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Cloudeight InfoAve Premium Issue #817 Volume 16 Number 33 June 7, 2019 Dear Friends, Welcome to Cloudeight InfoAve Premium issue #817. Thank you very much for subscribing and for being a part of our Cloudeight family. We appreciate your friendship and support very much! Heads Up! We're going to be changing mail list services. As many of you already know, we've been having problems getting our newsletter to all of you. We've traced this problem back to the service we use to send our Premium newsletter. During the month of June, we'll be testing a couple of different services and you may see a duplicate newsletter during the test phase. We just wanted you to be aware of what we're doing. Our goal is to be up and running with the new mail list service by the first of July. There is nothing you have to do - all our current subscribers will be seamlessly transferred to the new service so you'll continue getting our Premium newsletter just like always - and many of you who've not been getting it regularly should start getting it every week. Thanks for your support and your understanding. Help us by sharing us on your Facebook page! Do you use Facebook? If you have a Facebook page, please help us by sharing us on Facebook. You can help us by sharing one of our articles or pages. You can also help us by sharing over 4000 computer tips and tricks on our InfoAve web site at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/new/ or our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/cloud8internet. If you have used our products and services and are pleased, mention us on your Facebook page. Thanks so much for your help!
We can make your Windows 10 computer look and work more like Windows 7!
The end of Windows 7 is coming on January 14, 2020. Using Windows 7
after that date may put your computer at risk as Microsoft will no
longer be sending security updates and fixes for it.
Whether you upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10 (still free) or buy a
new Windows 10 computer, we can make you feel right at home on Windows
10 with our Windows Transformation service. We can make your Windows
10 look like this:
Above: Windows 10 or Windows 7?
It's a Windows 10 computer but it looks very much like a Windows 7 computer doesn't it?
With our Windows 10 Transformation service, we will:
Get more information or purchase your "Transformation" now. The Windows 10 Transformation service key never expires it's good until you use it.
A comment from Judy (on Facebook)
A big Cloudeight "Thank you!" to Judy, Rhea, Charlyne,
Pamela, Irene & John and all the others who took time out to write to us and/or sharing us on Facebook! We appreciate your kind words and your
support very much! EB & TC.
Your Purchase Helps Us!
Robin wants to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Hi TC & Darcy. I need to upgrade my Windows 7 computer to Windows 10 & am not sure how to go about doing it. I seem to remember you sent out a link that you sent out that one could sign up & set up for you to do it for some of us that are computer challenged. I seem to have lost that email would you please send me the link? I would like to have you set up our computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I enjoy reading all the helpful tips every week & have learned a lot. I just don't feel that I can make this change even after reading articles on how to do it. Thanks for the help. Robin Our answer Hi Robin. Thanks for your nice comments and your support. With our Windows Transformation service we'll get the upgrade started for you in part one of the session, then after Windows 10 is installed, we'll come back for part 2 of the session and make your computer look & work more like Windows 7 so you can use your updated computer just like you always have. Here is the page where you can purchase our Transformation service. http://thundercloud.net/direct/2019/transform/ If you need more info, just let us know. Renee has questions about upgrading to Windows 10 As a self-employed business - I have a multitude of programs both new (with tons of graphics) and really old programs that still work in Windows 7. I am hugely afraid that many of the older programs will not work in Windows 10. Should I buy a new Windows 10 (stand-alone) and still keep Windows 7 for background work with my older programs? I have Windows 7 Professional. Our answer Hi Renee. As a general rule --- if a program works on Windows 7 it will work on Windows 10. But no one can guarantee it. In our experience, we have programs that we were running on Windows 98 (PaintShop Pro 7.4 ) which still runs on Windows 10. So, the odds are very good that your programs will all work on Windows 10. If you find they do not work correctly, you have 10 days from the date you upgraded to Windows 10 to go back to Windows 7. From our own experience, programs what worked on Windows 7 work well on Windows 10. But we can't guarantee that - no one can. Jo wants to know what we think about upgrading her Paperport software I have been using Nuance Paperport 12 which came with my Brother MFC 7360N Printer in 2013. I have tried to email them with a query as to whether I can upgrade to 14 or whether I need to purchase a new copy. Their web page is most unfriendly. Paperport has been taken over by Kofax. Their web query page does not respond, coming up with a 404 error. Their confirmation emails do not arrive so in desperation I tried to set up an account again without much luck. Eventually, I found a support email address. Countless emails since advising that I should consult their support pages and still no advice on whether I should upgrade. I am very happy with this aged product as it scans, separates pages, allows for additions, etc. Is there another free or less expensive (than Adobe Acrobat) program which will fulfill my needs. I feel less inclined to deal with Kofax as they seem unable to deal with the simple request for an answer. Kind regards, Jo Our answer Hi Jo. I think the "make sure you're using the most updated version of the software" crowd has affected everyone's thinking. I don't use Paperport so I am not familiar with their products. But I have several programs that are old and which I would never upgrade. One of which is PaintShop Pro 7.4 which I've been using for nearly 20 years. If a program works and you're happy with it and does what you need it to do, then I think upgrading is pointless. I really don't believe using most outdated software is a "security" risk unless it's a browser, an email program, an operating system, or a security program. I rather doubt using an outdated scanning program, image editor, etc. is going to cause any issues with security. So use what you like because newer isn't always better. Keep using what you like and just ignore the countless emails you get from the new owners... perhaps they have an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom and you can stop their emails by "unsubscribing". I realize you probably never subscribed in the first place, but I'm sure you were added to the list from info provided by the previous owners. Let me know if this helps you. ----- Jo wrote back: "Good morning TC. Thank you for your prompt reply and greatly appreciated advice. May your God bless and keep you both safe and healthy. Jo. "
Rex wants to know how to delay Windows 10 May 2019 Update ---
Version 1903
Includes
"Anytime Repair" with Our Unattended Support Feature! What Will It Cost You to Keep Windows 7? Windows 7 will reach its end-of-service-date on January 14, 2020. After that, Windows 7 users will no longer receive security patches and other important updates, and this will leave Windows 7 vulnerable to exploits and hacks. Many of you have heard about Microsoft’s extended service plan for Windows 7 which allows users to buy an extended service contract and continue to receive updates and security patches so they can use Windows 7 safely after its official end-of-service date. So, here are the facts. Microsoft is offering a per device contract for businesses and only for Windows 7 Pro or Enterprise Editions. Those using Windows 7 Home version, even if you have a business, will not be able to buy the extended service option. To be clear: You cannot buy extended service if you’re using Windows 7 Home Premium, extended service contracts are available for Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions. If you have Windows 7 Pro and here’s what you’ll pay: Year 1 (Jan 2020 – Jan 2021) $50 per device. Year 2 (Jan 2021 – Jan 2022) $100 per device. Year 3 (Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 $200 per device. We think that’s rather expensive since your computer is already at least 4 years old and most likely older. Plus, the upgrade to Windows 10 is still free. In our opinion, Windows 10 is superior to Windows 7 in many ways, in spite of the uproar over the biannual upgrades. One feature alone makes it better- the ability to reinstall Windows without losing your personal files. If you’re concerned about the Windows 10 learning curve, we can make it less steep by making Windows 10 look and work a lot more like Windows 7. See this page for examples and details.
Space, the Final Frontier: What’s Using Up Your Hard
Drive Space? Here's a really easy and useful tip on how you can find out what’s using up your drive space. Step One: Open Settings. (Right -click on the start button and click settings, or be cool and use Windows Key + i to open settings.) Step Two: In Settings click on “System”. Step Three: In Settings > System, click on “Storage”. Step Four: Select the drive you want to scan.
Step 5. Be patient while Windows scans the drive you chose.
You’ll be able to see at a glance what is taking up the most space on the drive you chose. As you can see in the screenshot directly above, my Temporary files are way out of control. I can quickly find out what’s going on with my Temporary files, by clicking on it and waiting for Windows to scan my Temporary files and show me exactly what is using my hard drive space. In the screenshot below, you can see that “Previous Windows installations” is taking up a hefty chunk of my C:\ drive. But I have to be careful here – if I check it and click remove, I won’t be able to roll back this version of Windows. So, before I get carried away, I’ll give that some thought.
You’ll see that Windows has already pre-selected some categories for deletion. You can safely remove any files that have been pre-selected by Windows. Be careful when selecting “Previous Windows installation”. If you upgrade to a new version of Windows and delete these files, you won’t be able to go back to the previous version of Windows. Generally, the Downloads folder contains your downloaded files. If these are installers for programs you’ve installed, you no longer need the installer files. However, if you download videos, pictures, or other kinds of files to the Downloads folder — be careful. If you select “Downloads” and click the “Remove” button, the entire contents of the Downloads folder will be deleted. Drive space might not be the final frontier, but it’s certainly
nice to have an idea of how your drive space is being used. Add Pictures and Emoji to Windows 10 Sticky Notes Microsoft continues to improve the Sticky Notes app in Windows 10. Recently a new feature has been added that allows you to insert a picture into your sticky note. You can also add Emoji and bulleted lists as well as changing font styles (Bold, Italic, Strikethrough). Here’s a cute sticky note that includes a picture of one of my heroes...
Part 1. How to open the Sticky Notes app in Windows 10. The easiest way first. Type “Sticky Notes” (without the quotes) in taskbar search and press Enter. Or choose Sticky Notes from your start menu. HINT: If you use Sticky Notes often, you can create a taskbar shortcut opening Sticky Notes, right-clicking its icon in the taskbar then choose “Pin to taskbar”. Part 2. How to add a picture to your sticky note OK, first, keep in mind that, currently, that any image you add will be added to the top of your sticky note. HINT: Compose your sticky note text first and then add the image last. Then, when you’re ready to add the image to your sticky note, click on the picture icon at the bottom. When you do Windows 10 File Explorer will open. Select your image and add it to your sticky note.
Part 3. Inserting Emoji into your sticky note Type your sticky note and format it any way you want. Then press the Windows key and tap the period key/dot key to open the Emoji pad (or Emoji panel as geeks like to say). Then just click on the Emoji you want to add. You can add as many as you want.
For more tips on using the Sticky Notes app,
see our Sticky Notes article here. Tech Support Scams Are Still Riding High We published this article in May 2017. At that time we were more focused on the Microsoft support scams that were popular then. Since then we’ve updated this article and still, people are getting fooled by these kinds of scams. So here is another update and another reminder: So you will not fall victim to these kinds of scams. Read this article and you’ll be better prepared when you see a tech support scam because: WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO FALL FOR A TECH SUPPORT SCAM! Whether it’s a Microsoft support scam or any tech support scam, you need to know that these kinds of scams everywhere and it’s only a matter of time before you’re face-to-face with one. OH YES! THEY ARE STILL OUT THERE! We still receive at least a dozen emails each week from folks who encounter these kinds of scams and are convinced their security software has let them down… and woe… now they’re infected. But it’s not true. Most support scams are carefully crafted advertisements cunningly created to make you think these warnings are coming from your own computer your security software or even from Microsoft. Tech support scams are alive and well and in full vigor. So it is our hope you’ll read this article, look that the images here, so that you’ll know, right away, when you’ve encountered one of these scams… and you’ll know what to do. When we wrote the original article in this series, the “You-have-been-infected-with-the-Zeus-Virus” scam was the ruse-of-the-day. The so-called Zeus virus was really awful sounding, but it’s is and always was a fake. Whether it’s the Zeus virus or some other dreadful sounding name, there will always be a “virus-du-jour” with the tech support scammer clique. In the past, most people who have run into the Tech Support or Microsoft Tech Support Scam have been contacted by scammers and warned by telephone that their computers are infected or compromised. But lately, it’s been the fake “your computer is infected with **you name the nonexistent virus/Trojan** or the **your computer has been compromised and your personal information is at risk** popups that appear, seemingly out of nowhere, when browsing the web. Just in the past week, we have had at least a dozen people who wrote to us and told us that they fell for or almost fell for a scam. The one that seems to trick the most people is the one we’re going to call the Microsoft Tech Support Popup Scam. Most all of these fake “Your computer is infected” or “Your computer is compromised” or “Your personal information is at risk” or any of the other dire warnings that pop up out of nowhere, are almost always nothing more than popups advertisements, cleverly disguised as dire warnings. They’re not viruses or Trojans or malware at all. They are advertisements that try to trick you into calling a phone number for support, or clicking a link in an email, or downloading something that they claim will scan and clean your computer. Whatever the angle used, they’re all just scams. And regardless how many times the scam popups mention Microsoft or show the Microsoft logo, or how many times the ads claim to come from “Certified Microsoft Technicians” … we can tell you with 100% certainty that they’re all scams. We have warned our readers about these kinds of scams many times, but we are once again seeing more and more people falling victim to these criminals. Many times they’re being tricked because they see the Microsoft logo or Certified Microsoft Technicians on the fake warning, and that convinces them the warning is legitimate and they let down their guard and call the phone number, click a link, or download something and allow the crooks access to their computers. Please remember this! For this post, we’ve collected a few of these fake warning popups, and we posted them at the bottom of this article. Keep in mind, these are just a few of the many variations of scam popups out there… there are hundreds of them. Some have different wording, slightly different colors, some look more realistic than others, but they all have the same mission: To get you to call a number so they “fix” the non-existent virus infections, computer problems or errors. Or to click a link and download some miracle software that will cure whatever ails your PC. People who do call will be told that the “technician” needs to connect to their PC so they can run special scans. The scans, of course, are fake and always turn up dozens, sometimes hundreds of infections, errors, and problems...
Please take a moment to visit this Cloudeight page and read
more about these scams and see actual screenshots of many of them.
It's important you do this so you'll recognize the scams when you see
them -- and yes, most all of you will see one or more of these support
scams and you're browsing the Web. So please take a few minutes to
read this.
How to Go Back to Windows 7 If You Don't Like Windows 10 Diagnose and Fix Windows File and Folder Problems
We have thousands of Windows tips, tricks and more on our
InfoAve web site. Come see for yourself!
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Whether Or Not You Like the Weather, You'll Like This Weather Site II am in one of my rare moods: my laconic
mood. And this Site of the Week pick will be mostly done with
pictures. Don't get into the habit of expecting this sort of thing,
but this weather site is excellent so it doesn't need a whole lot of
bloviating from me.
Look! Up there! A whole week's worth of (mostly) lousy weather, all in a glance.
Clouds, clouds, clouds. There goes Darcy's tan! If you think the weather's bad now, use the Time Machine, you're bound to find worse.
What was the weather like on the day you were married? How about the day you were born? What about the blizzard of '77. Yep. It's all there in the Time Machine. Indeed, you can travel back in forth in time just like H.G. Wells imagined 125 years ago. Only now you can do it from your easy chair - no odd-looking time machine needed. So whether or not you're ready or not, this really great weather site called DarkSky is ready and just waiting for you to discover. So come on, you know you want to visit our Site of the Week, DarkSky. It's waiting for you right here. Now available: Reg Organizer 8.29 If you purchased or renewed Reg Organizer through Cloudeight within the last 12 months, you're entitled to a free version upgrade to Reg Organizer 8.29. Save $14 on Reg Organizer right now! Reg Organizer - A Swiss Army Knife of Windows Tools - Works Great on Windows 10! Google Uses Gmail to Track the Things You Buy Online I walk a lot, and my walks used to be private. Now when I walk down the streets of my little town, there are cameras everywhere. Cameras on the street corners, cameras in parking lots, cameras on the traffic lights, cameras on top of buildings, even cameras in churchyards; cameras everywhere. It’s not that I do anything exciting on my walks, but still one should have the expectation of privacy while taking a walk. But no more. There are so many invasions and breaches of privacy that I’ve finally become jaded at the prospect of finding privacy anywhere. But now, at least, my little town does have a lot of video of me walking down the street in baggy shorts. Sorry to say, it won’t be a source of revenue for them. So now I don’t expect privacy anywhere, not when walking, not when watching TV, and certainly not when I’m online. But with my low expectations of privacy aside, I was taken aback when I read an article about Google tracking all my purchases and keeping them in history. Actually, I was more than a little bit skeptical – until I saw it with my own eyes. When I checked, I found a list of almost everything I’ve purchased online since 2013 all in order and all on a page Google calls “Purchases”. Strangely, not one of these items were purchased from Google. Most of them were purchased from Amazon, but some items were purchased from other stores as well. I didn’t purchase anything that I wouldn’t want other people to see or know about, but there’s something spooky about Google tracking my purchases from non-Google sites like Amazon. I have an Android tablet with the Kindle app that I use for reading, so I buy a lot of books from Amazon. Every book I’ve purchased from Amazon in the last six years – even the ones that were free and purchased from Amazon for $0.00 – are listed on the Google page. The only way Google could know what I purchase online from stores others than Google would be from the receipts that come to me via Gmail. And no, I don’t really think that Google has millions of people thumbing through my emails, but they certainly have algorithm-powered software scanning my email looking for online order confirmations. This seems like it lives somewhere on a slippery slope to me. I mean if Google can glean order confirmations from my inbox, why not credit card statement information, or memberships to organizations… use your imagination here. As I said at the beginning when I’m online I have zero expectation that I’m going to have any privacy at all, but still learning that Google has been scouring through my mail for at least the last six years and compiling a list of just about everything I’ve purchased online surprises me, although it shouldn’t, I guess. There is a page in my Google account — and yours — called “Purchases ” and it shows an eerily accurate list of almost everything I’ve purchased online going back to 2013. I made these purchases at Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and a couple of other stores. But I’ve never bought anything from Google...
Read the rest of this rant here... Make a small donation and help us help you! If you don't need any of our products or services right now, please help us with a donation. Even the smallest gift is appreciated. Every donation helps us to provide useful information that helps you with your computer as well as helping to keep you safe on the Internet. We offer free help to thousands of people every year... and we offer an honest and inexpensive computer repair service too. We do everything we can to help you with your computer and keep you safe too.So if you don't need any our products or services right now, please consider helping us with a small donation. We'd appreciate it very much! Please help us by making a donation right now. Thank you!
What is a wildcard? Oh and
one more thing, Colombo! Google also lets you use wildcards too,
although we're not sure how useful that is. |