A little humor

On the lighter side!

Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?

Customer: A white one.

Tech support: Click on the 'my computer' icon on to the left of the screen.

Customer: Your left or my left?

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Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can't print. Every time I try, it says 'Can't find  printer'. I've even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can't find it..

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Tech   support: What's on your monitor now, ma'am?

Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.

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Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.

Tech   support: Are you sure it's plugged into the  computer?

Customer: No. I can't get behind the computer.

Tech   support: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces  back.

Customer:   OK! !

Tech  support: Did the keyboard come with you?

Customer: Yes

Tech  support: That means the keyboard is not plugged  in.

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Customer: I can't get on the Internet.

Tech support: Are you sure you used the right  password?

Customer: Yes, I'm sure. I saw my colleague do it.

Tech support: Can you tell me what the password was?

Customer: Five dots.

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Tech support: What anti-virus program do you use?

Customer: Netscape.

Tech  support: That's not an anti-virus program.

Customer: Oh, sorry... Internet Explorer.

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Customer: I have a huge problem. A friend has placed a screen saver on my computer, but every time I move the mouse, it  disappears.

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Tech  support: How may I help you?

Customer: I'm writing my first email.

Tech  support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?

Customer: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get  the little circle around it?

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A woman customer called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer.

Tech  support: Are you running it under windows?

Customer: 'No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point.  The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his printer is  working fine.'

****************************

 

Tech   support: 'Okay Bob, let's press the control and escape keys at the same time. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen. Now type the letter 'P' to bring up the Program Manager.'

Customer: I don't have a P.

Tech   support: On your keyboard, Bob.

Customer: What do you mean?

Tech  support: 'P'.....on  your keyboard, Bob.

Customer: I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT! 

Kindle Fire vs. iPad: Which is right for you?

This is a very well done piece comparing the 2 products. A significant point about the Fire is that the reporters did not have any hands-on time with the Fire, so I'd wait to see how it looks and feels up close first. In the meantime, however, this article covers very well what is known at this point in time. From cnn.com:

"(CNN) -- With Amazon unveiling its much-anticipated Kindle Fire tablet computer Wednesday, we may finally have a real tablet war on our hands.

In the nearly 18 months since the iPad went on sale, tablet rivals have come and gone. But Apple's device has remained dominant.

Amazon's new entry, though, might be different. Instead of crafting an iPad carbon copy and asking consumers to choose between them, they've pushed out a stripped-down and simplified device that sells for much less than the iPad 2 while skimping on some of that tablet's features.

If you're in the market for a tablet, though, here's the real question: Which one, if either, is right for you?"

Kindle Fire vs. iPad: Which is right for you?

Everything You Need to Know About the New Facebook

Timely. 

Everything You Need to Know About the New Facebook

Mac Days

I am getting pretty good at using my MacBook Pro 17. I have had to, because my 2 Acer laptops have develped hardware issues, and they are just too darned expensive to get fixed these days. They are darn near disposables, meaning to me that I can buy a new one for less than it costs to have one repaired. That is, of course, a good news/bad news situation. These days I feel lucky to have one working computer. And I have 2 now. I have switched to exclusive use of the Mac for day to day needs. I have found that between it and my old IBM desktop (still going pretty strong), I have all I need. It took quite a long time for me to decide where I wanted to keep my data. I mean which machine would be the primary site. I decided to make my desktop the primary, even though I use it far less than the Mac. The portability of the Mac makes it far easier to use. I can lug it around (it is NOT light) wherever I go, and I am on the go a lot.

I am trying out SOS Online Backup services. I am not yet convinced that it will work for me, but I remain hopeful. I also copy all of my data to my 1TB Western Digital MyBook on a quarterly basis. The size of "My Documents" folder is 94 GB, and it consists mainly of videos (my Flip camera takes them), music, and photos (around 40,000 photos at last count).

My IBM desktop runs Windows XP so I will try to keep it going through 2014, the last days of XP.

I am also changing the way I feel about the need for these darn boat anchors. I just told a customer, who is expecting an iPad for her birthday, that I thought she'd never return to her laptop. Like so many others out there, e-mailing and browsing the web is about all these heavy duty laptops and desktops are used for. Compare them to a tablet like the iPad and the tablet wins hands down.

Just some food for thought on a Friday afternoon. Good weekends all.

I haven't heard of some of these, but it's interesting to me that there are so many FREE alternatives to MS Office. This is found on the techilicious.com web site.

Seven Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

I have put off doing this, but I now think it's a must these days. I am hopeful that this article will help me in my attempt to come up with a useful FB Page. I suspect the problem will be that every small (and large) business is doing the same and it will be a quagmire out there in FB-world.

I found this on pcworld.com. I hope it may prove useful to some of you.

How to Make a Facebook Page for Your Small Business

What's New in Microsoft Surface Version Two

Wow! Here's something I have not heard of before. This is pretty cool and I could see it as being quite useful for lots of applications.

This comes from Maximum PC.

"Posted 09/15/2011 at 12:35pm | by Seamus Bellamy

In the world of tech, concepts come and go faster than poop through a goose. Sadly, some ideas with great potential fade into the realm of vapourware, or see their prime features rolled into already existing products. Worse than this, hardware and software that smacked of half-baked failure from the get-go are routinely green-lit by manufactures to be released on an unsuspecting, and soon to be frustrated, public.

There are however, some concepts that both innovate and thrill those fortunate enough to experience them. Should these concepts be nurtured out of prototyping and released into the wild, wooly realm of the consumer, they stand a chance to change the way that we interact with our world on a daily basis. The Personal Computer is one such product. So too, whether you like it or not, was the iPad: While other tablets may have been around before hand, none had ever managed to capture the public’s imagination or hard earned money in such a manner as to make it an ubiquitous part of our every day lives.

While it may be coming in well under the radar, we’ve got a feeling that as it crops up in more and more locations over the next few years, the latest version of Microsoft Surface could have what it takes to be the next piece of computing technology to change the way we work, shop and live on a daily basis."

Read the entire article here

"Call That Girl", a blog I have often referred to, is running a series of posts covering Microsoft's Outlook, a very solid, stable, rich e-mail processing program. Outlook is a part of Microsoft Office, the suite of programs that has been available for many years. I have used Outlook as my e-mail of choice for several years, and most companies use Outlook, so it's familiar to many home users as well.

Lisa's first post is quoted below in part and I have provided a link to the rest of it. I encourage all of you Outlook users to check this one out, and if you think the series will be helpful to you, bookmark the web site and check for future posts.

Posted by callthatgirl on September 14, 2011

"Welcome to my Outlook FYI series of blogs. We will be covering these topics in a series as there is just way too much information to handle in one blog. I felt that these FYI’s were important to discuss because so many people use Outlook every day, for so many things. And Outlook is just not for email anymore. I also apologize, there are no “How to” in my blogs, just FYI’s. This blog will just explain things hopefully better for you to understand.

