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Comp-U-Train computer training > Tips & Tricks

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 7th, 2019 | Comments Off

UBTV not working...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a call from a customer to say that the UBTV app (application) on their Android media box wasn’t working.They told us that when they clicked the app’s menu icon, the screen went black for a second or two and then returned to the menu.I was able to fix the problem by going into the “Settings” menu on the Android box and selecting the UBTV app itself. On the menu that appeared, I...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 03 28th, 2019 | Comments Off

360 panorama photo not showing properly ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support On our recent trip abroad, I took several 360 panorama photos with my smartphone camera.When I uploaded them to my facebook timeline, the photos were just a thin horizontal strip; rather than an interactive immersive 360 experience.I discovered that my smartphone camera was not embedding the Exif information correctly in the photo; so that facebook didn’t recognise it as a 360 photo. Exif is hidden...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 03 23rd, 2019 | Comments Off

Cannot connect to Hotel Wifi landing pag...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently stayed in a Hotel and needed to access the Internet using the complimentary Wifi access.Unfortunately, whenever we opened the web browser on our phone, it would not be automatically directed to the Hotel’s “landing page” which is where you enter your guest credentials, in order to be granted access to the Hotel’s Wifi Internet service.The funny thing was that this was only a...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 01 22nd, 2019 | Comments Off

Computer not booting up with Western Dig...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Today we received a call from a customer complaining that when they had their new Western Digital “My Book” USB back-up drive plugged into their Windows 10 computer, it failed to boot up. Straight away, I thought that the boot-up setting in the computer’s BIOS had been set to boot from a USB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) rather than the internal HDD. Normally though, you would receive an error...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 01 2nd, 2019 | Comments Off

Wireless mouse erratic behaviour...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently received a call from a customer that the brand new wireless mouse that they had received for Christmas, was acting erratically.It seemed to have a mind of its own. The cursor would either lag behind or jump in front of their hand movements and was driving the customer batty.Upon arrival at the customer’s home, I saw that the wireless mouse transmitting device, was plugged into the USB port on...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Android contact list, Blog on 08 13th, 2018 | Comments Off

Transferring Contacts between Android ph...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently attended a trouble call, where the customer had bought a new Android phone and had correctly joined it to her Google account. She complained that many of her old phone contacts had not populated the contact list on her new phone. Understandably, she was very worried that she had lost many of her valuable phone contacts that she had accumulated over the years and which numbered in the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016, Office 365 on 07 25th, 2018 | Comments Off

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently attended a trouble call, where the customer could not run a new installation of Microsoft Office 365 successfully. She had recently uninstalled an older business version of Office, called “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016”, that had been retired as the company had gone out of business. However, when she tried to run Microsoft Outlook 365, it would only open to the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Android, Blog on 05 25th, 2018 | Comments Off

Synchronising S Planner calendars betwee...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We were recently called to a customer’s home who operates an events organising business, to solve the problem about why a calendar event that she had created in the “S Planner” calendar on one of her Android phones, was not synchronising to her other phone; or showing up on her computer Google calendar, which is stored in the Cloud. This lack of a backup per se, exposes the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Internet & Email on 04 24th, 2018 | Comments Off

Gmail creation date...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support When you create a new Gmail account, you will be sent a congratulatory email from Google confirming that your account has been successfully set up. It is vital that you do not delete this email. Please record the exact date and time that this email was sent to you and if possible, forward this welcome email to a secondary email account as a backup. If you ever get locked out of your Gmail account,...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 03 9th, 2018 | Comments Off

Ctrl z safety net...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We have a customer that tells us that when she is writing a long email using the Windows 10 mail app, all of a sudden the text disappears. This has happened on a few occasions and upsets her unnecessarily since she is elderly and all of her hard work that has taken a great deal of her precious time has been wasted. To try to retrieve her email, she closes the message using the “x” at...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Security on 03 6th, 2018 | Comments Off

Phishing emails to get your account deta...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We’ve been receiving quite a few emails recently containing dire messages, warning us that our email or bank accounts will be cancelled unless we click on a link and verify the account. When the link is clicked, the user is taken to a webpage that looks exactly like the legitimate login page of your email or bank. This type of ruse where you are sent an email or message with a link is called...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Security on 02 25th, 2018 | Comments Off

Update your personal details in your acc...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Time and time again, we get calls from frantic customers to say that they have forgotten their passwords and cannot access their online accounts. Similarly, email accounts can be locked for various reasons such as the email provider has noticed “suspicious activity” on your account. Other times, companies have been hacked themselves, resulting in customer’s details being stolen....

