Thanks to Linda, Macy, Timothy, Larry, Rose 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

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Manage Disk Space and More With Windows 10 Storage
Windows 10

There are many free tools for analyzing disk space, but if you’re using Windows 10, you don’t need no stinkin’ tools. All you need is Windows 10 Storage feature. Additionally, if you want to save your documents, pictures, music, videos, etc. to an external or second hard drive, Windows Storage makes it easy to do that too.

So, let’s discover what Windows 10 Storage can do for you. Press the Windows Key + i (I like Ice cream) or click on the Start button and choose Settings and then click on System. When the System dialog opens, click on Storage.

(Isn't that torn edge effect slick? You gotta love FastStone Capture!)

When the Storage dialog opens, you’ll see your hard drive (or drives) displayed, along with used and unused space for each drive.

Now, if you want to know where all your space is being used, click on the drive and you’ll see a dialog like the one below showing where the space is being used. I click on Drive C:\ my Windows drive. It looks good to me. I have plenty of space. I’m using less than 15%...I'm a good boy, right EB?

Now I take a click on my G drive (external drive) because I see a lot of space being used up and I wonder where all the space is going.

Hmm… Other is using up 651 GB of space. I click on “Other” to see what “Other” consists of:

I quickly see that File History is using up about 40 % of the 625 GB of the space being used. If I click on File History – I can dig deeper.

But now I know what I can do to free up some hard drive space on my external drive should I need more space. And I know how to clean up File History – and if you read this post, you’ll know how too!

Now you know what Windows 10 “Storage” is and how to use it to find out how your hard drive space is being used. 

One more thing about Windows 10 Storage
Windows 10

There is another thing you can do with Storage that we didn’t mention, and that is that you can manage your temporary files from Windows 10 Storage too.

So open Storage by going to Settings (press Windows key + i or click on the Start button and click Settings). In “Settings” click on “System” and in “System” click on “Storage”. Get the full scoop on opening working with Windows 10 Storage here.

Next select the drive you want to manage. For this article, we’ve chosen our Windows drive – Drive C:\ . If you look at the list that opens when we clicked our C:\ drive, you’ll see in the list, “Temporary files”. (Note that this is an unreasonably large quantity of Temporary files, but this screen shot came from EB’s PC and you can see she’s quite messy, unlike me :-) )

And when you click on Temporary files you see the Temporary Files dialog (below):
 

Notice that beneath “Temporary files” is a button “Delete temporary files”. As you can probably imagine if you click that, you’ll delete the unnecessary temp files on your computer. If you let your eyeballs float down lower, you will see you can even delete the contents of your Recycle Bin from here too. I sure hope EB cleans her recycle bin soon!

One more important thing you’ll see on this list is "Previous version of Windows”. You’ll have the option to remove previous versions of Windows and save a lot of space, but heed this WARNING: If you do this you will not be able to go back to the previous version of Windows. After you upgrade to Windows 10, you have 30 days to keep Windows 10 or return to your previous operating system without losing anything. However if you choose to delete your previous version of Windows less than 30 days after you install Windows 10 – you’ll lose the option to return to your previous version of Windows without losing anything. According to Microsoft, and from what we’ve seen, after 30 days the previous version of Windows is removed.

I’m concerned about the junk on EB’s PC. I’m going to clean it when she’s not looking.
 

On top of the Windows 10 Start menu
Windows 10

Most of us love simple, quick tips. They’re easy to remember and we’re likely to use them. Well, if you like simple, quick tips, you’ll really like this one.

Open your Windows 10 Start menu by clicking on the Start button (or just pressing your Windows key). At the very top you’ll see the name of the account with which you’re logged in. I’m logged in with my “thunder” account so, as you can see below, at the very top-left of my Start menu is the name “thunder”. As much as I wish I could tell you that was my picture, I can’t. He’s much more handsome than I :-)


 
Did you know that when you click your account name at the top, you’ll have the option to change your account settings, lock your computer, sign out, or log into a different account (if you have one)? As you can see below, you can, and it all happens when you click on your account name at the very top-left of your Windows 10 Start menu.

