Microsoft to Offer Free Antivirus App
Posted by admin on Feb 12, 2009
Taken from Maximum PC, Feburary 2009 Edition
Having achieved only modest market share with its subscription-based OneCare PC security plan, Microsoft is switching gears and offering consumers a free antivirus app beginning mid-2009. Code-named Morro, the app will focus strictly on malware protection versus OneCare’s combo of AV, system maintenance, and data backup; it will be available for XP, Vista, and the upcoming Windows 7 OS.
Microsoft says its motivation is to get antivirus protection on more PCs. But the company has no plans to bundle the app with Windows. Rather, it will be available for download, which should help the company avoid any antitrust flak.
Are AV heavyweights McAfee and Symantec worried that Microsoft’s free app will lure their paying customers? Representatives from both companies say no. As Symantec’s Senior VP of Consumer Business Rowan Trollope put it, “We view this announcement as a capitulation by Microsoft and a reinforcement of the notion that it’s simply not in Microsoft’s DNA to provide high-quality, frequently updated security protection… Making a significantly scaled-back version of that same substandard security technology free won’t change that equation.” Ouch!
Are Your Secrets Safe Here?
Posted by admin on Feb 10, 2009
Taken from Report on Small Business, November 2008 Edition
Written by Craig Silverman
Every business – no matter how small – is vulnerable to security breaches. A survey by security software provider McAfee earlier this year found that more than 30% of small- and medium-sized companies in North America have suffered a cyber attack. Yet 40% of IT professionals in those companies still don’t believe their online systems are at risk.
“Small businesses often have a relaxed culture because they consist of a small group of people who all know each other,” says Nasrin Rezai, director of global information security at Cisco Systems. “That means the company didn’t start with a culture of protecting information.” The key is to recognize that educating employees is as important to shoring up a company’s defences as buying technology.
“There is always a human element to security, and if you don’t address this and couple it with a technical solution, you’ll never have a reasonable security model,” says Malcolm Harkins, general manager of information security at Intel Canada.
As a starting point, consider the humble office cubicle, which is home to an array of security shortcomings that the average employee never thinks about.
1) Many employees like to keep a list of their colleagues’ phone numbers taped to a cubicle wall. Problems arise, however, when workers receive printed versions of the company’s entire directory, complete with titles, home and cell numbers and e-mail addresses. This company road map can be useful to thieves, who can cite insiders’ names to gain access to the office and its systems. Restrict hard-copy directories to a listing of names and extension numbers.
2) Passwords can be too complex. Instead of committing them to memory, employees write them on Post-it notes and stick them on monitors. When this happens, says Intel’s Malcolm Harkins, “security controls are driving behaviours that make the risk higher.” Passwords should be at least 10 characters long, and include both numbers and letters. Change your password every couple of months.
3) USB keys are a convenient way to carry documents and share them with colleagues. Unfortunately, these storage devices are easily lost and stolen. Banning their use in the office is one option, says Harkins,”but then people simply print out hard copies or burn files to a CD”. Instead, insist that staffers refrain from storing sensitive data on USBs or CDs unless it is encrypted.
4) Smartphones store reams of proprietary corporate and personal information. They also frequently sit unprotected on desks and in other public areas. Use the phone’s password feature to prevent anyone from accessing your e-mail or other data. Demand that staff notify IT the second a phone is lost or stolen.
5) So much for the paperless office: Employees often leave confidential information lying on desktops and in printer trays. For thieves and unscrupulous competitors, such finds are as good as gold.
Take a moment a look around your operation, and see what potential security risks you have… and prevent it.
Vista Features You Can Disable Right Now
Posted by admin on Nov 4, 2008
There are a few features in Windows Vista that you can remove or disable, and probably not affect your use of the operating system at all. Since running unnecessary processes in the background can rob you of system performance, it is a good idea to turn off what you do not use… especially if your system is less than top-of-the-line.
Remote Assistance – Click on Start, right-click Computer and select Properties. Click Remote Settings. Uncheck Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer.
Internet Printing Client – Open the Programs and Features control panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left; you’ll get the Windows Features dialog box. Expand the Print Services section and uncheck Internet Printing Client. Click OK, and reboot when prompted.
