So you’re having issues with your computer and you, being a bit of a do it yourselfer, decide to “fix” your computer on your own and save yourself some money. There is a high likelihood that if you do not have experience working on computers that you may wind up costing yourself a lot more money that if you had just brought the computer in to begin with.

 

A few weeks back we had a client that brought their computer in and needed us to recover their pictures. The reason for this was that they tried to fix their computer by themselves. When they tried doing this they had read to just “restore the computer” well not knowing what was meant exactly they did restore their computer….to factory defaults. This action caused them to not only deleted all of their pictures by overwriting them on the hard drive but also eliminated any chances of us being able to recover the pictures using any of our techniques.

 

Long story short, if you are not 100% certain what you are doing is going to fix your problem your best bet is to not do it. You see in the above situation the client lost their pictures which to someone people are far more important than the cost to fix the computer but there are a lot of times when your actions can wind up costing you more money and time to correct the problem. So pretty simple, if you “think” you can fix it…DON’T. Make sure you know you can or just bring it in to us and we can get it fixed for you.

 

Since Windows XP’s Release it has been and still is currently the most used operating system. Surveys are beginning to show that XP’s hold on that market share is slipping. Windows XP was at its highest usage ever roughly one year ago peaking out at about 62% of the operating system market share. Since then however, XP’s market share has been dropping several percentage points each month. This month XP is sitting right around 51%.

So what does this mean to you? Absolutely nothing…unless of course you want to have a more secure operating system and want to have support for it if something goes awry. The current operating Windows 7 has been shown to be more than five times as secure as XP. With Microsoft discontinuing Windows XP’s extended support in a little less than three years (4/8/2014) it’s time to start planning that upgrade.

If you are interested in reading more click here!

Also if your curious when support for your various Microsoft products will end click here!

 

This is going to be short and sweet this week folks. Ever been typing on your laptop and once you looked up realized you just type half of what you wanted to say in a completely different spot on the page than you thought you were typing? I know I have… The BEST solution I’ve found for this is a very small program called “Touchfreeze” What Touchfreeze actually does is disables your touchpad while you are typing. When you begin typing you are no longer able to move the mouse and as soon as you stop (within a few milliseconds anyhow) the touch pad begins to function again. I have personally tested this program on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and it seems to work on all of those platforms without any problems. Installation is very easy, pretty much just download it, and follow the prompts selecting all default values.

The reason I wrote about this is that most people have experienced this issue at one point or another and wished there was a way to solve this issue...and…there is! If you’re not sure how to install this yourself or are just not comfortable doing it and would like us to setup for you, we can definitely do it for you just give us a call.

To download click the Touchfreeze Logo below.

 

Adobe, one of the business world’s biggest software companies, has just purchased a company named “EchoSign”. EchoSign is a company that specializes in bringing electronic signature services to various company’s in house applications. These services allow companies to have clients sign documents electronically without the need take what used to be very expensive actions to get a signature quickly.

Now that Adobe has purchased EchoSign they will be further expanding their software to offer these services as well. This move by Adobe further imbeds them into today’s business world. When businesses eventually move over to this as a solution, since it will cost far less to send an electronic document and have the client sign it, (Without the need to even print it first) Adobe will have once again stepped out ahead of the competition.

 

If you are interested in reading more about Adobes purchase click here.

 

This is a very useful utility for people that seem to have no luck with Windows updates. This program can do 2 things. Remove any known Windows Update or can remove any left behind file from the updates. Very easy to install and use.

 

Having a portable browser on a flash drive can be a ton of help when fighting a virus on a computer. Most infections attack the browser installed on the computer. A few more benefits to the Chrome browser is how fast the browser opens and loads websites compared to IE. http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

 

Reported by the Microsoft Malware Protection Center on Sept 1st, a new malware attack is out that not only tries to be a clone of Microsoft Security Essentials on victims but it also customizes fakes browser warnings. The infection looks just like the Microsoft version but then starts to ask the user to pay for the software which is where MS doesn't ask the user to do.

 

CDBurnerXP is a freeware, portable burning application designed to burn CDs, DVDs. CDBurnerXP is truly free and has plenty of features including creating, burning ISOs, audio CDs, bootable disks, Lightscribe integration, and command line options. Works on Xp to Windows 7. Portable version is able to be installed on any flash drive that you have.

 

This tool is very simple to use and works on Windows 95 all the way to Windows 7. This little application searches all over your computer for every cd key it can fine. Then give you the ability to save them to a text file. Very usually for people that have a issue keeping track of all there discs.

 

MessenPass is a very handy and portable application. All you need to do is click on it and you can recover any of the following.
•MSN Messenger
•Windows Messenger (In Windows XP)
•Windows Live Messenger (In Windows XP/Vista/7)
•Yahoo Messenger (Versions 5.x and 6.x)
•Google Talk
•ICQ Lite 4.x/5.x/2003
•AOL Instant Messenger v4.6 or below, AIM 6.x, and AIM Pro.
•Trillian
•Trillian Astra
•Miranda
•GAIM/Pidgin
•MySpace IM
•PaltalkScene
•Digsby

 

Microsoft released an out of schedule patch(MS10-046) for the recent shortcut exploit issue. The past few weeks have seen increasing reports of attacks using the shortcut exploit. Microsoft felt it was a serious problem to let it wait until the next scheduled patch Tuesday. The patch was released at 1 p.m. on Monday.

