How to: Task Manager - how to use it

If you find that your system is running slow, before assuming that you have a virus or spyware, first examine what programs are running in the background.

 While it is true that a computer that is slow or freezes may be a possible indication of viruses and/or spyware, let's not jump the gun and assume that automatically.

Lets just open up Task Manager first.

Task Manager is a Windows utility that's been around since Windows 2000. It provides detailed information about background programs, processes, users logged in, services currently running or stopped, network activity as well as CPU and memory usage.

Yeah...it's a pretty decent tool.

Windows Vista Task Manager

Windows 10 Task Manager

1. How exactly do you open it up? 

There are various ways, but the easiest is holding down CTL+SHIFT+ESC. 

True, some will use the CTL+ALT+DEL, but that open up a menu with several selections including Task Manager. 

Lets just keep it simple shall we?..... CTL+SHIFT+ESC

2. When you open Task Manager up, you'll see 6 tabs....Applications, Processes,

Services, Performance, Networking, Users.

3. Click the Processes tab

4. This tab will show you what programs and processes are running in the background.

5. You can end/terminate one by RIGHT clicking and selecting End Process.

Win 11 Task manager

Now you may ask, "That's great, but which ones can I end... and why would I want to end a process?"

Those are good questions. If your computer is running slow, you may end a process here to free up memory.

Which ones should you end? 

It takes a keen eye to determine which ones exactly to end, however the ones listed as a System or Administrator process should NOT be stopped such as 'explorer.exe', 'winlogon.exe' or 'services.exe'.

'Spooler.exe' is a safe one to end only if you do not plan to print anything.

Ones like 'iTuneshelper.exe', 'Jusched.exe' or 'iPodservice.exe' are pretty safe to end as well.

The ones listed as a (your user name) usually are safe to end.

If you find any strange named processes such as "xtshbysa.exe' or 'yzghwtr.exe' chances or that you either have a virus or spyware (or both).

You'll see 'Svchost.exe' likely ALOT. This is a small executable that allows DLL's (Dynamic Link Libraries) to communicate with Windows. Many programs will use this file, however if you see one using excessive memory, end it.

One word of note: Ending ANY of the processes will not damage your computer. End any of these processes and you'll likely free up memory. At worst you 'll have to restart the computer. Ending processes in the task manager is only a temporary way of freeing up memory.

For a more permanent solution use System Configuration. I'll cover that in my next entry.

Originally Posted 03/06/2020

How to: Improving laptop battery life

Your battery on your laptop is a precious commodity. After all without it, you would have to keep your laptop plugged in constantly, defeating the purpose of 'mobility. 

And all too often users find themselves at a local Starbucks with 8% battery and no available plug! 

Here are a few steps to increase your laptop battery life.

1. Adjust your battery performance. 

This is probably the quickest and easiest way to increase your battery time.

On Windows 10 PCs clicking the battery icon will display the battery performance slider.

* The Best Performance mode is for people willing to trade off battery runtime to gain performance and responsiveness. 

In this mode, Windows won't stop apps running in the background from consuming a lot of power.

* The Better Performance setting limits resources for background apps, but it otherwise prioritizes power over efficiency.

Better Battery mode delivers longer battery life than the default settings on previous versions of Windows. (It's actually labeled "Recommended" on many PCs.)

* Battery Saver mode, a slider choice that will appear only when your PC is unplugged, reduces the display brightness by 30 percent, prevents Windows update downloads, stops the Mail app from syncing, and suspends most background apps

2. Simplify your workload:

Time is money and multitasking is wonderful, but having several programs open at once can cause the processor to work harder. Closing out unnecessary apps and programs keeps the load off the processor, and saves on battery juice.

Overheating is the biggest cause of battery drainage. The next two steps insure fan operation is efficient in cooling your laptop. And also prevent laptop shutdown due to overheating.

3. Clear the way

The most simplest is insuring your laptops fans have clear opening for air flow. No air flow means no cool air getting to the components causing the fans to work harder and places a strain on your laptop battery. Usually intake fans are on the bottom of laptops and exhaust ports on the sides. Insuring these ports are free and open for air flow will increase your battery lifetime overall.

