Top Tips for Hidden Windows 10 features
(Including “GodMode”!)
Folks, here’s an article you “Power Users” who’ve got the new Windows 10 will want to read…
* GodMode and More: Top Hidden Win 10 Tricks
“Here’s what you need to know to amp up your Windows 10 install and get the most from the latest Windows version.” Read more..
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Today’s quote: “I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade… And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” ~ Ron White
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Apple’s New “Lion”, and More for Your Monday
Apple announced that it had 1 million downloads of its newest operating system, OS X 10.7 codename “Lion”, on its first day of availability. Available through the Mac App Store for $29.99, Apple says people are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.
Microsoft could take a lesson from this (IMHO). Not from adding a feature or two and a dozen tweaks and calling it a new version (with a new name), but to get a clue about their archaic pricing structure. If I could get Windows 7 Home upgrade licenses for $30 – $40, I would buy a dozen of them today.
I am not an iFanatic, and do not know any more about Apple machines than what I have to as a Technician living in Appleland (aka ‘silicon valley’) — yes, I fix Macs. But I don’t use them. I haven’t powered up my “Tiger” machine in.. oh, let’s call it 2 years. And, so far, I do not own any iGadgets either.
With that said, I have looked at various “reviews” and it seems to me that the main thing Lion gives you (new) is direct integration with the iStore, and touchscreen ‘gestures’.
Hmmm… I don’t want either of those things.
It kind of looks to me like Apple is “blending” their operating systems for their gadgets into their desktop OS. (People are accusing Windows 8 of this same kind of thing..)
It also has something called “natural scrolling”, which apparently nobody likes.
I will say, it is kind of hard finding less-than-enthusiastic reviews.. ahem. Such as this one: Here Are 12 Amazing Hidden Features In Mac OS X Lion
“Lion touts more than 250 new features, but Apple only advertises a few of them. We picked out some of the best tips for customizing and making the most of Lion. Read more..
I dare you to look at those, and then I ask you think about the definition of the word “amazing”, and then find any correlation. (And note that one of the ‘tips’ is how to turn off natural scrolling..)
I was kind of surprised that some of the ‘features’ are only now available…
I had questions if improved 64-bit capability would make Lion “faster” than Snow Leopard, so I found this article interesting (though, it is way too early to really tell): Snow Leopard vs. Lion: Performance head-to-head
Since we had the 27-inch iMac on hand, we thought we’d see if OS X Lion introduced any performance changes. Read more..
(And for those considering “upgrading” to Lion, I would suggest reading the comments, too.)
As I said earlier, I am not an “Apple guy”, and I do not have any ‘hands on’ experience with Lion. So I am not going to presume to advise you Apple users on whether to upgrade to Lion or not. I will only offer (repeat, really) my ‘general policy’ which goes — yes, you want to keep all your software up to date with the newest versions; but, you do not want version 1.0 of anything.
A seeming contradiction.
I – myself – would wait a bit on Lion. Until the first patches have been released. Then I would upgrade. And learn the new “productivity enhancements” like “spaces”. Maybe (probably) even buy a “gestures” mouse.
If you are at all curious about Apple’s new operating system, (“The World’s Most Advanced Operating System”) the place to start is to take a look at the official Apple page, here.
Today’s reading reco: Four Things Google Plus Could Do To Fix Google Plus
(There are “big” issues here.. I urge a read.)
“Saturday’s Google Plus user account deletion purge plunged the new social network into a crisis of user trust: the community wants it fixed.” Read more..
“Google+ is not warning users before deleting user accounts, and some people have reported being locked out of all Google services, including docs and Gmail.”
~
Today’s quote: “Joy is a flower that blooms when you do.” ~ Unknown
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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Odds & Ends on a Sunny Day
* After a week of overcast and cold, I am looking out my window at sunshine, and from the motion of the branches, wind. (Question: why isn’t the word spelled “whind”? Wind is what a mountain road does.) I’m eager for summer to get here. It’s my favorite time of year.
* A reader commented on yesterday’s article on how to remove hidden metadata in your files, and he pointed out that the Office 2007 suite has a feature called Document Inspector especially for this purpose.
For those of you who have Office 2007:
In the copy of your original document, click the Microsoft Office 
Select the type of metadata you want removed.
(For all the details on document inspector, click here.)
* Last week was
Tech – for Everyone’s second birthday. I wrote my first article June 8th, 2007: The first Tech Paul Post: secure your web connection
As you can see from the title, helping people stay safe from online dangers has been a priority for me right from the jump.
Over those two years, Tech – for Everyone has:
- posted over 700 articles.
- received almost 2000 reader comments.
- been read by more than a half million people.
