a.) Right-click on an empty area on your desktop.
b.) Click “View”.
c.) Uncheck “Show desktop icons”.

 

 

 

Before... a cluttered desktop...

 

 

And after...A beautiful clean desktop.

 

 

Unfortunately, unlike Windows 10, Windows 11 does not allow you to create a desktop toolbar, so to see the icons/shortcuts on your desktop – you’ll need to open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and click on “Desktop”. Your desktop is nothing but a folder, you know – a Windows system folder.

 

 

And should you ever want the icons on your desktop again… no problem! Right-click an empty area of your desktop, click “View” and then check “Show desktop icons”. Your desktop icons will be back again.

 

We hope this helps you, Ellen.

Total AV offers a discounted price for the first year of subscription. Here are the prices for each plan:

 

    TotalAV Pro: $19 per year
    TotalAV Internet Security: $39 per year
    TotalAV Total Security: $49 per year

 

After the first year, the price of each plan increases to:

 

    TotalAV Pro: $119 per year
    TotalAV Internet Security: $145 per year
    TotalAV Total Security: $179 per year

 

We consider Total AV's pricing to be a bait-and-switch scam since you are charged the increased price automatically if you don't call them to cancel beforehand.  

 

Emsisoft's price for 3 computers is $45 for the first year and $40 for each subsequent year.

 

In independent AV tests, Emsisoft has consistently performed better than TotalAV. In the latest tests by AV-Test, Emsisoft achieved a 100% detection rate for zero-day malware and a 99.9% detection rate for widespread malware. TotalAV, on the other hand, achieved a 99.5% detection rate for zero-day malware and a 99.8% detection rate for widespread malware.

 

And let's not forget that the company behind Total AV is the same company that made the program called ScanGuard which we wrote about here. ScanGuard was a scam.

 

And as far as the Windows stop error goes it's most likely caused by a bad driver... and driver errors are most often caused by driver-updater programs that automatically update drivers whether they need updating or not.  Stop errors are rarely caused by viruses or malware.

 

We hope this helps you make a good choice, Derek.

Since all licensed Windows 7 users are entitled to a free upgrade to Windows 10, you won't need a product key to upgrade to Windows 10. 

 

You did the right thing by not purchasing a Windows 10 disk online -so many of those are scams or volume licenses which are technically illegal for a single user.

Doris wants to remove OneDrive from Windows 11
I have Windows 11 on my Acer Computer. One Drive is giving me a lot of problems. How do I take One Drive off? I tried to uninstall it and thought it was gone, but it's not. Thank you for your help.

Our answer
Hi Doris. You can uninstall OneDrive from Windows 11 this way: 

How to Open Programs On Your Taskbar by Number
Windows 10 and Windows 11

If you’ve pinned program icons to your Taskbar, you don’t have to click the icons to open them. 

Here’s a little-known trick. 

You can use the Windows Key + a number key to open them. The programs on your taskbar are “numbered” from left to right. So, the first icon is #1 and the next one to its right is #2, and so on.

To open a program from its icon that’s pinned to your taskbar, hold down the Windows key + the number key that corresponds to the location of the pinned program icon on your taskbar. For example, the Windows key + the number 3 key will open the third program from the left of the program icons pinned to your Taskbar.

On my computer, the 3rd pinned program icon from the left happens to be Firefox. So, on my laptop, Windows Key + 3 opens Firefox. IrfanView is the seventh pinned program icon on my taskbar. So, if I hold down the Windows key and press the number 7 key, IrfanView opens.

How useful this tip is, depends on how you use your computer. But learning new things is always useful, right?

 

Let’s Talk About RAM
Windows 10 and Windows 11

RAM is also known as memory. The amount of memory installed in your computer has a lot to do with how “fast” it runs. Generally, the more RAM you have installed, the faster your computer will be. More than anything else, RAM determines how well your computer performs. There are other factors too, but RAM has more impact on your computer’s performance than anything else.

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. It’s also referred to as “Memory”. Here are a few things you should know about RAM.

