Windows 10 is scheduled to launch July 29th and will have the best features of Windows 7 (Start menu) and Windows 8 (quick start up speed and many more pre-installed device drivers).

If you are on Windows 8.1 now and still very unhappy with it, you may want to consider reserving your free copy of Windows 10 by clicking on the white Microsoft logo in your system tray and then choose the option to reserve it. It will be free (forever) as long as you upgrade before July 29th, 2016. Windows 7 users may also upgrade directly to Windows 10 by reserving a copy. After July 29th, 2016 there will probably be a charge to upgrade from Windows 7 and 8. Click here for more Windows 10 Q&A.

Stop using your dog's name and make up "passphrases" that are at least 13 characters long to include numbers, codes, letters, and at least 1 capital letter. Many sites let you use spaces too. Longer less complicated passwords are actually more secure than complicated shorter ones. The longer the password, the more secure it is. It may seem cumbersome at first to type a new secure password but after the first few times it will be come second nature to type it. If you have to write it down, just put it in a secure place that you will remember.

Examples: "L1ve free 0r die"; M1ssis1ippi-pie; #I love my rye public libr@ry; you get the gist...

Internet Explorer (Windows only) is plagued with security holes due to old coding and why Microsoft is coming out with a brand new browser in Windows 10 called "Spartan" that will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox.

Safari is a browser developed by Apple and only available on Mac & iOS devices. Most people are happy with Safari but some have ventured to try others out.

Chrome is Google's product and the # 1 Browser. We all know what happens when you purchase a new sweater off a website. The next day, you see the same or similar sweater over to the right in an ad meant just for you. Google now knows you just bought a size medium sweater. Do you care? If not, Google definitely has some advantages such as limiting your search criteria by post date (past week, month or year). Like Firefox, Chrome has some add-ons that help prevent malware scripts from running and some ad blocking.

Firefox is the only browser of the four most popular that is a not-for-profit. Because Firefox's company Mozilla is open-source other browsers such as "Opera" have been created from the same code (just modified). Some people feel that your window in to the world wide web should be managed by an organization who can see the bigger picture and represent all parties' best interests, not just their own. Firefox also sports a strong catalog of extensions and has some really nifty ones that help you with privacy and prevent the moving ads in the right pane from even displaying.

The one add-on that Firefox has that Chrome doesn't is called "Google Sharing" which when installed, doesn't share your search history with Google when you use the Google search engine.

When enabled, it shows "Google Sharing Enabled" in your toolbar which can be confusing when you first read it. "Enabled" means the add-on is working and is "not" sharing with Google.

In order to really "choose" the best browser for you, I suggest taking them each for a test drive. You can install them and kick the tires. Since Internet Explorer comes with Windows (and the newest version in version 10) and Mac & iOS have Safari, here are the links for the other two:
Mozilla Firefox - Also available for Mac OS X & Linux
Google Chrome - Also available for iOS, Android, Mac OS X 10.6 or later, and Linux.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BROWSER AND A SEARCH ENGINE:

A browser is a program that takes all the various pieces of a website (pictures, articles, presentation features like color and fonts) and puts them together so that you see them as an integrated website. 

The top browsers in use today are:

• Google Chrome or just Chrome (the Google in the name is sometimes confusing because Google started as just a Search Engine)
• Mozilla Firefox
• Internet Explorer - also called IE.
• Safari

Browsers are the picture "frame" around the search engine which contains your menus, URL box and icons (like the ones above in the Google sharing example). You open a browser by clicking on the program icon.

A search engine does what the name suggests.  It searches for relevant websites based on key words. You have two search options:

If you want to know about something, you type it into the search box (the box that is in the middle of the page) or in the URL box as shown below and it will give you thousands (millions sometimes) of websites that have one or more of the key words associated with them. It's important to use as many keywords as possible to limit more popular searches.


You get to a search engine by typing the URL in the URL box within the browser (this is not a search but rather entering in the direct "address" of the site you want to go to.

• Google.com
• DuckDuckGo (does not track your searches like all other & runs best side by side within Firefox)
• Bing.com
• Yahoo.com

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If you would like help with adding some extensions to your browser, discussing the browsers in more detail, or to register for my "Free Tools to Get your Privacy Back" class, give me a call or send me an email. You do not need to be a Rye resident to attend any of my free classes.

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