Abuse of power – Microsoft Updates and the Bing Desktop
Oh, Microsoft, you’ve disappointed me. And you were doing so well.
In the last few weeks I’ve enjoyed using Windows 8, moving to a Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5 and even migrated a couple of clients from Google Apps to Office 365. Eek!
Microsoft Security Essentials continues to impress and recent events have even made them appear more clued up on security and patching than Apple. So, how have they spoilt this?
Well, it’s a little Optional Update they have sent out – Bing Desktop.
Right click, Hide update
Now, it’s hard enough getting clients to click on the little update warnings and making sure they keep safe and sound by running them. So it really doesn’t help when they try to do the right thing and download something that completely confuses them.
The Bing Desktop installs a search box onto your desktop, changes your homepage and replaces your search defaults. Like most other annoying toolbars. However, It also changes your desktop background or ‘wallpaper’. So the client with best intentions ended up well and truly confused!
I know it was only ‘Optional’ but I don’t think it should have been there at all.
Roll on June – Whitstable needs you!
Apparently, although no doubt this is not cast in stone, come June Whitstable will have their broadband connection upgraded. “Fibre to the Cabinet” will roll out, which means instead of dodgy old copper between your house and the exchange, most of the distance will be covered by fibre optic cable.
So the broadband connection between the exchange and the little green cabinet round the corner from you will get a lot better. And boy, do we need it…
I’ve been fiddling around with mobiles and SIMs while I upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 800 (more on that in another post, I suspect) and decided to run some speed tests. First of all, on my normal broadband connection:
3.46Mbps down, 0.65Mbps up
Then, on my 3 mobile connection:
4.89Mbps down, 1.57Mbps up
Yes, that’s a 40% increase using the mobile.
Roll on June, I cannot wait!
Accused of sending spam? Use Hotmail? Start with the obvious.
Just been accused of sending out spam? Sadly, it happens a lot. Ok, not to me, but then the theory is I should know what I’m doing (tempting fate).
We’ve just had a laptop in the workshop that proves how easily it happens and how you should never forget the simple solutions. Now the owner of the laptop had been told that she was sending out spam and was able to check step one below. Her usual PC expert had checked step two. But as soon as we knew who her email provider was, we went for step three…
But first, the important question:
Does it matter? My friends will just delete it.
If there is something nasty on your PC that is sending out messages, or someone has access to your email, they could also be sending out your bank, credit card and PayPal details. They could be sending out attachments containing malware infections, or porn. Or worse. They could be sending it to your friends, your colleagues, your boss.
Then there is social engineering – the scams that rely on using you as a trusted friend. Imagine if all your friends received an email saying you were on holiday and had been mugged. You had lost your wallet and your mobile phone – could they please send you some money? They cannot phone you, so they may email to check that it’s a genuine request. But the person carrying out the scam has access to your email, they’ve changed the password and they are pretending to be you.
Sadly, this happens frequently so, yes, it does matter!
Anyway, back to those steps…
1) Make sure you’re not really spamming people
Obvious, I know, but sometimes the best intentioned emails, Facebook updates and tweets can seem perfectly fine to you, but spammy to everyone else.
2) Scan your PC
We’ve said it before, we’ll keep saying it, we highly recommend Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware for this task. The free version is great for cleaning up infected PCs, the paid for version is brilliant at preventing infections and helping you avoid those dodgy, password pinching websites.
3) Change your password
If you have access to a PC that you know is clean, this is the first thing you should do if your email account is sending out spam. It is also why your email password should always be different to all your other passwords and why it is worth changing it regularly.
Your password could have been captured by some malware. But even more likely, it has been collected from another website where you use the same username and password. That site could have been hacked or could have been designed to steal passwords from the offset.
An apple a day doesn’t always keep the doctor away
Just a little warning for your Apple users out there – you are just as likely to fall victim to a spoof or hacked website, so it’s just as important that you change and keep your email passwords unique.
