July 2006
Windows key.
Posted Sunday, July 30, 2006 by RL Hawk
If you're in a program that is in the full window mode, like a computer game andyou need to get to your desktop without exiting or shutting the program/ gamedown just hit the "Windows Logo" key (lower set of keys on most key boards)
This minimizes whatever you’re working on. You now can do what ever you needed to do, then click on the application you minimized (it should be in your task bar) Once you click on the program/game it will go back to the size it was.
Or if you want you can just right click on the program/ game and select "close".
This is useful when a game you’re playing locks up or freezes.
A few trouble shooting tips.
Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006 by RL Hawk
Heres a few useful things to run using the"run" option. Click on "Start", then "run" when the run box appears type in:
dxdiag = Brings up the DirectX diagnostic utility. (if you're having graphical problems)
msconfig = Shows start up programs, running services, tasks, ini files and more.
In XP, hit the keys:CTRL/ALT/DEL at one time and this will bring up the "Windows Task Manager". Here you can find all knids of useful things, including the ability to close a "Hung" application under the "Applications" tab.
Posted Saturday, July 22, 2006 by RL Hawk
Your computer has many folders that store tempory files from everything from cookies to temp installation files. Many of these temp folders are burried, here's a quick way to clean you PC without using dangerous 'cleaning' programs.....
To remove all temporary files on your PC:
Go to the Start button on your task bar, click on search, type in ~*.tmp (select drive if you have more than one) and click search.... You can delete all the files that show up in the window safely.
MySpace Adware
Posted Monday, July 17, 2006 by RL Hawk
The following was done and sent to me from C-net and is you or your kids have MySpace accounts, be sure and read this..... This isn't a joke and can be extremely dangerous to your PC or at least system slowing and annoying.
Posted by Joris Evers (C-net)
Adware pushers are joining the MySpace.com game, and they're not trying to hide. Christopher Boyd, a researcher at security company FaceTime, found two profiles called "Zango" on the popular social networking Web site.
Zango is a notorious advertising software maker, recently formed out of the merger of 180solutions and Hotbar.
One of the MySpace profiles pushed a toolbar and programs designed to "protect kids from predators," Boyd wrote in a blog entry over the weekend. The other popped up an extra window prompting the visitor to accept a licence to play a video file, he wrote.
"If you do (accept the license), you'll be installing the Zango Search Assistant and Toolbar," Boyd wrote.
The Zango profiles were created by a company developer, according to a TechWeb report. It was a mistake, a company spokesman told TechWeb, saying the company doesn't really want to target MySpace.
The two Zango profiles on MySpace should soon be deleted, according to Zango. They were still online on Wednesday, but only one appears to be pushing toolbar software. The other profile looks quite empty.
Hopefully if your anti-malware software is up to date you can remove this if your kids were duped into installing this junk!
Zango, based in Bellevue, Wash., makes software that delivers pop-up ads as people perform Web searches and toolbars with ad displays for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Outlook and Outlook Express.
Problems getting the game to run, try these.
Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006 by RL Hawk
I know there are times when I click the FW icon and the main lounge pops up and it acts like it's frozen. I have to 'X' it closed and restart it. Almost like it didn't make a connection. But the next time I opened it, it usually works (heh, unless the server is down)
As I have Cable and not some kind of 'phone connection' I always figured it was a hic-up somewhere between my server and FW's.
However as there have been a few now that have had constant problems with connection problems since they downloaded and installed it, it seems it could be narrowed down to a couple of areas.
1)System or connection settings.... Firewall, internet/ browser, etc.
2)Incomplete required files or versions. Most games on CD/DVD's have whatever versions of Direct X, Drivers, etc on them that are needed to play the game.
The below isn't directed at anyone, just a generalized idea on what might be going on if you are having problems with the game.... Or at least some of the things that seemed to helped others in the past.
As FW is still a work in progress and hasn't been tested on EVERY system and operating enviroment, there amy be some that have problems.
Go to the downloads page and make sure the links take you to the correct version(s) and check to make sure other settings are ok as well. (IE: Firewall set to allow BOTH mc222.exe and loungeClient.exe)
You might try uninstalling and reinstalling, in case there was a bad install (rare, but does happen)
There may even be problems with some firewalls (one of the CG's I tested for had really bad problems with Zone Alarm when it first came out, for those trying to play multiplayer games)
Something about it blocked the ports the game required and had to be manually set. I'm sure one of the devs can tell you which port FW needs (I forgot;-)
Crutial if you're on dialup, be aware of programs that run on auto that can bring game play to its knees. For instance if I let my Norton Internet Securtiy do it's auto update, it will check every 4 hours for updates. If I was on dialup this would cause the game to come to a stand still if not a punt, because of bandwidth. Same goes for XP auto update and anyother updater that might kick on in the background.
One newbi a couple of years ago found his AV was running a virus check during the day (it was set for auto check once a week)and the game crawled (he didn't have a lot of memory and a slow CPU)
I know the devs are working on code all the time and if some of the problem is there it will be found. But mostly in the past it seems it usually is in the variation of machines, OS's or settings.
Every system is different and it's a good place to start looking there first.
Remove data without reformatting.
Posted Friday, July 7, 2006 by RL Hawk
Strange this should have come up when it did, but as I was preparing to do a bit on this topic. C-net had a weekly help tip from a member by the name of “Robert S”. His reply to the question on how to clean out your PC without reformatting was so good, I just copied it in its entirety. He wrote:
Before you perform any of the steps listed below, open My Computer or Control Panel and make sure that your View options are set to show you hidden and system files and folders and to not hide extensions of known file types.
