In this blog I want to do something a bit different and give windows 10 tips. Although not much to do with second life, if your computer is not working correctly your second life will not either.

Windows 10 has been on the market since July 29, 2015, and tens of millions are using it. Yet there are still many new and useful features in Windows 10 that most people don’t know about. Here are 12 of the most useful, interesting, or at least amusing ones…

Twelve Lesser-Known Features of Windows 10

(1) The “Contact Support” app is new in Windows 10. You can open a text chat session with a Microsoft “Answer Tech” if you need help. There’s also an option to supply your phone number and have a tech support person call you at a time you specify. To open the app, type Support in the search box and click on the result. (You must be signed in to a Microsoft account.)

(2) Scrolling in inactive windows: In past Windows versions, only the active (current) window could be scrolled using the mouse wheel. In Win 10, you can scroll in any open window. Just move the mouse cursor over the window, and you can scroll using the mouse wheel, without clicking inside the window first. On my Windows 7 system, scrolling in inactive windows does work. Perhaps that because I have a Logitech M510 mouse with that functionality built into the driver software. Or maybe I’m just special. But in Windows 10, all mice are equal, at least when it comes to scrolling. If you don’t have Windows 10, and you can’t scroll inactive windows, you can use WizMouse to get the same effect.

(3) File Explorer now opens with a “Quick access” view, showing a list of commonly-used and frequently-visited folders, and a list of recently opened files. You can also navigate to a folder, then select the Home tab and click “Pin to Quick access” to make that folder appear in the Quick access list.

(4) Print to PDF: a native printer driver that converts documents to PDF files has been added to Windows 10. When printing from any Windows app, select “Microsoft Print to PDF” as the printer name. Instead of committing your masterpiece to paper, it will be saved as a PDF file.

(5) The Command Prompt has been upgraded with new features in Win 10. The window can be dynamically resized, and copying and pasting to or from a Command Prompt is now much easier; the standard key combinations Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V actually work! Also, text can be made to wrap when a Command Prompt window is resized, instead of vanishing under an edge of the window. Many other Command Prompt enhancements are detailed in this Microsoft blog post.

Control and Customization

(6) Windows Update runs on auto-pilot in Windows 10, but you do have some new controls. The Professional, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 10 have an option called “Defer upgrades.” When you defer upgrades, new Windows features won’t be downloaded or installed for several months. Security updates will still be applied. From the Start button, type “windows update settings” and press Enter. Then click the “Advanced options” link to see the Windows Update settings. (This feature is not available in the Windows 10 Home Edition.) You can also schedule a required restart for a time that’s convenient for you.

(7) “Sideloading” apps: in Windows 8, Microsoft allowed only apps from its Windows Store to be installed. This move mimicked Apple, which allows only Apple Store apps on its devices. Security is the reason for this restriction, but the general population of Windows users doesn’t want to be deprived of all the good, perfectly safe apps written by third-parties. So in Win 10, you can “sideload” apps – that is, load them from a source other than the Windows Store. But you have to enable this feature. Go to Settings > Update & security > For developers. Then click the button next to “sideload apps.” A warning about dangers of sideloading will appear and you’ll be asked to confirm that you wish to enable sideloading; answer “yes” and it’s done. My advice is to turn this feature off again, after loading the desired app.

(8) Stylish Desktops: You can now customize the look of your desktop better than ever. Go to Start > Settings > Personalization > Colors. Choose “Show color on taskbar and Start Menu.” You can pick the color from a palette, or let Windows choose a color from your background photo to display under icons of open apps. You can also remove the translucent property of the Start Menu.

(9) Monitor Apps’ Disk Space Usage: Windows 10 will now tell and show you what apps are using the most disk space, a boon if you are short of free bytes and want to manage space carefully. Go to Settings > System > Storage. A list of drives connected to your computer will appear. Click on one of them to see how much space each app and its data are consuming on that drive. Note that you can also change the folders in which files of different kinds are saved.

New Features in the Fall Creators Update

(10) My People: My People is a new feature in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update that started rolling out on October 17, 2017. It lets you pin up to three contacts to the task bar at the bottom of your screen. Click one of those icons, and a Skype messaging window will open. (You can use Mail, or a different messaging app from the Windows Store if you prefer.) You can also drag and drop pictures onto a contact to quickly share them.

