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If you find the information TechByter Worldwide provides useful or interesting, please consider a contribution.
The podcast is just a short four minutes this week, with some end-of-year thoughts that range from the pandemic, stores that are beginning to fight Amazon successfully, the importance of donating blood, a quick look at changes you'll see here in January, and a prediction from Microsoft that companies will need to make at least part-time work-from-home options available whenever possible.
Happy Holidays From TechByter Worldwide (And Chloe Cat): TechByter is off this week for the Christmas holiday.
Scammers Are Getting Better; So Must We: The most accomplished software developers work hard to improve their skills. Sadly, this is also true of the best scammers. If you want to protect yourself and your data, it's important to update your skills, too.
Short Circuits: Teaching Your Newborn To Be Bilingual: People who speak more than one language are often more mentally adept, and the best time to learn a language is during the first few years of life. So a Cleveland company working with Children's Hospital in Columbus is developing a way to give children a boost toward bilingualism in their first year.
Mostly Cloudy With A Chance Of Collaboration: Online collaboration was big before the Covid pandemic, became more important during the past two years, and is now an essential function for many office workers.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Clippy makes a return to Windows 11, but not an an annoyance. Clippy, whose real name is Clippit, returns only as an emoji. • Electric vehicles are still a hard sell for people worried about how to charge them, but that's beginning to change. • Twenty years ago: At the end of 2001, I noted that if you wanted a top-of-the-line computer for 2002 -- one with a 2GHz CPU -- you'd probably need to spend $3000 or more.
Adobe's Photo Apps Continue To Improve: All of the apps in Adobe's $10-per-month photo plan received updates at this year's Adobe Max conference, and time-saving artificial intelligence tools continued to lead the way.
Short Circuits: AOMEI Backupper Does More Than Just Back Up Your Computer: Far too many people operate computers without any defined backup system in place. This is unwise, particularly when free backup applications exist.
Covid Self-Test Kits Are Becoming Faster And Less Expensive: Although health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid cover the full cost of Covid tests, you may want the convenience of rapid in-home testing. Some organizations provide them for free, and costs are dropping if you have to pay for a kit.
Spare Parts (only on the website): According to Fakespot, more than 30% of online product reviews are phony. • People looking to stream episodes of the Netflix hit "Squid Game" often end up downloading malware instead. • Twenty years ago: I was cautiously optimistic about the future of big tech trade shows such as PC Expo. That optimism was largely misplaced.
Photos Can Wear A Mask With Exposure X7: Exposure X7 comes with several new ways to create and modify masks. Although that is clearly the most important enhancement in this version, there's lots more to like.
Short Circuits: Using Macros To Save Time And Reduce Errors: Macros help computer users perform tasks easily and accurately, from complex activities that involve multiple applications to simply replacing what are essentially abbreviations with much longer sections of text.
Appreciating Vivaldi's Customizations: The Vivaldi web browser continues to add customizations that make it even more versatile. Let's take a look at just one area, tabs.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The old GM plant at Lordstown, Ohio, is being sold to Foxconn, the company that manufactures IPhones. The goal is still to build electric trucks there. • Adobe's most recent acquisition, Frame.io, is expected to speed the development of videos by providing cloud-based collaborative editing. • Twenty years ago: Apple announced the IPod in October and started selling them in November. Ten years later, they sold the 100 millionth device, and they're still selling IPods today.
Happy Thanksgiving From TechByter Worldwide (And Chloe Cat): TechByter takes a break twice each year. This is one of them.
Installing Windows 11 On Unsupported Hardware: If your computer isn't eligible for Windows 11 but you'd really like to have Windows 11, there are ways to install it on most computers that run Windows 10. Microsoft won't stop you, but they also won't help you.
Short Circuits: Facebook Says It Will End Facial Recognition: Because of privacy concerns, Facebook says it will no longer use facial recognition when users post photos and videos.
Scam Antivirus Warnings Are The Flavor Of The Day: Scammers are sending email messages that tell people their antivirus subscriptions have been renewed for absurdly high prices. They're hoping recipients will call so they can be conned into handing over credit card information.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft's new Power Toys utility has just added a feature that helps users locate the mouse cursor. • Tesla had to push out emergency patches to about 12 thousand cars in late October after a previous update created a problem that could result in unexpected emergency braking. • Twenty years ago: Amazon and NBC had set up a system in which the TV network offered books and CDs related to their shows, and then sent viewers to Amazon. It wasn't exactly a success.
MAXing Out Adobe's Newest Magic: For the second year in a row, the covid pandemic transformed Adobe MAX from an exciting in-person event to an exciting virtual event. We'll take a look at a few of the updates released at Max.
Short Circuits: It's Too Easy To Be The Victim Of A Data Breach: Sometimes, even if you do everything exactly right, you can still be victimized by criminals. A recent edition of Mozilla's Internet Culture blog described a seemingly unlikely series of events.
TrayStatus Adds Useful Information To The Windows Tray: Although most computer keyboards have lights that show the status of Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock, having a notification on the Task bar can be helpful. A free utility displays this information and has several additional features that can make your computing life easier.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft is introducing a new and better Store for Windows 10 and Windows 11 users, and it's better for consumers — not just for Microsoft. • Social engineering continues to be one of the most successful tools that scammers can use. Caution continues to be the primary defense. • Twenty years ago: Digital camera manufacturers were rushing to create the perfect consumer camera — one that would create two-megapixel images and cost no more than $1000. Today you could buy a digital camera with far better resolution for less than $50.
Adjusting The Windows Start Menu To Work The Way You Prefer: The Windows 11 Start menu differs quite a bit in appearance from Windows 10, but those who want to manipulate Start in Windows 11 manually can use the same procedures that worked in Windows 10, but you don't have to. Windows 11 Start finally gets this operation right.
Short Circuits: Is NTFS The Right Choice For All Your Computer's Disk Drives? Anyone who owns a Windows computer has at least one disk drive that's formatted as NTFS, but is this the right file system for other connected devices?
System Ninja Is A Helpful Free Utility: I'm a fan of utility applications. Recently I encountered System Ninja, which appears deceptively simply but comes with a lot of power even though it's free.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The governor of Missouri says he wants to sue the St. Louis Post-Dispatch because the newspaper alerted the state to a security problem and then printed the story. • Shoppers are worried that supply chain and delivery delays will create problems with holiday gifts this year, so some started shopping in early October. • Twenty years ago: Iomega's high-capacity backup disks were hot, but the market was about to start cooling.
Text Editors Are Useful Even For Non-Programmers: Software developers use text editors all day, every day. These applications are also useful for examining text in executable files and dynamic link libraries, but writers can use them, too, and there are good reasons for doing so.
Short Circuits: Check A Few Settings After The Windows 11 Update: Microsoft started pushing Windows 11 updates out to computers almost four weeks ago, so it may already be on your computer. Perhaps you've intentionally delayed it, or maybe your computer doesn't support Windows 11.
