28/02/2009 by Bertha.

In the last musing we used a Right Click of the mouse to check on the location of a file. The more observant among you will have noticed that there was a lot more to the window which opened than just Properties. This time we’ll have a look at the others.

Firstly, the actual list does changed depending on what you have Right Clicked on. Have a look at the two examples below.

Example 1 taken from a program (Safari Browser actually) downloaded from the Internet.	Example 2 taken from a folder (My Documents) from a C drive.

First things first. There are a number of duplicates, like everything below Send Tois the same. Now all of these are very useful short cuts to doing mundane, everyday jobs. The type of job that is very useful to know how to do quickly.

Now look at the others. Unless you use Windows Vista you can ignore Run as administrator which is a security feature of Vista and can be used to “make” something work, i.e. install a program as in this case. Other things such as the references to Groove and OneNote are related to Office 2007 and so can be ignored again if you don’t have them. Open and Explore are both obvious for computer users (or at least should be!) while Shareonly works if you have more than one computer which can talk to each other through a network (can be a bit technical for non-geeks).

Ah “but what about Scan using Spybot-Search&Destroy and Scan with AVG Free?” I hear you say! Exactly.

Spybot is an anti-spyware program while AVG Free is an anti-virus program. You might not have either of those actual programs in your Right Click window but you will have your anti-spyware and anti-virus program present. Mind you, some packaged will scan for both Spyware and Viruses in one, in which case you’ll only have one Scan choice!

As anyone but the most newbie computer user knows both Spyware and Viruses (collectively called Malware) are definitely among the “Don’t want” list of thing you can get from the Internet.

Now imagine that you have downloaded a file and saved it without opening or running it first (as you always should do) how do you check there isn’t anything nasty lurking inside? Easy, Right Click and scan just that one file by clicking on the Scan with …option. Only once you have been given the OK by your Malware scanner(s) is it safe to open or run the file.

Happy Right Clicking - and try it on other things not just files and folders.

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20/02/2009 by Bertha.

Isn’t it frustrating? There you are busily doing whatever on your brand new computer with everything going like the wind. Then over time it gets slower and slower!

Why does it?

Well actually there’s a good choice to choose from, ranging from programs which don’t uninstall completely right through to dust getting into the innards. There is one reason that you don’t come across often - a totally full hard drive!

It’s actually a bit of a “chicken and egg” story and to understand it properly it helps to understand how laptop computers are often set up by the manufacturer.

Historically the hard drive in laptops have been electronically changed so that the computer thinks there are two drives (C and D) rather than one (C). The intention is that you install Windows and programs on C and save things (documents, music, pictures or whatever) on D.

Unfortunately, nobody tells Windows about this. As a result Windows keeps the “Documents” folder on C and happily keeps filing everything you save there. The result? One very full C drive and one very empty D drive!

When you finally realize what’s happened you then start to move files from C to D, trying to free a bit of space up. An excellent idea too.

But. If you are not very careful it is perfectly possible to get almost as confused as Windows and end up not copying from C to D but copying from C to C - with the end result that all you do is duplicate the files and fill the C drive to capacity. Which, you guessed, slows the computer down even more!!

The moral of the story? Always make sure you know exactly what you are moving from where to where. It is always much to easy to be overcome by Windows’ efforts to “help”.  If in any doubt right click on the file or location in-question and then left click on “Properties” at the bottom of the window which has just opened. Somewhere (and yes it does move around at the whim of Windows) will be a full listing of where the file or location is on your computer.

What does it look like? Say we are checking up on the location of a called “fred” which is in the “My Pictures” folder, which is in the “User” folder which is on drive C, then the location details would read “C:\User\My Pictures”.

Which goes to prove that a Right Click opens a whole lot of options, more of which next time.

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11/02/2009 by Bertha.

Every now and again something comes along which really tries everyone to the limit. Last week was just one of those times.

C rang in a blind panic saying her computer had slowed right down and windows were popping up like Blackpool lights. What’s more the Internet connection was so slow that it was virtually unusable and AVG (the anti virus program) kept flashing up warnings of impending doom.

Everything that was happening was a classic example of a fairly serious infection of nasties. As it happened there were a number of Trojans which had got in despite an up-to-date anti virus program and a reasonable firewall.

The question is how?

The answer should be a salutary example to us all.

After lots of effort involving about half a dozen different malware (MALious softWARE) “scrubbers” it looked like all the trouble came from C installing an apparently useful program called “Antivirus 2009″. For those of you who would like to see the grisly details Wikipedia have an article about this nasty program HERE.

In order to get this onto people’s computers the developers resort to some pretty impressive social engineering.

Firstly, a warning appears that your computer is infected with x number of infections.

Secondly, you are offered a free scan which will remove these infections. (This should set warning bells off given that you have an anti virus program already installed!)

Thirdly, in order to do this scan you have to OK a small add on download - you know the type, a little yellow bar appears at the top of the window saying something about an Active X thingy.

Befroe you know where you are you have installed Antivirus 2009 which looks very professional and even copies the AVG logo somewhat. See the screen shot below.

It is professional too! After all, it disables your existing anti virus program and starts downloading other nasties and all without you doing anything else. Before you know where you are your computer is unusable due to all the other programs running on it and everything on your computer is at serious risk.

The salutory example then? Simple, if anything pops up while surfing do not just click, no matter how convincing or persitant it is. If in doubt (or if it won’t go away) shut down Internet Explorer and run a full anti virus scan of your computer. While you’re at it empty the browsing history in Internet Explorer by clicking on Tools > Delete Browsing History > Delete All.

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