4. Clean out your processor fan:

Overtime cooling fans gather dust. The more dust & dirt the fan accumulates, the less efficient the fan is,and it has to work harder to cool the internal components.

A fan that runs continuously full power trying to cool your laptop will kill your battery in a matter of minutes.

A simple temporary fix is to use a small hand-held vacuum to suck out the dirt from the port. (Do NOT use a household size vacuum as this may dislodge components or cables within the laptop)

For a more thorough job, this step is a little more advanced, however it's one of the most efficient to solve overheating issues.

A. First - remove the laptop battery.

B. Using a small screwdriver remove the back panel of your laptop (screw locations vary by laptop models)

C. Locate the CPU fan. Using a QTip or cotton swab, carefully clean the fan blades.

D. Using a can of compressed air, blow the excess dust from the area.

E. Replace panel and screws, replace battery and DONE!

5. Upgrade from a hard drive (HDD) to solid state (SSD). 

Hard drives contain mechanical moving parts. The spindle, the armature and the spinning platters (at 7200 rpms) actually create alot of heat. This requires the fans in your laptop to work harder thereby draining precious juice from your battery. Upgrading to an SSD can increase your battery life up to 15%. See my Advantages of SSD over HDD article for more info on this.

There you have it. Following these steps can save your laptops battery lifetime and keep your peace of mind knowing you have a little more juice left. 

Tech News: Artificial Intelligence - OpenAi ChatGPT

 There's a whole lot of buzz in the news today concerning Artificial Intelligence models.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, think chess games that you play against a computer. Over a series of chess games, the computer "learns" about the moves you make in the previous games and then "thinks" about the next move you're going to make and makes its own moves accordingly.

Example tasks of AI is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs.

A rudimentary form of AI is in chatbots. 

Chatbots have actually been around for decades since A.L.I.C.E was developed in 1995, and back then it can be considered rudimentary in every sense of the word by today's standards.

Chatbots today have evolved into more refined programs and apps. Think "SURI" on an iPhone or Google Assistant on an Android device. Yes, these "Assistant" apps can be considered Chatbots. They can organize your day, make a shopping list, schedule appointments, tell jokes and stories and even sing to you.

However, a company called OpenAI has been making headlines in the tech industry with ChatGPT and GPT4.

GPT4 is an advanced version of ChatGPT.

This AI model has the potential of doing a limitless number of tasks.
Create a mortgage calculator.
Get advice on creating a business.
Create a marketing plan of your business.
Create a webpage for your business.
Use the AI to correct coding errors for you.
Create slogans for brands.

Create legal letters or Last Will & Testament

Create employment contracts.

Create a story.

Create a 7 day meal plan.

Write a best man wedding speech.

Write a Facebook post.

Get advice on Stock market investments.

Turn an email into a text.

And the list goes on and on!

Head over to ChatGPT | OpenAI to dive into this world of Artificial Intelligence.

You need to create an account first which is free.

There's plenty of online tutorials on using ChatGPT, however I found Santrel Media on Youtube a very useful tutorial on how to be a ChatGPT "power user" within 30 minutes. 

So what's the future of Artificial Intelligence? 

Will we have a robot child in our homes like in the movie "AI", maybe fall in love with our AI assistant like in the movie "HER" or will the future be more menacing such as Terminator 3 Rise Of The Machines where "Skynet" becomes "self aware" and starts a nuclear war.

One thing is sure.... as AI systems and neural networks expand, ChatGPT and similar AI software will likely play a major role in shaping the future of homes and businesses alike.

How to: Task Manager - how to use it and ending processes

Processes are programs or pieces of programs running within Windows. It's normal to have a great many of them. As I write this, I have only seven running applications, but 120 processes. And Windows is running just fine.
To examine your processes, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager (Start Task Manager in Windows 7), then click the Processes tab.
It's easier to study the long list if you sort them. To do so by name, click the Image Name column header.

You may want to sort by other columns. Click the CPU heading to see what's hogging most of the processor's attention.
You'll notice that most of the processes aren't hogging anything (or at least not enough to register). That's why you can have so many of these running and still get good performance.












