The Computer Tutor: Recent Episodes
Scott Johnson
If your computer is running Windows 10, and it meets the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11, you might be tempted to try it.
If you know how to do that upgrade, you’ll probably be fine. There are a few minor differences, but there’s not a huge learning curve from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
However – if you do that upgrade and you’re not quite sure you want to stay with Windows 11, you need to make up your mind pretty quickly. From the time you do the upgrade, you have 10 days to decide if you want to switch back to Windows 10.
My guess is that once you have done that upgrade, you will just go ahead and stay with Windows 11 for two main reasons:
- It’s not difficult to make the transition and just start using it
- You’ll have to upgrade to Windows 11 eventually anyway, and now it’s done.
For the record, you don’t need to upgrade to Windows 11 yet. Windows 10 is supported until October 2025.
The post 422 Trying Windows 11? You have 10 days to switch back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
Based on 22 years as a computer tech, I highly recommend that you set a restore point before installing any new software.
A restore point is a snapshot of your system settings and files at a specific point in time. It can be used to restore your system to its previous state in case something goes wrong during software installation or any other system changes.
Installing new software on your computer can sometimes have unforeseen consequences, such as conflicts with other programs, causing system instability or even crashes. Without a restore point, it can be challenging to revert back to a previous state if something goes wrong. A restore point ensures that you have a backup plan and can easily undo any changes made to your system.
To create a restore point:
- Click the Start menu and type “create a restore point” in the search box.
- Click the “Create a Restore Point” option from the search results.
- In the System Properties window, click the “Create” button.
- Give your restore point a name, such as “Before Software Install.”
- Click “Create” again and wait for the process to complete.
Once the restore point has been created, it’s time to install your new software. If anything goes wrong during installation, you can easily use the restore point to revert to the previous state. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click the Start menu and type “system restore” in the search box.
- Click the “System Restore” option from the search results.
- In the System Restore window, select the restore point you created before installing the software.
- Click “Next” and then “Finish.”
- Wait for the restore process to complete.
By creating a restore point before installing any new software, you can easily undo any changes made to your system and ensure that your computer is running smoothly. It’s a simple step that can save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run. So, don’t forget to set a restore point before your next software installation!
The post 421 Create a restore point BEFORE any install first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
I used and recommended LastPass as the best password manager for years. But it’s time for a change.
The idea behind a password manager program is that it can remember all of your passwords for you. So you don’t have to use easy-to-remember passwords that are insecure. And you don’t have to use the same password for all of your accounts (really bad idea).
And LastPass was the choice for most computer security professionals for a long time. My first blog post recommendation here was around 10 years ago.
But Lastpass has unfortunately gone downhill. In recent months, LastPass has been compromised multiple times by hackers trying to get at user data. In one case, a Lastpass employee’s home computer was hacked and some user data was possibly obtained. And a recent update from LastPass broke something in the program – I was not even able to log in to my bank account using it.
Also, LastPass has been criticized because their announcements of these breaches have not fully stated the severity of what happened. They have tried to balance giving out all the necessary information with trying to maintain a positive image as a company.
So, I have been doing research in order to learn what to recommend. There are a few password manager programs to choose from. My recommendation is a program called BitWarden. There is a consensus among security techs that it is strong and trustworthy. And, I’ve been using it now for about a month and I’m happy with it.
You can get Bitwarden at Bitwarden.com.
There is a free version for personal use, but there’s also a $10 annual subscription that gives you some more features.
Setting up your account is easy. Like most password manager programs, it can run as an extension inside Chrome or other browsers to make it really easy to login to all your website accounts. Bitwarden can also generate really good passwords for you so you don’t have to sit and try to think of random letters and numbers to come up with something.
Here’s the basic process to migrate over from LastPass:
- Export all of your password info from your LastPass account, and save that in a spreadsheet temporarily on your computer.
- Install the Bitwarden extension in your browser (such as Chrome).
- Import your password info from the saved spreadsheet into Bitwarden.
There are some details involved in each of those steps, but it’s too much to include here. If you need help moving from LastPass to Bitwarden (or getting started with a password manager for the first time), I can handle that for you through my Remote Support Service.
For settings in Bitwarden, my personal preference is to have the login information autofill whenever the account page loads – it just makes things easier. I also set the vault timeout to “Never” – but you might prefer a different option, depending on your computer and level of concern for security.
I highly recommend a password manager program. Everything I have seen so far tells me that Bitwarden is a good option.
The post 420 It’s time to switch away from LastPass first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
I’m still seeing a LOT of these showing up, and clients still contact me to see if they are legitimate. Here’s how to identify this scam.
There’s a good chance you’ve gotten one of these emails at some point over the past several months. The scammers have been sending out a LOT of them – sometimes [...] Read more »
The post 386 The Norton and McAfee billing scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you have all your photos automatically saved to your Google Photos account? What if you want to download all those photos and save them to your computer? Here’s how.
Storing all of your photos on Google Photos is a good thing. It’s kind of like an automatic backup for the photos you take on your [...] Read more »
The post 385 How to download all of your Google Photos images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If your computer is currently running Windows 10, like most Windows computers currently are, there’s a new major update that’s just been released – it’s Windows 11. It’s not something you want yet.
For quite some time, Microsoft said that the last version of Windows would be Windows 10. They said they would just continue to [...] Read more »
The post Blocking Windows 11 from coming in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If your hard drive starts to show signs of failure, you want to know that as soon as possible. Here’s how to get that alert nice and early.
When someone says to you, “I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” what do you say? For me, I am a “bad news [...] Read more »
The post Check your hard drive health every day – automatically first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Did you know that Google Chrome can run a quick Safety Check on your computer? Here’s how to do it.
Open Chrome, and click the 3 dots in the top right, and choose Settings.
Then, scroll down to the Safety Check session and click on “Check now”.
Chrome will take a few seconds and check for:
Is Chrome up [...] Read more »
The post How to do a Safety Check using Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are some people who use computers, but don’t do text messages. That sometimes presents a problem for them, but there’s a way to get around it.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.
When you go to set up a new Microsoft account, one of the things they will want you to provide is a [...] Read more »
The post An alternative way to send or receive text messages first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When you’re online, do you find yourself constantly having to manually type in your name and address when creating a new account? Here’s how to do that with one click.
You know what I’m talking about. You see something on the internet you want to purchase, and it’s for sale on some website where you haven’t [...] Read more »
The post Use Chrome to fill in your name and address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Your Windows computer has a clipboard feature that you are probably not even aware of!
Before I tell you today’s tip, a little background or “setup” information so that everyone is on the same page.
One of the most useful features of a computer is the ability to Cut and Paste or Copy and Paste. If you [...] Read more »
The post How to view your clipboard history first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One of the most common things I hear from people is still this: “My computer is too slow!” The problem is, they could be talking about two different things.
This leads me to ask a clarifying question, so we know exactly what we are dealing with.
I ask, “When you say it’s slow, are you talking about [...] Read more »
The post Two different ways your computer could be running “slowly” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You probably heard the announcement recently from Microsoft – Windows 11 is coming. Here’s what you need to do.
For quite some time, Microsoft held to their position that Windows 10 would be the last one. They would just keep doing updates to Windows 10, and there wouldn’t be any “new” named versions of Windows.
So much [...] Read more »
The post What to do about Windows 11 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently, Western Digital had a problem with a couple of their external drives. This caused a huge disaster for some users, who ended up losing all of their data. Here’s what happened, and why those who follow my backup process had no problems.
First, let’s clear up some terminology.
A portable drive usually is slightly smaller than [...] Read more »
The post The Western Digital backup disaster first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A recent Windows update probably added a new icon to the lower right corner of your screen. If you don’t want it there, here’s the easy way to get rid of it.
Microsoft really loves to put things on your computer screen even though you didn’t request it.
Last week (June 8, 2021, to be exact) was [...] Read more »
The post How to get rid of “News and Interests” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Are you thinking about buying a laptop? Here are some things to consider before handing over your money.
Manufacturer
When someone is asking me about which brand(s) I recommend, my first response is to say that who makes the laptop is not as important as what’s inside. In other words, it’s more important to consider the specs [...] Read more »
The post What to consider when buying a laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you ever created a Word document and included a link to a YouTube video? Today I’ll show you how to put that video right into the document!
Most people don’t even know this is possible so it’s a great trick to show your friends.
First, you need to determine what video you want to use for [...] Read more »
The post How to include a video INSIDE a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You should not save your passwords in Chrome. But before you delete them from Chrome, you need to save them so that you can refer to them.
I’ve said it many times – don’t store your passwords in your web browser. Yes, it makes things easy. You go to a website, and Chrome just automatically inserts [...] Read more »
The post How to export your passwords from Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Is there something you want to learn? The internet has what you need.
If you have the time and the incentive, there are resources online that will help you learn just about anything you can imagine.
Online courses:
Coursera – Coursera.org – build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies.
Udacity – udacity.com – [...] Read more »
The post The best online sources for learning anything first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You know I love writing about illegal scams, how they work, and how to avoid them. Recently I was approached by something that seems to have all the characteristics of a scam, but it’s most likely legal.
Just this past week, I received this message, which was submitted via the Contact form on my website:
The subject [...] Read more »
The post This is probably legal, but it still feels like a scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are different versions of Windows 10, and you might not be running the most current one. Here’s how to check.
Windows 10 is the most current Windows operating system. If you’re still running Windows 7, you NEED to upgrade to Windows 10 now (you actually needed to do this over a year ago). If you’re [...] Read more »
The post Are you running the current version of Windows 10? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you ever started typing up a Word document, and gotten quite a bit of text entered, then accidentally closed it without saving? Today’s lifesaving tip will show you how it’s possible to get that document back.
A friend of mine used to create Word documents very dangerously.
He was a pastor of a church. And he [...] Read more »
The post How to recover a Word document that was never saved first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Is there a particular program that you want to run automatically, every time you turn on your computer? Here’s how to make that happen.
What we’re talking about today is usually the OPPOSITE of how we discuss this topic. So many programs want to insert themselves into the “startup” process when they have no business being [...] Read more »
The post How to make a program start at every bootup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you have information in a Word document that you don’t want anyone else to see? Here’s how to put a password on it.
Some of my clients store all of their account passwords in a Word document. Some people use a Word doc to keep track of their medical information, or perhaps their bank account [...] Read more »
The post How to password protect a Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you think there’s a time when a bad program requests permission to make changes to your computer, and you should allow it?
This question came in from Jerry, in Minnesota –
Hi Scott, I’m a long time subscriber. We’ve “talked” in the past about your laptops and a couple other things. Here’s a Computer Tutor topic [...] Read more »
The post Should you ever allow a bad program to make changes to your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You’ve probably heard the terms “Deep Web” and “Dark Web”. They are not the same thing.
In general, there are 3 internets, or 3 “webs”.
The first one is often referred to as the Clear Web. It’s also called the Surface Web. This is the internet that most people use every day – Google searches, reading blogs, [...] Read more »
The post What is the Deep Web? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Almost any book you can think of – available online for free. Same as your local library.
If you have a library card for your local library, you probably already know you can borrow digital books. You just need to create an account using an app called Libby, and that allows you to access lots of [...] Read more »
The post The world’s largest online library first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are good reasons for hiding your list of Facebook friends on your Facebook public profile.
You’ve seen those posts from your Facebook friends:
“I’ve been hacked! If you get a friend request from me, it’s a fake!”
