Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antivirus program ,that is made by Microsoft for use in its windows operating systems .
It works with Windows Xp , Vista, Windows 7 and 8 .With 32bit or 64bit Versions available
It provides real time protection from viruses, malware and spyware.
Easy to install and free to use for home and small business use. It has a small footprint and requires low system specs to run minimum requirments are 500mhz processor and 256mb ram .
In testing i have found Microsoft Security Essentials to be unobtrusive and responsive with quick scans taking under 10 minutes and full scans taking under 45 minutes.
When it detects suspect files it gives you very clear options and applies them promptly .
It automaticly updates from Microsoft several times a day and once it is installed it is basicly set and forget , which is the best sort of protection for most home and small business usage.
Main features are
Dynamic signature service
Rootkit protection
Real-time protection
System scanning
System cleaning
Windows Firewall integration
It has 3 colour states to notify you of your protection status
Green is good and Yellow or Red indicating a potential issue .
You must be running a licensed version of windows and pass a validation check to install.
If you have ever recieved a spam phone call there’s a good chance its from someone claiming to be from Microsoft .
Lets get this straight. 1st up – Microsoft will never call you out of the blue to advise you that you’re computer is infected or broken in someway.
These people who ring claiming to be from microsoft are usually from a overseas call centre and dont even know if you have a PC. This is why their number comes up as blocked or unknown if you have caller ID on your phone.
The trick that these spammers use is to show you a system part of your Operating system (windows) that you would not normally see .
These parts of the operating system are usually hidden from normal use and only used by the underlying OS and when configuring your system or troubleshooting problems.
The spammers will claim that these files and objects you are looking at are evidence of a fault with your pc. They also say that they have detected a problem over the internet with your PC
they claim that because they are from Microsoft they can detect these errors.
This is infact impossible for them to do as:
1. They are not from Microsoft and 2. Microsoft does not have the ability to remotely diagnose faults in your PC.
The best thing to do when you receive these calls is to just hangup. Report them to your local authority and DO not let them onto your PC or give any credit card information.
In my experience I have seen many people hand over control of their PC to these spammers and then pay up to AU $600 plus for having their computer “cleaned” and a 2 year support contract that is worthless.
Most of the Spammers will direct you to look at either the system32 folder, which stores critical system files needed to run your computer, or to the event viewer which logs system and application events.
Below you will see a picture of a typical windows 7 system 32 folder , they will claim these are corrupted , broken or infected files.
Below is a picture of the windows eventviewer , this program logs events that happen to your pc . This can be anything from you installing a new program to errors accessing hardware.
Now in my experience it is normal for there to be a few errors in the event logs but these are normally very minor issues such as DNS not updating or logon errors where you miss typed your password.
I have also repaired PCs where they have run malicious scripts to deactivate your windows license and then sell a new one to fix the problem they have created. Your PC will have a License key sticker either on the side or underneath. This key is part of your license to install and run windows on your PC, so as long as you have this key sticker you do not need to purchase a new licence from microsoft.
In some cases they do apply some very minor maintence of the PC, but this is usually only a clean out of temp files which you can do yourself with a free and easy to use program from piriform.com called ccleaner.
Below is a chat log with one of these spammers that was let onto a PC , in the chat he brings up the eventviewer but claims it is the windows registry instead and that it needs repairing.
He then proceeds to do the hard sell and convince the person that they need to sign up to a 2 year support plan for AU$399.99
As you can see these spammers are very convincing and most users are easily mislead in to believing their spiel.
If you have let one of these spammers on to your PC, then I would recommend you run a malware scans with Malwarebytes and Hitman Pro to check if your Pc is infected or you take your PC into your local PC repairer, to get them to check and cleanout your PC for any malicious software that may have been installed while they were on it.
Interesting article at the delimiter.com.au site today
Australian government is deliberately blocking the artists and consumers from online antipiracy law discussion with the Attorney-General’s Department .
Now that you have that new shiny superfast SSD how to to make sure you get the best performance from it?
Well you can spend hours searching the net for every little tweak and optimization or you can use a handy little utility called SSD Tweaker from elpamsoft.com which will do it all for you in a few seconds.
Created by Elpamsoft in 2009 in alpha form before releasing the full version in 2010 in a attempt to improve substandard SSD performance in windows XP,Vista and 7 . SSD tweaker has been downloaded over a millions times around the web.
SSD tweaker has the following features
SSD Tweaker Lets you Tweak the following:
Windows Services (Pro Only)
Query and Set Windows 7 TRIM Status (Pro Only)
Experimental TRIM Optimization (Pro Only)
Hibernation Settings (Pro Only)
Use Large System Cache
Ntfs Memory Usage
Disable 8.3 Filenames
Disable Date Stamping
Disable Boot Tracing
Windows Prefetcher
Windows Vista Superfetch
Windows Indexing Service
System Restore
Windows Defrag
DIPM Enable Support
Now most of these features can be enabled manually by editing the registry and settings your self ,but SSDtweaker makes this a simple task with built tweak configurations .
Overall this utility will save you some time and give you a performance boost to your SSD.
In our testing we found that shutdown and boot up times had improved and application load times more responsive
Also has a pro version for $12.99 US which enables a few more settings such as
Windows Services
Query and Set Windows 7 TRIM Status
Experimental TRIM Optimization
Hibernation Settings
Recommended if your not the techie type who likes to spend hours researching and testing every configuration setting.
“Reddit (stylized as reddit; pronounced /?r?d?t/)[3] is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text “self” post. Other users then vote the submission “up” or “down,” which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site’s pages and front page.”
So what does that mean? Reddit is pretty much the news hub of the net. If you want the latest and greatest info in a multitude of different topics, then reddit is the place to be. Remember Mr. Universe from Serenity? Chances are his primary source of information was reddit. Creating a new account takes seconds and is worth it if you want to post some content of your own. All content and comments are rated by other users of the site. Those who like it give it an upvote, whereas those who don’t downvote it. Users can accumulate “karma” for content and comments which they can then show off to their fellow redditors. So if you find yourself being bored at work quite a bit, or you “Squat and Surf” as Dr. Perry Cox does, jump onto reddit for some interesting reading. You could also check out some of my favourite subreddits (category specific pages) below:
Well, another File sharing site is down , who’s next?
BTjunkie was a bittorrent search engine, so it will be interesting to see if any other Bittorrent sites follow suit.
Read this article over at Torrentfreak for more info
So far, the fallout from the FBI takedown of Megaupload has put the wind up quite a few similar sites .
The following sites have shutdown or are limiting downloads to only items you have uploaded privately.
MegaUpload – FBI Shutdown
Filesonic – Voluntarily Restriction to files you have uploaded personally
Fileserve – Not working during my testing
upload.to – Not working during my testing
BTjunkie – Voluntarily closed site
Please email mailATpcgeekdotnetdotau if you have any others I can add to this list.
