Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 100524

By | October 5, 2024
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Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 100524

It won’t be long and the frost will be on the pumpkin, and the fodder will be in shock. Those frosty days will be here soon enough. But not today. Today is just an early-October Saturday and it is time for a new edition of Saturday Bonus Questions & Answers edition.

Today, as we do every Saturday, 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.

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Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 100524

Sharon K. is looking for a free backup program for Windows 10
Hi. I’m looking for a free backup for Windows 10.
Our answer
Hi Sharon. Windows 10 comes with an excellent backup app called “File History”. It’s both reliable and easy to use. Like all backups, it requires that you have an external hard drive or a second internal hard drive.It only takes a few minutes to set up File History and for most people, the default settings will work just fine. See our tutorial on how to set up File History here.
File History backs up all your personal files including pictures, documents, music, videos, desktop, favorites, and more.We hope this helps you, Sharon.

Laura wants the People app back on her Windows 10 Start menu
Hi, you two amazing people. Hope you are well and safe! I hope you can help me with this problem. All of a sudden, the tile I had on my Start screen for PEOPLE has disappeared, and People does not show on my Start list.

I have tried searching for People or My People, or Contacts, and can’t find it anywhere. When I email, I still get addresses finished as I start typing a name, so I know the list is still “out there”. How do I check if the “People” app is “On” and get the tile for it back on my Start menu??? I am old and NOT tech-savvy, so I’m lost. Can you help? Did it disappear because of an “update” or some mysterious glitch???? HELP, please. All my other apps tiles are still there just fine, thank goodness. I’d sure appreciate your assistance! Laura

Our answer
Hi Laura. Thank you! For reasons known only to those at Microsoft, the People app has been removed from the Windows 10 Start menu – and there is no way we know of to put it back. But you can do this, however…

Right-click on your taskbar

Click on “Show People on the taskbar”.

Cloudeight InfoAve

You can turn on the People widget and/or make adjustments to it by doing this:

1. Right-click on the taskbar.

2/ Choose Taskbar settings

3. Scroll down to “People”

4. You can modify and change the settings for the People app there.

Cloudeight InfoAve

We hope this helps you, Laura.

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; be 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.

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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).

Cloudeight InfoAve

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.

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.

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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.

Cloudeight InfoAve

A closer view of the “Site permissions / Notifications” dialog.

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Once you turn the switch off, you’ll see this…

Cloudeight InfoAve

That should keep Edge quiet.

Bil wants to help his wife upgrade her Microsoft Office
Hello. My wife has a Laptop (Lenovo) running Windows 10 version 2004. My issue is she is running Microsoft Office Version 2007. I know it’s very old. I want to bring her up to date with Microsoft Office 2019. My main dilemma is that she currently runs under POP3, and Virgin Media is IMAP, which I would like to put her on as I feel it is a more up-to-date and reliable email protocol. What sort of issues if any will I find when installing Microsoft Office 2019? Can I do it safely without any issues? I will naturally back up backup before I start.Your newsletters are brilliant, and I have learned so much from other readers’ questions – keep up the good work! Best regards, Bil.
Our answer
Hi Bil. Thanks for your nice comments. All the documents you’ve created with Office 2007 will be accessible when you switch to Office 2019. Just to be on the safe side, if you’re not currently using OneDrive, make sure you back up the folder C:\Users\Your Wife’s Username, just in case. That folder contains all the important files, settings, and data on the computer. You should uninstall Office 2007 before installing Office 2019 (or Microsoft 365 – more about that later).And according to Microsoft…“…Uninstalling Office 2007 will not affect or delete your files. After removing Office 2007, you can proceed to install Office 2019 and you will be able to open your files just fine in the newer versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint…”As for Outlook, Microsoft says…

“If Office 2007 is installed on the PC that Office 2019 is being installed on, there is nothing for you to do/export/migrate as installing 2019 will use the original OL profile and its data files, all will be as before, except now in 2019. You need to uninstall 2007…”After you upgrade Outlook, you’ll need to manually change the server settings from POP3 to IMAP.

Microsoft 365

We recommend (and use) Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) as it costs less, and you’ll never have to deal with an outdated version of Office again. It contains all the usual Office programs – Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, etc. You can get more information about Microsoft 365 here. We hope this helps you, Bil.

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.

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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).

Cloudeight InfoAve

You’ll see a lot of different settings and choices appear.

Cloudeight InfoAve

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.

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Also, make sure “automatically pick an accent color from my background is not selected.

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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.

Cloudeight InfoAve

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.

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