Category Archives: Technical Tips

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As Predicted, Windows 8 Flopping

Technical Tips

As predicted in my earlier article from October, Windows 8 is flopping.

To give you an idea: You’ve probably heard of Windows Vista, the most hated Microsoft operating system of all times. Well, at this point in time after its release, Vista’s uptake was 2.2% of all Windows based computers. Windows 8’s you ask? 1.6%. So Windows 8’s uptake is falling behind the last and worst of Microsoft’s flops (Vista).

Windows 7’s uptake at this point in time after its release (2 months)? 6.2% of all Windows machines.

Just saying.

 

Windows 8 – Microsoft’s Latest Flop

Technical Tips

There’s no more succinct way to communicate how I feel about Windows 8. I h8 it 🙂  (get it?)

I hated it when I loaded the Developer’s Preview version last Sept. Hated it when I loaded the Consumer Preview version earlier in February. Hated it when loaded the Release Preview in June. But when I loaded a 30 day trial of the final version of Windows 8 Enterprise edition… you guessed it. I still hated it. Perhaps this operating system is geared towards Generation Z? If so, being as it is that I’m not from that generation, it doesn’t appeal to me.

It sort of seems there is a pattern with Microsoft operating systems. Every other operating system they get it right. Going backwards, Windows 8, hate it, Windows 7, love it, Windows Vista, hate it, Windows XP, love it, Windows  ME, hate it, Windows 98, love it, and so forth.

Windows 8’s final version is about to be released in a few days. My advice: If you’re still operating on XP, migrate to Windows 7, but don’t bother with Windows 8, especially for traditional computers (Windows 8 stresses touch screen features such as what can be found in tablets etc.).

Windows 8 will flop.

Not for beginners – TV Tuner Losing HD Channels Periodically

Not for beginners, Technical Tips

After a recent random change in my cable TV service, I temporarily lost all my HD channels. Re-scanning for channels in my TV handled it, but it didn’t for my TV tuner (Hauppage Win-TV-HVR-2250). When re-scanning for channels in Windows 7’s Windows Media Center, the HD channels count would go up to 38 channels, but somewhere along the line it would lose them all, ending with none at the end of the scan! Fortunately, if I stopped the scanning  process exactly when it reached 38 channels, it would keep them. But now I’m facing other problems.

For one, some of the HD channels’ numbers, names and guide listings were wrong. So I had to edit all those manually, no big deal. But for some reason, within a period of a few minutes to a few hours I would lose all the HD channels again! I figured every time the listings updates were downloaded, that affected the channels. So I added an exception to the firewall so it would block the updater. The problem persisted.

While researching a solution, I developed a batch file to restore a copy of the folder that contained all the settings, programming etc. so I could at least get my HD channels back every time I lost them, with the click of a button:

net stop "windows media center receiver service"
taskkill /IM ehrec.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehrecvr.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehsched.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehshell.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehtray.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehvid.exe /F
del C:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\*.* /s /q /f
xcopy /y /e r:\ehome\*.* c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome
pause

For some reason, however, when deleting the ehome folder, it gave an error on 3 files that were locked and still in use. So to better analyze the problem, I introduced a “sleep 5” line in the batch file. So now it looked like this:

net stop "windows media center receiver service"
taskkill /IM ehrec.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehrecvr.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehsched.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehshell.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehtray.exe /F
taskkill /IM ehvid.exe /F
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 > nul
del C:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\*.* /s /q /f
xcopy /y /e r:\ehome\*.* c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome
pause

With that, the batch file worked. But that also gave me a clue. With the help of Process Explorer, I carefully observed what happened in those few seconds, and was able to see which process appeared in the scene: mcGlidHost.exe. “Windows Media Center In-band Guide Loader”. Hmm. I wonder if THAT is the responsible for loosing my settings… let’s see. Renaming it to mcGlidHost.exe.old… of course I can’t. First I had to take ownership of the file and changed the settings to full control. Then renamed it.

It’s been a solid 10 hours and my HD channels are still there… Eureka!

Update 4/16/14: Still going strong, but I just realized a potential alternative to

ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 > nul

which would be

CHOICE /n /c y /d y /t 5 > nul

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook Don’t

Technical Tips

With over 150 million users in the US alone, Facebook boasts a vast amount of personal data, which some users seem to be willing to give away, publicly.

