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Helpful Guide

Windows 10 Free Upgrade Ending July 29th

By | Helpful Guide, Tech Alert, Windows 10 | No Comments

Just a friendly reminder to Baltimore families and businesses:

The free upgrade to Windows 10 (with Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 eligible) ends July 29th. You can expect the licensing cost for Windows 10 Home to be $119.99 and the business oriented Pro version to cost $199.99.

Whether or not you should upgrade depends on a variety of things. Only machines running Windows 7 and later are eligible for the upgrade. Unless you’ve disabled Windows Update, you’ve likely received the nag window promoting the free upgrade to Windows 10. If you’ve seen this, you’re machine is eligible to run Windows 10. For the most part, you can expect Windows 10 to run well, possibly better than your current operating system. If you haven’t been notified of eligibility, your machine might still be capable of running Windows 10. Read More

poindexter discusses what array of things to consider when deciding between an Apple or Windows computer

Should I get an Apple or a Windows PC?

By | Apple, Helpful Guide, Windows 10 | No Comments

We get this one a lot. Like, a lot a lot, and there’s no easy answer. Sure, Apple, Hewlett Packard, and Dell, to name a few, all make computers. They have processors, RAM, non-volatile storage (hard drives), a case, a keyboard… you know. Computer stuff. But the similarities end the moment we stop drawing broad comparisons about the underlying machine stuff. Windows PCs vary significantly by manufacturer; Apple computers vary less, but offer less choice.

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Baltimore Blizzard Tech Survival Tips

By | Helpful Guide, Tech Alert | No Comments

It’s official: Baltimore just got whammied with record amounts of snow, trapping many in their homes and prohibiting all but the most essential travel. While we rest in between bouts of frantic snow shoveling, let’s take some time to answer frequently asked questions about wintry tech and proffer up some advice to help you stay informed and well protected.

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fraud tech support costs americans time and money, here's how to spot and stop it

Fraud Tech Support

By | Helpful Guide, Malware Alert, Tech Alert | No Comments

If you’d rather have an inexpensive, professional computer repair, Poindexter is always available to help. We serve the Hampden area, Baltimore, and have helped countless folks recover from internet fraud of all kinds. If you, a parent, or grand parent has been the victim of internet or tech support fraud, contact Poindexter for personal help from an industry professional. We’ll get this squared away for you, promise.

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poindexter loves cyanogenmod, the custom android rom

Android’s Have a Long, Feature Rich Life

By | Android, Helpful Guide | No Comments

Are you fed up with your old, slow, buggy Android phone or tablet, but money is too tight to upgrade? Maybe you just want the freshest version of Android and are tired of waiting for your cell phone company to send an upgrade your way. Heck, maybe you just want your phone to be free of that annoying carrier software that you can’t uninstall. Let Poindexter breath new life into your Android phone with a custom rom.

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poindexter answers your quesitons about the cloud

What is “The Cloud” and why do I need it?

By | Helpful Guide | No Comments

“The Cloud” is a fancy way of saying that your data is copied somewhere else using the Internet. Your computer calls up another nearby computer, they chat, and work together to make a copy of your stuff. Different companies have trademarked services that do this. Apple uses iCloud, Microsoft uses OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive), Google has Google Drive. There’s Drop BoxCarbonite, and countless others, even some based in Baltimore. But they all have that cloud part in common and pretty much work the same way.

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The Best Security Software of 2015

By | Helpful Guide, Tech Alert | No Comments

Best Free Antivirus

Avira Free Antivirus

Although Avira lacks the embellishments of other, prettier antivirus programs, it more than makes up for the sparse interface by being the best free antivirus of 2015. In recent tests, Avira proved to be as effective as most paid for antivirus options, ranking alongside or better than service providers like Norton or McAfee Antivirus. Easy to install, Avira works great on its default settings and can be left to run automatically, protecting your computer without any performance loss or disruptions. Once a threat is found, Avira will notify you and, with your permission, will attempt to quarantine or delete the threat. With Avira’s ever expanding libraries and advanced holistic detection, your computer is in the best possible hands with Avira Free Antivirus.


Best Free Malware Security

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

When fixing computers in the field, Poindexter technicians know what works and what doesn’t – and Malwarebytes works every time. Although every computer needs a competent antivirus installed and running around the clock, no antivirus can protect your computer from every possible threat. Some programs, called PUPs or potentially unwanted programs, still manage to sneak paste even the best protection programs. This is where Malwarebytes truly shines. This free program will effectively remove intrusive malware, potentially unwanted programs, and countless other discrete dangers and annoyances. For Poindexter techs, Malwarebytes has been and will remain an essential part of our emergency tool kit.


