All posts by remotehelpexpert

Computer Maintenance

Technical Tips

When talking about equipment, maintenance refers to the actions taken to ensure its normal operation.

Computers are equipment, and no exception to the above.

There are two kinds of maintenance: Preventive and corrective.

Preventive maintenance include those actions taken to ensure the computer remains in an operational state and to prevent it from failing.

Corrective maintenance include actions taken when the computer has failed, partially or completely, to function properly; Such actions have the purpose of bringing it back to an operational state.

By their very nature, preventive maintenance actions, if performed, will decrease the amount of corrective maintenance that will need to be done on a computer and the amount of computer downtime.

Example: A good security system which safeguards the computer against viruses and other malicious programs’ attacks, when put in place, will prevent the computer from getting infected. If that preventive action is not taken or not taken appropriately, the computer might end up with a virus infection that can make it fail, partially or completely.

In the final analysis, what a computer user wants is a trouble-free computing experience. If he is handling his emails, he wants to be able to read his emails, reply to them, compose new emails, etc. If he is shopping online, he wants to be able to browse through products, select his choices, and order the products he chose in the amount desired in a timely fashion. If he is typing a document or updating a spreadsheet… you get the idea.

Computer slowness, program crashes, program freezes, computer freezes, computer crashes, and erratic behavior in general are most of the time caused by, or at least exacerbated by, lack of computer maintenance.

The correct amount of maintenance actions, performed in a timely fashion, will reduce the possibility of computer downtime. Waiting for the computer to fail and then scramble to get corrective maintenance done on it might not be the best approach to maintaining your computer equipment.

Is your computer operating in tip-top shape, considering its age? If not, most likely  it requires some maintenance. I have developed a comprehensive maintenance checklist for Windows based computers. To one degree or another a percentage of computer users might be doing certain maintenance actions, with variable frequency. But what I think puts this one above the normal maintenance actions checklist is the fact that part of it is to actually analyze each computer I’m handling so as to dovetail the handling steps to what the computer actually needs handled to be performing at its best.

If you have any questions on the subject I’ll be more than happy to answer them.

Holiday Online Shopping, Dos and Dont’s

Computer Security

It is a known fact that online shopping has been in the increase over the years. It is also a known fact that the Holiday season, starting very shortly, is the busiest shopping time of the year. Put those two facts together and it becomes obvious that the online shopping volume is about to experience a very high level.

This fact has not gone unnoticed by the bad guys. They are preparing too. Here’s a few tips to avoid this online shopping season spike a disaster for buyers:

  1. Careful when looking for deals through a search engine (like Google, Bing, etc). To the untrained eye, some of top search results might seem innocuous. But through what’s called Black Hat SEO techniques (SEO = Search Engine Optimization), scam websites can be brought up artificially in the search ranks,  which means they show first in your search results, and when the user clicks on that result, he can inadvertently land his computer on a malicious website that will attempt to infect it. So instead, try searching  by going directly to a known trusted store’s website and searching from within.
  2. Most users are familiar with pop-up ads. Be extra careful with pop-up ads announcing holiday season deals, and try to avoid the temptation of clicking on any. It’s another known method of attempting to make you land on a malicious website that will attempt through various methods to infect your computer or steal your information.
  3. Be alert for suspicious emails announcing deals with file attachments. The probabilities that those are malicious are mighty high. Discard them.
  4. Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and so on, will also experience their share of scams. The usual method is using compromised accounts to announce unusually tempting deals with links to take advantage of such. Stay alert and be aware of these.
  5. If you  know how to “turn up” your computer security setup, do so while doing online shopping. it might be the difference between successful online shopping and being the victim of online scams. Ask an expert if you need help upping your security level while doing online shopping.

Hope this tips help you have an uneventful holiday season online shopping experience.

 

Windows Updates, a Change in Perspective

Computer Security, Technical Tips

This article is aimed mainly at users with computers running on Windows 7 (still by far the most used Windows Operating System currently). Users with computers running on Windows 8 can also somewhat benefit, and for those who have computers running on Windows 10, well, sorry but not much hope as far as this subject is concerned – I’ll circle back to that last statement in a bit.

Windows updates, as most users know, have been generally aimed at improving Windows in one of three aspects: Security, stability, or performance. The subject of this article is the user’s control over what updates are installed and when, and what the best practice on this is at this point. I’m going to sort of start backwards by first stating the conclusion: Turn Windows updates off. Or at least, set them to “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”.

Why

It seems Microsoft has recently engaged in a covert effort to gently coax Windows 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Windows 10, whether the users desire it or not.  The way this has been done is by introducing certain Windows updates that will “prepare” your system for the upgrade, download the necessary files to execute such upgrade, whether you want to upgrade or not.

As covered in earlier articles,  upgrading to Windows 10 might not be the best idea right now, so this becomes a problem.

Circling back to what I said in the first paragraph of this article, Windows 10 users are, for the most part, unable to turn updates off. Not a choice anymore. This, along with privacy concerns, a more aggressive cloud based approach, and the normal bugs that accompany a newly released operating system, are factors that have turned off a good percentage of potential users about the idea to embrace the new operating system.

