Bits of Blue July 2016
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http://www.tpcug.org Bits of Blue A Monthly Publication of the Tampa PC Users Group, Inc. Vol. 29 No. 7 July 2016 July in Tampa Meeting Meeting Preview: Blain Barton from Microsoft will give us a look at the newest technologies for building infrastructure in the cloud from a Developer and Operations perspective. Understanding Merle Nicholson will lead the Windows SIG for the fi rst 30 Microsoft & DevOps minutes of the meeting. by Blain Barton Editor’s Comments Wednesday, July 6, 2016 By William LaMartin, Editor, Tampa PC Users Group [1st Wednesday - Not 2nd] [email protected] hanks to Merle Nicholson’s article on Windows 10, there 6:30 PM is very little room for anything else in the newsletter this Tmonth. And that is fi ne with me, since it is usually, but Pepin Distributing Co. not always, a struggle to fi nd enough material each month. 4121 N 50th Street Tampa, Florida This July meeting is moved up one week from the usual second Wednesday to the fi rst Wednesday of July 6 INSIDE THIS ISSUE In the small amount of space Merle has left me, let me say I Meeting Preview 1 have done the unthinkable: Purchased an Apple iMac. Now, Editor’s Comments 1 don’t get the idea that I am going over to the dark side. This Minutes 2 iMac is to serve a special purpose. I have decided to extend Windows 10 Priority One 3 my app publishing to include iOS devices in addition to my Picture of the Month 5 Comments.......Continued on page 2 Map 8 August Meeting: To be announced Page 2 Bits of Blue July 2016 * * OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS * * President: John Witmer ([email protected]) 813-949-8007 Minutes of the June Meeting Vice President : Kevan Sheridan ([email protected]) 813-988-6480 Treasurer: Doug Mullis ([email protected]) 813-234-9343 Secretary: Merle Nicholson ([email protected]) 813-879-3602 By Merle Nicholson, Secretary, Member at Large: Ron Weinberg ([email protected]) 813-960-4132 Tampa PC Users Group Board Member: Dave Palmer ([email protected]) 813-789-0488 Board Member: Ed Cohen ([email protected]) 813-962-7800 [email protected] APPOINTED (Volunteers) he Windows Special Interest Group (SIG) Editor: William LaMartin ([email protected]) 813-251-3817 opens our monthly meeting. Merle Nicholson, Programs: Doug Mullis ([email protected]) 813-234-9343 Tthe SIG moderator introduces new or little Home Page http://www.tpcug.org known products and technological developments for Bits of Blue is published by the Tampa PC Users Group, Inc., a State of discussion by the group. He accepts questions and Florida registered non-profi t corporation, to provide educational information requests for help in solving problems from attendees. about personal computer systems to its members. Our mailing address is P. O. Box 3492, Tampa, FL 33601-3492. This month Merle demonstrated using the Windows However, for business concerning this newsletter, Bits of Blue, please con- Store and how to keep Microsoft from hijacking your tact the Editor, William LaMartin, at 813-251-3817, or [email protected]. Technical information found in this publication is not necessarily compat- local account. ible with your hardware and software, plus other errors or misprints could occur from time to time. Therefore, the use of programs, commands, functions or any- thing of a technical nature appearing in this publication will be at your own risk. The presentation was given by a long-time member, Brian Lance, on Google Maps and Google Earth. He demonstrated a lot of useful capability that just isn’t RENEWING YOUR MEMBERSHIP? obvious. Cameo by Google Earth searches businesses WE CERTAINLY HOPE YOU WILL and routes, drag and drop way points on route, a menu to embed and share map boundaries and custom saved MAIL YOUR CHECK AND ANY ADDRESS OR NAME CHANGES TO: maps. TAMPA PC USERS GROUP He demonstrated fi ne measurement of closed polygons PO BOX 3492 in a Google map to get area in acres. Draftlogic.com TAMPA, FL 33601-3492 has plugins: Google Maps Area Calculator tool, Send $25 Individual $35 Family a position, and Maps Guestbook. Staticmapmaker.com $60 Corporate = 3 employees + $20 each add’l employee is a service that generates HTML to display an imbed- ded map on your website. All in all, this was a very Go to our web site http://www.tpcug.org and click on the interesting and useful demonstration of the uses for About Us | Join link to join or renew online Google Maps. Thanks must go to Brian for an enter- Check the address label for your renewal month taining and useful presentation. Friend