Computer Clubs Notes 12-28-2019

Have a Happy and Safe 
New Years Eve

There will be no class this Tuesday as the Cultural Center is closing the doors at 2:00 pm. I will be at the club from 10-2 if you have any needs. The following Tuesday is the General Meeting and I will be leading the Open Forum at 6:00 pm and will have a presentation for the meeting. I will be at the club from 10-2, then back for the 6:00 pm meeting. Hope to see you there.

Here are some articles I thought useful for you all. Let me know if there is anything particular you would like me to cover at the Open Forum at the General Meeting.

Clean up Your Windows Desktop
Simplifying the desktop contents frees up operating memory, reduces the time and frequency the hard drive is used and improves the response of your computer to programs you open and things you do. The simple act of cleaning the desktop makes your computer run faster.

I have seen some desktops so full you could not put something else on them! Better empty of all but the recycle bin. This article gives some thoughts on it and I will be talking about this at the General Meeting next week.
https://tinyurl.com/y2ozz3ks

Get the Most Out of Your Roku
You finally worked out which Roku to buy, and set up the basics: Netflix, Amazon, and whatever other services you’re subscribed to. What next? Here are the first things we’d do after getting a new Roku; give them a shot.

Some may have gotten one of these for Christmas. They are easy to use and work great. I have been using a Roku for years now. Most of my channels are free with the exception of Netflix and Prime. Netflix is where we find ourselves most of the time and it is about $12/mo. Prime is part of the Amazon Prime package.
https://tinyurl.com/ya8ejfgt

How to Scan Documents With Your Phone or Tablet
Updated features in iOS and Google Drive allow you to scan documents for free with your phone or tablet. How does it work? A program or app performs the scan using your camera and, in many cases, converts it into a PDF automatically. This guide will show you how to do it, whether you own an Apple or Android device.

I usually just take a picture of the document but this article shows some other ways to get a “scan” right from your phone.
https://tinyurl.com/ujbzqzs

Run Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus
Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That’s where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market.

As you know Malwarebytes is one of the tools I suggest you run along with CCleaner, Supereantispyeare, and Glary Utilities. For antivirus, I opt for the one the is part of Windows 10--Windows Security (AKA Defender)
https://tinyurl.com/wnjvr99

How to Physically Clean Your Laptop
When was the last time you cleaned your laptop? Yeah, we thought so. This simple computer maintenance task doesn't just get rid of accumulated dirt and dust--it keeps your laptop running in tip-top shape.

A good article on what you should and shouldn’t use to clean the keyboard and the screen. I find a wide paintbrush is useful for getting dust and whatever our between the keys. My thought is that a clean laptop runs better than a dirty one.
https://tinyurl.com/rx3g2rb

Computer Club Notes 12-17-2019

Shortcuts on the desktop contain an arrow in the lower-left corner. They are pointers to the actual file, in this case, the opening of the program Glary Utilities. Deleting the shortcut does NOT remove the program. Icons that do not have an arrow are actual files. Delete them and they are gone. Think of the shortcuts as sticky notes; they point to the location fo the actual file or program.


Create Shortcuts
Right-click on any file or folder and select create a shortcut. For example, right-click on the Downloads folder to place a shortcut on the desktop for quick access to it.


Check audio
When your speakers or microphone are not operating you might check the settings area by click Win+I > System > Sound

From there you can check the speakers, select other speakers, adjust sound levels, and check your microphone.

Convert HEIF to JPEG
Some of the newer cameras are creating .heif file instead of .jpg or .jpeg while many programs do not accept the new format. This is one online service that will convert the new format to the older one.
https://convertio.co/heif-jpg/

How to show multiple windows
The windows must be in restore size (NOT full screen). Point with your mouse at the title bar (top of the window) and drag the window to the far right. Then drag the other windows to the far left. You now see both windows side by side.



You can also right-click on the taskbar and select one of pop up options.

Set default search engine



Each browser defaults to a particular search engine. For example, Chrome defaults to Google, Edge defaults to Bing, etc. In Chrome, click the menu button (3 dots), then choose Settings. From the list of items on the left, select a Search engine and choose the one you want as default. Work in a similar fashion in all browsers.

Eject CD drawer


The button on the DVD/CD drawer is not always easy to press to open the drawer. Instead, open File Explorer (Win+E), then right-click on the icon for the DVD/CD under My PC. Choose Eject and the drawer will open.

Nomorobo



Just open www.nomorobo.com and follow the prompts. I have been using it for over a year and receive very ffew of those annoying calls.

Remove “people” from the taskbar



Right-click the taskbar and uncheck Show people…

https://www.ccappraiser.com/
To check the Charlotte County Appraiser site for data on anyone’s property and tax payment status. Click Record search > Real property and type in your search parameters. The less you enter the better. Last name first name with no comma.

Use Zillow.com to check on the value of any property in the USA.

Facebook
How to make oneself invisible… I did not know the answer so we Googled it. Here was what we found.


Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts greatly enhance your productivity and save you a whole lot of time. Instead of pointing and clicking with the touchpad or external mouse, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and simply press combinations of keys on to get things done.