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 02 8th, 2018 | Comments Off

Laptop bag causes laptop to overheat...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received a trouble call in late 2017, from a customer complaining that their laptop had suffered premature failure on numerous occasions over the year. They had replaced the laptop HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and Motherboard a couple of times during 2017 and wanted to know if we had any advice or idea about why this was happening. This situation was very alarming as a laptop shouldn’t suffer...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 01 26th, 2018 | Comments Off

Updating Windows 10 on a notebook with s...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support In a previous blog post, I detailed how to upgrade to Windows 10 from a previous OS (Operating System) on a notebook with a small storage drive. This procedure required the use of an external USB drive of at least 16GB. In a new development, I was given another notebook that needed a Windows 10 update; rather than being upgraded to Windows 10. I discovered that following my previous blog did not...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 01 25th, 2018 | Comments Off

“Task Host id stopping background ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received a call from a customer complaining that their laptop wouldn’t reboot/shut down properly. He got the message. “Task Host id stopping background tasks (Microsoft \ Windows \ Plug and Play \ Device Install Reboot required)” He also experienced the trackpad/mouse behaving intermittently. He would left click something and it wouldn’t open. Rather than use a blanket repair...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Internet & Email, Microsoft Edge on 11 15th, 2017 | Comments Off

How to delete a single auto-complete ent...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support I recently attended a trouble call where the customer was complaining that there were multiple auto-complete username entries in the various web forms using Microsoft Edge. She explained that she wanted to delete these obsolete entries. Previously, she had managed to delete ALL of the auto-complete entries but that was overkill. If you need to delete a single entry, try left clicking the 3 dots on...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 11 13th, 2017 | Comments Off

How to create a URL desktop shortcut usi...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support An Internet address is known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and you will be familiar with the ubiquitous “http:\\www.computrain.co.za” format of a URL. The URL is what you type into the address bar at top of your Internet website browser. If you are dealing with a secure website such as your bank, you will notice that there will be the letter “s” at the end of the http....

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 10 22nd, 2017 | Comments Off

Windows 10 update failure...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support This morning, I received a panic call from a customer that had overnight, attempted to upgrade their laptop to the latest version of Windows 10. They told me that after they awoke, they discovered that their laptop was only showing a spinning circle at the bottom of the screen. First thing in this situation is not to panic! Windows 10 is incredibly self-healing and many times can fix things when...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 10 11th, 2017 | Comments Off

Scareware...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support A couple of days ago I visited an innocuous website that had been hacked, albeit unbeknownst to me, by Internet cyber criminals. As soon as the website opened, I was greeted by both a webpage and Windows messenger message. The crooks had also activated my computer voice to read an ominous computer voice telling me that my computer had been blocked to protect the Internet. I would have to call a...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 10 8th, 2017 | Comments Off

Upgrading a Windows 10 notebook with low...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support I recently attended an interesting trouble call, about an upgrade problem of Windows 10. The customer had a Lenovo notebook with only a 32GB hard drive installed. This in itself, is not problem. However, after having the Windows 10 OS and a few other programmes installed, the hard drive has only 5GB of space left! The Windows 10 upgrade needed at least 16GB of hard drive space for the 32bit...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 10 5th, 2017 | Comments Off

Printer Wi-Fi Direct causing interferenc...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Today we attended a customer that was having trouble connecting her new laptop wirelessly to her printer. The wireless setup was continuously failing because the software installation gave an error that it could not find the printer on the network. The client also complained that the Wi-Fi speed was varying wildly and was unreliable. Suspecting a neighbour’s co-channel Wi-Fi network, I...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 08 10th, 2017 | Comments Off

