Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Class Online 3-31-2020




Wow. At one point we had thirty-two signed in today and most were able to navigate Zoom pretty well. We will start everyone next time with their microphones muted. And I now have a headphone with a boom microphone attached. That should make my audio sound better.


Snapshot of those that were having
an issue with getting on Zoom...

Keyboard Fix
Have you ever had a key on your laptop stop working? I mean, no matter how hard you hit it, nothing happened. If you have an extra keyboard you can always plug it into the laptop and use it instead of the one missing a key or two. There are other alternatives.
https://tinyurl.com/u4rdc8w

Glary Utilities
Glary is easy to use and with one click you can clean out the junk. If you want more tools, they are available. This article covers the basics. I will not drill down into all the features of this program. However, as you move through the various screens you will find them easy to recognize and use. But for the non-technical user, stick to the basics and remove the junk without having to be concerned about all the bells and whistles this program contains.
https://tinyurl.com/uj2q593

Backing Up With Easeus
How many copies do you have of those pictures on your phone? What about your important data on your computer? When talking about your digital information, two copies are crucial. I have seen too many people lose all their pictures and files by assuming their computer will never fail.
https://tinyurl.com/y5zvphmf

Recommended Maintenance Programs
We talk a lot about using the three key maintenance programs at least once a week. You do not have to purchase them, just use the free versions
http://tinyurl.com/sspm7zu

Defragging and Wiping
I use Glary to defrag and wipe my hard drive. The options are in the Advanced Tools area.





Defrag

Yes, Windows 10 defrags in the background when idle. It does not do the through and optimized process this defragger does. I do not run it often but I do run it. It takes a while and you might opt for having it shut your PC down when it finishes.


Wiping

When you delete a file it goes into the recycle bin. When you run Glary and Cleaner and other maintenance programs the recycle bin is emptied. However, that does not mean the file is gone. File Explorer just can’t access it. With the right forensic program, deleted files can be brought back to life.




To prevent that use Wipe Free Space to remove all traces of the files.

When finished all traces are gone.

Download a Facebook Video



Right-click on the video and select Show video URL



Right-click the selected URL (the blue part)



Click COPY



Open FBdown.net

Paste the copied URL and click Download



Click Download Video...

Download from YouTube
Yes, you can download the videos on YouTube to watch them later without internet access.

1. Locate the video on YouTube

2. Locate its URL in the address bar

http://www.youtube.com/xxxxxxxx

3. Add pp after youtube and hit the Enter key

http://www.youtubepp.com/xxxxxxxx

4. On the next page, the URL will already be there. Click download and choose the size of the file you desire. It will place it in your download folder.

5. Click Download and the video will be converted and downloaded to your Download folder

Can TinyURL run on a cell phone?
Apparently not. There is an app for an Android cellphone but it is not the same as the TinyURL we have on our computers. I do not see it on my iPhone but there are a number of similar apps such as Bitly which is also a popular URL shortener. Bitly is also on the Android. I would use that one instead.

Windows 10 2020-03
There is not a new version of Windows. It is an update to 1909. Do not be concerned if it installs on your computer. The next major update is said to be coming in May.

Malwarebytes
When MB finds issues it places them in a Quarantine. You can then select the entries in that folder and delete them. I do not suggest you do so right away. It is possible that one of the files MB removed is needed and you can get it back if it is still in Quarantine.

Facebook Share
How come some people’s posts are not shareable? We looked this one up and the answer we found said that if the post was not shared Public, then it cannot be shared with others. It suggested changing the post to Public so Share becomes available.

Facebook Message

When you post under the comments of another’s post or as a post on their page your message is PUBLIC or at least readable to anyone that has access to that post.



Locate that person’s page, the person you want to send a private note, and click the Message link on their page. This allows you to send a PM or Private Message to them. They will be the only one that can read it.

Friday, March 27, 2020

Club Online 3-24-2020

The Club, CCCGC, is not open for at least the rest of the month of March and possibly into April.



We held an online class that was over attended. By that I mean we had more signing in than Google Hangouts allowed so many were turned away. We did not know of their max attendees as we never had that many online before. I apologize for my lack of knowledge. Next week I will attempt it again but using a system called ZOOM.

As of this writing, I have no idea how to use it. I will write up some instructions and test it out before Tuesday. I am sure it will work better than this last class.

These online events will work better if you can email your questions before class so I can be ready to address them for you. Thanks to Bob who did that this last time.

Here are some notes on the things we did talk about:

Email someone a document
You create a document in a word processor such as LibreOffice or Word or Google Docs. How do you send it to someone else?

