Category Archives: OS – Windows Vista

Losing Data is No Longer the End of the World

Data recovery is the last thing on our minds when we are busy.

Data Recovery Equipment

We’ve all been there. Despite knowing that we need to save our work at regular intervals and backup everything, there is always going to be that time when you’re engrossed in what you’re doing and have ploughed on regardless with that complex spreadsheet, calculations or report. You’ve almost finished, 5 o’clock is in sight, and backing up or saving your data is the last thing on your mind. But you can guarantee that will be exactly the moment when you have a power cut. And suddenly the screen is blank and everything has gone.

Even when you have been as careful as can be and saved every last meg on your external hard drive, you can never guarantee that your dog won’t decide to make a tasty meal out of it and have a good old chew.

Well breathe a sigh of relief as this no longer means the loss of all your hard work. Thankfully there are now expert data recovery organisations out there who can not only retrieve data you thought that you had lost, but can offer you a wealth of information and advice about how to stop it happening again. Both the emergency services and the GP of data recovery all-in-one.

These guys can also advise you on which of the wide range of data recovery systems and equipment are the best value for money and meet your individual needs.

Unfortunately they weren’t able to advise on how to tempt my dog into eating dog food instead of electrical equipment.

How to conserve your laptop battery

Suggestions

Don’t Run It Down to Empty
Most laptops probably won’t allow you to set the critical battery level at 0 percent–and you shouldn’t try. Squeezing every drop of juice out of a lithium ion battery (the type used in today’s laptops) strains and weakens it. Doing this once or twice won’t kill the battery, but the cumulative effect of frequently emptying your battery will shorten its lifespan.

Keep It Cool
Heat breaks down the battery, and reduces its overall life. When you use your laptop, make sure the vents are unblocked. Never work with the laptop on pillows or cushions. If possible, put it on a raised stand that allows for plenty of airflow. Also, clean the vents every so often with a can of compressed air. You can buy this for a few dollars at any computer store. Be sure to follow the directions on the can, and do this only when the notebook is off.
Some people recommend you store it in the refrigerator, inside a plastic bag. While you should keep a battery cool, the last thing you want is a wet battery, and condensation is a real danger in the fridge. Instead, store it in a dry place at room temperature. A filing cabinet works fine.

Use It Every Once In A While
You don’t want the battery to go too long without exercise or let it empty out entirely. If you go without the battery for more than two months, put it in the PC and use it for a few hours, then remove it again.

Give It a Rest
If you’re going to be working exclusively on AC power for a week or more, remove the battery first. Otherwise, you’ll be wearing out the battery–constantly charging and discharging it–at a time when you don’t need to use it at all. You’re also heating it up (see “Keep It Cool,” above).
You don’t want it too empty when you take it out. An unused battery loses power over time, and you don’t want all the power to drain away, so remove it when it’s at least half-charged.
If you’ve never removed your laptop’s battery and don’t know how, check your documentation. (If you don’t have it, you can probably find it online.) The instructions generally involve turning the laptop upside-down and holding down a button while you slide out the battery.

Longer Life Between Charges

Dim your screen
Your laptop’s backlight requires a lot of juice. Keep it as dim as you can comfortably read it.

Shut off unneeded hardware
Turn off your Bluetooth, and if you’re not using the Internet, turn off your Wi-Fi receiver, as well. Don’t use an external mouse or other device. And muting the PC’s sound system not only saves power, it avoids annoying everyone else in the café.

Avoid multitasking
Run as few programs as you can get away with. If possible, stick to the one application (word processor, browser, or whatever) you’re currently using, plus your antivirus and firewall in the background. And if you’re not on the Internet, you don’t need those two.

Avoid multimedia
Save chores like photo editing and watching old Daily Show videos for when you have AC power. And if you must listen to music, use your iPod or mp3 player (or similar device).

Know when to sleep and when to hibernate

You need to think about when you want to save power by sending your laptop into Standby or Sleep mode, and when you want to hibernate it.
There’s a difference. XP’s Standby and Vista and Windows 7′s Sleep modes keep your PC on, using some power, but less of it than in normal use. Hibernate saves the PC’s state to the hard drive, then shuts it off entirely, so that no power is used.
On the other hand, Windows takes much longer–sometimes minutes–to go into and come out of hibernation. And those are minutes that the battery is draining heavily and you can’t work.
XP’s Standby mode isn’t really all that efficient. If your laptop will be inactive for more than about half an hour, hibernate it. Otherwise, use Standby.
But Vista and Windows 7 do a much better job with their Sleep mode. Don’t bother hibernating your PC unless you think you’re going to go more than two or three hours without using it.
Myth: Adding RAM saves battery life. True, more RAM means less hard drive access, and the hard drive uses a lot of electricity. But RAM uses electricity as well, and unless you’re doing a lot of multitasking (not a good idea when you’re on battery power), more RAM won’t reduce hard drive use.
Warning: If you put your laptop in sleep mode, make sure the battery is [near] fully charged. As your applications opened are saved in memory, it is using battery power. If you run out of power, everything you were running at the time is gone – but not your data except what you hadn’t saved. Likewise, if your laptop is in sleep mode and there is a power failure, the laptop will switch to the battery. But if the battery is too weak, everything you were running at the time is gone – but not your data except what you hadn’t saved.

