Tek-Chic Systems Blog Page

Not So Fast with Windows 11

July 25, 2021July 25, 2021
by Laurie

I know some of you are curious about Windows 11, but just wait until it comes out late this year or early next year. There is a virus-ridden version of the installer going around that you certainly don’t want to mess with, and even if you do it correctly (as I have) you’re still going to be using a developer’s version that I can assure you is still buggy and not fully complete. It also has hardware requirements that need a fairly recent computer, so those of you with computers maybe 5 years old may not even be able to run it (don’t panic, Windows 10 will continue to be supported by Microsoft through at least through 2025).

Functionally it’s like Windows 10, just looks different—so patience my friends.

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The Rumors are True (Probably)

June 4, 2021June 4, 2021
by Laurie

The rumors are that Microsoft is going to introduce a new version of Windows on June 24th. They certainly are announcing SOMETHING on June 24th.

It might be called just Windows, it might be called Windows 11, there’s even a chance they will continue with the current Windows 10 name—no one knows for sure. And the tech media makes is sound like they are coming out with it then, and that’s not likely. More likely is that whatever the announcement, it will be months (or maybe even next year) before it’s actually released for the public to use.

So just relax, worry about Covid or a vitamin D deficiency, but don’t get worked up about a new version of Windows. I’ll give you any pertinent details later in the month when we no longer are working with rumors.

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Check if Facebook Leaked Your Info

April 10, 2021April 10, 2021
by Laurie

You’ve probably heard about the over 500 million Facebook accounts that have had their personal information show up on a hacker’s site.

The great site https://haveibeenpwned.com/ had added the ability to check phone numbers to see if your number is out there. If it is then at least you won’t be surprised if someone who knows some of your personal information (name, etc., whatever personal information you have in your Facebook profile) calls and tries to scam you. Just be aware.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/ is also good for entering your email address to see if companies you do business with (or who have your information) have been hacked. You should change your password of any recently hacked accounts.

Your Facebook password wasn’t hacked, just your personal information – but Facebook isn’t planning on telling folks which ones were hacked, so they are leaving it up to you – good ‘ol Facebook.

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Update Your iPhone/iPad and Watch

March 27, 2021March 27, 2021
by Laurie

For all you Apple lovers with iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, there’s a critical update you need to install now. Apple isn’t giving all the details, so it must be bad. Just do the update and you’re good to go (we hope).

https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-releases-emergency-update-for-iphones-ipads-and-apple-watch/

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Don’t Spend Money on 5G (not yet)

October 14, 2020October 14, 2020
by Laurie

Recently Google announced their Pixel 5G phones, Samsung is pitching their 5G Galaxy phones, and now Apple is announcing their iPhone 12 with 5G.

The problem is you will probably never get 5G speeds with this phone. Verizon’s version of 5G is by far the fastest, but unless you’re in a couple of buildings in Manhattan or in certain locations of sports facilities, you won’t see it where you live or at work for quite a while. AT&T’s version of 5G is just more of an enhanced 4G (they’re famous for doing this same trick in the past) and isn’t really 5G. T-Mobile’s speed is better than AT&T, but still they are in the process of building out their network for it.

You really won’t see wide-spread availability of 5G until 2022, and since the 5G radio in the phone is going to cost you around $100 extra—save your money and stick with the 4G version for now. If you’ve got a good 4G signal, that’s way more than enough to stream hi-def movies on your phone, what do you need more speed for anyway? 😃

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Reboot First, Pick up the Phone Second

September 13, 2020September 13, 2020
by Laurie

Why bother rebooting your computer when you can call me and pay me do it for you?

I know, it seems like a silly question, but it’s almost always the first thing I’ll have you do—and don’t be surprised if it fixes your “weird” problem you’re having. I had a client call with a problem, she showed me her problem. I though “oh, that’s weird”, so I asked her if she’s rebooted her computer lately. It had been a few days, so I had her shut down all the windows that were open and we rebooted her computer.

Guess what, that FIXED it! Now, she could have rebooted her computer first, fixed the problem and continued her day, but she called me first so that I could reboot her computer. It’s going to cost her a lunch and then some, so be sure before getting so desperate and mad at your computer that you finally resort to calling me, try rebooting your computer. If that doesn’t fix it, THEN call me and we’ll figure out what’s going on.