A few words about locking your computer:

Did you know if you get up from your computer and don’t want anyone messing with it, locking your computer is a great way to keep other people out of your computer if you should have to step away from it for any reason. You can lock your computer as shown above, or, more simply, by pressing the Windows Key + L . As soon as you lock your computer you’ll see the lock screen appear, and you’ll need a password to get back into your computer. I do this all the time to keep EB out of my computer when I have to go bring her food or drink, draw her bath water, fix her tea or coffee, mix her a martini or take her car in for service. She calls me Jeeves.
.
Have you ever met Windows 10’s Get Started?
Windows 10

Yeah, I know. It used to be when Windows had Help section or Get Started with Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1, we’d all snicker because it was nothing but a bunch of unhelpful gibberish written by some overpaid geek English major for whom Microsoft had no other use. So they stuck geeks with English degrees in a room and commanded them to write junk no one would look at – but make sure there are no grammatical errors or misspellings lest ye want to be toted off to the guillotine and behead by Bill and the rest of the MS honchos.

But today, in the era of Windows 10, EB and I took at look at Get Started and you know what? They fired those geeky English majors and hired hacks like us to give you tips you could really use. Obviously written by actual people without English degrees, and apparently reigning in their geekiness, Microsoft has made Getting Started feature in Windows 10 an excellent feature for beginners and advanced users a like. For instance, who knew that Windows PCs and tablets now play nice with Apple and Android devices? (Put your hand down, EB, you did not know that.) It’s true, and you can learn more in “Getting Started” on Windows 10.

So how do you find this so-called Get Started feature in Windows 10. We’re glad you asked that question because it just so happens I had a screen shot stuck in EB’s pocket protector.

Click on the Start button, click “All apps” and mosey on down to the “G” section – alphabetically speaking. Click on “Get Started” …duh! (Yes, EB, it's under "G" for "Get Started".)

Once Getting Started opens, click on the little light bulb icon on the left edge. And you’ll be presented with a short video showing you how you work with your Windows 10 start menu – make tiles bigger, smaller, move them around, even make your Start menu wider (like EB) or narrower (like TC).

Click on the star near the left edge, and you’ll learn what’s new in Windows 10…and we don’t mean the Windows 10 that came out on July 29, 2015, we mean the latest update of Windows 10.

Look above: See? The new gang assigned to writing this stuff are certainly not English majors; apparently they have trouble with plurals and verb agreement. But hey, we’ve seen worse…ever seen one of our newsletters?

Moving right along. See below? Just click on the Windows store icon near the left edge and one of the options shows you how to move apps around:

But hey! There’s a lot of stuff in Get Started and we’re not going to cover everything. Number one, we’re too lazy. Number two, you need to be like Magellan and do some exploring on your own.

Lookie below. See you can share stuff between your PC, phone and tablet, no matter who makes the phone and/or tablet. Again, MS flaunts the new breed of geek who dare to write without a degree in English – note the use of the word “stuff”. This is designed to make you feel that these geeks are just plain old people like us.

Now I’m stuffed with knowledge and you will be too, if you just:

1. Click the Windows 10 Start button
2. Click “All apps”
3. Find “G” in the Start menu (Hint: It’s right after "F" and right before "H")
4. Click on “Get Started”

Now go forth and get started exploring all the different tips, tricks and features of Windows 10. We are sure you’ll find some new things here – stuff you can really use.
I love the word “stuff”, don’t you EB? You’re always stuffing stuff in your mouth, whilst I starve. Woe is me.

Cancelling and/or Reviewing your Auto-Pay Subscriptions on PayPal
All users with a PayPal account

We have had a few customers we assisted with Cloudeight Direct Care who had credit card charges for programs and services they did not know they had, nor did they realize they had authorized a subscription payment for. Most recently it has been for MyPCBackup - in all cases, the customer had no idea they had even downloaded it.

