IAL Training

IAL Training Online or On-site PC Training & Online IT Support Consultant Become More Productive in your Business & Home Office Environment.

Utilise your Windows 10 PC or Laptop & Microsoft Office applications more efficiently. We also provide additional online Technical IT Support for Hardware & Software, Android (Google) Smart TV’s & TV Boxes, and do Basic Web Page Design.

Quickly finding the fastest USB port may seem complicated, what with the sheer number of USB ports modern motherboards a...
16/02/2026

Quickly finding the fastest USB port may seem complicated, what with the sheer number of USB ports modern motherboards and cases are packing, but it's actually fairly simple.

Just follow the advice below, and you'll locate the fastest USB port on your PC in a jiff.

You're using the wrong USB port on your PC—here's how to find the fastest one

Want to impress your friends and coworkers? Try these hidden Microsoft Word features!You may have used Microsoft Word fo...
16/02/2026

Want to impress your friends and coworkers? Try these hidden Microsoft Word features!

You may have used Microsoft Word for years, but you haven't fully taken advantage of its capabilities.

I'll share eight hidden Word features that often go unnoticed. Let's dive in.

Transform the way you work in Microsoft Word.

We've all built a rainbow spreadsheet in Excel, but in reality, your data shouldn't look like a bag of Skittles.While co...
16/02/2026

We've all built a rainbow spreadsheet in Excel, but in reality, your data shouldn't look like a bag of Skittles.

While color-coding feels productive, it's hard to audit, impossible to automate, and invisible to formulas.

Here's why you need to stop painting and start automating.

Stop painting cells and use conditional formatting to build accessible, formula-ready, and automated Excel spreadsheets.

In the '90s, lots of appliances had screens. Because they had screens, appliance makers generally thought they might as ...
16/02/2026

In the '90s, lots of appliances had screens. Because they had screens, appliance makers generally thought they might as well add a clock.

So devices like VCRs and microwaves would also display the time—if you bothered to set the clock!

Personally, my memory of the '90s is replete with screens flashing "12:00" regardless of the actual time. When was the last time you saw something with an incorrect clock?

It's not a thing anymore, for the most part, but in many ways that blinking reminder that your clock needs to be programmed was symbolic of how clunky '90s tech was.

For whom the bells tolls.

Microsoft says it is aware of two separate issues that could affect some Windows 11 installs, including a fatal bug that...
16/02/2026

Microsoft says it is aware of two separate issues that could affect some Windows 11 installs, including a fatal bug that crashes affected PCs with certain GPU configurations, likely not just Nvidia GPUs.

If only Nvidia GPUs were having issues, Microsoft would have specifically admitted it.

Moreover, Microsoft has confirmed another bug that causes issues with WPA3 Wi-Fi.

According to Microsoft, a bug in Windows 11 causes certain PCs to crash with a Black Screen of Death (BSOD), and the error code is KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE.

The kernel security error code is not exactly new, as reports of the issue date back to 2023, and there is also a very detailed support document that explains what causes the problem.

However, it appears that after recent Windows updates, more testers started running into this KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE error, which can also show a green screen instead of black.

The blue screen was recently updated to use a black screen as part of modernization efforts in Windows 11.

Microsoft says it is aware of two separate issues that could affect some Windows 11 installs, including a fatal bug that crashes PCs.

Microsoft told Windows Latest that the new Windows 11 Start menu is now widely rolling out as part of the January update...
16/02/2026

Microsoft told Windows Latest that the new Windows 11 Start menu is now widely rolling out as part of the January update.

If you still don’t see it, you can turn on the toggle that says “Get the latest updates…” on Windows Update. This will help with the rollout.

In all other cases, the new Start menu should show up in the coming days or weeks.

“The redesigned Start menu is now available to more devices. More users should begin seeing it gradually,” Microsoft told Windows Latest. This change began rolling out over the last week.

Microsoft has been working on the new Start menu for nearly a year now and has settled on the design after rejecting dozens of radical ideas.

Thankfully, this new Start menu isn’t dramatically different from what we have, but if you truly dislike the existing version, odds are you won’t prefer this UI either.

Microsoft told Windows Latest that the new Windows 11 Start menu is now widely rolling out as part of January update.

In 2026, all major consumer-focused operating systems have AI baked in. However, Windows 11 is the only one getting all ...
16/02/2026

In 2026, all major consumer-focused operating systems have AI baked in. However, Windows 11 is the only one getting all the hate, and it can all be laid at Microsoft’s door.

The company went too far too fast, and made a desktop OS, with 1 billion users, a testing ground for their half-cooked AI companion – the infamous Copilot.

