Tuesday, November 26, 2019

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



Thursday, November 21, 2019

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

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

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