Don’t ignore update notices
Q. I recently purchased a new Apple computer, and I have connected it to my HP scanner. I can print without a problem, but when I attempt to access the scanner, I get a message that says I don’t have permission to open the application HP scanner 3. I don’t understand, as I should have full access to my own computer.
Any ideas?
A. The newer Apple operating systems have implemented a number of new security settings that can, on occasion, seem to get in the way of day-to-day use of these computers.
Some of the older HP software seems particularly problematic when it is run on the current line of Macs.
In this case, the solution requires something very simple but often overlooked by Mac users. You simply need to have the Mac check for and install updates.
If you have seen the notices that say your computer needs to restart to install updates, now is the time to finally stop ignoring the notice.
If you don’t have these notifications enabled, click on the Apple menu, then About This Mac, then select Software Update and the system will check for any patches and give you the opportunity to install them.
The latest batch of patches addresses this problem. Once you install them, you should be able to use your scanner again.
Keeping your system up to date, regardless of whether it’s a Mac or a PC, is an important part of maintaining a functional computer.
Q. I regularly use an Incognito Mode in Google Chrome for all my web activity. I keep hearing about the DuckDuckGo Web extension as being the ultimate in Web privacy. Which is better for anonymous Web surfing and protecting my privacy?
A. Incognito Mode, also known as private browsing, is a feature that will cause Chrome to not save or store your browsing history. It will remember things such as cookies and site data while browsing but will forget them when you exit Incognito Mode.
But it is not going to completely obfuscate your internet activity. To learn more about what private browsing does and doesn’t do, read the article at tinyurl.com/helplineicognito.
DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, is a search engine that claims to keep your Web searches private, unlike most other search engines like Google that will track you and use your Web activity to target advertisements in your search results.
If you’re concerned about such things, I suspect a combination of private browsing and using the DuckDuckGo search tool may be the way to go.
But how much of this is really necessary? It’s hard to say. I know some people who take this kind of thing very seriously, while most others don’t tend to give it a second thought.