Hey, I’m Jess.
I’m kept pretty busy here at The Helpful Book Company. You can read a bit more about me and my time so far at Helpful Books here 🙂
Hello, I’m Mike…
… This is my second time here at the Inner Circle. You can read my first blog post about who I am here, and my updated one about what I’ve done since here. It’s lovely to be back. You’ll see me answering questions and the odd Journal Post from time to time! Drop me a message I’m looking forward to talking with you all =)
Hi, I’m Kathryn.
I’m one of the editors here at Helpful Books and I’ll be helping out answering your Clubroom questions from time to time. You can read a bit more about me here if you’re curious 🙂
Hi, I’m Ben.
Hi! My name is Ben and I am very excited to announce that I will be joining the Tech Inner Circle team as of March 2024! You can read more about me here…
Top Photo by Anoir Chafik on Unsplash
April 24, 2018 at 3:05 pm
Dear Tim,
A friend of mine is trying to download an update for Windows 10 and having great difficulty. He went on line to see if he could find any ideas, but only came up with ‘Choose your keyboard layout’ !!
He asked me if I had any ideas, but I had none. I wondered whether you have ever come across this problem and if so could you possibly give me some ideas. I hope that you don’t mind me asking.
Val May
P.S. I am still trying to solve my Christmas List of Labels problem. I will let you know if I have any luck.
April 24, 2018 at 4:39 pm
Hi Val,
Thanks for getting in touch, do you have any more details on the update that your friend is trying to do please? Also any error messages that your friend gets when the update fails would be great!
Hopefully I can help with this,
Thanks
Jess
April 25, 2018 at 5:26 pm
Dear Jess,
Thank you so much for your prompt reply. My friend has now found out that the fault is with his computer and not with the item he was trying to download. It is apparently his computer that is causing the problems and he thinks that he will be having to purchase a new machine. Fortunately he has not lost all his files.
Thank you so much for your help.
Best wishes, Val.
April 26, 2018 at 9:14 am
Hi Val,
Ah I see, I’m glad he hasn’t lost all his files!
You’re welcome, happy to help anytime,
Thanks
Jess
March 28, 2018 at 9:49 pm
Thanks for the very nice photos of each of you. They are very good and help us to feel we are really talking and looking at close friends.
However, I know you are all a good team, but what about Annie who packs up the books we order from you. I love her little note and the tea bag goes down well when browsing through the new books on arrival. I am sure we would all love to see a picture of her along with all of you.
Eileen
P.S. Can you please take out the name ‘mouse’ on my messages. I can’t think how it got on my message box! Another silly mistake on my part. Can you change it to Eileen?
March 29, 2018 at 9:53 am
Hello Eileen,
Thank you for your lovely comments, we do feel it adds a more personal touch when people can see what we actually look like.
I’ve just noticed that Annie’s picture isn’t on our website, I’ll have a word with Mike to see if he can put one on, Annie will love it!
Take care,
Jess
March 16, 2018 at 9:56 am
I’m having Big problem with HP laptop.It’s 18mnths old. When I switch on ,the screen comes up with a picture, date.time,and bottom right aeroplane and battery symbol.Nothing to click to get me further, e.g. Windows 10 or desktop. I have to.shut down by pressing the power button, which I know is not good.Please help.I’m 81 and very frustrated. I have a Samsung phone and Nexus 7 tablet.Joan.
March 16, 2018 at 11:58 am
Hi Joan,
Oh dear, can you click on the aeroplane symbol in the bottom right corner? If so, is there the option to switch Aeroplane mode off at all?
Thanks
Jess
March 16, 2018 at 12:19 pm
Have tried that many times. It just takes everything off and I’m left with just picture.Not even my desktop pic. Must put phone on charge now .Thanks please get back.J.
.
March 16, 2018 at 1:10 pm
Hi Joan,
Have you tried pressing CTRL and ALT and DELETE down at the same time? Then click on Task Manager and from that menu, choose File in the top corner and then run new task, type in explorer.exe then click OK.
