You may have a problem with your Apple or Windows computer where you startup the computer and it will hang on startup. With Windows computers, this may happen immediately after the POST (power on self test screens). With an Apple computer, this may happen before you see the Apple icon at startup.
This problem can be caused by a faulty USB device or USB Hub. For example, some connected hard drives may result in the system hardware attempting to identify the drive, or possibly scan the drive to determine its configuration. Multi-function devices can be perceived as external drives of they have memory card readers.
Try unplugging all unnecessary USB devices, then startup the computer, and then connect the devices again. This may speed up the startup process.
Something else that may slow down the startup process are synchronization applications for services like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Try configuring these mini-apps to not load at startup. That will likely speed up the startup process. You may want to choose just one synchronization drive service.
If you’re updating the Neat scanner software to the 4.0.3 version, you may receive a message stating “The update is locked with a password.”
This message is misleading.
On Apple computers, sometimes software installations or updates will require the username and password of an administrator account. In this case, the password being requested is your computer user password (the password you might type to login to your computer).
So, the software update isn’t locked as the error message suggests. It simply needs authentication and permission to install.
If you’re using Microsoft Office 2011 on an Apple Mac computer, and want to open a calendar that someone else has shared, or share your own calendar, you’ll find that the menu options and user interface are somewhat non-intuitive.
Here are the necessary steps to open a shared calendar:
You don’t need to be viewing the Calendar or in the Calendar module to proceed. This works from within email or anywhere else in Outlook.
From the File menu, choose Open > Other User’s Folder
For Folder Type, choose Calendar. Outlook will default to the Exchange server you’ve connected to as the source for names and shared folders.
Type in the person’s last name, then first name, or username, or search on any part of their name. The resulting list may be long if you are in a larger institution, business, organization, or enterprise.
Click/highlight the person’s name and then press the Select button. This will add their calendar under Shared Calendars and synchronize their calendar events to Outlook, assuming they have given you rights to view their calendar.
Here are the steps to sharing your calendar:
Go to the Calendar view/module.
Under My Calendars, right click on the calendar name associated with the Exchange server account you’re using.
Click on Sharing Permissions.
From the resulting menu, you can click Add User, then search for available users. Make sure the person has already followed the instructions above to share their calendar with you.
Apple iCal Calendar Software
If using Apple iCal calendar software, the Delegates are selected in the Accounts menu.
Note: The iCal calendar software has two Account menus. If you go to the Calendar menu and click on Accounts, this will take you to the System Preferences Accounts settings and not the preferences for the iCal accounts. Instead, follow the instructions below.
Follow these steps to share your calendar with someone else:
Click on the Calendar menu, then Preferences, then Accounts to adjust the Delegates and shared calendars.
To share your calendar with others, use the Edit button found below the “Accounts I can access” list of users. Then add users to the list with the plus sign, then enter their name.
Follow these steps to view a calendar someone has shared with you:
Click on the Calendar menu, then Preferences, then Accounts to adjust the Delegates and shared calendars.
Use the Plus symbol to add the users who have given you rights to view their calendar.
Windows Backup Software. The backup software included with Windows 7 will backup your data files as well as making an initial image backup of the computer if you need to restore from a complete system crash. Purchase one of the hard drives listed below, connect it to your computer, then start the backup software by going to the start menu and searching for backup. If this is the first time you’ve run the software, you’ll be guided through the setup. If you’ve already configured the backup previously to another drive, click on the link to change settings, and choose your new external drive as the backup drive. If your computer crashes, you can restore your programs, settings, and files with a full Windows backup.
Cloud Backup Services. An inexpensive alternative to running your own backups is to pay about $60 per year for Carbonite backup service. This will backup all of your data files over the Internet to an off-site remote service. They can be retrieved on another computer if yours crashes. This isn’t a full image backup, so restoring your computer and software will take more time if you only have a data backup.
Cloud File Services. If you’re primarily concerned about having your critical data files backed up, a service like Box.com can synchronize a folder on your computer and store it in the cloud. They can then be accessible from multiple computers, including mobile devices. The cost ranges from $60 a year (100GB) up to $180 a year (1000GB) or more depending on how much data you want stored in the cloud.
Apple Computer. For anyone using an Apple computer, setting up a backup system is fairly easy. Simply purchase an external drive, plug it in, and respond “Yes” when prompted if you’d like to use the drive for backups. If needed, the drive will be formatted (erased) to be optimized for working with Apple. The included Apple Time Machine backup software automatically configures itself.
Hard Drives
The following drives are good choices for backing up computers. Choosing a drive that doesn’t require an external power supply (power cord) is wise because this reduces the chances of a component failure. The Western Digital drives come with backup software. However, you may choose to use the Windows software instead. The prices listed are current as of the time of this article.