- not posted one advertisement.
- developed a few more gray hairs.
Before I move on to my next “thot”, I want to say to you, Dear Reader, that of those statistics the most important one to me is the comments. “Reader feedback” – as it’s called – keeps me honest, keeps me stimulated, and is my sole “reward”. It is also a good source for topic ideas, so please keep them coming!
* The sunny skies has me thinking about a word, and that word is “vacation”. I like that word, that concept, and the act itself.
But I’m not a 100% clueless idjit (only about 50%). I am aware of a little thing called a Global Recession.
But vacations are necessary for our health and mental “well-being”. It is my sincere hope that you, Dear Reader, will find a way to give yourself some time to depressurize and step back from life’s demands, and maybe get a change of scenery too.
Today’s free link: 13 ways to make vacation budget-friendly
Today’s free download: Today I am going to ask you, Dear Reader, if you have a free program that you consider a Best Of Breed and/or consider indispensable. I’m inviting you to post it as a comment and share it with my readers.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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How To Remove Metadata From Your Files
Hidden Attributes and Tags Might Reveal More Than You Would Like
You may not be aware that the documents you generate, and the photos you edit on your computer are “stamped” (if you will) with little bits and pieces of information that the computer thinks are useful — called “metadata“. This metadata is not out in plain site for you to notice, but it’s there. Fortunately, it is not difficult to remove.
Metadata is essentially there to help the computers do their jobs better and faster, and can be helpful to us as well.
Metadata for a photograph would typically include the date and time at which it was taken and details of the camera settings, such as focal length, aperture, exposure. It would also contain any titles or keyword “tags” we’ve added to help us organize our albums.
Metadata for a document would typically include the date and time at which it was created, title, author, subject, number of pages, and the language of the text.
But the metadata will also contain the number of revisions, how long you spent working on it, (possibly) hidden markups/edits, who it is “shared” with, who else it’s been sent to, the Save path (which usually reveals your User Name), computer name, and more.
This can open you up to embarrassment (What? They took 4 hours and 6 revisions to write this ??? And why did they show it Joe?) and/or provide info a hacker might use to gain control of your PC.
Tip of the day: Before you e-mail off your file as an attachment, or turn it in to the boss, it might be a good idea to strip it of the metadata. To do this:
1) right-click of the file and select “Properties” from the context menu. In my example, I’ll use a Word document named BarbaraInvoice.doc.
2) Click on the “Details” tab, and look to the bottom area. Click on “Remove Properties and Personal Information”.
3) A new window will open. Here you will see two choices represented by radio buttons. ‘Remove it all’ is the default, but you can be selective by clicking the second button, and using the window scroll, and remove just certain tags.
4) Click “OK”, and the metadata is gone.
Today’s free link: Amazon’s Game Downloads area lets you try every title – including new releases – before you buy. There are games for all ages and interests.
Today’s free download: Recently, I was asked “what program will fix my computer ?” Well, that sort of depends on what the problem is, now doesn’t it? It’s a nice idea though, isn’t it? One program that fixes everything. (I’d be out of a job!) Advanced SystemCare Free from IObit comes pretty close to fitting that bill. One click will help restore your computer to its youthful vigor, and keep it running smoothly.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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Create a hidden folder for your private stuff
Sometimes a little privacy is nice. Today I’m going to show you how to hide a folder so that other people who use your machine won’t be able to see it, or its contents.
I hope all of you had a pleasant and enjoyable holiday weekend.
Tip of the day: Create a hidden folder for your private files. The first thing to consider is where to place the folder. You want it to be someplace you’ll remember easily, and someplace sort of out of the way. Some folks will put it right on their desktop, and there is a certain elegance to the “hide in plain sight” approach, but I’m going to bury it a little… inside my My Video folder (inside My Documents).
Navigate to the My Video folder (My Documents >My Video) and open it. If you have not loaded any video onto your PC, this window will be blank (empty). Now create a new folder. Right-click on any part of the blank area and select “New” from the list of choices, and a new list of choices appear — select “folder”.
Now you will see a folder ready for a new name. I chose to name mine “stuff”, as it is fairly uninteresting and innocuous. If you want to make sure nobody is tempted to look in there, you could name it “efficiency reports 2005”, but you want to avoid an intriguing name, like “private”, “confidential”, “good stuff”, or “collection”.
Now we’re going to make the folder hidden: right-click on your new folder (“stuff” in my example) and select “Properties”. Down towards the bottom is a checkbox labeled “Hidden”. Check it, and click on the “Apply” button.