Let me know how you get on,
Thanks
Jess
March 16, 2018 at 4:05 pm
Have tried pressing.ctr.alt.delete / at same time .No joy! Just take me back to picture full screen. Nothing else.J
March 18, 2018 at 1:23 pm
Hi Joan,
That’s very strange, can you remember what happened before this error came about please? Was Windows doing an update?
Thanks
Jess
March 19, 2018 at 10:42 am
Perhaps my previous replies got to you.
I Do agree, that it was updating. I await more suggestions. Very frustrated! Joan.
Have just ordered new photography books.J.
March 19, 2018 at 10:59 am
Hi Joan,
I’m just replying to your email that you sent, it should be on it’s way to you now.
If you could reply to that, that would be great,
Thanks
Jess
February 19, 2018 at 8:52 am
Thanks for all your help with my recent problem. I hope we can find a solution to it soon. Thanks again
February 19, 2018 at 3:00 pm
Hi Alan. I’ve replied to your other question about the shutdown problems. Give that a try and let me know how you get on.
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 28, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Hello to everyone. I have just joined the Inner Circle and thought I would start by introducing myself.
I am in my late 70s but have been using computers for many years now – decades in fact. When I retired at the start of the millennium, I continued to use Microsoft as this had been the standard in the business community, but I changed to Apple about 10 years ago and have not looked back, although I continue to use Microsoft’s Word and Excel as I am so familiar with them.
I now have a desktop iMac running the High Sierra OS and I keep it updated. I also changed my original iPad for a new mini version at the end of last year. I do not regard myself as a “techie” despite my long involvement with computers, and believe I am never too old to learn – which is why I have joined the Inner Circle.
Two other things to know: I do not ( and do not wish to ) use social media; and I am profoundly deaf. For me, email has been a life-saver.
I am very security conscious too, and have a question here about Keychains. When I go into a website requiring a password I am always asked if I would like to add the PW to a keychain. So far I have always said “no” as I don’t find it a particular hassle to put in the PW each time – at my stage of life I have time for that ! BUT, am I being too cautious ? I would welcome other members views on this.
By the way, I love the Lake District though I fear my hill walking days are over. My last visit was in 2010.
Best wishes
January 27, 2018 at 6:27 pm
I envy you all. I had a very sickly childhood but while trapped in bed at about 10 I read a children’s non-fiction book. I liked numbers and maths and this looked at maths down the ages. The last chapter had a very disastrous effect on me. It was about the Lyon’s Tea Company in London. They had a chap from America who suggested they needed an Electronic Office, The Lyon’s Electronic Office was the first LEO Computer and I was hooked. Unfortunately in 1959 no one knew what I was talking about. The NE of England was shipbuilding, coal mining and women had to cook, clean and reproduce. In 1969 yes there were jobs for programmers but a woman! I got there in London. Unfortunately I am now and out of date OAP and I am so grateful I stumbled over this site!
January 27, 2018 at 10:35 am
I am new to inner circle and very ignorant! Is it possible to delete Spam from my apple laptop without having to first open it up?
January 28, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Hi Murray,
Welcome to the Inner Circle, I hope you’re enjoying all the articles and videos!
Is it the Mail app on your laptop that you want to remove Spam from?
Thanks
Jess
January 28, 2018 at 3:23 pm
Hi Jessica, Yes it is the Spam in the mail that I cannot delete without opening it first -it contains unwanted stuff! many thanks. murray
January 29, 2018 at 11:33 am
Hi Murray, Mike here (Jess is on with other projects today)…
I’m so sorry we can’t really answer precise technical questions about Mac’s, we don’t have any in the office so it’s really hard for us to test anything before telling people what to do. We do cover iPads and iPhones along with other tables and Windows PCs (Windows 7 upwards, but we can help a little with Windows Vista and XP although our general answer for those is don’t use them on the internet).
