Grisoft has released version 7.5 of their AVG Anti-Virus program. If you have an old version of AVG Anti-Virus on your computer you will be presented with a window box notifying your old version was discontinued in February. You will be given several choices for upgrading to the new version, including an option to download and upgrade to the latest free version (see bottom of box).

The “click here” link in the box will take you to a AVG 7.5 product page – including an option on the bottom “To download new AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5, please click here.”

You can also upgrade to the new free version from within the AVG Test Center or Control Center by going to the “Information” menu > “I Need Help – Online Services”, then click on the “Download” link, “Installation Files & Documentation”, then download the new version and follow the upgrade instructions.

If you should decide to buy one of their paid products, as always I do not recommend “Security Suites” which combine extra (and often redundant) software which can slow down your computer and cause more problems than they claim to fix. An Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware program is sufficient for most computer users.

Beware of Anti-Virus companies that automatically renew your annual subscription even though you may not have their software installed on your computer. Companies such as Symantec and McAfee have begun to automatically charge customer’s credit cards every year for renewal subscription fees. See this PC World article. When giving your credit card information online, read carefully and thoroughly to see if the company will be automatically charging your card in the future.

You’ve probably received an email about a missing person, cell phone numbers being given to telemarketers, typing in your PIN number backwards at an ATM machine will summon the police, and other information you haven’t heard about from other news sources. Most of these mails urge you to forward it to as many people as you can. Many of these emails that get forwarded are just urban legends. How can you tell? The next time you receive an email that urges you to forward it on – first go to www.snopes.com. Snopes.com is a website that tracks scams, rumors and chain emails, and they investigate whether they are truthful or just an urban legend. The website does have pop-up advertisements. However the information provided is useful and can keep you from wasting time and the embarrassment of forwarding false information.

Other popular websites that you can check include TruthOrFiction.com and Hoax-Slayer.com.

Microsoft released it’s newest version of it’s Windows operating system in late January – Windows Vista. Most of my experiences with Vista have been troublesome. I’ve had several old model printers and games that don’t work. Also they’ve changed the way you do certain tasks and renamed commonly-used control panel items. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading – I suggest you wait. If you want other user opinions check out this PC World article. If you’ve been thinking about getting a new computer, Windows Vista is your only choice on the new computers sold in the major chain stores. However you can still get Windows XP if you custom order a computer from some manufacturer’s websites or from our local wholesaler – ask us for details. If you decide to upgrade or get a new computer with Windows Vista – be prepared to experience complications.

Do you own a digital camera? Your camera likely came with software to organize and share your pictures via email or a web album. However you’re not limited to using the sometimes clunky and confusing software that comes with your camera. Here I will describe my favorite way to transfer pictures to my computer, organize them, and share them with friends and family.

For transferring my pictures I prefer to use the Scanner and Camera Wizard that is included with Windows XP. It lets you check just some or all of the pictures you want to transfer, lets you create a folder with a unique name for your transferred pictures (i.e. vacation Jun06, new dog Sept06, etc) and gives you the option to delete the pictures from the camera after you have transferred them to your computer.

When it’s time to share pictures, photos taken with most cameras are too big to email at their original size. Most pictures are between 500-1000 KB (1 MB), and most email services wont let you send attachments larger than 10 MB. So emailing anything more than 10-20 pictures will likely result in your email being rejected or filling up your friend’s or family’s mailbox. And if your recipient is still on a dial-up internet connection it could take them a long time to download and view your pictures.

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AOL is now free if you purchase high-speed internet from another provider (such as AT&T, Charter or Clearwire). Go to AOL keyword “changeplan”.

If you still have a computer with Windows98 or WindowsME now is still a great time to get a new computer with Windows XP at an affordable price. Beginning in January new computers will come with Microsoft’s newest operating system – Windows Vista. Those new computers will likely be more expensive due to the higher price of the different versions of Vista, and the more expensive hardware required to run Vista.Computer Techs can help with advice on buying a new computer, as well as set-up, transferring your data from your old computer, securing your new computer and uninstalling unnecessary trial programs that often come bundled on new computers.

People have asked me if they should upgrade to Vista when it’s available, or wait to buy a new computer until Vista comes out. My answer is ‘no’ for now. I have been using the beta version of Vista on one of my computers for a few weeks. While Vista is appealing to the eye, I don’t feel it has any features worthy enough to upgrade. It’s also very different in most aspects than previous versions. I find it hard to find things such as changing system settings that I know how to locate in previous versions.

You can see examples of what the Windows Vista desktop looks like by clicking on the picture thumbnails below.

Did you know that clicking the right mouse button will bring up a context sensitive menu? For example if you right click on a folder or file, it will present you with options that you can do with that folder – such as Copy, Send To to a Mail Recipient, Send To Desktop (create shortcut), Search for something in that folder, etc. What appears on the right-click menu will change with each type of item you click. For example you can right-click on a file, a folder, a blank area within a file or folder, a desktop icon or a blank area of the desktop and each type will give you a different context sensitive menu of choices.

So start right-clicking to see new ways to do things more quickly on your computer. And if you’d like to learn more helpful tips on your computer, ask us about One-on-One Tutoring.

In the next few weeks Microsoft will be offering a free update to the Internet Explorer browser via the Windows Automatic Updates service. If you don’t want to wait for the automatic update, you can find out more information about it and download it for free from Microsoft’s website, or manually check for the for the update at www.windowsupdate.com.

IE7 offers a few new features such as tabbed browser windows, the ability to zoom-in to increase page size and fit-to-page printing.Tabbed browser windows let you have multiple web pages open and you can easily switch between the tabs. I find it useful to have web mail open in one window tab, news open in another and real-time stock market graphs in yet another.

Grisoft has released version 7.5 of their AVG Anti-Virus program. If you have AVG Anti-Virus on your computer you may be presented with a window box notifying your old version will be discontinued in January 2007. You will be given several choices for upgrading to the new version, including an option to download and upgrade to the latest free version (see bottom of box).

The “click here” link in the box will take you to a AVG 7.5 product page – including an option on the bottom “To download new AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5, please click here.”

You can also upgrade to the new free version from within the AVG Test Center or Control Center by going to the “Information” menu > “I Need Help – Online Services”, then click on the “Download” link, “Installation Files & Documentation”, then download the new version and follow the upgrade instructions.

If you should decide to buy one of their paid products, as always I do not recommend “Security Suites” which combine extra (and often redundant) software which can slow down your computer and cause more problems than they claim to fix. An Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware program is sufficient for most computer users.