Windows Meeting Space – Open the Programs and Features control panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left; you’ll get the Windows Features dialog box. Simply uncheck Windows Meeting Space.
Tablet PC Stuff – First, open the Program and Features control panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left; you’ll get the Windows Features dialog box. Uncheck Tablet PC Optional Components. Then click on Start, tupe in services and press Enter. Find and double-click Tablet PC Input Services. In the Startup Type drop-down menu, select Disabled and then click OK.
Asus’s Unusually Compact Eee Box PC
Posted by admin on Nov 4, 2008
Taken from PCWorld Magazine, November 2008 Edition
Asus’s Eee Box features a smaller footprint and a slimmer profile than the average laptop – and yet it’s designed to sit on your desk. The Eee Box is a bargain as a basic home PC, but the machine’s performance is not high-end.
The Eee Box comes with a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 80GB Hard Drive. It also has an integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chip that relies on shared video memory.
Though the Eee Box will do fine for browsing online and for word processing, it is hardly a robust unit. In some ways, though, performance is not the point: The system is designed to be a basic, power-saving network-attached device. Asus says that the Box draws just 15 to 20 watts of power – a smaller amount than most laptops use.
The Eee Box is a great value that’s geared toward students, as well as home and small-office users. That the system comes with Windows XP Home, Microsoft Works and StarOffice only sweetens the deal.
ICS Note: These small systems can even be mounted on the back of an LCD Monitor, making a very compact and user-friendly workstation.
Use Google Alerts to your Advantage
Posted by admin on Sep 27, 2008
Google Alerts can be used to send an email to you whenever a search shows new results. For instance, you can use it to keep track of your personal identity. Go to www.google.com/alerts and serach for your own name, using the comprehensive search. You will also need to choose the frequency (I chose weekly) and enter your email address. You will be sent a confirmation email to approve the alert. Now, any time the search results change, you will be sent an email so that you can check out when your name is being used.
Another great way to use Google Alerts is to keep track of your website ranking in Google Search. In the search terms, enter your domain name (in our case, icscomputers.ca) and choose the comprehensive search. I again, chose weekly notification, and entered my email address. Whenever someone links to your site, or the search results for your domain name change in any way, you will be notified.
Sometimes the Best Things in Life ARE Free
Posted by admin on Sep 24, 2008
Here is a list of some of the best – and FREE! – programs you can find.
If you are a customer of ICS, then you know that our favourite anti-virus program is AVG, and for many home users, the FREE version is plenty good enough. You can download it at free.avg.com
If you are attempting to switch from Norton to AVG (or any other antivirus program for that matter) we suggest that you download and run the Norton Removal Tool first. This little utility published by Symantec removes all the remnants of any of Norton’s products. You can find it at symantec.com
Another great little program for doing a bit of housekeeping, is a little gem called CCleaner (it used to be called Crap Cleaner). We still cannot beleive that it is free… since it does so much that would normally take hours to do. You can use this link to get your very own copy.
If you use Microsoft Office at work, and would like to use it at home… but cannot justify the $199 for the Home & Student version, then consider OpenOffice. This great office suite is created by the same community that gave us Linux… and its FREE! Download your copy at OpenOffice.org
Ever need to create a bz2 archive? What about any of the compression formats that WinZip does not support? Download and install 7-zip, and you will never have a problem with a compressed archive again. Get it at 7-zip.org
Minimize greedy RAM gobblers and find memory holes in programs using a great little tool from Kerkia called Minimem. Originally designed for Firefox, the author has re-coded it work with any program. Get it at kerkia.net
Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor is a sidebar gadget for Windows Vista that displays informaiton about your current Wi-Fi connection, as well as nearby hotspots. You’ll be able to see how strong the signal is, and get your IP and MAC addresses. You can get that from Microsoft’s Vista Gadget link or directly from Xirrus.