(11) Ransomware Protection: Another piece of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is Controlled Folder Access, which prevents ransomware from accessing your important files. This works by locking certain folders so that only authorized apps can access them. By default, Controlled Folder Access protects your Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Favorites and Desktop folders. You can add additional folders to protect, and specify your own trusted apps. Access the Windows Defender Security Center to tweak those settings.

(12) Emoji! We’ve gotten used to having those little icons when texting on our mobile devices, but now there’s a handy emoji keyboard built into Windows 10. When your cursor is in a text field, press WIN+. (the Windows key and the period key) to pop up a selection of smiley-faces, hearts, food, and other icons that you can paste into your messages. You’ll need the Fall Creators Update to get your emoji on.

One-Stop Shopping For Windows 10 Tweaks

(BONUS) GodMode is not an official feature, and it doesn’t actually give you super powers. But it is a useful hack put together by an overworked and underappreciated system administrator long, long ago. Yes, GodMode has been available in earlier versions of Windows, and its fans are delighted to see it still works in Windows 10. GodMode provides a unified, categorized view of all of Windows’ farflung features, commands, settings, and functions, all in one place that you can open with a single click.

Think of it as Control Panel, Unlimited. To activate GodMode, right-click on your desktop, select New > Folder to create a new empty folder on your desktop. Then copy this string of characters below to your clipboard: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} Right-click on the new folder and select “Rename.” Paste the string into the space for the folder’s name and press Enter. Now, whenever you open that folder, up will pop the monster menu of options that is GodMode. You can change “GodMode” to whatever you like; one person I know uses “DeuceMode.” Just don’t lose that period that follows the name and precedes the cryptic string of characters!

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Have a great week

Deuce Marjeta

and the Zi Staff

Yahoo’s new owner, Verizon, recently revealed that all 3 billion Yahoo accounts have been compromised, greatly upping the admission of damage that Yahoo made before its sale to the telecom giant. So if you have a Yahoo account, it’s time to find another email service provider that will better protect your email privacy and security, and yes if you tied your yahoo account to secondlife then that was also compromised. Here’s my advice on how to switch to Gmail…

Moving Yahoo Mail to Gmail

If you have not changed your Yahoo password recently, it is 100% certain that hackers have the keys to it. Not Good. The recent revelation that hackers were able to compromise all of Yahoo’s THREE BILLION accounts is mind-blowing. It’s time to leave Yahoo Mail in the digital dustbin of history, and move to a new webmail provider.

You may be loathe to leave your contacts and emails behind. But don’t worry, you can take them with you! Google’s Gmail (my preferred email service for 12+ years) makes the process of importing contacts and mail from Yahoo (and other services) as simple as it can be. That isn’t exactly “dead simple,” but most users should be able to do it in just a few minutes.

The first thing you should do is change your Yahoo password to something extremely strong. Also, enable two-factor authentication if you haven’t already done so. With these changes, hackers would need both your password and your phone to get into your Yahoo account.

You want to keep control of your Yahoo account, even if you don’t actively use it. The reason is that abandoned account names are recycled by Yahoo. A bad guy could appropriate your old Yahoo handle and impersonate you. So don’t delete your Yahoo account, just lock it up for now.

Finally, if you have been using your Yahoo password on any other services, change those passwords. And stop re-using passwords — every account should have its own, unique, and strong password.

First, create a Google account if you don’t already have one. You can sign up here.

Just like Yahoo’s inbox page, the Gmail inbox page has a gear icon in the upper-right corner. Click on it and then click Settings. Next, click Accounts and Import, then click Import Mail and Contacts. Enter your Yahoo address (include the @yahoo.com part), press Continue, then click Agree to give the app permission to access your Yahoo account.

Next, select the import options you want: import contacts, import existing mail, and/or import new Yahoo mail for the next 30 days. Finally, click Start Import.

It may take a couple of days for Google to import all of your Yahoo mail, if your Yahoo inbox is very full. Another consideration is that Google only imports the mail that’s in your inbox, not drafts, sent email, or email saved in other folders. To import such items, you will need to manually move them to your Yahoo inbox, then let Google import them. To check the status of your import, look under Settings > Accounts and Import.