HP laptop restarting loop after Windows ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support This morning I got a call from a customer who had tried to do an overnight online in-place upgrade from Windows 64bit OEM 7 Pro to Windows 10. They have a HP laptop i7/8GB RAM and when they checked their “confuser” this morning they discovered that it was stuck in a worrying restart loop! First thing that I tried, was to force a shutdown and then take out the battery. Then I pressed the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 08 7th, 2017 | Comments Off

Laptop fan running at full speed and noi...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently attended a call from a customer with a brand new laptop whose fan was running at full speed and quite noisy. This fan noise can sometimes be attributed to a laptop that is overheating because of excessive dust or “fur balls” inside the unit. However, because this laptop was out of-the-box, we disputed this reason. Other customers have reported to us, that this fan running...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 08 7th, 2017 | Comments Off

How to share a post on facebook when the...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Sometimes on facebook, you will see posts on your timeline which you would like to share. Unfortunately you see that there is no “share” button available that you can click on. This is caused by the writer of the post choosing to only share their post with “friends except” or that you are reading a post that is in a closed group. The way around this, is to click the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, MS PowerPoint on 07 24th, 2017 | Comments Off

Multi-task during a PowerPoint presentat...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Whilst giving a PowerPoint presentation, have you ever needed to do some research on your computer or the Internet at the same time because you were asked a question but not wanted the delegates to view what you are doing? If projecting your presentation, the following method will allow your audience delegates to carry on watching the slideshow whilst your multi-tasking is hidden from view. During...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 23rd, 2017 | Comments Off

How to view the available hard disk stor...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a customer who wanted to know if they could see the amount of available hard disk drive space that was being used on a shared network computer. This networked computer was a media server which stored her movies. Even though she could see the networked computer listed in the “File Explorer”, the amount of hard disk drive space does not show when viewed in this manner. Only the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 17th, 2017 | Comments Off

Audio stuttering and popping when playin...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a call from a customer who’s computer sound was stuttering/skipping/popping when they played their music. As you can imagine this was quite uncomfortable on the ear. Rebooting the computer didn’t fix the problem on this occasion. I verified that the computer had the latest drivers for the sound card and video card installed. Sometimes HD audio drivers are provided as part of the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 25th, 2017 | Comments Off

Shared folders not visible over network...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently attended a customer who was having problems with their SOHO network. She was not able to see any shared folders on another laptop computer. Looking in the “File manager” of the laptop, I could not see any shared folders being displayed from the other laptop. I then went to the laptop that was sharing its folders but everything looked in order. I tried restarting both...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 24th, 2017 | Comments Off

Jackie Scott awarded “Business Ach...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 19th, 2017 | Comments Off

External hard disk drive reduced to 32GB...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently had a customer call us to complain that their new 320GB USB external drive was only showing a capacity of 32GB. They had tried to use it to create a “system recovery drive” which is to be commended. This drive can be used to start up a computer that has suffered a failure of the Operating System. After creating the recovery drive, they realised that they had a smaller USB...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 19th, 2017 | Comments Off

Comp-U-Train gives training at Hirsch...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support On two recent occasions, Jackie Scott-Thomas from Comp-U-Train has had the privilege of giving training to some domestic workers at Hirsch’s in Fourways, Joburg. Don’t miss the next event! Please read about it here click me Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 10 16th, 2016 | Comments Off

Adding Beneficiarys as Online banking pa...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a customer that reported that they were not able to make online payments to a certain payee using their Internet Online banking service. The payee also used the same bank as our customer. Upon visiting the customer’s home, we discovered that the payee had mistakenly given our customer their ATM card number and not their bank account number. What was confusing was that our customer...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 09 27th, 2016 | Comments Off

How to clone a HDD to SSD using EaseUS T...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support As your computer’s HDD (Hard Disk Drive) ages, it is prudent to avail yourself of new storage technologies such as the SSD (Solid State Drive). You will notice a huge speed and permformance improvement when you swap to a SSD. As an example, our media server now boots up in half the time! To start with, you will need a programme to help you clone your HDD and I recommend the excellent EaseUS...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Windows 10 on 09 7th, 2016 | Comments Off

Simplify the Windows 10 Start Menu...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support WINDOWS 10 START MENU WE CAN SIMPLIFY IT FOR YOU :):) Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, MS Word on 09 7th, 2016 | Comments Off

Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR WORD :):) Select the letter to the left of your cursor . Shift + Left Arrow Select the letter to the right of your cursor. … Shift + Right Arrow Select text from your cursor to the beginning of a word. Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow Select text from your cursor to the end of a word. Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow Select from your cursor to one line above. Shift + Up...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 08 31st, 2016 | Comments Off

Optical Mouse Problems...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received a call from a couple of customers saying that they were having problems with their Optical Mouse. One mouse was a wireless mouse that had stopped working and the other was a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cabled Optical mouse that was “acting weird”. Optical mice have replaced the old roller ball mice and rely on emitted light and an optical pickup device to enable the mouse...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 08 17th, 2016 | Comments Off

Upgrading to Windows 10 stuck at 90%...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently had a customer who brought her laptop to us out of frustration because she couldn’t upgrade from Windows 8.1 to the new Windows 10 OS (Operating System). Every time that she tried to perform the upgrade, the upgrade installation reached 90% and would go no further. She left it overnight but awoke to the same Microsoft spinning progress wheel. We immediately checked her laptop to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 23rd, 2016 | Comments Off

Installing Epson wireless printer using ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Last week we were called to a customer’s home who had been trying to install their new Epson wireless printer for two hours. They were getting an error and realised it was time to give up and call Comp-U-Train. Upon arriving on-site, the customer told me that they had read the installation instructions which said to press the “Wi-Fi” on the printer for 3 seconds but kept...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 20th, 2016 | Comments Off

Mirroring vs Imaging a Hard Disk Drive...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support A customer recently asked me if they should use the spare HDD (Hard Disk Drive) in their computer to create an image of their C drive periodically, or should they mirror the C drive partition. Note that the OS (Operating System) Boot and System files must be on the same partition! Mirroring the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is also known as RAID 1. “RAID” stands for Redundant Array of...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 20th, 2016 | Comments Off

How to move favorites in Microsoft Edge...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support In the new Microsoft Edge web browser that comes with Windows 10, there is no easy to move your favorite links from one folder to another. In Internet Explorer you could choose to organise your favourites and then simply drag and drop the links between folders. In Microsoft Edge, if you want to move a favorite link to another folder, you single left click on the favorite in question (your...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog, Internet & Email on 03 9th, 2016 | Comments Off

Can’t download Gmail to Outlook...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Recently we had a client complain that they could not download recent emails to their Microsoft Outlook programme. When they pressed the “send/receive” icon, the emails showed that they were being downloaded but nothing appeared in the inbox. Needless to say she was getting quite frustrated with this, because she didn’t want to keep using the Gmail webmail access portal. A quick...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 03 5th, 2016 | Comments Off

Patience patience patience...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support You’ve all heard the old adage about patience patience patience. Never is this more true then when trying to do Microsoft updates. We’ve had a lot of customers lately who have been getting new laptops and complain that when they try do an update, they receive errors of some sort or another. Newly installed Operating Systems will automatically download and install all necessary updates....

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 09 6th, 2015 | Comments Off

Cannot send emails through iburst.co.za...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a business customer bring their laptop to us who was not able to send mails through her ISP (Internet Service Provider). She was able to download emails as normal. Upon receiving her laptop computer in our repair shop, I established that her outgoing email account had indeed been locked; most probably as a safety guard by her ISP, iburst.co.za After checking with her ISP, she had it...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 16th, 2015 | Comments Off

Installing OS with two HDDs causes backu...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We were recently called to a customer’s home whom was having problems using the “create disk image” backup utility of their Windows 7 computer. When the utility looked for drives to backup the image to, the second internal HDD (Hard Disk Drive) was not shown under the “Where do you want to save the backup?” dialog. The customer complained that this had been the case...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 12th, 2015 | Comments Off

Laptop sleep mode warning...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support I’ve noticed lately, that a lot of customer’s laptops that have come into the repair shop, are understandably using the default manufacturer’s setting to go to “sleep” after a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, the laptop is not smart enough to know that something crucial is being done such as installing a programme or doing an upgrade or update. The result of...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 8th, 2015 | Comments Off