But let me see if we can help with this one. My firs thought is can you right-click or click and hold on the email and does it give you a list of options which then allows you to delete it? What if you drag it to the bin/trash folder?
If they are in your spam box, then maybe the answer is just to leave them in there, they won’t do any harm if you don’t open them. I know it’s frustrating having spam just left there (I have 100’s in mine and I just ignore it).
If you do only have a Mac then we might not be the best service for you sorry 🙁
Here are a couple of articles I found about your problem which might help:
https://www.lifewire.com/hide-preview-pane-and-delete-mail-1172748
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4867170
I’m so sorry we can’t help with Mac problems.
Mike 🙁
January 29, 2018 at 3:21 pm
hi Mike, Many thanks for reply and suggested articles-it seems others have this problem! I have no windows but I do have an iPad.Maybe I will have to think about Apple-help. Yours Murray
January 30, 2018 at 12:34 pm
Cool thanks, Murray. Let us know how you get on!
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 24, 2018 at 9:14 am
Can you tell me why, when friends emails arrive, if I don’t have the time to answer straight away the whole email can just vanish before I have a chance to reply. Is it because the email has “hide” in the top right hand corner? I will await your answer with interest! Thank you.
January 24, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Hello.
Thanks so much for the question.
Hummm I’m not quite sure why that would be happening. Please could you let me know if you are using the Outlook App on your tablet or the built in “Mail” app?
Do you check emails on other devices (a PC, LAptop, phone etc…) and do you have the same problem there?
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 17, 2018 at 2:37 pm
Thanks Mike,
I am afraid I wasted my money. I know how to uninstall the
updates and it may be worth asking for my money back. But
Not very hopeful of that.
January 16, 2018 at 3:30 pm
I have Avast anti virus on my laptop. Just paid for two year
Driver updates. However having done 15 updates I am wondering if they were really needed? Included turning your mouse to left handed use! Trouble was
I had no way of telling what each update was for.
No hurry on this one but wondering if I have been had!
They seem to be always trying to sell me something new
January 17, 2018 at 11:51 am
Hi Rosemary,
Thanks for the question. My view on Driver Update programs (apart from Windows Update) are not worth buying or running. Windows Update does a really good job at getting the driver updates you actually need.
I would disable/uninstall that feature of Avast and just let Windows manage the updates.
If you want a hand uninstalling/disabling that bit then let me know and we can go through it together.
Thanks.
Mike 🙂
January 16, 2018 at 9:51 am
Thunderbird seems to be dying-every second email doesn’t go because it has disconnected/server is down; it is all very frustrating, and a nuisance because it quite often deletes what one was trying to send. Any suggestions.
Is W10 doing the repairs to the Intel problem at the moment–my PC was out of action completely for 2 days; it got as far as the lock screen, but there was no mouse, and it wouldn’t take the password, not would it turn off properly. finally I managed to turn it off, and when the started up it announced that it was “configuring”, but at least it is now back in business! (Lenovo Think Pad, about 5 years old)
PS it says below “fill in this field” but is blank?????????
January 16, 2018 at 12:34 pm
Hi Pamela,
It looks like PlusNet have been having problems with their email service, it is showing a ! on the service but they don’t seem to have any explanation of the problems…
My suggestion would be to restart your computer (not shutdown or sleep) and then open Thunderbird again, this ensures it creates a fresh connection to PlusNet and see if that fixes the problem. If not then I suspect they are still having problems, it might be best to give them a ring on 0800 432 0200 and ask them if there is an ongoing problem.
Their status page says there is a problem: http://portal.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=2&?helpheader=servicestatus
If they say everything is fine let me know and we can have a look at some other things…
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 16, 2018 at 5:53 pm
right-that’s tomorrow’s problem to be fixed!! Thanks–it never occurred to me that it was PLUS
January 17, 2018 at 12:15 pm
No worries at all, if they say everything is working OK then let me know and we can try some other things.
