Some steps to prevent PC virus and spyware.

Nothing is worst than spending a week or more getting rid of a virus. Install an anti-virus software, such as avast. See download.cnet.com for reviews of anti-virus software before downloading, since many are fake or are spyware. It is best to read the reviews of software by users, before downloading to a PC. If there is no review on the vendor site, then do a google search. Good sites for software reviews are download.cnet.com, brothersoft.com and nonags.com .

However, the best thing to do is to prevent virus and spyware.
1) Set cookies on your browser to 'always' prompt/ask. In the beginning, the notifications are a nuisance. However, if the browser remembers your 'safe' list, there won't be a notification when revisiting the site.
When you do this, then you'll be happy that you did. Because you'll see all the sites that have placed cookies on your PC, which take up computer disk space ... another issue. Sites that set cookies are not only the 'parent site', but also all the sites where the ads banners and the graphics are hosted. A big offender is doubleclick.net

2) Set the browser to not allow pop ups, therefore you can decide which sites to display. Again most browsers will have a white-list or exceptions list, so when revisiting the site, you won't be prompted in the future.

3) Use anti-spyware scanner, since it is different from a virus. A virus does actions, such as delete files. However anti-spy will log the user activity. Not all virus software will prevent spy ware. A recommended anti-spyware is MalwareBytes Anti-Spyware.

4) Run an analysis tool like Hijack This or Old Timer Listit, which list all types of inforamation such as programs running in the background such as services, tasks (run once) and start up programs, that may be hidden. Note caution DO NOT use the autofix, rather LOOK up the issue. Do your homework first before removing any entries(esp. registry) or files. Backup the registry (file->export) and create a restore point (start ->accessories->system, system restore , you will need administrative rights for this)


Note that preventing virus and spyware is not a one time deal. Just like dentist checkups are routine, the PC also needs checkups ....
1) Run the ms update monthly, to get the latest security updates. One way to do this, is by using the internet explorer->tools->windows update . Another way is to start->run then type without quotes "wupdmgr.exe –z –q"

2) Download the virus and spyware definitions weekly, if it is not automated. Only definitions are necessary, and not software updates. The definitions are always free and are updated within the software itself.

Recommended Weekly Cleanup Procedure

1- Update Virus Definitions. Note that this does not mean update software, but update the virus definitions. eg for some programs call these DAT files.

2- Update Anti Spyware definitions, again not the software but the spyware info.

3- Run system updates, to get security items, ignore other items for now(use custom always, since MS pushes updates for their office and live products). Note driver updates are not necessary unless issues are occurring , this should be last resort, especially if original disk to drivers is not to be found.
for Windows:
IE->tools->update
or Run->cmd, then type wuaucld.exe
or Run->cmd, services.msc , then for 'automatic updates' right click then select start

4- Clean Hard Drive
a) Clean Temp directories, in Windows use Disk cleanup, select 'my computer' then right click on 'C' drive in windows explorer, select 'properties' button, then on 'general' tab, under pie chart select 'disk cleanup'
b) For Internet files and cookies, do this by means of the web browser.

5- Clean Registry - must have admin rights
a) Backup First !!!!!!!
Run->cmd, then type 'regedit', then select File->Export, save this to c: drive and name it with date and time, so it's easy to find
b) use tool such as ccleaner or sbmav cleaner
c) if the changes are issues after reboot, just start in safe mode and start regedit(step a) and do file->import, and use the reg file from step b)

6- Run Full Virus scan, if takes long, then run in the evening when no one is using PC and won't be interrupted

7- Run Anti-spyware cleaner

Monthly
Review disk space usage, by using programs as:
tree size
tweak now-> disk usage analyzer
space sniffer
These will reveal directories that are taking up space or programs that are space hogs. However, use your discretion when deleting files in directories manually(delete button). If not sure....better to leave alone and get advice on a PC forum. Always use the uninstall programs with apps, since these will remove lingering registries settings.

How to filter ads from websites

How to filter ads from websites by creating a blacklist. Notes on how block by url/link, click on image to see full view to read notes. A major benefit with using host file vs plugins/addons etc is that it's global for the system. Where as a plugin for a browser is only valid for that browser specifically. Rather than update all browsers, host file applies to the entire PC and all software that access the internet .

Steps in, this example of chrome cache. However all cache displays show web addresses, this will be used for the host file.

Also, a hostfile manager program allows to update the host file using GUI, but also allows to enable and disable entries (good for testing)

Additionally, tcpview by sysinternals, displays the tcp addresses along with which app it's requesting from, which is good to see which ip addresses are using your PC.

For MAC, the host file editing , shown here http://decoding.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-in-mac-os-x-leopard/

Use whois xyz.com at google search, to determine if the site is actually a pest. Note that many sites use other sites to store their data to decrease their traffic so that their servers are not brought down by overload.

TO TEST THAT THE HOST FILE WORKS, SEE THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE

an example from browser where the ad is blocked

Another way to test is to using ping command (from Run->cmd), then type ping xyz.com where xyz.com is the address to be blocked, if 127..... appears, then it's blocked.


The issue with blocking site is when the site has multiple domains(ip addresses). To block a 'range' of ip address for example 64.233.169.x , where x is 0-255, use the route command:
route add -p 64.233.169.0 mask 255.255.255.0 127.0.0.1

To set it permanent, add this command to a dos bat file (bat), and copy to start menu-> startup

Facebook tips:  

1) to see all the applications that you have installed do the following: 

on the application from bottom menu bar, 

click 'edit- on the right  

select 'authorized' from show drop down.  

2) to display all friend's 'profile photo':  

friends-> recently added 

select '---' in the show dropdown  

3) to see only your wall posts, without going to your profile : use the link http://www.facebook.com/wall.php likewise use 'wall to wall'  

4) to see the groups that your friends have joined: 

use link http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?friends  

5) There is no need to RSVP to an event (for privacy..) , 

use 'remove from events' this will make the event disappear. 

6) to see the updates for the fan pages that you have tagged: use http://www.facebook.com/inbox/updates.php  

7) to remove an application, go to the main link it will always appear on the very bottom of the app. At the application page, use 'Remove application' 

8) to preview an application's ratings/reviews, click on the highlighted name before 'allow'/accept. This will give you a chance to read what the app is before installing. Once at the application's page you can use 'go to application' and it will ask to install/accept/allow  

9)organizing your friends you can categorize your friends, and this is private just as you would create email folders...

select friends-> all friends 

on the left type the name of group eg: College Buddies click on the new list add your friends

* a friend can appear in more than one list 

* a list can be used when sending a facebook mail 

* it can be used for many applications when sending an invite- via 'filter' 

* it can be used when sending a group invite 

* it can be used for privacy settings. Create one for lesser known folks, such as those for facebook games only....  

10) setting privacy : 

from right side main blue bar, 

click settings -> privacy 

select profile tab use both the basic and contact tabs. 

click on the dropdown , 

select 'customize' a window will appear : 

select the network, friend of friends or only friends if you have friend list (see #9) defined, then you may select this as well

Customize colors for Facebook *
this helps decrease brightness, making easy on the eyes.

Check out my facebook customized background and colors as example
screenshot


used this style: http://userstyles.org/styles/9958

tweaked it to use this background : http://www.123backgrounds.com/freebg/10827.gif

to get pink fonts : http://userstyles.org/styles/3582

Web Browser: seamonkey - also works with firefox

** only you can view, settins are not saved on fb server/network

Speeding Up MS Windows
Note many of the commands may require Administrator rights.

1) find the culprits:
use task manager

click on processes tab

click on Mem Usage, where the largest appears first

this will tell you the programs using the most memory

Other good program(process) usage applications are 'what's running' and 'process xp'.


2 ) Remove the culprits
a) uninstall the application, using this method first (the registry entries should also be removed)
control panel -> add/remove

b)disable services(programs running in background)
start->run
type services.msc
sort by name
disable the unnecessary items , note you can enable later on
helpsrv
indexing
error reporting
switch user - this will require to use log off(back to user list), if to use a different log in.

do not disable:
event log
automatic updates (however update to 'prompt' and not automatic downloads)

c) if no uninstall application or service, then you'll need to manually remove.
find the directory where the exe is located and rename the file extenstion exe to exe_ .
If you receive write permission error, then move the directory to the desktop. If after reboot computer works fine, then delete the entire directory.

d) Remove printers that you know you (and household) will never use. Many times 'virtual printers' are added by software such as 'Ms Office One Note', and 'XPS printer'. These printers take up processing memory when the PC loads. To remove these, use Start->control Panel , select Printers. Right click on the printer, and select delete.

3) weekly tasks that should be done
a) update your virus definitions (not the application updates) the 'virus database'
b0run 'full scan' overnight
c)remove files from:
c:\windows\installer - I remove stuff that is more than 6 months old
c:\Document and Settings\_login_name\LocalSettings\Temp , where _login_name is your login name
c:\Document and Settings\_login_name\LocalSettings\TemporaryInternetFiles


4) If these don't help, then create a new login. You can then copy your My Documents from the old login to your new account(but copy to a external usb key or harddrive).
c:\Document and Settings\_old_name\ , where _old_name is the old login
c:\Document and Settings\_new_name\ , where _new_name is the new login

Note that many of the settings will not be the same, and applications will behave as a new install .


5 ) Don't make the entire household use the same login. Instead, have an admin login for yourself and non-admin for other users.
Admin logins give too many rights... installing applications etc.

My favorite software list

My favorite software list:

PDF - PDF Creator

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Anti Virus- Avast

http://www.avast.com/en-eu/free-antivirus-download

Spyware - Malwares Bytes Anti-Malware

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Root kit(TSR) revealers- Hijack This

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

Firewall - comodo firewall

http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/firewall.php

Web Browser - google chrome

www.google.com/chrome

Ipod- iTunes

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Media Player - winamp

http://www.winamp.com/

Graphics- Gimp

http://www.gimp.org/

Office - LibreOffice, fork of Oracle Open Office (fomerly sun open office)

http://www.libreoffice.org/

IM- Digsby

http://www.digsby.com/

Screen Capture - fast stone capture

www.faststone.org

Process Monitor-killer - Proc Explorer

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Text Editor - total edit

http://www.codertools.com/totaledit.aspx

FTP- File Zilla

http://filezilla-project.org/

Email- eprompter

http://www.eprompter.com/

Telnet- Kevterm

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/1027/

System Cleaner - CCleaner

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Zip - 7zip

http://www.7-zip.org/

Disk Usage - Treesize

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

Program Launcher - executor

http://executor.dk/

System Dock - tclock

http://www.coolwintools.com/freeware.php3

Widgets - rainmeter

http://www.ipi.fi/%7Erainy/legacy.html

widgets clocks: samurize

www.samurize.com

Desktop Widgets

Stuff for the desktop:
podxp : pro: includes photo slide show, calendar, media player, rss , clock
con: can't add new widgets - project is closed

samurize: pro: includes calendar, media player, rss, webpage, clock
downloads available
con: requires lots of customization.

yahoo widgets: pro: newly added widgets daily , many to choose from
con: computer memory hog

google desktop: two thums down cons: memory hog, installs other software, automatically changes computer settings like indexing files...

Social Networks worth joining.

Social Networks worth joining:

myspace.com
pro: many users
con: no email alerts, when friend is added not notified
requires lots of customization to make it look nice.

facebook.com
pro: alerts of messages, friends etc
fun applications - send virtual gifts, greeting cards and games
con: ask to add friends when adding app.

bebo.com
pro: easy to use
con: not many people on yet

mashable.com
pro: easy to use
con: not many people still in beta, and need invites to join....

new stuff

To find new stuff or betas check out:
yahoo: next.yahoo.com

google: labs.google.com

msn: ideas.live.com

customized pages

I love these pages in this order . You can add gadgets/widgets and rss feeds:
igoogle


my.yahoo.com


pageflakes.com


netvibe.com


webwag.com


mymsn.com


myaol.com

RSS Feed on Homepage

Display RSS feeds on personal web page:



1) get the RSS feed link: click on RSS/orange button then copy address (highlight, right click, copy)



2) go to http://www.rss-to-javascript.com/
and enter the link you just copied



3) copy the code generated from site mentioned above to your  web page HTML editor

Creating Web Pages- For Free

Get a free webpage:

The latest is Google googlepages.com 
and is very still in early development.

Yahoo at geocities.yahoo.com
was Geocities, has been around for awhile. I had have a page for over 5 years.

The easiest for none techie folks is Tripod at
tripod.com
 It has an intuitive interface to three pages already formated as well as HTML coding.

Desktop Publishing

Desktop Publishing with a word processor.

Start with templates then personalize for your project.

Using Templates: http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/writertemplates/

Cards and flyers: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/activityCenterHome?lc=en&cc=us

Calendars: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/default.aspx

Add graphics such as clip art, and borders to your projects.

 http://www.barrysclipart.com/

 http://www.hellasmultimedia.com/webimages/

Modify the fonts to match the theme:

http://www.1001fonts.com/

 http://simplythebest.net/fonts/index.html

Project

Making a quick card in any word processing program:

1) Insert a table 2 rows by 2 cells.

2) Put text on the Lower Right cell, this is the inside of the card.

3) Put graphics or text in the Upper Left cell, this is the cover of the card.

4) Flip the orientation of the graphic or text UPSIDE DOWN in the Upper Left cell, otherwise it will be upside down when folded.

5) Print then fold the paper along the center vertically.

6) Fold the paper along the center horizontally.

No more BORING desktop!-update

No More Boring Desktop!!!!

Tips for updating a boring desktop to something personal and stylish.

For my desktop used the following:

Windows Alternative Shell: SharpE http://www.sharpe-shell.org/

Selected Wallpaper: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32382975/

Cursor Theme: Cursor XP: http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorxp/


Click here to see Screenshot.



Updating the Wallpaper in 3 steps:

1) Finding Wallpapers:

http://images.google.com

http://gowallpapers.com

http://deviantart.com

http://webshots.com

http://flickr.com


2) Saving Wallpaper:

In web browser, right click on image and save as follows:

IE: save link as
Netscape/Firefox: save image as


3) Setting Wallpaper:

Windows:
a) right click on desktop
b) select 'desktop'
c) click 'browse'
d) select the file

XWin: xset root command http://www.xfree86.org/current/xsetroot.1.html

4) Cycling Wallpaper:
There are software applications that can cycle wallpapers at a specified time(eg. every 10mins)
http://jamesgart.com/wallpaperchanger/
http://www.nuonsoft.com/wallpapercycler/

5) Colorize your taskbar and windows:
Windows:
On desktop right-click -> select properties
click on 'Appearance' tab-> select '...classic..' for 'window and buttons'
click on advanced button-> select '3d object' window item
click on 'color 1' button->
click 'other' button, use palette to select color
'add to custom colors', click on color -> 'ok' button
click 'ok' button at advanced apperance window
click 'apply' at display properties window

Click here to see sample, photo found on flickr.com.

BBLean to the Rescue!!!!

BBLean to the rescue!!

BBLean software is a replacement for the explorer shell. You can select from different styles, and add plugins. I installed it because explorer.exe, the windows default shell, stopped loading. Additionally, Internet Explore does not load, even typing the iexplorer.exe at command shell. At the least I can access my applications. If I ever get explorer.exe working again, I think I will leave bblean as default shell because it is much faster.

Links:

bblean: http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/

styles, themes, and wallpapers:http://browse.deviantart.com/skins/themes/blackbox/

forums: http://www.lostinthebox.com/

wiki: http://wiki.bb4win.org/wiki/Main_Page

PDF Software Tools

PDF Software Tools

Creating PDF

PDF Creatorhttp://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ Send any program printout to a PDF file, by selecting PDF Creator'printer'. Then navigate file directories and store to hard drive.It is useful for saving web pages in one file with the original formatand graphics, sending a printout from a program that anyone with a PDF reader can view.

Foxit Readerhttp://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php It is a very fast reader, which loads quickly. It has many print options and preview.

PDF reDirecthttp://www.exp-systems.com/ It is easy PDF joiner. You can combine multiple PDFs in a particularorder and preview. It also prints from any printable program.

Fun Project: PDF Photo Album/Scrap Book: You can create a scrap book or album to email, post on site, burn to cd, and etc.

1) Open a slide show or presentation editor such as open source OpenOffice Impress http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html

2) Add your pictures Insert->Graphics-> select the graphic

3) Re-size and move graphics

4) Add captions and text, adjust formatting: font,colors, size

5) Save file

6) Print to PDF Printer instead to Printer

Spy Catcher is a Hijacker

Spy Catcher is a PC Hijacker

Hijacks: Installs file interceptor.dll into the system directory without asking.

Problem: Spyware Begone found the problem file and deleted it. However after every application started, a message popup:... Bad Image... inteceptor.dll ...

Lesson: Be careful which Spy detector program is legitimate. Check forums such as http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php and do a search to see of others are having issues before installing.

Good Spy Detection software:

Spy Bot and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Spyware BeGone solved the problem mentioned above http://www.spywarebegone.com/

Prevx Home will monitor files (added modified and deleted) which is good for preventing hijacks http://www.download.com/Prevx-Home/3000-8022_4-10364927.html

Spyware Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

http://spywarewarrior.com/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/wp-trackback.php?p=729