One of the files containing the system&#...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a customer call us about her laptop that had been ravaged by a virus. It had left certain important features of her Windows 7 Operating System, such as the “System Restore” function being inoperable. System Restore is a “safety net” which can get you out of a sticky situation should the need arise. It is a fantastic tool that allows you to go back in time and...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 06 4th, 2015 | Comments Off

We use and highly recommend ARM.it!...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Comp-U-Train uses and highly recommends the ICT services of ARM.it here in Johannesburg, South Africa. ARM.it offers excellent value for money Internet data packages, as a bolt-on to your Telkom Internet service. Telkom provides and maintains the hardline infrastructure, that carries the Internet data signal to and from your home. An analogy is to think of the water supply to your home. Your...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 06 3rd, 2015 | Comments Off

Google AdSense ads not showing...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support For some reason, the Google AdSense ads that normally appear on our website stopped being displayed. Please understand that every day that the ads don’t show, means less ad revenue being generated which affects our bottom line. It was therefore of paramount importance that I fix the issue. After following all of the troubleshooting procedures listed on the Google AdSense website I was still...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 06 3rd, 2015 | Comments Off

Cannot print from Internet Explorer...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Yesterday we attended a customer’s home who was complaining about not being able to print from Internet Explorer 11 using Windows 7. Every time that they attempted to print, they were presented with an error saying “There was an internal error, and Internet Explorer is unable to print this document”. They could print from other programmes which led me to try the Microsoft...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 03 23rd, 2015 | Comments Off

Microsoft Outlook cannot download Gmail...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a customer call us, complaining that they could not download their Gmail electronic mail using Microsoft Outlook. We verified that the correct POP & SMTP servers had been specified in the Outlook settings, as well as the security SSL ports. Despite this fact, they could not connect to Gmail. We have discovered that since July 15th, 2014, Gmail has changed the way that 3rd party...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 12 2nd, 2014 | Comments Off

Export Word document contacts table to O...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Do you have a Microsoft Word document containing a table with contacts that you want to export to your Microsoft Outlook 2013 contacts? Open your Word document and click anywhere in the table and you will see “Table Tools” appear above the ribbon Click Layout on the far right of the ribbon. (Note, not “Page Layout”) Next, click the “Convert to Text” button...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 11 24th, 2014 | Comments Off

USB drive needs to be formatted...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you plug in your USB drive and get an error message that the disk is not formatted, don’t press the “Format disk” button! Don’t do it otherwise you’ll overwrite the FAT data or the data itself (depending on how you did the formatting). Instead, click Cancel. Take note of the drive letter of the USB drive. This error is commonly caused by pulling the USB drive out of...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 11 12th, 2014 | Comments Off

HP laptop Wi-fi not working!...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you’re not able to connect to the Internet using the Wi-Fi connection on your HP laptop, despite the Wi-Fi light being on after pressing the fn+keyboard key, go into the “Windows Mobility Center” in Control Panel and make sure that the Wi-Fi connection is enabled there! Tweet Follow me Tweet...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 23rd, 2014 | Comments Off

Protect your computer with anti-malware ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Here at Comp-U-Train, we can’t stress the importance of installing anti-malware software on your PC. The term “Malware” is a portmanteau of “Malicious Software” and includes virus’; Trojans and keyloggers. The latest type of malware to attack is called “Ransomware” and is so named because it holds the victim to ransom. As an example, below is a...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 25th, 2014 | Comments Off

Samsung Kies software hangs backing up A...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you’re having problems backing up your Samsung S4 apps when using the Samsung Kies software because the programme keeps hanging at that point, try clearing the app cache for each app. You can access this by clicking each app in the “Applications manager” and pressing the “Clear cache” button. Don’t press the “Clear data”...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 24th, 2014 | Comments Off

Pivot Tables...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Pivot Tables These are confusing to most people. I would like to clear up this confusion and give you some tips on creating a simple, user-friendly Pivot Table. These tables allow us to organise large amounts of data into a table that we can then Filter as well as many other features. First of all we need to start with the data that you are putting into the Pivot Table. It is very important that...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 15th, 2014 | Comments Off