Also, since we are now offering our Cloudeight Premium News for free, vs. an annual subscription payment, this is a good time for everyone with a PayPal account to log in to your account and review your subscriptions. If you see something you don't recognize, be sure to cancel it immediately.

PayPal is a great way to pay for online things and here is a great example: For the customers who had unknowingly downloaded and authorized MyPCBackup, they simply had to cancel via PayPal. Had they instead given this company their credit card number, it would have been much more difficult as the company now has their credit card number and can rebill even if you cancel.

On with our tutorial. Below are step by step in instructions, along with screenshots showing each step:

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Look in the upper right hand corner of the page and you will see a little Gear Icon. Click that (see Image A below).
3. A new page will open. Scroll to the very bottom, look on the right side, and click Preapproved Payments (see Image B below).
4. A new page will open showing all subscriptions/preapproved payments and it will indicate if it is active or not. (see Image C below).
5. I am going to cancel Hulu by clicking it and choosing Cancel (see Image D below).

Here is a step-by-step tutorial with screen shots (make sure you're logged into your PayPal account before you begin).

Step 1: Look in the upper right hand corner of the page and you will see a little Gear Icon. Click it.

Step 2: A new page will open. Scroll to the very bottom, look on the right side, and click Preapproved Payments.

Step 3: A page will open showing all your subscriptions and pre-approved payments and tell you if they are active or not.

Step 4: For this example, I click on Hulu (Image C above). I click on it and choose "Cancel".

And that's that. Good job, EB.



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The Funeral

I know this is not a title that is going to draw you in, but if you'll allow me to explain I will. Last weekend, we said goodbye to a lady who I've known for many decades. She was a kind lady who suffered from many chronic conditions, yet through it all she smiled. Having been attacked by a few chronic conditions myself, I know how hard it is to smile through them, so I usually don't. I don't throw myself a pity party if that's what you're thinking - and it was what you were thinking wasn't it? Anyway this wonderful lady always had a smile and a kind word for everyone.

The last couple of years of her life weren't he greatest. Her husband who had been her primary caregiver was not able to care for her or himself any long (he is 97) and the family had no choice but to put them both in nursing home. They both were in failing health - her more than him - and they needed more care than any family member could have provided. And I know they were both thinking surely one of their five children should have and could have taken them in and cared for them, but to be honest, and not to be a defender of the couple's children, the medical care she required was more than the family could provide on a continuing basis.

I know how hard it is to put someone you love in a nursing home - I had to do it with my father. The day my sister and I took him to the nursing facility was one of the worse days of my life. I cried.

Anyway, the lady and her husband languished in the nursing home and hardly anyone visited. Out of the entire family of five children and sixteen grandchildren (and even more great grandchildren and great great grandchildren) only four or five visited them regularly - and less than ten people visited them in the two years they have been residents of nursing home.

On Valentine's Day, the mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great great grandmother and a dear lady passed from this Earth
I went to the funeral out of respect for her.

Since my mom died when I was just ten-years-old, I've dreaded going to funerals. But at my age it's impossible to avoid them...

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Rainmeter

One would think that Rainmeter was a gizmo used by meteorologists to measure rainfall. "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head, but that doesn't mean I don't want snow instead..." OK, apologies to Burt Bacharach and Hal David - if they're still alive, or even if they're not - for munging up their lyrics. Anyway, Rainmeter despite it's name has hardly anything to do with measuring rain or raindrops, but it has a lot to do with showing you, at a glance how your PC is working. High CPU? Not good! High memory usage? Not good! And yes, my dear geek friends, there are many ways to check your PC performance (Task Manager/Performance, Resmon, etc.). But this is pretty and easy to read and simple. We like pretty, easy-to-read, and simple. We are simple but not pretty or easy-to-read (ask the grammar police!). Rainmeter is simple and pretty - and easy-to-read.