One of the biggest advantages of BusyCal is that it lets you move all calendar entries from one system to another. For example, if you decide to migrate from Google Calendar to the Apple iCloud Calendar, you can easily click, drag, and copy all calendar entries from Google Calendar to the Apple iCloud Calendar.
TeamViewer is one of the world’s most secure and trusted remote access programs. Yet, with any remote access software, unless there is an ongoing need for regular maintenance and support, it’s best to only use the software when needed.
The instructions below will guide you through ensuring that TeamViewer is not configured to automatically run when you start your computer. These instructions are for Windows computers.
1. Start TeamViewer if it isn’t running already. Once TeamViewer is running, you should see the small blue TeamViewer icon in the system tray as seen in the middle below.
2. Right click on the TeamViewer icon to display the context sensitive menu as seen below.
3. Click on Options from the menu. In the resulting window, remove the checkmark (if it exists) to the left of the Start TeamViewer with Windows option. This option is for unattended access. Once done, click the OK button.
4. Right click on the TeamViewer icon again, and this time choose Setup attended access.
5. The following window will appear. Click Next.
6. In the password window, make sure no password is entered (unless you’re planning unattended remote access). Click Next.
7. A confirmation window will appear. Click the Skip password button.
8. The following window will appear. Choose the option I don’t want to create a TeamViewer account now. Then click the Next button.
9. The final window will show the computer’s unique TeamViewer ID. This number remains the same. The password will be randomly generated each time the software is started. Click the Finish button.
10 The TeamViewer software will still be running. To close it completely, right click on the TeamViewer icon in the system tray and choose Exit TeamViewer.
Update: 31 March 2015
Recent versions of TeamViewer may not have the ability to disable it from loading on startup. In such cases, removing the software might be the best solution. Then, install the TeamViewer QS version for occasional use.
Worldwide Interest
Due to many people having questions about how to enable and disable the autorun feature, this article has been very popular. The maps below show recent visitors to this page. Click any map for a larger gallery view.
Problem. For users at the free “personal” level, Box.com has a 250MB limit on the size of a file you can upload using their web interface. You can upgrade your account to the $15 per month plan to upload files of up to 2GB in size. However, those lucky enough to have received the 50GB of storage free-for-life plan will want to avoid getting locked into paying $180 a year just to upload the occasional large file.
Solution. If you use the Box.com synchronization feature, the 250MB limit isn’t an issue. So, you can upload those occasional large files and retain your free membership level.
Update. The above work-around was previously an option. However, as of August 2013, Box.com will not synchronize files of a size that exceed your plan’s upload file size limit.
You will need your FCC Registration Number (FRN) and password to login. If you’ve lost these, you can click the Forgot Password link on the ULS page (see step #1 above) to be walked through the process of password recovery. It may require waiting for a reset letter in the mail from the FCC. More is explained on the Online Filing Log In page.
Once logged into the License Manager (from step #3 above), you should see a message stating “This License Is Eligible For Renewal” and a link to Begin the renewal process.
Note: Your browser may at some point get stuck during the process of going from one step to the next. If this happens, you may need to clear your browser cache and cookies to start over fresh.
Services like TinyURL.com and Bitly.com work most of the time. However, here are a few rules to remember:
Account Specific Pages. There are many websites for which, once you login, you will see information specific to your user account that won’t show up for anyone else unless they are logged in as you.
Amazon. When on Amazon, if you’re looking at a product, the address for that page is much longer than what you’d actually need to share. Here’s an example of an Amazon link without the extraneous text. The number at the end (B0077L8YOO) is the unique product number. http://www.amazon.com/Fitbit-Wi-Fi-Smart-Scale-Black/dp/B0077L8YOO/
Magazines. Some magazines won’t allow non-registered visitors access to much of their online content.
Newsletters. When looking at online newsletters, the URL may include your subscription information. Similarly, when you forward an email newsletter, you may be forwarding secure links that allow you to adjust your subscription details or unsubscribe. This includes RSS Feed Readers services.
Newspapers. Some newspapers won’t allow non-registered visitors access to much of their online content.
Real Estate Website. If you’re on a real estate website and want to share the link to a property you’re looking at, you may be inclined to copy and past the address as the basis for the short URL. However, if you’re logged into the real estate website, then the link you have may only be a temporary link or search result. The link may have ‘session’ information (like temporary random numbers) embedded in it. So, instead, click on the little bird icon for Twitter. This will open a new window preparing to post a generic universal link on Twitter. You don’t need to actually post on Twitter, just take the resulting link and use that. If there’s a Facebook or email sharing option, these will work in a similar way.
YouTube. Often when you’re looking at a video on YouTube, the URL address for that video is much longer than needed. It may include playlist information, and information about what page you were on previously. The link may also force the video into full screen mode (which isn’t always the best view). So, with YouTube, it’s best to use the shortest link possible. Usually you can get this by clicking on the share option below the video.
