Category: From the Help Desk

The Facebook Messenger App for Android has gotten a LOT of bad press, lately, so I wanted to clear up a few misconceptions.

Before I discuss the app itself, first, let me say I’m not on Facebook’s side of much of anything. I detest the service, I lie to it whenever possible, and I really wish the world would move on to a new platform. But as much as I dislike Facebook as a service, the Messenger app itself is getting raked over the coals for taking less information than Candy Crush! As people go around Facebook clicking “Share” and “Like” on every little thing they see, they don’t realize they are giving the people who created those Facebook pages just as many permissions as this app they are complaining about. The ACLU created the Hi, Nice to Meet You application to show just what you reveal when you click “LIKE.”

So, having said that, let’s actually look at why the app isn’t as bad as people are saying. Continue reading “Facebook Messenger isn't QUITE as bad as everyone is making it out to be”

What I wanted to do was move a shortcut icon from my Desktop to my Steam folder deep in my Start Menu (under “Apps by name”). I had installed a game from Steam and it created the desktop icon, when I had intended to have it just install to the Start Menu. This one took a little digging. After using Windows 8 since the initial RTM nearly two years ago, I couldn’t believe I had never tried to do this before! Luckily, it isn’t very difficult, when you know where to look. Here’s the breakdown:

In the Windows 7 (and prior) Start Menu, if you wanted to add a shortcut to a folder, all you had to do was drag the icon there. Or, to make it a little easier, you could right click the folder, click Explore, and then have a larger Window to drag the icon in to. In older versions of Windows , it would have been simply located at a specific path (I will use my username NuAngel in the examples):
Vista/7: C:usersNuAngelStart Menu
XP: C:Documents and SettingsNuAngelStart Menu

Now, however, trying to navigate to that folder is impossible, and it doesn’t automatically redirect you to the new location. It turns out, your Start Menu is now under your AppData folder. Look here (of course, replacing NuAngel with your username):
C:UsersNuAngelAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms

That folder is your personal Start Menu. If what you’re looking for isn’t there, it might be under what would basically be considered the “All Users” Start Menu, which can be found here:
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms

Once there, I could navigate to the “Steam” subfolder, cut and paste the shortcut from my desktop, and it appeared within my Start Menu!

With the advent of Windows Phone 8.1, you will be able to use the “Project My Screen” feature to send the signal to your PC. If you’ve already got the Developer’s Preview, you can start playing with this feature now. Here’s a quick breakdown of how it works.

Continue reading “How to use Project My Screen app in Windows Phone 8.1”

A lot of my friends, co-workers, even colleagues are still perplexed by this “Heartbleed” thing. It’s making the news, but in an effort to keep confusing tech news under a minute in their broadcast, reporters skim through the basics leaving the home audience confused. Here’s all you need to know about Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160) as a basic user. Although some programs and even mobile apps will need updated, the majority of average home users only need to worry about the websites they visit. If you are running higher level software (Virtual Machines, Servers, etc…) you may need some more advanced information, but this article is for consumers, not IT Pros. Continue reading “What is Heartbleed, how does it affect me?”