Those Awful ‘safelinks.protection.outlook.com’ Links

Granted, these links are supposed to protect folks from links to ‘bad’ sites. They are so long and garbled looking, how would I know if they are safe?



I expect that link is safe since it is attached to a Yahoo post (remember Yahoo got hacked!).  Ok how do I know Microsoft hasn’t been infiltrated with ‘badlinks’? Now I get gibberish and no way to tell if the site I am going to is safe!

This abomination cannot be disabled either, as advised here:
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is ruining Outlook.com

I am almost tempted to cancel my Office 365 subscription, but it is happening on another email account in outlook.com as well.

Right now, I am stymied. It is only happening with my Yahoo Groups. At first, I thought it was a Yahoo thing, but no it’s Microsoft.

I guess some folks need to be protected from phishing as no amount of education seemed to penetrate, but it should be up to the users to disable this beast.

In order to keep from getting all those ‘safelinks.protection.outlook.com’ links in my email I went back to Yahoo mail for my groups. I added it to my eM Client and now the links are no longer gibberish, at least for now.

1Password

1Password is not free, it is $35.88 a year.

This password keeper is an option if I decide to leave Lastpass.  The setup seems overly complicated because it seems to be aimed at the first-time password keeper user.



Like all password keepers, there is a master password setup. But with 1Password, this Emergency Kit (a .pdf file) contains your secret key and your password (you must put the password in).



The Emergency kit contains your secret key and the Master password and is a .pdf file.

Once you install the app on your computer, login and see this:

 



Lots of categories to store your stuff.

In order to import your passwords from an existing password keeper,  you have to login to the site and import from here.



From 1Password:

Sign in to your account on 1Password.com.
Click your account name in the top right and choose Import.
Click LastPass.
Choose the vault you want to move your data to. If you’re moving personal data, choose the Personal or Private vault.
Paste into the field: right-click (or Control-click) in the text field and click Paste.



This differs from some other password keepers, as others I have tried do this process on your computer and not on the web.

Pasting my Lastpass exported file online will probably keep me from using 1Password, as this process seems unsafe to me.

Dashlane

I recently installed a password keeper called Dashlane.  After reviewing it for a day I decided not to keep it, as I really like Lastpass and Lastpass is free, at least for now. Hopefully it will remain free, but since it was purchased by Logmein, anything could happen.

I liked Dashlane and it could be a great replacement for Lastpass. There is a slight learning curve at least for me, but it is easy to use, and I am still considering replacing Lastpass with Dashlane. However, the biggest advantage to using Lastpass, (at least for me) I can login to Lastpass on any computer anywhere in the event my computer is not available. Dashlane also has this option but only for the premium version which is $39.96 a year. In addition, Dashlane uses U2F YubiKey for authentication instead of Authenticator. Authenticator is available for iPhones and Android in the app stores.

The advantage of Authenticator, it’s free and most of us always have our phones with us all the time. The apparent advantage of the U2F YubiKey is it is supposed to be even more secure, but it is a hardware device and may not always be handy. It also is not free.

There are a number of other password keepers, I hope you use one!

I am going to checkout some more password keepers in the future.

Exploring Windows 10 Fall Creators

After Windows installed the Windows Fall Creator Update I checked some of my favorite tech sites to see what I should look for, as in new and exciting stuff.

I found How to Protect Your Files From Ransomware With Windows Defender’s New “Controlled Folder Access” by the How-to-Geek and got just a bit too much of a hurry to make my files protected.

I protected them from me!  Lesson learned, read the entire article before making any changes!

What happened. I could not make any changes to my documents. I always have several Word documents in a process of creating blog posts. I hit the panic button until I realized what was going on. I decided I didn’t want to make all those exceptions, so just left Controlled Folder Access turned off.

Looking around, at first glance, there were two obvious changes, in the Settings main menu now there is a Windows setting for Phone and a Windows setting for Cortana. So far, I have just glanced at those and haven’t felt the need to go anywhere with either of them.

One thing new, this time after the update finished I didn't have to install Malwarebytes.  After every previous update I had to re-install Malwarebytes and my favorite time waster, Spider Solitaire.

