![\"Wishing](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/ny23.png\")
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Darcy and I want to wish you all a healthy and Happy New Year! It’s the last Saturday of 2022, the last day of 2022, and the last edition of Saturday Bonus Questions & Answers for 2022. Thank you for making Bonus Questions & Answers one of your favorite features.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes, the best tips and tricks are hidden in the published questions and answers. And rarely do we post questions and answers on this website. Today, we\u2019re featuring some of the questions and answers from past issues of our InfoAve Weekly<\/a> newsletters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These questions & answers were selected at random from past InfoAve Weekly newsletters.<\/span><\/p>\n Saturday Bonus Questions and Answers – 121722<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Leslie wants to know how to reinstall Windows and also where to download Windows 11<\/strong><\/span> Our answer<\/strong><\/span> If you want to install Windows 11, go to this page<\/a> and choose the “Create installation media” option. Please be sure your PC can run Windows 11 before you do this. Use the updated Windows PC health check app<\/a> to check your computer for Windows 11 compatibility.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep in mind we’re not recommending installing Windows 11 yet. While we like it, we recommend waiting for a while yet before updating – just to be on the safe side.<\/span><\/p>\n We hope this helps you, Leslie.<\/span> Delores wants her beautiful daily desktop wallpaper back<\/strong><\/span> Do you know how I can get this back on my computer? I always looked forward to the next beautiful picture every day. Thank you so much for your help – you two are the best! Delores<\/span><\/p>\n Our answer<\/strong><\/span> Here’s the article we wrote about the Bing wallpaper app<\/a>. It contains a download link and other information. <\/span><\/p>\n We hope this helps you, Delores. If you need anything else, just let us know.<\/span><\/p>\n Sally has something strange going on with her Google Chrome searches<\/strong><\/span> Our answer<\/strong><\/span> You should reset Chrome and clear its history by following the instructions on this page<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n After you reset Chrome, close it and then reopen it. You should not see any “trending” because “trending” is not part of Google search on Windows.<\/span> Don’t have a Cloudeight SeniorPass? It’s a great deal. Learn more here.<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Our Cloudeight SeniorPass is a great deal. You get unlimited support for one full year from the date you first use your SeniorPass. We can help keep your computer running well, fix all kinds of computer problems, clean up malware, and a whole lot more. Our SeniorPass is like having insurance for your computer. And it’s only $99 for an entire year.<\/span><\/p>\n Get your SeniorPass today for just $99.\u00a0 It’s just like having insurance for your computer – only better!<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n To learn more about our SeniorPass, please see this page.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Steve asks about OpenDNS<\/strong><\/span> Our answer<\/strong><\/span> It just reviewed OpenDNS again and it looks to me like they’ve decided to be your guardian or censor depending on how you look at it. Parental controls are fine as long as you decide what is appropriate and not someone else. Having someone else decide what’s appropriate never works out. The only free OPENDNS service that you don’t have to sign up for is the free service where OpenDNS decides what you’ll see and what you won’t see. The free version with no sign-up is kind of like having someone else decide what books you can read and which books you’ll never see. Maybe you don’t want to see “Adult content” but who defines “adult content” for you? You or someone else? The free, no sign-up Open DNS option, decides for you… and is that ever a good idea?<\/span><\/p>\n We’ve tried several DNS services including OpenDNS, Google Public DNS, and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS. I think Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS is the fastest, most private, and best. It’s also fairly easy to set up and you don’t have to give them any information or sign up for anything. We reviewed Cloudflare back in 2018 when it first came out. Today, I went back and took another look – and also set it up on the computer I am using. Again I was impressed.<\/span><\/p>\n So, if you want to know what DNS services do and\/or if you would like to take a look at an alternative to OpenDNS, <\/span> take a look at this article.<\/span> <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Laura says Bing has taken over<\/strong><\/span> Our answer<\/strong><\/span> Try this:<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Type CHROME:\/\/EXTENSIONS in the Chrome address bar & press \u201cEnter\u201d<\/span> You can also remove Bing from the list of search engines available in Chrome.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Type CHROME:\/\/SETTINGS\/SEARCH in the Chrome address bar & press \u201cEnter\u201d<\/span> 3. After you click \u201cManage search engines, you can remove Bing from the list of available search engines, if you choose to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n If the above doesn\u2019t stop Bing, reset Chrome by following the instructions on this page<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Resetting Chromes returns Chrome to its defaults. Keep in mind this does not remove bookmarks. It disables all extensions, clears Chrome history and cache, and restores Chrome to its factory defaults.<\/span><\/p>\n Restoro is malware in our opinion. It\u2019s scammy and it can mess up your computer. Our advice is don\u2019t use it. It\u2019s certainly not the miracle cure it claims to be. If you have installed it, we recommend you uninstall it.<\/span><\/p>\n John wants to know about wallpaper and screen savers<\/strong><\/span> Our answer<\/strong><\/span> Wallpaper (i.e. Desktop Wallpaper) is a picture you use on your desktop as a background. A screensaver can be set to turn on when your computer has been idle for a while. A screen saver is usually a slideshow of different pictures, designs, and\/or animations – some have music as well. A screen saver does not replace your wallpaper.