Control Panel, The Easy Way!

If you are any kind of PC Tweaker like me, you spend way too much time inside the Control Panel.  One of the problems we've had with past versions of Windows was the several layers of clicks you'd have to do in order to get into the depths of Control Panel, especially with the category as opposed to classic view of the panel that was the default with Vista.

With Windows 7 you can customize the start menu to help with this.

To do this:

• Rick-Click the Start Button.

• Click on Properties.

• This opens the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.  Click on Customize.

• This will open the Customize Start Menu, box, in the Control Panel selection, click on the circle next to Display as a menu, Then his OK.

• Go to your Start Button, and you will notice that the Control Panel now will have an arrow pointing to the right, if you select it you will see everything that would be in the control panel window.

I hope this saves you from clicking through a series of menus just to get to where you need to be.  If you have any questions please Email me at William@Techsupportman.com

Prevent Identity Theft When Using a Public Computer

Most of us have used a public computer at some point in our lives, If you haven't, there might come a time where your computer crashes, or on vacation, where you will need to go to the local library or a Lan Cafe to use a public computer.  

Either way, using public computers will always carry a risk of exposing your personal data.

Below are some things you can do to try to eliminate the risk of Identity Theft after using a public computer.

- Pay attention to your surroundings and use common sense

I know its pretty obvious but it really is the most important thing to do.  Remember to pay attention to things outside of the actual computer, be aware of who's sitting next to you, don't view any truly sensitive documents you couldn't bear for others to see, like your bank accounts, etc.

 - Don't leave the computer unattended with sensitive information on the screen.

If you have to leave the public computer, log out of all programs and close all windows that might display sensitive information

 - Delete your Browsing History

When you've finished browsing, it's a good idea to delete your cookies, form data, history, and temporary internet files if using Internet Explorer.

You can do all this at once by doing the following.

Tools

Click on Internet Options

Check the box that says Delete Browsing history on exit, and then click on the Delete button.

Click on the  Check Boxes next to everything that you want gone.

Hit the Delete button and it will wipe it clean!.

- Don't save passwords

To make sure passwords are not saved in Internet Explorer, go to:

Tools

Click on Internet Options

Click on the Content tab then click on the Settings button in the AutoComplete area.

Make sure the box that says User names and passwords on forms is not checked.

- Don't save files locally

When you're using a computer other than your own, even if it's a trusted friend’s machine, it's polite to avoid saving files locally if you can help it. This is basically equivalent to not cluttering up another person’s home with your junk. On a public machine, though, this goes beyond politeness and is an important security practice. Many of the files you would normally save locally, such as e-mail attachments, can contain private or sensitive information. An easy way to protect this data is to carry a flash drive and save files there when necessary. It’s also a good idea to attach the flash drive to your key ring so you’ll be less likely to misplace it and create a new security problem.

- Don't do online banking

Do I need to explain?  if you really need to check your balance on the road  Download a banking application for your phone if your bank provides it, or find a branch office / ATM.

- Don't enter credit card information

As with online banking, public computers are not the place for online shopping. Your purchases from eBay or Amazon.com can and should wait until you can browse from a more secure location. A little added convenience isn't worth the trouble of having your credit card hijacked

- Reboot

When you’re finished using the public computer, the final thing you should do is a hard reboot.  This will not only clear the pagefile, if you've enabled that option, but it will also clear out everything you did from the physical memory (RAM).

Hopefully next time you use a public computer you will know how to protect your Identity.  By not doing anything leaves you exposed to Identity Theft!.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest any topics you would like to see on this page please email me at William@Techsupportman.com

What Kind of Computer Should I Buy?

What Kind of Computer Should I Buy?

That has to be my number 1 frequently asked question.

Looking for a new computer? Is technology moving at a pace you can't keep up with? Are you overwhelmed by the variety of choices that are available? not sure what you need vs. what the big brand names want to see you?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then keep reading. I am going to try explaining this in a way where you will fully understand what you are looking at when going to buy a new computer.

The question that usually follows the "what kind of computer should I buy?" is, "what brand should I buy?"

Here’s a little secret that computer manufacturers spend millions to hide from you.

It Really Does Not Matter What Brand You Buy.

Like everything else in life, people like certain brands more than others, for example, some people prefer Samsung TV's while others like Pioneer, Panasonic, some people like Dell Computers and some people like HP Computers.  There are a lot of computer manufacturers out there and for the most part they use the same EXACT components in their computers, what they are really selling you is their brand and their service.  For the general home user, there is no real difference from one manufacturer to another.  What you should be looking at is price and support.  Who will give you the best deal?  Who offers the best support for the products they sell? The most important part of buying a computer is getting the right components, not the right brand.