Windows Live Movie Maker Tips & Tri...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support I thought that I would offer some tips & tricks gleaned from editing a family video using Windows Live Movie Maker. 1) When you “split” a video, make sure that you also split the audio otherwise the video and audio tracks will go out of sync when you delete a section. The splitting tool is accessed via the Video & Audio tabs. 2) When you add a “Title” to the video,...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 01 31st, 2014 | Comments Off

Can’t update Internet Explorer v6 ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Today we had a curious tech support call from a customer. As Microsoft will soon be discontinuing all support for the XP OS (Operating System) from April 8th, 2014, they wanted to upgrade the Internet Explorer browser version 6 to version 8 which is the most secure. Unfortunately, every time they tried to install v8, they received an error that the installation had failed and that they would have...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 01 13th, 2014 | Comments Off

PC Game gives increase the resolution er...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We just returned from a service call where a customer was unable to play a Brain Training game on their Windows 7 computer. When the game was launched, it kept giving an error that the resolution of the monitor was set too low and must be increased. After checking that the resolution of the monitor was at a nominal setting and therefore should not have posed a problem to the game, we noticed that...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 12 10th, 2013 | Comments Off

XP computer BSOD with fssfltr_tdi.sys er...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Yesterday we received a trouble-call from an anxious customer telling us that they could not boot their XPHome computer as it was stuck in a boot-loop. It was continually showing a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and then rebooting. Upon arrival at the customer’s home, we witnessed the same action. On inspection of the BSOD, we saw that the culprit was a Windows “System” file called...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 08 16th, 2013 | Comments Off

Windows update KB2804579 fails to instal...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you are unable to install Windows Update 2804579 then please read the following: Try the easiest thing first by typing “msconfig” (without quotes) at the start>run “open” field. Choose the middle selection “Diagnostic Startup” and press the OK button. Now try downloading the update. If the update still fails, then please follow this procedure” Open...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 08 3rd, 2013 | Comments Off

Internet Explorer 8 running slow...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If anyone is using Microsoft XP with Internet Explorer 8 and experiencing slow window scrolling together with hard drive thrashing (hard drive light staying on); especially when viewing javascrpt rich websites like FB, then Google has a free plug-in. This is a replacement javascript engine which speeds up the webpage rendering significantly. It’s called “Google Chrome Frame” and...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 31st, 2013 | Comments Off

Microsoft services needed to run Wi-Fi...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support As part of computer troubleshooting, if you need to know which Microsoft “Services” are required to run a Wi-Fi connection, please enable the following Services: DHCP Client Event Log Network Connections Plug n Play Remote Call Procedure Wireless Zero Configuration These Services can be accessed by typing “msconfig” (without quotes) at the start>run prompt and choosing...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 30th, 2013 | Comments Off

Find WordPress page ID number...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you need to see the page ID number and are using Internet Explorer, turn on the “Status Bar” from the View>Toolbars pull-down menu. Now log in to your WordPress admin page and view your “pages”. Then position your cursor over each page’s name and the page ID will be shown in the page’s slug shown in the status bar at the bottom of your...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 29th, 2013 | Comments Off

Play Flash “.flv” files in W...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you want a quick and dirty way to play Adobe’s Flash “.flv” files that you’ve downloaded from the web, simply rename the extension from .flv to .wmv When you now double-click this same file you’ll be able to watch it in Windows Media Player! Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 9th, 2013 | Comments Off

Windows 7 Show Desktop...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Windows XP had a very useful icon in the “Quick Launch” Toolbar that let you quickly show the desktop rather than being faced with the chore of closing/minimising open windows. Windows 7 has the same feature but it located at the bottom right hand corner of your screen. To show the desktop click on the horizontal bar on your desktop as shown in the image...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 07 1st, 2013 | Comments Off

Add XP network icon data lights to Windo...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Are you using Windows 7 and miss the XP or Vista network icon data lights that were in the bottom right hand corner system tray? These lights would flash to show you when you were uploading or downloading something. If so, you can download a free app which will restore this functionality from here: http://www.itsamples.com/network-activity-indicator.html To keep the lights showing in the sytem tray...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 06 24th, 2013 | Comments Off

