Posts Tagged: ‘Windows’

Windows 11 First Impression (2021-12)

November 21, 2021 Posted by Tiny

I feel so left out.  I bought a new laptop with Windows 11 installed.  I haven’t had any of the problems I’ve been reading about on many of the tech sites.  In fact, I’ve had only one problem that I couldn’t find an answer for anywhere on the internet.  I even asked about it in the recent APCUG Windows Q&A.  They couldn’t answer it either.  I’ll tell you more about it later.

So far, all the programs I’ve installed have worked without any problems.  That includes some that haven’t updated since Windows XP days.  I had no difficulties changing defaults on any of them.  My links open with Firefox just like they’re supposed to.  I can only assume that other users might not be setting up their preferences correctly.

The biggest change in Windows 11 is the start menu.  I like using the tabbed start in Windows 10.  I know there are programs that will let me go back to what I prefer.  I’m obstinate enough to learn the new method like I did when I updated from Windows 7 to 10.  I’m already realizing how to move icons to suit my usage.

The other big change is one that I’m afraid I will never get used to.  Ever since it first became available in Windows 95, I’ve kept my task bar on the left of my screen.  I think it makes a lot of sense to create extra space for scrolling.  Almost all monitors are wide screen and you get more screen space with the task bar on the side.  I believe that in the future, Microsoft will re‑enable this feature.  If not, I’ll probably be doing a registry hack.

I haven’t tested most of the other new features.  I have never had an interest in using Widgets.  I know that many people do and I’m glad they have that ability.  I’m glad they are easy to disable.  It’s the same thing for running Android Apps on my Windows machine.  Another reason is that I don’t much care for the Amazon App Store.   I did connect my Android phone in Windows 10.  About three hours late, I disconnected it.

I mentioned that I had only one serious problem with Windows 11.  My battery would drain whenever I put the computer to sleep.  It was frustrating to wake Windows and find that the machine had shut down because the battery was empty.  I couldn’t find any sites on the interest that addressed the problem.  I was beginning to think there might be some defective hardware.  I finally solved the problem by using an old trick I learned back in the 1990s.  I reinstalled the operating system.  Since then, my laptop sleeps with no problems.

Do I recommend Windows 11?  I’ll just say that I’m not updating my desktop computer yet.  Windows 11 runs smoothly and efficiently.  Unless you have a compelling reason to upgrade, Microsoft will support Windows 10 until October 14, 2025.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Thanks for reading and keep on clicking.

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Windows Calculator

November 8, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

It’s official.  I’m 26,501 days old.  No, I didn’t have another birthday.  Those days convert to 72 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, 6 days.  I don’t know how many hours.  Why is this information important?  It isn’t, but it is an example of what the Windows calculator can compute.

The Windows Calculator has evolved from the simple arithmetic program that was first included in Windows 1.0.  Over the years it has become a useful, full featured application that is overlooked by many users.  It includes different modes, date calculations and several useful conversion functions.

First time use of the calculator opens it in Standard Mode.  You will see all of the normal numerical keys, memory buttons and mathematical function keys.  Additionally, there is a small icon to the right of the info bar.  This toggles the program to always stay on top.  Clicking again turns to function off.  On the far right is a clock icon.  Clicking it opens or closes the history function.

There are four modes:
1) Standard Mode – for basic math operations like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, as well as for finding square roots, calculating percentages, and working with fractions.
2) Scientific Mode – expands on the Standard mode, giving you the additional functions you’d find on a typical scientific calculator.  In addition to the Standard mode operators, it contains functions like log, modulo, exponent, trigonometric degrees, and SIN, COS, and TAN.
3) Programmer Mode – adds the ability to switch between different number systems: binary, decimal, hexadecimal and octal.
4) Date Calculation Mode – lets you calculate the difference between two specific dates.  I used this mode to find the data in my opening paragraph.

