Computer Tips and Tricks

I may have posted this already but I keep showing these computer tricks to users and get those Lightbulb like or “AHA” moments from folks on some of these.

Did you know you can virtually undo just about anything if you make a mistake with the Control-Z key sequence. It works with most any Windows program like Word or Excel, or just about any program in Windows, and even Windows itself. It’s a universal key sequence that’s built into just about everything. If you are on a MAC – use the key sequence Command – Z to get the same result. The command key has the Apple on it with the four loops. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an UNDO button in real life.

Another trick to use is when you are web surfing and you want to go to a new website. Just click in the Address bar or sometimes called the URL bar, but it’s the bar located at the top of your favorite browser like shown below.

If you just click once, it places your cursor where you click. If you double click, it will usually highlight a whole word, but if you triple click, it will highlight the whole line of text.

Once that text is highlighted, you can just start typing. And here is my next trick;

Say you want to go to MSN, just simply type msn and then “Control” – Enter at the same time. That’s hold down the control key and then the enter key, and it will add in the “www” and the “.com” on the front and back of the item. Cool huh?

That’s one of those tricks that can help you speed up your browsing. Now that works with Internet Explorer and Firefox but on Opera, it has a bunch more shortcuts you can use which is why I like Opera for a browser, but anyway try those out.

If you need more computer help, check us out over at www.cananet.com

Technorati Tags: keyboard shortcuts

I know there have been tons of reports and alerts lately from hacker threats. Groups called “Anonymous” and “Lulzsec” have been taking down some monster sites and even attacked the CIA website. I usually try to post some of the more ingenious or threatening ones to my friends on Facebook, but this one caught my eye. The Anonymous group is now drawing their sites on the social networking giant Facebook. The report from CNN says that this will go down on November 5th. Do you think they can take it down?

Be on the lookout for this and check out the report from CNN….

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/08/09/anonymous.facebook/index.html

Also check out there threat video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SWQTS8zqYXU

Technorati Tags: browser, facebook, Hacks

Hello, students! I’ve got a couple of ways to make your academic life less painful. They’re not all free, but they’re all good.

Microsoft offers deep discounts for students
If you’re headed back to school (or if you’re already there), you’ve realized that you’re actually going to need to write some papers at some point during the school year. Even if your cunning plan is to wait until the very last minute, you’re still going to need some software to get that done.
There are plenty of alternatives to Microsoft Office, but if you qualify, you can get the full Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 suite for roughly  $79 US. Check this site for more information.

You’ll need to send an email to Microsoft, get some information back, purchase online, and then download (and install) the software.

Evernote lets you access your notes just about anywhere
Microsoft Office Academic comes with a program called OneNote, which is a decent note taking program. But in my opinion Evernote has OneNote beat. Take notes, take a picture, capture a web page or portion thereof with Evernote on your Windows computer, your iMac, your iPhone, your Android phone, your iPad, or your Linux computer, and you can access that information from any of those devices. You can secure your information, or share it.

Evernote is unbelievably useful. Their slogan is “Remember everything.” but I think Evernote is great because I don’t have to remember anything! I just have to go to Evernote to retrieve it. The free version is adequate for many, but if you need additional storage, you can purchase it. Grab it here. It will change your life.

Thanks to Cate at http://www.computercarekelowna.com for her great articles

Well it’s a new year and 2010 is upon us. Do you have a New Year’s Resolution?

Well I don’t know about computer maintenance being a resolution, and I think that most people would think that’s a bore. One thing to think about though, If you use AVG Free Anti virus version 8.5, it is no longer supported. In fact, it was probably not supported at the end of November. AVG version 9 is here and you need to go download it and install it to keep current. If you don’t upgrade, you are vulnerable to viruses on the web and increasingly so as time goes by.

Bad things happen when your Anti-virus programs expire!

Nowadays, you also need to install a Spyware or Malware program to compliment your anti virus program. Malware is short for Malicious software. I always like to install Malwarebytes and Super Anti Spyware and I encourage others to use those.

Make sure that daily scans are running and that Real-time protection is turned on. Also, please, oh please, start using Firefox for your web browser instead of Internet Explorer. You don’t have to use Internet Explorer and I encourage others to make Firefox the default. It’s definitely a safer browser and you can also now count on using added software (called extensions) to help increase your trust of certain sites. The added extension is called Web of Trust, and will actually show you what sites are good and what sites are bad.