Will You Leave Facebook? Last week's main article had some tips for making Facebook more palatable. Maybe that information was insufficient and you really want to leave. Are you ready to leave Facebook in the dust?
Spare Parts (only on the website): According to a New York Times article, Facebook is moving to restrict access to some of its internal discussion groups. • Most malware, and ransomware in particular, come from the former Soviet countries. That's probably not a surprise, but The Guardian has a worthwhile report. • Twenty years ago: Windows XP and Apple's OSX 10.1 were both released about the same time.
Using Facebook For Your Advantage, Not Mark Zuckerberg's: People occasionally latch onto an urban legend that Facebooks will no longer be "free" and say that they'll stop using it if it's not free. The truth is Facebook has never been "free". Users pay by being exposed to seemingly limitless adds. There are ways to eliminate some Facebook annoyances and this week we'll take a look.
Short Circuits: Keeping Sleepy Disk Drives Alive: Sometimes a disk drive on a computer will doze off. Although Windows has settings that should keep this from happening, the settings don't always work. Fortunately, there's a little utility called KeepAliveHD that works flawlessly.
Email Subjects That Should Activate Skepticism: Advertisers know that a couple of dozen words are highly effective in ads. That's why so many ads read as if they were written by a single person. Scam emails have similar characteristics, too, because crooks have learned that some words generate responses.
Spare Parts (only on the website): A quick look at a transparent scam — one that's beyond laughable. • A survey says that more than 80% of workers like the idea of automation. Do you buy that? • Twenty years ago: USB 2.0 had just been released, and it was considerably faster than the original.
Manage Your Computer's Disk Drives with AOMEI Partition Assistant: Windows includes a Disk Management application that can be used to define partitions, create logical drives, format drives, change drive letters, and more. But that's not always enough.
Short Circuits: Windows 11 Makes Radical Improvements To Settings: The Settings app was introduced with Windows 8 as a replacement for the Control Panel, 9 years ago. Microsoft has improved and expanded Settings and the migration of features is nearly complete with Windows 11. Don't look for the Control Panel to disappear, though.
Cutting The Cable, How It's Going Two Months Later: Two months ago, I described the process of eliminating cable television service from my internet service provider. Now seemed a good time to assess the changes.
Spare Parts (only on the website): YouTube at last has decided to block anti-vaccine videos and ban accounts of the idiots who claim the vaccines that have saved lives for nearly a century are dangerous. • Holiday shopping for high-tech devices may be derailed this year by a shortage of computer chips, so maybe you'll have to go low-tech instead. • Twenty years ago: The Palm Pilot was hot in 2001. Everybody wanted one. Then smart phones arrived, and personal digital assistants became unnecessary.
Password Managers Versus Two-Factor Authentication: Maybe you've heard that Microsoft is doing away with passwords, and that's true, but don't kick your password manager to the curb just yet. And if you're already using an authenticator application, you'll probably still need it, too. Passwords are slowly being replaced by better alternatives.
Short Circuits: Slow Internet Speed Might Not Be The ISP's Fault: Part of the process of dropping television service from our internet service provider included increasing the internet speed from 100Mbps down and 10 Mbps up to 500Mbps/50Mbps. Speed tests routinely reported about half the expected speed, and I thought that Wide Open West simply wasn’t delivering what was being promised. That turned out not to be the case and the cause was surprising.
Maybe Your Voice Can Authenticate You: This week's lead section covered two-factor authentication and touched on facial recognition and fingerprints, but those aren't the only biometric authenticators. Voice authentication might be the future.
Spare Parts (only on the website): How much time do you spend removing junk applications from a new computer? Probably more than you should, yet manufacturers insist on bundling unwanted bits with their new systems. • A bit less than 600 days ago, before we were aware of what would become the covid pandemic, government agencies at all levels had security problems. Today it's worse. • Twenty years ago: Many modem manufacturers had gone out of business, but MultiTech persisted by developing systems for the future.
Picking A Central Processing Unit For Your New Computer: The central processing unit (CPU) is an important part of the computer. Maybe THE most important part, except for all the other parts, of course. If you're planning to build or buy a new computer, you'll probably start by looking a the specifications for the CPU.
Short Circuits: Buying A Cable Modem Instead Of Renting One: Whether you've cut the cable for television service or not, there are other ways to save money on your cable bill. You'll need a modem, but not necessarily the one provided by your internet service provider. The savings aren't as dramatic as those that accrue from dropping television service, but more than $300 per year will pay for a nice night out.
How Would You Respond To This Call? Scammers use every communications medium available to steal your money or to steal your identity and then steal your money. Email, instant messages, and phone calls are the most common choices, but occasionally crooks use postal mail and even faxes. Let's listen to a call I received telling me my computer was in danger and consider why I disconnected the call.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Linux turned 30 in August, but I have stopped asking if this is the year of Linux. Anyone who uses the internet uses Linux every day, but don't expect it to take over the desktop anytime soon. Or ever. • After weeks of research, tinkering, and muttering, I have definitively found the cause of the problem that caused my primary computer to crash repeatedly. I should have figured it out sooner. • Twenty years ago: If you think computers are frustrating today, I have a story from 2001 that you may find to be reminiscent of problems you faced back then.
Searching With Precision: Google is the search engine that has the highest usage, but that doesn't mean it's is always the right search engine to use. DuckDuckGo has been growing in popularity, but is still small. And other search engines exist that might sometimes be better choices.
Short Circuits: Dealing With Threats From "Your" Email Address: Significant numbers of people have been separated from $1000 or more when they fell for what should have been a laughable scam. Crooks claim to have taken over your computer and for "proof" they send you an email from your own computer. Or so they say. It's a fraud, of course.
Fixing Microsoft's Dumbest Word Annoyance: Over the years, Microsoft has built a lot of annoyances into Word. It's not all Microsoft's fault because uses ask for features that no word processor should have and Microsoft adds them. Although many of the annoyances are easy to fix, one requires far too much effort to fix.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft has a function that tries to prevent users from installing unwanted apps, but now it's turned on by default. • Command line functions may seem like remnants of the ancient past, but several are handy and even those who have never used a command line can benefit from them. • Twenty years ago: I was ecstatic when thinking about replacing an old-style CRT monitor with a "huge" 18-inch flat-panel monitor.
Serif Boosts Performance For Affinity Apps: Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher from British software publisher Serif continue to get better. Significant performance improvements are delivered with version 1.10 of the tightly integrated applications. Let's take a look.
Short Circuits: Keeping A Computer Cool And Calm: Last week I described the process of finally locating a problem that caused my primary computer to power off abruptly and without warning. The final conclusion was that the CPU was exceeding thermal junction maximum (TJmax) and, instead of throttling back, the CPU was simply halting. That was most of the story, but (as usual) there's more.
