Posts from Online Tech Tips for 07/24/2019

In this issue: How To Change Google’s Background On Your Web Browser - [View in browser]( Tuesday, July 23, 2019 How To Change Google’s Background On Your Web Browser by Christopher Jan Benitez | [Online Tech Tips]( Google’s default background image isn’t hard to look at. But if you perform a Google search many times a day, you might get tired of staring at a boring white background image. If so, you can change it and look at something different. In this post, let’s go over how to pull it off. This way, you can spice up your browsing experience. Using a Pre-Made Theme Changing your Google background is easy. If you still can’t figure out a theme, you can check out the store to see cool ones. To begin, launch Google Chrome. It’s important to note that this tutorial only works if your browser is Chrome. If you’re using Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft, then you can’t go about this. Then head to the far end (right corner) of the Chrome browser and click the icon with the three dots. Doing this will reveal a drop-down menu to you. Here, click Settings. Scroll down to the Appearance section. There, you will find Open Chrome Web Store under Themes. Choose this option. Now, choose a theme. If you have a particular theme in mind, just search for it! If you want to look at the available ones at the gallery, you can also go with that. Either way, click on the theme that you want. Doing this will open a new tab that features that theme. Once you have a theme, click Add to Chrome. Here, you may scroll down the page to see an overview of your chosen theme. It’s also in this area where you can find information about the theme’s compatibility with your device. You can now enjoy your new theme! If you don’t like it, you can always choose another theme from the store. Just click Undo to revert the changes. If you want to go back to the way your theme was, just go to the Appearance section once more. There, choose Reset to default. Using Your Own Background Image You can also change the Google background with photos. You can use the pictures of your family, friends, and pets! If not, go for the ones chosen for you by Google. To start, open a new tab on Chrome. Then click the gear icon on the bottom. Doing this will reveal a menu that says Customise this page. Here, you can choose how you want to change your Google background. You may upload your own image. Just choose from one of your folders. You may also go with Chrome backgrounds. If you pick this option, a window will appear. There, you can go over a collection of great designs! If you don’t like your new background, you can always go back to the original. To do this, head to the gear icon once more. There, you will find an option that lets you Restore default background. Click this to undo the changes. You may also like these other posts from OTT: [The 3 Best Sites To Use For Archiving Webpages]( [Use Excel Mobile’s New “Insert Data From Picture” Function]( [How To Search Your Open Tabs in Google Chrome]( [How To Set Up Steam Link to Stream Games]( [How to Share & Repost Images on Instagram]( How To Use a Public Computer Safely - [View in browser]( Tuesday, July 23, 2019 How To Use a Public Computer Safely by Aseem Kishore | [Online Tech Tips]( In the bad old days, before everyone had a small supercomputer in their pockets, the only way for many people to get internet access was through an internet cafe. You’d show up, pay a few dollars and then get a computer all to yourself for a set amount of time. These days, the use of public computers is relatively rare in the Western world. Regardless, there’s a good chance that, at some point, you’ll be put in a position where you need to use a public computer. Maybe your phone is dead or stolen? Maybe you are in another country and have no coverage or WiFi access? At this point that hotel or internet cafe computer might look like a lifesaver. What you might not know is that public computers pose a significant privacy risk. So when the time comes, how can you minimize the dangers of using these innocuous-looking machines? Why Are Public Computers a Risk? First off, let’s clarify the exact risk these computers pose. The main problem with public computers is, well, they’re public. With your own personal devices you can count on pass codes, passwords and strong [disk encryption]( to prevent anyone else from getting your sensitive information. With a public computer whatever information you leave on the machine is waiting for the next user to do with as they please. That’s a real problem because with modern computing you’re leaving information left and right like digital dandruff. Usually without knowing it. The other main risk of these machines comes from people who have used it before you sat down. Not just because the typical public mouse and keyboard is a bio-hazard, although that’s another issue, but because they could have left all sorts of nasty surprises for you. These surprises are aimed at skimming information from you in a variety of ways. Which means you should really only use public computers as a last resort if its an emergency. Check For Anything Suspicious The first thing you should do is check whether there’s [anything suspicious]( plugged into the machine. One common item is a USB keylogger device. This is a USB device that sits between the keyboard and computer, and records every single keystroke made on that machine. The owner of the logger will come back at some later time to dump its logs. It will then search for email addresses, passwords and credit card numbers. If you see anything weird plugged into the computer that you don’t recognize, it’s best to go elsewhere. Browser Privacy Modes Are Your Friends If you’re going to be browsing the web using the browser found on the computer, then you should definitely switch it to [privacy mode](. For example, in Google Chrome this is called incognito mode. When you browse the web from a private Window, the browser doesn’t record any of your information permanently. When you close the window, all your browsing history, passwords, logins and other similar information will