My Eye Candy

I love my 'eye candy'.  I use a lot of Desktop themes from Microsoft and change them often.  There are lots of those themes and some websites have themes available as well.

So one of the first things I did when I installed the preview for Windows 8.1, (after I looked it over a bit) was to install some themes. There are some really nice themes for Windows 8, but those won't install on Windows 7. (Why not, Microsoft?)

But you can still have them on Windows 7.

First, using Windows 8, I went to AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Themes and selected the theme with the pictures I wanted.

Note: To view AppData, you must have viewing hidden files and folders enabled.



Then I opened the 'Desktop Background' folder, copied all the photos and put them into a new folder on the Desktop.

I copied the folder to my Windows 7 and then created a new theme in Windows 7.

The How To Geek has a tutorial on how to make your own themes.

Hooray for eye candy!

What Were You Expecting?

Windows 8.1 preview has been released to the masses, and a lot of folks were waiting anxiously to see the new highly anticipated Start button on the Desktop.

If you were expecting something like : (The Start button/menu in Windows 7)

Then you were very disappointed. It actually looks like this.



To see what it actually does, you have to right click on that little 'Start button' and then you get this:



No programs listed but at least it has the Shut down so you don't go crazy trying to find out how to turn your computer off! (That is if you figured out you have to right click on that little sucker.)

Not So Smart

I am an email pack rat. I save everything that could possibly be needed sometime, or even if I think it might be needed sometime in the future.

Wouldn't the Windows 8 activation key be in that category? I guess it would be, but I couldn't find it in my email in the folder where I was so sure it would be. Not saved in my Documents; just nowhere.

When Microsoft first released the final version of Windows 8, I bought it online, downloaded it and saved the file to a DVD. I labeled it carefully and put it away. Now wouldn't it make sense to print the email containing the key? But guess who didn't do that!

Why I didn't I have no idea. I wanted to reset Windows 8 back to it's original pristine condition (I had made a LOT of tweaks) just to see what the preview of Windows 8.1 would look like. So I did the reset.  When it came time to input the Activation key, it was nowhere to be found.

But all was not lost.  I setup a new profile on my Windows 7 laptop, setup Outlook with a .pst saved from my now defunct Windows 7 Desktop, and there it was, the email with my much needed Window 8 activation key. It is now printed and stored with the DVD, copied into a Word doc, backed up to a flash drive and saved in two profiles.

I may not need it again now, but I probably will.

You can't imagine how dumb this all made me feel!

What made me feel even dumber was this: The Easy Way To Back Up Email

 

 

 

Don't Do This!

I recently signed up to view stuff on Quora, a question and answer community. Sort of social but a bit different, at least for me. So far I am just exploring it to see what it's all about.

The point I want to make here is not so much about Quora, but the options it gave me when signing  up.



This makes it easy for a user to sign up.  It also makes it easier to track this user.  Some time back I recall reading about someone who got hacked and because he had used this method of 'linking' to all of his accounts, guess what, EVERYTHING he had was hacked! Don't signup with Google, Facebook, Twitter or any other site!

 

The Spam Filter in Gmail

No doubt about it, Gmail has the very best Spam filter. This is probably one of the reasons Gmail has become one of the most popular web email application, if not THE most popular. If your current email app allows it, forward your email to a Gmail account and it is highly unlikely you will ever be plagued with Spam again!

What Is Going On With Yahoo Mail?

Recently I have seen an unusual number of hacked Yahoo mail accounts. Doesn't seem to be more for Gmail or Outlook.com, so what's up with Yahoo mail?

Could it be the new Yahoo mail interface?  You know, the one with so many in-your-face-ads? The ads that sometimes cover you emails so you probably inadvertently click on one of them?

Apparently Yahoo doesn't screen those ads for links to malware, so could this be the reason? I don't use Yahoo mail much any more, even with a paid soon-to-be cancelled account.  If Gmail and outlook.com are more secure and they appear to be, why can't Yahoo get more secure?

Yahoo won't let US customers download their email to a program on their computers, so they get the ads.  Seems almost like an email hostage, just to shove ads at their users.  While ads pay for the server space for free email and we understand that, this is just ridiculous!

I suggest Yahoo mail users just quit Yahoo mail and get a more user friendly web mail! (One that does,'t cover your messages with ads!)

Update! I found out you can download your Yahoo Mail! Yahoo doesn't make it easy for folks to find, though.