Google search used to be the winner by far, but recent decreases in its trustworthiness and the improved offerings of other search engines make switching a pragmatic choice.
In the past, Google’s search engine was the best. I would regularly try searches in some of its competitors, and I always came back. Google’s results were more accurate and gave me what I needed more often than not.
In recent months, that’s flipped. Google’s results are disappointing at best and misleading at worst.
Browser problems can be caused by any number of things that may or may not include the browser itself. I'll review common troubleshooting techniques.
Question: I haven’t seen you mention Firefox problems. I’ve been using it for internet but it goes into “not responding” mode, particularly when I click on a link in a news email.
Actually, I talk about browser problems all the time. Particularly since people encounter browser problems all the time.
The problem is that it’s never as simple as telling you, “Well, here’s what you do to stop ‘not responding’ problems.” There are so many possible causes there’s no way to know which one applies to your situation.
What I use instead is a more general approach to dealing with internet web browser problems that applies to all popular browsers — not only FireFox but Chrome, Edge, and others.
What action to take on breach and exposure notifications depends on how much information you get.
Question: I got notices from several services that my username/email and password are on the dark web. Since I have two-factor identification on, I have not had any issues with anybody breaking into any of my accounts. I have also had issues with Microsoft sending me notifications of two-factor notification numbers even though I never requested them. The problem is that I don’t know which websites are affected, so I cannot change the website password. Can you tell me how to identify the affected website to change my passwords?
There are two separate items raised by this question I want to address:
What to do if you’re told your information is on the dark web.
What to do if you get unsolicited two-factor notices.
They’re separate issues, but sometimes they’re related.
Use the Windows 10 and 11 Out-of-Box Experience to reset a variety of items associated with initial computer setup.
You may or may not remember setting up Windows 10 the first time you used it. You were walked through a process of questions and answers and options and waiting — probably lots of waiting — while Windows set up your machine.
It’s called the Out-of-Box Experience, or OOBE.
It turns out you can revisit the experience at any time.
My background is most assuredly not journalism. I bring something else entirely to the table: experience.
In recent months, I’ve been thinking a lot about the news media and journalism in general.
It dawned on me that while Ask Leo! looks kind of like a news site, it’s not. It also occurred to me that several sites and other tech-support options that operate similarly to Ask Leo! are written and run by actual journalists while hobbyists run others.
None of that is a bad thing. A variety of experiences and opinions is a valuable thing.
A very common scam has people supposedly from Microsoft, your ISP, or other authorities calling to help you with computer problems. Don't fall for it.
Question:
A family member got scammed by a telephone call from someone saying that they were from Microsoft and calling because of PC error reports. Unfortunately, remote access was given. What should be done to prevent further compromise of the PC data? Help!
Note: MS scanner and a Norton scan were done and showed no problems. Remote access software files were removed manually from PC. Could the scammer again access the PC data? Data is backed up to the external drive (not plugged in at the time of the scam). Can the same files/data be safely loaded onto a new HD/computer?
As you point out, it’s a scam. Microsoft doesn’t call people because of errors on their computers. Neither do ISPs, security companies, or pretty much anyone else who might have some role of internet authority.
In recent years (yes, years) I’ve received many reports of this scam and its variants. Fortunately, many people are rightfully suspicious and cut it off before it goes too far. Unfortunately, your family member having fallen for the scam puts you in a difficult and dangerous position.
Let’s not hook up that external hard drive just yet.
To back up your email, you first have to figure out where it lives. It might be on your computer, or it might be on the internet.
Question: I’m currently preparing to back up my computer for the first time and I’m unsure of the answer to the following question. If I do either a system image or a regular backup of my Windows computer, will my Outlook emails also be included in the backup, or do I have to first back up the emails to a PST file, do the backup, and then import the emails back if I ever need to restore the system? In checking the Microsoft site and two other searches, the only answers I find are “…..will backup all files, programs, etc….” and no mention of emails. I hate to assume that the emails will be backed up only to find that they aren’t after spending the time to do it.
Great question. Unfortunately, you may find the answer somewhat frustrating.
Your email may or may not be backed up. It depends on where your email lives. Once we know that, then we can make some more helpful suggestions.
An Internal Server Error happens within the server attempting to show you a webpage. It's usually a server-side problem out of your control.
Question: I’m trying to download software from a specific site. No matter what I try to download, I get this error message:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator webmaster@******.com and inform them of the time the error occurred and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
How is this resolved?
I’m very familiar with this error. Too familiar. I see it all the time when setting up or making changes to websites.
The good news? It’s not your fault.
The bad news? There’s probably nothing you can do.
Recovering individual files from a Cryptomator encrypted vault can be tricky. I'll discuss why and how to protect your access to those files.
Question: As files are encrypted by Cryptomator, how can I identify a file to recover a previous version? I can’t even see where I’d find version history.
The short answer is that you can’t. Not directly. I’ll explain why in a moment.
Cryptomator is a free program built to encrypt files before they’re uploaded to cloud storage. To access those files, you must have both Cryptomator and your passphrase. Even with the information, if you want to recover just a single encrypted file, things get challenging.
I’ll address how to protect yourself from scenarios like this. One approach relies on something I’ve been suggesting you do for a long time.
When it comes to technology, it seems like there's a whole 'nother language to learn. Using the right terminology is important to being understood and getting your problems resolved.
Computers and technology, much like medicine, automobiles, and many more disciplines, has its own set of words, buzzwords, and terminology.
