Category: Computing Tips

Updated October 2012:

The successor to Windows 7 – appropriately named “Windows 8” – was released on October 26. It can be purchased as an upgrade for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or pre-installed on a new computer. A common question that we’ve been receiving is “should I upgrade to Windows 8?”

I’ve been using the final release of Windows 8 since August. From my experience I recommend that people DO NOT upgrade to Windows 8 nor purchase a new computer with it installed – unless you like change. It has been described as “revolutionary” and “reimagined”. That also means “unfamiliar”. Two of the biggest changes in Windows 8 are the new tiled Start interface, and the removal of the “Start” button from the Desktop interface.

Microsoft developed the tiled Start interface to make it easy to navigate Windows 8 if you’re using it on a touch-screen tablet computer. But if you like to use a desktop computer with a separate physical keyboard and mouse, in my opinion the new Start interface is distracting. You can switch to the Windows 7 style of Desktop interface, but the Start menu has been replaced by the tiled Start interface and other methods to access things that you’re trying to do by moving your mouse to different corners of the screen and waiting for menu options to appear.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Windows 8 so you can decide for yourself if it’s worth upgrading – see this review which includes more details and screen shots. Or see a video preview here.

If you’d like to discover Windows 8 for yourself, most local big box stores have it on display on their demonstration computers. I recommend that you spend some time using it to do the things that you normally do on a desktop computer to see if it’s right for you.

 

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If you have the free version of AVG AVG Anti-Virus, recently it has been prompting to install the newest update for 2013. If you have not yet installed the update, below I give instructions on how to install the free version, which is not the default installation. The default installation installs a 15-day trial to AVG Internet Security (which I do not recommend), after which an annual fee is required to keep the program up-to-date.

If you have already installed AVG Internet Security Trial and you wish to revert back to the free version, see this article.

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Updated 8/26/14:

We have seen many emails appearing to come from legitimate companies with unexpected order confirmations or cancellations and account balance notifications – all with shockingly high dollar amounts that peak the curiosity. These emails are the latest tricks by spammers to lure people to open the email and visit a malicious website that spreads spam and malware. This tactic emphasizes an important computing safety tip: Never click on links in email unless you are absolutely sure about what website the link will take you to.

Some of the companies that are represented in the phony emails include UPS, Amazon, PayPal, Verizon Wireless and US Airways.

How to tell where a link is pointing to. The link below initially looks like it will direct you to the www.ebay.com auction website. But if you hover your mouse over the link text you should notice text along the bottom-left bar of your e-mail client or web browser that shows where the link actually points to – which in my example will take you to Computer Techs’ contact information page.

www.ebay.com

When you click on the screen shot below you can see an official looking e-mail I received that appears to be from “eBay”. I hovered my mouse over the link “Proceed to Account Update” and the status bar along the bottom-left corner of my web browser shows that the link does not point to a legitimate eBay web page, but rather a long link that happens to have the word “ebay” in it to fool the recipient.

If you receive a questionable email, never click on the link in the email. Instead open your web browser and go to the company’s website by manually typing their website address into the address bar.

Also see: How to recognize emails that “phish” for your information

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AT&T changed their att.yahoo.com homepage recently, and we’ve heard from many people that they dislike the new design.

If you want your old customizable homepage back, type my.yahoo.com in your browser’s address bar, then make it your browser’s home/start page.

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We get a lot of calls where the person’s account has been hacked. The hacker has sent spam email to their contacts, and often copies their contact list for the purpose of sending future emails and forging their name and email address. Others have had emails sent to their contacts asking for money because they are in distress in a foreign country while on vacation. After their account got hacked, people usually ask us how it happened. Typical methods that hackers are able to access email accounts include….

1. Guessing an insecure password to access your account. Examples of insecure passwords include common names, names of a pet, words listed in a dictionary, or using the same password for different websites.

2. Guessing the answer to your account security question(s), then resetting the password so that the account can be accessed.

3. Insecure web site databases are being hacked and the usernames and passwords are being used to log into email and other accounts. For example, here’s a common scenario that could happen to you:

You discover xyzrecipes.com and register for an account so that you can access their exclusive recipes that are only available to registered users. They require an email address for a username, and ask you to create a password to access their site. To make it easy to remember, you simply use the same password that you use to access your email – since most people wouldn’t care if somebody got access to your xyzrecipes.com account.

However, a few weeks later a hacker breaks into the xyzrecipes.com user database and copies all the email addresses and passwords. The hacker then tries to access your email account using the same password that you used to register at xyzrecipes.com. If it’s the same password, they now have access to your email account, make a copy of your contact list and send spam messages to your contacts that look like they’re coming from you. Worse yet they can read all of your previous emails, learn about the people you correspond with and financial transactions that you make, and/or change your password – locking you out of your email account.

