Bonus Questions & Answers – 81421

 

 

Bonus Questions & Answers – 81421

So many times, we see the phrase “by popular demand”, and wonder if it’s true. Well, it’s true here! By popular demand here is another edition of our “Bonus Questions & Answers” series. We’ll be featuring our Bonus Questions & Answers series every weekend – for as long as you want us to continue it – or for as long as you keep the questions coming!

Sometimes the best tips and tricks are hidden in the questions and answers we publish. And rarely do we post questions and answers on this website. Today, we’re featuring some of the questions and answers from past issues of our InfoAve Weekly newsletters. 

These answers were selected at random from past InfoAve Weekly newsletters, and, as far as we know, have never been published on this site or in our InfoAve Daily newsletter.

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Bonus Questions & Answers – 81421

James wants his browser to open in a large window
Hi. How to make my browser open with a large window instead of a tiny one?

Our answer
Hi James. Open your browser and make the window the size you want it. Then hold down the shift key and while holding it down, click the x in the top-right corner to close the browser window. From then on when you open your browser it will be the size it was when you closed it.

I hope this helps you.
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James wrote back: “Thank you, thank you, thank you! That’s exactly what I wanted to do!”

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Ford asks about TotalAV
Hi, what do you know about TotalAV and them partnering with Windows? I am curious but apprehensive about their claims. Thank you for being here for us. Ford.

Our answer
Hi Ford. TotalAV is a questionable program, distributed in questionable ways. It our opinion it is close to being a scam.  And they are not partnering with Windows or Microsoft. They display a “Microsoft Certified Partner” but so do many other software companies who specialize in questionable software.

A Microsoft Certified Partner means very little. The Microsoft Certification program’s goal isn’t to provide developers with the benefit of showing they’re “certified”; Its goal is to move and influence partners/developers towards Microsoft’s focus areas while turning a profit.

TotalAV is from the same company that made millions from a scam program called Scan Guard. Read about that here.

The Better Business Bureau has dozens of complaints about TotalAV. Read more here.

With so many good choices out there, including Emsisoft — the antivirus & antimalware we use on our computers, and which has great support along with its great protection – don’t waste your money, or take a chance, on a program with a reputation like TotalAV.

I hope this helps you decide to avoid TotalAV.

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Carol’s husband’s computer is blocked
Hi. My husband’s computer seems to be blocked. We cannot even run a virus scan. Wondering if this is legit or a scam?

Any recommendations? Thanks, Carol D

Our answer
Hi Carol. This is just a typical Microsoft tech support scam with its traditional dire warnings. While the warning mentions Microsoft many times, the alert is coming from a scam website, see?

In the screenshot directly above, you can tell immediately that this warning is not legitimate and not coming from Microsoft. Microsoft is never going to show you a warning like this or display a number to call not right out of the clear blue sky.

Do NOT call the number on your screen. Shut down your computer and wait a few minutes and restart it. Be careful when you open your browser after restarting, it will ask you if you want to reload the pages that were open – don’t do it. Once you open your browser, clear the browsing history. No matter what browser you use, press CTRL + H with the browser open to open the browser history. You see options to delete browsing history on that page.

AGAIN – do not call that number, do not click on anything on that page. It’s a scam and they’re trying to scare you into giving them a credit card number.

We’ve covered these kinds of scams numerous times in our newsletters – if you missed our articles – now would be a great time for you to read and see how these kinds of scams work. See our article here.

We hope this information helps you avoid being tricked by any of the many tech support scams.

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Myra needs to stop using Internet Explorer and wants to know what we recommend
Hi TC & Eightball. I need to change my browser from Internet Explorer for my AT&T Yahoo mail. They are suggesting Firefox or Chrome. I already have Chrome, but I want a different browser for this email address. Is Firefox a good choice? Thanks for all your good work. Have a good day. Myra

Our answer
Hi Myra. Thank you! Firefox is a good browser and many people use it. It’s one of the secondary browsers on both of my laptops. Another option you can try is Edge. Since you have Windows 10, Microsoft Edge is already installed, so you might want to give it a try. Edge is the browser that will eventually replace IE.

There are other browsers too. Here are just a few of them (with links to their download pages) that I am familiar with:

Pale Moon (a Firefox-based browser)

Vivaldi (a Chrome-based browser)

Opera

Brave

And of course,

Firefox

And don’t forget Microsoft Edge. It is already installed on your Windows 10 computer. Edge is based on Chromium and it’s an excellent browser.  To try it, just type Edge into Taskbar search or find it on the Start menu under “Microsoft Edge”.

Both of us have several browsers installed; in fact, I have all the above installed on my computer.

You might want to try a couple of different ones to find one you like. You can uninstall most browsers you install easily – and there is no limit on how many browsers you can install. Only one can be the default though.

We hope this helps you make a good choice.

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Jim no longer gets a save or cancel dialog when closing files
I cannot close when I make changes to files. Normally when I change a file and close it out, I would have Save, Discard, or Cancel. I have nothing on it except an X, but the rest is blank. I presently have six files open that I want to save the changes. Jim

Our answer
Hi Jim. Try this: Shut down your computer completely (turn it off). Wait 5 minutes and then restart it. See if this fixes the problem. I’m betting things will be back to normal.

But if not… see this page, follow the instructions on it, and Run SFC and DISM, and then restart your computer.

Let us know if this helps you.
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Jim wrote back: “Thanks, rebooting solved the problem. I figured it would as I am not a novice at computing. I didn’t want to reboot, as I knew that I would have to redo the changes that I had made. In the days of XP, I sent tips to around 35 people and a lot of the tips came from Info Avenue. In the future, I plan to give a generous gift to you… Thanks again. Jim”

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Rita wants to know if she can still upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free
I have a laptop that still has windows 7 on it and I want to know if I can still upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge and when that offer expires. Also, would like to get your advice on where is the best site to do the upgrade from and what I should do first before I do the upgrade. Thank you.

Our answer
Hi Rita. You can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free. If you want to do it yourself there’s only one official Microsoft upgrade page from which to do it.
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Go to that page and click the button labeled “Download tool now”. Once you downloaded it, run it and follow the instructions. It will take from 2 to 5 hours to complete the upgrade.

If you want us to do the upgrade for you- including making your Windows 10 computer look like Windows 7, see this Cloudeight page.

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(NOTE: As of today, August 14, 2021, the upgrade is still free. However, it is free at Microsoft’s discretion, and they could end the free offer at any time.)

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Jean is concerned because Windows shows her recovery drive is nearly out of space
I am a bit concerned about my laptop because my son was using it last week, but I don’t know whether this problem is a result of his usage or if it just happened. When I click on This PC Devices and Drives, this page has just changed and shows me that Recovery Drive has 3.08GB free from 27.69GB. I don’t know anything about this drive, but I am worried that my laptop is going to crash or cost me a heap of money to repair. I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense to you but I’m an 83year old not very technical-minded with today’s world, I struggle a lot but I am really thankful for being able to receive your newsletter. You are wonderful xx. Kindest regards and Thank You, Jean.

Our answer
Hi Jean. Thank you! On HP computers, and I’m sure on a lot of other brands of computers too, there’s a recovery drive. It will show almost full as yours does. It’s supposed to. Sometimes Windows will show a red warning on the drive because it’s nearly full – or because users have added something to it. It’s possible that your son added things to that drive which he shouldn’t have done – but adding things won’t make it unusable. The only time you’d ever use the recovery drive is if you were going to do a factory reset. And with Windows 10 that’s not very likely since Windows 10 has 4 recovery options available to you that do not use the manufacturer’s “recovery drive” those options are:

1. Reset your computer and keep your files (This reinstalls Windows, and lets you keep your personal files.)
2. Reset your computer and remove everything (This reinstalls Windows and wipes all files and folders)
3. Reset your computer and wipe everything. (This formats your drive and clean installs Windows.)
4. Fresh start. This method clean installs Windows and keeps your files and some of your settings.

What all this means is that it is very unlikely you’d have to do a factory reset and use the recovery drive.
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Jean wrote back: “Hi TC. Oh, you are so wonderful, giving me such a detailed answer to my query. I was so worried when I sent the query, but you really made my day, BLESS YOU I will be making a donation later – you are worth it. Thanks so very much. Jean.”

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Bonnie wants to convert PDF files to JPG files
I would like to know the best and easiest file converter. I would like to convert PDF to JPG. Thank You

Our answer
Hi Bonnie. We don’t recommend installing a PDF converter. These kinds of programs seem to be magnets for malware. Rather, we suggest you use an online converter, particularly one that specializes in what you want to do. I tested a few this morning. Some want to play games and try to get you to install or download something, and some like this one will just do the conversion for you. When the conversion is complete, you can download your JPG file. It can also convert PDF to PNG and other file types as well.

We hope this helps you, Bonnie. 

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Karen asks about Google Chrome
Hi Darcy/TC, I am having issues with Google & also Chrome or Google Chrome and am getting confused with this. I was using Chrome & then Google Chrome shows up. You folks have helped me before and I hope that I can get one of you to help me get this mess sorted out. I am hoping you can get back to me and advise me as to what I should do here. Thanks so much, look forward to your reply. Karen

Our answer
Hi Karen. You are thinking that Chrome and Google Chrome are two different browsers. They are not. Google makes Chrome, just like Microsoft makes Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Edge. Whether you call it Windows or Microsoft Windows, or Edger or Microsoft Edge they are all the same. Another example:  Mozilla makes Firefox. You can call it Firefox or Mozilla Firefox, and they are the same.

You can’t have two copies of Chrome on the same computer. Whether you call it Google Chrome or Chrome, it’s the same program.

The simpler you make things, the easier they are.

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