Episodes

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 faster. Sorry, not true. Here are 5 common things these junk programs offer to do: Clean the Registry. Ah, of course, the infamous Windows Registry. Most people don’t even know w...

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 install an HP printer. They use the same subversive methods as a lot of other companies do, in trying to sneak software on to your computer. If you just go through the “default” installation ...

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 of them. 1. Get a copy of everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook For some people, that’s a TON of stuff – photos, videos and status updates. Just click the drop-down menu that shows the “Settings” option, click on that and loo...

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 actually happened back in 2014 – 2 years ago. This means that the 500 million users that were affected by this have gone for two years not even knowing there was a problem. The real ques...

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 it until it says you can go. There’s an easier way! Don’t get me wrong – Windows Updates are important. They are sent out on the second Tuesday of each month, which is called Patch Tuesday because most W...

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 so that in order to be viewed, a password needs to be entered. The program we’re using for this is called AxCrypt, and you can download it at AxCrypt.net. AxCrypt has both a free ver...

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 be password protected. So, for example, if I hand over my laptop to a friend or colleague, I can simple shift my personal files to that folder and then move them back when I need to. Or else, all those f...

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 a problem, so setting up a backup is not very high on their priority list. Those people are likely to have an unpleasant surprise some day. So you can imagine, if they don’t think a backup process is a...

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 exists, unless you know where to look for it. This happened to me a few times before I got wise and started checking it regularly. It would be nice if Facebook popped up some kind of notification that...

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. I’ve done this for years. If you ever set up your computer to use dual monitors, you’ll never go back to one because it’s so nice to have all that space for everything. My left m...

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 website, or your blog, or a Twitter post, what’s the easiest way to find that perfect image? Google image search, of course! I mean, Google has many millions of images indexed so you’re sure to find LOTS of photos that...

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. But here’s how you do it. (Note: the instructions and screenshots here are for Outlook 2016, but they are very similar for Outlook 2013 or 2010. If you are using an older version than that...

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, including the one I use on my own primary computer. For either of these ad blockers, you’ll need to install them as an extension to your web browser(s). That just means it will run as sort of an “add-on” feature of Chrome ...

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 pleasant without all the obnoxious ads in your face all the time (sometimes even obscuring the content). Website owners dislike them because ad-viewing is what brings reven...

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 be working fine, no problem. Then I decide I need to have some kind of small divider in between a couple of paragraphs. Nothing big, just a few dashes to separate those paragraphs. So I hit Enter to go to a new li...

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 computer has a problem, or a window freezes, or just about anything, that’s what you try (or used to try anyway). That 3-key combination had the nickname – it was called the ...

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 30 minutes before work started so I would have time to read the paper and feel like I was up to date on current events. Of course, that was before the age of the internet and the 24 hour news cycle. I haven’t subscribed t...

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 time from people that are surprised to wake up one morning and find that their computer has been “upgraded” against their wishes. As I have written here previously (here), Windows 10 has a built-in func...

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 about all the files you SHOULD be backing up – instead I’ll tell you about a particular type of file that you should NOT back up. Question: What’s worse than having your computer...

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 content that I decide I don’t want to waste my time or thought processes on. For me, one of those things is the constant reminders of my “memories” – the stuff that was on Facebook a year ago or 5 years ago, o...

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 link without knowing where it goes! This is wonderfully illustrated this past week in an email I got from my friend and long-time client Marge. She got an email that was supposedly from Paypal Customer Service, asking her to v...

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 the FREE upgrade to Windows 10 is July 29 – just a couple of months away. It would be silly to pay for Windows 10 (which will probably be $119) if you could have gotten it for free, right? He...

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 more than just find websites and look up information? Google does a TON of things that are interesting, educational and maybe even a little bizarre. Here are three things that you can...

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 next available drive letter. But if you set up a regular backup to a portable USB drive, you need to change the drive letter of that drive first. Here’s why. When you set up a backup that goes to a portable or external hard dr...