Unfortunately even if a Windows PC has already been configured with our CAB Gwynedd google account there are some settings which need to be re-done for every new user.
Some of our PCs have now been changed over to “Cloudready” (shortly to be renamed ChromeOS Flex). This is a basic operating system which works quickly on older machines – and avoids the need to do any of the things listed below! You just input your email address and password, verify with your phone and you are good to go with a google chrome browser – which works fine for most things. If you need to use a Windows PC though read on…
- Accept the various Microsoft questions around Cortana (voice activation), advertising and location. It might even ask you to log in with a Microsoft account – you do not want to do this.
- You won’t be using Microsoft Edge so you can close down as soon as it lets you.
- Right click the Edge and Mail icons at the bottom of the screen to “unpin” them. Do the same to “pin” programs you do use – chrome, word etc. once yoou have them running.
- When you first start chrome it asks whether you whether you want to Sync data. Yes you do! There may be an error showing top right – click on this and tell it to enable the extensions you want and remove the ones you don’t. It may also tell you top left of the screen that Chrome is not the defaut browser. You want to change this – and set chrome as the default program for mail at the same time. If the warning is not shown you can search for default programs in bottom left search box. You want to change the one at the top from “Mail” to “Google Chrome” and lower down also change the browser from Edge to Google Chrome.
- Once this is done you can set up google drive. you can get to this from the left search box. It will need to “sign in through browser” – which won’t work unless chrome is the default so do the above first.
- Microsoft insists on launching onedrive – you won’t be using this so you can right click on it in bottom right corner and go to settings , and untick “start automatically”. You can then go back into onedrive to shut it down.
- First time you go into GMail look for a symbol in the top right corner of the search bar – the one on the left in the picture below). Click it.
- You will be asked to agree to allow mail.google.com to open all mail links. Click “Allow” and “Done”. If you miss thisor you encounter problems with sending emails from GMail, this link has detailed instructions to follow.
It is tempting to change the “Downloads” and “Documents” folders to the G drive to ensure that all documents are backed up / stored securely. Please don’t do this as it causes problems particularly with installing Navigate Pro. Instead, make sure you look in both folders regularly and delete or move any confidential documents. You can create shortcuts to “my drive” and “shared drives” in the documents folder to make it easier to click through instead of saving things there.
Although Windows now has a built in Zoom app it doesn’t give you all the options available in the full version e.g. testing your settings before you start a meeting so you can see if it is working properly. You can download the full version here: zoom.us/support/download
Similar issues apply to Microsoft Teams. If you are using this as a one off, “open in browser” will probably be fine. If you need to use more often, you may want us to assign a Microsoft account to you so you can log in and use the full app. We have a limited number of free accounts available to ask Tal or Dawn.
Although Google Chrome can read most PDF files, sometimes you need Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get it here if it isn’t already installed on your PC. For more complex editing of PDFs there is a basic package (Ashampoo – £6 per user) or the full Adobe Acrobat (£50 per user) depending on your requirements. Please talk to Tal or Dawn about options.
Gwynedd Citizens Advice 