Many of us use Outlook in our everyday computing needs. It’s a wonderful tool, but very misunderstood by the common user. And maybe by some not so common people. Many of us are really married to it and I am all for it because it’s been my favorite software program since 2000, but it can be tricky and problematic."

Things That You Should Know About Outlook That Microsoft Doesn’t Tell You

This is an enlightening Tip of the Day from Kim Komando, especially for those of you who do not yet own a tablet (that'd be me) but may be interested in owning one (that'd be me too).

The future of tablets

Live From Microsoft's Windows 8 Keynote at BUILD

From a PCMag.com article:

"Microsoft’s BUILD developer’s conference kicks off today with a keynote that’s expected to focus on the next version of the company’s core software, Windows 8. The event starts at 12 noon Eastern (9 a.m. Pacific), and PCMag is covering the event live—scroll down to read our up-to-the-second coverage and take part in the discussion.


Of course, Windows 8 is still just a code name—no one knows what Microsoft may end up calling the new operating system when it’s released to the public next year, but we do know that it’s going to be a major revamp aimed at getting Windows to work on as many devices as possible.

Chief among those devices: tablets. Since Windows 7 came out, Microsoft has seen Apple’s iPad completely change the market of personal computers. The iPad has hanged what people think of as a computer, and what they expect from one (though it’s apparently not to blame for dipping PC sales). So far, though, no other tablet device has come close to challenging the iPad."

 Live From Microsoft's Windows 8 Keynote at BUILD

64 GB Flash Drive

I am not the type who just has to have the latest and greatest. I might be that type if I had the money!  But I felt I needed this high capacity flash drive because frequently I help people salvage data from a damaged hard drive or an uncooperative system.   "My Documents", for example, is itself 94 GB. It turns out there is a 128 GB flash drive available and soon I think we'll see 256 GB and on and on. However, these newer high density devices are rather costly. I found that at $69 this new gadget is affordable and I have a need, so I got it.

Lest we forget, my first PC back in 1981 had 32 KB of RAM. Yes, KB! We have come a long way.

Corporate America to Microsoft: We'll Pass on Windows 8

I can certainly understand why corporate America would feel this way. It is an incredibly large undertaking to convert thousands upon thousands of computers from one operating system to another, and many companies are just deciding or have already decided, and perhaps even started or finished their conversions, to go to Windows 7 from their rock steady Windows XP machines.
 

Corp. America to Microsoft: We'll Pass on Windows 8

Keep your PC clean with Microsoft Security Essentials

Regular readers of this blog know that I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). It is an excellent and free anti-virus program. There is no need to spend money on Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, or any other, and I can assure you MSE is as good as or better than most all of the other free anti-viruses. Who knows more about Microsoft operating systems than Microsoft itself? I'd suggest "no one" is a good guess at the answer, so it stands to reason, to me anyway, that I'd want the people who know the system I am using to be my anti-virus program provider, and did I already say MSE is FREE? :-)

My recommended security baseline includes all free programs including MSE. Check it out at PC Doc's Security Baseline.

from worldstart.com by Yogesh Bakshi: Keep your PC clean with Microsoft Security Essentials

September HOSTS file available now

I hope you are using the MVPS HOSTS file on your system(s). The latest version is now available.




The MVPS HOSTS file was recently updated [September-05-2011]
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Download: hosts.zip (148 kb)
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip

How To: Download and Extract the HOSTS file
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts2.htm

HOSTS File - Frequently Asked Questions
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hostsfaq.htm
Note: the "text" version makes a great resource for determining possible unwanted connections ...
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt (600 kb)

Get notified when the MVPS HOSTS file is updated
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/updates.htm

Published Mon, Sep 5 2011 13:56 by winhelp2002

Rethinking the ‘Never Unsubscribe’ Rule for Spam

Happy Labor Day!

David Pogue of the New York Times is worth reading and following. This post may be of some interest to some of you. Personally I find that the junk (spam) mail filters in Gmail and those in my host sevices webmail offerings do a very good job. However, I present this here for those of you who may find your spam filter inadequate. Be sure to read the whole post. This only really applies in certain situations.

"When it comes to junk mail, the rule, for 15 years, has been: Never respond. Don’t even try to unsubscribe, even if they give you instructions for doing so. You’re just letting the spammer know that your e-mail address is “live,” and that you’re a dummy who actually opens those messages and reads them. You’ll wind up getting put on even more spam lists as a result.

Well, I think it’s time to revisit that advice."

Rethinking the ‘Never Unsubscribe’ Rule for Spam

I find this article quite fascinating. I have to admit that I never gave the question a single thought. I never really thought it was a photograph at all. This is the picture of which I write:

If it looks familiar to you that probably means you have been a Windows XP user for some time now.

There is an interesting story behind the picture. First and foremost, it is a photograph, taken by a man who is likely pretty rich right now. You can read about the photo, the man who took it, and the location here:

Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from?

This article says, "Many users live their lives in Gmail, all without ever recognizing its full potential. These widgets can help." I don't know about that, but I am a Gmail user, so I thought I'd at least take a look at these. It remains to be seen if I will use any, but maybe some of you would like to try one or more, so here is the link:

15 Add-Ons to Become a Gmail Power User

CCleaner for Mac

I have been using my Apple Macbook Pro 17 a lot lately, and I always have a funny feeling when I do. I have spent most of the last 40 years being concerned, to varying levels, about security on computers. So it comes as no surprise that I have developed my Security Baseline for PCs. But in Apple's world where they tell me they are immune to viruses and rogue programs, I just can't help feel that one day that will all change. So I guess I won't rest easy until I eventually see (as I believe I will) an equivalent Apple version of all of the program functions provided by my Security Baseline for all of you PC users.

So I was happy to see that there is a version of CCleaner for Macs, and I downloaded it, installed it, and ran it as quickly as I could. Now CCleaner is not really a security program per se, but it cleans out a lot of the junk that accumulates on our systems, and I believe this is a good thing and a part of an overall security system.

So all of you Mac users, visit this site, http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner, and get yourself a very lean, neat system cleaner and give it a try. Run the Analyze step first to see just what it will delete from your system, and then run the Clean portion of your program. Run it weekly and it'll take a minute or less each time and go a long way to keeping your system clean.

What Is the Ultrabook?

"Since May there has been a nearly constant, subcellular buzz on the Internet about something called an Intel Ultrabook. But what, exactly, are we looking at here?

First, let’s understand how Intel “releases” notebooks. Intel makes chips. That, in general, is all they do and all they ever want to do. However, the company often releases reference designs or plans for future products. These reference designs have included embedded systems for machinery (using Intel chips), point-of-sale systems for stores (using Intel chips) and low-power “in-vehicle infotainment systems” (using Intel chips.)