If you're using XP, you may notice an outrageous hog named System Idle Process, taking up almost 100 percent of your CPU cycles. Don't worry. System Idle Process isn't actually using anything. It's just a placeholder for unused cycles. Vista and Windows 7 don't have this misleading process.

You can also sort by Memory to identify a different kind of hog.
Want to know why a particular process is up? The Image Name and Description columns should help. To make the Description column readable, expand the Task Manager window by dragging the right side of it further to the right. Then expand the Description column by dragging the edge of its header to the right, as well.

If the Description still doesn't help, visit ProcessLibrary.com and search there.

Before you kill a process, make sure that everything you're currently working on is saved to the hard drive. Then select the process and click the End Process button (Or Right-Click).
After you've read the scary warning, click the other End Process button.

Be warned: This may crash a program, but it likely will not.
If you want to keep a process from loading in the future, you'll have to identify what program loads the process, and uninstall that program.

The differences between adware, spyware, viruses and hijackware.

Viruses, adware, spyware and malware. 

Those terms can be confusing at times and even mind boggling when purchasing a product to remove malicious code from your computer. 

So what's the difference? And does it really matter?

Let's get down to what each does and how they work, then determine how to remove them.

Adware: Adware in itself is typically not harmful. In a broad sense it's the annoying pop-up ads. Adware often is bundled with free software downloaded from the internet and there's usually an option to opt out of the adware during the installation after the user accepts the EULA. (You know...the small print nobody ever reads while installing software)

An EULA which includes accepting the toolbar and advertisements/pop-ups before installing the software.

Adware is not malicious, and it does not spread to other computers/systems, however it can be annoying and sometime aggravating especially when you are unable to close the advertisement/pop-up window. 

Spyware: Spyware is any code written specifically to gather information and data about a person without their knowledge. That data can be anything from web surfing habits, pages which they visit, login information, banking websites, credit card information, and personal information.. Spyware can be deemed even worse than viruses as it is aimed to obtain personal information which can be used for identify theft. As more people or using online banking and email using spyware to gather personal information is a real concern.

Malwarebytes scan resuts of spyware

Spyware may be installed by clicking on an option in a pop-up or as a "drive by download".

Viruses: 

Malicious code that causes havoc on one system, then spreads to another. The code is written to duplicate itself either in the boot sector of the hard drive, in a program, or by email. Viruses can be activated by opening a certain program or lay dormant and activated on a certain date.A virus that spreads itself by a network message or email attachment are known as "worms".

Hijackware:

Hijackware is software that essentially takes over your browser in order to display a pop-up that advises the user their system is infected with a virus. It redirects the user to spam laden websites to download bogus antivirus software, when in fact the user is actually downloading spyware/viruses.

Hijackware popup

Hijackware may change the browser settings, such as the homepage, add a different search engine, add extra unwanted toolbars and change or add bookmarks.
Hijackware usually comes bundles within free software. Once the user installs the free software the hijackware is activated with it.

Antivirus Security Pro is an example of hijackware presenting itself as authentic "antivirus software". 

My next post will explain what types of software to use to remove viruses, spyware and malware in general.

Orig posted 1/11/16

Have Alexa call during an emergency, but not 911

Back in 2020, during the first week of April, a Michigan nursing home patient asked her Amazon Echo smart speaker for help dozens of times before she succumbed to COVID-19.

"Alexa, help me. ... I am in pain. I have to find a way to relieve it," LouAnn Dagen said in recordings found by her sister, Penny Dagen.
Penny found more than 40 recordings on her Amazon Echo that showed LouAnn asking for help in her final days.

She reportedly asked her Alexa device "How do I get to the police?" In response, the device gave directions to the nearest police station. 

Amazon Echo devices cannot contact 911 on their own.

Alexa devices can't contact 911 as they do not reliably transmit location data and a callback number in the way phones do, per FCC requirements and regulations, however there are workarounds.

Call Local Fire and Police
One way is to find out the local numbers of your police and fire departments, enter them into your contacts on your phone.

Install the Alexa App on your phone and allow it to have access to your contacts and to make calls.