But, as I’ve written before, this is not a “hack”. Their Facebook account has not been compromised. The scammer has [...] Read more »
The post Should you hide your Facebook friends list? YES – here’s how first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You might see a notice pop up on your computer that Adobe Flash Player is being discontinued, and asking if you want to uninstall it from your computer. Here’s what to do.
I’ve had several clients ask me recently about this message they’ve gotten on their computer:
The questions that come up…
What is Flash?
Do I need it?
Should [...] Read more »
The post What should you do with Adobe Flash Player? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This is a trick you can do with MS Word, that very few people know about. It can be handy in certain situations.
What we’re talking about is being able to select and highlight certain text in a Word document.
You already know that if you double-click on a single word, that word is highlighted (selected). You [...] Read more »
The post How to select text in MS Word – VERTICALLY first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Shopping online for a used car? You need to be able to identify the scam ads – and there are a lot of them.
Everyone wants to score a great deal when they buy a car. If you go to a car dealer, you might be able to negotiate a fair price. But if you shop [...] Read more »
The post Recognizing an online car sale scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I used to have a routine whenever I would open Word and create a new document. I would always start by changing the font to one that I like, and also the font size. What a waste of time!
The default font in Word, if you don’t change anything, is Calibri. The font size is 11. [...] Read more »
The post How to change the default font and size in Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes it’s the little things, you know? Why does Chrome, by default, only show part of a website address in the address bar? I don’t know, but here’s how to fix that.
This one is pretty simple. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about here, just open Chrome and go to any website. As an [...] Read more »
The post How to show full URL in the Chrome address bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re looking to buy something from an individual, one of the best places to find a bargain is on Craigslist. But what if you want to shop on Craigslist outside of your local area? You have another option!
I have made a LOT of purchases over the years on Craigslist (craigslist.org). It was the original [...] Read more »
The post Best way to search Craigslist nationwide first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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With some recent updates, you might see a new icon on your screen – the icon for Microsoft Edge. What do you do with it?
In case you didn’t know, Microsoft Edge is the web browser that comes with Windows 10. Microsoft doesn’t want you to use Chrome or Firefox (the high-quality web browsers) – they [...] Read more »
The post What to do when you see the “new” Microsoft Edge first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re on Facebook, you’ve most likely seen the posts talking about the Jayco RV company having a promotion and offering to give away a free RV to some lucky winner. Well… I have some bad news for you.
The Facebook post that you see was most likely shared by one of your friends. And they [...] Read more »
The post The RV giveaway scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Did you know that the Windows 10 Start menu is re-sizable? It’s really easy to do too.
Microsoft seems to be obsessed with making the Windows 10 Start Menu be so large that it takes up much of the desktop screen. Of course, it doesn’t help that they fill it by default with a bunch of [...] Read more »
The post How to resize the Windows 10 Start Menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Quick tip today – big Windows Update is coming, so be ready for it by backing up your computer.
This update was actually released a few months ago, and is referred to by two names:
The May 2020 Update
Windows 10 version 2004
Even though it is called both names, it’s the same update. Some Windows 10 computers have [...] Read more »
The post Back up your files BEFORE this forced update comes in first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you read this blog or listen to my podcast regularly, you should probably by now be pretty good at spotting a scam. Or at least being suspicious enough to investigate further. But what if the scammer shows that he has your actual password?
This is one that I get calls about pretty regularly. Many of [...] Read more »
The post A scam that sounds very convincing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Want to avoid getting into trouble with your computer? Here are some things you DON’T want to do.
Don’t have Chrome (or any browser) store your passwords. Yes, it makes it really easy to access all your website accounts. But it’s also really dangerous, because if your computer ever got hacked into, or lost, or stolen, [...] Read more »
The post Some important computer DON’Ts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you have never visited Reddit, you are missing out on one of the biggest and most popular sites on the internet. Today we’ll talk about a few of the unknown corners of that world.
What is Reddit?
Basically, it’s a social media site. But this is no Facebook. One big way it’s different is that most [...] Read more »
The post 3 subreddits you never knew existed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today I’ll show you the absolute quickest way to get to all of your important files on your Windows computer.
You might already know that you can click on the little “file folder” icon at the bottom of the screen to open Windows File Explorer. It looks like this:
That opens a window (File Explorer) that shows [...] Read more »
The post How to find your important files first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you order anything online (and don’t we all?) you definitely should be using this Chrome extension. It will save you money.
I’ll tell you this up front – I don’t usually get involved with this kind of thing. In many cases – actually I would say in MOST cases – if you get something that [...] Read more »
The post This Chrome extension will save you money first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today we’ll learn about a free service that let’s you talk into your computer, and have those words made into a document.
Since I type on my computer keyboard all the time, I’m able to type pretty quickly. I haven’t measured my typing speed lately but I do okay. Which is kind of funny, since I [...] Read more »
The post If you prefer talking instead of typing – try Speechtexter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today we’re talking about three things that a lot of people believe to be true about computers, but in fact they are not true.
Myth #1: Turning the computer off, then powering it up again, is a restart. FALSE
I always tell people, you need to restart your computer every day or two. This resets the uptime [...] Read more »
The post 3 common computer myths first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you do Facebook on your desktop or laptop computer, you probably see a lot of posts that have a bunch of comments that are just animated GIFs. I find nothing more annoying than that. But now I don’t see them any more!
There are actually a lot of things that I find really annoying about [...] Read more »
The post Animated GIFs on Facebook desktop – GONE! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you buy a brand new computer, there’s a chance you might turn it on and find that it’s not just running Windows 10. It might be running Windows 10 in S Mode. Most people don’t want that. Here’s how to get out of S Mode.
What exactly IS “S Mode” anyway?
You could think of S [...] Read more »
The post How to get out of Windows 10 “S mode” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Fun topic today! I watch a bit of Youtube each night before I drift off to sleep. I have a few channels that I subscribe to, and these are some that I think you might find entertaining as well. I’ll tell you about them below, and include one of my favorite videos from each one. [...] Read more »
The post 3 of my favorite YouTube channels first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you have any kind of vision challenge, or if your eyesight is just gradually getting worse over time, you aren’t the only one. One nice feature of Windows 10 – you can make everything bigger and easier to read.
I grew up wearing glasses since I was 8 years old. I could see things fine [...] Read more »
The post How to make everything on your screen bigger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s one of the big frustrations with MS Word – you hit the Enter key, and the next line in your document is a DOUBLE space down from the last line. There are two ways to fix this.
You know what I’m talking about. You open a new blank document and start typing a letter, and [...] Read more »
The post How to make MS Word single-space all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email software in the world. But there’s one thing about it that sometimes frustrates users – the search function. Today we’ll talk about a common way to fix Outlook’s search process when it doesn’t seem to be working.
You know how it’s SUPPOSED to work – you type something in [...] Read more »
The post Why isn’t Outlook search working? Here’s why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This tip is based on what is probably the most common question I get, which is “Why is my computer running so slowly??” It is definitely frustrating when the computer lags behind. If your computer suddenly starts to run a lot more slowly than you think it should, there are a couple of things for [...] Read more »
The post Computer slowdown? Check these two things first first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you think having security cameras in your home would be expensive and complicated, I have good news! I got some recently and they were really easy and affordable.
When you’re not at home, it’s nice to know that everything is okay. And even when you are at home, being able to see in another room, [...] Read more »
The post Security cameras that are easy to set up – and cheap first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It used to be easy to just search Google for an image and download that full size image to your computer. Google changed their image download process a while ago, and it’s not quite as obvious how to get those full size images saved. But you can still do it! Here’s how.
Note: what you do [...] Read more »
The post The new trick to downloading Google images first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are a few things about Windows 10 that don’t really make sense. When I set up a new computer, or when I do the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, I make sure these things are all configured properly. If you’re running Windows 10, one of the things you should check on is [...] Read more »
The post Make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are more than 120 million “smart speakers” in US homes. In our house, we have the Google Home speaker, and here in my home office I have Alexa. But most people just ask Alexa boring stuff, like “what’s the traffic like this morning” or “is it going to rain today”. There are lots of [...] Read more »
The post Fun things you can say to Alexa first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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“Spearphishing” is one of those terms used by computer security people to describe a particular kind of computer attack. I think it’s a pretty interesting strategy to learn about.
But to understand spearphishing, we have to back up a bit and explain a few things about the fishing/phishing analogy and how one translates to the other.
Most [...] Read more »
The post What is spearphishing? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When you get a new computer, you can’t just turn it on and start using it. Those days are long gone. Now, you have to navigate past Microsoft’s tricks and traps. And it’s important to do it right from the beginning – otherwise you could end up with a lot of frustration and wasted time [...] Read more »
The post 3 things I do when setting up a new computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I recently had a client forward an email to me. The email told her she had to confirm her agreement to the AOL Terms of Service, or she could no longer use her email account. She was concerned that her email would get cut off. She had nothing to worry about.
The email she got was [...] Read more »
The post Case Study – identifying a phishing email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Well, it finally happened. I’m almost out of storage space on my Google/Gmail account.
I actually got this Google account back when the Gmail email service was first introduced, which was in 2004. So it’s taken me 15 years to almost fill it up. Google gives you 15 gb of storage space with each account, and [...] Read more »
The post How to free up space in your Google/Gmail account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I didn’t like Windows 10 when it first came out several years ago. I’m fine with it now, since it has improved a lot since then. But there’s still one thing I can’t stand – the way it hides the scroll bars. Fortunately, this is fixable. I think you’ll enjoy using Windows 10 more if [...] Read more »
The post How to UN-hide your Windows 10 scroll bars first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes when you’re experimenting or learning how to do something in Microsoft Word, it helps to have a “dummy” document that has several pages of text to work with.
This came up recently with one of my long-term clients. In fact, this lady was probably one of my very first clients when I started my computer [...] Read more »
The post How to create a huge dummy Word document quickly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you ever tried to read a serious article online, and you were just constantly distracted by the sidebars, the ads, and all the other “clutter” on the screen? Chrome has a secret “reader” mode to get rid of all that so you can focus on the content.
Most people don’t know about this option because [...] Read more »
The post How to read articles in Chrome with NO clutter first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love it when technology actually helps someone in a practical way. Or in this case, it helps a LOT of people, and we all have the opportunity to participate.
There are an estimated 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired. And there are 39 million people who are actually blind. For those [...] Read more »
The post Get a free app and help a blind person! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you have a website you visit regularly, there’s no easier way to get there than to have a shortcut icon right on your desktop. And Chrome makes it VERY easy to do that!
In the past, I would do this the “manual” way. That’s where you navigate to the website page where you want the [...] Read more »
The post How to create a website shortcut in Chrome – EASY! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today’s tip has to do with a weird thing that some users are seeing in Chrome. The text characters are missing some pieces and it just looks all weird (and even unreadable). Here’s how to fix it.
What we’re talking about today falls into a category I call a “niche tip”. This means that some people [...] Read more »
The post How to fix Chrome displaying weird characters first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I find it pretty amazing that even after all this time, and all the alerts and warnings, and all the bad things that have happened…the scammers are still able to trick people into opening email attachments. If you follow my guideline about this, you won’t ever have a problem.
There are several ways for your computer [...] Read more »
The post My policy on email attachments first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today we’re “sort of” veering away from a strictly computer-oriented tip (although what I’ll show you is done on the computer). This has to do with an annoyance I had with Netflix until I figured out how to solve it.