disappear. Privacy mode doesn’t hide anything from the proxy server or ISP though. So don’t visit prohibited sites. If you want to hide your internet activity on a public computer you’ll need to use [a VPN]( and perhaps also the [Tor browser](. However, that’s a slightly different discussion. Portable Apps & Live Operating Systems While using privacy mode on public browsers is a good piece of common sense in a pinch, it’s better to avoid using any of the software on that computer at all. Even better, you can avoid using the operating system in its entirety! The first part of this puzzle comes in the form of [portable apps](. These are special applications that don’t require installation, are self-contained and run from any media. So you can load up portable applications on a flash drive and plug it into the public machine. First among these should be a portable antivirus package. You may also want to add a portable browser and portable office suite. When it comes to skipping out on the public machine’s operating system, you can use portable virtual machine software, running a clean OS image of [something like Linux](. This has the advantage of not requiring a reboot. If you are allowed to, you can also [boot a live operating system]( from a flash drive or optical disc. Ensuring that none of your personal information ever touches the public machine’s permanent storage at all! Clean Up After Yourself Of course, using portable apps and live operating systems requires some forethought. You need to prep a flash drive, throw it in your bag and then hope you never need to use it. If you do end up in a situation where you had no choice but to use one of these computers without proper protection, you need to do some decontamination work afterwards. You should make sure your entire browsing history and all browsing data has been removed. You might also want to run a free space file shredder on the machine to make sure your deleted information cannot be recovered. Likewise, make sure you didn’t leave anything in the computer’s recycle bin. If you had to log into any services from that public computer, it’s a good idea to change your passwords at the first opportunity. If you didn’t already have two-factor authentication, you should also ensure it’s switched on for every service in question. A Byte Of Prevention Is Better Than a Gig Of Cure It might seem a little overblown to care this much about public computer safety. However, in a world of cybercrimes, identity theft and worse, taking just these few steps can be the key to keeping you safe from the harsh world of internet crime. So prep that emergency flash drive today and make sure you’re never caught out when you’re already dealing with enough problems. You may also like these other posts from OTT: [The 3 Best Sites To Use For Archiving Webpages]( [Use Excel Mobile’s New “Insert Data From Picture” Function]( [How To Search Your Open Tabs in Google Chrome]( [How To Set Up Steam Link to Stream Games]( [How to Share & Repost Images on Instagram]( Check out more posts from our publishing family: Help Desk Geek Posts [6 Easy Ways To Speed Up Your Ubuntu Installation]( Jul 23, 2019 by David Trounce Have you noticed your Ubuntu system’s performance has slowed down? Even though Ubuntu 18.04 (the most recent version) is a very powerful Linux distribution, over time, your installation can become sluggish. There are a variety of factors that can affect the speed of your system, including: The number of programs you have downloaded Low virtual […] [READ MORE]( [12 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With The Windows Toolbar]( Jul 23, 2019 by Guy McDowell A key to quality work is a quality workspace. Organized, a place for everything and everything in its place. That’s one of the ideas behind the Windows toolbar. Let’s learn how to make the most of it. The Windows toolbar is the strip across the bottom of your screen where the Windows button is on […] [READ MORE]( The Backroom Tech Posts [How To Encrypt Data In Amazon S3]( Jul 20, 2019 by Aseem Kishore Most data uploaded to the cloud is protected by the standard username and password authentication, and is usually stored in plaintext for easy access and retrieval. However, because some data can be sensitive and confidential, this level of protection will not be enough against certain threats or to meet certain requirements such as : External […] [READ MORE]( [Creating an SOFS Share on S2D using Virtual Machines]( Jul 5, 2019 by Sabrin Alexander Hello and welcome to another awesome article. This time we’re going to create a highly-available Windows share by just using virtual machines, without the need for dedicated hardware, SAN or NAS storage or any special networking requirements. Before we get started on the article let’s see what the use case might be for this type […] [READ MORE]( Switching To Mac Posts [How To Make iPhone Screencasts With Quicktime]( Jul 20, 2019 by Mark O'Neill If you want to explain how to do something on a computer, smartphone or tablet screen, your best bet is to make a screencast. YouTube is full of these showing you how to do every conceivable thing in tech. A screencast is a video of you doing things on your screen. You can add your […] [READ MORE]( [What To Do When You Are Switching From An Old iPad To a New One]( Jul 15, 2019 by Mark O'Neill Yesterday, I bought a new iPad – the 2019 iPad Air. This doesn’t happen very often. I tend to keep my devices until they are literally on their last legs, wheezing for breath. My old device, the 2013 iPad model, was struggling to operate iOS 10 so I decided to put it out of its […] [READ MORE]( ABOUT ONLINE TECH TIPS Welcome to Online Tech Tips – A blog that provide readers with daily computer tutorials, technology news, software reviews, and personal computing tips. My name is Aseem Kishore and I am a full-time professional blogger. I graduated from Emory University with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Copyright © 2019 Online-Tech-Tips.com, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined our newsletter on our website, www.Online-Tech-Tips.com. 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