Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 8-27-2019

Set up your computer to automatically sign in



Win+R and type NETPLWIZ, then click OK. This will bring up the User Accounts dialog box. Uncheck the “Users must enter…” box, then click Apply.



Enter and confirm your Password, then click OK and OK. The next time you boot, you will not be prompted for a password.

Speaking of passwords, write it down somewhere. Even though you will be signed right in, there will be times you will need to know the password. Even if you switch to using a 4-digit PIN, you will still need your password.

Saving Pictures from Facebook


Find the picture on someone’s post or in their photos. Click the picture and on the next screen right-click and choose Save image as. I let all mine go to my Downloads folder. Now that it is on your computer you can print it, email it to someone, post in on your page, message it to someone…

When you upload a picture to your Facebook page you can place it a post or upload it to an album you have already created or create a new album.

Selling items online
There are many ways to sell things online. It all depends on how much you have to sell, if it is an online business you want to start, or just an item from time to time. I have used eBay to sell items and have been successfully doing it. It is an auction site meaning you place the item on eBay and people bid on it. Highest bid gets the item. You can say what the minimum amount you will take and you can even set a “buy now” amount. Another site is etsy.com.

Etsy is a global online marketplace, where people come together to make, sell, buy, and collect unique items. You post the item and set the price. Those interested in buying your item at that price will contact you. It is even easier is Facebook Marketplace.

www.facebook.com/Marketplace‎ Easy and Fast Way to Connect Buyers and Sellers. Find What You Want. Get Deals & Sell Faster. You post the item and the price and your local area Facebook users get to see it and communicate with you on Facebook Private Message to negotiate the price and arrange to meet to deliver it.

Next we gave a quick demonstration of using eBay to purchase things and to check the value of things. There have been a few classes in the past about eBay and selling things on it. Check back in the class notes for those handouts. We also talked about using PayPal and that you do not need an account to pay for something using it. When you give them your credit card or bank account information it stays at PayPal. The person you are buying from never see it. They get their money from PayPal.

Then we actually posted something, an Acer Chromebook that has a bad keyboard. Here is the post:



And the link to view it: http://ebay.us/XYc9Mq?cmpnId=5338273189

One person has already made an offer to buy it for $25. I will wait until the end of the auction to let them have it.

Lots of help on eBay website
https://tinyurl.com/y2qasgc7

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Computer Club Class Notes 8-20-2019

We covered over an hour of topics before we got to the agenda. Good discussions and great questions. Here are some of the items we discussed.

PDF
A PDF is a Portable Document File and can be generated by choosing the printer “Microsoft Print to PDF”. That will generate a file that can be sent to anyone with any type of computer device and they can read it. In Windows 10, Microsoft Edge can read PDFs. Adobe Acrobat had been the free PDF reader of choice for many for years.

Image Resize
When we take a digital picture it ends up as a 1-5 MB file. Try to email that to someone and it could be larger than permitted with your email carrier. Use an image resizer to create a new and smaller image to send to others. Here is one we talked about back in May:

Faststone image resizer
FastStone Photo Resizer is an image converter and renaming tool that intends to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy batch mode. Drag and Drop mouse operation is well supported. FastStone Photo Resizer makes quick work of batches of digital snapshot!
http://tinyurl.com/yxaj2u75

Grammarly is an extension that corrects your spell in your grammar on the fly. Does a good job.
https://tinyurl.com/y3mc9h9t

Google Cloud
Remember a cloud is hard drive storage at a location away from your location. It is accessed using the internet. The data stored is encrypted so only you can access it.

Windows 10 has OneDrive, a 5 gb cloud
Google comes with 15gb
Google Photos provides unlimited photo storage
Dropbox comes with 2gb
And there are many more out there. In every case you can purchase more space for a reasonable cost.

For pictures I use Google Photos. It is unlimited and with the app on my cell phone every picture I take is automatically sent to the Google Cloud. If you have a free google account (gMail) you have the Google Drive (drive.google.com).

Google Docs
If you have a Google account, you have 15 gb of storage in their cloud and have access at drive.google.com. All your Google data is stored here. Your gMail, your Google Photos, and anything else you upload to the “drive”. If you are storing your photos or movies or Google documents, the storage is free. If you are uploading non-Google files they use your 15 gb of free space. If you run out, you can purchase more space at a reasonable monthly fee.

