Windows 8 beware of RT

Hey Everyone,
Well you will be waking up this morning to all the hype about the release of Windows 8. It is now available for general sale. There are a few versions of the new operating system, but the two main differences are Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Windows RT is a version that is made for the mobile device market ie: Tablets, of which Microsoft is actually releasing one of their own called the "Surface". The problem with RT is that it only runs with the "Metro" style of  Windows 8, which is the new tiles look, it does not work with any of the previous programs that you may have purchase for any windows products. This may prove to be a problem when you start using it for every day activities and it won't let you run addons that some web sites require, or open a particular file that you don't have an app for. Obviously all of this will improve as time goes by, but this is Microsoft's first step into what it sees as the future and as yet doesn't quite have the app store full of the required or the "wanted" apps to back it up.
There are other brands of Tablets available running Windows 8 RT as well, but if you are planning to purchase one, don't be told by the sales person that it can do anything and everything.

Windows 8 itself has copped a bit of flack for going away from the traditional style of windows to this new "Metro" style tiled interface. However with only the press of the keys you will get  back to the traditional desktop if that is what you desire, however this is still minus the "start button" in the left hand corner that we are all used to. I have been using the preview version of Windows 8 for a little while now, and find it to be really good.

Take the time to actually watch an online clip or read a tutorial to learn the basics, it is actually quite easy and quite intuitive to use if you leave your mind open to it. You can fully customize the tiles you have on your desktop to present to you the items you think are important. The mail tile for instance, will show a preview of your emails as they arrive. You can set your tiles into different groups if you wish, it really is a highly customizable interface and a lot of fun to play with.

There are rumours of very good deals from Microsoft to upgrade your Windows 7 of  Vista operating system to the latest, I have heard the price of  $40 dollars being thrown around, but I haven't heard anything confirmed for Australia yet. If you have just purchase a machine recently I have been told by one local computer shop that it will cost you $16 dollars to upgrade to the latest.

I guess what I am saying is yes, Windows 8 looks very different, but don't be afraid of it, iPads and iPhones were different too, but everyone embraced them!. Take the time to actually learn it rather than just pressing buttons madly and getting frustrated and giving up, remember hitting the windows key will always get you back to the home screen, and the windows key and q will open a search box, and  the windows key and d will get you to the desktop interface. Here is a link to some of the  Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

So embrace the new, have fun, and be wary of Windows RT at this early stage.

Latest iPhone and iOS talk

Hi everyone

Well it is a very busy time in the tech world with new releases and new updates. The biggest of course is the release of the iPhone 5, a release which a lot of people deem to be an anti climax.

There has not been an enormous change in design as in the past number changes. The new model is longer, thinner and much lighter, but has maintained the same width, apple states the reason for this is to retain ease of use with your fingers and thumbs.

The display is still the high quality retina display that was introduced in the 4s, but now will fit a an extra row of icons on top. The front facing camera has been upgraded, while the rear camera remains the same as the last model, but benefits from improvements to the software via iOS 6. The biggest improvement is the speed of the phone due to a processor upgrade, and from all reports this is a major improvement

.

The iPhone now comes with LTE, LTE enables the phone to link to the 4G network when it is available, and connect with much faster speeds. One feature that the phone did not come with, is NFC (near field communication). NFC allows you to use your phone to swipe at locations, this feature can use this to check in, pay, or whatever the check in patch/sensor is programmed to do. This is a very strange move by apple, not to include this in its latest offering, as all of its competitors have this feature, as will the soon to be released Windows 8 phone with its flagship phone the Nokia Lumia.

A major change has been made to the connectivity of the iPhone 5 with a new style plug in the bottom, it has gone from a the old 30pin plug to a new proprietary "lightning adapter" 8 pin plug. There is an adapter available for the old plug to the new (one comes with the phone), but it isn't cheap at just a tad over $30. The adapter is not compatible in all situations however, for instance it does not work in the BMW motor vehicle, also don't be tricked into "cheap" adapters as it is thought that the adapter actually needs a chip in it to work correctly, hence the price tag.

The iOS 6 upgrade is copping a lot of flack due to a change from Google maps to apple maps, with apple maps reported to be falling well short of the mark. Below is a link to all the features of the new operating system, how to use them, it also contains instructions on how to go back to using Google maps on your iPhone 5

http://howto.cnet.com/ios-6-complete-guide/?ttag=gpwl

I would suggest carefully reading through this story and deciding if the upgrade to iOS 6 is warranted by you if you are currently using an earlier model of the iPhone, particularly if you are using an iPhone 4 or earlier that does not use Siri, and will not benefit from the improvements made to Siri's capabilities.

Till next time, Remember, always think before you click when you are online

Don't alway trust the experts

Hi Everyone

I received a very distressed phone call from a friends sister last week, she had a very reputable home help computer company (that she regularly used) upgrade her PC and operating system. This lady is not a computer person at all, and is totally at the mercy of what she is told by the expert. One thing that she did continue to tell him but, was that her her 10 years of accounting records were of the utmost importance and very valuable. He asked haven't you got any backups? to which her response was "I don't know! that's what I pay you for"

This lady was supplied a new PC with the latest operating system, and the latest version of her accounting software installed, the expert in the mean time had told her that she could dispose of her old PC as long as she kept the hard drive. (This lady is a clean, tidy freak, and the thought of an unnecessary "old computer" occupying space was an annoyance). 

It is at this point in time that things went south, I am not privy to the method that the expert used to try and bring her accounting files into the new machine, but he was unable to do so with success. Accessing the old hard drive did not help at all, although the files could be seen they were not able to be retrieved. The expert simply told her they were "corrupt" and that was it, he couldn't help her.

The biggest mistake in this whole process was that the old working computer was discarded before the new system was up and running and all the data was accessible. If it was kept, this lady would still have a working version of all her data. The next mistake I believe was that the expert didn't do enough research into the correct procedure for updating the data to the latest version of the accounting software.

I advised her to stop them from playing with her data any further and cut her losses with them, as the more they played with the data the more damaged it may become. 

I tried to access her old hard drive but I just kept getting "No Operating System Found". So, Long story short, after 2 whole days work and lots of patience I was able to retrieve her data and update it for her. The last option available was to send the files into the Accounting Software Vendor's data retrieval team, this would have run out to a small fortune in cost.

My other issue with this expert, is that they failed to take ownership for a problem that I feel was clearly their fault. The customer should have been given more help than hands thrown in the air and told its corrupt. When they returned her hard drive, they left it at her front door and left without speaking to her!

