Thursday, December 17, 2015

Class Summary 12-17-2015

We started with some good news for those who have a OneDrive with more than 5gb of space. Microsoft, as of January 2016, will be reducing everyone's space to 5gb. However they have a website that will let you keep what you currently have if you opt in. Here is the site. I already did and will keep my 40gb of space.
https://preview.onedrive.com/bonus/

One of the issues some have with Google Chrome is that it has a number of things running in the background even after you close out of it. However, there is a setting you can change to tell Chrome to shut down those background tasks. It is under Settings > Advanced Settings:


Uncheck the first checkbox to NOT continue running background apps…

Then we looked at Rollapp.com which allows you to run applicaitons like Libre Office online and not have it installed on your computer. Check it out at:
https://www.rollapp.com/

Discussed converting a PDF into an editable document. Word 2013 and 2016 claim to do that and in some cases it works well. In other cases you end up with images and not editable pages. An OCR (optical character recognition) program will read an image file and turn it into text. However the text will need to be formatted to match the original if that is what you need. You can use one of these programs to scan a document and place the results into a useable format like a Word DOC file.
http://www.freeocr.net/ has a list of possible apps to use

Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 all come with Defender as a free anti-virus program. If your PC came with something pre-loaded, Defender is turned off. If you uninstall your current anti-virus program like Norton, McAfee, AVG, etc, you need to make sure Defender is on and updated.

To check on Defender, in the box to the right of the Start Button, type Defender.



Click to open it.



Click Settings



Make sure both switches are set to On. If not, click to turn each on.

I was asked what tablet I would recommend. The first thing needed is a reason for getting one. A tablet needs a WiFi connection to work on the internet, but not to use the applications already installed. They are larger than a smartphone and usually can do everything a smartphone can do except use it to make calls on a cell phone carrier. They do not usually have external keyboards although some include them and if they have bluetooth there are bluetooth keyboards you can get that will work. I would not suggest a tablet if you are planning on a lot of word processing. The on screen keyboard works well for me, but they may not work for you. Long story short, I recommend an android tablet. I recently ordered the $49.99 one from Amazon and it works very well. It does all that I need it to do. I can get email, access websites, read Kindle books and others, use Facebook, and much much more. It even had front and rear cameras and unlimited storage of them in the Amazon cloud. Here is a link to their ad.
http://tinyurl.com/p5fsgjp

Lot of additional discussions including a talk about what the different sizes meant:

A byte holds 1 character of data
A kb is 1,000 bytes
A mb is 1,000 kb or 1,000,000 bytes
A gb is 1,000 mb or 1,000,000,000 bytes
A tb is 1,000 gb or 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

Computer memory (RAM) is typically 2-4gb

Hard disk storage on newer machines is 500gb, 750gb, or 1tb

Portable or external hard drives are now 1tb, 2tb, or 3tb

Friday, December 11, 2015

Class Summary 12-10-2015

Another lively class today with over a dozen in attendance. One class left for this year, 12-17-2015 as there will be no classes on Christmas Eve day or New Year’s Eve day. The first class for next year will be January 7, 2016. And before that is the first Club Meeting of the New Year on January 5th.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Check out my card to you all at http://rwevans.com/Christmas2015/

We looked at couple of quick sites:

Invite someone to a party or whatever. Keeps track of who is attending and sends reminders and keeps track of who is bringing what. All for free.
http://www.evite.com/

The way it was lets you view an archive of a web site going back to 1999
http://oldweb.today/

We talked about the latest windows 10 update. Most have not gotten it. Some who have find it working well and a few have had some issues with it. We talked about setting your update setting to defer updates and also to set your internet connection to a metered connection so update to not even come down unless you request them.

To setup a metered connect go to Settings > Network and Internet > Manage WiFi Settings



Turn the metered connection ON and updates will not download. Turn the switch to OFF and then updates will resume.This is also good if you are connected to the Internet using your phone as a hotspot or are paying for a hotspot device from your phone carrier.



Having to enter a password every time you start your computer can be a bother. You can avoide that by having it automatically entered for you. Win+R to open the Run dialog box and enter NETPLWIZ, then OK.



Uncheck the box and click Apply



Then enter your current password and both boxes and press OK. Next time you turn you PC on it will enter the password for you and take you right to the desktop. IMPORTANT that you remember your password. Write it down somewhere so if you need it to log into your Microsoft account you will have it.

Windows 10 an icon in the taskbar for Edge, their new browser. Internet Explorer is nowhere to be found, but it is still on your system. Here is how to locate it and place it on your taskbar.

