Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Repair Keys
BUY ONE and GET ONE FREE!

We're celebrating America's birthday. During our 4th of July weekend sales event, you can buy one Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Repair Key at the regular price or $50 - and we'll give you one free. You can give the second key to a friend a family member or just keep it for yourself! This is the lowest price we'll ever offer on our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Service keys. So don't waste time - and don't miss out. Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Repair Keys never expire - they are good until you use them! GET YOURS NOW! Offer valid through Monday, July 8, 2019, only.

Get more information and/or get your deal here.

4th of July Weekend Sale Save $20

A special deal exclusively for our friends age 60 and over!

A comment from Chental
Darcy and TC. The thanks goes to both of you, for your diligence and hard work that you put into your newsletters, other products, and to keeping us safe on the "world-wide web"!! You're a lifesaver to so many, myself included, and I look forward to a long online relationship with you both! Most sincerely, Chantal

A comment from Judy
I just realized that I have been with you guys probably from early in 1999. I was one of the first to buy a premium so since it is offered for free now, you have an idea of how long I been with you. My husband is not a member but still relies on you through me. He will say, What does your computer folks say about so and so?" I tried to get him to join but he says his smart wife reads them. How do you budge a Missouri mule? lol I sincerely wished you guys need not have to worry about money and business. I know enough to believe that your ideals and morals made your business stay small. You never compromised those and for that we, members love, trust and appreciate you two. Judy

A comment from Irene
Once again I needed help and am so glad you guys are there for us, this time it was TC. After I mucked up my new laptop, TC came and took care of my problems for me. You guys have so much patience. I cannot thank you enough. And the service is so quick. Thank you. Thank you. I cannot say it enough. Irene

A comment from May
Darcy, Thank you so much for the work done on my computer, while unattended.  That is such a convenient way, for me anyway, to have it worked on.  Even though I have a season pass, I try to always add a little bit extra to the coffer each time.  You are always such a great help! May

A comment from Shelly
Hi TC. I can't thank you enough for getting my computer running again. You were extremely polite and  helpful. You can be sure I'll be telling my friends about you and Darcy and the great service you offer. Again TC, thank you very much for getting my computer working again. Shelly 

A big Cloudeight "Thank you!" to Chental, Judy, Irene, May, Shelly 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. 



Here are some important links for you:

• Do you have a question or suggestion for our newsletter? Submit it here.
• You can read and search over 4000 Computer tips and tricks from our Cloudeight InfoAve Web site.
• Do you have a question or comment about one of our products or services? Please contact us.
• Are you having problems with your computer? Visit this page to get information about our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care services. We can fix your computer!
• Emsisoft Anti-Malware provides the best overall malware & virus protection for your computer - we use it and we recommend it. Please visit this page to learn more about Emsisoft products - and our special Emsisoft discounts.
• Would you like to receive our InfoAve Daily Tips & Tricks newsletter?  It's free. You can subscribe here.
• Please help us by making a donation; help us keep helping you. If you'd like to help support our newsletters and our Web site, please consider making a donation. Anyone who makes a donation is invited to join our Cloudeight Boosters. Our boosters get freebies, special offers and more. Make a donation and join the Cloudeight Boosters today!
• Our Cloudeight InfoAve Premium Newsletter home page has links to the last several issues of Cloudeight InfoAve Premium newsletter. Visit our Cloudeight InfoAve Premium home and catch up on back issues of this newsletter.

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!

John has a question about Windows 10 user accounts
I have just added my wife to allow her to sign in as a separate user on my Windows 10 computer. She now shows as "Can sign in" and Adult, Pending. She did click on the Confirm button in the invitation. How does she sign into her account and does that mean I will be signed out? (I) find it very confusing... John S.

Our answer
Hi John. I am not sure how you added her user account. I've added many user accounts to my own computers and many other computers as well. I've never seen "audit pending". So, I'm not sure why you're seeing that.

