A blast from the past..

Those of you who remember this.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro .. might also remember this character. His name was Repton, a lizard who had a propensity for wanting to gather jewels. All you had to do was to carefully guide him through a maze while avoiding falling boulders, nasty alien insects, skulls, creeping fungus and exploding sprites, all of which would prove fatal without proper advance planning.

When I shut down my BBC Master 512 for the last time in readiness to donate it to a local school. I never thought that I would ever be able to play this game again. Personally, I think that it is probably the most addictive game that I have ever played on a computer. The graphics and sound by today’s standards were incredibly simple, but nobody cared way back then, but while it all looked simple, the game was quite tricky.

Guess what? I have found the game, it is available for the Windows PC and even runs in Windows 7. The game comes in all of the original versions, looks pretty much identical to the original, the soundtrack is more techno than I remember it, and the game is every bit as addictive as ever it was.

Pricing is commensurate for one of the best computer games ever, starting at $19.95, and you can get it here. http://www.superiorinteractive.com/. There are trial versions for those of you who do not believe me.  

Remember the ‘wow’ factor?

How quickly it turned into the ‘Whoa’ factor?

I have been working the Microsoft Answers forum for a while now, and there is one forum group, Hardware and Drivers, which demonstrates the above very quickly. The basic claim is that Windows 7 will run on a less powerful machine than Vista ever could.

OK, I have a less powerful machine, but will Windows 7 run on it? I am not even going to try. You see, I know that there are components which are eminently not compatible with Windows 7 and the reason I know this is because manufacturers don’t like supporting older hardware.

The machine in question is a desktop model. One of the MAJOR benefits is that I can replace hardware devices for something that will work, but what if I had a laptop? I hate to think how many owners of older laptops have wasted cash on buying Windows 7 only to find out too late that Windows 7 compatible hardware drivers need to be made available by the respective hardware manufacturers.

OLDER HARDWARE? The adverts didn’t say anything about Windows 7 not running on older hardware. In fact, Microsoft went to some lengths to say that Windows 7 was more compatible with older hardware than Vista was. The problem is that your average computer user does not distinguish between ‘less powerful’ and ‘older’ because older is less powerful, so it should work, yes?

NO!!

There is no easy answer, and I have mixed feelings about the current advertising. Was Windows 7 really MY IDEA? I don’t think so, especially the new menu and task bar. It is about time that advertising rules were re-worked. If a product is worth anything, it will sell on its feature set and merits, not vague claims to greatness which are difficult to substantiate.

However, little Kylie is ok.. See YouTube – Windows 7 adverts because every time I try to paste a link, the video embeds and the blog is hardly able to open.. grrrrrrrrrr

After a bad day..

.. essentially any day which ends with the letters ‘….day’, what better than to fire up Halo in a trainer and just shoot everything to pieces. This is what I have used as a stress reliever since the game first appeared in 2001/2002.

Windows XP handled it really well, as did Vista, but the display in Windows 7 on my digital 19” widescreen monitor makes it unplayable, and if I don’t find a way to improve it, I will need to install Halo and shoot everything to pieces.

Oops.. can’t do that..

Fable takes far too long to install, and is too in-depth for a quick swash-buckle. Maybe I should install Zoo Tycoon 2, nurture a few ferocious beasts and then let them out of the cages to consume the first visitors to the zoo.

I mean this is why we play computers games, isn’t it. Well, am I right? Where is Tinker when I need him most? Why wasn’t Tinker included in the standard Windows games. I know that he doesn’t shoot anything, but one’s mind is flexed a little more than when playing FreeCell.

A day in the life..

Having promised a 24hr turn around

No original disks.. surprise surprise

Finger marks all over the screen.. again

How do stores get away with selling underpowered junk?

Slow?? It doesn’t even boot !!!!

Oh cool.. the ‘you may have been scammed’ graphic

Ha ha.. soopadoopavirusXPkilla. That will be fun to remove

No disks, no obvious back up device. Why do I have to look for interminable masses of family pics?

If I was to split the charge for the job into an hourly rate, tea pickers in the 19th century were getting more than I am..

Grrrrrrrrrrr..

24 hours later

OK.. all done. Your operating system is no longer ‘illegal’. By the way, who installed it before?

Yes, all of your pictures are safe and sound. Have you thought about copying them to a CD/DVD? You should..

No, its ok. I always stay up into the early hours of the morning.

