45 Windows Tricks, Free Wallpaper, More!
Today is Saturday and I have decided I am going to let others do the heavy lifting for me. Below are some collections of tweaks, tricks, tips, and fun customizations for your computer.
First up: Essential Windows Tricks
“Whether you run Windows 7, Vista, or XP, these 25 tricks will make your PC faster, safer, and even more fun to work with.”
* The verdict is in: Windows 7 is Microsoft’s best operating system yet. For those of you who have a Win7 machine: 20 Windows 7 quick tips and tricks for IT admins
“Make working in Windows 7 even easier with these easy-to-miss tricks.”
(It’s okay you’re not an “IT admin”, just skip over tips #17, 18, and 19.)
* And spruce up your PC’s appearance with wallpaper: FREE High Resolution Wallpapers
“Today, I want to tell you about a wallpaper site that I use that is not only safe, but provides a great collection of high resolution wallpapers.”
* Is a Web mail (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!) your primary e-mail? Want to fix your “mailto:”? Default to Web Mail
“Patrick wants a Web-based mail service to be his default email.”
So have some fun with your computer. Read these, and then try some “tweaks” and customizations yourself. Make your PC (Personal Computer) more “personal”.
Have a great weekend, folks!
Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. 
post to jaanix.
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Security Alert — An Infection Has Been Detected!
Online crime is bigger than the global drugs trade¹. The Internet shadow economy is worth over $105 billion. No country, no person, no business and no government is immune from CyberCrime.
Currently there is an epidemic of fake anti-malware software on the Internet– which is collectively called “rogue anti-malware“ and/or “scareware”. Marketed under hundreds of different names, such as VirusRemover 2008 and Antivirus XP 2009, this type of rogue software scares people by giving false alarms, and then tries to deceive them into paying for removal of non-existing malware. [update: some of the newer ones are now encrypting your files, and requiring a ‘ransom’ for the key. Don’t pay. There is help online.]
This video shows what happens when a legitimate Website gets infected and redirected to one of these bogus anti-malware scams.
Yes, folks, legitimate websites are being ‘hacked’. (It’s called “poisoned”.)
The people behind this scourge use many different ways to try to entice you to click – realistic looking pop-up windows appear, offers of “free trials” arrive in e-mail, and “free scan” buttons on legit-looking ‘fight malware’ websites.. the means are quite varied!
As this video shows, the user is tricked into (scared into, really) providing their credit card # to clean infections that weren’t there before they clicked and aren’t really there now.
* The ‘false positives’ are not “cleaned” BUT, more adware and spyware is installed.
* A good percentage of my calls at Aplus Computer Aid are folks needing help with getting rid of these rogues. Because these clever programs use the latest techniques to combat removal, and it can be quite tough — if not impossible — to truly remove them.. without formatting your hard-drive.
* For more, please read Is that anti-spyware program really spyware?
* One Website dedicated to combating this epidemic is Spyware Warrior. It has a pretty good list of known rogues, and much more detailed information. Another excellent resource is Bleeping Computer.
* I have written several How-To’s on protecting yourself from malware, and how to clean your machines as well. Click here to see those titles.
¹ From a recent MessageLabs whitepaper. (This eye-opening report provides a disturbing look into the ‘dark’ world of cyber-crime. This link is the online version.. you need to scroll a bit..)
Today’s free download: WOT (Web Of Trust) is a free Internet security add-on for your browser. It will help keep you safer from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky Website. It’s easy and it’s free.
- Ratings for over 22 million websites
- Downloaded over 4 million times
- The WOT browser addon is light and updates automatically
- WOT rating icons appear beside search results in Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Gmail, etc.
- Settings can be customized to better protect your family (new “Parental Control” setting blocks access to Web sites with a poor child safety rating and no rating at all)
- WOT Security Scorecard shows rating details and user comments
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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WOT In Action
Have you installed the safer surfing WOT toolbar yet? I install it on all my friend’s and family’s machines (and offer to, to all my clients) because its red – yellow – green “traffic signal” warning system is simple enough for young children.
Here, it’s warning of a dangerous hyperlink embedded in a phishing email that’s attempting to steal my identity and banking login…
..and should you be so foolish as to ignore (or.. simply not notice) the red circle, and click on the link anyway, and try to go to the website..
A warning curtain intervenes. It tells you why the website has “earned” the very bad red rating. You must click “Go to site” to proceed to the website itself. (I won’t say that if you do do that, you deserve whatever bad things happen to you and/or your machine.. but, I might think it…)
These ratings are determined by you, me, and other Internet surfers… not some faceless giant corporation or government agency. It is “people driven”, and you get a vote.
Check it out. Visit http://mywot.com today. Protect yourself from “phraud”, and “phishing”, and “rogue antivirus” programs .. like TotalProtect2009. (See Is that anti-spyware program really spyware? and Total Protect 2009/ TotalProtect2009 – 3 Removal Solutions)
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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