The developer is not taciturn. No indeed. He or she is not afraid to spout forth with lots of information about his / her program. So we're not going to mess around and write one of our one-thousand-word introductions. Number one, I'm tired. Number two, Rainmeter can do it better and I can because, after all, it's his or her program.

So first well show you some screen shots and then we'll introduce the developer of Rainmeter who will tell you more about his or her program. Sounds like a plan, right?

Rainmeter on my desktop. You can see (above) I was up bright and early testing this program for you. Notice you can see at glance: Time and date; CPU usage; RAM usage; Disk space; IP address; and more.

You can move the modules around and put them anywhere you want on your desktop.
 

Above: My desktop with Rainmeter showing in the top-right corner.
 

Above and below: Two of the hundreds of skins you can download for Rainmeter.

And now on with the show Here is the developer to tell you more about Rainmeter:

Rainmeter is the best known and most popular desktop customization program for Windows. Enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins; handy, compact applets that float freely on your desktop. Rainmeter skins provide you with useful information at a glance. It's easy to keep an eye on your system resources, like memory and battery power, or your online data streams, including email, RSS feeds, and weather forecasts.

Many skins are even functional: they can record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications, control your media player - all in a clean, unobtrusive interface that you can rearrange and customize to your liking.

There are thousands and thousands of skins available, crafted by a large and ever-growing community of Rainmeter users.

Rainmeter is not just an application, it is a robust toolkit. Create and modify your own skins in a simple language that's easy to learn, with the help of our extensive documentation, getting started guide and skin tutorials. Skins call upon measures, a set of powerful built-in modules that do all the heavy lifting, and create interactive meters to display that information however you decide. In this way, Rainmeter brings productive innovation together with creative artistry like no other platform of its kind.

Rainmeter is a community. People in our forums are always happy to help you get started or answer questions. Over the last few years, a thriving community has built up around Rainmeter, as average users freely contribute their own original skins, their generous knowledge and support, and their inspirational ideas to a project whose scope and capabilities are constantly expanding.

Rainmeter is designed for YOUR system. Rainmeter uses very little CPU and RAM resources, has a tiny space footprint, and will run perfectly well on any hardware using Windows XP through Windows 10.

Rainmeter is free and open source. Rainmeter is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 license. If you want to get involved, check the Rainmeter GitHub repository.

Now, keep in mind we didn't download or test any fancy skins, but on the Rainmeter site is a list of places from which you can download skins - if you're so inclined, Since we only tested Rainmeter and not skins from other sites, we recommend that if you do download additional skins for Rainmeter that you use caution - remember we didn't test any of the skins available from other sites. The screenshots I took on computer were of me using only the default skin, The only change I made was to change the date from Month / Day /Year (as most of the world reads dates) to  Day / Month / Year as those of use here in the USA like to read dates.

While Rainmeter is not something you need, it does make it easy to add information to your desktop that you may find useful...or fun. It's great program. No malware or tricks - just great freeware. Interested? Read more about and/or download Rainmeter from the Rainmeter Website.

What is the "Command Prompt"

Sometimes EB will get angry with me because I'm late for almost everything. She'll say, "I command you to be prompt!" That's one form of command prompt. But you don't want to know about EB and her silly commands, you want to know about the Windows' Command Prompt.

If you're using Windows 10, you can open a Command Prompt by right-clicking on the Start button (or pressing Widnows Key + X) and then choosing "Command Prompt" or "Command Prompt (admin)". It's best to choose Command Prompt (admin) so you don't start typing in commands and get a prompt that you need an elevated command prompt to run a certain command.

If you're using Windows 8x, press the Windows Key + S and type CMD in the Search box, then click on CMD when it appears in the search results. If you want to open an elevated (admin) Command Prompt, right-click on CMD and choose "Run as administrator".

If you're using Windows 7, type CMD in the Start menu search, and click on CMD when it appears at the top. If you want to open an elevated (admin) Command Prompt, right-click on CMD and choose "Run as administrator".

