53. Where Is ‘All Programs’ in Windows 8?

In Windows 7, Vista and XP, when you open the Start menu, you initially see a collection of the programs you use most. If you want to use a program that doesn’t appear in this short list, you click on (or hover the mouse over) All Programs and you see all the programs installed on your PC, neatly organised into folders. In Windows 8, however, there’s no Start menu, so there’s no ‘All Programs’ item. So how do you find a list of all your programs?

The equivalent of the Start menu in Windows 8 is the ‘Start screen’ which contains lots of rectangular blocks called ?tiles’. There’s one tile per program, but you won’t find all your programs here. In particular, quite a few of the useful Windows accessories are missing – you won’t see Calculator, WordPad, Notepad, Paint, Character Map, and so on. (See Post 51 on our Blog via the link below).

Fortunately, there is an equivalent to the ‘All Programs’ list of old, and this is where you’ll find those Windows accessories along with all your other programs:

When you’re looking at the Start screen, right-click on any blank space. A bar will appear along the bottom of the screen: when it does, click the All apps button in the bottom-right corner. The layout of the Start screen will change, and now you’ll see all your programs organised into groups with headings. Those headings correspond to the folders you used to see on the Start menu, making it much easier to track down the program you want to use.

Extra Tip If you download and install a very nice, simple to install, free application called “Classic Shell” (Google it) you will be able to set up Windows 8 with the familiar Start Button and menu system. Try it to save a lot of frustration. I use it all the time so have the added features of 8 plus the comfort and familiarity of 7. 

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52. How to safely clean a flat screen monotor

Did you know you can permanently damage your expensive flat screen monitor or television if you clean it the wrong way? It's true. Most importantly, you want to avoid products that contain ammonia, ethyl alcohol, acetone, toluene, ethyl acid, or methyl chloride. These can discolor or dissolve important films on the screen.

There are some fantastic screen cleaners out there, but there's also a simple vinegar and water mixture you can make yourself that works equally as well. Simply mix filtered or distilled water with an equal amount of white vinegar.

Flat screen monitors and televisions, most of which are LCD (including LED-backlit LCD) displays, require special attention when cleaning. Older CRT screens, the kind used in large "tube" monitors and TVs, are glass and can be cleaned in pretty much the same way as you would any other glass in your home or office.

Flat screen monitor and television displays, however, are much more sensitive and are easily scratched and damaged. The same applies to your laptop or tablet screen, and often too to the screen on your smartphone or e-book reader.

Note: Plasma TVs are glass, as are many touch screens, but often also have very sensitive anti-glare coatings applied. I recommend taking the same special care with those types of displays.

Follow the easy steps below to safely clean your flat screen monitor, TV, or other device in just a few minutes.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Cleaning a flat screen display, like an LCD TV or monitor, usually takes less than 5 minutes

Here's How:

1. Turn off the device. If the screen is dark, it will be easier to see the areas that are dirty or oily.

2. Use a dry, soft cloth and very gently wipe the screen. A great choice would be the microfiber type of cloth used to clean eyeglass lenses. A dry eraser works good too.

See Tip #1 below for kinds of cloths to avoid.

3. If the dry cloth did not completely remove the dirt or oil, do not press harder in an attempt to scrub it off.



Pushing directly on the screen can often cause pixels to burn out, especially on laptop displays, desktop monitors, and LCD/LED TV screens. This isn't so much an issue on screens designed to be touched, like phones and tablets, but be careful nonetheless.
 
4. If necessary, dampen the cloth with distilled water or with an equal ratio of distilled water to white vinegar.


Many companies also sell small spray bottles of special cleaner for flat screens. Ultra makes a screen cleaning solution called Hydra LCD that people seem to like but honestly, the 50/50 vinegar and water mix is probably just as effective.

See Tip #2 below for types of products to avoid.

5. The plastic edge that surrounds the screen can be cleaned with any multipurpose cleaner but take care to avoid contact with the screen itself.


