Woody Leonhard

Setting up a firewall is an effective way to protect your computer from outside cyber attackers and malicious software. But keep in mind that by setting up a firewall, you are changing the way your computer communicates with other computers on the Internet. The firewall blocks all incoming communications unless you set up a specific inbound exception in the Windows firewall to let a program in.

When you use a firewall — and you should — you change the way your computer communicates with other computers on the Internet. The firewall blocks all incoming communications unless you open a port in the Windows firewall to let a specific IP communicate with your computer. For example, if you want to play many online games.

You might think that simply moving a file or folder to the \Public folder in Windows 10 would make it, well, public. At least to a first approximation, that’s exactly how things work. But, there’s a little more to making files “public” in Windows 10.Any file or folder you put in the Windows 10 \Public folder, or any folder inside the \Public folder, can be viewed, changed, or deleted by all the people who are using your computer, regardless of which kind of account they may have and whether they’re required to log in to your computer.

Every Windows 10 user needs to know about Event Viewer. Windows has had an Event Viewer for almost a decade. Few people know about it. At its heart, the Event Viewer looks at a small handful of logs that Windows maintains on your PC. The logs are simple text files, written in XML format.Although you may think of Windows as having one Event Log file, in fact, there are many — Administrative, Operational, Analytic, and Debug, plus application log files.

You probably know how easy it is to install an external hard drive on a Windows 10 PC. Basically, you turn off the Windows 10 computer, plug the USB or eSATA cable into your computer, turn it on … and you’re finished. But, what if you need to install a second internal hard drive on your Windows 10 device?Installing a second internal hard drive into a Windows 10 PC that’s made to take two or more hard drives is only a little bit more complex than plugging an external drive into your USB port.

OneDrive is an internet-based storage platform with a significant chunk of space offered for free by Microsoft to anyone with a Microsoft account. Think of it as a hard drive in the cloud, which you can share, with a few extra benefits thrown in. One of the primary benefits: OneDrive hooks into Windows 10, at least in fits and starts.

Microsoft has famously announced that Windows 10 is “the last version of Windows.” Which is to say, uh, Windows 10 is anything but the last version of Windows. However, the release of various versions of Windows 10 has many users shaking their heads wondering why there have been different versions of Windows 10.

Ransomware — software that scrambles files and demands a payment before unscrambling — has become quite the rage. Windows 10 takes measures to block ransomware on your device. While, it’s an easy way for Script Kiddies to monetize their malware, it’s definitely a situation no Windows 10 user wants to find herself in.