28. How to avoid unwanted downloads whilst installing software

There’s a particular type of question I often hear which goes something like this:

“I was updating my favourite anti virus program and have ended up with a new browser and search engine. Where did all this come from, and how do I get rid of it?”

In many cases, these unexpected extras do indeed make changes to your web browser’s settings, changing your home page or search page to something you didn’t (and wouldn’t) choose yourself. The reason they do this is a simple one: money. Every time someone arrives at their home page or search page, they make a few pennies. But, since few of us would choose to visit those pages (indeed, wouldn’t even know of their existence), they sneak their software onto as many PCs as they can, causing our browser’s settings to be altered and forcing us to visit those pages regularly – perhaps numerous times every day.

Whatever it is that’s sneaked onto your PC and started doing this, it can be removed. However, the steps to take for removing it will vary depending on what it is, and could be quite complicated, so I can’t give you any general steps. What I can do, though, is to tell you how to avoid this type of thing in the first place.

These sneaky extras usually arrive when you’re installing some other program. Often without realising it, you’re agreeing to install this unrelated ‘extra’ along with the program you really wanted, so pay attention to these three simple tips:

•  When you’re about to click the button or link that downloads the program you want, have a quick look around it to see if there are any ticked boxes nearby. You may see an option saying something like Also include Such-and-Such in my download or Set Such-and-Such as my browser’s home page and search page. If you see anything along those lines, remove the ticks before starting the download.

 •  When you’re working through the steps to install a new program, don’t be tempted to just click Next, Next, Next to rush through it. You may be rushing past a ticked option that effectively says ‘Yes, muck up my browser settings for me.’

 •  When you start to install a program, look out for an option that offers a choice between a Custom installation and a Full, Typical or Complete installation. If you see this, always choose the Custom option. This way, if the program you’re installing does come with an unrelated, undesirable extra, you should see a step asking whether you want to install it. While the Full/Typical/Complete option may seem preferable, it gives the setup program carte blanche to install extras without asking you.

 Incidentally, don’t be swayed by the fact that some of these ‘extras’ involve a well-known name. I’ve installed many programs which, along the way, ask if I also want to install Google’s Chrome web browser or a McAfee security scanner. The fact that these extras come from big, famous companies doesn’t mean you want them!

(With thanks to PC Tips for Seniors)

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27. A FREE alternative to Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office in its various forms and editions is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and widely sold office suite on the planet. I first came upon it in 1994, version 4 I believe, and have worked through its various enhancements since then.

I personally believe that it has grown out of control, and has become an enormous beast which, to some people, is difficult to use and navigate. Its functionality is far greater than 95% of any users will ever need. In my opinion it is time for Microsoft to publish a “Lite” version of the main components so that it may be used by everyday people for the normal functions of a word processor or spreadsheet. Even I as a power user employ only a few more functions than those available in early versions of WordPerfect or Visicalc (to name just two of the original office-type programs).

This leads nicely into my recommendation of an office suite which has all the functionality which one needs, is easily downloaded and installed, follows largely the menu driven look and feel of earlier programs, is compatible with Microsoft Office (so you can send and read documents etc. from either application), and is absolutely free.

I speak of Open Office. Many of you will already be using this suite but for those who haven’t tried it I would suggest that you invest the time in the small download, only 123MB, and installation. After that you will be able to use a full office suite containing a word processor, a spreadsheet, presentation software (very like PowerPoint), a database program, and a drawing package. Unlike MS Office, the entire package is integrated so when you update, you update the lot and you will not be out of date with any of the features.

Open Office has been in use and under constant improvement for over twenty years and there have been some twenty million downloads to date.

When using the features to create documents etc., the only thing you have to remember is to save them as Microsoft documents if you wish your Microsoft friends to use them. Other than that you can save them as PDF documents (used throughout the world on all platforms) if you wish everybody to be able to simply read them in their own software. Apart from that you simply save them in their own formats for your own use, only reverting to the previous suggestions if you need to send documents to Microsoft users.

