Category: Advice
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Perfect Emojis and a Natural Smile
If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro with Apple’s newer “butterfly switch”-type keyboard, and letters or characters repeat unexpectedly or do not appear or if keys feel sticky or do not respond in a consistent manner, you should check in with an Apple-authorized repair place to see if Apple will replace that keyboard, even…
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Passwords and Private File Syncing
Got a great formula to make your passwords seem more random or tricky? Password hackers love formulas and most any formula you have learned somewhere is included in password cracking software that is easily available. Take seriously the advice of using truly random passwords, with letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, or random words strung together…
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Colors, Updates, Backups and Privacy
Turn Up the Color Noises have colors? They seem to when you are trying to use noise (sounds) to cover up distracting sounds while working. After disabling social media and email alerts, if you find you are still not focusing, try other colors of noise. You know white noise (a combination of all frequencies), but…
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Upgrade Now, Go Gray, Blast Off & More
Microsoft is ending their last way to get a free Windows 10 upgrade, the one where you could claim you needed their “assistive technologies” built into Windows. This free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 ends December 31. If you’ve been holding off but wish to upgrade, do it this month. There is a cute…
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Top Computer Tips for November
If you still use Windows Vista or XP and have been relying on Firefox as your up-to-date web browser, Mozilla has announced that Firefox will no longer be supported and fixed, as Microsoft stopped supporting Vista this past April. Small Scanner Using your smartphone as a scanner is rather easy now with free apps available…
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Edge, Word, Gmail and iPhone News
Resetting web browsers is often a great way to fix issues with your web browsing, resetting takes things back to original conditions. Soon Edge users in Windows 10 will be able to reset that web browser without much difficulty. If you have the recent “Fall Creators” update, one of the most recent big updates to…
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Disable, Reveal, Summarize… and Turn it Off!
By now, you might have an extra computer or laptop lying around the house. Put it to use as your guests’ or grandkids’ computer so you don’t have to worry about changes made to your computer behind your back. It will lessen your stress, as will turning on the guest network feature in your Wi-Fi…
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Travel privacy, Sleeping better, Used or stolen cell phones
Protecting data while travelling can be done in a variety of ways. First, learn how to use your phone as a hotspot, rather than relying on public hotspots. Don’t use those public computers in places you don’t know. Find out what countries will search or demand from your devices and consider not bringing sensitive data…
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Facebook privacy again, Krita, different search, email closings and organizing
Facebook may be finally making it just a bit easier to see all of their settings that control privacy by putting together a Privacy Basics at https://www.facebook.com/about/basics that will lead you into stepping through their Privacy Checkup to see some of your basic settings. Another alternative to Photoshop, that runs on Mac or PC and…
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Tech support scams, iOS magnifier, improve lithium-ion battery life
There is a quick way to “kill” some of those scary tech support scams that pop up on your computer. These are those windows that open up, nearly always from the web, trying to get you to call Microsoft for help. If you can, with the mouse, right-click on the task bar at the bottom…
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Password advice, Lynda training, router setup pointers
Some new rules for passwords come from the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST.) As you make new passwords or change existing ones, don’t just go for the minimum you feel is forced on you, go with such improvements as: use more than eight characters in the password as more is harder to…
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Info on ransom ware, don’t overheat electronics, check mac and ios requirements for upgrades
Ransomware, that malicious infection on your computer that encrypts and holds hostage your data, as affect quite a few businesses. Luckily there is a site that pulls together many of the tools and advice to help if you fall prey to this nasty attack. Check out <nomoreransom.org> and do it before you need to. I…