And just like when you go to the doctor or take your car to a mechanic, it’s important that you be able to communicate clearly what you want them to look at.
The more accurately you use terminology, the more likely you’ll get the correct and desired outcome.
Zetabytes? Petaflops? Gigahertz? Confusing terms for the ever-increasing capacity and speed of our computers.
Question: I feel like I’ve just crawled out from under a rock or something. Apparently, Seagate has come out with new drives with… zetabytes of storage? There are terabytes, which I know, this is how I store stuff, but now there are petabytes and zetabytes? In communications with someone at Seagate, they are telling me that the CIA has a computer with petaflops of processing power. I know what GHZ is, but what is a petaflop, or more importantly, how many gigahertz is a petaflop? Can you even buy this stuff, or is this reserved for large companies? If you could clear some of this up, I would greatly appreciate it, thanks.
The only unchanging thing in the computer industry is change itself. Today’s topic is storage: specifically, how much and what we call it.
Let’s review some size-related and speed-related terms for good measure.
Occasionally, Microsoft Office becomes damaged. Fortunately, you can repair it.
Question: When I want to open a file in Excel, a dialog box appears: “PROGRAM ERROR: EXCEL.EXE has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.” How do I fix this?
That was the question that spawned this article some 12(!) years ago, but I’m revisiting it for a simple reason.
It’s happening to me. Right now.
No error messages; Excel just goes away after a few seconds when I open a spreadsheet.
I need to explain one of those approaches in a little more detail, since it targets perhaps the most popular form of 2FA: the one-time password. If you’re not wary, you could fall victim.
The good news is that this attack requires your participation. The bad news is that you might not realize it until too late.
I know less than you think I do, but I make up for it with a very important skill -- a skill anyone can benefit from improving.
Once I answered a question from a reader, and they responded to the answer by saying, “So easy when you know how.”
I don’t know if they were making an honest observation or a snarky comment (I suspect the former), but I started thinking about what I’ll call my deep, dark secret.
I didn’t know how. In fact, I often have absolutely no clue.
Unfortunately, that turns you into, yes... a spammer! There are many, many problems with this idea. I'll explain a few.
I received a rather lengthy question mentioning a specific service claiming to turn the tables on spammers either by spamming them back or by using the content of their messages to harm them in some way… or at least annoy the heck out of them.
However, as much as spam angers us, besides ultimately being ineffective, vigilante justice isn’t the answer. Here’s why.
Facebook Marketplace scams are on the rise. Here are three red flags that should tell you something's not right.
As Facebook Marketplace gets more use, it also gets more scams. It’s a popular place to buy and sell, which makes it more profitable to scam there as well.
There are several things to look for, but in this article, I’m going to focus on the concept of accountability and what scammers do to avoid it.
You can associate multiple email addresses with your Microsoft account. Who knew?
Every so often, I get a request that boils down to someone wanting to change the email address associated with their Microsoft account. I’ve maintained that you couldn’t — that your email address is your Microsoft account, and vice versa. No change was possible.
Turns out I was wrong.
Not only can you change the email address, but you can have multiple email addresses, and you can sign in with any one of them you like.
An email claims your email account has been hacked, possibly even including a password you've used. Don't be fooled; it's a scam.
Question: Today, I received this lovely email. While I think it is complete BS and I certainly have no intention on taking any action on it, it *does* look like it was sent from my account, i.e., it appears that someone can send emails impersonating me. Do you have any advice what I should do about this?
You don’t need to do anything.
The email in question described how this person’s account had been hacked, how changing the password wouldn’t help, and that the account was being held for ransom to be paid in Bitcoin. And it appeared to be “From:” this person’s email address.
Variations of this scam even include a password — a password you’ve actually used. I’ve gotten them myself.
Even so, “complete BS” is very accurate.
Though if there is a password, there is one thing you should do.
It's hard enough to experience the loss of a friend or a loved one. To get email from them thereafter can be very disturbing.
Question: I am very upset this morning!! Some way, somehow I got an e-mail from a dear friend who recently passed. the message was sent today, from his e-mail. His family also received the same e-mail, and they assure the rest of us (friends) they do not have access to his password and they want to know how this happened. Is this legal, is somebody tapping into his account, is it a hacker? Can you please shed some light on this? Also, does his family need to take any sort of actions to somehow delete his account so this doesn’t happen again in the future? There are a lot of confused people over this, needless to say quite upset also. This one action has stirred up very deep feelings of the recent passing of our loved one.
I understand this would be a deeply disturbing event, regardless of the cause.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much good news. There are things to try and things to understand.
This choice is about what you back up on your computer. It can make the difference between an easy or difficult recovery.
Question: Recently, I bought a one-terabyte external hard drive and Macrium Reflect backup software as you recommended. But now I’m very much confused about two features of it… and that is “Create Backup Image Wizard” and “Backup Files and Folder Wizard”. What is the difference between the two? What are the respective purposes? I’ve Googled about this and even searched on your site, but I couldn’t figure it out, so I finally decided to write you my first question.
It’s no secret that image backups are my go-to, and we’ll see why shortly.
Files-and-folders backups have their place, and tools like Reflect can automate them and make them part of a reasonable backup strategy.
Scam emails often have clues ranging from obvious to obscure. I'll take a scam email and show you what I see.
Emails are frequent targets of scammers trying to get our account credentials and more. I suspect many more people fall for fake emails, scams, and phishing attempts than we realize.
In this article, I’ll review a scam I received recently for signs of fakery.