The Everyday IT Blog
Personal Computing Demystified.
Stop! Don't forward that email..
0Disclaimer.. a good number of my family and friends are guilty of the topic I’m about to blog about. I’m not singling you out.. I’m just hoping to impart some knowledge you can benefit from.
We’ve all seen them.. forwarded emails that warn of impending doom and gloom if you don’t keep your eye out for the latest virus, the latest bill moving through congress that promises to strip you of your rights to carry a handgun, etcetera. There are hundreds of thousands of these internet “myths” floating around out there. Chances are you’ve received at least one just today. Possibly more. I mean, your friend/brother/mom sent it to you.. it must be true, right? The answer: Probably not. But how can you tell?
Your first defense from ridicule by us technical types.. common sense. The most common myth email I see is regarding some killer virus being classified by Microsoft and CNN as “the most dangerous ever”. There’s your clue.. while Microsoft will occasionally do mass-media releases about patches for their software I can promise you that you won’t hear about it via a chain email first.
Your second line of defense.. a well-known site known as snopes.com. Snopes is run by a couple who have dedicated a large amount of time researching these very myths of which we speak. Just grab that latest email, cut and paste some of the key text or the subject line in the search field on the snopes website and I bet you’ll be surprised at what you see. Give it a shot now.. then do all of those relatives and friends that forward you these emails a favor and point them here to educate themselves. You’ll be doing a bunch of us a favor!
Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7? Better make a backup first..
0826 days
I’ve been using Windows 7 since it was in beta stage and I have to say.. I’m impressed. While Windows isn’t my OS of choice (I prefer Fedora Linux by far) it is a necessity from an administration perspective.. my company operates a Windows-based network and we will likely always have some tie to that. It is what it is. While Vista has gotten much better since the release of service pack 2 it was never on the “must upgrade” list for our user machines – it was relegated to a forgotten machine that sits on a desk in a deep, dark corner of the office.. the desk that plays double-duty as a storage shelf for the office Christmas decorations. We use it every once in a while to do release testing for our client software, but that’s it.
Windows 7 is proving to be different. Users like it.. I like it.. it seems to work well in our office environment – so I’ll let it creep in with new desktop machines and laptops as we replace them without spending the time to downgrade to XP. Certain users will get the opportunity to upgrade to take advantage of the better-than-average hardware they are already running, so I figured I’d better put myself through the upgrade process. Just so you know.. most IT folks will generally advise against doing in-place upgrades. There’s just too much that can (and often does) go wrong. An in-place upgrade is rarely a clean one – you can end up masking compatibility and software issues that will haunt you down the road. So, with all that in mind, I went ahead anyway.
Oh.. you XP users – Microsoft did you a favor whether it seems like it or not. You can’t directly upgrade from XP to Windows 7. That’s probably a good thing. Vista users.. read on. If you read nothing else.. read the statement below:
My advice to you.. re-read my previous post about backups and take that advice.. you might need it like I did.
I put the Windows 7 dvd in my drive and let’er rip. Things started normally enough.. then the compatibility check that runs before install kicked out a problem. My wireless software (by a large company with a catchy little tune for their brand) wasn’t compatible with the install for some reason. The suggestion was to remove that software and start over.. so I did. Without the wireless software I wasn’t connected to the Internet, and I didn’t bother to grab a cable and plug in to get connected.. and that was likely the reason for my upgrade failure.
Windows 7′s installer gives you the option to connect to the Internet to get installation and hardware updates before install. It shouldn’t be an option.. it should be required. Once I told the installer to soldier on without updates it appeared to be doing just that. The system copied the files it needed to copy in order to restart and perform the upgrade, and came through that restart just fine. After getting about halfway through the upgrade the installer encountered a fatal problem with a device driver and tried to automatically roll back the install.. but it failed. The box rebooted and tried to repeat the very same upgrade process with the very same failure. The OS was toast. No boot for me.
It was a good thing I ran a backup with Acronis before I started. I was able to restore the system to its pre-upgrade state inside of 30 minutes and get all of my data back. If I had needed to revert to the factory image I would have likely lost an entire day reinstalling software and reapplying the tweaks necessary to make Vista perform acceptably well.
I have since performed the upgrade to Windows 7 without issue while cabled up to my network. The installer resolved whatever driver incompatibility it had previously encountered and did what it was supposed to do. I’ll file this little nugget of information away in my brain for the next upgrade request.. I’m sure there will be one.
Want Windows 7? Click the image below to get your copy.
You're gonna get an infection..
1830 days
by Neilster1
in Personal Computing
When I get a call from a friend or client to come take a look at their computer I have a laundry list of things that I check, not necessarily in order. I mentioned operating system (OS) updates in a previous post.. the second most common thing that I find is the lack of antivirus (AV) updates. In these cases I rarely find that there isn’t any AV software installed.. what I find is that when the 1-year trial period for the
AV software has ended and new updates aren’t being applied. Let me tell you now.. if you haven’t re-upped your AV subscription your computer is at high risk for getting infected, if you aren’t already. Even if you don’t do much on the internet, just clicking a link to one person’s MySpace page is enough to cause you trouble. Case in point.. my wife clicked on a MySpace link on Tuesday to do some research for a project. She was instantly bombarded by messages from her AV program notifying her it had blocked several viruses.. they were apparently embedded in content on that page. One of the viruses in question was first seen only three months ago! Your two-year old virus definition set that you haven’t been updating wouldn’t have gotten this bug.
So, what can you do now?
Update your AV subscription NOW. It is absolutely worth the $30 to get that done now versus the potential loss of time and money you’ll experience getting viruses removed later. It doesn’t matter much whose AV program you use as much as it matters that you use one. Some are indeed better than others, and with some you get what you pay for. For example, my giant-mega-cable company gives away a pretty well-known AV program for free with your paid cable bill.. and it is absolutely horrible. That particular program will bring well-built computers and laptops to their knees while they perform a scan. In a corporate setting I use a enterprise-type package that gives me incredible reporting tools for machines in the office.. for remote business and personal use I highly recommend AVG Anti-Virus for its speed and ease of use.
If you suspect you’re having a problem with viruses I can help.. drop me a line.
photo credit: I woz ere