But if the account was created correctly you can both be signed in at the same time but you both can't use the computer at the same time. In other words, when she's signed in, she'll see her own desktop and any programs she's installed for her own account. Your account and her account will be separate. Some programs will be available to both accounts but other programs won't. For instance, if you have email set up on your account, it won't be set up on her account. If you are using Edge and have extensions installed and have a list of Favorites (bookmarks)- She won't see them when she opens Edge on her account. She'll be able to add her own extensions & bookmarks.

The fastest and easiest way to switch between accounts is to use the Windows key shortcut:

Windows Key + L

This will display the lock screen and the user account that is logged on and in use will be in the center of the screen, and the other account(s) will be in the lower right corner. Click on any of them to switch to that account. If the account is password protected, you will have to type your password.

Hope this helps you!
------
John wrote back: "Hi TC. That is exactly what I was looking for: that shortcut to switch users! Thanks for your usual quick response! John"

Amy is having problems with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word
Hi guys. I'm having a problem and I need help. Excel and word keep crashing when I hit the save as. They're both acting really weird.

Our answer
Hi Amy. While we don't do 3rd-party software repair, we do use MS Office programs. Newer versions of MS Office have a repair feature and it's easy to use. Open Control Panel (on Windows 10 just type Control in taskbar search and press Enter). Click on Programs & Features and find Microsoft Office in the list of programs. Right-click it. And instead of choosing Uninstall, you’ll have another option. That option is "Change" and that's the one you want. Click on "Change":

When you click on Change, you’ll see your repair options. Note: Yours may look very different than the one below if you're using an older version of Office.

Select  "Quick Repair" then click on the “Repair” button (see above).

This should fix any minor problems with your MS Office programs. If Quick Repair doesn’t work, try the Online Repair. It can take a long time to complete. Only run the Online Repair if Quick Repair doesn’t fix your problems. Note: Always run Quick Repair first.
-----
Amy wrote back: "Thank you TC, it worked. And I just love you guys. Amy

A related tip for anyone with a  Microsoft Office 365 Subscription

If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can log in to your Microsoft account and get free assistance from Microsoft. They will try repairing Office programs and even uninstall and reinstall MS Office for you. We have tested this Microsoft service for MS Office 365 customers and they were they were on spot.



Dan can't get Windows check box feature working on Windows 10
I am a recent convert from Windows 7. For the most part I like Windows 10. But one feature of Windows 7 I loved but now can't find on Windows 10 is the item checkbox feature. Did Microsoft do away with item checkboxes in Windows 10?

Our answer
Hi Dan. Good news! Item checkbox feature is alive and well on Windows 10. In fact, it works just like it did on Windows 7.

Here is how to enable the item check boxes feature in all versions of Windows 10.

Press the Windows Key + E key to open File Explorer. Then click on "View" at the top. Now, tick the box next to "Item check boxes" (see below),  then close File Explorer.



Here's a closer view:



Now item checkboxes will work just as they did in Windows 7.



Vincent's computer won't boot
My computer crashed when I installed new mouse software (corsair), windows will not boot up. My computer shop locally recovered files, but could not get pc to load windows. I am willing to pay to get it going! I hope to get new pc to transfer things over - but some programs need to transfer too if possible - do you think you can help?

Our answer
Hi Vincent. Once your computer tech had recovered your files, he or she should have done a factory reset on your computer. That would have reset your computer back to the way it was the day you purchased it and it would have been bootable.

In order for us to help you, with our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service, you need to be able to:

1. Boot in to Windows (at least be able to boot to Safe Mode with networking).
2. Be connected to the internet.

In our years of experience, transferring programs from one computer to another never works as expected. Most programs have registry entries, DLLs and other files and dependencies that have to be moved along with the program. Most programs that are sold to move programs from one PC to another generally tend to make a mess of things. Reinstalling programs is easy and produces better results. We can help move files to a new computer (it has to be done correctly or you'll end up with a mess. But we do not move programs.

Windows 10 can be downloaded free and installed without a product key on a computer on which Windows 10 has previously been installed (you can also upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8 free as well). You can do a factory reset yourself (instructions will be on the computer manufacturer's website). Or ask your computer tech to do the factory reset or for you.

Here are two ways you can try to boot into Windows.