Check out this website: http://www.weknowwhatyouredoing.com/

The website is powered by a tool that shows some of the public status updates users post on Facebook.

The point is, if you are a Facebook user, you should have you privacy control setting set to anything but “public” or you risk being featured in websites like the above.

To do that, go to https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy and make sure your privacy control is set to anything but “public” and if it is set to “public”, change it to “Friends” or “Custom”.

Hope this helps.

 

What is the Proper Way to Inform Someone Their Email Has Been Hijacked?

Computer Security, Technical Tips

Somebody recently asked me this question. Many people have seen, every now and then, the weird emails coming from a friend or relative that could not possibly be sent by them, so I thought it’s worthwhile to make the answer broadly available:

If you want to inform someone that their email account has been hacked, it is usually wise to use an alternate mode of communication if possible (Another email address than the one being the source of suspicious emails or even a phone call). Sending an email to the email address that seems to be hacked might only worsen things if the account is actually under the control of a hacker, for it only confirms your email address is valid and makes you prone to receiving spam (your email address will be sold in the black market for a price).

If YOUR email has been hacked, the first immediate action is to change your password, preferably from a different computer than then one you normally use, just in case the cause of the email hacking is password-stealing malware implanted in your computer. The next action is then to do a thorough malware check to make sure the source of the security breach in your computer is NOT malware (weak passwords can be guessed without needing password-stealing malware to perpetrate, plus in rare cases passwords are stolen from the computers running the email service on the Internet – the servers), or get rid of any malware if there is any.

There is a possibility that your hacked email account has had its password changed to lock you out. To regain control of your email account you might need to reset the password. Most email services provide methods of doing that. Security questions that only you know the answer to, a cell phone number a new password can be sent to as a text message, a secondary email to send a new password to, all these must be pre-set for this kind of eventuality. So a good preventive measure is to make sure these reset password mechanisms are in place for your email address.

Recent and Upcoming Computer Updates

Computer Security, Technical Tips

A summary of recent and upcoming updates you should know about:

Windows Updates: Microsoft has published a Security Bulletin Advance Notification indicating that its May release will contain seven bulletins (updates). These bulletins will have the severity ratings of critical and important.  The release of these bulletins is scheduled for Tuesday, May 8, 2012.

Google Chrome web browser: Google has released Chrome 18.0.1025.168 for Linux, Macintosh, Windows, and Google Chrome Frame to address multiple vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition. It also contains an automatic update for Adobe Flash (covered next). To check what version of Chrome you have and to update as needed, click on the wrench symbol on the upper right corner of a Chrome window, and then select About Google Chrome.

Adobe Flash: Adobe released a Security Advisory for Adobe Flash Player a couple of days ago to address a vulnerability affecting the following software versions:

  • Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.233 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems
  • Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.7 and earlier versions for Android 4.x
  • Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.8 and earlier versions for Android 3.x and 2.x

This vulnerability may allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious file delivered in an email message. To check what version of Flash you have installed in your computer, click here.

 Keeping your computer(s) up-to-date with the latest patches from the various software vendors is one of the key steps to fend off malicious cyber-attacks.

Computer Basics – The Two Basic and Most Commonly Misunderstood Computer Terms

Glossary, Technical Tips

The first one is “byte”. We’ve all seen it. “Transmission speed: 500 Kilobytes per second”. “Storage capacity: 500 Gigabytes”. Or perhaps “Oh yeah? Mega-byte me!” 🙂

So what is a byte, in terms of computers and telecommunications? The simplest answer: A unit of information. It consists of 8 of the most basic units of information: The bit. Why 8 and not 7 or 9? That’s irrelevant to the scope of this article, so we’ll leave that at that.

OK So what the hell is a bit then? the term is a contraction of BInary digiT. Or maybe Binary digIT. Anyways, “binary” refers to the numerical system, based on 2 and only 2 possible values: 0 and 1, or false and true, yes and no, on and off, positive and negative, yin and yang… you get the idea. “Digit” is a symbol that represents a number. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are, in current Western culture, the ten digits.