To illustrate the problem, I’ll give you a specific example from my usage.
Here is what my [...] Read more »
The post How to clear “Continue Watching” on Netflix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I get questions regularly now from people asking, “What happens when Windows 7 expires?” They’re concerned that their computer will stop working, or that they will lose their important files. Fortunately those things won’t happen, but there is still reason for concern. Here’s the bottom line.
The main factor for consideration here is Windows Updates.
Every month, [...] Read more »
The post What happens to Windows 7 in January? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Seems like the only movie people have been talking about lately is Avengers: Endgame. I’ve seen some people saying they’ve been to see it several times. Personally, I haven’t seen it and don’t really have any plans to. I haven’t read comic books since I was a kid, and never got into the whole “super [...] Read more »
The post Two great services for movie/TV watchers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Why do you think audio books are so popular now? I think it’s because people want to read, but they simply don’t have time to sit down and visually read a book. With audio books, you can “read” a book while you’re driving, or biking, or walking the dog.
But here’s the problem. There are lots [...] Read more »
The post Turn any online article into audio or a podcast first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Something I hear from clients from time to time – “I tried to print this web page, and when it printed it’s all messed up! What’s wrong with my printer?” However, the problem is not with the printer – it’s working fine. But there is a solution.
Here’s the underlying problem. A web page is designed [...] Read more »
The post How to make any webpage into a printable PDF file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone knows about Audible, the audio book subscription service at audible.com. For $14.95 per month, you get one audiobook and 2 “audible originals”. It’s a great service for people who don’t have time (or don’t want to take the time) to actually read a book. You can listen to a popular or best-selling book while [...] Read more »
The post Great sources for free audiobooks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You probably have a ton of fonts stored in your computer. Probably more than you’ll ever use. I know I do. Wouldn’t it be easy to choose a font if you could see all of them together? Here’s how to do that.
This is a free little program that runs on Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s [...] Read more »
The post How to easily print a list of all your FONTS first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Windows 10 is just LOADED with some really great shortcuts, and a lot of people don’t know about many of them. I’m sure I don’t know about all of them. But here are ten shortcuts that I (and others) have found really handy.
Shortcut #1
If you’re using Chrome or Firefox, with a bunch of tabs open, [...] Read more »
The post TEN handy Windows 10 shortcuts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you seen clickable links that show the address as bit.ly followed by some random letters or numbers? Bitly is a legitimate link-shortening service, but you shouldn’t just click on one of them unless you know for sure where it will take you. Here’s how to check it ahead of time.
If you’re not familiar with [...] Read more »
The post The trick to opening a Bit.ly link safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you know about the Timeline feature in Windows 10? Most people don’t. Here’s what it is and the steps to disable it, if you want to.
You can think of Timeline as being kind of similar to your internet browser history. You know, in Chrome or Firefox (or any browser) you can go back and [...] Read more »
The post How to disable Windows 10 Timeline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Many times on my blog and podcast I’ve encouraged everyone to make sure they have a backup of anything important on their computer. For most people, the big reason for having a backup is to make sure you don’t lose anything important, like documents and pictures, if your hard drive fails. But there’s another really [...] Read more »
The post The OTHER big reason you need a local backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today we’re talking about a scam that’s making the rounds but a lot of people aren’t aware of how it works, or even the fact that it IS a scam. But it can cause you some headaches if you fall for it.
We’ve all become pretty accustomed to verification codes. If a company or website needs [...] Read more »
The post The Verification Code scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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What if I told you that five minutes from now you could have your own website? It’s true. If you have a Google account (a Gmail email account is a Google account), creating and publishing your own website is as easy as creating a Word document.
Want to see what’s possible with Google Sites? Here’s a [...] Read more »
The post How to create a personal website using Google Sites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One way PC problems can sometimes be fixed is by using the built-in function called System Restore. It’s not the answer for every situation, but in certain situations it can be the perfect solution. But in order for it to work, it has to be set up correctly ahead of time.
Here’s what happens. A client [...] Read more »
The post How to make sure System Restore is set up properly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’m kind of picky about where I keep the icons on my desktop screen. Not all of them, but a few that I click on regularly. I have a couple of spreadsheets I use all the time, and a link to run Evernote, and a link to my Google contacts. I keep these icons in [...] Read more »
The post How to save (and restore) your desktop icon layout first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A lot of people use Google’s cloud services to create documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations and forms. Recently, Google introduced a new way to create this things very quickly. And once you set it up, you can literally do it with a single click.
Quick summary if you’re not familiar with Google Cloud –
If you use Microsoft [...] Read more »
The post New QUICK way to create cloud documents and spreadsheets first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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All over the globe, there are live cameras set up and streaming the content of whatever happens to be in their view. Here are some of the ones that I think are pretty interesting.
The Sea Otter Cam
https://www.vanaqua.org/visit/live-cams-sea-otter-cam
Watch the sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The Garden Bubble Cam
http://andieandmike.org/bubblecam/
Andie and Mike live somewhere in south Florida, and [...] Read more »
The post The best live-streaming webcams around the world first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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About a year ago I did a blog post and podcast about the absolute best way to protect the valuable personal identity information that’s stored in your credit files. Today I’ll let you know about an update to that, which makes it much easier to take action on this.
You can read my last blog post [...] Read more »
The post New information about protecting your identity first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’ve been doing my Computer Tutor podcast for over 6 years now. My new podcast, What Was That Like, has been live for just a couple of months and has a steadily growing audience. So I’ve been asked by some of my friends and clients, “How do you start a podcast?”. For that answer, I [...] Read more »
The post Start your own podcast – interview with Dave Jackson first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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In the world of computers and security, there are some companies that once had a decent reputation but went downhill and now cannot be recommended or trusted. I would now put CCleaner in that category. Here’s the story.
CCleaner was actually introduced in 2003 – 15 years ago. But it wasn’t rolled out under that name [...] Read more »
The post Time to get rid of CCleaner first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re working on files in a certain folder and you have to do a restart, would you like to have that same folder open up automatically for you after that restart? It’s possible, and it’s really simple to do.
Sometimes I find myself in a predicament. I know it’s been a while since my computer [...] Read more »
The post Have folders re-open automatically after each restart first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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In a recent blog/podcast, I talked about the importance of restarting your computer in order to refresh the memory and speed it up. But some people actually powered down their computers and powered up again, and the “Up time” counter did not reset. That’s because of the Windows 10 “Fast Startup” option so we’ll talk [...] Read more »
The post What is Windows “Fast Startup” option, and why disable it? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Back in Windows 7, it was easy to get a “Preview” of an image file that was stored on your computer. Just right click on the file, and choose Preview. That went away in Windows 10. But you can get back the preview option again – and not just for picture files.
Honestly I can’t figure [...] Read more »
The post Get a quick preview of almost any file on your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Windows has its own search function built in. You just click in the Search field, type a file name or a program name, and hit Enter. The problem is, a search can take a long time – especially if you have a lot of data stored on your computer. But there’s a new way to [...] Read more »
The post Quickest way to search your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you know how long it’s been since you restarted your Windows computer? There’s an easy way to check.
You probably already know that restarting your computer will often resolve a problem or error that has come up. I’ve often referred to restarting as a “magic pill” for computer repair since it fixes so many issues.
And [...] Read more »
The post How to check: when was the last time you restarted your PC? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone wants to find a good deal on Craigslist or one of the other online classified listing sites. But most people just go about it “hit or miss” and hope to be lucky and come across an amazing bargain. For me, I want to make this process as easy as possible, and also increase my [...] Read more »
The post My system for getting deals from online classified ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Some surprises are fun. Something that is NOT fun is working on a Word document for a while, then a sudden power outage shuts off your computer, and you realize you never saved that document. But there’s good news! You can probably get it back!
Actually this alarming situation might happen due to a brief loss [...] Read more »
The post How to recover an unsaved Word document first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I buy stuff from Amazon all the time. A lot of my purchases are things I already know about because I’ve bought them before. But sometimes I’m buying something new, comparing prices, maybe comparing different models of the same item, trying to decide which would be best to buy. It’s great that most Amazon products [...] Read more »
The post How to identify fake Amazon reviews first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Unfortunately, it’s an accident that happens way more often than it should – a liquid gets spilled on a laptop. Water, soda, wine, beer, lemonade, whatever – obviously none of these things are a good thing for a computer. But then, in some cases, the owner of the laptop makes things worse by trying to [...] Read more »
The post One tool you should NEVER use on your laptop first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When you open Microsoft Word to create a new document, the default font that’s in place and ready to be used is Calibri. But did you know that you can change that, so that a new Word document will start off in whatever font you prefer?
This sounds like an interesting 2-part trivia question.
Question: What is [...] Read more »
The post How to change the default font in Word 2016 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Most people get a new computer every 3-5 years. Sometimes they might go longer than that, but that’s probably about the average. But I see a lot of people that have a stack of old laptops sitting in their office or their garage, just because they don’t know exactly how to get rid of them.
What [...] Read more »
The post What do you do with an old laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Did you know you can create a document in Microsoft Word and send it from Outlook as an attachment, and you never even need to click to open Outlook? It’s true, and it’s pretty easy.
And why would you want to do this? The main reason is simple: fewer clicks. This makes it faster and easier [...] Read more »
The post Attach a document to Outlook, directly from MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A while back I came across this great free software that will go out on the web and grab a bunch of really cool photographs, and use them to create a new Windows wallpaper for your computer which continuously changes as often as you wish. It’s pretty cool!
The program is called John’s Background Switcher. Guess [...] Read more »
The post The best way to get great new Windows wallpapers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today we’re talking about how to remove saved passwords from your web browser.
You shouldn’t have Chrome or Firefox store passwords for you. It’s not safe. If anyone ever got access to your computer, they would see a full list of all your accounts and passwords – definitely not good! Use LastPass instead. But sometimes you [...] Read more »
The post How to remove stored passwords from your web browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s great to be able to speak into your device, such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to get some information. But did you know, every one of those voice commands is stored by Amazon? You might find it handy to know how to delete that history.
How to VIEW your Alexa recordings:
It’s easiest to [...] Read more »
The post Alexa stores your voice recordings first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes when I’m browsing the web, I get annoyed and confused. Annoyed at websites that automatically start playing sound, and confused as to why the creator of that site thought it was a good idea.
I mean seriously – websites auto-playing sound became a trend maybe 15 years ago, but users made it very clear that [...] Read more »
The post New Chrome feature to make websites shut up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There is yet another virus making the rounds on Facebook, and it’s tricking a lot of users into clicking on it and infecting their computers.
Here’s what the message looks like:
I’ve gotten these Facebook Messenger messages from several of my FB friends. It always has the same content – your first name, followed by “it’s you?“, [...] Read more »
The post Watch out for this fake Facebook video message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Scott –
You’ve piqued my interest with this sentence that you sneaked into a recent podcast:
“Really, sending pictures by email is a bad idea to start with, but that’s a story for another day.”
How about making that day next week’s podcast? I want to know what you recommend. Photos are a problem I constantly [...] Read more »
The post Don’t send pictures by email! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For a lot of people, the most valuable thing stored on their computer (or their phone) is the collection of photos. A lot of things can be replaced, but not the photos. In case you didn’t know, there’s a way to back up your photos that is 100% automated and completely free. You should be [...] Read more »
The post Automatically backup your photos online for FREE first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re using Windows 10, your computer has the built-in ability to bring up a chat window so you can communicate with an actual person from Microsoft. You don’t have to go to their website, and you don’t have to pick up your phone.
