Calling all geeks: Now Including Tech-o-Wienies!

[1992casey]

Why do you need a new hard drive? That seems like an unnecessary expense. I suppose that getting your data back in place could involve extra effort either way, though.

 

Like logan82 says, the privacy issues in Windows 10 bug me. If you don't catch the options right away during setup, you have to travel all over the OS to check them. And Microsoft's 45-page privacy explanation makes for complicated reading.

[Invader3K]

Why do you need a new hard drive? That seems like an unnecessary expense. I suppose that getting your data back in place could involve extra effort either way, though.

 

Like logan82 says, the privacy issues in Windows 10 bug me. If you don't catch the options right away during setup, you have to travel all over the OS to check them. And Microsoft's 45-page privacy explanation makes for complicated reading.

 

The computer won't boot from the hard drive now. I did download a program called HD Sentinel (on Toshiba's recommendation) right before the drive completely failed, and the program said the hard drive was indeed failing.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I'm in need of a new router for my PC. Mine is over 8 years old, and possibly up to 10 years old. I was told I need at least a dual channel router. I asked what was better and was told a wireless AC.

 

I am tech illiterate, and I need some help on which one exactly to get. Please post a link of one available for sale that you would recommend.

[LouisEly]

I have a Linksys N300 WiFi router that I bought as a manufacturer refurb off of eBay for $20 a couple of years ago. Works pretty well. Every 4-5 months or so I have to reboot it, but it transmits at 100 MB/s, the top end speed of the internet in the complex (which is pretty fast). The box says good for 3 or less devices (it's just me, so rarely do I have more than one device going at a time).

 

How many people/devices do you have siphoning internet at once? What is the maximum internet speed coming into your home?

 

(I highly recommend refurbs - they fix the manufacturing defects, and they usually know exactly what they are after they have a few dozen get returned. Typing this on a refurbed desktop that I bought ~5 years ago and have never had a problem with.)

[1992casey]

The full name for "wireless AC" is IEEE 802.11ac, often referred to as 802.11ac. Asking for "ac' should do the trick if you're talking to a salesperson, but recognizing the full name will help you scan a package or product description. I'd bet that most routers offer "ac" these days. You may not own any 802.11ac devices, but having that on your router will allow anything new to take advantage of the extra speed it offers.

 

Simultaneous Dual Band prevents the weakest link in your network from slowing other devices down. That allows older devices to connect at the speed that they're capable of while allowing newer devices to connect at the maximum possible speed. I think that printers still often ship with the older 802.11n standard while computers, smartphones, iPads, etc. will connect with 802.11ac.

 

Apple's Airport Extreme is a great router, but it's pricey and likely overkill for most households. I'm sure that others will post some good suggestions.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Would the Apple Airport Extreme be compatible with the Dell Microsoft that I use?

[1992casey]

Yes. But now that I think of it, doing the initial setup in Windows might not be possible anymore. It'll definitely set up from a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

[LouisEly]

Just your luck, w00t has a Linksys router sale going on right now. Wireless AC dual band routers for $50:

 

http://computers.woot.com/plus/linksys-networking-15?ref=gh_cp_5_wp_2

 

They're refurbished, but like I said before, I've had very good luck with refurbs. If you want a one year warranty you can add one on for $9.

[Invader3K]

Windows 10 has a "critical process died" error that has become the bane of my existence. I've tried everything I can think of short of reinstalling Windows 10, and nothing seems to help. Drivers are up to date, I've run check disk, scan disk, etc. and nothing seems to help. PC crashes when left on its own for any length of time, but doesn't crash in safe mode. Really scratching my head on this one.

[logan82]

Go back to the previous version of Windows you were using. I plan to reinstall 8.1 after the semester. 10 is even worse than I originally thought. I wouldn't recommend it unless you hate your current OS.

[Invader3K]

Go back to the previous version of Windows you were using. I plan to reinstall 8.1 after the semester. 10 is even worse than I originally thought. I wouldn't recommend it unless you hate your current OS.

It was Windows 7. Will I still be OK with that one for a while?

