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Over the years, I’ve run into several situations where I needed remote access to a computer. Before I found a solution I can remember frustrating conversations with my parents, who live about 3 hours away. They’d call because they were having a computer problem and I’d listen to what was happening and try to walk them through solutions. Many times the problem wouldn’t get resolved and we’d all be frustrated because of the difficulty of trying to troubleshoot without being able to see the problem.

Thanks to some excellent companies who provide free remote access software I can now log into their computer, see their desktop and remotely control their computer to quickly resolve the problem. If you’re concerned about security, both programs I recommend use a secure connection and authentication so you never have to worry about someone else logging in.

I’ve found two different situations requiring remote desktop control and the perfect piece of free software for each. The first is when you want to remotely access a computer when nobody is on the other end. Maybe you need to access a file or your email on your home computer from work or while on vacation. I’ve remotely accessed my home PC on more than one occasion and emailed myself a file I needed. I also work with a couple computers at church that I sometimes need to access from home.

For situations like these the perfect free solution is LogMeIn.com. The process is simple. From the computer you want to remotely access, go to LogMeIn.com and on the home page click the link to Download LogMeIn Free. Fill out the short signup form, download the software and install it on the PC. Once that’s done you can remotely access that computer from anywhere as long as it’s turned on. From any other computer just go to LogMeIn.com, log in to your account and very quickly you’ll have full remote access to that computer.

The other situation is when a friend or relative calls and wants you to help them with a computer problem. In these situations you probably haven’t had the opportunity to install LogMeIn on their computer and quite possibly they wouldn’t want you to be able to access it at any time anyway. As long as their computer has internet access and they can take a couple minutes to get their PC ready there’s an excellent free solution for this type of situation as well. TeamViewer is a fairly new program but I’ve used it several times and really like it.

Have the person needing help go to TeamViewer.com and from the home page click the Start Customer Module link. When they click the link they’ll get the option to either Run or Save the file. They can just click Run. The file is a little under 1MB so, on a broadband connection, it should only take a couple seconds to download and install. Once installed, the program will present a window with an ID and a Password. They’ll need to give you both of these in order for you to connect to them.

At this point you’ll also want to go to TeamViewer.com and click the Start Full Version link. This will download and install a program that’s just a little over 1MB. Once it’s running, it’ll allow you to enter the ID and Password the person on the other end gave you and, within seconds, you’ll have full remote access to their computer desktop.

Please keep in mind that the free versions of these programs are for personal use only, but if you want to use them for business purposes, both companies sell a commercial version.

Thank you to both LogMeIn.com and TeamViewer.com for providing free software that has made remote computer access simple and made frustrating troubleshooting phone calls a thing of the past!

Regards,

-Bert

LogMeIn Tutorial:

 

In a recent article I wrote about the importance of protecting your computer from viruses, trojans and other forms of malware. Once a computer gets infected like attracts like and you can quickly find our PC so badly infected that getting back to a clean state will either be a time consuming or costly experience.

When it comes to our computer security there is no silver bullet. There’s not a single product on the market that can detect or clean 100% of the known malware.

Most antivirus programs use a database of signatures to identify malware. ThreatFire, on the other hand, looks at the behavior of the programs on your PC and effectively identifies the malicious ones and stops them in their tracks. With the number of new threats increasing daily using a behavior based anti-malware is essential to catch the ones your antivirus program doesn’t have definitions for yet.

There are a lot of things I really like about ThreatFire. It literally takes about one minute to install, the default settings are more than adequate to stop the bad guys, updates are installed automatically, and it has a very small footprint so you won’t even know it’s there until you need it.

Although ThreatFire does an excellent job of stopping malware from installing on your PC it shouldn’t be used to clean up an infected computer, nor should it be your only line of defense. Using a firewall and having a definition based antivirus program running will do well to round out your PC security. See my Computer Security article for suggestions.

WARNING: Since publishing this article I’ve installed ThreatFire on 4 PCs with Windows XP Home edition and in every case it caused the PC to lock up continuously. All of the PCs had to be restarted several times and the problem was only resolved by uninstalling ThreatFire. I tested ThreatFire on Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista and didn’t run into any problems. I reported the problem to the ThreatFire developers but haven’t gotten a response from them.

I won’t be loading ThreatFire on any more computers until I’m satisfied the issue has been fixed and I can only suggest that you do the same.

