Tag: Windows

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Know Your Tech: Safe Mode

kyt_safe_mode_400.jpg

If you are trying to identify a specific issue with your PC, it can be difficult to do so due to the fact that there are so many moving parts in an operating system. Still, you want a secure way to find the problem and diagnose it. Thankfully, Safe Mode allows you to take a look at your computer in its most basic form to see what the root of the issue is.

What Safe Mode Does
Chances are that your business’ computers have a lot of extra drivers and features on them that make things a little more difficult for your organization. When you boot up a device in Safe Mode, you make it much easier to diagnose problems since you’re booting it up in its bare minimum state. If the issue persists even in Safe Mode, for example, you know that it’s a problem with the core functions of your PC, whereas the opposite means that it’s a more specific issue with something you’ve installed.

There are two major ways that you can access Safe Mode on your PC. The first is the one that we just outlined. The other can include your network drivers and devices, but this sometimes isn’t what you are looking to do.

Follow these directions to implement Safe Mode on startup.

From the Start Menu:

  • Select the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  • Select Settings (the gear icon)
  • Click on Update & Security
  • Go to Recover in the left-hand column
  • Go to Advanced Startup and select Restart Now
  • When the device restarts, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup > Settings > Restart
  • Upon startup, hit F4 or the number 4 for Safe Mode. Hit F5 or the number 5 for Safe Mode with Networking

From the Sign-in Screen:

  • Restart your PC. Hold down the Shift key while you’re selecting Restart.
  • When the device restarts, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup > Settings > Restart
  • Upon startup, hit F4 or the number 4 for Safe Mode. Hit F5 or the number 5 for Safe Mode with Networking

Have you found this tip helpful? Subscribe to our blog for more great technology tips and tricks.

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: How to Type Accent Marks and Symbols

letters_swirl_pink_400.jpg

When it comes to businesses-to-business relationships, the global impact of the Internet has unlocked quite a few doors. Rather than developing relationships with exclusively businesses in their region, it’s not uncommon for a small manufacturer of model airplanes in Iowa to use the web to find the vendor that can meet all of their needs, even if they’re located in Austria. Doing business internationally means there may be an occasion where you’ll need to communicate in another language. Fortunately, for Windows 10 users, it has never been easier to switch your computer or mobile device’s language.

First, hover over the taskbar and right-click. Select show touch keyboard button.

Cortana

You’ll now see a keyboard icon next to your clock and calendar on the right-hand size of your taskbar.

keyboard icon

This will bring up a touch keyboard. In the case that you don’t have a touch screen, you can also click on the buttons with your mouse.

Touch Keyboard

Click and hold the base letter to see all the possible accents for that letter. Click the one that you would like to insert.

keyboard accents

For those who are going to be writing in another language on a regular basis. It’s possible to change the entire layout of your keyboard. Your chosen language can be found to the right of the touch keyboard icon.

EnglishRussianKeyboard

This doesn’t just apply to the touch keyboard. It applies to your physical one, as well.

Hint: If you don’t see the language you’re looking for in the list of available languages, you can add and edit your list by selecting Language preferences.

Using Another Version of Windows?
For those of you who are using Windows 7 or 8.1 (or even Vista or XP), in addition to seriously thinking about upgrading your operating system, you can still use ALT Codes . A numeric list of codes is assigned to the accented letter or symbol in question. While pressing down the ALT key, type the four-digit code on the numeric keypad at the right edge of the keyboard.

Do you have any tips or tricks that use you like use when communicating in another language? Tell us below! Comentario a continuación! Commentaires ci-dessous! Комментарий ниже!

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Using Your Computer to Its Full Potential

just_the_tips_400.jpg

Your computer, and the many resources you use it to access, are made for utility. As a result, there is an assortment of useful features built into many commonly used systems and solutions. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over some of the shortcuts that you may not have known about.

For Windows
The Windows operating system itself comes with a few shortcuts that can make using your computer much more convenient.