I guess Microsoft finally figured Malwarebytes is one of the 'good guys'. As for Spider Solitaire, I am sure MS wants users to get Spider from the Store, previously named Microsoft Store.  I did try it, but it isn't the same. So I just get those good old Windows 7 games from Winaero.

So now I am a happy camper and still finding stuff in the latest version Of Windows.

Disk Cleanup

I have a small (by today’s standards) hard drive in my computer. It is an SSD with 256 Gigabit of space. I really don’t need a lot of space as I don’t keep videos and other space hogs of stuff on my computer.

However, I am ever mindful of how much space is being used and I try to keep un-needed stuff deleted.

Since I just got the latest update from Windows, the Windows 10 Fall Creator, I figured I should run disk cleanup to remove all the files windows put there while it installed the update and are no longer needed.

I looked at my disk properties to see how much space was being used.



Then I checked C:\windows.old and sure enough there is a lot of space here!



I ran the Disk Cleanup using the option to clean up system files.





Now I have more free space!



But then I noticed a folder I just hadn’t noticed before:



This folder was created in April, when my computer was upgraded to the Windows 10 Anniversary update. I know I ran Disk Cleanup then, so what is this folder?

I was pretty sure it was install files no longer needed so I deleted the folder!

Now I have even more free space!



All told I freed up 51.2 GB! That is a lot of space almost a 5^th of my drive’s total size.

Microsoft has added a ‘new’ feature to Settings, Storage. I suspect it really is the old Disk Cleanup with a new name and some added features.



The numbers seem to be a bit inconsistent with what operation is being performed, but right now I am happy with what has been cleaned.

I really like that ‘Delete temporary files that my apps aren’t using’, it cleaned a lot of files.

 

Clean Your Computer Scams

Have you ever gone searching for help for your misbehaving computer and found something like this on a ‘help’ site?



If you clicked that link you will be in for a disappointment. Oh yes, it is a free download, but after you install that free download and it scans your computer, you will have to pay to get all those things it found fixed.

And it found a lot of things!



Now you think you NEED this program to fix your computer!

Guess what, you don’t need this scammy program! Everything this program found you can find yourself.  Don’t Spend Money, Cleaning Your Own PC is Easy

However, there is a really truly free program, CCleaner, that will find all the same things this ‘Tweetbit’ program found, and it will clean up all those terrible things for free!

All those found files are just the ordinary things that Windows accumulates during everyday use. They won’t hurt your computer, but possibly over time they ‘might’ slow your computer.

Tweetbit’s program isn’t the only one out to get you to pay for something that CCleaner will fix for free. There is also a program named Reimage that operates mostly the same way.



If you go to Reimage’s site you will see a screen shot that is very similar to Tweetbit’s scan.

Again this 'PC Repair Tool’ promises to 'fix' your computer, scans but demands payment before it will fix anything.

There are so many scams out there it’s hard to know what is good and what isn’t. I rely a lot on Malwarebytes Pro to warn me of scammy sites. It let me know in a hurry Tweetbit’s site is one to avoid.



It did the same for Reimage.



Unfortunately, the free version of Malwarebytes does not run in the background and warn you about scammy sites. But it will clean your computer of files these scammy programs leave after you uninstall them.

If you can possibly afford it, do get Malwarebytes Pro, It is well worth the money. And just so you know I am not an affiliate for Malwarebytes.

 

Some Days are Like That

Today LastPass kept asking me to authenticate every time I opened my browser. Had to search to find the answer, but found out how to fix it here.  I trusted my computer, but still get prompted for Multifactor Authentication. I just wish I knew how that happened.

So far so good.

Then Microsoft updated my computer to Windows 10, version 1709 also known as Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. I was surprised to get the update this fast as it usually takes several weeks to get it. This took a while but it updated with no apparent problems.

Of course, I had to re-install my Spider game. This happens every time I get a major update from Microsoft.

I am not a gamer but I do like the Spider game that came with Windows XP. Since MS removed the games from Windows 8, I have had to install them many times. Thanks to Winaero for providing the games for later systems!

Exploring my new Windows will take some time, so I will have to ‘get to know’ Windows again.

I updated and charged my Chromebook and my little Dell Inspiron 11 3147 Signature Edition 2 in 1 PC. I don’t use this computer much but my son uses it occasionally. It is left  up to me to keep it updated.