I’m currently evaluating the new version of AVG and will give it a review soon. If you’re currently using AVG and have been told you need to upgrade, getting to the free version can be a little tricky. Use this link to save some time & confusion: Download AVG Antivirus.

Happy Computing!

-Bert

For a long time about your only option for easily taking screen-shots was to buy Snag-It. Although I’ve seen some folks who are very good at using the Windows built in PrtSc and Paint I find that too cumbersome for the average computer user. I’ve been a Snag-It fan for years but at $40 per license and 4 computers in the house it’s hard to justify it. I think most people would only have an occasional need for such a program so once again, why spend $40 if there are other options?

Today, I was working on our new laptop and needed to take a screen-shot so I went looking for a free alternative on Download.com. After reading a bunch of reviews I decided to try ScreenHunter 5 Free. It’s a small application at 3.5MB so it was a quick download and install. The only part of the installation I changed was to NOT install the browser toolbar. If I installed the toolbar for every program that asked to install one I’d probably have about a dozen toolbars taking up space and resources so I normally skip that part.

One thing I noticed about ScreenHunter 5 is that on Download.com it didn’t say anything about it being compatible with Vista. I’m using Vista Home Premium and didn’t have any problems with the install or using the application.

Like Snag-It, ScreenHunter 5 gives you some options. By pressing the From button you can choose what key should be pressed to trigger a screen-shot being taken (the default is F6). You can also choose what to capture, the active window, full screen or a rectangular area. My favorite is the rectangular area because I can capture anything I want, anywhere on the screen. (The screen-shots below were taken using ScreenHunter 5)

By pressing the To button you can choose to save the captured image to the clipboard, which is great for just pasting the screen-shot into an email or a Word doc. Or you can automatically save them as a file.

Overall ScreenHuner 5 is super simple to use and I highly recommend it.

Regards,

-Bert

According to Symantec’s recent Internet Security Threat Report  the number of malicious software (malware) detected has surpassed the one million mark. Unfortunately the number of new viruses, trojans and spyware is increasing at an alarming rate, with nearly 70% of the existing malware being created in 2007. Trojan Horses lead the pack of infections by a large margin.

Not only are malicious programs on the increase, they’re also becoming more tenacious. It’s becoming harder for the average computer user to clean up their computer after it’s been infected. In many cases malware quickly multiplies from one infection to dozens, making restoring the computer to a clean state extremely difficult without professional assistance.

In the past the most common way your computer could become infected was by opening an email attachment. Today, the most common way to get infected is by visiting an infected website. Since most people own a computer to surf the internet and email the chances of your computer becoming infected are very high. Panda Security, in a recent test, found that 23% of computers with up to date security solutions are infected with malware. Depending on the source, anywhere from 70-90% of computers that aren’t running a current antivirus program are already infected.

The dangers of an infected computer are scary. Besides the annoyance of pop-up windows and a slow computer much of the current malware is designed to monitor your surfing habits, display advertisements for bogus software promising to remove viruses, and record your login usernames and passwords for sites you visit, including banking and credit card sites. “Increasingly, Symantec has observed that malicious activity has moved away from targeting computers and towards targeting end users themselves. Specifically, attackers are targeting confidential end-user information that can be used in fraudulent activity for financial gain.”

Many people are quick to degrade Microsoft because most malware targets their operating system and web browser. But since 90% of computers in use today run a Microsoft Operating System it’s obvious why they’re the main target. That being said, if you have no intention of insuring your computer is protected from malware you should either buy a Mac or switch to one of the popular Linux Operating Systems, like Ubuntu.

If you continue to use a Microsoft Operating System, like Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, then your only choices are to either insure you’re properly protected or become a victim of malware. Here are some things anyone running a Microsoft Operating System should do:

1. Turn on Microsoft Automatic Updates and set them to install automatically.

2. Insure you have System Restore turned on in case you need it.

3. Back up your important computer files like tax files, resumes, etc..

4. Run antivirus software with current updates. If you’re antivirus definition updates have expired the program is useless. Here are some great options.

Free Programs - Use AGV Free Edition or Avira AntiVir.

Paid Programs - Use NOD32 or Avira Antivir.

5. Run antispyware software with current updates. If you’re running a free antivirus program or your antivirus program doesn’t protect against spyware make sure your running one of these free programs as well. Spyware Terminator or Windows Defender.

6. Consider using Firefox or Opera instead of Internet Explorer for web surfing.

7. Don’t open email from people you don’t know. Even the pictures shown in emails can infect your computer.

8. Never respond to an email that appears to be from your bank or credit card company asking you to go to a website to verify any personal account information. If you get an email like that delete the email and call them using a phone number you have on file for them.