You must first decide if you want / need a Desktop or a Laptop, if you decide that this computer will never leave your house, and don't care about mobility then a Desktop is a sure bet, on the other hand if mobility and not being tied down to a desk is what you're looking for then a Laptop is right up your alley.  

Always remember that even with a laptop you can buy peripherals like an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, so you can use it at your desk like a desktop, but have the option to take it with you if you need it when you travel.

When deciding what type of Processor you should look for, I always tell my customers to think of it like the computer's engine, the faster the processor, the faster the computer can work, now a days the most popular machines are dual core and quad core processors, but there are also hexa-core processors with six cores, and octa-core processors with eight. What this means is that there are multiple microprocessors in one chip, the higher the microprocessors in one chip the more expensive it gets!. I would recommend at least a Second Gen I5 if you are on a budget, but no less than an Intel Core I7 to keep up with the times.

When deciding how much RAM you should buy, think of it like this, RAM allows more multi-tasking, so the more RAM you have the more you can do at once. General rule of thumb, don't get anything less than 4 gigs of ram these days, and you go home and feel you need more, you can always pick them up afterwards.

When deciding how much Hard Drive space to buy, I would recommend as high as you can afford.  Nowadays our computers are our photo albums, and our record players, multimedia takes up a lot of room.  Remember our photo albums grow as well as our music collection, so you must factor this in when thinking how much space you are going to need.  I would recommend no less than a 500 gig hard drive for a family. If you are single, you COULD get away with 250 gigs, and always keep in mind that if you start to fill up your hard drive you can buy external USB hard drives that you can store multimedia in.

When deciding what type of Video Card to buy, just know that just like the Processors, and RAM, the higher the amount the more you can do, and see at the same time without any video lag. I would recommend at least a 1 gig video card.

All computers come with some sort of sound card pre-installed, if you wish to purchase speakers, they come in all shapes and sizes, so it would really be up to you to choose them.

Most computers now come with a DVD player and DVD burner, some offer the option of having a Blue-Ray player and Blue-Ray burner, it's really up to you, if you plan on watching movies on your computer then the blue-ray player would be the better choice.

All Laptops come with Wireless Cards, the specifications on them are 802.11 G/N, 802.11G is the standard, for 802.11N you need an N router, reports show that it's a little bit faster than G, so I would only recommend this if your G router goes, most N routers are G and N compatible. Desktop computers do not come with wireless cards, you can either plug a network cable (Cat5) from the router to the back of the desktop, or you can buy a USB wireless card and not have to worry about running a cable.

There are a lot of different Monitor manufacturers, the best advice I can give you, is go to your local electronic store and look at these yourself. Once you find one that you like, just make sure that it can connect to the PC you have at home, everything is going HDMI these days, which combines video and sound into one cable, if you're video card has a HDMI slot, then you can run a HDMI cable from your monitor to your computer, this would be the optimal connection for best viewing performance.

If you're trying to save money while doing this, the only advice I have for you is, don't go cheap on the processor, and don't go cheap on the video card.  Everything else can be upgraded later, but the Processor and Video card are very important to system performance. Also if you buy a laptop, they are fixed for the life of the laptop.  And after those two, go for the biggest hard drive space you can buy.

Well I hope this has helped you in your buying process.  If you have any questions you can Email me at William@Techsupportman.com 

E-mail Phishing, Don't Get Scammed!

So, you open your email and see nothing but spam every day and you think to yourself, who has time to do this all day?!

You're not alone, Email Spam affects all of us, here are some facts:

• 68 in 100 Email messages were spam in February of 2012.
• 1 in 298 email messages were identified as phishing in February of 2012.
• The US receives 68.8% of the worlds spam.  #1 is China
• The most popular email spam categories are adult/dating, pharmaceutical, watches/jewelry, and weight loss.
• Most popular brands for phishing are, Paypal, Facebook, TAM, Santander Bank, Master Card, Cielo, AOL, Posteitaliane, Bradesco & JP Morgan Chase.

So you're probably asking yourself, what is Phishing?. Phishing is a form of spam, it's a type of internet fraud that seeks to acquire a user's credentials by deception.  It includes theft or passwords, credit card numbers, bank account details and other confidential information.

Phishing messages usually take the form of fake notifications from banks, providers, e-pay systems and other organizations. The notification will try to encourage a recipient, for one reason or another, to urgently enter/update their personal data. Such excuses usually relate to loss of data, system breakdown, etc.

Phishing attacks are becoming more advanced in their exploitation of social engineering techniques. In most cases, fraudsters try to frighten a recipient by providing a seemingly important reason that the recipient should divulge their personal data. Such messages usually contain threats to block an account if a recipient does not fulfill the requirements therein. For instance, “if you do not provide your personal data by the end of the week, your account will be blocked”.

