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| This is my "How To" section for "Do-it-yourselfers" ... You can submit email requests of your own heck...I might even answer it. Articles published by me are listed at bottom of page...
November '09 Recently I have been recieving notices that FREE support from AVG Anti Virus will stop on December 1st. I see Microsoft released a full protection suite for free which I am testing. I normally dislike these full suites because in the past few years I have found so many infected computers that were supposedly protected by these popular programs. Also this one from Microsoft is fully automatic in that no user intervention is supposedly required. I have had a very small number of users that seem to be very talented at totally screwing up systems that were running perfect & clean. I don't know if this will prevent them from their bad habits & protect them, very likely I should continue to recommend that they "Please step away from the computer" because frankly I do not see a cure for those talented individuals that refuse to learn how to correctly do basic computing. Time will tell, but in the meanwhile the FREE program from Microsoft is called Microsoft Security Essentials & is available for XP, Vista, & Windows 7. I don'k know if it works with Windows 2000 but if that is what you have now, it IS way past time for you to step into this era & get a newer computer anyway (you won't regret it). If you make the switch I would appreciate feedback on your personal experiences with it, both good & bad.
October '09 Windows 7 is officially here. I must commend Microsoft for a creating their best version ever. If you are upgrading from Vista be sure you update everything BEFORE you attempt your upgrade, especially your graphics drivers, otherwise you won't be happy when you have to clean install Vista first (wiping all your old data) & you DO have a current backup of your files right? Shame on you if you don't. Of course you could always pay an expert like me to do this for you & stay out of trouble.
August '09 Spybot Search & Destroy seems to have worked out the problems with Microsoft & IE 8. Once again it works like expected without problems.
July '09 Some of the protection features in Spybot Search &
Destroy were causing the slow response time in IE 8. Apparently the finished
version of IE 8 has added security features that conflicted with Spybot S &
D.
May '09 Ok, now some of you at least have upgraded your computer to Internet Explorer 8. I personally tested the "Beta" (pre-release) versions in Windows XP, Vista Premium, & Windows 7 (also Beta), & was very excited by it's new features, security enhancements & stellar performance. However since it's release to the general public as a recommended Windows update, Microsoft obviously made some more changes that have severly affected the performance of Internet Explorer, as well as Windows Explorer. I found IE 8 (final release version) was taking at least 5 seconds to open a blank browser window, & another 10-15 seconds to fully fill the page. This is in Windows XP & Vista (Windows 7 has a native version of IE 8). I uninstalled IE 8 in both XP & Vista & replaced it with IE 7. Now the browser window is open in 2 seconds & populated in under 5 seconds TOTAL time. Not to mention that ALL my programs open in a snap now. I had been looking for a virus or malware responsible for the slowdown on my computers, but since Windows 7 is still stunningly faster than XP or Vista (I have all 3 operating systems on the same computer, so I KNEW it was NOT a hardware issue) I re-examined IE 8 to see if others have reported simular performance related issues, sure enough several complaints were found along with a dozen or so "fixes" (which I already tried) that did NOT fix anything. If you are experiencing this problem & don't want to fix it yourself, I can fix it for you...
March '09 By now many of you have likely heard of the Conficker worm, or Downadup worm in the news. A few weeks ago I encountered a nasty piece of Malware. Among the many names it uses are MS Antivirus 2009, Antivirus 360 & a bunch of other names. I found the method of infection is unique. When you visit an infected Website you are presented with an official looking notice that your computer is infected with a virus / malware. You have 3 choices of action, OK or Clean, Cancel, or click the red x in the top right corner to close the notification. No matter which you chose your computer will download more malware & become severely infected. You will lose control of your Internet connection & eventually you can't use your PC for anything but a door stop. The correct way to shut the pop-up notice down (temporarily) is select the button in your task bar, press Ctrl + F4 simultaneously to close the notice. One of the FEW A/V programs that identify the infection is Windows Defender. This seems to be related to Zlob worm, & My Search family of nasty malware. The EASIEST way to clean this is reformat your hard disk (wiping all your data PLUS the infection) & performing a clean install of your Operating System. The method I used recently was extensive editing of Windows registry, scanning from Safe mode to clean much of the damage, & finally deleting & replacing a CRITICAL Windows file that was infected. The infected file was how it repeatedly REINFECTED the computer each time it was rebooted. This series of actions took about 24 hours of intensive labor to restore. By the way, most of these new NASTY infections can be avoided simply by keeping your O/S (Windows) updated. If Windows update does NOT work, your computer is very likely INFECTED already.
February '09 I added a third boot drive to my server & am testing Windows 7 Ultimate. I must tell you this was the EASIEST Windows install I have ever done. I was not asked for any driver disks, it automatically found & set up my Internet as well as my network shared printer. It is faster than Vista or XP, uses less memory, & less hard disk space than Vista. AND it is almost as pretty as Apple's OSX. I did NOT have any of the hardware issues I did with Vista. To preview some of the cool features click on this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-videos.aspx If you want to attempt a custom build like the machine I just built, start reading the published articles at Tom's Hardware. I found it very helpful because when you are building something that is on the "Cutting Edge" you are almost totally on your own.