All too often, someone will contact me about a computer problem, and [...] Read more »
The post Chat live with a real Microsoft agent, right from your Windows 10 PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You probably already know you can go in to your web browser’s settings and clear ALL your cookies for every website you’ve visited. But did you know you can also go in and clear out the cookies for a specific website? You sure can.
And why would you want to do that? In some cases, a [...] Read more »
The post How to clear cookies for a specific website first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A lot of people have HEARD of “zip files” but are not really familiar with what they are specifically. Here’s how they work.
Part of the confusion with this is that it’s not really obvious or clear what is meant by a folder being “zipped”. I mean, everyone knows what a zipper does, but how does [...] Read more »
The post What’s a ZIP file anyway? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Hello Scott,
My daughter got me addicted to podcasts, and I follow about 15 different ones. Yours is the one I look forward to the most. You provide a great service to a growing audience. Thank you.
I have a Windows 7 desktop and it’s time for a new one. I am planning to buy a Windows [...] Read more »
The post How to move all your files and folders to a new PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you use Word and sometimes put pictures and captions in your documents, you will probably find today’s tip helpful. Sometimes when you have a picture and a caption in Word, and you try to move the picture, the caption doesn’t get moved like you would expect it to. Here’s how to fix that (and [...] Read more »
The post How to move captions with pictures in MS Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today’s tip comes from a question I got recently:
Is there a simple way to type a single word and have it list the font name and display the word, so you have a sample of all your font styles? Thanks – Stephen
Yes, Stephen, that is possible!
A few years ago I did this in MS Word, [...] Read more »
The post How to display all your font samples in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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In my podcast a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Bitcoin just in passing, and I had some listener inquiries about it. Obviously it’s been in the news quite a bit recently, and some people are asking about what it is, how it works, and how someone can actually purchase it. So today I’ll provide [...] Read more »
The post How to get started with Bitcoin first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s the weirdest thing – as I get older, a lot of websites have decided to make their print size smaller and more difficult to read. So rude of them! But in Chrome (and Firefox), I have the option to make the words bigger.
I get this request fairly often from clients. Sometimes they think they’ve [...] Read more »
The post How to change the font size when viewing websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For quite a while, Firefox was my default browser. I’ve been using Chrome as my default for several years now and I really like it. But the new super-fast version of Firefox might be tempting.
When your Firefox gets upgraded to the new version (version 57) this is the message you’ll get on the screen from [...] Read more »
The post The new Firefox – better than Chrome? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I write about scams fairly frequently on this blog. Sometimes it’s because of a new one I’ve just heard about, and I want to warn my readers to be aware of it and not get taken. In some cases, it’s because I’ve just had to deal with a client who has become the most recent [...] Read more »
The post Scam victims can get some of their money back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Lots of people are posting videos on Facebook these days. Videos tend to catch a little more attention than a static photo, and a LOT more attention than a simple text post. What if you want to download someone’s video from Facebook and save it to your computer? In the past it was not very [...] Read more »
The post How to easily download Facebook videos to your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s that time again – today we’re featuring some websites I’ve come across recently that I think you might find useful or entertaining.
Fotoforensics
http://fotoforensics.com/
These days, you can’t really say for sure if a photo you’re looking at is the real thing, or if it’s been “doctored” with Photoshop or some other photo editing software. Well, at [...] Read more »
The post Some more cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone knows Craigslist as “the” online classified ads site. It’s been around forever. But now there are other options so we’re not stuck with the limitations of Craigslist anymore. The site I really like is called OfferUp.
You can use OfferUp from your computer (just go to offerup.com) but it’s really designed to be used from [...] Read more »
The post This classified ads service is better than Craigslist first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone knows to be careful of scammers when shopping on Craigslist (actually everyone doesn’t know that, but they should). And lots of people are aware of potential scams on eBay, since just about anyone can sign up as an eBay seller. But Amazon – now that’s a place with a great reputation for excellent customer [...] Read more »
The post New Amazon scam to watch out for first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For some reason, Microsoft doesn’t want us getting in to the Control Panel on our computers. In Windows 10, they’ve created a different thing called “Settings”, but Control Panel is still there (at least for now) if you know where to find it. Here’s how to get to it easily in Windows 10.
Depending on how [...] Read more »
The post Get back easy access to Control Panel in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Windows 10 is created and distributed by Microsoft, so it has its own agenda about what programs and settings should be the defaults and how you should use your computer. In my opinion, it’s MY computer so I want to set it the way I want to use it. This isn’t always consistent with Microsoft’s [...] Read more »
The post 3 settings I always change in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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So many people are worried about identity theft now. Especially with the recent problem with Equifax, where the personal information of 143 million people was hacked into. What should you do? Should you hire a company like Lifelock to protect your credit file? In my opinion, definitely not (for more than one reason, which I’ll [...] Read more »
The post How to virtually eliminate identity theft first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you know what your laptop does when you close the lid without powering it down first? Does it shut it off, or put it to Sleep mode, or Hibernate, or maybe it does nothing at all?
It’s interesting to find out what people think about this process. Some people assume that when they close the [...] Read more »
The post What happens when you close the lid on your laptop? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently I got a message from one of my readers, Mike –
Boo. I asked a question some months back which you mentioned, but did not answer. Perhaps I can ask again? I need to limit my search results by date. For example, I want to search for mythtv. This is sort of useless and I [...] Read more »
The post How to narrow your search results by date range first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Thanks to a really good ad blocker (Ublock Origin), I see almost no display ads on most websites. It’s wonderful. But if that’s the only ad blocker you use, you’ll still see ads on one popular website – Facebook. Here’s how you can get rid of the ads on Facebook as well.
Facebook is kind of [...] Read more »
The post How to get rid of sponsored posts (ads) on Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you have a bunch of pictures saved on your Windows 10 computer? It’s really easy to view them in a slide show, full screen.
(yes, those are my pups – Lilly and Fenway – in that picture)
There are lots of ways to view the images stored on your computer. You can see them on your [...] Read more »
The post Watch a slide show of your pictures in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A little while back I discovered a service that doesn’t cost anything and can sometimes be useful. Now my post office sends me a picture of what the letter carrier will be putting in my mailbox later that day.
I don’t know how long the US Postal Service has offered this service, but I just discovered [...] Read more »
The post How to get a daily email preview of your snail mail delivery first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love Airbnb and I’ve used the service several times. But unfortunately, like with many things today, the scammers have figured out a way to trick you out of your money using the Airbnb service. Here’s how it works and how you can avoid it.
I love Airbnb (use this link to get $40 off your [...] Read more »
The post Watch out for this tricky AirBnB scam first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently a client called me in a panic, because he was in the middle of using his laptop and suddenly it shut off and now it wouldn’t boot up again. By all appearances, his laptop was just dead. Here’s how we handled it.
I have to tell you, I really love using this trick. To someone [...] Read more »
The post The secret repair trick that techs don’t want you to know first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone seems to be in a panic about privacy these days. All the big companies want to know everything about you, and most people are reluctant to give up any more information than they really need to (with one exception – we willingly tell Facebook everything about ourselves). But when Google asks you for your [...] Read more »
The post Google wants your phone number – so give it to them first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Online scams are a huge problem, and it seems like they won’t be going away anytime soon. I recently had a client who almost got scammed and wasn’t even aware of it until I explained what happened.
Laura contacted me about buying one of my refurbished laptops. Her laptop had been running really badly recently so [...] Read more »
The post Case study of a client who was (almost) scammed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Had this come up with a client recently. His email inbox was constantly showing the wrong time for incoming emails. He could receive an email at 2 pm, and yet when he looked at that email, it would show that it arrived at 9 pm. In fact, he demonstrated the problem while he was here [...] Read more »
The post Why do my incoming emails show the wrong time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently, Facebook has been overrun with all kinds of warnings about hackers and viruses. I’ve gotten numerous direct Facebook messages from friends, alerting me of these problems and encouraging me to forward the same message to all of my contacts. I won’t be doing that.
Here are a couple that I’ve received recently –
This reminds me [...] Read more »
The post Finding and destroying Facebook hoaxes first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Chrome is great even if you just leave it alone and use it with the default settings. But I like to customize and “tweak” it a few different ways to make it even better.
Basically what I’m describing here today is the process I go through when I’m setting up Chrome on a client’s computer they’ve [...] Read more »
The post How I customize Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Microsoft Office is a group of programs, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and others. Most of the time these programs work fine, but occasionally they can misbehave. What a lot of people don’t know is that there’s a quick fix you should try before you call your computer tech for a repair.
The programs in Microsoft [...] Read more »
The post MS Office not working properly? Here’s a quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Windows 10 has been out for almost 2 years now. If you’re still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, is it time for you to upgrade? Maybe.
A little background first. If you’ve been reading this blog or listening to my podcast for the past couple of years or longer, you know that I did not [...] Read more »
The post Is it time for you to upgrade to Windows 10? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Now that most people have smart phones, and we all have a high-resolution camera with us at all times, there are new ways to use them popping up all the time. What we’re talking about today is a great example of that. Who would have thought that your cell phone could actually save someone’s life [...] Read more »
The post Smartphone app that could literally save someone’s life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Think about when your internet connection isn’t working properly. Maybe you’re getting a “Page cannot be found” error, or your computer can’t find the wifi signal, or perhaps websites are just loading reeeaaallly slowly. If you call your internet provider, what’s the first thing they’ll tell you to do? Restart your modem and router. But [...] Read more »
The post New device to speed up your internet consistently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently I got some reports from people that something weird was happening on their Windows computer. Every so often a window would appear on the screen and then immediately disappear. It would happen so quickly there was no chance of seeing any words or error message – it would just flash on then disappear. Then [...] Read more »
The post That window that keeps flashing on the screen every hour – here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen this happen. You suddenly get a friend request from someone you’ve already been friends with for a long time. What’s the best thing to do in this situation?
First off, I want to say up front that when this happens, it is not a “hack”. I put that phrase [...] Read more »
The post What to do when your Facebook friend gets hacked first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I recently got this voice mail from one of my podcast listeners:
“Hi, my name is Bridget and I’m calling from Oregon and I appreciate your show so much. I do love my computer, but there is one thing I just don’t understand. But first – let me admit, I am over 50 (haha). What I don’t [...] Read more »
The post Should you be using Flash? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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After last week’s post about the website with the large volume of ads that would have normally been eliminated by my ad-blockers, I got some inquiries asking what software I use to avoid seeing any website advertisements.
For me, there are 3 basic reasons to use an ad-blocker:
To stop seeing all the annoying ads. Of course, [...] Read more »
The post The ad-blocker I use and recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last Monday we talked about taking some non-essential programs out of the “auto-startup” process in order to speed up your computer. Today we’ll go over an easy way to figure out if you should actually uninstall a program from your Windows computer.
You know how it is – when you go into Control Panel to the [...] Read more »
The post Great way to decide which programs to uninstall from your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When a Windows computer is running slowly, one of the first things I check is this: How many programs are running at the same time, both visibly and in the background? The more programs are running, the slower they all run. So let’s streamline your computer and run only those programs that are needed.
