Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 102823
Happy Halloween! It’s the last Saturday of October The Holiday season is almost upon us. And besides all that, it’s time for another edition of Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers.
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 questions & answers were selected at random from past InfoAve Weekly newsletters.
Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 102823
Karen wants to know the name of the uninstaller we recommend
I have forgotten the name of the uninstaller you suggested. I had to do a clean install of Windows 10 and would like to use the app again, but the name escapes me. Thanks for all the great suggestions and tips you give daily. Karen
Our answer
Hi Karen. Thanks so much.
We currently recommend Geek Uninstaller Free. Be careful when you download Geek; make sure to click the “Zip” download in the box labeled Free. My current favorite is HiBit Uninstaller (Free). It’s not only an uninstaller, it also has a lot of useful Windows utilities included. Revo Uninstaller has a free version, but I’ve not used it in a long time. Also, if you have Reg Organizer (not free) installed, it has a great uninstaller included.
We hope this helps you, Karen.
Sharon says all of a sudden she has a weather widget on her taskbar.
All of a sudden, I have a weather widget on my taskbar. I don’t recall putting it there or wanting it. How do I get rid of it?
Our answer
Hi Sharon. Microsoft has been rolling out the “News and interests” widget via Windows update for the last month or two.
You can turn it off, but you can’t uninstall it.
To turn off (or modify) the “News and interests” widget in the Windows 10 taskbar do this:
1. Right-click on an empty area of your taskbar.
2. Select “News and interests” from the popup menu and click on “Turn off” (see screenshot below).
That’s all there is to it. You can turn the News and Interests taskbar widget on or off, select “icon only”, “Show on hover” and reduce the frequency of updates, all by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting “News and interests”.
John wants to know why two computers in the same house show different connection speeds
Earlier in the year, you posted a fast way to check internet speeds on Speedtest.net. I have a desktop computer and my speed test was 78 Mbps. I tested my wife’s laptop right along with mine and it only registered 40 Mbps. Shouldn’t they be the same? I tested both on Ookla. The ping and upload were the same, but the download speeds were different. Thanks, John
Our answer
Hi John. We don’t use Ookla much anymore, it has too many ads. We now use Fast www.fast.com. It’s reliable and has zero ads.
That being said, every computer has its own hardware including wireless cards, Ethernet cables, network cards, etc. Each computer is configured differently. And unless your computer and hers have exactly the same hardware and software, they are going to show varying speeds. If both are connected via Wi-Fi and are not exactly the same distance from the router, you’re going to have variances. It would be surprising if two computers showed exactly the same download speed.
The hardware, type of connection, and distance from the router (if Wi-Fi) all affect the speed of the connection.
One more thing, a ping just shows the route from the computer to the destination server. I’m surprised even your pings and upload speeds are the same, although upload speeds are usually much slower than download speeds anyway.
I have two computers – both connected by Wi-Fi and one shows 81 Mbps down and 13 Mbps up and my other laptop approximately the same distance away from the router shows 35 Mbps down, 10 up. My Android smartphone shows 93 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.
A lot of things come into play when considering connection speeds. They’ll even vary from one test to the next.
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Irene wants to know how to enlarge the text on her computer
How can I enlarge my text on my computer?
Our answer
Hi Irene. We have written several articles about enlarging text on Windows 10 and enlarging text in programs like browsers and emails. The following two articles should cover everything you’d want to know about enlarging text on your computer.
How to make text bigger on Windows 10.
How to instantly make text larger in email and on the web.
That covers it all.
We hope this helps you, Irene.
Diane wants to uninstall Microsoft Edge
I recently bought a new Lenovo computer. I installed Chrome because I like it. On startup, an Edge page takes over, trying to get me to install photos, etc. How do I uninstall Microsoft Edge? It is greyed out when I go to the Uninstall page. Thank you in advance. Dianne
Our answer
Hi Diane. You cannot uninstall Edge from Windows 10 or Windows 11. Here’s what Microsoft says:
“Microsoft Edge is the web browser recommended by Microsoft and is the default web browser for Windows. Because Windows supports applications that rely on the web platform, our default web browser is an essential component of our operating system and can’t be uninstalled.”
Now, I’m sure that if you searched hard enough you could find someone who will say you can remove Edge manually, but I would not chance ruining Windows by attempting it.
Let’s try to get rid of the notifications from Edge. I suggest you right-click on the start button and click Settings. In Settings >System > Notifications & actions… turn the switch next to “Get notifications from apps and other senders” off.
