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With the threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) all around us, we are all being more diligent about wiping down our work areas. One of the highest touch areas in your environment is your keyboard, mouse, and touch screens. If you’re a customer of Centrend, I already have the inside of your computer covered with strong antivirus software. So here’s how to keep your stuff clear of the other types of viruses. Important note: Off-the-shelf brands of “electronic wipes” are NOT disinfectants unless they specifically say so. At the left is an image of a common one that is NOT a disinfectant. It may wipe away the virus but if there is any left on the surface, it will stay alive. I recommend using Isopropyl alcohol. The CDC recommends the solution have at least 70% alcohol content. The one I use is pictured at right. Mine is 91% but as long as you are 70% it should be effective. So how to disinfect your equipment with these products? It will depend on the specific equipment so I’ll go through each category one by one. Screens & Phones Make sure the device is off. Always apply the solution to a cloth and don’t spray the equipment directly Use a MicroFiber to make sure dust and lint don’t collect on the screen. If the screen appears physically dirty, you may want to clean it with a paper towel or other soft cloth and save the microfiber for after. If your Microfiber cloth gets dirty, you can wash it with mild detergent and a soft-bristled brush like an old toothbrush. Dry the screen or wait till it is dry to turn it on again. Keyboard Unplug your keyboard from the computer or shut it off if it is wireless. Hold it upside down over a trash can and give it a few shakes. This will knock food crumbs and other particles out of the keyboard. You can use compressed air to help blow out crumbs. Just don’t hit it too hard with the air stream or you will blow keys off the keyboard! Apply the cleaning solution to the cloth. Never spray solutions directly onto the keyboard. To get in between the keys, you can use a cotton swab (Q-Tip) that you dip in the solution. Be sure there isn’t so much solution on the swab that it drips into the keyboard. Mouse or Touchpad Unplug your mouse from the computer or shut it off if it’s wireless. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, hold it upside down and spin it a few times to get any loose particles out of the inside. Apply the cleaning / disinfecting solution to a cloth and be sure it’s not too saturated. Your mouse has openings that you can’t let the liquid run into. Let the mouse dry before plugging it back in or turning it on again. I hope you’ve enjoyed my article and it helps you stay safe and healthy!

Your router is the box that connects your computers, phones, and tablets to the outside world. If your router is old or undersized for the number of devices you have, it can create a bottleneck. Here are a few essential things to keep in mind when assessing your router. These rules apply to home users or businesses alike, so read on! It’s not uncommon for me to hear a complaint from a client about slow internet connection speeds. When I plug my testing equipment directly into the Internet Service Provider’s device, I often see the full speed they are paying for. So what’s the reason for slow speeds beyond the provider’s gear? It’s often a fault of the Internet Router. The internet router is responsible for blocking unwanted/unrequested traffic from getting into your devices. A router provides basic firewalling services at a minimum. Simply stated: nothing gets in unless it was requested from the inside. This means that the router is VERY BUSY processing all the packets of information and deciding which ones should be let in and which ones should be dropped.  You can visit http://www.speedtest.net and see if you are getting the speed you are paying for. If not, here are the possible reasons: Your “off-the-shelf” router and not built for the number of devices you have connecting at once Your router is too old and can’t communicate at the speeds of your internet connection If Wi-Fi is slow, you may have a 54g network which is about 1/2 the speed of a 100MB speed modem Need help to figure out network performance problems? Reach out to me at the contact info below, and we’ll be glad to help!