When you need help and are unable to reach your phone have Alexa call your local fire dept saying the command "Alexa.... call the (your town) fire department". It may offer several phone numbers if your city is large enough, however getting someone on the line would be priority.

Install Noonlight
This is a good option if you don’t have contacts close enough to help you physically in an emergency. With this skill enabled, if you say "Alexa, tell SafeTrek to send help,” a Five Diamond Certified SafeTrek agent will send help to your home.

For more information see the website Noonlight.com

In any case, it's best to be prepared and know how to contact emergency services before the need arises.

Orig posted on April, 11, 2020

Tech news: "The great tech layoff"

Last week all the major players of technology; Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have all announced huge layoffs of workers. When we say huge, we're talking in the thousands.

Google laid off 12,000, Microsoft 10,000, and at Amazon 18,000.

According to layoffs.fyi and Insider's calculations, more than 65K workers have lost jobs so far in 2023.

Over at Apple, it's looking slightly brighter for the employees as Tim Cook took a 40% pay cut to avoid the layoffs.

On January 20, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, announced layoffs that equal to about 6% of the company's total workforce.

https://blog.google/inside-google/message-ceo/january-update/

So why the gauntlet of employee cuts?

Most industry watchers speculate that the pandemic had a major effect on the way consumers spend. 

During the Covid lockdown taking your wallet out for travel, restaurants and entertainment were off the table. Many industries were directly impacted by the pandemic, especially restaurant, airlines, cruises, media production, manufacturing, retail, oil, and gas.

So instead of the usual spending habits, people began looking at alternative ways of spending their dollar with the majority of purchases done online.

One source reported that in less than a year, from February 2020 to January 2021, the percentage of online sales to total retail sales nearly doubled, going from 19.1% to 36% boosting sales for major tech companies including Amazon, Google and Zoom. 

In fact, in 2021 the New York Times reported, the five tech superpowers — Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook — had combined revenue of more than $1.2 trillion!

Major tech needed major workers to fill in needed positions quickly!

So here we are January 2023, almost 3 years since the lockdown began in the US. Retail stores, restaurants, and malls have long since reopened and consumers have since reverted back to their pre-pandemic spending habits. The sharp influx of online shopping has slowed down dramatically.

So now the major tech firms that had fattened their workforce now need to trim the fat. Mind you these tech firms aren't going anywhere, and some foresee a slow hiring trend in the next two years but as Sundar Pichai stated they're all "bound to go through difficult economic cycles."

Tech History: How the term 'debug' came about

Today, the term 'debug' means to identify software or hardware errors. 

But why the word 'debug' and what do bugs have to do with computers anyways?

Well, history shows what really happened.

Back in September of 1947 the US Navy was testing it's newly built Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator for ballistic tables.

Located at Harvard University, this electromechanical computer was nothing to what we use today. The machine over 20ft in length and weighed over 5 tons.

It was an electromechanical behemoth!

Physicist Dr. Howard Aiken and Dr. Grace Hopper worked together to design, build and program the machine.

Dr Aiken and Dr Hopper worked well as a team. Grace would write the technical manual and assist Howard with maintenance and hardware of the Mark II. 

Both Mr Howard Aiken and Mrs Grace Hopper were working on the machine when she found a moth stuck in one of the relays, impeding the operation of the machine.

So now you know "the rest of the story" ;-)

Originally posted 10/29/16

How To: Receive text for an appointment on your Google Calendar

Years ago when you made an appointment on your Google Calendar and you had SMS notifications enabled, you would receive a text on your phone of that appointment .

This was the best thing since sliced bread in my opinion.
For some unknown reasons in 2015, Google decided to no longer offer SMS notifications for appointments on your Google Calendar. Bye Bye SMS notifications.
It was a "Why did you do that?!" moment.

But not to fret. The world is not ending....and you can still receive SMS/text messages of any appointments on your calendar.
You just have to go a round about way of setting it up. 

Basically we forward the calendar appts to Gmail.... then forwarding the Gmail as a SMS to your phone.

We'll be working on the Desktop version as it's the easiest working while in Gmail.

Phase 1

First, we want to have Google Calendar send notifications to Gmail. 

