The old e-mail bag ripped open again this week so let’s open a few letters of general interest and see if there is a solution to the problems.

Long time reader Mike pens, “Skype is offering a free upgrade. They opened a window (which I have seen other times) that asks, "do you want this program to change my computer"? Yes or No. I always say No, which doesn't allow the upgrade, but concerned that if I say Yes I will be messing up my computer and won't know how to correct it. Is this a valid concern?”

This question actually has two components. First there is the upgrade, and the upgrade or update can be from any program currently on our binary buddy or even one that is attempting to install for the first time. Legitimate programs do offer updates from time to time, sometimes to fix a problem or to add features that the program didn’t previously have. Other examples are iTunes, Adobe Reader and more. The second component is our operating system. Every time a program is updated or changed or even installed for the first time, the computer’s operating system, Windows, is going to be changed. New entries will be written to the registry; programs added and uninstall executables added to Programs and Features.  The OS then asks, “Do you want this program to make these changes to the computer?” If we know what the program is, for example Skype, then answer yes and the changes are made. If we say no, then the update, install or upgrade is not completed and we will be asked the same question the next time the program tries to update.

Another e-mail received this week was from Carbonite. This is a company that I use to back up all the files and pictures on my digital domestiques. It can be downloaded and installed from www.bitsandbytesonline.com, just look for the Carbonite logo, click on it and follow the instructions. The e-mail indicated that Carbonite was resetting all the users’ passwords and that we must log in and set a new password. This was not due to a computer hack of Carbonite but a hack of Linkedin a social networking site. Apparently, passwords and user id’s were stolen from Linkedin and as many of us do, some of those credentials were also used as the login information for many other sites as well. Two things to do here, if we use the same password and user id for multiple sites, think about changing them. Also if we receive an e-mail claiming a security issue with one of the companies we do business with telling us to login and reset our password, remember to never ever click on a link in the e-mail to initiate the reset. Go to the site from a browser’s URL. Example: surf to www.mybank.com and reset from there. The e-mail could very likely be a phishing attempt using current news to trick us into clicking on the link and giving up our login credentials.

Keep those cards and letter coming.

Tip Toe through the Tool Tips with Me

Sometimes our computers can seem overwhelming when trying to figure out what button on the screen does what. Time and experience make selection of the correct button fast and easy. When working on a PC a client will comment that I click buttons and open and close windows faster than they can figure out what each one was. That is experience. But for the novice there is a very simple tool built into the Windows operating system to help us navigate around. That same tool is an industry standard and is used by nearly every software company when they write new programs such as a word processor or even a game. This tool is called a ToolTip.
The ToolTip is a common GUI (graphical user interface) element. It activates by hovering the mouse pointer over a button on a tool bar or over a link or picture on a web page. When activated, a small box appears displaying supplementary information regarding the item being hovered over. Let’s try it out. Hold the mouse pointer over the time in the system tray. See the box that pops up with the day, date and year? That is a tooltip. Open Internet Explorer move the mouse over one of the in the toolbar. After a moment or so, a little box appears telling us what that button does. For example: Move the cursor over the reverse arrow icon and a box pops up that telling us that if we click on this button we will reply to an e-mail. Now open your favorite word processor program and move the mouse pointer over one of the many icons on the toolbars. After a moment a box pops up and tells you what it does. That is a ToolTip. Check Spelling, Copy or Paste are just a few of the ToolTips that we can find in MS Word.
Another valuable tool that many people don’t utilize is the ability to open multiple windows and programs at the same time. Right now Word is open as I write this column; Internet Explorer open to research different topics. Windows Live Mail is open so I can read and send mail and Notepad is open for a place to hold partial thoughts and sentences that need polish. But how can I see the windows that are open behind the one I am working in?
If using Windows versions prior to Windows 8 or using the desktop mode in Windows 8.1 we can hold down the ALT key and then tap the TAB key. Every tap of the TAB key will switch screens and allow us to rotate quickly from open program to open program. The window for the program that disappears from our screen, is represented by an icon visible on our taskbar. Now hold the mouse pointer over the icon on the taskbar and a ToolTip appears telling us what program the button represents. To open the window again, click on the taskbar icon. Remember that minimizing the window doesn’t close the program. The program is still running, using system resources and available for immediate use if we need it.
With apologies to Tiny Tim, let’s Tip Toe through the ToolTips.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer eBook: Courtland Nederveld, Valerie Heisey: Kindle Store ASIN: B00EHI14GU

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!: Court Nederveld: 9781456561734: Books ISBN: 1456561731 ISBN-13: 9781456561734

I know what you did last summer!

