> > Yes, every windows computer should be running an antivirus program. No software will prevent 100% of infections, but not having any protection is simply asking for trouble. > > We do not recommend Norton or McAfee – ever. These products are no more effective than others, will have a significant negative impact on system speed, and are costly (especially for larger organizations) despite these facts. We encourage all of our clients to run Microsoft Security Essentials, keep it updated, and allow it to run a full scan at least once a week. > > Microsoft Security Essentials is available here –> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials > > We recommend all users avoid the use of Internet Explorer. While the number of security flaws is only arguably greater than other browsers it’s high level of integration with Windows OS means that the risks are usually of greater severity and easier to exploit. > > Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari are all good alternatives. For Firefox and Chrome there is a highly effective addon called AdBlock Plus. This addon prevents the browser from downloading/displaying almost all online advertisements. By doing so it is able to offer a safer, faster, less confusing web experience. > > Mozilla Firefox –> http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ > Google Chrome –> https://www.google.com/chrome > Apple Safari –> http://www.apple.com/safari/ > AdBlock Plus –> http://adblockplus.org/en/ > > I’ll give Christal a call tomorrow, but I do have my concerns about how effective cleaning this machine will be. The last infection was an especially nasty trojan that has only been around a short while. I suspect this one is the same thing – called ZeroAccess. The ONLY completely reliable way to clean this is to reinstall Windows. I’ve had some small success dealing with this particular infection when on-site, the results of cleaning this remotely are much less hopeful. Also, there is not legitimate software from malware.org. This concerns me that Christal has taken some additional action that will make this even more difficult to clean. > > I’ve also included a short document that I hope will offer everyone some good advice on ways that they can help avoid future infections. Please take a look and perhaps forward the attachment to all CIP staff. >

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1517

The Flashback virus is the first real ‘Mac’ virus. Details here:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml

Right click on the Start Menu, then select Properties Switch to the Taskbar tab Adjust ‘Taskbar location on screen’ to read bottom Press OK.

That should do it.

On Apr 21, 2012, at 10:02 AM, Steve wrote:

> > Hunter – > > > Don’t know why, but the bar which usually runs across the bottom of the screen – Start button, open files, time of day, etc., is suddenly at the top, which is distracting. How do I put it back below? > > > Steve

From Microsoft’s Website:

Bing Desktop is available for computers that are running Windows 7. Bing Desktop can be installed from the optional updates section in Windows Update. Bing Desktop provides an automatic update of the Windows Desktop background image to the Bing home page image each day. In addition, Bing Desktop offers an easy to access yet unobtrusive search box to streamline searching without opening the browser.

****

Note how the primary function of Bing Desktop is to ‘update the Windows Desktop background image to the Bing home page image each day’. Now why didn’t Google and Apple think of doing that with Spotlight and Desktop?

On Apr 27, 2012, at 12:58 PM, Chris O’Boyle wrote:

> (sarcasm) > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2694771 > > Bing Desktop search bar is in Windows Updates now, as of Monday. Don’t you just love Microsoft? > > Interesting is all. > > –Chris

Any modern Mac laptop or desktop will have considerably more storage space than the Macbook you have now. Storing photos, documents, email & files will not be an issue.

Some items are more easily cloud-storable and cloud-accessible than others. Your GMail, for instance, is a cloud service – one that can be easily accessed from any internet-equipped device (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop)

Apple’s iCloud service allows you to ‘sync’ certain data. It’s not stored exclusively in the Cloud. The Cloud simply provides a storage mechanism for all your devices to retrieve the data they need – photos, music, files, contacts, calendars.

Online backup services work well, too (though often times not necessary if using the right combination of cloud based services), though aren’t ideal when you have lots of constantly changing data. Our internet connections just aren’t fast enough to handle moving around that much data.

Scanning paper isn’t as practical or useful as people think. It’s cumbersome, time-consuming & the quality is poor. Most importantly, the documents you scan aren’t totally digital and therefore can’t be searched by a computer. You have to manually organize them electronically. You would be better off converting your paper files to digital files through whatever companies issue the paper in the first place. Switch from paper to paperless billing, ask for all of your vendors to send you bills & statements electronically & access all your accounts online. It takes some time to get it all set up, but it does work.

hunter

On Apr 18, 2012, at 8:38 AM, Suellen wrote:

> HI Hunter, > It looks as if I am going to need a new computer soon and I am wrestling with digital “memory issues” and storage. Looking toward the future, which is a better approach: just getting more memory on a computer or starting to store on the Cloud. I gather the “Cloud” acts like these storage units that you see on the road but only in digital space. > The question is how often do people access this new found “storage” and easy is it to access. My goal is to try and go paperless in 2013! > Best > Suellen

Hope all is well with you, too. Everything here is fine.

The X1185 is an older model, and it’s difficult to find those kinds of parts for it. It’s also a basic, low-end model, and probably not worth fixing.

I would recommend something like this to replace it:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/printer/Officejet/1/storefronts/CB867A%2523B1H

The HP Officejet 4500. It has similar functions for printing & copying. And through HP it’s currently on sale for $60. I can get one for you if you like.

