Your Personal Computer Assistant

Removing a virus if the computer won’t boot

2010-03-30T04:21:00.001-04:00

What do you do if you have a computer that is infected but you can’t boot it? You need some way to clean it up. One technique is to remove the hard drive and add it to another computer where you can run an AV/Malware scan.Unfortunately, that’s beyond many folks’ ability and won’t help if you have a laptop…

Well, here’s Brian Krebs and his blog to the rescue. He has another great posting with info (and links) on several “rescue CDs”, including:

Any of these will do the job. You burn the CD and then boot from it. You need a working internet connection. Brian’s post has lots of details.

Beware of ATM Card Skimmers

2010-03-27T06:39:00.001-04:00

Not exactly a PC issue, but I was so struck by this, that I wanted to get as wide a visibility as I could. It never occired to me that someone could attach a device to an ATM’s card reader slot to read the magnetic stripe and make it look real! Guess we all need to start pulling on the card readers from now on…

Here’s the article from Brian Krebs blog. Read it and be warned!!

Consumers Don’t Relate Bot Infections to Risky Behavior As Millions Continue to Click on Spam

2010-03-26T06:20:00.001-04:00

Here’s an article from the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group about spam. Very scary statistics.

“In the new survey, half of users said they had opened spam, clicked on a link in spam, opened a spam attachment, replied or forwarded it – activities that leave consumers susceptible to fraud, phishing, identity theft and infection. While most consumers said they were aware of the existence of bots, only one-third believed they were vulnerable to an infection. “

And folks wonder why their computers get infected with all sorts of malware… :-(

Thanks, once again, to Michael Pietroforte of 4SYSOPS.com for pointing this out…

Free Utility to mount ISO images

2010-03-26T06:14:00.001-04:00

Ever need to run a CD that is in ISO format? Usually, you need to burn the image onto a CD and then run the CD. Her’s a (free, of course) utility that will mount an ISO image (or MG, CCD, DVD, UDF, and BIN) and make it look like a physical drive. The program is called Virtual CloneDrive.

Here’s a review by Michael Pietroforte from his 4SYSOPS blog. It looks very nice….

Inexpensive Hard Drive Recovery Insurance Available

2010-03-26T05:30:00.001-04:00

We often see on the net postings from folks whose hard drives have crashed and they ask if the data can be recovered. the standard answer is “Sure… if you have a ton of money!”. There are data recovery firms out there, but it usually ends up so expensive that only incredibly critical data is worth it.

Well, now there’s a German firm called Freecom that will let you pay about 30 Euros ($37 USD) to register a hard drive. If it fails, you mail it to them (pre-paid) and they sent the recoverable files back to you within 2 weeks. Not a bad deal.

A piece of advice…. Don't use this in place of good backups. First off, you don’t know what can be recovered. If it’s a head crash, a lot of data can be most. Also, you have to wait 2 weeks to get what can be recovered.

Thanks to John E. Dunn of NetworkWorld for identifying this service….

How the mighty have fallen…

2010-03-25T05:22:00.001-04:00

I couldn’t resist… Seems that even the Communist Party isn’t immune to hacking. As reported by Sophos Labs the Communist Party of Britain’s web site has been infected (again!)…. Lenin is turning over in his grave…. ;-)

Rootkit may be the cause of XP BSOD’s

2010-02-16T03:31:00.001-05:00

Brian Krebs has posted an interesting article in his blog. Turns out that there are indications that the Blue Screen of Death that some folks are experiencing (see my previous post) after applying Last Tuesday’s KB977165 patch. Turns out that several folks who had the problem also, it turns out, were infected with a rootkit. Rootkits are a particularly nasty piece of malware that are very hard to find and eliminate.

If you have seen (or know someone who has), the advice is to scan the system immediately with several malware scanning software packages. It would be best if you could do it from a bootable CD with the scanning software on it….

By the way, Brian’s blog is one I would recommend that any network admin or technically savvy user subscribe to.

Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate is available

2010-01-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

Mozilla has released the Firefox Release Code 1 of 3.6. I won't bore you with all the details because they are available on the web site and, frankly, I'm not all that interested. I've done my share of betas and Release Candicates (Windows 7 was the latest). Also, I'm an IE 8 person. I actually prefer IE 8 to FF 3.5. On both my home and work machines it's actually slower loading than IE.

I really don't want to start a browser war here. The beauty of it is that there are a bunch of very good, solid browsers out there and we have the choice as to which one fits us best.

In case you do want to download it you can get it here:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

I’ll be moving to another blog over the next week.

2010-01-10T06:10:00.001-05:00

I reported earlier that I have been having problems with my e-mails getting trapped if I have the url for this blog in my signature. In fact, if *any* url with “blogspot.com” in it gets lost. I’ve been unable to resolve this so far.

I’ve been a member of “IT Toolbox” for almost 7 years. It’s an amazing collection of list servs, blogs, and other sources of information. They provide a resource for blogs, so I’ve set up one there. For the next week or so, I’ll be posting in both places, but eventually will only post there. It will, I believe, also give me a wider audience with more opportuinity for interaction with folks. The url is:

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/personal-pc-assistant/

Thanks for all your support and for showing interest in my ramblings. I’ll be the same old Hank over there, also… :-)

Best Buy will drop “Optimization” service

2010-01-09T10:31:00.001-05:00

According to The Consumerist, Best Buy will stop providing what they called their “Optimization Service”. Supposedly their technicians would examine the contents, programs and setup to reduce the wasted space, boot time and speed up the performance.

http://consumerist.com/2010/01/best-buy-to-replace-optimization-with-installer-app.html

First off, what they do is very basic techniques that just about any PC knowledgeable person either knows or has access to through the web. I’ve probably posted some as well as pointers to others.

Second, I’m not a fan of Computer Geeks, anyway. I’ve dealt with several folks who used them and I’m not impressed at all with what they did, much less what they charged. One individual who bought a Dell through them (why?) and got an extended service contract. Now, let me say that I’m not one who recommends service contracts for tower/desktop computers. They almost always will fail in the first 3 months or almost never within the first 3 years. Even if they do, they are easy to fix (except for motherboards).

But I digress… This woman took it to Computer Geeks and they decided it needed a new mother board. When I had talked to her, she had been without the computer for over 2 weeks, going on 3. I told her that this was ridiculous. If she had called Dell, they would have diagnosed the problem and send a technician with a new motherboard and installed in her house, usually within a couple of days. Not a happy customer!!

Oh, well…. Reportedly, Best Buy will provide a “Best Buy Software Installer” starting January 17 and are working on replacing the Optimization Service. From the Consumerist: “Translation: Instead of you paying Best Buy to delete trialware from your new PC, Best Buy will get paid by software makers to try to get you to install it.””

All I can say is, if you insist on buying a computer from Best Buy, “Caveat Emptor”. At the very least, get a geek friend to help you configure what you need before you go there. Be informed…

Spam filters block valid e-mails

2010-01-09T06:30:00.001-05:00

If you haven’t heard of it, there is an open source spam anti spam software called Apache SpamAssassin. It’s engine is used by many ISPs to filter and alert them to spam e-mails. You may not realize it, but most ISPs will block and not deliver e-mails that they have identified as SPAM. If it’s “possible” or “probable”, they will mark it as such. A *LOT* of e-mails don’t ever get to your mailbox.