If you ever get an email that asks you for your personal information, do not click on any links or call any numbers from the email.  Call the company itself and ask them if it's a legitimate email.  A lot of people fall for this since these guys make the Phishing emails look exactly like it's coming from whoever they are pretending to be.

So, what can you do to avoid being scammed?

These people are really good at what they do, so below I will list a couple of obvious things to look for.

1. Does the "To" field include your email address? (If the answer is no, treat this email as if it's Spam)
2. Does the information from the message sound incredible? (If it does, try this.  Copy a sentence from the message and Google it to check its credibility.)
3. Are you being asked to "Sign a petition" by forwarding the message to all of your friends? (Do not fill this out, petitions are normally signed on websites, not through emails.)
4. Have you received an email with a shortened link in message? (Don't blindly click on a link in an email.  Expand the URL first using previews or plug-ins, Gmail does this by simply hovering your mouse over the link.)
5. Are you asked to follow the link in a message and update your account information? (make sure the name of the service resides in a Domain, not in a sub domain.  For example, mybankispnc.com.567.info.net is a sub domain.  a domain would be www.pncbank.com
6. Are you getting too much spam and phishing mail? (Use a smart email client like Outlook or EmailTray which ranks messages by importance and lets you focus on important emails while pushing Junk mail aside.

Spam / Phishing is a serious and a very real threat.  If you would like to know more about Phishing go to this website, www.phishtank.com they break down exactly what phishing is, you can verify Phishing email, you can report a phishing email etc.

I hope that this helps you in identifying phishing emails that come through your mailbox.  And hopefully help you in not getting scammed by these criminals!

If you have any questions you can email me at William@Techsupportman.com

Dust and your PC!

So, have you been wondering lately why your PC has been humming along under your desk for some time now? maybe it just started, or maybe it's been a year or two!

Well chances are that if you were to look inside your computer case, there would be dozens of dust bunnies having a party in there, and while that's happening, your PC cannot recycle air properly and causes everything to run HOT!

want to see what that looks like?

Dust particles can vary in size from as large as a few hundred microns to just a few micrometers, the larger particles tend to fall and stick to surfaces whilst the smaller ones tend to remain airborne. Dust Particles can contain everything and anything, in various quantities from skin cells, liquids, organic materials, minerals, metals and a multitude of chemicals. It all depends on the environment that surrounds us.

Dust can have many effects inside our computers, for example, dust can act as an insulator which can add to the heat build up inside your computer's case. Dust can also clog up some of the computers moving parts such as the disk drives and even block USB ports and interfaces, but mostly dust likes to stick to the fans inside the computer and they look like this:

Fan dust is the most noticeable and that's because they are the ones responsible for bringing all of that dust in!.  however fans are needed, because without them your computer would not be able to recycle air properly,  Below is a picture demonstrating how your computer's fans recycle ambient air to cool your computer.

As you can see, cool air normally comes through the front and the top, and exhausts off the back of the machine,  If you have your computer's back against something it is not properly releasing that hot air and it could get sucked back into the computer causing the temperature inside to run hotter.

I've seen this play a major role in Laptops that over heat.  If you look underneath your laptop you will notice where your fan is, and directly on the side of the laptop is where the exhaust is,  Over time that fan underneath your laptop sucks in a lot of dust and therefore blocks the exhaust.  When this happens your laptop runs REALLY hot, and when laptop's run hot you know it! sometimes they get so hot you can barely touch them!.

Dust also sticks to other internal parts of your computer like your motherboard, dust will frequently settle on the motherboard and can make it difficult for removable components to make good electrical contacts.  Depending on humidity and the composition of the dust, it can even short out the motherboard!.  Here's a picture of what dust looks like on a motherboard:

So, want to see extreme cases where someone doesn't clean inside their machine?  here we go!

and last but certainly not LEAST!

Okay, this last one is a little bit not fair, because this machine was being "stored" in a basement and not being used.

So now that we know what dust does and what it looks like inside your machine, lets talk about how to clean it.

First, you're going to need tools, these include: 

A can of compressed air.

A screwdriver (if you need to remove screws to open your machine).

Paper towels.

Isopropyl alcohol & Cotton Swabs (for cleaning in tight spaces).

Below is a video from HPCBDVD on YouTube showing you how to clean your machine using these tools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovgvppZX4k

So now that you are aware of what dust can do, and how to clean it, you might want to do this every 5 to 6 months, this will prevent dust from getting out of control, and mostly help keep your computer running smoothly and cooler!

Thanks for stopping by and reading this article, if you have any questions please contact me at William@Techsupportman.com