4. If you click on a link in an email which leads to a malicious website, the website can capture your email login credentials.

5. Sending an official-looking email asking for email login credentials. (See sample below)

 

What you should do if you’ve been hacked, and tips to prevent being hacked.

If your email account was hacked, immediately change your password. (If your email address is the master account for AT&T DSL service, see note below*) Below are a few things you can do to help prevent your email account(s) from being hacked.

1. Use a password system/pattern so that you have a unique memorable password for each web site. I recommend putting part of the letters of the website in the password. (See creating secure memorable passwords.)

2. If the account has a password reset question (or account security question – ASQ), make sure that the answer to your question is something that a hacker would not know or easily guess.

3. Learn how to recognize emails that “phish” for your information.

4. Secure your email account with 2-step verification.

* Note: If your email address is the master account for an AT&T DSL account, after changing your email password you need to call AT&T DSL at 877-722-3755 and have them give you your network password to program into your DSL modem or router. Otherwise you could lose your connection to the internet.

 

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According to DoNotTrack.Us “Do Not Track is a technology and policy proposal that enables users to opt out of tracking by websites they do not visit, including analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms.”

For example, the social network website Twitter recently announced that they support and adhere to the Do Not Track setting by your web browser. Some websites that you visit may feature a Twitter button, widget, and other embedded features that makes interacting with the website more of a social experience. If you select the Do Not Track option in your web browser, if are a current or future Twitter member, they will no longer suggest other Twitter users that you may wish to follow based on your web browsing habits.

DoNotTrack.Us continues “At present few of these third parties offer a reliable tracking opt out, and tools for blocking them are neither user-friendly nor comprehensive. Much like the popular Do Not Call registry, Do Not Track provides users with a single, simple, persistent choice to opt out of third-party web tracking.”

“Do Not Track signals a user’s opt-out preference with an HTTP header, a simple technology that is completely compatible with the existing web. Several large third parties have already committed to honor Do Not Track, but many more have been recalcitrant. We believe regulation is necessary to verify and enforce compliance with a user’s choice to opt out of tracking.”

AVG Anti-Virus installed a Do Not Track add-on in a recent update. However, I recommend that it be disabled since it slows web browser speed, can cause some web pages to not display as expected, and websites are not required to adhere to your preferences. Here’s how to disable or configure AVG Do Not Track.

Personally, having my web browsing habits tracked by certain 3rd-party sites or social networks doesn’t bother me if it enhances my overall browsing experience. The fact that there is no regulation to enforce Do Not Track makes changing the setting in my browser or enabling and add-on seem pointless to me at this time.

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If you experience buffering or pausing while playing online videos on websites such as YouTube, here are a few times that can fix the problem.

– Pause the video to allow the playback to catch-up to the download. On YouTube, take notice of the playback bar on the bottom of the video. The circle on the right-side of the horizontal red bar signifies the current playback position of the video. The grey “loading” bar to the right of the red bar shows how much of the video has downloaded to your computer. If the red bar/circle catches up to the grey bar, you will experience buffering and pauses. To minimize that you can pause the video and allow the grey bar to move considerably ahead of the red bar.

 

– Choose a lower playback resolution. On the playback bar, notice the gear icon among other icons on the right side. Click the icon and choose a lower number than currently selected.

– Consider increasing your internet connection speed. If your internet connection speed is below approximately 2500-3000 Kbps, you will likely experience playback issues with higher quality video. Contact your internet service provider and see if a higher speed is available.

If the tips above don’t fix the problem, see the YouTube help for buffering and playback problems.

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Updated September 2020:

To help prevent unauthorized access to personal information, many websites require a password that consists of six or more characters, numbers and letters, and uppercase and lowercase letters. Creating a password that meets the requirements and being something you can remember doesn’t have to be a challenge.

I have created a password system that you can use or modify to create memorable passwords. The most important part of the system is that a different password is created for each website.

If you currently use the same password for different websites, if the password or website gets compromised, hackers could access your data on all other websites that you use. That would be bad.

The system divides a password into 3 memorable parts that create a secure 10-character password when put together:

Part 1 – First 3 letters of my name [Mar]
Part 2 – First 3 letters of the website – (Yahoo would be [Yah], Google would be [Goo], Amazon would be [Ama], etc.)
Part 3 – 4-digit month & year of my birthdate [0468]

To summarize, my Yahoo password created under this system would be MarYah0468 – created by putting the 3 parts together. Notice that I use uppercase letters as the first letter of each part for added security.

