Nowadays your Operating System’s Antivirus protection is as good as most payware. A US study shows however that older generations of computer user are still paying for Antivirus apps, when they really don’t need to. Check out ZDNet‘s article about the subject here to learn more, then type Antivirus into this Blog’s search field to see my other blog entries on this topic.
Importing PDF data into Excel
I didn’t know you could do this, but Microsoft Excel can import data directly from various sources, including PDFs. Check out MakeUseOf‘s article here to discover more.
Want to leave notes on your phone/computer by talking to it?
Now you can use AI to do a better job of entering notes onto your mobile devices and computers, simply by talking into the microphone. Discover more about ChatGPT’s Speech to Text in a recent MakeUseOf post here.
An easy way to update your Windows apps
PC World have just alerted me to an intuitive Windows-based graphical app called UniGetUI which simplifies the installation and updating of Windows apps. I just installed it and it discovered all the apps I had manually installed over the years and alerted me to more recent updates which I can now install at a click of a mouse button. If this is of interest to you, you can discover more here.
Vinyl records to digital files
If like me you have a treasured vinyl record collection; turning your favorite tracks from those records into digital files will enable you to play your music on mobile apps when you are in the car or away from home. For example I also use Apple iTunes on a computer attached to my sound system at home to play both my old vinyl tracks as well as more recent downloaded music. The conversion process is not as difficult as you might think, just time consuming. Discover more in the YouTube video below from Sound Matters.
Windows Uninstaller is not removing everything
Have you noticed some of the uninstallers provided with Windows applications do not remove everything associated with the original program? Crown GEEK has a Youtube video that discusses this and has a solution where you might want to ensure a complete cleanup when uninstalling an unwanted Windows app. Check it out below.
Make sure your Outlook is updated – NOW!!
Forbes have just published an article detailing a dangerous new vulnerability affecting Microsoft Outlook. Luckily a fix has been provided in recent updates for both Outlook and many other Windows vulnerabilities; so please ensure your Windows computers are getting these updates as soon as you can. Read the Forbes article here.
Free no download video chat app
The FastCompany folks have just published an article about a free video chat app similar to Zoom, Meet, Skype, etc., that doesn’t require a download, sign up, sign in, sharing of personal information etc. If this sounds interesting to you, check out thier article here.
Using CC (and BCC) when sending emails
A lot of people don’t use, or even know what CC means when addressing and sending an email. CC stands for Carbon Copy. Read the HowStuffWorks article here to discover more about this useful capability.
What is even more useful is BCC – which stands for Blind Carbon Copy. I use this all the time when sending emails to a group of people where you don’t want all the recipients to know who else has received the email. This is important when you think the email might be forwarded on to others (such as when you are forwarding funny jokes, stories, etc., that you have received) and you don’t want your recipients email addresses to be exposed to other people further down the track. These type of emails are a great hunting ground for nefarious actors who collect email addresses to then sell to scammers. I’ve had my email address scraped like this from emails sent to me, that then get forwarded on by another recipient to a new set of people. It is possible for your email to be forwarded hundreds of times by many people, and the exposed email addresses eventually end up with people you you don’t know.
So be kind to your friends by hiding their email addresses using BCC when you think the email might be forwarded on again.
5 NordVPN settings you need to change
PCWorld have published an article with recommendations for making Settings changes in the NordVPN app; a very popular VPN solution. Read about those suggestions here.
Having issues with Windows Drivers?
If you are having device driver issues on Windows, an article from the MakeUseOf,com guys about free Driver Updaters may just what you need to help get you out of a bind. Read their article here.
Edit PDF documents for free
The Laptopmag guys have recently published an article discussing how you can edit a PDF document without paying for an Adobe subscription. If you are happy to edit your documents in the cloud via a web interface, read how you can do it here.
Is WhatsApp gobbling up your phone’s storage
WhatsApp is a great app for keeping in touch with your friends and colleagues, however unless managed correctly, it can use up a lot of your phone’s precious storage. Read the article here from the MakeUseOf guy’s to learn more about how to better manage your storage and make use of disappearing messages.
Want to edit and manipulate PDF documents?
Nowadays we all work with PDF documents. They are the most common way of providing detailed User Manual documentation. Now ONLYOFFICE has a built in editor that will enable you to edit and manipulate these PDF documents. ONLYOFFICE is a free MS Office alternative (see one of my earlier posts here). Read all about this PDF editor’s capabilities in an article by the MakeUseOf guys here.
Why I try to avoid social media apps
As mentioned many times in my posts, I have always believed we should be using the fantastic technologies we have available to ourselves today, to create a better society. Unfortunately, many of the so called social media apps seem to do the complete opposite for many people. This observation is best explained in a Youtube video I watched recently…