This is [...] Read more »
The post Speed up your PC by optimizing the startup programs first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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All of my email is sent and received using Microsoft Outlook, and there’s one feature of Outlook that I use all the time – the ability to send an email at a future date and time, rather than having it go out immediately.
Why would I want to create a new email, or reply to an [...] Read more »
The post How to schedule sending an email in Outlook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Usually I talk about stuff that pertains specifically to computers, but I recently started using a really handy program that will work on computers, tablets and phones (PC or Mac). It’s called Simplenote.
For comparison, this is “kind of” a competitor to Evernote. If you haven’t used Evernote, it’s a program for capturing information and storing it [...] Read more »
The post This computer/smartphone app is really handy first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’m on Facebook quite often, and it’s not just to talk about my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida. I’m in groups with a variety of topics, including ultramarathon running, using diet to avoid preventable diseases such as cancer and heart disease, cooking with my Instant Pot, and lots of others.
When someone posts [...] Read more »
The post How to follow a Facebook post without commenting on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you found a flash drive on the ground or someplace out in public, what would you do with it? A kind-hearted person would of course want to get it back to its rightful owner. But to do that, you would need to connect it to a computer and see if anything on the drive [...] Read more »
The post The flash drive that will KILL your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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That area in the bottom right corner of your Windows screen is just loaded with valuable information. But in a lot of cases you don’t see everything that’s going on down there because some of the icons are hidden. Here’s how to get all those icons to be visible all the time.
The image shown above [...] Read more »
The post How to see ALL your Notification Area icons, all the time first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes it’s nice to know how to do things really quickly on your computer. And sometimes you might need to delete your browser history (the list of all the websites you’ve visited in a certain period of time).
Why would you need to delete your browser history? Lots of reasons. Maybe you’re shopping for a Christmas [...] Read more »
The post Delete your history in less than 5 seconds – in any browser first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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The hackers and scammers continue to come up with new ideas to trick you into downloading a virus to your computer. The latest scheme is a pop-up in Chrome that says the page won’t display properly because you’re missing a font. Here are the details so you don’t fall for it.
This is targeted at people [...] Read more »
The post New virus trick to watch for – the “missing font” hack first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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In Windows 7 (and earlier versions of Windows), the Start menu was simply a way to navigate to whatever program or file you needed to open. In Windows 10, Microsoft seems to think that it should now be used as their own private little billboard on your computer. Today we’ll talk about how to take [...] Read more »
The post Make the Windows 10 Start Menu less annoying first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are lots of things you can do to stay safe while using your computer. Probably hundreds. But a few things I keep seeing come up over and over. I really believe that if everyone at least kept these three rules while using their computers, a lot of problems would be avoided and everyone would [...] Read more »
The post 3 top tips for using your computer safely first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One of the annoyances about chatting with someone in Facebook Messenger on your computer is the fact that they other person knows when you’ve seen their most recent message. So you kind of feel obligated to go ahead and reply sooner, since you know the other person knows you’ve read that last message. Too much [...] Read more »
The post How to hide the fact that you’ve viewed a Facebook message first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For a while, Adobe has proven that they are a software company not worthy of our trust or respect. And recently they provided us with another reason to question their integrity. This applies mainly to people using the Chrome web browser.
For quite some time, Adobe has been trying to sneak unwanted software on to all [...] Read more »
The post Watch out for Adobe’s latest trick first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently I had a client with a Windows 10 computer that would power on, but it wouldn’t boot all the way into the Windows operating system. Sometimes Windows will run self-diagnosis and repair the problem and reboot. But what if you reboot, and it just keeps coming up to the same error screen? That’s when [...] Read more »
The post How to create a recovery drive for Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I use my Google calendar for just about everything that goes on in my life. This includes all of my onsite computer repair appointments here in Safety Harbor of course, but also birthday and anniversary reminders, dentist appointments, online webinars, etc. So I don’t like it when I get an email to remind me of [...] Read more »
The post How to stop Gmail from adding events to your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Did you know there’s a free program you can run, and it will check your computer’s hard drive to see if it’s showing any signs of failure?
Disclaimer: This software is not foolproof, it’s just one of the best at detecting signs of hard drive failure.
The program I’m referring to is called Crystal Disk Info. It’s [...] Read more »
The post How to check your computer’s hard drive for failure first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes there are things that on the surface seem to be true, but when you dig a little deeper you find out they aren’t true at all. Or, there might be something that you know in your head is false, but your mind still thinks about a different way. For example – what’s the moon [...] Read more »
The post Things that seem right but are really wrong first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you’re still using Windows Live Mail as your email program, you need to be aware that Microsoft support for this program ends on January 10, 2017. This means that there will be no more security updates – so when security problems are discovered, they won’t be patched. Translation: it’s time to go to an [...] Read more »
The post Using Windows Live Mail? It’s now dead – time to switch first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I use the Copy – Paste process every day, and you probably do as well. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward – you choose a word or section of text and copy it from one location, then you go to another location and paste it. But when you’re pasting into a Word document, there’s [...] Read more »
The post What does the Paste Options box do in MS Word? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I created my first Yahoo email account back in the late 1990s, but I stopped actively using it when Gmail introduced their email service and I made that switch. So that Yahoo account is still there, just not being used.
I recently got an email from Yahoo that was pretty outrageous in light of recent events. [...] Read more »
The post Time to delete your Yahoo! account and all the data first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One of the changes Microsoft made with Windows 10 was how to create a shortcut to a file or a program and have that shortcut on the desktop screen.
A lot of people – myself included – weren’t too happy the first time we tried to make a shortcut to the desktop using Windows 10.
The “old” [...] Read more »
The post How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today’s tip came about as a result of a question from a reader, Mike. He wrote:
“A topic for your podcast: How to limit search results. I use Google, Yahoo, and Duckduckgo for making searches. Today I happened to search for “episodic dvd ripper” and got many hits as old as 15 years back. Is there [...] Read more »
The post How to get super-specific Google search results first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One of the most commonly-used processes on my computer is the ability to create a shortcut icon on the desktop. Just right-click on a a file and choose “Send to” and then “Desktop-create shortcut”. But sometimes that little “create shortcut” item can disappear from your “Send to” menu. Here’s how to get it back.
If there’s [...] Read more »
The post How to add “Desktop shortcut” back to your “Sendto” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Want to check your hard drive for problems and have your computer fix them? Today I’ll show you how to do this using a method that’s usually only used by technicians, because the typical computer user is not aware of it. Maybe you are a geek after all!
At my computer repair office here in Safety [...] Read more »
The post Use CHKDSK like a geek to fix hard drive problems! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Millions of people use the service called “Web of Trust”. It’s a crowdsourced process that is supposed to tell you if a website you’re about to click on is trustworthy or malicious, based on the input of the other Web of Trust users. Recently, information has been uncovered about Web of Trust that indicates this [...] Read more »
The post Web of Trust – no longer worthy of your trust first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Outlook has so many great features, and a lot of Outlook users are not aware of many things that Outlook can do. One of the greatest time-savers is the ability to delete large amounts of email in a very short time.
If you use Outlook for your email, and your inbox or some other folder has [...] Read more »
The post Outlook – how to delete lots of emails with a couple of clicks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Time for another set of cool websites! I like to do this every once in a while, just to tell you about some websites I’ve run across that I think you might find interesting, informative or entertaining.
- Online solitaire for free
http://solitaireforfree.com/
Everyone’s favorite game – and now you can play directly on a website. In the [...] Read more »
The post More cool websites to check out first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week we talked about all the nonsense things that are thought to be the “magic pill” to speed up your Windows computer (clean the registry, defrag, etc). Today we’ll talk about what actually DOES speed up your Windows computer.
- Stop programs from running in the background
When you install software, in many cases it designates [...] Read more »
The post 4 things that actually WILL supercharge your PC first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For a long time, there have been programs advertised on the internet that promise to speed up your computer. They usually go by names like “PC Optimizer”, “Perfect Speed”, “Ultimate Optimizer” or other similar sounding names, and they want you to think that if you just buy this program, your computer will be SOOO much [...] Read more »
The post 5 Things you DON’T need to do for your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A lot of major corporations these days are doing some pretty sketchy things. Recently HP confirmed that they are definitely on the list of companies who don’t mind doing sneaky/slimy things to their customers just to make more money.
I’ve been wary of HP for a long time, mainly because of what I see when I [...] Read more »
The post The HP printer fiasco and what I recommend first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Most of us are on Facebook every day and pretty much do the same things – look at what our friends have posted, maybe post a new status of our own sometimes. But there are some things you can do with Facebook that a lot of people don’t know about. Today I’ll show you 3 [...] Read more »
The post 3 little-known things you can do with Facebook first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Yahoo recently announced that hackers were able to get into their system and steal a lot of personal information. Here’s what you need to know, and what you need to do.
When did the data breach take place?
This is one of the more concerning factors about this problem. Yahoo says that the hack into their servers [...] Read more »
The post The Yahoo data hack – what it means to YOU first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s one of the most frustrating things about Windows. You go to shut off your computer, and rather than just shut down, it decides it’s time to install a bunch of updates. So you wait and wait while this happens, all the while wondering why your computer is forcing you to stand there and watch [...] Read more »
The post Shut down your Windows computer WITHOUT waiting for updates to finish first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week we talked about a “low-security” way to keep someone out of a particular file or folder, just by “hiding” it. Today is part 2, and this procedure uses a separate program to provide a much higher level of security.
Rather than just protecting a file by making not readily visible, this process encrypts it [...] Read more »
The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I recently got this email from a podcast listener:
Dear Scott, I live in Dubai and I enjoy your weekly podcast, which is simple and informative. Please keep up the good work! Scott, could you please cover in a future podcast how I can create (in Windows 10) a normal file folder but one that can [...] Read more »
The post How to password protect a Windows file or folder – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For some of my clients, I have a hard time convincing them that they need to have a backup process in place. Usually these are people that have not (yet) experienced a hard drive crash and lost some, or all, of their important files. Their computer is working fine at the moment, they’ve never had [...] Read more »
The post Why would you need TWO backups? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If a friend sends you a Facebook message, you see the notification at the top of the Facebook page, click on it and read it. Simple. What if someone sends you a message, and you actually do know that person in real life but you aren’t yet Facebook friends? You might never even realize that message [...] Read more »
The post The personal Facebook messages you didn’t even know you had first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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What a week this has been. It started with a simple process: replacing a monitor. By the end, I had to replace my primary computer. And I discovered something very important for you to know about Windows – especially Windows 10.
I’ll give a brief summary of what happened.
I use 2 monitors on my main desktop computer. [...] Read more »
The post My new computer, and an important Windows tip first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you ever have a need to publish photos online, such as on your website or a social media account, you need to be VERY careful to make sure you have the right to do that. Otherwise, it could be a very expensive lesson.
When you need a picture for some project such as a business [...] Read more »
The post A warning about copyrighted images, and a great story first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For many people that use Outlook as their email program, it’s very frustrating when you get an email that’s supposed to have pictures in it, but Outlook doesn’t display those pictures – it only shows a red “X”.
And in all of Microsoft’s wisdom, they didn’t create a clear or intuitive way to fix this problem. [...] Read more »
The post Why is Outlook not showing images in your emails? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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After last week’s post about a big reason WHY you should use an ad blocker when you visit websites, I got several inquiries asking, “What ad blocker should I use? Where do I find it? How do I get it on my computer?”. So this week we’ll talk about a couple of the popular ones, [...] Read more »
The post Recommended ad blockers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’ve used ad blockers for years. If you’re not familiar with that, what this means is that when I visit a website that has advertising, I don’t see the ads. I just see the website content.