There are also several Converter Calculators:
• Currency
• Volume
• Length
• Weight and Mass
• Temperature
• Energy
• Area
• Speed
• Time
• Power
• Data
• Pressure
• Angle
These all work similarly.  Select the convert “from” and the convert “to” measurements.  Then type the number you want to convert.  Answers instantly show up.

There are many specialized calculators you can install, but the Windows Calculator will fill most user’s needs.  It is included free with your Windows installation.  You should probably use it more often than you do.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Zooming 2020-08

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

For the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of something I never thought I would do.  Until the start of the pandemic, I only attended one on-line video conference.  That was about four years ago.  I don’t remember which program I used, but I uninstalled it the following day.

I’m a member of several clubs.  They have all been using Zoom Video Communications.  With reservations, I first installed it on an older laptop with the Linux Mint OS.  It worked perfectly from the first.  Since then, I have installed it on Windows 10 and Android Phone.  It works great on all these systems.  I didn’t even have to update any drivers.

Before I review Zoom, I should make a few comments on security.  Initially, there seemed to be a lot of problems with “video bombing.”  This is when an unexpected appearance (usually obscene) appears in a video feed.  It turned out that most of these were due to sign‑in credentials being posted on YouTube or other places.  I have been attending at least three meetings a week and have not seen this happen.  There have been other problems.  Tom’s Guide has a comprehensive list in Zoom Security Issues. I haven’t noticed any untoward background activity on my computers when I am using the program.

With Microsoft Team, Google Meet, TeamViewer, Skype and so many other options, why has Zoom become so popular?  The answer is simple.  It is easy to use.  You don’t even need to create an account to attend a meeting.  Registration is only required to host the meeting.  You can use Zoom in a web browser, but I’ve found it is much easier when you install the program on your machine.

To join a meeting, you will need both a meeting ID and a password.  Both are provided by the meeting host.  You are then given the choice to sign in with audio and/or video.  Both options can be changed after you join the meeting.  After clicking “join”, you should see a message that says waiting for the host to let you in.  When the host does so, you’re done.

After you have joined a meeting, there are three viewing layouts you can choose.  These are selected with icons on the Zoom Room Controller (usually found in a corner of the screen). The options are:
1.  Speaker displays a large view of the person currently speaking, with a smaller thumbnail of the previous speaker as a picture within picture.
2.  Thumbnail combines the Speaker view with a scaled down version of the Gallery view.  A small strip of thumbnails, showing up to eight participants, displays beneath a relatively larger view of the active speaker.  The thumbnails show the participants who were most recently the active speakers.
3.  Gallery displays up to 25 participants on each screen, with the active speaker highlighted.  For meetings with more than 25 participants, an arrow displays next to the icon.  Tap the right arrow to display the next group of participants on the screen.  Tap the left arrow to display the previous set.

When you are in a meeting room, moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen reveals more icons.  The most important are the two on the left edge.  Clicking on the “microphone” icon mutes or un‑mutes your outgoing sound.  Clicking on the “video” icon starts or stops your outgoing video feed.  Both icons have small up arrows.  These give you more options.

If the meeting host has enabled it, you can share your screen.  Be careful if you do this.  Anything you see on your monitor will be seen by everyone in the meeting.  You don’t want to accidentally share any naughty pictures.

One feature I especially like is the ability for virtual backgrounds.  These are enabled in settings.  There are several built‑in backgrounds or you can upload your own.  I have several that I use, depending on the meeting.

There are several other options that I am not going to explore in the article.  You can find complete information and video tutorials on the Zoom Support Help Center.

Thanks for reading.

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BlueGriffon Web Editor – Originally Published July 2020

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

The club website is one of seven that I am currently maintaining.  To do so, I need some specialized tools.  For years, I was a “real” designer and wrote all my code in Notepad and later in Notepad++.  I may be showing my age, but I remember when I purchased Microsoft FrontPage in the late 1990’s.  I acquired it because DreamWeaver was just to darn expensive.  It turned out to be a good decision because DreamWeaver was later purchased by Adobe, which isn’t one of my favorite companies.

