And once again it’s Monday!

Yippee yahoo.

* Many people have reported to me that their New Year has started out right, and good things are happening for them. I really like hearing things like that, especially in these times (and economic climes). I sure hope we’re in a “turnaround”, in general, and that you – specifically – have great things happen in 2013. (Mine is starting out right.)

* I recently ran a poll, asking if any pet owner had had their lost pet returned thanks to a microchip implant.
Now, I have to say that, I don’t want to open a whole can of worms, or start a debate over the idea of electronic implants — or what that might mean when they start doing it to humans… That isn’t why I asked the question in the poll, so let’s agree, and not ‘go there’.

I will say that several readers responded with a “yes”. And that I found that slightly surprising. I had some doubts as to Real Life efficacy, I confess. When I thought about those (“yes”) pet owners, I was reminded of those Visa commercials:
Silicon chip – $1.29
Trip to vet – $39
The return of the lost family pet – priceless.

(And to those who answered “no”.. well, I don’t know what to say except that you have my sincere sympathies.)

* Saw a good read this morning by Ed Bott. Have to confess I like the comments better than the article, though, as, for one thing, David Pogue weighed in.. To touch or not to touch: That is the Windows 8 question

“The next time someone complains that Windows 8 touchscreens give you “gorilla arm,” you have my permission to stomp on them like that ape in the old American Tourister commercials. The reality is that touchscreens work great on modern laptops, and you might even be able to retrofit touch support on your old trackpad.” Read more..

* I enjoyed the football games yesterday. And I am still sticking to the Packers 49ers as my Super Bowl pick.
It felt weird to know that Ray Lewis isn’t coming back next year.. Will their still be a Ravens?
(And I’m going to have to check the latest on RG3’s knee… Ray Lewis’ heroic effort pays off; Robert Griffin III’s does not)

* Tech Tip: 10 things to try when applications won’t work with Windows 8

“If you have problems getting an app to run on Windows 8, all’s not lost. One of these strategies or workarounds may get the application running.” Read more..

* In the news:

* Latest IE attacks connected to espionage group

“Symantec has linked exploits that leverage a new zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer to the group responsible for a spate of recent espionage attacks.” Read more..

* Also.. there’s a version of Ubuntu for smartphones now.. but who cares?

* Break in at Microsoft’s research office sees only iPads stolen

“According to a report in a Palo Alto newspaper, a break in took place at Microsoft’s office in Mountain View and the only things that were taken from the property were iPads.” Read more..

* 2013: The year Gigabit Wi-Fi arrives

“No more idle chit-chat, Gigabit Wi-Fi, thanks to 802.11ac, is on its way to your home and corporate networks.” Read more..

* Today’s quote: “Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.” ~ Unknown

[I don’t know about tools so much.. but if you change that to “screw” or “nut”.. yeah! {Also, the ‘common’ bolts don’t vanish, but the one-of-a-kind specialty ones sure do..}]

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Internet Explorer Favorites Are Missing

Bookmarks (called “Favorites” in Internet Explorer) make returning to our favorite Websites an easy task, and I — for one — rely on mine. The other day I got a call from someone whose Favorites had disappeared. Quite naturally, I think, they wanted to get them back, and came to me for aid.

An important thing to understand is that Favorites and Bookmarks are shortcuts.. just like the icons on your Desktop are shortcuts to programs (.exe’s) located in your c:\Program Files folder. Your “Favorites” are simply a list of shortcuts to URL’s, and when you click on the gold star Favorites icon, this list is displayed. You can (and should) “export” this list to other browsers, a comma-separated-values (.csv) file, or a HTML file.. And you can add and delete items from this list as your heart desires.
[note: Firefox answer is here: Restore Bookmarks in Firefox– quick tip]

Tip of the day: IE is a integral component to Windows, and Windows stores your custom configurations in your User Account– your Desktop icons, Theme, Settings, etc.. Windows allows for multiple users, and each person who uses the machine should have their own user account– it also has some built-in accounts, like Administrator, and Guest (or “Public”).