Now when you navigate back to the My Video folder you will not see your folder. If you do, it should be faded, or “dim”. This means you have your Folder Options set to “show hidden files and folders”. This is normally off, by default; but to undo this setting, look (up) to the Tools menu and click it, and select “Folder Options” (the bottom choice) and then the View tab.
Make sure the radio button “Do not show hidden files and folders” is selected, and then click on the “Apply to All Folders” button, or the “Apply” button if you only want to affect the My Video folder. Now the folder is invisible. To make it visible again, for when you want to use it, reverse the steps above to “Show hidden…”
Let us say you want to put a password “lock” on the folder to make it even more difficult for other users to look inside (should they locate it somehow). Right-click on the folder and select “Properties” again and click on the Sharing tab.
Place a check in the “Make this folder private” checkbox and click “Apply”. Now the folder is protected with your User Account’s logon password. If you have not implemented a User Account password, you missed my very second Tech–for Everyone article; to see it, click here, you will now be warned that there’s no User Account password.
answer “Yes”, and you’ll be taken to the User Accounts control panel.
Since you will have to enter this each time you log onto the PC, I suggest you follow the rules of a strong password (complex), as discussed in the article above (the link) and write it down someplace as well.
Now you have a secure — and private — place to keep your personal files. But wait, there’s more!
Today’s free link: Because of the fact that hidden files and folders can be found by someone with a little savvy (like you, now that you know the “Show hidden files” command) and the password protection will only apply to network shares and when the other user have their own User Accounts… if you are sharing your UA (User Account), you need a 3rd-party tool to hide and encrypt the folder(s) you want to keep private. True Crypt is the free solution I recommend.
Copyright 2007 © Tech Paul, All Rights Reserved.
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Some basic security pointers–#1
Is your computer a zombie? You can never be too secure, and neither can your PC. These few steps will go a long way in keeping your private information away from prying eyes, and prevent your machine from being used as a “zombie” by tech-savvy evil doers. (Most owners of zombie PCs are totally unaware that their computers are being used in this way.)
Tip of the day: The two basic steps I will discuss today–password protecting your User Accounts (and requiring logging in), and renaming your Administrator Account–should be prefaced with a quick description of what is, exactly, a strong password.
Strong passwords should be “complex”. That means that they should contain both upper and lower-case letters, special characters (!@#$%^&*(){}[]) and numbers, and be at least eight characters long, and–most definately–not be a word (or name) found in the dictionary. Your passwords (notice the plural. It is not wise to use the same password for everything.) will be easier to remember if you make them into a ‘passphrase’. A equestrian might use a passphrase of 1Lu^h0rsez, for example.
Now that you have a good password, it’s time to require authentication to use your machine. Start by clicking on Start>Control Panel>User Accounts (or Start>Settings>Control Panel>User Accounts. Depending on your version and preference setting). Then click on “Change an account,” and then click on “Create a password for your account.” Enter your password, twice, and if you’ld like, a password “hint” that will remind you (but not clue in the whole world) of your new password. Click “Create password.”
Now, since knowing your User Name is half the battle, click on “Change the way users log on or off.” Deselect (by unchecking the check in the checkbox) “Use the Welcome screen.”
Unbeknownst to most folks, Windows has a hidden Administrator account (this becomes vitally important when troubleshooting failing systems, or when User accounts get “locked out”) named “Administrator”. Hackers are well aware of this, and it is their favorite method of gaining access (and control over) your machine; since they know the User name, all they have to do is guess the password–which by default, and unless you set one, there isn’t one! Remedy this in XP Professional by going to Control Panel>Administrative Tools (you must use Classic View) and clicking on Local Security Policy. Then in the left column click on the plus sign next to Local Policies, and then click the Security Options folder (If you receive a warning about Group Policy, just ignore it) and a series of policies will appear in the right pane. The 4th or 5th one from the top should be “Accounts: Rename administrator account”. Double click on it and a dialogue box will open. Enter a new name, and click Apply, and OK.
In XP Home, the method is to click Start>Run. In the Run dialogue type in “Control userpasswords2” [no quotes] and click OK. From the User Accounts dialogue box, select the Administrator Account and click Properties. Enter the new name in the User Name text box, and click OK.
(For other versions of Windows the methodology is similar, but I recommend Searching Microsoft’s website for the specific steps.)
The last step is to congratulate yourself, because you have just made your computer much, much harder for a determined cracker to penetrate, and practically eliminated access to the casual browser.
Today’s free link: Steve Gibson’s ShieldsUp! This free scan, offered by a true giant in the computer field, analyzes your computer for vulnerabilities coming from the Internet, and tells you how your private data may be visible to outsiders. This link will appeal to the more tech-savvy, and be an eye openning experience for those of you who have not learned about firewalls yet.
Copyright © 2007 Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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