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It’s a multi-layer question & answer set up. Each successive question is
based on how you answered the previous question, until, at last, you finally arrive at an
answer and, hopefully, a solution.
If you want to give it a try,
visit this Microsoft page right now.
My drives are OK – hope yours are too. If you get error messages or codes, be
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your data is backed up on a drive (external) that is OK.
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Controlling active windows using your keyboard
Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10
If you are like EB, a control
freak, and you’re busy all the time, you probably have many windows open
at once. Clicking your mouse can be tiresome and time consuming.. at
least for EB who thinks more than one step to complete a task is more
than anyone should endure (i.e., All that shaking to make a martini? Let
TC do it!)
You can quickly switch between your email, browser,
e-mail, graphic programs, messenger, and other programs without taking
your hands off the keyboard, or your beer!
Minimize a window to
your taskbar
ALT – SPACEBAR – N (in one-at-a-time quick sequence, not
at the same time)
Maximize a window so it takes up your whole
desktop
ALT – SPACEBAR – X (in sequence)
Switch to the last
window you had open
Hold down ALT, then click TAB key
Switch
to any open program/window
While holding down the ALT key, press TAB
key until the window you want is visible/on top
Close a window
Hold down ALT key, then click F4
Restore a window so it’s visible
but does not take up your whole desktop
ALT – SPACEBAR – R (in
sequence)
If you use these commands often, you will find that it
gets really automatic for you after a while; you will be much more
efficient!
I'm tired of shaking this, EB!
Managing File History in Windows 10
Windows 10
File History is great
feature of Windows 10, but it can be even better with some tweaking by you. If
you have not turned on File History yet or don’t know what it is,
you can learn more about File History here.
By default, Windows 10
File History saves copies of files and folders until space on the drive gets
low. And by default it backs up new or changed versions of files/folders every
hour.
We’ve left our “Save copies of files” at the default
settings -“Every hour”. Using the drop down menu, you can choose anything from
every 10 minutes to every day. Every hour is good for us. When writing a
newsletter or doing graphics work, saving files every hour gives us a fallback
just in case, if a program freezes or we accidentally reboot our computers, the
work is saved in File History every hour. So we might not get all our work back,
but the most we’ll lose is an hour’s work, instead of the entire day’s work.
We don’t work fast enough
to have to set it to every ten minutes, do we EB?
But let’s go beyond the
stuff
we already covered in this article and show you some advanced settings in
File History, specifically, how to clean up File History. You can clean up all
the file history but the latest ones, or choose to clean up all files older than
1 months, 2 months, 3 months, and all the way up to 2 years.
So how do you get to these
settings? In Windows 10, right-click on the Start Button can choose “Control
Panel”. Make sure you’re in icon view (top right) and click on File History. In
the left pane you’ll see “Advanced settings”. Click on “Advanced settings”.
Once you click on Advanced
settings you’ll see the dialog below. Click on “Clean up versions” and you’ll
see the “Delete older versions of files and folders” dialog (below).
You can clean up your File
History files and folder backups by selecting one of the options of under delete
files (see below). You can choose to delete files “Older than 1 month” or all
the way up to 2 years. You can also choose to save only the very newest copy of
each file/folder.
And that’s how you can
keep your File History clean. (EB's file history will never be clean, but that's
another story!) You’ll also note you can change the File History drive and
exclude folders from your File History backup. Now you can take control of
Windows 10 File History.
A Word About Email
All Windows Users
Some of you are using Windows Live Mail and are now having problems with receiving email from Microsoft accounts. A Microsoft account is any email address ending in any of the following:
@outlook.com
@hotmail.com
@live.com
@msn.com
It seems that Microsoft is trying to get users to use the Mail app in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, but it's so limited not many people like it and even fewer people use it. (Here's a tip for Microsoft! Bring back Windows Mail or Outlook Express and make it THE MAIL APP! Duh!)
All of you who have a Microsoft account can check your email online, anytime you want, by going to https://www.outlook.com/ and using your full email address as your user name (i.e. tomdickandharry @hotmail.com ) and your password.