If your Favorites list is empty, and not displaying any shortcuts, the first thing you should check is that you’re logged into your User Account. Click the Start button, and then choose “Log off” (or “Switch User”, depending) and verify that you are indeed logged into your user profile (and not Guest or Admin..).

If this is not the issue, navigate to the folder that contains the shortcuts list– this is called “Favorites”, and it’s located in your User folder. In XP, your User folder is in the Documents and Setting folder, so your path is C:\Documents and Settings\username*\Favorites.
In Vista and Windows 7, it’s C:\Users\username\Favorites.

Open the Favorites folder and see if your bookmarks are there. If they’re not, well, something’s happened to them somehow, and this might very well be a cause for concern (has a hacker been playing on your machine?) or it might be just ‘one of those things..’ we Windows users sometimes experience.
To restore the shortcuts, you can “import” a .csv, or .html ‘export’ you made earlier (hint, hint).. or copy the contents from a backup copy of your Favorites folder (which, because you follow my advice, you have on CD/DVD and/or another drive).

Or, you have never exported and haven’t backed up your files and folders.. (ahem), well, here is where you can try System Restore to revert your computer to an earlier date. System Restore does not restore deleted files, but it does store User Account information, and so you may have luck this way.
My article on using System Restore is here.

Today’s free download: PowerISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file processing tool, which allows you to open, extract, create, edit, burn, compress, encrypt, split and convert ISO files, and mount these files with internal virtual drive. It can process almost all CD-ROM image files including ISO and BIN.

Today’s quote: “People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Let’s review: If your “favorites” list is important to you, back it up. “Export” it to a file. Like, now. (Maybe.. email the file to yourself, too.) The How To steps are here.

Note: You may have noticed from the dates on the screenshot that this article was first published back in 2008. Back then, I used to urge people to “make a backup” at least once a month. Years ago, I gave up .. “wasting my breath”. But, since it is NCSAM, I’ll say it one more time (though the evidence is in and it’s conclusive: not one person will get smart, and follow through. Oh, well. Your loss, tears, and heartache.)

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Troubleshooting Internet Explorer (A Collection of How To’s)

It is a simple and well-known fact of life — sometimes things go wrong with computers.

When that something is your web browser, and you cannot surf the ‘net, or log in to your email, or Google Docs, well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a computer these days.

Causes: There can be many reasons your browser can get ‘corrupted’ and stop functioning properly – from viruses, to Updates failing to install properly, and also “cookies” can ‘go bad’ – and so there is no 1-click-cures-all, (wouldn’t that be great?) but here are some things you can do to try to get Internet Explorer working like it should, and/or working like you want it to .
[note: most of the practical steps described in the article links below can be applied to other web browsers.. (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) ]

Restore Missing Favorites In IE*

Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*

Quick Tip: Turn on ClearType in Internet Explorer

Can’t Download? Reset IE

How To Clear Your Cache

View Multiple Mail Identities in One Browser

Extracting text from Web pages*

Precautions for your Internet privacy*

Quick Tip: Customize new tabs behavior

IE’s Menu bar, Taskbar icons, and bad Updates*

Internet/E-mail Troubleshooting – JavaScript

What is a “homepage”?

How to use tabs in IE 7

Saving webpages as files

I hope you found this collection of How To articles helpful.

Today’s quote: “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

Bonus tip: If you are in a position where you need to get your Dear Sweet Aunt Martha (or other utterly tech unsavvy type) a computer so that they can have email, do yourself a favor, spring for an iMac.

Bonus reading:

* Infographic: Spam Olympiad

“Spammers and “slammers” took advantage of world-wide attention on the London 2012 Olympics to flood us with junk and fill the social media streams with abuse. Here’s a snapshot of their activity.” Read more

* Are You Forwarding Hate Email As A Political Propaganda Tool?

“Have you noticed that as the we ramp up for the U.S. Presidential election the hate email propaganda starts to roll in. I have been getting so much of it (mostly from personal acquaintances) that it actually makes me very uncomfortable and has me questioning the  stability and IQ of our population. I sometimes feel […]” Read more..

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories. Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Repair Internet Explorer

Sometimes things go wrong with PC’s.