[Note: These tips – it is still your decision to do it – were accumulated from various sources. If you battery is already “on the way out” it will just prolong it a bit. Don’t expect the battery life in a charge to improve.]

Difference between sleep and hibernation

What is the difference between sleep and hibernation in Windows?

Sleep:

When you set your computer to sleep [or done automatically with power settings], what happens is that as the computer shuts down, the contents currently in use or running will be saved to the computer’s memory and the computer is shut down. To turn the computer on, press the computer’s power button.

Advantage: Shuts down and starts up the computer quite fast.

Disadvantage: For a laptop, it relies on your battery or power from an outlet only. If the battery dies and the power adapter not plugged in or if the battery dies and there is a power failure, whatever was running is lost. Documents will be saved if saved prior to going into sleep mode.

For a desktop, it relies on the computer’s power from an outlet only. If there is a power failure, whatever was running is lost. Documents will be saved if saved prior to going into sleep mode.

Hibernation:

With hibernation, when your computer is shut down, the contents currently in use or running will be saved to the computer’s hard disk or solid state drive and the computer is shut down. To turn the computer on, press the computer’s power button.

Advantage: Whatever you had open or was running as the computer shuts down is saved to your hard disk or solid state drive. Even if the laptop’s battery dies or there is a power failure, you will not lose anything that has been saved.

Disadvantage: Shuts down and start up is slower. Although if your computer has a solid state drive, then the shut down and start up isn’t as bad but still slower than sleep.

Notes:

If your computer is connected to a battery backup [a.k.a. uninterruptable power supply (UPS)], the UPS will keep the computer “alive” for a little while if there is a power failure. If the UPS software from the manufacturer is installed, the UPS will shut down the computer – a full shut down – not sleep or hibernate.

Power options or settings can be set in the Control Panel. From here you can dictate when to shut certain hardware off to conserve power [or battery life] as well as when the computer shuts down.

Review your computer’s manual as there may be other ways to wake your computer from sleep or hibernation.

To see how to conserve your battery see http://wp.me/p1wU4v-ZN

Tired of bogus Windows and other scam calls?

How to Improve Your PC’s Speed for Free in Seven Easy Steps

Does your computer start up slowly? Do applications run slowly and hang all the time? Do you want to get rid of these problems for free? These steps here will probably help you resolve your problems.1. When you turn on your computer, ensure that there are no media (discs) in the ROM drive or any attached USB devices. Having any of these causes the computer to start slowly as it tries to read them for possible boot options.2. Disable startup programs such as Windows Sidebar and any programs which are installed that run at startup. These programs cause your computer to boot slowly as it has to load them before you can begin to use your computer. To do this, run Windows Defender. Click on Tools and select Software Explorer. Click on the category button to display Startup Programs. Click once on the displayed programs to see which are available for disabling and disable them. You can also disable programs that run at startup by running them, and ensuring that the “Run At Startup” option is not checked or allowed.

3. Click on the battery icon on the taskbar in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. This displays the power options menu. If “High Performance” is not selected as the power plan, select it. This power plan maximizes system performance.

4. End application processes which are not in use at a particular time. These processes compete with the programs you are running for available computer memory and speed. Such processes include Bluetooth, dictionaries, search bars etc (you can always restart them when you need them by running the applications again). To end processes, open the Task Manager. There are several ways to do this:

a. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. This is the quickest way.

b. Right-click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager from the menu.

c. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose Start Task Manager from the options that appear.
In the Task Manager, click on the Processes tab to display currently running processes and right-click on the process you want to end. Select End Process or End Process Tree to end that particular process. If you are not sure what process it is, read the descriptions that accompany each process.

5. Disable the Windows Aero color scheme (this is the functionality that gives your computer interface a transparent, glassy look). Windows Aero consumes computer memory and it is advisable to switch to another color scheme which uses less computer memory if your computer is running slow. To do this, right- click on an empty position on your desktop window and select Personalization from the menu that appears. You can also open Personalization by clicking on the Start button and selecting Control Panel and then clicking on Personalization. Under Personalization, select Windows Color and Appearance and choose another option such as Windows Vista Basic or Windows Classic.

