Much more on this as information becomes available.................
Friday, May 1, 2009
Muddying the water?
Looks like Microsoft could make its Vista successor, aka Windows 7, available as soon as August. There seems to be a rush to do this, I'm guessing because Vista has been such a huge failure that Microsoft wants to take it off the table and leave it behind as soon as they can.
Much more on this as information becomes available.................
Much more on this as information becomes available.................
Thursday, April 30, 2009
20 Years of AOL Annoyances and Foul-Ups
I just don't know why anyone would still be using AOL. Perhaps if you are still a dial-up user and can save money with AOL, that would be a good reason. Otherwise why? I recommend getting yourself a Google Mail account (free) and then, to ease the transition, use Outlook Express, Outlook, or Thunderbird to process your e-mail. Outlook Express and Thunderbird are free. Outlook is a part of Microsoft Office (certain versions), and tends to be something a person has by virtue of having bought Office for other reasons. In this sense, Outlook might be considered free. I fall into this latter category.
I use a Google Mail address as my primary e-mail address, and use Outlook as my mail client. All of my mail, incoming AND outgoing, is processed by Google and remains on Google's host servers, so at any time I can look at it all from any computer in the world simply by using web mail.
Anyway, for those of you who just love your AOL and must have it, you may enjoy this stroll down memory lane provided courtesy of pcworld.com. Most users of AOL tend to be long-termsufferers users, and may remember much of the AOL story.
I use a Google Mail address as my primary e-mail address, and use Outlook as my mail client. All of my mail, incoming AND outgoing, is processed by Google and remains on Google's host servers, so at any time I can look at it all from any computer in the world simply by using web mail.
Anyway, for those of you who just love your AOL and must have it, you may enjoy this stroll down memory lane provided courtesy of pcworld.com. Most users of AOL tend to be long-term
20 Years of AOL Annoyances and Foul-Ups
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Eight Reasons Your Next Computer Should Be a PC
Fair and balanced!
This article, again from pcworld.com, presents the other side of the story. Compare to yesterday's post.
This article, again from pcworld.com, presents the other side of the story. Compare to yesterday's post.
Eight Reasons Your Next Computer Should Be a PC
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Eight Reasons Your Next Computer Should Be a Mac
For all of those of you who, like me, would love to own a Mac, [or even an iPhone (also like me)], this will be of interest. It comes from pcworld.com.
Eight Reasons Your Next Computer Should Be a Mac
Friday, April 24, 2009
Outlook Question
I have a customer who, like me, uses Outlook for his e-mail. Note that I said Outlook and not Outlook Express. These are two different Microsoft products.
Outlook Express, known as Windows Mail in Vista, is a freebie that is an integrated part of the operating system. Outlook on the other hand, is a product that is a part of Microsoft's Office package, or at least some versions of Office.
The customer wanted to know how to back up his e-mail and even more importantly, his address book.
He was pleasantly surprised when I told him that in Outlook all of his e-mail and all of his contacts (address book) are kept within one file. I told him the name of the file (outlook.pst) and told him where to find it. He followed my directions, found the file, and copied it to his flash drive.
Backup of all e-mail and address book done in one, simple quick step!! If you have Outlook and don't back up this file and need some help, just write me.
Outlook Express, known as Windows Mail in Vista, is a freebie that is an integrated part of the operating system. Outlook on the other hand, is a product that is a part of Microsoft's Office package, or at least some versions of Office.
The customer wanted to know how to back up his e-mail and even more importantly, his address book.
He was pleasantly surprised when I told him that in Outlook all of his e-mail and all of his contacts (address book) are kept within one file. I told him the name of the file (outlook.pst) and told him where to find it. He followed my directions, found the file, and copied it to his flash drive.
Backup of all e-mail and address book done in one, simple quick step!! If you have Outlook and don't back up this file and need some help, just write me.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
I received this e-mail yesterday:
"Tom,
I'd like to provide you with a complimentary SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Edition license for your use and evaluation. Our software was launched 6 years ago and we currently protect over 15 million PCs worldwide. If you can provide me with an email address, I'll send along a complimentary license.
Thank you for your time!"
You readers know that I really like, have liked, the free version of SuperAntispyware, and that I recommend it for your use. The one feature of the Professional (paid) version that attracted me is the scheduling of scans. So I did go ahead and reply to the note and I did indeed get a return with a complimentary license code. I downloaded and installed it and ran my first automatic scan last night long after I was asleep.