Save the document and remember where you save it. Then open your email and compose a new mail. Click the paperclip and attach the file you just save. Finish composing the email and send it. The recipient will get your document as an attachment.

Macrium Backup
When doing a weekly backup, Macrium shows a C: system drive and a D: recovery drive. The recovery drive is a partitioned space on your hard drive to be able to restore your system back to what it was when you purchased it. Since many have upgraded to Windows 10, that drive is useless. There may be other “drives” listed as well. I leave them all checked and end up with an exact image of the entire hard disk.

Wise Disk Cleaner vs Wise Care 365
The disk cleaner works well to remove temporary and other unnecessary files, browser cache, and other things. I leave the defaults set as is.

Care 365 is like the disk cleaner on steroids. It checks a lot more things.

I just ran the Cleaner and this is what it found



Then I ran Care 365 and this is what it found in addition to the Cleaner.



Shift+Win+S to capture screen…




When you capture the screen, click the Snip saved… to open the



Then click the diskette” to save the image

Sling Free
A number of streaming services are offering free access for the next month because of the coronavirus issue. Sling is one of those. You can sign up without giving a credit card and have access for the month to movies and news and television shows.

Defragging and Wiping
I use Glary to defrag and wipe my hard drive. The options are in the Advanced Tools area.




Defrag
Yes, Windows 10 defrags in the background when idle. It does not do the through and optimized process this defragger does. I do not run it often but I do run it. It takes a while and you might opt for having it shut your PC down when it finishes.



Wiping
When you delete a file it goes into the recycle bin. When you run Glary and Cleaner and other maintenance programs the recycle bin is emptied. However, that does not mean the file is gone. File Explorer just can’t access it. With the right forensic program, deleted files can be brought back to life.



To prevent that use Wipe Free Space to remove all traces of the files.

When finished all traces are gone.


Saturday, March 21, 2020

Computer Club No Meeting Notes 3-17-2020

Okay, so we don’t have face-to-face time for a few weeks. Here is a summary of what I was going to talk about Tuesday. I trust you are all safe and washing your hands…

Sherri and I are doing well. Actually, we spent some time at the beach yesterday.




I sat and read and she looked for and found some sharks teeth. I guess this will be our last visit there for a while.


Wednesday we had lunch at Chili’s. It appeared they were open just for us! Actually, there were two other parties in the next section over. Lunch was good but there were no condiments on the table--not surprised.

I did work at Habitat in Punta Gorda on Monday and for a little while yesterday morning. I finished setting up a nice Dell desktop with 1909 and put out some nice large monitors. I just heard they are closing Monday for a couple of weeks.



So I guess it is home for us and our dog, Lady, loves it. It was one year ago today that we adopted her.

So here are a few things for you to drill down into. Let me know if you have any questions by email or texting.

Windows 10 version 2004 is coming
We're once again approaching that time of the year when Microsoft releases a new feature update to Windows 10. In line with the version numbering scheme we've been seeing, this update is currently known as Windows 10 version 2004, or 20H1, because it's being released in the first half of the year.

It is looking like we will not see this until sometime in May. Remember to do an image backup BEFORE you install… just in case.
https://tinyurl.com/te5vfez

How to Change Chrome’s Default Zoom Settings
Chrome’s standard zoom setting is easy to change, allowing you to quickly tell your browser how to shrink or enlarge different websites. You can also set a default font size to help create a more pleasant browsing experience.
https://tinyurl.com/ttcj8p4

How to Start a Blog Using Google Blogger
If you’ve ever gone to a website that had “blogspot” in the URL, you’ve been to a blog that uses Google Blogger. It’s a very popular blogging platform because it’s free—you just need a free Google account, which you’ve already got if you have a Gmail address—and you don’t need to know any technical wizardry to set it up or publish your blog posts. It’s by no means the only blogging platform, and it’s not the only free option, but it is a very easy way to start blogging.
https://tinyurl.com/yx72z43r

And you can use it as your personal website as well adding tabs with links and even other pages in the blog. Adding a domain name makes it totally yours. Easy to try and work very nicely.

Notice www.dickevans.org actually opens a Blogger blog at https://dickevans.blogspot.com/



And that Blogger site has links to other sites.

Using OneDrive for Nearly Continuous Backup
We have discussed this in a number of classes in the past. This is a good article reinforcing what we have talked about. If you save in the OneDrive folder and have activated your OneDrive account with Microost then as long as you are Internet connected all your data is backed up in the cloud and on your computer.