Best,

hunter

On Apr 13, 2012, at 8:23 PM, Esther wrote:

> Hello there, > > I don’t know if your company repairs copiers or not. I have a Lexmark X1185 Print > Trio that I have snapped off the cover holding the black print cartridge in the machine. How do you suggest I get it repaired? > > Hope all is going well with you. > > Esther

A few things can be done routinely:

1) Windows Updates. Very important, especially for Windows 7 machines (there aren’t too many updates released for Windows XP at this point). Windows should do them automatically, but it’s usually worth checking from time to time just to make sure. There is usually a shortcut to Windows Update in the Start Menu.

2) We also like to manually run scans from these programs on all PCs:

http://malwarebytes.org/ http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Both are free. Always a good idea to make sure machines have up-to-date versions of Microsoft Security Essentials (Anti-Virus & Spyware):

http://microsoft.com/security_essentials

3) Removing old and unused programs is also worthwhile on any PC, but since your workstations shouldn’t have much software on them anyway, I can’t imagine what would ever accumulate in the first place.

4) The Macs are mostly self sufficient. Software Updates are always a good idea (Apple Menu->Software Update). Also leaving the Macs on overnight at least once a month will allow all of Apple’s built-in maintenance scripts to run automatically. If they’re always shut down at night, they will never run (the scripts do trivial maintenance like clear old logs, cache & temp files, & check system files for consistency & corruption).

5) Defragging Windows 7 & the Macs is completely unnecessary. I’d say it might improve performance on a Windows XP machine by about 1% at best. Defragging was important in the days of Windows 95 & 98 when Microsoft was using Fat-16 and Fat-32 file systems. Filesystems like NTFS and HFS+ (modern PCs & Macs use these) are not commonly susceptible to fragmentation.

6) You could also encourage users not to do dumb things like download ‘free’ software, screen savers, file sharing programs, and use Facebook. All of these are known to be severe sources of viruses and spyware. Most security breaches we have seen lately are the result of a user-initated software installation – not something that any security software is going to prevent.

Hope that helps for now -

hunter

Reinstalling Mail don’t do much of anything.

Mail programs in general don’t like lots of messages – especially lots of messages in lots of folders. I would avoid putting more than 10,000 messages in any given folder.

I would start by forcing Mail to rebuild its mail index. You can do this by first quitting Mail, then opening Chip’s Home folder, then Library, then Mail. Just drag the file called ‘Envelope Index’ to the trash. Then re-open Mail.

It will look like Mail is re-importing messages. That’s normal. Just wait for it to finish & then test accessing the folders again.

hunter

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Scott wrote: > Chip uses Apple Mail. > > He’s got a bezillion folders. > > Recently, he’ll view a folder that should have a lot of messages in it. But > none display. Same thing when he checks other folders. Some DO have all the > messages there. > > If he restarts, sometimes (not always) the messages return to the folders > which were previously mysteriously empty. > > My sense: uninstall and reinstall Mail. Is that right? How? With, of course, > keeping all messages and setting intact. > > Thanks, > > Scott

Individual Folders can be dragged from the ‘On My Mac’ storage location to the IMAP storage location. They should be copied one-at-a-time, and you should wait until the entire folder has copied before copying the next one. It can take anywhere from 1 minute to several days to copy the folders depending on how large they are. The folder will not show up in the IMAP area until the contents have finished copying completely. You can check the status of the copy by selecting ‘Activity’ from under the ‘Windows’ menu in Mail.

I assume you are positive that all Apps were purchased under the same Apple account? I have found that some Apps refuse to update properly on their own, and the only fix I know of is to delete the app and re-download it (if it’s a pay-for app, there is no charge to re-download it provided that you are using the same account that was used to purchase it originally). Apps can be deleted by pressing and holding an app until ‘jitter’ or edit mode is enabled, and then pressing the small ex on the upper-right hand corner of the app.

Hope that helps – let us know if you need anything else.

hunter

On Jan 20, 2012, at 12:35 PM, Peggy wrote:

> Hi Chris: > > Have you learned any more abt how to transfer folders from MY MAC to the IMAP area? > Second, I continue to have the same difficulty as before with updating apps on iPad and iPhone. When I get notice of upgrades available, I am asked for my Apple ID and password; and every time a note pops up saying I can’t get access to the iTunes store. They provide no next steps. > > Wait: now sometimes, when I move on to doing other things, I’ll notice that the app upgrade note is gone, and they appear to be upgraded. Not always. > > OTHERWISE, all’s well! > > Peggy > > Sent from my iPad

It’s a new ‘feature’ of 10.7, Lion. It’s also easy to disable. Here’s how.

Go to the System Preferences, then General. Uncheck the box that reads ‘Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps’

That should do it.

Test it out & let me know if you need anything else.

hunter

> >> From: Lindley >> Date: January 20, 2012 10:11:09 AM EST >> To: help@brainspiral.com >> Subject: Hello from Lindley >> >> Hello Brainspiral, >> >> I believe you were the one I picked up my computer from a week ago. I just had a few questions for you about the changes that have been made. Every time I close Safari and re-open it, when it re-opens, it opens the page that I was on last, this is not a huge deal but it is a bit annoying to be opened up to a different page each time, is there a way to change this so the page always opens to google or apple for example. >> >> Next every time I download something an it comes up as a preview, it opens the last two or three things I downloaded and viewed. Is there a way to change it so I only open the one thing I am trying to look at. >> >> Just wanted to check in and see if I could fix any of these problems >> Thanks so much >> >> Lindley >