Tech Talk #19 – Feb 20, 2016

Hey Windows users, did you make the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 10 only to find there isn’t a Games section on your computer anymore? Did you eventually find the new Solitaire, Mahjong and other games in the Windows Store but wish, want, and need the old versions back?

 

No worries! Head over to http://winaero.com/blog/get-windows-7-games-for-windows-10/. Download the file (it’s a big one…) to your Downloads folder. Once it’s downloaded, right-click on the file and choose Extract All. When the files are done extracting, a window will open showing the files. Click on Win7GamesForWin10-Setup.exe let it do its thing. When it’s finished, click on Start, All Apps, scroll down to the G section, and there they are.

 

Now that we’ve got all our old favorite games on our shiny new operating system, I can feel our collective productivity declining…

 

 

Making Gmail a bit more like Outlook

I’ve got more and more people switching to Gmail, for various reasons. Gmail’s interface takes some getting used to, and for people using Windows Live Mail or Outlook, the biggest missing feature is a preview pane. Here’s how you can turn on Gmail’s preview pane, and even add a Google Calendar widget if you’ve switched over to that as well.

 

Open up your Gmail. Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner and click on Settings. Once the Settings page comes up, look along the top of the Settings box and click on the Labs tab. On the Labs page, scroll down to the Google Calendar Gadget and click Enable. Continue scrolling down to the Preview Pane and click enable there. Make sure to click Save Changes.

 

There’s a new Split Pane Mode button next to the gear icon. You can split the pane either horizontally or vertically. Try ‘em both and see which one you like.

 

Your new Google Calendar Widget will show up on the left side, under the More Labels section.

 

 

Taking confusion out of Avast and making it less annoying

Avast is a great free antivirus program, but it can be confusing AND annoying.

 

The confusing part comes when this free program asks you to register after using it for a year. To re-register, all Avast wants is your email address. It’s still a free program, you just need to give them your email address every year.

 

Avast also sends out quite a few notifications and pop ups for other Avast products. Here’s how you can turn a lot of that off:

 

Turn on Avast’s Silent/gaming mode to reduce/eliminate annoying popups and other messages. Turn this mode on quickly by clicking on the orange Avast icon located in your computer’s system tray. Right-click on the Avast icon and a short menu will appear. Click on Silent/gaming mode to turn it on.

 

Avast also includes a computer clean-up program called GrimeFighter which has its own pop ups. To turn GrimeFighter off, open your Avast interface and go to Settings>Tools. Move the slider to the OFF position.

 

 

And remember:

The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it’s twice as big as it needs to be.

 

Do you have a computer or technology question? Greg Cunningham has been providing Tehachapi with on-site PC and network services since 2007. Email Greg at greg@tech-hachapi.com.                

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