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Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

May 2, 2020May 2, 2020
by Laurie

Yep. The sky is falling! At least if you listen to some publications.

I know many of you read tech stuff online, and that’s fine. Education is wonderful. But just be aware that the closest thing to a legitimate source and yet seems to prey on scaring you is in my opinion Forbes. They always seems to have a reason why you shouldn’t use something or do something, yet the security sources I regularly monitor don’t mention it at all (and I monitor a lot of them).

So please, DON’T go off and do something to your computer just because “you read it on the Internet”. And yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds.

You know you can ask me if you have questions. Forbes just seems to be trying to drive traffic to their site based on scaring you – and I have a problem with that.

I’ll check it out for you if you’re concerned.

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Gmail Trick to Manage Spam

April 7, 2020
by Laurie

I know some of you have more than one email account. Your “real” account that you use with friends, and your fake account that you use to avoid junk mail.

So let me ask you, how well is that working? Your real email account gets out there is ways you don’t realize, and now of course you’re seeing junk mail in that account as well.

If you have Gmail, you just need one account. For starters, Gmail has probably the single best spam filter out there just for your regular email. BUT, if you want to have a separate email address for sites that require an email address even though you’d rather not give them your real one, then here’s a little trick for you…

Add a + (plus sign) to your existing email account right before the @ sign and then you can put whatever you want AFTER the + sign followed by @gmail.com

Here’s an example, my email address is [email protected] If a site insists on an email address that I don’t want to get mail from, I give them the following address: [email protected]

Gmail IGNORES the plus sign and anything that follows it prior to the @ symbol. I can put laurie+leavem[email protected] or as many other things I can think of.

It’s easy to set up a filter in Gmail to tell it to automatically delete anything that you get with that address. Here’s an article to tell you how to create a filter: https://www.lifewire.com/create-rules-in-gmail-4172416. One of the options in the filter will be to Delete. Choose that and future mail to your “special” email address will be deleted with it arrives.

Happy Quarantining!

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Update Your Firefox

April 5, 2020April 7, 2020
by Laurie

There is a sudden exploit that has been found in Mozilla Firefox. It has been patched already but you may need to manually update. In your menu at the top click on Help and choose About at the bottom of the list. If it doesn’t say version 74.0.1 then update. Having 74.0 is not enough, make sure that it’s 74.0.1 and you’re good to go.

[UPDATE]: Any version at or ABOVE 74.0.1 is good. Last I checked we’re now at version 75.0.

Stay safe and wash your hands! ?

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Online Credit Card Privacy

December 14, 2019December 14, 2019
by Laurie

I’ve recently learned about a FREE service called Privacy. Some of you may bank where they let you create “virtual” credit card numbers to be used online rather than your actual number. That’s what Privacy does but it works with ANY bank! Rather than use your real credit card number, which can be abused if a merchant get’s hacked and a bad guy gets a hold of it, your virtual number that is created by Privacy can only be used with that merchant. Each online merchant gets a unique card number, so if you purchase something online somewhere like Walmart or Macy’s, and they get hacked—well that number is only good at the merchant it was created for. The money comes from your bank but the merchant doesn’t even know who your bank is!

Also, you can set limits on each card, like the maximum transaction amount, or how much is spent each month. For example, let’s say you have an Apple account that you use to buy music. With Privacy if someone got into your account, and if you have a $15/month spending limit on your Privacy card number a bad guy can’t buy hundreds of songs with your money.

I use PayPal as much as I can to avoid giving out my real credit card numbers, but now even for places that don’t take PayPal, I have Privacy—and once you set up a merchant it’s done, it’s even easier than PayPal to use. They also have an extension for Chrome and Firefox and apps for Android and iOS. Their security is good, when I installed the app on my phone and logged in, it prompted for a code sent to my email to make sure I wasn’t a hacker.

It’s easy to use AND as a bonus, they’ll give you $5 to use on your first transaction through them.

If you’re wondering “well how do they make money if it’s free?” They DO have paid services (if you need to make 35 cards every month or if you’re a business and have larger needs), but the personal account will always be free. They also make money from the merchant on every transaction just like credit card companies do, so they aren’t selling your information to make money.

So go here to sign up and get some PRIVACY in your online life: https://privacy.com/join/XDWLD