Can’t update Adobe Flash Player...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received a call from a customer that had not been able to update their Adobe Flash player. This player enables the viewing of streaming media videos on websites such as YouTube and Facebook. The customer kept receiving a pop-up notice telling her that there was a new version of the player available and to go to a download link. However, whenever she tried to go to link using her cell/mobile...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 06 2nd, 2013 | Comments Off

ADSL speed slow and no dial tone...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We stopped by a customer’s home recently who was complaining that their ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband connection was slow and unreliable. When visiting webpages, they would receive a time-out message. They also complained that they intermittently had no dial-tone when picking up the telephone handset. This also resulted in people who were calling the customer would...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 25th, 2013 | Comments Off

“Java” icon missing from Con...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received a call yesterday from a customer saying that the “Java” icon was missing in the Control Panel of their XP computer. The customer told us that this problem seemed to happen after upgrading the version of Java that was on their computer. We concluded that there was a corruption that happened during the upgrade process resulting in the icon not be restored to the Control Panel....

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 21st, 2013 | Comments Off

When was my computer born?...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support If you want to find out when your Windows computer was “born”, open a “DOS” (Disc Operating System) box by typing cmd in the start/Run field or in Windows 7 at the start search field. A black box will appear and next to the flashing cursor, type the below text exactly and press the Enter key: systeminfo|find /i “install date” Type exit and press the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 21st, 2013 | Comments Off

What is the Microsoft Office free trial?...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support A customer of ours called us enquiring about the free trial icon that is showing on the desktop of her new laptop computer. The “Free Trial” is just that. It gives you 30 days from when you first run the programme to try it out. After that, the trial expires and you’ll get the opportunity to buy and download the normal version. Please note that you cannot convert the free trial...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 19th, 2013 | Comments Off

Computer can’t see Wi-Fi printer...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We visited a customer who wanted to use their printer over their home Wi-Fi network. Previously they had connected the printer using a USB connection but had discovered that the printer was Wi-Fi capable. The problem was that they could not get the printer working when connected by Wi-Fi even though they had used the printer’s front display controls to join their Wi-Fi network...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 18th, 2013 | Comments Off

How to resize Hard Drive Partitions...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support A customer called us recently concerned that he was getting low disk space error messages. When he bought his computer a few years ago, a friend had partitioned the hard drive into two partitions namely C: and D: at a ratio of 50/50. The C: Primary active drive contained the OS (Operating System) and the D: drive was for his data. He wanted to know if he could increase the size of the C:...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 18th, 2013 | Comments Off

How to disable Acer Empowering Technolog...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We had a customer who called us complaining that their new Acer laptop would show the “Acer Empowering Technology” toolbar on the desktop every time they booted their computer. They didn’t like the way the toolbar cluttered up their desktop and were not happy that Acer had not asked for permission to show this toolbar nor offered a way to easily disable the toolbar. For...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 17th, 2013 | Comments Off

Windows Offline CD “Your PC needs ...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We have had a couple of cases with not being able to use the Windows Offline CD disc and observe the following error when booting up the computer from the CD: Your PC needs to restart…. Error Code: 0x0000005D Parameters: 0x030F0209 0x756E6547 0x49656E69 0x6C65746E This error is due to older computer CPU (Computer Processing Unit aka the brain) either not having enough RAM (Random Access...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 13th, 2013 | Comments Off

BBC.co.uk videos shows black flash scree...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We recently had an interesting problem that had us scratching our heads. A customer of ours has not been able to watch any streaming videos shown on the BBC.co.uk website on their Windows XP computer using Internet Explorer version 8. When they click on a video link they are presented with a black screen. There is also no audio and it seems that the Adobe “Flash” player has...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 3rd, 2013 | Comments Off

Windows Service Packs...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support According to Microsoft, a SP (Service Pack) is a “Windows update, often combining previously released updates, that helps make Windows more reliable. Service packs, can include security and performance improvements and support for new types of hardware”. Microsoft finishes by advising “Make sure you install the latest service pack to help keep Windows up to date.” This is...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 05 2nd, 2013 | Comments Off