We have talked about many of these and I use them every day. One I use often that is not on this list is Shift+Win+S which allows me to easily grab a piece of the screen and place it in the clipboard.
https://tinyurl.com/tdmkkdy

Phone Number Validator
Free phone validation--Is it a cell phone or is it a landline?

Validate phone numbers here to identify phone line type and possible phone company!

There are many other sites that do this exact same thing. When this one gives you the results it then asks if you want more details. If you say yes it scans all the public databases and then offers to show you the results for a fee.
https://tinyurl.com/saxrj7r

Thunderbolt 3 vs. USB-C
Newer laptops often come loaded with a port that accepts a reversible plug and supports very fast transfer speeds. Do you know what it is? If you guessed the Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 port, you’re right, and therein lies the problem. Both data transfer protocols use the same connector, but their potential uses vary.

Essentially the coming new port will be sending data to another device at speeds up to 40GB/sec!
https://tinyurl.com/rvrxbh5

How To Create Your Own Internet Meme
An Internet meme, more commonly known as simply a meme ((/miːm/ MEEM) is a piece of media, traditionally combining image macros with a concept or catchphrase, which is spread from person to person via the Internet. Here is how to create your own.

These are the pictures with words added to them you see on Facebook.
https://tinyurl.com/wanp79c

Family Tree Now

Research your family tree and genealogy for free! If you want more details it will scan all public databases for a fee.
https://www.familytreenow.com/

Computer Class Update 12-10-2019

We will be back in Florida on the 11th and will be at the club this coming Tuesday. It will be the only class until 2020 as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fall on a Tuesday. I will be at the club both days but the Cultural Center is closing early.

Here are a few things you might like before we get to the actual class dates.

Change Case In Google Docs
When writing I find the need to change the case of words or groups of words. This can be done one at a time but I have been used to being able to select a dropdown list in Word.



I would select the words and on the Home tab, in the Font group, and pull down the change case dropdown list. I was looking for a way to do it in Google Docs as this is my word processing program of choice now.



In your document, select the words you want to change.

From the Format tab, choose Text > Capitalization and then choose one of three options--lower case, UPPER CASE, or Title Case.

This works great but there is an Add-on that gives you more options.


Select Add-ons > Get add-ons


In the search box, type Change Case, then open the Change Case add-on to add it to your Google Docs Add-ons list.


Select the words you want to change. From the Add-ons tab, click Change Case and then choose one of six options.

Although there is a way to change case in Google Docs from lower to upper to title case, there is no way to perform other case changes. I hope this add-on will prove useful to you as it has for me. Another tool for the toolbox

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Ways to Reuse an Old Router
If your ISP has sent you a new router, or you simply fancy upgrading your current router, you’ll run into a problem. What should you do with the old router?

If you don’t have an old router to use, grab one at the free table at the next general meeting might. These are some good ideas and some of you will find them useful. I especially like using an old router to extend the range of my WiFi and for a unique WiFi SSID for guests to use at my house.
https://tinyurl.com/ya53n9ub

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How to Download Anything on the Web for Free
There are lots of useful things online that aren’t easy to download. Photos, music, videos, maps, and other exciting content don’t come with a download button. It’s also possible they’re no longer free or they may be gone from the web altogether.

There are some good ideas in this article. Check out what looks useful to you. And these are not the only places for free stuff on the web.
https://tinyurl.com/ybrakl2w

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Online Media Cropper
Croppio is the easiest way to crop and cut media files online. Upload a file or drag and drop it into the upload box, set the desired area and then download it for free. This is a simple free online tool, there is no need to install any additional software to your computer because you already have the right of the box an online media cropper. And it does lots more…

There are many ways and we have discussed a number of them to edit and crop and resize images. This one looks pretty good and it is all online.
https://croppio.com/

Computer Class Update 12-6-2019

Thanks for voting last Tuesday. I am happy to be still on the board of directors and very happy to have Grover continuing as our club president.

Sherri and I are leaving on the 10th, to head back to Florida. We will be glad to return to the warmer temperatures and to all our friends and family in the Port Charlotte area.



It was Sherri’s birthday last Friday and she purchased a truck from her birth father that had been her grandfathers. It is a 1963 Chevy C10 truck. It needs a lot of work and will be a project for a few years to come for us--mostly her. It will stay at our Kentucky home.

I taught a technology class last week here in Monticello at the pubic library. In addition, I have worked on a number of computers here and over the phone/internet as you can imagine. Be glad to get back to my “Tuesdays” at the club and the other places I volunteer and teach.

Here are a few things I thought you might like to check out.

Caps Lock Warning
By Dick Evans, www.rwevans.com

Have you ever pressed the Caps Lock key instead of Shift and found yourself typing in all caps? This has happened many a time for me. This little trick that I have been using for a long time adds a tone when you press it and a different tone when you press it again. It is very easy to setup.

As far back as Windows 95, if I remember correctly, I have used Toggle Keys to warn me when I have pressed the Caps Lock key on and The Num Lock key off. It is a feature that has been available through many operating system upgrades but little is said about it.

I used to get to it in the Control Panel > Ease of access… Now it is accessed in Windows 10 by pressing Win+I to open Windows Settings.



