Conficker Worm Virus Issues

It always amazes me, whenever a virus comes out that attracts enough media attention to the point that it makes the evening news, I get many questions:

"Is this something I should worry about?"  

"This one sounds real bad, should I be turning off my computer until the virus goes away?"

"My antivirus says I am covered, am I?"

to answer:

No, No and Yes!

As I have always stated when a computer is up to date and connected to the internet, your antivirus program can continue to stay updated automatically. It is when you turn off your computer and turn it back on after being offline for any length of time that you need to worry because it is then that your antivirus will be downloading the available virus definitions, but typically when people turn off their computer because they are going away for a number of days, when they return and turn the computer back on, the first thing you want to do is check your email, which is the worst thing you could do.  The first thing you should be doing is allowing your antivirus to first detect the internet connection and start, what should be automatic, download of the latest virus definitions. In most cases, within a minute or so, you will get notification that your definitions are up to date.  If you are at all worried that your system is not up to date CONTACT ME and I will do what I can to help you out and make sure you are once again "safe".

What you must realize is that there are numerous viruses released in to the wild on a DAILY basis and that means your computer is always at risk when it is NOT connected to the internet for any length of time because that means your system is out of date from the very latest virus definitions. The fact that this virus hits the evening news shouldn't make you panic any more then normal, but it can work well as a wake up call to those that have not had their computer checked out and optimized for some time!

Planning your vacation-stay in a home instead of a hotel

If you are planning your Spring/Summer get-a-way, especially if you have a family or a group of friends you would rather find a home to rent wouldn't you?  What about the longer stays or semi-permanent business re-location? A great place to start your search should be Hotpads.com!

Technical-Printers disappeared after Vista SP2 install

This post if of course for you technically apt and willing to deal with the windows registry, etc. otherwise move along, there is nothing to read here.

It appears I may have found the first real problem after installing VISTA SP2 (RC) and it deals with the print spooler.. and of course after noticing the obvious print spooler not running and turning it on to have it turn off after a reboot, it seems removing the SP2 update was (probably) not needed since during the uninstall I did some investigating and found this fix, which I will report whether it worked for me or not shortly.

Oops I think I opened a can of "oh no's" with a recent emailer

With a very recent mass-email to most of those that I am currently able to help remotely, who have not had me connect in some time, to perform any sort of updating and cleanup, I was pretty much blown away by, not only the incredibly quick response time I received, but the amount of "yes please"!  

As a result, I am attempting to respond personally to each and every request individually so it is taking a little time.. Just know that you are on the list and I will be connecting to your computer shortly. It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease always, when it comes to computer problems, therefore if you know you are having some issues, why are you waiting for email from me, reminding you that it has been a long time.. drop me a line ASAP!  I will gladly re-configure my maintenance schedule.

If you have lost my email address (not sure how that is possible since you would have received this email from me initially but...), you can always contact me through my website here.

Get those photos moved from your email folders

One problem I see on many computers I work on are photos that have been sent through email simply saved to a folder within the email program.  I understand the need to save these email messages because they have important pictures you want to keep but saving them within the actual email is not the solution.  Not only does it create a huge data file for your email program but it makes it much more difficult to organize, not to mention the fact that if you were to get a virus (likely through email), the first thing to be trashed would be your email data folder, which essentially is your photos that you are wanting to hold on to, that are so precious.  Therefore what you should be doing is opening the email with the attached pictures and saving the attachments.  What I suggest is going in to your pictures folder through MY COMPUTER (on XP) or the PICTURES folder within your account (on Vista) and creating a new folder.  Name this folder "email attachments" and then go through each email that has picture attachments you want saved and save to this new 'email attachments' folder you have created within the PICTURES folder.  Once you have done that, you can now delete the message since the important information (the pictures) have been saved to the PICTURES folder.

Now you can go to the PICTURES folder and sort them accordingly, moving them to the various "albums" you may want to create within the PICTURES folder.  Not only will you find your email program runs a lot faster, but you can rest easy knowing those pictures are now in a much more safe place which will be much easier to categorize and find.

Fox Apologizes to Canadians

It is great to see the power of the Internet at work, with the CBC reporting on the recent Fox News tilt at the Canadians.

How to lose friends and alienate countries

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJn5XlbSFk

This crap should get the Fox network licence revoked. It's no wonder
there is so much ignorance in the USA when the FCC allows this to be
aired.

Internet Explorer 8 is now available-but do you really want it?

Anyone that knows me will also know I am not a fan of the Internet Explorer web browser but if you have to have this browser running on your windows machine then I suggest you download it and install it. (Note: The new Windows 7 operating system gives you the opportunity to uninstall the IE browser as I mentioned in this previous post) Once you have it installed, it will automatically become the default browser. Once you have run it once and it sets itself up as the default, simply close it and open your normal web browser you use, which should be either the AVANT BROWSER, FIREFOX, or CHROME.

I am saying it is a good idea to install the latest IE8 simply because it is more secure than the older versions of the Internet Explorer. This is key, especially when some programs installed on your computer that utilize the internet, automatically open the internet explorer (ie.exe) and so, when this happens, you can rest easy knowing you are not opening the older, less-safe versions of the Internet Explorer.

