Office of Information Technology Blog

PC World recently posted an article on how to uninstall apps in Windows 8. This post is primarily targeted toward people who use the Metro User Interface. For those who may be unaware, Window’s users with Metro do not have the traditional Start button that was seen in previous Windows systems.

Below are a few steps highlighted by PC World on how to uninstall apps from Windows 8:

“If you’re operating Windows 8 with a mouse, it’s a snap to uninstall an app: Just mouse over its tile, right-click, and then choose Uninstall from the options toolbar that appears at the bottom of the screen.”

“If you’re using a touchscreen, there’s no right-click option… Tap and hold a tile, drag it down just slightly, then release it. You’ll see a checkmark in the corner of the tile and the toolbar down below. Now you can tap Uninstall to remove the app.”

To read the full article, be sure to visit PC World.

Image Credit: PC Advisor

Hack College recently released this video which details a simple hack to find a stolen laptop. They do this by using the popular cloud storage service Dropbox. Check out the video above to learn what you can do in case your laptop is ever stolen.

Have you ever been a similar situation? What are some methods you have used? Tweet us @wvuoit

Video: Hackcollege

Spring is officially here and the term “spring cleaning” now takes on a new meaning. Instead of cleaning your house, why not clean up your devices? Our smartphones, laptops, and computers usually get dirty, cluttered, and accumulate unnecessary apps, files, and data.

Thanks to LifeHacker, tips on speeding up, cleaning up, and reviving your tech devices is easy. Included in their recent post, they offer easy to follow tips for people who use Mac, Windows PC, iPhone, and Android. Mentioned below are four posts specific for each device type. For detailed information on each device be sure to visit the page directed toward your device.

Spring Cleaning: Mac

For those of you who use Macs, this post will be very helpful for you. LifeHacker gives users advice on how to: clean the gunk off your keyboard, unclutter wires, updating software, uninstalling apps, reclaiming hard drive space, system maintenance, and backing up your Mac.

Spring Cleaning: Windows PC

Similar to Mac users, PCs users are also given advice on cleaning their hardware,  uncluttering wires, updating software, uninstalling apps, reclaiming hard drive space, system maintenance, and backing up their refreshed PC.

Spring Cleaning: iPhone

This post by LifeHacker gives iPhone users advice on reclaiming hard drive space, overhauling settings,  uninstalling unnecessary apps, and disinfecting both the iPhone and its case.

Spring Cleaning: Android

Finally, LifeHacker suggests Android users to reclaim drive and SD card space, boost their battery, tweak their settings, and cleaning both their smartphone and case.

Any suggestions, comments, or concerns? Be sure to tweet us @wvuoit

Mashable recently put together a list of 10 YouTube Channels That Will Make You Smarter. Each channel hosts 100′s of videos from a number of topics from almost every field. Science, math, history, and law are among some of the popular topics that are discussed. However each channel does a great job at making these sometimes “boring” topics very interesting. Mashable describes these 10 YouTube Channels as,

“A sea of videos that will leave you eager to learn more.”

Below is a list of the YouTube Channels That Will Make You Smarter:

• Veritasium
• Vsauce
• C.G.P Grey
• Minute Physics
• Smarter Every Day
• SciShow
• Crash Course
• Numberphile
• ASAP Science
• Bad Astronomy

I encourage you to check out each of these accounts and to stop by Mashable to read the full article.

The TED Blog recently released a list of 100 Websites You Should Know and Use (the updated version). TED first released this list in 2007 but it became so popular that they had to create a new list with even more awesome websites. Each of these websites are great resources for whatever you may need.

Below are a few categories of the websites featured:

• Business & E-Commerce
• Audio & Visual
• Literature, Media & Culture
• Politics, News & Global Issues
• Education
• Science & Technology
• Curiosity & Knowledge
• Graphics, Music & Arts
• Searching & Finding
• Online Resources
• Top Interactive Experience Creators

Do you have any websites that you would like to contribute? Tweet us @wvuoit

Image Credit: Screenshot from TED Blog Captured by Jessicaml_

Do you know about the “Other” inbox that you have on Facebook? That’s right, there is another inbox in your Facebook messages that is often ignored. According to PC World,

“The Other folder is ‘where you’ll find messages and emails that have been filtered out of your inbox‘ – in other words, messages from people you probably don’t know.”

This inbox most likely contains messages from people who have used Facebook’s monetized messaging system. (For those who are unaware of this new system; last December, Facebook allowed users to send messages to people who were not their friend for $1.)

But if you’re lucky you may just have no messages in this inbox. If you do find that you have messages from unknown users Facebook offers step-by-step instructions on how to change filter preferences for messages.

For more information on this story, feel free to read the full article at PC World.

Image Credit: Techhive

A new trojan known as Yontoo has been discovered by the Russian security firm Dr. Web. According to this source, the trojan installs an adware plugin. The trojan places its ads into the most popular browsers on OS X (Chrome, Safari, and Firefox).

According to Dr. Web,

There are several ways for the Trojan to get onto a computer. To spread the Trojan, criminals crafted movie trailer pages that prompt users to install a browser plugin. In fact, the prompt only imitates a common dialogue displayed when a plugin needs to be installed or additional configuration is necessary. After clicking on ‘Install the plug-in’, the user is redirected to another site from which Trojan.Yontoo.1 is downloaded.

Criminals have also provided for a number of alternative ways to spread this threat. The Trojan can also be downloaded as a media player, a video quality enhancement program or a download accelerator.

When launched, Trojan.Yontoo.1 displays a dialogue window that asks the user if they want to install Free Twit Tube.

Yontoo then embeds a third-party code into pages visited by the user. The Next Web claims (via Symantec) that Yontoo also affects Windows users by targeting ads through Facebook. However, it does not affect those operating on Windows 8.

For Mac’s, Yontoo should appear in all three browsers under the name “trojan.yontoo.1.” Fortunately, it can be easily removed. To do this, disable “trojan.yontoo.1″ just like you would any other app from your computer.

Image Credit: Hyphenet

Last month, a bug that lets anyone bypass the lock screen on iOS 6.1.2 was discovered. By using a few simple tricks, users were able to make calls, send messages, see contact information, and much more. Thankfully, Apple released a fix for the passcode bug, iOS 6.1.3.

The update is being released to iPhones now. To check and see if your iPhone is ready for the update go to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone.

Image Credit: Mashable

On July 1, 2013 Google will be shutting down its RSS service, Google Reader. According Google, the decline of activity on the RSS has prompted the company to make this decision. According to PCWorld, Google Reader joins 70 other services that Google has closed since 2011– the next being iGoogle in November 2013.

So with that being said, Google Reader users need to migrate their subscriptions to a new RSS reader. Compiled below is a list of Google Reader Alternatives:

• Feedly
• Fever
• NetVibes
• NewsBlur
• Reeder
• Digg
• The Old Reader
• Managing News
• Flipboard

Image Credit: Flickr, Jessicaml_ 

Did you know that the three button control feature on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod earphones do so much more than control the volume? It’s true, according to ZDNet the earphone’s remote has about eleven features. These earphones have the ability to activate Siri, skip tracks, take photos, answer incoming calls, and so much more.

Below we feature all eleven tricks that this three-button controller can do: Read the rest of this entry »