Thursday, December 27, 2018

Class Notes 12/27/2018

I know we did not have class this week, but I have put together some notes from my readings and experimenting this week. So I thought I would get you up to speed and wish you a Happy and Safe New Year.

Windows 10 version 1809 rollout to speed upAs we talked last week, 1809 is working and we are putting it on the machines we are working on at the club. I have installed it without a hiccup on three of my machines at home as well. If you do not want it yet then do NOT click check for updates. More in this article:
https://tinyurl.com/y9ouoob7

Windows 10 password-less accounts in 1903This article is about things to come. We will be able to setup Windows 10 to not even require a password to get started. Details in this article
https://tinyurl.com/y74r5tn2

Sign in to a Windows 10 account automatically on startWe can do this manually by invoking netplwiz at the Run screen (Win + R). The next version of Windows 10 will have an easier approach to making this happen. This article details doing it now.
https://tinyurl.com/ybvprn93

How to Email a Text
Yes, we can send a text to someone right from our computer. Not Facebook messenger texting, phone texting. This article details how to send and receive texts on your computer
https://tinyurl.com/y8be84rp

How To Record Internet Audio
This article shows how to use a male-male cable to record in Audacity anything playing on your computer.
http://tinyurl.com/y8u3prqa

Google’s Chrome Canvas
Google has quietly released a progressive web app called Chrome Canvas that lets you make quick doodles that automatically save to your Google account. Go to “canvas.apps.chrome” in a Chrome browser on any computer, and pull up a basic drawing app without having to download any programs or apps. More in this article
https://tinyurl.com/ycog76t3



LiveTV Free
Check out http://pluto.tv for a channel listing. Get it on your Roku box or on your computer. There is a TV Channel Listing just like on Cable and On Demand movies… free...

How to Send and Receive Faxes Online
Most companies still want a fax rather than an email. I believe this has something to do with what the courts will accept as a legal document. This article details how to send and receive a Fax from your computer without having to have a fax machine or a printer that does fax.
http://tinyurl.com/yaftgul2

In addition to my own research, I want to give thanks to Harold at the Club, Ghacks.net Newsletter, AskLeo, tomshardware, TechConnect, and DavesComputerTips.com for the useful ideas we take a look at each week.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Class Summary 12-18-2018

Don't "check for updates" in Windows 10. If you select "check for updates", you may get pre-release updates that are none-security in nature, on stable versions of Windows. The only thing that you can do about it right now is to never-ever, click on "check for updates" in Windows.
http://tinyurl.com/ybd2n3wd

Brave Browser is another way to access the Internet. It claims to be faster the. Chrome. You might want to check it out. And a couple of interesting search engines, not browsers, are Dogpile and Duckduckgo.
http://tinyurl.com/ycva54kf

Surprise! Microsoft plans to make Microsoft 365 available to consumers. It looks like they are heading to a time when have to pay to use windows and office. Might be time to check out Linux Mint which is free. Find out more.abut it at www.linuxmint.com.

1809 Clipboard

On Windows 10 version 1809, you’re getting a new clipboard experience that leverages the Microsoft cloud to copy and paste content across devices.

The experience works just like before, using the Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste.

Windows key + V keyboard shortcut that allows you to see your clipboard history. In addition, the experience includes a button to clear all your history, or enable the feature if it’s currently disabled.

Using the new experience, you can also paste anything that is listed in the history, and you can pin items for things you paste all the time.

The new clipboard also brings a new settings page in the System section that allows you to customize many aspects of the experience.

1808 Display

A new section called Make text bigger, which now includes the controls to increase text size across the system including Microsoft Store apps and classic (win32) applications.

1898 Snip & Sketch

Windows 10 is introducing a new snipping experience that combines the old Snipping Tool with Screen Sketch (formerly part of the Windows Ink Workspace) into a single modern experience called “Snip & Sketch,” which uses the modern app design that we continue to see on Microsoft Store apps.

Using this new experience brings a few additional benefits, including a single experience to take screenshots. The app receives updates using the Microsoft Store. It’ll show up in Task View. You can set the window size to be your preferences, and it even supports multiple windows.

Some of the new features includes the ability to quickly snip and share a screenshot using the Win + Shift + S, which now brings the snipping toolbar with all the basic tools you need.

In the “Keyboard” settings page, you’ll see a new option that says “Use the Print Screen key to launch screen snipping,” enabling this option lets you bring up the new snipping tool pressing the Print Screen button.

Finally, Action Center gains a new Screen snip button that let you also get a quick access to the new snipping experience.

1809 Notepad

Notepad is getting an update to support Unix/Linux line endings (LF) and Macintosh line endings (CR). The find and replace dialog now includes a new option to do wrap around search. The note-taking app will now remember previously entered values and the state of checkboxes and automatically populate them the next time you open the find dialog.

