Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 022225
The winter weather brutality continues; February is waning. Crocuses, undeterred, rise up from the earth. It’s the last Bonus Questions & Answers for February 2025. And besides all that, it’s Saturday and 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 – 022225
Peggy got an email from McAfee but doesn’t use McAfee
I just got an email from McAfee. I have not used McAfee since I bought my first computer 20+ years ago. My email address has changed numerous times since then. How can these people still contact me with an email that has absolutely no basis in truth?
Our answer
Hi Peggy. This is a widespread and popular phishing scam. We have seen it, just as millions of others have. This spam/scam/phishing mail was sent to tens of millions whether they ever used McAfee or not. There’s a similar scam letter going around claiming to be from Norton. These scammer-spammers harvest email addresses from the Web and buy spam lists created from data obtained from data breaches as well as from companies who share/sell data including email addresses.
So, don’t worry. The email was not from McAfee although it looked like it was. They call emails like the fake email from McAfee “Phishing” emails for a reason – these miscreants send out emails by the tens of millions hoping to catch a few “phish” and make some easy money.
Phishing is a big business – if only a few “phish’ bite, these criminals can make a lot of money. So always be careful with email.
We hope this helps you, Peggy.
Kenda can’t find Adobe Reader on her PC
I have been a fan for a long time. I tried to download a file only to find no Adobe on my computer. I have spent several hours on this problem without any answers. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Kenda H.
Our answer
Hi Kenda. Thanks!
Abode products usually don’t come pre-installed on Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs. If you’re talking about Adobe Reader, it’s not necessary anymore because you can open PDF files with any modern browser. Windows comes with Microsoft Edge and Edge will have any PDF file so you can read them. You can also open PDF files with Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Brave, and others.’
If you still feel you need Adobe Reader you can get it free here – but be forewarned Adobe will try to install McAfee Security Scan and McAfee Safe Connect, two useless McAfee products basically used to goad you into installing McAfee antivirus. So, if you do decide to get Adobe Reader, be sure to uncheck the McAfee boxes on the page before downloading. And we’ve had people who claimed they’ve unchecked those boxes and still got the McAfee products.
We hope this helps you, Kenda.
Robert wants to make Irfanview the default image viewer on Windows 11
I would like to know if you have a solution to make IrfanView the default viewer in Windows 11. It is not listed in the properties list. You can right-click on a photo and it is an option to view it with IrfanView. I would much appreciate some help.
Our answer
Hi Robert. Open Irfanview, and click on Options > File Associations. Then in the dialog that opens, click “Default Apps”. Although it still says Windows 10, Default apps in Windows 11 will open when you click on the Default Apps button.
Irfanview will be on the list. Click on it. Then you’ll have to choose the file types you want it to open. The basic image file types are BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, JPG, PNG, RAW, TIF, TIFF, WBMP, and WEBP. You’ll need to select each by clicking the large plus sign (+) under each file format and then select Irfanview from the list that appears.
It’s not as easy as it is on Windows 10, but you can still set Irfanview as the default image viewer on Windows 11.
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Anne says if she can’t trust mail from Norton who can she trust?
I have Norton 360 installed. Recently, an email from Norton advised me if I renewed right now I could get a two-year subscription for the price of a one-year subscription. This did not sound right. I contacted Norton and they replied that they never offer deals like that. My problem is that I cannot trust emails from Norton bona fide or not! It’s a bit of a Catch-22. Any ideas on how to distinguish the good from the bad?
Our answer
Hi Anne. There’s no one way to tell if an email is a scam unless you’re really good at investigating email headers. It’s not easy to do and even those can be forged.
The rule of thumb we use and teach is never click a link in an email from a company that deals with money. If you want to check out Norton’s special offers, go directly to their site by typing in the URL in your browser.
And one more good rule to follow – if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. If the email contains glaring spelling or grammatical errors or is written in very poor English it is probably spam.
Never click links that ask you to change your password, or tell you you’ve been compromised, etc. Always visit the site involved by typing in the URL in your browser.
And though you didn’t ask, I wanted to give you our thoughts on Norton/LifeLock. We don’t trust Norton/LifeLock. LifeLock has been sued several times for false advertising. In my opinion, making people believe a program can protect them from identity theft when it can’t possibly do that only causes more identity theft because people let their guard down. Lifelock does not prevent identity theft. Norton is famous for bait-and-switch tactics, luring customers in with a low price then increasing the price or even doubling the price over time.
Richard has a couple of issues with Windows 11
I just upgraded to Windows 11. Two issues so far. First, the touch keypad no longer works. I’m typing this on an old keyboard I attached. Secondly, I see no way to attach a file folder to the taskbar. I put them in the start menu, which was not easy. Any help would be appreciated.
Our answer
Hi Richard. If you’re talking about the Windows touch keyboard… if you right-click on the desktop, choose “Personalization” and look under “Taskbar corner icons” you’ll see a switch for Touch Keyboard. You can turn it on from there. I just tried my touch keyboard in Windows 11 on both Windows 11 PCs and it works fine. If that doesn’t work then you have a Windows issue that may require you to reinstall Windows 11 or run SFC/DISM scans. Or perhaps a future update will fix it.