1. Make sure the computer is powered off. Hold down the SHIFT key and power on the computer while you continue to hold down the SHIFT key. You should get the Advanced Boot Menu  - see this page for more info. On the Advanced Boot Menu, you'll have options to troubleshoot and fix Windows.

2. If you have access to another PC, you can follow the instructions on this page to create a Windows 10 Installation DVD. You can use that DVD to boot your computer and reinstall Windows 10. If Windows 10 has previously been installed on that device, you won't need a product key.

Once you get your computer to boot up and get Windows running and you're connected to the internet - we can help you get things set up correctly and move your files back the right way so they're all where they should be.

Mae wants to know how to view email headers in Gmail
On a rare occasion there is an email that is different than most spam and look important. In the past there was a way to see the sender's address by clicking on the right mouse. That no longer works. Is there a way to check without opening the email in Gmail?

Our answer
Hi Mae. It's really easy to see the complete email headers -but not without opening the email. However, opening spam is not dangerous - as long as you don't click any links in it. Even if the spammer knows you opened it, once you mark it "Spam" the next mail from that spammer will go straight to the spam folder anyway. Here's how to see the message source in Gmail and email properties in Gmail.

1. Open the email you want to investigate.
2. Click on the 3 dot icon just to the right of the reply "arrow"



3. In the dropdown menu that appears, click on "Show original"



You'll see the email headers summary and the complete email properties on the page that opens. If you read the detailed information, you'll be able to discover the real source (IP address)of the sender (most of the time) even if the spammer is using forged headers.



You can't do this without opening the suspect email, but as we mentioned, if you find the mail to be spam, you can right-click on it and mark it spam and it will never be in your inbox again.

We  hope this helps you, Mae.

Jim has a mouse button problem
Just a quick question as my mouse keeps showing the right click menu when I click the left click menu. My computer is a Lenovo roughly around 2011 and has been upgraded to Windows 10. This is the original mouse and it came with Windows 7 installed. Do you think I need a new mouse and do I need the Lenovo mouse or can I get a generic mouse? Thanks for any help. Jim G.'

Our answer
Hi Jim. If your mouse is a battery-powered wireless mouse, make sure the batteries are new or charged.

If you all is well with your mouse's batteries, then try this:

1. In Taskbar search type:

Mouse settings

2.Press Enter

3. In Mouse Settings under "Switch your primary button" use the down arrow to select "Left" instead of "Right".



As for your question about buying a new mouse, in my experience a cheap generic mouse does all I need a mouse to do. You don't need to buy an Lenovo mouse or any expensive mouse. Just get one that fits your hand. The two mice I have now each cost less than $15 :)

Hope this helps you, Jim.

Robert wants to wipe his hard drive and reinstall Windows 10
Is there a way to completely wipe your computer and reinstall windows 10. What I mean is reformat the hard drive to install with new partitions. I still have a computer that had windows 8 and still have the recovery partition to go back to windows 8. I would like to wipe out that part and have the space to use in C. I'm not going back to windows 8. Thanks, Robert.

Our answer
Hi Robert. Our advice is for you to use Windows 10 Reset to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows; it's simple and easy. Once you've done the reset (to wipe everything completely may take a few hours), you can use Windows Disk Management to format the recovery partition and merge it with the main partition. It may even be easier to format a partition and merge it using a free program like EaseUs Partition Manager (free version).

Not only will this way save you time, but you'll end up spending less time.

To do a Windows 10 Reset and remove everything from your hard drive and reinstall Windows 10, see our tutorial here.

We hope this helps you, Robert.





Help Us During our Summer 2019 Donation Drive

When you support us with a small gift, you help us continue our mission to keep you informed, separate the truth from the hyperbole, and help you stay safer online. Plus, our computer tips make your computer easier to use.

Did you know that we provide support to thousands of people? Every week we help dozens of people via email at no charge. The questions and answers you see in our newsletters are from the email answers and help we provide to everyone free of charge.

Thanks to your gifts, we do a lot more than provide this free newsletter. We help you recognize online threats, fight for your online privacy, provide you with the knowledge you need to navigate the Web safely, provide you with suggestions for safe, free software and websites, and help you get more out of your PC.

