computer

Businesses around the world are reporting computer problems that appear to be another rapidly-spreading ransomware attack. It appears likely to be exploiting the same Windows flaw as the recent WannaCry attack. Details were still emerging at the ... time of writing, but high profile businesses including drug giant Merck, a British advertising agency and a Danish shipping company are known to have been compromised. Ukraine's government network also appears to have been hit. (Source: nytimes.com ) File Index Compromised As with WannaCry, the malware appears to be designed to lock up and encrypt ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mike B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I run a Windows Server 2003 box that has been fine until two days ago. Now, my CPU usage is 100% with multiple 'Update_Windows.exe' processes running. I've deleted the Update_Windows.exe tasks in ... Task Manager, but it keeps propagating. I did a virus scan, but it did not find anything; Malwarebytes antimalware also is not reporting anything. Prior to the infection, I installed the emergency May 2017 update to avoid the Windows SMB exploit / WannaCry ransomware infection . I understand Windows Server 2003 is no longer supported by Microsoft and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Howard N. writes: " Dear Dennis, In regard to the WannaCry Internet worm which can infect all Windows PCs that have not yet been patched using Windows Updates - how can I make sure that my Windows Update is operating properly, and ... that I am receiving my updates automatically? I enjoy your newsletter - please keep it up and have a nice day! " My response: Generally speaking: you should be able to go to the "Windows Update" service within Windows, and it should tell you when updates were last received. If you haven't received any updates for a while - or if you have your ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Peter M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a very strange issue. I recently put together a new computer build and installed Windows 10. Everything was working fine for the past month or so, then all the sudden, Windows 10 won't boot ... into the login screen - it simply freezes at the swirling dots. Surprisingly, I can remote desktop into the problematic machine from another, but the system stability doesn't last and eventually it freezes up on me. I suspect I have a hardware problem - perhaps the video card. I've managed to run 'msconfig' and specified Safe Mode with Networking, ... (view more)

A computer processor manufacturer is working on chips to implant into human brains. It could dramatically improve life for people with spinal or brain injuries, but is years from becoming a reality. The project is a partnership between the ... University of Washington's Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and ARM, a company which dominates the market for processors in mobile devices. It will build on existing technologies which can read signals in the brain and then wirelessly transmit them to nerve stimulators, allowing people to control their hands and arms despite suffering from ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Neil S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am trying to access a mapped network drive via an administrative command prompt in Windows 10, but I keep receiving the error that 'The system cannot find the drive specified.' The strange thing is ... that if I run a regular command prompt, I can access the mapped network drive. I am trying to write a batch script to perform maintenance on the network drive, and I need administrative access to be able to do it. Can you help? " My response: I have run into this problem a number of times. There are two ways to get around this issue: one is to try ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marion L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been using my Yahoo email with Windows Mail for quite a while, but now it keeps telling me 'Your Yahoo account settings are out of date' near the top of the screen. The options 'Fix Account' ... or 'Dismiss' don't work. If I click 'Fix Account' it says 'Something went wrong. We're sorry but we weren't able to do that. Error code: 80070422'. I cannot send or receive emails using my Yahoo account. Can you please help? " My response: As I mentioned in last week's post, the ' Your account settings are out of date ' is a very generic error ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Judy G. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm running Windows 7. Throughout the day, I often receive a message from Windows that says: 'Windows has detected your computer's performance is slow ... To improve performance, try changing the ... color scheme to Windows 7 Basic.' I click the option to 'Keep the current color scheme, and don't show this message again', but the error message 'Windows has detected your computer's performance is slow...' returns about 5 minutes later. I don't understand why this message appears, and I can't stop it from reappearing! It's incredibly annoying! Can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I will be upgrading my computer to the new AMD Ryzen 1700 CPU (which has 8 cores and 16 threads!) at a fraction of the price of Intel CPUs. I have searched online but I can't seem to find the answer ... - can you please tell me: after I install the new motherboard and CPU, can I continue to use my existing Windows installation or do I need to install Windows again? Also is my Windows 10 license still valid or do I need to purchase Windows 10 for my new motherboard and CPU? " My response: Short answer: It depends on the type of Windows you own and ... (view more)

Researchers have found a way to track web users even if they switch web browsers. It could improve security but also weaken online privacy. The researchers at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania were trying to find ways of improving fingerprinting. ... That's a way to attempt to identify an individual user (or at least their computer) without relying on single identifiers such as login details, browser cookies, or an IP address. Instead, fingerprinting involves taking multiple pieces of information provided by a user's browser such as the browser name, it's version, whether they have an ad blocker ... (view more)