I use Google Docs and Spreadsheets for most of my writing. Not only is it available on my PC, but also on my cell phone and Chromebook and LinuxMint computer, and at anyone else’s computer. Access is on the web and all files are stored there. Sharing files with others is a simple as clicking Share and sending them the link. They can view but not change or I can set it to allow their comments or even to modify the file.

How to enable Ransomware Protection
Windows Defender has been gaining a foothold steadily for the past few years. But there is one flaw in the antivirus that ships with Windows 10. The option for Ransomware Protection is disabled by default even though it is available as a native option since the release of Windows 10 version 1709.

One of our members noted that a number of valid programs were flagged as ransomware. He had to go in and make them exceptions. From that point on all worked fine. Here is what he had to say:

“You should try the Ransomware Protection. I did and found it a pain in the butt. I just turned it back on the other day when Harold emailed about it. It immediately blocked Outlook in Office. Unfortunately, many routine programs get blocked. Not that hard to make exceptions but still a pain. Talk to the class about it but be aware of the false positives. Some are Windows system files if that makes any sense. Why would they get blocked? “
https://tinyurl.com/yywomfut




System Information
System software DescriptionSystem Information is a system profiler included with Microsoft Windows that displays diagnostic and troubleshooting information related to the operating system, hardware and software.

Win+R > msinfo32



Win+Pause

How to fix 100% disk usage in Windows
High disk usage can be tricky to fix, but here are the common reasons why it happens and how you can solve it and make Windows responsive again. There are several things that can cause 100% disk usage in Windows, and it can be a tricky problem to solve. But help is at hand: here are all the common reasons why it happens and how you can fix it.

This article outlines some ways the author has found. The first says to restart. Better to shutdown and restart; this reloads everything. Use task manager (Shift+Ctrl+Esc) to see what applications are taking the most disk usage. Something is running and it may be just a bad hard drive.
https://tinyurl.com/y566vhqu

100% Disk Usage in Windows 10 Fixed With 14 Tricks
Got 100% disk usage in Windows 10? So your computer is hanging and freezing. Same old Windows, right? Except you’re using a brand-new Windows 10 device; you’ve only had it a few days. So just what is going on?

This is a much better article on the 100% issue. Here are some of the suggestions it addresses:
  • Check disk performance with chkdisk
  • Check your anti-virus/malware software
  • Disable Windows search
  • Disable Superfetch service
  • Time to disable Flash
  • Is Windows Update causing 100% disk usage?
Neither article mentions is to disable the background apps from running and disabling things in Startup.
https://tinyurl.com/y5k5bhhe

Emsisoft Emergency Kit is a free portable antivirus
This has been around for a long time and ranks high in troubleshooting arsenals.The emergency kit is available for Windows 7 through Windows 10.The download has a size of 326 Megabyte sand comes as a self-extracting installer; it does not need to be installed but is extracted to a location when you execute it. You may then run the program from that location, even if it is on a USB drive.

Download at https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/emsisoft-emergency-kit/. Run it and have the installation go to your flash drive. Then it can be run at anytime from the flash drive.
https://tinyurl.com/y6qvmyle

Malwarebytes releases AdwCleaner 7.4
Malwarebytes, maker of the security solution of the same name, released a new version of the company's AdwCleaner program this week. AdwCleaner is a standalone free program designed to detect and remove adware and other unwanted software programs from Windows machines.

This one actually finds things MalwareBytes misses. Worth running from time to time.
https://tinyurl.com/y64bjvyh

Friday, August 16, 2019

Computer Club Notes 8-13-2019

Club Favorites
At each general meeting George demonstrates a program or website that is useful. You can find the ones he has shown us on our club website at cccgc.info. Find the link on the right side:

Click 3 Favorites to see the list since this January. At the August meeting he showed us a site that gives us access to over three million manuals. We keyed in the model number for an audio recorder one of our members had with him and instantly had the 300+ page manual for it.

Preview the new CCleaner BrowserWe know that CCleaner users like to keep junk under control, stay private, and get things done fast. That's why we've built a safer browser that puts you in control of your digital footprint and stops browsing cluttering up your PC.

