MIcrosoft's First Laptop

Microsoft has stepped up its game when it comes to manufacturing devices with the new Surface Book convertible laptop, the company’s first laptop. This laptop-tablet combo is larger than previous versions of the Surface line with a 13.5 inch display and a full-sized backlit keyboard.

The keyboard attaches with what Microsoft calls Muscle Wire and stays securely attached, but you can instantly detach it by pressing a button.

You can use it as a laptop, detach it to use as a large tablet or fold back the keyboard to use the pen-first mode.

The display features a 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) resolution. The Surface Book is capable of running demanding desktop apps and comes with a 6th generation Intel Core i5 or i& processor.

At nearly 3.5 pounds (including the keyboard) this seems hefty in comparison to lighter Surface models, but for a workhorse PC, the metal laptop is fairly light. The laptop even features a dedicated graphics card for graphics intensive programs like video editors. Interestingly enough, that extra graphics chip lives in the keyboard, so when you disconnect to use it as a tablet, you lose some of the intensive processing capabilities. Though the tablet should work fine for gaming or watching movie. This chip is meant for work.

It’s available with 128 GB, 256 GB or 1 TB of internal storage for the solid state drive. It also features two full-sized USB ports and a card reader. The front facing camera is 5 MP and the rear facing 8 MP camera features auto focus.

Unlike previous Surface models, this comes with everything. The PC, keyboard and Surface Pen are included in the box. With the additional purchase of a Surface Dock you can connect it to monitors in a workstation setup.

It doesn’t come cheap. The starting price for the Surface Book is $1499. But if my experience with my Surface Pro is any indication, Microsoft’s hardware is worth it. The Surface Book is available for pre-order now from Microsoft.

How Big Is My Inbox?

The app won’t download everything in your Outlook.com inbox to your phone. Because you use an IMAP connection with an app, you can access your e-mails without downloading the entire contents of your Outlook.com inbox onto your phone. When you set up your account on your mobile device, you’ll choose whether you only want to see messages from the past week, month etc… on that device. (don’t worry, you can still access older messages if you need to see them.)

Just to experiment, I added my Outlook.com  account to my Android e-mail app and despite the thousands of messages in my inbox, far less than a MB of data was added to the space the app takes up.
Now, if you are downloading a lot of attachments from e-mails, such as photos as documents, those can take up some space on your mobile device.

If, instead of just instant access to your messages, you want copies of all those messages to store – a mobile device is not the answer.  A PC would be better suited for that task. Find an e-mail client that will let you use a POP3 account and download copies of those messages to your PC.  The amount of space taken up by an average text e-mail is about 10 to 30 KB.  When you add attachments they’ll get larger – maybe even as large as 500 KB. So consider the number of messages you have and the type of messages you have and just multiply it out to take a guess at how much space they would use.
I don’t know of a way to determine exactly how much space your Outlook.com messages take up. But that’s normally not an issue, because there really aren’t any limitations on how many messages you can have.

Can I Use Apps In Windows?

App is short for application and an application is the same thing as a program. The apps that run on Android phones and iPhones are usually smaller in size and lighter in function that desktop apps designed for the PC or Mac.

Android, iPhones and Windows PC each uses a different operating system. An app for Android won’t run on your PC and a program designed for your PC won’t run on your iPhone.

But often times, developers make versions of apps for multiple operating systems. If you like an app, there’s a possibility you can find it in the app Store for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. (There’s no app store for Windows 7.)

To access the app store on you PC, look for the little store icon. It looks like a shopping bag.

In Windows 10, you’ll find it on your taskbar.

Once you open the Windows store, you can search for the app you want to find out if there’s a Windows version available.

I will caution you that the app selection of the Windows store does not match the millions of apps available in the Google Play Store (Android) or Apple (iPhone) App Store. But you’ll still find a lot of choices. In a Windows phone or tablet will also work on a PC or on a device like an Xbox One The display may be different, but the functionality is there.

Outlook Adds Facebook-Style Features

E-mail is about to get a lot more social. Microsoft announced that it will add “Likes” and “@Mentions” to Outlook on the web.

For those of you unfamiliar with social media such as Facebook. A “like” is when you click a button to signifying your approval or interest in a post that someone makes on social media. Unlike a return receipt, which acknowledges that something has been opened, a “like” would indicate that this particular message has engaged you.

Mentions are used on service like Instagram and Twitter to let a fellow user know that you’ve mentioned him or her in a post. Mentions are proceeded by the @ symbol and then your user name.

