There’s no easier way to back up your data or transfer a lot of data from one PC to another than by using an external hard drive.
Tiger Direct has an excellent deal on a 500GB Western Digital external hard drive for $84.99. I have this same hard drive in the 250GB version and love it. The hard drive is super easy to hook up. It’s small, quiet and fast.
Get one while they’re on sale!
-Bert
There are so many different kinds of viruses, trojans, spyware, and adware they’re often all lumped together and just referred to as as malware (malicious software). By the end of 2009 experts predict that there will over a million malware programs trying to disrupt your computing experience and steal your personal information.
The sad reality is that most people don’t use effective virus protection or follow my 11 steps to protect their computers from viruses and other malware. Not only are most computers at risk but, until someone’s computer actually gets infected by malware, they don’t even think about it.
If you’re one of those people one day you’ll probably experience one or more of the following signs and symptoms of computer malware:
1. Lots of annoying pop-up advertisements.
2. Dialog boxes popping up telling you that you have a virus or other problems.
3. New toolbars on your internet browser.
4. Your internet Home Page has changed.
5. New Favorites in your browser that you didn’t put there.
6. Your computer has slowed down or even crashes and restarts on its own.
7. Programs not working or files not opening.
If you ever get a pop-up window telling you that your computer has a virus or registry problem and telling you to buy some program to fix the problem, DON’T! 99% of these are viruses, trojans and adware just trying to sell you software that will just make things worse. All they want is your money.
This is exactly what you need to do if you’re experiencing any of the signs/symptoms above:
1. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. (Save it to your desktop)
2. Close all programs and windows on your PC, including your web browser.
3. Rename the downloaded mbam-setup.exe file to mb.exe to help work around certain malware that will block it from being run.
4. On your Desktop double-click mb.exe to install the removal program. Leave the default settings.
5. Update the program if asked and begin the Quick Scan.
6. After it’s finished running click the Remove Selected button.
7. When finished you can close the program.
If you’re still experiencing problems, run an online scan at Eset.com.
To keep from getting infected in the future, follow my 11 steps to computer security.
Happy Computing!
-Bert
If I needed a new home computer today, I’d buy this Acer Aspire AM1100-B1410A Refurbished AMD Desktop PC - AMD Athlon X2 4000 2 .1GHz, 2GB DDR2, 320GB SATA2, DVD±RW, Vista Home Premium.
This is a great deal on a refurbished PC so hurry if you want one!
For another $120 you can get a 17 inch widescreen LCD monitor to go with it:
Tiger Direct’s shipping is very fast so you should get it within a few days!
-Bert
I’m a firm believer in not having to pay for top-notch virus protection for your computer. Prior to AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 I would install AVG on some computers I’d repair while I’d use Avira’s AntiVir on others. Both were free and worked great.
I upgraded to the free AVG 8.0 in July 08 and really like the enhancements. AVG added spyware protection along with its superb virus protection in this version. Since many virus infections are delivered via website drive-by downloads AVG included LinkScanner technology that checks websites when you do a Google, Yahoo or MSN search. LinkScanner doesn’t work yet in Google’s new Chrome browser but it does work in Internet Explorer and Firefox. AVG continues to include free email scanning for Microsoft Outlook as well.
The bottom line with any antivirus software (free or not) is how well does it protect your computer and, nearly as important, does it use up all your resources slowing down your system? On both points I’d give AVG top marks. According to other reviews it does a better job of preventing virus infections than it does cleaning up infections but in most cases it will leave nearly all viruses non-functional. AVGs scans are fast and its real-time protection won’t slow down your computer like a lot of bloated (and expensive) security software suites.
Download.com gives AVG Anti-Virus 5 stars and over 16,000 users have given it an average of 4 out of 5 stars. Personally, I give the new version 5 stars and have installed it on 3 of my home systems and have started installing it on every system I repair.
Happy Computing!
-Bert
In creating this list my goal was to provide you with accurate and non-partisan websites that can help you decide who to vote for and that will give you timely information on the upcoming election between John McCain and Barack Obama.
The following links show you where McCain and Obama stand on the issues:
www.2decide.com - Simple format
www.ontheissues.org - Detailed comparisons
If you’d like to take an interactive approach to finding a candidate who shares your views check out this Candidate-Match-Game from USA Today.
The following links show you where McCain and Obama stand in recent polls:
The following links can help separate the facts from the fiction you’re hearing in television ads and the media:
Please exercise your right to vote in the upcoming election this November!
-Bert
By day I’m an application developer but on most evenings and weekends I fix other people’s computers. No matter what’s wrong with a computer I fix, the one thing I do to every one of them is optimize it.
Most computers are loaded down with junk software, so even if it’s brand new, it still runs slower than it could. Also, over time Windows collects a lot of junk that accumulates and slows down your computer even more.
A while back I made a video that shows exactly what I do to every computer to speed it up and optimize it. If you watch the video and take these simple steps your computer should boot up faster and run faster.
The best part is I’m making this video available for free. For how long, I haven’t decided yet 
Here’s the link: http://fix-my-slow-pc.com/
Enjoy!
-Bert
If you’re a Google user it would be hard to miss the promotion of their new web browser called Chrome. I’ve been using it for about a week now and must admit, I really like it. If you don’t know anything about it yet watch their Features videos and give it a try.
The things I like most are the simplicity of it, the way you can drag the tabs around, and how it saves your most common pages so they’re easy to get at as soon as you open a new tab.
I also like that it has its own Task Manager that makes it easy to shut down a page that isn’t woking. And, if one page crashes all your open windows don’t crash/close as well. I should also mention that Chrome loads pages very fast.