The big lesson here apart from the old "Backup Backup", is that if your data is really important to you, always maintain a working version of it somewhere. If I help anyone upgrade to a new PC, I always leave the old system intact for at least 1 month, or at least maintain a working (virtual) version of that system.

Your Online life destroyed in Minutes!!

Hi Everyone
There was a big event in the IT world last week, a major identity in this world had his whole online life wiped out in the space of less than an half an hour!. Mat Honan is a senior reporter for Gizmodo and a former contributing editor for Wired magazine, last week he had his whole online life destroyed "just because" they thought it would be cool to have his 3 letter twitter name @mat.

The attack was both the fault of Mat using convenience over cautiousness, and the lax processes of some of the major identities in the world, and I mean Major!!. These processes have been since been reviewed and some have been rectified, so at least some good has come of this event.

Some faults in Mat's behavior that made it easy for the hackers, was to use the same name for every email account, for example  billsmith@gmail.com, billsmith@live.com, billsmith@me.com. This makes it too easy for attackers to guess your user account name even thought some letters were obscured. Mat also failed to activate second factor authentication when it was available, because it was more convenient not to!. Lastly Mat broke the Golden Rule and didn't have his life memories backed up.

This is a rough timeline of the attack

• 4.50 a password reset confirmation arrives in icloud mailbox  (they can now access his iCloud mail)
• 4.52 a gmail pass recovery email arrives in his iCloud mailbox (they now have a password to his GMail) 
• 4.54 Google account was Reset
• 5.00 Wiped his iPhone using "find my phone"
• 5.01 Wiped his iPad using "find my" app
• 5.02 Twitter account reset and owned
• 5.05 Wiped his Macbook using "find my" app (lost his entire life photos of his little girl)

Wow!!

One major fault was that it seems Apple let the attackers reset the account by just supplying a name, a billing address, and the last 4 numbers of a credit card. Have you noticed that a lot of other sites openly display the last 4 numbers of the credit card linked to your account, because they feel they are not really giving anything away.
How many people do you give your address and credit card number to when you are shopping? All these people had the ability to take over your online life if they choose to.

Another Fault was that the employee at Amazon didn't seem too worried about security details when the attackers rung them wanting to "add" a credit card to the account, it seems that bogus credit card numbers that pass the entry algorithms are easily available online. The attacker then rings back and says they cant access their email account anymore and by supplying a name, billing address and the credit card details "they" just supplied! they are given the permission to add a new email address to the account, they then go to the Amazon account, press the "lost password" tab and send a password reset to the email they just supplied!!

Wow!!

Have a think about this people, and have a think about your online world and how it is all linked to each other, secondly think about what is more of a hassle, taking an extra 10 seconds to login to somewhere, or having to recover your whole online world, and repairing damage caused by hijacked social media accounts.

The whole story can be read here at  http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/ if you can take the time to read it, it will scare you!

The Solution is in front of your eyes

Hi everyone, sometimes the answer to your problem on your PC is right in front of your eyes but you are not seeing it. Many people can feel a bit daunted when they are presented with a screen full of writing or a box that pops up, and they press what every button they can to get out of there or get to the next screen.
Try and take the time and slowly read what you are presented with, and I mean really read it! don't just skim through looking for any words that make sense to you. Often you will be able to get some understanding of what it is trying to tell you.

An example of this exact issue presented it self to me last week. I got a call from a friend asking my advice on a particular computer to buy for her daughter, as she only wanted to get her a cheap one. I know the current laptop this girl has and it is a good quality one, so I asked why they wanted to replace it and was told that it is performing very slowly. I suggested that before they go and spend any unnecessary money, to give it to me and I would see what I could do with it. When they dropped it off to me the daughter also told me that when she starts it up, she is greeted with a black screen full of white writing and she has to press a key before she can move on and use the laptop.
Later that day when I fired up the laptop I was in fact presented with this screen, but when I took the time to read what it said, instead of just looking for which button to hit to move on, the writing actually told me that the power supply connected to the laptop is less than 90watts and this may cause the computer to run or perform very slowly and also may not fully charge the battery. I then recalled that a month earlier they had replaced the power supply due to a faulty lead.

A quick search online found the correct power supply for $40, I still gave the PC a quick clean up, but I am sure when the power supply arrives, the PC will perform just fine.

So take the time to read the writing in front of you, it might actually be telling you the answer to your problems and save you your hard earned dollars.

Do you know what you can do with your tv?

I always have friends and family saying to me that a friend told them that they can do this or that with their TV or DVD or Tbox, and I think "Yeah" that's easy.
There is so much you can do with your devices and gadgets these days in the way of linking them up or watching different types of media on them.
I hear people say " I want to get a smart TV", so I ask them what is it they actually want to do with the smart TV, sometimes all they want to do is catch up on missed TV shows or watch You Tube!.

Basically the TVs we have these days are a massive computer monitor with a built in TV tuner, and they come with a multitude of connections on the back, we all have a DVD player or some sort of box hooked up, whether it be a Foxtell box, a Tbox, or a set top box. A lot of people aren't aware, but most of the devices these days come with a network connection (RJ45, your normal network lead) and also usually have a USB plug, a HDMI plug and sometimes even a card reader slot. Did you know you can use the USB input on your devices to plug in your USB drive and look at photos or watch movies that are on the drive, and the same for card readers. Some TVs you can even put a USB drive in and record TV programs to it. Ocassionally the USB slot may only be to perform Software updates, but this not very common.

Another great option is that if your DVD player has a network input, you are normally able to access the Internet and places like You Tube and watch them on your TV. If your DVD is plugged into your home router, it becomes part of your home network and you can access computers on that network and watch clips and movies that are on them!. All that is involved is to enable home network sharing on your computers,  that allows the DVD to see the movies or clips on the other devices.

Something else that is very easy to do, is to connect a laptop to your TV, most laptops have a HDMI out put and most TVs and a HDMI input, so just connect the two and suddenly your big screen tv is now your big screen computer, I have an old laptop under my DVD I set it so it wont go to sleep with the lid shut, and have a wireless keyboard and mouse that sits under my coffee table!. To easy!
Your DVD and/or box will have an HDMI output as well, it all depends how many devices you are connecting as to which leads you use for which.

HDMI port

HDMI Cables

Don't be fooled or conned into buying big dollar HDMI cables, its not like the old days where dearer cables were better quality than cheap ones. Have a good search around online and only pay somewhere around the $10 mark for a cable instead of the $30-$40 that some people tell you that you need. Of course it the cable is a really long one, the price will be dearer.

 Windows 7 has a great function of seeking out other windows7 devices on the network and sharing between them, you will find it under "Homegroup" in the control panel or just type Homegroup into the run box. This makes sharing things from any computer to your laptop that is connected to your TV very easy.

