Software: Two must have’s for the NEW pc. PC Decrapifier and Ninite

With it being December 25th, many of you have received a new pc or laptop as a present. Here are 2 simple steps you should do to set up your pc or laptop before you do anything else on your machine.

Step#1 -

Visit The PC Decrapifier (LINK: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home (http://www NULL.pcdecrapifier NULL.com/home)), there you will find a download to help and simplify the removal of all the extra junk that came pre-installed on your pc. These days most builders load gigs worth of “Trials and Demos” or even their own version of software (Most often toolbars and vendor software). Have you seen the 60-day trial of Microsoft Office and the 90 day trial of Norton Internet Securities, or the Google toolbar or Yahoo toolbar, or the Dell URL assist (which will route you to pre-determined Dell selected sites if you type in a web address wrong) or …..well you get the idea.

What PC Decrapifier does is in a simple way help you remove all the “crap” from your pc, that you don’t want. What is great about PC Decrapifier is that it will let you pick the items from their list that you want removed, so it is specific to your wishes. You can get rid of all of it or just 1 item you don’t want. PC Decrapifier has a list on its site if you would like to see all that it can remove (LINK: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/apps (http://www NULL.pcdecrapifier NULL.com/apps)).

How it Works (From the PC Decrapifier site)

Simply download (http://www NULL.pcdecrapifier NULL.com/download) the file and run the EXE. There is no installer. If you have anti-virus software installed, it may complain about this program because it is written with a scripting language. These warnings can be safely ignored. Please see the FAQ (http://www NULL.pcdecrapifier NULL.com/faq) for more details.

Running the Program

After you run the EXE you will be guided through the process with a "wizard" style series of questions. You will have the choice to pick and choose what you want to remove. It will not begin removing anything without prompting you first!

Click the images below to see a screen shot of various parts of the process.

Welcome

Create a Restore Point

Select Items

That’s all there is to it. With that you can clean your machine of all those things that you don’t want.

Now for Step #2 -

There is now a way you can speed up the process of installing programs you do want and eliminate most of the work as well. If you visit Ninite (LINK: http://ninite.com/ (http://ninite NULL.com/)) you will be able to make the installation of some of the most common programs a simple 1 step process.

The following is from the Ninite site showing the programs you can choose from (as of 11/24/09)

All you need to do is pick all the programs that you would like to install, then click at the bottom where it says Get Installer. You will get a single file to download. Once you have it downloaded, double click it and the remaining work will be taken care of for you.

-Ninite installs apps with default settings and says "no" to browser toolbars and other junk*.

-Ninite checks your PC’s language and 64-bit support to install the latest, best version of each app.

-Ninite runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 and works in the background 100% hands-free.

-All Ninite does is install the apps you choose.

(*The only thing to keep in mind is that the installer will install to your C:\ drive, I point that out to those with more than one drive, in case you prefer to install to another drive.)

With those simple 2 steps, you can get your pc cleaned and configured to your liking very easily.

Here is the list of programs from Ninite** that TechGeekandMore uses –

Browser – Firefox

Messaging – Skype (without the web service http://techgeekandmore.com/2009/12/12/software-skype-extension-for-firefox-causing-slow-firefox-with-some-websites-post-from-www-techandlife-com/ (http://techgeekandmore NULL.com/2009/12/12/software-skype-extension-for-firefox-causing-slow-firefox-with-some-websites-post-from-www-techandlife-com/) and http://techgeekandmore.com/2009/12/12/software-skype-error-skype-plug-in-causes-browser-crash/ (http://techgeekandmore NULL.com/2009/12/12/software-skype-error-skype-plug-in-causes-browser-crash/))

Messaging – Windows Live Messenger

Messaging – Yahoo Messenger

Media – Hulu

Media – VLC

Imaging – Paint.NET

Documents – Foxit Reader (For opening PDF / Acrobat files)

Security – Microsoft
Essentials (For Anti-Virus – Make sure you uninstall an existing AV program before installing this.)

Runtimes – Flash and Flash (IE) (you may not be using IE but for security you want to keep it up to date)

Runtimes – Java

Runtimes – .NET

Runtimes – Sliverlight

Utilities – ImgBurn

**This isn’t anything against any of the other programs on the Ninite list that are not listed here, however, this list is just the list of programs used daily at TGM.

Software: Windows Updates – December 2009

I know this post is a couple of days late, but i want to make sure that no one missed their December updates. Microsoft released 6 major updates for December, in addition to a number of smaller updates (Update to Windows Update itself, the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, among the others).

