Beagles the Administrator

I was uninstalling some crapware the other day and I came across a couple of items that I couldn't uninstall. I did, however, have the option of removing them from my computer, which I figured was about the same thing. When I clicked on "remove" I was informed that I had to be an administrator to do that. My Dummies book told me that, since I was the first user to establish an account on that computer, I was already an administrator. The thing is, the administrator function is "hidden" because it bestows more power than should be entrusted to the average user. I asked Cortana about it, and she directed me to a website that told me three different methods by which I could unleash the hidden administrator within me. None of these methods seemed to work so I went back to the book, which told me how to get into the "command" function, which is what I needed to do. It did not, however, tell me what specific command to issue. Back to the website, where I found the command in question. It seems that, if you don't issue precisely the correct command, the command function will reject it. So now I am an administrator, but was cautioned to use my power with care because I could do some serious damage to my system if I didn't know what I was doing. I was then able to successfully remove the offending items, and decided to quit for the night and ponder the implications of my new found power.

When I logged in this evening, I was given the option of logging in as an administrator or as my old self. I logged in as an administrator and was presented with a whole new desktop display that still listed the items I had uninstalled and removed the previous night, didn't show any of the shortcuts that I had previously installed, and the wallpaper was different as well. This made me nervous, so I signed off and re logged in as my old self, finding everything was the way I left it last night. It seems that I still have a lot to learn about being an administrator. Maybe the book will explain it further as I delve deeper into it.

Privacy traces? That's great, something else to worry about! I have a virus protection program, Windows Defender, which recently did a scan of my system and gave it a clean bill of health. Is that the same thing? One thing I am learning from the book is that, in computer language, there are often several different terms that mean the same thing, like apps and programs. I had previously thought that apps were only for those magic telephones, but my book says that an app and a program are exactly the same thing, "program" being the old fashioned term and "app" being the hip modern term.

Our house came equipped with forced air natural gas heat. The wood burner is in the attached garage and blows hot air into the ductwork of the gas furnace. The two furnaces augment each other and, when the gas kicks in, I know it's time to put more wood in the wood furnace. We rely exclusively on gas from mid April to mid October because a wood fire is too hard to control in mild weather. We let the fire go out in the morning if it looks like it's going to be a warm day because, once you build a fire, you're stuck with it for four to six hours. The wood furnace is not very efficient because it was designed to be installed in a basement, of which we don't have any. The advantage is that all the mess is kept in the garage and can be easily swept out the door. I have to burn more wood to get the same amount of heat that I would get from an in-house installation, but that's okay because I like to cut firewood, and there is plenty of it to cut on my 88 acres of prime swamp land.

The guy came and installed that new blower today, so we're back in business, just in time for that predicted cold spell. It cost about half as much as a whole new furnace, but you can't get that furnace anymore because the manufacturer has gone out of business. The guy searched all over the internet and found the part in a warehouse someplace. It shipped in less than 48 hours, which was a surprise to me. The old blower lasted 16 years and, if the new one lasts that long, it will likely out last me. Even if I'm still alive by then, I probably won't still be able to cut enough firewood to keep the beast fed.

That wind storm the other day did more damage than I knew about. Not so much around here, but farther south. I understand that hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan lost their power, and several thousands of them don't have it back yet. It might take until Sunday for everybody to be restored. Our power blinked and flickered all day, but never went completely out.