disabled Windows Defender completely (Emsisoft does) because you don't need it.  If you don't have any other antivirus / antimalware installed, you need Windows Defender to start with Windows. If you don't have antivirus installed (we advise you to install Emsisoft, since Windows Defender provides only minimal protection), make sure Defender starts with Windows by doing the following:

Right-click the Windows 10 start button
Click Run
In the Run box type SERVICES.MSC
Press Enter



In the alphabetical list of services, find the following:

Windows Defender Network Inspection Service

Double-click on it and next to Startup type, change it to Automatic.

Next find Windows Defender Service:

Double-click on it and next to Startup type, change it to Automatic.

Also, you can try this:

Click Start--->Settings--->Update & Security--->Windows Defender - turn Windows Defender On, turn Cloud-based protection On, and Automatic Sample Submission On or Off at your discretion. If you see the buttons grayed out so that you cannot change the settings, scroll all the way to the bottom of that dialog and click "Open Windows Defender". Then, if you see this:


you have other antivirus/antimalware installed it has disabled Windows Defender. If this is the case, you should not be getting nags to turn Windows Defender on. You should check with your antivirus vendor.



Virginia wants to know if we will ever put out a guide to using Windows 10
Hi, you two geniuses! I see that you guys are offering a tremendous amount of great Windows 10 "things to know". As I don't plan on getting Win10 until my present computer with Win7 dies, I will by then have missed out on all this great advice you're now putting out. Will you, in the future, have one of your yearly Guides specifically for Win10 with everything you are now putting in this weekly Newsletter?

Our answer
Thanks so much for your nice comments Virginia. We don't want to exclude the possibility of publishing a guide for Windows 10, but we will certainly continue to publish our annual e-books, which as you know, contain every article, from every issue of InfoAve Premium from the previous year (52 issues). As time goes by, more and more of our newsletters will be devoted to Windows 10, we will continue to include tips, advice, and problem solving articles for Windows 7 and 8x users. Our next e-book due out next November will feature every one of our Windows 10 tips from every one of our newsletters - and our e-books are searchable making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.

One thing we also want to point out, because we think it's overlooked or forgotten, is our InfoAve Website at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/new/ has a GREAT search engine. If we've written a tip or an article and posted it on that site (there are over 2000 tips posted there) you can find it in a few seconds using our Site Search feature - it works great:


Just type in what your looking for in the search box (highlighted in yellow), then click "Google Search".

And in less than 1 second you'll find everything we've written about downloading Windows 10 installation media and other related articles.



So, even though you're using Windows 7 right now, Virginia, you can user our search at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/new/ to find answers to your Windows 7 questions. And when you get Windows 10 - there will be a ton of information and tips about Windows 10 waiting for you!

Emsisoft - the best protection from stuff you don't want on your computer. One year license	Emsisoft - the best protection from stuff you don't want on your computer - One year Renewal	Emsisoft - the best protection from stuff you don't want on your computer - with Cloudeight Install

Enable the Super Administrator Account
Windows 7, 8x and Windows 10

Most people think their user account on Windows is an administrator account, but they are only partially right. When you’re logged into your account you’ll notice that sometimes you have to right-click a file and choose “Run as administrator” or you'll have to click OK to a UAC (User Account Control) prompt to run or open a certain program.

If you want complete and total administrator control over your computer, you can do it by creating what’s known as a Super Administrator account. Before we show you how to create one, we’ll warn you that you shouldn’t login using this account unless you need install something, create a new normal admin account, or make many changes that require elevated (super admin) privileges. And also, when you create this account it will not be password protected, so make sure you assign a password to it right away.

OK here’s how to create a Super Administrator account on Windows 7, 8, and 10.

In Windows 7, type CMD in the start menu search. When Command Prompt appears at the top, right click it and choose “Run as administrator”.

In Windows 8x, press and hold the Windows Key and press the S key, type CMD in the search box. When Command Prompt appears, right click it and choose “Run as administrator”.

In Windows 10, right click on the Start button, choose "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the menu.

Once you have the Command windows open the following instructions apply to Windows 7, Windows 8x and Windows 10:

At the prompt type:

net user administrator /active:yes

Now press Enter

You should now see “The command completed successfully”.

