I just learned a shortcut that I’ve wanted and didn’t know existed. Shift + F3 will toggle between all caps or all lowercase for selected text.
 
How about talking to your computer? Only chumps type. Press the Windows key + H to open the dictation toolbar. Press the microphone and when it’s ready, start talking. I just used it for that bolded line.
(If not already enabled, click the link that pops up to turn it on)
 
So, if your deaf like me, then you are probably not satisfied with your TV sound. I do like our sound bar, that helps a lot, but invariably, we have subtitles on all the time, not just for those great Scottish shows.
There are actually settings in the TV that can help enhance the audio, in particular, the speech. Speech uses some different frequencies and your TV may be able to help with that. A link to a good article on that is HERE.

I’ve written in the past about protecting your computer as best you can. One of the programs I still recommend is Malwarebytes. I buy a license for Malwarebytes for our family’s computers. I do not, however, pay for antivirus programs like Mcafee or Norton, I use Windows Defender, which comes with the computer.

Then there’s the whole discussion of VPN sites, and whether any of it matters anyway. Everyone has an opinion and ultimately, you need to do what you are comfortable with. I am including an NBC article on the subject HERE. 

​Keeping your computer or device up-to-date is certainly one of the most important things you can do to safeguard it. Paying attention is also critical, as many attacks arrive in the guise of an email from a friend or family member. Messages that are threatening from a delivery service, a bank, the IRS, that sort of thing, are also a common source of danger. Be aware of the style of a ‘threat’. An email containing a link and nothing personal, even from someone I know, I just delete. An email may say it’s from someone you know, but spoofing allows malicious emails to disguise themselves as someone else, anyone.

Make a backup. In the cloud or to an external drive, make sure anything you don’t want to lose is in 2 places, minimum. Cloud storage is great as a backup because that service puts it on servers that are very secure, safe, and they are also backed up. Cloud storage is available anywhere there is internet, another handy feature.

So let’s say you just bought a new device and you’re giving me the old one. While you trust me to wipe the drive to protect your privacy, you still want to reset it before you give it to me. Here are some things to remember.

For a PC or Mac computer, you can reset the device. If you reset your iPad or iPhone, you need to disassociate it from your account FIRST, then reset it to factory. Same with a Kindle. If that seems confusing, it kind of is. Because of security, Apple devices are particularly associated with the owner. They allow find me options, data across devices, and cloud backups. All that means the device is tightly connected to your Apple sign-on, and therefore, a reset will wipe the data, but the device will still remember you. It’s sweet really. And annoying. I am sometimes given devices that are still connected to the prior owner and there isn’t anything I, or law enforcement, can do about it.

So, on an Apple device, you need to go into settings, and sign-out of your iCloud account, your Apple account, and turn of the Find My option. For a PC, you can go into Start, System, Troubleshoot, and reset the PC and save, or not save, the data, depending on what you are doing.
I have some links that will help, instead of my gibberish.

​For iPhone, iPad, iPod, look HERE.  
For Android or iPhone, look HERE. 
For a Mac, look at THIS. 
For a PC, see This.  or this 

Today's Tech Tip comes from Rick's Daily Tips
Rick has a slew of great tips!