My day is about over and maybe tomorrow won’t be so hectic. I need to get ‘into’ Windows Fall update and 'get to know it'!

Getting to Know You

‘Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.’

For me this is my new theme song about new programs or new versions of programs.

Every time Windows ‘upgrades’ to a new version, I must learn lots of new stuff, mainly where did Windows move things? That isn’t all Windows does, sometimes Windows adds things and sometimes Windows removes things.

My favorite email client, eM Client, isn’t new, but I just made it my default email program and there are still things I am ‘getting to know’ about it. Microsoft Outlook used to be my favorite email program but because Microsoft is constantly updating, changing and making things more complicated, it just got too much for me, so now it’s eM Client.

Then there is the ‘new’ Quicken. I hate it. The font size in the account list is tiny and I have a BIG problem trying to read it. The only way to make the font bigger is to use ‘Large” fonts. Are you kidding? Large fonts are so big everything moves off to the side and there is no way that I can find to scroll to see stuff.  When using Large fonts, if I close it and re-open Quicken, I get the nag screen to update to a new version and it comes up like this:



The only way to get out of this nag screen is to move the cursor to the upper left corner and click the itty bitty blue area.



I logged on to the new Quicken and it has a problem updating my checking account. Now I get this:



The old Quicken (before the new owner HIG Capital) had this same issue, but I don’t recall it wanting me to change my password. I just had to do I reset and start over with setting up the account to receive transactions. I had thought (foolish me) the new Quicken owner might fix this, but no they didn’t.

That is the last straw, Quicken must go.

I looked for a Quicken alternative and found MoneyDance. I had tried MoneyDance before and even purchased it, but Quicken seemed easier so I stuck with Quicken. However, I really can’t live with the new Quicken so MoneyDance it is for now. Just because there is a new owner of Quicken, they didn’t have to make that font thing happen!

After lots of visits to the online help for MoneyDance I am finally getting ‘to know’ it. Still some things to learn, but I am getting there! There was no nag screen to upgrade MoneyDance, in fact I got a free upgrade to version 2017! Quicken constantly nags to upgrade and it isn’t cheap either!

MoneyDance also has great customer support. I can actually email someone and get a response! No having to join and go to a forum like Quicken.

My Desktop Icons

OK, I admit it, my Desktop gets a bit cluttered at times. However, it is MY Desktop and it is arranged the way I want it.

When I turned my computer on the AM, all was as it should be, icons behaving. Later for some reason, icons were scattered all over the place. Even the usually behaved Recycle bin was wondering around and I could not move them back to my preferred order.

I tried several things.

I right clicked on the Desktop and selected View.



I unchecked Auto arrange icons, didn’t help.



I Googled the problem and one site had the answer!

I went to Settings/Personalization/Themes. I clicked Related Settings.



I unchecked ‘Allow’.



Now I arranged my Desktop icons the way I wanted and they stayed put.

I don’t recall this setting being in Windows before now, but guess I didn’t need it until today!

Thunderbird

I never really liked Thunderbird, but since a lot folks use it, I decided I needed to use it to troubleshoot problems occasionally or just answer questions about how to accomplish stuff in the ’bird.

I recently had a bad experience with Thunderbird that caused me to uninstall it and go to Mailbird for my G-mail account.

I take it all back!

After testing Mailbird for a couple of months I decided it wasn’t really for me. As I indicated in a previous post about Mailbird, it does have some good features, but it is lacking in other ways that I consider essential.

I needed to use an email program for my G-mail account that wasn’t Mailbird so I decided to try Thunderbird again.

What a difference! I downloaded a new copy of Thunderbird and added my g-mail account. The entire process took less than 10 minutes, with no glitches. I did have to validate the account using two-factor verification, but that was it.

I wonder if somehow my original install of Thunderbird had a corrupted file and totally removing it with Revo-Uninstaller made the difference. I don’t know if Thunderbird fixed the issue that made G-mail think it was ‘not secure’ or something I did wrong before, but right now I am a happy camper with Thunderbird.

Under Attack from Every Direction

 

The Equifax Hack

Equifax got hacked and now we are in danger of Identity theft. Most of us aren’t sure what we should do now. It is an absolute disgrace that consumers must protect themselves due to the actions (or non-actions) of an entity that they had absolutely no control over.

