Computing
Group Leader Eion MacDonald
The group meets from 2.00pm to 3.30pm every 2nd and 4th Wednesday in the month from September to Easter.
The group meets at The Old School, The Fairfield and Howley Neighbourhood Project, Fairfield St, Warrington, WA1 3AJ. We meet in Room 5, upstairs. This room has some electric plugs to power your laptop or device. Please bring your power lead/cable with you as well as your device.
We now have MS Windows and an Apple macOS machines for use in group.
Please note, where possible we will try to accommodate on-line Zoom or Jitsi meetings as well as physical meetings. A such, any Wu3a member is invited to join us on ZOOM or JITSI, However, send an email to me with your Wu3a membership number before you join an on-line meeting. On-line video links are at the bottom of page. This allows me to let you in to the meeting. You can send an email via the contact button on this page.
I am also available to help any Wu3a member via email or video chat.
Normally we stop for a tea break after 25 minutes and then resume, to answer any questions you have, or give personal hands-on tuition, or questions arising during the break.
High speed Wi-Fi is available in this room for your own device or the computer group's own laptops. The group will be mostly hands on this session for you with your device.
The group covers basic computer use and advanced topics, if required, on various computers: laptops, Android, Chromebooks, and Linux systems. We will cover computer security, website security, advert blocking, malware avoidance, email use, email security, search engines, keeping your personal data private, documents (office type software and presentations), PDF making, email and document encryption (easy methods), how to set up Wi-Fi, backups, saving system restore points and restoring your Windows operating system. Use of Video chat (Zoom, Skype, Jitsi) and cloud storage. How to check if you are safe and if your email addresses are compromised from your own home and computing device.
Computers are available at group meetings (Laptops with Microsoft Windows, and one Linux openSUSE Leap operating system, all with an Office suite and other software). Members are encouraged to use their own laptops/tablets/devices for self study under guidance.
We have a new Apple macbook air laptop for use and demonstration.
We have a new Windows 11 Pro laptop with secure boot and T2 chip, so we can show or allow you to experience the advantages (increase in security) and disadvantages (more tracking of personal data) of Windows 11 software. This also has, courtesy of Wu3a, a copy of MS Office 365, so we can demonstrate and you can try the improvements in MS office. There are big improvement in speech to text program which helps all with arthritic hands, and of course the reverse in text to speech for those who have difficulty with eyesight.
Your questions about computing are answered during sessions and by personal email.
Some laptops using Windows 10 are available, as is also a laptop with a Linux Operating System (OpenSUSE) for demonstration and use by members.
Converting old MS Window machines to modern Linux operating systems
Anyone interested in converting their old laptop or computer with Windows XP, or Windows Vista, or Windows 7 to a more up-to-date Linux distribution for continuing safe use on the internet should contact the group leader via the message button.
On-line meetings will be held via the following links:
2pm Zoom meeting:
Link: Zoom link
Meeting ID 7063640093
Password Culcheth
2.40pm Break for tea 5-10 minutes
2.50pm Jitsi meeting:
Link: Jitsi link
https://meet.jit.si/WU3AGraphicLawyersJudgeDiscreetly
Clicking this link will join the meeting directly on your browser page (any browser) after the video chat is opened by host.