In short, Intel builds something, gives manufacturers the plans (and guidelines), and then sells them a few million chips that will go inside the hardware. That’s why most laptops are, inside, essentially the same: they’re based on a reference design passed along from chipmaker to manufacturer like holy writ."

Read the rest of this NYT article here

Samsung tablet is the best one whose name doesn’t start with ‘i’

I am not sure I have seen, to this point in time, anyone claim a tablet was as good as or better than the iPad.

This is worth checking out if you are considering buying a tablet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Okay, I am a bit biased. Just a bit. I was around for this and was just as excited as everyone else about the thought of having computer power inside our homes. And we did. As quickly as IBM made these machines available to employees, we had one in our new home. And ours came with TWO floppy diskette drives! Imagine being able to copy files from one drive to another! :-) Of course this was quite an expensive option, but I thought it worthwhile at the time.

My memory being what it is today, I am probably wrong, but I think we paid around $1,100. for our first PC.

How IBM's 5150 PC shaped the computer industry

It's about time is all I have to say!

Bruce Schneier’s Telepathic Takeover of the TSA

Giving Microsoft Word a Tune-Up

I don't use MS Word that often anymore, but I followed the links in this Q&A from the New York Times and it appears to contain some good tips. If you ave noticed a slowdown in Word, these tips probably apply somewhat to any version.

Giving Microsoft Word a Tune-Up

Remote support

I had a very successful remote support call yesterday with a VT customer.

Being out of state is not too big a handicap. If we are in different places, I can still connect to your machine, if you can connect to the internet, and do a system cleaning and tune up. An advantage to you, the customer, is that these calls are also a one-on-one tutorial. We connect machine to machine via our high speed internet connections all the while both of us are on our phones talking, discussing, tutoring.

If you need help, consider this approach.

I know that many of you have the issue of an older laptop that seems to lack the zip it once had. The easiest fix for many of you has been to add RAM (memory) since most older machines came with 1GB or less, and that just doesn't cut it anymore. But there are other things you can do too. If you are the DIY type, you may enjoy this article and even be moved to try one or two of the suggestions in it. This comes to us from PCWorld.

Laptop Refresh: Six Ways to Revitalize an Older Notebook

Rogue Gallery

This serves as a reminder of a good place to check if you think you may be the victim of a rogue program. There are lots of them out there. This link to the Lavasoft Rogue Gallery will show you the latest half dozen or so.

Lavasoft's Rogue Gallery

E-mail hacked?

I have seen many wacky e-mails lately coming from friends. These e-mails, while they may contain sob stories from a "relative" who needs money, also come with no message at all, just a link to some wacky web site. Even Google e-mail's spam filter does not pick up on these! (And, IMHO, Google's spam filter is a good one.)

Here is the contents of an e-mail from a trusted friend (although this came through as a clickable link, I have removed the link in case one of you might accidentally click on it:

http://zukunftsmann.de/images/asern.html

The subject of the e-mail was "free trial", and you can see why some people might be drawn into a note with that subject. So, since it was an e-mail from a trueted friend, I opened it up. When I saw the line (as shown above) that was the ONLY content of the note, I knew, or suspected, that my friend's e-mail had been hacked.

Have you seen any of these? As I said in my opening, I have seen a lot of these lately. Moral of the story, never click on any suspect link in an e-mail, such as the link shown above, even if the e-mail is from a friend. But that is just the beginning of what should be your concern. Has this friend's e-mail been hacked? I'm not sure, but I would proceed and take the steps one would take when one suspects his/her e-mail has been hacked. I would always recommend changing the account password to a robust password, and, as noted in the referenced Kim Komando article below, I would go into the account settings and change the alternate e-mail address, if there is one. 

Yikes! Email was hacked!

Microsoft ad. Funny, or NOT?

I enjoyed this funny Microsoft ad. I hope you to too.

Browser Wars: Chrome vs IE9 vs Firefox

I see these comparisons quite frequently. I don't really know to whom these performance data mean anything. They mean little to me. I am a Firefox user and don't really have anything against IE. In fact, I have IE9 and it is quite impressive. I left IE because Firefox was less likely to be attacked by hackers. There was a time, and maybe it's still here, when the IE installation numbers were so much greater than Firefox, and now Chrome, that the hackers didn't bother us Firefox users. Why trouble a handful of people when you can get so many more while attacking IE users, was the logic of the day.

So I am not sure there is any longer a greater danger using IE, and Microsoft has put so much effort into improving security in IE that I suspect it is just as safe as Firefox in that regard.

Chrome? I just don't like it. I am a big Google faan, but their refusal to make Chrome so unique that they can't even provide a left hand side of the screen Bookmarks list, the way every other browser does, was enough to help me quickly forget Chrome. So admittedly that is my bias and I am unlikely to become a Chrome lover.

The article provides lots of technical data, and perhaps some of you will learn something and maybe make a decision based on what you learn. As for me, I will stick with Firefox for now.

From Pcmag.com, Browser Wars: Chrome vs IE9 vs Firefox

Kudos to Coffee Cup Software

As a rule I do not like to pay for software, but there are exceptions to the rule. Coffee Cup Software is a company that makes and sells a plethora of software products, all of which are very reasonably priced.

For several years I struggled with a few of the web sites that I have designed and built on my own using a Microsoft product called Frontpage. Frontpage was replaced by newer products from Microsoft, one of which I tried but did not like. I abandoned it and stuck with Frontpage even though it is no longer supported, and has not been for several years now. My web hosting company, Icdsoft, forced me to eliminate all of the Frontpage extensions (nice, exclusive to Frontpage features) because of the fact that Frontpage support had been dropped and they could no longer afford to support the few slow-to-change web site developers like me who insisted on hanging on. This was a painful experience, but I have managed to make it through the transition, removing the Frontpage bells & whistles from my web sites. There were some I had to replace and this is where Coffee Cup Software came in.

Several of my web sites, most notably Boothbay Region for Rent by Owner or BRFRBO, used fill in the blank forms to enable potential renters to inquire of a cottage owner about their rental property. I had been looking to enable CAPTCHA in these forms, but Frontpage did not support CAPTCHA. Now we all know what CAPTCHA is, even though we may not realize it, because CAPTCHA is nowadays used by most web sites to prevent spam. CAPTCHA bills itself with this description, "CAPTCHA: Telling Humans and Computers Apart Automatically". That doesn't tell one what CAPTCHA really is, but just take a quick look at their web site and you will immediately recognize what it is!


