By far the number one topic on Ask Leo! (as measured by page and video views) is what to do if you’ve lost your password and can’t log in to a service you rely on. Google tops the list, but the problem applies equally to other online services like Outlook.com, Facebook, and more.
There are several reasons you might find yourself in that position, but they’re all made worse by the desperation that can result when account recovery mechanisms don’t seem to work.
And there are many scammers out there ready to take advantage of your panic.
Spam filters can be sophisticated or simple. I'll look at some of the characteristics of email that spam filters check.
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Someone commented to me that his spam filter was pretty useless since the spam he was receiving kept coming from different email addresses. The implication was that this person believed that the “From:” address is the only thing that spam filters check.
While that’s possible, it’s also rare.
These days, spam filters are complex and sophisticated pieces of software that check much more than you might think.
A friend received a fairly convincing phishing attempt. I'll cover the signs that showed it was spam.
A friend recently asked me to look at an email they’d received to confirm if it was legitimate.
It was not.
It was a good attempt, though, and it probably fooled many people into clicking through and potentially handing over their sign-in credentials to a crook.
I’ll review some signs in this email that flagged it as fake.
Backing up data using an online backup service can be an important part of an overall strategy, but it's important to understand its limitations.
Question: I keep hearing about online backup services that will back up your data to the cloud. Assuming it’s secure, why shouldn’t I do that and skip the hassle of doing backups to an external hard drive or whatever?
Online backup services can be a useful component of a broader backup strategy, but they are not enough. There are several factors to consider, including security, completeness, speed, and cost, before deciding if online backup is the right thing for you.
The Recycle Bin is your friend. I'll show you where it lives and how to control the space it uses.
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When you delete a file using Windows File Explorer, that file is placed in the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin in Windows has saved many a person from grief, I’m sure.
But where exactly is it, and do the deleted files still take up space?
Temp files can pile up. Why is that, and do you need to worry about them?
Question: Why are there so many temporary files left behind each time the computer is shut down and restarted?
There are indeed many temporary files. As I write this, my primary machine has 322 files in its temporary folder that total 58 megabytes. My example PC, which isn’t used nearly as heavily, has 134 files taking up 78 megabytes.
Just as there are many files, there are also many reasons they get left behind.
Downloading a file from the internet is easy, but controlling where downloads go takes a little more understanding.
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Question: When I download files like ebooks off the internet, I can never find them. Where do they go on my computer?
It depends on how you download them. We’ll look at four scenarios.
Typically, they go into your Downloads folder.
They may also go into the same folder as the last download.
There’s another place downloads can end up that’s kind of dangerous, as it gets “cleaned up” every so often (meaning you could eventually lose your download).
We’ll also look at how to find your file regardless of where it landed.
Question: My computer is being controlled and I cannot load anything I have purchased. Seems like when I change my password it asks several times — not good. Also, when I do it is intercepted and blocked. Why ? This my personal home computer.
When things behave unexpectedly, many people assume their computer has been compromised by remote hackers. Most of those people are wrong.
I get variations on this question often.
Someone believes their computer is being controlled remotely without their consent, or they believe their activities are being monitored in detail, or they believe their files and other information are being stolen or manipulated by others with malicious intent.
The bottom line is, they’re convinced someone is spying on them — or worse.
QR codes are a nifty way to encode web addresses and other text in a way that's easy for your smartphone to decode, but they are not without risk.
During a televised sporting event, a company spent a lot of money to run an advertisement that was nothing more than a QR code (like the one displayed above).
Apparently, against all common sense and with no regard for security, millions of people used it.
Why? What did it mean? What are you supposed to do with QR codes, and how do they relate to security?
They’re pretty cool.
But they can also be weaponized, and you’d never know.
It's hard to determine whether an email address is fake.
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Question: How can you tell if an email address is fake? How do scammers make fake emails?
While it can be helpful to identify fake email addresses — they’re a great clue as to whether the email you’re looking at is a scam or worse — you might not be able to. A phony email address can easily be made to look like a valid one.
Sometimes there are clues, and I’ll review a few of those, but some of those clues also apply to legitimate email addresses.
Freely accessible Wi-Fi is almost everywhere, and most systems are set up to use it safely. There are a few things to pay attention to in order to stay safe.
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Question: How come connecting to a trusted public hotspot is not a BIG security issue since multiple devices can be connected to that same Wi-Fi? If even one of the connected devices has malware, then isn’t my device also under threat ??
Microsoft changed the free storage allocation for Outlook.com and OneDrive.
In 2023, I started hearing from people who suddenly could not send or receive email via Outlook.com, or were seeing warnings that they’d soon be unable to unless they took action.
The action? Buying more OneDrive space.
What does OneDrive have to do with Outlook.com? Until 2023, not much. Now, though, they’re attached1 at the hip.
Google deletes accounts that are inactive for two years -- including Gmail, Drive, Photos, and even YouTube content. I’ll explain what “inactive” means, how to keep your accounts safe, and why this change could erase important cultural history.
Google Logo (Screenshot: askleo.com)
At the end of 2023, Google announced that the company would start deleting inactive accounts.