Mirrorless Cameras Are Poised To Take Over: Single lens reflex (SLR) cameras began to catch on with serious photographers in the 1960s because they were small and light. Because smart phones have built-in cameras, digital SLRs are seen as too big, too bulky, and too heavy. But there are options.
Spare Parts (only on the website): It's official: Windows 11 will start being deployed to eligible computers on 5 October, but the phased process won't be complete until the middle of next year. • Readers can choose ebooks or printed books. Each choice has certain advantages and a lot of people plan to stick with physical books. • Twenty years ago: I was in Boston on 11 September 2001. Being unable to go anywhere, we continued with the Corel World conference and I tried to figure out how to get home when the event ended.
Finding A Most Elusive Computer Problem: When your computer has a serious problem and you think you've found the solution, but then the problem re-emerges, there's only one choice: Keep looking. I thought I had found the root cause of an elusive problem in June after several weeks of tinkering. Eventually I did find it, and I'm embarrassed that I didn't look there first.
Short Circuits: Taking A Computer's Temperature To Research A Problem: Heat is the enemy of every electronic device. It can cause premature failure, but it's an issue that's easily overlooked. Even worse, when you've identified heat as the problem, finding a way to drop the temperature isn't an easy task.
Poking Around In Windows 11: Are you looking forward to Windows 11 or dreading it? Windows 11 has specific hardware requirements that a lot of current computers don't meet. I've been working with Windows 11 on a touch-screen tablet for a while. There's a lot that remains the same, some improvements, and a few changes that I do not like.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The dangers of supply chain attacks aren't limited to businesses; even home computer users can be caught in malware from scammers. • Virtual reality headsets. Facebook thinks users should wear them. Are you in or out? • Twenty years ago: Digital Equipment Corporation had been absorbed by Compaq in 1998, and I was wondering if anyone still remembered the one-time leader in minicomputers.
Trying The Vivaldi Browser: I've been using the Vivaldi browser exclusively for a few weeks. It's based on Chromium, but has a lot of extra features. Although Vivaldi doesn't have a large market share, it's worth looking at, particularly if you like the ability to modify how the browser works.
Short Circuits: Looking At The Work Of A Not So Bright Scammer: No matter how many protective applications are installed on your computer, the final line of defense is still you. Knowing when not to click something, when not to call a phone number, and when to simply delete a message is essential. Sometimes the scam is obvious; sometimes it’s well crafted. And sometimes it’s somewhere in the middle, with a clever trick or two on a heap of nonsense. We'll look at one of those.
Backup & Sync From Google Will Soon Be Drive For Desktop: Users of Android and IOS devices have had Google Drive for quite some time and users of desktop Windows or MacOS systems have had Backup & Sync from Google. Google will be eliminating Backup & Sync after deploying Drive for Desktop.
Spare Parts (only on the website): There are several ways to store your vaccination record on a smart phone, and any of the options will be better than carrying the CDC card around. • Companies want more and more of our personal data, but we consumers are beginning to push back. • Twenty years ago: It looked like the "new media" would be driven by "old media", but a lot has changed since 2001.
Delaying Some Startup Applications Speeds Computer Startup: Windows starts a lot of processes and services at boot time, and some of the applications you've installed may add more. Each of these takes a certain amount of time to start, and bottlenecks can occur when multiple applications try to start simultaneously. Forcing some applications to wait a bit can improve performance.
Short Circuits: Data Voids Are Hazardous To Your Security: Searching for information about a new event can sometimes lead to what's called a "data void" in search engines. Only a few results may be returned, and some of the links may take your browser to a malicious site.
Forty Years Later, A Bit Of Computer Nostalgia: The IBM PC was released on August 12, 1981, and started the process of changing just about everything. Anyone who is 40 or younger has not known a time without personal computers. Apple was selling home computers even earlier, but IBM was what got those big clunky beige boxes into offices.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The computer chip shortage that's affected automobile and computer manufacturing is now causing problems for smart phone makers. • I ordered a new computer in December 1988. It was a remarkable device, an 80286 computer that could be upgraded to use an 80386 processor. It was from Wells American. And it crashed, but not the way you think. There's a story behind that. • Twenty years ago: It looked like Bluetooth technology had a future, but it was off to a slow start.
Dumping A Cable TV Provider: I'm late to the cable cutting trend, but I started looking seriously at the options when my internet service provider hiked the price by more than 40% in July. It was time to get rid of cable television. The process turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be.
Short Circuits: Setting Up A TV Streaming Device And A Streaming Service: Continuing the cable cutting theme, I'll describe the process of optimizing a Roku streaming device and organizing the Fubo streaming service. Roku offers some streaming options, but most of the streaming channels, programs, and motion pictures we'll watch will be served by Fubo.
Discontinuing Television Service From Your Internet Service Provider: The process of discontinuing any service has become arduous because top management often mandates that "customer service" representatives cannot take no for an answer. Dropping television service from my internet account was surprisingly easy.
Spare Parts (only on the website): There are lots of hidden features that come with video streaming, so I'll mention a few that seem useful. • Trying to avoid what seemed like a difficult project kept me connected to cable television for too long. If you're wary of the work involved, let me refer you to a few websites that can help. • Twenty years ago: Egghead, which closed all of its stores in 1998 and became Egghead.com, went out of business in 2001 and sold assets to Fry's.
Dealing With Spam And Scams By Ignoring Them: It was bad enough when we had to deal with plain old spam, but now there are phony messages from "banks" from scammers purporting to be Amazon or Ebay, every delivery service on the planet, airlines, and even government agencies. There is a way to eliminate this stuff before it gets onto your computer.
Short Circuits: You Can't Detect Malware That Isn't There: Criminals have found a new way to make everyone's online life just a bit harder. Now they can deliver malware in a way that makes it invisible to protective applications.
A New Windows Power Toys App Hints At New Features: The Microsoft PowerToys app has been around since Windows 95. Starting with Vista, there were no changes for more than a decade, but a new iteration adds useful features that may eventually be incorporated into Windows.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Windows 11 might be released in October, or not. Bleeping Computer tries to read tea leaves in Microsoft messages. • If you ever need to find your Windows product key and can't locate the documentation or a label, there's an easy way to ask the computer for it. • Twenty years ago: High-speed internet without wires wasn't high speed by today's standards. Metricom's Ricochet service was one of the first to try, but it never really got off the ground.
Checking For Spyware On Your Computer: Much has been written about spyware recently because spyware from the NSO Group was been found on smart phones owned by world leaders and journalists. It's not just phones that are at risk, though, and it's not just world leaders and journalists.
Short Circuits: Maybe You Need A Bigger Camera: When film was king, the highest quality images were created by professionals who used cameras that generated large negatives. Maybe you've heard of medium-format digital cameras and think you need one. Hold that thought.
