Don’t touch fans in the computer when they sound like they’re spinning full speed.
Chances are they are.
June 3, 2008
May 16, 2008
Limewire is BAD
Text messaging at its finest:
A friend: hey craig how do i download limewire again?
Me: Did you try a google search and type limewire? I’d do that.
A friend: do i say i might use limewire for copyright infringement?
Me: no, you don’t say that…
A friend: okay, thanks!
Sos yall knows copyright infringement is bad. You probably shouldn’t be doing it. 
April 28, 2008
How to remove spyware and other bad things!
You’ll need;
What to do:
- Turn off Startup Items, restart computer
- Install then run HijackThis, restart computer
- Run Spybot- Fix Problems, Run Ad-Aware- Fix Problems, Run AVG scan- Fix Problems
- Restart computer, run HijackThis again
- Evaluate problems, take additional action.
First
On your computer click start and then click run (Win+R). If you can’t get to the run command from the start menu you can press the windows key plus r.
In the run command type, “msconfig“.
Next choose startup. Then choose to disable all.
This will uncheck all programs that are set to automatically start when the computer turns on. After fixing your computer you can go back into msconfig and reselect the programs you’d like to start when the computer starts such as aim.
Step two
Once your computer has been restarted and is running again it’s time to install the programs listed at the top of this page.
First install HijackThis. Run HijackThis and select all the startup programs that seem shady. Restart the computer.
After restarting the computer install Spybot Search & Destroy. The installer is pretty self explanatory. It’ll ask you to;
- Make a backup, do it.
- Download updates, do that.
- To immunize your system, do that.
Once it’s installed run a scan, fix the problems.
Now for AdAware. Once installed run a scan and choose to fix the problems.
After AdAware is installed install AVG Free Edition run a scan and fix those problems.
Lastly, I’d run HijackThis again, check the boxes next everything I’d like to get rid of, then restart.
Our last step is to evaluate our efforts and figure out what it is we haven’t been able to remove. A particular pesky virus I come across quite often is the trojan / virus vundo.
1. Download combofix from any of these links and save it to Desktop:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3**You’re going to need to save and run the file from the desktop**
2. Double click combofix.exe & follow the prompts.
*Attention*
Do not click combofix’s window while it’s running. That can cause it to freeze.Combofix shouldn’t take more then 20 minutes to run.
If it does, (press ctrl, alt and del at the same time) this will opeb the Task Manager click the processes tab and end the processes that are findstr, find, sed or swreg, that should cause combofix continue.
If you have problems with Combofix visit how-to-use-combofix
April 25, 2008
Minimized Windows Disappear (Win XP)
I received a question the other day in my email and realized that this issue comes up more often then I would have expected.
Basically when people are minimizing their windows to the taskbar the windows disappear. Not just when they minimize something like firefox, which seems to have its own minimizing issues, but when the minimize ANYTHING.
Many ways exist to get to your now hidden minimized files. Alt+Tab, the task manager found using CTRL+ALT+DLT, alt+space, and so on. The following fix should make these temporary solutions unnecessary.
Download the following file, save it to your computer, run it. I guaranty it’s virus free. If you don’t believe me though go ahead and download AVG Free Edition which it an excellent virus scanner!
Right click the link above and choose save target as. You should now be presented with an option asking you where on your computer you’d like to save it. Choose a place you’ll remember that is easy to find. Once downloaded, run the script from the location you saved it at. Restart.
April 20, 2008
Logging into the Administrator Account (Windows XP)
About a month ago the office I work for was cleaning shop. They gave a spare computer to our secretary’s husband for use at his new company. A few days ago he went to use it for the first time and realized he didn’t have any passwords for it. When he called us he informed us the only accounts on the computer were those of two of our resale agents, agents that had left the company over five months ago. No one knew the password. I had an idea however! You see the administrator account on xp systems usually doesn’t ever get a password assigned to it. Here’s what you can do if you fall victim to the same problem.
The following method only works if no password is assigned to the administrator account.
This method can be used to reset a users password, delete a user, or add a new user.
- Start the computer in safe mode.
- Log in as the Administrator using the username administrator with no password. (most users never set a password for the administrative account)
- Access the Control Panel
- Select Users
Starting the computer in safe mode
- Turn the computer off and wait 30 or so seconds.
- Turn the computer on and start tapping the F8 key.
- A Windows Advanced Options Menu should appear. If you get any sort of message such as keyboard error you probably pressed the key too soon. Simply restart the computer and try again.
- Use your arrows to select Safe mode then press Enter.
This should have started safe mode. If it did not another way to get the Windows Advanced Options Menu to appear is to force a computer off as it’s booting into xp. When you turn the computer back on it should inform you there was an error and give you an option to start safemode.
Logging in as Administrator
Now you should have a window that is asking you for a username and password. Use the following;
Username: Administrator
Password:
Password is intentionally left blank above. As I mentioned earlier most people never set the admin password. This is how we’re getting in! Through carelessness on our own/ someone elses part which has left the computer vulnerable.
Accessing the Control Panel and using the users panel
Once logged in we can open the Start Menu and then choose the Control Panel. Sometimes the Control Panel is located to the right of the word Settings in the Start Menu. The Control Panel has a few different views but nomatter which it opens in just look for the option User Accounts.