Equifax Says Site Vulnerability Behind Massive Breach; FTC Confirms Investigation

There was a patch available that would have prevented the hack, but Equifax failed to install the patch. Unfortunately, consumers are the ones who have to pay, not Equifax.

Experts are saying everyone should put a freeze on your credit report. This is not a good thing. First, it probably won’t be free and it is no guarantee your ID won’t be stolen.

Just look at what happened to one person with a freeze on his accounts. My Identity Was Stolen, Then TransUnion Let The Fraudster Unfreeze My Accounts.

For some reliable information about credit report freezes, check out the Federal Trade Commission’s site Credit Freeze FAQs.

CCleaner Hack

Nothing is safe anymore! Folks who want to keep their computers maintained and free of junk sometimes use a utility called CCleaner. I have used this program for years and never had a problem.

Fixing this hack could be troublesome, but not everyone using CCleaner got infected. The HowToGeek can show you how to find out if your computer was infected and how to fix it, but this may not be real helpful for novice users.

Phone Scammers

They don’t quit. The advice is to not answer calls if you don’t recognize the number, but the scammers find ways to get around that. They ‘spoof’ their number making you think it’s a local number or sometimes leave a message making you think it is really important. Not everyone has caller ID, but most do these days.

I solved my problem with those Robo calls by using a service called ‘Nomorobo’, but it may not be offered by your phone provider.  Nomorobo is available for iPhones, but it costs $1.99 a month. So far, I am not getting too many robo calls on my iPhone, but I will get it if that changes. Android users can try the beta. CallBlocker2017 is available in the GooglePlayStore.

UPDATE!

For iPhone only, get Hiya Caller ID and Block.  It's free!

Some cell service providers may start offering this service, check with your service provider.

While many of us recognize scam callers and don’t fall for their scam, many older folks are too trusting and get taken for a lot of money. If you possibly can, check to see if you can get call blocking service for your older family members.

IRS Repeats Warning about Phone Scams

Social Media

I think most folks with access to the Internet use social media in one form or another. I know a lot of my friends and family use Facebook on a regular basis.

The hoaxes and fake websites I see there are astonishing.

Account in Violation of Terms of Service’ Facebook Phishing Scam

Unless someone is using ad blocking apps on their browser, the chances of getting infected by going to a risky site are getting better all the time. The hackers can infect an insecure site relatively easy.  These hoaxes and fake news sites are constantly ‘Shared’ by gullible users.

What Can We Do?

There isn’t much we can do about hacks for major sites like Equifax. We can sign up for services that monitor our credit reports, but this is no guarantee we will be safe.

We must depend on security tech companies to warn us about computer programs like CCleaner being hacked. If we use good security programs like the excellent Malwarebytes and keep our systems updated, this will help. I have it on good authority Malwarebytes removed the infection from CCleaner.

Note: Only the pro version of Malwarebytes runs in the background. The free version must be manually activated to update and run.

Using a password keeper like LastPass to store and create unique passwords may be one of the best lines of defense. Never ever use the same password on more than one site!

We can use call blockers to keep those robo and scam calls from getting through. More and more service providers are offering this service, so if your provider doesn’t currently offer call blocking, ask them to provide it and keep checking.

Check to make sure the sites you visit have SSL applied.

Example:

Note the ‘s ‘after https, and the padlock in front of the web link. You can click the padlock to see the verified by. If there is no ‘s’ on http, leave immediately unless you trust the site.



 

We can no longer just hope for the best and get by without actions our part. While we can’t protect ourselves from hacks like the one for Equifax, we must do what we can on a personal level.

 

 

 

Installing Collins Dictionary in Word 2016

The instructions seemed straight forward. However, one thing led to another.





The fun began. There was no Enable Editing on my Word 365 ribbon. This should have been on a message bar, but there was no message bar. So now I think it installed and I didn’t need to ‘Enable Editing’ or ‘Trust’.

I looked at my add-ins, not there.





There was no My Add-ins on the View tab in my ribbon.

Maybe I could add it to the ribbon. I went to File/Options/Customize Ribbon





So now I had to create a Group!