The problem comes in when the spam filters you use generate what are called “False Positives”. Perfectly good e-mails are identified as sapm and blocked. Normally, this is a very small number, but apparently, SpamAssassin had a coding error that resulted in e-mails dated 2010 and 2099 being given high scores and trapped as spam.

The fix was generated quickly, but ISPs may have been running the incorrect code for anywhere from minutes to days. Unfortunately, if you were affected, the only way you can know is if you have confirmation from others that your mails got through. The only thing you can if you were affected is to resend the e-mails.

SpamAssassin has posted some advice on its web site:

http://spamassassin.apache.org/

Firefox 3.5.7 Has been released

2010-01-08T06:15:00.001-05:00

Mozilla has released another “Stability Issues'” fix. You should definitely either update form the app or download it

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.5.7 (Windows)

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.5.7 (Mac OSX)

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.5.7 (Linux)

Details of what was changed are at

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5.7/releasenotes/

Great deal on Quicken 2010

2009-12-31T15:27:00.001-05:00

Intuit has a deal going on until 1/4/2010. You can get Quicken 2010 for 1/2 off! The web page may look like it’s for Quicken Premier, but scroll down and you can get the other versions for 50% off.

http://quicken.intuit.com/lp/qkn10/qlp17.jsp?priorityCode=6298762157&cid=em_18568_025_002

My e-mails are getting lost if I include my blog URL in my note

2009-12-31T15:21:00.000-05:00

I've been having a problem lately with my e-mails getting lost if I include my blog URL. In fact, they get lost if I include ANY xxxxx.blogspot.com URL!

If anyone has any ideas or have seen and/or resolved this, please let me know. You can reach me at rasilon at aol.com.

TIA....

Have a Happy New Year’s Eve!

2009-12-31T15:18:00.001-05:00

Here’s hoping everyone has a great new year’s eve and a better year in 2010. Enjoy it while you can. According to the Mayan calendar, the universe ends in 2012… ;-)

Inventorying Network Printers

2009-12-31T08:50:00.001-05:00

This is really for those of you who manage networks with multiple printers. It’s a nice little utility that will basically find and inventory network printers.

http://www.technibble.com/page-countster-repair-tool-of-the-week/

Problems uninstalling Security Software?

2009-12-29T07:35:00.001-05:00

Previously, I mentioned a terrific program Revo Uninstaller that uninstalls programs and then finds all the “left-over” bits of Registry entries and files. I still find this to be the best one period. I almost never use the Add/Remove Programs (“Programs & Features” in W7) any more…

Here is a program specifically intended to remove Security software like Norton, Trend Micro, McAfee, Kaspersky, etc.. Some of these programs (especially Norton/Symantec & McAfee) don’t always do a complete job. On their web sites you will find utilities and manual processes specifically intended to remove these remnants.

Problem is that you shouldn’t have to do this and it is, frankly, beyond many folks’ ability to find and use. The net is full of folks with systems mucked up by a failed uninstall of an AV program.

I’ve come across a utility (thanks to MowGreen) called “AppRemover”. The name is a bit misleading since it is specifically targeting security software. It doesn’t remove other programs. I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but it looks good and I respect any utilities recommended by “MowGreen”… A very nice feature is the ability to search for remnants left over from a failed uninstall.

I think together with Revo Uninstaller, you’ve got all the bases covered.

http://www.appremover.com/

Microsoft AV software is “very fast”

2009-12-29T06:44:00.001-05:00

First off, I hope you all had a great Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza… We had our son David home from his group home for the weekend and it was great. Looking forward to a better new year…

==========================================

Back to business…..

An organization called AV-Comparatives.org has published a report on the speed of various anti-virus software. It’s important that you understand that they are talking about the impact on performance only. This report says nothing about the effectiveness of the vendors’ programs.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/performance-tests

While not the best (i.e., the least impact on performance), Microsoft Security Essentials did very well, especially compared to the various “free” programs. It finished higher than several retail programs (Avast, Symantec, ESET, McAfee, AVG)

To be honest, I don’t think it is the best solution out there. My personal preference these days is Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. However, for a lot of folks, paying $60+ is more than they want to pay. Assuming that the computer is running Vista or Windows 7, I’m comfortable setting the “average” end user with the built-in firewall and MS Security Essentials.

My reasoning is that most firewalls are just too complicated for the average person. More often than not, the alerts are just plain incomprehensible for most folks and they end up allowing the program the access requested. In effect, they are rendering the firewall worthless. So far, I’ve not seen any reports that the MS AV solution is not completely acceptable. What we need to monitor in the future is how quickly and effectively MS keeps up with the continually escalating ware with the malware programmers…

10 email scams to watch out for

2009-12-24T04:38:00.001-05:00

These things happen all the time, but they are especially prevalent at the holidays. Here’s an article by Debra Littlejohn Shinder in TechRepublic that has a good list of the most common ones and how to avoid them.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1227&tag=nl.e042

Here’s one terrific site for Optimizing your XP or Vista installation…

2009-12-24T03:57:00.001-05:00

Just ran across this one. I’ve briefly looked at it and it’s really amazing. There’s a TON of information here and from what I’ve seen, very useful. A lot of sites just say “Do this and things will be great.”. This guy goes to great lengths to explain what to do (with a lot of screen shots) and why you should do it.

http://www.optimizingpc.com/index.html

One caveat…. Before you do any changes you should:

Create a Restore Point
Back up your computer
Keep track of the changes you are making so that you can undo one or more if things get worse.

Everyone who gives advice on how to improve your system has a point of view and makes assumptions (yes, including me). There are so many variables on what software/hardware you can have as well as customizations, that it’s always possible for an “improvement” to actually degrade your performance or even make some software stop working…

Court rejects Microsoft appeal, bans Word sales as of January 11….

2009-12-24T03:36:00.002-05:00

Hold on…. It’s not as bad as it sounds…..

Turns out that MS was using code in Word that a company called i4i claimed violated one of their patents. As of January 11, 2010, MS must not sell any MS Word with that code. MS has said they will have new code available for sale by then.

Here’s an article from NetworkWorld on it….

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/122209-court-rejects-microsoft-appeal-bans.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2009-12-23

BTW, there is no requirement to fix software already sold prior to 1/11/10. You may have noticed, though, that MS has issued a patch on Microsoft Update to remove the code.

Be on the alert for Malware showing up as a Christmas e-card

2009-12-21T04:44:00.001-05:00

As usual, Christmas is an opportunity for the malware folks out there to try and penetrate your computers. Here’s a posting from Sophos about it.

Usual caveats apply. Don’t open any e-mails or e-cards if you don’t know who they cone from. Even then, be sure the hyperlink is what appears in the text. As they indicate in the posting, hover the mouse over the link (don’t click on it) and the real URL will appear. If it doesn’t match the text, it’s malware….

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=8039

Need to copy lots of files? Enter XCOPY!