FrontPage taught me that I liked “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors.  I’ve tried many of them.  For the past year, I’ve been mostly using BlueGriffon.  Their tagline is “The next-gen Web and EPUB Editor based on the rendering engine of Firefox.” Old timers may remember the NVU Editor. BlueGriffon is a descendant of the program.

There is a new document wizard which is handy for starting a new page. You can easily select the page language: HTML 4, XHTML 1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5 or XHTML 5.  The wizard then lets you enter document information: Title, Author, Description, Keywords, Language, etc.  You can also choose, fonts, link colors, background image and more.

The BlueGriffon interface is fairly basic and closely mimics a word processor toolbar layout.  Icons to the most common options are clearly laid out: adding a table, a single image or a thumbnail.  Switching from WYSIWYG view (where you can arrange objects visually) to the web page source code (where you can manipulate the web page by editing the HTML code) is done by clicking on two buttons at the bottom of the page.  You can also view WYSIWYG and source code in side by side windows.

I am definitely a user of the multiple tabs feature, which makes it easy to quickly switch from one document to another, copy and paste, etc.  My only problem is that inactive tabs are not easily seen without mousing over.  This sometimes makes it difficult to quickly go to the desired tab.

BlueGriffon is cross‑platform with versions for Windows 7, 8,10, Mac OS X and many Linux distros.  There is also a portable version (for Windows only).  Like much modern software, you can purchase a license and get more features.  One of these is a manual.  I’ve found that a web search works just as well.  You can find a complete list of features here.  To download the program, click here.
If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Using the Windows Logo Key – Originally Published June 2020

June 7, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I remember back in the last century when the computer mouse was invented.  I resisted buying one because I thought it was useless technology that wasted time.  After all, you had to remove one of your hands from the keyboard to use it.  Back then we could do it all with the CTRL and ALT keys.  Other tasks were easily accomplished with a batch file.

Back then, we were mostly limited to CTRL – cut and paste.  Now, the old saying has come true, “We’ve come a long way baby!”

When the Windows 95 operating system was released, a new key was added to the keyboard. For me, the windows key has always been a “super” key.  It has so many useful functions that I find it hard to believe how many people fail to use the flag key.

Here’s a list of the shortcuts I personally use the most often.  This list works in almost all versions of Windows.  Just hit your windows key and the key(s) in the left column to enable the right column action.  It’s a heck of a lot faster than moving the mouse and clicking.

+ (nothing) Open/Close start menu
+ Home Minimizes all but the current window
+ Left Arrow Tiles the window on the left side of the screen
+ Right Arrow Tiles the window on the right side of the screen
+ T Cycles through the items on the Taskbar
+ # key Switches to a running program on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number
+ M Minimizes all windows
+ D Show/Hide Desktop (minimizes/restores all windows)
+ L Locks the computer
+ E Open the File Explorer
+ I Open Settings
+ Comma Temporary peek at the desktop
+ Tab Accesses Windows Flip 3D and cycles forward through open programs
+ Plus Key Open the Magnifier
+ Up Arrow Maximizes the current window
+ Down Arrow Minimizes the current window
+ Home Minimizes all but the current window
+ Left Arrow Tiles the window on the left side of the screen
+ Right Arrow Tiles the window on the right side of the screen

In this article, I’ve focused on shortcuts using the Windows Logo Key.  There are many other keyboard shortcuts.  Some are not common and can improve your keyboard skills.  Windows shortcuts can be difficult to use at first.  After you use them a few times, they become a force of habit and you utilize them without thinking about it.

A search of the internet will find many sites with lists of keyboard shortcuts.  I recommend using Microsoft’s Windows Keyboard Shortcuts List.  Not only is it always up to date, but it is complete and easy to use.  Select your operating system in the drop down menu.  Then you will see expandable lists for all shortcuts.