I’ve used IE, Opera and Firefox for years and am pretty impressed with Googles first attempt at a web browser so, unless there’s something I’m missing, I’ll be using Chrome from now on.
Have a great day!
-Bert
I recently fixed a Dell laptop that wouldn’t boot into Windows normal mode or Safe Mode. As soon as Windows tried to boot I’d get the blue screen showing Error 0×0000000024 and no other information.
Another problem was that the computer wouldn’t boot from the CD drive. Normally when this happens I simply go into the BIOS setup and change the boot order so it boots from the CD drive first, then the C: drive. Someone had password protected the Phoenix BIOS and nobody knew the password. Fortunately this computer had another option. By tapping the F12 key after hitting the power key it brought up a Boot Menu so I could choose to boot from the CD drive.
Once I was able to boot from the CD drive I ran some hardware diagnostics and didn’t find any problems there. The solution to the problem was actually quite simple. I put in a copy of Windows XP Home and booted into Recovery Console. From there I ran the command line ‘chkdsk /r’ which took about 15 minutes to run. It made some repairs so I rebooted and it worked, no more blue screen 0×0000000024 error.
Have a great day!
-Bert
This Labor Day weekend I fixed another PC infected with Antivirus XP 2008. This is a very common infection so I thought I’d let my readers know what I did to remove it.
The good folks over at www.bleepingcomputer.com suggest probably the quickest way to remove the Antivirus XP 2008 infection at http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-antivirus-xp-2008. If you go there, be sure to come back here to step 7.
1. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. (Right-Click and save to your desktop)
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe
2. Close all programs and windows on your PC, including your web browser.
3. On your Desktop double-click mbam-setup.exe to install the removal program. Leave the default setting.
4. Update the program if asked and begin the Quick Scan.
5. After it’s finished running click the Remove Selected button.
6. When finished you can close the program.
7. This program does a fast and great job removing Antivirus XP 2008 but it doesn’t restore your desktop or fix your Display properties window so it shows all of the tabs. To fix those, open your registry by clicking Start > Run > Type “regedit” > Enter > Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\System and find ‘NoDispBackgroundPage’ and/or ‘NoDispScrSavPage’ and change the values to 0. While your in the registry editor search for ‘RestoreOpenIsSafe’ and change the value to 1. If you found RestoreOpenIsSafe once search for it one more time and make the the same change again. After you’ve made these changes close the Registry Editor.
8. Now you can open your display properties and change your desktop background to something else. Make a note of what was selected as your background image.
9. Search your PC for the image file that was selected in step 8 and delete it.
10. Finally, to insure your PC doesn’t have any more infections go to www.eset.com/onlinescan and run a full scan.
Hope that helps. Follow my advice HERE to keep your computing experience safe and secure.
Have a great day!
-Bert
Since the dawn of the internet there have been people writing malicious programs intent on ruining your computing experience.
In the beginning viruses were like teenagers spray-painting walls. They seemed to arise out of boredom and had no other purpose than to bother you. For the most part these early viruses were pretty easy to get rid of.
As time went on and the internet became more popular the people writing the malicious code had only one thing in mind, using their programs to steal your money.
Recently I read that creating spyware, viruses and trojans is a very profitable business. Seven billion dollars a year is stolen from people like you and me by people who can’t seem to make a living any other way. They certainly aren’t making a positive impact in the world in which they live.
Emailing their destructive code has been their method of choice for several years. They figure, all they have to do is get you to open your email and they win. How much easier is it for them now that they’re able to spoof their email address so it looks like it’s coming from a Fortune 500 company.
In the past couple weeks there have been two very large companies who have put out warnings to not open email from them. First there was UPS who put out the following warning:
We have become aware there is a fraudulent e-mail being sent that says it is coming from UPS and leads the reader to believe that a UPS shipment could not be delivered. The reader is advised to open an attachment reportedly containing a waybill for the shipment to be picked up. This e-mail attachment contains a virus. We recommend that you do not open the attachment, but delete the e-mail immediately.
And just yesterday Northwest Airlines issued the following warning:
Northwest Airlines on Friday warned e-mail users to watch out for phony messages using the company’s name that may be infected with a computer virus. The Eagan-based carrier said the e-mails contain fake ticket confirmation and enrollment information and infect the user’s computer when attachments are opened. The e-mails thank the recipient for using the new service “Buy flight ticket Online” on the airline’s Web site. It states an account has been set up and gives the e-mail user an account number and password.
For a long time email users have been warned about opening email attachments. The first virus I ever encountered was from a friend who emailed me a cool video. I thought it was so cool I forwarded it to my parents. Unfortunately we all got infected with a computer virus… Thankfully it was pretty easy to rid our computers of it and we all learned a valuable lesson.
Unfortunately, people are still learning this same lesson every day and are more likely to have lost some money in the process.
Thankfully, there are some pretty simple ways you can protect yourself.
1. Install antivirus software that checks your email if you use an email client like Microsoft Outlook. A very good free antivirus program that does this is AVG. If you’d rather pay for antivirus software, use Eset’s Nod32. Most of the major web based email portals like Gmail and Yahoo mail have antivirus software on their server that checks attachments.
2. Delete email from anyone you don’t know or the subject line seems strange. Don’t even open the email message.
3. Even if an email message appears to come from someone you know or a business be skeptical of it and don’t click any links or open any attachments unless you’re absolutely sure it’s legitimate.
Sorry that I haven’t had a chance to write in a while. I live in a place where you only have a few months to enjoy the nice weather outside :).
Happy computing!
-Bert
Bert Moen