Tips:
 1. Avoid using paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, or something like your shirt to wipe the screen. These non-ultrasoft materials can scratch the display.

2. Avoid cleaning products that contain ammonia (like Windex®), ethyl alcohol (Everclear® or other strong drinking alcohol), toluene (paint solvents), as well as acetone or ethyl acetate (one or the other often used in nail polish remover). These chemicals can react with the materials that the flat screen is made of or coated with, which could permanently discolour the screen or cause other kinds of damage.

3. Never spray liquid directly on to any screen. It could run inside the device and cause damage. Spray onto the cleaning cloth instead.

 

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51. Windows 8: Where are Paint, Calculator and WordPad?

If you’ve switched to Windows 8 after using one of the previous versions of Windows, perhaps you’ve been perplexed by some apparent disappearances: where have all those familiar accessories gone? When you look at the Start screen, you won’t see any sign of the old faithfuls like Calculator, Snipping Tool, Notepad, WordPad or Paint.

 Don’t worry – they’re not gone, they’re just not immediately obvious. There are two ways of finding them, and you can use whichever you prefer:

• From a list of programs: at the Start screen, right-click any blank space and a bar will appear at the bottom of the screen. On this bar, click All Apps and you’ll see a neatly-categorised list of programs. All those I’ve noted above can be found in the ‘Windows Accessories’ section.

• By searching: at the Start screen, simply start typing the name of the program you want to use (without worrying about capital letters). For instance, type ‘notepad’ or ‘snipping’. Windows looks for programs whose names match what you’re typing, and you should see the program you want in the search results at the left of the screen.

50. How to avoid a phishing scam.

Reproduced from PC Tips for Seniors:-

"A couple of days ago I received two slightly suspicious-looking email messages. One was from PayPal, telling me my recent account activity was available to view online and that I could ‘click here’ to log in and view it. The other was from Barclays, telling me that my online banking had been suspended because a third party had tried to log into it several times; it then told me that I should ‘click here’ to log in and confirm my identity.

There were reasons to regard both messages as genuine. I do indeed have a PayPal account, and I do bank with Barclays and use their online banking facility. However, there were reasons to regard them both as scams as well.

To start with, both wanted me to click a link and type my private login details into whatever web page I arrived at. That’s the hallmark of a so-called ‘phishing’ scam – a scam in which criminals set up a clone of a website’s login page to steal the account details of anyone unfortunate enough to be fooled by it.

I don't us my PayPal account very often, so the suggestion that there might be any ‘recent account activity’ certainly seemed suspicious. And in the case of the Barclays message, if they knew it was a third party trying to log into my account (and failing to do so), where’s the sense in blocking my own access to it? Clearly Barclays’ security measures had worked as intended, so no further action should be needed by anyone.

So, were they genuine or were they scams? Well, there was one extra telltale clue.

The PayPal message began ‘Dear Rob Young’. The sender obviously knew my name, and clearly this message couldn’t be sent to thousands of other people as well (unless they were all named Rob Young!).

The Barclays message began ‘Dear Barclays Online Customer’. Obviously the sender doesn’t know my name, whereas Barclays certainly does. The same message could easily have been sent to thousands of other people (and it probably was).

There are several tricks to spotting a phishing email, one of which is: does the story in the message seem at all believable? The Barclays message is full of holes, but the PayPal message seems a bit dodgy too.

The real key is: does the sender actually know who you are? Was this message sent to you personally, including your name and any account numbers or references associated with you?

Companies like PayPal and Barclays are well aware of phishing scams, and they’re careful to ensure that any messages they send are clearly personal. They’ll often do something else, too, as my PayPal message did: they’ll say that if you’re not sure whether or not this message is genuine, you can ignore the link it gives and visit the PayPal website by typing its address into your web browser, thus ensuring you won’t end up at a scammer’s cloned page.

If it had been genuine, the Barclays message would have suggested I type the address of the Barclays website into my browser, or that I pick up the phone and give them a ring, or that I pop into a branch. It didn’t, and of course that’s because it was a phishing scam.”

