TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

When something goes wrong with your computer, it may be easier, faster, and less frustrating to fix it yourself instead of dealing with tech support. In Short Circuits: Every computer screen is different and your vision is unique to your eyes. That’s why it’s a good idea to use Microsoft’s ClearType Text Tuner. • You’ll start to see computers being marketed with heavy AI claims soon, probably before the end of the year, but waiting for the next generation in late 2025 is probably wise.

A surprising number of Facebook accounts are being stolen and recovering them is difficult, if not impossible. That’s why it’s better to avoid trouble in the first place. In Short Circuits: Although your internet service provider includes domain name services, there’s a good reason to use one of several alternate services. • Efforts by the federal government to eliminate junk fees have finally resulted in some changes that affect what service providers must tell you before you sign up.

You still have about a year and a half to decide what you’ll do when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. There are several choices, but not all options will work for all users. Let’s take a look at some that will keep the computer out of the trash. In Short Circuits: Although Microsoft has added a file renamer function to PowerToys, it won’t be sufficient when you need to apply complex names to a lot of files. A manual process becomes cumbersome when more than a few files are involved, absurd for hundreds or thousands of files. This is a job for the Bulk Rename Utility. • Newer keyboards have a special key to open the emoticon finder, but there’s a faster and easier way to insert bullets, fractions, currency symbols, and accented characters. It’s yet another utility built in to PowerToys.

Romania-based security company Bitdefender offers a comprehensive protective suite for Windows and MacOS computers, as well as IOS and Android phones. The package includes enough licenses for all devices used by everyone in the family unless you have an exceptionally large family or everyone has five or six devices. In Short Circuits: Your internet service provider would like you to continue renting a modem from them, but there are good reasons to buy your own and cost is just one of the reasons. • Scam offers appear like clockwork every couple of months for counterfeit US postage stamps that are often shipped from China. Facebook seemingly can’t (or won’t) do anything to stop them.

The virtual desktops feature that was added to Windows 10 and improved in Windows 11 can help organize the computer when you need to work on more than one task at a time. In Short Circuits: Artificial intelligence is now being used to improve audio recordings by removing flaws such as background noise and room echo. Despite being new, the results are already astonishingly good. • Bugs are a simple fact of life for computer users. If you’re delaying a purchase until all the bugs have been eliminated, you’re going to wait for a very long time.

If you regularly mutter to your computer that it doesn’t do something you want it to do or doesn’t do something the way you want it to, stop for a moment and investigate. There’s a good chance that the computer can accommodate your desires. In Short Circuits: Anyone who has trouble finding where TV programs they want to watch are streaming, or who forgets to watch new episodes, will find JustWatch useful. • The latest versions of Adobe’s photo editing applications are filled with useful features, but that doesn’t mean we should forget about applications such as SnapArt4.

One of the most common ways that people are victimized online involves the victims failing to recognize social engineering and giving their login credentials to scammers. In Short Circuits: Facebook accounts are filled with gold that scammers like to mine. There’s a quick and easy way to view what crooks see so that you can modify your account to maximize security. • Europeans can remove Microsoft’s Edge browser because of European Union rules, but these rules don’t apply in the United States. There’s still a way to tame or remove Edge, and I’ll explain how.

When a charge for a service I didn’t recognize showed up in an alert from my bank, I found that I had been signed up for a video streaming service I’d never heard of. Eliminating the service was easy enough, but a lot of people have reported terminating it was difficult. In Short Circuits: Even those of us who are not typographers, graphic designers, or publishers sometimes need to deal with typefaces. What most people think of as “fonts” aren’t fonts, but this may be a surprise: It doesn’t really matter. • Anyone who relies on Amazon’s ratings to make buying decisions isn’t getting the full story. A service that rates that ratings helps, but it’s still wise to proceed with caution.

Exposure hasn’t had an upgrade from the X7 version, which was released in 2021, but it’s still a good choice both as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Lightroom Classic. In Short Circuits: Speaking of golden oldies, I encountered a little connector that could be used to join lots of devices two years ago. It saved the day a week ago when I had to deal with an IPhone that had a low battery. • There’s a lot of concern about the dangers of artificial intelligence, so I went straight to the source and asked two AI engines about the dangers of AI.

A hijacked Facebook account can be a lot of fun, but only if you have a most peculiar understanding of the term “fun”. It wasn’t my account, but I had to deal with the repercussions of a hack recently. In Short Circuits: The technology that powers GPS, Bluetooth devices, and other modern high technology was invented 83 years ago by someone considered to be “the most beautiful woman in the world.” Even now she doesn’t get the recognition she deserved in 1941. • Ever notice how technology someone doesn’t understand, doesn’t like, or fears is labeled as “bloatware”. That’s the term being used with AI today, along with a fair amount of faulty logic.