I'll let you know how this goes.
"Tom,
I'd like to provide you with a complimentary SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Edition license for your use and evaluation. Our software was launched 6 years ago and we currently protect over 15 million PCs worldwide. If you can provide me with an email address, I'll send along a complimentary license.
Thank you for your time!"
You readers know that I really like, have liked, the free version of SuperAntispyware, and that I recommend it for your use. The one feature of the Professional (paid) version that attracted me is the scheduling of scans. So I did go ahead and reply to the note and I did indeed get a return with a complimentary license code. I downloaded and installed it and ran my first automatic scan last night long after I was asleep.
I'll let you know how this goes.
Monday, April 20, 2009
CCleaner’s Registry Feature
I have never recommended, and I am NOT recommending now, the Registry feature of CCleaner. Registry Cleaning is not for the inexperienced, so beware and don't say you weren't warned about this.
CCleaner's Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning your hard drive of unnecessary files, but I have never extensively tested their Registry feature. I therefore cannot recommend it to you. I use a registry cleaner program in my PCDoc business that is much more comprehensive and tested (by me) in many uses. Registry cleaning is something that is not recommended for the casual user, so be careful.
The Piriform company's CCleaner Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning, but I am just not sure about their registry cleaning feature, so I suggest you leave that for the pros.
CCleaner's Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning your hard drive of unnecessary files, but I have never extensively tested their Registry feature. I therefore cannot recommend it to you. I use a registry cleaner program in my PCDoc business that is much more comprehensive and tested (by me) in many uses. Registry cleaning is something that is not recommended for the casual user, so be careful.
The Piriform company's CCleaner Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning, but I am just not sure about their registry cleaning feature, so I suggest you leave that for the pros.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Microsoft Tech support likes Malwarebytes’ antispyware
I saw this article on Windows Secrets. I am quite happy with this because as those of you who are regular readers know, I am a big fan of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. It really is a wonderful product that does a great job of getting rid of the really bad guys, commonly known as rogue programs, as well as the less dangerous junk.
Don't be fooled into thinking, however, that one program like this is all you need. At the same level as this one product is SuperAntispyware. My experience has shown me that both are needed when fighting the rogue programs that have infected so many of your computers.
Please be sure to review my blog post of March 9 (below) titled Securing Your PC.
By the way, I see no need to buy the fee version of Anti-Malware.
Recommendations continue to pour in from readers in response to Ryan Russell's March 26 Top Story on programs that should be considered for the WS Security Baseline. A letter from an anonymous Microsoft tech-support staffer caught our attention:
Ryan's story never discussed Ad-Aware and mentioned Spybot Search & Destroy only because readers nominated it as one of the few options that will run on creaky old Windows 95 systems. But it's good to be reminded that some programs that were once highly rated are no longer up to par.
The free version of Anti-Malware, the program the MS staffer recommends, allows you to perform manual scans for spyware on your system. For U.S. $24.95, you can unlock the program's real-time protection, scheduled scanning, and scheduled updating. For more info, see Malwarebytes' download page.
Don't be fooled into thinking, however, that one program like this is all you need. At the same level as this one product is SuperAntispyware. My experience has shown me that both are needed when fighting the rogue programs that have infected so many of your computers.
Please be sure to review my blog post of March 9 (below) titled Securing Your PC.
By the way, I see no need to buy the fee version of Anti-Malware.
Tech support likes Malwarebytes' antispyware
Recommendations continue to pour in from readers in response to Ryan Russell's March 26 Top Story on programs that should be considered for the WS Security Baseline. A letter from an anonymous Microsoft tech-support staffer caught our attention:
- "I read your newsletter and was disappointed by the offered antispyware listed. Spybot Search & Destroy was good back in the day, and so was Ad-Aware, but they aren't what they used to be. They're no longer effective, as the infection definition isn't being worked on as passionately as they had been.
"I work for Microsoft technical support, and 90% of the calls are due to spyware infections, so we ask customers to download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. They have a totally free version. It's the one we use for clients. It's so effective, I feel confident the PC you're using to read this has infections. Are you surprised? Even if it's just minor adware, it's an infection still.
"If it weren't for Malwarebytes.org, I'd be spending more time per call and asking customers to reload Windows more often, because finding one infection could take forever. ... The application is painless to install, isn't too bulky, and requires no reboot after install. The application is a winner all around.
