VirusTotal
www.virustotal.com
This free service can inspect a file using 60+ antivirus scanners. If you have a file, perhaps something you have just downloaded from the Internet, you can use this service to check it for malware. Simply go to the site, select File and click on Choose file. In the pop-up window, navigate to the file you want to check.
You can also check a website by selecting URL and then copying and pasting the web address into the search box. You can use this method to scan the link to a file before you actually download it.
Obviously, you should normally only download files from trusted sources (e.g. microsoft.com). However, if, for example, you are searching for a driver for an old piece of hardware, you may resort to sites you are less sure about. In such cases, you can then use VirusTotal to scan the file for malware.
You can add an extension (VT4Browsers) to Chrome (or Chromium-based) and Firefox browsers to check downloads automatically with VirusTotal and to scan web links from the right-click menu.
For more information, see this How-To Geek article from April this year:-
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/30508/make-sure-downloads-are-safe-before-downloading-them/
Web Shortcuts on Mobile
At the May Club, we mentioned using shortcuts on mobile devices to set up an icon on your Home Screen to a web page. You might like to try this for viewing the Computer Club blog.
To create a shortcut icon on either an Apple or Android device, proceed as follows:-
Android
Launch your browser
Go to computerclub100.blogspot.com
Tap the 3-dots
Tap Add to Home Screen in menu (in Edge, it’s Add to Phone)
Change the name if required and tap Add
Tap Add to home screen again if prompted by the Launcher
Apple iOS
Launch the Safari browser
Go to computerclub100.blogspot.com
Tap the Action (Share) button (this is the square with an upward arrow)
Tap Add to Home Screen
Change the name if required and tap Add
Note that the blog displays differently on a phone than a PC or tablet to make it more readable on the smaller screen. However, you can tap View web version to see the PC-style layout.
I demonstrated the above process on an iPad. I also created a similar Home Screen icon to launch my documents web site at bit.ly/rogersdocs
I then showed how you can create a folder on the Home Screen which contains both of these icons. This Apple Support page explains this process which is also very similar on an Android device:-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT200290
You can use this technique to group icons together into folders to help tidy up your Home Screen(s).
Securely Erasing Data
We looked through a document of mine called Securely Erasing PCs, Phones & Tablets. You can find this on the Computer Essentials Tab of my web site at:-
bit.ly/rogersdocs
You can also access my documents web site from the blog by clicking the link on the right called All Roger's documents.
The document looks at Windows PCs, iPhones/iPads and Android devices.
On a PC, it explains the following:-
Deleting a file - usually means moving to the Recycle Bin.
Permanently deleting a file - removes its entry from the Master File Table, but still leaves the file's data in tact until it gets over-written by a new file.
Shredding a file - permanently deletes it and over-writes it with random data making it completely unrecoverable.
Wiping a drive - over-writes a drive with data making it completely unrecoverable.
This recent Lifewire article lists the best free file shredders for Windows:-
https://www.lifewire.com/free-file-shredder-software-programs-2619149
The first program it recommends is Eraser. I have used this for years, and I like the feature that it integrates into File Explorer as an item in the right-click menu. However, on my current Windows 11 system, this integration has stopped working. As an alternative, I tried another of their recommendations, Ashampoo File Optimizer which you can down load from here:-
https://www.ashampoo.com/en-us/winoptimizer-free
This has a range of functions, but the file eraser can be found by clicking on File tools in the left column and then selecting File Wiper.
It also has an Undeleter which can scan a drive and recover those 'permanently deleted' files which have not yet been over-written.
Note that if the storage drive on your PC was encrypted, then no one else would be able to read any of the data without your password. This would make wiping the disk less necessary. Unfortunately, Microsoft's BitLocker utility, which provides full drive encryption, is only available in the Pro versions of Windows, not in the Home versions.
I will update my Securely Erasing PCs, Phones & Tablets document at some stage in the near future to replace my currently suggested file eraser with the Ashampoo program.
(UPDATE 11/08/2022 - I have now updated this document as above.)
My document goes on to cover erasing Apple and Android mobile devices so they are ready to safely sell or pass on to someone else.
iPads With Same ID
Tony raised the issue that he and his wife use the same Apple ID on the iPads and iPhones. In general, I would say it is better to have one Apple ID per person, so that each person can send/receive emails, messages, Facetime etc independently.
However, there may be purchased items, such as some apps, films, or an iCloud storage plan etc, which you would like to share among family members, rather than paying for them several times over. This can be done by setting up Family Sharing. This Apple page explains more and has a link to more detailed setup information:-
https://www.apple.com/family-sharing/
Alternatively, without using Family Sharing, you can just have independent Apple IDs but still share certain photos by setting up a shared album.
My Documents
Anyone can access my documents via my web site which you can get to using one of the following ways:-
Short URL: bit.ly/rogersdocs
Full URL: https://rogerparr100.wixsite.com/docs
Go to this blog (https://computerclub100.blogspot.com) and click on All Roger's documents.
The documents are grouped under one of 4 tabs:-
- Computer Essentials
- Tech Hints & Tips
- Quick Guides, and
- Other Documents
Against the title of each document you will see the date it was last revised.
Next Session
Wed 14th September 2022 at 2 pm by Zoom.