We installed it and found it to be similar to Google Chrome and Brave. Did not see anything bad about it all. Give it a try and see what you think.
https://tinyurl.com/y4xnee9p

An image editor you'll LOVE! or so we thought...Looked like a neat program. It used to be around as a free application. Now it is free to try, but the require your credit card so we did not give it an actual trial. Watched a demo of it that looked good--gave us a few new “Tech terms” like "tad", "easy pizy", and "smidge"
https://tinyurl.com/y35sv859

Free PicMonkey Alternative. Ribbet is a 100% online photo editor like PicMonkey, and best of all it's free. Apply sophisticated effects, stickers, frames, fonts, borders and more in seconds and without any training or classes.
https://www.ribbet.com/photo-editor-like-picmonkey

What Is a VPN?
VPN software creates an encrypted connection (often referred to as a tunnel) between your computer and a server controlled by the VPN company, and then passes all network activity through that protected tunnel. This way, your online activities are hidden from everyone—including your ISP, which is now allowed to sell your anonymized information.

Think of it this way: If you drive out of your garage, someone can follow your car and track where you went, how long you were there, and when you returned home. We call that stalking. Using a VPN service is like driving into a closed parking garage, switching to a different car, and then driving out. Anyone following your original car now has no idea where you went after entering the garage. A VPN service keeps the stalkers at bay.
https://tinyurl.com/y4h2t2w3

What is a VPN connection, what does it do, and how do you set one up?
You may have heard the term VPN used more and more frequently in recent years. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, a VPN serves several purposes, including making online activities more secure. For that reason alone, we recommend that everyone use a VPN.
https://tinyurl.com/y6f3j5zn

Do I need a VPN?
Get more from the Internet—especially privacy, anonymity and safety—by using a VPN before you do anything online! Who doesn't love the Internet? It delivers information, answers, entertainment and connections to you, on demand, in seconds. From anywhere and at any time from our desktop computers, laptops, smartphone and tablets. It's a life-saver for students of all ages, moms, businesses, organizations...everyone.

But the Internet is not perfect. It has some built-in flaws that make you vulnerable when you're online. You should know that, because hackers, government and other snoopers and advertisers take full advantage of it.

A VPN changes that for you!
But you can make the Internet safer, more secure and definitely more private with the help of a VPN...a virtual private network. Don't you want to go on the Internet without being tracked, monitored, and identified...without your knowledge? In today's world, that freedom is getting harder to find.

A VPN...described.
As long as your router is secured and your Wi-Fi is using something like a WPA or WPA2 password, then by and large, you probably don't need a VPN at home. Most VPN services are tailored for the traveler who is regularly using open and untrustworthy hotspots and other internet connections on the road.

Here's a quick, helpful definition...and about all you need to know about a VPN.

A VPN is a service that you sign up for online for a small monthly charge

Once you have an account, your VPN service should be "on" when you're online

A VPN, in action, takes your Internet connection and makes it more secure, helps you stay anonymous and helps you get around blocks and access censored sites.

The key to a VPN is that it lends you a temporary IP address and hides your true IP address from every website or email you connect with

It's Virtual...because it's as if you have a private connection directly to any website or another computer you connect to.

It's Private...because all your website visits and online activity is between you and the websites you visit.

It's a Network...because you're using a special network of VPN servers that covers the entire globe.

Your IP address is a behind-the-scenes number your Internet provider assigns your computer that allows you to go anywhere on the Internet. It's something like the house number on your home.

That's the good news. The somewhat "bad" news is that your IP address also gives away your computing location, at home or on the road. That bothers a lot of computer users.
https://tinyurl.com/y4hrw4r2

Backing Up
Our computers are reliable until they are not. Eventually the hard disk drive will fail and when it does you are out of luck unless you have been making backups. So me of you may be copying important files down to flash drives but I have not found that to be true with most. Backing up is on the things to do list but always gets pushed down by our busy life. Who knew being retired would be so filled with stuff to do? It is really easy to do. Install the software (Link on the club site) and run it. Once you have started the backup go watch television or go out for dinner. When you get back it will be all done. Here is a link to the recent article I wrote on using EaseUS.
https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-lets-talk-backups/

Downloading a video from YouTube.
  1. Open the video on YouTube
  2. Ctrl+L to access the URL
  3. Left Arrow and then right arrow over to just before the letter Y
  4. Type SS and hit enter


Click Download…with low quality (it’s free)


Click Free download…



Click Download and watch the video… or



Click the three dots



Click Download



Choose a location to save the file and its name

You now have the full video on your computer