Go to http://www.openoffice.org/product/index.html to read all about Open Office.

Go to http://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html to download the latest version.

You will not be sorry and it will save you money, time, and a lot of frustration.

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26. Be careful with your old data

With the advent of Windows 8 many PC users are thinking they might treat themselves to a new PC rather than simply upgrading the one they’ve got. That obviously leads to the question of what you do with the old PC, and giving it away or selling it – at least to anyone outside your immediate circle of family and friends – could be risky if you leave its hard disk in place.

You’d probably consider deleting your personal files from the hard disk (after copying them to the new PC, of course!), but an awful lot of information you’d regard as personal is stored in places you’re unlikely to find. Instead, then, you might think of erasing the entire hard disk, but that’s not easy to do either: you can’t erase a disk that’s actively in use, and while Windows is running, the disk is being used. There are applications which will erase data using “military algorithms” ensuring total destruction but these are expensive and not required very often so why would you buy them personally?

The only sure-fire way to ensure that the contents of your old hard disk can’t fall into the wrong hands is to remove it from the PC.

From there you have two options: one is to take it outside and do all sorts of aggressive things to it: attack it with a heavy mallet and/or force a screwdriver into it to make its internal disc impossible to read.

A much better option is to keep the old disk and use it. A technician could install it in your new PC’s case (if your new PC is not a laptop) in just a few minutes, and after ensuring you’ve copied everything you want from it, you could erase it and use it as extra space. Alternatively, you can buy a ‘disk caddy’ that you install the old hard disk into, and then connect it to your new PC via a USB cable.

Yes, this means you’d be handing someone your old PC minus a hard disk, but the new owner can easily have one fitted and what matters most is that you look after your own interests. Once that PC is out of your hands, you have no idea whose hands it will end up in, or what they’ll be able to find on it if they choose to go looking!

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25. Sidestep the Recycle Bin in Windows

Every file or folder you delete from your hard disk is moved into the Recycle Bin, and there it will remain – perhaps for many months – until one of three things happens:
 • You empty the Recycle Bin yourself, getting rid of its contents for good, by right-clicking its icon and choosing Empty Recycle Bin.
• You open the Recycle Bin folder and delete that particular file or folder from it, again getting rid of that item for good.
• The file or folder has been in the Recycle Bin so long that Windows itself gets rid of it to make space for more recently-deleted items.

That gives you a very useful safety net for anything you find you’ve deleted by accident: you can nip into the Bin to retrieve it. Of course, anyone else using your computer could just as easily nip into the Bin to retrieve things you deleted on purpose!

If you want to delete a private file and be sure that no casual snooper could recover it, you can use one of the following methods to prevent the file from going into the Recycle Bin:
• Right-click the file, then hold down the Shift key as you click Delete.
• Select the file and then press Shift+Delete rather than pressing the Delete key by itself.

Since the file won’t be recoverable after doing this (other than by using fairly specialised disk-analysis software), Windows will always ask if you’re sure you want to permanently delete it. Think carefully before saying ‘Yes’, as it would be terrible to discover later that you’ve done this to the wrong file!

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24. Copying pictures from a CD or Memory Stick

1. Start by creating a new folder to hold those pictures. Open the Start menu and click Pictures (or My Pictures) to see the contents of your Pictures folder.

 2.Right-click a blank space in the window and choose New > Folder. A new folder icon will appear in the window, with its name (‘New Folder’) highlighted: type any name you like for the folder and press Enter to confirm it.

3.Now double-click that new folder to open it. Since it’s a new folder, and still empty, you’ll see a bare window. Keep this window open as you follow the remaining steps.

 4.Insert the CD (or DVD or Memory Stick etc.) containing the photos you’ve received and, after a few seconds, you may see an AutoPlay dialog. If you do, choose Open folder to view files, and you’ll see another window which shows the contents of the CD. If you don’t see an AutoPlay dialog, open the Start menu and click Computer (or My Computer), then right-click the icon for your CD drive in the window that appears and choose Open.