You should be good to go for at least a year, I have installed good products to keep your computer safe.

oO please please please be good to go for another year Oo

There is a marked difference..

Yesterday, I un-installed Microsoft Office 2007 from my Vista installation. Wow, did that take a time to complete or what. The purpose was to install the newly released Office 2010 Beta.

First attempt – please uninstall FrontPage 2003 and Access server database. More time passed.

Second attempt – it is installing but when will it finish?

It finally did finish, after which I had this unswerving desire to get back to Windows 7. After a few months of using Windows 7, notwithstanding aspects I do not overly like, Windows 7 booted quickly, responded quickly, and was/is a real pleasure. Users with fancy dual core and quad core machines may not notice so much of a difference, but for me and my trusty single core machine, Windows 7 has proved itself to be manna from the skies.

I can see very little reason why, on the right machine, users would not like Windows 7. It looks better and is more secure than XP, and it works faster than Vista. It will breathe new life into the PC market, and anybody who thinks that Mac and Ubuntu will grow in the future are barking up the wrong tree.

Windows 7 is no niche, cutesy or geeky operating system. It carries forward the versatility that Microsoft Windows has always had, and adds stability and speed to the equation. I have said in the not-so-distant past that I would not go back to XP. Well, apart from doing my bit for the Office 2010 Beta, I will not be returning to Vista as an everyday OS.

Footnote - To be honest, I could run the Office 2010 Beta in Windows 7 but would have to use the 32-bit variant because I also run FrontPage 2003, and I want to commit my time to the 64-bit Office 2010..

Heresy..

This statement, made by a UK Microsoft manager, has been called a ‘can of worms’

"What we've tried to do with Windows 7, whether it's traditional format or in a touch format, is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics."

Question.. when haven’t Apple and Microsoft ‘exchanged’ ideas regarding looks, and how many ways can a GUI be made to look very different to all others while still retaining all that a GUI should be?

The original concept came from a couple of Xerox guys who were just messing about during their lunch breaks, and I do believe that Bill Gates saw it at Xerox before Steve Jobs did. It follows that Microsoft had the idea to use it commercially which means that Apple have always copied Microsoft.

The whole thing is like accusing two paints makers of copying each others ideas because both manufacturers have a red colour in their product ranges. Who cares!!

We all know that Windows (and the PC) has the best GUI, is the best bang for the buck, and rules generally. While Mac users work on installing Windows 7 onto the brushed aluminium image boosters, who in their right mind would ever want Mac OSX on a PC? It would be like doing Calculus on a two bead abacus.

I am over ‘50’ and I’m a PC.. ☺

Happy third birthday..

Three years ago today, I was excitedly installing Microsoft Vista Ultimate and Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007. My computer is still running very well, just as it did during that heady night, except that Vista has morphed into Windows 7, and the only part of the original partnership left on my machine is Office 2007.

Normally, one would expect a list of differences and why new is better than old, mini-rants about how much easier Windows 7 is than Vista was. The thing is that Windows 7 is very good because Vista wasn’t, or so I am told because Vista was always good to me, for me. Windows 7 is very good because Vista was very good but some don’t want to see it or admit to it.

There wasn’t any excitement when I installed Windows 7 because there were some features which I already knew that I did not like. I installed it because if I didn’t, I would be left behind in the world of online community support. That was a worse scenario than struggling with an awkward menu system. However, I find the Vista style gadgets and other Vista vestiges reassuring, and all is well..

Thank you Vista, and Happy Birthday. Your offspring is doing ok thanks to the ground rules that you set..   

Extra Extra.. read all about it..

.. well,  at least two ‘Extras’ are making a comeback, except that they will not be Ultimate this time. They will be Windows 7 all versions this time because they will be released to all Windows 7 users.

So, are you on the edge of your seats at the prospect of being able to play Tinker and Hold’em? Maybe not if you were a Vista Ultimate user before, but for those who have never played either game, they may be a novelty.. Needless to say, I was a Vista Ultimate user prior to the switch to Windows 7.

Time to exit stage left before completely dying in front of an audience.. :-(

The search for drivers..

I watched a video of a Windows House Party. The organisers put on a great show, and I was impressed, especially with the six year old PC which is running Windows 7 well, presumably the 32-bit variant.

I have a six year old Intel G845WN. Lets take a look at what I would have to do to get a usable Windows 7 onto it..

It presently has 640mb RAM spread across all three slots, so that would need to go and be replaced by three 512mb modules if I am to get any performance at all. Cost $150. Video is an ATI Radeon 9250 c/w 128mb. This is a keeper as long as I don’t want Aero anything..

