software

I'd like to discuss a security threat which was recently discovered in Internet Explorer. Mike Healan of Spywareinfo.com forwarded an article to me today. The article urges all Windows users to take the necessary precautions to secure their browsers ... from a nasty exploit recently discovered in Internet Explorer. The exploit allows hackers to gain control of a system and execute harmful code. http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/htasploit/ Without further adieu, here is the article by Mike Healan (edited): -- Members of the SWI support forums have uncovered a very nasty flaw in Internet Explorer ... (view more)

If told you that 9 out of 10 PC's are infected with some form of Spyware, would you be concerned? According to Webroot Software, you should be! In general, Spyware is software which records information about you or your computer usage -- without ... your knowledge -- and then relays this information to a third party (quite often, for marketing purposes). Spyware has the ability to trace your every keystroke, and may record things such as passwords, credit card numbers, email addresses, and other personal information. All of this makes Spyware a serious threat to privacy and the protection of your ... (view more)

... Continued . Reminder: What is Adware and Spyware? Spyware is software which silently records a users' Internet activity, and then reports the data to a central computer (which is also connected to the Internet). After data is collected from ... millions of online users, statistical forecasts are made for the purpose of targeted online marketing (IE: which search engine queries are used, buying habits based on pages visited, etc). On the other hand, Adware is software which sends advertisements (usually PopUps) to your computer -- even if you're not connected to the Internet. Quite often, ... (view more)

Last week's article about tweaking spurred a few comments from our Readers. Wait a sec -- what is tweaking? In techy-terms, the word "tweak" means to optimize. With respect to PCs, tweaking may refer to one of three things: a hardware tweak (the PC ... itself), a software tweak (an application, or the operating system), or both. On the weekend, Bob T. from Wisconsin sent me an email: " Hi Dennis! Great article [last week] on tweaking. I really enjoyed reading it. I'm sure you've probably about this already, but your readers may also want to know about a program called WinGuides ... (view more)

Today I received well over 200 virus-infected emails, courtesy of the W32.sobig.b@mm.html and Friendship Screensaver worm / virus. So, why do I get bombarded with email viruses more than the average Joe? The answer to my dilemma is compound. Since ... literally thousands of users have emailed me in the past ... and because mail programs such as Outlook / Outlook Express automatically save contacts [email addresses] once mail has been replied to, ... and and because most email viruses propagate through email Contact Lists: my email addresses have been become exceptionally targeted by email worms. ... (view more)

Today I received well over 200 virus-infected emails, courtesy of the W32.sobig.b@mm.html and Friendship Screensaver worm / virus. So, why do I get bombarded with email viruses more than the average Joe? The answer to my dilemma is compound. Since ... literally thousands of users have emailed me in the past ... and because mail programs such as Outlook / Outlook Express automatically save contacts [email addresses] once mail has been replied to, ... and and because most email viruses propagate through email Contact Lists: my email addresses have been become exceptionally targeted by email worms. ... (view more)

Last week, Ben M. from Australia wrote about a problem he was having with his 40x CD burner not being able to write at maximum speed under Windows XP. Ben's main problem: both Roxio Easy CD Creator and Nero Burning ROM (CD burning software) only ... allow the burner to write at 16x instead of 40x write speed. Ben's computer is running Windows XP with 256 meg RAM on a 1.7 GHz machine and a 40 gig [7200 RPM] hard drive. In short, here's what Ben has already tried: Replaced the burner with another (same model / brand); Changed the buffer size for CDFS (CD File System) under Windows XP; Updated both ... (view more)

Ben M. from The Land Down Under (Australia) recently told me about a problem he's been having with his 40x CD burner. In a nutshell, Ben can't get the writer to record at maximum speed and asked me for some troubleshooting suggestions. Ben writes: " ... Dennis, I religiously read Infopackets 3 times a week! Thank you. As a computer technician, I find your newsletter a valuable troubleshooting resource. Unfortunately, I'm having a problem that has got me stumped and was wondering if you had any suggestions? I recently purchased a new computer (Celeron 1.7GHz) with 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, ... (view more)

In the last 3 newsletters , I've been talking about the importance of archiving programs: specifically, WinRAR, WinZIP, and WinACE. Unfortunately, neither of these popular software titles are freeware, which is why I asked Infopackets Readers to ... send me their favorite alternate picks. Ionut C. wasn't alone when he recommended ZipGenius: " ZipGenius is a zip tool suite that offers a variety of features. It offers ... drag and drop and features and an 'intelligent' wizard to get you started. Among other things, ZipGenius offers 5 different compression levels, full customization and ... (view more)

Last week, Rose J. asked how she could to back up the "How to Install / Reinstall Windows" video tutorial and eBook on floppy disk: " I need to [copy your] video on to a [floppy] disk, and I can't seem to do that. Can you explain the procedure in ... detail? " I mentioned in the previous newsletter that this would be a time-consuming task and that backing up files to a floppy disk is generally not a good idea. In brief, here are a few reasons why: 14 floppies would be required to complete the task, since the video and eBook have a combined size of 19 megabytes. The time to ... (view more)