Class Summary 2-11-2016

Google is giving away 2GB of Drive space for completing its account security checkup
http://tinyurl.com/jxsosvj

Reflect is the backup software we use at the club. Depending on how often you use your computer and add or change your data, you should at least backup your hard drive once a month or more often. If your computer crashes and we cannot get it going for you, we will have to use your last image backup to restore your system. Anything added since the date of that backup will have been lost. So, backup often. Set it to run at night and it will be done when you wake up. However, it will only an hour or less to run. To download the latest version of Reflect:
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Forwarding emails can be an issue if the email you are sending to your friends comes from one you subscribe to, like the emails I send you each week. At the bottom of that email is a link to allow you to unsubscribe. If you forward it as is, your friend could unsubscribe you and you will not be receiving my emails anymore. Use the link on the email to forward and not the forward button on your email program. Or scroll down to the bottom of the email and remove the lines at the bottom that allow you to unsubscribe.

Passwords are necessary to insure that it is us logging into a particular website. It is not a good idea to use the same one for all sites. Some sites have particular rules to follow like having one capital letter, a number, a special character, and 8-10 total characters. So how do we remember them all?

Most of members in class today have a notebook where they keep all their passwords. Find their notebook and you can access all their sites. Lose that notebook and it will be a nightmare finding what they are. If you say yes to storing your passwords in your browser, then you can find them if you are logged into that browser. In Chrome I use an extension that allows me to mouseover the dots hiding the password on the login screen and my password appears.

I use a two step method to store my passwords on my computer in my OneDrive so I can access it from any computer through my Microsoft account. A simple program called Locknote works like Notepad, but needs a password to open. In that simple file I list all my accounts with their passwords. But I have a method of writing the passwords in a code that others would not know. So even if they got my file and hacked the password, they would have to know my codes to use any of the information. You can download Locknote at https://sourceforge.net/projects/locknote/

A few of the class members are using apps to store their passwords such as Password Safe and Keypass. They work great and keep track like my method above with a single password to access the list. Some of the password programs will generate passwords for you and some will automatically sign you in to sites you have stored.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426845,00.asp
Article on password management

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html
view passwords stored in chrome

Speaking of passwords. If you type the wrong password three times in a row to sign in to your PC, Microsoft Windows 8-10 locks and you cannot sign back in. You have to go on another computer to open microsoft.com and reset your password, which you may not know. We should all have made a password reset CD to recover from losing our Microsoft password.

Here are the instructions from Microsoft to create one:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-password-reset-disk#1TC=windows-7

Type chrome://downloads in the address bar and chrome will open the recent downloads in chrome if it does not show at the bottom of your browser window. Like when you have closed chrome and open it again.

Password protect your office files, like Word or Excel, by clicking Save As. On the bottom of the Save As dialog, click Tools. On the Tools menu, click General Options. Under File sharing options for this document, in the Password to modify box, type a password.

http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
Performance test of your PC free for 30 days

Here is an interesting app for your smartphone. Flush is a free application for Google Android devices that provides you with options to find public toilets quickly. The app may use your current location for its searches if you allow it to access location information, or you may enter a location directly to display information about public toilets this way.