Additionally, when you have text selected and open the find dialog Notepad now automatically populates the search field with the selected text.

Under the View menu, and new Zoom option has been added to zoom in and out on a text document. The current zoom level is now displayed in the status bar.

You can also use Ctrl + Plus, Ctrl + Minus and Ctrl + Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out and use Ctrl + 0 to restore the zoom level to the default.

In addition, Notepad now supports the ability to display line and column numbers when word-wrap is enabled in the new status bar, and you can use Ctrl + Backspace to delete the previous word you type.

If you need to research a word, you can now select the text, click Edit, and use the new “Search with the Bing” option (Ctrl + E) to research the word using Microsoft Edge.

To check which version of windows you have installed press Win + R, type Winver, press Enter. The latest is 1809. 1803 is ok. Just wait for 1809 to come down on its own. If your machine does not line up with the requirements for 1899 it will not be updated. Some issues with certain processors and video chips.

How to pin to taskbar. On the desktop right- click the icon you want to place on the taskbar. Select pin to taskbar. Or you can just drag the icon to the taskbar.

Move a picture to a flash drive. Locate the picture on the hard drive in File Explorer. Right-click the file name. Then select to move it to the name of the inserted flash drive.

Install HP printer on new machine. When you get a new PC the printer you had in the old one might not be recognized on the nee one. Open a browser and go to www.hp.com. Select support and then software. It will ask you for the name of the printer. Then download the installation software and run it.

Amazon Prime prints for 9 cents each. This makes it simple to send pictures to all your friends with free shipping think about.it. 100 pictures will call $9.00 and will be delivered in 2 days free.

Grammerly.com is an extension for Chrome that will check not only your spelling but grammar as well.

Build a rescue disk for your image backup whenever you upgrade to a new version of EaseUS or Macrium. The new rescue disk or USB flash drive will read the backups made with an older version as well.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Class Summary 12-11-2018

Edge will switch to Chromium. They are building a new browser that will be based on the open source Chromium browser. Ironic, isn’t it?
http://tinyurl.com/ybg5fyay

1809 is back once again. It is already rolling out to those who click “Check Update”. Some users will not be updated due to known errors with their particular hardware. Make sure you have a current image backup, just in case something goes wrong with the install on your computer.
http://tinyurl.com/yctp2j4w

Fix 100% Disk Usage & Improve Windows Performance. We spent most of the time on this one showing a number of ways to make Windows 10 a little quicker. And the first thing to do always is to make sure you are not running multiple antivirus programs. All you need is Defender which is included with Windows 10. And to run the latest version of the maintenance programs: CCleaner, SuperAntiSpyware, and MalwareBytes.
http://tinyurl.com/y9hhef69 article
http://tinyurl.com/yd92t92r youtube

A free Photoshop clone that runs in your browser. We took a quick look at this program. Looks very nice and I hope somebody tries it out so we can hear more about it. Thanks go out to Donna for sending us this.
http://tinyurl.com/ybnknr5e



Tablet Mode turns your desktop to look like you are on a tablet instead of a PC. So if your screen is filled with those startup icons instead of the usual, Click the notification icon to the right of the taskbar and click Tablet mode to turn it off--it should not be blue. Your desktop will resume.

OneDrive is a folder on your PC in Windows 10. To use it you must have a Microsoft account. Click on the OneDrive folder and if you are not signed in you will be asked for your credentials from Microsoft. If you do not have an account, you will be able to create one. Once you have an account you will have access to their cloud storage at onedrive.live.com. Then whatever you place in your OneDrive folder on your PC will be backed up to your OneDrive storage in their cloud. You are allocated 5GB with your account for free. If you need more space you can purchase an additional 50GB for $1.99/mo.

The Shift-Click method is a way to select a large group of items instead of dragging your mouse over all of them. This works anywhere you are able to select--web pages, documents, file manager, …

Select the first word or the first item in a list. Without touching the mouse, scroll down to the bottom of the entries you wish to select. Mouse to the end and hold the shift key down and click the left mouse button. All from the first to the last will now be selected.



Using the Task Manager, disable startup items to make your computer start quicker and to minimize the number of unnecessary programs in the background. To open it, right click on the task bar and choose Task Manager. Then click More Details and Startup to view the programs in startup. Disable all you do not to have start right away. OK to disable them all, but you might want OneDrive and Defender to start but not those checking for updates to various programs.

A Flash Player is an older method of animation that has caused issues. If you have a plugin or extension on your browser, it should be removed so as not to affect you. In Chrome mine is set to ask permission before allowing Flash to be used.

Print from a cell phone using an app from your printer company. Mine is HP and they have an app called HP Smart that connects my cell phone to the printers on the same WiFi network my printer is on. Yes, you need to have a wireless printer connected to your network and the phone needs to be on WiFi as well on the same network. You will see your printer(s). Select it and printing will occur.