Please Help us keep up the good fight with a small gift.

Interested in making an automatic monthly gift? Visit this page. Help us keep helping you... and helping you stay safe on the Web.

Windows Basics: An Easy Cure for Desktop Clutter
Windows 7, Windows 8x, Windows 10

Most of us learn early that the desktop is a great place to put things so they’re easy to find. But, while that may be true in the beginning, for instance when you’re starting out with a new computer, if you keep putting things on your desktop, eventually you won’t be able to find anything. Your desktop will be the hall of fame of clutter.

Does your desktop look like this?

Icons, icons everywhere. Let’s fix that! Right-click on an empty space on your desktop choose “View” then uncheck “Show desktop icons”. See screenshot below:

Yes! Look how pretty – when it’s all clean. See?

But where did all your stuff go? Don't worry, it’s still there. You can see it by typing Desktop in taskbar search and pressing Enter. Or you can open File Explorer and click on Desktop. But, we’re going to show you a better way.

We’re going to create a Desktop toolbar right on your taskbar where it’s always easily accessible.

Right-click on your taskbar and click on “Toolbars” and put a check mark by “Desktop” (as in the screenshot below).

Now look on the right side of your taskbar, just to the left of the notification area? See? There’s your new toolbar.

Now when you click on the double arrows (above) you’ll see an alphabetical (by type) list of items on your desktop – all neat and in order. See?

What’s better than a clean desktop – one that lets you see your pretty desktop wallpaper – and still making it easy to access all the stuff on your desktop?

A Timely Printer Tip
Windows 7, Windows 8x, Windows 10 and a printer

I can’t tell you how many emails we’ve received over the years about printers that suddenly stop working – or printers that suddenly disappear from the Printers dialog in Windows. 

About 3 weeks ago, my internet was down for about 3 hours. When the internet came back up, my wireless printer showed Offline.  And after playing with it (wasting time) I just reverted to my tried and true way – learned in the school of hard knocks.

And what did I learn?

I’ve learned over the course of time – and after about a dozen printers – the fastest way to fix a misbehaving or “offline” wireless printer, is to power off the printer, remove the printer in Settings or Control Panel, and restart the computer. Then download the printer installation software from the manufacturer’s site (and be careful with this, there are a lot of fake sites and scam sites out their offering printer drivers) and reinstall your old printer just like you would have had you just purchased a new printer. Works like a charm… 99% of the time. 

Anyway, things get busy around here and I forgot all about writing up a tip about this – and then today thanks to Ron, I was reminded about the tip that never got written. 

Ron’s Printer Tip

“Northern New Jersey has been having numerous short power outages witch affects Optonline and possibly other internet providers. It knocked out my Epson printers and scanners which required me to delete my printer, scanner, fax and separate scanner.

I then had to download the setups to reinstall the units. And then I had to make sure that all the household laptops and cell phones that use the printer had the correct printer designation listed.

This probably happens in other areas of the country when the printer is never turned off. In households where you have a number of users, it is not an option to turn the printer off. Remember, when your printer doesn’t work, it does not always mean that you have to buy a new printer. Just try to delete it and reinstall it first.”

Thanks so much, Ron. We are so glad you sent this tip!

Printer problems can happen when you have a power outage too. We hope this tip will help those of you have had problems with your printers related to power or internet outages.

And, THANKS to Ron for sending his tip. If you have a tip, trick, or freeware pick to share, just let us know!

How to Rename All Files In a Folder at Once
Windows 7, Windows 8x and Windows 10

Here’s a handy tip if have a lot of digital photos and you’ve ended up with folders full of images with names like DCC0122420171107.jpg. Not very descriptive. You can’t tell if it’s a picture from a birthday party, Christmas day or your vacation to Hawaii. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could give all the pictures in a folder a more descriptive name – and rename all of them at the same time? You’re in luck! It’s easy using Windows 10’s File Explorer. You geeks out there probably know this trick as “batch rename”. But whatever you call it, this tip will come in handy for renaming all the files in a folder at once.