Now log out of your regular account (Windows Key + L) and you will see “Administrator” as an option on the login screen,

At this point, please set a password for this new account. And remember, do not use this account for everyday computing.

Should you ever wish to disable the Super Administrator account, just open command prompt again (Run as administrator).

And at the prompt type:

net user administrator /active:no

Turn on Windows 10 Spotlight and get a lot of great desktop wallpaper
Windows 10 Home (does not work in Windows 10 Pro)

If you’re not paranoid about Microsoft snooping, and you like beautiful pictures you can use for desktop wallpaper, this tip is for you.

First, when you turn Windows Spotlight on, Microsoft will download, randomly, new images (wallpaper) for your Lockscreen. So you’ll not only have the default choices, but over time you’ll accumulate a nice collection of photos that you can use as desktop wallpaper - and which you cannot get anywhere else.. Most of them are beautiful, interesting or intriguing --  and make great desktop wallpaper

So the first thing you’ll need to do is turn on Windows Spotlight.

Click on the Start button
Click Settings
Click Personalization
Click Lockscreen
Under “Background” use the arrow to select “Spotlight” (see below):

Once you’ve turned on Spotlight, all the pictures will be saved to a folder. All the files will have long, incomprehensible names without an extension. Don’t worry. That’s just Microsoft being Microsoft and making things convoluted. We’ll show you how to get all the pictures from that directory.

But first you have to find that directory. Here’s how to do it. Press the Windows Key + R to open the Run command.

Copy & paste the following command in to the Run box and then press Enter.

%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

If you did that right, you’ll be staring at a folder full of files – all with long, meaningless names (see below).

The next step is to select all the files in that folder. You do this by selecting one then pressing CTRL+A. Or if you have Check boxes enabled, just click the box next to “Name”.

Once they are all selected, right-click on the selected files and click on “Copy”. As soon as you do, you’ll get a warning (see below):

Click OK to dismiss the warning.

Browse to the folder you want to save these files in. We suggest you save them in Pictures. Create a folder in Pictures called Lockscreen or Spotlight (or whatever you like). Right-click in the empty folder you created and choose “Paste”. This pastes all of the files you've copied into the folder you created in Pictures.

After you’ve done that, close the folder. We need to change the file extensions on each one of those files, and we don’t want to do that one-by-one, right. So we’ll do them all at once. Right click on the folder you created -- make sure the folder is closed -  and choose “Open command window here”.

A command window will open. At the prompt type:

Ren *.* *.jpg

 If you’re getting an error when you type it in, copy and paste the command above at the command prompt.

The batch file rename process will complete in a few seconds and all files in that directory will have a JPG extension.

IF YOU DO NOT SEE “Open command window here” in your right-click menu, try holding down the shift key and then right-clicking the folder. You should see “Open a command window here” in your right-click menu. If you do not see it or if you want to have “Open a command window” always show -- see this page.

After you’ve done that, open the folder and browse the pictures. You’ll have a few there even if you have just enabled Spotlight – a lot more to come. However, we suggest waiting a while after you’ve enabled Spotlight so you’ll have a bigger selection of pictures to choose from. Keep in mind some files will not be suitable for wallpaper and you won’t be able to open some of the files because they were not pictures to begin with.

I just enabled Spotlight on this computer, and here are some of the images I had in that folder already:

So now you know about Windows Spotlight, what it does, and how you can use pictures from it for your desktop wallpaper, start screen, Lockscreen and more.

Oh yes, we almost forgot. This is TC's current desktop - image courtesy of Windows Spotlight:

Windows 10 Shortcuts
Windows 10

Shortcuts save you time, but only if you remember them. Here are some Windows 10 shortcuts we think you'll find useful - some more than others, of course. These are the ones we use most often; we hope they will save you time too! The more you use a shortcut, the easier it is to remember. So try using keyboard shortcuts as often as you can. And remember, in Windows there are most always several ways to accomplish the same thing.

Note: In the tip below we use Winkey to represent the Windows Key. The Windows Key is the key with the Windows logo on it, usually located on the bottom row of your keyboard just to the right of the Ctrl key or the second key to the right of the Ctrl key. The exact location varies with keyboards, laptops, desktops, etc.

