How do you get to Safe Mode in Windows 8

When I had versions of Windows prior to 8, it was easy to get to Safe Mode by rebooting and selecting F8 when the cursor started flashing.  Windows 8 comes up so quickly and that function no longer works.

Here is what you now have to do.  Go to the Charms Bar and select the power button.  Then hold down the Shift Key and Select "Restart."  You will then go into a new menu of items - Select "Troubleshoot" and "Advanced Options"

This will allow you to boot into Safe Mode or to repair your system. 

My PC Was Hacked?

It was a quiet evening in May and being retired, I have lots of time and I was just relaxing when I received the call.  A nice man with a very strong accent called - "I am from Windows and I called to tell you that your computer has been hacked."  What?" I asked, Hacked!  How?

He didn't answered the question but offered to help me.  "Great", I said "How can you help?  Go to your computer.  As I was on the way, he transferred my call to a nice lady, "Christine", with a gentler accent.

Christine directed me to turn on my computer, sign in and she said she would be helping by taking over control of my system.  She asked that I go to www.teamviewer.com and download the team viewer program.

After deliberately fumbling around on the download, I installed Teamviewer, 10 minutes or so of conversation and looking for the app I launched and let her take over control of the system.  I saw the mouse moving and she actually managed to start System Settings.  It was obvious that she had no idea what she was looking at.  "What do you use the computer?" for she asked.  Well I do a little web surfing, read a book or two and maybe a movie.  Do you online banking or facebook?"   No, I answered.  I do access Facebook but not very often.  She looked at the desktop for a while, obviously confused and moved the mouse around, not knowing what to do with the desktop she was seeing.

I asked where the problem was how was I hacked?  "I'm not sure" she said, "but there is a problem between your computer, the network and the server."  More mouse movement on the screen.  "Where is the problem?"  "I'll have to talk to our technicians can I put you on hold for 2 minutes."

By the way did I mention, I was working on my Linux machine.  I have a fresh new version of Ubuntu installed (14.04).  It's very nice.

Two minutes later, she says "the problem seems to be in the network somewhere"  "Oh good.  I can shut down my computer now" and proceeded to do so.  Thank you so much Christine, I appreciate you spending more than a hour with me.  Goodbye

Spending that time with me kept them away from some other senior who might have had their financial information stolen.

Why do we run free computer classes?

It's a beautiful Monday afternoon in Florida.  I am always amazed how many people show up for our computer class.  We are talking about golfers, bikers, kayakers.  This late in the season people are packing up and getting ready to head north yet they take two hours on a beautiful sunny afternoon to come to class.

This was not an easy learning week, we were covering more advanced topics than usual.  How to get rid of Adware, Spyware and generally clean up a computer.  Our classes are typically 2 hours - one hour of presentation and one hour of answering questions and fixing problems. The presentation piece with all the questions went a lot longer than we expected but people were able to follow with their laptops.  After class people just stayed to talk and to listen while we responded to others asking questions.

These are the things that make doing these class really rewarding.

Celebrating the Ides of March

Et tu Brute
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One of our long family traditions has been to celebrate the Ides of March by killing a Caesar or two,   Well now, we brought that tradition to our friends at Rock Crusher Canyon.
We spent a fantastic day enjoying Caesars, some nice appraisers and some of Bettyann's great chili.
Two couples, Buck and Lisa, Charlie and Mary and George and Sheila couldn't be with us.  Lisa had to be home, in spite of the bad weather in Indiana, to be with her daughter for the birth of her first baby and Charlie and Mary had to be in Myrtle Beach to see there grand child.  Everyone else gathered outside our motorhome and had a great day that lasted well into the evening.  They all did great damage to Caesar.

Turkey Fry at Rock Crusher

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This is my second year enjoying the Turkey Fry here at Rock Crusher.  The event gathers 40 or 50 of our neighbours for conversational afternoon followed be a great turkey dinner.  Fritz and Casper organize the event, cook the turkeys and provide the gathering place outside their motorhome.  Richard and Paulette provded a big cooked ham and to enhance all of this everyone contributes somehow with a dish or two in "pot luck" fashion.  Even with all those people there is not chance they will run out of food.
After the very filling dinner it is nice to relax around a nice warm fire, enjoying the star filled sky and the not too cool air.  Overall, a great day.

Window 8 Anti-virus - Don't buy one

Is seems that our classes are getting more and more popular.  I am not sure whether it is because technology is changing so fast or just because the more people want to learn and take control of their technology purchases.  Either way, our attendance has double since last year.

Today we are discussing "Backup and Recovery", transferring data to a new computer and Anti-virus.  Many people in the class had recently purchased new Windows 8 based machines and almost in every case they were sold an Anti-virus program like Web Root even though the manufacturer of the laptop had added Norton or McAfee to their standard bloatware.  None of these are necessary - when you purchase Windows 8 with or without a computer you have already
a great Anti-virus included in the price.  It comes with Windows and is call Windows Defender.  Much of our time after the class was spent removing the Anti-virus that was installed on the system and letting Windows Defender take over.

iPad Class

Today's iPad class was a lot of fun.  We had about 40 people show up and spend an hour learning how to use their iPad.  We started with the very basics and ended the session with a demo of Siri.  I had done one class previously but started with the assumption that when someone owned the iPad they already knew how to use it.  I later found out that that was not so.

Starting with the very basics - A hardware tour, some basic setting, how to organize the iPad apps, and setting up Email was very popular.  Even those who had used their iPad for a couple of years admitted to learning a lot.  Most of the 40 people had never used Siri and didn't even know it was on their iPad.

At the end of the hour, when asked if they learned any new things and if it was worth the time they spent - EVERYONE raised their hands.  That is why I love doing this.  Thank you all.