E-mail, instant messaging and text messaging seem to be getting more and more alike every moment of the day as new features are introduced to messaging apps.

E-mail will now have that same little thumbs-up symbol that you see on Facebook posts. Click it to show your approval and the sender will receive a notification that you’ve liked the message. If someone likes a message you’ve sent, you’ll receive a notification as well.

To add a mention, just type the @ symbol somewhere in the body of an e-mail you are composing. That will bring up a list of your frequent contents and your directory. You can then select the person’s name and they’ll be automatically added to the To: line.

Their name will be highlighted in the message the the message will show up flagged in their inbox. You’ll also be able to sort by all messages in which you are mentioned, so you can make sure to respond.

Right now the changes are coming to the Outlook on the web, which is found in workplaces. It will be available to all Office 365 commercial subscriptions that include Outlook on the web. That includes the Business, Enterprise, EDU and Government plans. Microsoft expects to bring the same features to Outlook 2016 for PC and Mac and for their Outlook apps for iPhones and Android phones at the beginning of next year.

Can a touch screen be disabled on a computer?

The quickest way to disable a touch screen would be to just not use it. If your computer offers both keyboard and mouse and touch screen controls, don’t touch the screen. I have a touch screen on my Windows 7 computer, that I seldom use, though I use the touch screen on my Windows 8.1 tablet all the time.
Here’s what you can try on Windows 8.1. Find device manager on your computer by typing in  your  Search Charm and clicking on the result.

Choose Human interface devices.

Under HID compliant devices, look for a listing for HID compliant touch screen.

You can right click on that and choose disable.

For a Windows 7 computer type Pen and Touch input into the search box in your Start menu and click on the result.

Select the Touch tab and uncheck the box next to Use finger as an input device.

Of course, don’t do this on a tablet. You probably won’t have the option, but don’t. Your detachable keyboard could fail and then you wouldn’t be able to control the device.
Hope this helps.

Windows 10 - Can't Find Things In Search

Search start menu and search box are really the center of Windows 10. From there you can find anything quickly and easily. Activating Cortana doesn’t really change how search works, it just gives you added functionality for voice search and voice control. To search, just click or tap in the search box on the lower left side of your screen and start typing what you want to find.

For this example, I’m typing Control Panel.

Here you will see search results for programs on the PC, items in the Windows Store and the Web. You can click on the result to either open a program or go to the Windows store or the web.

You’ll also notice the option at the bottom to narrow the search to just the web. Click it, and you will see related results in a browser. You can also narrow the search to My Stuff. This will display only items on your PC.

When you choose My Stuff, you’ll have options to sort by relevancy and date.

I don’t know if you’re getting web results for some searches for for all of them. One reason you could be seeing only web results, is that your computer can’t find want you want on the PC. In this example, you’ll notice all me results are for the web or the Windows Store.

When I click My Stuff, it looks a little deeper – pulling up document that may contain those words.

I hope this helps you with your search.

Word Processor For Windows 10

There is a great little word processing program included withe Windows 10, called WordPad. For many people, it will meet all of their word processing needs.

To find it, just search WordPad in the search box.

Or look in All Apps under Windows Accessories.

You could also consider heading over to Outlook.com. Set up a free Microsoft e-mail address and you’ll have access to the online app versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Not to mention free cloud storage on OneDrive.

You could also download the excellent, free LibreOffice suite. I think you’ll find that LibreOffice Writer is more than up to the task of handing your documents.

If you have a Google account, there’s also the option of using Google Docs. Though, of all the option, that is probably my least favorite.

One of these choices should fit the bill.

How Can I Uninstall Bing?

Bing is the default search engine for the new Edge browser, but you can change that with just a few clicks.

In Edge, click the menu button on the upper-right side and choose “Settings.”

Scroll down to “View Advanced Settings.”

From here, you can scroll down and change the default search engine for your browser.

Bing is the preferred search engine for Windows 10. So when you use the search box or Cortana and get web results, when you click on them, you will be taken to the Bing.com for the results.
If you really dislike Bing that much, just open up Google or Yahoo or another search engine in your browser and do your web searches from there.
If you make Google Chrome your default browser, you can install a couple of extensions from the Chrome Web store that will redirect your searches. But you’ll need to leave Chrome open for it to work or enable background apps on Chrome. To do that, go to Settings in the Chrome drop-down menu.

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and choose Advanced Settings.