December 8th

Bulletin 1: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows

Bulletin 2: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows, Office

Bulletin 3: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Office

Bulletin 4: Critical (Remote Code Execution), Windows, Internet Explorer

Bulletin 5: Important (Denial of Service), Windows

Bulletin 6: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows

As always please make sure that you run Windows update either by going to the Microsoft Update site (http://www.update.microsoft.com (http://www NULL.update NULL.microsoft NULL.com)) or if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 from the start menu go to Control Panel –> Windows update –> Check for new updates.

Remember fixing security holes in your operating system, is like fixing a broken window in your home. You can lock your house door all you like, but if you don’t fix the window, bad guys will have an easy time getting into your home.

Software: Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

I ran into a situation recently with a client who clicked on a link they shouldn’t have, causing their pc to get infected with what is commonly known as nagware/scareware. This is when your pc pops up messages saying its infected (With official looking screens that make you believe that its part of your operating system) and if you “buy” their product that your machine will be cleaned for you.

One of the many tools you can use to check/clean your pc is called the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. Every month when Microsoft releases its updates for Windows, they also include this tool, so as long as you have been doing your Windows Updates on a regular basis you should have the latest version of this software installed.

The MS Software Removal Tool is overlooked many times, even by tech’s because MS does not have it install in your start menu and unless you know how to get to it, it isn’t easy to find (Not sure why this is done, MS should make this software easier for users to find, but that’s just my opinion).

So if you need to run the Software Removal tool, how do you get to it? Here are some simple steps for the MS SRT.

1) From your Start Button – Click on Start –> Run –> and type MRT in box and click ok

2) You will see the Malicious Software Removal Tool Window open. Here is a Key (BIG KEY), make sure that on the top it says the current month (The new version comes out on the 2nd Tuesday of the Month with the standard Updates normally).

If you are in November and the Window says June (Example) then we have 2 things going.

-> Your Malicious Software Removal Tool is seriously out of date and will probably not be updated to cover all the new versions of Malicious Software.

-> You probably haven’t been doing your Windows Updates or your updates are not installing properly. In either case you need to address that.

If your MS Malicious Software Removal Tool is out of date, you can directly download the updated version from the Microsoft Website (32bit Windows LINK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ad724ae0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/downloads/details NULL.aspx?FamilyID=ad724ae0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en)) (64bit Windows LINK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=585D2BDE-367F-495E-94E7-6349F4EFFC74&displaylang=en (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/downloads/details NULL.aspx?FamilyId=585D2BDE-367F-495E-94E7-6349F4EFFC74&displaylang=en)) or by running your Windows Updates and making sure all updates are selected.

3) If your Malicious Software Removal Tool is up to date, then just click on Next, where you will get 3 choices. If your pc is not showing any signs of infection and you are just running this as part of a regular maintenance program, you can select Quick Scan. If your PC is showing signs of trouble (Infection, slowness, unable to access specific websites), then you will want to run a Full Scan.

4) Once you select the type of scan you want and click on Next you will see the scanning window.

5) Once completed, you will either be told your pc is clean or a list of the infections that were found and cleaned will appear. Just hit finish. If anything was found, then I would recommend rebooting and then running the Malicious Software Removal Tool again after the reboot as many times, infections can reappear on reboot.

Since the MS Malicious Software Removal Tool has a limited number of malware that its designed to clean (It focuses on the most common types) and because it does NOT have a live monitor feature, this software should only be considered an additional tool in the fight against the bad guys (Malware, Spyware, Scareware, Viruses). This software is not a replacement for an anti-virus product. If you need an anti-virus product Microsoft offers Microsoft Security Essentials (LINK: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/security_essentials/)), in addition to the many offerings both paid and free from other vendors (LINK: http://techgeekandmore.com/2009/11/05/software-what-every-windows-pc-user-should-have-installed-to-secure-their-pc-part-1-anti-virus/ (http://techgeekandmore NULL.com/2009/11/05/software-what-every-windows-pc-user-should-have-installed-to-secure-their-pc-part-1-anti-virus/))

Alert: Bing back up after outage that last close to an hour (12-3-09)

Update #3 (10:12p Eastern US)

Seems that whatever caused this outage is now corrected, as bing is now up and running again.

Update #2

At least based on the bing Twitter page, that bing is aware they have a problem.

UPDATE:

bing now shows an error. Still not sure why.

**********************************************************

Not sure what’s going on, but if you try and run a search on bing this evening (Currently 9:20p Eastern US), all you see is a blank screen. I’ve attached a few screen shots of what is happens, seems it is happening no matter what you are searching for.

We will post additional information as soon as TGM gets additional more.