9. Insure you have your Windows firewall turned on, or an even better option is the free Comodo firewall.

10. Don’t install free programs unless they’re from a reliable source like download.com.

11. Don’t use P2P file sharing programs like BitTorrent, Limewire, Morpheus, etc..

The stakes are high when it comes to your computer security and protection. There are now over one million malicious programs out there intent on stealing your identity and financial information, invading your privacy, and destroying what should be an enjoyable computing experience. Following these 11 computer security tips will help you to be safe and not become a victim.

Happy Computing!

-Bert

Have you ever been reading something on your computer and thought, “wow, that font size is so small it’s making my eyes hurt”? There’s a really easy way to increase or decrease the font size. Simply press the Ctrl key on your keyboard and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to increase or decrease the size.

If you don’t have a scroll wheel on your mouse you can press Ctrl and use the + and - keys on your keyboard. Pressing Ctrl 0 (zero) will set it back to the original size.

I’ve found this works in both Windows XP and Vista in nearly any application. It’ll even increase or decrease the size of your desktop icons. Give it a try!

Regards,

-Bert

Time is quickly running out for Windows XP. If we had a better option than XP I’d be all for it but if you follow this blog you know that Vista still has a long way to go before it gets my vote.

On June 30th Microsoft plans to stop selling Windows XP so please click the link below and sign the petition to save XP.

http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/

If you’re currently running Vista beware of installing SP1. Here’s an excellent article about it:

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 infects, wrecks computers

Regards,

-Bert

If you run Windows Vista you may have encountered one its many bugs if you’ve ever tried to unzip a compressed file. A file with a ZIP extension is simply one or several files that have been compressed into a single, smaller file. It’s common when downloading files from the Internet to get them in ZIP format.

This evening I was reminded of the issue when I downloaded a fairly small ZIP file. It contained 580 files but was less than 2MBs so it should have unzipped in a few seconds. Using Vista extraction would have taken over an hour!

Hopefully Microsoft will come out with a patch soon but in the meantime I’d suggest downloading the free 7-Zip program HERE.

Using 7-Zip I extracted all 580 files in about 2 seconds. Sure beats waiting 1+ hour using the Vista method!

Regards,

-Bert

In a perfect world you’d never have to worry about losing any of the important files on your computer. But in reality the chances of you losing everything on your computer are pretty high. Most people have pictures, tax files, resumes and a host of other important files on their computer but have never made a backup copy. A hard drive crash or a virus could wipe out everything tomorrow, so why haven’t you backed up your data yet?

I believe the reason most people haven’t backed up their files is that they’re not sure how to do it. So today, let’s look at some simple ways to give your data a second life and give you some peace of mind.

An important first consideration is to insure that all your files are in one place. By that, I mean that if you save all your files in your My Documents then it makes it easy to find all the files you need to back up. In fact you can simply backup that one folder, along with its contents, and you’re done. On the other hand if you commonly save files on your desktop or other places on your computer you have to remember where they are so you can back them up as well. Personally, I’d move everything into the My Documents folder.

If you don’t have a lot of media like music and pictures to backup the easiest thing to do is buy an inexpensive USB flash drive (click HERE for a 4GB Kingston flash drive  with great reviews and for only $22 at Amazon.com). If you do have a lot of media I’d suggest buying an external hard drive. You can find a great hard drive for around $100 at Amazon as well.

Once you have an external device to back up your files you could simply copy your important files by dragging your files from your My Documents to the external drive. For a one time backup that works great, but if you’re like most people, you’re constantly creating new files that should be backed up as well. If you’d like to easily schedule regular backups I’d suggest using a free program called SyncBack. Click HERE to get it at Download.com. Syncback allows you to choose what you want to back up and schedule it to run automatically. I’d suggest setting up a weekly or monthly backup of your files.

In case of a fire or natural disaster it may be a good idea to keep a copy of important files in another location. If you can’t afford to buy an external drive or would prefer having your files offsite I’d suggest using MediaMax.com. They allow you to store 25GBs of data online for free. They’ve even recently added a free backup & synchronization service. It’s secure and easy to use.