This helps you make sure you know what you are Clicking.

Check out the image below; it show that when you search Google, you will find either a green, red, or yellow circle after each entry.

Green is good in this case, yellow, means to use caution and that the site has a weak reputation, and red is not a good site to be entering. Even if you do click on the site that is not trusted, you will get a popup from that site that gives you a warning. If that is not enough, and you still want to go there, well you are on your on.

Some sites in the web of trust are unknown, which means that it has not made it in the database of listed sites yet. In my case, you can trust my sites listed below…

Links:

http://www.mypcnetwork.com    My PC repair Website, If you need help, give us a call

http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?part=dl-10044820&subj=dl&tag=button&cdlPid=11014801    Download AVG Version 9 here

http://www.malwarebytes.org   Download MalwareBytes

http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html   Download Super Anti Spyware

http://www.getfirefox.com   Mozilla Firefox web browser

http://www.mywot.com    Web of Trust Download

Do you use Google? Local news sites affiliated with newspapers or TV stations? I saw this report over at chris.pirillo.com talking about the decline of news content via the newspaper in favor of online media sources. A new report just out says that 44% of Google users just simply skim the headlines and never read the full story. I have discovered, personally, in this rich media age with Twitter, Facebook, Snackr and others that I do the same thing.

That’s why I like Newser.com. I can just see the top headlines, and when I click into a story, it gives me just a summary of the story. Then, if I want to dive deeper into it, I can click on the source links to read the full story, (if I want to).

I have a friend who uses Weatherbug on his pc, but the reality is that takes up system resources on his system all the time and actually sends back his tracking cookies to the site, which can be misused.

I think it would be better to use Google for your Weather forecasts you need it.

Just go to Google and type in weather and your zip code to get the above.

Instead of visiting other weather search sites, you can display weather reports for the U.S. and selected cities around the world directly in Google. Google displays the current temperature, conditions, humidity, wind speed and direction, and a four-day forecast with graphics.

Next to the weather report is a link allowing you to add the forecast to your iGoogle page. Plus, underneath U.S. weather reports you will find links to external sites such as AccuWeather, The Weather Channel, and Weather Underground, offering more detailed weather forecasts and radars if desired.

The cool thing is that less memory is used on the system, increasing performance.

Everybody searches stuff online with Google right? Well maybe sometimes you might use Ask.com to search for stuff. I have found a site that pays me money to search on Google.com and Ask.com.

It’s called swagbucks.com. Why not get free stuff while you search because you are searching for stuff anyways right?

Use my referrer link to sign up and get started.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/netman42

You can use your Swagbucks to buy anything from music to musical instruments to Xboxes. If you set up your default search bar to use swag bucks, then it just becomes second nature to use.

When you use the search about 3-5 times, you get a buck. When you refer Swagbucks to your friends you get a buck when they get a buck.

So get started and start earning Swagbucks. You might as well get paid to surf.

http://www.mypcnetwork.com

http://www.computertipstricks.com

This Valentine’s Day you may want to think twice about opening any e-greeting cards adorned with cute puppies and vibrant red hearts or e-mail messages promoting hot new gifts for your sweetie.

There are good chances this precious e-greeting card may not be from the love of your life or secret admirer, but from a computer hacker, intent on stealing your identity, rather than your heart.

I found this article over here at Computerworld

Be careful out there.

Have you ever received a link to web page that someone wants you to see but the link is so long and doesn’t work. Most of the time on those long links, the link exceeds the page width and has a carriage return in the middle of that which the link doesn’t understand. When ypu click the link, you get a 404 error. To save aggravation from those busted links, use Tinyurl. You can paste in the long link and what’s cool is that you can preview that before you send.

I saw this article written by Rick Broida over at PCWorld and it reminded me of a simple tip that you may or may not know.

If you hit the Control key and use the scroll mouse wheel at the same time, you make the text bigger or smaller, depending on what you need in you web browser. If you don’t have a scroll wheel, just use the Ctl + or Ctl – keys together to do the same function. This one is simple, but effective if you are showing someone some text over your shoulder or across the room.