How to change your Hotmail password
1. Click the down arrow next to your email address and select Account
First of all, login to your Hotmail account. In the top, right-hand corner of the screen you will see your email address and a small down-arrow. Click the arrow and select Account from the menu.
In the Account screen, the second block of information is about your Account Security. Your password will be shown as ‘*****’ and to the right there will be a Change link.
2. Click Change in the Account Security section
Finally, enter your new password.
Annoying though it may seem, it’s a good idea to tick that “Make my password expire every 72 days” box.
3. Enter a new password and tick to enable expiry
If you have trouble remembering complex passwords, a long but memorable sentence can be even more effective.
For example, something like “my dog loves grilled sausages” will stick in your head but be very difficult to crack.
If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, a mobile phone or some other application to check your mail, next time it tries you will have to enter your new password. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Please share – 3 steps to make your computing in 2012 safer
Keep it safe in 2012!
Oh, the joy of New Year’s Resolutions. How many do you make? How many last more than a few days?
So, here are 3 resolutions you can make and easily keep, that could save you money and heartache over the years to come…
1) Passwords
We are constantly reminded (lectured) on having unique and secure passwords for everything online. But I know people struggle to have a different password for everything.
So, if I can at least encourage you to keep two passwords different from all the others, they are…
Your email password
If you use the same password for everything, whenever you register at any website you are giving away the access details to your entire online life. Even if you register at a safe website, if it gets hacked then your details are out in the open.
Keep your email password different to everything else, then it’s much harder for people to guess. Plus, if you need to reset passwords anywhere else, you need to know your email is secure to receive the updates.
Your online banking password
This one’s pretty obvious, after all, it’s where your money is kept!
2) Malware Protection
Whatever antivirus software you’ve got, it probably isn’t enough. To be fair, we hardly ever see PCs with a virus infection nowadays. Now it’s all about Trojans – programs designed to fool you into thinking they are something useful when they aren’t. They fool you so you give them permission to install, which is how they get past your normal security software.
Which is why all the PCs in the Dear Geek household are running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro.
Apart from removing infections, which we rely on the free version for so many of our callouts, the full version provides constant protection, including blocking known ‘dodgy’ websites. The license fee is a one-off, not annual, payment of less than £20. Off you go, go and buy it now.
3) Backup
I go on about backup so often I think I’m turning into a parrot. But it is always worth repeating. Let’s give a real life example…
About a week before Christmas I was called out to a dropped laptop. The hard drive couldn’t be accessed. 9 times out of 10 I can hook the drive up to my kit and recover most or all of the data, but not this time.
So, with much gnashing of teeth, the drive was sent off to the recovery lab. They can recover the data 99 times out of 100, but charge £400+ to do so.
This was that one time out of 100 – the drive was beyond recovery. At least the customer had an external drive for their backups. It was safely tucked away in another room, in its original box. It’s original, unopened box. So, this client was to spend Christmas trying to recreate her entire business on her laptop.
Which is why we use, and recommend, Livedrive Online Backup from fmBackup – especially when it only costs £2 per month.
So, there you go…
3 simple steps to make your 2012 a much happier New Year. One free, two ridiculously cheap, all very easy.
Best wishes for a very prosperous New Year from your friends at Dear Geek, HDG and fairly marvellous.
x
The secret is out – GCHQ sponsored blogs :)
Secret Squirrel work going on
It’s on the Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Mail websites, even the BBC have given the game away – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15968878 – so I will too…
Yes, our cryptic sponsored post – Can you crack it? – was sponsored by GCHQ as part of a recruitment drive – crack the code and you’re invited to apply for a a job.
5 Reasons to call someone in to set up your Christmas PC
Setting up your new PC is so easy, isn’t it? It should be, but more often than not it is time consuming, complicated, boring and frustrating. So, here are 5 reasons to call HDG in to set up your new PC in Kent…
Bah Humbug
1. Christmas morning blues – is it done yet?
Oh, the excitement of opening that box and finding a brand new PC inside. The rush to set it up, plug everything in and turn it on. And we’re online!