I’ve been an advocate of installing ALL operating system updates to keep your computer in top shape. However in my opinion Microsoft has abused this line by introducing covert elements in updates to migrate users to a newer operating system independent of the users wish, thus this change of perspective.

What to do

As stated above, I’d recommend on an immediate basis to turn Windows Updates off. If you are an intermediate user you can set Windows updates to “check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them” and then hand pick only the Security updates (those updates designed to patch security flaws in Windows), and pass for now on any others. But even that might not be enough since the updates that might have been already recently installed are already working in the background trying to make you upgrade to Windows 10.

If you need help reverting the effect of recent Windows updates in regards to upgrading to Windows 10, or have any questions on the subject, feel free to ask.

Why am I Sometimes Prompted to Restart my Computer?

Technical Tips

Most users have experienced in one or more instances, that a computer announces it needs to restart in order to finish certain tasks. Maybe installing a new program. Maybe uninstalling an old program. Maybe installing new Windows updates, and so forth. If you’ve ever wondered why, keep reading.

Although this is not true in all cases, in general it could be said that the reason such restarts (or “reboots”) are needed, is because the computer is actively using certain files that need to be changed but cannot while the computer is fully running by using those very files. But when the computer is restarted, and for a brief moment, those files will not be in use ( right after the computer has shut down and before the computer comes back up in a restart) and those files in need of change will be able to be changed.

Incidentally, that also explains why sometimes those restarts take longer than usual. The computer is, so to speak, in a quick pit stop and furiously getting its tires changed to get back in the race. That takes some additional moments so it’s expected for those restarts to take additional time. By way of the same analogy, it also gives a relatable real world scenario of what would it be like to try and change those files while the computer is running: Try changing the tires of the race car WHILE it’s running the race and you’ll get the idea 🙂

Beware of Online Scams, Fall Edition

Computer Security, Technical Tips

It is Fall, but, well, don’t fall for it. These scams are still very much active:

If somebody contacts you by phone and states that he/she works with Microsoft or (any similar variation of it) and it’s been detected your computer is infected, needs handling, its firewall has been breached, etc., etc., IT’S A SCAM. Hang up.

If you are using your computer and browsing through websites and a pop-up window or a full window or the page you were trying to access turns into a window that says your computer is infected, and a number to call for help is given, or a link to download the tool you need to handle the infection, or something of the sort, IT’S A SCAM. Close that window at the very least. You might need to get your computer checked for any actual infections that produced that fake window in the first place.

Do not allow strangers access to your computer,  to your credit card information, or anything like it. Scams like the above abound these days. Don’t become a statistic.

If you have any doubts, you can always ask me.

Why is My Computer So Slow When I First Start It?

Technical Tips

I’ve had to mention this so many times over the last few years, I should have realized earlier I needed to write an article about it. So here it is.

The majority of users are probably aware of the fact that when the computer is first started and the operating system and all the initial programs and services are loading etc, the computer seems to be at its slowest as far as responding to user interaction goes. But not as many users know why or what can be done about it.

There is, of course, the fact that the computer is the busiest at that time, because it is trying to load, in rapid succession, all the programs, services, etc. that are supposed to load for the computer to start operating. So obviously if you, the user, at the same time is trying to open programs and files, you will experience relative unresponsiveness and lag, since you are competing with the computer for the same resources. But there is another factor that is not so well known.

The computer keeps a running record of programs and files that have been opened in the recent past and will try to have them ready for faster reload. This existed in rudimentary form in Windows XP but it was from Windows Vista and onward that became more sophisticated. I’ll explain and you can actually test it and see.

Let’s say you just started your computer, waited for a couple of minutes for it to become idle (so you know all the initial programs and services are now loaded). Then you proceed to open your favorite web browser, be it Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc. You can count the seconds it takes from the moment you command it to open to the moment it’s completely open. Now close it, wait a couple of seconds, and open it again. You will notice this time around it takes a fraction of the time it took the first time. But no change has been made to your computer, other than closing and re-opening the program!

Subsequent closing and opening of any program that has been opened at least once will make its opening speed similar to the second time in the example above, i.e. way faster. BUT the computer will start from a clean slate if you shutdown or restart your computer, i.e. it will go back to the first slow loading time for every program. That’s why the computer seems to be at its slowest after it first starts. It has to get ready again to reload those programs that have been opened recently and are therefore likely to be opened again.

The information above is another reason to not restart your computer too often. Personally, I don’t shut down my computers, and restart them every 2 or 3 weeks in the average.

What Is The Registry and If I’m Not Getting Married, Do I Need One? :)

Computer Security, Glossary, Technical Tips

Registry: In Windows computers, an organized collection of data, or database, where programs’ configurations and options are stored. Since first introduced with Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s, it has considerably grown in complexity and amount of data it stores.

The question in the title is obviously a joke, but now that we’ve disambiguated the term,  a more pertinent question is, does the normal user need to do anything about it, preventive or corrective maintenance wise? A big number of users may have heard or read about “Registry Cleaners”, which are programs with the stated purpose of keeping the registry in good operating shape.