Software: Resume Templates for MS Office

With unemployment as high as it is currently, sending out your resume has become a full time job for some. I have had a number of family and friends all ask me to look over their resumes (I guess being employed qualifies you to review resumes), and a few of the resumes I saw needed some serious help. So to help them fix their resumes I started looking around for templates and I found some very good and free (if your sending out your resume, you probably aren’t in a position to be more than you have to), and found some very good ones being offered on the Microsoft website (in partnership with monster.com) for MS Office. The templates can be found on the Microsoft Office Online page (LINK: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/FX103504051033.aspx (http://office NULL.microsoft NULL.com/en-us/help/FX103504051033 NULL.aspx)).

The page breaks the templates down by resume type (Basic, Entry level / College student, Experienced Professional, Job-Specific, Career move, Academic). Just click on the resume type your looking for and then select from one of the 4 templates for each category.

Since the templates are being “Powered by monster.com”, you will see a couple of links in Office (only while you are using that specific template) pointing giving you the option to post the resume directly to the monster.com site. If you use monster.com, then that’s an extra help, however, if you don’t use monster all you have to do is just ignore the links, as you are still able to save and print the resume itself without any monster.com labels on your resume.

When you open the template you will see a Joe Doe type set up with some made up information, all you need to do is use that as your guide and over ride that information with your resume information.

If your in the need of getting Microsoft Office, one option to consider is downloading the new beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 (LINK: http://us2.office2010beta.microsoft.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US (http://us2 NULL.office2010beta NULL.microsoft NULL.com/default NULL.aspx?culture=en-US)). The beta includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, One Note, Publisher, Access. The beta version of Office 2010 will expire in October 2010, which gives you a full version of Office for free (Legally), for almost an entire year.

For those in the middle of the job search, TechGeekandMore wishes you luck in your quest.

Tech: You can’t change or save the Windows Power settings. How to fix it.

A situation recently occurred with one of my clients this past week where they couldn’t change the power settings on their pc’s from Power save to any other choice. No matter what they tried as soon as they hit ok, the setting would go back to power save mode. There are a couple of reasons why you would not want power save mode. In there case, the PC’s were actually cash registers (Running Windows XP), and in power save mode, if the pc did not have any activity for a period of 3 minutes (Screenshot below is not from the affected terminals), the pc would go into sleep mode (as XP was turning off, the screen and the hard drive). This setting is not good for Point of sale software, as the pc going to sleep tends to corrupt the point of sale software.

The solution I came up with involved taking a copy of the power management registry entries from a functional machine and then installing the good registry files in the corrupt machine. The process worked very well and everything ended functional again.

Another possible problem one can face with the power management settings is that you have nothing listed. The same bug that would allow the settings not to save, can just as easily remove all the settings within the power management function.

With that all being said, I now share the .reg file I used to restore the settings on all the broken machines.

Just click on the download button below to start the file download. Keep in mind that the file you will be downloading is a registry file (.reg) so your Windows software or Antivirus software may prompt for a message about it being unsafe to download this type of file. The file itself is fine, you can ignore the messages (for this file, however, when surfing the internet that is a message you should not normally ignore), download the file to your desktop and then double click the file to enter the info into the registry.

Any questions drop me a line.

download (http://cid-8804db538b4de88c NULL.skydrive NULL.live NULL.com/self NULL.aspx/ NULL.Public/Winodws%20Power%20options%20fix/XP%20PowerCfg%20Fix NULL.reg)

Keep in mind that this file is use at own risk, as neither I nor anyone else at TGM know exactly what your configuration is and this file is being offered as best effort help only.

Software: Microsoft Office 2010 Beta is here for everyone

**UPDATED 11/18/2009 – 2PM**

During today’s PDC (Professional Developers Conference) Microsoft made official the public beta for Office 2010. The site that you can now download Office 2010 from is http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/office/2010/en/default NULL.aspx) .

************************************************************************

A few months ago, Microsoft released “Technical Preview” for Microsoft Office 2010 to a select group (Disclosure: I have been using the Technical Preview since its release). Now its time for Office 2010 to get one step closer to joining the Microsoft offerings.

So Microsoft has now released the Office Professional Plus 2010 for those with TechNet/MSDN accounts. The download can be found @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx (http://technet NULL.microsoft NULL.com/en-us/default NULL.aspx)

Additionally, for everyone else there is now an office beta page on Microsoft.com. If you attempt to download from the office beta page you will get a message that says “The Office 2010 Beta will be available soon. Please come back later and try again”, however it is expected (based on chatter from the tech community) that at some point during the PDC conference in Los Angeles that Microsoft will announce and make the download office 2010 beta office.