Winkey  Opens the Start menu
Winkey + E  Opens File Explorer
Winkey + Tab Activates Task View
Winkey + A Activates Action Center
Winkey + C Activates Cortana with speech
Winkey + D Shows desktop
Winkey + E Opens File Explorer
Winkey + G Activates Xbox game bar to let you record games or take screenshots.
Winkey + H Activates share feature in Windows 10 apps
Winkey + I Opens Windows 10 settings
Winkey + K Activates Connect feature to stream to wireless displays / audio devices
Winkey + L Locks the machine
Winkey + R Run a command
Winkey + S Activates Cortana
Winkey + Q Activates Cortana
Winkey + U Opens Ease of Access center
Winkey + X Opens power user features (Same as right-clicking the Windows 10 Start button.)
Winkey + Ctrl + D Creates a new virtual desktop
Winkey + Ctrl + F4 Close virtual desktop
Winkey + Ctrl + Left or Right Switch between virtual desktops
Winkey + Shift + Left or Right Move apps from one monitor to another.

Phone Scams - a reminder
All Windows Users

Even after writing about phone scams many times, it never fails that we get two or three emails every week from people who were scammed by telephone calls that supposed came from Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, etc. in which someone told them their computers were:

1. Spreading malware
2. Infected with malware
3. Had been hacked
4. Had been comprised by viruses and/or Trojans

Folks...friends... people... listen to us. NO ONE and NO legitimate company is going to call you to tell you your computer is infected. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.

If anyone calls you and tells you that your computer is infected -- HANG UP. If you want to go through the hassle of reporting it to the police -- that's up to you -- but our job is to protect you. Do not talk to these people. NEVER. Especially do not let them "connect to your computer" to implement fixes. They'll implement a backdoor on your computer so their criminal group can access your PC -- or (and more likely) they'll charge you $129 or more to "repair" the infection you never had to begin with. Plus they'll ask you to pay by credit card -- which opens a whole other set of worries.

We've heard from over a dozen subscribers in the last two weeks who've had this happen to them. A few of them fell for it and actually allowed someone they didn't know, to access their computers remotely to know Heaven knows what to their computers. This is a fact. We've worked on computers which have been compromised this way.

And one other thing. If you get call from someone who claims to be from, let's say, Yahoo Tech Support, and you think you're going to be wise and look up the number and call them back -- you might get scammed anyway. You might see something like http://yahootechsupport.gonnascamyou.com/ and see a list of "Yahoo Support" numbers But the domain name is only what shows right before the .com/.net/.org etc. The first part of the URL can be a sub domain --and any domain owner can make a sub domain. See http://halloween.thundercloud.net/ . It's still Thundercloud.net -- no matter what it says before thundercloud.net.

Be careful. And remember NO ONE and NO LEGITIMATE company is going to call you to warn you that your computer is infected with anything. No legitimate company is going to call you and tell you that your computer is spreading spam or malware, not even if your computer is infected - not even if it is spreading spam. Not even if it is spreading malware or viruses.

Please be careful. If anyone calls you to tell you that you have a problem with your PC...Hang up. Do not talk to them, and above all do not allow anyone who calls you unsolicited to connect to your PC remotely. NEVER.



Windows 10 File History
Windows 10 all versions

One of our favorite features in Windows 10 is File History. File History is an automatic update service in Windows 10 that can back up your personal files and folders to an external hard drive, and lets you selectively restore personal files and folders whenever needed. Because not everyone has an external hard drive or a second hard drive, it is not turned on by default. You have to turn it on. To turn on File History, you must have a second hard drive or an external hard drive.

If you have a second internal hard drive, or an external hard drive (plug it in right now if it's not already plugged in) and let's turn on File History,

> Click the Start button, then click settings ( or press WinKey + i ). Click "Update & Security" and then click "Backup" in the left pane.

<

Click on Backup (above) and you'll see "Back up using File History" (below):


Click on the + sign next to "Add a drive" (above). A list of drives useable for backups will appear (below). Select the drive you want to use by clicking on it.



Once you have selected your backup drive you'll see that File History shows it is turned on (see below).



When you click on "More options" (above) you can add or remove folders that you want to include in your File History backup.