If you are using a laptop on a slow wireless connection such as hotel Wi-Fi or a cellular hotspot, your connection can slow to a crawl if you have installed cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft’s One-Drive. Here’s how to limit how much resource the service uses, so you have room to do other things on the internet. Why does this happen? Cloud storage applications synchronize data in the background. There is plenty of room for them to do their thing on a typical high-speed connection while you use your computer. When you don’t have a fast connection, pausing or shutting off the service is not the best idea because you need to update the cloud with your changes. There is also a danger that you won’t remember to turn it back on, and the data you count on being accessible in the cloud won’t be there at all or won’t be the latest version you were working on. My advice is to tweak your application to limit how much of the internet connection the cloud application is allowed to use. If I’m using my Verizon hotspot, I generally set a download rate limit of 50 KB/s and an upload rate of 10 KB/s. This might be a good starting point for you. If you find it’s taking too long to finish syncing up, tweak the rate limits to your liking. Below are some screenshots of where to make this change in some of the most popular cloud services. If yours isn’t listed, you’ll probably be able to find it in the same general area of settings. Dropbox: Start by clicking the Dropbox icon in the bottom right of the screen in the taskbar.  Next, click the dropdown in the top right, then choose preferences. In Dropbox preferences, choose bandwidth.  Set a limit for both download and upload. Google Drive File Stream: Click the Google Drive icon in the taskbar. Click the Gear in the top right of the window, then choose Preferences. Click Network Settings in the bottom right of the settings window. Set a limit for both download and upload. Microsoft One Drive: Click the One Drive icon in your taskbar. Click the Help and Settings gear, then click Settings in the window that comes up. Set a limit for both download and upload. Is your computer slow all the time? You could have malware or a virus using up your bandwidth. It’s also possible that you need a tune-up. Reach out to us, and we’ll help you get your computer running as it should.

Have you ever been working on a spreadsheet and after entering a formula in a cell, you see the formula instead of the result? This article explains what happened and how you can get it back. This can happen in both Excel and Google Sheets, and I’ll explain how to troubleshoot and correct the problem in both applications. Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel contain spreadsheet auditing functions to “show formulas.” If ALL your formulas are showing up instead of the result of the formula, I recommend this as the first thing you would check: In Microsoft Excel: Click the Formula option on the toolbar Ribbon Click Show Formulas. This Toggles the display of all formulas on or off. Use it to troubleshoot/verify formulas when you are auditing a spreadsheet. In Google Sheets: Click the View option on the menu bar. Click Show Formulas to toggle the display of all formulas. Again, great for double-checking that your formulas are correct and consistent. But what if your problem is that only one particular formula is showing up while all the other formulas on the sheet are showing the result?  When this happens, you need to look closely at the cell by clicking it, then viewing the formula details in the editing section. Check out my image at the right, and you will see that it has the “force text” symbol, which is a single quote, in front of the formula. In both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets: Once I remove that extra single quote, the formula displays the result instead. I hope you find this blog entry helpful! Check back soon for more great computing hints and tips. If you have any you’d like to share, please comment below.

You should always secure your computer by locking the screen when you walk away. But sometimes in a rush, we forget to lock it down. This article shows how to set up an automatic lock so that when you walk away from your computer, your screen will lock itself! Keeping your PC wide open when you walk away leaves it available for anyone to mess with. So whether you are concerned about office pranksters or someone prying eyes seeing your information, it’s best to keep the workstation locked when you leave it unattended. Microsoft has included a feature in Windows 10 called Dynamic Lock that will automatically lock the workstation for you, should you forget to lock it yourself. The Dynamic Lock feature works by monitoring the computer’s connection to your cell phone. When it detects that the phone has moved away and is out of range, it locks your desktop for you. For this to work, both your phone and your computer must have Bluetooth connectivity. Almost all laptops have Bluetooth, and many desktops are also including it. If your system doesn’t already have Bluetooth, you can add a USB-connected Bluetooth adapter for about $12. Sound good? Let’s get you set up! Once you know your phone and PC have Bluetooth, the first thing you need to do is pair your phone to Windows 10. Confirm that Bluetooth on your phone is turned on. Then on your computer go to Settings > Devices > Bluetooth & other devices. From this screen, click Add Bluetooth or Other Device.  Then Click Bluetooth as the device type. After a moment or two of scanning, you should see your phone appear on the list. Below is an example of pairing my laptop to the Pixel 3XL. After I clicked Connect on the computer, I checked the PIN that was shown to be sure it was the correct one, and then I clicked Pair on the phone. Now the laptop is paired with the phone, and whenever I have my phone in proximity (about 33 feet), the two will connect.  Click Done to exit the connection screen. Now that your phone is connected via Bluetooth, we need to tell Windows to use its proximity to lock your system down. On your computer go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options. Scroll down to the Dynamic Lock section and check the “Allow Windows to automatically lock your device when you’re away” box. Now, assuming you have your phone on you and not on the desk when you walk away from your PC, your computer will automatically lock.  NOTE: There is a 30-second safety buffer that it must wait before locking your screen. If you or anyone else starts to use the computer, the screen will not lock. It’s best always to try to remember to keep your computer locked when you are away from it, but this is a great failsafe if you do forget to lock down your workstation!