As you might know, ad blocking software has generated a controversy. Website visitors like the blockers because websites are so much more [...] Read more »
The post Another big reason to use an ad blocker first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Mostly, Word works well. I’ve used it for many years and been pretty happy with it. But ever since I first started using it, there has been this one thing that has driven me nuts until I learned how to fix it.
What happens is this. I’ll be typing along in MS Word, everything seems to [...] Read more »
The post Fix one of MS Word’s most annoying problems first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I use Google Chrome as my primary web browser, and not long ago I came across something I could do with Chrome that I thought was pretty cool. And sometimes even useful.
A little background first.
Practically since the beginning of time, computer users have known about the keyboard combination CTRL + ALT + Delete. If your [...] Read more »
The post A little-known feature of Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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At one point in time, I was an avid newspaper reader. I enjoyed being informed about what was going on locally and around the world, and the newspaper had it all right there in one place, every day. This was back when I was working in an office. I would get to the office about [...] Read more »
The post Google’s incredible newspaper archive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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As the free period for upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 comes closer to ending (July 29), Microsoft is getting more desperate. They want to push Windows 10 into as many computers as possible, whether the owner of the computer wants it or not. I’m still getting calls and emails all the [...] Read more »
The post How to easily roll back from Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You know I am always preaching about doing backups. And even people that don’t have a backup process in place know that they SHOULD, but until that unexpected problem comes up and they lose their important documents or irreplaceable pictures, they just say that they’ll do that “someday”. Today I’m not going to tell you [...] Read more »
The post A file on your desktop that you should NOT back up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’ve been really trying to filter out all the stuff that shows up on my Facebook news feed. Facebook does have some positive benefits, but wow – there is so much stuff on there that I don’t care about. Not that it’s necessarily bad stuff (although some of it is really terrible) – it’s just [...] Read more »
The post How to disable the Facebook nostalgia posts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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One of the most dangerous things you can do with your computer is to click on a link when you don’t know where that link will take you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Facebook link from someone you barely know, or a loving email from your dear sweet mother – don’t click on a [...] Read more »
The post Case study: Verifying a link before clicking on it first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I still don’t recommend Windows 10. I’ll be staying with Windows 7 for as long as possible (at least until January of 2020, when Microsoft will no longer offer security updates for it). But I know there are some people that are concerned that someday they might HAVE to upgrade, and the deadline for getting [...] Read more »
The post How to get Windows 10 for free even after the deadline first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone uses Google all the time to find something online. It’s still by far the best and most comprehensive search engine available, which is why it’s also the most popular (Bing doesn’t even come close, in spite of Microsoft’s marketing machine telling you it’s so great). But did you know that Google does a lot [...] Read more »
The post 3 cool things you can do with Google first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every drive on your Windows computer has a letter of the alphabet assigned to it. The hard drive is probably drive C, and the CD/DVD drive (if you have one) is probably drive D. If you plug in a flash drive, it would most likely be drive E, since a new drive will take the [...] Read more »
The post How to change the letter assigned to a drive – and why first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love Netflix. And so do millions of other people. There are so many choices of what to watch, it’s almost overwhelming. But the “standard” Netflix content categories that you normally see on the screen are often too broad to really make a specific selection. However, when you know this little trick and the proper [...] Read more »
The post Your computer can find secret Netflix categories first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Popular programs come and go. What was highly used a few years ago may no longer be used much at all, and in fact could even be inviting hackers into your computer. Why keep an unsecure program that you don’t even use anymore?
The program I’m referring to specifically today is QuickTime.
QuickTime is a media player, [...] Read more »
The post Time to get rid of QuickTime first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When Windows 8 first came out and people sat down at their computer to use it, the first common reaction was just plain confusion. Everything had changed. The Start button didn’t do what it did in Windows 7, and people didn’t know how to get to the places they used to be very familiar with. [...] Read more »
The post The key to hit when you’re lost in Windows 8 or Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Microsoft is still trying to “upgrade” all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers to their newest concoction, Windows 10. We’ve been battling that with free software (GWX Control Panel) and it’s a constant fight. Now there’s a new program (also free) to put an end to the threat of upgrade.
A little background first.
When Microsoft started [...] Read more »
The post A simpler way to block the Windows 10 “upgrade” first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week we talked about how to access the secret expanded Send To menu, and I mentioned that it was possible to also add folders and locations to the Send To menu. You can also delete some of the ones that are there by default if you don’t need them. Some people have asked about [...] Read more »
The post How to customize your Send To menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You’re probably already familiar with the “Send to” menu in Windows. What most people don’t know is that there’s a hidden, expanded “Send to” menu that gives you a lot more options.
The regular Send To menu is certainly no secret. In fact, I use it all the time – most commonly, to put shortcuts to [...] Read more »
The post Windows has a secret “Send to” menu first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This is so simple and so useful, I can’t believe it’s not more widely known. It would be really handy for when a client is trying to tell me what an error message says, or what the content is in some other Windows message.
The way this comes up most of the time is this: a [...] Read more »
The post How to copy and paste the contents of a Windows dialogue box first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Obviously you want to make sure your computer lasts as many years as possible. And now, this is especially true if you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8 because if you buy a computer right off the shelf now it will most likely be running Windows 10. The laptops I sell are almost all [...] Read more »
The post How to make sure your laptop has a long life first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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My default web browser is Google Chrome. I also use Firefox for some things and it’s fine, but I really like Chrome. Recently I came across a couple of interesting things in Chrome.
Feature #1: Customize website zoom level
Have you noticed that as you get older, some of the text on certain websites gets smaller and [...] Read more »
The post A couple of handy features in Google Chrome first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There’s an email scam that’s not new, but a lot of people have not heard about it and it has some elements that make it seem very legitimate. I was a target in this scam recently so I’m laying out the details here so you can avoid being taken.
This is the email that was sent [...] Read more »
The post An email scam that’s often effective first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A lot of people want to be reasonably knowledgeable about one or more aspects of their computer. Not like a computer programmer or someone that works on computers all day, but familiar enough to use popular software and be able to handle things that come up from time to time. But how do you learn? [...] Read more »
The post Comparison of 5 ways to learn computer stuff first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Enough Windows 10 nonsense – let’s have some fun with some great websites!
Every few months I do a blog and podcast about some interesting websites I’ve come across. There’s no exact criteria for what makes the list. I just look for ones I find interesting, entertaining, or educational.
FotoJet
www.FotoJet.com
If you want a place that will make [...] Read more »
The post More cool websites first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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With an announcement this past week, Microsoft made sure that millions of unsuspecting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will be surprised to find their computer “upgraded” to Windows 10. You can stop it, though.
What Microsoft announced is that they are now going to re-categorize the Windows 10 “upgrade” as a Recommended update. (sorry, but I [...] Read more »
The post Microsoft’s newest tactic for force-feeding Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love little pieces of software that focus on a single problem and solve it efficiently. A while back I found something that does this, and now I use it every day. In fact, if it’s turned off for some reason, I notice the difference almost immediately. And it’s free.
Here’s the problem:
Windows has this thing [...] Read more »
The post A little program that I now can’t live without first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You just got back from the trip of a lifetime. For some people that would be a cruise to Alaska, for others it might be a guided tour through the Holy Land of Israel, and for some it could be visiting some of the old castles of Ireland. Personally, I would enjoy any of them. [...] Read more »
The post How to rename 1000 images in 32 seconds or less first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Microsoft Word does so much more than any of us can imagine. I could probably create a whole blog just on MS Word tips and tricks. Today, I’ll show you some of the cool things you can do in Word by using the CTRL key in combination with some other keys.
The Control key (usually abbreviated [...] Read more »
The post The magical CTRL key in Microsoft Word first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’m not sure what to think about Microsoft lately. They’re sending good and bad messages. Recently, they issued some really good news about Internet Explorer, but they also made some statements about Windows 7 that seem to be designed to deceive.
The good news:
Internet Explorer, the web browser that we love to hate, will only be supported if [...] Read more »
The post Microsoft simultaneously issues some good news and some deceit first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Part of the fun of Facebook is seeing something new, or learning to do something you never knew was possible. Unfortunately, most of what is posted on Facebook is just fake junk that gets repeatedly posted because people don’t research or verify; they just click the “Share” button. But what I’m telling you about today [...] Read more »
The post How to change your font in a Facebook post first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Some things seem so obvious. But, just about every week (if not every day) some new “research study” comes out with an end result that any reasonable person with half a brain could have come up with. And we the taxpayers are often paying for these ridiculous things! Some important “findings” include “students who do [...] Read more »
The post How to show folder sizes in Windows first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I like Facebook. It has a lot of good and useful features. But it also has a lot of stuff I don’t want or need. There are a couple of tools I use to filter out all the garbage in Facebook so I don’t waste time on stuff I’m not interested in.
Anyone that’s on Facebook [...] Read more »
The post Filter out the garbage in Facebook’s news feed first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love new technology and I just heard about this recently. It’s not available to the general public yet, but it’s a good possibility that you’ll see this (or something similar) in the future.
This is a project called Heat Harvest. The Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design gave 12 people a couple of weeks to come [...] Read more »
The post Charge your phone with a cup of coffee (someday) first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are some things in life that are really obnoxious and annoying.
Car dealer commercials.
A dog that’s left outside and barks for hours on end early in the morning or late at night.
Politicians who will promise anything to get elected.
Computerized telemarketing calls on your cell phone.
People who make an appointment then don’t show up and don’t call.
People [...] Read more »
The post How to disable the “Get Windows 10” icon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week I told you about how my backup process saved all of my critical data twice in the last couple of months. One of those backups is called a system image backup and it saves EVERYTHING on your hard drive. As a result, that backup can be pretty big. Today we’ll talk about an [...] Read more »
The post How to save disk space, and reduce the size of your backup first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Yes, here I am again preaching to you about backing up your computer. But this time, it’s from a personal point of view and it has to do with my own primary desktop computer. I’ve had two different, major problems in the last two months so I wanted to tell you about what happened and [...] Read more »
The post How my backup saved me TWICE in the last two months first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If no one ever opened a scam/spam email, the spammers would stop sending them. If you have checked your spam folder lately, you know that the flow of spam doesn’t seem to have slowed down much. One reason I like Gmail is that their excellent spam filters keep that garbage out of my inbox. But [...] Read more »
The post Analysis of a scam email first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every day, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of new malicious websites coming into existence on the internet. It’s very common now, when you do a Google search, for many of the search results to be websites that you should definitely not click on. You’d think Google would have that figured out by now, so that [...] Read more »
The post Quick way to see if a website is malicious first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone knows what a YouTube video is. But not everyone knows what a GIF video is (even though just about everyone has seen one on Facebook or somewhere on the internet). Did you know that you can easily take a YouTube video, and create a GIF video out of that? Today I’ll show you how.
A [...] Read more »
The post Transform a YouTube video into a GIF first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every so often I do a post where I feature several websites that are interesting, informative, funny or just somehow intriguing in some way.