This is straightforward.
1. Inside Google Calendar, click Settings (it's the gear in the upper right)

2. Now, scroll down to your calendar and click 'Share with specific people'

3. Here you want to enter your email address.....
4. Right below you want to Add Notification.... and using the drop-down menu, select email... and then select the number of days out you want the notification to occur.

Okay... so now you're set for having Calendar forward notifications to your email. Now lets log into your Gmail where we'll forward the email you receive from Calendar as an SMS message to your phone.

Phase 2

1. Within Gmail, select settings (The gear in the upper right corner)

2. Click 'Settings' (ironic I know)

3. To add a forwarding address, click 'Forwarding And POP/IMAP'

4. Click 'Add A Forwarding Address'...

5. In the box here is where you enter your email address OF YOUR PHONE.

AT&T                 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net

Cellular One      10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com

Sprint                 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile             10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net

US Cellular         10digitphonenumber@email.uscc.net

Verizon               10digitphonenumber@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile      10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com

Follow the prompts to complete adding a forwarding address.

6. Select 'Filters And Blocked Addresses' (we have to create a filter first in order to forward it)

7. Scroll down to the bottom and click 'Create New Event'

8. In the 'From' field in the new window type  calendar-notification@google.com 

(This lets Gmail know to filter and fwd any email you get from this address)

9. Click 'Create Filter' 

10. In this window is where the magic happens..... you have several options here, but the most important is the 'Forward To' line. Use the drop down to select your forwarding phone email (We created that in Step 5)

11. Click 'Create Filter' and that's it. 

Your appointments that are in Google Calendar will be forwarded to Gmail. There Gmail will forward it to you phone as an SMS/Text message.

You may want to test it out. Create an appt within Google Calendar and open Gmail to view the email from calendar-notification@google.com. 

In a few minutes you should receive a text of the appointment. Trace the steps again if you don't get the text.

Originally published 2/18/20

How to: Accessing your router web page

Most customers I come across know an open unsecured network is an invitation for others to waltz and access your network at ease. And by saying that they realize how important it is to have a secured wifi network.

However there are some home networks I stumble across that are WIDE OPEN with no WPA security password AT ALL.

It's the electronic equivalent of leaving your front door open. 

More over may have the ability to access your documents on your laptop/desktop if file & print sharing is enabled. To prevent such an infiltration of unwanted hackers and visitors snooping around your network needs to be secure. This means setting up a password on your network via the router settings web page. 

Take a deep breath...it's fairly simple and takes about 10 minutes to do.


First determine what brand router you have. Likely it's one of the main brand one's such as Linksys, Cisco, Belkin, DLink, or Netgear. You may have to look under the router for the make/model.

Open your favorite web browser. Enter in the IP address of your router. This depends of what brand router you have, however it's very likely either 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1. 

Answersthatwork has a great listing of IP addresses, default user names and passwords for most routers out on the market.

If you enter your router IP address and you're prompted for a Username and Password, that's great!! You're one step closer to accessing your router settings and securing your network.

Enter in the default Username and Password. This is where you may have to experiment. Some router manufactures make the default Username as Admin and Password as Admin. It may be the router manufacture name (like Belkin) and password of Admin.

Again Answersthatwork has this listing for the default usernames and passwords.

If you're still unable to login to the router web page, it’s possible that you may need to reset your router back to factory settings to regain access with one of the default IP address/username/password combinations above. 

That’s usually about as easy as finding a depressed button in the back of the router that’s labeled “Reset,” and pressing it with a pen for 30 seconds. try going back to step 2 above and try to log in again.

Once you've logged in successfully in the routers web page you can access several administrative settings concerning your home network. These settings include your network security and password, SSID Name (the name you give your home network), the list of current 'clients' or computers accessing your home network and other functions.

One of the first recommendations I give customers when setting up and configuring wireless networks is ensuring their network is secure with a password. That is typically found under the Security tab on the web page.

The web pages will differ slightly from one manufacture to the next. For more assistance I recommend referring to the support page of the router/modem manufacturer.

Here are a few links to popular router/modem manufactures.

Apple Airport
Belkin
D-Link
Linksys
Netgear
Western Digital

This article originally published 7/7/2012 - SL