Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 7-30-2019

We did not get to discuss what a VPN is and will get to it next time we meet. Next week is the General Meeting so our open forum will be held from 6-7 pm. Beginner class is from 5-7. Hope to see you all there. Come with questions for me.

I know we discussed a lot and I do not remember all the topics we hit on. Here are a few...

What does gmail archive do?Unlike Outlook, when you Archive a message in Gmail, the message is hidden from your Inbox view. So in effect, archiving lets you tidy up your inbox by moving messages from your inbox into your All Mail label, so you don't have to delete anything.

What computer should I buy?
Most of our users have Windows and most of them Windows 10. When it is time to purchase a new one, what should you look for? The first question I ask is what do you use your computer for? If all your work revolves around the Internet, perhaps a Chromebook would work well for you. If you have some specialized software you regularly use then another Windows 10 one may be called for. You might even look to a Linux based computer.

A Windows based machine needs regular maintenance and an active anti-virus program running all the time. I use Windows Defender (will be renamed soon to Microsoft Defender). The Chromebook and the Linux machines do not need antivirus or other maintenance programs. They are great for surfing the web, doing word processing and spreadsheet work, and running any web based apps like your banking and , getting into you medical providers. etc.

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows
Here it is, a full list of keyboard shortcuts from Microsoft for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10
https://tinyurl.com/znjwvqu

OneDrive sync problems on Windows 10When you're facing syncing issues with OneDrive, it's likely to be a problem with the desktop client, and in this guide, we'll show you the steps to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

OneDrive needs you to sign in with your Microsoft Account. If you do not have one, create one. OneDrive comes with Windows 10. Whatever you place in your OneDrive folder (Folders and File) automatically goes into your cloud storage in your Microsoft account. Add or change a file in OneDrive on your computer and it is updated in your OneDrive in the cloud. You get 5 GB of space in OneDrive for free. For $1.99 a month you can increase that to 50 GB. If you choose to go for Office 365, you get 1 TB for free.
http://tinyurl.com/y4evgeoz

You’re Slowing Down Your PCSWhile all computers slow down over time, in many cases, your own behavior can cause your computer to run slowly. Here are common mistakes that will slow your machine down to a crawl, and how to stop making them. You can see the problems by looking at performance in the Task Manager. Right-click on the taskbar and choose task manager.



If you don’t see this multi-tabbed view, in the lower left of the smaller view, click More details.

A slow computer probably shows Disk usage at 100% or perhaps Memory at 100%. If this is the case you need to have your computer looked at.
https://tinyurl.com/y3xs7g2y

CCleaner may install CCleaner BrowserCCleaner, the popular Windows file cleaning software, may install the web browser CCleaner Browser as part of the installation process if users are not careful. Watch the check boxes that appear on the install screen for CCleaner. Uncheck them or you will install more than just CCleaner. If you do you can just uninstall them. The programs CCleaner piggybacks are not malware, just programs you do not need.
https://tinyurl.com/yyxg5c9e 


Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 7-23-2019


Bonanza.com for good buys on lots of stuff including Microsoft Office and Windows. Here is what they say: “Experience has proven to us that listening to our sellers' feedback is the best opportunity we have to consistently improve our product. That's why we've developed various tools over the years to make online selling easy. Our business relies on making successful sellers, so it's not a coincidence that the tools we offer can be customized to fit our sellers' needs.”
https://tinyurl.com/y3kd6qg5




Linux vs Windows
Linux does not need a powerful machine to run swiftly. An older XP computer will work well. Needs little hard disk space and minimal memory depending on the distro you use. I like Linux Mint and Lubuntu. No need for any antivirus or anti malware programs. They come with Firefox and sometime Chromium and some kind of “office” capability like LibreOffice. There are no weekly updates or six month replacement versions. They just work. But they only run software designed for Linux, and there are many out there.

Easy to try as you first download the ISO file and burn a boot CD.

Boot from that CD and your version of Linux runs completely in memory without touching your hard drive.

Once you are sure you will like it, click the icon to install it alongside your current OS or have it wipe your drive and install as a stand alone OS.

CCleaner Browser
CCleaner Browser is a web browser with built-in security and privacy features to keep you safe online. It comes packed with all the tools you need to manage your online privacy, identity, and personal data. You can download CCleaner Browser at:
www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/browser

Paint 3D replaces MS Paint, a decades favorite of Windows users It is a built-in creative application that comes free with Windows 10*. It is designed to be simple yet powerful by allowing you to create professional or fun creative projects by easily combining 2D and 3D tools. The best part is that you don’t need any design experience – Paint 3D can be used by anyone. Its approachable interface makes it easy to customize existing 3D models from our built-in 3D library or create 3D designs from scratch.
https://tinyurl.com/y6tn68sd

Instagram is a free, online photo-sharing application and social network platform that was acquired by Facebook in 2012. Instagram allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos through a mobile app. ... Users also have the option of making their profile private, so that only their followers can view their posts.
https://tinyurl.com/yyk4ls25

Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was developed by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. The blogs are hosted by Google and generally accessed from a subdomain of blogspot.com. I use blogger for our club page at http://evanstraining.blogspot.com It makes an easy way to create and maintain a personal and business web site.
https://tinyurl.com/y26razxq

Other ways to get yourself on the Web at little or no cost include About.me, Web Starts, and GoDaddy.