In the search box, type ease and then click the first result, Ease of Access keyboard settings.



Scroll down to locate Use Toggle Keys and turn on the Play a sound… option.

Now, whenever you tap the Caps Lock key or the Num Lock key. A high pitch warns you that the key has been turned on; low pitch off.

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Fake Email Generator
By Dick Evans, www.rwevans.com

How often are we required to enter an email address before getting into a site or maybe to download a white paper or an ebook? We think nothing of it, just a door to go through to obtain what we were going after.

Then we start getting all kinds of unwanted emails. This site allows you to create a fake email address that really works. Use the fake address when you sign up for something. You can check back and read the emails you are getting at the fake address and if you decide you really want them, change the fake address to your real one for that site.
http://www.fakemailgenerator.com/





As soon as you access the site, you are shown an email address generated by the site. You may change the name to whatever you want. I changed it to rwe1953.



You may pull down the arrow to choose a different domain that may be closer to your location from the drop-down list. You cannot make one up.

Once you have settled on the address press COPY to place the entire address to the clipboard.

Send an email to that address to verify it actually works.


The email you sent appears in the Fake Mail site.

Anyone that knows your temporary email address can access the emails sent to that address. However, email addresses are automatically deactivated 24 hours after the last time someone has checked for mail at that address.

Email sent to inactive email addresses is automatically rejected. To keep your email address active, visit Fake Mail Generator at least once every 24 hours. Any email received by an active email address will be stored for 24 hours. After 24 hours it will be permanently deleted.

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The 12 Best TV Antennas of 2019
If you live in an area with poor signal reception but don’t have the will or means to install an outdoor antenna you should look into installing an Antenna with an amplifier that broadens the reception range to 50 miles.

I have not tried the ones listed in this article but have used a $9.99 set of rabbit ears (remember them?) here in Port Charlotte to receive over 20 channels. That coupled with Netflix gets me all I need.
https://tinyurl.com/t7vjxck

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Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts
Learning how to use Gmail shortcuts can save you a lot of time and boost your overall email productivity. Here are the 30 best Gmail shortcuts for 2019 broken down by category.

I like shortcuts, as you have probably seen in my many demonstrations. You don’t need to use them all but might find some very useful.
https://tinyurl.com/unst2x6

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Understanding Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a wireless networking protocol that allows devices to communicate without direct cable connections. It's technically an industry term that represents a type of wireless local area network protocol based on the 802.11 IEEE network standard.

This is a subject many are confused by. I hope this article answers a few questions. WiFi is here to stay for a while and a better understanding of it may quite some frustrations.
https://tinyurl.com/y9u5m6wf

Computer Club Update 12-2-2019

Another week away and very cold. In the low 30’s this morning. We are visiting friends in Cadiz, KY for a couple of days. Our dog, Lady Evans, is with us. We are about five hours west of our home in Monticello, KY. Even though we see some cooler weather in Port Charlotte, we still envy you and will be happy to return to warmth next week.

Remember the general meeting might tomorrow evening. 6:00 pm for the election of officers and board members. 7:00 pm for the party! Please cast your vote for me as a board member. If I were present I would cast my vote for Grover as president. He has done a great job and I would like to see him continue.

Here are a few of the articles I have been reading you might be interested in. Give some a try and let me know how they work for you. Remember you can find all my articles on Dave’s at http://tinyurl.com/DCT-evans

How To Clear Google Chrome Download History
I’m betting that all us have download something from the internet before; a game, software, image or even video. Did you know that your browser saves those downloads in a separate History? Yep, there is a download history page that you might want to take a look at. This is something I clear out on my Google browser all the time.

Note: This history cleaning does occur with CCleaner
https://tinyurl.com/wwvokwb

The Best Three Antivirus Apps for Windows
Offered pre-installed on all Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 devices, Microsoft’s Windows Defender has remained a top security product, offering nearly the same protection as the leading third-party solutions.

Note: The only one I use is Windows Security (AKA Defender)
https://tinyurl.com/qlp6kb9

AdwCleaner 8.0.0 is out
Malwarebytes released AdwCleaner 8.0.0, a free tool to remove adware and potentially unwanted programs, from Windows devices on November 26, 2019. AdwCleaner 8 supports Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 officially. The new version can be downloaded from the developer website and run without installation after the download.

Note: I use this in addition to the maintenance trio we use
https://tinyurl.com/uoducbu

How to access Advanced Options
If you wanted to access the advanced boot options in Windows 7, all you had to do was press F8 on the keyboard during boot to load the boot menu.

Note: I use Shift+Restart and have written an article on it on Dave’s
https://tinyurl.com/vvgcqgz

How to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7
You can upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the in-place upgrade option without losing your files, instead of having to wipe out your device clean. You can perform this task using the Media Creation Tool, which is not only available for Windows 7, but also for devices running Windows 8.1.

Note: If you really like 7, keep it. See my article on Dave’s
https://tinyurl.com/yxaho52n

Computer Club Extras 11-27-2019

First I would like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. Sherri and I have been busy here in Monticello Kentucky but I am missing your smiling faces at the classes. We are also missing the warmer weather. LOL

Upgrade From Windows 7
We have been wondering if it was still possible to upgrade Windows 7 to 10 with the latest 1909 version.