I forgot to mention, this install of the IE8 browser is only available for Vista and Windows Server operating systems (right now). So if you are still running Windows XP you will have to hold on until the new Windows 7 O/S is released at which time you are going to want to get the upgrade since the new Windows 7 rocks!

Reading email correctly and completely

With this recent PayPal screw up in sending out the "cancelled" notification to those that had been given the chance to pay by PayPal, I find it quite disconcerting by the amount of email response I am getting from those that got the email in the first place. I say this because as I read the message that was sent out to these people, it states first and foremost that this is a 'cancellation notice'.. not a notice to make payment... therefore I wonder why so many people immediately respond with "I have already paid this!" or "what the hell is this?"

This is exactly how the spammers are winning the battle, by the simple fact that people aren't reading their mail completely or correctly. Frustrating I know, whenever you get a 'bill in the mail' especially when it has been paid, but when the message does state quite clearly "cancellation notice"...

Ok so maybe I'm venting a little, as I am having to deal with what appears to be hundreds of email responses due to this, thankfully this blog is where I point everyone to.

Pay Pal Problems?

It appears my PayPal account has been hacked in some sort of fashion, whereas past payment requests (that have all been taken care of) are being re-issued. I am working on this problem but if you are one of those that received a request for payment from me, please let me know and DO NOT pay it without contacting me.

UPDATE:

Further to this problem, I have noticed what people are getting is actually the 'cancelled request for payment' therefore I am not quite sure why everyone is freaking out over this. Personally I can see the problem as a slip up from PayPal whereas when I initially made the request for payment as an option to pay through PayPal, those that did not pay through PayPal, I would mark this as a cancelled request but would always choose the option to NOT send out the email to that individual that it has been cancelled, mostly to hopefully eliminate any confusion and now, it appears for whatever reason, these (in some cases very old) requests for payment cancellation is actually being sent (without my permission of course).. I am still looking in to this problem but it appears there is nothing more to be done other then notifying me that you did get this so that I can add it to the list of complaints I will be sending to PayPal...

New Features in Drop.io

If you are looking for a way to send someone large files quickly then you should take a serious look at drop.io's new features 

Contact me first-BEFORE clicking YES on that prompt!

Forget everything you may have been told (by me) with regards to optimizing your computer.. from now on, just run CCLEANER and any time you get prompted of some update or other sort of prompt that you are unsure what to do, just shoot me an email letting me know this and I will connect to fix the problem. I am finding far too many problems with those that wish to do their own maintenance from everything they have been told (by me) with regards to the 'maintenance folder' I may have set up.. as I just stated, please just use the CCLEANER program.

I am finding that as I connect to fix various issues on your computer, I am having to uninstall all the garbage that was installed due to performing the update that you were prompted about. For example, ADAWARE.. yes, there is a new version available.. not just updates, but an entirely new version. The problem is, if you go ahead and download and install it the way they want you to, you are going to have a number of 'resident monitors' monitoring your system and slowing things down substantially. Not to mention, if you are performing the various routine scans, you are not going to need resident monitors running. As for AVG Antispyware... they have disconntinued this program now because the AVG antivirus basically covers the same areas and so, if you don't know any better, you will follow the prompts and end up having AVG antivirus running as well as whatever other antivirus you have.. this is NOT good, nor do you want this 'resident monitor' running all the time.. If you are unsure, just contact me!

Running CCLEANER on a daily basis does a very good job of routine, daily maintenance.

Managing Twitter

If you are using Twitter then this is for you.

Tweetsum makes it easy to manage things.

Uninstalling the Internet Explorer in Windows 7, yes you can! (technical)

One of the biggest security problems within windows is the simple fact that the Internet Explorer is part of the windows operating system and it requires this to utilize the Internet (network)..that is, up until now. As reported through the LifeHacker Blog, you can now uninstall the Internet explorer, kind of, at least enough so that the miscellaneous programs you have installed have no way of ‘accidentally’ opening windows through some sort of script. This is a big step for Microsoft to make, but one that I see as a positive move in the right direction, just as I praise the new Windows 7 operating system. To date, I have had absolutely NO PROBLEMS whatsoever, with any installation of windows 7 and I have now installed it on a few laptops and desktop machines.

UPDATE: After posting, I proceeded to actually do this and recognized a glaring fact that I had not even allowed the IE 8 to install (even though it is supposedly version 8 already installed on windows 7) therefore if you are like me and have never actually clicked on the Internet explorer and allowed it to completely install in the first place, you may not witness what these instructions state. Also, note the LifeHacker Blog post does provide you with the IE8 uninstall link that actually explains the procedure. Since I do not have IE8 installed, what I am planning on doing is actually installing IE8 and then going through these steps in hopes that it will in fact disable any further scripts from opening in IE since the IE.exe file will be removed as explained in these instructions.

Technical-Installing LogMeIn on a Windows 7 machine

It's actually quite simple, once you find an older version of logmein to install.

 

Look no further as this version below is what you need to install first.

 

Once this version of LogMeIn is installed, proceed with the normal update to the latest version and all works fine.