I decided to add the Store while I was at it. So now on the view tab I have this:



I clicked the My-Add-ins and got this:



I clicked the Add button and got this!



I checked to see if it worked:



Finally!

Why was this so difficult? Why were the instructions so far off base for me? Was it because I am using the 64-bit version of Office? Was there a step I didn’t see? I can only wonder. I tried three times to install this add-on before I finally decided to really see why it wasn’t working.

My Crazy Email Obsession

Ever since the days when Outlook Express was the most used email program, I have been trying other email programs and experimenting with the various settings offered by email clients.

Outlook Express had so many different options I devoted whole sections to OE on my old no longer available web site, Martha’s web.  OE was a favorite of mine and literally thousands of other users. It came with Windows until Microsoft introduced Windows Vista. OE also had a lot of issues and was easily corrupted unless regular maintenance was performed.  Microsoft replaced Outlook Express with Windows Mail, which was a bit of a disaster.

I tested a lot of email programs.

Incredimail for those folks that like lots of colorful graphics, Evolution for Windows, Eudora (no longer available), Thunderbird, Pegasus mail, and many others I have forgotten about.

Microsoft Outlook was my favorite email program since Microsoft offered it free way back in 1997. But Outlook is now too big and has too many settings to work for me.

Of all the email programs I have tried, eM Client is the best for me. It is free for home users and you can have two email addresses in eM Client.  If you need more email accounts you can get the pro version.

I still use Outlook to a certain extent, but don’t have much email going into it. I just want to keep up with Outlook to see what changes MS is making.

I also use a program called Mailbird. This email client reminds me of the mail program Microsoft has included with Windows 10.  I am still in test mode for Mailbird. The jury is still out for me with this email program although I think it is a viable option.

Ever since my frustrating experience with Thunderbird, I no longer use the bird. There were a lot of things about Thunderbird that were good, but since G-mail decided Thunderbird wasn’t ‘safe’, I decided I didn’t need to use it.

I also decided I have too many email accounts and I am slowly cancelling most of them.

I use an email backup program that will back up all my email. This program is MailStore Home, free for home users. It is a fantastic program for folks like me, email junkies.

What’s Up, Google?

While trying to find a fix for ‘no iexplore.exe’ in my Windows 10, I encountered something odd. My search term was 'Internet Explorer is missing in Windows 10'.

I normally use my default browser, Firefox, and use Google to search. I had searched and searched before, using various search terms like 'no iexplore.exe in Windows' and found lots of sites with 'fixes', but none of them actually worked for me.

Then I decided to search again. Since I had a lot of tabs open in Firefox I decided to search with Google on Chrome. On the first page of my Google search using Chrome I found this site on Technet Forums.

After I applied the fix I found on this page I begin to wonder, 'why didn't I find this site with all of my other searches?'

So, I tried the same search term on Firefox and the technet site did not show up. Was the site just not going to come up on Firefox? So, I tried the search again on Chrome and it did not come up. I cleared the cache on Chrome and tried again, it did not come up. I tried the search using Opera browser and it did not come up.

Just to make sure the site was still there, I copied the URL from OneNote (I save all fixes in OneNote), pasted the URL in Chrome and the site came up. It came up in Firefox.

I had the same results with Bing on Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera.

I decided to try another tactic and clicked on ‘Searches related to Internet Explorer is missing in Windows 10’. I clicked the first link here, ‘iexplore is missing from Windows 10’. And voila, the site came up.



Apparently, the algorithm in the search engines are looking for something different than the exact title or wording of my search term.

I tried search again using the following terms:

‘iexplore missing windows 10 ‘.

‘iexplore.exe missing windows 10’

Neither of the above search terms finds the site with the fix I needed.

Clicking the link ‘iexplore.exe missing windows 7’ does find the site. Note the windows 7!

I guess the lesson in this episode of searching, is keep trying.

The truth/fix is out there somewhere!

It’s Back! Internet Explorer Has Been Restored!

I finally got iexplore.exe back. I had searched and searched before but this time I found the answer. While searching I did find a lot of other folks had the same issue, but none of the other fixes worked for me until I found this one.

After endless searching using Google and Bing I finally found the answer to my missing iexplore.exe. I found it using Google on Chrome.