of the User Group Comments..........Continued from page 1 We acknowledge Windows and Android apps. And to do that I needed Pepin Distributing Co. an Apple computer on which to compile the code that for their support is created in Visual Studio using Xamarin. That was not necessary when I wanted to use Xamarin to create Affi liations Android apps from my already existent Windows 10 Universal apps. Android was happy to be compiled Florida Association of User Groups on a windows computer. But Apple is special in this Association of Personal Computer User Groups regard. Thus, I made my fi rst Apple purchase since the mid-1980s when I would have been purchasing items for the Apple IIe I had back then. July 2016 Bits of Blue Page 3 advantages to do that, but every reason is contrived to Windows 10 Priority One For encourage you to violate a basic security principal. If you look at what every corporation does - many hun- New Installations dreds of millions of secure computers, you won’t fi nd one that does this because it’s automatically turned By Merle Nicholson, Secretary, off for Windows domain users. The initial Windows Tampa PC Users Group 10 installation setup assumes you want a Microsoft [email protected] account, and actually obscures local account setup. Also, the Windows Store will hijack your local ac- ’m using Windows 10 successfully, but only after count if you’re not careful. More on that later. Here’s a being satisfi ed that I’ve done all I can to change good article to convert back to a local account. Isome of the behaviors through policies and set- http://www.howtogeek.com/230543/how-to-revert- tings. Let’s face it, it’s rough around the edges. The your-windows-10-account-to-a-local-one-after-the- start menu and PC settings are a work in progress, as windows-store-hijacks-it/ is Edge. Some Windows 10 settings are just strange and inexplicable, and then some policies and settings I used the word “contrived” reasons to discourage lo- just are not in your best interest. Fortunately, there are cal accounts. For instance, the Family Safety feature, legions of technical people out there looking for solu- which was a part of the “Windows Live” set of soft- tions for us. Here’s a compilation of what I’ve found ware is still there but now requires it be managed from and implemented myself. I consider every one of these on-line accounts and even requires an email address mandatory for all computers. I have implemented all for each child. That’s shameful and unnecessary. This of these on my own computers and others as well. was a very valuable tool to protect vulnerable children from predatory websites. PC Magazine now rates it at Note to readers: Instead of typing the URLs refer- a very poor 2. Instead, Google search for “Best Fam- enced in this article, go to the TPCUG.org website, ily safety software”. It appears that Net Nanny and and on the fi rst web page, open this current newsletter. Norton Family Premier is still prominent. In any case There you’ll fi nd that all the links in this article are Microsoft is encouraging you to convert to Microsoft live. Just click on them. accounts to get something that they used to off er for free. That’s a contrived reason. It’s the same for Mi- Below is a link to an article that got me inspired to crosoft Games. write this. I don’t agree with the priority, and it’s not complete, but it’s worth a read, and it has some excel- If you elect to stay with Microsoft Account sign-in, lent instructions. But be sure to read my own advice all the changes below apply, but there’s more security below on some of these same subjects. and privacy setting that need to be done than is cov- http://www.itpro.co.uk/operating-systems/25802/four- ered here. Start with “Settings”, “Accounts”, “Sync teen-windows-10-problems-and-how-to-fi x-them-3 your settings”. And a lot more. and this article is similar with a diff erent set of issues. http://www.howtogeek.com/227827/windows-10-is- Administrator Accounts If you follow my articles great-except-for-the-parts-that-are-terrible/ over several years, you will know that I advocate setting up a local Standard account for daily use and The following is in my own priority order, with a activating the Administrator account, invoking the quick explanation and the best solution I’ve found. Administrator name and password only when needed to install or make changes to the computer. Microsoft Convert to Local Account from a Microsoft online actually advocates this as well, but you have to delib- account Some will certainly disagree, but I believe erately go looking for it.