Lots of new things this week – partly because I’ve been playing with Windows 10 (I know it’s not out yet, but I’ve been having a go anyway) and partly because there’s some good news about my tips…
Some exciting (well I think so) news about these emails
In fact, there are 3 bits of news:
First, from next week, these emails will be weekly instead of twice a month.
You see, I’ve found it hard to fit everything into each email and have ended up writing longer and longer emails, when I wanted to be writing shorter ones about one specific thing.
So I’m not saying you’ll necessarily get much more from me – just in smaller chunks!
It also means I can tell you anything urgent without waiting so long for the next newsletter.
I’ve picked Mondays, so you should get your email every Monday morning (but not tomorrow – the first one will be the 23rd Feb.)
Secondly, you can now comment on what you’ve read in each email.
If you go here you’ll see each week’s email there. And if you look at the bottom of the article, it’ll say “no comments” (if you’re quick) or “7 comments” or however many there are.
Click on that and you can comment on what I’ve written.
What might you say?
Well, you might want to say you agree. Or that what Virgin are doing is outrageous as you’re losing your email address (see below). Or if I’ve said a way to do something you might want to say “Yes, and here’s another way to do it” or recommend a program you’ve used for something.
You might even want to say “Thanks, that was really helpful!”
One thing, though. These comments aren’t for a technical help service. I thought it would be useful for everyone to be able to comment on the news in the email, but it’s not for saying “I’ve got this problem with my PC, can you help?”
I’m not trying to be mean – it’s just that we already have a service for that, which is currently not taking on new members. If you’re a member, you already know to ask questions in the clubroom there! If you’re not, keep your eyes peeled – we’ll probably open it up to let some more people in later in the year.
Anyway, if you want to say “I agree” or “I disagree” or “That’s helpful” or “How about XYZ”, then just go to the comments bit under the article here.
And thirdly, if you do go and see the comments bit on that website, you might notice some fancy symbols to the left of where it says comments.
If you use Facebook, you can click on the blue one with an F on it to share it with your friends on Facebook. If you think there’s something in there they might find useful, just click that button and that’s it.
The other buttons are for if you use Twitter or Google+. They do something similar to the Facebook button for Twitter and Google+.
Windows 10 – out late 2015? (But I have it set up now)
This is a very quick update but the latest is that Windows 10, the latest version, will be out in the second half of this year.
I actually have a pre-release, not quite finished version of it set up on a spare computer (I didn’t abseil down Microsoft’s offices to sneak in through an air-vent to get it, I’m afraid, they make it available to people like me to write about it and help find any bugs!).
My first impressions are that it’s a good improvement from Windows 8/8.1. They’ve listened to a lot of the criticisms of Windows 8 and done something about them.
Anyway, I’ll give you more info about it once I’ve had more of a play with it…
Virgin email customers abandoned (but not all of you)
Don’t panic yet, as it doesn’t affect all Virgin customers by any means, but some of you are going to be abandoned by Virgin.
If it’s you, they should have already told you, but in case they didn’t or didn’t make sense, if this affects you, they’ll shunt you off to TalkTalk instead. That’s bad for two reasons:
1) TalkTalk don’t have the best reputation
2) You’ll lose your email address ending in @virgin.net /.com/whatever
You don’t have to go to TalkTalk – in the meantime you can switch to any other provider. But if you don’t do anything, then they’ll switch you to TalkTalk and at some point your email address will stop working.
So are you affected? Well, about 100,000 people are. Quite a few. Basically it’s anyone who has broadband from Virgin through “ADSL” – like a traditional phone line. It doesn’t affect anyone who has cable.
So if your modem/router plugs into a phone socket on the wall and you’re with Virgin, chances are you’re affected.
I think they haven’t been taking on any new customers for this service for a year or more, so any new customers won’t be affected.
And if you have cable from them, you’re fine.
But if you’re not sure, you might want to ring Virgin to check.
And if it is going to affect you, best let everyone know that your email address will change (and don’t forget to tell us so we can make sure you don’t miss out on these emails – you can just reply to this email)
Phew, that’s it for this time.
Remember, you can comment on anything in this email. Click here or or click the link below my name. Then just click on the “No comment” or “34 comments” or whatever, at the bottom of the article. Keep it polite, though!
First comment ?
Thank you for this
Well done again Tim, excellent idea!
Hi Tim I don’t agree with your comments about Talk Talk In my experience they have been great, fair to deal with and reasonable in price.Look forward to your next newsletter as always.
Sincerely Len Nelson
Thanks for the info about Virgin.I am one of those being dumped and didn’t know what to do.Can you give any ifo about Plusnet.As they are Yorkshire based I was thinking of giving them a try.Any comments would be appreciated.June
Hi Tim, you don’t have your nose hanging over the sign as for as Mr Chad would, but I sure agree with you on talk-talk the frustration of dealing with them was too much for me.
