|
Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly Issue #1010 Volume 20 Number 16 February 17, 2023 Dear Friends, Welcome to Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly Issue #1010. Thank you very much for subscribing and for being a part of our Cloudeight family. We appreciate your friendship and support very much! Please share our newsletters and our website with your friends and family. ![]() If you're not getting our InfoAve Daily newsletter, you're missing out on a lot of good stuff! It's free and it only takes a few seconds to sign up. We'd love to have you with us. Visit this page to sign up for our Cloudeight InfoAve Daily Newsletter.
Don't have a Cloudeight SeniorPass? It's a great deal. Learn more here. Our Cloudeight SeniorPass is a great deal. You get unlimited support for one full year from the date you first use your SeniorPass. We can help keep your computer running well, fix all kinds of computer problems, clean up malware, and a whole lot more. Our SeniorPass is like having insurance for your computer. And it's only $99 for an entire year.Get your SeniorPass today for just $99. It's just like having insurance for your computer - only better! To learn more about our SeniorPass, please see this page.
Michael has a new Windows 11
computer but can't install anything that is not from the Microsoft Store Our answer To change where you can get apps from... 1. Right-click on the Start button. 2. Click on Settings 3. Click on Apps 4. Click on Advanced app settings 5. In Advanced app settings next to "Choose where to get apps" from "Microsoft Store (recommended)" to "Anywhere". See the screenshots below... Now, look at the second screenshot to see the options you have when you click the down arrow to the right of "Choose where to get apps". Your PC is set to Microsoft Store (recommended)" - you want to choose "Anywhere" as shown below.
We hope this helps you, Michael.
Leslie gets a notification to check
her Privacy & Security > Location settings Our answer In Windows 11, type LOCATION in the taskbar search and click Enter when you see "Turn off location" appear. In the settings dialog turn the top switch to "Off" to disable location for all apps, or if you're using the Windows weather app, you can make things easier on yourself by leaving the main Location switch turned on, but turning off the switches next to the individual apps for everything but Settings and Weather. We hope this helps you, Leslie.
Sharon travels and wants to use a
VPN while traveling I tried to download and use Proton and ended up uninstalling it because I couldn't seem to get it to work. So perhaps some Friday you could explain these things, which you most likely have done before but I wasn't paying attention! Thanks for all you do for us! Sharon N. Our answer Here are three good browser VPNs we've tested. These work in Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Browsec VPN Once you've installed the extension, you can turn it on and off... In Chrome, open Extensions by typing chrome://extensions/ in the address bar and pressing Enter. In Edge, you can open Extensions by clicking on the 3 horizontal dots icon in the top right-hand corner and clicking "Extensions" in the drop-down menu In Firefox you can access extensions by typing about:addons in the address bar and pressing "Enter". Having a VPN extension (add-on) installed in your browser allows you to quickly turn it on (and leave it on) for extra security when you're traveling, yet you can quickly and easily turn it off when you're at home. We hope this helps you decide, Sharon.
Anne doesn't want to have to use a
Windows password Our answer If you're using a local account and not a Microsoft account you can log in without a password or PIN -- see our tutorial on this page. Our advice is if you don't want to use a password, use a 4-digit PIN to log into Windows for your own safety and security.
This week we gladly helped over 40 of you with your computer problems by email. 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 making a donation right now. Interested in making a monthly gift? Visit this page. Help us keep helping you! Thank you so much for your support! ![]() Brenda is worried about using
LastPass Our answer LastPass does not (and never has) store users' master passwords on their servers. And when you sign up for a LastPass account you're warned not to lose your master password because LastPass does not keep a copy of it or know what it is... so there's no way for you to retrieve a lost master password - and no way for any hacker to retrieve it either. If you used a weak master password, there is a chance hackers could guess it but with millions of LastPass accounts, it's hard to believe any hacker, who wanted to make money fast, would ever bother even attempting this - there are more efficient and easier ways for hackers to steal personal information - phishing being the primary one (and the easiest one). But if you still want to change password managers, Bitwarden is a good option. It's easy to import your LastPass data into Bitwarden (see this page). Additionally, they also make a Bitwarden app for Apple and Android devices. We hope this helps you and eases your mind too.
Daniel's email notification always
shows one unread message in the inbox even though there are none Our answer Is the Mail App Icon pinned to the taskbar? Do you have the "Show People on the Taskbar" Enabled? Do you have Settings > System > Notifications turned on? If you have the mail app pinned to the Start Menu, unpin it. Try opening the mail app and selecting the settings icon. Select "Notifications" in the list and then "Turn OFF show notifications." Right-click on the taskbar and choose "Taskbar settings" and turn the switch next to "Show badges on taskbar buttons" to the "Off" position. Open Settings >Personalization >Lock Screen Turn OFF get fun facts & tips ..... Under "Choose which apps show quick status on the lock screen" make sure nothing is selected. If some are make sure to deselect them. In Settings >Accounts > Sign-in options > Privacy... turn off "Show account details such as my email address on the sign-in screen". If you use Gmail and or Outlook.com/Hotmail log into your account(s) on the Web and make sure you have no unread messages there. Open the Mail app and then sync both accounts and restart Your PC After the restart pin the mail app to the taskbar again. Since I've never seen this problem before, I'm just going through everything I would try if I were working on your PC. I know it seems like a lot of "stuff" but I'm covering everything I can think of that would cause the number 1 to appear on the mail icon if you do not have any unread emails. We hope this helps you get the circled number one off the mail icon
in your taskbar, Daniel.