6. Defragment your hard disk regularly. As data is added, changed and deleted from your hard disk, it creates non-contiguous portions of data (spaces usually occur where data has been deleted and changes made to data are saved in locations different from the original files). This is known as fragmentation and causes your computer to work harder to find a particular piece of data. This tends to slow a computer down. Defragmenting your hard disk rearranges the data so that it works more efficiently. Defragmentation usually runs on a schedule but you can run the disk defragmenter manually. To do this, click on the Start button and select Computer. Right-click on your primary hard disk (or any other hard disk partitions you would like to defragment) and choose Properties. Click on the Tools tab and select Defragment Now. When the application opens, click on Defragment now.

7. Run Disk Clean Up. This option deletes unnecessary files from your hard disk and frees up space which enables your computer to run faster. To do this, click on the Start button and select Computer. Right-click on your primary hard disk (or any other hard disk partitions you would like to clean) and choose Properties. Click on the General tab and select Disk Cleanup. Select the files you would like to delete, click OK and then click Delete Files to confirm.

Follow these steps and there will be a noticeable improvement in your computer’s speed and performance.

Easy Steps to Improve Your PC’s Boot Up

Does it take your computer an eternity to boot up? One of the most common reasons for a slow booting computer is simply too many programs in the startup folder. When a new program is installed on your computer, in some cases it is automatically added to your computers startup folder. After a while there are so many programs trying to run all at once when your computer boots, that it can seem to take it an eternity to finally load. It is very simple to remove unwanted programs from your systems startup folder. There are two steps to remove those unwanted programs that slow your boot up down so much.The first step is to go to your start menu and find the startup folder. The startup folder is usually located under programs in your start menu. Next simply highlight the files you wish to remove and right click on it. Finally, you will select delete from startup or remove from startup. This step is mainly for older operating systems like Windows 95 and Windows 98. This step can be used with newer operating systems as well, but in most cases the startup folder will be empty. Refer to the second step if the folder is already empty.

The second step is a little more complicated but still very easy to perform. Not all of the programs that load when your computer will be located in your startup folder on the start menu. Actually in most new operating systems the startup folder is usually empty. To remove these files, you will need to run your system configuration utility. To do this simply click start, run, and type msconfig, and press enter. You will then see the system configuration utility appear. Here you simply click the startup tab and check or uncheck what programs you wish to run or not at startup. Be careful not to change the settings anywhere but the startup tab as this can cause problems with your computers performance. Only change the settings under the startup tab unless you are an experienced user.

Un checking the programs in the configuration utility or removing programs from the startup folder will not delete these programs from your computer, it will simply not load them when your computer first boots up. These programs can still be opened up and accessed anytime you need them by simply double-clicking them as you normally would.

The above tips will help your computer to boot a lot faster and more efficiently so that you do not have to wait forever to surf the web or work on that spreadsheet you need to update. Cleaning your startup is a simple and effective way to increase your boot time by a lot. So follow the above tips and you’re on your way to a faster boot the next time you press that power button!

10 Reasons Why PCs Crash you must Know

Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy,” it says. “Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications.”

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1. Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.
For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.
If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.
Often if a device has a problem a yellow ‘!’ appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.
Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as ‘IRQ holder for PCI steering’. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.
Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is http://www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).
When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.
To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2. Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.
But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.
One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.
Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.
EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3. BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.
Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.
A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer’s display.
Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to ‘yes’ to allow Windows to do this.).

4. Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to
* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter
This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.
The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).
Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.
Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.
Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to
* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk
Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.
5. Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors
Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.
These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings
Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.
If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager
Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.
If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.
The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.
Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics
Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).
Look up your video card’s manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6. Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to
* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs
Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.
A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.
An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( http://www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( http://www.symantec.com).

7. Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.
Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer’s performance.
If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer’s default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8. Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.
The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.
Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don’t do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from http://www.jv16.org
Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message “Starting Windows” press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.
Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.
Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn’t work.
Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9. Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.
One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from http://www.computernerd.com or http://www.coolit.com
CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10. Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.
If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.
It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

Strategies For Removing Malware and Viruses

Image representing Windows as depicted in Crun...

Perhaps these tips will save you some money during these dark economic

times.  I can’t promise that these tips will work for you but for the DIY user who’s not afraid to get their hands dirty, it might prove to be very useful.  So lets get right to it:

Phase 1:  Safe Mode (with networking?)

Almost every version of Windows out there (from Windows 95 all the way up to the most recent Windows 7) have a hidden menu you can access at boot that gives you access to a diagnostic profile called Safe Mode.  Safe Mode is a sort of back door mode into Windows that loads the absolute (or nearly) bare minimum of device drivers and background services.  It’s sort of a bare bones environment that is suitable to start your repair from primarily because most viruses aren’t auto-started by the system in this mode, but it’s not perfect.  More on that in a moment.

