Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - A weekly computer publication featuring tips, tricks, website & freeware picks, answers to your computer questions and more!

We wish all of you who celebrate Labor Day Weekend an happy & safe holiday weekend. Every major holiday weekend we publish a review edition. Not only does this provide us with some extra time to spend with family and friends, but it also gives us an opportunity to review some of the best questions, tips, and articles from previous issues of "Cloudeight InfoAve Premium". All articles from past editions are updated when necessary...and we may even sneak in something new in a review edition. We hope you enjoy this special edition of InfoAve Premium.

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A comment from Mark
I just want to thank Darcy again for removing all the malware from my computer and for all the time she took making it run great again. Darcy took the time to fix everything and installed Emsisoft too. Great Job, Darcy! Cloudeight Direct is the BEST DEAL EVER!

A comment from Sherry
I just want to thank TC for all his help last week. He connected to my computer in the early hours of the morning and fixed up my windows 10 computer and cleaned it all up and he even installed Emsisoft too! I can't thank you enough for your time. I will certainly recommend Cloudeight to all my friends and my family. Thanks so much for your hard work. Everything is working perfectly now. Sherry.

A comment from Jerry
Yesterday TC visited my computer which was running slow, did his magic thing and in lass than a 1/2 hr. had it humming like new again, THANK YOU TC. AWESOME!

A comment from Debbie
Just finished a session with Darcy and as usual, she completed everything with fingers flying over each task. The money spent on Direct Care keys for this service is well worth it & you can't go wrong! "magic fingers" move over everything correcting errors that I have created! I spread the word about their service often as you are sure you are not being "taken for a ride" like you are when your computer goes in the shop! Thank you Darcy for everything!

A comment from Virginia
How do I say how much I appreciate TC and Darcy. I had a direct care session with them and was afraid my computer could not be fixed and TC had warned me that his fix might not work since I am still using Windows 7, but it did! I am beyond delighted. We also had a mail connect problem and Darcy stepped in and after making a phone call to me, she had it up and going in minutes. They are absolutely fantastic people to work with. I have been with them for many years and plan on staying and using their tips and advice for as long as I can use my computer. Thanks so much TC and Darcy. You have made a senior citizen feel safe and secure about using my computer.

A big Cloudeight "Thank you!" to Mark, Sherry, Jerry, Debbie, Virginia and everyone who took time out to write to us. We appreciate your kind words and your support very much! EB & TC

Cloudeight Direct Computer Care computer repair keys are always a bargain! Get your Repair Keys here.

Cloudeight InfoAve Premium

SeniorPass: A Great Deal for Our Friends 60 and Older!

With our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care SeniorPass, our friends age 60 and older get one full year of unlimited computer care and repair for one low price. With our SeniorPass you'll get the best computer care anywhere - any time you need it!

SeniorPass is valid for unlimited computer care & repair sessions for one full year starting with the first time you use it. The clock does not start ticking until you use your SeniorPass for the first time. A great deal!

Having SeniorPass is just like having insurance for your computer. You'll get one full year of computer care and get help with almost any computer problem whenever you need it. We're here to help you.

Barb Doesn't Have Pen & Touch on "About..." her PC
Your last newsletter featured an article called "All About Your PC". This led me to inspect "About my PC". I don't have something called Pen and Touch, but I would still like to know what it is, why I don't have it, and what it would do if I did have it. Your newsletters are my Saturday morning learning sessions. Thank you both so much. Barb.

Our answer
Hi Barb. Thank you so much. I'm sure others are wondering the same thing as you. But it's easy to explain. The computer we took the screen shot from has a touchscreen. Computers that don't have touchscreens won't see "Pen and touch" listed. We hope this explains why it was on the screen shot we included with the newsletter and why you don't see it on your "About..."

With our Cloudeight Computer Care, we'll fix your computer while you watch. You'll be getting the best computer repair service available, at the best price, from people you trust. Our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care single repair keys are a great deal. They are good until you use them. For more information see our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care home page!

Use Cortana to Sign Out, Shut Down, Restart or Lock Your Computer
Windows 10 Version 1709 and Windows 10 Version 1803

Here's a quick and easy tip for those of you who have installed the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. You can use Cortana to Sign Out, Shut Down, Restart, or Lock your computer with simple voice commands.

For example, try this:

Say "Hey Cortana". When "she" is listening, say "Lock my computer" or "Lock my PC". She'll say "Locking your computer" and you'll see the lock screen appear and you'll have to sign in. This is a good way to test this, since locking your computer does not log you out of Windows so whatever you had running when your computer was locked will be ready and waiting for you when you sign in.

In addition to the above, you can use the following commands. In every case you have to summon Cortana by saying "Hey Cortana!" (unless you changed Cortana's default settings)"

"Hey Cortana:

"Shut down my computer."

"Restart my computer."

"Log off my computer."

Remember: You can use the word "computer" and "PC" interchangeably.... Cortana treats them the same... as do we.

If you have a mouse with a middle button or a scroll wheel, you have a middle-click option you may not have known about.

With this tip we’re going to show you a middle-click trick we’re sure you’ll use often.