Best practices for a robust backup strategy call for keeping a backup copy off-site. OneDrive, included as part of Windows 10, can do that automatically. We’ll set up OneDrive and then make a couple of changes to other applications to make our use of OneDrive for backing up nearly transparent.
https://tinyurl.com/u6r2tn9

5 Cheap Ways to Back up
Backup, backup, and then backup again. It sounds like what we are hearing about washing our hands.

You can never have too many backups. And we need to backup more than just our personal data. We need to create an image of our entire hard drive on a consistent basis. I try to do mine once a month and I use EaseUs to do it to an external hard drive. Read the articles I wrote on DCT for step by step instructions on how to backup and how to restore.

In the past, backing up your files meant buying an expensive hard drive or a mess of overpriced USB sticks. But now, there are a ton of cheap and easy ways to keep your files safe, even if you’ve built up terabytes worth of data. Here are five of our favorite affordable backup methods.
https://tinyurl.com/twfh4mn

The Best Ways to Back Up Gmail
Yes, you can save all your cloud content from Gmail. This article details how to do it. You can also save all your content from Facebook, Yahoo, and other cloud sites.

Relying on free email services can be an unnecessary risk. Fortunately, it's possible, even easy, to back up Gmail.
https://tinyurl.com/rkgax8t

Emptying Trash in Email
You may not be really getting rid of your old emails. This article explains why.

Most of us aren't able to access emails we've deleted, but that doesn't mean someone at the email provider can't.
https://tinyurl.com/sc9kdee

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Computer Club Notes 3-10-2020

Current Browser Stats

https://tinyurl.com/zk7er8v

What You Need to Know About the New Microsoft Edge Browser
Are you using Windows 10? If so, Microsoft is about to install a new browser on your PC via Windows Update. The new browser is still called Microsoft Edge, but it’s based on the same code as Google Chrome.

If you are still using Internet Explorer, it is time to move on. It has not been supported for a while and many websites will not work on it.
https://tinyurl.com/vlnqytr

Brave Most Private Browser
Are you concerned about your web browser sending data back to the company that created it? A new study, Web Browser Privacy: What Do Browsers Say When They Phone Home?, looked at the six popular desktop web browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), Apple Safari, Brave, and Yandex, to uncover what these browsers send back to the mothership.

Speaking of private, duckduckgo is a good search engine that also does not use your information.
https://tinyurl.com/voyrw4n



How to add a Menu Bar

The Menu Bar, once a given for any desktop web browser, has been removed from the majority of web browsers. Some, Firefox or Vivaldi, still support a menu bar but even these need to be configured to display the toolbar permanently in the browser. Firefox users may use the Alt-key to display the menu bar at any time.



The + in the upper right of the browser lets you turn the menu on and off
https://tinyurl.com/uowfn4e

2020 Cord Cutting Guide
Cable and satellite monthly bills keep creeping up, but thanks to new technology and tons of streaming services, there are lots of cable TV alternatives out there.

And we again looked at ustvgo.tv to watch live TV free.
https://tinyurl.com/wc9udnn

YouTube Downloader


Very simple. You can also go to https://www.y2mate.com and paste in the URL from the video on YouTube

TinyURL is a URL shortening web service, which provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs. Kevin Gilbertson, a web developer, launched the service in January 2002 as a way to post links in newsgroup postings which frequently had long, cumbersome addresses.
http://tinyurl.com

Wise Care 365

This does all Wise Disk Cleaner does and more. Cleans registry and junk files from your PCs. Protects your privacy and will make your PCs more secure. It provides a better option of optimizing and accelerating your computer!

Removes invalid Windows registry entries, easily back up and restore Windows registry.

Cleans Windows temporary files, clean browsers (IE, Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.) caches, download history, browsing history, Cookies, passwords. Wise Care 365 can also clean invalid shortcuts, recent use traces, useless files created by other applications.

Scans the whole system to clean files with specific extensions.
https://tinyurl.com/yd9g6zj2

How do I use screen mirroring
When you want to display content from your phone or tablet on a nearby TV, you may be able to use screen mirroring. This feature allows you to replicate (or “mirror”) the screen of your compatible Android™ or Windows® device wirelessly onto your TV screen. With screen mirroring, you can send web pages, videos, photos, music, and more to your compatible Roku® streaming player or Roku TV™. In other words, whatever you see and do on your mobile device appears on your TV.

Most current generation Roku streaming players and Roku TVs support screen mirroring with notable exceptions listed below. To find the model of your Roku device, go to Settings > System > About
https://tinyurl.com/y232zwg8