To access Safe Mode you need to press the F8 key on your keyboard at a VERY specific time.  Typically when you turn your computer on you’ll see a screen that either has the logo of the manufacture of the PC or perhaps some generic startup relating to your BIOS.  At some point that all goes away, your screen will be black for about 3 seconds, and then Windows will proceed to boot with the little scroll bar loading away.  It’s during (or just before) that 3 second window of blackness that you need to start tapping the F8 key.  If done correctly, you’ll be presented with a menu that looks like this:

You’ll use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the highlighting selector bar.  Typically I will select Safe Mode With Networking, as this allows me to access the Internet and download utilities as well as give these utilities access to definition updates for itself later.

After you select Safe Mode With Networking and press Enter your screen will be bombarded with a slathering of strange and mysterious words…

Don’t worry, this is normal.  (Note: If instead of this screen above you get another menu asking what version of Windows you want to boot, just press Enter again).

Eventually you will get to the familiar blue colored user login screen and you might see an account called Administrator shown there that you’ve never seen before.  If you do, go ahead and select it to log in as “Administrator”.  Otherwise, select your own user name.

Once you’re logged in you have a few options you can take.  The safest way to get started is to actually bring a copy of your utility software with you on a thumb drive or CD to install it from, instead of downloading via a web browser.  The reason it’s not a good idea to try and download via a web browser is because a lot of viruses tend to wrap themselves around a browser’s EXE file so that when the browser starts, so does the virus.  This could potentially happen with a lot of other software so it’s best to try and resist the temptation to run any programs except for the cleaning utilities we’re about to install.

Phase 2:  Cleaning

There are only three pieces of software I typically use with great success in the field for removing viruses and malware.  They are:

All of the above are free with the exception of Malwarebytes, which functions with all its features on a 30 day trial when you first install it (note that you will see an error message appear when you tell it to start the trial while in Safe Mode; this is normal and you can ignore the error by clicking the OK button when it appears).  To keep the full version running you have to buy it for the low one-time payment of $25 and I strongly recommend it.  Apart from these three the only other tool I use is Google, which I’ll use to lookup exact phrases found within suspicious malware to see if I can find other people talking about that particular virus somewhere online and hopeful discover what unique thing they did to remove it.  Fair warning:  Your mileage may vary.

I typically start by installing Malwarebytes first (however I have had one experience where I wasn’t able to do this until after I ran Combofix so you might need to flip the order of these two tasks), applying the most recent update for it and then running a full scan, removing all infected objects it finds.  A typical scan can take around a half hour to do.  When it’s finished, you just need to click the “Show Results” button and then make sure the results listed all have check marks next to them and then click “Remove Selected” in the bottom left.  If an object doesn’t have a check mark when you first view the results it means Malwarebytes thinks it could be a false-positive result.  Use your best judgment and google to determine if either the file is malicious and/or if the file is a necessary part that can be removed without grief.  A reboot will likely be required when it is finished.  Be ready to hit F8 again when you do this so you can come back into Safe Mode and continue your work.

One thing I’ll often do while I’m waiting for a Malwarebytes scan to complete is take a look at the MS Config utility and see what items are enabled to auto-start when you boot into the system.  To access this, click Start, then click Run (or just click into the search box if you’re using Windows 7) and type in “msconfig” without the quotes into the box and click OK.  Then click the Startup tab at the top.


In this startup list are programs that are told to run right away when you first log into your system.  Almost all of these items are non-essential and to be on the safest side you could probably get away with unchecking all of these items, but that’s usually overkill and might rob you of some convenient feature you’d like to have.  Look carefully down the list for items that have empty path names, or very bizarre characters in their name… I have to admit that at this point experience with this stuff comes in to play.  If you don’t know what something is you could look it up by name with google on a separate computer before deciding to uncheck it  Alternatively, you could use the uncheck-all-the-things strategy and then go back later to add check marks back into the few items you know you need enabled.  You can also check out the Services tab which is to the left of the Startup tab, check the box that says “Hide all Microsoft items” and then use the same judgment to decide if there are third-party services running in the background that don’t need to be.  Google is your friend here for helping to determine if a service is useful or not.

Another thing I’ll do while waiting for a scan to complete is open the Add/Remove Program (Programs & Features) applet from the Control Panel to view all the software that’s been installed on the system.  I target toolbars of any kind first, next by software that is unfamiliar to the user.  Again, google is a useful reference here because you don’t want to remove something that’s known to not be malicious.