Hard drive is a 40gb Maxtor. Hmmmm. No, it has to go too, maybe replace it with a WD 80gb IDE.. Cost $60. The modem is an Intel 536EP, and onboard sound is courtesy of Intel. I am fairly sure that both would work.

So, a quick total.. cdn$210 for parts plus $119 for Windows 7 Home Premium = $329.00.

Ouch!! At the end of the day, I will have a very expensive six year old machine sporting memory that will be useless in the event that the mainboard falls over and dies, and it still will not perform all that well. Certainly not $329 well. The picture would be worse if the machine had a 3rd party sound card installed that I didn’t want to lose, or a webcam, printer, scanner.. 

Manufacturer websites are again taking hits as XP users start the search for Windows 7 drivers. I have done a bit of it while helping computer users in the Microsoft Answers forum, and it is definitely a case of ‘déjà vu’. I remember doing the same thing two years ago for XP users who wanted to upgrade to Vista. Very little has changed.

The problem is that XP users have been told that Windows 7 will run on their machines..

New slippers for your mouse..

Don’t you just love the way that a new mouse glides across a new mouse mat. For the first few days, the mouse is a pleasure to use. Then one day, you boot up your computer, and the mouse feels like it is wearing DMS boots fitted with ice spikes.

The mouse mat suffers too. What was once a low friction plastic surface is now worn to a smooth surface which looks like it should be ok, but actually increases friction.

The same stuff that used to accumulate on the ball and spindles of the old style mouse may not affect the modern day mouse laser but it plays havoc with the mouse paws. The worst is that the more you clean them, the worse the situation gets.

A search on the Internet for new mouse paws reveals nothing at all, so what to do? Well, you can forget harsh cleaners and Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol). The solution to the problem may be closer than you think.

See the photo? This is Scotch® Magic™ Tape. A roll of this stuff will keep your mouse gliding freely for a long time. This particular brand of replacement mouse paws has a ‘silicone’ feeling to its surface which is resistant to whatever builds up on regular mouse paws and mats. There are cheaper brands which may work for you, but I have not tried them. Use at your own risk.

Fitting is a breeze. You pull a little piece of tape from the dispenser, cut it with a pair of sharp scissors to a size marginally bigger than the mouse paws, and then place a piece carefully over each one. Your mouse will once again glide freely. In fact, you may overshoot stuff for a while.

There is a bonus too. This stuff is really useful for many other tasks in the home and office. 

Warning: Only suitable for use on keyboard feet between the hours of midnight and midday, April 1st . 

Windows 7 – In the forums - Part 2

Upgraders to Windows 7 are not all having an easy time of it. Why? Some seem to be under the belief that upgrading to Windows 7 will make a Vista computer work better. It can, but..

• There is a mistaken belief that Windows 7 is more compatible than Vista. Well, there is some truth in the statement, but it is more compatible with hardware and software because so many manufacturers finally produced Vista stuff in the end. Unfortunately, some of the manufacturers coded software and hardware drivers to be OS specific. So, we still have the situation where some Vista stuff will not work in Windows 7 because the manufacturers ensured that it wouldn’t.
• The only systems which will upgrade and not be problematic at the end of the process are those where software and hardware drivers have not been specifically coded, and where the system is pretty much malware free.
• Some upgraders, when told that their present anti-virus solution is not compatible, have uninstalled it and installed one that is accredited with being Windows 7 compatible, when really they should be upgrading with NO anti-virus solution running at all.
• Some have been made aware that all is not compatible, but rather than back off and check for compatible stuff first, have gone ahead with the upgrade anyway.

Computers users who have chosen to clean install, and those who have no option because they are upgrading from XP, face similar problems. While a clean install will generally be less problematic, if there are no drivers and software patches available, the end result will be the same.

In my opinion, anybody considering a migration to the latest and greatest operating system should be prepared to go above and beyond, and accept that there may be additional costs incurred. If an upgrade/migration to the latest OS goes well and everything works as it should without incurring costs, think of it as a bonus, because the draw is very much in the lap of the gods.

Remember this: The only ‘ROLL- BACK’ option available after running an unsuccessful upgrade or migration is the original Vista/XP installation media.

The above is a very good case for waiting until there is a need for a new computer, and then purchasing one that has the new operating system already installed. At least everything contained in the case will work ok..

Windows 7 – In the forums..

