Wednesday 13^th November 2019

Updated 02/05/2023: Amended method for accessing my document Updating Laptops with 32GB Storage mentioned in section Updating Windows with Low Memory.

Bing "My Saves"
Margaret introduced us to a feature of the Bing search engine called My Saves. This allows you to search for, say, images or videos and then save that image or video in the cloud to view or download later. This might be useful if you were browsing on a mobile device and you did not want to download the images immediately, perhaps because of limited storage on the device, the slow speed of the Internet connection or a limited mobile data allowance. You could later go to bing.com, maybe on your PC, click the 3-bar Menu symbol (top right), then My Bing, My Saves to see the images you had previously found. You need to be signed in with your Microsoft Account for this to work. This site explains more:-
https://blogs.bing.com/search/november-2016/find-and-save-for-later-on-bing

I found the "+" sign was not present on all images in a search, but clicking on the image usually did show the "+ Save" symbol below the image.

Screen Mirroring
Margaret asked about screen mirroring, having found this feature on her TV. Mirroring or casting is a method of replicating the display of a mobile device (phone or tablet) on, usually, a TV using the network. There are a number of different technologies which do this, including:-

• Google's Chromecast
• Apple's AirPlay
• Samsung SmartThings

Some TVs may have one or more of these technologies built-in. You need to have the corresponding app installed on your mobile device. Alternatively, you can connect a dongle to an HDMI port of your TV. For example, you can purchase a Chromecast dongle for £30. You can install the Google Home app on your mobile device to set up and use the Chromecast device. Not all apps on your mobile device necessarily support casting.

You can read more in articles such as this:-
https://www.mobiles.co.uk/blog/guide-to-screen-mirroring/

New Edge App
We had a brief discussion about the new, up-coming version of Microsoft's Edge browser which is based on Chromium, the open-source browser which under-pins Google's Chrome Browser. If you want to try this new browser, you can download the beta version from here:-
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-gb/
This runs independently of the current Edge browser.
This new version will probably appear in the next big update to Windows 10 in March 2020. It will have the new icon shown here. 

Updating Windows with Low Memory
Margaret asked about updating Windows 10 on a PC with limited memory. There are some small laptops which only have 32GB of solid-state eMMC memory. You can run Disk Cleanup to make more space, and you need to use the Media Creation Tool to make an Installation USB stick. I wrote a document a while back explaining how to do this. Although I didn't actually issue this at the Club today, it is available in the Other Documents section of my website:-

bit.ly/rogersdocs

Playing DVD's on Windows
Brian asked about playing DVDs on Windows 10. There is a free open-source program called VLC which can be downloaded from here:-
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.en-GB.html
This will play videos from almost any soucre and is completely free.

Windows 10 - 1909

Version 1909 of Windows was released yesterday (Tuesday 12 November) as part of the regular monthly Patch Tuesday updates. It is call the November Update. Unlike previous major updates, this uses the normal update process, so you will need to already have version 1903 before you can apply the 1909 update. There are no major new features in this update.

Amazon Smile

smile.amazon.co.uk

By using the above address rather than the normal Amazon address, you can have 0.5% of the price of your purchases donated to a charity of your choice. The site provides exactly the same products and prices as the usual Amazon site. You can help support a charity at no cost to you.  Simply sign in with your usual Amazon credentials at the above address and select a charity from the list. If you use the Amazon app, tap the Menu and then See All Programmes to find Amazon Smile.

Google Takeout

https://takeout.google.com/

You can access any of your data that Google holds via this web address. It allows you to download copies of your data, perhaps just as a backup, or to use with another service. You could use this to backup Google Photo, Google Drive, your Calendar, Contacts, etc. If you choose to download everything, bear in mind this will be a lot of data!

By default, Google will email you a link to download the information you have selected. You can create a schedule to repeat the process, say, every 2 months.

This article offers more guidance on using Google Takeout:-

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-google-takeout-4173795

Cookies
We had a brief discussion about cookies. While cookies are generally harmless and essential to the working of many web sites. Cookies are small text files placed in the browser by each web site you visit. Note that cookies are stored by the browser you are currently using and are not interchanged between browsers. So-called "third-party cookies" are stored by advertisers, not the main site you are visiting. You can disable third-party cookies in each browser which you use. My Browser Basics (bit.ly/CE-BrowserBasics) document explains how to disable third-party cookies in Edge, Chrome and Firefox. For other browsers, you can google for instruction on how to disable third-party cookies.

Next Session

Wed 11^th December 2019 1:30 to 3:30pm.