I had an opportunity to upgrade a Windows 7 computer to 1909 the other day. The upgrade went great leaving all of their programs, user information etc. intact. I just booted to 7 And logged in with their username and password. I inserted the windows 1909 installation CD and double-clicked on setup. When I got to the point to choose, I chose to upgrade and also clicked on “I don't have a product key”. Since the computer was already activated running Windows 7 when the installation finished Windows 10 automatically activated.

So if you're still running Windows 7 it is still possible to do a full upgrade at no charge to windows 10 1909.

I have been busy writing a number of new articles for DCT. You might want to check them out.
Http://tinyurl.com/DCT-evans

Here are a few new articles I have been reading. Perhaps they may interest you also…

A look at the email forwarding service AnonAddyAnonAddy is an open-source email forwarding service designed to protect an Internet user's email addresses from spam and other unwanted emails. Most Internet users use one or a handful of email addresses on the Internet. They use these to sign-up for services, do their online shopping, communication, and any other activity that requires an email address (and those that don't require an email but allow emails to be added to accounts).

https://tinyurl.com/sf6kp2m

9 Awesome Free Printable Board Games
If you’re on the lookout for a new hobby you’ve probably considered exploring the world of printable board games and printable card games. And it turns out that it’s both easy and free to make your own games.
https://tinyurl.com/w5vf7bh

CloudConvert
I needed a way to convert a photo saved in the new HEIC format to JPG. This website did a quick job of the conversion. Check it out as it converts many different formats. It is free for 25 conversion minutes per day and files up to 1 GB in size.
https://cloudconvert.com/heic-to-jpg

iPhone Storage Full?
How to Create Free Space on iOS. The usual culprits are photos, 4K videos, games, and other digital hoarding habits. You can’t upgrade an iPhone’s storage. That leaves you with three choices—buy a bigger phone, get more cloud storage, or create free space on your iPhone. The first two don’t work if you want to free up space right now. So let’s look at the ways to free up storage space with a bit of iOS jugglery.
https://tinyurl.com/wsttxbl

7 Uses for a USB Stick You Didn’t Know About
We’ve all used USB sticks to transport files between computers and back up our files, but there are other cool things you can do with a USB stick. You can use one to lock and unlock your computer—just like in the movies. You can also use a USB flash drive to quickly connect to a wireless network on all your PCs, increase your computer’s performance, or even run a web server—directly from the USB stick itself.
https://tinyurl.com/y5tcbvxt

Computer Club Update 11-20-2019

We are safely in Monticello, KY and I will be doing a class at the library here on December 4th. Even though we won't have another class at the club until we get back, I thought I would send you some stuff I have collected. I hope you find some of it useful additions to your toolbox.

Please let me know what you tried and how it worked for you.

I have also sent a half dozen articles for Daves Computer Tips, so please check them out as well. https://davescomputertips.com/author/dick-evans/

$50 a Month Home Internet With No Data Caps
T-Mobile has announced that it is offering home internet service to certain existing customers around the country for $50 a month with no annual contract and no data caps. As of now, the service is a pilot and by invitation only, but that could change at any time. To get the $50 offer you must sign up for autopay, but the wireless giant promises that there are no hidden fees and no hardware costs. T-Mobile says it expects download speeds to be around 50 Mbps.
https://tinyurl.com/vxhyrwa

Brave Browser 1.0
The new and first final version of the Chromium-based web browser -- the same core that Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and the new Microsoft Edge browser, as well as hundreds of other browsers, use -- can now be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and the mobile operating systems Android and iOS.
https://tinyurl.com/tb6tcr4

How to upgrade to Windows 10 version 1909
Microsoft published a blog post on the official Windows Experience blog in which Windows Servicing and Delivery Director of Program Management John Cable explained how customers get the update. The explanation suggests that system administrators may run a manual search for updates on devices so that the new version of Windows 10 is returned.
https://tinyurl.com/tefujml

Increase Your Hard Drive Performance on Windows
You can speed up a hard disk using HDD optimization apps; a few different tools are available. In this article, we’re going to look at which utilities can improve the speed and efficiency of a hard disk. Keep reading to learn more.
https://tinyurl.com/y5gshxpq

6 Google Tricks When You Have No Idea What to Search For
Despite spending millions of dollars on fancy algorithms, Google Search can sometimes be a fickle beast. You know that the information you’re looking for is out there, but no matter what search terms you enter, you can’t find a suitable result.
https://tinyurl.com/vlkuln4

Computer Club Class Notes 11-12-2019

Good class yesterday and the last one for 2019. Holidays coming and Sherri and I will be away for Thanksgiving. Then the last two Tuesdays are the day before Christmas and New Years--Cultural Center closes at 2. Then the next Tuesday is the General Meeting for January! So our next class will be on January 14th.

Speaking of the General Meeting, December 3rd is the date. It will be our annual Christmas get together. Bring a dish! And it is the election of officers. Please cast your vote for me, Dick Evans, as a Director again. AND please cast your vote for our President, Grover Mudd. He has done a fabulous job as President and I would like to see him continue. THANKS!

Here are the notes from class as I remember them:

PRINTER TIPNever turn off your inkjet printer. When you do the ink in the printhead is drained to a spittoon so it does not remain on the print head. When you turn your printer back on, fresh ink goes from the cartridges to the print head.

SHUTDOWN TIPWhen faced with weird system problems that may be caused by a buggy driver or other low-level software issues, the problem might persist after shutting down your PC and booting it back up. This is because clicking “Shut Down” on your Windows 10 PC, Windows doesn’t fully shut down. It hibernates the kernel, saving its state so it can boot faster. If you’re experiencing computer problems and need to reset that state, you’ll need to restart your PC instead.

You can also perform a full shut down by pressing and holding the Shift key on your keyboard while you click the “Shut Down” option in Windows. This works whether you’re clicking the option in the Start menu, on the sign-in screen, or on the screen that appears after you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

By the way, If your PC can successfully get to the Windows login screen when you start it up the easiest way to get to the recovery environment is to hold down the Shift key while clicking Restart (either right on the sign-in screen or from the Start menu if you successfully logged in).

Chrome DistillerOne feature in Chrome I did not know about is the distiller or reader feature which will open the page you are viewing in a new tab without all the added graphics and fonts. Here is how to find it.



You turn it on by clicking the menu, then toggle the feature on or off while you are on the page to be distilled. Distilling removes most of the graphics on the page leaving text and some images.

If the feature toggle does not appear, do the following:

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Copy and paste the link below into the address bar of Chrome, and press Enter. chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode

3. Select Enabled or Disabled (default) for what you want in the Enable Reader Mode flag drop-down menu.

4. Click/tap on the RELAUNCH NOW button at the bottom to apply.

Desktop Shortcuts for WebsiteSee https://davescomputertips.com/elderly-computing-tip/



Gasbuddy.com is a website that shows the current prices of gas everywhere in the country. Enter your zip code and it lists the prices for the closest stations. Use it on your smartphone and it knows your location. Just tap the picture of the pump in the middle of the screen and it takes you to the stations near where you are located. Great while on the road to find the stations coming up soon on the highway and how much their gas is.

Live TVHere are the links to the websites providing free TV

Stream2watch.ws for TV and live sports

Pluto.tv for hundreds of stations in a TV guide format

UStvnow.com TV for US Military and US citizens abroad

DochubDocHub is an online PDF annotator and document signing platform. DocHub lets users add text, draw, add signatures and make document templates. DocHub can integrate with Dropbox, Google Drive, Gmail and Box accounts.
https://dochub.com/

Email STRIPPER is a free program for cleaning the ">" and other formatting characters out of your emails. I have been using it for years. You copy the text out of an email and paste it into emailstripper. Click Strip it!. All the junk is removed and it is ready to click Paste to copy it to the clipboard and then paste the cleaned text into the email you want to send. Also, remember to get rid of the list of other people's email addresses so you do not include them in yours.
http://tinyurl.com/jxl6cbo

Free Online CoursesLook at KHAN Academy. It is a full-fledged online school. And it is free. Just sign up and start learning. Tons of subjects.

How to Perform a Reverse Image SearchReverse image search lets you search the web for an image rather than a word or phrase. It’s primarily used to find the original source or perhaps a larger copy of an image, but it has lots of other handy uses. You could take an image you found on Pinterest to identify products — from dresses to desk lamps — in the photo. You could take a photo of a flower, and a reverse image search could tell you what kind of flower it was. A standard text search can’t do that. And fortunately, image searches are pretty simple to do.
https://tinyurl.com/y52z6zt7

County Records for Charlotte County Florida can also be viewed online. A simple record search of just your last name or just your street name works best.
http://ccappraiser.com

TinyURLMany in attendance were unaware of the Tinyurl site. Often we have to send someone a link to a website we have found. We know we can grab the URL to that page in the Address bar and copy it to the clipboard. Then we can paste it into an email or even a Facebook message to them. However, the address may be many lines long and a tough item to type for them. Instead, we turn that long URL into a manageable one using Tinyurl. Then we send the shortened link to our friend. It is easy to enter the tiny version. This is what makes opening the Hangout link for our weekly meetings--tinyurl.com/DickEvans

Computer Club Class Notes 10-29-2019

These are some thoughts about what we could talk about. Your questions come first. And remember, it does not matter if you think your question is not worth discussing. Ask it anyway. There are many others with the same question. No question is too basic.

Should You Leave Your Laptop Plugged in All the Time?A battery cannot be overcharged. There’s no danger of overcharging a battery if you leave it plugged in all the time. As soon as it hits 100 percent it will cease charging and won’t start again until the voltage falls below a certain level.
https://tinyurl.com/yyom259m

How To Install Kodi On Windows PCHow to install Kodi on Windows PC? Setting up Kodi on your Windows PC XP, 7, 8, or 10, is pretty much straight forward. You download the .exe file from the Kodi website and then install it on your computer. The next steps require you to setup Kodi addons. In this help guide, you can find step-by-step instructions on how to install Kodi on PC. I’ve also included a tutorial that shows you how to easily enable the best Kodi addons on it.
https://tinyurl.com/y5ur8s4v

How to Protect Your Computer from Power ProblemsI run one of my computers and some equipment through an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS provides the bare minimum needed to keep my network, Wi-Fi, and internet connection up, plus one computer. My laptops and mobile devices, by virtue of being battery-powered themselves, have their own built-in UPS in a sense and need no additional power-loss protection.
https://tinyurl.com/yxklyhcu

Google Photos vs. OneDrive: What’s the Best Backup Tool?
This is a good article and food for thought regarding Google vs Microsoft cloud approaches for saving pictures. I use Google Photos for all my photos and OneDrive for documents and other files I want a backup copy in the cloud.

With Google Photos on your cell phone, all your pictures are uploaded to your Google cloud and at no charge to you. Be sure to NOT select uploading in original form or you will be charged against your free 15 GB of space. OneDrive does not have that option; you are charged for every byte uploaded against your free 5 GB of space. You can purchase additional space from Microsoft. For $2.00 per month, you can add an extra 100 GB to your OneDrive account.

Many people use Google Photos as their photo backup app. But is it really the best backup tool? Does OneDrive also deserve serious consideration? In this article, we compare Google Photos to OneDrive to determine which is the best tool to back up your photos. We’ll compare the two services and help you decide which is right for you.
https://tinyurl.com/y2zubsvd

Don’t Pay for Microsoft Word! Four Reasons to Use Office Online Instead. Microsoft Office is the world’s de facto productivity suite, but did you know that you don’t really need to pay for Microsoft Word and other apps? Thanks to Microsoft Office Online, you can access the most popular Office apps for free.
https://tinyurl.com/yygzsdbe

Classic Operating Systems You Can Access in Your BrowserIf you want to emulate Windows 95, Mac OS X Lion, and more, you’ve come to the right place. Here are eight classic operating systems you can access in your browser.

A good article on the old operating systems but we could not find a link to try them out. If you find the link, let me know.
https://tinyurl.com/y3zpachs

Computer Club Class Notes 10-22-2019

We had a good turnout at yesterday’s class, including online participants.

Bookmark Bar
The first question was about the favorites or bookmark bar on a browser. How does one make it show?



In Chrome/Brave, click the browser menu button ( Chrome, Brave), then Bookmarks > Show bookmarks bar. You can also just press Ctrl+Shift+B to turn the bar off or on. This shortcut also works for Edge. Firefox does not have a bookmark bar and the shortcut simply opens a window that shows all bookmarks.


Brave bookmark button



Chrome bookmark button

To have an item appear on the bookmark bar, have the webpage open in the browser and click the bookmark button.


Shorten the name to something useful, select the Bookmarks bar Folder, then click Done. The new shortcut will appear on the Bookmark bar. Since the shortcut will appear with its icon, the name may not be needed. The less room the name is the more shortcuts that appear on the bar.

Edge works like the above except they are called favorites and the bar is a favorites bar.

When you change to another browser and have favorites assigned on your old one, you can import the favorites-shortcuts to the new browser. In the same menu we used to create the shortcut bar, find a selection to import them from another browser.

wikiHow
Learn how to do anything with wikiHow, the world's most popular how-to website. Easy, step-by-step, illustrated instructions for everything. We stumbled onto this site while looking for something on the Internet during class. Check it out at https://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page




Newson.us
Watch your hometown news live on your desktop, cell phone, tablet, and add it as a station on your Roku or Firestick device.
http://watchnewson.com/

TV Box
It works and now is set up to view movies and more. Let’s take a look at the same box as last week, but with some channels added. It did not work as well as I expected as the channels I added at home did not come with me. I assume it had to do with the limited memory in the box I purchased. However, it was easy to install the latest Kodi and add the programming to it suing the video link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Ze9ckLOPI

Best Places to Find Free Icon Files
The design world moves at a fast pace, and it’s much easier to download icon files than it is to hire graphic designers to create custom designs.

That’s why many sites offer entire marketplaces filled with free and premium icons. Some even offer hundreds of thousands of icons.
https://tinyurl.com/y58vcqsn

How to Create a Windows Icon
This wikiHow teaches you how to create a shortcut icon for a Windows computer. Desktop shortcuts typically use predetermined icons, but you can create your own icon by using an online converter. If you'd like to create a simple, black-and-white icon from scratch, you can use Microsoft Paint instead.
https://tinyurl.com/y5uyfaua

Dochub
DocHub is an online PDF annotator and document signing platform. DocHub lets users add text, draw, add signatures and make document templates. DocHub can integrate with Dropbox, Google Drive, Gmail and Box accounts.

We showed how to use your cell phone to take a picture of your signature and then add it to a PDF. And how to add text and “white out” text on the PDF.
https://dochub.com/

PDF to TXT
Free and easy to use online PDF to text converter to extract text data from PDF files without having to install any software. Great way to print a webpage as a PDF and then extract just the text.
https://pdftotext.com/

Computer Club Class Notes 10-15-2019

We had a number of questions upfront. The one I remember is setting your start page in your browser. The person having the question was using Firefox.

Setting HomeWhen you open a browser, the first website you see appears in the first tab (left tab). This is your Home page. Had you set it to show more than one website, the others will be in the additional tabs to the right. When you click to open an additional tab, that tab will open to the website you assigned which could be a repeat of the Home page or perhaps a blank page.

Let’s see how to do that in Firefox.



Click the menu button in the upper right corner (the three lines)



Select Options and then Home

Set the Home page to whatever site you want to see when you start up Firefox. My choice is www.google.com, yours might be www.msn.com or something else.



Set New tabs to the page you would like it to open, either same as Home or a Blank Page

When you have set up your preferences, close Firefox and reopen it to see the results.

What about Brave?

Menu button > Settings > scroll to bottom



Make your choice, then scroll back to the top



In the Appearance section, set the New Tab page

In Google Chrome, click menu (three dots) > Settings



Scroll down to locate the On startup and Appearance sections and make your choices…

In Edge, click menu (three dots) > Settings



Scroll down to Customize and make your choices.

TV Box
We talked last week about various ways to get Kodi and other stations at home. We talked about cutting the cable. Well, I ordered a TV Box that says it will give us everything…
https://tinyurl.com/y2w6uqqb




We opened the box and unpacked it. It contained the TV Box, an HDMI cable, a power pack, and a remote. There were NO batteries for the remote!

There were many many TV Boxes to choose from. I picked this one because it had the most memory, for the price range I was looking at--around $25. And I liked the clock…

We set it up using a computer monitor that had HDMI inputs. When we turned it on an easy to follow screen displayed. You would plug it into one of your TV’s HDMI inputs.



We went to the Settings selection and set up the WiFi using the club’s information. As you can see there are many selections just like on an Android cell phone or tablet. You can install Apps from the Google Play Store and access the Internet to locate others.



This box came with a version of Kodi and we scrolled through the various menu items there. However, there would be additional work to make Kodi fully operational by applying additional software. We located a number of YouTube videos to learn more about Kodi and how to add the additional software that determines the look and feel and what you are able to access--movies, sports, games, etc.

You can install Kodi on your PC, cell phone, or tablet as well as on your streaming devices such as this TV Box and an Amazon Firestick.

YouTube has many videos so select the one that applies to the device you are installing it on.

We watched a number of short videos on Youtube about Kodi. This video shows how to install Movies and TV Shows on Kodi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKCvCqVMHZg

Computer Club Class Notes 10-8-2019

Class this week as usual. I will be online as well and would like to know how that worked out at the General Meeting. We had a couple of folks listening in. Here are a few of the things we might get into, but as always your questions come first.

Alternate Office AppsI use Google “Office” Google Drive (Docs, Spreadsheet, etc) which is free with a free Google account. It works great on my PC, my Chromebook, on Linux Mint, and on my cell phones, iPhone and Android.

I also like LibreOffice available on ninite.com and WPS which is available at their site, wps.com

Setting A Restore Point And WhySystem Restore is an awesome system recovery tool, and it's included with Windows for free. It's the ideal solution for rolling back bad drivers, fixing when buggy software breaks your PC, or simply rolling you back to a previous point in time. We looked at how to create a restore point and how to recover from one.
https://tinyurl.com/y6znj4nk

Kodi
What is Kodi? Kodi is free, open-source software designed specifically with home entertainment in mind – and it's perfect if you're a fan of movies, sports, films, and TV shows. There are many YouTube videos showing how to set it up on your PC, on a Firestick, and other devices. Simply put, as long as you have Internet access you can cut the cable and watch pretty much everything. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mm1plsrWNc 



Click the following link to see all the past notes that contained info on Kodi. Then Ctrl+F and type Kodi. All the words Kodi will now be highlighted and easy to locate.
http://tinyurl.com/yatgumyb

Roku News ChannelIf you have a Roku box, you can add the streaming channel NewsON for free and watch your local news TV stations.

https://channelstore.roku.com/details/71845/newson

MXQ TV BoxThere are many of these on Amazon fr from about $25 and up. Turns your TV into a smart TV and includes Kodi so you can access just about anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4pbS6u365o

Android tv box MXQ 

https://tinyurl.com/y6zdvj4a 

Move Contacts from one email provider to anotherThis one can be tricky. You have to go to your previous provider where you still have a working account and export the contact list to a file. Then you can open the new provider’s email and import your list.

Create an album on Google PhotosPictures are stored in the Google Cloud in the order you upload them. They are accessible using search in many different ways. Search on a date. Search on location. Search on a face (uses a very accurate facial recognition algorism). Search on type of content, like dog, boart, food, etc.



You can create an album (like a folder) and it will hold shortcuts to the picture you desire to be in an album. Say you take a bunch of pictures on Thanksgiving.




Create a thanksgiving album and then find all your thanksgiving pictures and videos. Select them and then add them to the thanksgiving album.

How To Download Google Photos To A Folder On My PcQ: I have the photos uploaded from a cell phone to google photos. I can pull them up and see them on my computer. I want to download them to my computer so that I can put them in My Pictures.