2009-12-20T05:21:00.001-05:00

If you’ve worked with Windows for any number of years, you’ve had the need to copy a large number of files from one location to another. In some cases, you can just drag and drop folders. However, for the longest time, there was a tool called XCOPY that was popular. Lots of flags to allow you to narrow the scope and specify attributes. Over the past decade or so, MS has provided another tool called ROBOCOPY. With Vista, XCOPY was “deprecated” (whatever that means) and you were prompted to use ROBOCOPY.

Well, XCOPY is back in Windows 7. Apparently, more flags have been added. Just enter XCOPY /? to see all the flags. Guess enough of us complained…..

Below is a link to an article in TechRepublic by Greg Schultz. He has a very nice tool called “XCOPY TOOL”(cool name, huh?). It adds a graphical interface that makes is a snap and eliminates the need to memorize or run XCOPY /? (and print it) every time you want to run the command.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1930&tag=content;leftCol

Antivirus software enters the “Cloud”

2009-12-19T07:15:00.001-05:00

Panda software has released the final version of Panda Cloud Antivirus. It’s free and it runs in the “cloud”. You’d better have fast internet access or it just plain won’t work. I don’t know much about it, but it does look interesting.

http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

Hardware & Software Compatibility List for Windows 7

2009-12-18T06:07:00.001-05:00

Microsoft published a nice web site that will show you what software & hardware is W7 compatible. You can either search or display them by category. If you are thinking about Windows 7 or buying a computer with Windows 7, check it out…

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx

Some useful tips if you migrate users to new machines

2009-12-18T05:56:00.001-05:00

I do this a lot at the Hospice I support. When we buy new machines, we migrate them to the most advanced users and then “hand me down” the old machines to other users. This list is essentially what I do.

The only point I disagree with is the claim that:

“The majority of organizations don’t have the budgets and infrastructure necessary to maintain disk image libraries, much less an IT department that’s sufficiently staffed to develop, maintain, and administer image technology. That leaves others — and most IT consultants — having to perform desktop and laptop migrations the hard way: manually”

That simply ain’t true…. A copy of a program like Ghost or Acronis True Image lets you easily create and re-image disk images. Add in Sysprep (free from MS) and you have everything you need. The important thing in a corporate environment is to standardize on hardware and software. By doing that, the number of different images is kept to a minimum. When I have to re-image a computer (or laptop), it takes me less than an hour to have it available again…

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1221&tag=nl.e042

How to Install, reinstall or uninstall Windows

2009-12-17T05:23:00.001-05:00

Sometimes the process of installing, reinstalling or uninstalling Windows can be intimidating for non techies. MS has a site where they try to help out with these tasks.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/help/install-reinstall-uninstall

Thanks to Mary-Jo Foley for pointing this out

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4794&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2Fmicrosoft+%28ZDNet+All+About+Microsoft%29

Firefox 3.5.6 Released

2009-12-16T05:03:00.001-05:00

Supposed to fix several stability issues.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5.6/releasenotes/

Windows 7 Training Videos on-line

2009-12-16T04:54:00.001-05:00

French MVP Michel Martin has created a site (MediaForma) with several training videos for Window 7. there are a total of 105. He posts 20 of them. Each week the oldest 2 are dropped and 2 more added. I checked out a couple and they are very well done. Actually, a lot of the content can be applied to XP or Vista….

http://www.mediaforma.com/en/

Thanks to Jas Dhaliwal at the MVP Award Program Blog for finding it…..

Yet another Adobe zero-day exploit

2009-12-16T04:43:00.001-05:00

Looks like Adobe Reader has another security exposure! Once again, it is exploited though JavaScript. As recommended, you should permanently turn off JavaScript inside Reader.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=7974

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/v/post/3267

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/67574.html

Alternatively, use another PDF reader like FoxIt

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

Bing now available for the iPhone

2009-12-16T04:18:00.001-05:00

Microsoft has just released a Bing app for the iPhone. I’m looking forward to using it. Google on the iPhone is not very “nifty” (have you noticed I use that word a lot?)….

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2009/12/15/bing-for-mobile-comes-to-the-iphone.aspx

Ever want to fill in a form with Word instead of a typewriter?

2009-12-16T04:06:00.001-05:00

Here’s a nifty tip from Mary Ann Richardson on in a TechRepublic blog on how to use Word to fill in a form instead of using a typewriter or a pen. As some of the comments say, be careful on official forms like IRS forms.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=996&tag=content;leftCol

Ever wonder about Microsoft Code Names?

2009-12-15T04:41:00.001-05:00

I’m sure you all are wondering about Microsoft’s code names. What are the ones they are currently using and what are the projects they are associated with?

Well, your worries are over :-) …. Mary Jo Foley (http://blogs.zdnet.com/bio.php?tag=col1;post-4758#foley) has posted her latest list on ZDNet. It’s interesting in a bizarre sort of way. If you track them as she does, you start to get an insight into how MS thinks. I know, why on earth would I want to do that? I should really run screaming from the room instead…. ;-)

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s the article.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4758&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zdnet%2Fmicrosoft+%28ZDNet+All+About+Microsoft%29

10 cool things you can do with TweakUI (for XP)

2009-12-15T04:29:00.003-05:00

I don’t know how many of you have used Microsoft’s “Power Toys”, but they are a bunch of VERY useful utilities. One I always loaded was “Command Prompt Here”. Right click on a folder and it opens a command prompt, automatically changing to that folder. There are lots others. If you use XP and haven’t tried them, you should take a look. I can almost guarantee you’ll find one or two that will be very useful…

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx.

One that is very popular is TweakUI. I just read an article by Jody Gilbert in the “10 Things” blog ( http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?tag=main;blogHeader ) that goes into detail about what can be done with this “toy”. It’s a great read.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx

Cannot Open Office 2003 Documents Protected with RMS?

2009-12-13T05:53:00.001-05:00

MS announced that there was a problem, starting on December 11, with opening an Office 2003 document if it was protected by Remote Management Services (RMS). You will get a message “Unexpected error occurred. Please try again later or contact your system administrator”.

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/12/11/cannot-open-office-2003-documents-protected-with-rms.aspx

Well, yesterday they announced hot fixes. Not bad…. If you encounter the problem, apply the hot fix.

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/12/12/cannot-open-office-2003-documents-protected-with-rms-update.aspx

Remember, you should not apply any hot fixes unless you are experiencing the problem described. They are not as fully tested and could potentially cause other problem…

Nice (free) e-book with 50 Windows 7 Tips & Tricks

2009-12-10T04:29:00.001-05:00

Vasu Jain (a blogger at WindowsVJ.com) has released a very nice e-book with a bunch (50 is a bunch, isn’t it?) of tips for W7. I’m sure that one or more will help you out in using W7….

http://windowsvj.com/wpblog/2009/12/windowsvj-xclusive-release-windows-7-tips-tricks-ebook/

Adobe releases Security Update for Flash Player (and Adobe Air)

2009-12-10T03:15:00.001-05:00

Even Adobe has been getting in on the patching act. Acrobat and Flash have become favorite targets for hackers. Flash Player 10.0.42.34 update has been released. It’s being rated as extremely critical and can lead to remote program execution. It affects just about every operating system it runs on (Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.).
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-19.html

It’s recommended that you install it ASAP. You can get it at
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/.