In fact, you can check most email online. Most ISPs like @roadrunner.com, @charter.net, @centurylink.net, etc. offer Web mail. So if you can't find an email program you like that does what you want it to do, remember you can use your browser to check almost any email account you have..
So just because your Microsoft accounts don't work for you anymore in Windows
Live Mail doesn't mean you can't check your email. All you need is a browser.
SaferWeb: Not So Safe
All Windows users
In the past two weeks we’ve over a dozen people ask us about SaferWeb. Since we have never had an inquiry about SaferWeb before, we are thinking perhaps SaferWeb is being bundled with other programs or buying a large number of advertisements. So we decided to look into “SaferWeb”.
SaferWeb is a browser add-on that connects you via a VPN to the Web, thus (theoretically) by passing your ISP. Supposedly, SaferWeb protects you from being tracked by anyone since the internet connection grid goes something like this:
You —> Your ISP—>SaferWeb’s VPN servers –> The internet
Theoretically your ISP can’t track you because they only see that you’re connection to a VPN service and anything you do on the Internet cannot be tracked.
The truth:
Legitimate VPNs do enhance your online privacy and security by routing your connection through a VPN server. The best VPN services don’t keep server logs so there is no tracking of your internet activity. However most VPN services do keep logs, and more and more are being pressured into logging user activity because of the rising threat of terrorism. However, still some VPN services still don’t log user activity – these VPN services have servers in countries that do not cooperate with the “West” in anti-terrorism or anything else. You should be leery about using one of these.
VPNs can be helpful in increasing your online security and limiting tracking. They are also useful if you live in a country that blocks certain Web sites, or if, for example, you live in Canada and you cannot access a service that is for the USA only. A good VPN service would allow you to select an American VPN server which would automatically assign an IP address that would show your geographical location as somewhere in the USA, while you’re actually in Canada.
There are many legitimate VPN services, such as CyberGhost, available. SaferWeb is not one of them.
SaferWeb is classified as a browser hijacker, PUP, malware or adware. “Should I Remove It” says that 84% of those who installed SaferWeb recommend against installing it. Most within a week:
“…A majority of users end up uninstalling this less than a week of it being installed. The setup package generally installs about 8 files and is usually about 2.28 MB (2,390,572 bytes).
Malware detected in the program.
Integrates into the web browser
Typically distributed through a pay-per-install bundle
Injects advertisements unassociated with the underlying web page
Most users and experts agree, you should remove it!…”
Read more at: http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/saferweb-102565-program.aspx
We checked out SaferWeb’s reputation and found these comments:
After signing up for this, it made my computer worse. I tried emailing them to stop further automatic withdrawals, as I didn’t like their product and didn’t intend to use it. They charged me $9.95 plus $5.99 for a book, which they never sent. Then on July 12, 2016, they took another $14.97 out of my bank account after my having emailed them several times not to charge me anymore! I want my money returned promptly!!! (See https://reportscam.com/saferwebcom/#9726)
After signing up for a promotional cost of 9.95, a charge of 119.64 also showed up on my billing invoice. Servers could not connect, upon further investigating…NONE of their servers were available to Denver, Colorado, even the server the Help Center recommended to use. If you think your getting security for a trial of 10 bucks…you’re not. You’re getting taken for a ride. (See https://reportscam.com/saferwebcom/#9726 )
BE WARNED! Claimed to sell me software for safe internet for $4.99 and charged me $119.64 unauthorized and the software does not work.. also they do not answer their phone number provided and have not returned the support ticket email response. Stay away from these scammers. BE WARNED!! (See https://reportscam.com/saferwebcom/#9726)
From our research, some of the best malware scanners detect SaferWeb as malware/adware. While there are some favorable reviews, we look at them askance, since the reviewers may be getting paid by SaferWeb.
Our advice: Avoid SaferWeb. Many reports indicate it is malware, adware and/or a hijacker; others report it as a scam.
