By Emile Greyling
Opting to stick with older technology might seem like a cost-saving measure initially, but it often ends up draining your business profits. In this article, we’ll delve into the repercussions of relying on outdated technology and the toll it takes on your bottom line…
By Emile Greyling | Hongkiat Lim
Hidden within Mac OS is a feature for batch renaming or bulk find-and-replace in filenames.
Renaming a single file in macOS is straightforward, but when it comes to bulk renaming multiple files, whether it’s 10 or 100, you certainly don’t want to do it one by one. Hidden within macOS is a feature that allows you to do just that, and it’s quite simple.
By Emile Greyling | updated from Susan Harkins
Learn how to create a summary slide that you can add to the end of a presentation to support a Q&A session with your audience using older stand-alone versions of PowerPoint and Microsoft 365.
Adding a summary slide to the end of a PowerPoint presentation is a good idea. That way, you can review items with your audience at the end of the presentation. The presenter controls what items make it to the summary slide and can even use each item on the slide to quickly return to the previous slide(s).
By Emile Greyling
Computers are vital in our lives for work, communication, and entertainment. To optimize your experience learn these essential tricks for a better computing Experience, whether you’re a novice or a pro.
Master Shortcuts:
Learning common keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V for copying/pasting and Ctrl+Z for undoing will save allot time on repetitive tasks.
By Emile Greyling
With practically everything on the internet today, it’s crucial to protect our digital activities and personal data. Firewalls play a significant role in cybersecurity. Let’s explore the key benefits of firewalls.
Enhanced Security:
Firewalls act as barriers between your devices and the internet, safeguarding against unauthorized access, viruses, and malware. They protect your sensitive data and personal information.
By Emile Greyling
This article explains how to enable, change, or disable parental controls in Windows.
To use the most recent Windows Parental Controls and Microsoft Family Safety features, both you and your child need a Microsoft Account (not a local one). Although you can get a Microsoft account for your child before you configure available parental controls in Windows 10, it’s simpler and more straightforward get the account during the configuration process. Whatever you decide, follow these steps to get started.
By Marco Horn / Tim Fisher
How Much Do You Charge per Hour?
Asking the cost of a service seems like a question you’d be unlikely to forget but I am always amazed by stories of customers in absolute shock at the hourly rate for a particular computer repair service — after the fact.
Rates vary, and so do charging schemes (some computer repair services are billed per service, don’t wait until it’s time to pay the bill to find out how much per hour you’ll be paying.
How can you encrypt sensitive files that are stored on a flash drive or external hard drive?
Flash drives are easy to lose. And anything lost can fall into the wrong hands. So if you’re carrying around sensitive information in your pocket, you need to make sure those files are encrypted.
Below are three easy solutions:
1. Buy an encrypted drive
You can buy a flash drive with built-in encryption, such as the DataTraveler Locker+ G3. When you plug the Locker+ in, it comes up as a 13MB, read-only drive. But once you launch the program file on that drive and enter the password that you previously setup, another drive opens up with all the storage space you paid for.
That drive, of course, is inaccessible without the password. The software runs off the drive, and it can be used on multiple computers and operating systems.
But I strongly recommend against using this drive’s optional cloud backup feature. It uses Dropbox, OneDrive, or whichever cloud service you pick, which at first glance seems like a nice convenience.
But this feature uploads the files without its own encryption. That means you’re trusting your sensitive files to the encryption capabilities of Dropbox and similar 3rd party services and you have no control over the encryption methods. Find another way to backup these files—preferably one where you can can control the encryption.
The DataTraveler Locker+ G3 starts at about $15 for the 8GB drive, and we've looked at other encrypted USB drives as well.
2. Install specialized software on your drive
By Jeandre de Beer / Kim Komando
When you’re out of the office and running out of data on your cellular plan, finding free public Wi-Fi is easier than ever before, but free public Wi-Fi comes with a cost – security risks.
You can find free Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere, and you can even search for them before you travel using an app like Free Wi-Fi Finder. Just keep in mind that crooks have several ways to steal your information when you’re using a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
Here are three of the most popular methods, and some tips on how to protect yourself.
Most free Wi-Fi comes courtesy of a coffee shop or hotel, but that free network might actually be a hacker-run router.
Hackers have no problem setting up a router in a public area and naming it something like “coffee shop Wi-Fi” or “free hotel Wi-Fi.” It might even use the name of a business in the area. Plenty of people will connect without thinking.
A hacker might also set up next to a legitimate Wi-Fi network and give his network the same name. Even if you spot the duplication in the network list, you won’t know which one is safe.
Once you connect to the hacker’s network, he can start scanning your gadget for weaknesses and infect your device with viruses or spy on your browsing. He can also redirect your browsing so you end up on malicious websites.