Once in User Account area you can choose various users. You have options once you have chosen a user to delete the accounts, to reset their passwords, and to perform other various actions. You can also add a new user with a password that you’ll actually know.
Once finished adding, removing, and modifying account you can close the window and restart the computer. Viola! You’re not able to log in!
April 14, 2008
Networking your Mac with Vista or XP
The concept is as follows:
- Tell your mac to share things
- Tell the PC where to go to find the shared things
- Drag and Drop
What we need to do is make sure the computers are connected to the same network. This allows them to be able to “talk” to each other. It can be done through your home’s wireless network, an ethernet cord, or a firewire cable. You also have the option of sending out a wireless signal yourself from the mac that the pc can connect to.
Once both computers are able to connected to each other it’s time to enable sharing on the mac.
You’ll need to find your way to System Preference. One way of accessing System Preferences is by clicking the apple at the top left of your screen and then choosing System Preferences.
Once there you can choose sharing.
From sharing you’ll have various options which are dependent upon your operating system. Here’s an example of what to do if you’re using the Leopard OS.
Above I have enabled the service by clicking the box associated with it.
By clicking the sharing service I am presented with various options.
In the shared folders column click the + and add whichever folder you’d like to share.
In the users column various accounts will be automatically added such as:
- Your own account
- An option for the other users on the computer
- Options for what anyone who connects to the computer has access to do
The everyone user has “write (Drop Box)” permissions in the image above. This means people who connect to the mac will be able to drag things into the folder but won’t be able to see what’s in it or take documents out of it.
The message above gives us valuable information on how to connect from the windows computer.
It’s important to note that address above. On the PC we’ll input it as \\10.0.1.198\ or \\10.0.1.198\craigsullivan
It’s a lot easier to figure that out in Tiger, Apple’s previous OS but I’ll tell you what to do.
Here are a few images to show what the above steps look like on older versions of the mac operating system.
From sharing located in System Preferences you’ll see;
Check the windows sharing checkbox. That will begin sharing. You also have options of which accounts to enable by choose accounts.
Now that our mac is sharing files and tells us how to access them we need to get on our PC! The image above shows us that windows users can access the computer at \\10.0.1.194\family
Connecting to the shared folder!
On your pc press the windows button and R. This will open the run command.
Remember, it may be necessary to use \\10.0.0.000\username where you specify where you’re connecting. What should happen is the computer should ask you for a username and password. The username and password you’ll supply is the one you use on your mac.
Now a window should open. This is a folder filled with various folders that are on your mac. You can now easily drag files that are located in folders on your mac into folders that are on your pc and vice versa. Enjoy!
October 23, 2007
Redmond Start Your Copiers
It would seem in this modern day and age large companies would be able to think for themselves. However this is not the case. With the introduction of Microsofts Vista Operating System it is apparent Microsoft has been copying the cats the cats being the codenames for Apples very own operating systems.
Apple’s current operating systems is OS 10.4 codenamed Tiger. There is also a major release on the horizon that is OS 10.5 codenamed Leopard. These operating systems at their core run off of an open source kernel called UNIX which make them a fairly bombproof operating system. Apple incorporates many core technologies into their systems. For example there is Spotlight an instant search feature. Also, Dashboard a quick way to access widgets which are objects that allow instant access to nearly any information. Apple also incorporates 3D designs in their Graphic User Interfaces that allow users to quickly see what they are doing. One of the useful features that Mac OS X has always had is that PDF is built into its core and many upon many images can be displayed at once with no slow down. Windows are always live whether they are minimized or not, even video. Video can continue to play even then minimized to the dock. With Expose a feature introduced over 3 years ago with the panther operating system it is possible to get a 3d view of all open windows at once and to easily manipulate them to find the window being looked for.
Microsft’s newest operating system is called Windows Vista, which takes many quos from that of its apple counterpart. Vista incorporates many new features over Microsoft’s previous operating system. One of these features is instant search built right into nearly every window. The Windows Sidebar, another vista innovation, brings real-time information like weather and news to the desktop in the form of gadgets. With Windows Aero a feature that very high-end computers may be able to use windows has an entirely new look and feel. With a glass border on every window you can see a smoky view of what is behind your window to give a sense of depth. Windows are now drawn dynamically and as a window is minimized it smoothly animates to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Once in the taskbar a live preview of what the window looks like can be seen, if the mouse is held over it for a long enough time. One last innovative feature of vista is a technology called Flip 3D. With Flip 3D it is possible to see all of your windows dynamically display in 3d on the desktop in a stacked view. Flip 3D makes it convenient to look through opened windows.
It would seem that many of Microsoft’s new feature and innovations match those that have been built into OSX for years. So then what makes them different? For starters Microsoft’s new operating system requires high-end computer to run many of the included features. OSX is able to run well on many Macs built within the last five years. It is even possible to install the OS on older Macs and still have reasonable performance. This shows that the core coding for the operating systems differ on many levels.
In a world where originality and true innovation get unnoticed and any company with cat scratch fever can simply copy their competitors rather then striving for true innovation it makes one wonder why innovate at all. If every company were to copy every other company originality and true inventiveness will be lost. This could greatly impact everyone’s life. It is a good thing that companies such as apple ignore the copycats and strive to offer a more superior product at a quicker pace then it’s competitors.