Best Free Internet Security

AVG Protection

Although Avira provides the best possible antivirus solution, many clients might benefit from a more comprehensive security solution with extra bells and whistles. For the best all around protection against phishing scams and fraudulent websites, Poindexter recommends AVG Protection. Once installed and configured, AVG will block your favorite internet browsers from loading known malicious websites, protect your computer from the most dangerous transmission vectors and causes of identity theft, as well as keep itself updated and run around the clock without system disruption. Stop internet threats at their sources with AVG’s internet protection.

As a general rule, never run multiple anti-virus programs simultaneously. Be sure to remove any other anti-virus you might have installed, including Avira, if you choose to use AVG instead.


Best Free Secure Internet Browser

Google Chrome

Nearly all viruses, theft, and computer based intrusions are conducted through the internet. It makes sense, then, to have a well developed, feature rich, security centric browser. Although there are numerous browser options, ranging from the incredibly popular Firefox, to the less well known Opera, Poindexter recommends Google Chrome as our browser of choice. With its abundance of available security extensions, including Https Everywhere, regular updates, and easy syncing with Android devices, Google Chrome is the best compromise between features, protection, and usability.


 

click this link to download our specially configured internet security installer

Send Google Photos to Friends and Family

By | Helpful Guide | No Comments

Google Photo has become a convenient way to upload, caption, edit, and share photos and photo albums to friends and family. In this tutorial I hope to show you how to insert a Google Photo into Google Mail (Gmail) quickly and easily. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to insert a Google Photo into an email and how to send it.

Check Google Photo

First, let’s confirm that the photos we want to send are available on Google Photo. Visit Google Photo to check.

step one, check google photo

Great! It looks like the photos I want are ready to be emailed to my friends and family. I have already edited and captioned them using Google Photo, so all that is left is to email them so everyone can enjoy.

Open Gmail

If we want to email anything at all, we’ll need to have Google Mail (Gmail) open in our internet browser. Visit Google Mail now. If you have recently logged into Gmail, your email inbox will immediately open, showing you your most recent received emails. If you haven’t logged in lately or ever, login now using your Gmail address and password.

Adding a Google Photo to Gmail, Step 2

Once Gmail has loaded, your screen will looking something like this. If so, great! Let’s proceed. Next, we want to Compose an email, so go ahead and click the Compose button.

Gmail's Compose Button

Once you’ve clicked on the Compose button, a little window will popup in the bottom right corner. This is where we’ll be writing our email, as well as inserting our Google Photos or Google Albums (if we have any, that is).

In the example, I’ve already filled out the recipients and Subject box. If I were to click the blue Send button now, I would be sending only what you see in the email (my signature and logo) to [email protected] with the Subject “Here are some awesome photos!”

Let’s go ahead and get some of those awesome photos added into our email. Towards the bottom of the email window, you should see a tiny button that looks a bit like two stacked photos.

Click the Insert Photo Button

Go ahead and click that Insert Photo button. This will ask Gmail to load your Photos screen. The first thing it will show you are your Google Photos. Notice the PhotosAlbumsUpload, and Web Address (URL) tabs at the top of this new window. Photos has a nice blue line underneath it indicating that it is the one shown. If we wanted to include an Album instead, we would select that. Let’s stay on Photos for now.

Now, select the photos available

Just look at all of those great photos! I can’t wait to share them. Now, let’s select the photos we want to add by clicking each photo one time (left mouse button).

seelected picture will be highlighted in blue

Clicking each photo you want to include will produce a blue checkmark in the corner, as well as highlight that photo with a blue frame. Once you’ve selected each of the photos you’d like to email, click the blue Insert button in the bottom left. If you decide not to email anything and just want to leave, go ahead and it the Cancel button next door.

Once we’ve Inserted our photos into our email, the photo window will vanish, and you’ll see your photos slowly appear inside of your little email window.

click the insert button and gmail will add your photos, in order, into your compose window

Depending on the speed of your internet connection, it might take a moment before your inserted photos are visible. Just sit tight until every photo you want to send show up in your email. Once every photo is accounted for, the last step is to hit the blue Send button in the bottom right corner of your email window. Once your email has sent, your Compose window will close and a notification will appear letting you know everything went alright. Thanks to the magic of the internet, your addressees will begin receiving your photo filled email in no time. Once it arrives, it will look very similar to this.

once you send the photo, it will arrive looking much like this

As you can see, all of my images arrived safe and sound. Inserting images into an email is a great way to send a handful of photos to friends and family. And, because it is sending them a copy of the photo, your recipients can edit, caption, and share those photos as they please without restriction. They can download the photo, magnify it, or post it to Facebook no problem! They can even Insert that photo into an email of their own and send it to whomever they wish. Excellent!

Hopefully this tutorial helped you better understand the basics of sending Google Photos using Google Mail. If you have any questions, concerns, or need personal tutoring or consultation, contact Poindexter today!

Available by appointment // 908-991-6373