In my search for a way to implement CAPTCHA on my web sites, I stumbled upon Coffee Cup Software. They offered a very inexpensive product called Web Form Builder. I decided to try it and the rest is history. I love it. I am not a sophisticated web site developer. My sites are all quite basic, but Coffee Cup's Web Form Builder has added a touch of class to my sites. You see, with CAPTCHA I have been able to eliminate spam completely. Coffee Cup's CAPTCHA is a simple implementation requiring users to enter just 5 cahracters that, in this case, are very easy to discern. Take a look at one example from BRFRBO of what I am talking about here:

BRFRBO CAPTCHA form example

If you picture the form, located at the bottom of the above page, without the CAPTCHA image, you can perhaps see that it was easy to spam the cottage owner since there was no way to force a human to enter the data, and believe me, before Coffee Cup with its easy-to-implement CAPTCHA feature, the owners got plenty of spam.

So many kudos, thanks, and a tip of the hat to Coffee Cup Software! Check them out, not just for Web Form Builder but also for all of their software products.

MVPS HOSTS file for July available now

The MVPS HOSTS file for July is available now. Do yourself a BIG favor now and download it and install it. This one action can help keep you from becoming infected with one of those ROGUE programs that are so widespread these days and about which I write so often. You can download the new HOSTS file here:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Remember to update and run a Spybot scan before you do the install.

Also, if you have not run the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool yet this month, this might be a good idea to do that. Remember to run a FULL scan.  (START/RUN/MRT).

For those of you who may be new to this HOSTS file thing, I once wrote up instructions on how to download and install the MVPS HOSTS file. There were 5 blog posts that cover the subject, the and first is at:

http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/hosts-file-post-1.html

If you go to the first post you'll find the other 4. I think I wrote them up on 5 consecutive days.

Also, for those of you who are not familiar with the HOSTS file, please note that I consider it a very essential part of a good baseline security package I hope most of my readers have implemented by now. To review my recommended baseline security package, consisting of all FREE programs, check this out:

http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/security-baseline-revisited.html

Airbnb Raises $112 Million for Vacation Rental Business

This is a very interesting new business and web site. I heard about it recently and immediately added my Maine rental cabin to their site. It is a new option for those who own rental properties. It is of particular interest to me because this summer rental season has not been the best for traditional second home owners who expect commitments from prospective renters in terms of weeks, not days. This summer has brought with it a dearth of those traditional renters, and more and more I am getting inquiries for 3 or 4 day weekend types of rentals.

It also opens up a whole new market. Listers can offer traditional B&B type listings for a room or two in their own homes, whereas heretofore they never considered that, or there was no way to advertise such offerings at no or low cost.

Airbnb offers no cost listing services on their web site, so I was immediately interested.

My traditional web site for renters

The Airbnb web site

Finally, my listing on Airbnb

Even if you have never thought of renting out a room in your home for a night or your second home for a few days, take a look at this possibility. We all can use a few extra dollars these days!

Slow week

What a hot one it is! I am taking a few days off from blogging. I hope everyone is managing, in one way or another, to keep cool.

Malwarebytes Notches 100 Million Downloads, Toots Its Own Horn

I am very happy to see this news. Good for Malwarebytes. These companies that provide us so much good and free at that, deserve our attention and praise. As you know by now, Malwarebytes is one of my highly recommended (free) programs for the detection and removal of malware.  See this June 2011 post of mine for a review of my recommended security baseline, Security Baseline revisited.

I must say, however, that these days whenever I am called to clean up a malware situation, my number one tool to identify and remove malware is the Superantispyware Portable tool.

  Malwarebytes Notches 100 Million Downloads, Toots Its Own Horn

There are lots of pluses to Google’s new social networking site

I got myself a Google+ account a few days ago. As with most things Google comes out with, I tread lightly until I am sure I know what I am doing. I have no real experience yet, and I am not interested in yet another "time sink", as Hiawatha Bray, the author and Boston Globe Staff Writer says below. I have 8 invitations. If you'd like one, please write me.

"I thought Google was supposed to make our lives simpler. Instead, the giant Internet search service has come up with Google+, an impressive new social network that is rapidly becoming another time sink in my too-busy life.

It was easy to ignore Google’s earlier social network efforts. The Orkut service did fine in Brazil and India, but nowhere else. Last year’s Google Buzz began by violating the e-mail privacy of its users and went downhill from there.

But Google+, which launched on a trial basis a couple of weeks ago, has the makings of a first-rate social platform. Google is expanding the service slowly, mostly by invitations from those of us who have already gotten in, so it may take you awhile to score a ticket."

There are lots of pluses to Google’s new social networking site

25 Ways To Ditch Your Cable Bill

I view this as a timely aticle, the title anyway. Cable rates sure are getting to be outrageous. Anyway, maybe we all can find at least one tip (out of 25) that will help a little bit.

25 Ways To Ditch Your Cable Bill

Windows XP is a Dead OS Walking

I got scared when I saw the title of this Maximum PC article, but no, nothing has changed. Windows XP will still be supported by Microsoft through April 8, 2014, as we all have known all along. I don't know about the rest of you, but my Windows XP hardware, that is the machines I use to run Windows XP, is getting old and tired. It is entirely possible that I personally may abandon it sooner than the final date. If you or I are lucky enough to keep it going until 2014, it's not like our machines will stop working. It's just that Microsoft will no longer provide updates after that date. Ho-hum.

By the way, I will agree with anyone that Windows 7 is as good as or better than Windows XP. Who knows, however, what the name of the replacement will be in 2014?

Windows XP is a Dead OS Walking (For Reals This Time)

Beware: Facebook Scams Use Casey Anthony and Video Chat as Bait

From pcworld.com:

"If you see a post on Facebook about a Casey Anthony confession, or a link to download the video chat app, run away. These two new Facebook scams demonstrate why the social network is such fertile ground for attackers to target.

Malware attacks frequently use social engineering to spread and current events as bait. With the recent unveiling of Facebook's partnership with Skype to deliver video chat from within the social network, and the public outrage over the acquittal of Casey Anthony, attackers have the key ingredients they need to dupe victims into installing malware."

Details here.........

Rootkits

I can't believe it was almost 2 years ago that I wrote this first blog post about rootkits, but here it is:

Rootkits - Be afraid, be very afraid

So  there it is, what I believe was my first warning about rootkits.

Today I was reading Kim Komando's web site, as I do every day, and saw a tip of the day article titled ""Removing an indestructible virus"". It is a very interesting and informative article for those of you who may be having system problems and aren't afraid to take them on yourself. If you are afraid, please call me.

Curious, I downloaded Bit Defender's free TDL-4 rootkit removal program here. This program was quick to download, easy to install, and ran quickly. It is only looking for one thing, and that is the rootkit TDL-4, On my system it found nothing, glad to say, but gave me peace of mind.

So hats off to Kim Komando for informing us all with such a good article about rootkits, and many, many thanks to Bit Defender for providing us with such a valuable tool, and best of all it's free!

Facebook introduces Skype video calling

I haven't tried this yet, but since I recently became a Skype fan I will surely do so as soon as it is up and running.  If it's easy to use it is sure to be popular. Remember that Microsoft bought Skype recently? Strange bedfellows! This article is from itworld.