"The Internet is full of scams. It's shocking to see it day in and day out."
Ryan's story never discussed Ad-Aware and mentioned Spybot Search & Destroy only because readers nominated it as one of the few options that will run on creaky old Windows 95 systems. But it's good to be reminded that some programs that were once highly rated are no longer up to par.
The free version of Anti-Malware, the program the MS staffer recommends, allows you to perform manual scans for spyware on your system. For U.S. $24.95, you can unlock the program's real-time protection, scheduled scanning, and scheduled updating. For more info, see Malwarebytes' download page.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Future of Windows XP
Most all of you readers run Windows XP on your machines. There are two related articles on the ComputerWorld web site on XP that should be of interest to us all.
While the title of the first article may sound scary, fear not. As I have always indicated on this blog, if my hardware doesn't fail, I will most likely be using XP until 2014. The second article explains how we can continue to use it even past that year and into 2016.
The only thing that will change my mind is a really good new operating system from Microsoft. Vista is not that, and from what I have seen so far, Windows 7 is not going to be the one to change my mind either.
While the title of the first article may sound scary, fear not. As I have always indicated on this blog, if my hardware doesn't fail, I will most likely be using XP until 2014. The second article explains how we can continue to use it even past that year and into 2016.
The only thing that will change my mind is a really good new operating system from Microsoft. Vista is not that, and from what I have seen so far, Windows 7 is not going to be the one to change my mind either.
Microsoft moving XP into reduced-support phase on Tuesday
How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years
IT pros prefer old XP over new Windows 7, survey says
Monday, April 13, 2009
Virus Infects Vt. State Computers
Hard for me to believe. This is from WCAX.com. Why haven't they been reading my blog?!
Montpelier, Vermont - April 13, 2009
An outbreak of a computer virus forced the Vt. Agency of Human Services to shut down its computer systems. State computer experts are working on the problem to get departments back online.
They've been working on the problem all weekend and were still at it Monday night.
Because technicians cut the Agency's computers off from the rest of state government, it appears the virus was contained.
"This was a new virus previously not identified," said Rob Hofmann, the secretary of the Vt. Agency of Human Services.
The unnamed computer virus was designed to disrupt operations in large organizations, like corporations or state governments.
The virus was detected on Friday on a handful of computers within the Agency of Human Services. AHS includes a variety of departments handling everything from prisons to public health.
But it does not appear any personal information was lost or accessed. The virus instead confuses and slows computers and shuts down anti-virus software.
"We voluntarily brought down the system to prevent one computer from infecting another computer," Hofmann explained.
The servers were shut down over the weekend while a computer security company developed a cure for the virus.
"We know the servers are clean. The virus eradicated and we're working with the couple of thousand computers to make sure each is brought online," Hofmann said.
2,500 computers-- brought online one by one.
The immediate shutdown appears to have prevented the virus from attacking computers in other parts of state government. Technicians are closely monitoring computer systems to be certain. And Hofmann says other organizations should do so too.
"One area of concern is our nonprofit partners with whom we work no reports of problems but advise them to make sure anti-virus software up to date," Hofmann said.
Hofmann says services under his agency continue-- perhaps a bit more slowly while this is going on. He says instead of using the agency's computer network it's back to pen and paper, faxes and phone calls for now to make sure clients are still served. The agency is hopeful that all 2,500 computers will be back online by Tuesday night.
At first the virus that hit looked a lot like the computer worm Conficker that we've heard about. But computer experts now say it is not. It's a new virus. And again, security companies already have a way to get rid of it.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Your Opinion
I am taking a brief break from blogging to spend time with family.
I am very interested in hearing your opinion of this blog. Do you find it helpful?
Please take a minute to provide me your feedback. You can write to me at pcdoc@brpcdoc.com.
Happy Easter all.
I am very interested in hearing your opinion of this blog. Do you find it helpful?
Please take a minute to provide me your feedback. You can write to me at pcdoc@brpcdoc.com.
Happy Easter all.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Flash Drives
Flash drives, aka thumb drives, are a terrific and inexpensive way to transport data from one machine to another. If I come to your home on a service call I will always plug in my flash drive and copy the tools I use to clean and tune a system onto your PC.
You can use it to carry all of your photos to the grandkids' house or better yet, copy all of your kids' pictures of the grandkids to your thumb drive before you leave their house!!