There is a related update to Adobe Air 1.5.3 if you have 1.5.2 and earlier installed…..
http://get.adobe.com/air/

Microsoft Security Newsletter

2009-12-09T04:46:00.001-05:00

I’m not a huge fan of most MS documentation (a.k.a. “Propaganda”), but they do provide a weekly news letter on Security oriented to the home users. It’s not bad and often has some very useful tips and information. Take a look at this month's and if you like it, subscribe (it’s free)…

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/secnews/newsletters/security_09_1208.htm

It’s Patch Tuesday again!

2009-12-08T03:37:00.006-05:00

Looks like a relatively light one this time. 3 Critical and 3 Important. As usual, proceed carefully.

My favorite source for early warnings is the Windows Secrets (http://windowssecrets.com/) newsletter. Susan Bradley’s articles on patching are the best. Take her advice.

To get the full benefit, you need to subscribe to the “Paid Content”/ The good news is that there isn’t a set price. Pay what you want. Believe me, the newsletter is worth every penny…

I’ll edit later with any other/better summaries as I come across them…

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1883&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techrepublic%2Fwindow-on-windows+%28TechRepublic+Window+on+Windows%29

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-dec.mspx

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120409-microsoft-promises-6-updates-for.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2009-12-07

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/48858?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2009-12-08

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/48858?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_2009-12-09

New BIOS for some Dell Laptops might fix poor performance

2009-12-04T04:41:00.002-05:00

If you own a Latitude Exxxx or Precision Mxxxx laptop from Dell, you might want to download a new BIOS, especially if it seems to be underperforming. Every laptop is designed to slow down as it detects over heating of the CPU. This is normal.

However, it turns out that Dell over engineered these newest laptops and in a few cases, the computer slows down, sometimes dramatically, when it shouldn’t.

Here’s an article from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on ZDNet about it. I found that the links don’t work, so you may have to manually go to the downloads page and find it. If your laptop is affected, you will see a very recent (like 12/1/09) date for the BIOS.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=6347&tag=nl.e019

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be careful when applying a BIOS update. Be sure to have the AC power attached. Loss of power during a BIOS upgrades can be a very big problem….

Windows 7 & Jump Lists

2009-12-03T05:10:00.001-05:00

You’re gonna hear a lot about all the nifty features in W7. Thing like “Aero Shake”. Grab a window and, literally, '”shake” it with your mouse. All other windows will automatically minimize. repeat and all those windows come back. Cool……….

To me, however, things like this are “nifty”. But “nifty things just don’t help me in being more productive. “nifty things are not going to convince the average person out there to run and buy W7 or a computer with W7.

There are two features of W7 that make me sit up and take notice. One is “Libraries”. A terrific way to consolidate multiple folders and files into a single menu. When I found it, I said “That’s what I need!” And it worked great until I read a few articles on Jump Lists. It’s hard to describe what it is and how effective it can be. I just ran into an article by Greg Shultz on Tech Republic that puts it in an easy to read and really useful format.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1853&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techrepublic%2Fwindow-on-windows+%28TechRepublic+Window+on+Windows%29

If you are using W7 or seriously thinking about migrating (notice I didn’t say “Upgrading”), you should read this. I’ve found that Jump lists are “The Cat’s Meow”. I’ve found that they make me much more productive and I keep finding new features and ways to utilize them.

This is, to me, an example of what we should be using to convince folks to use W7. Something that makes it easier to use and fun to learn and use…

“Black Screen of Death” reports on Windows 7 -------- not true

2009-12-02T16:21:00.001-05:00

The press and the internet have been a-buzz with reports of November’s “Patch Tuesday” updates causing the “Black Screen of Death” (as opposed to the “Blue Screen Of Death”) on Windows 7 computers. This is when you boot the computer and are left with a black screen. No cursor, no desktop, no nothing.

A company called PrevX reported this and claimed that it was happening on Windows 7 machines after they applied last November’s patches. According to them, it had the potential of affecting “millions” of computers.

Well, folks, it turned out to simply not be true. After Microsoft and other security folks looked into it, they concluded that the patches simply could not have caused it.

Tony Bradley from PC World reported this on Network World
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120209-black-screen-of-death-a.html?page=2

PrevX has issued a retraction and apology for the misinformation.
http://www.prevx.com/blog/141/Windows-Black-Screen-Root-Cause.html

This is a great example of how anxious folks out there are to find fatal flaws, especially in W7. Keep this in mind the next time someone says “I heard that……”

Some ways to get around the high price for Office

2009-12-01T05:08:00.001-05:00

One of the biggest impediments to folks buying Microsoft Office is the price. Let’s be frank… it’s expensive. It’s hard for most folks to hand over hundreds of dollars just so that they can write documents and send e-mail. Here’s a resource I ran into that another MVP created. It has some good suggestions on how to get office or some Office functionality at lower cost (or free).

http://www.agentjim.com/MVP/PowerPoint/PowerPointForFree.html

I’ve suggested to many folks that Open Office (from Sun) is a decent (and free) alternative. It can read and save MS Office files. You can even set the defaults to that option.

I have no direct experience with OxygenOffice, but I’ve used several programs from SourceForge (free) and they all have been excellent programs…

IMNSHO (In My Not So Humble Opinion), though, I’d be very wary of installing betas, as Jim suggests. They usually expire and you almost never can upgrade a beta to the released product. You usually must uninstall the beta first. Also, betas can (and certainly have) cause problems, even crashing systems. General rule of thumb is to never install betas on a production/critical machine unless you are very capable of reacting to problems (and have very good backups (you DO have good backups, don’t you?)……

Good luck.

Hope you all had a great holiday!!

2009-11-30T05:13:00.002-05:00

For those of you in the US, I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one. I had really good one. We brought our son David (33) home from his group home (he's autistic) for the long weekend. Had a nice turkey dinner and went to a couple of movies. David loves the popcorn.. :-). He's really a funny guy with a good sense of humor.

Now it's time to get back on the diet wagon.... Be well, everyone and I wish you all the best holiday season and a great 2010.....

Office Home & Student 2007 on sale from MS

2009-11-27T05:14:00.001-05:00

Microsoft has the Office Home & Student 2007 version on sale. Regular price is $150 USD, but it’s $80 USD until November 30.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX100647101033.aspx

Need to find Duplicate files?

2009-11-25T12:13:00.001-05:00

A huge waste of disk space is often having multiple copies of the same file. It can also Increase the size and time of backing up your computer

Finding these files can take a lot of time. There are several programs out there that are intended to do this task. I just ran into a free one that seems to work well, fast and can access network drives as well as local files. It’s called Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (catchy title, eh?). It has the option to select the type of file as well as ignoring files smaller than xx KB/MB/GB…

I just tried it on a network drive with 94 GB of data and told it to ignore files smaller than 1MB. It finished in about 1 minute….

Check it out and decide for yourself…

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/duplicate-file-finder

Windows 7 & power management

2009-11-25T05:20:00.001-05:00

One of the things that W7 is being touted for is it’s improvements in power management, especially w.r.t. laptops. I’ve seen reports of significant battery life being extended after installing W7.