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in the early days of computers when CRT monitors were popular, screensavers were necessary to prevent “screen burn-in” – that means that whatever is on your screen for a long time gets burned into the monitor and can’t be removed. <\/span><\/p>\n Modern computer monitors and screens have high refresh rates so burn-in is no longer a problem. However, many people still like to have a screen saver running when they’re not using their computers. <\/span><\/p>\n Windows 10 comes with several screen savers. If you want to try one out, type Screensavers in the taskbar search, and when “Change Screen Saver” appears, click “Open” or press Enter. <\/span><\/p>\n You’ll see the Screen Saver Settings dialog. As you can see from the screenshot below, Windows 10 comes with several screen savers as well as the option to use your “Pictures” folder (photos) as a screen saver.<\/span><\/p>\n No matter what screen saver you choose, it will not change your desktop wallpaper. <\/span><\/p>\n I hope this answers your question, John.<\/span><\/p>\n If you don’t need any of our products or services right now, please help us with a donation. Even the smallest gift is appreciated. Every donation helps us to provide useful information that helps you with your computer as well as helping to keep you safe on the Internet. We offer free help to thousands of people every year… and we offer an honest and inexpensive computer repair service too. We do everything we can to help you with your computer and keep you safe too.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So if you don’t need any of our products or services right now, please help us by donating right now<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0Thank you!<\/span><\/p>\n Interested in making an automatic monthly gift?\u00a0Visit this page<\/a><\/span>. Help us keep helping you… and help us keep you stay safe on the Web.<\/span><\/p>\n Frank wants to know what we really think of Windows 11 Our answer<\/strong><\/span> 1. The Start menu – it just makes sense. It makes us wonder why the start menu was not like this a long time ago. Instead of scrolling through a long list of programs listed alphabetically, you can pin 18 programs to the Start menu and switch them around in any order you like.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. The new icons – they actually look like what they represent.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. It’s faster than Windows 11. It boots faster and it runs faster even on the same hardware that had been running Windows 10. My cheapie laptop running Windows 11 boots up in less than a minute.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. The Settings menu. It’s cleaner, smaller, and easier to use. For instance. Just open Settings and rather than hunting around for the setting you’re looking for, just click the drop-down menu icon and choose the setting you’re looking for from the menu. You can do this from any place in Settings.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Windows Update is more streamlined. You can pause updates, review update history, and get to Advanced settings without hunting all over – or opening Settings full screen.<\/span><\/p>\n There are a lot more things we like about Windows 11 than things we don’t like. And we have a feeling that over time the things we don’t like (for instance the complicated way of setting default programs) will be fixed.<\/span><\/p>\n We’ll never be happy that Microsoft made a promise it didn’t keep- The promise that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows. But, the world has changed and Microsoft has made Windows 11 the safest Windows 11 ever by using TPM 2.0, VBS (Virtualization-based security), Safe Boot and more. See this page to learn more about those<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n David has three problems<\/strong><\/span> 1. One of the computers that I use to stream to my TV has had the screen go black on the computer but still feeds the HDMI. I cannot find the instructions to repair this.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. On this computer, I was getting help from Garmin for my GPS and the tech made all my drop-downs and bars extremely small. How do I get them back to what they were before?<\/span><\/p>\n 3. I cannot find the article on how to be an administrator when it comes to folders. I have the problem that I keep getting the message that I need administrator permission to do whatever it is that I am doing. This includes saving files to my backup drive and I have to save it to my C drive and then move it to the backup drive.<\/span><\/p>\n Our answer<\/strong><\/span> On the second question. You can change the size of fonts, title bars, menus, etc. by pressing the Windows Key + U to open Ease of Access. In Ease of Access > Display, you’ll see several settings. The first two are Make Text Bigger and Make Everything Bigger. Try using the text size slider first before using “Make Everything Bigger”. Using Make Everything Bigger incorrectly can end up causing problems with dialog windows (missing OK\/Apply\/Cancel buttons for example). <\/span><\/p>\n And on the final question. I’ll need more info as it’s normal for some folders to request elevated privileges. It could be your eternal drive is set with incorrect permissions. Here are some things to look at… <\/span><\/p>\n 1.) Ensure the document is not set with a Read-Only attribute. To verify, right-click the file or folder and check “Properties”<\/span><\/p>\n 2.) Verify the folder on the external hard drive have the appropriate Security Rights. To verify, right-click the properties of the folder and select the security tab on the Properties dialog box.<\/span><\/p>\n 3.) Ensure you have an administrator or user account with full control rights checked in the security tab on the property dialog box. <\/span><\/p>\n We hope this helps you, David.<\/span><\/p>\n JP is getting a new computer and has some questions <\/strong> <\/span> Now I have to transfer my “stuff” from the old computer to the new one. I have stored all my photos and files on an external drive and I guess I only need to plug it into the new one to transfer all the data.<\/span><\/p>\n But how do I transfer my Google account, calendar events of the past and future, my Google email contacts, and Chrome bookmarks to my new computer? Also all my downloads over the past 5 years. I don’t want to wipe the old computer clean until I’ve secured all the data I had on it.<\/span><\/p>\n Also, could you kindly direct me to the link where you tell us how to clean an old computer of all personal data? Thanks! It’s so nice to have you around. JP<\/span><\/p>\n Our answer<\/strong><\/span> You can transfer data from the external drive to your new computer. One word of advice — if you backed up your Pictures, Documents, Music, etc. folders, when you move them to your new computer, be sure to open the folder on the external drive, select all the contents and then move it to the appropriate folder on your new computer. If you simply move the entire folder you’ll end up with a Pictures folder in Pictures. To view the contents you’ll have to click on Pictures and then Pictures again…plus new pictures you add on your new computer will go into the default Pictures folder. Then you’ll have two picture folders. It works the same way with Documents, Music, Videos, Desktop, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n You can open your downloads folder on your external backup and move the contents to the Downloads folder on your new computer, just as described for Pictures, Documents, Music, folders (etc.) that we already covered.