Sprout is the quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more. Any size, any number of pages. Include video, audio, images and newsfeeds and choose from dozens of pre-built components and web services. Try it out at sproutbuilder.com
x86 Turns 30
Posted by admin on Aug 27, 2008
Taken from MaximumPC, September 2008 Edition
Three short decades ago, Intel launched the 8086 processor to compete in the fledgling 16-bit general-purpose processor market. Little did the company know that this modest proc was destined to father the most popular CPU architecture of our time. Since 1978, Intel and its competition have extended the basic architecture multiple times, shipped literally billions of processors, and changed the world! Happy Birthday!
True or False: It’s Best To Leave Your PC Running 24/7
Posted by admin on Jul 17, 2008
Taken from PCWorld Magazine, August 2008 Edition
For a couple of decades now, various people – inlcuding a few otherwise-brilliant IT pros – have been telling people that it’s better to leave your PC running around the clock than to shut it off at night and boot it back up in the morning. If you never shut down your computer, the reasoning goes, you wills save wear and tear on your components and extend the life of your machine. Top tech types at HP, Seagate and other major companies do not know how this rumor was born. But they all agree on one thing: It’s bogus.
“If you don’t care at all about energy consumption, or your carbon footprint, then there’s no great downside to leaving your PC running”, says Ken Bosley, a 12-year veteran of HP’s Personal Systems Group who has spent years researching hard-drive reliability. “But you shouldn’t waste energy to extend the life of a computer by a very small amount.”
Bosley discounts the notion that shutting down and starting up a computers puts undue stress on the components, noting that most systems are retired because of obselescence, not because of hardware failure.
Always-on proponents cite hard-drive longevity in particular as a major reason never to shut down. But Seagate staff engineer Billy Ruddock says, “Turning off the system is usually best to prolong hard-drive life.” Unless you’re talking about servers, most computers’ hard disks are simply not designed for continuous operation.
Besides, Ruddock notes, “Windows operating systems execute various important housekeeping tasks during shutdown and startup – another very good reason for turning off a system.”
ICS Note: We suggest for business systems, that you leave the systems on, and turn off the monitor. That way, you can schedule maintenance tasks to run at night (ie. virus scan, defrag, etc.) For home systems, we recommend that you turn your systems off when you are not using them.
Make Vista’s User Account Control Less Annoying
Posted by admin on Jun 18, 2008
Taken from PCWorld Magazine, May 2008 Edition
Windows Vista’s User Account Control feature is a constant annoyance for many users, but turning it off entirely can leave your system vulnerable to online threats. Fortunately, you can do a bit of fine tuning via the Group Policy Editor to disable the most irritating parts of this feature without ditching it altogether.
Here’s how to tweak the appropriate settings in this configuration tool. Click Start, type gpedit.msc, press <Enter>, and then click through the UAC prompt. In the left pane, find Local Computer Policy/ComputerConfiguration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options. Now with Security Options selected in the left pane, look for ‘User Account Control options’ on the right.
To retain the benefit of UAC, leave it turned on but set it to stop prompting you. Double-click User Account Control: Behaviour of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode. Choose Elevate without prompting, and click OK. A pop-up will complain that UAC is not on, ignore it.
You can also surpress UAC prompts entirely. It’s not as safe as the defalt settings, but it’s more peaceful.
Vista Home Premium doesnot have the Group Policy Object Editor. To make the change in that version, you will have to edit the registry. This is something that we do not recommend for the average user.
Windows 7
Posted by admin on Jun 18, 2008
Taken from PCWorld Magazine, May 2008 Edition
Microsoft recently dropped two strong hints that the next version of its Windows operating system will arrive in 2009, up to a year sooner than anticipated.
The hints might signal Microsoft’s intention to cut its losses with Windows vista, which customers, especially large companies, have grudgingly accepted or shunned.
The company has long said that it wants to release Windows 7 about three years after Vista, and most outsiders had pegged 2010 as a likely arrival year for the new OS. But recently in Miami, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates reportedly said in response to a question about Vista, “Sometime in the next year or so we’ll have a new version”.
And in announcing plans to extend the availability of Windows XP Home for low-cost laptops, Microsoft said it would retire the OS only after June 30, 2010, or one year after the release of Windows 7, whichever came first.
The annoucement’s wording implies that the company may be targeting the middle of next year as a release milestone for Windows 7.
Microsoft has divulged few of the changes planned for the new operating system.