Of course there are a lot of products out there specifically designed for sharing and transmitting media over your network, Or getting Internet to your TV, but before you rush out and spend your hard earned money, have a good look at the connections on the back of your device and explore your options. If you are not sure don't be afraid to ask, or like I always say, just type into google exactly what you are thinking, and see what it comes up with.

The latest from the tech world

Hello Every One, It has been a big week in tech with new products being released, here is a rundown on the major items.

Apple held their WWDC keynote this week, releasing details of their new products. They have unveiled the new Mac Book Pro, which now sports the famous "retina display", however this laptop once labelled as the "user serviceable laptop" is now moving away from that label.

Technology company "Ifixit" have already dismantled one, and noted that this latest model can not even have extra ram added, as the ram is now soldered in. The battery is glued in, making replacement risky of damaging near by components, and there are special screws used to eliminate removal of parts by just anybody. In short you need to decide what you want when you order, because the only part upgradeable is the SSD hard drive. With a 512gb hard drive fitted, It has a price tag of around $2800 which will surely eliminate "buying just to have the latest" buyers. Apples "tower" computers are only getting a processor upgrade this year.

The New IOS 6 mobile operating system has been announced, it will now contain more control of how you take your calls and respond to missed calls, free turn by turn direction function with traffic updates, 3d fly over mapping, and photo to emails, it will also bring Siri to iPad 3. However IOS 6 will not work on iPad 1, iPhone 3, and certain functions will not work on iPhone 3gs, 4, and iPad 2, so It would be wise to do some research before you upgrade to the latest system, and make sure you will actually benefit from the update. This is inline with Apples tendency to not look after older products and force the purchase of later models.

There will be an update to the Lion software to Mountain lion in July, this will add iCloud and its functions, safer downloading, dictation, and ability to for the computer to update while it is sleeping.

Still no word on the new iPhone, but the rumors are predicting a Sept/Oct release.

The SamSung Gallaxie S3 has been released, with a quad core processor, a 4.8 inch HD screen, and functions like smart burst, where it shoots off 8 photos and then chooses the best photo, it has Panoramic Picture where you hold the button on and scan the camera around, it then stitches all the photos together into one image in an instant.The phone also comes with the ability of the screen to know when you are looking at it, so it will stay bright until you are finished.

Windows8 is getting closer to public release, there is still a mixed reception to the trial versions of the release, with a lot of die hard Windows users not taking to kindly to the removal of the start button. Many claim that this is a tablet operating system and that business will bypass  Windows8 just like they did with Vista. With Windows XP on the countdown to end of support, Windows7 is likely to be the new Windows XP of the business and mainstream market. This will be very interesting to watch play out, as new products will come shipped with Windows8 once it is released, will we see the trend to "downgrade" your new device like we did when Vista came out.
So that's a small snippet of what the major players are up to, I will keep you posted

The amazing Internet

Hey Everyone,
I know a lot about how the Internet works, but when I saw this video, I was once again blown away and realized how much we do take for granted the amazing service we use everyday. Its mind boggling  that so many people use the Internet and our web pages are still delivered so reliably.
This video is made for the average non techie person, so please take the time to watch it, and of course if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Hope you all have a great weekend.

http://worldsciencefestival.com/videos/there_and_back_again_a_packets_tale

Keyboard shortcut, and what is "Ram"

Hey!, A nice light back to basic lesson, and a quick tip this week. 

I am not a huge user of keyboard shortcuts, but a few that I do use are to copy, cut and paste. The most common way that newer users perform these functions is to highlight the text they want to work with, then left click on the mouse and select either copy, cut or paste from the drop down menu.

A much faster way that you can do this is to select and highlight the text you want to work with, and then press the control key "Ctr" and the "c" key at the same time to 'copy' the text, or press the "Ctr" key and the "x" key at the same time to 'cut' the text, next click on where you want to place the new text, and press the "Ctr" key and the "v" key at the same time, to 'paste' the text back in. These are known as keyboard shortcuts, and once you get to know them and get in the habit of using them, they make your tasks much faster and easier.

The big talk when buying a new computer, laptop, of even a tablet is, how much "Ram" it has. So what is Ram exactly and what does it do?

Ram is what they call "Working Memory", that means that when you boot your device up, it takes everything it needs to work with' and loads it into the Ram for easy and quick access.

An easy way to understand this, is to imagine that you are going to cook a cake.

Well when you start, you go to your pantry and get all the ingredients, bowls, and utensils you need for the cake and put them out on your bench so that everything is with in your reach and easy to access, this will make mixing the cake a lot quicker and easier.

Well your ram is like the bench, it is your working area, and the more you are cooking or the more complicated the recipe is, the more bench space you need to fit everything on comfortably. Once you run out of bench space you have to walk to your pantry and look for what you want amongst all the other items, find it, and then find some more space to work , this will slow the whole cooking process down.

So to sum all that up, your Ram stores all the ingredients for your computing tasks, and if you are doing tasks like working with large pictures of video, these are the equivalent to having a complicated recipe, and require a lot more Ram. If you don't have enough Ram the processor has to go to the hard drive and find what you need, then make some space on the hard drive to use, this slows the whole process right down.

Depending on how you use your device, normally 2 gigabytes of Ram will be sufficient for your requirements, but if you are a heavy user and have a lot of programs open at the one time, or work a lot with video processing, you may want to increase this to 4 gigabytes. Some of the latest systems are coming out with 8 gigabytes, but the average user will never get the benefit of this much, and you  need to have a certain model of your operating system before it will recognize this much Ram.

I hope this makes sense to you and helps you to understand a bit more of the jargon behind your PC.

What makes a virus and how is it found

Hey everyone! One of the things I struggled with when I first started learning about computers was, what makes a virus, and how does an antivirus know them when it sees them. It still is very hard to understand some of them! especially because there are new and more sophisticated ones being created every day. A virus is different to an exploit, an exploit is when someone finds a weakness or a hole in a legitimate program or system that allows them to gain control of of the system. However both rely on a system being kept up to date for protection.

Viruses are just another program really, they are lines of code that are created to perform a task, unfortunately the task is mostly an undesirable one, and the program that is the virus, is snuck onto your device with out your permission. Virus is a very broad term, there are many different types, Malware, Spyware, Trojan, Rootkits, Worms, but for the purpose of this blog we will keep referring to them by the blanket term of virus. Some viruses are so ingrained in a system, that once the system starts, they can not be detected, these can only be detected by having your hard drive scanned by another PC while it is not running. Rootkits are usually detected by running a scan as your computer is booting up. Once found, a virus is either blocked, quarantined, or deleted.

