
People are becoming more and more concerned with their privacy and Facebook's flagship messaging application is caught between it all. While still widely popular it has becoming to lose its ground due to many unanswered questions about privacy encryption.
Lucky for all of us there are alternatives for more secure messaging.
Arguably the most secure of all well-regarded messaging apps, Signal is the favorite of the European Commission, as well as newsrooms around the world. While Signal doesn’t disclose how many daily or monthly users the app has, Google’s Play Store says it has been installed more than 50 million times. While using Signal, each voice or video call connected through the app includes full end-to-end encryption.
Signal takes an extra step by hiding message metadata so that the location of the original message is missing. While it asks for your mobile number, that number isn’t used with your profile. Instead, it acts as a numeric username. Once registered, you will find 1-1 chat, audio, and video calls, disappearing or “secret” chats, and a privacy lock so nobody can access the app even if they have your phone. Best of all, it’s completely free to use.
One of the biggest competitors to Facebook Messenger (and WhatsApp), Telegram is a very strong alternative. With more than 400 million users, it offers an interface that should feel right at home for anyone coming from Messenger. Telegram offers some huge benefits over Messenger, including features like groups that can hold up to 200,000 members for a chat. There is no limit on your media or chat size, and you can share all types of files between users and in groups.
From a privacy standpoint, Telegram has robust security, but it is worth noting that only “secret” messages are end-to-end encrypted and can self-destruct. Non-secret messages can be stored on Telegram’s servers so you can pick them up between your devices quickly. That’s a consideration worth knowing prior to making Telegram your default Messenger replacement. Telegram is free across all platforms.
Rising in popularity, Threema is another privacy-focused alternative that has quickly become a competitor to Facebook Messenger. This paid service ($2.99 on both App Store and Play Store) is a pay-once, use forever option. Once you pay the small fee, you gain all of Threema’s touted privacy options, like open-source end-to-end encryption for both messages and calls.
Like Signal, Threema won’t require you to link any phone numbers or emails to your account. All chats are handled anonymously, and the service generates a random user ID when you first open and register for the app. No data is collected from any of your chats and no ads are shown.
The Swiss-made app does have its own servers hosted in Switzerland, which do not store any chat messages. Another privacy benefit of Threema is the notion that all of your contact lists, groups, and user profiles are hosted on your device, not on the Swiss servers. Because of that, Threema can once again state that none of your personal info is stored anywhere they have access.
ConvertDocsOnline is a Browser Extension for Google Chrome developed by Mindspark Inc. This extension offers users a quick and easy way to convert documents without any additional applications installed on their computer, it also has quick access links to popular websites that the average user might find interesting. While all this may look appealing and nice, this extension injects itself into your browser.
While installed, ConvertDocsOnline will monitor your browsing activity and record visited websites, clicked links, downloads, and even viewed products. All this information is later used/sold to Mindsparks Ad network to better serve user-targeted ads.
Browsing the internet with this extension installed will result in ad placement throughout your browsing sessions. These ads might appear as normal links (sponsored content), ad links, or even pop-up ads.
ConvertDocsOnline has been marked as a Browser Hijacker by several Anti-Virus scanners and is therefore recommended for optional removal from your PC.
“Installing, this may take a few minutes… WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x8007019e/0x8000000d Error: 0x8007019e/0x8000000d The parameter is incorrect. Press any key to continue.”Error code 0x8007019e or 0x8000000d could be due to the absence of supporting Windows 10 features since the error does not even let one use the WSL-based command line. If you are one of the users facing this problem, then you’ve come to the right place as this post will provide you with a couple of suggestions to fix it. There are two options you can check out to fix the problem, but before you do that, you need to make sure that the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature is enabled. The two options include enabling WSL using the “Turn Windows features on or off” option and using the Windows PowerShell.
“Windows cannot find a system image on this computer, Attach the backup hard disk or insert the final DVD from a backup set and click Retry. Alternatively, close this dialog for more options.”In the error message, you are offered two choices – to either Retry or Cancel the operation. You can try to select Retry to try again but you will most likely get the same error if you do so. This kind of error can occur if the name of the WindowsImageBackup folder or any of its sub-folders has been modified. On the other hand, this error can also pop up if this folder or any of its sub-folders have gone missing or have become corrupted. To resolve the error, you can try to move the WindowsImageBackup folder or check its sub-folders. You can also try to isolate the System Image file or rename the System Image folder or remove all the unwanted sub-folders as well as use Command Prompt in Repair mode.
CHKDSK [volume [[path] filename]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/C] [: size]]Note: In the command given above, “[/F]” will try to fix the system errors while “[/R]” will be the one to fix the bad sectors.
iWin is a self-published games platform that offers users to download and play free games. It is classified as potentially unwanted, primarily because it often comes bundled with the iWin Toolbar, which is an adware supported browser extension by Conduit. The iWin Toolbar is heavily flagged as malware or unwanted by numerous Antiviruses. iWin Games is not malicious in itself, though due to its bundling and common inclusion of the toolbar, many users wish to remove it.
Shortcut Keys | Description |
Windows Key | Opens/closes the Start menu. |
Windows Key + Up Arrow | Maximizes the selected window. |
Windows Key + Down Arrow | Reduces the window size. (Restore down.) |
Windows Key + M | Minimizes all open windows. |
Windows Key + Shift + M | Opens minimized windows. |
Windows Key + Tab | Shows Task View. |
Windows Key + L | Locks the screen. |
Windows Key + A | Opens the Action Center. |
Windows Key + V | Opens Clipboard History. |
Windows Key + I | Opens the Settings menu. |
Windows Key + F | Opens the Feedback hub. |
Windows Key + H | Opens the dictation toolbar. |
Windows Key + P | Opens the projection settings. |
Windows Key + . (Windows Key + ;) | Opens the emoji panel. |
Windows Key + C | Opens Cortana in listening mode. |
Windows Key + C (Windows Key + Q) | Opens Windows Search. |
Windows Key + G | Opens the Xbox game bar. |
Windows Key + X | Opens the secondary start menu. |
Windows Key + <number> | Opens the app in the taskbar relative to the number input. For example, if Chrome is the fourth app on the taskbar, using Windows Key + 4 will open Chrome. |
Windows Key + Alt + <number> | Opens the right-click menu for the app in the taskbar relative to the number input. For example, if Chrome is the fourth app on the taskbar, using Windows Key + Alt + 4 will open Chrome’s right-click menu. |
Windows Key + D | Shows/hides open apps on the desktop. |
Windows Key + E | Opens File Explorer. |
Windows Key + U | Opens Ease of Access in the Settings menu. |
Windows Key + Print Screen | Takes a screenshot of the desktop. |
Windows Key + Control + F | Opens the Find Computers window. |
Windows Key + Control + D | Creates a virtual desktop. |
Windows Key + Control + Left Arrow | Switches to the virtual desktop on the left. |
Windows Key + Control + Right Arrow | Switches to the virtual desktop on the right. |
Windows Key + Control + F4 | Closes the active virtual desktop. |
Windows Key + Space | Switches between installed languages (for writing text). |