 5.In the window displaying the CD’s contents, click any file or folder and then press Ctrl+A to select all the files and folders in that window. Next, press Ctrl+C to copy them to the clipboard.

 6.Now switch back to the window you were using in the first three steps, which shows your new, empty folder. In this window, press Ctrl+V to paste the files currently on the clipboard into this folder. Windows will start copying the files from your CD and you’ll see them gradually appear in this folder.

 7.Once all the files have been copied, and the little dialog showing the copying progress has disappeared, you’ve finished. You can close the window displaying the CD’s contents, eject the CD, and either look through the copies of the photos that are now in that new folder on your PC, or close that window too.

You have successfully copied the photos onto your PC and they may now be viewed individually or as a slide show using Windows Photo Viewer. To do this, right-click on one of the photo files and choose Preview from the menu.

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23. Keep your friends' email addresses private.

We all receive emails forwarded to us or those which we have enjoyed and wish to forward to other friends and colleagues.

There are those which warn of pending viruses, or warn of attacks by car thieves etc. and you forward them or not at your own wish.

The type which ask "Forward this to ten friends and you will have good luck" are always best avoided as the mathematical possibilities are staggering , ludicrous and impossible. If you think about it, you send it to ten people and if they send it to ten people that is 100 people already. The next step will involve 1000 emails and the next ten thousand. These chain emails cannot work for that simple reason so you would be better to simply delete them and get on with something else.

The main point of this advice however is to urge security for you and your friends. Any email which you receive contains the email address of the sender. If you forward that email then the address appears as simple text in the first few lines of the email you are sending and this will pass on this information to the recipient UNLESS you delete it. I have received emails from people (mainly funnies which friends tend to send to one another) which, because they have been forwarded several times, contain fifty or sixty email addresses of recipients further up the line.

My advice is this. When forwarding an email, highlight and delete all reference to the person who sent it to you, and for good measure all previous addresses if they are present. This is done simply in the same way that you would delete text in a word processing document.

Secondly, if you are sending or forwarding an email to several people at once, make use of the provided fields at the top of the new email. You have fields which say "To:" where you would put the recipient’s email address, "CC:" where you would put a secondary email address if you wished to bring the communication to the attention of one or more people, AND want all recipients to know of the communication, (all email addresses will be shown to each recipient), and finally we have the "BCC:" field. In this you can type email addresses and none of the recipients will know the addresses of the other people to whom the communication was sent. Some email systems will require a name in the "To:" box whereas others will allow you to simply put all names in the "BCC:" box. If the former then simply put your own address in the "To:" box.

Don't forget that you should treat the email addresses of communicants with as much respect as their house address or telephone number.

We at the U3A send out a regular email to all members and make use of the "BCC:" field so that we are not broadcasting 2 or 3 hundred email addresses along with the letter.

Remember that if these multi-email addresses are displayed on emails, sooner or later they will fall into the hands of a hacker who will compromise the owner by sending out bad emails in their name. See also "My friends are receiving strange emails from me" earlier in this series.

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22. How to find a file by date in Vista/7

If you know which folder the file is in, you could open that folder, right-click a blank white space and choose Sort by > Date modified. (The same option works if you’re looking for multiple files and you know they’re all in the same folder.) The files in that folder are now arranged in date order, making it a little easier to find what you want.

However, that’s not an ideal method – it won’t help if you’re unsure which folder the file is in, or if you want to find various files scattered between different folders. Here’s a better approach:

Open the Start menu, and in the Search box at the bottom type the date you’re interested in. Use the date format DD/MM/YYYY. As an example, if you were looking for files created on July 4th 2012 you’d type this:

04/07/2012

If you want to find files created during a particular period, (or you only have a rough idea of when you saved the file) enter the start and end dates of the period separated by two dots like this:

10/07/2011..20/07/2011

Press Enter and a window will open listing all the files that were created or modified on the date (or between the dates) you entered. Among them you may also find email messages, depending on what email program you use: if so, you can either ignore them or keep this in mind as a nifty way to find email correspondence by date as well!