Now that you know how to open a Command Prompt, you want to know what the heck it's for, right? It's for running commands. No, you don't have to be a geek like EB to use it. Here are some things anyone can do using a command prompt:

Check your hard drive for errors (this will not fix errors). You must run this in a Command Prompt with administrator privileges:

Withe the Command Prompt open, type CHKDSK at the prompt (which looks like >) and press Enter

Check your Windows version. Type WINVER at the prompt and press Enter.

Check your Internet settings: Type IPCONFIG at the prompt and press Enter.

Check to see how long it's been since Windows was installed on your computer. Type SYSTEMINFO at the prompt and press Enter.

There are dozens and dozens of commands you can use with the Command Prompt. We can't cover them all  - but if you search for "Windows commands" you'll find many sites with lists of commands you can run from the Windows Command Prompt.

EB, I command you to disappear!

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Emsisoft Anti-Malware- The best anti-malware you'll find anywhere. Great protection -- both proactive and reactive.. Learn more here.

Reg Organizer-- A Swiss Army knife of PC tools. Easy for beginners to use -- with advanced features for experienced users too!! Learn more here.

Cloudeight Direct Computer Care - Computer Repair Service-- And for computer repair, you can't beat our remote repair service. You never have to leave your home, take your computer anywhere or leave it with someone you don't know or trust. We can fix most computer problems and all you have to do is sit back and relax. Learn more here.

Windows 10 Pre/Post Checkup - Make sure your Windows 10 upgrade goes smoothly.

Windows 10 Customization - Want your Windows 10 to look and work like Windows 7 while keeping all the great new features of  Windows 10 - we can do that!

Windows Mail Set up - If you miss Outlook Express/ Windows Mail,, we can set up Windows Mail on your Windows 10 computer- it runs great on Windows 10.

Windows 10 Your Way - Make Windows 10 look and work the way YOU want it to.

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NEW! CLOUDEIGHT DIRECT GLOBAL KEYS ONLY $44 !

For a limited time, we're offering Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Global Keys - good for any Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service. You can use them for:

• Computer repair
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• Windows 10 Customization
• Good for any Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service
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• Global Keys never expire - they are good until you use them.
• Get your Global keys or more information here.

Global Keys will be offered for a limited time only...so grab a couple of Global keys during this limited time special offer. Get your Global keys or more information.

Buy one for yourself. Buy one for a friend or family member. Each Cloudeight Direct Global Key is only $44 and it's good for ANY Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service. Global keys never expire - they're good until you use them. We will only be offering Global keys for a limited time. Don't delay. Get yours today.

Get your Global keys or more information here.

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Have a really great weekend.

Darcy & TC
Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - Issue #645
Volume 13 Number 20
February 26, 2016

 

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER ABOUT SOFTWARE RECOMMENDED IN THIS NEWSLETTER and OTHER IMPORTANT INFO

All software recommendations we make in this newsletter are based on our own experience and testing of the programs that we recommend. This does NOT guarantee they will work on YOUR computer. We assume you will read the program documentation and use the program according to the instructions. We make no guarantees about any program recommended in this newsletter or its suitability for any particular purpose. We will not be responsible for any problems you may have. We do not and cannot provide support for any products other than our own Cloudeight products and we will not answer email concerning any product which is not a Cloudeight product. We urge you to use good judgment when downloading and installing software and to use a program only after reading the program's documentation. And, all Tips & Tricks in this newsletter have been tested by us on several different computers and were found to work as indicated. They may not work on yours. We make no guarantees. Anything we recommend you try and use at your own risk. We will not be responsible for any problems caused by any software programs recommended in this newsletter or any of the tips and tricks in this newsletter...

Readers' comments are their own and Cloudeight Internet LLC is not responsible for comments of our readers. All readers' comments, suggestions, questions, and tips and tricks sent to us become the property of Cloudeight Internet LLC. You understand that we may use your comments without your explicit permission./span>

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