If you’re interested in a free or commercial VPN, there are many to choose from. One good one we’ve used is CyberGhost. If you want to read more about VPNs, visit this page. All being said, most users don’t need a VPN.
The only way to be 100% safe and secure online is not to be online – but then you have Social Security numbers, driver’s license info, credit card numbers, etc. floating around the Web too. So you’re going to have to minimize your exposure there too.
Best advice: Use your common sense and be wary.
Gmail Power Trick: Send & Archive
Everyone who uses Gmail
If your Gmail inbox contains a long list of emails that you’ve already replied to (and by default they’ll stay in your inbox even after you’ve replied), here’s a tip that allows you to reply and archive an email at the same time. So when you reply to someone, their email is moved from the inbox to the “all mail” folder as soon as you hit the “Send & Archive” button.
So how do you get the “Send & Archive button”? Easy!
Open Gmail, and click on the gear icons near the top right. Choose “Settings”.
Under the “General” tab, next to “Send and Archive” tick the box next to “Show ‘Send & archive button in reply”.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click “Save changes”.
Now when you reply to an email using the Send & Archive button, the mail you replied to is moved out of your inbox and archived in the “All Mail” folder, making for a much neater inbox. And you still have a copy of the mail in your Sent folder and the All Mail folder.
Read the rest of this essay here.
If you have upgraded to Windows 10 or you have purchased a new
Windows 10 computer... Sounds Abound "About Freesound - What is this site anyway? Oh yes, there’s more and more and more, but all you
probably care about is listening to and downloading sound snippets – why, maybe
you could even convert the sound of a blowfish blowing, into a cell phone ring
tone! Or worse, convert EB's voice into an alarm clock - it would sure jolt you
out of a peaceful slumber. Whoa! I almost forgot! You can
visit our site pick "Freesound" right here.
What is a hijacker?
EB is a hijacker. She hijacks my day and makes me her slave. That's what
a hijacker is.
No! No! No! We're talking computers here, right? Most generally the term
"hijacker" applies to a web browser, like Chrome, Firefox, Internet
Explorer, Edge, etc.). A hijacker is considered a form of malware. It's
more of an annoyance than a danger. If you don't know how to remove a
hijacker it can be aggravating.
A hijacker either changes your start page to something other than what
you want, changes your default search engine to something other than you
want, or both.
What's in it for the hijacker? Money. If a hijacker changes your start
page to something other than what you want or changes your search engine
to something other than what you want, they're diverting you to pages
and searches that make them money.
Hijackers are generally installed when installing a software program. Be
very careful when installing software and read every dialog during the
installation. Uncheck anything you don't want or don't recognize.
Most hijackers can be removed easily, but some are very tricky. The best
way to deal with hijackers is not to get them in the first place. Also,
use good security software like
Emsisoft and heed
any warnings you get. ***
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If you like
sound effects – for whatever reason – we’ve found a place with thousands of
sound clips you can listen to and download (you have to register for the site to
download, but it’s free).
So if you’re looking for the sound of a jet
plane taking off, or thunder rippling through the sky, or the sound of rain
pounding down on a metal roof, or a goat bleating, or a cow mooing or whatever
(everything but the grating sound of EB’s voice), you’ll probably find what
you’re looking for at Freesound.
Indeed…
The folks at Freesound
would like to tell you more about their site and sounds. We’re Cloudeight and we
approved this message:
"Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets,
samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under Creative Commons licenses that
allow their reuse. Freesound provides new and interesting ways of accessing
these samples, allowing users to:
-- browse the sounds in new ways using
keywords, a “sounds-like” type of browsing and more
-- upload and download
sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
--
interact with fellow sound-artists!
"We also aim to create an open
database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research and be
integrated in third party applications. Using the Freesound API researchers and
developers can access Freesound content a retrieve meaningful sound information
such as metadata, analysis files and the sounds themselves. See the developers
section and the API documentation for more information. Freesound API usage is
free for non-commercial use, but it can also be licensed for being used in
commercial applications..."
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Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - Issue #669
Volume 13 Number 42
August 5, 2016
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