Let’s review what it means to be “inactive”, what you need to do, and why this might be a serious blow to our cultural history.
Backing up your new computer on arrival can be an important safety net. But there are degrees of what's good enough.
Question: I’m supposed to receive a new laptop tomorrow and don’t quite understand how to make your suggested system image backup before connecting to internet without connecting to get the software. Can I download it to an external drive and then run software directly onto the new machine (offline)?
Creating an image backup of a brand-new machine boils down to a chicken-and-egg scenario: you want to back up the unmodified machine, but you must modify the machine by installing software to back it up.
Or do you?
There are a couple of approaches to this. One is practical and easy, and the other is technically more accurate.
Internet speed: we all want it. Here's how to improve yours.
In a previous article about speeding up Windows, I mentioned that sometimes a computer can appear to be slow, but the fault may be in your internet speed.
That raises the question, of course: how do you increase internet speed in Windows?
So much of we hear about just isn't panic-worthy, even if news reports make it seem like it is.
As I watched a “major” security issue2 unfold a few years ago, I read the media reports seeming to claim that the end of the world (or at least the internet) was upon us. I felt like I was supposed to be panicking.
I didn’t, and neither the world nor the internet ended.
It’s not in my nature to panic. That’s just the kinda guy that I am. Panic may occasionally be called for, but usually it does more harm than good.
I hear from people who have lost their accounts permanently way too often. Here's how to avoid being one of them.
Question: I keep looking at your videos on account recovery for Gmail and Microsoft and Facebook and others, and you’re no help at all. I don’t have the information you say I need to get back into my account. But it’s MY ACCOUNT! Why can’t you help? Why can’t I get back in?
That’s a synthesis of the comments I get frequently on some of my most viewed content: my articles and videos on account recovery.
Folks are often pissed at me because the process doesn’t work, even though I usually start by saying, “This process might not work.”
Call this tough love if you like: there’s really no one to blame but yourself, no matter how many “thumbs down” you give me. Instead, learn from the situation and take the steps you should have taken to begin with to make sure this never happens again.
Alternate email addresses can allow you to regain access to your account if it's hacked or you forget your password.
Question: OK, I’m confused. How does the recovery email on Google work? Where do I get the messages? Do we really need a recovery email?
Yes, you need a recovery email for every account that offers the ability to set one.
Recovery email is one of those concepts that is easy to take for granted and assume everyone understands. Even if you do, you might want to review the concepts and ensure that the recovery email addresses you have are set up properly.
Reusing passwords -- even strong ones -- is risky. If one site gets hacked, attackers try that same password elsewhere. Worse, once exposed, it’s saved bv hackers and reused in future attacks. I’ll discuss why this matters, how to check if your password’s out there, and what to do instead.
A reader recently commented:
Question: It’s a good idea to get a feel for how strong your password is. There are plenty of password-strength tools online. You don’t need to put your password into some random website (I wouldn’t ever recommend that), but having a good sense of the strength or weakness of your password is really important.
I disagree.
You don’t need a password-strength tester.
You should, however, use a password-found tester. And while it’s not “some random website”, there is a website I suggest you use.
What I didn’t talk about in much detail is that through clever use of cookies — typically associated with advertising — some services gather and use more information about you.
We need to talk about tracking and third-party cookies.
Apps don’t last forever, and when one you rely on disappears, it can take your data with it. I'll show you how to protect yourself so you stay in control.
Exporting data from a password vault. (Screenshot: askleo.com)
Question: While I am not particularly concerned about my privacy (all that stuff on the internet was out there before the internet, it was just a little harder to find), I am not particularly trusting. I realize that TrueCrypt was open source and Lastpass etc. are all paid services, but what happens if they go belly up? What happens if they hire some idiot and all of their software goes up in smoke? I have a hard time trusting these services, or any others for that matter, and these are things I want under my control.
What you describe happens more often than one might think.
There are people who use an application for some time and suddenly find that the company is no longer in business, and there’s no way to get an update. Sometimes that means they can’t migrate to current versions of their operating system if they want to keep running that now-unsupported software.
It’s something I consider when selecting important software. Depending on what programs we’re talking about, there are approaches you can use to back up your data and protect yourself from potential software obsolescence or disappearance.
Trying to print a cute photo from a website and wondering why it looks fuzzy on paper? I'll explain why that happens, what you can do, and when high-quality results are possible.
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Question: I would like to know the simplest way to print a small to medium image from a webpage and have it print out as a crisp picture to fit an 8-1/2″ by 11″ sheet.
This question has one simple and one complex answer.
The simple answer is that most of the time, you can’t.
Do you think your passwords don’t matter because you use 2FA everywhere? I'll break down why weak passwords still put you at risk, how attackers work around 2FA, and the steps that keep your accounts safe.
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Question: If I’m using 2FA everywhere possible, do complex passwords matter as much? Doesn’t 2FA protect me against compromised passwords?
2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) adds a strong safety net, but it doesn’t replace the need for good passwords. As the first factor, passwords work together with 2FA to protect you from different kinds of attacks.