When that something is your web browser, and you cannot surf the ‘net, or log in to your email, or Google Docs, well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a computer.

There can be many reasons your browser can get ‘corrupted’ – from viruses, to Updates failing to install properly, and also “cookies” can ‘go bad’ – and so there is no 1-click-cures-all, (wouldn’t that be great?) but here are some things you can do to try to get Internet Explorer working like it should, and/or working like you want it to .
[note: much of the practical steps described in the article links below can be applied to other web browsers.. ]

Restore Missing Favorites In IE*

Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*

Quick Tip: Turn on ClearType in Internet Explorer

Can’t Download? Reset IE

How To Clear Your Cache

View Multiple Mail Identities in One Browser

Extracting text from Web pages*

Precautions for your Internet privacy*

Quick Tip: Customize new tabs behavior

IE’s Menu bar, Taskbar icons, and bad Updates*

Internet/E-mail Troubleshooting – JavaScript

What is a “homepage”?

How to use tabs in IE 7

Saving webpages as files

I hope you found this resource helpful.

Today’s quote: “Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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How To Set Your Browser To Surf More Safely – Picture Tutorial*

How to Configure Internet Explorer to Stay (More) Secure Online: Step-by-Step

The Internet is an amazing place. It is the world’s largest man-made object. It has changed and enhanced our lives in countless ways. Like most things, it has it’s “good side” and it’s “bad side”. I think you need to know: cyber-criminals are ruining the Internet, and stealing billions of dollars a year in the process (that we know about.. think “tip of the iceberg”).

Instead of simply telling you “be safer”, I have a link to a step-by-step slideshow tutorial: How to configure Internet Explorer for secure surfing.

The pictures make it very easy to follow, and performing the steps can prevent many online attacks against your computer.

“With assistance from the United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), this slideshow will walk you through the steps to configure Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to limit the damage from hacker attacks.”

click for slideshow

“In this digital age, we are all connected, and each of us plays an important role in securing cyberspace.” So do your part. Make sure your web browser is “hardened” against online attacks. Click and learn!

Today’s free download: For further browser security, I recommend installing Spyware Blaster as well as the steps above. It works well with your existing protections.

SpywareBlaster doesn’t scan for and clean spyware–it prevents it from being installed in the first place. SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, dialers, browser hijackers, and other potentially unwanted programs. It can also block spyware/tracking cookies in IE, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, and many other browsers, and restrict the actions of spyware/ad/tracking sites. With the built-in Check for Updates feature, you can help ensure your protection is up-to-date. SpywareBlaster also includes a System Snapshot feature, which lets you take a snapshot of your computer in its clean state and later revert, undoing many changes made by spyware and browser hijackers.

Related: Earlier I posted a slideshow tutorial for the web browser Firefox (see, Safer Internet Surfing Cont. – Tutorial: Tweak Firefox for Greater Security)

Folks, to find out more about cyber-security, and connect to more educational resources, click here.

* Orig post: 10/18/10

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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How To Block Websites

Preventing access to websites is called “blacklisting”. (Parents, take note.)

In yesterday’s article, I mentioned that I was going to boycott any website that started showing me image advertising – just won’t go there no more – and I used the Geekspeak word ‘blacklist’. Which prompted a few letters asking how that was done. Today I will show you how it’s done.. and I’ll try to keep the Geekspeak to the very minimum.

If you should decide that you want to block access (called “access control”) to websites you do not approve of, or think may be dangerous to you and/or your family, (and yes, there’s plenty of those) there are several strategies and methods — which you choose will probably be decided by how many websites you wish to block and for how many machines.

Simplest first: The web browser.
Say I just wanted to make sure my own, one machine, here, (or perhaps my child’s) never went to MSNBC, regardless of what I accidentally clicked or Googled (or perhaps I discovered a website that tried to do a “driveby” virus download) – I could add that site to my browser’s Do Not Go There list.

In Internet Explorer:

• Click Tools, and then Internet Options
• Next click on the Security tab
• Now click on the red-circle icon for Restricted sites
• Click the Sites button

[Notice that the URL for the web page you are currently on is – by default – filling the “Add this site” pane… Which is fine if you happened to be on the site you want to block; but you may (probably) want to manually type in URL for the website. You can add more than one – just separate the URL’s by comma+a space.]

