Archive for category Downloads
iOS4 How To and Guided Tour
Posted by admin in Company & Product Profiles, Downloads, Email, File and Data Sharing, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Security, Simplicity, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, Web, blogs, home, how to, news, productivity, tips on June 21, 2010
Today the new iOS4 is released for Apples iPhone and iPad. This is a free upgrade. I love free stuff. There are some great new features you should know about in this update.
Here are just a few:
- Multitasking
- Folders
- Improved Email
- iBooks
If you’re ready to update to iOS4, be sure to use iTunes to backup your iPhone/iPod/iPad first. Then check for updates. When the update is available, iTunes will let you know and walk you through the process. I was able to upgrade a little early, thanks to these instructions from Jason Powell.
An excellent walkthrough of the features of iOS4 is in the video below.
How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 3
Posted by admin in Company & Product Profiles, Downloads, Email, File and Data Sharing, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Security, Spam, Technology & Gadgets, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, Web, home, how to, productivity, tips on June 3, 2010
In “How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 1“, we established that Windows PCs are often targeted because of their large market share and that the brand of your computer makes no difference because viruses, spyware and malware occur at the software level.
In “How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 2“, we considered browsing and clicking habits that can be harmful for your computer and your privacy.
Let’s look at two different types of software that can help protect your computer.
Internet Security Suite
There are some tools available that can help secure your Windows PC as well. A question that is often asked of me is, “Which antivirus software is the best?“. My answer is always, “I can recommend a certain product, but you need to know that no security software is bulletproof. They will all let some things get through.”
It’s important to understand that antivirus software offers only a certain type of protection. So if you go to download one of the free anti-virus software packages (AVG, Avast!, and Avira are all popular), they will offer anti-virus only protection. In order to get a quality level of comprehensive protection from a single piece of software, you’ll need to pay for it.
PC Magazine has a good run-down of the best software for 2010 here. They rate Norton and McAfee above the rest of the suites in this particular review. On more than one occasion, however, I have had major software issues with both McAfee and Norton, so I typically recommend another software package.
In my experience, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 offers the best value, features and pricing. I use this software with many of my clients and have had good results without inhibiting the computer’s performance. It’s around $80, which covers three computers for a full year. Contact me to get this software installed on your computer.
Consistent Environment Software
Wouldn’t it be great if your computer was exactly the same every time you turned it on? One software package makes that happen.
Windows Steady State, developed by Microsoft allows a computer’s administrator to configure other users for a consistent environment on every login. It’s free and compatible with Windows XP and Vista (sorry, Windows 7 users!).
Basically, here’s how it works: a user can login, browse the internet, download files and even adjust settings just like usual. Then when they log out, all the settings revert back to the way they were before the person logged in. This software is very useful on a computer that a family with children may use, or in my case, a computer lab with multiple users.
Other helpful features of this software are timed logouts, software restrictions, and user permissions. If these sounds fancy, I assure you that Windows Steady State makes it very easy to understand and adjust these settings.
With a little common sense and the right software, your Windows PC should operate smoothly without much effort on the part of the user. It may not be bulletproof, but the overall experience will be better than if no protection or safeguards were put in place.
There is one option still to consider when using a PC. We’ll take a look at that in Part 4.
How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 2
Posted by admin in Downloads, Email, File and Data Sharing, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Security, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tricks & Hacks, Web, how to, productivity, tips on June 2, 2010
In “How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 1“, we established that Windows PCs are often targeted because of their large market share and that the brand of your computer makes no difference because viruses, spyware and malware occur at the software level.
To protect your Windows computer, the first and best rule of protection is to use your head and be pro-active in your browsing and clicking habits. This typically means two things:
- Only visit websites that you know can be trusted
- Use caution when clicking on links in e-mail that are unsolicited
Let’s look a little closer at #1:
How do you know which websites can be trusted? There is a difficult tension here – if you visit only the sites you already know, there are many useful and informational websites out there that you will miss in an effort to be cautiuos. But, if you go out willy-nilly and click on every site that comes up in the search results, your computer will get infected with malicious software sooner or later.
So the answer lies somewhere in between. More experienced users can take a little more liberty in clicking on unknown sites, but naive or less experienced users will need to be more careful when visiting unknown websites.
The truth is that malicious websites will do their best to look like a legitimate, reputable website. But these same sites will do damage to your computer that can be difficult to recover from.
Let’s look a little closer at #2:
E-mail is also a popular way to direct people to websites that are harmful not only to your computer, but to your privacy. If you get an e-mail from a financial institution, never click on the link in the e-mail. Instead, go to your browser to access the institution’s site directly.
It is very possible that the legitimate-looking e-mail you just received will direct you to a “phishing” site that will extract your login information and allow someone else to access your accounts and information.
In Part 3, we’ll consider two types of software that can help protect your computer from viruses and spyware.
How to Secure Your Windows PC – Part 1
Posted by admin in Company & Product Profiles, Downloads, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Security, Spam, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, Web, how to, news, productivity, tips on June 1, 2010
According to NetMarketShare.com Windows PCs hold a market share of just over 90% of all operating systems. Because the market share of Windows is so large, these systems end up with more problems than any other type of computer on the market.
It’s not necessarily that Windows (XP, Vista, 7) is a bad product (okay, so Windows Vista was pretty bad). But with a market share so large, Windows is what people work with the most, so there are bound to be issues. Since Windows is also the biggest target, more malicious software is developed to bring down Windows machines as opposed to, say, Macintosh or Linux machines.