[logan82]

You should be okay with Windows 7 for quite a while. I wouldn't really consider 10 until it gets closer to the end of the year when the upgrade is free. Hopefully they will have most of the issues ironed out by then.

[1992casey]

If Invader has already given Windows 10 a go-around, shouldn't it continue to be free for him even after the year is up?

[logan82]

If Invader has already given Windows 10 a go-around, shouldn't it continue to be free for him even after the year is up?

Not sure if that would be the case if he goes back to 7.

[Invader3K]

If Invader has already given Windows 10 a go-around, shouldn't it continue to be free for him even after the year is up?

Not sure if that would be the case if he goes back to 7.

 

I think Windows 10 continues to be free through next summer or something.

 

I very well might roll back to Windows 7 and see how that goes. The PC in question is solely being used for a arcade gaming cabinet I built from a kit, so it doesn't really make much difference in the grand scheme of things.

[LouisEly]

My laptop is getting old and the hardware is starting to go - I think there are bad sectors on the hard drive which is causing the CPU meter to occasionally spike to 100% which causes the computer to freeze up for a few seconds. (I've taken it apart and blasted gas on the fan but it still doesn't seem to help - seems like it freezes whenever I go to a website that has some type of video on it. ESPN.com is really bad - it freezes for several seconds and seems to have an issue with espncdn. Sometimes it freezes even when the CPU meter isn't at 100%.)

 

So, given that the laptop is 7 years old and that the hardware is starting to fail I bought a refurbished HP laptop on eBay with Windows 10 on it. Seller has good ratings, and it comes with a 6-month warranty from HP.

 

My question is, how do you change the privacy settings on Windows 10? If Windows 10 is already installed they may already be set. Want to change it so that it doesn't spy on everything I do. I've heard that this may not be the easiest thing to find/do.

 

Thanks!

[logan82]

Windows 10 is a huge pain in the ass. You have to go through a lot of toggles to get it not to spy on you and those things could just turn right back on whenever you have an update which may not be under your control. You just have to start digging through all the toggles and set them not to spy. Good luck.

[1992casey]

This article might help:

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2971725/windows/how-to-reclaim-your-privacy-in-windows-10-piece-by-piece.html

 

The video touches on critical settings with the article getting into more detail.

 

The one I don't get is the setting that has to be changed within each web browser. It sounds like it's cookie-based. If that's the case, you may have to reset it every time you toss your cookies.

 

Otherwise, as logan82 says, it's a good idea to check these settings after Windows updates. Since updates happen without your approval, it would pay to figure out when they happen so you'll know to go back and inspect your settings.

[GAME05]

I was forced to use Windows 10 with the new PC I got. I wish I remembered exactly how, but I used a couple youtube videos that showed you where the toggles are to turn off most of the spying. But if you just want to delete stuff like Cortana, it's intentionally buried deep to make it difficult to completely get rid of.

 

I recently turned off the requirement to use a password when it wakes up from sleep, but it isn't working. Also no itunes with 10. And the start window doesn't show the last-used programs like the last Windows did, so now I have to move stuff like the calculator to the desktop so I don't have to search for it every time.

[nate82]

You could just pin your most used programs to your taskbar.

[patrickgpe]

posting this here, because i have been looking online and cannot get any consistent answer.

 

i would like to get some sort of anti virus on my MAC, it has been running slow and i think its do to malware from my stepson's games. When i search i get download mac keeper, but that looks like a large phishing scam. Another possibility is Norton. I have malware bytes installed on my computer, but it doesn't seem to be finding anything.

 

What do people do to protect their macs?

[1992casey]

The most common way to get malware on a Mac is to install a piece of dodgy software. If you've done that, you'll likely see symptoms that are worse than slowness, though.

 

Probably the first thing one can do is to make sure Gatekeeper is set to its default. In System Preferences, choose Security & Privacy, hit the General tab, then check to make sure that "Mac App Store and identified developers" is chosen. That will cause the system to produce a warning if an app doesn't come from a registered developer.

 

Choosing "Mac App Store" is even more strict, but the one you want to avoid is "Anywhere." "Mac App Store and identified developers" isn't perfect, but developers know that if they don't follow the rules, their accounts will be revoked.

