PC Computer Tips & Info

Microsoft IE8 SmartScreen Filter has blocked 1 billion attempts to download malware. Nearly 26 persent of the web population is using IE8 and their SmartScreen filter to block five times more malware month to month.

Mozilla Firefox has been choosen to be the brooser of choice of IBM users.

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Flash is being phased out being replaced by HTML5.  The HTML5 is what is used on IPad.

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WebM is a codec
So what is a codec? A codec is technology to encode and decode video or audio data. Used to convert movies into high quality Blu-ray discs. The prevailing video codec today is called H.264, aka AVC, and for audio, it's MP3. There are many others, however, including the AAC technology Apple uses for audio in iTunes and iPods, the Xiph.Org Foundation's Ogg Vorbis audio codec and Ogg Theora video codec. Codecs can run in hardware or software, quickly enough to handle high-resolution displays or efficiently enough to preserve mobile-phone battery power.

Google released WebM as a royalty-free technology. That means among other things that nobody will have to pay for using it and that open-source software projects can incorporate it directly. This angered quite a few large manufacturers that had patents on this type of technology.

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If you've updated your Windows XP or 2000 to Internet Explorer 7, you might be experiencing some errors on page. Here are some fixes and setting changes that may work.

Click to download the pdf file with details!

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Select a good password:

·  Make the length of your password at least five characters. It is too easy for automatic programs to sequentially try all combinations of characters in a password of only a few characters. The standard is 8 characters. Use at least one upper-case letter, at least one lower-case letter, and at least one digit, for example, cT5U3rN$

·  In short passwords,
A five-character password composed of only random lower-case letters has about 8×106 possible combinations, but a five-character password composed of both upper- and lower-case letters and the ten digits, all chosen randomly, has about 776×106 possible combinations, i.e., about one hundred times harder to guess.

·  To make a long password, use two words, each with at least five characters, perhaps separated by one digit (e.g., vehicle2purchase). By having a longer password, it is no longer as desirable to include a mix of upper- and lower-case letters and digits.

·  Avoid obvious passwords hackers will try first, all they need to know is a little about you to start guessing these types:

o    your name, nicknames, anyone’s first name, spouse’s first name or your child’s first name, even your dog’s or cat’s name

o    your home telephone number, your date of birth, your astrological sign, your mother's maiden name, or wife's maiden name,

o    license plate number of your car, or exact sequences of letters on a keyboard (e.g., QWERTY or ASDFGH)

o    sequences from the alphabet (e.g., ABCDEFG or ABCABC) or any other publicly available information.

Use a different password at each website, service provider, or computer account, keep a log of these and file them safely away.

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"When I install Word 2007, it changes my document? - With all kinds of formatting lines on the right side of the document!"

I have had so many calls from clients regarding this problem! Here are the detailed instructions. Open the document, click on the Office Button located at the top left hand corner, scroll down to "Prepare" arrow over to the right and up to "Inspect Document", click on Inspect Document. A dialog box appears, all five boxes should be checked, click on the Inspect button at the bottom of the dialog page. It will run through the inspection cycle, blue arrows show that it is fixed, if some still appear wrong, click on "Remove All", then "Inspect" again. This time it should be fixed, click on "Close" and check your document. Save your Document a different name.  Just love that Microsoft Word! :)

 

Causes Of A Slow PC

There are many possible causes of a slow PC. Because your computer is constantly working with files - moving, copying and deleting from place to place - it will eventually get cluttered with leftover files, some of which are not needed and just take up valuable disk space. You only have a certain amount of disk space available on your hard disk, and as it fills up the computer can begin to struggle to find room to perform its tasks.

 

How to Prevent USB Drivers From Spreading the Conflicker Virus

The dreaded Conflicker Worm has been in the headlines recently.  The continued menacing reports indicate that it still lies dormant in most computers. The reason for all the concern is in how this worm preforms. The Conflicker Worm hides itself on infected computers and preforms in several ways. If you place a USB driver onto your computer it will hitch a ride with that contact. Just attaching the thumb drive activates the Conflicker Worm. It then copies itself to the drive and waits. Stick that drive into a clean computer and it spreads the virus immediately.

Another way in which these type virus' are activated are when you use Windows Auto Play features. As soon as you click on these features it activates the reason is because the weakness in Auto Play's configuration. Windows has a patch for this and thus the reason to always update your computer with the latest patches available from Microsoft.

 

If your PC crashes or freezes up, it may be a symptom of a slow or cluttered PC.

