Wednesday 14^th March 2018

Windows 10 - Mail Notifications
Margaret was finding mail notifications annoying on Windows 10. Even if you don't use the Mail app on Windows 10, you may find you get notifications popping up. The Mail app will be automatically configured to collect mail from your Microsoft Account if you use this to sign into Windows. The Mail app issues pop-ups each time new mail arrives. Fortunately, you can turn these notifications off. To do this, launch the Mail app, clicking on the Settings cog within the Mail app. Then click on Notifications and you will find a switch to turn off Show notifications in the Action Centre.

Windows 7 - AntiVirus
We briefly discussed anti-virus on Windows 7. Windows 10 has the in-built Windows Defender anti-virus, which I feel is adequate for most users and it is unnecessary to install any third-party anti-virus products. However Windows 7 has no such anti-virus program. Confusingly, there is something called "Windows Defender" built-in to Windows 7, but this is only an anti-spyware program, not a full anti-virus program.

On Windows 7, my recommendation is to use Microsoft's Security Essentials program, which can be downloaded from:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=5201
Security Essentials is a full anti-virus program and is basically the same thing as the built-in Windows Defender in Windows 10.

Backup Settings – iOS & Android

iOS

To turn on iCloud backup, do the following:-

• Tap the Settings icon.
• Tap on your name/picture.
• Tap on iCloud.
• Look down the list of apps using iCloud and tap on iCloud Backup.
• Here you can turn it on (or off).
• You will see the date/time of the last backup.
• If you want to do an immediate backup, tap Back Up Now.

When iCloud backup is turned on, the iPad/iPhone will backup to iCloud when it is locked, connected to a charger and has a Wi-Fi connection.

In addition, you can backup to your PC using the iTunes app on you computer. Open iTunes on your PC – go to https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ to download and install it if it’s not already on your computer. Connect your iDevice to a USB port using the normal charging cable. Click on the device symbol in iTunes. Under the Backups heading, you can see the times of the latest backup and perform an immediate backup to your PC by clicking the Back Up Now button.

For more detail, see:-

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203977

Android

Your Android phone/tablet can backup automatically to the Google cloud. To ensure this is enabled:-

• Swipe down from the top (twice if necessary) and tap the Settings icon.
• Tap Backup & reset – depending on your model, you might need to tap on Personal or Advanced settings to find this.
• Ensure Back up my data is on. If necessary, tap on it and turn it on.

Google Photos

If you have the Google Photos app on your iOS or Android device you should have signed into the app with your Google account. All the photos you take will be backed up to your Google cloud when the device is connected to Wi-Fi. To check the settings, open the Google Photos app on your mobile device:-

• Tap the 3-bar symbol (top left).
• Tap Settings.
• Backup & Sync should show the Google account you are using to back up.
• Tap on this to turn sync on or off.
• You can also turn on backup over mobile data, but I would not recommend this as it may use up your data allowance.

Remember, provided you set "High Quality" in Google Photos settings, you have unlimited photo storage, so it does not use up any of the 5GB of storage on your Google Drive.

Transferring Data Between iCloud Accounts

If you have access to 2 iCloud accounts and you want to move data (e.g. photos or files) between them, you can do this using a web browser on a PC:-

• Go to https://www.icloud.com/
• Sign into iCloud account "A".
• Click on iCloud Drive.
• Select files as required and then click the Download button. Note that the browser will download the files to it’s usual download location – change this in your browser settings if necessary.
• Make sure you know where these files are on your PC.
• Before deleting the files from iCloud account "A", I would suggest you log out and sign into iCloud account "B".
• Click on the iCloud Drive icon.
• Click on the Upload button and select the required files (i.e. the ones you just downloaded from account "A").
• When you have confirmed this has happened successfully, you can go back to account "A" and delete the files.

Transferring Data Between Google Accounts
You could use a similar method to the above to transfer data from one Google account to another. Again, you can do this using a web browser on a PC:-

• Go to drive.google.com
• Sign into Google account "A".
• Select the files as required, then click on the 3-dot symbol and then click on Download. Google Drive will "zip" multiple files into a zip file. The location of the downloaded files will depend on your browser settings, but will usually be the Downloads folder on your PC. Double-click on the downloaded zip file and select the destination folder on your PC for the files to be unzipped into.
• Sign out of Google account "A" and sign into Google account "B".
• In Google Drive, click on New, File Upload (or Folder Upload if appropriate).
• Navigate to the files which you just downloaded (as above) and select them and click Open.
• If you no longer want these files on Google account "A", you can sign back in and delete them.

Find My Phone

If you have lost your Android or Apple phone/tablet, they both have a method to locate it and, perhaps erase it if required.

For an Android Device:-

• Make sure this function is enabled on your Android device by going to Settings, Security & Location OR Settings, Google, Security and tap Find My Device.  Turn on (with the slide switch at the top, and, if available, enable Remotely locate this device and Allow remote lock and erase.
• Use a web browser on any PC (or Mac) to go to google.co.uk (or any other Google site) and sign in with your Google credentials.
• Click on your account icon at the top right – this is a round icon with either your picture or the first letter of your name if you have not set a picture.
• Click on My Account.
• Click Get Started under the heading Find your phone.
• You should see a list of all devices using the same Google ID.
• Click on the required device and re-enter your password.
• You will then see options to Ring, Locate, Lock, Erase, etc

For an Apple (iOS) Device:-

• Make sure this function is enabled on your iDevices by going to Settings, Accounts & Passwords, iCloud, Find My iPhone.
• Use a web browser on any PC (or Mac) to go to icloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID and password.
• Click on Find iPhone (this includes iPad!). You will see a map locating your device.
• Click on All Devices (at the top of this web page) and click on your device. You will then see the options to Play Sound, turn on Lost Mode or Erase iPad/iPhone.
• See https://www.apple.com/uk/icloud/find-my-iphone/ for more details on the options available.

Next Session

Wed 11^th April 2018 1:30 to 3:30pm.
Proposed topics:

• Ad Blockers.
• Microsoft Office.