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the best things about having a Google account is that it stays the same no matter what computer you’re using. You can use it on your phone, your new computer, your old computer, or you wipe your old computer and still use it on your new computer. All you need to remember are your sign-in credentials – your username and your password. Once you sign into your Google account, your Gmail and all your contacts will be there no matter what device you’re logged in with.<\/span><\/p>\n It would be best to save your bookmarks to an HTML file on our external drive., just in case. Then when you get your new computer set up, you can open Chrome and import your bookmarks straight from the HTML file you saved on your external drive. Here’s our tutorial about saving Chrome bookmarks to a file and how to import them<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n
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\nHi, Darcy & TC. I know you have the info, but I have searched for a half an hour and can’t find the instructions on how to make a Windows 10 installation disc or thumb drive so that I can reload Windows when I clear the hard drive so that I can load the operating system again. Also, is there a place to download Windows 11?<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Leslie. You can do a clean install of Windows 10 without using a disk or USB drive. You can go to Settings> Update & Security > Recovery and click “Reset this PC”. If you want to wipe out everything and do a clean install choose “Remove Everything” and then choose the Cloud option to download the Windows 10 installation file. <\/span><\/p>\n
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\nLeslie wrote back: “Thanks again for your expertise. As always, it is much appreciated. Best & Stay Safe. Leslie”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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\nHi there. Since installing Windows 10 Version 21H2, my Bing wallpaper is gone. I miss those beautiful pictures on my desktop that automatically changed each day. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Delores. Thanks for your nice comments.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nHi, you two. All of a sudden when I search from the search bar in Chrome, I get a list of “Trending Searches” that drops down from the address\/search bar. None of them are relevant to my search. It’s crazy. Have you ever heard of this? Help! <\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Sally. It sounds like you may have unintentionally installed an extension that is causing the “trending searches” dropdown – which sounds like an advertisement trying to get you to click something.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nSally wrote back: “Thanks so much! I reset Chrome and now the trending searches dropdown is gone. You guys are great! Sally.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/telephone.png\")
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\nHi. I’m curious about OpenDNS. Is it really as good as it claims? <\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Steve. We wrote about OpenDNS in 2013 (see this page<\/a>). But that was nine years ago and as with computers and the Internet, nine years is a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nBing keeps taking over Google Chrome. Someone said I should use Restoro to check it out. Please do you have an answer? Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Laura. Bing is a Microsoft search engine. I am guessing you added a Bing toolbar (extension) or some other extension to Chrome that keeps switching your search engine. It could be a search engine hijacker.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n2. Disable or remove any extension that contains the word Bing or Search<\/span><\/p>\n
\n2. Make sure your default search engine is set to Google.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Cloudeight](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/bingo.png\")
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\nI’m new at computers and I don’t understand the difference between Screen Savers and Wallpaper. I use wallpaper and change it often. But what is the purpose of a screen saver?<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi John. Great question! <\/span><\/p>\n![\"Cloudeight](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2021\/ssaver.png\")
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\n![\"Help](\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2022\/gift2022.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMake a small donation and help us help you!<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/strong>Hi guys. I, for one, appreciate all you guys do for us. I have a question. I see you’ve been using Windows 11 for a few weeks (or more) and I’d like to know what your opinion of Windows 11 is. I know you’ll give us a straight answer. Thanks, Frank.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi Frank. Thanks so much. Our honest opinion of Windows 11 is – it’s really good. Not “great” yet, but really good. It’s the most polished new version of Windows ever. We’ll be writing an article on our experiences with Windows 11 soon and we’ll go into more detail on why we like it. But here is a short list of what we like so far.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Cloudeight](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2021\/startmenu.png\")
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\nI have 3 problems…<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi David. On the first question. It could be a lot of things including your screen going bad. If the screen on the PC goes bad, you can still use another device (a TV for example) as a screen or to stream video. In other words, the screen going bad does not hinder the output via HDMI or USB. <\/span><\/p>\n
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\nHi Darcy and TC. My old computer (5 years old) is beginning to show signs of dying. I decided to buy a new one according to the specs you had provided for us. 8GB RAM, 64bit, SSD, 3.0 GHz, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nHi JP. Thanks for your nice comments! <\/span><\/p>\n