Pinning a folder to the taskbar is not the same as Windows 10. Even in Windows 10, it was not just a matter of dragging and dropping but this does not work in Windows 11. If you’re willing to do a little wrok you can pin files and folders to taskbar in Windows 11 – although this can change with any Windows 11 updates.
It’s easy to pin a folder or app to the Start menu in Windows 11, though. All you have to do is right-click and choose “Pin to start”. So, I’m not sure why you’re having trouble pinning apps/folders to the start menu. The main start menu does not show everything that is in the start menu, to see the entire start menu, click on “All apps” near the top right. When you see that you’ll see a menu similar to other versions of Windows.
Ken wants to know how to make his computer ask for a password after waking it from sleep mode
I want to make sure that no one else can access my computer. How can I set my computer up to ask for a PIN after it wakes from sleep? I hope you can help – I can’t seem to find an answer that works. I’m counting on you!
Our answer
Hi Ken. Assuming you’re not using a screen saver do this:
— Right-click on the start button and click “Settings”.
— In Settings click on “Accounts” and then click “Sign-in options”.
Under Sign-in Options, under “Require sign-in” make sure under “If you’ve been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?” “When PC wakes up from sleep” is selected. See the screenshot below.
If you are using a screen saver do this:
— Type Screensaver in the taskbar search. Press Enter when “Change Screensaver” appears in the search results.
— Make sure the box next to “On resume, display logon screen” is checked. Then click Apply/OK.
We hope this helps you, Ken.
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Brenda wants to change the size of the taskbar icons on her computer
Hi Guys. I have just updated to Windows 11 and although it is not very complicated I find I am struggling with a few things. Some of them I will be able to work out I hope, but the one that has me beat is…how do I reduce the size of the icons on my taskbar? I like them to be small but they are quite large. I went into Taskbar settings but couldn’t find anything helpful. I would be so grateful if you could advise me on how to do this. Thank you and kind regards. Brenda.
Our answer
Hi Brenda. Unlike Windows 10 and most versions of Windows before it, Windows 11 does not have a simple setting to show small or large icons. One way to change the size of the icons is by editing the registry which we do not recommend as doing it may cause problems such as taskbar misalignment and more serious problems.
Luckily, there are BAT files you can download and run to change the size of the icons on your taskbar to small, medium, or large (default). See this page to download the BAT files and instructions.
We hope this helps you, Brenda.
——-
Brenda wrote back: “Thank you! That was easy! Brenda.”
Pearl needs to convert an MS Word document to PDF
I needed to change an MS Word document to a PDF (of a JPEG). How do I do that? Is there a program to do that?
Our answer
Hi Pearl. You can convert any file to PDF using Windows 10’s (or Windows 11) Print to PDF feature. See our tutorial here.
Another easy way to convert a Word document to a PDF file is to use one of the many free online tools. Here’s one we’ve featured before…
https://smallpdf.com/word-to-pdf
All you have to do is visit that page, select the Word doc you want to convert to PDF and click the convert button. You’ll see it says “Converting” then when the conversion is done, you will see a download button appear. Click the download button to download your PDF file.
We hope this helps you, Pearl.
David wants to add the Brave search engine to MS Edge
How do I add the Brave search engine to Microsoft Edge? It is not in the list of search engines shown in Edge. Thanks.
Our answer
Hi David. Open Microsoft Edge and enter the following into the address bar at the top: edge://settings/searchEngines
That should take you straight to the “Manage search engines” settings section. In Manage Search Engines, click on the “Add” button and enter the following:
Search engine:
Brave
Keyword: (this can be anything you like, for example “:br” or BRAVE instead of “brave.com” )
brave.com
URL with %s in place of query:
https://search.brave.com/search?q=%s&source=desktop
After you’ve done that, click the “Save” button to add the Brave Search engine to your Microsoft Edge browser’s search engine list.
We hope this helps you, David.
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Daniel wants to send large files by email but…
I’ve been watching all of your daily and weekly newsletters religiously for years. I learned a lot of things and I thank you very much. Occasionally we need to send someone a big email, for example, 50 MB, 150 MB, or even larger. But we are limited to 10 MB with Bell (or ISP) or 25 meg with Gmail. Could you suggest a free site on the internet or a program that would allow me to send large files to a person for free? Thank you very much for your help. Yours sincerely, Daniel.
Our answer
Hi Daniel. Thanks very much for your nice comments. Many free “big file” transfer services allow you to share large files up to 10 GB. They all work in the same way. You upload the large file(s) you want to share and a link is created that you can share with the recipient(s). Essentially, you upload the large file and send an email with a link to download the file(s) to anyone you want to share the file(s) with.