"Facebook on Wednesday announced a new video chat capability it will roll out in conjunction with Skype, in what the social-networking giant said is the first of many announcements of new applications to come in the next couple of months."

Read more here.....

Google+: Dissecting Google’s Answer to Facebook

This comes from Maximumpc.

"Google+ is officially on the market, and it’s being released in small doses in the form of invites. Much like how Gmail was initially spread in beta, the invite only model creates a sense of exclusivity and belonging. Facebook also used this method to market their network to college students, and eventually became part of the global definition of social media. Whether Google+ mirrors this success is anyone’s guess, but until that time it is time to get to know the features."

Read more here...........

Happy Independence Day weekend

Have a great 4th weekend.

Do hackers have your passwords?

Here is a very good tip from Kim Komando. The article, posted below, contains a link to a useful web site. I was surprised that none of my 3 primary e-mail addresses had been compromised, but obviously happy to see that!

Do hackers have your passwords?

"Data breaches aren't really anything new. However, the number of data breaches has recently skyrocketed. A list of them would more than fill this page.

It's likely you have accounts with at least some of these companies. That can put your information with that company at risk. It could also endanger other accounts you have online.
Hackers aren't just stealing this information. They're releasing it online. That means anyone could have your data.

If your email, username or password is exposed, you want to know. That's where today's Cool Site comes in. It's aptly named Should I Change My Password.

The site aggregates all the information databases hackers have released. You can search for your email address or username. If you see it, it's time to change your passwords."

Should I change my password?

Rootkit infection requires Windows reinstall, says Microsoft

Ouch! Be careful, no be VERY careful out there. This is the first time I have seen anything like this, but then I have wondered for years now why the authors of these nasty viruses, trojans, worms, and rogue programs don't do more damage than they do. I have seen many of them that could erase all of your data, for example, but thankfully they don't.

This one, well this is something completely different.

"Computerworld - Microsoft is telling Windows users that they'll have to reinstall the operating system if they get infected with a new rootkit that hides in the machine's boot sector.

A new variant of a Trojan Microsoft calls "Popureb" digs so deeply into the system that the only way to eradicate it is to return Windows to its out-of-the-box configuration, Chun Feng, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), said last week on the group's blog.

"If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state," said Feng.
A recovery disc returns Windows to its factory settings."

Continued here...

LulzSec calls it quits after 50 days of 'mayhem'

You have probably heard of LulzSec. They are the people who have been wreaking havoc on the internet for the past 50 days. They say they are moving on. Let's hope they move out of our world (the internet)!

This is from ComputerWorld.com.

"IDG News Service - The computer hacking group LulzSec said Saturday it had ended its campaign of cyberassaults on government and corporate websites and that it was time for it to "sail into the distance."

Its announcement came three days after LulzSec released its latest trove of internal documents, stolen from the Arizona Department of Public Safety computer network, and four days after U.K. police said they had made the first arrest of a man allegedly affiliated with the group.

"Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind - we hope - inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love," the group said in a post on the Pastebin website.

"If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere."

LulzSec spent the last several weeks attacking websites and computer networks of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Senate, the U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Brazilian government and the energy giant Petrobras, among others.

Last Tuesday U.K. police said they had arrested a 19-year-old man who they said was a member of the group. LulzSec said he had operated one of its Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers but that he was not one of its leaders.

On Saturday, shortly after group's last missive was posted, a hacker thought to be one of the group's leaders, Sabu, dismissed a suggestion that LulzSec disbanded because of the arrest or any internal disagreement.

"If you read the statement your questions will be answered," he wrote in a Twitter message. "There's only been one arrest; Ryan, and he isn't part of lulzsec."

LulzSec conducted its campaign "just because we could," it said in its statement.

"All to selflessly entertain others -- vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy.""

Rogues, rogues, and more rogues

There seems to be a never-ending stream of new rogue programs every week. I think what is happening is that they come out so fast and get spread so quickly that the anti-virus programs can't keep up with them, and so they slip through. Today I had 2 customer calls where McAfee ($$) failed to protect a system and another system running AVG Free also managed to get infected with yet another new rogue.

Frequently one result of these rogues is that the user cannot access the internet. Also, the more clever rogues will block the usual programs from executing. One solution that seems to work most of the time for me is another free program. I have a new number one favorite tool to fight the rogues. It is SuperAntispyware Portable. I download it at home to a flash or thumb drive and show up at my customer's home or shop, which was the case in one of the 2 calls today, ready to go. I point to my flash drive, click on the icon, and select Open. That's it. No installation. The portable tool goes right to work. Unfortunately, as with so many scanners, the program runs for a long time, but today it did the job for me.

You can download it here and use it on your own machines, although if you are able to, I suggest you favor the full free version of SupreAntispyware that you already have on your system. You do ave it installed already, right?

Download SuperAntispyware Portable version here

Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers

I get this question a lot from many of you: "Who are these guys who do this stuff?". The Wall Street Journal provides a partial answer in this article.

Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers

"HOOGEZAND-SAPPEMEER, Netherlands—In this sleepy Dutch town last December, police burst into the bedroom of 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag as he hurriedly pulled on jeans over his boxer shorts. He was hauled away on suspicion of taking part in cyber attacks by the online group calling itself Anonymous.

Mr. Gonlag admits taking part in several attacks on websites, but he recently had a change of heart as some hackers adopted increasingly aggressive tactics."

Read more here.....

Note: If this link does not get you to the complete story, go to Google and search for "Inside the Anonymous Army of 'Hacktivist' Attackers". Click on the link provided in the Google results. By the way, watch the video found imbedded in the article.

 

Firefox 5.0

I got a pop-up from Mozilla this morning informing me that Firefox 5.0 was available and I was encouraged to download and install it, which I did. The download and install was very simple and quite fast and the resulting product (what I see on my screen) is identical to the old Firefox 4. I am not interested in bells and whistles yet. I just wanted everything to look the same, and it does. Most importantly, my Bookmarks are all there, displayed as a sidebar down the left side of the screen. I guess you could say I am pretty set in my ways, and you'd be right. I am happy with Firefox 5.0.

As an aside, I would probably be happy with Google's Chrome too, but for some strange reason Google is adamant about NOT providing a sidebar for displaying Bookmarks, so a Firefox user I shall remain. I am disappointed to see, as I travel around to your homes or work on your laptops that many of you have Chrome installed, but don't know how it got there or why it was installed and you don't even use it. The answer is pretty simple. Google has paid some companies a lot of money, I imagine, to have them also download and install Chrome when you download and install their product. Be careful and read the fine print when you download programs and make note of what options are pre-selected, usually with a check mark in a box. The good news is that it is easy to get rid of Chome if you don't use it or want it. Just go to your Control Panel and uninstall it.

CDS Parts

CDS Parts bills itself as the place to go for "hard to find notebook & laptop replacement parts".