• Click the Add button. You will now see the URL(s) listed in the blocked Websites list pane. (You can add as many sites as you want.)
  If you make a mistake, click on the list entry, and then the Remove button.
• Click Close to close that window, then OK to close Internet Options. You’re done.

Other Web browsers can work much the same way (though may use slightly different wording) though my preferred “alternative browser”, Firefox, needs an Add on for this (called Blocksite).

A better way: In the “home computing” environment, it was assumed that it would mostly be parents – wanting to prevent their children from visiting “mature” websites – who would desire to block (blacklist) Internet access. Because of this, most ‘Internet access control’ tools can be found under Parental Controls though, obviously, you do not need to be a parent to take advantage of it.

A good place to get started learning about enabling Parental Controls (to block websites) in Windows is here, Set up Parental Controls (and a brief video can be seen here); and on an Apple Mac, here.

Better yet: The best place to block Internet access is at the front door.. which in computer land is the device known as the “router” (or “wireless router”, or “WAP”), if you have one. Here you can block access by machine, time of day, and more.

This screenshot shows me blocking the website MySpace on a Linksys router, as well as by some “adult” keywords. It is taken from my step-by-step How To article here, Protecting your network–use your router for access control.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Don’t Want IE 9? How To Turn Off The Update Nag

For those of you not ready to switch to IE 9, or want to go back to IE 8, this article (written back when Microsoft was moving us from IE 7 to IE 8) tells you what you need to know.. I simply updated it by changing the number!

IE 8 9 is an “Important” Update, Yes, But I Don’t Want It

Sometimes we need to tell Windows Update to stop prompting us to install a particular Update.

When Microsoft has released important and/or critical Updates (aka “patches”) for us, Windows has various ways of letting us know, including a System Tray icon. [note: The normal route for accessing Update choices is Start >Windows Update, or Start >Programs >Windows Update. Click “View available updates”.]

I am a big fan of Updates. I (almost) always install them the moment I become aware of them. I use Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector to keep an eye on all my installed programs’ update state.. and I recommend you do too. Updates are ‘good’ and you want them.

Tip of the day: Manage Windows Updates prompts.
Currently, Microsoft Update is annoying me by continuously nagging me that there are Updates available. And when I click on the icon to see just what these updates are…

.. and I see that there is just one Update Microsoft wants me to install (the others only rate “optional”) — Internet Explorer 8 9.
Now, I understand why Microsoft wants us to be using a more secure browser (and I understand why it’s considered “important”) and I will upgrade from IE7 8 on most of my machines — but not all. Not yet.

So I right-click on the Update I don’t want to be nagged about and then click on “Hide update”.

That’s it. I’m done. Windows Update will no longer prompt me to install this (now) ‘hidden’ update. At a later date, to see Updates that I’ve hidden, I just click on “Show hidden updates”. I can undo my change.

Note: This technique can be used on any Update — such as troublesome Updates that cause incompatibility issues, such as a BSOD. If a Windows Update install causes you trouble, and you need to uninstall it, the “Hide” tip won’t help you (it’s too late). Please refer to the 3rd answer in this article, IE’s Menu bar, Taskbar icons, and bad Updates*, to see how to remove Updates.
After you get that Update uninstalled, (then) use the Hide feature to prevent Windows Update from re-Installing it on you again.

To uninstall IE 8 9: Uninstalling IE 8 9 will automatically restore your older version (IE 8). Please see Microsoft’s official How To, here, How do I uninstall or remove Internet Explorer 8? How do I install or uninstall Internet Explorer 9?

Today’s free download(s):
* Panda Cloud Antivirus Panda Security has a ‘new’ type of antivirus – Internet based. “FREE, antivirus service for consumers which is able to process and block malware more efficiently than locally installed signature-based products.”
[For more, also see Panda Cloud Antivirus – Is it netbook ready?]

* Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go.

Today’s quotable quote: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” ~ Yogi Berra

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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