Thanks
Mike 🙂
January 17, 2018 at 3:42 pm
Having got hold of Plus they seem just to wash their hands of it and tell me to use web mail as they don’t support Thunderbird! However Thunderbird is now behaving so I suppose that’s as good as it gets-at least I have a back up! What do you think?
January 15, 2018 at 12:06 pm
Hi Mike, I updated my windows 10 as I was advised to do by a notification and since then I have several very irritating problems. My Skype no longer works, my Yahoo mail only works on internet explorer but used to work going through the chrome logo on the bottom task bar. I had yahoo set as my home page but that says it can’t be accessed now and the most irritating thing of all. We live in France and I am taking lessons to learn the language. I used to be able to right click when I had a French page delivered by email and I had a drop down box that gave me the option of translating the page, that has disappeared and I still get a drop down box but with no option to translate. Sorry there are several problems in one go! hope you can help
January 15, 2018 at 12:32 pm
Hi Sheila,
Thanks for the questions. I’m afraid I think I’m going to have some more questions for you before we can get an answer. Let me see if I can get you back up and running…
Before we start please can you restart your computer (not shutdown or sleep), this just means we are starting from a fresh start.
Yahoo Mail in Chrome
Try opening https://mail.yahoo.com in Google Chrome and let me know what the error on the screen says please. How we fix this depends on the error message you are getting…
Skype
This happened to another Inner Circle member the other day… I think we fixed it by downloading the latest version of Skype from here https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/ click the little white down arrow on the “get Skype” button, then click on “get Classic Skype”, download this file and then run it, this should install the latest version of Skype.
In some rare cases it installs Skype twice, let me know if you end up with two icons (one working and one not).
Right Click
I suspect this was a built-in feature of Chrome and worked only in Chrome? If we can get Google Chrome working again then this should work fine.
Many thanks.
Mike 🙂
January 15, 2018 at 2:38 pm
Hi Mike
Thank you for your reply. So far I have done as you suggested to get Chrome sorted. After getting the re start underway I went into the chrome button on the task bar. The circle kept spinning saying connected, a message came up asking how I wanted to open the file followed by a message that said personalised settings not responding. ERR-CONNECTION-TIMED OUT. Then yahoo.co.uk ca’nt be reached with a blue box and a message saying” show saved copy”. I then went into the browser and typed in the hppt address you gave me and the options for yahoo appeared, it took me to the French yahoo site but I clicked on the French flag on the bar and changed it to English. So then I was in my yahoo normal front page! I will try the suggestion for skype later today, thank you for your patience with my ramblings!!
January 15, 2018 at 3:13 pm
Hi Sheila,
No worries at all, hummm odd that Chrome seems to work after you typed the address in manually.
If it keeps popping up with questions then maybe a screen sharing thing might be helpful where I can see your screen and we can talk through the problems together. I suspect that it might work if you change your starting page in Chrome to the address I gave you… full info on how to do that here https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95314?hl=en-GB
Let me know how you get on with Skype.
Thanks!
Mike 🙂
January 9, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Why is it that some days using your IPhone or iPad to find out something or do some shopping everything works like a dream click click click and other times it’s a complete ‘cock up’ it’s very exasperating ???!!!
January 10, 2018 at 11:41 am
Hi Anne, Oh dear, it’s very frustrating when things don’t work well.
There are a lot of things that need to work to do online shopping, for example, your iPhone needs to be connected to your WiFi and your broadband needs to be working properly to get you on the internet, and of course the shopping site (or other websites) needs to be working.
Lots of things to go wrong, not all of which we can control.
Usually, when things don’t work properly I make a cup of hot chocolate, read a book or watch a bit of TV and try again in an hour or so…
… which works fine until you try and watch internet TV on demand (BBC iPlayer or NETFLIX) and that doesn’t work either!
If things don’t work well for a while then I start turning things off and back on again, usually starting with my phone, then the broadband router… It all depends on the error messages I get.
If you get any particular error messages then please let me know and we can try and get things working well for you!
Thanks!
Mike 🙂