As you surely know by now, there are numerous crooks, spammers and scammers using Facebook to perpetrate scams and hoaxes on innocent people.
The miscreants use various methods and tools to scam their victims, and one of their favorite tools is fake Facebook profiles.
Fake profiles typically take one of two forms:
1 – A completely fake profile that’s made up out of thin air.
2 – Cloned profiles that were created by copying photos and information from the profiles of real Facebook users.
The completely fake profiles are usually very easy to spot. Here’s what to look for:
1 – The profile picture is a photo of a celebrity or an extremely attractive model.
While some scammers will steal photos of real, average looking people and use them as the profile pictures on their fake accounts, most of them like to use photos of really attractive men and women to entice their victims to accept friend requests from them.
If the person in the profile picture is very attractive and you don’t recognize them or if the photo is of someone famous, it’s a virtual certainty that the entire profile is a fake.
2 – The posts on the profile’s Timeline will have very little or no personal content.
If you take a look at the Timeline and see nothing but shared posts and links with no personal status updates, odds are the profile is a fake.
Most scammers are basically lazy by nature (that’s why they would rather scam folks instead of get a respectable job), and creating real content in the form of status updates isn’t easy. It takes work.
Most scammers are also in a hurry, and it takes a lot less time to share links and posts that others have put up than it does to write a realistic-looking status update.
The really lazy scammers won’t even bother sharing links and other users’ status updates. They’ll simply upload a few stolen pics and immediately start adding friends to the account.
3 – There aren’t many photos in the profile’s “Photos” section, and they’re pretty much all of the same person.
Most real users tend to upload a wide variety of photos to their Facebook accounts.
For example, there will be pictures of them with their kids and pictures taken at events like weddings and birthday parties. And vacation pics are quite popular as well.
Just anything and everything is fair game when it comes to uploading pics to Facebook. That’s why just a few pics of the same person is always such a huge red flag.
4 – If it’s public, check out the profile’s friends list.
If a profile has a lot of links and shared posts on the Timeline but just a handful of friends, it’s likely a fake profile.
Most scammers work on posting content to a fake account’s Timeline before they start adding friends to it in order to give the profile an air of legitimacy.
However, the reverse of this is often true as well. Some scammers prefer to load up the account with “friends” before they start adding photos and posts.
Just remember that a real user will typically add Timeline content and friends at roughly the same pace.
5 – You receive a friend request from someone who is already on your friends list. This is one of the best tip-offs that a profile is a fake cloned profile.
If you receive a friend request from someone you’re already friends with, check out the account’s Timeline and About pages.
Chances are you’re at least somewhat familiar with the types of posts and photos your real friend puts up on Facebook so anything that’s out out of the ordinary for them should stick out like a sore thumb.
While lots of people do create multiple real profiles for various reasons, they’ll usually give you a heads-up by saying something like “I had to create a new account because…“
When that happens the person will almost always stop posting on the old account and start posting on the new account with the same style and patterns they used when posting on the old one.
Luckily, it’s very easy to determine whether a duplicate friend request is legit or not. Simply send the person a private message at the old account and ask them if the new account is really theirs.
If the answer is yes or you don’t receive any answer at all, then you can be fairly certain that the new account is legitimate. If the answer is no, you’ll know for sure that it isn’t.
That’s all there is to it. Now you know what to look for when you’re unsure about a accepting friend request from someone you don’t know or from someone you’re already friends with.

This was a funny one. I was looking for tips for this column, and it turns out, Windows offers tips. It’s under Start/Apps/Tips. I found it under ‘T’. That’s a tip in itself.

I don’t know if Microsoft will be changing them out, adding to them, or just letting them be. I’m guessing they will get updated. Read about it HERE. 
 
Are you getting a new Mac? You should. And give me your old Mac when you’re finished transferring your data. Speaking of which, when you set up your new Mac, it will ask if you want to bring data over from your old Mac, or PC. That’s a seriously handy tool, one that Windows has yet to include. It can transfer using an internet connection so it is amazingly easy to use. I don’t usually pick sides over Macs and PCs, but Apple wins big time for this feature.

Getting a new PC? I highly recommend it. Same rules. Make a good backup, to the cloud or an external drive. I have an article on transferring data HERE. 

Surprises: Yes, you may have some. Whether it’s a Mac or PC, some things may not transfer, or work after they transfer. There are things you can try to make older programs work. If you have a Windows 7 or XP computer you are transferring from (yikes, I hope not) Then read THIS. 

Mac OS Compatibility mode? None that I could find.

Speaking of compatibility, another way to run an older app designed for an older OS is to run the older OS in VirtualBox. That’s a program, available on Mac and PC, that will run a “virtual’ computer inside your computer. It’s a bit techy, but if you are desperate, it could be just what you need. A link to those instructions are HERE. 

If that doesn’t confuse you, then you can definitely do it. Otherwise, give it a few tries before you scream. It’s pretty cool when it works. I have Windows 10 running on my iMac in VirtualBox.