There are way too many spurious little problems, and on newish hardware too. I have an aging single core AMD 939 motherboard complete with aging peripheral devices, and Windows Vista 32 and 64-bit variants worked well as does Windows 7 64-bit.

I have a suspicion that it is down to the way that Windows is installed. I ALWAYS do a clean install, and I always have. I think that a lot of the problems I am seeing in the Microsoft Answers forum are down to users going down the UPGRADE path.

One of the 77 tips for Windows 7 as issued by Microsoft TechNet stated that a clean install is significantly less problematic than an upgrade. Nobody knows better than me that a clean install means a lot of work, but it is the best way for sure in the long run.

I really do wish that people would listen.. 

Windows 7 has landed..

.. and is now available to the general public finally. This is the Microsoft Canada website..

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windows/default.aspx

There is a link on the web site for the heavily discounted Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack which includes THREE upgrade licenses. If you want to upgrade your home network, now would be a very good time. The Family Pack is a limited offer, and will not be around for too long. Cost is estimated to be cdn$199.99. To buy three individual copies in Canada would cost not far short of cdn$400.

Also, take a good look at this..

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/products/compare

Don’t buy a version higher than you need. No version is ‘faster’ than another. What you get in Professional and Ultimate is the ability to connect to a business domain. You can also back up to a home network, but most home networks do not generally have a machine in the network that is capable of holding multiple backups. If you don’t need these two features, Home Premium will suit you well and you will save yourself almost cdn$100.

I was a Windows 7 sceptic for a while because I was disappointed that some tried and trusty Windows features had been dropped, but I have been running Windows 7 exclusively since it first appeared on download sites available to technical guys. Normally, I would keep the previous operating system fully updated just in case of problems.

I did it with XP when making the transition to Vista, but have not given the same courtesy to Vista, and not because Vista doesn’t deserve it either. The truth is that I have had so much pleasure running the new kid on the block, and have forgotten all about my trusty Vista installation.Windows 7 really is that good.   

It’s the fault of the testers..

Own up now please. Were you a Vista tester? If so, why didn’t you tell Microsoft about the problems? Forgotten what they were already?

• UAC.. you ask nicely and are still told ‘NO’..
• DRM.. Listen to music? On your own MP3 player? Hahahahaha
• Calculating the time to calculate how long the transfer of a 26k Word file to a flash drive will take
• Windows Explorer custom settings.. they reset back to factory each time you open Explorer
• Windows Fax and Scan.. the end of twain drivers
• HDD partition minimum.. 60 - 80gb? But.. but that’s the whole drive!!

There were others, and Microsoft were told about them, but there was no room for negative remarks. The people who swooned in the presence of the pretty interface and DreamScene were deemed to be considerably more positive, and they were the ones who got heard. Those of us who told Microsoft that silver surfers and the average family were not going to take kindly to some Vista features were pushed aside, notwithstanding that many of us are the people on the front lines of PC sales and repair.

Anyway, the upshot is that testers as a whole are being held partly responsible for the failure of Vista.

Has the same thing happened again with Windows 7? If I tell you that, by the time the beta was handed out to the army of testers, it was pretty much a ‘fait accomplis’, perhaps somebody could let me in on exactly what would have been a good time to tell Microsoft about the mistakes.

From the above, you would have to get the impression that ‘beta testers’ are not the fly in the ointment because a beta tester’s mandate is only to discover and report bugs. So who are these testers who let the side down?

Beta testers are all types of computer users, from Hyper-user to interested soccer/hockey mom. This group of testers has way more to offer than pure bug detection. They are perhaps the broadest range of users under one roof, with the broadest range of experience, being from all walks of computer life. 

Windows Optimizers..

Q. What kind of stuff is most likely to slow down a computer?

A. Malware

Do you think that my answer was too short? OK, let’s blame something else. How about we pick on Windows processes

When we install Windows, more than a few processes are set in motion, BUT more than a few are just set up and do nothing until we install something which needs them. Why would these processes start to impede progress if they didn’t at the time when the OS was first installed?

The most insidious processes are installed by ……………………. MALWARE, and they are going nowhere. Try to stop them and you get messages about not having the correct privileges. You could grant yourself enough privileges to create Heaven and Earth, and you still wouldn’t be able to stop the malware processes.

Well, we didn’t get too far with Windows processes. How about Start up items?