So a bit can only have two possible values: 0 or 1. That sort of explains the idea that computers can only think in terms of numbers. And only two numbers at that. No matter what you see your computer doing, whether you are composing an email, watching a video, reading this, all the computer is doing is thinking “0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1” and so forth.

Getting a headache from so much significance? For a graphic representation of a bit, watch the movie TRON. Or, for fast forwarding to the good part, watch this video clip of the TRON scene where the bit is introduced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fGujzulsas

Have fun!

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 7

Technical Tips

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows have existed since, well, keyboards and Windows have. But did you know these shortcuts, specific to Windows 7?

Definition: Win: Windows Key: The key to the left of your space bar with the Windows symbol on it.

Definition: Taskbar: The bar on the bottom of your screen that show the Start button, clock, etc.

1. Ctrl+Shift+N to Create a New Folder

You can use Ctrl+Shift+N to quickly create a new folder in Windows or anywhere on your computer where a folder can be created.

2. Win+Up/Down/Left/Right for Moving the Active Window

If you intend to quickly move the active window to make space for other programs, you could do that by using the Win key and one of the arrow keys. Each arrow key would move the window in the direction it is meant to. Note that using the left arrow key on the active window will make it occupy the left half of the screen. Windows key and right arrow key will return it to the middle, one more and will make it occupy the right side of the screen. Windows key and down arrow will return it to the earlier position, another down will minimize it. From the original position Windows key and up arrow will make the window full screen. Experiment to get the hang of it.

3. Win+1, Win+2… and so on for Opening Taskbar Programs

Want to quickly open a program that’s pinned to your Windows 7 taskbar? You can press the Win key and the number corresponding to the location of the program on the taskbar.

4. Win+Pause helps you check System Properties

Need to take a quick look at what’s the processor model you are using, or may be check the device manager, or advanced system settings? You could use Win+pause key combination to open the system properties window.

 

This is not a complete list of Windows 7 shortcuts; It’s just a few ones that might prove useful in your daily dealings with your Windows 7 based computer.

Solid State Drives and Defragmentation

Technical Tips

As covered earlier in this article, Solid State Drives “don’ts” include the advice not to defragment them, for technical reasons. But Diskeeper Corporation, the makers of the defragmenting software with the same name, have claimed they have a product that not only is not detrimental to a solid state drive, but that specifically benefits them. The product is called Hyperfast.

Since I like to put claims like the above to the test, I decided to download a trial of Diskeeper Pro 2011, and see what it can do for the 9 months old Solid State Drive in my Windows Vista based laptop. This laptop is my main computer. All my web browsing, email handling through Outlook and even its SQL server based Business Contact Manager are handled from this laptop. So 9 months of constant use with no defragmentation whatsoever should make for some good wear and tear. Let’s see what Diskeeper can do for it now.

I of course have some saved screen shots of the solid state drive’s performance graph from when I got it and it was brand new, and I recently took new ones when handling another aspect of its optimization. So, we have the before pictures. Let’s see what the after pictures look like. But first, let’s install and run that Diskeeper software.

I installed and launched Diskeeper Pro 2011 (which includes Hyperfast). To be honest, it was a little confusing for me to navigate around, so I know the average user will probably be a little lost. But I digress. Or maybe not, since the point is, I wanted to make sure Hyperfast was enabled for my solid state drive, and it took a bit of looking around to do so. OK so Diskeeper knows my hard drive is a solid state one. Awesome. Now let’s have it optimize it, using all recommended settings, and then we’ll do a test or two to see if any improvements in read/write performance.

After letting it operate overnight, my solid state drive became “optimized”. So now for the speed performance tests. Although I traditionally use HD Tune to test the performance of hard drives, this time I used “As SSD”, because it’s reportedly a better benchmark for solid state drives. The numbers in the Score section are the ones to look at. This is the before-using-Diskeeper results:

 

And here’s the after-using-Diskeeper one:

 

I must confess I was surprised to see the outcome of these tests. My initial guess was there wasn’t going to be an improvement or very little, if any. Instead, well, the numbers speak for themselves. Slight improvement in write times, considerable improvement in read times, for an overall improvement of the total score from 229 to 269. So while not as wild as the performance increase results reported by Diskeeper, there is a definite benefit from using Diskeeper’s product on a solid state drive, based on the above results.