Tuesday 6 October 2015

The Computer Assistant writes for the Yorkshire Reporter October 2015




The Computer Assistant

As published in the Yorkshire Reporter October 2015 
Welcome to this month’s instalment of news, reviews, tips and tricks. May I start by saying a big thank you for the emails regarding last month’s article. I also hope that those who visited the shop in search of "assistance" were satisfied with services rendered!

Windows 10 Tips


The jury is still out regarding Windows 10 so this month, as promised, we'll look at a few tips to help you along. We'll also take a peep into IOS 9, the latest Apple update. 
Congratulations to those of you who ventured into the unknown and completed the Windows 10 upgrade. With blood pressure levels back to normal and all photos and files where they should be, the “exploration” begins! At this point however, it is worth mentioning activation. Many foolhardy users with a “not so genuine copy” of Windows thought they could upgrade to Windows 10 hoping that somehow old "Bill" had included them on his Christmas list! If however, after upgrading using your very genuine product number, you came up with an activation error, the issue should resolve after restarting.
windows 10 logoFor most users, the first question after installation is, “can I do everything I used to do, without hassle?” Here are a few common tasks and solutions to problems our customers have encountered. Rusty Chrome has been struggling lately, especially with video streaming and can become slow, unresponsive and boggy. Simply turning off Chrome Extensions or reinstalling Chrome itself does help.
Favourites in Edge: Edge is a massive improvement on internet Explorer (hard to make anything worse than IE!) but if your favourites have evaporated, go to settings (top right) and import your favourites from Chrome and IE. Very cool and easy when compared to other browsers.
Email issues: The default email app in Windows 10 doesn’t yet support subfolders as in Windows 8. We recommend the ever reliable Windows Live Mail or good old Outlook.
Connectivity: Wi-Fi cutting off and not automatically reconnecting? A quick reboot should resolve this. We also suggest disabling Wi-Fi sharing. Settings link: The link to settings, some strange reason does not work or opens the Store app instead. Good news! a quick fix is available as a downloadable, guns blazing, trouble-shooter, which one can safely use to resolve the problem. Mice on strike: Despite being tempted with the best cheddar, many a mouse downed tools after the upgrade. This has been very common with certain laptopbrands and desktops. There are a number of solutions available which usually entail a driver update.

ios 9Apple IOS 9 In Brief

Apple lovers have been treated to a scrumptious update and here are a few highlights: Super Powers - the ability to view details of power consumption and battery use. Video Zoom - actually zoom in on subjects while viewing your videos. Siri Gets a Makeover - and gets much more intelligent with great new search capabilities. Muti-tasking for Ipads - read your mail and watch a movie at the same time (?). As well as major updates to many core apps like Pictures, Notes, News, Maps, Apple Pay, Carplay, Health, Mail and iCloud Drive, the update only require a mere 1.3 GB of space compared to the prohibitive 4.58 GB needed for its lofty predecessor!

In response to many of the emails received, for questions and answers, think of us as your own personal IT department, on-call whenever you need us. Please visit TCAHelp for prompt answers to all your questions. 
We are well established IT support and maintenance providers and well recognised for sales, repairs and maintenance of PC's, Macs, Laptops, IPad, tablets and Game Consoles.
Please email replies, comments and responses to reviews@thecomputerassistant.com
Visit us in store at 96 Kirkgate, Leeds. LS2 7DJ or Phone 01132446460. Find us online at www.thecomputerassistant.com