Windows 10

Featured Article – How Dark Mode Can Help

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’ve heard about (or already use) ‘dark mode’ for apps and devices but don’t know much about it, here’s a look at why it has been introduced, whether it delivers real benefits, and how to turn on dark mode in different operating systems and apps.

What Is Dark Mode?

Dark mode/dark theme/night mode is a light-on-dark colour scheme for operating systems that use light-coloured text, icons, and graphical user interface elements on a dark background. Dark mode can be used on Android, iOS, PCs, Macs, and individual apps.

Good For Health and Battery Life?

The main reasons for operating systems and apps offering dark mode appear to be that:

– It could be better for health in terms of reducing the risk of eye strain where you may have been looking at the screen for a long time and/or you are working into the night.

– Dark mode consumes less energy and is less likely to drain your battery.

– It is aesthetically pleasing to use and is valued by many users and can feel like a more comfortable alternative when working in dimly lit environments.

– Dark mode is found to be helpful by gamers.

– Having light text on a dark background can make the text more legible/readable. There is some research evidence to support this – 2013 Research by psychologists Cosima Piepenbrock and Susanne May.

– It could be a way to help individuals with light sensitivity or visual impairments (According to Jonathan Chow, a senior UX designer at Reddit – see below).

Proof?

The issue of whether dark mode is better for your health (vision) is now a contentious one.  Reference can be found in many places on the Web to a 2018 article in ‘Popular Science’ (by Eleanor Cummins ) which offers insights by Jonathan Chow, a senior UX designer at Reddit, into how dark mode could help, but the article doesn’t deliver scientific proof as such.

Whether dark mode can save your battery power in your phone, for example, depends on the type of screen you have. An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen makes pixels light up or turn off individually.  This means that in dark mode, pixels that show as black are de-activated, thereby saving energy. With LED screens, even pixels that display as black are activated/lit up, therefore, meaning that there is no real energy-saving benefit.  The iPhone X, for example, was the first Apple phone with an OLED screen.

Different Times

Different tech companies and app-makers added dark modes/dark themes to their products, platforms, and systems at different times. For example, Google introduced dark mode to Android back in November 2018 (to save battery life), while Apple announced the introduction of a light-on-dark mode to all native applications in iOS 13 and iPadOS in June 2019. A timeline of when different companies introduced dark mode can be found in the ‘History’ section of this page: https://worddisk.com/wiki/Dark_mode/.

A full list of apps offering dark mode can be found here: https://darkmodelist.com/.

Facebook Introduces Re-Design With Dark Mode

Facebook has only just (May 2020) introduced its re-designed desktop site which now includes dark mode.  This can be switched on by clicking on the down arrow (end of the upper menu bar) to pull up the old Facebook’s settings menu, clicking on “Switch to new Facebook”, then clicking the same down arrow and toggling dark mode from off to on.

How To Turn On Dark Mode

Here is brief summary of how to turn on dark mode for different Operating Systems and apps:

iOS

To get dark mode in iOS, swipe from the home screen to go to the control centre and go to settings, tap ‘Display & Brightness’, tap either ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ to choose which appearance you prefer. After turning it to automatic go to ‘Options’ to choose when dark mode comes on e.g. sunset to sunrise every day or at certain times.

Another way to achieve the same thing is to go to settings, tap ‘Display & Brightness’, tap either ‘Light’ or ‘Dark, and tap the toggle underneath to set dark mode to come on automatically.  As before, after turning it to automatic go to ‘Options’ to choose when dark mode comes on e.g. sunset to sunrise every day or at certain times.

Android

Dark mode/dark theme, which became available for Android (10) in November 2019 can be operated by going to Settings, ‘Display’, ‘Advanced’ and then using the dark theme on/off toggle. This can also be done via the quick settings in the notification bar.

Mac

Dark Mode on an Apple Mac can be turned on by going to the Apple menu (top left), choosing System Preferences, and choosing the ‘dark’ option.  Dark mode works on macOS Mojave or later for any Apple program and many third-party apps.

Windows

To enable dark mode on Windows 10, go to Settings, Personalisation, Colours and choose the default windows app mode as light or dark.

Edge also has a dark mode option.  To enable it, go to the menu (top right) and select ‘Settings’ from the dropdown list, and then choose ‘dark’ from the themes options (light or dark).

Apps

Some apps allow dark mode. For example:

WhatsApp – tap the three dots (top right corner), select Settings, and under Chats choose the dark theme as the system default.