If only. Something will be missing or we’ll have forgotten a printer lead or wireless adapter. Then we cannot get the wireless to work – I’m sure that password is the right one – and I’d really like to copy all my old documents over. We’d really like to get on with eating and drinking to excess, as is the Christmas tradition, but the kids just won’t leave us alone until the PC is ready.
Of course, what we should have done is get HDG to set the PC up for us before Christmas. All set up, tested and ready before it got wrapped.
2. Crapware vs. Necessaryware
Do we need all this software? Do we have to register everything and why does it keep asking me questions? New PCs are always full of junk, software you don’t need that will take up space, slow your PC down or worst of all, stop something you want to use from working. But how do we know what to remove and how to get rid of it.
Finally, we’re online. Off to the web we go. And “this site needs X to display properly.” Windows doesn’t know how to display this document. This website works better with that browser. Arggh!
HDG know how to clean your PC install without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They will download and install the most up-to-date versions of all the most important bits of software you will need, so you will be ready to put your PC to good use.
3. Recovery discs
I'll create the recovery media tomorrow...
So we’ve got your PC all set up and everything is great, apart from that annoying little “you should create your recovery media” pop-up every time you turn it on. And we all know we should create that media, but we haven’t got 3 blank DVDs handy. And the shops are shut. Or we do have the discs, but we haven’t got the special pen to write on them. So we promise to do it tomorrow. But we don’t. So every day we turn on the PC, we dismiss the message and promise that we will create the media soon.
Right up until the day that the hard drive fails, and the manufacturer wants £90 for a set of recovery discs. And that’s when we wish we had created them.
Well, that’s one of the things HDG do, they create the discs, label them and give them to you to keep somewhere safe.
4. Updates, updates and more updates
It’s a brand new PC, we don’t have to worry about updates?
Sadly in the time it takes for your PC to reach you there will almost certainly be a whole heap of updates to apply. Time consuming and bandwidth heavy, just when you’re trying to enjoy your new PC is will be asking to restart, download another patch and do it all again.
When a new PC leaves the HDG workshop, we make sure there are no updates necessary.
5. Feeling insecure?
You don't want to feel like this, do you?
Our friends told us that we can use free antivirus, but then the box the PC comes in says we get 90 days of protection with product X. Then, in the shop, they tried to sell us product Y. But everyone says X and Y are really slow so we should use Z. Help!
HDG will recommend the best security software for your needs, whether that be a free option or something far better value than what the shop offers. Plus, they will throw in a years’ free online backup to protect all that lovely new stuff you’re going to create.
Just 5 reasons to call HDG in to set up your new PC this Christmas, or any other time of the year!
Microsoft Signature – PC manufacturers could learn so much
According to Ed Bott over at ZDNet, in the US the Microsoft Store are touting a new standard for PC images – the Microsoft Signature.
Anyone who has bought a PC in the last couple of decades will be well used to “crapware” – the rubbish bits of software that manufacturers install, not to make your life easier but to increase their income chances.
ZDNet shows us how clean a PC build can be the Microsoft Signature way
Microsoft Signature not only bans crapware, it has a few extra requirements:
- No trialware
- No unnecessary startup programs
- The desktop must be clear apart from the Recycle Bin
- No unnecessary system tray icons
- Microsoft Security Essentials installed and activated
- Windows Update is configured to install updates automatically
- Windows Live Essentials and Office 2010 Starter Edition installed and activated
- No added mouse/keyboard navigation systems
- All installations are up-to-date, with the latest service packs and updates applied.
In fact, they make sure the PCs are built, well, built the way we build new PCs at HDG for our customers of Computer Support in Whitstable!
I just hope the other manufacturers take note and start putting user experience higher up their priority list.
