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Apologies to those who already know these little tips, but here goes...
A quick update for Windows 11 users regarding the notes below about backing up - the Windows 7 Control Panel is still contained in Windows 11! Just do much the same as 1. below to call up the familiar Control Panel.
Backing-up is always an important topic but Windows 10 has two aspects to this that are worth noting:
1. For those familiar with Windows 7 backup procedures, be delighted to know that Windows 10 has the whole Windows 7 Control Panel buried within! Go to the Type here to search box that should be next to the Start button at left of your taskbar. If you start to type Control... you will probably find that the link to Control Panel appears after you’ve typed just the first three or four letters! Click on the link that appears above and enjoy familiar territory!
2. File History is a powerful facility in Windows 10 that saves copies of all of your files to a separate drive as you work on them - very useful if you want to go back to an earlier version too! For much more on this go to Microsoft’s Help here...
A vital way to avoid e-mail scams and traps. From your e-mail inbox, simply hover (not click) your pointer over the name of the e-mail’s sender - after a few seconds a box pops up showing the e-mail address of the originator. If it is suspicious or even has no relationship with the organisation it purports to represent, bin it!
In fact, the invariable advice regarding ‘suspect’ e-mails are:
1) bin it - if it’s important they will contact you by phone or letter in due course, e-mail is never an ‘urgent’ communication route.
2) NEVER click on links in e-mails, particularly when they involve account details and such like.
NO bank or other organisation will ever contact you to confirm account/card or other details by e-mail. The ‘please confirm your account details here..’ scam is almost universal with many of us receiving at least one a day. NEVER RESPOND TO THEM - JUST BIN THEM!
Windows 8: How do I get access to (among other things) the Control Panel?
Try holding down the Windows, Alt and X keys together.
How do you get the Euro symbol (€) to print - or any other symbol that is the third one on a keyboard key? Simple - hold the Alt Gr key (right of the space bar) down while you tap the key concerned (in the case of the Euro - the key is also 4 and $).
Confused by ‘clicks’, not sure which mouse (or touchpad) button to press? Memorise this little reminder:
Right to view, left to do (Right button shows a menu of options, left instructs the computer to do something - simple!
Note: if the ‘to do’ is launching (starting) an application such as Word or OpenOffice, then a double-left click is required.
CTRL-A (hold down ConTRoL key and tap A) marks all of the objects in a filer window.
CTRL-P opens the printer dialogue window.
CTRL-Z - this is invaluable! Each click is an undo function - invaluable if you make a mistake or silly slip. Don’t panic, keep calm and CTRL-Z will undo whatever you did last! And it keeps on doing it - so if you want to under several steps, just keep CTRL-Zing!
CTRL-Enter following a short website address quickly accesses that address. For example, type bbc/news into a browser address bar and then hold down CTRL while tapping the Enter key. This does the same as the more long-winded typing of www.bbc.co.uk/news followed by tapping Enter. Try it on other sites - it occasionally fails but overall can save quite a bit of typing.
Rather than plugging your digital camera into your computer with the supplied lead, get yourself a cheap card reader from the High Street and plug your camera’s memory card directly into it. Not only does the transfer happen more quickly, but it also avoids the possible loss of all of your precious images if your camera battery should run down during the transfer process. Also, do you know that this setup can be used to save information from your computer onto the memory card as well as taking images from card to computer? Saving data to (say) an SD card is just about the most compact way to move data from place to place - they fit easily into purse or wallet. If your computer does not have a card reader these are widely available from High Street stores for £10-£15 and plug into your computer with the ubiquitous USB plug.
Backup your computer data frequently - you don’t know how important it all is until you’ve lost it! External hard drives, even large flash drives, can effectively hold all of the data on your computer so protecting your irreplaceable material from failure of your system (which does happen, even with modern reliability records) or theft. To protect from the latter - particularly important if you have a laptop which is more easily stolen it is vital to keep your backup medium in a separate place to your main system.
Digital photo printing: don’t do it at home! The cost (and possibly long-term stability) of printing photos on home printers can be up to 10x that of getting them printed by on-line providers. Try Aldi Photos, for example, who charge around 5p for a 6”x4” print (fixed price postal charge applies).
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