These devices are also an easy and inexpensive way to back up your valuable data like photos, music, word documents and spreadsheets. My only concern in relying on flash drives for backup is that I am not sure how long they will last, and I worry about that. That's why I have a 1TB external hard drive for backup.
Yesterday I upgraded my largest flash drive. I have had an 8GB drive for some time but purchased a 16GB flash drive at Costco. It was priced at $39 and I had a $7 coupon. Look for sales and buy yourself the largest flash drive you can. Yes, use it for short-term backup of your valuable data, but think about investing in a large external USB-connected hard drive for that. I think my Western Digital 1TB drive was priced at around $130 at Costco yesterday. I noticed that they now have a 1.5TB drive as well!
Please get serious about backing up your data. You will be glad you did.
You can use it to carry all of your photos to the grandkids' house or better yet, copy all of your kids' pictures of the grandkids to your thumb drive before you leave their house!!
These devices are also an easy and inexpensive way to back up your valuable data like photos, music, word documents and spreadsheets. My only concern in relying on flash drives for backup is that I am not sure how long they will last, and I worry about that. That's why I have a 1TB external hard drive for backup.
Yesterday I upgraded my largest flash drive. I have had an 8GB drive for some time but purchased a 16GB flash drive at Costco. It was priced at $39 and I had a $7 coupon. Look for sales and buy yourself the largest flash drive you can. Yes, use it for short-term backup of your valuable data, but think about investing in a large external USB-connected hard drive for that. I think my Western Digital 1TB drive was priced at around $130 at Costco yesterday. I noticed that they now have a 1.5TB drive as well!
Please get serious about backing up your data. You will be glad you did.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Defraggler
Piriform (http://www.piriform.com/) is the name of the company that has brought us CCleaner, an amazing free product that I hope all of you are using weekly. I just ran my weekly CCleaner and it took 30 seconds or less. That's all it takes if you do it regularly.
Piriform also has some other free utility programs, and I had heard recently about their Defraggler program. Also free, it is a program that just does one thing: defragments a hard drive. I downloaded it yesterday and installed it (amazingly fast install of about 15 seconds). I then proceeded to defrag my 250GB main hard drive and was NOT impressed. It was not faster than Microsoft's built-in disk defragmenter, although for the time I could stand to do so, it was more fun to watch!
After running it I ran the Analyze portion of the XP built-in defragment program and it found 15 fragmented files. Hmmmm. I guess we need a better definition of what a fragmented file is.
In any case, I do not recommend Defraggler but if you want to try it yourself, it can be quickly and easily downloaded and run. The reason that I am not recommending it for now is that it buys you nothing when compared to what you already have, and why add yet another program to your system if it gains you nothing?
Which reminds me: have you defragmented your hard drive lately? You should do this at least once a quarter.
Piriform also has some other free utility programs, and I had heard recently about their Defraggler program. Also free, it is a program that just does one thing: defragments a hard drive. I downloaded it yesterday and installed it (amazingly fast install of about 15 seconds). I then proceeded to defrag my 250GB main hard drive and was NOT impressed. It was not faster than Microsoft's built-in disk defragmenter, although for the time I could stand to do so, it was more fun to watch!
After running it I ran the Analyze portion of the XP built-in defragment program and it found 15 fragmented files. Hmmmm. I guess we need a better definition of what a fragmented file is.
In any case, I do not recommend Defraggler but if you want to try it yourself, it can be quickly and easily downloaded and run. The reason that I am not recommending it for now is that it buys you nothing when compared to what you already have, and why add yet another program to your system if it gains you nothing?
Which reminds me: have you defragmented your hard drive lately? You should do this at least once a quarter.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
No reason to rush your upgrade to IE 8
This is a good article for the techies amongst you who may have an interest in the latest release of Internet Explorer (IE) from Microsoft.
As for me, I don't recommend the upgrade, and I don't even recommend IE at all, but prefer Firefox.
As for me, I don't recommend the upgrade, and I don't even recommend IE at all, but prefer Firefox.
No reason to rush your upgrade to IE 8
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
AVG Anti-Virus Free Version 8.5
I downloaded and installed AVG Anti-Virus Free Version 8.5 tonight on 2 machines. Note it is still FREE! It went in quite easily, replacing the Version 8.0 I already had. I was glad to see that the Link Scanner is an option. This feature is the one that gives you green checkmarks next to okay web sites when you do a Google search, for example, and view the search results. Opting out of the Link Scanner as I did (it was integrated in Version 8.0 and not optional) should make Google searches faster. I never really even saw anything but green checkmarks anyway all the time I had Version 8.0 installed.