 

Macs have built in anti-malware protection called XProtect that runs silently in the background. I don't think that it's possible to shut it off, so you're likely covered there. It's going to cover online threats rather than dodgy software installations, though. As an example, it shuts down the ability to use old versions of Java and Flash. It's actually even shut down the current version of Java a couple of times.

 

Still, I think you're covered by running Malwarebytes now and then. A full-time anti-malware app running in the background may make things slower than they already are.

 

Speaking of Java and Flash, you probably don't need Java at all. Almost all Mac exploits that didn't require users to install software have involved Java. Having said that, I think Java's security record has improved over the past couple of years.

 

Flash sucks security-wise too, but I don't think that any of the serious Flash exploits have ever turned into attacks on the Mac. Make sure it's always up to date. And always get it from Adobe's site. One of my friends installed a fake Flash. It took over Safari and installed a fake Bing, and it caused her to get popups telling her to call a fake Microsoft for support. It also dropped three apps into her Applications folder, which thankfully, she didn't open.

 

I've decided that I can get by without Flash being globally installed. For the few times I run into a page that has Flash content that interests me, I fire that page up in Google Chrome. Chrome has Flash sandboxed within the browser.

 

One common cause of Mac slowness is a hard drive (or SSD) that's too full. How does that look?

 

Another cause is too many items on the desktop. Figure that each icon loads a full preview of the document it represents. If you have a tendency to want to put a lot of stuff on the desktop, it's better to put a folder there and stash these items in it.

 

You might gain some speed by doing a safe boot. Doing this will clean out some stuff (caches and such). To do a safe boot, hold down the shift key during startup. A safe boot takes significantly longer than a normal startup, so don't be alarmed. Once you've booted into in safe mode, simply restart normally. This restart will take a hair longer than most boots because nothing's cached. You don't actually have to do anything while you're in safe mode. Simply doing the safe boot will take care of the cleanup tasks.

 

You can also check your login items to make sure you aren't running any unnecessary items at startup. To do this, go to System Preferences, hit the Users & Groups icon, then hit the Login Items tab. To remove a login item, simply select it, then hit the "minus" button below the list.

[LouisEly]

Thanks for the tips. The laptop has treated me as a new user so I could set the privacy settings when setting up.

 

However, I'm starting to think the issue is Firefox and not my old computer. Maybe websites are deliberately not playing fair with Ad Block Plus. But having a LED screen now is much better.

[1992casey]

I'd still go through the settings just to make sure they're as you like them. Doing that will also help you establish a routine for the times you re-check them after updates.

 

My Firefox for Mac isn't behaving as well as I'd like. I should try to isolate the problems when I can. I think my profile is about four years old; that can't help. Outside of that, now that you point it out, I wonder if there's simply an issue that extends across platforms.

 

I've noticed more and more sites whining about ad blockers. Forbes is the worst as it won't let you in at all. Adding insult to injury, their advertising and other junk are very obtrusive. Page loads are slow, and stuff reloads while you're reading.

[LouisEly]

Oh God, I've had the same issue with Forbes. CPU spikes to 100% when I've gone there and just locks the whole thing up.

 

And yes, I've gone through the privacy settings. There is one setting referenced in the pcworld article that you have to go to a Microsoft website to set, and apparently it won't keep unless you let your browser accept all 3rd party cookies. Sigh.

 

Really, I would not mind my internet bill increasing $10/month to just not have to deal with this crap. And advertisers did it to themselves; I don't mind ads, as long as they are not obtrusive, don't interfere with my experience, and are legitimate, safe ads and not scams or trying to trick me into something. Websites accepting ads that have an obnoxious blinking "CLICK HERE", are made to look like I have an email/Facebook notification or show the President making an outlandish statement to try to trick someone into clicking on it, or worse yet redirect you to spyware or scamware in a desperate attempt to capture any revenue they can are the ones responsible for people using ad blockers. If they only accepted trusted, legitimate, unobtrusive ads then ad blockers would not be an issue. It's not ads that people are trying to block, it's the negative impact on their internet experience that they are trying to block.