Quick Removal new default
Quick removal is the safer option as it ensures that devices can be disconnected from the Windows PC directly. Better performance improves performance but requires that users need to use the "Safely remove hardware" option before they unplug external storage devices. Failure to do so may lead to data loss
https://tinyurl.com/yynek995 https://tinyurl.com/y5utqm4t

Unchecky
Installers often try to sneak additional programs as a natural part of the installation. Unchecky warns you when you try to accept a potentially unwanted offer, which makes it less likely to be accepted accidentally.
https://tinyurl.com/jlkdwxa

What is a personal cloud?
loud Storage (PCS) is a local network-attached storage (NAS) device that lets users store data, photos, music, videos and other files and is optimized for media streaming. PCS devices are a way for home users to experience the advantages of high-capacity, cloud-based storage without losing control of their data. Users can access content on their PCS device from multiple computers using a web browser, while mobile apps provide access from iOS and Android devices. Files can be shared without using a public cloud service.
https://tinyurl.com/y5nnygg5

Friday, July 19, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 7-16-2019

Facebook
We have not spent time on this for many months. This was a refresher and a starting point for those new with social media. We did not get very far but covered a lot of ground answering questions.




Under Settings > Notifications you can set your account to not send you emails for every little thing.



When posting Public everyone can see your postings. Better to post Friends so nobody else will see it.



If you do not want all your friends or everyone to see your note to someone, do NOT put it as a comment under someone else's post. Make it a PM or Private Message by going to their page and clicking Message. Only they will see the message and their response will only go to you.

Twitter
What is this much talked about thing. How do you get started with it and is it for you? Think of it as group texting with the world as your recipients.

You can follow others by simply going to their Twitter to view their tweets. It used to be a place to say something in 128 characters or less; like a text message that has an audience of many.

It you go to someone's Twitter page you can elect to follow them meaning you get a notification every time they tweet. Twitter has been making big changes. The 128 had increased to 256 and now you can add pictures and more. And Twitter now displays ads right in your area for others to see.

See my page at https://twitter.com/richardevans32

I was asked about the possibility of recording a Webinar. The answer is yes. There are many programs that will allow you to capture whatever is happening on your computer. A popular one I have known for years is SnagIt.
https://tinyurl.com/y27cbsxt




CCCGC website as of 24 August 2004

Archive.org
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.



Ninite
Ninite.com is the safest site to install programs from. When you open ninite.com you are presented with a list of programs to select from. You check the ones you want and then click the Get Installer button. That does not download any of the programs you have checked, it downloads a tiny program to your computer with a list of the programs you checked.



When you run that installer program it looks over each program selected to see if you have it already installed on your computer. If not, it downloads and installs it. If you already have the program it compares the version on your computer to the available one. If the one you have is already the latest, it does nothing with that program. If the one you have is older, the latest is downloaded and installed for you.

The next time you want to check to see if you have the latest updates you do not have to go to ninite and start over. If you still have the installer program on your computer, just double-click it.


Classic Start (AKA Classic Shell) gives you a start menu on Windows 10 that has the appearance of XP, Vista, or 7. It is easy to use and easy to setup. Open ninite.com and select Class Start. When installed, the next time you click the Start button you get to choose what want the program to emulate, I chose Windows 7 with the Windows Aero skin. Right-click on Start and you can exit out of it (will reappear on next restart) or open Settings to change your preferences.


----

We did NOT get to talk about any of the following and will look at them in future sessions.