The short answer to the above question is: it is arguable. A conservative version of the answer would be that at best, the top “Registry Cleaners” have a limited impact in the computer performance, and more often than not, they’re considered “snake oil”, in that the promoted benefits of such cleaners might be inaccurately high in modern Windows based computers.

To complicate matters, a number of fake programs claim to be registry cleaners while being actually malicious,  and utilize a combination of scare tactics and social engineering to confuse the uninitiated into allowing it to run or paying for the “premium” version to correct all the “errors” found in a scam, err, scan.

Make no mistake: The registry is a KEY element in a Windows based computer, and severe corruption of it can cause the computer to not work at all, and it’s one of the items backed up by mechanisms like System Restore, protected by some high end security suites to avoid changes that can affect the computer adversely, and, in some cases, careful and guided cleanup operations can be beneficial for the optimum running of the system. But it is doubtful that the average Registry Cleaner will have a significant positive impact in the registry and therefore the computer.

Windows 10, What You Need to Know After its Release

Technical Tips

Avid readers of my articles are aware I’ve written a couple of times about Windows 10, all before the official July 29 release of the latest Microsoft Operating System. This is my post-official-release article on Windows 10.

So, Windows 10. Upgrade to it? My advice is, if your computer is Windows 7 based, don’t do it. And if you do do it, at least don’t do it for now. It is always prudent to wait at least a few months while the initial kinks are being worked out, which as far as I can see, do exist in Windows 10. Ironically, Windows 7 was one of the few operating system that was very stable even from its beta testing stages.

Microsoft has been trying to gently or not so gently coax users to upgrade to Windows 10. The update I talked about in my last article, has been busy downloading Windows 10 in the background and swinging a dangling carrot at users so they will go through with the upgrade.

This additional activity, by the way, might account for some of the slowness your computer might have experienced recently. A hidden folder in your hard drive called “$Windows.~BT” contains the downloaded files that will be used for the upgrade, and by the way they are relatively big, and your Internet connection is what was used to download them.

If you’re not planning to upgrade to Windows 10 any time soon, contact me if you need help making sure the upgrade process is not using resources that slow your computer down. Or if you have any questions on the subject.

 

Recent Software Security Updates

Computer Security

1. Adobe Flash Player has recently been updated several times, following the uncovering of vulnerabilities exploited involving a security firm. Most computers have Flash installed. To ensure you have the latest version, visit:
https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.
It should tell you what version you have installed and what version is the latest available. As of this writing, both should be 18,0,0,209. If you need to update it, visit:
https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.
There is even a growing trend of handling the frequent uncovered vulnerabilities found in Flash by advocating its removal altogether. A middle-ground solution, since some websites still use and require Flash, would be to disable it by default in your browser so you can enable it in the websites you trust only.

2. In an unusual move for Microsoft, an update to patch a critical vulnerability was released today. It is unusual because it is not following the usual schedule for updates, which are normally released on the second Tuesday of every month. This is called an out-of-band update, and it usually signifies a very critical security update that requires special attention. if your Windows based computer has automatic updates enabled, no action is needed on your part. But if you don’t, it’s suggested you install it manually. The update identifier is KB3079904. Contact me if you have any questions as to how to install it manually.

Time Sensitive – Grab Your Private E-mail Account

Computer Security, Technical Tips

In a recent article about privacy in communications, I mentioned ProtonMail. Today, I got an email in my inbox from them, which I thought it should be passed along:

“Hi Everyone,

Thank you for using ProtonMail!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, we are upgrading all accounts created by June 17th, 2015 to 1GB of free storage! Many of you have also asked for a way to share ProtonMail with friends and family. To do that, we have created a special link that allows instant account creation:
https://protonmail.ch/privacyforall

You can send this link to friends and family and they will be able to get a ProtonMail account instantly. As our server capacity is still limited, we will only keep this link active until June 17th, 2015 (or until we hit capacity limit). Also after June 17th, all new accounts will default to 500MB of free storage.

Over the past year, ProtonMail has proven to be reliable with less than 12 hours of total downtime (mostly scheduled maintenance), no incidents of permanent data loss, and no reports of user data compromise. Over that same period, the ProtonMail user community has grown from 10,000 to 500,000 people.

As you know, we respect your privacy and do not track detailed user activity. Therefore, to continue to improve ProtonMail, we need to rely on direct feedback from you and would love to hear your suggestions or criticisms in the following survey:
https://blog.protonmail.ch/feedback

Many of the improvements mentioned in the survey will be coming soon. In the past few months alone, we have added new features like folders/labels, encrypted attachments, the protonmail.com domain, and more: https://blog.protonmail.ch/protonmails-new-features-guide

We look forward to continuing this exciting journey with you!

Best regards,
The ProtonMail Team

We believe privacy is a fundamental human right which is why we are supported by donations instead of advertisements. If you would like to support us, please visit: https://protonmail.ch/donate“

I don’t receive any compensation from passing along the above, but thought for those similarly minded souls who like privacy, this represents a good opportunity.