Documentary Addict
http://documentaryaddict.com/
Whenever I go on Netflix, and I don’t have anything specific in mind to watch, I tend to browse through the documentaries. And Netflix does have a lot of documentaries in [...] Read more »
The post More cool websites you might like first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone visits YouTube at one time or another. Some people visit it and watch videos every day. There are even people that spend HOURS each day watching those videos. But I’ll bet there are a lot of people, even those that use YouTube every day, that don’t know some of these shortcuts that work in [...] Read more »
The post Hidden features of YouTube first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every Windows keyboard has the same row of keys across the top – the Function keys. Those are the keys at the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3 and so on up to F12. One of the questions I get asked sometimes is, “What do the function keys actually do?” As with a [...] Read more »
The post What do the Function keys do? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When you get a new computer, especially if you get one of the more recent ones that are running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, part of the set-up process is setting a Windows password. Most people don’t realize that you don’t NEED to have a Windows password on your computer, but the wording on the [...] Read more »
The post How to skip the Windows sign-in password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’ve used Paypal for years, and you probably have too. If you don’t yet have a Paypal account, you can set one up for free at www.Paypal.com. And with a recent change, Paypal has made it easier for people to send you money.
For my computer repair business here in Safety Harbor, Florida, I have an [...] Read more »
The post Grab your personalized Paypal.me account name while you can first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I use the Google calendar to keep track of all of my activities, both business and personal. It’s super convenient because it automatically syncs between my computer, my phone and my iPad. And since I also use Gmail (another Google product) I can set the calendar to easily send me email reminders for anything.
But recently [...] Read more »
The post How to get all those birthdays off your Google calendar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Yes, today’s tip is a little different than our typical “computer” tip. But by using the information I’ll give you today, you can go online and get $25 in cash, or $50 in Starkist tuna – if you meet the requirements.
Here’s what happened:
A few years ago, Starkist Tuna faced a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit [...] Read more »
The post Use your computer to get $25 cash – if you are a tuna eater first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you have a Dell laptop, it might have a built-in “feature” called Ambient Light Sensor (I put “feature” in quotation marks intentionally). This is not really a widely advertised function so a lot of people don’t know about it. In fact, I personally was not aware of it until my friend Bob did some research [...] Read more »
The post Fix for Dell laptop display brightness randomly changing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Everyone at some point gets really angry at their computer. Either it’s too slow, or it doesn’t do what you expect it to do, or some other thing – and you get really frustrated with it. Want to get even with your computer? Here are some ways to really mess it up!
Whenever you see a [...] Read more »
The post 6 ways to really mess up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You read this blog. You also probably listen to my podcast. You most likely know that I do computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely all around the country). So you know that I’ve been telling people, “Don’t upgrade to Windows 10 yet”. It’s too early, and there are bugs (as we knew [...] Read more »
The post The easiest way to go from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 or 8 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today’s tip won’t take long to explain, but I can tell you that whenever I show someone how to do this, it is almost always a huge relief. People get very frustrated by MS Word because their top toolbar keeps disappearing and they don’t know how to make it stay there for good.
First off, even [...] Read more »
The post How to keep your MS Word toolbar from disappearing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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These days just about everyone takes videos with their cell phone. It’s actually pretty handy to have that ability, whenever you see something happening that is worth recording, to be able to immediately make a video of it. But sometimes, you might record the video with the wrong orientation – so it plays on your [...] Read more »
The post How to rotate a video file to right side up first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes I like to take a break from my “regular” computer tips and just show you some of the interesting websites I’ve run across recently. These are a few sites that are either helpful or informative in some way, or just plain entertaining.
Account Killer
https://www.accountkiller.com/en/#
You probably have a lot of online accounts at various social media [...] Read more »
The post Some cool websites I’ve come across recently first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You’ve probably heard in the news lately that Adobe Flash continues to have security problems. There are constantly new vulnerability issues being discovered. Then they patch up those holes, and more are found. It’s a constant race to find a problem and patch it up before the hackers can exploit it and do substantial damage. Some [...] Read more »
The post The easy way to handle the Flash problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love exposing online scams. Really the biggest benefit is that you, the reader of this blog, is more likely to be suspicious of something if you’ve already read about similar things here. But in addition to that, I just like the idea that I’m ruining some scammer’s chance to steal money from people that [...] Read more »
The post A check that has cleared doesn’t mean it’s not a scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you ever needed to tell someone exactly where you are standing, or where you’re parked, or even where you are at the moment if you’re driving or walking or biking? If you’re not near a street sign, or at a place where you know the actual address, telling someone your location can be sort [...] Read more »
The post 3 ways to tell someone exactly where you are first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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As the owner of a computer repair business, I spend my days solving computer problems for my clients. That often means removing viruses, but it also includes fixing things that no longer seem to be working properly, getting software set up correctly, getting a printer to work, those kinds of things. But there are a [...] Read more »
The post 4 computer questions that I cannot answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This past week I was talking to my friend Sue. She uses Facebook sometimes, and she was asking about videos that show up on her Facebook news feed. As you scroll down looking at all the things that get posted, you might notice that if someone has posted a video, it just starts automatically playing when [...] Read more »
The post How to stop videos in your Facebook news feed from auto-playing first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I’ve written blog posts about LastPass, the online secure password manager. I have been using it for quite some time, and I have set it up for several of my clients. You may have heard recently that LastPass may have been compromised. I wanted to clear up what (may have) happened, and what you need [...] Read more »
The post Secure your LastPass account by doing these two things today first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week I wrote about what to do with the little “Get Windows 10” icon that showed up, and after that I got a number of questions about Windows 10 in general. Lots of people are wondering how it will work, what it will be like, and other details. So here are the answers to [...] Read more »
The post Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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On June 1, 2015 – about a week ago – you might have noticed something new on your computer. You would have seen this if you are using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. It’s the Windows 10 notification, encouraging you to “reserve” your free upgrade to Windows 10.
That morning, I started getting questions [...] Read more »
The post What to do about Windows 10 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Summer is almost here, time to do some traveling! When you’re on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, and taking hundreds (or thousands) of pictures, one of the worst things that could happen is for you to lose those pictures. How could this happen, and how can this be prevented?
Here are a few ways this could happen:
You drop [...] Read more »
The post The safest way to never lose your important vacation pictures first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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In the past I’ve written about third-party services that will alert you to new Craigslist postings. One of the ones I have used over the years is Blogtrottr, and I have definitely gotten some good deals as a result. But now there’s an even better way – getting new ad alerts directly from Craigslist.
What’s the value [...] Read more »
The post Your unfair advantage over lots of other Craigslist shoppers first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There’s one thing that is widely hated by Windows 8 users everywhere – the Windows 8.1 Start Screen. I usually refer to it as the App Screen, since that’s what it’s filled with – each tile represents an app. Microsoft originally called it “Metro” but changed later to just “Start Screen”. And there are some people [...] Read more »
The post How to get Windows 8.1 to start up in the Desktop view first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I think right now is the best time ever to be alive, because we are seeing so many amazing innovations in lots of different areas. I’ve just recently learned of something that I believe will change the way we think about location and mapping around the world. It’s called What3Words.
What3Words.com is where you can get [...] Read more »
The post Every location on earth now has a simple, 3-word address first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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What would you do if you had a large file on your computer, and you needed to send it to someone by email? For example, you used your phone to take a video of your dog doing some tricks, and you want to email it to your friend who lives 500 miles away? To send an [...] Read more »
The post The easy way to email a huge file first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Many of the things I cover here on my blog and on my podcast are products or services that I discover just in my routine daily work. Recently I came across a couple of handy things – one is an online service, the other is a product that’s sold online – and I know that [...] Read more »
The post I discovered 2 handy services in one place first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today I’m going to show you a couple of things that you might find to be pretty handy. Nothing fancy really, but each of these could definitely be a solution for someone that’s in need of either one of them.
Tool #1: Simple countdown timer
It doesn’t get much easier than this. Just go to Google, and [...] Read more »
The post A couple of handy computer tools first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you buy a new computer, part of your purchase decision is what software you need to also purchase. If you have a lot of specialized needs, you could probably spend more on the additional programs than you did on the computer itself. But the fact is, you don’t necessarily NEED to do that – [...] Read more »
The post Free alternatives to expensive software first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I recently got a phone call from a business client. I’ll call him Matt for this story. Several months ago, Matt had a hard drive crash on his business computer. For a lot of people, this would have been a disaster. But thankfully, Matt had allowed me to set up an automated online backup for [...] Read more »
The post Recovering from your online backup – don’t make this big mistake! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I got this question from one of my clients, Jim, recently: “Scott, whenever I move the mouse to wake up my laptop from Sleep Mode, I can’t access any website. I open Internet Explorer and it just says “Page cannot be found”. If I close Internet Explorer and wait a minute or two, I’m always able [...] Read more »
The post Can’t go online straight out of Sleep Mode? Here’s the fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I use Google Maps all the time. By far, the feature I use most is the GPS aspect. When I make an appointment on my Google Calendar, I put the address in the “Location” bar. Then, when it’s time to go to that address, I open up my Waze app on my phone, and the [...] Read more »
The post 3 cool things you can do with Google Maps first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week we talked about the fact that even though it might appear that your email got hacked, it probably didn’t. In most cases it’s just a spammer using your email as the “From” address. But what about when your email actually DOES get hacked into – meaning some malicious person has gotten into your [...] Read more »
The post Your email actually DID get hacked? You need to change more than just your password first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A few times each month, I’ll get a phone call or an email from someone who thinks their email account has gotten hacked into. And why do they think that? Because their inbox is filling up with emails that are bouncing back, that say “This email message could not be delivered”. They might get a [...] Read more »
The post Help – my email got hacked! No, it probably didn’t first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Many millions of people have Google accounts. I have several myself. And whenever I want to look something up on the internet, I use Google because it seems to come up with the most accurate search results, which means I don’t have to waste a lot of time weeding out stuff that is not relevant [...] Read more »
The post What information does Google store about you? You might be surprised first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Wikipedia (Wikipedia.com) is one of the most often visited websites on the internet. Virtually any topic you want to research, any well-known person, almost any city – it’s hard to imagine anyone or anything of importance not having a Wikipedia page. However, Wikipedia was launched back in 2001 – and the layout and design of [...] Read more »
The post How to make the Wikipedia page look much more exciting! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Most households and small businesses use a router to distribute the internet signal. You might have purchased the router, or your internet provider may place it with your for you to use, but they still own it. Also, your modem may also be a router (all in one box) or your router might be a [...] Read more »
The post Do you need a new router? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Want to find out your roommate’s Facebook password? Need to have a few “below average” grades removed from your college transcript? Would you like to have some embarrassing pictures removed from Google search results? If you find yourself in need of these or similar services, what you really need is… a hacker!
One thing you need [...] Read more »
The post Where’s a good hacker when you need one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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My wife Jeanne recently embarked on a new career – she is a nanny for a young couple with a newborn baby girl. She loves babies anyway, so spending her days taking care of one is pretty much her dream job. And of course the baby’s parents love Jeanne because she has tons of experience [...] Read more »
The post Don’t get nailed by the Nanny Scam! first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This week, some fun stuff. It’s good to have computer tips and security alerts and warnings to back up your important data, but sometimes we need to take a break and check out some things that can amuse and entertain us. And really, some of these things can be considered computer-related or technical in some [...] Read more »
The post Cool tech gadgets that are cheap on Amazon first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I recently got an email from my friend Preston, who had this question:
“I’m wondering why, when you get a new hard drive, you don’t get the full amount of space that it says on the box? When I got my PC a few years ago, it said I had that 500 GB hard drive, but when [...] Read more »
The post Why does my hard drive show less space than it actually has? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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After last week’s post and podcast about the dangers of sharing your wifi signal with your neighbor, I had several people contact me about how to keep a computer safe “the other way around”. Meaning, if you are using your neighbor’s wifi signal (with permission of course), what type of precautions should you be taking [...] Read more »
The post How to be safe on a public wifi connection first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Recently I got an email from Barbara in Maine, with an interesting question. She wrote: “I have a next door neighbor who wants to hook into my internet and share expenses. Is that not legal to do? What do I need to know about it?” Great question, Barbara!