In the Search Windows box (to the right of the start button), type INT






Now you should see Internet Explorer as an option. Click it and IE will open up for you.



Right-click and choose Pin to taskbar to place an icon for IE on your taskbar for easy access. Or Pin to Start to create a tile for it in your start menu.

Windows 10 does not come with software to play DVD movies. VLC is a free program that will to the job very well. Download it at Ninite.com or directly from their site at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

QuickTextPaste is a tiny text pasting program for Windows. It lets you assign shortcut keys to strings of text and more. See details at: http://tinyurl.com/jcykln5

One member mentioned that her new computer does not have a CD/DVD drive. What if she needed to use one? There are portable CD/DVD drives that plug into a USB port that are inexpensive. Here is one from Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/hgqrjhb

Spent some time talking about avoiding email scams. Do not assume that if it came from someone you know it must be ok to open. Email scammers can make the from email address look like anyone they want. If you are receiving an email from your bank, insurance agency, or credit card company they will address you by name. They will not send you a dear customer email. If in doubt, do not click any links on the email and call the company on the phone using a number to obtain from your credit card or their web site. Do not call the number on the email as it may not be a legitimate number. Look at the from address. Does it appear legit? Mouse over links without clicking and observe in the lower left of your browser the address the link will take you to. Never reply to an email that is going to give you free money.

Remote desktop
http://filehippo.com/download_anydesk/

We played with this one. I installed the small file on my PC and a member installed it on hers. She gave me the code it generated for her and I entered it on my PC and right away I could view her desktop and after she gave me permission, I could control her PC and run anything on it. This works like Logmein, Join.me, and Teamviewer. I think it is easier to use, but I will have to try it in a live situation to know for sure how it works for me.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Class Summary 12-3-2015

Reminded everyone of the Fall Update for Windows 10 that is coming down. It is a 3gb update so it will take a while for you to receive it. When you do get it, you will be asked to install it. Before you do make sure your computer is on and connected. I suggest having it run in the nighttime so it will be done when you awake. Also, it might be a good idea to do a back first.



If you want to see what version you currently are running--the current build, Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog box. Type WINVER and press Enter. When you have completed the Fall Update the build will be 1511.

I ran into some issues using Microsoft Movie Maker this morning. When I ran it my sound stopped working. I had to reboot to get it back. Turns out that program needed to be run in compatibilty mode. In other words Windows has to be fooled to think it is an older version. To do so you need to locate the .exe file for the program, right-click and choose Properties.




Click the Compatability tab. Check the Run this program… box and then choose the OS needed. In my case that was Windows 7. If the program you need to run this way ran fine under 7, choose 7. Otherwise choose an older version--all the way back to Windows 95! Might be good for running old games that no longer work under 10.

I was asked about organizing bookmarks. In the address bar of Chrome enter chrome://bookmarks/ This will open the bookmark manager in Google Chrome. If you are using a different browser there are ways to get to its bookmark manager as well and it will work similarly.



Click the folder your want to add a folder to, then right-click and Add folder.







Name the folder




Open the folder that has the files you want to add to your new folder. Then point and drag each file or group of files to the new folder. Can also use Cut and Paste.

Then we looked at how to remove the login password in Windows 8-10. Here is a copy what it says on http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/disable-remove-password

If you don't want to enter your password every time you sign in, you can create other sign-in options to use with your account, like a picture password or a PIN. If your PC has a fingerprint scanner, you can also sign in with a fingerprint. (Whichever sign-in option you choose, you still need a "regular" password in place to use a Microsoft account.)

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.

(If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)

Enter sign, and then tap or click Change sign-in options.

Choose the sign-in option you'd like to use, and then follow the instructions.

You can also change password policy so that you don't need to enter your password each time you wake the PC from sleep. On the Sign-in options page, under Password policy, tap or click Change, and follow the instructions.

I demonstrated a website where you can test an email address to be sure it is a valid address:tools
http://mailboxtools.com/tools/smtptest.aspx

Then we looked at the answer to a question that was raised the other night at the club meeting: How To Disable or Stop Desktop Background (Wallpaper) Syncing In Windows 8.1

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-disable-or-stop-desktop-background-wallpaper-syncing-in-windows-8-1/

And we finished with an easy way to keep all kinds of lists and share them with someone else: Wunderlist is the easiest way to get stuff done. Whether you're planning a holiday, sharing a shopping list with a partner or managing multiple work projects, .
https://www.wunderlist.com/