So how does an antivirus know a virus when it sees it? well antivirus programs scan your system looking for "lines of code" or patterns or behaviors, certain keywords, and it may also have a list of suspect web domains on its list to watch for. 

So the bad news to all this! Unfortunately the antivirus program needs to know what its looking for. So a virus needs to be discovered, analyzed, then either a "fix" created or the virus "signature" distributed to relevant need to know companies.

Antivirus companies have things called "honey pots" these are groups of devices set strategically around the Internet, and their main purpose is to catch everything that's going!. Once caught, it is a race against the clock to to get the signature out there so the virus can be detected and stopped. This is the reason why it is absolutely imperative that you keep your antivirus updated daily if possible, that way it will receive the latest virus signatures.

 It is often thought that once your antivirus subscription or license expires, that you are left unprotected, this is not entirely true, you still have all the virus signatures that you have received up until this point. Your system will just stop receiving latest updates for new viruses.

If you have a look at a lot of paid verses unpaid antivirus products, the difference usually isn't in the virus updates, it may be in the form of extra Malware protection, if the unpaid version doesn't have it (some do, some don't) often you are paying for extra services and trimmings like customer support, password systems, sandbox's, key scramblers etc. I am in no way saying don't buy an antivirus, but make sure you know what extra you are getting for your money.

I hope this has helped you understand a little bit more how it all works.

Stop annoying startup programs and Mac update

Hi All, for those that don't follow me on social media, I have recently undergone shoulder surgery, and have one arm in a sling for a while, hence the lack of a post last week. I will be keeping things short for a few weeks, as typing is very frustrating with one hand!.

I hope you were all successful with your computer clean out are enjoying faster PCs as a result. A request I have had, is to show how to stop programs starting when you boot up your computer, well it just so happens that the program we used to clean out the PC, CCleaner, has the function to do this as well. So if you have not been following along, go back and read the instructions on downloading CCleaner in "Free Mac Antivirus and Pt 2 of our PC Cleanup".

Open CCleaner and on the left side of the window you will see your options available to do, select the "Tools" option, Then slightly to the right of this you will now see 4 more options select the "startup" tab. A list will be populated of all the programs, and the option to Enable, Disable or Delete a program. The programs that are currently starting on bootup are in bolder print than the ones that aren't. It is simply a matter of clicking on a program to highlight it, and then selecting which of the three options you want to apply to that program.

I suggest, unless you are very confident with what you are doing that you go slowly here and disable only one program at a time. That way you will know which program to re-enable if you cause something to stop working. It would be a good idea to write down the name of the program as you disable it, in case you forget which one it was. If you are not sure which program on the list belongs to the program you wish to stop, take your time and carefully read through the list, and just look for a word that is in the name of the program, or sometimes it may even be the company that made the program. In this case you may have to let the program run and have a look around once it is open, or a good old "Google Search" will soon show you who made it.

Once you have disabled a program you can close out of CCleaner and either restart your computer straight away, or just wait till next time, to make sure everything is OK. You can then repeat the process again if you have more programs you wish to stop. Windows does have a way of doing this as well obviously, but it is not as simple as this way.

One quick tip before we go, there is a new IOS update for your Apple devices  to 10.7.4, it is a very important update, but beware it is a very large download and if you have a few Macs, may really eat into your download limit. Now I have heard  the trick here is that if you update through Itunes, you get the whole lot, but if you select to do "over the air updates" in your settings, it only updates the bits you need! and is much smaller.

What would you like to learn?

The Final Step in a Clean, Fast PC

Ok so we have removed all your unwanted programs, we have cleaned all the bits and pieces away with the disc cleaners, there is two things left to do.

This next step is a controversial one amongst computer people, a lot say it should never be done, but the proof is in the pudding, and it makes logical sense that it should be done. It is called a "registry clean", now the registry is not a place to be playing around in, and normally I would not even go there in this kind of situation, but CCleaner has the function built into it, and it is very easy and safe to use.

Open up your CCleaner program that we used last week, and on the left hand side you will see a crumbling cube with "Registry" written under it. Click on this and when the next screen opens up, on the bottom left you will see the "scan for issues button", select this, and let it scan. Once the scan is complete, a list of all the issues will be presented and a "fix selected issues" button will be on the lower right of the screen, click on this and you will be presented with a box asking if you want to "back up changes to the registry", say yes to this and accept the default place for the backup to be stored by clicking "save". One quick note here, all the issues listed may be selected already or you may need to select them all, before you press fix selected issues. Just do this by ticking the "problems" box at the top of the list.
Click on the "fix all selected issues" tab and let CCleaner do its thing, then close out of the program.

Once this is complete, go back to your windows menu by click on your start button- then "all programs"- then "accessories" - then "system tools" - then "disc defragmenter". Open the defragmenter program, and you will see an analyse and a defragment button, press the defragment button, and the next window will have a list of your drives, select your "C" drive and then "defragment disc".

If this has not been done for a long time this may take hours to defragment the disc, if you are on a later system, it has probably been done recently as part of the automated process. It is OK to use your PC while the defragment is running, but I prefer to let it do its thing uninterrupted, so you may even choose to start the process running before you go to bed. You can turn your screen off and leave your PC run. When it is run just close all the windows or reports that are open and restart your PC.

Congratulations you should now have a clean, efficient, speedy little computer again. This is a task that is good to carry out once every 1-2 months depending on how much you use your PC and how much time you spend online. The registry cleaner needs only to be done once or twice a year depending if you are regularly adding and removing a lot of programs or files and need the registry cleaned of their records.

I hope this has been explained clearly enough and it has been a trouble free process for you, any issues please email me and I will do my best to sort them for you.

Free Mac Antivirus and Pt 2 of our PC Cleanup

It has been another week of Mac Troubles and I once again urge Mac Users to check their system for updates and to keep updated at least weekly at the moment. If you don't have an antivirus installed, you may download a good FREE antivirus from here Mac Antivirus . But please get protected!.

Time for part 2 of your guide to cleaning out your PC and hopefully making it a lot faster for you.

If everything went well your programs list is missing all the extra programs that aren't required any more. Next step is to have a look in your documents folder and delete any thing that's not needed, the same with your pictures folder and your music folder. Make sure you have deleted all your old emails from your email account if they are stored on your computer (In Outlook Express, Or Outlook) and also make sure your deleted emails are deleted, and not just all sitting in the deleted folder.