Most of those of you who know my PC services know that I am pretty much a software guy and I don't normally like to dismantle laptops. Desktops, I will work on those, but laptops are a whole different breed. If you take a laptop apart, you'd better read and then reread the instructions before putting screw driver to screw. One false move and you might as well salvage your hard drive and scrap the rest.

I have been tempted to take my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop apart to fix a faulty left "mouse" key built in on the touchpad. I communicated with CDS after reviewing what I thought were my options. I had two wonderful e-mails as a fellow named Chad from CDS responded to my inquiries. He seemed very knowledgable and replied quickly to my notes. I was very impressed by this level of customer service, sorely lacking in so many companies today. I have not yet done any business with CDS, mostly because I am a little nervous about the tasks that lie ahead if I try to fix this problem myself. If I do decide to proceed as a DIY project, I will definitely deal with CDS Parts based solely on the way Chad handled my inquiries. I do not hesitate at all to recommend CDS to you too, should you find yourself needing "hard to find notebook & laptop replacement parts".

Thank you CDS.

CDS PARTS

Excited About the Cloud? Get Ready for Capped Data Plans

From the New York Times, by David Pogue.

"The tech world seems to move in spurts and spasms, and right now we’re in the middle of the “cloud” wave.

Personally, I find the term “in the cloud” pretentious and annoying. Don’t they just mean “online?” Yes, I realize that computer professionals are referring to something much more specific — “data and application software stored on remote servers,” for example — but the world’s marketers and P.R. people seem to think that “the cloud” just means “online.” (“Now you can buy your toiletries in the cloud!!”)"

Read more here....

100 Years of IBM: Milestones

My employer for 30 years has turned 100. Happy Birthday IBM!

This article is from PCWorld.

"IBM is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding Thursday. Led by American capitalist icons Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Thomas J. Watson, Jr. until the 1970s, the company grew from a pre-World War I conglomeration of companies making tabulating machines and time-keeping devices into a globe-spanning technology behemoth that pioneered the development of electronic computers and dominated the mainframe era.

The company holds a mind-boggling array of patents and pioneered advances in a wide range of technologies including punched cards, processors, transistors, storage, word-processing, databases and OSes. As one of the emblematic 20th-century corporations, IBM also went through turbulent times. The U.S. government brought several antitrust lawsuits against the company, and critics have attacked it for alleged cosiness with repressive regimes. After Tom Watson Jr. retired in the 1971, the company seemed to lose its way as mainframe computing began to face competition from smaller, more modular systems. Increasing bureaucracy contributed to missteps during the PC revolution, and IBM suffered a series of annual losses in the early 1990s. Under the reins of then-CEO Lou Gerstner, starting in the mid-90s, the company bounced back to profit by focusing on software, system integration and other services, which remain key to the company's growth today."

Read more.....

Compressed air

A few years back I bought a 4- or 6-pack of compressed air when it was on sale, knowing that this was a good tool for a PC Doctor to carry in his bag. I hardly ever used it to clean out a laptop, but it is a very valuable tool, as I found out his week.

I was getting a can out of my storage cabinet to use on a customer's laptop. It had some sticky keys and short of removing key tops or a keyboard, I thought his might be a good first step.

Was I surprised when I tested the can out on my own laptop. My laptop had gotten sluggish lately, but like the shoemaker's kids, this laptop got little attention from me. So I tried the can out, mosly just to see that it worked okay, on my Acer laptop. This machine is maybe 4 years old. As I shot the compressed air into all of the vents, I was very surprised to see dust fly out. Hmmm. Maybe this is what is ailing my laptop, I thought. So I continued and finished up the job, and to my amazement the sluggishness is completely gone form my laptop!

All in all this was a 10 minute exercise. It required no dismantling of the laptop, and was a near-instant fix to what had been ailing it. I bought my compressed air at Costco, but I know that Staples and Best Buy carry it, as do most all computer stores. It might just help you out with your machine and is a small investment. It sells for about $5 per can, although most stores seem to prefer to sell packs of 4 or 6. Suggest this fix to a few fellow laptop owners and share the cost.

Compressed air or even a small brush will also do the trick on desktops. Open up the case and look for the dust and get rid of it. Mostly you will find dust around the fan(s).

The Stanley Cup!

Monthly Updates Time

I had 20 updates from Microsoft this update Tuesday on my Windows 7 laptop and have successfully installed them all. One of these was Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT). I have not run it yet, but will after I get through the following:

It so happens that the MVPS HOSTS file for June became available today, so the first thing I am doing now is a run of Spybot Version 1.6.2. It is running now and then I will download and install the new HOSTS file.

After all of that I will run MSRT! Whew, a busy evening while I watch the Red Sox in Tampa and the Bruins in Vancouver!

I recommend you all do the same! :-)

The beat goes on

What can I say? Every day now we are presented headlines that show our computer sytems to be unprotected, especially these days when there are so many techies out there with evil intentions. These two are just a sample of what I see in the mainstream media this morning:

Thieves Found Citigroup Site an Easy Entry

Hackers breach US Senate website

I was not looking for these. They were just there. If I was looking for articles like this I might have found several more. The bottom line is we must protect ourselves and our data from such breaches. If you didn't read my post of Sunday, June 12, please do, and take some action to protect your computer(s). The only necessary investment is some of your time.

HAPPY FLAG DAY!

 

Spybot Version 2 - Beta

Refer to item number 7 in yesterday's post. I am not at all pleased with Spybot version 2 Beta. But then Beta testing is always risky. They throw it out there, probably because they had a deadline, and ask users for feedback.

I ran 2 different options (full scan and rootkit) and neither was satisfactory. The full scan actually had problems, the rootkit showed me some results without comments and I had no clue as to whether it was information only or if I had a problem. I assumed the former, mostly because there was no option indicating "remove" or "fix" or anything.

Stick with Version 1.6.2 for now, found under "old versions" on filehippo.com.

Security Baseline revisited

There are no changes to my baseline, but I have added a few comments or links that may help.

From time to time I refer to my security baseline. My security baseline is merely a list of programs I use (all free) and recommend for anyone to use to keep their systems secure. This applies to YOU if you use Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Remember, all of these products are FREE, but will do as good a job as any fee products you may use. I make that statement and stand by it based on 43 years of experience with computers.
 
1. Microsoft Security Essentials - V2 now available. If you have V1, upgrade now  (FREE!) This is a very impressive anti-virus program and can replace any you have now. DOWNLOAD HERE
2. Windows Firewall (Standard part of your operating system. Check the Security Center to be sure it is on.)
3. MVPS HOSTS File - download the current month's version and update monthly DOWNLOAD HERE
4. CCleaner - check for newer version than you may already have. Run weekly. DOWNLOAD HERE by clicking on Download Latest Version in the upper right hand corner of the page.
5. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - run bi-weekly. DOWNLOAD HERE
6. SuperAntiSpyware Free Edition - run bi-weekly in the off week after #5. DOWNLOAD HERE
7. Spybot Search & Destroy - run monthly just before downloading new HOSTS file. I am testing the new Beta version 2, and I recommend, for now, downloading Version 1.6.2 under "old versions". DOWNLOAD HERE

I will be happy to assist you with any or all of the above installations. This can be done remotely.

