Note: There will not be a General Meeting in January, February, July, or August. All other meetings and classes will continue as usual.
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Senior Techies SIG
Central Resource Library
9875 West 87th Street
Overland Park, KS 66212
Conference Room 02
Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 2:30 ~ 4:00 pm
Topic:
(To Be Determined)
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The Senior Techies are a small group of senior citizens who desire to share and discuss computer and other technology issues with each other to help expand their knowledge. SenCom members who seek to discuss computer and/or technology issues in a smaller group setting, regardless of current knowledge, are encouraged to attend. The Senior Techies SIG always meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.
Note: This will be a hybrid meeting. You can join in person or remotely via Free Conference Call, as referenced in the Revised Virtual Meeting Procedure shown below.
Joe Callison convenes the Senior Techies SIG
jcallison@kcsenior.net
Revised Virtual Meeting Procedure:
We miss seeing our members. If you have been having problems joining our virtual meetings using Free Conference Call, please contact a Board Member, and one of us will work with you before the meeting you are interested in joining. Board Members’ email addresses are under the “About Us” tab of SenCom’s website.
QUICK ACCESS TO A SENCOM MEETING
If you have the FreeConferenceCall (FCC) app, please start the app to join our meeting with audio and video. If you do not have the FCC app and do not want to install the FCC app, please click on this link below to enter the virtual meeting, and participate with audio only (your picture will not be available to anyone):
https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/sencomuser00/viewer
You will still need to tell Free Conference Call to use the audio either on your computer or through a separate phone call. If you are using the FCC app on a computer, smartphone, or tablet, turn on your video by clicking on the icon of a video camera so that we can see you. On a phone or tablet, you may need to tap your screen to see the icon.
Here are the complete instructions for our virtual meeting procedure:
We are using a service called Free Conference Call that allows all of us to be on at one time through video/audio conferencing or just audio conferencing. If you have a camera and speakers on your desktop computer or a laptop computer with a camera and speakers, you will find that using your PC or Mac computer along with the FCC app will probably give you the best experience. To use your computer to conference into the meeting, follow the instructions that I have assembled in this PDF:
Using your computer to access the Free Conference Call (PDF)→ (Revised)
Also available on our Free Conference Call page → (Revised)
When using the Chrome browser to access a video conference, you may see a message that your browser has blocked access to your camera or audio. Look at the icons at the top right area of your browser for an icon with a red X, like the following:
Click on the icon and then click on the button to allow access, and then click the Done button. If the red X does not disappear after a few seconds, you may need to refresh your browser by clicking on the icon near the top left of your browser that looks like the following:
The settings for the site will be saved in your Chrome browser Privacy and security settings so you will not need to do this the next time you access the site.
Although Chrome is the preferred browser, others have used Firefox without any problems.
For those who wish to use their Android devices (either tablet or phone), we are using an app called FreeConferenceCall that you can download from the Google Play Store (note that there are no spaces in the app name). Bob Bowser has assembled a set of instructions that you can print and follow to join the meeting:
Using your Android device to access the FreeConferenceCall (PDF)→
Apple iPad/iPhone users can find the same app (Free Conference Call) on the Apple App Store. Installing and using it should be very similar to the Android instructions above.
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Do you have a computer that can’t be upgraded to Windows 11, and don’t know what to do with it?
Would you like to learn about a different Operating System called Linux?
If you’re a senior using a Windows 10 computer, now is a great time to consider switching to Linux. Windows 10 has reached the end of its support, which means no more security updates – leaving your system more vulnerable unless you enroll in Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates for one more year of support. Linux is a free, secure, and easy-to-use alternative that runs well on older machines, helping you avoid the cost and hassle of buying a new computer. Many versions of Linux, like Linux Mint or Zorin OS, are designed to feel familiar to Windows users, making the transition smoother. With Linux, you can continue browsing the internet, sending emails, watching videos, and more – without worrying about viruses or forced updates. It’s a smart, budget-friendly choice for staying safe and productive online. If everything you do on your computer is done inside a browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.), Linux can easily handle your needs.
Please let us know your interest! SenCom is considering holding workshops and developing classes on Linux. Contact either Joe Callison (jcallison@kcsenior.net) or Frank Mundt (fmundt@kcsenior.net).
