Archive for October, 2007
How to tell if you have a malware infection
Unfortunately, many PC users don’t always practice safe surfing or keep their anti-malware defenses up to snuff. Even computers with anti-malware programs sometimes get infected. Trojan horses and spyware don’t always have the signatures that anti-virus programs can recognize. Malware writers are getting very sophisticated and it isn’t always easy to detect an infection. So [...]
Adding functions to the “Send to” menu in Vista
The very useful “Send to” feature in the right-click context menu goes back a long way. I have written about it at my beginner’s site and posted here about how to add things to the list of folders and programs accessible from it. “Send to” lives on in Vista but the method for adding to [...]
Command line tip #3 – Targeted deleting
The Windows XP (and Vista) command shell has a delete command “del” that provides flexibility and power for the chore of deleting files. If there are any voices in the background saying, “What else is new, it’s just DOS”, they couldn’t be more wrong. This 32-bit command shell is much more powerful. The 16-bit DOS [...]
RealPlayer issues security patch
RealPlayer has released a patch for the ActiveX security hole reported yesterday. Download link is here.
Heard on the Web – spam by MP3 file
Reader Sarah sent me an email about a new form of spam – audio files. The New York Times also has a blog post about using MP3 files to push stock scams. It seems to be an attempt to circumvent spam filters. Personally, I would never open an attachment of this type but I guess [...]
RealPlayer security problem
Yet another ActiveX security hole is being exploited. This time it’s in RealPlayer. Greg Keizer reports:
Attackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in RealPlayer in order to infect Windows machines running Internet Explorer, Symantec Corp. said late Thursday. The security company issued an alert that rated the threat with its highest possible score.
According to Symantec:
“Attacks that [...]
New Microsoft operating system
In one of those interesting coincidences, no sooner had I written about how Microsoft should give us a new operating system than news of progress in that direction came out. Mary Jo Foley reports:
Microsoft has created a stripped-down version of the Windows core, called MinWin, that will be at the heart of future Windows products, [...]
Ubuntu keeps trying
I’ll give the Ubuntu developers credit, they keep plugging away. The latest version is out and Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says:
Ubuntu 7.10 is one sweet OS.
If they can ever get major manufacturers to start giving more than token support, they might make some progress with the consumer. However, HP has no Linux machine and Dell’s line [...]
Microsoft, give us a new operating system!
Not all PC users are the same. There are hundreds of millions of them and they vary enormously in interests and in technical knowledge. Yet we have a dominant computer operating system with a one-size-fits-all approach. Microsoft’s model of bundling as much as possible into the operating system means that many millions of home PC [...]
Detecting email scams
PC World has a pictorial guide to spotting email scams.
Windows XP service pack 3 in beta testing
Yes, there really is a Windows XP SP3. It’s been released to a group of public beta testers and some description is at this link. It seems to be mostly a rollup of previous patches and fixes although there are a few new things. I haven’t seen anything that would really grab a typical PC [...]
