Youngstown Computer Show Notes for April 4 2009

Segment 1

Last week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/031

This week's poll: http://jdany.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/032 What should be done with virus authors?

Chat room today! See link on website http://www.youngstowncomputer.com/chat.htm

The conficker virus did not do any damage on April 1st, despite the hype.

Caller 1
Q: computer tech that came to fix my computer, removed mcaffee and put on avast. is this a problem?
A: avast is not bad, if you control your behavior, you will be ok. norton 2009 seems to be the best right now.


Segment 2

Talking about different anti-virus products to use in different situations

Caller 2
Q: his friend has DSL but cannot connect. what can they do?
A: you have to run the setup CD first to activate the modem, so check that first. then check to see if the filters are correctly installed

Caller 3
Q: has a dial-up connection, got SP2 from her daughter, how can I do SP3?
A: SP3 is going to be larger, so you should have someone else download it for you
Q: any news about more broadband to rural areas?
A: the costs are higher, maybe when they start rolling out 4G networks, the president also has broadband plans

Caller 4
Q: got a flash drive full, so I moved off the pictures, but the system still says it is full, yet there are no files appearing
A: there might be some hidden files, the quickest way is to just format the drive


Segment 3

Status report on new niles office, looking for a new computer tech

Caller 5
Q: should I leave a computer off after a few hours of use, then turn it on later on in the day?
A: it is just a matter of personal perference, recommend to let the computer go into sleep mode during periods of no use
Q: any notes about IE8? it seems to take a long time to load, of course I have an older P4 1.5Ghz
A: Ian seems to like it ok, it seems faster than IE7
adam asks should we download IE8 now? Ian kind of likes it, it is more standards compliant.

Caller 6
Q: some software is not running unless I take off the "spyware"?
A: some anti-virus software does block some internet access software like web cams, so you might have to disable your anti-spryware to have the webcam work

In Europe, the people blocked the Google street view. You can have pictures removed from streetview if you submit a complaint, so it is easy enough to protect your privacy. http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/03/angry-british-villagers-block-google-street-view-car-incident-c/


Segment 4

when you run a conficker removal tool on vista, you need to run as admin

Caller 7
Q: I tried this removal tool, but it seemed to be running too long
A: it might run about 45 minutes
Q: on AOL dial-up, for some reason, it says we are always not protected, we have to always click "to fix"
A: you probably should upgrade to a better product like norton 2009

Caller 8
Q: got a umbuntu dual boot system, the initial install was ok, but it is not stable, can I change the default boot to XP instead?
A: in the system, administration, there should be a option for the boot manager, then you can tell which partition to be the default.