Thank you for this information.
I loock forward to your e mails they are very infomative
very best wishis george
Thanks for your latest email. look forward to weekly updates in the future. keep up the good work.
It took me a while to master Windows “7” from “XP”.
Windows “8” I believe was not successful or very popular. I wait with trepidation to see what “10” has to offer.
Thankyou Tim, however , I have no comment at this time.
I have found plusnet excellent…helpful when needed June
Hi there. More of a cry for help before I throw this laptop out of the window. ! I have upgraded [I think ] my Adobe Flash player but when I get things from Canada, I cannot open it because it prompts me to upgrade !!! Can anyone help ??? Please !
Thanks for the updates, Tim and I must say after months of frustration and after many years of being one of their customers, I finally gave up on Talktalk.
They are such a terrible company.
Do I need to save these emails in my In box or will they be available on your site? Thank you for many years of help. I Use Talktalk no problems-so far.
Hi Tim, your comments re Talktalk emails I think are little unfair. I have been with Talktalk for some years and (touch wood) have not had any problems.
Thanks for the chance to make a comment.
Morris
TalkTalk have been brilliant for us, though no supplier is perfect! Thanks for the launch of the weekly news. Jimmy
Good idea, Would have liked to have said what a good idea in a previous email about being able to move open tabs to different positions in a browser. Now I will be able to do that in future. Thanks
I agree with the adverse comments regarding TalkTalk. Trying to resolve a technical query with them, either by email or telephone, is a nightmare.
Ken
Good idea will look forward to more. Thank you
Thanks for all the info you provide Tim – I always look forward to your mails. I have been wanting to get a new laptop but windows 8.1 has been putting me off for months. So will look forward to see what windows 10 is all about. Cheers
Thanks to everyone for all the kind comments – always nice to hear people finding my work useful!
Varied comments about TalkTalk – it’s good to hear that some people have had good service from them, so it’s not all bad news! Others haven’t been so happy with them, so I suppose it’s the luck of the draw.
I haven’t used PlusNet myself, but have heard good things in general from those who have. My only worry is that a while ago they were bought by BT, so are no longer independent. BT say that they will carry on being run separately, though.
Good question from Deanna – you don’t need to save the emails if you don’t want as they’ll be accessible on this site. Having them in a folder in your email program can be easier to search for a particular previous issue, though, so if you find that easier, feel free to keep the emails too! (There is a search box on this site, though, over on the right.)
Mervyn, I won’t really be answering technical questions in detail here as it doesn’t feel fair to members of the Inner Circle. To point you in the right direction, have a look at what file format the files you can’t open are in – what program they were created in. It might be something like Word, Excel or OpenOffice that’s separate from Adobe Flash, and it might be that program that needs installing/updating.
Elia – you’re in a similar situation to my Mum, who’d like to replace their PC but doesn’t want Windows 8! There is a possibility to get a Windows 8.1 one and upgrade it (free) when Windows 10 comes out but it does mean living with Windows 8 in the meantime, so Mum’s just hanging on until the new one is out. Mum was trying to get me to say exactly when it would be out (it’s not announced yet) and I reckon September – my brother guessed August. So somewhere round there is probably about right!
Phew – it’s been quite fun seeing everyone’s reactions to the newsletter!
Tim
Hi Tim.
Have just got your books thanks. just one question, I use AUTOCAD 2006 if I down load Autocad 2009 will this cancel the 2006 on my computor or just add it as just another download, as I have a lot of drawings on file?
Dave.
hi Tim thanks for the newsletter and the info about Talktalk, it does’nt affect me now but a few years back I was in the process of moving to Talktalk and had a’run in ‘ with them about the kind of contract I was on, they just could not get in right and in my opinion it all came down to poor training given to their staff. it took a senior executve to sort thing out . regards .
I have enough problem at the moment coping, or trying to cope, with a lap top that I find more fascinating each time I use it to even consider ipod or android. Your emails are great and the advice you gave about mucky screens I tried and found it worked a treat.Thank you.
Hello
Mr Cook – I’ve never tried it with those particular programs, but I know other people have had Autocad 2006 and 2009 at the same time, so it should work fine for you too. In theory the 2009 version can open the 2004 files as well, so you could potentially just use the newer version even with the older files.
It’s a good question generally – some programs like this you can have two versions of, others will replace the older one.
Tim
Hi Tim good reading thanks ,afraid I didn’t get much luck with talktalk …but changed to Bt so now everything is working well .Ps just to say your new books are just great cannot stop reading & putting them to work ,so easy to follow ..Thanks from Ann