Your downloads folder is also another place that is neglected, it may accumulate months of downloads that aren't needed any more. They may be programs that you downloaded, and have run the program and now the download is not required anymore or it may just be outdated. To find your downloads folder, for Vista or Win 7 just type downloads in the search box. In windows XP if you go into Computer from your start list, then select your C drive, then select Users, then your User account Name, you should then see a downloads folder, so for instance If my user name was Smith, it would go - Computer - C drive - Users - Smith -Downloads. Some systems also have another downloads folder just in the C drive, So that would be Computer - C drive - Downloads. 

The next step is to Download a Program called CCleaner from here CCleaner . This is a great and very popular little program that cleans up your PC of all the random "left over" bits and pieces. Install the Program. Follow the prompts but make sure when you get to the box that has "Install Google Chrome, and Make Google Chrome my default browser" untick those two check boxes, then follow to the last screen , and uncheck "view release notes" then click finish.
CCleaner should then open up for you, you can pretty much leave all the default boxes checked on the left side of the screen that are checked. Maybe just have a close look at the Internet explorer section, or the section on which ever web browser you are running, and select what you would like CCleaner to clean up. There may be things like your History, Autocomplete Form History or saved passwords that you may want to keep for your convenience. You can check all the rest in that section if you wish to.

Click on the analyze button on the lower left of the screen and allow the program to go through and find all the files it wants to clean, It will present you a report of what it finds , and a total amount of the file size it will delete, you may then press on "Run Cleaner" on the lower right of the screen. Close out of it when finished.

 I also like to go into the Windows Disc Cleaner and run it as well. These programs often pick up things that the other doesn't. So go to your start button, go up the list and click on accessories, then system tools, and then disc cleanup. Select OK in the next check box for C drive. The cleanup will scan your drive and present you with a results window, in this window is a button for "cleaning system files" click on this and disc cleaner will scan once again. Once more you will be presented with the results window, here I normally go through and tick all of the check boxes. It might not be a bad idea here to go through and check for any that are related to your Internet favourites or history etc, in case you wish to keep them. Then run Disc Cleanup.

So we are getting close to the end, next week I will give you an optional next step and then the final piece of the cleanup routine, for those of you on later systems, your computer may have already run the last piece automatically. But you should notice a speed up in your machines even after the steps we have completed already.

Macs under Attack & A faster PC, Part 1

For My Mac followers or even all you Windows people with Mac friends, Macs are under attack!, there has been at least 2 major security attacks on the Mac OS 10 software this week with up near 1 million machines infected by now. It is crucial that you make sure all your Apple Software is Up to Date. Do not click on any links that present them selves offering to fix your PC for infections, and watch out for "copycat" web pages, always double check the address bar.
The golden Rule is - "If you didn't search for it or request it, don't click on it" in other words if something pops up and makes you an offer! leave it alone.
Mac Users if you are not running an Antivirus Program, it is time to start running some!

Today I am going to give a "newbie lesson" in how to tidy up your PC and hopefully make it run a little bit faster and smoother for you. This is directed at a Microsoft system, My Stats show that I have a very small number of Mac users viewing. I know some of these users and they are more advanced users, but if you are a Mac user and would like me to show you anything please feel free to contact me with your request and I will only be to happy to show you what you would like to know.

The first place we will start is to think about any programs that are installed that you never use.
From your Desktop (normal screen) Press on the "start button" on the bottom left of the screen.

In the lists that present them selves - in the right hand column, look for "control panel" and select it

This will open up a screen that will vary depending on what system you are on, but if you look up in the top right you will see  "View by:" select either small or large icons, it doesn't matter, and you will be given a much clearer way of seeing all the options.

You are looking for "Add and Remove Programs" or "Programs and Features" depending again on which version of Windows you are on. Select your relevant option.

This will take a little while, but it will propagate a list of all the programs installed in your computer.
Once the list is complete, it will be presented down the screen in alphabetical order. Make your way down the list and try and spot any programs that you don't use or may have never used!.  There may be a lot of programs that were installed with cameras or phones that you have previously owned, but don't use any more. There may be games that you never play, there may be trial software that came with the computer when you purchased it. The main point to stress here is - that if you are unsure about a program and what it does, Leave it Alone.

If you have found some that you feel you can safely get rid of, you have the option to either single click to highlight the program and then at the top of the list there are options to "repair or uninstall/change" : click on "uninstall/change". Or you can simply double click on the program that you wish to uninstall, and you will be presented with further options.

The steps and options to remove or delete a program vary from program to program, so I can't cover that here, but the most important thing is to take your time and Read everything presented to you. Don't be guilty of doing the old "Next, Next, Finish" and then thinking "Oh Oh what did I do?"

Some programs will ask you to restart your PC to complete the removal, if you have the option to do it later, select that, and do 1 restart at the end when you have finished removing all of your unused programs, this just saves you a lot of time.
As Usual if you are unsure about something either ask an informed opinion, or  "Google it!" but don't remove anything until you are sure of what you are removing. 

Whats housekeeping got to do with a Slow PC

This Technology environment that we live in, that surrounds us, moves so fast!, I often wonder why is that?, do you really need a faster computer?, a flatter television?, more mega pixels? chances are you are not using all the ones you have now.  If you are a reader of this blog I would assume most of this stuff doesn't really matter to you too much, or if you are just starting out getting into tech, be warned, you will never keep up so don't try, you will go broke trying.

Most of us love a new computer, we take it out of the box, turn it on (after we work out where the start button is), Man!! its started already, that was so fast! this new computer is awesome!.

There is a little bit of  new computer awesome involved, don't get me wrong, but the biggest reason your new computer is so fast is because it is a "clean" install of the operating system (windows, mac).

Picture this, 

You are sitting on your lounge, the house is an absolute mess, the benches are cluttered, the hallway is clogged, nothing has been put back in its right place. I then say to you, I want you to grab your car keys, grab the DVD from last week, grab the kids medical prescription and duck down the shops with them, its a sunny day so you will need your sunglasses and a hat. Ready Set Go... 

After ten minutes of searching, kicking stuff out the way, and cursing, you make it to the garage to find you cant even get your car out, cause the wet gear from camping is still set up behind it (even though its been dry for a day).

Take two... the house is immaculate, every thing is in its place, put away and set up properly 

Go... Done, 1 minute, your in the car ready to go.

That is EXACTLY what it is like in your computer, and why a new one is so fast. The analogy continues, if you tidy everything up, throw out what you don't need or use, and make sure everything has a place and is put back there, your computer will be much faster. Never quite the same as the out of the box speed, with all its latest brand new hardware, but massively faster. 

Two options are available to you before you need to rush out and buy a new PC, you can give your system a clean out and tidy up, and it will be a lot faster, or the other option you have is to reinstall your system from scratch.