If you’re using a website or service that had a data breach and you’ve been told to change your password, you could just change the 3rd part to reflect the current month & year:

Part 3 – 4-digit month & year that the password was changed [0916]

To summarize, my new Yahoo password changed due to a data breach in September 2016 would be MarYah0916

If you keep a written or typed password list, for added security you could write the name of the website and date, while using an underscore “_” or dash “-” for characters of the password that you’ve memorized without showing the entire password on paper and revealing your password to someone that you may not want to read your password list. For example, my written Yahoo password would be M – – Y – – 0 9 1 6

You should use your own variation of this system. Here’s some suggestions:

• Capitalize the MIDDLE or LAST letter in each part

• Use the first 3 letters of your MIDDLE or LAST name, the name of a loved-one – or your initials.

• For Part 2 remove the vowels from the website or service – Yahoo would be Ah, Google would be Ggl, Amazon would be Mzn.

• For Part 2 use the letter or character one key to the right on the keyboard – Yahoo would be Usj, Google would be Hpp, Amazon would be S,s

• For Part 3 of the system, use a 4-digit number from your graduation year, childhood phone number or street number, or any other number that you’ll remember for life. For added security you could use a different number based on the type of website – for example you could use part of your SS# for financial websites, a street number for shopping websites, your graduation year for social networking websites, and birth month+year for everything else.

• Add a special character such as [! ? # *] at the beginning, end or memorable location in the system. Alternatively you could use special characters instead of numbers by holding the shift-key when typing numbers – thus 0468 would be )$^*

• “Pad” or add something somewhere in your password that you don’t write down – such as putting a childhood phone number or zip code at the end of every password.

You may also want to visit the following website for ideas on creating a memorable password system: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001691.html

Also read how to safely manage your passwords.

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Microsoft will end support of Windows XP in April 2014, meaning that they will no longer be providing security and reliability updates as they do now on a monthly basis. In less than 2 years any computers that still have Windows XP computers will become highly vulnerable to getting viruses and malware. New software and hardware will increasingly not work with Windows XP.

If you still have a computer with Windows XP it’s time to start thinking about updating to a new computer with a modern version of Windows (currently Windows 7) before April 2014. The good news is that new computer hardware these days will likely cost much less than your old computer. Middle-of-the-road computers for everyday computing average less than $500 on sale.

Windows 7 can sometimes be installed on an old computer that currently runs Windows XP. However, old hardware on a computer that is over 5 years old is more likely to fail and cost more in the long term versus updating to a new computer and operating system together.

Computer Techs can help you make the transition from Windows XP. If you’re looking for advice and deals on new computers, check out our New Computer Deals newsletters located at the bottom half of our Newsletter Archives web page.

You’ve probably seen the TV ads or computer pop-ups for websites such as CyberDefender, PCMatic.com, MyCleanPC, FinallyFast.com and others. They promise to speed up your computer by fixing registry errors, reducing clutter, tweak settings, etc. Their websites promote a 100% guarantee, 5-star ratings from well-known web sites and user reviews that make their claims seem believable. But doing a little research shows the truth about many of these quick-fix programs and websites: many can be classified as scams.

An article which investigates MaxMySpeed.com echoes the warning signs and experiences of many people who try the service. The five-star user and website reviews are often inflated. The free programs scan your computer and always find problems, then offer to “fix” the problems for a fee. Trying to close out of the program or decline payment options often results in more pop-ups and scare tactics. And the results it finds are inflated and inaccurate. In summary they present false results to scare you into purchasing the product.

One person tried the free download, but was then told it would cost $390:

My computer was seriously slow and locking up… …So, I thought I’d go out on a limb and try Double My Speed. The good news: they fixed my computer and it runs great now. The bad news: it is a classic bait-and-switch. Their website allows a free scan but to fix the issues found requires buying their software. Then, they require a phone call to activate the software. This phone call is actually a sales event, where they try to sell their 24/7 service to support your computer. I went ahead and bought it, depending on the guarantee in case I was not satisfied. Their tech (what they called a “certified level 3 technician”) spend many hours connected to my computer. The result was as advertised. The price was ridiculously high–I could have bought a new desktop–but decided that if it didn’t work I would get my money back and if it did, I could avoid going to the store, shopping for a new desktop, lugging it home, transferring my files, and so on. The price was $130 three times (three easy payments!) and I was able to talk the rep down by discounting the amount I had paid online for their initial service. That also extended the license on the software from 1 year to 2.

Do yourself and your pocketbook a favor and avoid quick-fix programs and websites. There is no single program that will fix all of your computer problems. Computer Techs uses dozens of specific tools to fix your computer based on the problem(s). Stick with a local company that you can trust to work on your personal computer.

Other articles worth reading:

The truth about registry cleaners

FinallyFast.com refunds thousands is scareware suit

Ascentive sued for tricking customers with scareware

 

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