1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disc Cleanup. Select the drive that you want to clean up. After the tool scans your drive, accept the default selections. This will get rid of at least most of the TMP and temporary Internet files. If you have more than one drive or partition, repeat this for all of them.
Note: Do not delete the Office Setup Files. Uncheck this option if it is selected. If you delete them, your successor will have trouble installing updates to Office.
2. If you use the Automatic Backup feature in programs such as Microsoft Word, use the Search tool to find all instances of Microsoft Word backup files. Select "All files and folders," then Local Hard Drives, and enter the following: *.wbk
Place your cursor in the Results window and press CTRL-A to highlight each file, then press Shift-DEL. This will delete the files entirely instead of simply moving them to the Recycle Bin. (Be sure that Word is not open when you do this, otherwise you won't be able to delete files that are currently in use.)
Repeat for any other program that creates backup files, using the appropriate extension. Also repeat this for TMP files, but be aware that most of them will be in use and not able to be deleted.
3--Open Start > Control Panel > Internet Options. (The assumes that you are using the Windows Classic interface. If not, drill down in the Control Panel options until you find this applet.) On the first page, under Temporary Internet files, delete the files and cookies. Under History, clear the History files and optionally change the number of days to 0.
One the Content page, under Personal Information, select Auto Complete and clear the forms and passwords.
On the Advanced page, under Security, select the option to clear the Temporary Internet Files cache when the browser is closed.
Select Apply to save your changes, then click OK.
4--Using Windows Explorer, open the folder "c:\documents and settings\" and look through the various folders for things that you might to clean up. For example, you can clear out any cookies that might remain or remove shortcuts from your desktop that the new person would not need. You can also clear your Recent Documents list.
Be sure to open the Local Settings folder as well and check out the History, Temp, and Temporary Internet Files folders for things that the steps taken above did not catch.
5--I am assuming that you know the folders where your working files are stored and don't need any help finding them. The defaults are My Documents, My Pictures, and so forth. If you have a CD or DVD burner, you might want to archive these files to one or more blank discs.
6--As for your personal e-mail messages, if any, the best thing to do would be to delete them. You can forward any important ones to your personal e-mail address. Be aware that when you delete a message, however, your e-mail software may simply move it to a Trash or Deleted Items folder.
You'll have to find the option to empty these folders. Afterward, you should also compact your mailboxes to completely get rid of the deleted records in them.
7--Empty the Recycle Bin to catch anything that might have been moved to it instead of being deleted altogether.
8--Run Defrag. This will help to overwrite any traces of the files that you've deleted.
This may not cover everything but it should give you a good start.
Submitted by: Robert S. of Sterling, Virginia
The one thing I will add….. If security is a factor and assuming you have permissions to install software, I would install (if you haven’t already) a “Shredder” program.
This allows you to shred anything that goes into the Windows recycle bin and over write the files you delete, as well as gives you the option to over write and unused spaces on your hard drive. These spaces are where anything that is deleted, uninstalled, etc is kept until it is written over by more data.
By using a shredder program you will remove any data you don’t want someone else to have a chance to recover either by accident or on purpose. These programs usually will over write the ‘free’ areas with ones & zeros up to five times to make recovering any personal data nearly impossible.
Protection programs can be bad.
Posted Thursday, July 6, 2006 by RL Hawk
The other day I was asked by a fairly new comer to the web about protecting her information on her computer.
She was worried about people stealing her information like passwords, credit card info, etc and wanted my opinion on some ‘free’ personal protection software that had been recommended to her by her boyfriend.
I won’t mention the programs name because after just a few searches, I found many responses on how Norton and other malware, AV, etc software had stopped the install as ‘suspicious’.
One should always consider the fact that the internet isn’t like it was in the “good old days”. Granted there are many good, concerned programmers out there trying to do some good by writing free programs. Unfortunately Equally there are just as many crooked programmers out there that want you to download and install their software so they can add every thing from spyware, to tracking habits, from viruses to key loggers that steal everything you type or even keep on your PC.
So I was asked what program do I recommend?
Presently I don’t! I have tried a few ‘paid’ “Encryption” programs and have found none actually do a really good job.
There has been a change of one of the older ones I used in the past and am awaiting word back from the company on some info I asked for.
I should mention, that as far as storing anything on line, most ‘Major’ sites are safe to store things like family photos and the like. If you MUST store things like financial or medical records on line, then use a professional site…. One you pay for.
While most major free sites are ok, remember they provide easy access for the millions of members and are more likely to be attacked then sites that have layers of protection.
I’ve found sites like Amazon and the like safe to allow them to store your credit card info. But never keep passwords and login information on your PC.
My personal choice is I keep a rolodex (at home) by my PC. If you have kids you don’t want to have access to the Rolodex, lock it up (most kids now days can crack your PC anyhow)
As I have over 100 cards listing everything from PW’s , logins to account names and site listings, I’ve found this is much safer and less likely to be stolen.
Free programs are good, but as mentioned above, be really wary…. Seriously! Free is nice, but losing everything from your PC data to your identity, just isn’t worth it.
One last word of caution. As many of you know I subscribe to many things from white papers to more common weekly newsletters form major sites.
I have found many of this ‘free’ software listed in these newsletters or on their sites.
“Just because something is listed on a well know site…. Does not mean it is SAFE!”
Free (or cheap) can be more costly than paying up front!
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