Stanley says we should have mentioned
Google Sheets. Our answer Thanks for reminding us, Stanley. This week we gladly helped over 40 of you with your computer problems by email. 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 making a donation right now. Interested in making a monthly gift? Visit this page. Help us keep helping you! Thank you so much for your support!
How to Use Your Browser's Incognito (or Private Mode) to
Troubleshoot Browser Problems We are going to start by using Chrome as an example, but the same basic principle applies to Edge and Firefox as well. If you are having problems with Chrome, the easiest way to make sure that it’s not a browser extension causing your problem(s) is to open Chrome in Incognito mode. To open Chrome in Incognito mode, right-click on its shortcut and choose “New incognito window”, or click on the Settings icon (3-vertical dots) and choose “New incognito window”. Incognito mode disables all extensions automatically*. Try browsing with Chrome in Incognito mode for a few minutes and see if you still have the same problems. If you don’t have any problems while using Chrome in Incognito mode, then chances are good that one of your extensions is causing your problem(s). You can enable each extension, one at a time, until you find the culprit that’s causing your problem(s). You can then choose to leave the extension disabled, remove it, or check to see if there’s an updated version. If you’re still having problems, then it’s most likely not a problem caused by a browser extension. In that case, you might want to consider resetting Chrome by following the instructions on this page. That page also has instructions for fixing Chrome by completely removing Chrome and reinstalling it. If you choose to re-install Chrome, be sure you export and save your bookmarks first – otherwise you’ll lose them. To learn how to save your Chrome bookmarks, see this Cloudeight tip. *Incognito mode in Google Chrome, disables all extensions except ones you have explicitly chosen to allow in Incognito mode. Most of you shouldn’t have to worry about that. Do you use Edge or Firefox? You can use this tip too! This tip will also work in Edge in its “InPrivate” mode and in Firefox in its “Private” mode. You can launch Firefox in Safe mode too. Open Firefox, click on Help > Troubleshooting > Start in Safe Mode.
Five Little Windows Tricks 1 — Copying the contents of a Windows dialog box. Do you want to copy the contents of a Windows dialog box? Just click anywhere inside the box, press Ctrl + C, open Notepad, and press Ctrl+V. 2 — Navigate to your “home” folder in Windows. The Windows 10 and Windows 11 your home folder is the default folder for your username which contains folders like “Pictures”, “Music”, “Documents” etc. Would you like to get to your “home folder” fast? OK! Press the Windows Key + R and type “.” in the Run dialog and press Enter. That’s quotation mark, period, quotation mark – just to make it clear. This takes you right to your home folder – just like that. 3 — Want to get the full scoop about your Windows system? Press the Windows Key + R In the run dialog type MSINFO32 Press Enter. There you go… everything you ever wanted to know and more! 4 — Find out the date Windows was installed. Type CMD in the taskbar search and then press Enter to open the Command Prompt. At the prompt type: systeminfo | find /i “Original” Press Enter.
Above: Windows 11 was originally installed on this computer on 5/16/2022 or for those of you in other parts of the world on 16 MAY 2022. Please note: If you reinstalled Windows, then this will show you the date you reinstalled it, not the original date Windows was installed on your PC. But it’s still a great way to see how “old” your current Windows installation is. 5 — A quick way to see all the programs starting with Windows. 1. Press the Windows key + R.
as well as their installation directories.
And that’s all there is to it! A little reminder! When typing any of the commands shown in this article please remember that they must be entered exactly as shown or, boo hoo, they won’t work. So please feel free to copy and paste any or all of the commands shown in the article above. Remember we tested this command on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 and they do work.
How to Change the Default Search
Engine in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox We have recently had a lot of folks asking us how to change their browser’s default search engine. In this tip, we’ll show you how to change your default search engine on the desktop (Windows) versions of the three most popular browsers, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. This tip is for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Google Chrome To change the default search engine in Google Chrome, follow these steps:
Note: If you don’t see the search engine you want to use in the list, you can add it by clicking on the “Add a new search engine” button and following the on-screen instructions. Microsoft Edge
Mozilla Firefox
And now you know how easy it is to change your browser’s default search engine. ![]() Want more tips, tricks, and information? We have thousands of Windows tips, tricks, and more on our InfoAve website. Subscribe to our free InfoAve Daily newsletter.
