Episodes

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 category codes, you can choose EXACTLY the type of movie you want to watch. You know if you just go to Netflix.com to choose something to watch, you get the standard list of categori...

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, which means it can play audio or video files. It’s made by Apple, but it is commonly seen on both Mac and Windows computers. It used to be very popular and was often used to play m...

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. If they had known this little secret key combination, they probably would have felt less stress and they may have actually gotten some work done. Windows 10 is similar. Microsoft thinks we should be so grate...

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 getting really aggressive about pushing Windows 10 onto computers even when people didn’t want it, they got some strong pushback. And rightly so. Some people, i...

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 how to do this, so that’s what we’ll do today. As a quick review, here are the main things to know about the Send To menu: You get to the Send To menu by right-clicking on a file or folder, then moving your mouse dow...

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 often-used programs right on the desktop for easy access. Just about any file or folder can be “Sent” somewhere. When you right-click on a file or folder, you get a short menu that pops up, and one o...

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 client gets some kind of error message that pops up on their computer, and they don’t know what it means or what to do with it. So they call me. Sometimes by the time they call, the message has disappeared on its own, or they ...

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 Windows 7 since that is still the preferred operating system (in my humble opinion) and it will be supported through January of 2020. But it’s all the better if you can keep your current laptop running well for as lon...

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 harder to read? It’s an interesting phenomenon. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my eyesight changing as I age. Must just be a defect in the computer, right? Of course. I’ve found...

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 to me: The interesting thing here is that this email actually WAS sent from the email account of my friend (for the purpose of this blog post, I’ll call him Steve). Steve either inadvertently revealed his email password at...

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? There are several ways to learn, and today I’ll compare the pros and cons of 5 methods of learning. Learning Method #1: Books If you walk into any Barnes & Noble, you’ll see a big section of books on...

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 you look like a super creative person on social media, this is it. If you have a YouTube channel, or an Instagram account, or a Twitter account, or vi...

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 always have to put that term in quotation marks in reference to Windows 10 because “upgrade” usually implies that what you’re getting is an improvement). He...

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 called “focus”. This basically just means that one window is always “in front of” any other open windows. Whatever window you’re currently working on, that’s the window that is in front ...

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. But now that you’re back home, you have a computer folder full of pictures, and each one has a name like “DCF2016070901.jpg” which of course tells you nothing about the pictures itself. Those pictures – all 1000 of them – ne...

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 on the keyboard as “Ctrl”) does a lot of things that most people aren’t aware of. If you use these shortcuts, it can definitely save you some time. If you’re using a Mac keyboard, I believe the key you would ...

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 you have the most recent version (which is Internet Explorer 11). Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 will no longer be supported – so if your computer still ha...

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 is definitely real, and I’ll bet you didn’t know you could do this. Plus, you can verify it works by trying it yourself. If you use Facebook, you obviously know what a status upda...

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 their homework get higher grades” (study), “pigs do love mud” (study), “weight gain is caused by overeating” (study), and “reading is good for your brain” (study). Well, here’s somet...

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 knows what I’m talking about. These days, you can’t hardly look at the news feed without having to wade through the latest thing that Donald Trump said. Or one of your friends post the results of a quiz that tells them which Disney...

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 up with some ideas on how to save energy and promote a healthier lifestyle. Two of the participants, Sergey Komardenkov and Vihanga Gore (both of whom are much smarter than I am) ...

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 who feel entitled. And last but not least – the Get Windows 10 nag icon in the bottom right corner of Windows 7 and Windows 8 c...

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 easy way for you to reduce the size of that backup, and also save some space on your hard drive. I have a TON of files and folders on my computer, including a lot of pictures and videos. Those types of files take up a...

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 how each of them turned out. Problem #1 was about 2 months ago. Everything seemed to be going along fine, then I started to get the Blue Screen of Death on my computer every so often. Maybe once every 7 to 10 days....