But then, nobody would be paying me to reset their new PCs when they buy them, so perhaps I should be hoping the opposite…
How easy was scrapping my car online? Very, thanks @Cartakeback_UK !
My days of driving a gorgeous Alfa Romeo, all expenses paid thanks to big Pharma, are long gone. Nowadays I prefer my driving costs lower, positively frugal in fact.
Image: think4photop / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Last year I managed to pick up an old Ford Escort on eBay, with a full year’s MOT for £400. No, it wasn’t in perfect condition but it was perfectly usable and served me well. It didn’t need to be serviced and I had no intention of trying to get it through another MOT.
So this year, once I had picked up a bargain replacement, I needed to dispose of the old Escort. I’d been offered £100 trade-in but that wasn’t convenient, but I didn’t fancy trekking around scrap yards either, so we got Googling.
I’ve tried to use webuyanycar before, and was disappointed by the ‘hidden’ costs and downward haggling you get after the valuation. Besides, this car wasn’t for sale, it was for scrap. So it was while looking for this we found Cartakeback.com – which promised to make the process easy. And sure enough, it did. I was offered quotes from four local yards but even better was the highest quote, which included collection.
It’s things like this that make using the internet to do business so good. They take a, lets be honest, nasty task of scrapping a car and make it a simple process. I entered my details on Wednesday, they called me to confirm on Thursday, on Saturday the lorry arrived to collect – the driver had a nice fresh cheque in his hand – and on Monday I received the DVLA Certificate of Destruction by email.
That’s exactly how this online life should be.
P.S. they gave me £170, so that car cost me £230 plus petrol and tax for a year – I think that’s pretty good!
Squeak or eek? I’m a Whitstable Pearl!
Gosh, as if my head wasn't big enough already
As I hinted at in a previous post about the definition of a geek – I had a nice chat with Jan Thom of the Whitstable Times last week, and today the results of that chat appear on page 10 of the Whitstable Times, along with me popping up on the front page too.
It’s amazing how much Jan could prise out of me in about an hour and turn that unintelligible (to me) shorthand into an an article.
Just a couple of things to point out to the world…
Answer 1: I started HDG with Helen, not Jane. Oops.
Answer 5: not quite the first romance at Pfizer, but the first Sandwich to Surrey commute marriage.
Answer 6: I left Pfizer at the end of 2007, Helen left in 2006 because that’s when James was born!
Answer 8: support the Oyster Festival – please like their page!
Answer 9: East Kent
Answer 11: see more about #geekstable
Answer 16: Yes, I know Bill Hicks is dead. It’s a dream dinner party before the smoking ban…
The problem with customer care…
…is caring for your customers.
During the ‘day’ job, I spend a lot of time getting to know my customers. Part of this makes good business sense – how can I make a recommendation on a solution without understanding their business? But part of it is just personal and ‘just the way I am.’
This can be lovely - being shown pictures of new grandchildren, getting offered bits of birthday or wedding cake (path to this geek’s heart = cake), children drawing me pictures while I work. I don’t make a deliberate effort to remember what is going on in the lives of my customers, you just cannot help but keep up-to-date.
Sometimes it can be hard. Couples breaking up is always tricky – who gets custody of the geek? Clients get ill or their businesses struggle. Fortunately, the good news normally outnumbers the bad.
And sometimes it can be horrible – I visited a client this afternoon who, last time I saw them, had been visiting their partner in hospital. I asked after him and sadly, he had passed away. I could see the tears welling up in my client’s eyes – and, as a few memories came back, I could feel them starting in my own!
In the past few months, three of my clients, or their loved ones, have been lost to cancer. In today’s case it was ten weeks from diagnosis to death, in another one week and in the third, many long, battling years.
Give a bit back
If any of the posts on this blog have helped you solve a problem (over 1,000 people read my post on fixing Google toolbar problems in Firefox 5), or just made you smile, please think about making a little donation to the Teenage Cancer Trust.