Why not give antivirus software a go!

I have recently found a few clients with out up to date Antivirus software or none at all. Some have been very fortunate and have escaped without a major issue.

The most recent had bought a laptop from the High street and got straight down to using the laptop. McAfee was still there waiting for you to buy and activate. There is no reason now not to have basic Antivirus protection for free with the likes of AVG, Microsoft and others. I have always installed an antivirus product on all pc and laptop builds so the owner does not have to. It is easy to remove and add your own at a later stage.

Microsoft Security Essentials is easy to install and recently has found things that the well-known paid antivirus software products failed to find.

So install security software, keep up to date and allow scanning the system also apply windows updates when prompted.

How to stop a service in XP CMD Line

Disable XP Service from XP Command Line
 The service name is the name with out any spaces
sc config "browser" start= disabled
sc config "messenger" start= disabled
sc config "upnphost" start= disabled

Stop/ Start Service

NET STOP "my service"

close

Blackberry issues in October 2011

With Blackberry issues last week I was reminded of a BBC sketch about Apple and blackberries.

(Windows 8) Windows Developer Preview

Have just tested out the Developers windows 8 Preview. I installed it on a 4 year old HP laptop with 3 GB memory.

I just popped the DVD in the drive said yes to install and selected the region, about 30 minutes latter I was on line. So for me the first impression was very good from an install perspective.

The Wifi card and Graphics worked straight away without trying to find drivers.

I just popped in my windows live ID when asked, the idea is to use windows live to keep your settings so you can move about on different devices including mobile phones etc running windows 8.

All the security software is preinstalled; I am still trying to check out all the options on this and to see if there is a need for 3^rd party apps.

The look and feel is designed for a touch screen and with a bit of hunting around familiar windows options are available.

Preview Windows 8 at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/preview

Remote control scammer, taking control of your PC or Laptop

Have you had some one phone and say that your pc is infected or has some issue?

I provide support to home pc and laptop users in Yeovil in Somerset. I have had three customers phone about their pc’s been taken over by a remote user (Scammer) and having a phone conversation trying to sell support.

Have you been contacted of suffered this problem, I am trying to piece together how this is happening and how generally only more senior PC and Laptop users are been targeted.

Thank fully the folks I have spoken to have not parted with their money.
I would always say never give credit card or bank details to any company that phones with out invitation and says you have a problem. This also applies if you have strange windows appear telling you that your computer is infected and that if you pay they will clean you pc.

Don't enter any codes or assist them in any way, turn your pc off and hang up.
Don’t be afraid of hanging up your phone or turning your pc off.
If you can make a note of any phone numbers, company or other names used. Let the local police and Trading standards know.
Has you pc been taken over by remote control with out your permission by these scammers?
Good article from Guy at another Yeovil Support company in the local paper. http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Security-scam-alert-issued-expert/story-12737167-detail/story.html

Extracting “Adobe Reader X” .MSI file from .exe file

Extracting and tailoring the “Adobe Reader X” installation.

Down load the enterprise version of Adobe Reader X (you will need to sign up on the Adobe website)

Then in the folder containing the Adobe X .exe file run on the command line

AdbeRdr1001_en_US.exe -nos_oc:\AdobeReaderMSI -nos_ne

The created folder “AdobeReaderMSI” at the drive root should have the.msi file and other setup files. In my case c:\ AdobeReaderMSI.

You can now tailor the Adobe X installation using the “Adobe Customization Wizard”, the Adobe wizard allows a range of settings to be edited. I wanted to get the option of creating PDF’s on line removed from the main window. The last thing I wanted was people converting company documents on line?

There are still some online options connected with sharing and converting pdf’s but not as obvious.

I have found Cutepdf very good for creating a pdf file, if you can print it you can convert it.

First Steps into MAC computers

My daughter has just bought her first MAC Book, I have never really ventured into Apple MAC's.

Being second hand and having lots of good software installed and no recovery dvd's for the Applications  I decided it would be good to image / Clone the MAC hardisk to a fairly new larger disk. I also wanted to make sure if I messed up the installation I could just pop teh old disk in.

The windows software I normally use doesn't support OSX. I had a hunt on the web and found lowendmac. who had a great article on their site. I used shirt-pocket.com SuperDuper software to make an image.

I connected my new disk via a usb Caddy, I used the MAC Disk Utility to erase (format) the new disk.
I installed SuperDuper and followed the instruction at lowendmac.  I opened up the MAC and popped the replcement disk in and it booted fine.

The previous owner had not installed any anti virus or updates, Sophos had a free MAC antivirus which was soon installed and a 1 trojan found.   

The office for MAC 2004 needed some updates and convertor to be installed so it can open .docx files.