Sol wants to delete his Google account but has lost his password
Good morning question in 2012 I created a Google account I forgot the password. The (recovery) phone number I put in my profile is disconnected and no longer mine. I didn't put a recovery email, I tried many ways to log in and  the last thing i did was report it, but account is still there. I want to delete it completely and Google doesn't have anyone who can help me. Any suggestion of how can i delete my account? I really need help. Thanks.

Our answer
Hi Sol. In order to delete your Google account and profile, you are going to need your password. When you created your Google account you were asked to provide a recovery email address and/or a recovery phone number. Since you didn't give them a recovery email address, and the phone number you gave them no longer works, there is no way for Google to verify that you're the owner of the account. If you can't verify you're the owner of the account, then Google is not going to allow you to delete it. This does not mean Google is treating you unfairly. It means they are protecting your account.

According to Google: "We reserve the right to delete the data in your account after 9 months of inactivity. However, reserving the right is different from declaring that we always will take that action..." So, if your account has been inactive for more than 9 months, Google may delete your account or they may not. There is no guarantee that inactive accounts will ever be deleted.

We're on Google's side as far as requiring a password to delete a Google account and its profile. Just imagine the chaos that would occur if anyone could delete any Google account they wanted, just by writing to Google and saying they lost their password? It would be a mess and criminals would have field day.

The time for shutting the barn door is before the horses have left. This is a reminder to everyone with a Google account to make sure that the recovery email and the recovery phone number in your Google account profile are both up-to-date . You should have both a recovery email address and a recovery phone number in your Gmail account profile. Everyone with a Google account should take some time to make sure the information in your Google account profile is current.  If you're not sure how to do this, we have detailed instructions for you here.



Ron is having problems with Windows Live Mail
I am using Windows Live Mail and often I get my message saying "You've got mail" HOWEVER when I open my mail I DO NOT have any new mail. I cannot find what is going on. Please help. Thanks, Ron.

Our answer
Hi Ron. Here are a few things to consider:

1. the alert may be coming from windows mail (built into windows 10)

2. You may have checked the mail on another computer/phone so no longer in inbox

3 .Windows Live is no longer available, or supported by Microsoft; it may be corrupted. Consider Thunderbird. More info at http://thundercloud.net/tbird .

We have seen a lot of people having problems with Windows Live Mail. If it becomes corrupted there's no way to reinstall it, since Microsoft has removed the downloads. While you may find the original downloads on other sites, you need to use extra care to ensure those files are pristine and not bundled with malware or other unwanted software.

Our advice, whether you choose to use Thunderbird or something else, is to move away from Windows Live Mail as soon as possible. We are seeing more and more people having serious problems with it. We have seen two people in the last week who lost all their mail when Windows Live Mail disappeared after a Windows update.

Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 users in to using the Windows Mail app. But Windows Mail app is less than a full-featured mail client and, in our opinion, leaves much to be desired.

The important thing, we think, is to get away from Windows Live Mail as soon as you can, or you may find yourself dealing with some even bigger problems. Better to be safe than sorry... to quote a cliché.



Lili asks about our recommendation of Font Xplorer
TC, a while ago you recommended "Font Explorer" so that I could use fonts by not installing them but rather loading a particular font, and then unloading it when I was finished using it. However, as good as Font Explorer is, it doesn't seem to work on a few of the fonts I had saved; I followed the instructions but when I go into "Word", the font I loaded does not show up.

Would you have a fix for that (of course you do!!! ;-) , or would you be able to recommend another (easy) program for me? I love fonts and have a number of them saved and would like to be able to use them when needed.

I look forward to your advice. Lili

Our answer
Hi Lilli. Font Xplorer is 12 years old. We recommend it for people who didn't want to install certain fonts, or just wanted to try out fonts before installing them.

Font Xplorer is offered by Moon Software as legacy freeware, but it's not being developed or supported anymore. You can try writing to Moon Software and see if they can help, but they no longer support Font Xplorer (and we understand since it's so old). It may be that the fonts you're loading into memory are not True Type Fonts -- or it may be the newer versions of Word have security features than prevent you from using fonts in memory (i.e. you would have to install the fonts you want to use).

To be perfectly honest, in this era when 4GB (or more) of RAM being typical and hard drives measured in terabytes, installing several hundred fonts on your PC would not slow it down. Back in the days of Windows 98, or even Windows XP, computers were using only 500MB or 1GB of RAM and 2 to 30 GB hard drives. Since 500MB of RAM is not very much, loading all those fonts into memory every time Windows was started, used up a lot of the 500MB of RAM thus slowing down the PC and the startup.