Which is better, cable or streaming? There are lots of variables and cable is perfect for some people while streaming is the winner for others. After switching to streaming three years ago, now seemed a good time to re-evaluate. In Short Circuits: You might have some old digital photos that would benefit greatly from today’s AI-powered applications. I have a couple of examples. • “Warning: Your privacy settings can’t guarantee your privacy on Facebook.” That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

The more digital photos you have, the harder it is to find the one you’re looking for. Excire Search, a plug-in for Lightroom Classic, makes the process much easier. In Short Circuits: Libre Office is the ideal office suite for those who are unable or unwilling to pay a monthly subscription fee. The latest version, though, has a surprising number. • Microsoft wants to be the king of artificial intelligence and may well succeed, but do we really need a special AI key on our keyboards?

Free, open-source software is often viewed as being second rate when compared to commercial software, but sometimes the best application actually does cost nothing. In Short Circuits: When something starts with Windows, but you don’t want it to, finding a way to make it stop can be a challenge. Autoruns fixes that. • Phones no longer have dials, but we still say we’re dialing a number. Hardware, software, and processes are changing so fast that some arrive, flourish, and disappear seemingly in days.

Windows 11 cannot be installed on certain computers, mainly older models that lack sufficient hardware, but it is possible to force-install Windows 11 on computers that would fail otherwise because they lack hardware security features. In Short Circuits: With so many free email clients, you might wonder why anyone would be willing to pay $60 per year for one. Anyone who uses multiple mobile devices and wishes the same application was available for all portable and desktop systems might consider it. • If, like me, you’re someone who customizes the look and feel of Windows beyond what Microsoft allows, Stardock’s Icon Packager is a quick and easy way to make big changes.

Anyone who has digital photos that are more than a decade old could improve their quality substantially with an application that uses artificial intelligence to fill in details that don’t exist in the originals. In Short Circuits: Speaking of AI, if you’re trying to keep up with what’s new, you may suspect that it’s difficult and maybe impossible. Anything written more than a day or two ago is probably already outdated. • Have you ever needed to use a second computer near your primary computer only to find that making space for a second mouse and keyboard cramps your style? Multiplicity may be just what you need.

The Sysinternals suite of utilities has been around since the 1990s and has been part of Microsoft since 2006. More than 70 utilities make Sysinternals essential for all Windows computer users and today we’ll take a look at just two of them. In Short Circuits: Believable sound effects are essential for motion pictures and podcasts, but it’s not an easy process. The first step involves identifying and obtaining the right sounds. • Some Windows users like to keep all of their commonly used applications on the Desktop. That has never been my preferred method, but one of the applications included in Stardock’s Object Desktop suite has convinced me to make better use of the Desktop.

We don’t run out of disk space as often now as we did in the early days, but you might wonder about discarding some old junk even if space isn’t a significant problem. Several utilities are available to help you identify the junk. In Short Circuits: Scammers work hard to earn your trust and then steal your money. A Washington Post article about a retired federal scientist who was bilked out of her life savings is a cautionary tale, and we all need to be on the lookout for thieves. • Microsoft’s built-in screen capture tool has improved, now including the ability to capture video sequences, but it still lags behind both commercial and open source applications.

Microsoft’s new PC Manager takes the place of some other utilities such as CCleaner and offers quick, easy access to built-in Windows functions that are often several layers deep in Settings or the Control Panel. In Short Circuits: If you’ve ever wished you could unsend an email because you forgot to add an attachment or make an important point, SendLater will save the day, but only if you use Thunderbird. • Stardock’s SoundPackager makes it easy to add, change, or delete sounds that Windows plays to notify users of specific events, and it cost just $5.

Artificial intelligence allows easy manipulation of photos, even by people who would be unable to make such changes without AI. This has led to discussions about the ethics of photo editing. In Short Circuits: AI can also plan your vacation, but should it? Roam Around makes suggestions, but they feel generic because the service doesn’t ask about who is traveling and what interests them. • Stardock’s Cursor FX modifies the appearance of the Windows mouse cursor. This may seem trivial, but the utility has options that can make the computer more usable. Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): Three weeks ago, I repeated an article from 2003 that considered what a Microsoft elevator would be like and what an Apple elevator would be like. The obvious follow-up would involve a call to Microsoft elevator support.

Because digital photographs are free, we take a lot of them and that can be a problem when we want to find one particular image among tens of thousands on the computer. A new version of Excire Foto adds artificial intelligence that helps a lot. In Short Circuits: Anyone who operates a web domain on one of the big hosting services may occasionally have trouble with email messages being rejected as spam or just being quietly deleted. Using a separate, dedicated SMTP service can eliminate the problem, possibly without cost. • Stardock Software has applications that can make your Windows computer look better, some that can make the computer work better, and some that do both. We’ll take a look. Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): Was the 2003 version of Microsoft’s office suite just another pretty face? Compared to what we have today, the office suite was small and plain, but the growth pattern was obvious.