Here’s a decent article on TechNet by Greg Shultz on the subject. Included are links to a TechNet and a Microsoft article on the subject.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1843&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techrepublic%2Fwindow-on-windows+%28TechRepublic+Window+on+Windows%29

You’ve Won a Mac Air… NOT!!

2009-11-22T04:29:00.001-05:00

Everyone by now should know better than to open attachments on unsolicited e-mails, but unfortunately, there are still some who haven’t gotten the word… Just ran into this one on the Sophos blog. Nothing is free……….

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=7510

New edition of Diskeeper 2010 is available

2009-11-19T04:42:00.005-05:00

I’ve mentioned in an earlier posting about Diskeeper. I’ve been using if for several years and it does the job it says it will do. The thing I like about it the most is how un-intrusive the automatic defragging is. You really don’t know it’s there unless you can hear your hard drive being accessed or you watch processes in Task Manager.

Well, they’ve just released a new version Diskeeper 2010. I was given the opportunity to try it out (one of the perks of being an MVP) recently. One big change I see is a much more informative and intuitive console. You can see in a single snapshot the state of things and how much defragging the program has done. One graph in particular shows how much of the idle CPU capacity is being used by Diskeeper. You can really see how it reacts and stops working when there is any CPU activity. Customizing how it works (which drives to defrag automatically, etc.) is easy to do and understand

Functionally, the biggest improvement is a process they call “Intelliwrite”. Here’s a description from their release:

“IntelliWrite™ technology. A major Diskeeper Corporation R&D breakthrough, IntelliWrite addresses the cause of fragmentation and prevents up to 85% of the fragmentation that has long plagued every computer.”

Somehow, it works to prevent fragmentation. If you look at the console, it will show you how many fragmented clusters have been avoided. To be honest, I haven’t a clue how it works. According to the console, since I installed it, it has avoided 13,437 fragments. The background fragmentation has eliminated 377 fragments. I’ll leave it to others to dig in and verify how accurate the claims are. What I can tell you, though, is that Diskeeper still has no noticeable affect on CPU or disk performance.

I should point out that there are very widely different views on how much fragmentation affects performance and the benefits of defragmentation. There are folks who believe that it has little impact and frequent defragmentation will actually decrease the lifetime of a hard drive. Others will claim it fixes just about any performance problem.

I’m somewhere in the middle. Fragmentation can and will affect disk performance. At the Hospice I support, I always defrag a computer whenever I have access to it or give it to a user. It’s also one thing you always do to try and improve a slow computer. However, while I consider it an important thing to do, my experience has been that a slow computer usually has other, bigger problems that also need to be addressed.

Having said that, I can say that I think Diskeeper is the best defragging program I’m aware of. It sells for $40 USD ($24 USD for an upgrade). Should you buy it? That’s entirely up to you. I think its money well spent. I like the “Set it and forget it” (acknowledgements to Ron Popeil) part. Folks (including myself) can’t be depended on to defrag drives on a regular basis. Also, defragging a drive can take a very long time. Programs like Diskeeper take care of that.

Should you upgrade? Again, it’s really up to you. If their claims about preventing fragmentation are borne out, it’s a no-brainer. My experience with them has been that updates never impact performance and have always made significant interface and performance improvements. For me, upgrading makes sense. You need to decide for yourself….

http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/home/diskeeper.aspx

Compatibility list for Windows 7

2009-11-18T05:21:00.001-05:00

This was posted as something for IT professionals, but I thought it could be of use to all of you. It’s an excel spreadsheet with a pretty comprehensive list of programs and whether they are compatible with W7 (32 or 64 bit). Pretty awesome….

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/springboard/archive/2009/11/17/new-windows-7-application-compatibility-list-for-it-professionals.aspx

Tweaking Windows 7

2009-11-18T05:15:00.001-05:00

Needless to say, the first thing folks want to do with a new OS is figure out how to “improve” it, make it more efficient and speed it up. In other words, “Tweak it.”…

TweakHound has written a new guide on tweaking W7. I haven’t read it all, but he has a good rep for knowing what he’s talking about.

Please take his advice and be very careful! Some modifications can have disastrous consequences if not done carefully. Be sure to know how to recover and keep track of your mods so you can un-do them later…

http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/index.html

Keeping files synchronized

2009-11-14T06:32:00.001-05:00

I like to keep copies of my critical files stored on an external hard drive (actually, I have 2). I also keep a regular full backup, but that’s another story.

The challenge is always how to keep the copies in sync with the original source files. I’ve run across 3 that do the job, are automatic, fast and relatively easy to set up and use.They are:

GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition - This is the one that I currently use. I like it because it’s fast and can sync more than one folder in the same job. I also like the interface. It can be used to do backups (and restores).
http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm/free-backup-software
Karen’s Replicator – This was my previous choice. VERY fast and easy to set up. My problem with it was that you had to set up a separate sync job for each folder being synced. Also, the interface wasn’t as slick and easy as GFI. It’s part of a suite of apps she maintains.
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp
Microsoft SyncToy – MS just released a new update to this program. A lot of folks use and love it. I found the first version to be clunky, slow and I just didn’t like the interface. I haven’t tried the latest version, but it is getting some positive responses…
http://blogs.msdn.com/sync/archive/2009/11/11/synctoy-2-1available-for-download.aspx

Any of these will do the job. I like this approach in addition to a full backup since restoring a file is as easy as drag & drop….

Alert! Conflicker detected! … or is it?

2009-11-14T06:16:00.001-05:00

This is another sneaky way that these malware assholes try to get folks to download and install their sh*t. It’s a good reminder that attachments to e-mails (especially unsolicited ones) are dangerous and you should avoid opening them…

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=7417

Bing 2.0 is being rolled out

2009-11-12T05:04:00.001-05:00

Looks like MS is rolling out an update (2.0) for the Bing! web search engine. It may take a day or so to get all the servers updated. If you discounted Bing! before (as I did), you might want to take another look when 2.0 is available for you…

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2009/11/11/bing-s-next-chapter-begins-today.aspx

Just changed the font

2009-11-12T04:58:00.001-05:00

I just shrunk the font used to get more on the page. If you think it's too small, post a comment and I'll tweak it again.

10 antivirus programs for Windows 7

2009-11-12T04:53:00.001-05:00

Anyone considering Windows 7 needs to assure themselves that the software they are running will work under Windows 7. One way is to try and see. Another is to go to the manufacturer’s web site and see if they support W7 or have an update or upgrade that does.

If a program doesn’t install, you can try installing it via the “Troubleshoot Compatibility” option (available by right clicking on the executable) or as a last resort use the new XP Mode (available only on certain versions).

With Anti Virus software, that really isn’t practical or desirable. You want the software compatible with the OS natively. Here’s a nice summary by Greg Shultz from TechRepublic of 10 AV programs that are supported under W7. Included are some good facts to help you decide.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1155

In case you are wondering, I use Kaspersky Internet Security suite and I’m very happy with it. However, “Free'” is attractive and both AVG and Avast (as well as Avira) are both well thought of in the user community…

How to install a “Clean” copy of Windows 7 from the upgrade Disc

2009-11-12T04:42:00.001-05:00

There’s been a lot of discussion on the net about whether or not one can legally do a clean install of W7 with the upgrade disc. In the past, as long as you had the disc for an eligible OS available, you could format and install the new OS with an upgrade disc. We’re talking a non-significant cost difference…

Woody Leonhard, from Windows Secrets, has written a pretty good description of the method to accomplish this. MS has admitted that it is legal as long as you have a legitimate licensed copy of an eligible OS.

http://windowssecrets.com/2009/11/12/02-Fully-install-Windows-7-from-the-upgrade-disc/#story1

It’s Patch Tuesday Again!!