The next step is to run Combofix which you can find a tutorial about by clicking here.  It is pretty strait forward:  double-click on the combofix.exe file that you downloaded and follow the on screen instructions.  It’s own scan will also take about 30 minutes or so but it is very sensitive so once you kick it off, don’t touch the computer until its finished.   There is almost no interaction required with the software and it will automatically remove anything malicious it finds, producing a log with a lot of interesting jargon at the end that you can forward on to an expert for further analysis if you’d like.

After all this I’ll typically reboot the system and let it boot normally and then install Microsoft Security Essentials, running a full scan with it right after and checking to make sure the trial mode has been enabled on Malwarebytes.

If all of the above didn’t work, something I’ll try next is to reboot back into safe mode and use the control panel to create a new user account, then log off and log back in under that new account and repeat all the same steps above.  The reason this might help is because viruses tend to damage registry entries for accounts that existed when it found and infected the system.  Because we’re creating a new account in an environment that hopefully didn’t auto-launch the virus, we can then create a fresh account with it’s own default settings and preferences that hopefully won’t be manipulated by the virus.  This kind of problem could also be reversed using the System Restore utility but I’ve found that a lot of times (not always) I try to use this utility none of the restore points are any good.  I wouldn’t be surprised if previous restore points are destroyed by certain viruses making it even more difficult to undo the damage done.  In situations like that I’ve occasionally just created a new user account and migrated all the important user data (documents, etc.) from the old account to the new account, deleting the old one in the end because it’s irreversibly broken.

One last tip I’ve run across in a training video for a competitor of mine who will remain unnamed is to shut the system off by force instead of doing a soft reboot during this cleaning process.  In other words, hold the power button down for 5 seconds and then turn the computer back on after 20 seconds.  The reasoning behind this is that there are a few viruses out there that alter the shutdown script of events that take place during an ordinary shutdown and one of the events it injects into the script is to reinstall the virus during shutdown from a rogue location, as a Plan B so even if the live version of the virus is caught and removed it might be able to recreate the file from an encrypted copy of itself elsewhere.  If you decide to do this my only advice would be to backup the entire hard drive before doing so.  It’s technically dangerous… but probably not THAT dangerous… it’s best to remain on the safe side and not use shortcuts.

Finally a word about a couple of common viruses in particular I’ve run into in the last year:

A few of these viruses going around exhibit the symptom of making all your files and shortcut icons on the desktop vanish.  This is often done with a combination of changing the file attributes to enable the hidden flag, or by moving the files to a hidden location.  It is sometimes also conjoined with malware that tries to frighten you into thinking your hard drive is on the verge of failure, or at the least, claims to be antivirus software itself.  The goal of all such attempts is to get you to give up your credit card number.  Please don’t.

I’ve had great success removing the virus that causes these files to go missing but after it’s been removed it’s not always so easy to reverse the damage and restore the missing icons.  Fortunately there is one program out there that, for the most part, has been able to do this for me very simply and it’s simply called “Unhide”.  Use this program after going through all the above steps to be sure you’ve removed traces of the virus and hopefully it will get all of your stuff back for you.  You can download Unhide from here.

One other common symptom I’ve seen certain viruses exhibit is hijacking certain registry entries to alter file associations, specifically one which makes your computer forget what to run EXE files with, asking instead what program you’d like to open another program with.  I have found that in Windows 7 one trick of working around this is to right-click on a program shortcut and then click Run as Administrator.  This uses a separate registry association which hopefully has not been affected by the virus.  Using this Right-Click>Run as Administrator trick you should be able to run your scanning utilities like Malwarebytes and Combofix from within Safe Mode.

Phase 3: Prevention

Now that we know how much of a pain these kinds of viruses can cause we should talk a little about where they come from and the different ways they can end up on your computer.  I wrote a much longer blog about this topic which you can read here.  Basically it boils down to this:

  • Make sure you install all available software updates for Windows itself as well as 3rd party software and plugins like Adobe Flash, Acrobat and Java (among others).  Updates are your friend and help to patch recently discovered security vulnerabilities.
  • Pay attention to links people send you in emails.  It’s quite possible their email account has had its password stolen and is being used by a robot to send spam email with links to malicious websites out to everyone in their address book.  Warn your friends if you suspect their account has been compromised and suggest they change their email accounts password before following the steps above to attempt to remove a potential infection.
  • Use good anti-virus software.  As recommended above, I prefer MSE and Malwarebytes.  Combofix is only to be used as an emergency utility; it doesn’t have a real-time monitoring feature.
  • Consider using a software firewall to block unwanted inbound traffic and unexpected outbound traffic.  Zone Alarm Free is an excellent choice for this.
  • Use an ad-blocking plugin to further reduce the chances of a virus sneaking in through a flash-based advertisement.  Ad-Block for Firefox is a great option.  You can also get it for Google Chrome from here.
  • Along with these plugins, consider using a better browser.  Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have both become superior to Internet Explorer, especially in terms of security.
  • Avoid installing “toolbars” for your browser.  If you install one by accident, disable it in your browser or better yet uninstall it via your control panel.
  • Avoid using P2P file-sharing software like Frostwire or MP3Rocket.  These methods of file sharing do not have any form of user moderation and anybody can wrap a virus inside a file then name it something innocent/sensational looking to trick people into downloading it and installing a virus.
  • Consider adding a parental filter to your computer; you don’t need kids for this.  Having a web filter like K9 Web Protection can be helpful to block your computer from accidentally trying to connect with a known malicious server.
  • Lastly, though this is too extreme for most people:  Consider switching to Linux on your desktop.  Linux is free, open-source and is even more secure than MacOS.  Seriously.

I hope this advice has been helpful.  Please leave comments or suggestions about other tips and tricks you use to help remove malicious software in the comments section below!

Beyond Windows Backup

You are backing up your data, right? If not, then please remember that Windows 7 includes Backup and Restore which you can find off the Start Menu in the Maintenance folder. There is some great informationon using Windows Backup and Restore on the Windows website.

MP900411694 (200x133)

As a techie I don’t need to extoll the virtues to you of creating regular backups. But backups are only useful if you can restore what you want when you want to. Over the years I’ve learned some tips and techniques (the hard way in some cases) to help make sure my backup system comes through when I need it. As I was backing up my systems at home to prepare for a move it occurred to me to that I should post about my approach to safeguarding my data and making recovery simple if I need to do it.

None of these tips do any good if you don’t backup regularly though so please do that. None of them apply exclusively to the backup features included in Windows either so you can use them no matter what your preference is for backup software.

Testing

If at all possible, test whatever method you use. I’ve heard stories from people about going back to a backup only to discover they hadn’t really prepared as well as they thought. Quite often this is because they were not backing up all their data. Perhaps they had added a new drive at some point or moved where they were storing files but the point is the data they needed wasn’t there. Another situation that I’ve experienced personally is where I thought that the backup would be easy to restore to a ‘bare metal’ or ‘clean’ system if I had a major failure which turned out not to be the case.

You can reduce the chances of a surprise like this by testing your backup system. Not everyone will have what is needed for a full blown test of all scenarios but if you are like me you build and upgrade systems often enough that you occasionally have some ‘spare’ hardware on hand. If you’ve got the hardware you might want to test recovering from a hardware failure such as a disk drive. With a ‘spare’ drive you can carefully disconnect the working one from your system, attach the empty one and practice restoring the whole system. Can you find your system repair disk to get the system booted to access the backup? Did the backup restore properly?

For more simple scenarios you don’t need anything special at all. Simply grab your backup and try to restore a file or two as if you overwrote or deleted it. Did it work? Was it easy?

Covering your bases

Take a few minutes to think about what scenarios you might need to recover from. We all know that backups are important if you need to restore a deleted file or a failed disk but what other scenarios might you want to cover? For instance what about theft or complete loss from flood or fire? What if it wasn’t that your drive failed but that someone stole your laptop? What if someone broke into your home and took your system? Do you use a portable backup disk that is normally connected to the system? What if they took that too? Do you backup to Windows Home Server? What if it was stolen along with your PC?

Certainly covering every possible case is not realistic but I’d say it’s worth it to at least consider which ones you’d want to be prepared for. Keeping the portable backup disk somewhere separate from your other equipment, in a safe or at least well hidden place may help protect against the theft scenario. Backups are insurance and like buying insurance it’s all about what you wish to protect yourself against and what it’s worth to you.

A little help from your friends

Enterprises rely on offsite backups for critical data and it’s actually easier than you think for us ‘non-enterprise’ types to do this too. One of my favorite ways to cover this is with a friend or relative. If you consider it worthwhile you can invest in a portable USB or eSATA backup disk and occasionally relocate it to a secure ‘undisclosed location’ which in my case is commonly known as ‘my mother’s house’. Just take your spare backup drive to a relative’s house when you visit for thanksgiving and leave it there. A few times a year simply bring your latest backup and exchange drives. As an added bonus you can do the same for your relatives by taking theirs home with you. If you are like me you’ll be checking on mom’s system to make sure it’s backed up properly when you visit for the holidays anyway.