While Copilot itself has an app, with its own dedicated key in all the latest Windows laptops, Microsoft made the daring decision to integrate the AI and its logo in all its popular applications, including the Edge browser, Notepad, File Explorer, the Office suite, and even the Windows 11 Taskbar.

Unsurprisingly, this aggressive AI push has earned Microsoft the unflattering moniker of “Microslop”. Frustrated users now use Microslop to describe what Windows 11 has become in their eyes.

An OS with the Copilot logo slapped everywhere, powering features nobody asked for. And for users who simply want a fast, reliable desktop without an AI assistant waiting desperately for every other click, the obvious question is, can you completely disable Copilot in Windows 11?

Well, in this guide, we will show you how to remove Copilot and other AI components from Windows 11, disable AI integrations, and reclaim a clean, distraction-free Windows.

Learn how to remove Copilot from Windows 11, including Edge, Search, Photos, Notepad, File Explorer, Paint, and other built-in AI features.

There's a pretty good chance that the computer you currently use doesn't have any hard drives with spinning magnetic pla...
13/02/2026

There's a pretty good chance that the computer you currently use doesn't have any hard drives with spinning magnetic platters inside it.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) have matured enough that they've essentially replaced hard drives when it comes to running operating systems and software.

That's as it should be, but mechanical hard drives still have a lot to offer and, perhaps more importantly, they haven't been hit by the same price increases as solid state memory.

At least not yet!

You should still be buying hard drives in 2026

There’s nothing more disorienting than trying to hold together a revenue projection, company budget, or any other comple...
13/02/2026

There’s nothing more disorienting than trying to hold together a revenue projection, company budget, or any other complex workbook without losing your place.

To make these files work, you’ll need to write complex Excel formulas across dozens of columns, many of which can easily blur together because there are simply too many $Q$50 lookalikes staring back at you.

Even beyond the calculations, since every tab feeds into another, it’s just too easy to lose track.

Complex workbooks don’t have to turn into digital landfills, though.

I’ve learned that with a few simple tricks, you can build spreadsheets that remain clear and manageable even as they expand. Here's how I keep mine from descending into chaos.

Tame your Excel before it turns on you.

There’s a little thrill in seeing 100% glowing in the corner of your laptop screen. It feels like topping off the tank b...
13/02/2026

There’s a little thrill in seeing 100% glowing in the corner of your laptop screen. It feels like topping off the tank before a long drive or walking into the week with a perfectly clean desk.

Older nickel-cadmium batteries led us to believe that reaching full charge was not just good but necessary. That idea stuck.

The problem is that, with lithium-ion batteries, a pristine 100% charge actually puts the system under the most strain.

This is one of the many reasons people wonder if it is bad to keep your laptop plugged in all the time.

It helps to stop thinking of your battery as a passive container and start seeing it as a living chemical process. It inhales and exhales energy.

And just like a runner can’t sprint at full tilt forever without breaking down, your laptop battery lasts longest when it's kept at around 80% at maximum.

Your laptop doesn’t want to be full, it wants to be comfortable.

I'm still rocking Windows 10 on a number of devices around my home. It's not that I don't like Windows 11; it's more tha...
13/02/2026

I'm still rocking Windows 10 on a number of devices around my home. It's not that I don't like Windows 11; it's more that I just don't always have the time to back up the hardware and make sure everything is compatible with Windows 11 hardware requirements.

That's in part because Microsoft tightened the rules around what hardware could run Windows 11, and it was a big step up from the more carefree approach to Windows 10.

In fact, Windows 11 hardware requirements made so many folks so angry that they left Windows behind for good once Windows 10 was officially declared dead.

But if that's not an option and you need to stick with Windows, there is a better option.

The free USB creator, Rufus, has built-in options that let Windows 11 ignore the hardware requirements, meaning you can upgrade your computer either way.

You don't need to worry about Windows 11 hardware requirements with Rufus.

SSDs are fast and reliable for daily use, and I wouldn't trade mine for use as a boot drive.But you can't trust them for...
13/02/2026

SSDs are fast and reliable for daily use, and I wouldn't trade mine for use as a boot drive.

But you can't trust them for long-term storage once you understand how SSDs and HDDs differ in the way they store data.

NAND cells lose their charge over time without power, which means an SSD sitting in a drawer for a year or two might not have all your data when you plug it back in.

It's not a flaw; it's just how the technology works. For archiving files you don't touch often, a combination of an external HDD and a cloud backup service like Backblaze is a more dependable approach.

They're a terrible place to stash files you won't touch for months.

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