To check if a second-hand phone you are interested in buying is stolen, logon to DeviceCheck.ca. Just enter the IMEI number. This is a unique number in every phone and cannot be changed.
To discover the IMEI number, open the Phone app and dial *#06# on your keypad.
If you find that you cannot read or write or delete files on a drive, whether a memory stick, SD card or hard drive this can be fixed in two ways. The typical method is to right-click on the drive letter (e.g., C: or E:) and on the Security tab select Edit and uncheck any of the boxes that have Deny for permission.
If that fails because those options aren't available do the following:
1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type diskpart and press Enter.
2. If you receive a User Account Control prompt asking for permission to continue, click Yes.
3. At the DISKPART> prompt, type list disk and press Enter.
4. Select your USB flash drive with the select disk command. In this example, we want to work with disk 1, so the command is select disk 1.
5. You can list the attributes of the disk with the command attributes disk.
6. To clear the read-only attribute (making the disk writable), use the command attributes disk clear readonly.
Or, to set the read-only attribute (making the flash disk write-protected), use the command attributes disk set readonly.
7. When you are finished, type Exit to quit the program.
Source: ComputerHope.com
You may want to upgrade the memory on your computer, either the RAM to improve performance or the hard drive to increase storage capacity.
First you need to find out what memory you currently have. To find this, hold down the Windows key and press the Pause key, or alternately you can go to the Start icon in the lower left of your screen (on Windows 10) then go to Settings > System > About.
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The installed RAM on this device is 8.00 GB. But before you look at upgrading your RAM you need to check if expansion is possible. To do that you need to check on the maximum physical space available.
To check this first hold down the Windows key and press R; type cmd into the search box and press OK. This opens the command line window.
Next type the following and press return: wmic memphysical get maxcapacity
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The number that appears is the maximum physical capacity of the computer in kilobytes. You can type or copy the number that appears and, using a calculator, divide by 1,000,000 to get the maximum capacity in gigabytes.
For this computer that would be 8388608 divided by 1,000,000 is 8.388 gigabytes, so this computer already has the maximum amount of RAM possible at 8 gigabytes.
To find out the size of hard drive on your computer, go to the search window beside the Start icon and type msinfo32 and press Return. The window below will appear. Select the plus sign (+) beside Components to expand the menu, then do the same for Storage and select Disks. The line Size shows the hard drive capacity. So this computer has a 500gb hard drive. This could be upgraded to a 1 or 2Tb drive, but this would involve backing up all your files on the computer to another drive and then reinstalling Windows.
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If your computer is running slow or you're having unusual activity, you may need to scan your computer for spyware, malware, viruses or trojans.
First do a deep scan with your anti-virus program, either Windows Defender or a third party program if you have that.
The next thing to do is use the Windows Malicious Removal Tool. In the Windows search window type "run" and in the popup window type "mrt". You can then do a quick scan or a deep scan. The quick scan takes about 5 minutes, the deep scan can take several hours! Just let it run and see if it finds and removes any infections.
There are a few anti-virus suppliers who have a (free) online virus scanning tool that can be used on an infected computer:
Eset also has a set of removal tools for particular hard-to-remove infections.
Try Superantispyware which, despite its hokey name, is excellent at removing malware and spyware. It also works as a real-time monitor of your computer.
Kaspersky also has a free rescue "disk" to use if your computer is so infected that you cannot log into or run it. You download the software (using another computer, of course) and install it on a USB stick or burn it onto a disc. (Most computers, especially laptops, no longer have disc players so the USB option is best). Just install it on the USB stick then boot the troubled computer from the USB stick. You may have to get into the BIOS on your computer to have it boot from the USB.
For the ultimate in handy tools for recovering a broken computer try Hiren's BootCD PE. It can be run from a CD or USB. Just install on a USB stick and boot your computer from the USB. There is a huge selection of apps for recovering a PC. Here is what it has:
BCD-MBR Tools
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Other Tools
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To do a System Restore of the problem operating system, run Hiren's BootCD and open up a Command Prompt (CMD). At the prompt type rstrui.exe /offline:c:\Windows. The System Restore window will open, just go ahead with the restoration.
Older versions of Hiren's BootCD can be found here and here.
PC Magazine Speed Test
BB Reports Speed Test
Vidnoz speaker output and balance test
Vidnoz webcam and microphone test
Henrik Gemal's BrowserSpy - see all public info on your computer
GRC - test a large selection of potential computer vulnerabilities (go to "Services" and select "ShieldsUp!" and on that page press "Proceed"), There you will find tabs to test File Sharing, Common Ports, All Service Ports, and view Browser Headers.
AMTSO phishing test site. Check your anti-virus to see if it detects an attempted phishing exploit.
These test sites will reveal if your computer is open to intrusion from malicious intent:
https://dnschecker.org/port-scanner.php . To use these three categories from the drop-down menu - Check Custom Ports, Server Ports and Application Ports. All should show "Timed-Out". If not, changesettings on your router or firewall.
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Capturing video onto a computer to make digital files from external video sources requires some equipment and software.
For analog video sources an analog to USB adapter is needed. For digital recording an HDMI to USB video adapter is needed. Many are available from Amazon.
For analog to USB the UCEC USB 2.0 Video Capture Card Device has good reviews.
For HDMI to USB the Mirabox 4K USB 3.0 Capture Card has good reviews.
For recording software, reviewers have mentioned the Windows Camera App, and Open Broadcast Software's OBS Studio (which is free) as excellent.
Adding subtitles to a video. I needed this for foreign language films that did not come with English subtitles. Try OpenSubtitles.org or do a Google search to see if a subtitle file is available. This would be done with the ripped video file from the DVD.