You can do this just as easily with other types of media. Instead of an external drive you could occasionally burn critical files to DVD or Blu-Ray and store them at a friends or relatives house. This is a reasonably simple way to cover for theft and fire. I should note that there are backup services that allow you to store data in the cloud that cover this scenario very conveniently. The most common reason I hear for not using them for offsite backups is size. For example a sizable music collection is something you might want to protect that represents a big investment, takes a lot of space and doesn’t change frequently. This is exactly the type of data well suited to archiving remotely.

To wrap this up I’d say that just putting a bit of thought and time in up front can pay off in the end as it always seems like things fail at the worst possible time. I have had hardware failures that could have induced a heart attack but since I was confident that the backups were there and worked properly they were rather stress free and as expected, were easy to recover from.

I’ve captured the tips covered here in a Wiki entry in the Windows Experts Community. If you’ve got more tips or tricks for protecting your data please consider adding them by signing in and editing the page.

3 Things to Love About Internet Explorer 9

1. Pinning and Jump Lists. Given I’ve used desktop shortcuts and IE favorites for years I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of the pinning feature. What I found was that after I tried it I quickly got to the point where I can’t imagine NOT having it. Really. If you haven’t tried this out, you really should and once you do you should show your friends too. It’s that good.

My Taskbar 1

When I started using it I realized that there are some sites that I use way more often than apps that I have pinned. Pinning them lets me treat these sites like an app. My favorite example of this is Hotmail. From the Jump List I can start composing an email in exactly two clicks. Being able to see the number of new messages in my inbox is just a bonus. I actually respond to my Hotmail email much quicker than I used to when I had it saved in my IE favorites.

Hotmail Jumplist

All that you have to do is drag the tab at the top of the IE window to your taskbar and let go. You can pin any site to the taskbar but if the site has made a few simple additions you’ll get the full experience of Jump Lists, notifications (like how many new messages in my inbox) and more. There are tons of sites that have done this and you can find many of them listed in the IE Gallery.

If you’ve got a site of your own it’s now easier than ever to enable the full pinning experience for your visitors.

2. Lower power consumption. This might seem like a small thing but it helps wring the most power out of my ‘always too small’ laptop battery and contributes to reducing overall energy use on any system. Sure I use sleep mode and make my screen dim quicker to save battery but those only work when I’m NOT doing something. Using IE9 as my browser saves some energy while I AM doing something.

Measuring this energy savings goes well beyond my efforts to use a Kill-A-Watt to get my PC’s power consumption down. The IE team has a great blog post on the specifics of how they measured this and the results.

3. Hardware acceleration. This one doesn’t get old but I have started to take it for granted. I’ve found myself using a PC that belongs to someone else and having it feel slightly ‘off’ as I browse the web until I realize it’s not running IE9. The full acceleration really contributes to the overall web experience besides creating truly amazing experiences in some specific scenarios. There are a couple great posts on the IE blog about this including a breakdown of the HTML blizzard demo and a rundown on the hardware acceleration architecture.

If you haven’t taken the time to install IE9 you really should check it out. Once you have it installed try out the pinning on your favorite sites. It’s truly one of those things that’s hard to be without after you experience it.

How can you Configure AVG Anti-Virus with your Router?


avg-support
H
ave you installed AVG Antivirus in your system? Whether you avail the business version or the home version, you will get firewall protection from it. No intruder can access your PC due to this protection. In spite offering your protection against the hackers, firewall can create certain problems in case you are using router for the home network.

In this case, proper configuration of AVG Anti-Virus software is necessary when router is used to setup the home network. For any such configuration and other services, you can subscribe to the technical support monthly packages to enjoy smooth computing. Any issue with your router, modem and computer will be readily solved.

Step 1 : Right clicking the icon of AVG, choose Open AVG User Interface > click on Components > select Firewall.
Step 2 : Next, click on Configure > choose Create a new configuration, in case you have not run the wizard of configuration. Then select Update Current Settings when you have already run AVG wizard.
Step 3 : When you have connected your computer only to your router, you have to select the option for one computer. However, if multiple computers are connected to the same router, you have to select the network option.
Step 4 : Again, when you are suing wireless router, the selection will be different. The remote technical support professionals are the best guides to help you with the selection process.
Step 5 : Click on Next > Complete Scan > Next for total scanning.
Step 6 : Lastly click on Next and make the choice of the domain according to the computing device you have connected to.

How to fix the problem of a Bluetooth-enabled Dell Travel Mouse?


T
he increasing popularity of the laptops has also increased the number of peripheral devices. The travel mouse is one of the devices that come in the line of the peripheral devices.  Are you fascinated with a small mouse? Then the travel mouse is the right choice for you. It is a small mouse offering you the ease of transport.

