If you have a Windows operating system you need to be concerned about viruses, spyware, and adware. More now than in the past, other operating systems (Mac and Linux) are being focused on a little more, but none even close to Windows. Why? Because it’s the most popular and will have the biggest impact. There are MANY antivirus, anti-spyware, and ad-ware removal tools/programs. The most important thing is HAVE them. Continue reading

New laptops are moving away from having a CD/DVD drive in them. The reason for this is because more people are using online storage, flash drives, and video streaming so the drive isn’t necessary and it saves space to make devices thinner. Well to some surprise, Windows 8 does not even play DVD’s “out of the box”. You do have options tho.Continue reading

There are many online storage options available. I will focus on the main three, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. I personally have used Dropbox and not the other two. I really like Dropbox so haven’t tried them.Continue reading

Making a video from pictures has become common, there are many ways to do it. The way that I had done this in the past was to make a PowerPoint presentation with the pictures arranged on the slide, set up the transitions, and use a third party software to record the presentation. While I did find Camtasia Studio pretty easy and did exactly what I wanted, now there is an easier way.Continue reading

Why should you backup your data? The main reason would be hard drive failure. Hard drives are hardware, and can fail. Other reasons you need to backup your data could include accidental deletion, operating system failure, and fire. Sometimes we get in a hurry and delete a file that was important, don’t rely on the trash bin for storage. Some files don’t even go to the recycle bin when deleted, for example if they are too large. Continue reading

There have been a few (good) changes that were made with Windows 8.1 Update and more to come. These updates seem to be bringing back what Windows users are missing from the older versions of windows. With Windows 8, Microsoft was gearing toward touch devices. Although this is not a bad thing, they seem to have forgotten about the mouse and keyboard with some features.Continue reading

There are many times when I want to save a part of my computer screen, whether it be an error message or something I found online that I need to save for later. The main way I had done this in the past was to tap the print screen button (prt sc) on the keyboard. This sometimes has to be fn and another key depending on the keyboard. And that way still works, but if you only want to save a smaller part of your screen, you would need to take the screen capture, paste into a document of some kind and then crop it. Continue reading

Sometimes when navigating windows, there is an easier way to get tasks accomplished. The following is a list of keyboard shortcuts. (Found in Windows 8 Basics pamphlet)

Windows Key:   Return to the Start screen from an open app or the Windows desktop or press again to return to the previous screen.
Windows Key + F1: Open online help.
Windows Key + C: Display the charms.
Windows Key + D: Display the Windows desktop (second time to hide)
Windows Key + E: Open Computer (Windows explorer) Continue reading