So what exactly is File History and what does it do? File History is a backup application that continuously protects your personal files stored in the folders you select on your computer. It periodically (by default every hour) scans the file system for changes and then copies changed files to the selected location. Every time any of your personal files has changed, a copy will be stored on your external drive. As time goes by, File History builds a complete history of changes made to any of your personal files.

Why File History? We all know that we should back up our computers, but less than 10% of us do. We wish we had a dollar for every email we have from someone saying "my computer crashed and I lost everything...." File History makes protecting your data extremely easy -- and automatic. You don't need any special computer skills to use it beyond making sure File History is turned on and running.

File History isn't an image backup, but it is automatic and it will protect your personal files. We can always reinstall software programs and set-up mail accounts again, but if we lose those precious documents, photos, videos, etc. they can't be replaced. And since File History is automatic and all you need is an external hard drive and the ten seconds it takes to turn it on -- so there is no excuse not to use it!

Oh and if you want to create an image backup? No problem. Windows 10 has you covered. in the File History dialog (below) you'll see "Go to backup and restore (Windows 7).



Click on "Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and the Windows 7 Backup and Restore dialog will open (below).



You can create an image backup from there - assuming you have enough space on your external or second internal hard drive..



Weather or not you like Windows 10 apps
Windows 10

Yes, we know, it’s whether. But really, it’s not. It’s weather. The stuff of novels and movies and warnings and car accidents and wonder and rainbows and you know all the stuff that weather brings and inspires. And whether or not you like Windows 10 apps, we have a feeling if you try the Windows 10 Weather app – I mean really give it try, you’ll come to like it very much. And you’ll use it.

We have worked on several thousand computers with our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service, and one thing we’ve learned is that people love photos, games, music and WEATHER programs. There are ton of them, many irritating (WeatherBug, Weather Channel Desktop) etc. A lot of flash and blink and annoy. Other’s flash and blink and annoy – PLUS display ads.

If you’re using Windows 10, you don’t need to download no stinkin’ weather programs, we tells ya! What more could you ask than current conditions. extended forecast, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, moon phase, record high and low for any date. Average highs and lows for any date. Real-time radar with animation, weather news, and on and on. Beside your location, you can add as many other locations as you want.

Let’s take a gander at EB’s Windows 10 Weather App setup shall we?



Every day’s a rainy day with EB! See?

Baby it’s COLD outside!





You can see the forecast for today in detail. Or click on any day in the 7-day forecast range to get the nitty-gritty. Above you can see the record high and average high (not shown but displayed are record low and average low). You can see the moon is waning. You can see it will set at 8:48 P.M. local time. The sun – what there is of it this time of year – will rise (we hope) an 8:12 A.M. when EB will turn over in her $5000 Sleep Number bed and yawn. She’ll text me to make sure I’m working, then she’ll turn over and go back to sleep until noon or so.



Above the regional radar for our neck of the woods. Below you can see our local radar and the animation progress bar near the bottom.



EB has homes all over the world – she likes to check the weather at all of her vacation homes so she can visit the one where the weather is ideal – depending on whether she wants to play golf, lie in the sun, or watch girls in grass skirts shaking on the sand …wait that’s me, not EB.

Anyway, she affords all this by paying me a pauper’s wage and forcing me to eat gruel and drink Kool-Aid.


In case you are wondering, her boyfriend Gustav, lives in Lakewood. If not for old Gustav, I assure you, Lakewood, Ohio would not be in her favorites.

EB has decided it will be French Polynesia for her next week...and milk of magnesia for me. She is planning on tanning up for Gustav.



Wait! Breaking news! She has just bought some Amazon rain forest property and will be setting up a vacation home there... she wants some really steamy weather to match her steamy demeanor. She also wants to swim in the Amazon doing some hunting (fishing?) for Vandellia cirrhosa, also known as candiru, cañero, toothpick fish, or vampire fish. She doesn’t go fishing for them for food, she does it for sport. She's a wild one! In case you're curious, you can read more about candiru and you’ll see.

The Weather App in Windows 10 even has a page of weather-related news you can read, when you’re not reading about the candiru fish.

All you have to do to set up your Windows 10 Weather app, is to click on your start button and click on Weather. At the bottom you’ll see a gear icon (yes the one Microsoft filched from Google). Click the gear icon to set up your location and you’re on the way. If you want to add more locations, click on the Star icon on the left side (see?).