I’ll tell you right up front, if I [...] Read more »
The post Should you share your internet with your neighbor? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There used to be a traditional set of guidelines that you could go by, and by doing so you could be reasonably sure that your computer was safe from being attacked or infected by a virus or malware. Use a good antivirus, don’t open email attachments, don’t click on a link unless you know for [...] Read more »
The post Hackers’ most effective route to your computer: website ads first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Years ago, hard drive space was an issue that I dealt with more often. Back in the days of 40 gb and 80 gb hard drives, it didn’t take a whole lot to fill one up. Then you started getting the warnings “Drive C is getting low on space”. These days, with hard drives more [...] Read more »
The post 4 ways to free up space on your Windows hard drive first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I have 3 mysterious questions for you this week. Don’t worry, there will be a computer-related tip before we’re done here.
Mystery number 1: Why can’t I add simple numbers in my head?
This is just a simple addition problem. But you cannot use a calculator or a pencil and paper. This must be done completely in [...] Read more »
The post Questions that seem to have no answer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There was a time when I used and recommended AVG as a reliable option for a free antivirus. I stopped using it about 4 years ago, mainly because the software itself wasn’t really compatible with all Windows computers. When I make a recommendation, I try to make sure it’s something that won’t freeze up your [...] Read more »
The post AVG has gone to the dark side first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This is a scenario that’s repeated many thousands of times on the internet, every single day. Someone has a file on their computer, and it’s in a particular format, and they need it to be in a different format. For example, they have an MP4 video, and they want it to just be an MP3 [...] Read more »
The post How to convert files without getting malware first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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There are a lot of reasons why your computer might be running slowly. But one of the biggest reasons is that you have too many programs running at the same time. This can be deceiving, because you might look at your screen and it seems like only a few are running. It’s the ones that [...] Read more »
The post Tweak your startup list to speed up your computer first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I love Google Chrome. I use it as my default web browser and it works great. Probably what I love most about it is how I can customize it with extensions. I can put on ad blockers and all kinds of things so that websites look and behave based on my personal preferences. Chrome has [...] Read more »
The post Combine multiple browser tabs into ONE tab to save memory first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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I had an experience recently that I knew almost immediately would end up as a blog post and podcast episode. It’s another example of how someone came up with a great idea about yet another use for technology, and we can all benefit from it.
When you go on vacation, what are the biggest expenses for [...] Read more »
The post Using technology to get affordable travel accommodations first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every week here on my blog I talk about some type of practical tip or trick that you can do with your computer. Hopefully you find some of them practical and useful. But you know what? Being a geek, I sometimes like to come across computer tricks that may not seem to have obvious practical [...] Read more »
The post How to create a Windows folder with no name first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email programs in use today. I ‘ve been using it for years and I like it. Yes, it’s a little quirky at times but overall it’s pretty reliable and has a lot of great features. However, one of the things not included in Outlook is an easy [...] Read more »
The post How to back up Outlook email and contacts first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird or some other email software on your computer, this is something you (or your tech) has dealt with. When you set up a new email account, one of the questions is whether or not you want the email protocol to be POP or IMAP. What’s the difference [...] Read more »
The post What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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As a computer technician, I spend a lot of time doing computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely for clients around the country). Just about everyone has a computer (or several) these days, and eventually something goes wrong with almost all of them. If there were no computer problems I would have to [...] Read more »
The post First things to try when you have a computer problem first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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A laptop docking station can be a pretty handy thing, if you need one for your circumstances. What kind of computer user would find value in one of these things? Anyone that uses a laptop as their home computer, and also takes it with them to work or while traveling would benefit from a laptop [...] Read more »
The post What is a laptop docking station? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week I went over 11 programs and tools I use on a regular basis, and recommend to my clients. And that was only half the list! This week we’ll cover the rest. Of course, this is list is not exhaustive, and you might have other options that you prefer. Not every program is right [...] Read more »
The post Software I use and recommend – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last time I did a blog post about the software I use regularly and recommend to my clients – two years ago. Time flies! So I wanted to update that information since a lot of it has changed since then. Originally I was going to cover all of these in one blog post and podcast, [...] Read more »
The post Software I use and recommend – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Any website that automatically starts playing sound as soon as it loads up should be on some kind of blacklist. Whether it’s a selection of background music, or a news video, or any other kind of audio – any web designer with a clue knows to not have that stuff automatically start up. You give your [...] Read more »
The post How to know which browser tab is playing sound first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Today’s tip is not going to be very long and elaborate. It’s a pretty common problem with a simple fix (most of the time). But if you don’t know the solution, it can be very frustrating because it seems like something major is wrong with your computer.
Here’s what usually happens:
You try to go to a [...] Read more »
The post Website blocked due to expired certificate? Quick fix first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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This week I’m going to show you some interesting things you can do with YouTube. You might not use all of them, but hopefully you will find one or two of them helpful, or at least fun to try out. I love “discovering” these kinds of little-known things and bringing them to you here on [...] Read more »
The post 3 Cool YouTube Tricks first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It seems like Facebook is always involved with some type of controversy, and it usually involves the violation of the privacy of Facebook users. Of course, if you don’t like Facebook’s data collection practices, you can always just cancel your account (see last week’s blog about how to do that). The latest issue has to [...] Read more »
The post Send and receive Facebook messages on your phone, WITHOUT FB Messenger first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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For some people, the novelty of social media has worn thin. Facebook is constantly wanting more and more of your personal information, because that’s their biggest selling point to advertisers. Twitter hashtags are displayed on just about any television show now, and YouTube videos are showing up virtually everywhere. If you get to the point [...] Read more »
The post How to cancel any social media account first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Ever try to print a web page? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The reason for this is that website content is designed to be displayed on your computer screen, not sent to the printer to be put on paper. So even though it looks perfect on your monitor, the printed page is often completely [...] Read more »
The post How to make ANY website printer-friendly first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last week I talked about 4 bad computer habits that I see happening pretty regularly. This week in part 2, I’ll cover the other 4. If you do any of these things with your computer, knock it off!
Picking up from where we left off last Monday –
5. Clicking on unknown links
Every time I get to the [...] Read more »
The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Since we use our computers just about every day, sometimes all day, it’s easy to get into a routine. As human beings, we have a set of habits. That means we don’t necessarily do things a certain way because it’s the safest or most efficient, but rather it’s just because we’ve always done it that [...] Read more »
The post Bad computer habits you need to kick – part 1 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You know I’m always talking about having an automated, consistent backup process in place. This is partly because I have people bring me computers just about every week with a crashed drive, and they’re in a panic because they need the files and folders that are on that drive. But it’s also from first-hand experience [...] Read more »
The post How to create a System Image backup (and why you should) first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Are you someone that would rather talk than type? Personally, I would rather type out words on the keyboard because then I can make sure that the message that is transmitted is exactly what I want to say. The downside of typing is that it usually takes longer since most people can speak much faster [...] Read more »
The post Use the speech recognition software you already have first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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My favorite kind of computer tips are those that address a particularly common and annoying problem, and solve that problem with a quick solution that’s easy to implement. And preferably free. Today is a great example of this kind of computer tip.
It’s a common complaint among laptop users. The cursor seems to jump around to [...] Read more »
The post Cursor jumping around on your Windows laptop? Here’s the fix. first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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What if I told you I would give you an email account, and it’s all yours to use. You can use it for personal or business email or whatever you want. There’s only one catch: you can only have it temporarily. At some undetermined point in the future, your access to that email account would [...] Read more »
The post Is your email address just a TEMPORARY one? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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It’s a question that I get asked all the time: Should I leave my computer on all the time, or should I turn it off at night? There are valid reasons for both options, so I’ll present you with the pros and cons and you can decide what’s best for your situation.
Why you should leave [...] Read more »
The post Should you leave your computer on all the time? first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Last Monday I posted about how to handle a couple of specific computer emergencies (a spilled drink on your laptop, and a failing hard drive). This week in Part 2, we’ll cover two more emergency situations that require to you take action right away.
Computer emergency #3: Thunderstorm
You’re working at your computer, and you hear a rumble [...] Read more »
The post Computer emergencies – Part 2 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Do you know how you react when suddenly you find yourself in an emergency situation? Some people can think calmly and do what needs to be done in spite of the chaos that may be all around them. Other people freeze up or panic and don’t really know what they should be doing – and [...] Read more »
The post Computer emergencies – Part 1 of 2 first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Sometimes things happen during the routine course of the week, and suddenly I realize – that’s a good topic for a blog post. That’s what happened this past week.
If you’re on Facebook, you know there is a high volume of pure garbage that gets “Liked” and shared. I’m not necessarily talking about content that is [...] Read more »
The post How to authenticate a picture on the internet first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Have you ever gotten a PDF file by email, and you had to sign it and send it back by email? For most people, that process is a real hassle. You have to print the PDF file, then you sign the printed copy, then you have to scan that paper back into a new PDF [...] Read more »
The post How to sign electronically, WITHOUT printing and scanning first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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If you use Windows 8, you have probably become familiar with the thing called the Charms Bar. Or at least you know what it is and where it resides (the right side of your screen). When you put your cursor in the top right corner of the screen, the Charms Bar slides out from the [...] Read more »
The post How to disable the Windows 8 charms bar first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Every once in a while I get a phone call from a frustrated computer user. Their complaint? The volume icon has disappeared! Which means they can’t use the on-screen icon that normally allows them to raise or lower their speaker volume. Where does it go? And more importantly, how do you get it back?
As far [...] Read more »
The post Lost your volume icon? Here’s how to get it back first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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When you create a Word document, you know exactly what you are typing. So, you are obviously in full control of what appears on the pages of that document. But did you know that Word “hides” some information in the document that doesn’t actually appear as text on any of the pages? And this might [...] Read more »
The post How to remove your private info from Word documents first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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You’re on the internet, maybe doing some research, and keeping track of a few different things in various tabs in your browser of choice (probably Chrome or Firefox, maybe even Internet Explorer). You go to click on one of the tabs, and you accidentally click the little “X” at the right edge, and of course [...] Read more »
The post How to get back an accidentally closed browser tab first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
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Update: Unfortunately, since version 2 was released, Malwarebytes is no longer working properly. In fact I have seen on several computers where it is messing up other programs, including my clients’ online file backup software. I am recommending that Malwarebytes be uninstalled. The security software we now use and recommend is here.
“What’s the best antivirus [...] Read more »
The post For computer security, you need these 3 things first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
Download Ashford for WordPress
The Heartbleed bug has been in the news for about a week now so you have probably heard about it, even if you don’t know exactly what it is or what it means for you and your computer security. Today we’ll break it down into simple terms, as well as some recommendations about what action [...] Read more »
The post What to do about the Heartbleed bug first appeared on The Computer Tutor.
Download Ashford for WordPress