 You are able to, in most cases, depending on how you purchased or set up your computer to reinstall the system all over and start again. If you have a back up of your data, and all your discs and passwords handy then this is a very viable option. 

I am not saying this is quick, and sometimes it is not easy, but it is still cheaper than purchasing a new machine. I rang our local computer shop and they charge between $80 and $120 to do the job providing you have the disks.

You may feel it is time to step up to the next operating system. If you are still on XP you may want to start considering what your next move may be, we have 2 years before Microsoft stops supporting it all together. You don't want to be on it after its not supported, because there is no more security updates. Windows 7 is a very successful and popular Operating System, which you can move too, or you may want to hold out another 12 months and move straight to windows8. Your choice!. Maybe do a good clean out of your machine, stretch it out and buy a new machine with windows8.

I will give you advice on how to do a clean up of your PC next time.

A quick update on the story last week about Leonie Smith our Cyber God Mother, this week she released her book "Keeping Kids Safe Online" it is $15.47 for a hard copy, The same price you would pay to buy them a fast food meal if you were out, and not think twice about. You can preview the book  "HERE"

In other news, Facebook has purchased Instagram, not sure of their plans yet, but there is plenty of advice going around online if you want to download all your pics and close your account. Contact me if you would like me to do a tutorial on this.

Stay Safe Online :)

Unseen Dangers and your Cyber Godmother

I have had a change of plans for this weeks blog, as is the randomness that is social media I came across a lady who is more passionate about Cyber Safety and security than I am, especially when it comes to children. We immediately started playing twitter tennis about safety issues that concerned us in our Society, Parents views, and technology in general.


The one point that we both have noticed, is that people, and importantly parents tend to not want to know about the dangers or how to reduce them, the majority have a "It won't happen to my child, they are safe in our own home" attitude, or an, if I ignore it, it doesn't exist mentality.


In the middle of writing this, I just listened to a news report of three, 14 year old girls posting film on you tube of themselves offering to perform explicit sexual acts. Now all kids do silly things and that is part of being a teenager, but most silly things we did as teenagers are not able to be accessed or found out about many years later on.


Kids are not educated about the permanent nature of the Internet, most people do believe that if you delete something it is gone. When you delete something it usually only means it is not accessible from that particular location you are accessing it from. Deleting does not destroy!. The file, image etc still exists, it exists on a database, on a web page, on someones hard drive, in Cyber Space!. We need to make not only our children understand this, but our friends and our families as well.


If you wanted your children to play a musical instrument, what did you do?, if you wanted your children to excel at a sport what would you do? Sure most of these things are taught at school but only at a basic level. My guess is you paid a tutor or a coach to teach and train your children the skills that you were unable to teach them. Why won't people consider paying for, or for that matter, even going to free tutorials on Cyber Security. I actually notice peoples eyes glaze over as I start to tell them about issues they need to look out for.


We are the start of generations to come that must pass on the knowledge and wisdom that will protect out children and their children in the ever changing connected world that we live in. One place I would like you to start thinking about is "checking in" and the dangers it presents, people are able to form a profile of  where you are, when you are there, who you are with or not with, and when you are NOT at your home, or NOT with your kids.


The lady I was lucky to meet is Leonie Smith, and she has a large online presence as the "The Cyber Safety Lady" http://thecybersafetylady.com.au/ Leonie is extremely dedicated and passionate about this subject, and as one would expect has every avenue of social media covered with her presence! including a You Tube channel which contains how to tutorials on setting up and controlling user accounts and controlling privacy settings.

Leonie also hosts free community Cyber Safety workshops and is available for a small fee to host private online tutorials for groups of parents. Definitely worth checking out Leonie's web page, even if you do not have children, because remember, the problem is!, if we don't have the knowledge! we are unable able to pass it on. You can also follow Leonie on twitter at _LeonieGSmith


Have a Happy and Safe Easter and be Safe Online

All about your Hotspot and what is POP

I mentioned in last weeks post about using an iPhone as a wireless Hotspot, as this is a post for newbies, I need to explain what this is for those who aren't quite sure. On most smart phones now, you have the ability to use your phone as a wireless network for other items like your laptop, iPad, PC (personal computer) etc. It is normally as easy as turning on the "Enable Hotspot" feature in your settings, once you have done this your phone will normally display a password to use for your newly created network and the "name" that the network is called. If you now look on your laptop at the available networks you will see a new network with the name that was given to you by your phone, press connect, put in the password you were given and you have Internet access!.

Like anything in this life there is always a catch, right!. First thing you need to do is make sure that in your phone plan or contract that your mobile provider "allows" the use of a mobile Hotspot, not all do. Also be aware of your monthly data limits, and your usage, using a laptop or PC will always use up a lot more of your data, than your phone will. Make sure that if you are going to connect a computer through your phones "hotspot" that it is not going to automatically download a heap of updates, or go and download all your emails to itself the moment it connects.

To clarify the email point, if you open all your emails on your computer from a program like "Outlook","Outlook Express" or "Incredimail", this means that these programs go and fetch your mail and bring it to your computer, where it is then stored (You may have noticed the term POP used for email accounts, this stands for Post Office Protocol, and that's what this is, it is like the Post Office and delivers the mail to your computer).
If you log into "Google", "Yahoo", "Windows Live" or some other service like that, it means that you are logging into their site to read your mail and that it is kept on their site. The main key there is that you have to go and Log into a site to read your mail, which means it is not getting fetched for you.

The last thing I want to talk about today is something I have mentioned before, and that is not to be freaked out or spooked by your tech device. Embrace it, take any spare time to sit down and play with it, explore through all the settings. If you are not sure what a word means "Google it". Apart from the words "Erase" or "Reset" there is not much damage you can do. Beware of  turning on "Location Services" or "Push Notifications" these will result in extra battery and data usage. A Push Notification means that as soon as something is available it is automatically (Pushed) sent to your phone, rather than you checking manually for the update, or your phone checking automatically at a set time interval.

Another good practice, is to always get rid of any "apps" you are not! or vary rarely use. These can slow your phone down substantially and chew up battery life.

Have Fun!

New Releases and Updates

Unless you have been on a deserted Island, you would have noticed that the new iPad was released last week. While some lined up for days to be one of the first to get their hands on one (Australia was among the first to take delivery), others just strolled into their shop that morning and grabbed one.

There is not a massive amount "new" about the latest release, the most outstanding feature is the new "retina display", for the non tech people this means it is really clear and crisp and may be zoomed right in and retain that clarity with out looking like square pixels. This display is better than all but the very high end in the television market, so if you are in to your games, pics, movies etc then you will love this latest feature. It is also thought to make a big impact for use in the medical world, with its clarity of image and ability to be zoomed to the finest detail.