Here are two such services:
Most of these kinds of services require you to sign up for a free account. Generally, free accounts have limitations as to the size of the file (but much larger than the 150 MB you mentioned).
Of the two services mentioned above, they have file size limits for free accounts of 10 GB and 2 GB respectively. Another limitation of the free accounts is that your recipients will have to download the file within a certain number of days or it will be deleted. But if you are looking for a free, easy, way to share large files this is the best way – unless you have a Gmail account (which you can get free). If you have a Gmail account you can share large files using Google Drive – you can read more about that here.
We hope this helps you, Daniel.
Anne says she was hit by a scammer
Hi. I was hit by a spammer today. It was a Microsoft scam and my computer was frozen. This guy from the Microsoft number I called said he would take care of it. He installed the LogMeIn Rescue applet. I can see it I’m my Windows program files (x86) but don’t know how to remove it. He accessed my computer remotely, but we aborted the call as we thought it was a scam. I need your help. I think I still have a session left with you. I ran an Emsisoft scan and all came back clear. I hope to hear from you soon.
Our Answer
Dear Anne. Microsoft does not ask you to call them and ask you to let them access your computer. You fell for an ad scam and called a number and let someone access your PC. Whoever it was it was not a Microsoft employee. Keep in mind that an antivirus program will not protect you from you voluntarily allowing someone remote access to your computer.
If you paid the scammer anything, you should contact your credit card or bank and let them know you were scammed. If you gave this person access to your credit card or bank account information, you will need to have those account numbers changed. It is a good thing that you hung up and cut them off.
Be assured though that there was no block on your computer. All you had to do was close your browser and/or restart your computer.
Here are some articles we have written about this sort of thing.
https://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/new/tech-support-scams-are-back-microsoft-warns-users/
https://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/new/the-infamous-microsoft-phone-phishing-scam/
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If you are requesting a session for us to take a look, please use our request form found with your direct care key order.
We hope this helps you, Anne
——–
Note: Anne scheduled a session with us via our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service and we found no evidence of any hacking or malware on her computer.
Antoinette wants to change her desktop background and change her settings so she doesn’t have to sign in
I thought I had saved the message in which you told someone how t eliminate the need to sign in each time I left the computer for a short time and came back to it. I followed those instructions but did not realize that the picture that remained on the desktop was one I disliked. It was changing often before that. Now I would like to undo the change so I can change the picture to one I like and don’t know how to do that. I did not like having to sign in each time and was happy when you told someone else how to change that. Now I can’t find the instruction so I can reverse it till a nicer picture comes on the desktop. Can you help me, please? Thank you so much. Antoinette
Our answer
Hi Antoinette. First, to change your background picture, right-click on your desktop and choose “Personalize” from the menu. Personalization settings will open. Under Background, make sure “Picture” is selected. Then choose a picture from the selection under “Choose your picture” or if none of those are what you want, click on the “Browse” button to choose any suitable picture from anywhere on your computer. Once you choose the picture choose a “fit” that makes your picture look like you want it to on your desktop.
If you’re asking about changing the Lock screen background, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize. When the Personalization settings window opens, click on “Lock screen” on the left, and under background choose Picture and browse to the picture you want to use.
As far as signing in each time, I’m not sure what you’re asking. But you can eliminate having to sign in each time you use your computer (in most cases). However, We strongly advise you to use some kind of sign-in (PIN, PASSWORD, etc.). Allowing anyone to access everything on your computer unrestricted is not recommended. A 4-digit PIN is easy to remember and vastly safer than having no sign-in. But if you don’t want to sign in at all, do this:
1. Hold down the Windows key and tap the r key.
2. In the Run box that opens, type
NETPLWIZ
and press Enter.
3. In the dialog that appears, select your user account and then uncheck the box next to “Users must enter a name and password to use this computer.”
4. Click Apply/OK.
We hope this helps you, Antoinette.
==================
Antionette wrote back: “Oh, thank you SOOO much! It makes such a difference to me, really, and I so appreciate your help, as always. Antionette.”
Don’t need any of our products or services right now?
Please help us to keep on helping you!
This week we gladly helped dozens of people solve their computer problems by email quickly and free of charge.
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 helps us 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 of our products or services right now, please help us by donating right now.
Interested in making a monthly gift? Visit this page. Help us to keep on helping you!
Thank you so much for your support!
Concerning “Pearl needs to convert an MS Word document to PDF”:
(1) When an MS Word document is open within the ‘Word’ app, clicking on the ‘File’ button opens a menu.
(2) One option is “Save as”.
(3) After choosing a destination folder, a window is opened with two boxes:
– the upper one is for defining the file’s name
– the lower is for the file’s type. PDF is one of the options.
(4) This manner is preferred as it preserves links (if exist in the source file) – as opposed to any “print” technique.
I’m not sure how this saves time Eldad. The word “Print” in Print to PDF does not mean you print a document it means the document or images or text file is saved as PDF file. It does not use your printer. It should be called “Covert to PDF” instead of “Print to PDF”.