Twitter – On mobile, tap your profile picture, go to Settings and Privacy, then Display and Sound, and switch dark mode on. On the desktop, click the three dots (left menu), select Display, and choose lights out and dim options.

Gmail – go to the three lines (top left on mobile device), scroll and tap Settings, then General Settings, and choose dark as the system default.

What About Night Mode and Blue Light?

The current thinking, which has led to manufacturers adding filters to our devices (e.g. Night Shift in the iPhone 11 and even the Windows 10 Night Mode) that show warmer colours at night is based on the idea that too much exposure to artificial blue light emitted by our devices at night is bad for us. For example, too much blue light displayed on the screen of a device has been thought to suppress the production of sleep-inducing hormone ‘melatonin’, hence the need to filter out the blue and replace it with warmer colours. Samsung also suggests that its filter could “reduce digital eye strain”.

Recent University of Manchester research, however, has shown that this popularly accepted wisdom may be wrong and that, in fact, the warmer colours of filters are more likely to suppress the production of melatonin than the blue light glow from our devices.

In Conclusion

Even though there are questions about scientific proof that claims certain health benefits, dark mode appears to be popular with customers in terms of aesthetics and reading in dimly lit environments, plus competitors have introduced it, thereby making it something that tech companies feel they have to offer anyway. For mobiles, having dark mode with an OLED screen can save battery power, so there is also some practical value for many users to enable dark mode.

More Warnings Over Scams Aimed at Zoom, Teams and Meet Users

Posted on by Andy Miller

Reports indicate that hackers are still using domains related to popular remote, collaborative working platforms to target users working from home with phishing scams during the lockdown.

Domains

Almost as soon as the lockdown started, there were reports at the beginning of April by Cybersecurity company ‘Check Point’  that there had been a major increase in new domains registered that included the word ‘Zoom’ and other suspicious characteristics. It was also reported at the time that the official classroom.google.com website had been impersonated by googloclassroom.com and googieclassroom.com.

Zoom, Teams, and Meet

The most recent Check Point Research shows that scammers have widened their attack strategy by registered domains not just to pose as Zoom, but also as Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet-related URLs.

Check Point Research reports that, in just the last 3 weeks, 2,449 Zoom-related domains have been registered, 32 of which are malicious and 320 categorised as “suspicious”

WHO Impersonated

Check Point Research also shows that scammers have been sending phishing emails posing as the World Health Organisation with malware attachments and asking for donations to the WHO where any payments made go into known, compromised bitcoin wallets.

The WHO now has a page warning about the risk of being targeted with fraudulent email and WhatsApp messages by scammers taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and claiming to be from the WHO. The page gives advice about how to verify authenticity before responding and how to spot and prevent phishing.  See https://www.who.int/about/communications/cyber-security

Nation-State Cyber Espionage To Steal COVID-19 Research

In a more sinister turn, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported that UK universities and scientific institutes involved in COVID-19 research are being targeted with cyber espionage by nation state-sponsored actors e.g. Russia, Iran, and China, allegedly looking for information about studies conducted by UK organisations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protection

Ways that users can protect their computers/devices, networks and businesses from these types of threats, as suggested by Check Point, include being extra cautious with emails and files from unfamiliar senders, not opening attachments or clicking on links in emails (phishing scams), and by paying close attention to the spelling of domains, email addresses and spelling errors in emails/on websites.  Check Point also suggests Googling the company you are looking for to find their official website rather than just clicking on a link in an email, which could redirect to a fake (phishing) site.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Cybercriminals are quick to capitalise on situations where people have been adversely affected by unusual events and where they know people are in unfamiliar territory.  At the moment, people are also divided geographically and are trying to cope with many situations at the same time, may be a little distracted, and may be less vigilant than normal.  As long as the pandemic continues, these types of scams also look set to continue and evolve.  It is also shocking (but perhaps not surprising) to see how nation states appear to be sponsoring attacks on each other’s research institutions to get an advantage in defeating COVID-19.

The message to businesses, however, is that extra vigilance is still needed and that all employees need to be very careful, particularly in how they deal with emails from unknown sources, or from apparently known sources offering convincing reasons and incentives to click on links or download files.

Tech Tip – Managing Background Apps

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’re connecting via a mobile device, information, notifications and updates going to and from apps that run in the background can sap your battery power and your data.  Here’s how to control which apps are running in the background:

– Go to Settings > Privacy > Background app.

– To stop all apps from running in the background, toggle ‘Let apps run in the background’ to ‘Off’. Be aware that some background app updates serve a useful purpose.

