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Manage Your Gmail Spam Folder

Worked with a client today on his Gmail Spam folder. There was so much he was overwhelmed figuring what was really spam and what actually belonged in his Inbox.

I have a quick method I use everyday that takes literally seconds to do that lets me check the Spam folder and keep it manageable.

The flow chart is to get you used to the process, but you won’t need it after a time or two, it’s just to help you make the decisions and not get overwhelmed. At the first use, I recommend just looking for personal emails that shouldn’t be spam, don’t worry about unsubscribing to anything. When you’re sure any email that you want to keep in your Inbox has been labeled “Not Spam”, then go ahead and just delete all the messages in your Spam folder. Tomorrow, check it and follow the flow chart through the few messages there.

Once you’ve got the rhythm down, it won’t take you more that 30 seconds a day to make sure nothing slips through your Spam folder.

Update Your Google Chrome

Google has learned that their Chrome browser has been hacked. In order to be safe you should update your Chrome immediately. All you have to do is click on the 3 lines in the upper right corner, click on “Help” and then click on “About Google Chrome”.

Chrome will then automatically check and update your browser if it hasn’t already done so.

Stay safe out there! 😀

Careful What (and when) You Update

I’m reading that bad guys are trying to trick people into clicking on updates for Edge and Chrome browsers. Both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge update automatically, so you shouldn’t click on a box that says to update it, especially if it’s already open.

An infected website that you visit might create a pop-up that says you need to click it to update your browser—that’s a lie (remember, BAD GUYS LIE). Just a few years ago they tried to trick you into updating your Adobe Flash, but since Flash has gone away a year ago, now they’re moving to browsers.

If you use Firefox, the only time you MIGHT see an update box is when you click on the Firefox icon to open it. Sometimes you’ll see that it wants to update, and that’s okay. But you WON’T see it once Firefox is open, if you do, it’s fake.

Don’t Be Like My Friend

No, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, I blurred the screen on purpose because I didn’t want to publicly shame my client. But this is the desktop of my client’s computer. As you can see it is wall-to-wall icons. Files and files that have been saved to the Desktop, until there is no more room on the Desktop—but that won’t stop Windows. You can keep saving files to the Desktop, you just won’t be able to find them because they will be on the imaginary screen you can’t see to the right of your monitor. You can put 10,000 files on your “Desktop” if you want, but you’ll only see what the screen can display.

So organize your files—group them into folders if you have to. Use your Documents folder. I understand that you like having them there where you can see them, but after a while if you fill up your screen, you WON’T be seeing the files you’re saving. And if you’re smart enough to know that you can find the files using File Manager, then you’re smart enough to find them in your Documents folder.

This ends your holiday tip. Merry Christmas!

A Funny Password Routine…

I know y’all hate passwords, imagine trying to tell others THESE passwords…

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Today I’m seeing in the tech press a warning about a new “zero-day” vulnerability in Windows. “Zero-day” means that bad guys are using it before the good guys even know about it (usually).

I know some of you read tech news and as a result get a little paranoid (I know because you call me 😂).

All you have to do is the same thing I ALWAYS tell you…

DON’T click on links in email or open an attachment UNLESS….. 1) you know who it’s from and 2) you’re expecting it. Don’t forget #2! Viruses spread in computers the same way they do in people, it’s usually from someone we know.

Keep your anti-virus up-to-date (if you’re using Windows Defender as I recommend it will do that for you) and enjoy your day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

KEEP Waiting for Windows 11

6 weeks ago I said I’d keep you updated, and I know y’all are starting to see notices from Microsoft that “hey, you can upgrade to Windows 11”. Well, I’m still saying don’t do it. I still haven’t found a single thing you will like more than what you currently have and may find a few things annoying. I’ve been using it for 3+ months and am still annoyed by it. Microsoft still has some more work to do before I’ll recommend you upgrade.

Upgrade to Windows 11? I’d Wait

Starting tomorrow, Microsoft will be making Windows 11 available for computers that meet the minimum requirements.

Should you upgrade? I wouldn’t, at least not right now. I (being the benevolent and always watchful Tek Chic) have been testing it for a couple of months now, and I can tell you there are many more reasons to NOT upgrade than there are to upgrade.

It feels like Microsoft is rushing it out, maybe to help PC sales this holiday season. I find it missing some features from Windows 10 that I think they’ll probably (and eventually) put back in. You can’t pin as many apps to the start menu, the icons on the taskbar are in the middle rather than the lower left. If you use Internet Explorer, it’s completely gone (you shouldn’t be using it anyway), and there seems to be some printing issues.

And frankly, I don’t see a single reason why it’s better. It doesn’t seem faster. You’ve got at least 4 more years of support with Windows 10, so I recommend y’all just stay with Windows 10 while they take the time to “finish” it. I’ll let you know when I think they’ve got their act together. 😀

LinkedIn Scraped

I was just informed that LinkedIn, where “Connect to Opportunity” also applies to criminals, was “scraped” back in April of this year. This is different than a hack. LinkedIn wasn’t hacked. What happens when you “scrape” a site is you are taking all the public information that is available (pretty much to anyone on the site).

So some bad guys scraped LinkedIn and got the following information: Education levels, Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, Job titles, Names, Social media profiles. Information that its users made public (by coincidence I closed my LinkedIn account just a month ago).

Bad guys may try to send email to people, adding personal information to make it seem legit or even masquerading as a LinkedIn message, so just be aware if you have a LinkedIn account and get an email claiming to be from them, it may NOT be.

The safest way to be sure when you get an email from ANY company, bank, etc. is to simply go to their site directly in your browser and log in there—DON’T click the link in the email. If it’s legit it won’t matter, but if it’s NOT legit, clicking the link could bring all kinds of trouble to you.

Stay safe folks!