Another thought, If you still want Windows XP Pro, (on your new Vista machine) you can install it in a "Virtual Machine" & run it in a window right on your Vista desktop. Just click the icon as though you were starting an application. I have already installed it on my Toshiba Laptop. It was tricky, but impressive. No rebooting necessary to switch Operating Systems, very handy. February '09 I installed an ATI / Sapphire Radeon 4870 Toxic graphics card, with 512Mb of DDR3 memory. I have the system overclocked at 3.0Ghz per core. I added a 21" LCD Widescreen monitor & now enjoy my games at highest quality settings as well as my favorite TV shows streamed over the Internet in Hi-Def quality.
April '08 I was very determined to use the Vista Home Premium I bought so I converted my server to a "dual boot" system, with Windows XP-Pro & Vista Home Premium on separate partitions. This allows me to accurately compare the differences (both user & performance) on an identical reference computer (apples to apples, rather than apples to oranges). The system I built is a Intel P-4, 3.0Ghz, 2Gb DDR-2, Serial ATA 300 hard drives & DVD-burner, NVidia PCI-express graphics card, Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio. This NOW runs very fast & reliable in either XP or Vista. It was a painful install of Vista that took at least 3 weeks to complete. What I learned...the compatibility checker Microsoft provides is useless. Most of the reports were false results on both hardware & software. That proved to create most of the problems I experienced. After reading literally HUNDREDS of postings on Microsoft communities discussion board I found REAL answers (as well as a ton of BAD advice). My system board had integrated Hi-Def audio & somehow got destroyed during the Vista install. The graphics card has a dedicated 512Mb of RAM but Vista only reports 256Mb. Vista product registration was repeated about once a week for about 2 months. I finally got ALL the "issues" resolved & I love Vista now & enjoy it. Again, I recommend buying a computer with Vista installed, unless you enjoy a painful challenge. Much of the driver support issues have been solved. Much has changed within Vista & most of it is GOOD, however the learning curve is annoying & steep, but I think eventually it will be worth the time invested. One of the software upgrades recommended was the newest version of MS Office. I am sticking with my Office XP version. None of the older versions of Outlook works with Vista. On my new Vista laptop I tried the FREE Office Suite from "OpenOffice.org" developed by Sun Micro Systems as part of their Java platform. I like it & have no issues with it so far.
Oct. '07 After 3 months of "Issues" (more than you could EVER imagine) I have quit Windows Vista & returned to Windows XP. My conclusion... if you are a brand new computer user having NEVER owned any hardware or software Vista may serve you well, for everything you buy now should be approved for Vista compatibility. However if you are, like myself, a veteran computer user with numerous gadgets & investments in "technology", don't waste your time or $$$. While Vista is very refined & well developed the list of incompatible hardware, accessories, software is UN-ending, as is the frustrating constant task of fixing "issues". Consider yourselves forewarned. After installing Vista Service pack 1, I can safely recommend Vista to you. The hardware vendors FINALLY got their act together & fixed the driver issues. Now that I have Vista working smoothly...I enjoy it.
Windows Vista Upgrade Review... July '07 I am currently evaluating Windows Vista Home Premium, as well as newer versions of some of the products listed below. When I finish my evaluation I will publish my results below. Judging from my experience "upgrading" a laptop to Vista I do NOT recommend you attempt this yourself. There are many hardware drivers that are NOT supported & some of your favorite programs must be replaced with newer versions...IF available. Many of the hardware manufacturers are avoiding supporting upgraded drivers for Vista. They would rather you Replace your computer. Actually that IS the easiest path to switch to Vista. More to follow...
Important Virus Alert... Also as of mid-July ('07) I have witnessed a surge in computer virus infections that SURPASSES any previous waves of infections since 1992 when I started in this business. All of the infected computers were using retail brands of protection & Windows firewall (might as well have been using nothing at all). Look at recent news headlines...Border Patrol computer network knocked out by hackers, or LAX secure network computers suffered a "glitch" causing over 20,000 travelers to be stranded temporarily (4 to 12 hours). If I can trace the (dots) why can't Homeland Security. My advice... 1. Be sure to use a Router with your Internet connection (between your broadband modem & computer) as a First level of firewall protection. You ARE using Broadband, aren't you? Also immediately CHANGE your router login & password to prevent break-ins & hi-jacking of your network & computers.
5. TIP: When cleaning an infected computer it may be necessary to log into EACH user account & scan to remove infections completely from the machine. Cleaning from only 1 administrator account does NOT clean all user accounts. Also AFTER updating your protection programs, restart your PC in Safe mode to scan, as well as turning OFF system restore & deleting those files. 6. Adobe Reader & other Adobe fine products are being hi-jacked to distribute malware. Little is being published about this except, advice to disable "Java Scripting" to prevent the attacks.
Articles published by me
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