This is a muddier area. Of course, not all start up items are bad. Microsoft mice and keyboards put an item each in start up to enable on-screen notification of keyboard functions. I believe that one might call these TSR’s (Terminate but Stay Resident) but they are harmless. You will always have a few start up items which appear to do nothing constructive and ones which do not appear in the notification area. Appearance or lack of appearance can be deceptive, because all start up items do something, if only to allow pop-ups which tell you about updates.

The most insidious start up items are installed by ………………….. MALWARE, and they are going nowhere, but they will happily send you back to the webpage which originally infected your computer if you try to stop them.

Temporary Internet Files?

Yes, these can slow things down a little. Ask anybody who frequents chat rooms. If you can’t get in or stay in a chat room, always blame Temporary Internet Files. I have run with almost 6gb of these and I haven’t been impeded at all. I have always considered this to be one of the more desperate moves to get speed back. However…

The most insidious Temp Internet Files are installed by ……………….. MALWARE, and they are going nowhere because Windows can’t remove any that are in use, and malware Temporary Internet Files are ALWAYS in use. The malware authors ensure this.

So, malware can appear in four guises..

1. a Windows process
2. a start-up item
3. a Temporary Internet File
4. a program which promises to be benign but is actually the computer form of common or garden bindweed.

The fourth item in the list has two variants.

1. The first variant can bring a computer to its knees by infiltrating every corner of the computer, BUT at least the author has the grace to offer an un-installation routine which works.
2. The second variant can bring a computer to its knees by infiltrating every corner of the computer, BUT the author had no intention of making the bogus un-installation routine workable because the program is………………………. MALWARE. The only un-installation routine that works is the one where you put in an operating system CD/DVD and then boot from it..

Now for the big question. Will a Windows optimizer program fix all of the above?

No. Windows optimizer programs only work on computers which are bug and malware free, and even then, you can’t really tell if they truly work because the difference in performance before and after is not detectable by mere humans. The best aspect of a Windows optimizer program is that it brings a variety of ‘housecleaning’ utilities into one package.

So my answer to the first question was right.

Malware will bring down a computer regardless of the amount of hardware resources or the software loading. All of the other issues can be fixed by increasing the amount of hardware resource as you increase the loading on the computer.

Footnote.

I have recently had a chance to use two Windows optimizer utilities for as long as I wanted and neither would cost me a cent. Both of them were easy to use, but I have to admit that I noticed no difference after running them. In  actual fact, the computer ran better after uninstalling one of them because it had sneaked a start-up item in which monitored all of the computer functions. in the background. 

You have your downloaded .ISO file. Now what do you do?

Level – Beginner

First, store it somewhere safe. An external hard drive is an excellent choice. Create a folder for it and label it in a way which will remind you NOT to delete it. If you don’t have an external drive, burn it to a DVD and label it ‘name of whatever it is -  Master’. Now store it somewhere very safe.

So now what?

Place a blank DVD in your DVD drive. Cancel the option window which Windows throws up.

Double click your ISO file. It should automatically start the DVD creation process of any of the big name CD/DVD burning suites.

Ensure that you set a very low burn speed. The essence is to create a reliable installation DVD, not to break burning speed records. High burning speeds are ok for small data files, but NOT Applications and operating systems.

Resist the temptation to use the computer while the burn is progressing. It doesn’t take that long, maybe a few minutes of your life.

After the process has completed and the DVD has been ejected, label the DVD clearly.

Before running your newly created DVD..

If it is an application or you are doing an in-place upgrade of your operating system, disable your anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions. Sometimes, these programs block file changes that are necessary during the installation process.

In the event that you are upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista or doing a clean install, the new operating system may not recognize the Network Interface Card if the computer is a home or custom build. Download Vista drivers from the NIC manufacturer website and burn them to a CD or there will be no connecting to the Internet to get downloads or to activate your new operating system. Better to have something to try than nothing at all.

Lastly, get yourself into a positive mood. The best laid plans can go awry, and if you are upgrading and it seems to be taking a long time, don’t panic. Depending upon how much stuff is on the computer, an upgrade generally takes at least two hours and can take as many as twenty hours to complete.

In any case, you always have your backups if anything goes wrong. You have backed your system up, haven’t you? At least your important data files?

Good luck..      Access

Windows 7 - My protest didn’t last long..

When I first downloaded the Win 7 beta, I was disappointed to find that there was no classic menu. In the forums, I made the point that it was missing and that it should be present. As the versions rolled in, there was still no sign of the classic menu, so I upped my protest, and I was not the only one.