2009-11-11T04:30:00.002-05:00

Actually, it’s “Dead Bodies Wednesday”….. ;-)

Not a big set this month (especially compared to October’s list). Here are some links with a bit more useful data than the notices from MS….

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1792
This also includes description of updates released since the last Patch Tuesday

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/11/10/november-2009-update-release.aspx
Concentrates on the Office updates

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=7374
Sophos Labs (an AV vendor) take

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/47624?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_2009-11-11

Good news if you use Skype

2009-11-09T09:27:00.001-05:00

There’s been an ongoing battle recently about the ownership and a patent dispute that had put the future of Skype in question. Well, it seems that the folks involved have reached a settlement that should let Skype continue to exist and grow.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=26972&tag=nl.e019

http://www.ebayinc.com/news#20091106005379

Firefox 3.5.5 update has been released

2009-11-07T05:54:00.001-05:00

FF has released yet another update. It has several “stability updates”.

Quicken Online will be shut down over the next 6 to 9 months

2009-11-07T05:02:00.001-05:00

Quicken recently acquired Mint.com, an on-line finance program. The Mint founder and CEO became a vice president and GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group.

Apparently, his first decision was to kill Quicken Online and replace it with Mint. Folks with data in Quicken Online will have their data migrated to Mint.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/mints-aaron-patzer-we-will-end-of-life-quicken-online-in-six-to-nine-months/

Confused about WIndows 7 licensing? Read on

2009-11-04T11:17:00.003-05:00

Microsoft seems to make it their business (no pun intended) to confuse everyone about licensing their products. Talk to any network admin who has had to figure out how many server/CAL/TSCAL licenses they need for a network server.

They continue the outstanding work when it comes to licenses for Windows 7. Fortunately, Ed Bott on his Ed Bott's Microsoft Report blog has provided what has to be the best work I've ever seen done on pulling all the variables together on the various options. Worth the read. Obviously, as Ed says at the end, he's not a lawyer and you can't take his report as an official position on licensing. However, for many of us (in lieu of anything vaguely readable from Microsoft), it will, I suspect become something of a "must have" reference...

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1514&tag=col1;post-1514

AT&T sues Verizon Wireless over 3G Map

2009-11-04T11:11:00.002-05:00

Talk about frivolous lawsuits... AT&T is suing over the colors used in the Verizon coverage maps used in their ads slamming AT&T's 3G coverage. Wait until They lose exclusivity on the iPhones (I can't wait!!). Now that's when you'll see them bleed customers....

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=26884&tag=nl.e019

Upgrade from Vista stops responding (hangs) at 62% when you upgrade to Windows 7

2009-11-03T05:29:00.005-05:00

If you are trying to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and the upgrade hangs at 62%, then Microsoft has a fix. The document below has a “Fix It” button that will automate the fix. There are also steps to do it manually.

This fix only applies if the upgrade stops at precisely 62%. If yours stops at any other point, this is not the solution for you.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975253

Update to Quicken 2009 R7 Update problem

2009-10-29T06:28:00.001-04:00

In a previous posting, I told you about a solution to the problems upgrading Q09 to R7 with a file downloaded from Intuit. One problem was that it is a 72MB file download. Apparently, they have improved it to the point that the download is now 15.7 MB…..

http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/using-quicken/patches-and-updates/7154.html

“And now for something completely different…”

2009-10-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

With all the serious stuff we read about every day (viruses, works, phishing, etc.) and all the hoopla over Windows 7 (you DO realize that it is the answer to everything, don’t you?), I thought a bit of humor was in order.

Ever wonder about the differences between a drug dealer and a geek (some folks actually do)? Well, here’s the answer.. :-)

http://www.silliness.org/archive/drugsvsgeeks.html

Firefox Updated to 3.5.4

2009-10-28T17:00:00.001-04:00

Mozilla has released an update to FF that contains a lot if security fixes as well as stability fixes. Everyone is urged to upgrade ASAP.

Firefox 3.5.4 fixes the following issues:

Several security issues.
Fixed several stability issues.
Added the ability to re-submit crash reports (bug 378528)
After using Clear Recent History some SSL sites would not load all images and styles without pressing reload (see bug 480619)

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested in the Firefox 3.5.3 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

Problems upgrading Quicken 2009 (Q09) to Release 7 (R7)

2009-10-28T16:51:00.001-04:00

As soon as R7 was made available for folks to upgrade Q09, problems surfaced. Turns out most folks are getting a “Patch Engine Error” and the update fails.

After a lot of postings on the web, Intuit made a web page available for registering for a fix.
http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/using-quicken/patches-and-updates/7531.html

The “fix” was to uninstall/clean up/reinstall. Below is the message they sent. For the record many folks (including myself) have ignored staps 1 & 2 and gone straight to downloading and running the executable. It ran without any problems and everything seems OK/

I would, though, strongly suggest you save a copy of your database (use the built-in backup as well as the File Options) and have it saved somewhere safe before you proceed with all three steps or just the one.

==========================================

You contacted our support team regarding Quicken 2009 R7 - Patching Engine Error.

You are receiving this error because a file was damaged during installation or a prior update patch.

Please follow the uninstall procedures to clean up your files which is listed in the following QcleanUI link:
http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/getting-started/installation/4108.html

Once you have a clean uninstall then choose the following link for your version of Quicken for a new installation of the software:

Deluxe:
http://http.intuit.speedera.net/http.intuit/CMO/quicken/patch/QW09DLX.exe

Home & Business:
http://http.intuit.speedera.net/http.intuit/CMO/quicken/patch/QW09HAB.exe

Premier:
http://http.intuit.speedera.net/http.intuit/CMO/quicken/patch/QW09PRM.exe

New User Edition:
http://http.intuit.speedera.net/http.intuit/CMO/quicken/patch/QW09QNUE.exe

Rental Property Manager:
http://http.intuit.speedera.net/http.intuit/CMO/quicken/patch/QW09RPM.exe

If you have any further questions or concerns, please visit our support site. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

Sincerely,

Quicken Support Team

Get Panda Internet Security 2010 Free (Today Only)

2009-10-22T05:20:00.001-04:00

As part of the Windows 7 launch, Panda Security is providing a free download (and 1 year license) for their Internet Security 2010 suite. It’s today only. Register and you can download it. You will receive a license later via e-mail.

http://us.pandasecurity.com/windows7party/index.html

Windows 7 Compatibility Center is on-line

2009-10-22T05:12:00.001-04:00

Today is the release date for W7. If you are considering it, MS has officially released their Windows 7 Compatibility Center. It is suposed to give you a source to find out if your software is compatible with W7. If your software doesn’t show up, check with the manufacturer.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx

Installing W7 in a dual boot mode

2009-10-21T05:04:00.001-04:00

As I’ve indicated in teh past, I’m not a big fan of upgrading an OS. It’s like putting anew roof on top of an old one. ALl you’ve done is cover up basic problems and possible made them worse. Also, a clean install will always run faster and better than an upgrade every time.