The brain of your computer is the Processor, and it may be that your processor is too slow to run today's demanding software. The processor can also struggle if you have multiple programs running at once - for example, if you have Word open to compose a letter while downloading a file from the Internet and also playing a song through your media player.

 

RAM is the temporary memory the computer uses to do its calculations. If you do not have enough RAM, your programs will run slowly.

 

Other components of your PC can contribute to poor performance, particularly your Graphics Card when it comes to running media and games software. Some hardware needs special programs called "drivers" and these need to be kept up to date.

You may also have programs running in the background using up memory that you are unaware of, and in some cases, the problem may be a malicious program such as a virus or spyware.

Maintenance

Sometimes, slowdown is caused by physical problems with your PC and its hardware. One example is your PC becoming too hot. It may be that there is a build up of dust which is preventing the cooling fans from doing their job. Your PC should be positioned in a cool place and its air vents should not be blocked. Laptops are famous for giving off lots of heat. Make sure if you use it that there is air flow under the laptop. Purchase a mesh stand.

 

Perform monthly maintenance of defragging your computer. This replaces misplaced bits and pieces of files back to their original location, especially if you have deleted a lot of files lately. Defrag!          Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Deframenter

Always turn off and unplug your PC before you clean it. A can of compressed air can be used to blow out the dust.

Like any piece of equipment, hardware components can start to wear out over time and eventually they will need replacing, usually with a newer model. You should make sure after replacing or upgrading components such as RAM memory or Graphics cards, that they are firmly in place in their slots.

Remove Unwanted Programs

There is a lot of software on the average PC which is unnecessary, and has usually been installed and then forgotten about over time. It is good practice to clean your PC of unwanted programs regularly.

Click on the Start menu then Control Panel. Switch to Classic View if you are in Category view, and double-click Add or Remove Programs. Look for programs that you don't use anymore, click to select them and then click the Remove button to uninstall them.

When your PC starts, Windows loads lots of programs including some you may not be aware are running. Often, these are necessary so that Windows and security software such as anti-virus and firewall can function properly. Sometimes, however, programs that are not necessary can be running in the background using up memory.

Hold the CTRL and ALT keys down and then press the DELETE key once. This brings up the Windows Task manger window which allows you to see at a glance all the programs currently running on your PC. The Applications tab will list programs such as Internet Explorer, Word and any folders you have open. Click to select a particular program and then click the End Task button to stop it.

Another way to stop a program running is if it has an icon on the Taskbar. Usually you can right-click the icon and select to Quit, Disable or Shutdown.

These methods will stop the program running for now, but it will probably start up again when you restart your PC. To prevent it from running completely, you may need to remove it from the list of programs Windows is instructed to run on startup.

To do this, click on your Start menu and then on Programs. From your Programs List, hold your mouse over Startup to see the programs currently set to start when Windows does. Right-click any of the programs and click Delete to remove them from startup.

However, not all startup programs are shown in the Startup folder. To see the others, click Start menu then Run and type 'msconfig' then click OK. This brings up the System Configuration Utility window. Click the Startup tab then un-check the boxes next to any programs that you don't wish to run automatically when Windows starts.

Disable Unnecessary Processes

The Applications tab in Windows Task Manager only shows the main programs that are running. However, this is not everything: there are also various Processes that run too. Click on the Processes tab to see them.

Many of the processes listed in Task Manager will be legitimate tools required for Windows and other programs to run properly. But you may also find some here that you don't need (and sometimes you may find a process belonging to a harmful virus or spyware program).

The information given here shows you the name of the process and also how much processor (CPU) time it is using up as a percentage of the total available. You can also see the amount of memory the program consumes.

You can right-click on any process and choose End process to stop it running temporarily, but it will most likely start up again when you restart your PC. You should be very careful when ending a process that you do not stop a process that is required by Windows.

You can identify what a process is for by using the Web. Type the name of the process, such as "svchost.exe" into a search engine and see what people have to say about it. If they say it is not required it should be OK to stop it. They may also give instructions on how to remove it permanently so it does not reappear in future.

Remove Malicious Programs

It is important that you use up-to-date security software to detect and remove malicious programs.

Virus programs can slow down your PC and cause unwanted behavior, even damage to your data.

Spyware tracks your movements on the Web for advertising purposes, but can affect your PC's performance as well. Use anti-spyware programs to remove it.

These are just a few of the examples that you can find on google.com

or go to www.easycomputertips.com