• Random access: RAM can access any byte of memory without having to read through all the bytes before it. This makes it very fast for the computer to access the data that it needs.
• Volatile: RAM loses its data when the power is turned off. This means that the computer needs to save any important data to a non-volatile storage device, such as a hard drive before it turns off.
• Fast: RAM is much faster than other types of memory, such as hard drives and solid-state drives. This makes it ideal for storing data that the computer needs to access quickly, such as the operating system, programs, and data files.
• Affordable: RAM is relatively affordable, making it a cost-effective way to improve the performance of a computer.

If you want to improve the performance of your computer, one of the best things you can do is add more RAM. RAM is relatively inexpensive and can make a big difference in the speed and responsiveness of your computer. We recommend Crucial.com when it comes to upgrading RAM. Their “Memory scanner” makes it easy to find the right type of RAM for your computer. And no, we don’t make any money if you buy from Crucial.com. Another reason why we’re poor 

But wait, how much do you know about your computer RAM?

But how much do you know about your computer’s RAM? You probably know how much RAM you have, but do you know how many RAM chips you have installed or what type of RAM you have?

This tip is probably more for the geeks among you, but we think many non-geeks are curious. So, we’re going to show you how to use a Windows command to find out more about your computer’s RAM than you probably know right now.

If you want to know how many RAM chips you have installed in your computer, the capacity of each chip, and the type of RAM installed, you can do it quickly and easily with one command.

So let’s open a Command Prompt window first:

Type CMD in the taskbar search and when you see Command Prompt appear, press Enter.

At the command prompt type:

wmic MEMORYCHIP get BankLabel, DeviceLocator, MemoryType, TypeDetail, Capacity, Speed

You must type that command as shown – spaces and commas matter. Commands are not case-sensitive so upper and lower case letters do not matter. Just copy & paste the bolded words above and be sure.

The screenshot above shows that I have two RAM chips installed (Bank 0 and Bank 2). Under Capacity, it shows each RAM chip has a capacity of 4294967296 MB of RAM – which is 4GB. Two RAM chips of 4 GB each means that my Windows 10 computer has a total of 8 GB of RAM.

MemoryType tells you the type of your physical memory. In my case, this shows I have memory type 24 which is DDR 4 type RAM. Under TypeDetail you’ll find the SMBIOS information. This shows I have type 128 which means I have synchronous RAM.

Let’s take a look at Windows 11…

The screenshot above shows that I have two RAM chips installed (Bank 0 and Bank 1). Under Capacity, it shows each RAM chip has a capacity of 6442450944 MB of RAM – which is 6GB. Two RAM chips of 6 GB means that my Windows 11 computer has a total of 12 GB of RAM. It also shows Memory type 0.  This means that Windows 11 does not know the type of RAM my computer has.  That’s what I get for buying an unknown brand (ALLDOCUBE) and El Cheapo laptop. But hey, it is fast and works great, but it does have a few quirks.

If you want more information about your RAM than you’ll ever probably want to know, type the following command in a Command prompt.

WMIC MEMORYCHIP LIST FULL

And remember this tip from your old friends TC  & Darcy. The more RAM your computer has the faster it will be. If you are shopping for a new computer and your choice comes down to a faster processor or more RAM for the same price – always choose more RAM. 

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.

Now available: Reg Organizer 9.21

If you purchased or renewed Reg Organizer through Cloudeight within the last 12 months, you're entitled to a free version upgrade to Reg Organizer 9.21. Works great with Windows 10 and Windows 11!

Save $14 on Reg Organizer right now!

Reg Organizer - A Swiss Army Knife of Windows Tools - Works Great on Windows 10 and Windows 11!

   

Uninstalr – A Free and Powerful Uninstaller

Uninstalr is free, but it’s also very powerful, and you have to know a couple of things before using it or you might not like the outcome.

1. Uninstalr will automatically close all open programs when it begins its uninstall routine
2. Uninstalr will automatically restart your computer when it’s done installing whatever you’ve uninstalled.

These are not necessarily bad things, but if you’re not aware of them, you could lose whatever you were working on when you clicked the “Uninstall…” button. You can override these two options, but the point of using Uninstalr is to completely remove apps/programs and leave no pieces/parts of the app/program behind.