A: Go to Google Photos and select the pictures to be downloaded by placing a checkmark in the circle in each picture by clicking on the circle. If you have a group of pictures, check the first one. Then scroll down to the last and holding the shift key down, click the last one and all will be selected.

Then click the menu button (three dots in the upper right) and select Download (or Shift+D) and they will all come down as a zip file. It will go to your download folder. Double click it to see the files.



Then click Extract all and tell it to place the extracted folder in your My Pictures folder, or whatever location you choose.

How To Change Browser Download Folder LocationHave you ever wanted to know how to change the download folder your browser uses? I know I have, and recently someone asked me where the downloads go.
https://tinyurl.com/yxkzlkrr

Order Photo Prints Within Google PhotosGoogle announced a new feature in Google Photos this month … Printing! This has been a highly requested feature. Apparently lots of people still want a photo they can hold in their hand, put in a binder or add to the fridge with a magnet. With just a couple of clicks and 25 cents per photo, you can pick up your 4X6 prints on the same day at a Walmart or CVS of your choosing.
https://tinyurl.com/y44t4y6l

How To Download YouTube Videos With VLCYouTube has declared war on downloading videos from its site. Most downloading programs and extensions no longer work but you can still use VLC.
https://tinyurl.com/yynmmsne

How To Hide The Search Box On Windows 10I was playing on my laptop the other day and looked at the Taskbar at the bottom of my screen. Nothing new but I wondered if I could make any adjustments to it. The one change I really wanted to change was removing the Search Box. This is the one thing I don’t like hanging out on the bottom of my screen. After researching this, I found out there are many things that you can customize on your Taskbar. Since I now know how to do this, I would show you how to hide the Search Box and then give you a bonus of where you can make a few more adjustments. Open Windows 10 and let us start learning.
https://tinyurl.com/y5juxub6

Computer Club Class Notes 9-24-2019

How to Restore the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 10
Select the Start button, then select Settings. Or, right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize.
Select Personalization > Themes > Desktop icon settings.
Select the Recycle Bin checkbox > Apply.

Ninite
A great way to update and install a number of useful programs. We have discussed this many times in the past. This is what we use to install the maintenance programs we recommend you use weekly.
Superantispyware
Malwarebytes
Glary Utilities
See https://tinyurl.com/y5khjplq for more on using Ninite

CCleaner
This must be initially downloaded from ccleaner.com. Then when you open it to run each week, if a newer version is available download and install it. When asked to purchase just click “no thanks” then choose the free version.

See more at https://tinyurl.com/yxa8uypr and some good how-to’s https://tinyurl.com/y6smyzo2

Place Icon on Desktop
Open the website you want an icon on the desktop for in Chrome or Brave.
Click the menu button (3 dots or dashes in u[[er right)
More tools > Create shortcut
Give it a name
Locate it on your desktop

Power Options
Windows comes with default power options that cause the computer to got to sleep after so many minutes or the screen to turn off. Also what happens when you shut the cover on a laptop. Let’s look at how to change those.

Win+I > type “power” > select power & sleep then adjust settings OR...
Win+I > type “lid” > select change what closing the lid does then adjust settings

Cut/Copy/Paste and the new Win+V
Except for the later, these shortcuts have been used for decades to copy and move files and folders. Let’s review using them and the click-shift method of selecting. Before 1903 the clipboard could only hold the last thing copied to it. When pasting, Win+V opens a list of everything sent to the clipboard since the last restart or when it was cleared,

We used notepad to demonstrate using Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V and Ctrl+Z

Change the mouse look and speed
Windows comes with a tiny mouse pointer. You can change that and it's color and the speed it moves across the screen.

Ctrl+I > type “mouse” > Change your mouse settings then click Additional mouse settings



Mouse locator
Ever have trouble locating the mouse? It is there somewhere but you can’t see it. One simple switch and hitting the ctrl key will display flashing circles around the pointer.

Desktop pictures or not
Windows displays a number of caned images at the start screen and in the desktop background. You do not have to settle for the defaults. You can even use your own pic

Win+U > Background settings

Backup reminder
Let’s talk about the need for doing backups and the number of ways to do that.

Copy to flash drive
Copy to DVD
EaseUS image
OneDrive
DropBox

PDF to TXT
Free and easy to use online PDF to text converter to extract text data from PDF files without having to install any software.

You upload a PDF with photos and text and it returns a text file of just the words. Great for extracting data from a PDF.
https://pdftotext.com/

Where are my photos?

Most of us take pictures and even short movies right on our cell phones. Three are many questions about photos.

How do we get those over to our computer?
How do we send them to others?
Can I edit them on my phone or on my computer?
Why are they so large?
How do I download a picture from Facebook?
How do I save a picture from an email?

What do I do? I use Google Photos on my phone so every picture I take is stored in the Google Cloud at no charge but having a free Google account.

Pixlr
Experience smarter and faster photo editing. Pixlr X is the only photo editor you need for quick yet professional edits. Designed with just the right amount of easy to navigate photo editing tools, you are about to experience the next best online image editor built with cutting edge technology.

This needs Adobe Flash installed. Works great with high-end edits and more. A free “photshop” like app.
https://pixlr.com/