Here’s how to do it.

First, open the folder containing the images you want to rename.



Above, you can see I selected all the images in a folder full of desktop wallpaper pictures. To select them all, I just highlighted one and pressed CTRL +A.

With all the images in the folder selected, I pressed “F2” to rename them. You can right-click and choose “Rename”, you can click the Rename button at the top of File Explorer, or you can just press F2 like I did.



The first picture’s name in the folder will become editable:



Just type in the name you want (I chose Wallpaper) and press Enter.



And all the files in the folder will be named Wallpaper (1), Wallpaper (2), sequentially to the last image in the folder.



So, folks, if you end up whole bunch of precious pictures with names like DCS122420175947.jpg, wouldn’t it be better to have them all named Julies-birthday2018(1), Julies-birthday2018(2) or Tahiti-vacation2017(1), Tahiti-vacation2017(2) and so on? We thought you’d agree. And now you know how easy it is to do.

Oh, and one more thing: You can use this tip to rename files of any type, not just pictures.

The Killer in Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8x, Windows 10

If you’ve ever been faced with a non-responsive program that you simply cannot close or terminate no matter what you try, we’re going to show you a way to kill it and force it to close - immediately! And it’s not hard to do.

We are using Firefox as an example for this tip. You can terminate most programs this way.

I recently had a problem with Firefox, there were several tabs open and I could not close any of them, nor could I close Firefox.

In a situation like this, you can use a Taskkill command to close all instances of Firefox. Here’s how:

a. Open a Command prompt. In Windows 7 type CMD in Start menu search and press Enter when it CMD appears at the top. In Windows 8x press Windows key+ S to open search, type CMD and press Enter. In Windows 10 type CMD in taskbar search and press Enter.

b. At the command prompt type:

taskkill /im firefox.exe /f

and press Enter. Make sure you type the command exactly as you see it above and leave the spaces exactly as shown above. If you typed the command correctly, you’ll see that every instance of Firefox has been terminated.



You can close most programs this way. Just substitute the program’s exe for Firefox. For example: If Chrome is not responding, substitute chrome.exe for firefox.exe in the command. If Edge stops responding, substitute microsoftedge.exe for Firefox. If you’re not sure what the name of the exe for the program you want to kill, open Task Manager and look in the list of processes.

Don’t try to terminate Windows processes, system processes or your security software this way. It probably won’t work anyway - but you could cause problems if it does. But for most programs that have stopped responding,  you can kill them using Taskkill.

One more thing, Colombo: If you terminate a program like Word, Notepad, WordPad, any word processor or image editor this way, you’ll lose any work you haven’t saved.



Want more computer tips & tricks?

It’s Time to Put Copy to, Move to, Back on Your Right-click Menu

Two Quick and Easy Peasy Windows Tips

We have thousands of Windows tips, tricks and more on our InfoAve web site. Come see for yourself!

VirusTotal

We were going to have a fun site pick today, but we've had a lot of those, so today our site pick is a serious and useful one.

Often we'll get an email from someone asking us if a file/program is safe. Or sometimes we'll feature a freeware pick and we'll have people tell us that their antivirus program found a "virus" or something else wrong with it. And sometimes, we'll recommend something that will make Windows' crazy "SmartScreen" go wild with all kinds of warning.

We use Emsisoft on all our computers, so we never know when someone using Avast, AVG, McAfee, TrendMicro, Norton or some other antivirus will write us saying their security software found a problem with a file or program we recommended.

And we've had issues with Windows SmartScreen many times - but we've learned that SmartScreen isn't always smart. So, normally when we find a good program that ticks off SmartScreen - we'll go ahead and recommend it anyway - and note that SmartScreen detected it but the file is safe. Here's an article we wrote about a program that SmartScreen said was malicious, but was not.

So, how do we know the file is safe, even if SmartScreen - or some antivirus says it isn't? We use VirusTotal to scan the file with 70 different scanners to determine if a file is safe, whenever we have the slightest doubt. The last thing we'd ever want to do is not be certain before we recommend something to you.

