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23/5/2020 0 Comments A look at Task Manager for controlling what's running on your Windows computer and what starts up every time
A common query we get at iTandCoffee is how to work out what is slowing down a Windows computer.
Quite often, it is simply the number of processes that are running on the computer - many of which could be starting themselves up automatically every time the computer starts up. So how to you see what these processes are, and 'turn off' any that you don't need?
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I have been asked today whether it is possible to record one or more Tags against Windows files, and then be able to search for files using these tags.
Why would you do this? Think of the example of recipes. Perhaps you have lots of PDF files of recipes that you store on your computer. You perhaps have these recipes organised into a 'Recipes' folder and sub-folders - say, 'Entrees', 'Soups', 'Main Courses', 'Desserts', 'Sauces' folders under the man 'Recipes' folder. But what if you want to be able to easily find all recipes (regardless of what 'Recipes' folder they live in) that are 'Gluten Free'; or all recipes that include 'chicken'; or perhaps recipes that are 'Easy' vs 'Difficult'. This is where you could apply Tags to each recipe file - and the Windows File Explorer search can then be told to look for any files that have one or more of the tags you have applied. Here's how to use Tags on Windows files.  Client Kevin T sent an email with the following question, in relation problems he was having with photos in a strange HEIC format on his Windows computer - photos that had come from his iPhone XR.
21/9/2018 0 Comments Getting rid of unnecessary 'Tiles' in Windows 10 Start - and adding those you want Most Windows 10 computers include a heap of options as 'Tiles' on the Start menu - many that you would rather not see each time you click the Start menu.
I recently did a big tidy up on my own Windows 10 laptop, to get rid of games and other things I am not interested in seeing. I then rearranged and included those apps and features are am going to use most. If you are interested in doing your own tidy up of your Windows 10 Tiles, check out our new members-only tutorial on this topic (for iTandCoffee Club members).  This one is for iTandCoffee Club member William B, who is keen to learn about how to do a Windows backup.
If you are not doing a regular backup of your Windows computer, you may be putting your valuable data and precious photos at risk. A backup offers an insurance policy for if something goes wrong - if your device is lost or stolen, or if you are the victim of a malicious attack on your computer. 13/7/2018 0 Comments How to quickly translate a web page in another language to English - on your computer
In a separate article, we looked at how to translate a non-English web page to English on your mobile device. (Here is that article.)
It is also very easy to do the same thing on a computer. Here's how.  Just this week, a client at iTandCoffee was looking for an easy way to convert web pages from English into his first language, Serbian.
In this article we will look at how easy it is to do this for any web page on your computer. 2/6/2017 0 Comments If you have a product like this on your Windows computer, you should remove it ...I had a visit from my lovely Aunty V this week. Her Windows computer had, recently, been regularly popping up messages saying that she had lots of problems with her computer. A product call Win Tuneup Pro had somehow made its way onto her computer - she's not sure how - and she was concerned about what it was, and whether her computer did have the level of problems reported by Win Tuneup Pro. Googling Win Tuneup Pro comes up with a long list of search results about this product being classified as 'Malware'.  What is Win Tuneup Pro Like MacKeeper on a Mac, these results show that Win Tuneup Pro is classified as an 'adware' product, trying to convince you that you have non-existent problems and that you should pay them money to fix these non-existent problems. The best approach is to remove it! How do you remove a product like this? To remove Win Tuneup Pro, we went to the Control Panel and chose the 'Add or Remove Program' option (Aunty V's computer is still on Windows 7). After finding Win Tuneup Pro in the list of programs, we selected it and chose the 'Uninstall' option. However, the 'uninstall' seemed to 'stall'. How to force the removal of a product like this So we downloaded an excellent product call Malwarebytes and ran it. Malwarebytes is a free product that can remove products like Win Tuneup Pro - products that have been classified as 'malware'. Malwarebytes found all the 'hidden' files and registry entries on Aunty V's computer and 'quarantined' them, so that we could easily delete them. Then, lo and behold, Win Tuneup Pro was gone - finally uninstalled! Where did this product come from? But how did this product make its way onto Aunty V's computer, especially given that she has AVG anti-virus software running on it? Products like Win Tuneup Pro can get onto your computer when you download other free software. They are sometimes bundled with another product, and you don't realise that you have installed more that the product you intended to install. The best approach when downloading free software is to make sure you get it from the maker's website. Sometime when you download software from other sites, you will get a 'bundle' of other software that you did not ask for. (A word of warning though - even free software from the maker's site can sometimes come with 'stowaways'. An example was the free video converter Handbrake, whose download was compromised by hackers recently. This was quickly fixed, but as a user of Handbrake, it was worrying to think how easily one can fall victim to malicious downloads - even when 'playing by the rules'.) Related Handy Hints and Articles
 Just in case you missed all the reports in the press last week, thousands of Windows computers worldwide were impacted by a ransomware attack.
The ransomware was able to infect computers on a network when any user clicked on a suspect link or downloaded an infected file that they received in an email. Here is as article about this attack: WannaCrypt: what you need to know about the global ransomware cyber attack An important thing to note is that the computers that were impacted were those that were not running the latest update to Windows. (Mac computers were not impacted by this attack, nor were Apple mobile devices or Android devices.) Microsoft had already patched the vulnerability that the attackers took advantage of, and released the security update in March. So anyone whose computer was up to date would have been protected. The big question is: How up to date is your own version of Windows? Are you safe from attacks such as this? It might be time to check, and ensure that you install the latest update - and also check that you have current anti-virus protection from Windows Defender or a third-party product. Contact iTandCoffee on 1300 885 420 if you need to make an appointment for assistance with this.  If you have a Windows computer and have been resisting the upgrade to Windows 10, it may be time to think about jumping in and getting this upgrade done. You only have until July 30th to grab this upgrade for free. From July 30th, it will cost you at least $179. I read in The Age today that Microsoft will then be releasing an anniversary upgrade to Windows 10 with many new features. But before you do consider upgrading, have a read of this article from The Age. It provides details of what computers can cope with the upgrade, because not all can. It suggests that, for some people who have older computers, it may be best to leave your old computer alone, and wait until upgrade to a new computer. My own experience with many clients who have upgraded is that older printers and devices have stopped working after the upgrade. This has sometimes just required the download of a new 'driver' or other software. But, in some cases, the device was just not supported by Windows 10, making the 'free' upgrade a bit of a 'false economy'. (If you have an older computer and are considering moving to something newer, make sure you consider whether you really need a computer! For most people, an iPad or other tablet may very well meet your needs. Make sure the check out these options.) Related iTandCoffee Articles and Handy Hints
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