The Other new features are an improved camera and faster processing while still maintaining battery life. The only problems I have heard to date is that when used for games or multiple apps at once, the device can become quite hot compared to previous models, but apple is denying that this is a problem. So this release, name still unknown,  iPad 3?, iPad 3rd gen?, so far it just called "the new iPad" is deemed to be an evolution not a revolution. No great need to upgrade from your iPad 2.

In other Apple news there is an update to iTunes version 10.6 and a new release for the mobile device operating system (phones, iPads, iPods ) version 5.1, that claims to contain 200 new features and bug fixes and most likely was released in time for the new iPad. I have held out on installing either of these at this stage, I work on the principle that unless there is an "outstanding" new feature, or a major security reason for the update, I will wait and see....

One issue I have heard from people that have updated their phone is that they are getting in fluxed with available Wireless Networks if they use their phone as a wireless hotspot. The phone is creating a new hotspot every time, instead of just showing up as the same one. So you would see "Tony's iPhone1, Tony's iPhone2 " etc instead of just seeing "Tony's iPhone" . One solution is listed to remove the smart quote from your phones name that is put there by default. (Tonys iPhone)
If you are connecting to your phones hotspot via a windows device, you can click on the icon for your phones wireless network, this will bring up a "network connection properties" box, in the corner of that box there is a "merge of delete network locations" link. You can open this up and then are able to merge or delete all the names for the same network from a list of all networks.

On a different subject, there appears to have been an influx of malicious links. emails, pictures and sites discovered in the past week, in other words click on any of these and your computer will be infected with malware or a virus.
I update the column of latest threats and scams as I hear about these threats, so it pays to pop on to the blog regularly to check. The most important thing to do, is to make sure your software ie: Windows, Apple Lion etc, and your Antivirus program are kept up to date, if possible make sure that important updates are automatically downloaded and installed.

On the operating system in Windows this is done by going into the control panel and clicking on the "Windows update" link and them selecting the required function. A Mac should automatically update as long as there is an Internet connection, and for your Antivirus, it should be set to automatically update, if it is not, open up the Antivirus Application and look for update options (remember google is your friend if you need help with this, just type in the exact question that you are thinking).

Email me if you have any problems and I will do my best to help.
Stay Safe Online

Emergency Phone charger and Cool wallpaper App

This week I am showing you a handy little Item, that I purchased recently for a hospital stay, I thought - well I don't really care if it doesn't last after that, but it has been a great little performer and a lifesaver. 

Now I never leave home with out my portable iPhone/iPad charger, this handy little device cost me less than $10 and has saved myself (and others) countless times. You charge it up just like you would your phone, carry it with you, then if your phone or iPad runs low on charge you simply plug the portable charger into it, and continue to use while it charges your device back to full charge. It is small enough and light enough that it doesn't hinder normal usage, apart from fitting in a normal size pocket when connected.

The particular one I have, which is listed below, had a series of blue lights to let you know how much charge it has left in it, and a light to let you know that it is fully charged, when you are charging it.
Portable Battery External Backup Charger Apple iPhone iPod 3G 4 4S  AUS  Same day Dispatch * AUS WARRANTY * AU $9.50, FREE POST
Link to Charger

I searched for a similar charger for other brands of phones and came up with this item, It is not from an Australian Seller like the other is, and I have never used this particular charger, so I can't vouch for its performance or reliability. Please make sure you check the voltage, and amperage output of  the charger before purchasing/using to make sure it is compatible with your particular  phone.
2800mAh UNIVERSAL EXTERNAL PORTABLE BATTERY CHARGER AU $14.76 plus AU $11.82 Postage
Link to charger

It is important to note that you don't use the phone with the portable charger, while you are recharging the charger. I know, why would you!, but some may think it is killing two birds with one stone.

And on a Quick note, I came across a great little app that was only released on iTunes yesterday, it is a free app that is the brainchild of two ladies, one of whom is responsible for the design of "The Blogess" and "Rocket Shoes", it gives you 200  professionally designed wallpapers based on everything from pop culture to worldwide travel.(yes I have a robot one already!) There are 260 more purchasable images from 0.99c to $1.99 and they plan to try and add a new collection every week. The images may be used on the lock screen and the home screen. The app is called Paper'd and is available in the iTunes App store.

Cookies and Pregnancy

There has been a lot of talk about privacy on the internet lately, with google changing its policies. How much do companies know about us? or how much should they know about us?.


There was a story in the US recently where Target sent a teenage girl some literature on products that would help her during her pregnancy and when her baby was born. The girls father was outraged, and confronted the local Target manager, who was clueless as well. The family was issued an apology, however soon after, the father had to give his own apology when the girl revealed that she was actually pregnant. How did Target know before the father did?


Its all part of the connected world we live in and "tracking". In this case target has managed to develop a very successful program that keeps track of shoppers purchases, it can determine that if a shopper is buying a certain range of products in succession, that the shopper is pregnant and can even accurately predict how far along she is by what products she is buying.


It is very rare now, that we do something in this world that no one knows about. Target keeps track of you through information gathered electronically of your card used during the sale, but how do people keep track of you online?, why is it you get adds delivered on pages you visit that seem to be about things you like?. 


There are little pieces of code called "cookies" that are placed on your hard drive when you visit websites on the internet. These bits of code are not programs, they can not take over your computer, as rumoured, they are usually a few lines of code that are a unique identifier for your computer and that website.


The cookie will let the page know that you have been there before, or that you logged in on the previous page, it might let an advertiser know that you clicked on their add, so the owner of the page can be paid for hosting the add. Some companies will gather information from the cookies to get an idea of what pages you click on, that way they know what sort of things you are interested in and can display advertising that is appropriate.


Cookies must not be confused with viruses or malware that can be loaded by clicking on pictures or adds, they are different types of scripts. 


It is very debatable whether these people have the right to track you on the internet, and a lot of people don't like it. The thing to keep in mind is that these people don't know that it is "John Smith from 15 internet st Google heights" that visited that page, like Target did, all they know it that computer AB19051 at ip address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx visited the site.


Contrary to movies and tv, it is extremely difficult to find out who someone is by their ip address (ip address is like your internet telephone number).


In summary, you need to remember that on the internet you get a whole lot of value for free, but nothing is for free, someone has to pay for it - hence the advertising, and advertising relies on cookies. Cookies are easy to disable, but if disabled they also stop features on websites from working properly.
If you are really concerned about who knows what you are doing on the internet, then be concerned about your internet provider, they know every where you have been and usually need to keep a record of it for an amount of time. 