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49. How to replace a Keyboard or Mouse

In fact, it could hardly be easier: assuming your new mouse and your old mouse both plug into USB sockets, you simply unplug the old one and plug in the new one. There’s no need to have the PC switched off when you do this, but equally, if it’s currently switched off, there’s no need to switch it on first either.

If either the old or new mouse plugs into a different type of socket (such as a circular ‘PS/2’ socket) , you should do the switchover with the PC switched off.

The nice thing about mice is that their basic job is so simple that Windows can automatically install the software required to make them work. As soon as you plug in the new one (and start your PC, if necessary), it should be usable – at worst, there may be a pause of a few seconds while Windows sets it up.

One little wrinkle is that your mouse may have additional features beyond those included on the most basic mice: it may have extra buttons which can be configured to do particular things when clicked, for instance. In that case, you probably received a CD of software with the mouse, and you should install that software before plugging in the new mouse.

So, to recap, the routine is this: install the software accompanying the new mouse if required; shut down your PC if either mouse is a non-USB mouse; unplug the old mouse; plug in the new mouse; switch on your PC if it’s switched off. If your old mouse had its own software to enable its extra features, you might like to uninstall that software now, just for tidiness, but don’t worry too much about it.

Incidentally, everything I’ve said about the mouse applies to the keyboard too. If you want to replace your keyboard, just mentally swap the word ‘mouse’ for ‘keyboard’ above and approach it in exactly the same way.

 

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48. Have you ever deleted an important file?

We have all deleted important file from our PC by accident and wish we could get them back.

An easy way to do this is by downloading and installing a file recovery application. The one recommended here should be installed and resident on your PC before you ever need it. When you delete a file on your PC it actually stays on your hard drive, your PC management software simply renames it and enables the space it occupies to be used by something else should the need arise. For that reason you must never install anything if you are wishing to recover a deleted file as Sod’s law will say that the space you use for the installation is the one containing the file you want to recover.

The application recommended here is Recuva which is, without a doubt, the very best free file recovery software available today. Recuva is very easy to use and is as or more effective as any other freeware or premium file recovery program out there.

To get started with Recuva, visit the program's website linked at the bottom of my review. Once there, click the Download button corresponding to the download type you prefer. You can choose between Installer, Portable, or Slim.

Important: I highly recommend you use the portable version of Recuva if you don’t already have the main application installed on your PC. You should use the portable version of Recuva because it's important to avoid installing anything after discovering that you need to recover a file.

When Recuva starts, you're presented with a wizard where you choose what kind of file you're looking for and where it was last located, neither of which you need to know but will help in the search for deleted files if you do.

After a quick scan, you're presented with a list of recoverable files. Recovering one of the deleted files is as easy as selecting it and clicking Recover....

At any time you can switch to Advanced Mode which reveals a number of options and additional sorting abilities.

If a file has gone missing, either from your mistake or even from a virus infection or system crash, I recommend you use the Recuva free file recovery program. There's no guarantee that Recuva can successfully recovery every deleted file but it's certainly your best bet!

Recuva can recover files from hard drives, USB drives, memory cards, and even MP3 players, including the iPod.

47. When will Windows XP stop working?

This is another question I have been asked recently, and it points to a bit of a misunderstanding.

Microsoft is due to stop supporting Windows XP on April 8th 2014. What this means is that Windows XP users will stop receiving updates from that date: if anyone discovers a security flaw in Windows XP, it won’t be fixed. As far as Microsoft is concerned, next April marks the point at which the company can finally forget about Windows XP and concentrate all their efforts on newer versions of Windows.

However, XP isn’t going to stop working: if you chose to do so, you could continue using it for years. Whether it would be wise to do so is another question (to which my answer is: "No it isn’t". If you are not ready for Windows 8 then install Windows 7.), but there’s certainly no need to worry that your copy of Windows XP is suddenly going to be ‘switched off’ in April 2014.