In the mean time, the office beta page has demo’s and information on what’s new for Office 2010 including the add on to Microsoft office called Office Web Apps:

“Microsoft Office Web Apps are free online companions to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that give you the freedom to view, create, and edit documents from a supported Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari).”

You can find the office beta page @ http://officebeta.microsoft.com/en-us/?CTT=97 (http://officebeta NULL.microsoft NULL.com/en-us/?CTT=97)

Software: The November Updates(Patch Tuesday) – Microsoft

Its that time of the month again. Microsoft is set to release its latest updates and fixes this coming Tuesday November 11th (Patch Tuesday).

The patches will fix security holes in:

Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
Windows XP Service Pack 2 & 3
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 & 2
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2004 (Mac)
Microsoft Office 2008 (Mac)

Those running Windows 7 do not have any scheduled patches for this coming Tuesdays release. As always please make sure that you run Windows update either by going to the Microsoft Update site (http://www.update.microsoft.com (http://www NULL.update NULL.microsoft NULL.com)) or if you are using Windows Vista from the start menu go to Control Panel –> Windows update –> Check for new updates.

Software: Showing hidden files, folders and extensions in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

My preference has always been to set up Windows to show the hidden files, hidden folders and the extensions to files and programs. I prefer to have control and see exactly what I have on the PC. Microsoft hides these on the basis that these are normally Windows operating system files and folders or that the extensions are just not needed to be seen.

I can see the point if you have a pc that is used by many people (like small kids) or a complete new pc user who wouldn’t know any better, since you cant see the file or folder then you cant delete it. The problem with that is, the many of the Virus and Malware writers use that same feature to hide the files that infect your pc.

Additionally, I guess it assumed that hiding the .exe or .jpg (etc) from files would be for the benefit of users who don’t know any better and would get confused by it. However because the extensions are hidden by default in Windows, the setting allows virus writers to distribute executable files (files that can be installed on your pc causing you to get infected) disguised as something non-executable (like a picture or . For example, an .EXE file might appear to be an innocuous text file.

So as a recommendation here is how to unhide files, folders, and extensions in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.

Click on the Start button.
Click on the Control Panel menu option.
When the control panel opens you will be either in Category View or Large (or Small) Icon view:
*In either case change the setting to Large Icon View to make the following steps easier (See examples below – Where arrow Points)

Category View

Large Icon View

4. Click on Folder Options in the Window

5. Click on the View tab.

6. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders

7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.

8. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.

(After you have done the steps your window should look like the example below)

Windows Vista Folder Options

**With that you will now see all files on your pc and see the extension for all files and programs. Note that most of the hidden files are Windows files and are required for your computer to operate correctly, so as always NO DONT DELETE ANYTHING UNLESS YOUR ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS AND THAT YOU DONT NEED IT.

Software: Microsoft Office 2010 – Beta coming November 2009

Microsoft has sent out notices informing Microsoft Connect (http://connect NULL.microsoft NULL.com/) members (Full Disclosure: I am a member of of MS Connect) that the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview (which is basically a very early version of the software) will be ending and that as of November the Office 2010 public beta will be available.

So far the Technical Preview has been very smooth and stable. Office 2010 does take a little getting used to as some of the features have moved locations with the use of the Office Ribbon.

Here is the email that Microsoft has sent out.

****************************************************************

Subject: Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Coming Soon – Technical Preview Program to Close
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:24:52 -0700

Hello Alex,
Thank you for continuing to utilize, evaluate and provide feedback on the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview.
We wanted to notify you the Office 2010 Beta will be available for you to download next month (November 2009).
The Beta release of Office 2010 marks the end of the Technical Preview program you currently belong to. We will release the Beta on public download sites, where you can download and install a newer build of Office 2010 client software. At that time, you will also get your first look at the exciting new features we have added to server products such as SharePoint.
What this means to you as a Technical Preview Program participant is that the Office 2010 Connect site that you have been using will essentially be shut down and you will be directed to the Beta site (location to be announced) for Beta downloads, product information, links to forums, and more. We will provide you with links to the new Beta site on the current Office 2010 Connect site, but product downloads, articles, product information, and newsgroups currently found there will no longer be available on Connect.
In the weeks between now and the release of Beta, you can still access all of the Technical Preview materials on the Office 2010 Connect site.
A reminder, you can access connect at http://connect.microsoft.com/office.
You can also access product news and updates at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/.
Thank you for your participation!
The Microsoft Office 2010 Team

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Category Archives: Microsoft