The Liars Are Winning: If disinformation wasn't bad enough, now we have deepfake videos that can appear to be legitimate and real. "The camera doesn't lie" was never true, but now it's even easier to lie. Do you think you can spot a fake? Some are so good that you probably can't. So now what?
Spare Parts (only on the website): Solid-state disk drives are fast and small, but we shouldn't count mechanical drives out just yet. Some gigantic drives are on the horizon. • Those who have monitors and video subsystems that support high dynamic range will enjoy improved brightness, color, and contrast when they enable it in Windows. • Twenty years ago: The internet wasn't in every restaurant, store, and coffee shop, but McDonald's had started introducing it in some stores at $6 per hour.
Fix Context Menus with The Glary Context Menu Manager: Right-clicking a file, directory, or disk drive displays what Microsoft calls a context menu that offers actions you might want to take with the object. It's a relatively sparse list initially, but a lot of applications add actions that you might not want. The context menu can be changed.
Short Circuits: Windows 11 — Just Looking: This will be the first of an indeterminate number of comments about the forthcoming Windows 11. I've been looking at the initial preview release. There are bugs. There are missing features. But there's enough present to begin to understand where Microsoft is going with this significant update.
5G Small Cells Will Be Everywhere Within 10 Years: Much of the promise of 5G cellular technology is based on the presumption that it will be ubiquitous. For that to happen, providers will need to install what are called "small cells" — lots of them. IDTechX research suggests 45 million such small cells in the next decade.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Spyware is nasty stuff, but it's here to stay. • In the not too distant future, you might be able to order a hamburger that doesn't require a cow to be slaughtered and yet isn't made from plants. Say hello to "cultured meat". • Twenty years ago: I was introduced to DiskOnKey at Showstoppers, a program that wasn't part of PC Expo but ran one evening during the big show. DiskOnKey was what we would later call a thumb drive, and it was revolutionary.
Windows 11 Is Coming, Ready Or Not: Microsoft says Windows 11 is on the way, but not all computers that run Windows 10 will be able to run Windows 11. The first preview is out for those in the Windows Insider Dev Channel, so let's take a look.
Short Circuits: 5G Systems Are Rolling Toward Dominance: 4G cellular systems became the dominant technology in just a few years, and it looks like adoption of 5G will be even faster.
There Are Bugs! Should We Be Waiting For Perfection? Should software developers wait until the code is perfect before releasing operating systems or applications? Short answer: No.
Spare Parts (only on the website): An executive order from the president aims to make it easier for consumers to get faulty devices repaired, to re-establish Net Neutrality, and to address several other consumer issues. • If you feel like your company is demanding that you do more in less time, you're not alone. • Twenty years ago: Online grocer Webvan had just announced that it had laid off its remaining 2000 employees, shut down, and would file for bankruptcy. Nobody wanted to buy groceries online back then. What a difference 20 years and a pandemic make!
Glary Utilities 5 Might Be The Best Way To Clean Your Computer: Perhaps you've used CCleaner for years to clean your computer, but Glary Utilities looks like a better choice. Let's see what it can do.
Short Circuits: Computer Protection Continues To Evolve: No matter what hardware, software, and firmware developers invent to protect the data stored on our computers, criminals will find a way to defeat it. Windows 11 will require that certain hardware-based security components be present and active, but there's still a need for other measures.
MVNO — Cellular Plans That Save Money: If asked to name the top cellular providers, you'd probably name Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T, but there are other providers and you might get both lower costs and better service with one you may never have heard of.
Spare Parts (only on the website): A column in the New York Times asks why Microsoft didn't put itself out of business with a series of bad moves. The proposed answer is interesting. • Have you received a "vishing" call or email? Not "phishing", but "vishing". It's just another danger to watch out for. • Twenty years ago: Bluetooth had been in development for a while and it was beginning to take off in 2001. Frost & Sullivan's UK branch said 4.2 million products using Bluetooth technology would be shipped to market by the end of the year. They predicted that number would exceed one billion by 2006. Did it happen?
When Windows Search Is Insufficient, Send In Agent Ransack: If you've ever tried to find a file that you're certain is on the computer but not in a location you remember, you may have used a built-in search function. There's a better choice. Agent Ransack is free for personal or commercial use.
Short Circuits: Same Old Scams In New Boxes: Scammers are inventive, but there are only so many basic types of scams. Cons involving untold riches from Nigerian princes, dishonest bank managers, long-lost relatives, and dying widows of rich businessmen have pretty much run their course. But they have new packages for some old scams.
One Reason For Moving The Task Bar To The Top Of The Screen: The Task bar on most Windows computers is at the bottom of the screen, where Microsoft's software developers thought it should be. That was the only location allowed for a long time, but now it can be placed at the top, on the left, or on the right in addition to its default location at the bottom. Why? Let's consider that.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Western Digital My Book Live devices, which haven't been produced for the last six years, are in danger of being compromised. • Upgrading to Windows 11 may require a visit to the computer's BIOS settings and some computers don't have a security chip that will be required for the new version of the operating system. • Twenty years ago: I've always enjoyed the irony that, after spending a week at PC Expo in New York City, I bought a Mac to bring home.
Built-In Alternatives To Separate Windows Applications: I'm a big fan of little utility programs because they usually do just one job, but do it very well. Windows 10 has a lot of built-in functions that you can use instead of spending time, and possibly money, installing extra applications. I have a few examples.
Short Circuits: Security: Is That Website Legitimate? Crooks will do anything to mislead you, including making websites that look like sites operated by banks and businesses. Now it's easy for them to create realistic looking domain names by using letters from other languages that look like English letterforms.
Uploading Files The Hard Way (Or Why Free Built-In Functions Aren't Always Best): Because Windows provides a lot of built-in functions that take the place of separate applications, you might be wondering when to use an application instead of a built-in function. Sometimes it's just a case of personal preference.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Microsoft has plans for Windows 11 and the panic among some users is both palpable and silly. • When internet speeds seem slow, your ISP will probably insist that you use their speed text, but getting second, third, and fourth opinions can be helpful. • Twenty years ago: There were predictions that France's Minitel system would soon be replaced by the internet. It was eventually, but not until 2012.
Tracking Down A Bizarre Problem Scientifically: Tracking down problems with a computer is usually a multi-step process of developing conjectures that lead to hypotheses and eventually to a valid theory. The first conjecture is sometimes right, but more often it's not. I'll describe a recent puzzler.
Short Circuits: What If You Become A Ransomware Victim? In an earlier segment of this series of reports on security, I noted that ransomware is less of a threat to individuals than it used to be. "Less of a threat" doesn't mean "no threat", so let's consider what happens if your computer is attacked.
Firefox Is Still The Preferred Browser By About 6% Of Users In The United States: A decade ago, Firefox had a solid 30% market share, but it's now below 10%. Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers have about 90% of the market, but Firefox still has a loyal following.
