Everything Express
Allan J. Smithie
How-to: Get Free Web-Hosting
If you want a conventional website, you’ll need space on a web-server somewhere to run it. That usually costs money. The more space, better bandwidth, better facilities you want, the more it’s likely to cost you. But the Internet is also inundated with offers of free web hosting. And like ‘free lunches’, there are many … Continue reading
How-to: Disable Bing in Windows 10 Search
Windows 10 is a Microsoft product, so by default, any desktop search is set to run through Bing, sending everything through Microsoft on the way. Fortunately, this is one of the Windows bindings that is easy to cut, so you can cut Microsoft out of your desktop or local device searches. Open the Start Menu … Continue reading
How-to: Understand XPS format
In case you never heard of it, XPS format is Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe’s PDF. First introduced in Windows Vista, the long head start enjoyed by PDF meant XPS never gained much traction, even with Windows users. XPS stands for Open XML Paper Specification, an open format in the same way Office Open XML is … Continue reading
How-to: Remove Text-Enhance adware
Text Enhance is one of those pesky adware browser hijackers that takes over pages in your web browser and overlays ads based on keywords in the page text. Underlined keywords are hyperlinked to pop-up boxes containing coupons in ads clearly identified as Text Enhance. A relatively benign and easily removed example of adware, it is … Continue reading
Review: Windows 10 ‘Threshold 2’
At one time, Microsoft used to release Service Packs for it’s software – Windows XP had three, versions of Windows Server would have a couple each. As Windows Update came to support more frequent and regular patches, Service Packs fell out of favour. Which is why Threshold 2 is a return to an old idea; … Continue reading
How-to: Introduction to Edge
Project Spartan. Sounds awesome (sic). It was the codename for Microsoft’s successor to Internet Explorer; the new browser: Edge. So is it cutting edge, leading edge or trailing edge? Is it finished? Is it fast? And is it the first properly functional Modern UI application? After all, we’re all going to spend a lot of … Continue reading
Opinion: Fingerprints Make Bad Passwords
We all know passwords are rubbish. We pick short ones, simple ones, easy ones; we never change them, we use our birthdays, childrens’ names, pets’s names, postcodes; and then we write them down on post-it notes and stick them to the screen. We think we’re clever when we use a password manager – right up … Continue reading
How-to: Disable Windows 10 Peer Uploads
It may come as a surprise that Microsoft incorporated peer-to-peer networking into Windows 10. Somebody thought “what a great way to accelerate and distribute the rollout of the Windows 10 upgrade – the early adopters can help those who come after by sharing the load, using the kind of torrenting technology everyone’s used for years … Continue reading
Opinion: Windows 10 Could Have Been Better
It isn’t finished, it isn’t coherent, aguably it isn’t even an ‘upgrade.’ But it may well be the last ‘version’ of Windows you ever get. The grand, visionary release of Windows 10 proves the adage you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Windows XP continues to run across millions of machine … Continue reading
How-to: Computer Networking Primer Part I
The perils of being the ‘knowledgeable friend.’ At this time of year, this means family and friends acquire all sorts of shiny new tech kit, then ask someone with half a brain to help set up their home network. This often means me. Down the phone line. From a different country. So here we go; … Continue reading
Opinion: ‘The Cloud’ vs ‘The Fog’
DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive; Office 365; Zoho Office; AWS, Microsoft Azure… I could go on. That’s before we get to Social Media. You may have noticed everything these days is in ‘the Cloud.’ But what does that mean? Are you, like me, a Cloud-sceptic? Granted, I still play CD’s and DVD’s. An occasionally vinyl records. This … Continue reading
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