Questions?  Comment below or write me, pcdoc at brpcdoc dot com

Rogue

More and more new rogue programs are out there trying to get you. I had a customer bring his machine to me today with a fairly new rogue program infection.There really wasn't much new in this one. The fake scan telling him he had viruses on his computer and the fact that "they seemed authentic" got him to submit his credit card number to pay the $29 for their product. Of course after the payment was made nothing happened.

I suggested that he call his credit card company immediately. He did and they canceled the account and have sent him a new card for a new account.

In the meantime it has taken me 2.5 hours to restore his machine to like new condition: rogue eliminated and machine tuned and cleaned.

Whatever you do folks, DO NOT give away your credit card number, regardless of how authentic their display may seem. While you are at it, check out the Lavasoft Rogue gallery. Notice, after looking at a few, how most of the rogues look alike!

Lavasoft Rogue Gallery

Let me say up front that although this PCWorld article names 29 items, my experience with the programs on the list is limited to 2: Eraser & Youtube Downloader. I can recommend them both, but you really have to be careful when downloading free (or any) programs. Read the fine print, and don't install any toolbars of extra programs that the provider may suggest. These are basically advertisements. As an example, when I look at many of your machines, I see Google's Chrome installed, and when I ask why, the usual answer is "I haven't a clue". Well I do. You have it because when downloading something else you were prompted to install Chrome, and the default answer was "yes", and so you have it but don't know why.

Both of the 2 programs I use, Eraser and Youtube Downloader work just fine without any toolbar or extras of any kind. So be careful not to include any extras. If you have questions about this, please either comment below or write me.

By the way, I use FLV Player (free) to play downloaded Youtube videos.

I should also add that I will be trying TrueCrypt at some point to encrypt files.

Top 29 Laptop Apps, Downloads, and Services

Sorting Through Apple’s Many Announcements

David Pogue of the New York Times attempts to sort out all of the various Apple announcements. That's good, because I haven't a clue. It's tough to keep up with Apple - they move so fast.

"Today, at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Steve Jobs took the stage to reveal what the company’s been up to. Turns out the answer is: a lot.

The announcements and demonstrations covered three gigantic hunks of software: the next version of Mac OS X (“Lion”), the next version of the iPhone/iPad/Touch software (“iOS 5”), and a new online syncing service called iCloud.

Let’s address these one by one."

Read David's Blog Post

I think most of us are planning to cling to Windows XP as long as we can, or maybe some are just getting comfortable with Windows 7. Well, just to keep us all on our feet, and (Microsoft hopes) away from Apple Macs, Microsoft has opened up on what to expect from Windows 8, due to make its debut in 2012. Here are a couple of good articles and slideshows for tose of you who may be interested in getting a peek at Windows 8.

Windows 8: A Walk-Through

9 Questions About Windows 8

 

Identity Theft

This is getting serious folks. I am assuming you have all read the stories this week.

This is taken from an e-mail I got from Comcast today. This is a free offer to Comcast customers, at least in the Boston area.

Apple Macs hit by scareware attacks

Additional data has become available regarding yesterday's post, "Are Macs really virus-free?".

This morning I saw these articles:

"Apple Macs hit by scareware attacks"

and 

"First Mac Virus Removed at Call That Girl"

Both articles describe some details about what the attacks look like and include preventive measures.

I always liked this: "Just because you are not paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you"!

Take heed and be careful out there.

This is an excellent article from the Kim Komando web site. As reported here over a year ago, I own an Apple MacBook Pro 17". I will now be looking at security software for it! (I hadn't until now.)

Are Macs really virus-free? 

"Q. I received a warning message when I was surfing the Web the other day. It said that there are infected files on my machine. It told me to install a program called MacDefender. Is this a real program? I use a Mac, which is immune to viruses.-Charles from Abingdon, VA, listens to my national radio show on WFHG 92.7 FM

A. For years, Mac owners have watched Windows users struggle with viruses and spyware. Mac owners laughed at Windows users. Apple even released commercials to this effect. You see, Macs were free from the malware, spyware and viruses that have plagued Windows users.

Note that I used past tense. Those days are over. If you own a Mac, you are now being targeted by the online miscreants and criminals.

There is no magical feature that makes Macs impervious to online threats."

More here

Summer Vacations

Do you have summer vacation plans yet? If not, please visit our web site Boothbay Region For Rent By Owner. Check out the variety of offerings there. From oceanfront homes with docks to water view cottages to cabins in the woods, you may just find a place that could be your dream vacation spot, and because you will be dealing directly with the owner, the price will be right.

Even if you do have plans in place, consider the possibility of taking a second mini-vacation by renting in the Boothbay Region for a week or even a long weekend. Discover all that the Region has to offer. 

As many of you know, BRFRBO is a little project of mine. It started several years ago when a friend, who wanted to rent their summer cottage at Ocean Point, in East Boothbay, Maine, asked me if I could create a web site for them, which I did, and this soon grew over the years to the point where I think we have 20 or so homes, cottages, cabins, condos, and apartments listed for rent. Most of these are summertime rentals, but a few properties are year-round. If you have never been to the Boothbay Region of Maine, you owe yourself a look. We looked in 1969, I think it  was, back when we had 2 little boys, rented for a week in the summer, kept coming back, and the rest is history. Our 4 sons have lifelong friends at Ocean Point, and although our little cottage is too small to hold all of us anymore, they keep coming back, and we love having them.

It started as a summer vacation spot, and although we only go there in the summer, it is our real home, the place where we all 6 of us have roots. I invite you to look over our listings, come for a week, and come back for a lifetime. You will not be disappointed.

BOOTHBAY REGION FOR RENT BY OWNER

Acer Travelmate Drops Power

Okay, this is my first problem with this Acer laptop. I am not sure when I bought it, but I would say it is at least  4 years old, maybe a year or two older.

Needless to say this is a most anoying problem, and it is so annoying I have switched to my Acer 5100 laptop running Windows 7 for the time being. Annoying I say, so I posted my issue at annoyances.org:


"You posted the following message to the Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1305889163

My Acer Travelmate 4220 laptop lately has started doing something most annoying.
It simply loses power and goes silent. I can't even restart it by powering on - the
power button is not functioning. It will start up after a rest period - not sure
how long it needs.

I just thought I'd ask for a few quick responses to this as to what might be the
cause. It's about 4 years old. I'm guessing it's an overheating problem, but not
sure. When I say "drops power", I mean instantaneously. I could be in the middle
of typing something or could be out of the room. It's unpredictable.