Spare Parts (only on the website): A global computer chip shortage is creating havoc in the automotive industry and elsewhere, but missteps by car and truck manufacturers have made the problem worse for them. • I found a picture of what was probably my first portable computer from 1988. It's on display. • Twenty years ago: PC Expo had just concluded. The dot-com implosion made the show a lot smaller, but darker times were coming.
Maybe It's Time To Improve Your Photography Game: Just about everybody walks around with a camera in their pocket or purse. Do big SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses still serve any purpose? They do, of course, but the landscape has changed.Today we'll consider the options.
Short Circuits: Security: Avoiding Drive-By Website Attacks: A few weeks ago, we learned that the FBI managed to claw back about half of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline to ransomware pirates in Russia. That's good news, but the problem hasn't been solved by any means and there are few hopeful signs. Caution is paramount.
The End Of Internet Explorer, Finally! The official end of life for Microsoft's Internet Explorer is coming, but it's still a year in the future. All support will end for Internet Explorer on 15 June 2022, so now the browser is forgotten but not yet gone. The first version of Edge will be supported for a while, but Microsoft would really like you to start using the new Chromium-based Edge.
Spare Parts (only on the website): A global computer chip shortage is creating havoc in the automotive industry and elsewhere, but missteps by car and truck manufacturers have made the problem worse for them. • I found a picture of what was probably my first portable computer from 1988. It's on display. • Twenty years ago: PC Expo had just concluded. The dot-com implosion made the show a lot smaller, but darker times were coming.
For Critical Tasks, Sometimes You Have To Pay Less: Computer users can choose from a variety of applications for just about every task, but sometimes the best choice can be an application for which the developer asks only a donation, and sometimes one that's provided for free without even a donation request. Let's consider some of those.
Short Circuits: Nobody Likes PUPs: This is not an anti-dog message — just another in the series of security posts. This week it's about potentially unwanted programs (PUP). PUPs are also known as PUAs (potentially unwanted applications). No matter what you call them, they're bad news.
The Power Of Collective Complaining: What can you do when your internet connection becomes so inconsistent that it's virtually unusable and the ISP's level-one technicians are so uninformed that they simply blow off complaints? That's where collective complaining can help.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The covid pandemic was a disaster, no matter how you look at it, but some people managed to update their skills during the past year. • Version 89 of Firefox, released at the end of May, has a more modern appearance, faster operation, and improved security. • Twenty years ago: I was amazed by being able to talk to my older daughter in Columbus while I was heading for San Ysidro from San Diego on a trolley. That would still be unusual today because seemingly only a few people actually use mobile phones to make phone calls.
Camtasia 2021 Adds Powerful Features For Smart Looking Videos: TechSmith has been providing applications that people who prepare documentation or instructional information need since 1990. Camtasia is an essential tool for anyone who creates how-to videos, online product demonstrations, video lessons, or presentations. The 2021 version adds some powerful new features.
Short Circuits: Avoiding Adware. Malware, And Other Nasties: The 2020 State of Malware report by Malwarebytes says that social engineering, cryptomining, and ransomware are being targeted more at business and government targets than at home users because the crooks get a bigger payout from those larger targets. After all, Colonial Pipeline paid ransomware hackers $5 million so that it could regain its data and resume operations. But individuals are also being targeted.
Reliving 1960 Thanks To The Library: Although the technology link might be a bit week, let's consider a television program that had time travel even before Doctor Who and still has a loyal following nearly 60 years after its last episode aired.
Spare Parts (only on the website): As we begin to shed some pandemic precautions, it appears that consumers want retail stores to continue delivery, online purchases with curbside pick-up, and other conveniences that became common in the past year. • Possibly another result of the pandemic is that now more individuals and families are budgeting income and expenses. • Twenty years ago: A new program called IncrediMail had just launched, and it represented a new way to send messages.
A Clever Concept Ruined By Ignorant Firmware Design: Buying a $200 film scanner doesn't come without risk, I wanted something that would make quick work of some old medium-format film and this cheap scanner would have done an acceptable job if the designers had done the right thing.
Short Circuits: Protecting Your Computer And Your Data: The first in a series of security posts will consider steps you can take to safeguard a Wi-Fi router.
Maybe You'd Prefer to Wait For Windows 10 21H1: Microsoft has released Windows 10 version 21H1, but waiting a month or two before installing it seems wise.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Where you live has some effect on the internet speed you can get. The United States is below normal overall, and there are wide variances within the country. • There's a new data breach seemingly about every other day, so it's important to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised and, if so, to take protective actions. • Twenty years ago: Voice recognition in 2001 was still new and some systems involved having humans transcribe speech.
When You Are The Support Department For Friends And Family: Those who know more about how computers work than their friends and family do are often called on to answer questions and provide help. Helping even nearby friends can be a problem because social distancing is still recommended, but if that person is halfway across the country, you need a way to see what's on your friend's computer.
Short Circuits: Would You Follow A Link In This Message? Spams and scams fascinate me and the approach I take with them often involves analysis of where a scammy email has come from and where links would take someone who clicks the link. Few people will want to take that much time to analyze something even if they know how. As I told a friend who got sucked in to a scam involving his bank, any email must be assumed to be a con until it proves that it's not.
You Probably Have A Scanner In Your Pocket: Making copies of documents is a lot easier than it used to be. Many people have printers at home that have scanner functions and also work as a copier and even as a fax machine. Remember fax? Whether you have a multi-function printer or not, there's another option.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Adobe Creative Cloud users who also use Google Docs or Google Slides in Google Workspace will find that the systems now connect with each other. • When the PR people forget to check with the technicians, embarrassing mistakes can happen such as that in a recent email from the Mozilla Foundation • Twenty years ago: Both Gateway and Juno had just settled with the Federal Trade Commission over use of the word "free".
Taking A Closer Look At Photoshop's Neural Filters: Adobe Photoshop's Neural Filters have been in place for about six months and more will probably be added at or before this year's Adobe Max. These are tools that can perform effects that are close to magic.
Short Circuits: Using Your Senses To Complement Diagnostic Utilities: As important as diagnostic utilities are for figuring out what's wrong with a computer, sometimes lower-tech tools help, too. Sight, sound, and smell can provide early warnings about problems.
One Unexpectedly Important Computer Accessory: Continuing that low-tech line of thought, being comfortable when using a computer depends on things we rarely give much thought to.
Spare Parts (only on the website): When spaces between the keys on a keyboard fill with junk, you can pull out the keys and vacuum the space below, but there's another option you may not have considered. • A shortage of computer chips will result in more dirty dogs, fewer new automobiles, and a variety of other unanticipated and seemingly unrelated problems. • Twenty years ago: Linux was one of the featured products at the 2001 edition of PC Expo. I was preparing to attend what would be the last of the big shows.