If you have 4GB of RAM or more and at least a 500 GB hard drive, there's really no reason why you can't install a hundred fonts or more without affecting your PC's performance. There may be other font managers out there that are like Font Xplorer, but they would probably be old as well. Windows 7, 8, and 10 all have great font managers built in - and as I said, plenty of RAM and hard drive space have made the old adage about fonts slowing down a PC rather outdated.

Hope this helps you.

Andi wants to sync OneDrive on her new computer with OneDrive on her old computer
I just got a new computer. I uploaded a folder from my old computer to One-Drive and I can see the folder from my old computer but not the new computer. I can see all my pre-new folder upload files from One Drive on the new computer, just not the NEW FOLDER (with all the files I actually need, of course). I'm stumped! Same login to One Drive from both computers. Help!

Our answer
Hi Andi. Make sure you have OneDrive set up to Sync. If it's not syncing with what's already on OneDrive, then you won't see the same files on PC #2 as you do on PC #1. If you look at settings you'll see an option to turn on Sync. You'll have to do this with both computers. Keep in mind if sync is not turned on, on one or both computers, then it may take a while to sync after you turn sync on.

If both are set to Sync and you still don't see the same files/folders on PC #2 as you do on PC #1, check this Microsoft page for possible solutions (there are quite a few of them listed on that page.

Let us know if this helps you.

// Andi wrote back //

"Hi there - thanks so much. I finally got it working this morning using this solution on the NEW computer (for me, it was item #2 - once I went to the folders tab it had the folder I was missing, and it was unchecked!). I'm only sending this to you in case someone else has the same issue. It was driving me crazy!!!

Your OneDrive files will show up in File Explorer after you sync them to your PC:

1. Go to the right side of the taskbar and right-click (or press and hold) the OneDrive icon. If you don’t see it there, you might need to select the Show hidden icons  arrow first.

2. Select Settings, go to the Account tab, and then select Choose folders

3. Select the Sync all files and folders in my OneDrive check box, then OK..."



Barb used to be able to mail a page with Chrome
I know you've covered this in one of your newsletters, but I cannot find the answer you provided. Until today, I've had an envelope on my Chrome toolbar that allowed me to email web pages directly to others. Today it is gone. how can i reinstate it, please? Thanks, Barb.

Our answer
Hi Barb. The only extension that we've recommended for Chrome to "send a page" is on called "Email this page (by Google)". We're going to give you the link to download it from the Chrome store (it's free, don't worry). But first we want you to check to make sure that the "Email this page (by Google)" extension is not installed. Sometimes an extension is installed but somehow ends up getting turned off, which causes it to disappear from the browser. Or you may have installed some new extensions that hid the "Email this page" button in the browser.

Click on the Settings icon [3 vertical dots at the top right] and click on "More tool" > Extensions. Look in the list of extension for Email this page. If you find it there, make sure the box next to "Enabled is checked". If it is checked, look at your browser and click on an icon for another extension and click "Hide in Chrome menu". Perhaps you have many extensions and there's no room anymore for the "Email this page" extension icon.

If you don't see "Email this page (by Google)" in your list of extensions, you can reinstall it by visiting this page.





Gloria wants our opinion of EM Client
What do you think of that e-mail program, EM client? It's free and so far I do like it...

Our answer
Hi Gloria. eM Client is a good desktop email program, however it's not free if you have more than two accounts. Considering Thunderbird has about the same feature set and is free no matter how many email accounts you have, we'd stick with Thunderbird. But if you have two accounts or less, and you like eM Client, there's absolutely no reason for you to stop using it. When it comes to your PC, you're the boss!



Geraldine say her computer seller says Norton is the best
Hi EB & TC, my partner had to purchase a new Laptop and the seller was telling us how good Norton is now, supposedly No.1 in the world? we are Emsisoft users and of course the guy had never heard of the name, is it possible that Norton could outdo Emsisoft, in my mind I don't think so, I just want to clear up this issue. One of the claims they make on their brochure is "Ranked #1 Total Overall Performance" by PASSMARK Software, March 2017 along with "AV Test BEST Protection 2015 & 2016" and to finish up "100% Accuracy Rating for Performance, Protection & Usability" I would appreciate your opinion as I was not aware that Norton was supposedly this good? thank you Geraldine (Australia)

Our Answer
HI Geraldine. Those rankings are not the main public and reliable independent rankings. I can create any kind of "ranking" list I want and say I am the

We do hundreds of remote sessions  and have found a lot of malware on computer supposedly protected by Norton. We use and recommend Emsisoft and as you know, we never recommend something we don't stand by and use ourselves. Emsisoft is not only a top-rated antivirus, it is also a top-rated antimalware program. Plus it protects users from PUPs and ransomware.

