AOL is now charging for using their desktop software. You can access your email at mail.aol.com for free but using the software is going to cost you. Now is a good time to switch off of AOL. Follow the steps below to switch to a free Gmail account. 

Go to Gmail.com, click on Create An Account. Create your new Gmail account. Have Gmail fetch your AOL email. You set this up in Gmail Settings. Add a signature to your Gmail account saying your address has changed. Reply to all email from the Gmail account. Eventually, you’ll be able to stop the AOL forwarding as all that will be left will be junk email. Mark all junk as Spam. Gmail has an amazing spam filter. 

Voila! No one will call you Grandma/Grandpa because of your AOL email!

      

​March 31st is World Backup Day! Make sure your data is protected by having a good backup system in place. Hard drives fail. It’s a fact of life. Protect your data by     having an on-site and off-site backup. You’ll be glad     you did. More info about backup can be found here.

Well, not really. Microsoft is pushing Windows 10. It’s a free upgrade until the end of July, 2016.

There are many reasons to upgrade but if you wish, you can prevent Windows 10 from automatically installing on your computer. The easiest way to do this if the install starts is to decline the EULA (End User License Agreement) for Windows 10. Your computer will revert to Windows 7/8.1. 

We recommend upgrading with a couple precautionary steps. Make sure your computer is backed up and free of viruses/spyware first. If you don’t know how to do this, please contact us before attempting upgrade. OS upgrades can be tricky so be prepared with a good backup. 

We are offering a full backup image of your computer and upgrade to Windows 10 for a low reasonable price. Same day service is dropped off by 10am. Contact us for details.

More info here…

Back in April, I sent out the “Power Saving Part 1” email newsletter. I discussed the options you can use to save power without shutting down your computer.  This time I will address how to automate the power savings on your desktop or laptop to take full advantage of these options.  

While the basic options are fairly straight-forward, the advanced options can be daunting.  So I recommend sticking with the simplest options that will fit your needs.  The way that these options are managed depends on which Operating System you are using, so I’ll go through each one separately.

 Windows

The Power Options can be found in the Control Panel, which should be a button in your Start menu.  If your Control Panel is in Category view, the Power Options are under “System and Security”.  

From this screen, you can choose the overall power saving mode for your computer. These are fairly self-explanatory, but where it gets interesting is if you choose the “Change plan settings” option for your desired power mode.
 
Plan settings: From here, you can select from the drop-down menus the time intervals for the given power option.  The computer will automatically enable that power-saving option when it is not in use for that amount of time.  If these options aren’t enough for you, or you are feeling adventurous, check out the “Change advanced power settings” menu.  If you choose not to go into the advanced settings, and changed something here, make sure that you click “Save changes” before leaving this window.

If you register, Windows 10 will be downloaded to your computer when it’s released. If and when you chose to install it is up to you.
Recommendations:

If you have Windows 7 and are completely happy with how your system runs right now, there is no need to upgrade and you can ignore the prompt from Microsoft.  This is recommended for business computers. Windows 7 is supported until 2020 so you have 5 more years before you need to change.

Do not download and install the upgrade on the very first day it is available. We recommend waiting it out until any bugs are figured out.

Before doing any upgrade, you should follow some simple procedures.

• Full system image of your computer (this will allow a full restore to before the upgrade, including operating system, programs, setting and data). If the Windows 10 upgrade goes bad or you dislike it, you can go back to original settings.

• If you don’t opt for full system image, you MUST have a good backup of your current data before any upgrade. Really. You must do this. 

If you feel you need help, please contact us at Thames Computer Consulting at 610-733-6842. We can help you setup a software program to do a full system image or complete data backup. 

How much is your data worth to you? If your hard drive crashed or if you lost your device – would losing the data upset you? Of course it would! You have pictures, emails, documents, music – your whole life is on that thing!

It’s not a question of “if” your hard drive will fail, it’s really a question of “when.” Hard drives are the most sensitive pieces of equipment on a computer. They are essentially floating platters that spin at high speeds with a head that moves back and forth over the platters. It’s actually a wonder they don’t fail more often!