Creatures of habit. We go to the same restaurants, the same doctor, ditto our auto mechanic. We sleep on the same side of the bed every night, even visit the same websites over and over. Because we do our Internet browser, that’s Internet Explorer for most of us, Firefox, Chrome or Safari for some, remembers where we have gone before. Notice when we start to type an address in the URL address bar a list of sites previously visited is displayed below where we type. This is referred to as our Address and Toolbar History. Most of the time it is a convenient and fast way to get the site we want to go to without having to type the entire address.

But sometimes we want to eliminate some of the addresses in that list. There are several ways to manage the list either individually or remove the list entirely. If using Internet Explorer, open the browser, click on the small down arrow at the end of the address bar. A list of previous addresses will appear. If we hover our mouse over the item we want to delete a small X appears on the line of the address. Click the X and that entry disappears. Want to delete our entire browsing history? Click on the Gear icon and then click on Internet Options. In the dialogue box that opens make sure the General tab is selected and look for an area labeled Browsing History. Now click on Delete. A new box opens. Make sure the check box for History is selected and click on the delete button at the bottom of the window.

If using a public computer or a work computer it might be prudent to click on the Gear icon, Internet Options and in the Browsing History area put a check mark in the box labeled Delete Browsing History on Exit. Now when we finish a session on the Internet and close our browser the history of where we have been is deleted automatically. (Martha, shopping at work?) Or we can choose to open a browser in InPrivate, (Internet Explorer) Incognito, (Chrome) or new private window. (Firefox) These windows retain browsing history only so long as the browser is open.

Firefox, Chrome and Safari have similar processes and if they are not readily apparent, click on help or search for “how do I delete browser history in” which ever browser currently in use

Some readers have asked, “Is a way to print the browser history?” This is of particular use to System Administrators that are tasked with policing Internet use by employees. There is a very simple and useful program called BrowsingHistoryView or BrowsingHistoryView 64-bit for machines using virtually any browser. They can be downloaded for free from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/browsing_history_view.html. Extract the files to a flash drive or the computer itself and run the program. Set the criteria such as how many days back to look. This will generate a list of all the sites the browser has been to and held in Browser History. To print it out, select all entries and save to a .txt file. Open the .txt file and print all or part of the displayed document.

Where have you been surfing?

For some additional reading material check out:

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer

 

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!

URL vs Search in the ring tonight!

A recent column offered a website to download a malicious software removal tool from Microsoft. A few folks commented that they were unable to download the tool for a variety of reasons. The primary reason was inaccurate typing of the

URL. (Universal Resource Locator or the www.abcde.com.) Still another problem was that folks mistook search fields for address bars. This poses all types of problems especially if our binary buddy is compromised.

What is the difference between the URL bar and a search field? Open our favorite browser, doesn’t matter if it is Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox or any other of the myriad of browsers available. For those that swear they don’t have any of these, please open the program used to surf the web. Look carefully at the top of the window, or if using the modern version of Internet Explorer in Windows 8.1 the bottom of the window and find the line that starts with http://. That is the URL and it resides in the Address Bar. This line by default on most browsers performs two functions. If we type in a correct and valid address such as courtnederveld.blogspot.com the Universal Resource Locater will take us directly to that webpage. Miss type the address and the browser will use our default search engine to display possible websites that might be what we are looking for. If our browser has been hijacked by malware, we might even raise an eyebrow over what appears on the screen.

Many of us by choice or subterfuge have a toolbar that has a search field just under the URL address bar or use a home page with a search field built into it. Search means exactly that. We can type a correct website address into a search field and it will not go to the site requested but will bring up a list of sites that might be what we are looking for. In the column referenced folks were typing the website address into a search field and not the URL address bar resulting in a list of possible sites instead of going to the site directly. To compound the problem, not all search engines return the same results.

Example, the Xfinity homepage has a search field “Enhanced by Google,” perform a search with that, then open a second tab go to google.com and repeat the same search in the Google Search field to find that the Xfinity search result differs from the Google results.

To ensure less biased search results, look at the default search engine in our browsers. Internet Explorer-Options- Manage Add-ons then click on search providers. Stick with the major ones such as Bing, Google, Yahoo for example and eliminate any others. Chrome: go to Settings, Search – Manage Search Engines and again stay with the major players. Other browsers will have similar settings available.

Remember: URL it’s where I want to go, search means show me all the possibilities.

Grumbles from the Keyboard

Epicuria Adventures that Really Cook!

