Thursday, August 27, 2015

Class Summary 8-27-2015

http://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/tek/?cmp=RDRCT-AARPTEK_FRB13_014
Free training from AARP

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/25/list-of-windows-10-desktop-shortcut-keys/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1712%2eey0ao07fsm%2e1s37
Windows 10 desktop shortcut keys

http://midori-browser.org/
Another browser to try. Much less overhead than the big three. Sometimes, simple really is better, and Midori is out to turn simplicity into an art form. Although you won't be looking to use this browser on rather plugin-heavy sites or for a large variety of extensions, Midori is quite swift at rendering standard web pages with JavaScript, HTML5, and other standards-compliant frameworks.

http://microsoft.com/windows10
Locate the link to download the upgrade to a DVD or USB drive. Two versions: Home and Pro. Once downloaded you can install the upgrade on a number of machines without having to wait on each for the download to occur.

How to Mount a Macrium Reflect Backup Image to Retrieve Files
http://www.howtogeek.com/226436/how-to-mount-a-macrium-reflect-backup-image-to-retrieve-files/

http://dtv.gov/maps to see how far away TV stations are

Shields Up is an online port scanning service created by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation and hosted at grc.com. The purpose of this utility is to alert the users of any ports that have been opened through their firewalls or through their NAT routers. https://www.grc.com



We talked about the Amazon Stick and the Roku Streaming stick. They both work in a similar fashion allowing streaming of movies and more to your TV set. No cable connection needed, just WiFi and an HDMI port on your TV.

http://microsoft.com/passwordchecker
Key in a password and see how secure it is with this web page from Microsoft

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Class Summary 8-20-2015

We had a great turnout today with 8 people online. Lot’s of interaction between participants; more so than when we hold the live classes at the club office. Everyone is finding Hangouts very easy to use--just need to know the URL for our hangout which is:
https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/g2fvtzyyhzwt4wpccorxc3msdaa

BTW the new Edge browser does not run hangouts. So use Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

Our furthest away member was Donna hanging out with us from Hawaii! She teased us with a screen shot out her window. She had gone to a computer club there and brought back a couple of things she shared. One was the app for a smartphone called google goggles. The short story is that you can take a picture of a landmark and the app will bring up information about it by doing visual recognition.

I had a few links to talk about:

How to Turn an Old PC Into a Home File Server
http://www.howtogeek.com/190835/how-to-turn-an-old-pc-into-a-home-file-server/

Revive Your Old PC: The 3 Best Linux Systems For Old Computers
http://www.howtogeek.com/172987/revive-your-old-pc-the-3-best-linux-systems-for-old-computers/

5 Ways to Free Up Space on Your Android Device
http://www.howtogeek.com/112356/5-ways-to-free-up-space-on-android/



How to password protect a MS Word document
http://www.howtogeek.com/225780/how-to-add-an-open-password-to-a-word-document/

During the week I sent someone instructions on how to find out what version of Windows they had. Here is what I sent:



How do I know what operating system I have?
Control Panel > System

Donna had a number of questions on using an upgrade that just came out for her Android smartphone. All her questions were answered, but she would like to see more classed on using the Android phone at the club.

Daniel suggest using the site savefrom.net to save any video on the Internet, like on Facebook, to your PC. No software required. You just get the video URL copied from the browser address bar and paste it into the box on their site. Then you receive a screen with download options. The result is a copy on your PC you can watch later without access to the Internet.

I was asked how to capture screen shots from the PC. One answer was to use the SnagIt extension. And another is to use greenshot which you can find on ninite.com.

We talked about using VLC as a replacement for the missing (unless you pay for it) Media Center. And the new name for VLC is VideoLAN.

Donna reminded us of gazelle.com which is a site to buy and sell used cell phones. So if you just got an upgrade, why not sell your old one? However, always reset your phone to factory settings before letting go it. You want all your stuff cleaned out and resetting it does just that.

If you are looking to easily read articles, like news, in the browser add the Magic Scroll extension. It will show you the article without any peripheral stuff from the page--no adds, links outside the article, no web page banner, etc.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Class Summary 8-13-2015

We had a small group today, but great discussion on a number of topics answering questions and exploring some new areas. If you were not part of the class today, I hope you can sign on next week. When I am back in FL and doing the hands on classes at the club, I will also be on Hangouts live so those still away can be part of the class.

Google Chrome has a number of internal links. This one brings up a nice view of the Bookmark Manager. Give it a try by typing the following into your address bar in Chrome: chrome://bookmarks/#1

Malwarebytes is one of the maintenance programs we use to clean up malware from our PC. They have a new program, an anti exploit program. This works in the browser to check files you are opening in case they have harmful embedded code.

Download it at:
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antiexploit/?utm_source=cj&utm_medium=aff&utm_content=11830665&utm_campaign=AFF-CJ_2786910&tracking=cj

See detail description at: 
http://www.howtogeek.com/223228/use-an-anti-exploit-program-to-help-protect-your-pc-from-zero-day-attacks/

Many use VLC to play videos and audio files. They have renamed their latest version to videolan. Here is a link to the download. FYI they have an app for iPhone or Android to play any format file unlike the app that comes with the smartphone that is limited to certain type of files.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Got windows 10? Then you also have Peer-to-peer updates. Turn them off. They allow others to get their Windows update files from you instead of the Microsoft servers. And you to get them from your neighbors as well. Here is an article that explains it.
https://davescomputertips.com/turn-off-peer-to-peer-update-app-sharing-in-windows-10/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Recap+Newsletter

Make File Explorer open This PC by default. When we click the File Folder in our taskbar a File Explorer opens, but I really want to see a “my computer” view. On Windows 8 or 10 this is now called “This PC”. This article shows you how easy it is to change the default to open the This PC screen instead.
https://davescomputertips.com/open-file-explorer-to-this-pc-rather-than-quick-access-in-windows-10/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+Recap+Newsletter

MagicScroll Web Reader is an extension in Chrome that allows you to view the article on a website without having to view all the peripheral information like ads and other things on the page. This link should get you right to the extension add page.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/magicscroll-web-reader/ecldhagehndokdmaiaigoaecbmbnmfkc/related?hl=en-US

I have been reading this article on “The 10 Cleverest Ways to Use Linux to Fix Your Windows PC”
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/31804/the-10-cleverest-ways-to-use-linux-to-fix-your-windows-pc/

I was asked about installing the Chrome OS on an old PC to turn it into a speedy Chromebook. Here is what we found:
http://www.nextofwindows.com/re-purpose-your-old-laptop-to-make-your-own-chromebook

We covered a lot more, but I cannot recall the details. One was how to change the program that automatically opens when you click on a file, such as a JPG file.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Class Summary 8-6-2015

Wow what a difference using Hangouts instead of Skype. Five of us were present today and not one had any issues with speed. We could see each other, hear each other, and even share our screen with each other. Nothing to download and install. Just a quick link to open the hangout and you are in.

Some have installed the 10 upgrade and with no problems at all. The time to install varies with the speed of the download and the speed of the computer being upgraded. Other than having to wait for the install to finish, no issues were reported.

I talked about having to fax something today. I do not have a fax machine or a printer with a fax option so I looked online and found an extension for chrome that allows up to 5 pages per day for free. It worked great. And if your document is not on your computer you just have to scan it in or take a picture of it with your smartphone. Then you fax that document (pdf or jpg).



Send a free fax (up to 5 pages a day) extension for Google Chrome. FaxIt Nice

A few days ago one of our members asked how to get rid of the ads that appear on many websites. I use an ad blocker extension on chrome and also have one on firefox. So I wrote a white paper on how to install it.

How to add the AdBlock extension to chrome
http://rwevans.com/cccgc/AddingAdblocktoChrome.pdf

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/upgrade-windows-10-take-settings-apps/
CloneApp backs up software and all its settings, its folders, and it also digs through your registry to find associated files. CloneApp is a portable app, so download and extract it to a folder, start it up, choose the programs from your system that you want to keep, and hit “Backup”. Once it finishes, copy the entire CloneApp folder to a pen drive. It’ll be a pretty big folder, so make sure you have enough free space. Thanks Paul. This a great article on cloning programs.

Antivirus programs. What do you use? Well out of the five on hangouts today 3 use Defender that comes with Windows 8 and 10 for free. One uses Norton all the time. And the other is using the 180 day trial of Norton but will probably switch to Avast when the trial is over.

Defender works well and comes with Windows. It is an antivirus program not an anti-malware program or an addon to your browsers to check websites before you click on them. Avast does all those things just like Norton or McAfee, but for free. Avast also works with XP and Vista.

Do you have some movie clips you have taken on your digital camera or cell phone? Perhaps you would like to burn them to a CD or DVD to play them on your DVD player or to send to others so they can view them on their DVD player. This program takes most any format movie and lets you burn a DVD player compatible format CD or DVD. (if it fits on a CD you do not have to use a DVD)
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32323/how-to-make-your-own-dvds-from-almost-any-video-file/
http://sourceforge.net/l/dvdflick/?source=typ_redirect