Block Google FLoC Tracking With A DuckDuckGo Chrome Extension: Google is eliminating support for third-party cookies by the Chrome browser, but are they replacing it with something that's even worse?
Short Circuits: Stop Asking To Send Me Notifications! Some website developers seem to enjoy creating new ways to annoy site visitors. Pop-ups offer to send notifications and websites don't always comply when you tell them to stop displaying the notices. Most browsers make it possible to turn them off permanently.
Limited Stock Images Available For Free From Adobe Stock: Adobe Stock is one of the most comprehensive sources of photos, templates, video, and audio tracks. The prices generally are reasonable, but Adobe has acquired virtually all of the stock services that provide the least expensive images. But now Adobe offers some free selections.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Having digital copies of medical IDs on a phone will helpful if you need care when your wallet has been lost or stolen, but it's even better if you have the information online where you can retrieve it from any computer. Good security is essential. • It's likely that hybrid education will continue for a while, and many businesses seemingly have no plans to ever restore full-time in-office requirements for employees. • Twenty years ago: Following the dot-com melt-down, there were some encouraging signs for high tech, but no shortage of problems remained.
Using Social Fixer To Fix Facebook Frustrations: Despite its many useful features, Facebook includes a plethora of dangers, frustrations, and annoyances. A browser plug-in has been making Facebook less annoying for years, a new version works with Facebook's latest updates, and the developer had hoped to design an app that would bring some of the features to phones and tablets.
Short Circuits: Fabulous Speed Increase? Have you seen a flurry of recent articles that promise big speed increases if you edit the Windows Registry to change a default setting? I'll start with the spoiler: Don't expect much change. But let's take a look at what happened when I gave it a try.
The Oldest And Most Dangerous Internet Technology Is 50 Years Old: Email has been with us for 50 years. As the most common vector for malware and spam, it is a constant irritant but email continues to be useful even if it's not always welcome. There's nothing in sight that's likely to replace email.
Spare Parts (only on the website): In an effort to become an important player in medical computing, Microsoft is acquiring Nuance. • A survey suggests that about half of US students are concerned about school safety and the ability of school administrators to deal with threats. • Twenty years ago: A small organization in Toronto launched Naked News. It's still around, but most of the news has been replaced by feature stories and there are no longer weather reports.
5G Will Be Fast, But Progress Is Slow: Approximately three quarters of the US population has access to some variant of 5G coverage. All services that are billed as 5G aren't the same, and Russia continues to spread disinformation about 5G aimed at slowing adoption in the Unites States.
Short Circuits: DeepL Translate Takes On Google Translate: Encountering a website or a comment written in a language we are unable to read can be frustrating, and Google Translate steps up to provide translations that, while not perfect, may at least be sufficient to determine the general intent of the writer. But there's a competing service from Germany.
The Origin Of “Microsoft Gets It Right On The Third Try”: Once there was an aphorism about Microsoft: "They get it right on the third try." Part of that may be traced back to 1992 and Windows 3.1 even though Microsoft hadn't quite gotten it "right" with Windows 3.0 in 1990.
Spare Parts (only on the website): It's possible to marginally improve a Windows 10 computer's speed with changes to some of the system settings. The improvements are usually modest, but perceptible. • It's questionable whether offices will ever be fully populated again, but collaboration spaces may be the next step for workers. • Twenty years ago: 3Com was in serious trouble and had begun the death spiral that saw it being acquired by HP about eight years later.
How To Recover If Your Facebook Account Has Been Cloned: When somebody tells you that they've received a new friend request from you on Facebook and you know you haven't sent one, you may think your account has been hacked. That's probably not the case. The account has probably been cloned, and that problem is easy to fix.
Short Circuits: Scammers Target Even Police Facebook Pages: Would you be surprised to learn that scammers target people who follow a police department's Facebook page? That seems like something that should be a surprise, but of course it isn't. Let's investigate.
We Are Still Awaiting The Paperless Office: There was a lot of talk about the "paperless office" about the time personal computers started showing up in offices. If anything, most offices used more paper as a result of replacing typewriters with computers; but maybe we're finally making some progress.
Spare Parts (only on the website): LastPass has severely limited the usability of its free service, but some of the competing programs are still free. • Comcast's Internet Essentials program for low-income families now has more than 10 million users. • Twenty years ago: It was time for networking the computers at my house. Even though I wasn't on the leading edge, setting up a home network then was a lot harder than it is today.
What To Look For In A Solid State Drive To Replace A Mechanical Drive: If you're tired of waiting for your computer, one of the best ways to improve performance is to replace the existing mechanical hard drive with a solid-state drive, but what should you look for and how important are the specifications?
Short Circuits: Not Every Feature Microsoft Thinks Users Should Have Is Worth Having: Windows includes a lot of useful utilities and apps, but some useless and possibly annoying components are included, too. At the top of that list is Internet Explorer. You can easily dump it.
Signing Up For The National Institutes Of Health All of Us Program: The National Institutes of Health's All of Us program is a long-term research project that's aimed at finding ways to improve our health. They're looking for one million volunteers and maybe you'll find the prospects as interesting as I did.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Consumer Reports magazine accuses Comcast of taking unfair advantage of subscribers who are working from home. • Microsoft is renovating part of its huge campus in Redmond, Washington, and all heating and cooling needs will be served by deep underground wells. • Twenty years ago: AT&T was offering an "unlimited" internet plan for $7 per month, but the company defined "unlimited" as 150 hours per month.
Key Steps For Data And Identity Security: Security threat surround us.The internet is a wonderful thing, but it's also a terrible thing. It connects us, but it also makes it easy for those who want to divide us to spread false information. And theft no longer has to be done in person. Someone halfway around the planet can use your computer to spread spam and malware, to collect information needed to assume your identity, and to extract money from your bank account. Vigilance is the solution.
Short Circuits: Buying A New Monitor For Your Computer: When it's time to replace your computer's monitor, you might be looking for something larger than what you have now. And then you encounter sticker shock. Televisions with similar specifications cost less, so you wonder if they might work.
CPU Temperatures Aren't Constant And Shouldn't Be: Perhaps you use an application such as Speccy, SpeedFan, HardwareInfo, or any of several other applications that keep an eye on what's going on inside the computer. If so, you may have wondered why each core in the central processing unit reports a different temperature and why the readings vary so much over time.
Spare Parts (only on the website): If you're considering a Windows S Mode computer, be sure that you understand the limitations, and if you have one of these computers, there's a way to remove the restrictions if you find them too limiting. • Buying Apple products you see on Instagram might be dangerous. Beware fakes and counterfeit devices. • Twenty years ago: Typefaces on websites were limited to about half a dozen that were present on all computers, but Bitstream was trying to change that.