How to prompt your memory with Google Photos
Memory is a tricky thing. Some of us are great at attaching names to faces, while others (and here I raise my hand) have always had a problem with remembering names, especially when you meet someone out of context. For example, imagine the embarrassment when someone you know from work suddenly shows up at a friend’s party, and you spend the next hour trying to remember their name.
http://tinyurl.com/yxapt9xx

How to use the new Facebook Marketplace feature
The Marketplace app is easy to navigate -- you can browse, search by keyword or search by category. Now, when you find an item you like, you'll see an option to checkout directly through the app. You can choose the quantity you want and the shipping price.
http://tinyurl.com/y2qmrxfd

Background Apps
Left to its own devices Windows will happily run all sorts of stuff in the background on your PC. A lot of the time you might not even realize it’s happening. One important thing to consider, however, is that all these background Apps use up precious system resources and that might not be a good thing on an older computer. Heck, even on modern systems, why have the CPU working on things that don’t matter to you?
http://tinyurl.com/yywfl2hh

Microsoft revives Power Toys
Remember Power Toys? If you worked on PCs when Windows 95 or XP were en vogue, you may remember that Microsoft released a number of useful tools back then to extend the functionality of the Windows operating system. http://tinyurl.com/y5zy6du8

FireDrum
Send beautiful mobile responsive email campaigns in minutes for free.
https://tinyurl.com/y6guse3g

Unchecky
Installers often try to sneak additional programs as a natural part of the installation. Unchecky warns you when you try to accept a potentially unwanted offer, which makes it less likely to be accepted accidentally.
https://tinyurl.com/jlkdwxa

Quick Removal new default
Quick removal is the safer option as it ensures that devices can be disconnected from the Windows PC directly. Better performance improves performance but requires that users need to use the "Safely remove hardware" option before they unplug external storage devices. Failure to do so may lead to data loss
https://tinyurl.com/yynek995 https://tinyurl.com/y5utqm4t

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 7-9-2019

WPS Office 2019You do not need Microsoft Office. This is a free and complete office suite that reads and writes in the same format as MS Office. Your dream solution for a low-budget, no-commitment, free productivity office suite. The smallest size office suite consisting of Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheets. Automatically synchronize document on any device, anywhere and anytime. You can log in your account to activate the synchronization service. Any change on any of your devices will be applied on all your devices.
http://tinyurl.com/y3zakuny

Look up hard disk information with PowerShell
Windows PowerShell is quite powerful when it comes to looking up hard disk information. While you may look up some information in Windows directly, e.g. in Disk Management, or by using third-party programs like Hard Disk Validator, Disk Checkup, or DiskBoss, using PowerShell is a quick and easy option as well.
https://tinyurl.com/yxen89x3

Hard Drive Diagnostic Tool Crystal Disk Info
Crystal Disk is a tool to display the work hours of any connected hard drive on a Windows system. The hard drive diagnostic tool can do a lot more than that however and that is why you are reading this review.
https://tinyurl.com/y4zpjkjg

Disable Search Indexing in Windows 10
In this article, we will see how to disable the Search Indexing feature in Windows 10. It can be useful, if you have a fast SSD drive. Search results will always be up to date, because the OS won't use the search index database. Here is how it can be done.

Open an elevated command prompt.

Type the following commands:

sc stop "WSearch"

sc config "WSearch" start= disabled


https://tinyurl.com/yynhvjq4

Google can delete your account when you die
Your Google account is probably the last thing you think about when making your end-of-life plans. The same likely goes for logging off your online life. But it's a good one to add to the mental list -- and it's something that's easy to take care of any time.
http://tinyurl.com/yywu3ht9



PicResize
Easily crop, resize, and edit your images online for FREE. Images are automatically deleted after 30 minutes.
https://picresize.com

Changes coming to Google Photos and Google Drive

Photos and videos that users take using Google Photos are automatically synced to Google Drive currently, a useful option for Google customers who like to push media to their desktop devices using Google Drive. Similarly, new photos and videos added to Google Drive will show up in the Photos application as well. Starting July 10, automatic syncing will be disabled.
http://tinyurl.com/yxa4y5nu

Enabling the internal speaker
If you have a desktop without external speakers, you may be able to use the speaker on the motherboard that gives the beeps when you turn the machine on. This article tells how that might be possible. It depends on the motherboard and whether or not there is an internal speaker.
http://tinyurl.com/y972vyct



Email STRIPPER is a free program for cleaning the ">" and other formatting characters out of your emails. It will restore "forwarded" or "replied" emails back to their original state so they're easier to read.
http://tinyurl.com/y7gp8b7d

HangoutsEach week the class is broadcast on Google Hangouts. Sign in from wherever you are by going to http://tinyurl.com/DickEvans

Belarc Advisor
Is a tool to analyze your PC giving you a list of all programs installed and the key codes to software like Microsoft Windows, MS Office, and more.
https://tinyurl.com/y68zoh3d



Private Browsing
No matter which browser you use, what you search and where you go is kept. Unless… Each browser has a way to browse in such a way that the information is not sent. Google Chrome calls it Incognito and you open it with Shift+Ctrl+N. In Brave it is called Private Browsing and it open with the same Shift+Ctrl+N. What you search is kept on your computer until you leave the window. Then anything about your session is gone, except for anything you may have downloaded. Edge calls it InPrivate Browsing and you access it with Shift+Ctrl+P.