For this example, we’re going to have you open Notepad, so go ahead open Notepad. If you’re using Windows 10 type Notepad in the taskbar search and click on Notepad (Desktop app) when it appears at the top. On any version of Windows, you can open Notepad this way:

When Notepad is open you’ll see its icon in the taskbar. Now middle-click the Notepad icon – you’ll see that it opens a brand new instance of Notepad. You can do this again and again (don’t get crazy) and each time you middle-click on its taskbar icon a new instance of Notepad will open.

You can see that I have 4 Notepad windows open, I’m working in window #1. By middle-clicking the Notepad icon on my taskbar, I can open as many new Notepad windows as I want. Geeky people call this opening new instances. Take your choice.

If you think your mouse wheel is not a middle click button, try pressing down on it quickly – like you would your left and right mouse buttons. Most of you will find that your mouse’s scroll wheel doubles as middle mouse button. The mouse I’m using right now is a cheap $15 Walmart wireless mouse – and the wheel doubles as a middle mouse button on this cheap old mouse.

This trick not only works for Notepad, but many other programs as well. It will work with any program that lets you open multiple instances. If you have an icon on your taskbar for Chrome, middle-click it – a brand new instance of Chrome will open. Most of you have a File Explorer (Windows Explorer) icon on your taskbar – if you middle-click it, a brand new File Explorer (Windows Explorer) window opens. You do this with a lot of programs- but not all. Some programs allow only one instance to run at a time. So if you need to run more than one instance of a program, try the middle-click trick right now. It will save you time.

A couple of weeks ago, EB called me - she was having a computer problem and wanted to get my ideas on what I thought it might be. She was getting boot errors and other strange messages. My first guess was her hard drive was going. The PC in question was her personal All-in-One, around 2 years old - so hard drive failure would not be something you'd expect. After some troubleshooting, she agreed - the hard drive was bad. She got a new hard drive, installed Windows 10, used her backups to get back her files and she was back in business.

It was strange because there were no signs of drive failure. There were no unusual computer noises. There were no mysteriously missing files. There were no signs of pending hard drive failure at all. All was working correctly, then the hard drive failed. There were no warning at all.

I guess we all get complacent and seldom think about how much is riding on our hard drives. More often than not, hard drives are durable and stand the test of time, but not always. Both of us have had hard drives fail more than once, so it does happen, and it can happen to anyone.

EB's experience with hard drive failure, led to this freeware pick. We took some time and looked around for a freeware program that may give you a bit of a heads-up if your hard drive is starting to fail. We tested a few of these drive checking program - there are some really bad ones out there. Finally we found one that we thought was good enough to recommend. It's made by a well-respected company and it is free for personal use. It's called PassMark DiskCheckup™.

And today, you're lucky. No more of my rambling on. The developers have a really good and thorough description of DiskCheckup on their website, so we are going to let them tell you all about DiskCheckup. We think it would be a very smart program to download, and have handy, even if you only use it occasionally to check your hard drives. Most of you will not have any hard drive problems, but if you do, wouldn't it be nice to know that your hard drive was failing before it failed. It's no fun, when that happens, EB can tell you all about that.

"PassMark DiskCheckup™ allows the user to monitor the SMART attributes of a particular hard disk drive. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a feature on a computer's hard disk for providing various monitoring indicators of disk reliability. If SMART is enabled on a hard disk, the system administrator can receive analytical information from the hard drive to determine a possible future failure of the hard drive.

"SMART monitors elements of possible long term drive failure, such as 'Spin Up Time', the number of start/stops, the number of hours powered on and the hard disk temperature.

"DiskCheckup displays the current values of the SMART attributes, along with the Threshold value for that attribute. If an attribute drops below its threshold, the drive cannot guarantee that it will be able to meet its specifications in the future.

"Note that SMART attributes change slowly over time and are helpful attempts to diagnose the life span of a particular drive. DiskCheckup monitors these changes over a long period and predict the date (if available) of the Threshold Exceed Condition (TEC), which is displayed on the main window.

"DiskCheckup can also execute built-in Disk Self Test (DST) routines implemented by the vendor to detect drive failures. There are two main self test routines: Short Test and Extended Test. The results of these tests are displayed in DiskCheckup.

"DiskCheckup has the ability to detect and set the sizes of the Host Protected Area (HPA) and Device Configuration Overlay (DCO). The HPA/DCO are hidden areas of the hard disk that contain data not accessible by the user. These areas can be removed to reveal the data hidden within these areas.

"DiskCheckup also displays device information, such as the drive geometry, serial number, model number, media rotation rate, and supported features. The real-time activity of the disk is also displayed and updated periodically..."

Above. Click on the hard drive you want to check - I have two. Click on the tabs to learn more about your hard drive and test for possible problems.

Above: Hover over the Information (i) and you'll see a detailed description of each item.

Above: DiskCheckup's Disk Self Test feature, telling me my hard drive is not showing any errors.

If you want to keep a closer eye on the health of your hard drive, take a trip to PassMark's web site and download PassMark DiskCheckup™. It's free for personal use.

Tested on 8/30/2018 by TC.