– To stop individual apps from running in the background, scroll down the list and switch to ‘Off’ as required.

Tech Tip – The 2nd Start Menu

Posted on by Andy Miller

In addition to the main Start menu that you can access by clicking on the Windows symbol (bottom left), Windows 10 has a 2nd start menu that gives you fast access to features like PowerShell, Device Manager, Task Manager and File Explorer.  Here’s how to launch it:

– Click on the Windows key + X or right-click on the Windows icon (bottom left).

– This will launch the 2nd Start menu.

Tech Tip – Ransomware Protection in Windows 10

Posted on by Andy Miller

Ransomware is still a common threat to businesses, but you may not know that Windows 10 already has a ransomware protection features built-in to Windows Defender which is usually disabled by default.  Here’s how to enable ransomware protection:

N.B. If you already have third-party antivirus software installed and Windows Defender’s real-time protection is disabled, the Ransomware Protection features screen and Controlled Folder Access feature won’t be accessible to you. You’ll find this out when you follow these instructions:

– Click on the Start menu.

– Type Windows Security and select the search result, or go to the Settings app, then to Update & Security > Windows Security.

– Open Windows Security and click on the Virus & Threat Protection option

– Scroll down to Ransomware Protection and click on the Manage ransomware protection option.

– Next page, you will see a description of Controlled folder access – toggle to enable it.

– To enable Ransomware Protection, turn on Controlled Folder Access and log in to OneDrive.

– This will allow you to configure Controlled Folder Access and choose which folder you want to monitor and block from malicious programs.

Tech Tip – Windows Timeline

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Windows Timeline feature in Windows 10 allows you to look back over the timeline of activity (in the Windows apps that are supported in the feature) so that you can stay organised, save time in finding things, and pick up where you left off.

To see your Windows Timeline:

– Press the Windows Key + Tab or click on the ‘Task View’ button in the taskbar.

– Click on any of the documents to open them.

– Click on ‘Esc’ to get out of the Timeline screen.

Tech Tip – Weather App In Windows 10

Posted on by Andy Miller

For this week’s topical tech tip, with weather conditions causing so much disruption and damage in the UK, Windows 10 provides personalised weather content to you via a desktop app:

– Type ‘weather’ in the search box (bottom left) and select ‘MSN Weather’.

– Select whether you want the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit and allow the app to find your exact location.

– Click ‘Start’ to see a 10-day forecast for your area or use the search box for a forecast in other areas.

Tech Tip – Deleting Your Personal Metadata From Microsoft Documents

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you really want to make sure that you fully protect your data and identity, one thing you may not know is that Microsoft Office documents store metadata which (although largely useful) could be linked back to you.  There is an easy way to stop this from happening – here’s how:

For Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:

– Click on ‘File’ (top left).

– On the Info page, click on ‘Check for Issues’.

– Click on ‘Inspect Document’ (which opens the Inspector window).

– Make sure all the checkboxes in the Document Inspector are checked.

– Click the ‘Inspect’ button.

– A green checkmark in a circle indicates that no data of that type has been found. A red exclamation mark means it found data of this type.

– Next to that data type’s description, click the ‘Remove All’ button.

– You can also click the ‘Reinspect’ button to make sure that nothing was missed.

Tech Tip – Automatic Back-Up

Posted on by Andy Miller

Keeping a back up of your important folders is vital and you can easily set OneDrive in Windows 10 to make automatic back-ups.  Here’s how:

– On the right-hand side of the taskbar, select OneDrive > More > Settings.

– On the AutoSave tab, select ‘Update Folders’ and select the folders that you’d like to automatically back up (sync).

– Remember, if you’re working on an important file in Word, for example, you can use the toggle switch (top left) to set AutoSave to ‘On’ so it will be automatically saved to OneDrive.

Tech Tip – Clipboard History

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’d like to see the history of all the things you’ve attached to your clipboard in Windows 10 there’s a fast and easy way to do it. To see and to manage your clipboard items:

– Hold down the Windows key + V.  This brings up the scrollable clipboard panel listing all the items you’ve copied.

– Click on an item to paste it into your current document.

– Click on the cross symbol to permanently delete an item from the clipboard.

– Click on the pin symbol to keep an item even when you clear your clipboard history (there is a link to clear the history) or when you restart your PC.

– This feature also allows syncing across other devices so you can paste items from your clipboard to your other devices when you sign in with a Microsoft or work account.