Maybe It's Time For Every Vehicle To Have A Dash Cam: If your car doesn't have a dash cam, maybe it's time to add one. Even good models are reasonably priced now, so let's consider which features to look for. The goal is for the camera to be an objective witness in the event of a collision, but I've used it for other purposes.
Short Circuits: The Case For (And Against) A $6000 Digital Camera: Leica's $6000 Q2 Monochrom digital camera captures 47MB raw images. There is also a Q2 digital camera that costs $1000 less. What's the difference, why should you care, and do you need one?
Large Trade Shows: Severely Wounded, Maybe Dead: PC Expo filled New York's Javits Convention Center every year through the 1990s. Then came the 9/11 attacks, travel restrictions, the dot-com implosion, and the collapse of many trade shows. About the time some big shows were displaying signs of life, the covid pandemic arrived.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Now there's a new threat to security: Smart sex toys. There's a story I didn't see coming, but security vendor Eset says it really is a thing. • IPad users just got access to the all-in-one Microsoft Office app that includes the ability to create and edit Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF documents — even for users who don't have an Office 365 subscription. • Twenty years ago: The dot-com disaster was well underway, but most people hadn't even noticed.
7000 Magazines & Newspapers On Your Computer, Maybe For Free: Anyone who's fond of print journalism might like to have immediate access to seven thousand or so newspapers and magazines. You can, and for just $30 per month. Or maybe for free. Let's look into that "free" part.
Short Circuits: Photoshop Camera Continues To Spread Fun: Not every photograph must be a work of art. Sometimes they can just be fun, and that seems to be the primary reason for Adobe's Photoshop Camera. If your phone is compatible, you'll be amazed by what can be accomplished without a computer.
Goofing Off For Better Security? Security firm Kaspersky Labs claims that more than eight in ten workers spend up to five hours per week watching YouTube, listening to podcasts, or exercising during work hours, and maybe they're doing their employers a favor.
Spare Parts (only on the website): After more than three decades as one of the nation's premiere in-person electronics stores, Fry's has closed it 31 locations in the west and south. • Microsoft would like you to allow the company to listen to what you tell Cortana. The objective is to improve voice recognition technology. • Twenty years ago: GPS devices were just beginning to become available, but they were expensive. Apps for personal digital assistants foreshadowed today's smart phones with built-in GPS. Primitive as the old devices were, they seemed amazing at the time.
Good Reasons To Use DuckDuckGo: If you're thinking about using DuckDuckGo to hide your activity from Google but you use any other Google services, don't bother. DuckDuckGo has some worthwhile features, though, and many people who give it a try find that some of those features make it a better choice. Let's look.
Short Circuits: Kroger Data Breach Exploited Supply Chain Vendors: No matter how strong a company's defenses are, there's one attack vector they have minimal control over: Organizations that they buy from, the "supply chain". Many of these outside vendors have at least some access to the company's computers.
You Might Not Need To Replace Those Old Headphones: Anybody who uses headphones knows that they need to be replaced occasionally. I thought that might be necessary, but replacing just the earpads for one fifth the cost of new headphones made me happy. Replacing the pads was easy and that made the savings even better.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Have you reviewed your backup plan recently? Being prepared for trouble is a lot better than having to replace important data. • Carat browsing is available in all major browsers. I'll explain how you can use it and why you probably never will. • Twenty years ago: I was hoping that electronic books would soon be as easy to use as printed books. We're not there yet.
Serif's Affinity Applications Continue To Challenge: A British software publisher with fewer than 100 employees seems to be challenging Adobe with its 20,000 or so employees worldwide. The planet is large enough for both and each organization has useful features to offer its clients.
Short Circuits: Enjoying The Magic Of Wikipedia: If you have a print version of an encyclopedia at home, you're unusual. Even Britannica no longer publishes books, and Wikipedia has largely taken over.
Scam Artists Continue To Do Their Worst: The faces presented by scam emails change, but the underlying procedures have remained largely unchanged for decades. Spam filters and protective applications may help, but they won't fully protect you. Intelligence, skepticism, and a bit of paranoia are required. Let's take a look at a couple of lame and laughable scam attempts that will still doubtless fool some people.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Windows 10 can allow computers on your local network to obtain updates from your computer. If that creates a problem for you, there's a fix. • If Watson isn't the most famous Doctor, then Who is. You may have seen that joke on the internet, and the answer is "YES". If you're trying to watch Doctor Who on DVDs, you may feel that the BBC is making the task harder. The answer is also "YES". • Twenty years ago: The Palm Pilot crushed Windows CE devices, the first step in Microsoft's ongoing lack of success with handheld devices.
The Easiest Way You'll Ever Find To Share Files: Sharing files can be made needlessly complex, but most people prefer simple and easy to complex and difficult. Using a service such as Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive makes the process easy.
Short Circuits: Vertical Tabs For Firefox, Chrome, And Other Browsers: Last week, I mentioned one of the new features that's built in to Microsoft's new Edge browser. Vertical tabs are not a built-in feature for Firefox or Chrome, but add-ons are available to make them available.
Advanced Sharing Options For Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, And Fresco: Following the installation of Adobe Creative Cloud updates on 9 February, users may have noticed a new icon on the user interface for Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fresco. The icon appears in the upper right corner and shows a silhouette with a plus sign, and it provides a quick way to allow others to work with and modify the image.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Covid vaccine means office workers may soon be able to go back to their offices, but will they want to? • Probably there is no company that has done more to eliminate the need for paper than Google, and yet Google Senior User Experience Researcher Corbin Cunningham has written on Google's blog about the magic of paper. • Twenty years ago: We are approaching the end of a year in which distance learning became essential for all colleges, high schools, and even primary schools. In 2001 it was a new and exciting concept.
Passwords Are Still Our Primary Defense: Strong passwords are essential to the safety of your data, and there are lots of techniques for creating good ones. This week, we'll look at some ways to create and secure good passwords, and one of the first steps involves using a password manager.
Short Circuits: Microsoft Edge Continues To Improve: Microsoft's web browsers haven't exactly been the most loved applications, but the new Blink-based Microsoft Edge appears to be Microsoft's first really compatible browser.
No More Pen Envy For Chromebook Users: Chromebook users who have wished that Wacom would make a pen for use with their computers have had their wish granted, and the One by Wacom tablet that works with Windows and MacOS computers has now been upgraded to also work with Chromebooks.
Spare Parts (only on the website): If you want to be a better photographer, take more pictures. That's easy advice to give, but more difficult to follow. It does work, though. • Does your Windows computer sometimes switch from a 5GHz network to a slower 2.4GHz connection? There's an easy solution. • Twenty years ago: We were all anxiously awaiting Windows XP, which would prove to be the most significant advance for Windows since Windows 95.
