Wednesday 11^th April 2018

Windows 10 – 1803 Update

Although we don't have a precise date yet, the next big feature update to Windows 10 is expected to be released over the next few weeks. There are very few changes in this update. The main new feature which has been introduced is Timeline. We will talk more about this next time.

It is also worth noting that support for version 1607 of Windows 10 ceased on 10th April 2018. This means that the 1607 version will no longer receive monthly security updates and fixes.

Ad Blockers

Many web sites make money by selling advertising space on their pages. Potentially, this is a good thing, as it allows these sites to be created and viewed at no cost to us. However, there is a downside. The large number of ads on some sites can slow down the page loading speeds and use up more of your bandwidth. Ads which auto-play videos or pop-up over the page can be annoying. There have also been cases where the ads are used as a method of distributing malware, such as crypto-currency mining software – see:-

https://www.coindesk.com/googles-doubleclick-ads-used-distribute-crypto-mining-malware/

For these reasons, many users choose to install an Ad-Blocker. Ad-Blockers are installed as an extension to your browser.

It is important to understand that, if advertising is built directly into the web page, then this will still appear – but ads which are designed-in by the developer of the site are unlikely to be annoying or problematic. Most web pages just sell spaces on their site to ad agencies (e.g. Google’s DoubleClick) and then the agency fills these spaces each time the page is loaded, so you may see different ads each time you load the page. Ad-Blockers can stop these agencies filling the ad spaces on a web page.

My personal favourite is uBlock Origin. You can read more about it on Wikipedia at:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

You can search for it using the web store for your browser – make sure you find uBlock Origin developed by Raymond Hill.

I demonstrated how to install uBlock Origin on Chrome as follows. In Chrome, click on the 3-dot symbol, then More Tools, Extensions. Here you will see a list of your current extensions – you can disable or delete any you don’t want. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Get more extensions. Type uBlock Origin into the “Search the store” box and press Enter. Click on Add To Chrome to install it. Click Add extension in the pop-up window.

Alternatively, you can just do a Google search for “uBlock Origin Chrome” (insert name of browser as appropriate) and find the extension that way. Make sure it is the product provided by Raymond Hill.

Using uBlock Origin

Having installed the extension as above, you will see the uBlock Origin icon in the Chrome toolbar. When you load a web page, a numeric badge on this icon will show how many ads have been blocked on that page. If you want to allow ads on that page, click on the icon and click on the large on-off symbol, then reload the page. uBlock Origin will remember that you want to allow ads on this page in future.

So, it is very easy to give it a try. If you don't like it, you can easily disable or delete the extension.

Another widely used ad-blocker which receives generally good reviews is Adblock Plus which works in a similar fashion.

Tracking Cookies
Linda asked how advertisers can track our browsing behaviour to target their ads more effectively. One method is through the use of third-party cookies. Cookies are small data files that the site you are visiting may store on your hard drive. Third-party cookies are stored by entities other than the main site you are visiting, i.e. by the advertisers using the advertising spaces on that site. Each time an advertiser appears on a web page, it can use its third-party cookie to note which site you are visiting at the time. This enables it to build up a pattern of the type of sites you visit so that it can serve up ads that might be more relevant to you. If you want to stop this kind of tracking behaviour, you can disable third-party cookies in the browser.

To do this in Chrome, for example, click on the 3-dot symbol, Settings, Advanced (at the bottom). Then, under the Privacy and Security heading, click on Content settings, Cookies and turn on Block third-party cookies. You can google for how to do this in other browsers.

Web Page Search Ranking
Arthur asked how the order of results in a web search is determined. Search Engines such as Google and Bing basically look for web pages that contain all the words you have entered into the search box. The search engine then uses secret criteria to decide how to order the millions of pages it has found. This site gives you some idea how the page ranking system may work:-
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/google-algorithm1.htm

You will also see 'adverts' in the search results - these are usually indicated in some way. The advertisers pay Google or Bing for a particular word. If you include that word in your search terms, it may appear above, below or at the side of the real search results. So the ads may only relate to a single word in your search terms, whereas the real results should relate to all the words.

Microsoft Office

We discussed Microsoft Office based on my document which can be found at:-

bit.ly/CE-MicrosoftOffice

Next Session

Wed 9^th May 2018 1:30 to 3:30pm.

Topics:-

Windows 10 1803 Update