The RC appeared and I felt sure that there would be a classic menu in there somewhere. Just like Quicklaunch, it was probably hidden, but no, it wasn’t there. It was time for a full scale mutiny and I openly declared that I would stay with Vista unless it was included in the RTM. I was always going to install Win 7 but I wasn’t going to run it fulltime. I considered that if I had a play with it now and again, I would be able to do community help for it, so nobody would lose out.

Since installing Windows 7, I have been back to Vista for only two short visits. The first visit was to collect my PST data files, the second to get credentials for the various newsgroups and forums to which I subscribe. That’s it. No updates, no maintenance, nothing. Throughout the Vista beta test, I used XP Pro, and even when I install the Vista RTM, I kept XP fully updated, even updated programs and utilities.

Apart from a sidebar gadget for which I found a replacement, I have not had any problems with Windows 7 at all. Even without the classic menu, it really is that good. I was made aware of a utility which can bring some of the classic menu functionality back, but I haven’t tried it. It looks to just bring back a look, and I can’t see anything in documentation to suggest that the results are customizable. It is here if you want to know more.

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-desktop-customization/5369-windows-7-classic-start-menu.html

To be perfectly honest, I see no reason to spoil a fully working operating system with dubious third party stuff. I haven’t done so with any previous Windows OS, so why start now? The classic menu was important to me, but for the sake of an extra mouse click and a small amount of scrolling, it has lost its importance, and I am none the worse for it in real terms. I still use Quicklaunch, and I also have a ‘user pinned’ section on my double height task bar, so all is well wit the world and Windows 7.

For now, I will leave Vista on the computer. It is not set up as dual boot, and is doing no harm. It may also be useful if I need to refresh my memory of what Vista was and could do for the purpose of supporting it still, and I have XP running on a computer I use a spare, so I am covered well enough.

Some good news..

If you haven’t come across CyberSecurity 2009 yet, I can tell you that it looks almost like the Windows Security Center. The two real difference are the name and the fact that you can’t shut it down.

It infects Internet Explorer by blocking any website which contains anything which might be used to remove it, and then it reminds you that it is unregistered and that you need to pay up. It also tells you this at boot up, adding text the this effect just underneath the blue torpedo on the initialization screen. It also disables any antispyware or anti-virus program already on the computer and, in the case I saw recently, told me that the subscription to AVG had run out. Yeah right, this was the free version when the computer owner installed it.

So, how did I fix it, bearing in mind that I was controlling the laptop via a remote connection?

IE was useless because Cyber Security blocks any attempt to download tools to kill it, but it allows the download of other stuff if you are not the type put off easily. It asks if you want to block the process and then throws up a fake ‘blue screen’ which also reminds you that you have not paid, but you can still continue.

I thought about the problem for a minute or two, and the it came to me that Cyber Security, as far as this computer was concerned, didn’t know about Firefox. So I downloaded it and sure enough, Cyber Security let it pass. It also let Firefox download anything it liked. I had to smile as I started the procedure to download and install SuperAntiSpyware. I had the problem of the fake blue screen getting in the way every now and again, but it installed and started up without any problems. As SAS slowly found one infection after another, the fake blue screen tried to throw me off, but I was on a mission.

Finally, SAS listed CyberSecurity as a rogue ant-virus application, and it was only a matter of time before I clicked on the button to remove it forever. Well, maybe not forever. I still have the task of educating the computer owner and those who use it.

Finally, I installed and ran Malwarebytes after SAS had cleaned up, and it found a couple of innocuous items, then followed up with Microsoft Security Essentials for real time protection against malware.

A little later, I received a phone call from a very happy computer owner and even though I did the above as a favour, I have been promised payment by snail mail.

The score so far..

SuperAntiSpyware  1    CyberSecurity 2009    0

Change your passwords..

In light of the recent password scare re web based Messenger and mail accounts, change your passwords at your earliest convenience. That is another way of saying ‘NOW’..

Please note that you will have to log into your account with your old password initially..

Yahoo

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/id_password/edit-13.html

MSN

https://account.live.com/changepassworddl.aspx

AIM

http://help.channels.aol.com/kjump.adp?articleId=218553

ICQ

http://www.icq.com/support/security/icqlite/password.html

Google

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6567

In case you didn’t know..

Microsoft Answers lives here..

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/categories

Windows Live, XP, Vista, 7 and Microsoft Security Essentials are covered now, and I am presuming that the list will encompass other Microsoft products before too long..