Bang Crash Help!

Last week I heard a twitter friend in distress, She had lost all her screen icons and the Start Menu Programs were missing. I immediately recognised this as a familiar sign of a virus attack on her computer, We tried a few things over the next few hours to get her system back, (not being helped by the fact I was working through twitter) but there comes a time when you need to say enough is enough and move on to another plan, such as a system repair, reinstall or reimage. An Image is a complete copy of your system with all the programs and data contained that you have made at a previous date. 


Of course if there was valuable data involved that had not been backed up you would keep on persevering until all hope was lost, luckily this person kept regular backups of her data. It took a good 24hrs before the system was back up and running, and all the programs and applications are still being gathered together and reloaded.


I think the most annoying part is that this person was using a very "big" brand antivirus, and it failed her completely. 
This next piece of advice is purely my own opinion, but I have only paid for antivirus once, and I had grief with it. There are some very good free antivirus products out there and used in conjunction with a free malware product,is a very successful combination. 


If you are running Windows 7,or Windows Vista, Microsoft has its own very good antivirus called Microsoft Security Essentials, if you do a search on that name you will find it quite easily. Microsoft also puts out a Malicious Software Removal tool every month with the latest updates, this is downloaded with your usual updates, but needs to be run manually. To run the Malicious Removal Tool, type:  mrt.exe  into the "run box" (the white box in the lower left corner of your screen, when you click on the start button) this will find the program for you and then just click on it to run it. 
There are plenty of other free good products, with a few of the popular ones being "Avast", "Avira", and "Avg". I run one of these in conjunction with a program called "Malwarebytes", it is a very respected program in the IT world and is also free. Malwarebytes needs to be run manually to do a scan, another good option is that, you can right click on any file and scan it with Malwarebytes before opening it up. I try and run a full system scan with it once a week, and it will always tell you when an update is available for download.


The rest is up to your own online behaviour and browsing habits, but I have been using the above mentioned combination for years with out issues, the antivirus product should always warn you if you happen to land on a dangerous web page. 


The last advice I will give is to go to your "backup and restore" in the control panel, then choose the option of creating a rescue disc, once you have done that, choose "create a system image", make sure you save to a hard drive separate to the one you are using for your computers system. This is for Windows Vista and 7, if you need help with any other systems, just drop me a line and I will help you out.

Bits and Pieces

I have a bit of a tip for the last blog post about Dropbox, if you happened to delete a file by accident from your Dropbox folder and you need it back, What you can do is, before you log on to one of your other devices linked to your Dropbox account, disconnect it from the internet. Once you log on, retrieve the file you need then save it to an alternate location than your Dropbox folder because once you connect online again Dropbox will sync and delete it from the Dropbox file on that device.


A couple of problems I have encountered, helping people with the issue of a slow computer is a build up of deleted data.  "Newbie" users, who are using Outlook express or Outlook to read their Emails (Windows XP is Outlook Express and Windows Vista or Windows 7 will be Outlook, both are similar programs) delete an email, however this email is not deleted completely, it is put into a deleted items folder and remains in there. 
I have found some deleted items folders with over 300 deleted emails sitting in there. You can either go into your deleted items folder and manually delete the items or you can set  Outlook Express to empty the deleted messages when you exit the program. 
To set up this process. When you are on your mail page, choose Tools, Options. On the Maintenance tab, select Empty Messages From The 'Deleted Items' Folder On Exit. 
You may also get a message from time to time saying that windows would like to compact your files to save on disc space, it is a good idea to do this.


A similar situation exists with your deleted items recycle bin. Your deleted items will sit in your bin until it is emptied. You can empty the bin by right clicking on your recycle bin icon and choose  "empty your recycle bin". 
There are methods that allow you to delete items without sending them to the recycle bin, but I would not recommend this, as it makes these files very hard to retrieve if needed.


I will explain next time why all this excess data becomes an issue, and how to keep your computer hard drive clean and running smooth.

DropBox

Hi Everyone
I hope your start to the year has been a good one!, no doubt over your holiday period you would have taken a heap of pics that you want to share with your friends and family. There are places like Facebook and Photobucket where you can do this, but what if you want a your own private place where you can not only share photos, but files, documents, movies and songs, and you don't even have to log onto a website!.


I am talking about a product called Dropbox, basically it is just like a folder on your computer and when you put anything in it, the same item you put in there appears in a folder on any computer that is linked to the same Dropbox account. You do not have to bother with and transfers, uploads, or downloads, it just appears in there next time you open the folder on that computer (providing both computers have had an internet connection, since you put the item in the folder). Dropbox is also available as an app for your smartphone.


So here's how you do it - Go to www.Dropbox.com and download Dropbox to your computer, create an account and that's it!. It looks like any other folder on your computer, you click on it and it has sub-folders already in there, as well as you can create your own. When you put an item in a folder, it automatically syncs to a mirrored folder in the cloud. On any other computer you like, you can download Dropbox and link it to your existing account, when you open Dropbox on that computer you will see the item you put in there sitting waiting for you!. As you put an item in a folder, or create a folder you will see a little blue circle beside its icon, when that circle turns green with a tick in it, that means the folder has automatically synced with its matching folder in the cloud.


This is also very useful if you want to access files or folders from your computer at work, just put them in your Dropbox folder at work, and when you get home open up your Dropbox folder at home and it will sync and be there. You can make changes to that item and those changes will be synced back to the folder at work. It is very important to be aware though, if you delete that item from your folder at home, it will also be deleted from the folder at work!. Another thing you need to be aware of, is that as items are synced back and forth with the cloud, they do use uploads and downloads of you internet account.


As far as I am aware you are only able to link one account to your Dropbox, so if you want to have one Dropbox folder for work and one for friends, you only need to have another user account on your computer, and you are able to have Dropbox with a different account. If need be, just create a user called Dropbox or Family Share. 


There is also a folder that comes already installed called "Public", any file you put in this folder has a link attached to it, just right click on the file, select "copy link" and send that link to anyone you want to share it with!.


I would like to state that I am in no way linked to DropBox, or receive any benefits of them, I believe and have seen that it is an easy to use great product. Hope you enjoy it.

Away for a while

Hey Every one, Just wanted to let you all know that I haven't disappeared, just having a couple of weeks catching up with the family and a bit of time off. I will be back in a week or so with some more ideas and lessons to help you battle the technological minefield that is our lives now.


Remember be extra careful this time of the year for bogus emails telling you that you owe money, or that a mistake was made on a bill you paid.


Have fun.