Then today, when looking at some fun and crazy sites to feature, I downloaded something that set off SmartScreen. I uploaded it to VirusTotal and found the file was safe. Then it dawned on me... why not make VirusTotal a Cloudeight Site Pick? It sure deserves to be.

It's easy to use. It's free to use. And anyone can use it. You can upload a file to VirusTotal. You can upload a file from our computer to VirusTotal, use a URL (link) to the download, or you can use the search on VirusTotal to check out a file you're considering downloading.


Above: VirusTotal is easy to use. You can upload a file from your computer, paste a link to the file, or search for the filename.

Above: VirusTotal scanned this file with 70 different scanners (including Emsisoft). None of the scanners found any problem with this file.

Above: You may, on occasion, see where one or two 'engines' (scanners) detected a file you submitted for examination. In the screenshot directly above you can see the file was scanned by 68 scanners and only one found a problem (a heuristic "malware"). When you see this kind of result, you know that the scanner that found a problem is reporting a false positive.

So, now it's time to bring in VirusTotal's people and have them tell you a bit more about VirusTotal before we send you on your way:

"...VirusTotal inspects items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blacklisting services, in addition to a myriad of tools to extract signals from the studied content. Any user can select a file from their computer using their browser and send it to VirusTotal. VirusTotal offers a number of file submission methods, including the primary public web interface, desktop uploaders, browser extensions and a programmatic API. The web interface has the highest scanning priority among the publicly available submission methods. Submissions may be scripted in any programming language using the HTTP-based public API.

As with files, URLs can be submitted via several different means including the VirusTotal webpage, browser extensions and the API.

Upon submitting a file or URL basic results are shared with the submitter, and also between the examining partners, who use results to improve their own systems. As a result, by submitting files, URLs, domains, etc. to VirusTotal you are contributing to raise the global IT security level.

This core analysis is also the basis for several other features, including the VirusTotal Community: a network that allows users to comment on files and URLs and share notes with each other. VirusTotal can be useful in detecting malicious content and also in identifying false positives -- normal and harmless items detected as malicious by one or more scanners.

Free and unbiased

VirusTotal is free to end users for non-commercial use in accordance with our Terms of Service. Though we work with engines belonging to many different organizations, VirusTotal does not distribute or promote any of those third-party engines. We simply act as an aggregator of information. This allows us to offer an objective and unbiased service to our users..."

Now it's time for you to check out and/or use VirusTotal by visiting their Website here.

And here's a tip from good ol' Darcy and TC: It would be a great idea to bookmark VirusTotal  - a day will come when you'll want to use it.





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!





Going Back to Sandusky

A few weeks ago I was feeling nostalgic. My thoughts often turn nostalgic when I’m feeling down: I become pensive and sometimes restless. When things aren’t going well, my thoughts turn inward; I become reclusive and I often find myself lost in a maze of thoughts and memories – all weaved into a patchwork quilt of introspection. That quilt becomes a source of solace and comfort; I love to curl up in it and drift off and drift back to happier times. It is not logical, but it is very often true.

It was in one of these pensive, nostalgic moods, that I drove to Sandusky, to spend time touching – if not trying to relive – the halcyon days of my youth. I, wrapped in my comforting quilt, went to look for innocence lost and to reinvigorate memories that time had faded. I’ve often been told you can’t recapture moments that have melted into time, but sometimes you must learn things for yourself. I love to learn, so I got into my car and started the journey to recapture old memories, and if I could, relive them.

Perhaps, even more, I wanted to see if I could find some of the seeds of my dreams.

I should have seen the portents of what was to come when I arrived in Sandusky only to find many of the things I remembered changed or simply gone. As I drove around town looking for a place to park my car, I noticed much of the town was not what I remembered from my youth. It was like being in Anytown, anywhere. But I had driven all the way here, alone and yearning, and I wasn’t going to be deterred by these initial disappointments.

I parked my car on Washington Row. It’s a street called a row. I don’t know any other town that has a street called a row, and I felt a pleasurable memory tugging at me. “At least they haven’t changed the name of Washington Row...

Read the rest of this essay here.