I don’t think that it’s possible for anyone to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts.  I suggest you search the internet and make your own shortcut list.  I’m sure that you’ll enjoy your computer more when you waste less time reaching for the mouse.

That’s about all I’ve got to say this month.  I think that it’s time for me to either ALT+TAB or ALT+F4 away from my word processor.

Thanks for reading.

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Core FTP LE – Originally Published March 2020

March 4, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is still surprisingly popular.  If you need to set up a simple way to transfer a file, FTP is a reliable, suitable method.  People and companies of all sizes use FTP every day when transferring files between clients and colleagues.  FTP is a great way to transfer large files or large amounts of data.  There are many free FTP Client and server applications.  For many years, I have been using Core FTP.

Core FTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software that is used to transfer files between remote devices directly.  It is completely packed with features and functions which will assist you efficiently.  It is free software that is available only for Windows devices.  The most important feature of the software is that it provides support to a many protocols like FTP, SFTP with SSH and HTTPs/HTTP.  Other than that, the security of data is pretty important while transferring.  For that reason, it encrypts all the data as well as account information while the transfer of data is occurring.

The interface of the software is intuitive and easy to use.  To use the program, you must first connect to an FTP Server.  This is done by clicking the “new site” icon an inputting the host URL, user name and password.  After the initial connection is completed, the site is saved in the program’s “Site Manager”.  The next time you can easily reconnect by clicking on the site.

After the connection is made, the program shifts to the upload/download window.  There are two panes in the window.  Local files are on the left and the remote files on the right.  It is very easy for you to differentiate.  To upload a file(s), simply highlight them in the left pane.  You can upload clicking the upload button, right clicking, or drag and dropping.  Downloading is done in a similar manner.  If the file already exists, you are given options to overwrite or cancel.

The picture shows my connection to the club’s website. The left pane is the SWLAPCUG folder on my computer.  You may recognize some of the folder titles.  On the right you can see some of the files on the HostGator club website server.  The upper pane (below the menu bar) shows commands that are executing and their status.  The lower pane shows the progress of file transfers.

Core FTP LE/Lite is free for commercial, business, educational, and personal use.  There is a pro version, but I find it interesting to note that the website doesn’t list a price.  I assume that the price is dependent upon usage.  It is a Windows only program.  The CoreFTP download page has several options, including a voice pack.  If you have need of an FTP client, I highly recommend the program.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Rufus – Originally Published January 2020

January 31, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

Do you ever need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs?  Do you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed?  Do you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware?  There are several utilities you can use for these and other USB purposes.  For several years, I’ve been using Rufus.

Rufus is a small utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys, memory sticks, etc.  In today’s world of computing, laptops and PCs are often shipped without DVD drives and Blu-ray players.  In their absence, Rufus plays a powerful role in helping users to turn their flash drives into a form of reusable DVDs.

It can be especially useful for cases where:
• you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs.
• you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed.
• you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS.
• you want to run a low-level utility.

Using Rufus is easy.  To create a new bootable USB flash drive, simply browse and load your ISO file.  Click start, sit back and watch it work.  There are a few of customization options.  You can change the file system type, edit the volume label, disable quick format or enable disk checking on the USB drive to scan for bad blocks.  Advanced options allow you to manipulate cluster size and partition scheme.

Rufus supports both GPT and UEFI boot systems.  Depending on the ISO file and how Rufus loads it, there may be additional features and options.  For example, selecting a Windows installation ISO, you may be prompted create a Windows installation disk or setup Windows To Go.

Keep in mind that any device you plan to use with Rufus will be formatted and all content will be destroyed.  An excellent feature of the program is that only removable drives are listed under available devices.  You can’t accidentally format any of your fixed drives.

Rufus does not have to be installed.  Just download the file and extract the program.  It runs on Windows 7 or later.  The program is 1.23KB and runs really fast.