Of course, the idea of wiping out the existing XP (or Vista) install is a daunting prospect. You know that you are going to forget something (files or information) that you need to install or customize applications or restore your “Favorites” or such. One way around this is to install the new OS in a dual boot environment. This way you can continue to boot into the old OS until you’ve customized the new one to your satisfaction. Then you can set the new OS to be the default OS and later remove the old one.

To do this, you really should have a separate partition/drive. Otherwise, you need 3rd party software. When I partition my drive in a new computer, I always partition it as:

C: OS Boot
D: Programs/Files
E: Second Boot partition

Unfortunately, many/most computers are not set up this way. In that case, you need to shrink the existing partition(s) and create a new one. There are some excellent programs out there (Paragon is one) that cost a few bucks. If you only need it once to do this, there are free programs . An excellent one is Easeus Partition Master Home Edition 4.0.1. A word of advice. BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU TRY TO CHANGE PARTIONS!! Please….please…please… don’t use ANY partioning software without backing up first!!!!!!

I found an excellent article in Tech Republic by Greg Shultz (with lots of pictures) that will show you exactly what to do….

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1728

Hope you all enjoy Windows 7 as much as I am….

AVG releases version 9 (Free & Paid)

2009-10-21T04:34:00.001-04:00

AVG Technologies has release version 9.0 of their software.
http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

They have a free version that is just an AV & anti-spyware solution. They also have a paid version ($55 USD) that includes a firewall and other features. I don’t have any direct experience, but it’s a common solution that I’ve seen recommended on the net.

Here’s a comparison of the features
http://free.avg.com/gb-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

A couple of articles from The H Web site

http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/AVG-9-0-virus-scanner-released-819882.html

http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/AVG-Free-9-0-released-834130.html

Panda Internet Security 2010 for PC downloads for free

2009-10-20T05:25:00.001-04:00

On October 22, 2009, Panda Security will provide a free download of their Internet Security Suite. After a year, you have to pay for the subscription.

http://dealnews.com/Panda-Internet-Security-2010-for-PC-downloads-for-free/324931.html?ref=html_dealnewsletter

How to Build a Kick-Ass Windows Home Server

2009-10-16T05:22:00.001-04:00

MaximumPC has created what a lot of folks are calling a “Kick-Ass” guide to creating a Windows Home Server. If you are thinking about setting one up (or already have) check it out…

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/master_your_digital_domain?page=0%2C0

Nice guide on installing Windows 7

2009-10-16T05:18:00.001-04:00

TweakHound has posted a very nice step by step guide on installing Windows 7. Lots of pictures… ;-) As he says, be sure to read through first before starting.

http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/install7.html

Student Offer for Windows 7

2009-10-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

There appears to be an offer available for students to get Windows 7 for $30 USD. Looks like a great deal!

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/09/17/student-offer-for-windows-7.aspx

Do not install Patch KB974571 if you are running OCS!

2009-10-15T04:19:00.003-04:00

I just got this warning from a discussion on TechNet about Patch KB974571 released on Tuesday (10/13/09). If you are running OCS (Office Communication Server), DO NOT INSTALL THIS PATCH!!. If you installed it, and have any problems, uninstall it.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-12843-0.html?forumID=102&threadID=319036&messageID=3181113&tag=leftCol;post-1666

Here's another warning from Aaron Tiensivu's Blog:

http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/1905-For-now,-hold-off-on-installing-KB-974571-on-OCS-2007-R2-servers-and-possibly-R1.html

And an "official" comment from the OCS Team at MS:

http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/10/14/632.aspx

More information on 10/13/09 Patch Tuesday

2009-10-14T05:30:00.001-04:00

As I promised here are some more sources of information on the patches sent out yesterday.

TECHNET
http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/10/13/october-2009-security-bulletin-release.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/10/12/assessing-the-risk-of-the-october-security-bulletins.aspx

Help Net Security
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8337

Tech Republic
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1666

NetworkWorld

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/46126?source=NWWNLE_nlt_microsoft_2009-10-15

Big Patch Tuesday for October 13, 2009

2009-10-12T16:19:00.001-04:00

Looks like a big set of updates tomorrow. 13 in all. 8 Critical and 5 Important.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/46092?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2009-10-12

There are usually a couple of blogs that give a much better summary and description of the updates. I’ll post them tomorrow when I see them…

As usual, I recommend the following process:

Wait a few days to a week if possible to see if anyone is reporting problems.
Create a Restore Point
Back up your data (create a disk image if possible)
Review the updates and choose which ones apply to you. In general, it’s recommended that you apply critical updates unless you know that one or more has problems.
Install the updates

As a corollary, I usually recommend that you set up your Automatic Update to “Download & notify”. When the updates are downloaded, YOU choose when and which ones to install…

Another free defragger

2009-10-12T05:05:00.002-04:00

I just ran into this on the net in a newsgroup I follow. It got several positive comments from folks I respect. Haven’t tried it out yet, but it’s free. It’s called MyDefrag (used to be called JDKFrag).

http://www.mydefrag.com/

Updated 10/12/09

I have to say I tried the program and I'm not impressed at all. The display is cryptic and not at all what I'm used to seeing. I want to see the clusters moving as they are rearranged. Also, there are just too many options available. For some folks this could be very useful, but I suspect that the majority are like me. Defrag, do it quickly and get out of my way....

My favorite right now is and remains to be UltraDefrag from SourceForge. It's fast, does it's job and shows me the screen I want to see.

http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/index.html

Be careful if you are A “World of Warcraft” member!

2009-10-11T12:02:00.001-04:00

Looks like there’s a “spearphish” attempt out there to get your account information. Be warned….

BTW, “spearphishing” is a “phishing” attack targeted to a specific person or group of people…

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=6822

Get Zone Alarm Pro Free on October 13

2009-10-11T04:08:00.001-04:00

It seems that Zone Alarm is making their firewall Zone Alarm Pro 2010 available for download free on October 13. It’s normally $39.95. They did this last year, also.

On October 13, use this link: http://www.zonealarm.com/only24hours

Yet another Adobe Acrobat Reader Vulnerability!

2009-10-10T07:19:00.001-04:00

Looks like another vulnerability to Acrobat Rader has been identified and is in the wild! Adobe is promising a patch on the 13th. A lot of us are saying “Why wait??”… Personally, I use FoxIt Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/)

Anyway, below is the link.

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-15.html

Sysadmin of the Year Contest

2009-10-09T04:55:00.001-04:00

If you have a Sysadmin (System Administrator) that you think is doing a great job, here’s your chance to give him or her a big “Atta Boy”….