Guess which icon you click if you want t go back to your home (local) forecast? Right, the house! How quaint.

We think you’ll really like Windows 10’s Weather app, even if you’re not a big fan of apps.

EB said she’ll email me from Manaus. We’ll see.



Cloudeight InfoAve Daily - Our other newsletter!

Get our daily newsletter - it's short, sweet and free! It's sent 6 nights a week. Each issue features a computer tip or trick or interesting tidbit. It's a quick & easy read. Sign up for Cloudeight InfoAve Daily right now - it's free and you can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up - here - and now!

When Something Beautiful Dies

When we let something beautiful die the world is a less beautiful place. We tend to a prize rose bush and we water it every day and we prune it when it needs pruning. We feed it and we tend to it and we enjoy its perfect fragrant blooms. Every day we look at it and take pride in it and we derive pleasure from its beauty. We look at that rose bush every day and we don’t notice that some of its leaves, the ones hidden inside away from the sun have started to wither. We don’t notice the leaves which are hiding from the sun have died. We only see the beautiful roses glowing facing the sun.

Year after year we tend to that prize rose bush and year after year a few more leaves inside it are starting to brown and wither – and die. One morning, before a rain, when the rose bush braces itself for an approaching storm, we notice something doesn’t look quite right with it, but we brush it aside. We pretend we didn’t notice. We don’t like to think that something is terribly wrong with the rose bush that we have cherished and tended and cared for so many years.

We think maybe a little more plant food and a little more water is all it needs. So we feed it and water it a little more often. It just needs a little more pruning, we think and we prune it a little more. And we notice, as we’re trimming it back, that so many of the leaves inside it are dying – or dead. A little more care will help, we think. So we tend to it more and do all the things we think will make it healthy again, but the leaves keep withering and the leaves keep dying and we keep trying to ignore what we see. We get a different brand of plant food and we think perhaps we are watering it too much. So we alter the care we give it, but the leaves keep dying.

We notice one day that even those leaves which used to glow healthy and green in the sun every day are withering and starting to die.

And then it happens. One morning we wake up and we notice even the blooms are withering and the bush itself is deformed and ugly. Well, maybe not ugly, but It isn’t as beautiful as it used to be. It has become bent and stooped, and the blossoms smaller and fading – and some of the rose petals have fallen off and are swirling around on the ground in a hot summer wind...

Operation Cleansweep 2016

TreeSize

We all care about our tree size I suppose. Maybe you exaggerate yours? How big is your tree, EB? Oh, come on, it's not that big! But while it's nice to compare trees, TreeSize has nothing to do with the trees your thinking of. In fact, these days, you rarely hear of a hard drive file structure being referred to as a tree. But just like your family tree, your hard drive has a tree too. The tree has branches (files and folders) - and so on and so forth. That's how the developer arrived at the name "TreeSize". Because your directories are all branches of a tree - metaphorically speaking.

Anyway...

Most of us have hard drives so big we don't worry about how big our trees are. We never give it much thought. But the other day, we were working on a customer's computer and her large hard drive was nearly out of space. Indeed. But try as I might, I could not find the folder which was taking up so much space. There are thousands of folders, there is only so much time, so we needed help. That's when we discovered TreeSize. Using TreeSize we were able to pinpoint the folder taking up a whole lot of the hard drive space in about 5 seconds (and we are not kidding). It turned out to be a temporary internet files folder located in the wrong directory - so it was never being cleaned. It was over 130 GB in size. Once we found the folder and knew what it contained, we were able to delete the folder and its contents and make all 130+ GB of hard drive space useable again. Happy! Happy! Happy! We do love happy customers.

Now most of you are going to say you have terabyte hard drives and you're not worried about hard drive space anymore than Bill Gates worries about where his next meal is coming from. But even uncle Bill doesn't throw away money just because he's got several tons of it. Nope, you can be sure uncle Bill knows where all his money is all of the time. So you may be rich with hard drive space, but there's no sense in wasting it. Besides, it's kind of fun to see what folders and files are using up the most hard drive space. I know what you're thinking...only TC & EB would have fun like that. But no, wait, you would have fun too. But you need our freeware pick in order to have fun.