Like most of the software I review for my lagniappe column, Rufus has a price I really like.  The cost is zero.  Unlike most freeware, there is not even a donate button on the website.  The developer explains it like this: “Let me ask you this then: Would you pay $0.99/€0.99 for a utility that simply creates bootable USBs? Or would you just pick one of the many free alternatives? Heck, even I would not pay $0.99/€0.99 for this, despite being acutely aware of the cost associated with its development. So, even if I could try to cash in on the success of Rufus, I see it better to try to benefit millions of users, by providing a free application, instead of just a few thousands with a paid one.”

You can download the program from the Rufus Home Page.  I also recommend that you peruse the FAQ page.  It is not only informative, but is also interesting.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Is This the Year for Linux? – Originally Published January 2020

January 31, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I’m thinking that this is the year I may finally completely wean myself from the Windows Operating System.  This is largely because Window 10 seems to be getting worse.  They have moved many of the programmers from Windows OS to Azure and other projects.  It seems that they don’t do very much in‑house bug testing anymore.  Instead, they now farm it out to the “fast ring” and the “slow ring”.  Could this be part of the reason why there are often so many problems when updates are released to the public?

Meanwhile, Linux continues to get better.  Many of the distributions have evolved to where they are stable and mostly error free.  There are many programs that run on Linux.  Even most Microsoft software can be used on Linux with the Wine compatibility layer.

Linux is a very secure system.  I can make this statement because Linux is open‑source software.  There are thousands of eyes constantly examining for security issues.  Like any OS, there are trojans, viruses and back‑doors.  These are far fewer in numbers than Windows.  This is probably because there are far less installations of Linux.  When found, they are usually quickly fixed.

Since Windows 10 was released, there have been many vocal complaints about Microsoft “spying” on users.  The fact is that both Apple and Microsoft have always collected telemetry on usage data for years.  If you are concerned about this, Linux collects nothing, unless you specifically install it.  Considering the size of the Linux user base, not many profit motivated companies build tracking applications for Linux.  Of course, web browsers track data the same on all operating systems.

Linux is highly stable.  If you’ve spent any time around Windows forums, you know that after a while the system starts to slow down.  The OS often needs to be freshly installed so that it will run correctly.  You do not need to do this with Linux, which runs exactly as it did when first installed.  There are many tales of Linux distributions that have been running for years without rebooting the computer.  Add this to the fact that Linux runs on a wide variety of hardware.  Like many users, I got my start in Linux by running it on old computers that would no longer easily run Windows.  Now I use it almost daily.

Windows updates have become more nightmarish in recent years.  Maintaining Linux is easy.  All of the variants have their own software repository.  These archives are used to update both the system software and installed programs.  There is no need to update third party software individually.

Linux is completely free and users do not need to pay for anything.  All of the basic software required by a typical user and even an advanced user are available.  Linux is only for geeks isn’t true anymore.  It has become user‑friendly and has a good graphical user interface (GUI).  You will find almost all the functionality that Windows has.

Finally, maybe the biggest reason for switching to Linux.  You can brag on the internet that you’re a Linux User.

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading.

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Diffractor – Originally Published November 2019

November 10, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

For the past year, I’ve been on a mission to finally organize all of my digital photos.  Like many people, over the years I’ve saved them in several folders on different computers.  I finally placed a SSD drive in a portable enclosure and moved all my photographs to it.  I’m a little embarrassed to say that there were much more than 10,000 files, going back almost twenty years when I bought my first digital camera.  There are also many pictures that I’ve scanned from old photographs that were taken with film cameras.  Centralizing the pictures was the easy part.  The biggest problem I faced is tagging and organizing them all.

For editing photographs, I like to use Paint.net, Teorex Inpaint and FastStone Image Viewer.  These are all excellent for editing, but not so good for filing.  I downloaded and tested hundreds (I’m not exaggerating) of organizing programs, both paid and freeware.  I was looking specifically for ease in filing.  My main complaint with most of the software I tested was that they emphasized photo editing and did a poor job of tagging.  One day, in the comments section of a review site, mention was made of a relatively unknown program.