When I do power it back on, my wireless switch has been turned off and I have to
turn it on again every time this happens.

Needless to say I can not rely on this machine.

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Tom"

Windows scareware fakes impending drive disaster

Just another rogue program, but sometimes we need reminders to be careful of our choices. These folks are really bold, I might add, asking $80 for a copy of their worthless product!

This comes from computerworld.com.

"Scammers are trying to trick Windows users into paying to fix bogus hard drive errors that have apparently erased important files, a researcher said today.

The con is a variant of "scareware," also called "rogueware," software that pretends to be legitimate but actually is just a sales pitch based on spooking users into panicking. Most scareware masquerades as antivirus software."

More here.......

It was less than 2 months ago that I sang the praises of Skype, admitting I was late to the game. Now I see that Microsoft has purchased Skype. Hmmm. I wonder how this will change things.

http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/skype.html

David Pogue of the New York Times has some opinions about that. His article can be found here:

The Future of Skype

MSRT May 2011

Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool was included in yesterday's Automatic Updates. I recommend running a FULL scan. Just start it up and let it run. A little research confirmed for me what I thought: if you do nothing, a QUICK scan will run in the background automatically. You should get a screen like the one below when it finishes running your full scan. Nothing will appear if you simply let it run its quick scan.


Click on START/RUN/MRT/OK. Be sure you have the May 2011 version installed (see top of display below). If not it's because you have not yet installed your Tuesday update(s). It's cheap insurance.

MVPS HOSTS File for May available now

For those of you who are regular followers of this blog and who are in the habit of installing the newest version every month, today is the day to do that, but remember to update and run a Spybot scan before you do the install.

For those of you who may be new to this HOSTS file thing, I once wrote up instructions on how to download and install the MVPS HOSTS file. There were 5 blog posts that cover the subject, the and first is at:

http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/hosts-file-post-1.html

If you go to the first post you'll find the other 4. I think I wrote them up on 5 consecutive days.

Also, for those of you who are not familiar with the HOSTS file, please note that I consider it a very essential part of a good baseline security package I hope most of my readers have implemented by now. To review my recommended baseline security package, consisting of all FREE programs, check this out:

http://pcdocsblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-time-to-time-i-refer-to-my.html

Paying for antivirus doesn't improve protection

More kudos for Microsoft Security Essentials. I am happy to say that I was one of the ones out in front of this and became a very early user of MSE and have been recommending it to you as the best product for you to use. And, as usual with my recommendations, IT IS FREE!

This article, by Woody Leonhard, can be found here: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/dont-pay-for-software-you-dont-need-part-1/


I have been a subscriber to the Windows Secrets newsletter for several years.

"I've been recommending free antivirus software since the second edition of Windows XP All-In-One For Dummies, nearly a decade ago. I've drawn the wrath of many a player in the billion-dollar AV industry, but I still say there's absolutely no reason at all to pay for antivirus protection.

Back in XP times, I recommended AVG Free, Avira, ESET's NOD32, and the like — many of those products were, and still are, free for personal use. That's changed. Starting with the second edition of Windows 7 All-In-One For Dummies, I've stopped recommending any third-party antivirus software. Why? Because Microsoft makes a first-rate AV product that's absolutely free for anyone with a genuine copy of Windows. It's also free for organizations of 10 or fewer people.

Microsoft Security Essentials (download page) goes in easily, runs quietly, needs no tending, and catches as many infectious programs as any of the big-name antivirus products. And it's free. Fred Langa has a full description in his May 6, 2010, Top Story, "The 120-day Microsoft security suite test drive."

I've heard all the arguments against Microsoft Security Essentials. Yes, it's like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop. But in this case, MSE's one fine fox.

MSE doesn't catch all the nasties, all the time. No AV product does. If you shoot yourself in the foot and wittingly install a rogue anti-malware program, for example, MSE may not keep you from pulling the trigger. In desperate situations, you may need a special-purpose program such as Malwarebytes to cleanse your system. But for everyday use, MSE works as well as any of the big-name, expensive, constantly money-grubbing packages. Get rid of 'em.

The only downside to installing MSE? You have to figure out how to completely remove the antivirus program you have now. Good luck."

FBI warns that fake bin Laden video is a virus

OUCH! This hurts. Be careful out there, and only link to things like this from reputable sites.

From itworld.com:

"May 03, 2011, 10:19 PM — The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned computer users Tuesday that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information.

The warning comes as security companies said that they've spotted the first samples of malicious software disguised as photos of the dead Al Qaeda leader.

Security vendor F-Secure said Tuesday that criminals are e-mailing a password-stealing Trojan horse program called Banload to victims, and Symantec said it's seen criminals spamming victims with links to fake "Osama dead" news articles that launch Web-based attacks on visitors.

U.S. authorities do have photos of bin Laden, who was shot in the head during an early morning raid Monday in Pakistan. But these photos have not been released publicly."

Read more of this article here

Your iPhone Is Tracking You. So What?

David Pogue's NYT blog post. Good stuff.

Your iPhone Is Tracking You. So What?

Gulp! This Maximum PC article is really too much for me, but at least for the next month or so it'll probably remain current and valid, and the link should still work. After a month this stuff could well be outdated. Yes, things change fast in this world of ours it is definitely true.

This is worth at the very least a quick scan. You may find something you'll be interested in. I already have.

A Complete Guide to 39 Google Apps and Services

Easter 2011

HAPPY EASTER!

Bigger Thumbnails In Windows XP

The default size for a thumbnail photo in Windows Explorer in XP is 96 x 96 pixels. If you find this to be smaller than you'd like, you can change it quite easily, up to 256 x 256 pixels, by using a free tool from Microsoft called Tweakui. You can download Tweakui from Microsoft at this web site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp Scroll down once there until you find Tweakui. When you download, you will get a file called TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe. Just run it to install Tweakui. Tweakui will appear in your Start/All Programs menu.

Follow the instructions at this site: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1951129,00.asp

Someplace I read that this will only affect new photos and not existing photos. I found that this changed (enlarged) the size of existing photos as well. Good news, and a little easier on the eyes too!

Picking Out a Laptop in the Brave, New World of Tablets

Now that is a very timely and catchy title for this article by Walt Mossberg of the WSJ. The presence of a multitude of tablets in the marketplace sure does complicate the issue of buying a laptop.

"It is too soon to replace my twice-yearly laptop buyer’s guides with tablet buyer’s guides, but some days it feels like I should. Much of the energy that companies once poured into laptop designs and advances seems to have been drained off into a massive race to create tablet computers."

More.....

The Best Google Search Tricks

Some good ideas here. I think if you use Google quite a bit you will enjoy this. From our friends at pcmag.com:

The Best Google Search Tricks