Some Forty-Year-Old Technology Is Still Useful: Those who are old enough to remember computers that ran DOS or CP/M will also remember, and perhaps fondly, batch files that could be used to automate repetitive tasks. Batch files still have good uses, so we'll take a deep look at one that you might want to implement.
Short Circuits: Improving TV Sound With New Speakers: Although I watch very little television, I do watch a lot of motion pictures on DVDs. The television, a Samsung model that I bought in 2014, has decent speakers, but dialog can be a problem. Recently I found a solution.
Spare Parts (only on the website): The Windows Taskbar can get crowded if you often have many applications open or pin a lot of icons to it. Not everything Microsoft puts on the Taskbar by default needs to be there, and it's easy to dump the items you don't need. • If you've ever had a computer report that a Secure Digital card is locked, fixing the problem is usually quick and easy. • Twenty years ago: Visual Basic scripting attacks were common, and I suggested a couple of rules that guaranteed safety. They still apply.
Converting Old Family Photos To Digital Files: In a few recent programs that have dealt with photo applications, I've used some old family photos. So if you have some old family photos lying around, you might be wondering what options you have to digitize them. There are lots of possibilities.
Short Circuits: Comparing Three Options For Scanning Images When You Have Prints And Negatives: Three primary options are available for digitizing images when you have both prints and negatives. The two variables are time and quality. Scanning prints is fast, but the quality is less than what you'll get with a good film scanner. A dedicated film scanner offers the best quality, but film scans take more time.
Have You Turned It Off And Back On? Have you ever wondered why that is almost always the first question tech support people ask? The answer, of course, is because doing that solves a lot of problems. But why does it work?
Spare Parts (only on the website): Ever wonder who invented the computer or the internet? The answer is invariably complex because in most cases, it wasn't just one person. • With vaccines slowly becoming available to protect against covid, we're beginning to consider how we might keep surfaces clean in the future, and technology may help. • Twenty years ago: American Express was trying to create an online service called AmexOL.net. It was one of many such services destined to die.
Artificial Intelligence: New Power For Skylum's Luminar Photo Processor: Luminar AI from Skylum adds artificial intelligence to the company's photo processing application and reduces the complexity of the user interface.
Short Circuits: Using Desktop Icons To Shut Down Or Restart Windows: Normally shutting down or restarting Windows is done from the Power option in the Start menu, but there are times when having those options as icons on the Desktop can be helpful.
Why Are There So Many Microsoft Visual C++ Files On My Computer? That's a question that may have occurred to you if you've ever scrolled through the Apps & Features section of Windows 10 Settings, looking for an application to delete. You may know that Visual C++ is a programming language and, if you're not a programmer, possibly you've wondered what these applications are doing on your computer.
Spare Parts (only on the website): There may be a pandemic that's keeping us from gathering in even small numbers, and limiting interactions to electronic meetings, but research by Adobe says that creativity is accelerating. • Realtor.com suggests there's a shift away from beachfront property to locations in the mountains for those who can afford a second house. There is a technology link to this story. • Twenty years ago: Remember receiving America OnLine disks and CDs that were mailed, stuffed into magazines, and handed out by the millions? I do.
What To Do With An Old Computer: If you've recently bought a new computer, or plan to buy a new computer soon, you may be wondering what to do with the old one. There are many options, and the worst possible choice would be to put it in the trash. Let's consider better options.
Short Circuits: Adding A Fast Cache Drive: Last week, I described the process of replacing the solid-state boot drive in a computer with a larger drive. I had wanted to use the old M.2 solid-state drive as a device for fast caching of data for photo, video, and audio files. The computer didn't recognize the M.2 drive after I installed the new SSD. There's a quick, easy solution.
Cutting Back On Spam: If you're trying to get rid of spam, maybe you've thought of changing your email address. There are other steps you might consider, but a better path involves an application that examines email before it gets to your computer so that it can flag suspected scams.
Spare Parts (only on the website): It's easy enough to rename the boot drive on a Windows computer, but there are good reasons why you shouldn't. • I ran across some ancient history a week or so ago. In June, it will be 26 years since I spent a week at New York City's Javits Center for PC Expo -- Windows 95 was about to be released. I have pictures. • Twenty years ago: Amazon still hadn't turned a profit. That's hard to imagine, isn't it?
Turning A Simple Task Into A Multi-Day Project: Sometimes it's possible to turn what should be a quick, easy task into a frustrating multi-day adventure. Usually this happens because of incomplete planning, and yes I do have an example.
Short Circuits: Sorting Out Weird Problems: Shortly after the first of January, I started having screen problems. The left screen would go black and the only way to recover involved rebooting the computer. Troubleshooting a strange problem can take time. Hardware and software like to drop red herrings that confuse the troubleshooter, but everything makes perfect sense once you figure it out.
Avoiding Scams By Being Skeptical: There's a lot of concern expressed for older people who may be targets for scams. Although it's true that scammers often target older people, recommendations for seniors also may apply to younger people. There are defenses against the dark arts.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Taking a few minutes to run diagnostic tests on a schedule can give early warnings about hardware problems that would otherwise be unpleasant surprises. • Firefox has added a new HTTPS-Only mode that forces all website connections to be secure if the website supports security, and it warns you if the site doesn't. • Twenty years ago: Macromedia acquired Allaire to gain full access to its text editor for use in Dreamweaver, and Macromedia was acquired by Adobe five years later.
Planning To Buy A New Computer In 2021? If you're thinking about buying a new computer in 2021, it's important to think about what's inside the computer and about what you need the computer to do.
Short Circuits: Beware Vaccination Scams: Now that vaccinations are available for Covid-19 and the politicians who claimed the pandemic was phony are elbowing their way to the front of the line, the scammers aren't far behind.
Microsoft Almost Fixes A Logout Problem: Windows 10 users have been complaining for several months about having to repeatedly enter their password in Outlook and other Microsoft 365 applications. Although Microsoft hasn't yet fixed the problem, they now offer a workaround.
Spare Parts (only on the website): Say what you will about Microsoft, but the company earns high marks from its employees for diversity. • Google's new Chromecast device finally comes with a remote control. • Twenty years ago: Corel tried to port its applications to Mac computers, and to call that effort an utter disaster would be needlessly kind.
Patch My PC Or Ninite? Some applications update themselves, but many don't. A utility called Patch My PC can help with more than 300 programs that may be installed on your Windows computer.
Short Circuits: Pantone's Color Of The Year: This year's Pantone color of the year is actually two colors. I'll explain the reasoning for that and we'll take a look at Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow.
Big Sur Comes To A Mac Near You: The latest version of the MacOS, Big Sur, adds features, fixes problems, and creates problems.
Spare Parts (only on the website): If your Windows computer is still running version 1809, it's time to update it. • For the first time in its more than 50-year history, the Consumer Electronics Show goes fully virtual this year. • Twenty years ago: Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator were batting for supremacy, but Netscape was already entering what would become a death spiral.