Diffractor is a tool for viewing and managing photos, videos and other media files.  It is a lightweight (less than 20MB) application built specifically for helping organize your media files in a clean working environment.

The first time you run the program, time is spent indexing your files.  This took about fifteen minutes on my computer.  Results are displayed in a simple thumbnail organizer.  There is a preview window on the left, folders and thumbnails are on the right.  Double‑clicking will open a file to view full‑screen (or play a video).  The Esc key returns to normal view and browsing.

The search bar works much similar to Windows Explorer.  Click it to display your viewing history.  You can also start typing to display anything with matching file, folder names, or metadata.  An Overview screen has canned searches you can use immediately to group files by date, rating, sizes, cameras, albums, artists and more, depending on file type.

One of the best features is that Diffractor is location aware.  You are able to sort your media display by location.  It will organize photos as recorded by their location data.  If you didn’t initially save location date, a Google Maps Powered Locate function makes it easy to add your chosen location to any set of photos.

Editing functions are limited.  You can rotate pictures to different angles, crop them, apply sharpening and denoising, adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and a few others.  I’ve only used a few of the editing options as I am mostly interested in filing and searching.

Many image organizers overwhelm you with complex features that most people never use.  Diffractor is different.  It focuses on building a usable interface that is easy to use.  If you don’t need too much media management power then you should check out this program.

A note from the developer’s website: You can use Diffractor for free but if you find it useful please become a sponsor.  Diffractor developers and testers are unpaid volunteers, we rely on sponsors to pay our costs.  If you use it at work, get your company to become a sponsor.  Indexing and searching non‑standard folders is only available to sponsors.  We have to reward our friends somehow!  The money is used to keep servers running, we are not buying Ferraris.

Diffractor is a Windows only program.  Diffractor can be downloaded on its website.  There is also a short video (6.25) on YouTube that is worth watching.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Windows Defender’s Ransomware Protection – Originally Published September 2019

September 1, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month, I’m going to diversify a little and not tell you about a free program.  Instead, I’d like to inform you of a little known setting in Windows 10.  A couple of weeks ago, I read an article about Windows Defender’s Ransomware Protection.  I was surprised that I hadn’t heard about it before.  Maybe it is because it wasn’t originally a feature but was added in October 2017.

Windows Defender will monitor which programs are accessing protected folders and the files stored within them.  It will then block suspicious programs from trying to gain access and making changes.  The feature is disabled by default.  Here is how to enable it:

• Open the Start Menu, then click the Settings icon.
• Go to Update & Security>Windows Security>Virus & Threat Protection.
• Scroll down to Ransomware Protection and click “Manage Ransomware Protection.”
• In the next menu, enable “Controlled Folder Access.”
• Controlled Folder Access only protects certain folders by default: Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Desktop, Favorites. You can extend the Ransomware Protection to other files and folders by clicking “Add a protected folder” in that same window.
• Navigate to the folder you wish to add to the ransomware protection. Repeat for each folder you want to have protected.

After you set up Controlled Folder Access, Windows Defender will monitor which programs are accessing the protected folders and the files stored within them.  It will then block suspicious programs from trying to gain access.  The problem is that some “suspicious” programs are not actually malicious.  To avoid false positives, you can add a program to the Controlled Folder Access whitelist.  Here is how to do this:

• Open the Start Menu and click the settings icon.
• Go to Update & Security>Windows Security>Virus & Threat Protection>Manage Ransomware Protection.
• Scroll down and click “Allow an app through controlled folder access,” then find and add the desired program to the list. You’ll have to repeat this process for each app you want to grant access to.

You can also click “Block history” to view a list of programs that Windows Defender has prevented from accessing your protected files.  If you don’t recognize a listed program or aren’t sure why it would be trying to access your files, you might want to uninstall it.

If you like this tip, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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