It appears that antivirus companies have begun to sell their products on USB thumb drives. This is a great idea now that Netbooks are more common since many of them don’t have an optical drive. In fact, some antivirus companies such as Panda Security are making a Netbook specific versions of their antivirus products which are lighter on resources and come on a USB drive.

Another great thing about antivirus products coming on a USB drive is that the installation of the antivirus product (which usually takes ages) would happen much faster, since it is usually much faster than installing something from a CD.

Lastly, at the end of the day the customer is left with a USB drive which they could use for other purposes.

The default power settings for Windows is to have the computer go to sleep after about 15-30 minutes of inactivity (such as no keyboard input or mouse movement). This is great for the client because it saves power but not so great for a technician who is working on the computer.

Insomnia is a small, freeware and portable application designed to prevent the computer from going to sleep. As long as the Insomnia window is open, the computer wont go to sleep. This is great for a technician who is running malware or diagnosis scans on a computer which can potentially take hours.

If you are a technician who makes use of .BAT file or AutoIT scripting, this would be a nice addition to your script to keep the computers awake while your script does its task.

One of the biggest frustrations when installing Windows XP was making sure you had the correct CD for your license key. Windows Vista fixed this problem by having a universal CD that contained all versions (all 32bit versions or all 64bit versions, not both) and simply installed the version that the key matched.

Now that Windows 7 is out, Microsoft have reverted back to needing a separate disk for each version which is annoying for us computer technicians. However, the only difference between each DVD is a small 51 byte configuration file called ei.cfg which tells the installer what version disc it is. If you were to turn your DVD into an ISO, remove this ei.cfg file and write it back to a DVD, that DVD would become a Universal DVD.

ei.cfg Removal Utility will make this easy for you. Just create an ISO with your legitimate Windows 7 DVD, run this tool, choose the ISO and let it run. Once it has finished, just write the ISO back to a DVD again and you would only need to carry one 32bit version and one 64bit version to support any Windows 7 install onsite.

Of course, your client would still need to provide you with a working key for the Windows 7 install to work.

The critical security bug in vPro processors has been patched by Intel. The affected chipsets are Q35, GM45, PM45 Express, Q45, and Q43 Express.

The bug is about implementation errors in the company’s trusted execution technology (TXT).

“We again showed that an attacker can compromise the integrity of a software loaded via an Intel TXT-based loader in a generic way, fully circumventing any protection TXT is supposed to provide,” said Invisible Things Lab researchers.

The overhaul of Firefox’s interface has been delayed. Instead of debuting in version 3.7, it is now scheduled to debut in version 4.0 which is a major release slated for a 2010 release.

Mozilla, the developer of Firefox, would “ribbonize” the browser and borrow graphics graphics concepts from Microsoft. This means eliminating the top-of-the-frame menus.

Stephen Horlander of Mozilla said that there will be an “App Button” that will take place of the menus.

So my wife has been working on helping our daughter learn to read. After a lot of research she discovered that Personalized Childrens Books was the way to go. She decided that she would like to help other parents discover the joy’s of teaching thier child to read so she started her own site selling Personalized Childrens Books. Check out the site http://www.MyFairyTaleBooks.com

Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 11. So why are we seeing more of these upgrades? It seems like people that chose to stay with their old PC do not upgrade to Vista (here is an odd case. The reason may be that:

1. Their hardware wouldn’t support it well (too weak and Vista drivers that are needed for legacy hardware are sometimes hard to find).

2. It is expensive to pay for a new PC that also runs Vista well (it also may backfire at times), most people settle for their good old PC with good old XP but add to it latest updates from Microsoft.
However, newer versions of IE and WMP were designed for newer PCs and tested and optimized for Vista (and not for the discontinued XP)… XP users who try to maximize their experience by upgrading to IE8 and WMP11 absurdly get a slower and slower PC and a user experience which is worse than before!

This phenomena is called “bloatware“. Now, usually an obvious solution for bloatware is uninstalling the bloat and making it float by finding more lightweight alternatives (e.g. Foxit Reader instead of Acrobat Reader). However, after you’ve installed IE8 / WMP11 it is very hard to uninstall these applications especially if you’re not a geek.

A hardwired Ethernet network is, by nature, safer and more secure than WiFi, but it is still vulnerable. Instead of breaking into the network, as with WiFi, hackers usually break into one of the PCs on the network, which can give them access to the information on all the PCs. The following security tips apply to both wired and wireless networks. While there is no such thing as absolute security, the more of these tips you follow the more secure your wireless network will be.

Secure both the network and each PC

• Use security software that comes with your wireless or wired router to secure the network.

• Rename your network. Out of the box, most routers use their own easily identifiable names (SSIDs) that make them easier for hackers to crack. Change the router name to one that doesn’t give you or the network type away.

• Use the media access control (MAC) feature that is usually included with your router. It lets you name each PC on the network and restrict network access to only those PCs.

• Secure each PC with its own firewall, so that even if a hacker gets into the network, he/she won’t be able to access the PCs on it.

Use strong password security

• The security software that comes with most routers usually offers several levels of password protection. Don’t use WEP (wired equivalent privacy) passwords as they are easily hacked. Use at least WPA (Wi-Fi protected access) or WPA Personal passwords, or an even more secure format, if offered.

• Create hard to decipher passwords. Don’t include your name, birth date, address or other obvious words or numbers. The best passwords are a random mix of letters, numbers, and characters, eight or more characters long.

• Change your password often.

Use up-to-date security software

Internet security software will help you maximize the safety and security of your home network. It adds security features that neither PCs nor network routers offer. Such features include –

• Firewall protection for each computer in the network.

• Transaction security to help ensure your online shopping or banking transactions are secured.

• Antivirus protection to help keep viruses, Trojan horses and worms from infecting your PCs.

• Antispyware to block hackers from placing spyware on your PC.

• Email scanning to remove viruses from email.

To maximize the effectiveness of your Internet security software, make sure it is always up-to-date so that you are always protected from the very latest security threats.