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How to Choose a Strong Password The computer password was born from necessity. With the advent of multiuser time-sharing computer systems, the importance of separating and protecting people’s data became apparent, and the password solved that problem. Passwords are still the most common form of account authentication. Two-factor and multifactor authentication enhances password protection, and biometric authentication provides an alternative method of identification. However, the good old password is still with us and will be for a long time to come....

There may be times when you want to change the direction of text in Word. This is easily done using text boxes or shapes or using cells in a table. We will show you both methods for changing the direction of text. Change the Direction of Text in a Text Box or Shape To change the direction of text using a text box or shape, insert a text box using the Text Box tool in the Text section of the Insert tab or a shape using the Shapes tool in the Illustrations section of the Insert tab....

The user protections in Windows 10 are quite aggressive which, for the most part, is a good thing that protects people from malicious software. Every now and then, however, it’s a wee bit too aggressive and gets in the way of your actual work. Read on as we show you how to circumvent the “This app has been blocked for your protection” error in Windows 10. Why Do I Want To Do This?...

Have you entered some text in columns separated by tabs and you want to convert it to a table? Word provides a useful feature that allows you to quickly convert text to a table and a table to text. You can convert text separated by a specific character, such as a tab, into a table. We will show you how to do this and how to convert the table back to text....

The Track Changes feature in Word is a useful feature for keeping track of the changes you make to a document especially when working collaboratively on a document with others. You may sometimes need to copy the text to another document retaining the tracked changes. This seems simple, but it’s more than just copying and pasting the text. To begin select the text with the changes in your document....

As you type, Word recognizes certain sets of characters, such as web and UNC (Universal Naming Convention – a network resource) addresses, and automatically converts them to live hyperlinks. However, you may notice that addresses with spaces are not converted correctly. After the first space in the address is encountered, Word stops creating the live hyperlink because it doesn’t know whether you are finished typing the address and continued on the next word or if the address contains spaces....

If you want to create a visual that shows how positives and negatives affect totals, you can use a waterfall chart, also called a bridge or cascade chart. You can easily create and customize a waterfall chart in Microsoft Excel. When to Use a Waterfall Chart You might be wondering whether the data that you have in your spreadsheet is appropriate for a waterfall chart. If you have a starting value with a positive and negative series that affects the final outcome, then a waterfall chart is for you....

The iPhone’s camera automatically turns on the Night Mode when it detects low light, making flash unusable. If it’s annoying you, here’s how you can disable auto Night Mode in the camera on iPhone. RELATED: How Does “Night Mode” Work on Smartphone Cameras? How to Disable Night Mode in Camera on iPhone Apple makes Night Mode available on iPhone 11 and higher. Also, the iPhone needs to turn running iOS 14 or later....

Windows 8.1 includes online search results from Bing whenever you search for something on your system. Since many people aren’t going to want this, here is how to get rid of this behavior. Note: obviously it could be a useful feature if you really want it — but then again, if you are searching for something very personal on your own computer, you don’t really want that search being sent over to Bing....

Your Wii U’s GamePad will automatically turn itself on, play a sound to get your attention, and display advertisements for games you might want to buy. It does this when you’re not using the Wi U at all, and that can be a big distraction. Advertisements are one thing, but ads that turn your device on and distract you can just be obnoxious. Here’s how to change the default setting and prevent your GamePad from turning on when you’re not using it....

The Arlo Pro camera not only records video when it detects motion, but it can also capture audio as well. However, if that’s not a feature that you’ll really take advantage of, here’s how to disable the microphone to save just a tad bit of battery life. RELATED: How to Set Up the Netgear Arlo Pro Camera System Open up the Arlo app and tap on the “Settings” tab in the bottom-right corner....

There are plenty of articles about Google Reader alternatives, but did you know you can use your favorite email client to read your RSS feeds as well? How to Import Your Google Reader RSS Feeds into Outlook The first thing you will need to do is export your feeds. You can do so by heading over to this link, then clicking on the Create Archive button. Then click the Download button....

On Linux, you install software from package management applications like the Ubuntu Software Center. But not every piece of software is available in your Linux distribution’s software repositories. You should only install software from sources you trust, just like on Windows. Much of this advice also applies to other Linux distributions, so we’ll note what’s Ubuntu-specific and what’s Linux-in-general. DEB Package Files Ubuntu software packages are in .deb file format....

Using the Weather app on the iPhone may seem like a no-brainer, but it has one little quirk out of the box: it won’t update unless you’re connected to Wi-Fi. For that, you have to turn this setting on. The Weather app is about what you would expect in a weather application. It will display the weather conditions at your current location. But if you try to refresh that later, when you’ve left the house, it won’t show up-to-date information....

To help keep online accounts secure, two-step verification is becoming increasingly common. Apple is the latest firm to introduce this extra level of authentication, meaning that logging into your account requires more than just a basic password. With the feature enabled, you’ll need to not only enter a password (or a recovery key), but also use a pre-registered device to generate code to complete the login process. Start by heading over to the My Apple ID website and click the ’Manage your Apple ID’ button....

This guide explains how to configure a Windows Server 2008 machine to push out a static Ubuntu image that can be picked up by diskless terminals, so that you can have any number of machines running a fully-functional instance of Ubuntu without having a hard drive, as long as they are capable of PXE booting. This is a guest article by Alexander Karnitis and Cody Dull, two readers that work for Hyndman Inc and had to figure out how to accomplish this task for their job....

Say you’re searching for a file, and you know it was last modified during a certain period of time. You can limit your searches to date ranges in Windows, but it’s not immediately obvious. Searching a specific date range in Windows 8 and 10 is harder than it needs to be. Back in the days of Windows XP, File Explorer presented a calendar selector front and center. Even in Windows Vista and Windows 7, that selector wasn’t hard to get to....

Mushroom biomes, remote villages, temples buried in desert sands, ice spike villages: whatever rare structure or biome that eludes you will elude you no more armed with AMIDST, an external Minecraft tool that’s like having a world map and GPS unit rolled into one. Read on as we show you how to search your Minecraft world with Google Maps ease. Why Use AMIDST? Hiking around your Minecraft world in search of new things is tons of fun until, well, it isn’t....

Whether you want to sell off your old smartphone to pay for the new one, add a little cash to your fun money pile, or to put the proceeds toward Christmas, we’re here to help. Read on as we outline the best ways to turn your old gear into money. RELATED: How to Prepare a Computer, Tablet, or Phone Before Selling It When it comes to turning your older gadgets into cash, there are three main venues to explore: trade-in programs, auction sites, and local sale....

The Nest learning thermostat can tell when you leave the house and save energy by turning off the heat or A/C. If you’re leaving home for vacation, however, you can save a lot more by turning your thermostat off entirely. RELATED: How to Make Your Nest Automatically Detect When You’re Away Normally, when you leave your house, the Nest will turn on Eco Mode. In this mode, the Nest will let the temperature get a little outside your normal comfort range before turning on the heat or air conditioning....