I was lucky enough 2 years ago to place second and won an iPhone. This year’s first prize is a “progressive pot that grows with every nomination. Currently, it’s at $2,400 US and could reach as high as $5000 US.

http://www.bigfix.com/rockstar/

Stolen passwords include Gmail & Yahoo! mail

2009-10-08T04:36:00.003-04:00

The situation involving stolen Hotmail accounts & passwords that was revealed earlier has now extended to Gmail and Yahoo! mail. It’s strting to look like it’s been going on for w while and is basically a phishing attack, but on a scale never seen before.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/100609-gmail-yahoo-mail-join-hotmail.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2009-10-07

The vendors seem to be reacting to it, but I leave it to your discretion as to whether or not you think it’s time to change your password. Everyone needs to remember to be very careful with giving out your password. Also, you need to practice “safe computing”. Don’t have trivial passwords and change them often. It’s a PITA (pain in the a$$), but it really is necessary….

I just saw an article on ZDNET about how weak passwords appear to be a major factor in the Hotmail fiasco. As an example, here are the 10 most common used passwords of the ones stolen and released:

123456
123456789
alejandra
111111
alberto
tequiero
alejandro
12345678
1234567
estrella

I'm surprised that "QWERTY" wasn't on....

Bottom line, try and create passwords that aren't obvious....

Microsoft admits to “several thousand” Hotmail passwords being stolen

2009-10-07T04:39:00.001-04:00

Computerworld has reported that MS admitted that thousands of passwords were, in fact stolen and posted on the internet. However, they maintain it’s not a situation of their being hacked, but a massive phishing attack. While this is somewhat good news (assuming you believe them), the current best advice still is to change your password ASAP if you have an account on any of the domains affected.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138956/Microsoft_confirms_phishers_stole_several_thousand_Hotmail_passwords

Ways to detect Malware

2009-10-06T04:49:00.001-04:00

It’s becoming an epidemic with computers getting infected right and left. I’ve lost count of the number of times folks have come to me with computers completely bolixed up asking if I can “Make it run faster”. They are less than pleased when the advice is “Format & reinstall.”…

Here are a couple of articles from Michal Kessner at TechRepublic on how to detect malware (and, hopefully remove it).

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=970

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1069

If you have a Hotmail account, change your password ASAP!!

2009-10-06T04:36:00.001-04:00

It seems that a hacker posted what he said was more than 10,000 usernames and passwords (possibly millions) on teh web. The original post is gone, but you all know by now that once it’s on the web, it’s always there somewhere… If you have an account with a domain name of @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com , it would behoove you to change your password RIGHT NOW!!

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/100509-hacker-leaks-thousands-of-hotmail.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2009-10-05

Updated Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

2009-10-06T04:29:00.001-04:00

MS has released an updated version of their “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta” software. If you are planning to install Windows 7 on an existing computer, (upgrade or fresh install) it would be very prudent to download and run the tool. If you are currently running Vista, you are probably OK, but it’s smart to check it out.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

77 Windows 7 Tips

2009-10-05T04:20:00.001-04:00

In the event you decide to migrate to (note I didn’t say “Upgrade to”) Windows 7, here are 77 tips from Microsoft on using W7…

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.10.77windows.aspx

Things to do when tuning up a PC

2009-10-05T03:46:00.001-04:00

If you have a computer that is starting to run slow, there are a bunch of things you can do. This article by Joe Rosberg in TechRepublic is a very nice summary of things to try before you format and do a clean install…

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/helpdesk/?p=1051&tag=nl.e103

Microsoft now has an anti-virus & malware software

2009-09-30T06:11:00.001-04:00

The software, Microsoft Security Essentials has been in beta for a while now. I haven’t used it, but it’s getting OK reviews. It does try to cover more than just viruses. It might just might be OK with the built-in Vista or Windows 7 firewalls for the average consumer. I’ll be watching the net for reactions to it vs the existing solutions (free and paid).

The software is available for download from MS now.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=en-us

Recover deleted files for free

2009-09-25T05:02:00.002-04:00

Here’s a free program from Piriform (the same folks who brought you CCleaner and Defraggler) that will attempt to restore deleted files.

Be careful, though. In the Options page during the install, there is an option to install the Yahoo! toolbar. It is selected by default. I don't know about you, but I *HATE* all these extra toolbars And I especially hate when they try to sneak one in.... :-(

http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Here’s a free, fast and good defragger

2009-09-24T05:59:00.001-04:00

Ever tried to defrag Windows 2000? Time for a lunch break! Windows XP? Better, but, depending on the computer speed, it can take a while.

One of my biggest complaints about Vista (and Windows 7) is how they changed the interface for defragging. All you see is text (to the effect) “The disk is defragging. This can take a while.” Really helpful, eh? It’s also still slow…

There are a lot of defraggers out there that do a better job than the built in Windows one. I’ve mentioned in the past, that I use (and recommend) Diskeeper. It costs, but it does a great job, does it continually (when the system is inactive) and you never know it’s working.

There’s a free utility out there called UltraDefrag. Read the review by Mark Kaelin in TechRepublic.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/products/?p=717&tag=nl.e102

The utility is available from SourceForge. They are a great resource for free and very useful tools…
http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

Looks like Windows isn’t the only one with problems…

2009-09-24T05:31:00.001-04:00

Apparently, Apple has just shipped version 9.0.1 of iTunes. It seems that there is a security flaw that could allow a malicious attempt to take over a computer running Windows or OS X via a playlist (pls) file.

Apple recommends an immediate update.

Nifty Free CD/DVD burner software

2009-09-22T12:28:00.001-04:00

I’ve been using Windows 7 RTM for a while now. One problem I ran into was that the old DVD/CD burner software wouldn't install or run under W7. After a search, I came up with CDBurnXP. This is one nifty program! It basically does everything I need. It’s free and it works!!

http://cdburnerxp.se/

Microsoft to release free anti-virus software soon

2009-09-22T05:26:00.001-04:00

According to several sources, MS will release the official software for “Security Essentials”. This is, according to MS a basic AV and anti spyware software and is supposed to have a smaller footprint that other commercial products (that’s not hard to do). Beta testers have been told to expect it in the next several weeks (whatever that means).

Reports I’ve seen are mixed. It’s going to be interesting to see how it works and what the response is.

BTW, if you have a pirated copy of windows, you won’t be able to get it, according to MS.

Handy Free Screen Capture Program

2009-09-19T06:11:00.001-04:00

Ever want to capture the contents of a window and use it in documentation or show it to your support tech?

My personal favorite is Snag-It by TechSmith. It will cost you $50 USD, but is, hands down, the best one out there.

There is, however a free one that has a lot of the same features. It’s called Jing and it’s also from TechSmith. It also comes in a pro version for $15 (per year?).

http://www.jingproject.com/

Thanks to Michael Pietroforte of 4Sysops for Windows Administrators for the pointer…

The origin of Ctrl-Alt-Del

2009-09-18T11:45:00.001-04:00

Ever wonder where they came up with “Ctrl-Alt Del” to reboot a computer? Well, now you know…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGQsBDSEpk&feature=player_embedded

Students can get Windows 7 for $30

2009-09-18T06:04:00.001-04:00

Looks like you can get a copy of Windows 7 for $29.99 if you are a student. You can get Home Premium or Pro.

Mary-Jo Foley wrote it up on ZDNet:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4003

Details are on the Win741 site:
http://www.win741.com/

They have an FAQ with pretty comprehensive information.