The Fix:

I opened an Administrator command prompt and typed (actually I copied and pasted)

‘OptionalFeatures.exe’ without the quote and pressed enter.





Windows did its thing, searching and applying and then had me reboot.

Now I have Internet Explorer on my computer, not that I will likely use it. But some things may require Internet Explorer to work.



I found the answer here: Technet Forums.

The truth is out there, just keep looking!

Internet Explorer is Missing

After finding out there is no Internet Explorer on my Windows 10 I decided to investigate further.

I have no idea when Internet Explorer went missing. I think it worked once, but I am not certain. Was it there when I got my computer? I don’t know. Since I downloaded Firefox and Chrome I may have used Internet Explorer to download one of them, but I could have used Edge. Was it the Creator upgrade that caused Internet Explorer to go missing? Maybe but I will never know for sure.

I have searched for fixes. So far, I have found:

1. Make sure that you have Internet Explorer 11 turned on in Windows Features. It is not turned on, and checking it to turn on, does not work.


2. Open All apps in your Start menu. Scroll down to and expand open Windows Accessories. Right click or press and hold on Internet Explorer, and click/tap on Pin to taskbar. Internet Explorer is not listed in Windows Accessories on my Windows 10.


3. Open File Explorer. Browse to and open the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder. Right click or press and hold on the iexplorer.exe file, and click/tap on Pin to taskbar. There is no iexplorer.exe in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder on my Windows 10. There is no iexplorer.exe in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer C:\Program Files (x86) folder either.

 

More fixes:

1. Look for them in the recycle bin. Not there.


2. Run sfc /scannow from command prompt in administrator mode. Did not help.


3. Manually copy them from the WinSxS folder. Windows says this will not work on my computer.

4. Copy them from any other Windows 10 PC. Don’t think I will do this. Maybe if I find out I really need Internet Explorer.


5. System restore back to when they still were present. Not an option as I have no idea when Internet Explorer went missing.

 

Since I haven’t used Internet Explorer for years, I will just forget it and go on my way. But I still wonder why there is no Internet Explorer on my Windows 10.

 

Another Email Program, Mailbird

I am testing Mailbird, an email program. I setup two accounts in Mailbird, neither account receives a lot of mail.

It has a lot of nice features. it can be integrated with other apps like Twitter and other social media sites, but it has one big fault. It doesn't download my mail, at least not right away. Once email is downloaded I must hunt for it.

I get a lot of mail from Yahoo groups and filter them into folders. Filtered mail doesn't seem to show up unless I click on the folder for each group. There is nothing to indicate there are emails in the folder.

This really isn't acceptable for me. An email posted Saturday didn't show up until the following Wednesday.

Perhaps somewhere there is a setting that needs to be changed but I haven't found it.

Initially all my mail downloaded just fine. It was a bit slow, but once the mail started downloading, it all came through.

Features I like.

Folders can be customized. It is easy to add folders.



It was easy to add my G-mail account. No hassle like trying to add G-mail to Thunderbird.



Easy to change the font.



Mailbird has Add-ons as well.



Annoyances

I can't find a way to open the next email without clicking on it. No next or previous buttons seem to be there, but again maybe a setting somewhere I haven't found yet.

Sorting incoming mail. I prefer the newest to sort at the bottom, but it doesn’t sort that way.  According to the FAQs for Mailbird:

How do I sort my emails?

Mailbird does not yet support the advanced email sorting, however, you can:

    Sort by Unread by grouping unread conversations on top of the Inbox

    Sort by Sender by searching emails from a certain user

I haven’t given up on Mailbird yet, but I still can’t recommend it to anyone. Still, it might be what someone else would like, but for me it just isn’t really working yet.

Mailbird seems to have a similarity to Windows Mail app on Windows 10.

Screenshot of Windows 10 Mail:



I am not a real fan of the Mail app on windows 10.

Screenshot of Mailbird:



I am guessing that’s why I really don’t like Mailbird. Too much like the Mail app on Windows!

I will continue to test Mailbird for now. I am getting more used to Mailbird and the more I use it the better I like it.  I suspect I am too used to Thunderbird. It certainly is nothing like Thunderbird or any other email client I have ever used. Except Windows 10 Mail, and I don’t use Mail enough to know.