Scroll down to system and make sure “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” is checked.”

Then go to the Chrome Web store and check out the Bing2google extension. To install, just click the Add to Chrome button.

Once installed, this free extension will redirect to Google instead of Bing for web searches. If you use Cortana, Chrome also offers a Chrometana exstension.

When you install Chrometana, you’ll have the choice between Google, Duck Duck Go and Yahoo as your default search engine. You need to choose Google if you want this to work correctly with Bing2Google.

Adding extensions can mean slower browsing and putting in redirects will slow down the speed of your searches.

Transfer Files Between Machines

Transferring files between PCs can be tricky.

The good news is that you may not have to purchase anything. Or, if you do, you may be able to buy something that you can continue to use for other purposes after you’re done with your file transfer. The bad news is that with XP, your options are somewhat more limited than they would be if you were transferring from a Windows 8.1 or 10 PC. Once you get everything over to your Windows 8 PC you’ll be able to use Homegroup to easily move files from one PC to another.

The easiest way is to move the files that you want to transfer to a removable medium such as DVD’s, thumb drives or a portable hard drive. Attach the portable medium (or insert a DVD) into your old PC and move the files that you want to transfer from the old PC to the portable medium. Move the portable medium to your new PC and move the files to your new PC. This can be time, and, depending on the size of your portable medium, resource consuming, but is easy you can buy software or a file transfer cable for less than $50.

This will allow you to treat your old PC as if it were portable media and just transfer the files directly from one PC to another, or, in the case of software, allow you to transfer the data wirelessly. A file transfer cable is FAST, but does require the monetary investment. Some software will also allow you to transfer your old PC’s settings as well as files.

Which E-mail Is Most Like Outlook?

The e-mail client is part of the Office 365 subscription and you can get that for a single user for $69.99 per year. That includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. All programs that you’re probably familiar with if you’ve worked in a Office.

Outlook can be purchased by itself for a one-time installation for just a little over $100 from Microsoft.

If you’d rather have a free e-mail client program, consider Windows Live Mail. It features many, but not all of the features of Outlook and it is easy to download and install.

With Outlook or Live Mail, or any other e-mail client program, you can use whatever e-mail address you want. Copies of your messages will be downloaded to the e-mail client on your PC. Windows 8.1 and 10 both have an e-mail app pre-installed, but I don’t think you’ll like them very much if you want something similar to Outlook.

If you don’t want to install an e-mail client program on your PC, then you’ll need to access you mail through a web client like that Gmail interface you didn’t like very much.

If you’re familiar with the more recent versions of Outlook, then Outlook.com may work for you. It’s free to set up an account and additionally, you get free access to Microsoft Office apps online and free cloud storage in One Drive.

If you have a Hotmail, Live, MSN or Outlook.com e-mail address, you already have an account.

I hope one of these options works for you.

Apple's El Capitan Is Here

Apple’s latest update to the OS X operating system is here. It’s called El Capitan it’s free for all Mac users who can support the update.

El Captian should work on all Macs introduced since 2009 and also on some models from 2007 and 2008. Those include:

iMac (Mid 2007 or later)

Xserve (Early 2009)

Mac Pro (Early 2008 and later)

Mac Mini (Early 2008 and later)

MacBook ( 13-inch Aluminum late 2008)
Macbook (13-inch, early 2009 or later)
Macbook Pro ( 13 inch, mid 2009 or later)
Macbook Pro (15-inch, mid/late 2007 or later)
Mackbook Pro (17-inch, late 2007 or later)

MacBook Air (late 2008 or later)

You’ll need at least 2GB RAM for El Capitan and 8GB of storage for the installer.

El Capitan features a smarter spotlight search. Much like Windows 10 search, it can now be used to search weather conditions, sports scores as well as files. They’ve also improved natural language search, so you can type in “e-mail from Bob” or “report I worked on this morning.” to find a file.

You’ll now be able to pin your favorite sites in the Safari browser, which features a quick mute button to silence your browser audio.

The Mail app will now offer Smart Suggestions. It will scan names or events in messages and suggest that you put them in your contacts or add events to your calendar.

The improved Notes App now acts a lot like Microsoft’s OneNote – you’ll be able to drag and drop photos, files and videos into a note plus add content from other apps.

You can sync your notes across iCloud and access them from any iOS mobile device.

Apple is also proud of their new streamlined Mission Control that arranges all of your windows in a single layer.

Plus a new split view that allows you to work on two apps at once.