An article about data backups wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Acronis True Image. If your hard drive were to ever crash you’d have buy a new hard drive, then reinstall your Operating System, the drivers, all your programs and finally re-load all the files you backed up. Acronis True Image costs $50 but it allows you to make an exact image of your entire hard drive so, should yours fail, you would install a new hard drive and restore the Acronis image and your computer would be exactly like it was the last time you created the image. An Acronis image would save several hours of work so unless you were intending to just buy a new computer if yours ever crashed you may want to consider this option.

This article has given you several simple options to backup your computer files but the most important thing I can leave you with is to do something now. Knowledge without action is useless and you’ll appreciate the piece of mind you’ll have knowing your most important files are safely backed up.

Regards,

-Bert

Windows Vista has been plagued with problems from the time it was introduced. Although it has some nice display features and improved security it’s downsides are that it’s memory hungry, non-friendly with older hardware, and prone to bugs and crashing. The latest problem involves Vista SP1 rendering several applications inoperable, including popular antivirus programs (ZoneAlarm and Trend Micro to name just two of them). You can get more info here.

For those reasons I’ve still been advising people in the market for new PCs to stick with Windows XP. Because of that I wanted to let people know that the cutoff date for purchasing Windows XP is June 30th, 2008. I hope that date is extended but I wouldn’t count on it.

Also, Microsoft is stating a cutoff date for support of XP Home of April 14th, 2009. That’s when they intend to stop providing patches for consumer versions. My advice is that if you’re in the market for a new computer, try to get one with Windows XP Pro prior to June 30th.

Apparently NVIDIA (a popular video card) drivers are responsible for nearly 30% of Vista crashes in 2007. Microsoft claims responsibility for another 18%. Interesting article about that here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/.

Regards,

-Bert

This is the 3rd and final part to my series on speeding up a slow computer. In Part 1 we checked to insure you have enough memory (RAM). In Part 2 we made better use of the RAM you have by turning off unnecessary programs.

By this point you should already see a big increase in the speed of your computer. In our final part we’re going to use a free program to clean up all the junk files that Windows likes to collect and check a couple of other things.

Remember back when your computer was new and it seemed so fast, but over time it just kept getting slower and slower? The main reason for that is because Windows likes to save a lot of files that are not only unnecessary but they slow down your computer.

The program I’ve been using and recommending for a few years is CCleaner. It’s a small program that doesn’t take long to download and install. You can download it at Download.com. I highly recommend Download.com whenever you’re looking for a free program to do some task on your computer. See my article, “Free Software, is it worth it?”. Click HERE to go to Download.com and download CCleaner.

CCleaner will clean up several areas, including the Temp files and Cookies from Internet Explorer or just about any other Internet Browser. If you have Cookies that store web-page settings and stored passwords you may want to go into Options in CCleaner, click on Cookies and select any Cookies from websites you want to save by moving them to the “Cookies to Keep” area.

CCleaner also cleans up Windows Explorer, the System, and any applications you have that like to store files. CCleaner also includes a Registry Cleaner that you can run seperately if you wish. You should never run any registry cleaner unless you first set a System Restore Point first in case you need to go back.

The first time you run CCleaner you’ll get a message stating CCleaner will delete files. Uncheck that box so you don’t get this message every time you run CCleaner. CCleaner only deletes unnecessary files that slow down your computer.

I’d recommend running CCleaner every couple weeks. You’ll be amazed at how much junk Windows collects and how much getting rid of it can speed up your computer!

There are a couple more simple things you can do that can add a little more kick to your computer.

The first thing is to turn off hard drive Indexing. Click Start and open “My Computer” right-click on your C: drive and go into Properties. Uncheck the box that says “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching”. Apply this change to C:\subfolders and files when you get the confirmation window. This may take several minutes to run. You’ll only have to do this once though.

The second thing you can do is Defragment your hard drive. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Click the Analyze button and you’ll get a message letting you know if your hard drive needs to be defragmented. If you decide to Defragment your hard drive, this is another function that can take several minutes to run. I usually Defragment my hard drive about once per year.

If you’d like to see a 25 minute video where you can look over my shoulder as I walk you step-by-step through what I do to speed up and optimize a computer click HERE.

One final bit of advice… If your computer is infected by a virus or adware your computer is going to be slow and do things like: change your Internet Homepage, give you endless pop-ups telling you need to buy some software (don’t do it!), produce system errors and a host of other annoying things. The things I’ve covered in this series of posts may help but your computer will never run right until you get rid of the malware (malicious software). If this sounds like your problem you can start by going to http://www.eset.com/onlinescan and running a free virus scan.

Regards,

-Bert