Twas’ the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house,
lights flashed on the tower and even the mouse.
The Webcams were ready, installed with great care.
In hopes that grandkids would be virtually there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of computer games danced in their heads;
Mamma in her rocker, a tablet on her lap.
To check Santa’s route on Norads’ tracking map.

Last minute shopping, I knew it would matter,
Receipts from the printer were spit with a clatter.

The e-mails and texts began to beep and flash,
Away to the laptop I flew in a dash,
An e-mail from Santa, I pulled from the cache.
The sleigh was loaded, the springs sitting low
Boxes of computer games, only kids know.
Zombie Tycoon 2 for Tommy, Angry Birds for Sue,
Xbox, Wii, Playstation and Nintendo too.
Neither Mamma nor I had Santa forgot,
A wireless keyboard and mouse in the lot.

From a webcam mounted some far away place
An image so small, across the screen it did race.
What could it be I wondered, what would appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
I toggled the volume and turned it up loud
As his digital facade flew over the clouds

At the speed of Moore’s law his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dell! Now, Gates! Now, Jobs and Wosniak!
On, Bezos! On Ellison! On, Hewlett and Packard!
To the top of the toolbar! The top of the screen!

Now pixels are changing, amazed by it all!
The picture expanded as closer he drew
His exact location surely only he knew.
But Google Street view offered a hopeful clue.
Just a click of the mouse, our house was in view.

With the sleigh full of downloads, upgrades and such
St. Nicholas too, might it be just too much?

The broadband was humming the router secure
A shiny new computer I’m sure will allure
Firewalls open for the jolly red elf.
Presents are coming, surely some for myself.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
A mystery for sure I pondered aloud.
Could Santa be real an answer I vowed.
An Internet search for the jolly St. Nick
“Santa Claus: could he be real” should turn the trick

Pages and pages of results did appear
To read them all might take ‘til Christmas next year.
My eyelids grew heavy then started to droop,
A short nap was needed so I could regroup.

Foggy and confused from my slumber I stirred,

“You’ve got mail,” from the speakers I heard.
An e-mail from Santa’s own smartphone it said,
A tight schedule barred his waking me he pled.
Presents for all under the tree he had spread.
Click here for a live video feed of the sled.

The digital image danced and sparkled bright.
Santa driving his sleigh on its magical flight.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

 

Need a Christmas present for that computer challenged friend?

Available from Amazon.com or Grumblesfromthekeyboard.com

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer

Or just looking for a different kind of cookbook?

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!

Who’s the Manager of this Task?

Windows 8.1 (and 8.0 if it hasn’t been updated) combines two familiar functions into one easy to use program. Task Manager has been a friend of ours since we learned CTRL - ALT – Delete. In addition to the three finger salute we can access Task manager by right clicking on the task bar on the Desktop and choosing Task Manager from the menu or bring out the Charms bar and type task manager in the search field.

The new Task Manager incorporates the Startup display which used to be found in an odd named program called MSCONFIG.

Task Manager is a useful diagnostic tool for troubleshooting slow startups, sluggish PCs or even assisting in maleware removal. There is a large amount of information displayed and organized for easy usage. Let’s look at some features of Task Manager and what we can use them for.

Upon opening Task Manager observe the seven tabs across the top. Click on the Startup tab to display a table of programs that are configured to start when Windows starts. We see the name of the program, the publisher, status and the impact the program has on our computer’s startup. Highlight a program and at the bottom a button becomes active allowing us to enable or disable the program from the Startup. Enable/disable does not mean the program is uninstalled or installed, it tells the program whether it can start when Windows starts or if it has to wait until we click on the icon for the program. Example: We look at the Startup and notice that our Garmin or TomTom updating software starts each time we turn on the computer. But we only update our maps twice a year. It makes sense to disable the software from starting with Windows in order to improve startup time and to free up resources used by a program we need twice a year. If we don’t know what a program on the list is, use a search engine to learn what it is and decide if it needs to start every time or is it something we can start when we need it.

Click on the tab labeled Processes. The list of processes tells us what Apps (programs) are running, which background processes are running and how many Windows processes are in play. Additionally, it displays what percentage of the CPU is being used by each process and the amount of ram memory utilized for each process. If we highlight one of the processes a button at the bottom activates and permits us to end that particular task.

If our digital domestique happens to get extremely slow we can check the processes to see if one program is consuming large amounts of CPU or Memory. If it is we can highlight it and end its misery.

Likewise in order to uninstall software it must be stopped if it is running. We can stop it from Task Manager.

Task Manager, put it in the computer toolbox.

Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer

Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks!