Youngstown Computer Show Sept 20, 2008 Show Notes

Youngstown Computer Show
September 20 2008
Show Notes

PART 1

Talking about losing electricity during the wind storm on Sunday.
Regular surge suppressors are not designed to help with power outages and fluctuating power. They only protect against short spikes in the power. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is better in these situations to keep your equipment running long enough to shut them down safely. He does not recommend plugging computer equipment into a generator (though he is not an electrician).
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_protector

Caller 1:
Q: The caller's computer "crashed" in that he found the screen completely black, he attempted to reboot and he finally got it to go through some sort of recovery mode, and it took forever, but he lost his Office 2003 programs, he doesn't have the cd key or the installation disks. Is there any way to regain that somehow?
A: They do make programs to dig that out of the registry, but it look like a system recovery was initiated, and normally if you don't have that key, there is really no way to dig it from anywhere.


PART 2

Caller 2:
Q: The caller can't seem to get any range from their wireless router, it only lasts for maybe two rooms, signal is lost going upstairs.
A: There are range expander kits that you plug in to repeat the signal over a greater area.
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wireless/ss/wirelessgear_7.htm

Caller 3:
Q: A friend has a HP 3100 printer that has mysteriously stopped printing. This is the second time this has happened.
A: Check to make sure that the print spooler process is running, make sure the printer is not in some power saver mode, swap out the cable, check that the driver is up-to-date, there is not much else to do.
To check the print spooler in Vista:

1. open the Start Menu
2. right-click on Computer (in the second column)
3. Choose "Manage"
4. in the list on the left, expand "Services and Applications"
5. Choose "Services"
6. Scroll down the list on the right (it is in alphabetical order) and look for Print Spooler, make sure it is Running and is Automatic.

(JoeM: Or the new fast way:
Open the Start Menu
Type "services" then hit Enter.
See step 6 above.)

Performance Tip:
Three things to make Vista more like XP:
Turn on classic view in the control panel.
1. Goto Start -> Control Panel, then click on "Classic View" on the left-hand side

Make the Start Menu like XP
1. in the classic control panel view, find "Taskbar and Start Menu"
2. Go to the "Start Menu" tab
3. Choose "Classic Start Menu" selection.
(JoeM: This actually makes the start menu not like XP, but Windows 2000.)
Turn on the Windows Classic View
1. In the classic Control Panel, open "Personalize" (JoeM: or right-click the desktop and choose "Personalize")
2. Choose "Window Color and Appearance"
3. Click on "Open Classic Appearance Properties"
4. Select "Windows Classic" and click OK.
Turn off Windows Indexing service
1. in the Vista-style control panel, click on "System and Maintenance"
2. click on "Indexing Options"
3. click on "Modify"
4. find the users pane (at the bottom)
5. Click on "Users" in the bottom pane. (JoeM: you will need to click on the "Show All Locations" button to see this)
6. Un-check "Users" on the top pane.
7. Do the same thing for "Start Menu"
8. Click OK

Next week on Sept 27 at 4:00pm at the shop, there will be a demonstration of wireless networking. Please call ahead. If you are planning to buy any wireless equipment, call the shop and they will buy the equipment for you and have it for you on Saturday.


PART 3

Caller 4:
Q: Caller is having the same problem as previous caller about printer not working. What was that service?
A: The Print Spooler service

Caller 5:
Q: The caller is having problems with an LCD monitor, it started to flicker then went dark. After he turns it on, it stays on for 2 seconds then it goes out. Connecting to another computer shows the same problem.
A: Joe Danyi seems to think it is a problem with the pins or cable might be bad.

Security Tips:
Run as a limited user instead of an administrator. Viruses run with the same privileges as the user, so if you are an admin, then the virus can make system-wide changes. Normal users can't make system-wide changes.
In the Control Panel, go to User Accounts, choose a user to switch, change them to limited users, and add a password if it doesn't have one.
(JoeM: You might just have one account created, usually it is called "Owner". The first account you create on a new system is the administrator. So if you only have one account, create another account and make it a limited user. Use the limited user for day-to-day computing and save the admin account for when you need to make system changes.)
A previous caller had a question about parental control software, Joe Danyi recommends Net Nanny (http://www.netnanny.com/).

Caller 6:
Q: Caller has an error popping up when logging on: host process RUNDLL32 has stopped working, windows host process has been closed. He also can't access some programs in the control panel, like setting the date and time.
A: It seems like there might be the beginnings of an infection. He will probably need expert help to fix this.
Q: Caller shut down all non-microsoft services, and that helped.
A: Try starting those one-by-one to isolate which one is bad.


PART 4

Email question:
Q: User doesn't like in Vista where you get a list of accounts to choose from before you get to the desktop.
A: Use either the classic start menu -> run or find Run under accessories and type "netplwiz", uncheck the option that says "Users must enter a user name" and click OK.

Caller 7:
Q: When the power went out, was able to get on the Computer wednesday, it comes up to a blank screen, you see the mouse cursor and that's all. Starting up in safe mode, it never gets to the desktop. Now, we try it again, the desktop is back, but none of his programs or files are visible.
A: Chances are that there might be some lingering damage to the operating system. He will probably need expert repair to the system. They will probably do a fresh install of Windows. His stuff should still be in there, if there is no damage to the files system.

Caller 8:
Q: Caller talks about how HP service troubleshooted a problem with his printer, and they eventually shipped him a brand new printer.

Caller 9:
Q: Caller has a problem with their Toshiba laptop that is now telling her that there is a problem with the cooling system, that she needs to shut down the system and bring it in for repair. Is this a major problem? Is it going to be expensive?
A: There are some workarounds you might be able to do. If the fans have failed completely, then you will have to have it serviced. You might try and clearing out the air vents if they look like they are filled with dust. You can get a cooling pad from an office supply store that you can put the laptop on to keep it cool.

Test

This is just a test.

Best Bang-for-Buck PC

For you DIY'ers out there looking to spec out a new PC, here's a recent artcle from ExtremeTech.com that shows their current list of components that give you the best bang for the buck.

[Link to article]

Sept 16, 2008 Meeting Announcement

I hope you all made it through the wind ok, and I hope you have power (so you can read this post!).

The next meeting will be on September 16th, at 7:00 pm at the Canfield Prebyterian chrurch.

Some things we will talk about:

-- Check out the web site for the new Youngstown Computer radio show at http://www.youngstowncomputer.com. You can listen live on Saturdays at 1:00pm with a replay on Wednesdays at 6:00pm. You can also download old episodes.

-- We will be starting our series on getting your photos on your PC so you can do neat things with them, like making a DVD slideshow, among other things. So first things first, we want to talk about exactly how to get photos into your computer: there are several ways to do this, and where do the pictures go when they are stored on your computer, and some tips to keep your photos organized so you can find them again. For users with Windows XP and Vista, I reccommend that you go to http://get.live.com and download the free Windows Live Photo Gallery. You may have some other program to help you organize your photos, that's fine. If you don't have any software like that, Windows Live Photo Gallery is totally free, and it makes organizing your photos pretty easy.

-- For your enjoyment, we'll take a look a web site/service that is very popular with the kids these days: Twitter! It's not for everybody, but if you want to see what the hottest place is on the web these days, head over to http://www.twitter.com.

As always, we will also try and answer any other computer questions you may have. I hope to see you there!

Clarifying My Stand on Vista

I wanted to clarify my stance on Vista. I know I got excited last night, because it hurts me to see so much unjustified bashing of Vista when I and many others have had a very good experience with it. However, I wanted to make some things clear.

I don't recommend you to upgrade your present machine from XP to Vista. Even though I really like Vista, and it worked well on an older machine I had, installing Vista on older hardware can be problematic. Please, don't go and think you have to upgrade to Vista. You don't have to.

However, if you want to live dangerously and try upgrading to Vista, I highly recommend that you first download and run the Vista Upgrade advisor. It analyses your present machine and tells you what will and what won't work in Vista. You can download it at this location.

The best experience is to buy a new PC with Vista already installed. If you do, I suggest getting a machine with a Intel Core 2 chip, at least 2 GB of RAM, and a dedicated graphics card. Don't be confused by all the different versions of Vista; get the Home Premium edition. If you want to use older devices with your new computer, please check out the Vista Compatibility Center or the manufacturer's web site to see if there are Vista drivers available for your older devices. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my several-year-old HP PSC 2110 printer was supported out-of-the-box, I didn't need to download any drivers.

I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression that Vista was the greatest thing since sliced bread. It is not perfect, but it is not an embarassment or the worst version of Windows ever, as some in the press might lead you to believe. Don't be afraid of getting a new PC with Vista, just do a little bit of homework by checking out the Vista Compatibility Center to see if your older devices work ok.

Club Meeting August 19, 2008

The next meeting will be on August 19th, at 7:00 pm at the Canfield Prebyterian chrurch.

Some things we will talk about:

-- Google Calendar. http://calendar.google.com/. In addition to the free email that Google provides that we mentioned last month, they have a very nice calendar service. We'll go through the basics of signing up, adding an event, viewing your calendar, and setting a reminder. You can view and print out different views of your calendar, from a daily agenda list to a full month view. Of course, it's free! I like free.

-- Tim Ryan is fighting for you! Visit our representative's web site at http://timryan.house.gov/. You can see the cheapest gas prices in the area!

-- We might have some nice reserves of oil in the northern United States, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_Formation.

-- There is a new computer radio show on AM 570 at 1:00pm Saturdays.

-- Skeptical about Vista? Check out http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/ to learn more.

-- Anybody else having problems watching video on http://nbcolympics.com/. Perhaps you should try a new ZIP code.

As always, we will also try and answer any other computer questions you may have. I hope to see you there!

July 2008 Meeting Notes

File Associations

• You “associate” a file type to the program that opens it in Windows.
• Associations are usually made for you when you install programs. So if you don’t have an association already for a file type, that usually means you don’t have the software to view that file type installed.
• How do you find out what software to install? Look up the file type on Google, or ask the person who sent you the file what software to use.
• The file type is the last part of the file name; it is a period followed by three letters.
• You can see the file associations that are already set up by opening My Computer, choose Tools -> Folder Options on the menu, then choose the File Types tab.
  If a file is being opened by the wrong program, you can change the association by right-clicking the file, choose Properties, then look for the Change button next to the “Opens with:” line.

Gmail

• http://mail.google.com/


• Free, web-based email. 6+ GB of storage. You never have to delete any mail.
• Quickly search through all your old emails.


• You do have to be on the internet to read your mail, but you can get to your email no matter what computer you are on as long as you can get to the internet.


• Built-in spam filter, and other tools to help control unwanted mail.


• Built-in converters for some file types, eliminates the “file association problem” mentioned above.

Cleaning Malware
How do users get malware?
They download apps that include adware and spyware
They click on misleading popups or banners
They visit sites that use exploits to inject malware
Many users still don’t patch or don’t use antivirus or antispyware

Why doesn’t antivirus and antispyware stop malware?
They are dependent on signatures (they can only defend against what they know about)
Malware directly attacks it

Malware cleaning steps:
Disconnect from the network
Identify malicious processes and drivers
Terminate identified processes
Identify and delete malware autostarts
Delete malware files
Reboot and repeat

Essential Processes needed to run Windows
System Idle Process
explorer.exe
taskmgr.exe
spoolsv.exe
lsass.exe
csrss.exe
smss.exe
winlogon.exe
svchost.exe - (There will be a few of these)
services.exe
By shutting down anything other than these processes, stand alone Windows should operate fine, however if any of these processes are shutdown, Windows will start to become unstable or unusable.

What are you looking for?
Processes that…
have no icon
have no description or company name
are unsigned Microsoft images
live in Windows directory
are packed
host suspicious DLLs or services

July 2008 meeting

The next meeting will be on July 15th, at 7:00 pm at the Canfield Prebyterian chrurch.

Some things we will talk about:

-- My experiences cleaning out an infection of malware. I had to clean out a bad infection of malware on a neighbor's computer, and I wanted to share what I had to do. I used all of those nice tools from sysinternals that I had shown before: Autoruns, Process Explorer, and Rootkit Revealer, and lots of searches on Google. I also had to use a built-in tool that comes with Windows, the Recovery Console. We'll talk about how you can tell if your computer has an infection, and how to prevent it in the first place.

-- File associations. I had a question about how to view some unknown file that they got in an email. It says they have to set up a "file association". We'll take a look at what that is and how to set one up.

-- Using Gmail, Google's web email program. Gmail is my primary email program now. I'll show you how it works, and why you might want to set up a Gmail account yourself. It's totally free! Gmail also has some neat tools that help you with file attachments, so you don't have to worry about the "file associations" I mentioned above.
As always, we will also try and answer any other computer questions you may have. I hope to see you there!

June 17, 2008 Meeting

The next meeting will be on June 17th, at 7:00 pm at the Canfield Prebyterian chrurch.
Some things we will talk about:-- Using Audio books from Audible.com. Audible.com is the leading source of audio books on the internet. However, they do use special audio file formats for their files, so you will need to download their software to use their files. We'll go over what you need, and details on how to get a free audio book from Audible.com.

-- The future of Windows XP. Retail sales of Windows XP will end on June 30. However, there are no plans to ever turn off product activation for XP, so you don't have to worry if you have to re-install Windows XP. There will also be ways to still get Windows XP even after June 30. We will talk about these and more details about the future of Windows XP.

-- Downloading files using BitTorrent. If you have gotten yourself a nice fast internet connection, you're probably want to download some big files that you never could download before. In your searches on the internet, you'll probably come across a popular method of downloading files called BitTorrent downloads. We'll explain what those are and what programs you need to use BitTorrent.

As always, we will also try and answer your computer questions. I hope to see you there!

Build a PC with the Best Bang for your Buck

Did I mention I'm thinking of a new PC? Extreme Tech must be thinking the same thing beause they have another article that list components that give the best bang for the buck.

This Month's Meeting is moved to March 25

Instead of March 18, this month we needed to move our meeting to March 25.

Build a $800 gaming PC

I'm getting the itch to get an updated computer, and I noticed this artcle at Extreme Tech. They put together a pretty decent system for only $800. What do you think?

Check Urban Legends at snopes.com

I know people are trying to be helpful when they pass on that email that has been forwarded ten times all around the planet. Before you act on any data that gets passed on you, try looking it up first at http://snopes.com.

Free tools for new PCs

Some free tools for new PCs: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=989

Getting maimum performance in vista

This is an exerpt from the great book by Ed Bott, Windows Vista: Inside Out. Some more tips for getting the best performance out of your computer.

Windows Basics

Here is an article the has a bunch of links to beginner videos to help with the very basics of Windows.

Optimize Windows Vista for better permormance

Here is an interesting article from the Windows Home blog. Most of these tips also apply to other versions of Windows.

April 2006 Meeting Notes

Security

In April, Microsoft released several critical system updates for Windows XP and the first security update for Windows Vista. This is a reminder to go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ or turn on automatic updates if you have not updated Windows recently. Also, remember that there will be no more security updates for Windows 95, 98, and Me any more.

One of the items that was fixed was a vunlnerability in how Windows handles animated cursors. These are files that normally end in .ANI and they change your mouse cursor into a little mini movie. A specially crafted ANI file could allow an attacker to take over your computer. There were some web sites that were already using this technique to spread a worm virus using the animated cursor vulnerability, so Microsoft decided to release the fix early on April 3.

Windows Tip

Just like the website says, this free program gives you a detailed report of all the hardware, software, and security fixes you have installed on your PC. It will even tell you if you missed some security updates.

The program is small, just 1 MB, and you can download it from http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html. You will download a file called Advisor.exe. Just doulbe-click on this file to run it, and it installs itself and runs. The report will open up in Internet Explorer (but you do not need to be connected to the Internet, the web page is on your hard disk). You can print out this report for safe keeping, or if you happen to call for some tech support and they want to know more about the configuration of your computer.

Download of the Month: System Sound Effects

This month's featured download of the month is a set of sound files you can use to customize Windows. Windows comes with some sound built-in, but you can replace them with your own sounds, like the ones in this collection.

Copy the sound files to a folder in your computer. There is a folder called My Music that is a good place to put these files.

Then choose Start -> Control Panel, and choose Sound and Audio Devices. Choose the Sounds tab as shown in the picture:

You will see a list of Program Events. As you click on each event, a sound file will appear in the box beneath the list. Click on the little button with a right-facing arrow to play the sound to hear what it sounds like. To replace the sound with your own, click on the Browse... button and navigate to the "My Music" folder where you put the sound files. Choose one and click OK, then use the little play button to preview it. If you like it, go on and choose another event from the event list and choose a sound for that. When you are all done, click OK to close the Sounds and Audio Devices window.

December 2006 Meeting

This month's meeting will be held on December 19 starting at 7:00 PM, at the Canfield Presbyterian Church.

These are some of the items we will be talking about in our meeting:

News:
Doris will give a our financial report for the year

Web Sites:

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org -- Wikipedia is an encyclopedia collaboratively written by many of its readers. It uses a special type of website, called a wiki, that makes collaboration easy. Lots of people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes an hour, all of which are recorded on article histories and recent changes. Inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly, and repeat offenders can be blocked from editing.
• Windows SuperSite: http://www.winsupersite.com -- Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows is dedicated to providing all of the information you need to evaluate important upcoming technologies, including Microsoft Windows, Windows Server, Office, and Xbox 360, plus related digital media, Internet and home networking, and competing technologies. This Web site provides continuous updates about these future products and technologies, while offering reviews, technology showcases, FAQs and other articles all designed to give you the information you need to decide which upcoming technologies are right for you. If it works with or competes with Windows, I'm probably looking into it.

Also:

• What is Bluetooth?

And as always, we will attempt to answer your questions about Windows and computers in general. See you there!

October 2006 meeting

This month's meeting will be held on October 17 starting at 7:00 PM, at the Canfield Presbyterian Church.


These are some of the items we will be talking about in our meeting:

-- Security: Take a bite out of cyber-crime with McGruff the crime dog at http://bytecrime.org.
-- Web Sites: Need a fix of TechTV? Try out the various shows you can download at http://twit.tv aka This Week in Tech.
-- Windows Tips: Turn on Auto-updates in Windows XP; How fast is that download going to take; using Google to find files that you are missing; Get the Adobe Reader to read PDF files at http://adobe.com.


And as always, we will attempt to answer your questions about Windows and computers in general. See you there!