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.

46. Does Icognito Mode make you Anonymous

No it doesn’t.

Whatever the name, Icognito, Private Browsing, InPrivate etc. etc. all this mode does is hide your tracks online. When this mode was first introduced it became known a “Porn Mode” as people used it to visit unsavoury sites without storing the evidence on their PCs.

The usual histories, cookies, and temporary Internet Pages are all deleted as your session ends but that does not make you anonymous whilst online.

Your ISP, sites you visit, your work network, may all log your visit and the pages you have looked at so be aware!

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45. A telephone scam to be aware of

A friend had a telephone call from a gentleman seeking access to his computer to correct security dangers.

It’s been a long time since this has been mentioned, but I think it deserves another outing to ensure that new readers are aware of it, and to remind long-time readers that it’s still going on.

It’s a scam, plain and simple. You receive an unexpected telephone call from someone who claims to be from Microsoft or ‘Windows technical support’. This person explains that they’ve been monitoring your PC and it’s exhibiting all sorts of errors and is infected by a large number of viruses. They may even threaten that your Internet access will be cut off because your PC is in such a mess that it’s a risk to other computer users.

The caller directs you to various areas of Windows where long lists of technical information are stored, telling you that all these items are the ‘errors’ or ‘viruses’ that your PC has silently reported to this mysterious technical support company.

In fact, these lists are quite normal – every Windows user has them – but the caller knows you’ve probably never seen them before and that he can pretend they’re something important and worrying.

When he feels he’s convinced you, the caller asks you to install some software that allows him to take remote control of your PC under the pretence of correcting all these problems. You have to supply payment details for this ‘service’, and then allow the caller to do whatever he wants with your PC.

The key point to remember is that there is no-one – anywhere in the world – monitoring your PC (and doing so without your knowledge would be illegal anyway). The caller doesn’t know who you are, and doesn’t even know whether you have a PC.

Indeed, the caller doesn’t know whether you are, in fact, a PC expert who knows more about computers than the scammer does! We recommend a free security program named Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

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