 

This tool is free if you use the 1.1 version. How this tool works is it generates a 100mb file to send across the network.  It then clears the windows file cache to keep read times from being skewed too high, reads the file back, clears the cache again, deletes the file, and displays the results.

 

Having a hard time showing someone what you are doing on your own Linksys router? Or are you are Tech that is getting ready to install a new Linksys Router for the first time and would like to test out first. Well  http://ui.linksys.com/files/ is a website that you can go to and run almost any router they make as a emulator so that you can get used to the router before you touch the router.

Tweakui gives you the ability to change settings that are normally not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. This utility is also great to get Windows to Auto login for you without having to change any registry entries.

According to CNET Google is looking in to starting a cloud based music service like ITunes. This is currently just a rumor but has supposedly made ITunes a little scared about Google the Internet Giant getting in to the music business.

 

Flash Player 10.1 is now out and faster than ever. Flash Player offers up full hardware acceleration for the high-definition video standard. The new Flash Player has the ability to go full screen with High Definition.

 

Getting sick of the same old boring Google page? Now you can change the background by moving your mouse to the bottom left of the screen and click change background. They give you preset backgrounds but you can also use Picasa web album or upload your own.

HouseCall is made by Trend Micro, this program will help you to identify and remove viruses, Trojans, worms, unwanted browser plug-ins and other malware detected on your system.  You have the option to perform a quick scan, full system scan, or a custom scan.

This Program is free to download and is a portable application so it makes as a great tool to add to your thumb drive if you are an IT Professional. You can download 32 bit and 64 bit versions and it works on most Windows Operating systems including Vista and 7.

 

I was looking around for a free utility that would switch between different programs depending on what program. Never thought I would find something but I did. Automatic Printer Switcher is completely free and you can use it with any application, only in Windows though. Very nice for people that use black and white laser printer for say printing text and then have a color printer they use when they need pictures.  All you do is program what programs you want to print where and you are done.

 

Having trouble at home keeping your cables on your computer desk from getting tangled? Most people just throw all there cables on the floor and just let them get tangled all up and then have to spend hours trying to untangle them. Just take a few binder clips and hook them to the side of your desk and put any USB, power or Ethernet cables through it to keep the cables from falling behind your desk. Do not believe me take a look at the picture below on how well this little trick works.

USB Safe Guard is a free portable program that will encrypt all of the files on your flash drive very easily, anyone can do it. You can also set this tool up to shred your files in case you lose your flash drive.

To get the program installed onto your flash drive you simply download it from the following website http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org/download.html, then you drag the program onto your flash drive. From here all you do is launch the software from your flash drive, then you should be prompted to create a password. Once you do you are then able to encrypt the entire flash drive or specific files or folders, in which all you do is drag into the interface. This program also gives you options on what to do when someone tries to access your data and does not know the password. You can set it to shred all of the data, leave it alone, plus a few more options.

 You can also enter in your phone number or email in case your lose your memory stick. Most other programs like this do not have this option, which is very nice to have when you leave your flash drive at a clients site. This program will work on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Having a hard time remembering all those complicated passwords you have. Now days you need to have very complex passwords to help prevent hackers from getting in. It can be very hard to remember all your passwords then. There is this nice little application called Kneepass that can help you remember and do not worry it is completely free. This application puts all your passwords in one database which is locked with one master key or key file. The database is encrypted using one of the most secure encryption algorithms. http://keepass.info/

Most of us have experienced grazing the touchpad on our laptop as we are typing up a long story, then looking up at your screen and realize that the cursor has jumped around several times. Yes it is very frustrating and there is a easy fix for it. Touchfreeze is a free open-source utility that disables your touchpad as soon as you start typing, and then it will re-enable it as soon as you stop typing. Yes you can go into your Control Panel and disable your touchpad, but when you want to use it next time you have to go back in there and re-enable it. This tool saves you alot of time and no longer will you have to worry about that cursor moving around on you when you are typing.

 Touchfreeze sits in the system tray and you can have it auto start when your system boots up. Touchfreeze works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, and Windows 7.

There are alot of great Anti-Virus programs out there that help to keep your computer safe from viruses, but what happens when it just isn't enough and your computer is now infected with tons of Trojans and you can't use it. Well thats when you would use a Rescue CD, and the free AVG Rescue CD would be your best bet. The AVG Rescue CD comes as an ISO Image that can be burned to a disc or you can download a compressed version that can be installed on to a bootable flash drive. Then you would boot the computer from the CD or Flash Drive, which ever you prefer.

Once you decide on how you want to boot the program up you will see a menu like the one I have below, from here you can simply scan for viruses, edit files, and even edit the registry.

The AVG Rescue CD is free to download directly from AVG's website at http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd#tba1. This is a great tool for any IT Professional and something you should add to your tool kit. If you have any problems installing the AVG Rescue CD you can find a complete walk through on AVG's website. They even have video tutorials to walk you through the whole process.

An extremely popular web messaging program has now released a great Beta. I am talking about Trillian 4.2. This application has now moved in to tweeting and emailing. The application has the ability to tweet and even go back and review old tweets and emails. This application actually is the All in One for a web messaging program and just keeps adding on. The 4.2 is still in beta and offers live support for anyone that is trying it out.