What is a file extension?...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We received an urgent call from a client who had been sent an image from a friend but they were not able to view the photograph. The customer told us that the image file was a white icon with a name and when they double clicked it an error message appeared asking what programme should be used to open the file. After travelling to the customer’s home we saw that the image was missing a crucial...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 24th, 2013 | Comments Off

What is a computer driver?...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support I have often been asked the question “what is a computer driver”? Computer hardware companies sell physical hardware for your computer which needs to be talked to by your computer’s OS (Operating System). The computer OS could be Windows XP; Vista or Windows 7. Together with your new hardware, the company will release a piece of software (computer programme) which you need to...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 19th, 2013 | Comments Off

Missing programs from add/remove program...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support We just had a customer who was missing programs from add/remove programs. The customer had wanted to remove a particular anti-virus programme but couldn’t find the programme listed under the “Add or Remove programmes” tool in Control Panel. For some reason the entry had been removed. There was also no uninstaller for the Programme listed under the Programme’s entry in the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 18th, 2013 | Comments Off

Backing up your computer files...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support “Backup, backup, backup!” is a mantra that I preach often as now, more often than not, precious computer files such as photographs; documents; videos or songs are stored on a computer hard drive and not periodically “backed up”. Because of digital photography, we have all gotten lazy and rely on our computers to store these valuable milestones, comfortable and complacent...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 17th, 2013 | Comments Off

What does boot up your computer mean...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Have you ever wondered why turning on your computer has coined the phrase “Boot Up” or what does boot up your computer mean? The explanation goes back to the days when folks wore boots as their normal foot attire and people remarked to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” Bootstraps were the loops at the back of each boot that you used to pull the boot onto your foot...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 17th, 2013 | Comments Off

Windows Defender Offline CD...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Sadly, some Malware cannot be removed conventionally by anti-malware aka anti-virus software. Luckily, Microsoft has come to the rescue by allowing you to create a boot up CD disc that will remove this malware. This CD has its own anti-Malware operating system included and will allow you to fix any problems before they have had a chance to take hold. The procedure is to download the Windows...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 16th, 2013 | Comments Off

Improve your TV sound...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support My husband and I decided to buy a new LED backlit television for Christmas to replace our aging CRT TV. Unfortunately the sound quality of our new 32″ panel was poor in comparison to our old TV. In order to try to improve the sound quality, we did research on the new “Soundbars” that have come into the market. Unfortunately, most of them were quite expensive and out of our price...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 16th, 2013 | Comments Off

Deleting Vista’s Windows Mail R...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Recently, we had a client who complained that when he typed a friend’s name into the “To” field of a new email, he saw entries for his friend’s old email address appear as well as the current correct email address. Even though he had deleted the obsolete address information from the contact list the deleted entries still automatically appeared. This is a quirk with Windows...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 15th, 2013 | Comments Off

Disk or Disc?...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support Which terminology is correct: Hard “Disk” Drive (HDD) or Hard “Disc” Drive? Is it a compact “disk” or “disc”? The answer is that if light is used to read the data, then the correct word is “disc” as in Compact Disc or Digital Versatile/Video Disc (DVD). Your hard disk doesn’t use light to read the data. The data is read by detecting the magnetization of the material in the...

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Posted by Jackie & Andy in Blog on 04 15th, 2013 | Comments Off

Phishing email...

Tweet Follow me Tweet #computertraining Tweet to @support In the last few days, we have received two emails at Comp-U-Train purporting to be from ABSA bank. This email rang our alarm bells immediately as firstly we don’t bank with ABSA and secondly we recognised it as a typical “Phishing” email This email is a typical Phishing hoax and is a way to try to get you to reveal your banking username & password. Once the criminals have...

More about Comp-U-Train

Comp-U-Train is the South African ICT business of Jackie and Andy Thomas. Jackie is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and has been in the computer industry since 2003. Andy has been a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technican since 2007 and together they offer a one-stop shop!
Jackie has clients that have included many satisfied individuals who (genuinely!) range in age from 3-93. Jackie believes that it is never too early or too late to learn when there is so much to learn.
Our purpose is to offer private and customised training for the suite of Microsoft products to SMEs and small groups. In this way guiding them along the journey. I believe that in this world of technology, we all need a patient and understanding person to guide us on the journey.
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