It’s important to note that both Macintosh and Linux are susceptible to viruses and spyware, but fewer cases of spyware exist for these operating systems because of their smaller market share (4.5% and 1% respectively).
Additionally, any Windows computer, regardless of brand (HP, Toshiba, Acer, etc.), is just as prone to viruses and spyware as the next Windows computer. If a computer acquires a virus or other malicious software from browsing websites of ill-repute, you should know it is not HP’s fault (or Toshiba’s, or Acer’s for that matter). Consider a real-life example:
Let’s say you have a Hewlett-Packard laptop running Windows 7. You get an e-mail forward from a friend promising wealth and fortunes by clicking on a link (you didn’t know this until later, but snopes.com determines it’s a fake). After clicking on this link, your computer won’t open Internet Explorer anymore and Antivirus Soft is asking you to pay $49.95 to get rid of 119 detected viruses.
First, you should know Antivirus Soft is malicious, illegitimate software – under no circumstances should you pay them a single penny. Second, this scenario would have played out the same way if you had a computer by any other name. The brand of computer simply doesn’t matter when it comes to software issues.
Now, armed with this understanding, the posts that follow in this series will help you to protect your computer from a number of issues related to software, saving you both time and money in the future.
Why You Shouldn’t Use LimeWire
Posted by admin in Downloads, File and Data Sharing, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Security, Simplicity, Spam, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, Web, Web Applications, how to, news, productivity, tips on March 5, 2010
I have seen far too many computers infected with spyware, viruses, trojans, malware, etc. There are numerous ways to end up with the problems caused by malicious software. Unsafe browsing practices, such as visiting untrusted websites and downloading software from untrusted sources are just two of the ways to acquire malicious and damaging software.
On many of the computers I have seen with malicious software, one common piece of software I find is LimeWire. LimeWire is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software that allows users to share files. It is a haven for malicious software, pirated music and illegal videos.
Mark Stone has written an excellent piece about LimeWire here.
If you have this software on your computer, do yourself a favor and uninstall it now. It’s not worth the trouble.
Handbrake Rips and Converts Your Video Files
Posted by admin in Compression, Downloads, Free Stuff, Instruction, Internet, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, home, how to, productivity, tips on February 17, 2010
Handbrake is a piece of software I use nearly every week. It’s a free program designed to efficiently rip DVDs to editable video files on your computer. Handbrake will also convert files of one format to another.
Download the Handbrake installer here [~5MB exe]. Run the installer with all the default settings and you’re ready to start ripping DVDs.
1) Choose the source using the “Source” button at the top left corner of the Handbrake window. There are options to choose a file or DVD.
2) Choose the destination for the out put in the main frame of the Handbrake window. I normally use the Desktop or the Videos folder in My Documents.
3) Choose your output settings using either a preset (right side frame) or customize using the tabs in the main section of the Handbrake window.
4) Click “Start” on the toolbar. You’ll see a DOS-looking window open with progress information. Wait until it’s done, then look at the destination folder for your new file.
Note: I offer this tip and software as a resource for professional and personal use. This software should not be used for illegal purposes, such as pirating movies.
DirSync Pro Synchronizes Files and Folders
Posted by admin in Downloads, File and Data Sharing, Free Stuff, Instruction, Security, Simplicity, Technology & Gadgets, Timesavers, Tools, Tricks & Hacks, Web, how to, productivity, tips on February 12, 2010
Here’s another Lifehacker recommended download. It’s called DirSync Pro and it allows you to backup information on a local computer to a mapped network drive or other location on the same computer. Here’s a description from the author’s website:
Using DirSync Pro you can make incremental backups. In this way you’ll spare lots of time because you don’t have to copy all the files each time you want to update your backup; only new/modified/larger files would be copied.
Use DirSync Pro to easily synchronize files from your desktop PC to your USB-stick (PDA, Notebook, …). Use this USB-stick (PDA, Notebook, …) to synchronize files to another desktop PC.
DirSync Pro is free, open source software, available for download here. It’s a Java application, so it’s supported on any system with the Java Runtime Environment, including Windows, Mac and Linux.
Shrink Pic Resizes Images Automagically for Faster Uploads [Downloads]
Posted by Whitson Gordon in Compression, Downloads, Email, Photos, Timesavers, images on December 30, 2009
Windows only: Image resizing tools are a dime a dozen, but free utility Shrink Pic is actually an extremely clever original: Instead of requiring manual processing, it runs in the background and automatically resizes images whenever you attach or upload them.
A perfect tool for frequent Facebook uploaders, for example, Shrink Pic works with a number of applications (most browsers, Outlook, Thunderbird, Skype, and MSN Messenger, to name just a few) to monitor when you upload, attach, or send pictures via IM. When you do, it automatically resizes the images in the background based on user-defined settings, then uploads the smaller image (so you don’t have to wait several minutes for an upload to complete just to have it severely compressed at its destination anyway). It can even resize multiple photos in the same upload. The speed at which it resizes and the quality of the compression are nothing to sneeze at, either.
Shrink Pic saves the resized images in a temporary directory, so your originals are never touched—just copied. You can use any kind of compression level you want, as well as choose from 5 different photo types to check for. If you want to disable it, all you need to do is uncheck an option in your system tray—and re-enabling it is just as easy. You can even install a portable version to a USB drive, so you never have to resize images again—not even at other computers.
Shrink Pic is a free download, Windows only.
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