Google assigns a label to each imported email; it is your Yahoo username. If you want to recreate the folders you had on Yahoo, you can import what’s in your Yahoo inbox, then delete the Yahoo inbox’s contents. Rename the new Gmail label to Yahoo-Inbox. Move the next folder’s contents to the Yahoo inbox and import to Google again. Rename the Gmail label to match the Yahoo folder name, and repeat for each folder. It’s tedious, but it works.

Are you still using Yahoo Mail? Do you have a plan to switch to Gmail or another webmail service?It’s time to really rethink your options before it’s too late.

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Have a great week

Deuce Marjeta and the ZI Staff.

Over the past two decades, password rules have become more complicated and burdensome upon users. Users have coped with arbitrary, byzantine password rules by creating the most easily remembered passwords that comply with the rules, changing them when required in minor, predictable ways, and reusing compliant passwords on multiple online accounts. The results include lots of frustration and LESS security. Here’s how to do it right…

Everything You Know About Passwords is Wrong

A typical site now requires you to create a password at least 8 characters long that includes at least three or four types of characters: upper-case, lower-case, numeral, and special characters such as !, @, #, etc. In most cases, the resulting password is exactly 8 characters long, begins with an upper-case character, and ends with an exclamation point or the numeral “1.” Often it’s a recognizable name associated with the user, such as a child’s or pet’s name. If a password needs to be changed, it’s often only the last character that’s changed, and in a predictable fashion, i. e., “1” becomes “2,” “!” becomes “@,” etc.

Hackers know these official rules, and the de facto rules that users have created to comply with the least effort. They have hundred of billions of stolen passwords from which to figure out the rules, and they incorporate the rules in password-cracking software to make it more efficient. They also have massive computing power that can try billions of possible passwords per hour. The upshot is that most passwords actually in use can be cracked in a matter of hours.

One solution to human predictability is password-generating software that produces longer, more random passwords, and password-management software that remembers what site a password goes with. These functions may be combined in one software package, such as Roboform, Dashlane or LastPass.

But many sites deliberately thwart the use of password managers, either by forcing users to enter usernames and passwords on two separate screens or by adding code that blocks auto-filling of passwords. Apparently, the admins of such sites think a password encrypted and stored on a hard drive is as insecure as one written on a Post-It Note.

Another solution to remembering strong passwords is mnemonic – a sentence that’s easily remembered because it makes grammatical sense, and which contains the characters of a password that can be extracted by applying a simple rule. For instance, a password might be the first letters of the sentence, “My horse knows how to use 2 pink staple guns.” In fact, that whole sentence would make a virtually impenetrable password, if the official rules allowed spaces.

This geeky cartoon from XKCD.com illustrates the difference between passwords as they are and as they could be, if sysadmins allowed it. Following the official rules results in a password that’s easily cracked in 3 days, while the phrase, “correct horse battery staple” takes 550 years, far longer than any hacker cares to spend.

What About Those Password Strength Meters?

Research has found that users will create stronger passwords if they receive feedback about password strength as they create a password. But so-called “strength meters” often measure only compliance with rules instead of statistical strength, according to researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University. The CMU geeks have created a strength meter that uses a powerful neural network to calculate the true strength of a hypothetical password on the spot, and even explains what’s wrong with your password creation strategy. The rules they recommend are:

• At least 12 characters per password
• Capitalized and special characters in the middle of the password, not at ends
• No names associated with pets or sports teams
• No song lyrics
• Avoid the word “love” in any language
• Avoid patterns such as “123,” including keyboard patterns (“qwertyasdfg”)

I advise using a password generator/manager wherever possible. They’re getting better at circumventing the security-limiting roadblocks that some website owners think are important. If you prefer not to use password software, a memorable phrase is the next best thing. In the past, I’ve used the first sentence from the first paragraph of a certain page in an old book. For example, on page 67 of “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” I found the phrase “There are Croakers in every country.” It’s memorable, and it makes for a strong password. Or as mentioned above, you can apply a formula of your choosing to such a phrase.

What’s your password strategy? Do you use a password manager, a sticky note, or keep it in your head?

Have A Great Week

Deuce Marjeta and the ZI Team