This new version is a 60MB file to be downloaded, so may take a while for you dial-up and DSL users.
You can get it here if you want to try it out, however, I would recommend waiting a month or more until all the kinks are ironed out. Click on the Download Now green icon here:
This new version is a 60MB file to be downloaded, so may take a while for you dial-up and DSL users.
You can get it here if you want to try it out, however, I would recommend waiting a month or more until all the kinks are ironed out. Click on the Download Now green icon here:
While I have your attention, ………………
The hit count on this blog - down at the bottom of this page - shows that you received my e-mail and have visited here to check out the post just below this one, so, while I have your attention, let me make a few other suggestions.
Today, the day before CONFICKER is rumored to cause some widespread mayhem, would be a great day to take some other precautions. It's a good time to do a full system scan using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, SuperAntispyware, and Spybot, and while you are at it, a full system scan with your anti-virus program, in my case AVG Free.
Before you start the full scans, be sure to update each one to ensure that it has the latest definitions. Become very familiar and comfortable with each of these programs so that on any given day you can run a manual scan.
If you have not received my e-mail re. Conficker, and wish to be on my mailing list, please contact me using the "Contact the PC Doc" link just to the right of this post and ask to be added to my list.
Today, the day before CONFICKER is rumored to cause some widespread mayhem, would be a great day to take some other precautions. It's a good time to do a full system scan using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, SuperAntispyware, and Spybot, and while you are at it, a full system scan with your anti-virus program, in my case AVG Free.
Before you start the full scans, be sure to update each one to ensure that it has the latest definitions. Become very familiar and comfortable with each of these programs so that on any given day you can run a manual scan.
If you have not received my e-mail re. Conficker, and wish to be on my mailing list, please contact me using the "Contact the PC Doc" link just to the right of this post and ask to be added to my list.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
An Ounce of Prevention
I was reminded about this April 1 rumor when I read Kim Komando this AM. She writes: "Conficker is the latest horror show, and it’s coming your way. It certainly sounds scary. An estimated 12 million computers have been infected. The virus is currently dormant. But it’s programmed to do something on April 1.
Does anyone know what the something is? Nope. Conficker has essentially built a massive and powerful botnet. But nobody knows what this army of infected computers will do. It could spread spam or cyberterrorism. Or it could be an elaborate prank (activating on April Fool’s Day)."
The ounce of prevention you can take is to manually download the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and run a FULL SCAN. On my machine this morning it ran for almost 2 and a half hours. You can download it here:
Does anyone know what the something is? Nope. Conficker has essentially built a massive and powerful botnet. But nobody knows what this army of infected computers will do. It could spread spam or cyberterrorism. Or it could be an elaborate prank (activating on April Fool’s Day)."
The ounce of prevention you can take is to manually download the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and run a FULL SCAN. On my machine this morning it ran for almost 2 and a half hours. You can download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
The tool found no problems on my machine. I also use the 8 free tools listed two posts below in the Einstein post, so I did not expect there to be any problems.
I strongly recommend you do the same: use my "Big 8" recommended free tools and download the above program from Microsoft. Do it today and run it today. Let it run to completion. I hope no problems are found on your machine, but if they are, and if you need help, give me a call at 802-899-4541.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Here are a couple of screen shots from my run this AM:
Friday, March 20, 2009
IE8
I received an e-mail this morning from Microsoft with this news:
I am not a fan of Internet Explorer and use Firefox instead. I do not recommend the download to anyone at this time. I am making this post just as a FYI. I may download it in a test environment sometime (not soon) to test it out and report on it here, but I doubt it'll ever be on my list of favorite applications.
Unfortunately, as is their wont, Microsoft will undoubtedly include it in their automatic updates. If/when I find out that is happening, I will alert you all so that you can prevent the installation from happening on your machine. (I still recommend IE6.)
I am not a fan of Internet Explorer and use Firefox instead. I do not recommend the download to anyone at this time. I am making this post just as a FYI. I may download it in a test environment sometime (not soon) to test it out and report on it here, but I doubt it'll ever be on my list of favorite applications.
Unfortunately, as is their wont, Microsoft will undoubtedly include it in their automatic updates. If/when I find out that is happening, I will alert you all so that you can prevent the installation from happening on your machine. (I still recommend IE6.)
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