Next, open Edge and click on the three horizontal dots icon at the top right to open Edge Settings.
From the Edge Settings menu, click on “Cookies and site permissions”.
Scroll down until you see “Site Permissions / Notifications”.
Turn the switch next to “Ask before sending (recommended)” Off.
Here are some screenshots to guide you.
A closer view of the “Site permissions / Notifications” dialog.
Once you turn the switch off, you’ll see this…
That should keep Edge quiet.
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Ross wants a copy of all the passwords on his computer
Can you recommend a program to obtain a copy of all my passwords stored either on my computer or by Google? I have access to all the relevant sites etc. now, but my computer is “tired”, so would like to have a copy just in case.
Our answer
Hi Ross. Nothing beats a good password manager for managing passwords. If you don’t use one yet, it would be an excellent time to get one and start using it. There are many good password managers out there, some are free. Bitwarden has an excellent free password manager. RoboForm and LastPass also offer trimmed-down free versions.
Now, to answer your question: There’s no way to recover every password from your Windows 10 computer, but there are ways to recover many of them. First, you can export all your Google Chrome passwords to a file by following the instructions on this page.
You can use a program called reCall to ferret out other passwords (email passwords, application passwords, and software licenses) stored on your computer. Read more about reCall here.
We hope this helps you, Ross.
Barb has a question about her Chromebook
I have a Chromebook that I accidentally erased Linux from. Is there any way you could recover that for me? I have tried unsuccessfully. I have had your help before on my PC and wondered if you could be my last resort. Thank you, Barb.
Our answer
Hi Barbara. Thanks for your nice comments.
Chromebooks don’t use Linux; they use Chrome OS. In any case, we don’t work on Chromebooks.
But maybe this will help you. You can reset your Chromebook back to its factory settings by following the instructions here.
That would make your Chromebook exactly the way it was when you first got it.
We hope this helps you, Barbara.
Rona has problems with the Windows 10 Photos app
Hello again TC & EB. I am having problems using the Photos app. I thought I was doing really well transferring my photos from an external hard drive into albums in the photos app. However, after a day or two when I went back to look at the albums, they were nearly all showing that there were zero photos in them. One or two had some, but not all. What am I doing wrong? The photos downloaded into the ‘collection’ folder are all mixed up with some upside down. On my old computer, I used Picasa to sort my photos and they were all in folders in which I could edit, add, and delete as needed.
I am getting very frustrated. I have tried to find solutions on the Internet, and it would seem that many others have had problems too. However, I have been hesitant about trying the fixes suggested. I hope you can help me with some simple procedures as you always do. Many thanks. Rona.
Our answer
Hi Rona. It sounds like the Photos app is not working right. There are two things you can do to try to fix it. You can try to repair it, and if that does not work, you can try to reset it.
To repair or reset the Microsoft Photos app do this.
1. Type APPS in the taskbar search and press Enter when “Apps & features” appears in the search results.
2. On the page that opens is a list of all the programs and apps on your computer. Find “Microsoft Photos” and click on it. You’ll see “Advanced options” directly beneath the title Microsoft Photos (see the screenshot below).
You’ll see a lot of different settings and choices appear.
You’re only interested in two of them: “Repair” and “Reset”. Try “Repair” first and restart your computer. See if that fixes the Photos app. Go back to Apps & features, find Microsoft Photos, click on it, and choose Advanced Settings again. This time choose Reset instead of Repair. After you reset the Photos app, restart your computer and try the Photos app again.
If you still can’t get the Photos app working to your satisfaction, we have two alternatives for you.
Microsoft Photo Gallery (came with Windows XP, and Windows 7) and works on Windows 10 too. I’m using it on Windows 10. For more information on where to get it, how to install it, and what it can do, see our article here.
You may also be interested in reading our article about FastStone Image Viewer (free). It has photo-organizing capabilities too.
We hope this helps you, Rona.
Sharon wants to make the taskbar font black
I always appreciate your help; you guys are great! Is there any way to make the fonts on the taskbar black and not white I have a green color on there now and the white doesn’t show up well. Thanks again for your help. Sharon S.
Our answer
Hi Sharon. Thank you! It sounds like you have Windows 10 in “Light” mode or have selected a light color for your taskbar. There’s no way to change the taskbar font without getting into third-party programs or registry hacks. I don’t think you’d want to do that.
So, we’re going to help you get your Windows 10 PC out of light more – or help you select a dark color for your taskbar so the white text shows up better.
Let’s get you out of light now and into Dark mode this way…
Right-click the taskbar.
Click “Taskbar settings”
Click “Colors”
Under “Choose your color” make sure it says “Custom” (you can select it by clicking on the little arrow).
Under “Choose your default Windows mode” choose “Dark”.
Under “Choose your default app mode” you can choose “Light” or “Dark” – it doesn’t affect the taskbar color.
Also, make sure “automatically pick an accent color from my background is not selected.
You can either choose a dark color from the color chart or under “Show accent colors on the following surfaces”, leave the box under “Start, taskbar and action center” unchecked. This will result in a black taskbar and the white text will show up very well.
The text will still be white, but you’ll be able to see it much better.
There are programs you can download and themes you can install that may change the taskbar text color – but we recommend that you just make the taskbar darker so that the Windows default white text shows up well.
Robert wants to know how to change the name on the Windows 10 login screen
How do you or can you change the name on the login screen? Or the startup screen or welcome screen. Thanks, Robert.
Our answer
Hi Robert. Thanks to your question, I’ve created a tutorial on how to change your account display name for those using a Microsoft account, as well as for those using a Local account
Take a look at the tutorial here.
Again, thanks for your question! It was the basis for our tutorial.
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Bill wants to stop Microsoft Edge from blocking downloads
How do I stop Microsoft Edge from blocking downloads? It recently blocked a Crucial memory scan which I know is legit as well as a free PDF update. Thanks. Bill.
Our answer
Hi Bill. You can circumvent Edge’s “SmartScreen” filter in two different ways.
Option 1:
Click the download link.
Click the View downloads button to the right of the “(this file/extension) is unsafe to download and was blocked by SmartScreen Filter” warning.
In Downloads, the blocked file will be listed with the “This is unsafe to download and was blocked by SmartScreen Filter” message.
You cannot click it to download it, but you can right-click the blocked file and choose “Download unsafe file” to download it.
Option 2:
You can also disable the Edge SmartScreen Filter (not recommended).
1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click the 3 (…) horizontal dots icon in the top-right corner.
3. Click on “Settings”.
4. Click on “Privacy, search, and services.
5. Scroll down to Security
6. Turn off the toggle switch next to “Help protect me from malicious sites and download with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen.”
Our answer assumes that you have good antivirus/anti-malware software installed. Otherwise, we do not advise that you turn off SmartScreen.
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Bill wrote back: “Thank you for the quick answer. I ordered 4GB RAM from Amazon after a scan by Crucial.com. And I also got the update from free PDF. I have used Emsisoft from the beginning and in a couple of days, you will be asked to renew it. Bill”
Debbie followed our instructions to increase the number of days to go back to a previous version of Windows, but…
I went back to your article on increasing the number of days to go back to the previous installation of Windows and copied & pasted the verbiage & it was not found. Has Microsoft closed that loophole in the latest version?
Our answer
Hi Debbie. The DSIM commands in our article “How to Increase the Number of Days to Go Back to the Previous Installation of Windows” are only valid during the period of time when you can still go back to a previous version of Windows.
If either of the following is true…
1) Windows has removed the previous version automatically after 10 days.
2) The previous version (Windows.OLD) has been removed using Disk Cleanup or another cleanup program.
You’ll get “Error 1168: Element not found.” This error message indicates that the previous version has been deleted, and there’s currently no previous version to go back to.
I hope this answers your question, Debbie.
Lynnda wants to know about the new Brave Search
I’m just curious. What is your take on the new Brave Search? Thanks, Lynnda
Our answer
Hi Lynnda. I just now tried Brave Search because of your question. “Brave Search” results seem a bit sparse and off-target when compared to Google. However, Brave Search is in the beta stage meaning it’s in the testing stage right now. Perhaps it will be better in time. You can try using it at https://search.brave.com/
If you’re looking for a search engine with some modicum of privacy (nothing is private on the web), I suggest DuckDuckGo. They’ve been around a long time, and while DuckDuckGo’s search results are thinner and much less robust than Google’s, so are Bing’s and Yahoo’s. And neither Bing nor Yahoo offer much more in the way of privacy than Google does.
And while you asked about Brave Search, we’ve been testing the Brave browser for many months now. While it has a few irritating (to us) features, it is an excellent browser for those looking for more privacy and security. It’s based on Chromium, so it has a “Chrome” feel about it. If you haven’t tried it yet, you might want to give it a test drive. You can download it (free) here.
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