TechByter Worldwide 2024-05-03: Be Your Own Tech Support Genius. Short Circuits.

Ensuring that your computer is safe, private, and secure is easy enough, but doing so will make the computer virtually unusable. Let’s consider some options that help without hindering, at least not too much. In Short Circuits: Windows computers use the New Technology File System, which was new in 1993, but it’s not a good choice for devices that must also be used by MacOS computers or Android devices. • Thumbnail images shown on YouTube can help users decide whether they want to view the program, but all too often the thumbnails are little more than clickbait. There’s a browser extension that will help.

Some remarkable capabilities have been added to Audacity, but it’s still not a contender to take Audition’s place for audio productions. In Short Circuits: It’s not a good idea to skimp on the devices you use to interact with your computer. One or more properly placed monitors, a mouse that fits comfortably in your hand, and a keyboard that doesn’t result in wrecked wrists are all more important that we may think. • How close is your computer’s hard drive to failure? Some disk disasters can’t be predicted, but others can and a free utility program that watches the indicators provided by modern disk drives sounds early warnings.

When something goes wrong with your computer, it may be easier, faster, and less frustrating to fix it yourself instead of dealing with tech support. In Short Circuits: Every computer screen is different and your vision is unique to your eyes. That’s why it’s a good idea to use Microsoft’s ClearType Text Tuner. • You’ll start to see computers being marketed with heavy AI claims soon, probably before the end of the year, but waiting for the next generation in late 2025 is probably wise.

A surprising number of Facebook accounts are being stolen and recovering them is difficult, if not impossible. That’s why it’s better to avoid trouble in the first place. In Short Circuits: Although your internet service provider includes domain name services, there’s a good reason to use one of several alternate services. • Efforts by the federal government to eliminate junk fees have finally resulted in some changes that affect what service providers must tell you before you sign up.

You still have about a year and a half to decide what you’ll do when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. There are several choices, but not all options will work for all users. Let’s take a look at some that will keep the computer out of the trash. In Short Circuits: Although Microsoft has added a file renamer function to PowerToys, it won’t be sufficient when you need to apply complex names to a lot of files. A manual process becomes cumbersome when more than a few files are involved, absurd for hundreds or thousands of files. This is a job for the Bulk Rename Utility. • Newer keyboards have a special key to open the emoticon finder, but there’s a faster and easier way to insert bullets, fractions, currency symbols, and accented characters. It’s yet another utility built in to PowerToys.

Romania-based security company Bitdefender offers a comprehensive protective suite for Windows and MacOS computers, as well as IOS and Android phones. The package includes enough licenses for all devices used by everyone in the family unless you have an exceptionally large family or everyone has five or six devices. In Short Circuits: Your internet service provider would like you to continue renting a modem from them, but there are good reasons to buy your own and cost is just one of the reasons. • Scam offers appear like clockwork every couple of months for counterfeit US postage stamps that are often shipped from China. Facebook seemingly can’t (or won’t) do anything to stop them.

The virtual desktops feature that was added to Windows 10 and improved in Windows 11 can help organize the computer when you need to work on more than one task at a time. In Short Circuits: Artificial intelligence is now being used to improve audio recordings by removing flaws such as background noise and room echo. Despite being new, the results are already astonishingly good. • Bugs are a simple fact of life for computer users. If you’re delaying a purchase until all the bugs have been eliminated, you’re going to wait for a very long time.

If you regularly mutter to your computer that it doesn’t do something you want it to do or doesn’t do something the way you want it to, stop for a moment and investigate. There’s a good chance that the computer can accommodate your desires. In Short Circuits: Anyone who has trouble finding where TV programs they want to watch are streaming, or who forgets to watch new episodes, will find JustWatch useful. • The latest versions of Adobe’s photo editing applications are filled with useful features, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about applications such as SnapArt4.

One of the most common ways that people are victimized online involves the victims failing to recognize social engineering and giving their login credentials to scammers. In Short Circuits: Facebook accounts are filled with gold that scammers like to mine. There’s a quick and easy way to view what crooks see so that you can modify your account to maximize security. • Europeans can remove Microsoft’s Edge browser because of European Union rules, but these rules don’t apply in the United States. There’s still a way to tame or remove Edge, and I’ll explain how.

When a charge for a service I didn’t recognize showed up in an alert from my bank, I found that I had been signed up for a video streaming service I’d never heard of. Eliminating the service was easy enough, but a lot of people have reported terminating it was difficult. In Short Circuits: Even those of us who are not typographers, graphic designers, or publishers sometimes need to deal with typefaces. What most people think of as “fonts” aren’t fonts, but this may be a surprise: It doesn’t really matter. • Anyone who relies on Amazon’s ratings to make buying decisions isn’t getting the full story. A service that rates that ratings helps, but it’s still wise to proceed with caution.