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SenCom is on Facebook. See the access instructions below to find our Facebook Group page (SenComKC). Check it out! Share your favorite SenCom moment or interaction.
To access the group page:
- Log in to your Facebook account.
- On your computer, click “Search Facebook” in the left-hand corner (to the left of the home icon, or on your mobile device, in the middle of the screen on top, then type SenComKC (not case sensitive).
- Search results should give you “Groups,” and under that, you will see SenComKC. To the right of your search results, you should see a “Join” button. Click the button to request to be a member of this Facebook group.
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* Volunteers Needed *
SOS! NEEDED NOW! — Volunteers to help our Board of Directors fill the board positions of Vice President, Program Director, and Hospitality Director. If interested, please email me or another Board Member. Our email addresses are on the “Board of Directors” page under the “About Us” menu. Remember, this is your organization; please help us keep it healthy and growing!!
LITTLE OR NO COMPUTER SKILLS REQUIRED.
Lou Risley, 913-298-0575 or sencomprez@gmail.com
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GEEK FREE
By Joe Callison
3 January, 2026
Easy Solutions to Unsupported Windows 10
Windows 10 has been unsupported since mid-October 2025. For computers that do not meet the requirements for an upgrade to Windows 11, the risk of malware attacks will steadily increase without security updates. An easy solution to “kick the can down the road” until next October is to enroll in Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates. You will find this option on the Settings – Update & Security page. All that is required to obtain the ESU at no cost is to sign in with a Microsoft account, which you can create for free if you do not have one or have forgotten the one that you had. It will verify the email address or phone number you use to create the account by sending a code that will have to be entered after receipt. Once verified, you will sign in to the account, and Microsoft will enable the backup of the Windows system settings and enroll you in the ESU. Text displayed on the Update & Security page will indicate that “Your PC is enrolled to get Extended Security Updates”. You will receive the monthly security updates until mid-October 2026.
It is also possible to install Windows 11 on an unsupported computer by using modified installation settings that bypass TPM 2.0 security and other requirements that prevent upgrading. This method or future security updates could possibly be blocked by Microsoft eventually. Contact me if you want to use this method. I have used it successfully for clean installs of Windows 11 on unsupported computers.
If you choose to migrate from a Windows 10 computer to a new Windows 11 computer, there is now a simpler method than using the Backup app that Microsoft added to Windows 10, which requires using OneDrive storage for the backup and then recovery from OneDrive during the Windows 11 setup. Now you can simply choose to do a PC to PC migration during the Windows 11 setup by having both computers connected to your home network.
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FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
10 January 2026
Creating Bootable USB Drives
I have used Rufus: Rufus – Create bootable USB drives the easy way to create bootable USB drives for trial or installation of operating systems or utilities for several years. The only downside is that it utilizes the whole USB space to create one bootable ISO file. It does have some handy options in the settings for bypassing the Windows 11 requirements that would otherwise prevent installation on an unsupported computer.
Ventoy: Download – Ventoy is another option for creating multiple bootable ISO files on a single USB drive. Using a 64GB USB drive, I was able to put 4 different Linux ISO distributions on it after creating the bootable Ventoy drive, and Ventoy created a menu to choose the distribution to load, which you can then run from the USB for trial. Of course, it loads much slower from the USB drive, but once loading is complete, it responds reasonably well. Within the trial version of Linux is the option to install to the main storage drive, with options for either replacing the existing operating system or creating a dual-boot installation. The unused space on the USB drive can be used for additional ISO files or any other files you want to add.
For either of these two vendor options, be very careful not to click on any of the large in-your-face “download” displays that are actually ads that download unwanted junk. Use only the menu or download links that are clearly part of the Rufus or Ventoy sites. Also, know that creating the bootable USB drive will wipe any existing files that were on the drive.
SenCom gratefully acknowledges the following organizations for their support:
Google Fiber
City of Shawnee:
Parks & Recreation Department
Johnson County Library:
Central Resource, Oak Park
SENCOM IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT KANSAS CORPORATION
UNDER THE IRS 501(C)(3) RULES