Maybe You Don’t Need a Huge Office Program…Maybe All You Need Is One of These Three Excellent Free Word Processing Programs for Windows 10 and Windows 11 If you don’t need to create spreadsheets or make fancy presentations, then maybe all you need is a word processor. If you need to open or work with MS Word Doc and Docx or if you need to save your work in Word .doc or .docx format, you can download one of the many free “MS Office” alternatives such as Open Office, Libre Office, and many others. These free office suites are great if you need some or all the functionality of the programs that come with MS Office. But what if you don’t use Excel or PowerPoint or any of the other programs that come with MS Office or the free alternatives? What if all you really want and need is a good word processor? One that can open Word documents and save files as Word documents that even your friends with Microsoft Office can read. How about a word processor that not only opens and saves documents in MS Word format but edits and saves files in PDF format? Today we are featuring three excellent free word processors that don’t require you to download a lumbering 300 MB office suite or spend money on Microsoft Office. These word processors work with many formats – including MS Word. We’ll start with the one you already have but probably won’t ever
use. The venerable old WordPad isn’t the same WordPad you remember from Windows XP or Windows Vista. Nope. It’s grown up to be quite a nice word processor that can open Microsoft Word doc and docx files as well as Open Office files, text files, and more. And while it can’t save files in MS Word format, it can save files in RTF (rich text) format which can be opened in almost any word processor – including MS Word. WordPad is already on your computer. To open it on Windows 7 or Windows 8, press Windows Key + R and type the word WRITE and press Enter. If you’re using Windows 10, just type WordPad in the taskbar search and press Enter.
Once WordPad is open you right-click its icon on the taskbar and choose “Pin to taskbar”. Then you’ll always have a shortcut to WordPad handy. ——————- AbleWord A free word processor and PDF reader & editor all in one. Easy to use, familiar interface, and lots of features. Opens, creates, and edits MS Word .docx and .doc. AbleWord can also save Word documents as PDF and PDF documents as Word documents. Here’s some info from the developer:
Above: MS Word .docx file open for editing in AbleWord. AbleWord is free for home and business use. The download is small, and the installer is clean. Great program. You can read more about and/or Download AbleWord from here. —————- Jarte 6.2 Jarte is a Windows word processor that can read and save your word processing gems in Word format in .doc or .docx format. You’ll need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack if you want to save in .docx format. But that’s no big deal because when you try to save a document as .docx, Jarte gives you a link to download it. Once you install it, reopen Jarte and you’re in business. Jarte has a lot of features; here are a few of them Fully compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11. It works on both 32-bit and 64-bit computers. Tabbed interface to provide easy access to open documents Opens files with file extension RTF, file extension DOC, and file extension DOCX Fast start-up Compact screen size Can be run directly from a pluggable USB flash drive High-quality spell checker with custom user dictionary And much more. And for those who have problems with their eyesight or who are blind, Jarte offers this: Jarte has become a particularly popular word processor for the blind community due to its special screen reader mode. When Jarte detects the presence of a running screen reader program it starts in screen reader mode with an interface that is specifically designed to maximize accessibility via screen reader programs. An example of Jarte’s screen reader friendliness is its pop-up menu-driven spell check feature which directs the screen reader to audibly spell out misspellings and spelling suggestions. Jarte Plus also provides an optional audible notice when it detects a misspelled word has just been typed. Jarte is committed to being a great word processor choice for the visually impaired.
We first recommended Jarte back in 2011. Now here it is 2023 and Jarte is still a great word processor. And while Jarte says it works in Windows 10, it works great in Windows 11 too. We know because we tested it. You can read more about and/or download Jarte from here.
Don't have a Cloudeight SeniorPass? It's a great deal. Learn more here. Our Cloudeight SeniorPass is a great deal. You get unlimited support for one full year from the date you first use your SeniorPass. We can help keep your computer running well, fix all kinds of computer problems, clean up malware, and a whole lot more. Our SeniorPass is like having insurance for your computer. And it's only $99 for an entire year.Get your SeniorPass today for just $99. It's just like having insurance for your computer - only better! To learn more about our SeniorPass, please see this page.
On Dreams and Life Read the rest of our essay here... ![]() ![]() Ads are not malware, viruses, or
ransomware, we tells ya!
Sales of the following products and services help support our newsletters, websites, and free computer help services we provide.
SeniorPass - One year of Cloudeight Direct Computer Care - unlimited sessions!
Get more information here.
Windows 10 Customization: Make Windows 10 look and work the way you want it to. Learn more.
MORE IMPORTANT STUFF! Your
InfoAve Weekly Members' Home Page is located here.
Print our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care Flyer and spread the word about our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care repair services. Get our ready-to-print flyer here. Help us Grow! Forward this email newsletter to a friend or family member - and have them
sign-up for InfoAve
Weekly here!
Get our free daily newsletter! Each evening we send a short newsletter with a tip or trick or a computer-related article - it's short and sweet - and free.
Sign-up right now.
We have thousands of Windows tips and tricks and computer articles posted on our
Cloudeight InfoAve website. Our site has a great search engine to help you find what you're looking for too!
Please visit us today!
Help us by using our Start Page. It costs nothing, and it helps us a lot. Print our Cloudeight Direct Flyer and spread the word about our computer repair service! If you want to help us by telling your friends about our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service, you can download a printable flyer you can hand out or post on bulletin boards, etc.
Get the printable PDF Cloudeight Direct Computer Care flyer here. |