So without further pomp and circumstance, let us introduce you to the inventor, developer and promoter of our freeware pick "TreeSize". Take it away!

"Even in the times of cheap terabytes a final truth remains: Sooner or later every hard disk will near capacity. But there is help! TreeSize Free tells you where precious disk space has gone.

"The freeware can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders in an Explorer-like fashion. Large folders can be identified at a glance thanks to the gradient bar displayed in the background. All scan results can be drilled down to file level and filters, e.g. for files of a certain type, can be applied. TreeSize Free will even scan smartphones and mobile devices.

"TreeSize Free scans network drives and locally synchronized cloud shares (except on Windows servers and within a Windows domain) - just like TreeSize Personal!

"The column view presents more detailed information for each file and folder. Here you will find the size or number of files as well as the last access date and the owner (and other useful facts).

"On touchscreen devices (Windows 8 and higher) you can switch to the intuitive touch interface for even easier navigation.

"Scan results can be broken down with the flexible filter feature. You can use the filters, for example, to find files of a certain type, such as temporary files, text files or images and use this information to clean up your hard disks.

"TreeSize Free works on the MFT (Master File Table) and reaches extremely high scan speeds. Scanning operations run in a thread, so you will see results almost instantly while TreeSize Free is working in the background. The Explorer context menu and drag & drop operations are supported within the application..."

OK, so he's/she's not laconic like us. We can't help it. TreeSize is the best program we've ever used scan drives and directories to see what files / folders are using up the most space. You can scan external drives with TreeSize too. It makes a wonderful gift to yourself, and the free version is very cheap - it's free. We all should give ourselves nice cheap gifts from time to time.

Oh happy day! I have tons of tree left. I have a big tree, EB! Looks like my Users folder is hogging up more of the space in use. But I'm not even using 100GB of the terabyte (1024 GB) drive I have. But waste not, want not. That's EB's mantra. Especially when it comes to my salary. Paying me is a waste, she says.

But downloading an using TreeSize is not a waste. It's informative even if you're not running out of hard drive space. It's easy to use, it's free from malware and download tricks. You don't even have to install it. TreeSize is available as a portable software version (zip file), or an installed version (Windows installer) or in a version you can use to create a TreeSize USB stick. You can download any of the 3 versions of TreeSize from this page.

If you want to read more about TreeSize, as if you haven't read enough already, you can do so from this page. But you need to go to this page to download it. Got it? Good! Now go find out how big your tree is, EB.

About screen shots

A Screen Shot is an adult drink. You take one ounce of tequila, one ounce of Scotch, one ounce of Vermouth, four ounces of cheap beer, a bunch of large prunes, a tomatillo and a cup or two of ice. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend for 8 minutes and 19 seconds -exactly. After blending, let mixture stand for at least 2 days before consuming. Warning: Make sure you're sitting down before you drink this mixture. Do not drive or operate machinery while drinking. Make sure a bathroom is nearby. DO NOT DRINK NEAR FIRE OR FLAMES!

Oh, just kidding. You knew that.

A screen shot is an image taken from a computer screen. It can be the whole screen or just a part of the screen. Normally, screen shots are used to provide help for computer users and illustrate a program's functions. Sometimes multiple screen shots are used in creating tutorials. A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say.

You can make a screen shot right now, without downloading an image editor or anything else. Press your Print Screen key (it's up there near the top-left of your keyboard -usually). Do it! Now click Start/Run and type in MSPAINT (just like that). When Paint opens, click "Edit" then "Paste". Now click "File", "Save as" (give your file a name), use the drop down arrow to choose JPG format (this keeps your image smaller in KB) and save it. That's all there is to making a screen shot. Yes, we know you can use other things besides Paint to make screen shots and most of them work better with more options and yada, yada, yada. We're just helping neophytes make screen shots without stopping to download Mr. Greenies' Screen Shot Wonder Macheeny ..ya know?

Oh, and as EB reminded me by swatting me in the back of the head with an iron:  in windows 10, just click windows key and PrtScr button (usually on top row of keys to the right) and it automatically puts the screenshot in a folder named Screenshots in your Pictures directory. No need for any program.

Ouch! That hurt EB!