BACKUP BASICS

• Have 2-3 copies of all your important data. One copy on your computer, one on an external drive, and one in the cloud.  
• Ideally, one of your backups is not local. It is stored in another location in case of a problem in your home/office. Cloud backup services such as Carbonite are a perfect solution for off-site backup. 
• Do not use CD/DVD’s as backup. They are not reliable in the long run and technology is moving away from these discs. 
• Set up a backup plan that you will use! This doesn’t have to be hard. 
• Not everything has to be backed up. Your 100 GB music collection can most likely be recreated if need be. 
• Backup all your electronic devices – mobile devices as well as desktops/laptops.  
• Backup regularly.
• Test restoring data to make sure backup is working. 

TYPES OF BACKUP

• Local – This means using an external hard drive plugged into your computer or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that plugs into your router and allow all computers on your network to use the drive for either backup or storage.  
• Off-site – Your home or business could suffer some kind of damage that would render your computer and your external hard drive useless (think flood or fire.) One type of off-site storage is the “cloud.” This is a great alternative for laptops since you don’t have to plug an external drive into it. 

Some backup suggestions: 

• Carbonite – For $60/year, get unlimited storage space in the cloud. Carbonite installs a program on your laptop or desktop that quietly runs in the background and keeps your computer backed up. Incredibly easy to set up and use. The first backup takes a long time but after that only changed data is backed up. Works with Windows or Macs.
• Windows Backup and Restore – Windows Vista and 7 have a built-in backup and restore program that works with your external hard drive. It can also do full system images. Windows 8 has a built-in utility called “File History” that effectively works as a backup of all your files. 
• Time Machine – Mac OS X comes with a program that will automatically back up your data when you plug in an external hard drive. Time Machine saves multiple copies of your files so you can go back through versions to find a file you accidentally deleted. 
• Acronis True Image – Acronis is a program for Windows computers that backups up data or can backup a whole image of your hard drive. It works great and is easy to use. Highly recommended for local backups. 

Mac OS
If you click on the Apple logo on the left of your menu bar at the top of the screen, you will find the most important system functions.  One of which, probably towards the bottom, is the “Sleep” option.

Hibernate
This is an option exclusive to Windows.  It is very similar to “Sleep”, except instead of going to a low power state, the computer shuts off completely.  When you power up the computer, everything will automatically be restored as it was before.  The downside is that it takes a little bit more time than “Sleep” to initiate and restore.  As with “Sleep”, be very careful about what you leave open when going to this state, as some information might get lost, especially in web forms.
 
To get out of either of these modes, you can simply press (but DO NOT HOLD) the power button on your computer and it will restore everything for you.  If you like to be on the safe side, some computers will wake up from “Sleep” with a keystroke, but not all.

One last note about using these modes: Don’t disconnect a USB device or monitor, you should only do it through the proper channels (i.e. “disconnect this device”) when your computer is either running normally, or properly Shut Down.

That’s all for now, I hope everyone enjoys the power savings you should be getting by properly using these modes.  Join us next time, when I will discuss how to use automated power-saving options, and make the computer decide how best to save energy!

Come March 18th at 10:00am to 19 E. Spring Ave. Ardmore, PA 19003 for an informal class in the Excel basics and beyond. Bring your laptop. Class limited to 8 students so sign up quickly! Bring your laptop! Registration by Paypal only. Click the Buy Now button below to pay through Paypal. 

My last blog post was on a pop-up that Mac users have been getting with a fake tech support number to call. Lately, Windows users have been getting phone calls from fake technicians claiming to be associated with Microsoft. If someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support, or affiliated with Microsoft, calls you:

• Do not purchase any software or services.
• Ask if there is a fee or subscription associated with the “service.” If there is, hang up.
• Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer.
• Take the caller’s information down and immediately report it to your local authorities.
• Never provide your credit card or financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support.
• If you tell the scammer you have a Mac, they will still try to get you to gain control over your computer. Do not let them!

Read more at this link. Microsoft is going after these scammers legally. Report the scam here: 

• Federal Trade Commission – ftccomplaintassistant.gov
• State’s Attorney General – naag.org/current-attorneys-general
• Better Business Bureau – bbb.org