If we wanted to sell Norton, we could make a pretty penny on it; any time someone selling you a computer is pushing you to use a certain antivirus, you can bet the people are making good money by pushing it. It is unusual that "seller" of a computer would be doing that.

Careful with this seller as far as what else they are pushing. There are four things you need when getting a new computer, so don't let them push you into other things. My laptop has all I need and I got it for just under $300 (Dell).

1. Monitor size you like
2. 8 gig of RAM (more if not too costly)
3. Windows 10 Home version is find
4. A hard drive at least 500 GB but , 1 TB would be preferable.

Past that, don't let a salesman convince you that you need other bells and whistles. And when they start the processor speed razzle-dazzle, ignore it.  You don't need a gaming processor.  Stick to the core features - screen size, RAM, Windows 10, and roomy hard drive.



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Some of you still aren't using Emsisoft... so we're making you an offer you can't refuse! If you're not yet using Emsisoft, here's your chance to get the best protection you can buy and we'll install it and set it up for you FREE. Emsisoft now has a powerful new anti-ransomware feature!  See this page for all the details.

A System Restore Tip for Windows 10
Windows 10 (all versions)

By default, windows 10 sets aside only about 1% of your total hard drive space for System Restore. If you are seeing only 3 restore points, it is probably because the entire default hard drive space allocation for System Restore has been used by the 3 restore points that you see. You can modify the hard drive space allocated for System Restore. When we work on computers and we're working with System Restore, we normally reset it to 5% to 10% of the drive rather than 1%, depending on size of the hard drive and the available hard drive space.

Here's how you can adjust the amount of hard drive space allocated for System Restore in Windows 10.

1. Type Create Restore In the Taskbar Search (Cortana), then click on "Create a Restore Point" when it appears in the search results.  Or you can also just click the Start button and start typing Create Restore. Click on "Create a Restore Point" when it appears in the search.

2. Under System Properties, System Protection tab, click on the "Configure" button:



3. In the System Protection dialog, under "Disk Space Usage", use the slider to adjust the amount of disk space you want to allocate to System Restore.



Now, click Apply  /  OK.

Increasing the disk space allocated to System Restore increases the number of restore points you'll have available. We recommend you don't go crazy here. Do not allocate more than 10% of your hard drive space to System Restore. Also keep in mind that increasing the drive space allocated to System Restore has no immediate affect - you're not going to see five new restore points appearing out of the blue. Over time, you'll have 5 or 6 (or more) restore points to choose from instead of 2 or 3. More is better, but only to a point. So, we urge you not to go crazy :)

Another thing to keep in mind is that the older the restore point is the less viable it may be. We have found that very old restore points sometimes result in System Restore  failing to restore the computer successfully. Normally, the more recent the restore point, the greater the odds that the system restore operation will be successful. We suggest you don't keep restore points more than 2 months old.

One last thing. As Windows 10 gets more sophisticated, with new recovery such as System Reset (with options) and "Fresh Start", System Restore is growing less important. But, System Restore is still a valuable tool and one you should always consider first when things go wrong.



Mute Annoying Audio in Web Sites
Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Firefox, Chrome, and Edge browsers

Many sites, especially news sites, have delayed auto-start videos (or audio ads) on their pages. When surfing multiple pages, you may suddenly hear the audio, but finding which page it is coming from use to mean going through every open tab to find it. But  if you're like us, you may have a dozen or more tabs open.

I was complaining to TC the other day about the blaring sound from videos/ads and how I had to go through several open tabs to find the culprit. He causally says “look for the sound icon” and you can tell which tab it is coming from; as if everyone but I knew this! Sure enough… I looked a little closer and there it was! Its super tiny, but its visible and while this is not available on Internet Explorer, it is on Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge.

Below are screenshots of Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers with open tabs to show you where the sound icon is located on the tab and what it looks like. Thanks TC! Even old dogs can learn new tricks!

Chrome Browser (on the right side of the tab, next to the “x” below):

Above: Slide the switches to select or unselect the Google Data you want to include in your backup archive and then click "Next".

(Below): After you click "Next", you'll be given an opportunity to select the file type of your data backup (we strongly suggest you leave it set to .zip format. Zip files can be opened on almost any computer. Then you can select how you want your data backup archive delivered. We suggest you download you select "Send download link via email". That way you can save it to your local drive. Once you have it stored locally you can add it to One Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive later on.



Then click "Create archive". Note it may take hours or days before receiving your backup - it all depends on how much data you have in your Gmail and Google Accounts.