While Uninstalr does not have a lot of features, like HiBit Uninstaller, it is a very powerful uninstaller that removes more leftovers than any other uninstaller we’ve tested. Uninstalr can even show you leftovers from programs you’ve previously uninstalled.

Here’s a screenshot from the developer’s site (all the rest of the screenshots here are from our software testing) showing leftovers from programs previously uninstalled using other uninstallers.

When you open Uninstalr, it shows how many programs you have installed, how much disk space those programs occupy, and how many files, folders, and registry entries are related to the installed programs. Take a look.

I really don’t want to uninstall “Find Empty Files-n-Folders”, but the screenshot below shows you an example of how much detail Uninstalr shows about every program installed on your device.

So now that you’ve seen you can get info about any program installed on your PC, let’s go ahead and uninstall a program. 

For this text, I’ve chosen a program I want to uninstall. I downloaded Epic Privacy Browser a long time ago only to test it and forgot it was still installed. Housecleaning time! Uninstalr tells me that Epic has created 10 files, 3 folders, and 82 registry keys and entries.

After I clicked “Start installation”, Uninstalr did its thing. It closed all open programs and when it was done installing Epic Privacy Browser, it rebooted my PC.

It took about five or six minutes to complete the process and when it was done there were no traces of Epic Privacy Browser on my PC.

Before we let you go and try Uninstalr, we will let the developer have a word with you…

Uninstalr is an easy to use and very accurate software uninstaller for Windows. It can uninstall multiple apps at the same time and we think it’s pretty cool.

Key Features

• Batch uninstall many apps at the same time.
• Supports unattended uninstallation of apps.
• Supports monitoring of new software installations.
• Also detects portable apps and previously uninstalled software leftovers.
• Shows all the data added to your system by installed software on a file-by-file basis.
• Shows all the data it will remove before starting the uninstallation.
• Filter and search the list of installed software.
• According to our benchmark, Uninstalr is the most accurate software uninstaller by leaving the least amount of leftovers when uninstalling apps.
• Supports detection and uninstallation of Microsoft Store, Steam, Big Fish Game System, Chocolatey, NuGet, and Ninite installed software.
• Supports Windows Dark Mode.
• Supports Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7.
• Comes with these translations builtin: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, English, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.Has a single executable file portable version and a normal setup version.
• Uninstalr is freeware, lightweight, and easy to use. No bells and whistles, no nonsense.

If you’re looking for a powerful, free, thorough uninstaller that removes all traces of whatever you uninstalled, you might want to add Uninstalr to your arsenal of uninstallers. It’s not fancy, and it doesn’t have a ton of other features and options like HiBit Uninstaller, Reg Organizer, or some of the others, but it does uninstall programs and apps completely – without leaving a trail of leftovers behind. Plus the batch uninstall feature is a real time-saver if you’ve got more than one program you need to uninstall.

Take some time and visit Uninstaller's home page to learn more about Uninstalr and download a copy for yourself.  It comes in two flavors – Portable (which doesn’t install – you just download it and run it) and an installed version that installs on your PC.

Uninstalr is a Cloudeight Freeware Pick!

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Get your SeniorPass today for just $99.  It's just like having insurance for your computer - only better!

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Keep the Candle Burning

He left the candle burning, as she had asked him to do. Though it had been seven years since she went away, every evening at nightfall he would light a candle. Every night while he tried to sleep through his pain and his loneliness, the candle flickered silently casting dancing shadows upon the wall in the quiet hours.

He lit the candle again and wiped a tear from his cheek, and fell into bed exhausted. Yet he knew that this night, like most other nights, sleep would not come.

He lay awake watching the ballet of shadows – again. Some nights he’d listen to the wind breathing in the boughs of barren branches of the tree she had planted outside their bedroom window -one spring day long ago and now, so far away. Other nights he’d watch the shivering shadows dance while a concerto of raindrops, rhythmically pounded on the roof and ran in little rivers and rivulets and raced to the ground below. He’d watch the silver shimmer of the rain...

Read the rest of this essay here.

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How to get that window out of the way, the right way

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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly. Thanks so much for your support and for being an InfoAve Weekly subscriber.

Have a great weekend... be safe!

Darcy and TC
Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly - Issue #1035
Volume 20 Number 41
August 11, 2023 

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