Self-tutoring about home computer use: the tutor gives an update of his experience in home computing.

The main computer we use, a Windows 7 desktop from 2010, had been struggling a couple of weeks. I mentioned about starting it in safe mode, then running a virus scan. The scan was clean.

Yet, the computer struggled more and more, running fast, shutting down unexpectedly and such. Yesterday morning, it simply wouldn’t boot, not even in safe mode. Was it dying?

I disconnected an old headset (headphones with microphone) plugged into it a couple of weeks back. After that, I turned the computer on. It started perfectly, like nothing was ever wrong. I’m writing from it now.

In one of the diagnostic screens it had mentioned that, if a camera or AV device had recently been connected, to remove it. That’s where I got the idea to disconnect the headset. Good advice, eh?

HTH:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

Self-tutoring about home computer use: the tutor shares a workaround he used today.

We have several old computers that can be temperamental. This one, from 2010, has been acting up.

I tried to do a full scan of it for viruses, but it couldn’t finish. I restarted in Safe Mode with Networking, then tried again, successfully.

To enter Safe Mode, I restarted, then pressed F8, repeatedly, during reboot. An option screen appeared.

Source:

support.eset.com

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

Self-tutoring about home computer use: the tutor shares how he fixed a non-responsive search box in Windows 10.

All of a sudden, when I would enter the name of a program I wanted in Windows 10 search, it was blank.

The way I fixed it:

1. Start the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
2. If you can’t see the Processes pane at the top, click More details bottom left.
3. Under Processes, find Windows Explorer. Right-click it, then select Restart.

Source:

www.maketecheasier.com

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

Self-tutoring about home computer use: the tutor talks about using the McAfee shredder.

Lately I’ve been using the shredder on McAfee Internet Security. For small files it can be very fast.

This morning I used it on a file approximately 2GBytes. It took, I’d say, a half hour anyway. For a long time its progress reported an unchanging 50%. However, it finished around 10 minutes later. I guess its progress wasn’t updating during that period.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

More home computer self-tutoring: the tutor shares about another pop-up.

While working on the laptop today, I noticed a browser tab I didn’t recognize. I had many open and was pre-occupied, so didn’t check it right away. Eventually I did, to read as follows:

Windows Security Center: Your McAfee subscription has expired today….

I know, by now, that just because a message says it’s from Windows, doesn’t mean it is. I check the McAfee app: it says the subscription is Active. Next I check McAfee’s site report for the actual webpage:

Website Status: Unknown. We have to dig a litter deeper….

If McAfee itself doesn’t know about the expiration notice, supposedly for its own product, I figure the notice must be bogus. Next I check the web address of the pop-up:

antivirus-renewal.mcafee.com.abouttwentylettersandnumbers.trade/…..

The website appears, at first, to be from mcafee.com, but it’s actually from a .trade domain.

.trade is, apparently, a new top level domain.

Anyway, about the pop-up: I’ll just close the tab.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.

Home computer self-tutoring: the tutor shares a sudden experience from last night.

Yesterday evening I was surfing the ‘net when suddenly a pop-up appeared with a beep. Rather alarmingly, it presented me the message that “your Windows is infected with 3 viruses”, or some such news.

I had McAfee running its real-time scanning, so I opened up the Security Centre to check if I truly was under menace. McAfee reported its familiar green message “Your computer is secure.”

I searched the pop-up’s words “your Windows is infected with 3 viruses” and found it listed as a false alarm. The advice I read:

1. Ignore the “your Windows is infected with 3 viruses” message, and all other suggestions in the pop-up.
2. Close the tab containing the pop-up.
3. If the website refuses to close, restart the browser or even restart the computer if needed.

I had closed the “your Windows is infected with 3 viruses” tab seconds after it opened: I was sure it was not to be trusted. After finding out about it, I set McAfee on a full-system scan, which found nothing.

Source:

www.pcrisk.com

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.