USB condoms are being promoted as protection against hackers. There are two different types but neither are necessary to protect your smartphone. Our global roaming boss suggests alternatives to protect against dangerous public USB sockets. Security researchers have discovered that it’s possible to hack into a smartphone via hacked USB power socket, especially in public […]
The latest update to Windows 10 is out now and so is our companion book Windows 10 November 2019 for Microsoft Office users. Somewhat chastened by past troubles, the November 2019 update is being deployed in a much more cautious way. Microsoft is giving customers a choice about when to update Windows 10 to the […]
Buying and using a computer keyboard from Microsoft is very annoying, based on what we’ve heard from Office Watch readers. Choosing a Microsoft keyboard is harder than necessary and finding help, even harder. Microsoft’s keyboard range is especially bad for not properly explaining all the features of the products, apparently as a deliberate corporate strategy. […]
It was inevitable that phone scammers should try fooling Office 365 users into giving up their login details. Update: after this scam was publicized, the phishing email turned up in our Office 365 mailbox! Microsoft’s mail filtering let their customers down. Microsoft’s lapse let us show you a real example of the scam mail. The […]
A nasty surprise for VMWare Workstation users after a recent Windows 10. Happily there’s an absurdly simple workaround and now a free update too! VMWare Workstation is popular virtual machine software. Among it’s many uses is running different versions or states of Microsoft Office on the one physical computer. Microsoft has a similar product Hyper/V […]
iTunes has been replaced with separate programs on the new MacOS ‘Catalina’ release. What does that mean for the future of iTunes for Windows? Most people use iTunes for Windows to sync music and videos with their iPad or iPhone. It has many other uses but Windows has it’s own tools for the playing of […]
The Washington Post has a useful tip for anyone with Apple AirPods that aren’t maintaining a decent battery life. Use the right wording to Apple support and you should be able to get replacement AirPod’s a little cheaper than retail. Now that AirPods are a few years old, customers are finding the little white plugs […]
The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 has unleashed so many books and videos you could easily trip over them walking down the street. Our Editor-in-Chief, Peter Deegan, has been a NASA nut since well before July 1969. Friends have asked him for recommendations of what you see and read … here’s his suggestions. They are […]
There’s a security bug in Windows that’s so serious Microsoft has released fixes for version of Windows they don’t officially support anymore. Here are links to the critical updates necessary or workaround if updating isn’t possible. About Bluekeep The Bluekeep security hole is being used by criminals to attack computers to install ransomware or steal […]
Tucked away in the Windows 10 Explorer options is a choice that should be turned on and is now the default setting for Windows 10 May 2019. Normally Explorer is a single program no matter how many windows are open on the computer. That made sense when memory was limited even though it meant slightly […]
Windows 10 October 2018 (version 1809) wasn’t Microsoft’s finest hour with many update bugs that took too long to discover (listen to customers) and fix. The update is worth getting for one thing: a better clipboard but there’s a big problem as well. Windows 10 now saves more than one item into a clipboard memory. […]
Windows Sets would have been an important innovation for Office users but has now been killed by Microsoft. Sets was a proposed and tested Windows feature which would let you group different programs together in a tabbed interface. Think of the familiar tabs in a browser except each tab had your choice of programs. That […]
Readers asked us about Window 10 naming, version and builds after Overdue changes to Windows 10 available now. Some told us we were wrong while others are confused, with both groups quoting various Microsoft sources for their ‘truth’. The sad fact is Windows naming, version and builds are a confused and inconsistent mess. Microsoft itself […]
Microsoft is rolling out a ‘patch’ to Windows 7 which is really a series of annoying ads for Windows 10. The ads are reminders that Win7 support ends in mid-January 2020 as encouragement to buy Windows 10. Here’s how to stop the patch or the ads it installs. See Microsoft starts ‘reminders’ for Office 2010 and […]
There’s a simple trick to make WhatsApp send full size, original pictures instead of smaller versions that WhatsApp usually sends. Sending the original, unchanged picture is better for display on larger screens and especially for editing the image. It’s best to have good resolution pictures in Word and especially PowerPoint presentations. Choose the send option […]
What can you do when two Windows computers can’t ‘see’ each other for file sharing on a local network? It’s an old, old Windows problem with too many possible faults, but a smart Office Watch reader found one possible fix. File sharing is necessary to let you share documents and files between local computers. Microsoft […]
If you like Reddit but want to hide it from your boss, co-workers, partner etc then we’ve got a web site for you. It makes Reddit look like Outlook Web Access (aka OWA). Go to https://attaxia.github.io/MSOutlookit/ or http://pcottle.github.io/MSOutlookit/ There’s a web page with the latest Reddit posts in the familiar form of Microsoft Outlook. The […]
The famous Earthrise photo from Apollo 8 is not what the astronauts saw and photographed. Here’s where to get the original, uncropped images from the source. Cropped, rotated & color adjusted: the common version of ‘Earthrise’. Earthrise is one of the most famous images of all time and rightly so. Among the many achievements of […]
Microsoft’s Project Natick now has two live camera feeds showing fish around their underwater data centers. One of the big problems for server farms is heat. All those computers generate a lot of heat that must be dissipated somehow. Microsoft’s servers store your OneDrive files, Azure data, run Office cloud features and a lot more. […]
Here’s some tips from our Editor-in-Chief, Peter Deegan on getting the most from a Edinburgh visit in August. Create an online account with the main festival sites (International, Fringe and Underbelly). You can login and see what shows you’ve booked, make your own list of ‘favorites’ to choose from. Sign up for their email newsletters […]