If you are thinking travel mouse from Dell, you can go for the Bluetooth travel mouse with the help of which you can connect your PC wirelessly to your Dell mouse. Enjoy wireless connectivity with your Dell Bluetooth mouse.

The Dell support professionals can help you when you face any problem with your Bluetooth mouse. Following certain troubleshooting methods you can resolve the problem with your Dell Bluetooth mouse and obtain its normal functioning.

Step 1: You should first check the mouse battery by opening the cover of your Bluetooth Dell mouse. When the batteries get exhausted, you should replace this.

Step 2: There may be some error in setting the connection between your Bluetooth mouse and the PC. Restarting the Pc often solves this problem.

Step 3: One very important thing that you need to check is the Bluetooth connectivity of your PC. If you find any issue with the Bluetooth functionality of your PC, refer to the manual for turning the feature on.

Step 4: Finally, you should reinstall the Bluetooth software, in case your PC has Windows XP. Any problem with the installation of the blue tooth connection will prohibit your mouse from working on its normal way.

How can you Troubleshoot Windows Media Player issues?


Windows Media Player
P
laying any music on your PC is a common trend among the PC users. Windows Media Player is your media application present by default on your Microsoft Windows OS. Whenever you play music in your PC, the Windows Media Player caters you the experience you wish for.

But is this media application free of errors? Like any other software application, this Windows Media Player can at times show certain problems. You can seek Windows support to know about the different troubleshooting methods. It is possible to resolve any problem of Windows Media Player, if you can successfully troubleshoot the software.

In case you face any problem with the troubleshooting methods, you are free to consult the professional experts. Take a look at the steps here:

WindowsMediaPlayer

You should first make an attempt to update the Windows Media Player version. Visiting the Microsoft website, you can update your version of the default media application. If you have the latest versions or Windows Media Player 10, you can have the privilege of playing majority of the files without any codec download.

Troubleshooting the choppy or flickering video is your next task. Generally upgrading the Media Player version can resolve this issue. If not, you have to take resort of video acceleration for fixing the playback issue.

Finally, you should try to resolve the problem regarding full-screen playback. Often you are not able to watch a video on full screen. To fix this trouble, visitTools > Options > Performance > click Advanced tab > choose ‘enable full screen mode’.

How can you Create Backup in Outlook 2010?

Office 2010 logoWindows 7 is the commonly used operating system nowadays. This OS offers you its backup software providing you various options for backing up your important files both automatically and manually. But these backup options do not include Outlook 2010 due to its way of storing the data. Is the idea not
clear to you?

Well, in Outlook 2010 data is stored in the Personal Folder where files have the .pst extension. This is normally overlooked by the backup software.

Create Backup in the Outlook 2010

Fortunately, Microsoft provides you the Outlook 2010 Export function which facilitates creating your backups of all important data and mails. You also get the privilege of storing these important files on a different drive other than the one where you have stored your Outlook files.

How to use this Export function?

  • Opening the Outlook, click File > Open in Backstage > Import > a listing of actions will be displayed.
  • Click Export to a file > Next
  • Click Outlook Data File from the listing of file types > Next
  • Click Outlook 2010 > Next
  • Select a location where you can save the backup of the files. You are suggested to keep these files in some external drives or USB drive or DVD and CD.
  • Set Replace Duplicates With Items Exported as default > click on Finish.
  • You can locate the files in the Outlook by clicking File > Open > Open Outlook Data File.

For any difficulty with the process, call up the professional technicians available online.

How to resolve the unresponsive Dell Inspiron Touchpad or Mouse? | Digital Life – http://www.cubesquare.co.cc


D
ell Inspiron laptops and desktops have reached every household in the recent times. Are these systems free of errors? Certainly not. Issues have been detected with the touchpad or the mouse. It can become unresponsive, if you have corrupted driver setting. This issue can bug you, if you do not fix it on time. Proper troubleshooting methods are offered by the Dell Support experts. Seek their assistance right away!

Do you think that you have to get a new laptop or mouse? However, this is not the case always. A newly up-to-date driver is the ideal solution to regain the normal functioning of your touchpad or mouse. Here are the steps for you. Follow the steps and recover your lost settings easily.

 Don’t think that you can use this method only once. Try it again and again, if required.

Step 1 : Browse to “driversdr.com/dell/index.php?id=madldr1“. Once you have navigated, install Driver Navigator after downloading.
Step 2 : Open up the Driver Navigator and click on “scan now”. Wait for a few minutes. This program will recommend you certain drivers suitable for your purpose. Once you get the drivers, choose “update drivers”.
Step 3 : Once you have done all these, restart your Dell Inpsiron laptop or desktop. Your touchpad or mouse is sure to work in its normal way, if you are successfully in troubleshooting the issue.