A cluttered screen can be extremely distracting, but minimizing and maximizing each window each time you need a different one can add up to be a major time sink. Arguably even more so, it gets annoying pretty quickly. Windows provides a fix that sounds a little silly — to quickly minimize every window other than the one you want to keep, click and hold the bar at the top (where the minimize, full screen, and close buttons are located) and shake your mouse. All other active windows will minimize. Repeating this action calls your windows back to your display.

  • You can also use your taskbar to accomplish a similar result. Pressing the Windows key and the number of the application on your taskbar will open it, and then can minimize and maximize it.
  • If you have a file selected and you need to rename it, pressing F2 will allow you to do so without right-clicking and selecting Rename from the options.
  • If you want to speed up deleting a sentence you just typed, pressing Ctrl as you hit backspace will delete your text word-by-word, instead of character-by-character.
  • Windows also makes it easier to take specific screenshots of your active window: all you have to do is press Alt and Print Screen.

For Chrome
Google Chrome is a highly utilizable browser, with plenty of shortcuts and features baked in.

  • We’ve all had those searches we regret, and Google never seems to let us forget about them–until now, that is. Using your arrow keys, select the unwelcome suggestion, and press Shift + Delete to eliminate it.
  • If you’ve ever wanted to move multiple tabs to a new browser window, you know how quickly the back-and-forth gets old. By holding Ctrl, you can select multiple tabs and drag them to an existing window or create an entirely new window.

For Any Browser
If you aren’t a Chrome user, there are still plenty of shortcuts that will work for any of the popular browsers.

  • Selecting text in a web page can be frustrating, as you can easily grab an unwanted chunk by drifting your mouse too far one way or another. This can be avoided by clicking in the text where you want to begin highlighting, then pressing Shift as you click on the end of your desired segment.
  • You can quickly access the address bar at any time by pressing F6, or Ctrl + L.
  • Once you’re done with one of your tabs, middle-clicking it will close it.

How many of these tips did you know about? Are there any you know of that we missed? Share them in the comments!

Categories
Casserly Consulting Blog

“The Worst” Windows Bug is Now Taken Care of, Thanks to Google

b2ap3_thumbnail_windows_bugs_400.jpg When a security researcher tweeted about what they thought was “the worst Windows remote code exec” in his memory, a recent incident came to mind: one that allowed a targeted file to implement remote code execution processes in order to manipulate any infected system. This vulnerability let the infected machine spread the issue to others and could be set off if a certain file were to be scanned by the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. Scary stuff!

Regarding the incident, Microsoft was quick to resolve the issue. Thankfully.

The researchers who uncovered this vulnerability were Tavis Ormandy and Natalie Silvanovich from the Google Project Zero team. Once the pair had discovered the vulnerability, they took to Twitter to announce it to the world, including to Microsoft and the Microsoft Security Response Center.

Upon the notification, the MSRC confirmed that the vulnerability was indeed present, and that there were quite a few pieces of software within the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine that allowed a “specially crafted file” to run code placed on the system. This vulnerability was so widespread that it could be found on just about any recent Windows machine, including those running Windows 7, 8.1, 10, and even Windows RT.

Though this particular problem has been resolved, its urgency serves to remind all business owners that their software solutions need to be up-to-date at all times. While problems are often resolved by programmers, hackers always try to outdo them, creating a vicious, neverending cycle. Unless you want your business to be caught in the crossfire, you should patch your software whenever new updates are released. If you try to function without them, you’ll be leaving your organization wide open to attacks–attacks that can easily be preventable with proactive maintenance.

Does your organization need this type of proactive maintenance and management? If you think that it’s a hassle to keep an eye out for updates, you’re right. You shouldn’t have to worry about this, especially not while keeping your operations afloat. COMPANYNAME can provide the IT you need by taking care of these updates for you so you can stay focused on running your business. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.