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An important part of owning a personal computer is keeping your software up-to-date. Security patches, upgrades, and hotfixes need to be installed to make your computer safer while connected to the Internet. When using a computer running Microsoft Windows, this checklist can include windows, antivirus, antispyware, and firewall updates. However, for most computer users this can seem like a daunting task and I hardly ever work on a customer’s computer without finding at least one missing needed update concerning hardware or software.

The Basic Updates

Windows Updates

At the very least, you should keep your computer up-to-date with the latest Windows security patches and updates for your operating system. Microsoft has made it fairly easy to keep everything updated by including an automatic updates feature in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Although its not always advised to install Windows updates when they are immediately released, it is a good idea to install these updates shortly after they are released. In most cases, Windows updates are created to fix security holes and vunerabilities in Windows that can be exploited by hackers to take over your computer or use it to send spam or viruses. If you don’t have Windows set to automatically update, you can visit the following website to check your computer for these updates and download them.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Antivirus Updates

Keeping your antivirus software up-to-date is also an important step in keeping your computer running properly while connected to the Internet. I run across many computers that have antivirus software installed, but the virus signatures have not been updated in several months or even years. Your antivirus software is only as good as the last virus signature update you have installed. If a virus was discovered yesterday, and you havent updated your antivirus product today, then you are susceptible to being infected by that particular virus.

I have written step-by-step instructions for updating the virus signatures for Norton, McAfee, and Trend Micro antivirus products. Most free antivirus programs such as AVAST, AVG, and Anti-Vir check for updates on a daily basis as long as your computer is connected to the Internet.

Anti-Spyware Updates

Whether you are running Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search and Destroy, Windows Defender, Webroot SpySweeper, or another antispyware product, you need to update the software regularly for it to be effective. Just like antivirus software, software to remove adware and spyware can’t remove problems if it doesnt have that program in its database. Unfortunately, many of these programs don’t update themselves automatically. When you open your antispyware program look for a button or tab to update the adware database and do this on a regular monthly basis before scanning your system.

Firewall Updates

Most firewall programs will prompt you that there is a newer version to download. Its always a good idea to download these updates when they become available.

Other Updates

What about the other programs installed on your computer, do they need to be updated to remain secure? The easy answer is yes, however most of these other programs don’t automatically tell you when a new version is available. The average computer user usually doesn’t have the time or the patience to check all these other installed programs and update them. However, a couple utilities have come to the rescue and provide fairly in-depth checks for insecure or outdated software.

FileHippo.com’s Update Checker

FileHippo.com, a software download website, released a small program to download and run on your computer that will check your machine for unpatched, outdated, and insecure versions of installed software. The program checks video drivers, software updates for java and flash, adobe acrobat reader, chat programs, and more. If Update Checker finds a problem, it will provide the name of the program as well as a link to download the latest version of the outdated software. The program gets its updates based on the software available on the FileHippo.com’s website. So although its not an absolutely complete list of updates its very close. Follow the steps below to download Update Checker and run it.

1) Click on the following link to download FileHippo’s Update Checker to your desktop or Visit the Update Checker web page to read more.

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/FHSetup.exe

or for the standalone version without an installer click below

http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/UpdateChecker.exe

2) Once the Update Checker is saved to your desktop, find the UpdateChecker.EXE file and double-click on it to start scanning or run UpdateChecker from your All Programs menu.

3) After the scan is completed, you’ll be presented with a screen similar to the one shown below. Download and install any updates you wish by clicking on the link provided in the Update Checker report.

File Hippo Update Checker Screenshot

Possible errors when installing Update Checker

When you try to install Update Checker, you may receive the application error “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application. The message is shown below:

Update Checker requires Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 to be installed. If it is not, you will likely receive the error message shown above. To resolve this, download and install Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2.0 before running Update Checker. Click on the following link to download Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2.0:

Download Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0

How to Check What Version of .Net Framework is Installed

If you are wondering what version of Microsoft .Net Framework is installed on your computer, you can download the following program to check your system

http://www.tmgdevelopment.co.uk/versioncheck.htm

Secunia’s Online Software Inspector

Secunia, a well known security company, has created an online checker for outdated and insecure software on your computer. Although they don’t require you to download a program, the site does require java to be installed to operate properly. You can visit their Online Software Inspector by visiting the link below.

http://www.secunia.com/software_inspector/

If you don’t have Java installed or would rather just install a program to check your system for updates, Secunia has released a beta version of Personal Software Inspector.

Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector

According to their website:

“The Secunia PSI detects installed software and categorises your software as either Insecure, End-of-Life, or Up-To-Date. Effectively enabling you to focus your attention on software installations where more secure versions are available from the vendors.”

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Personal Software Inspector detects and advises on problems with more than 4,700 applications and also provides links to updates for the affected programs. PSI installs in your Startup group to monitor your applications each time your computer boots. You can read more about PSI or download it by clicking on this link:

https://psi.secunia.com/

In many cases, these old and outdated versions that PSI finds can be removed from your computer by using the Add or Remove Programs section in Control Panel. Installing a newer version of a program (for instance Java) will leave the old version still intact and you’ll have to go to Add or Remove Programs to remove the old version.

Old versions of Adobe Flash Player can sometimes be difficult to find and remove. Adobe has created an uninstaller to find a remove Flash Player. For the uninstaller and more information on why the flash player may not install click here.

FileHippo’s Update Checker and Secunia’s Software Inspector evaluate your installed programs based on different databases, so each finds a comparable although not identical list of outdated applications. For this reason, it may be a good idea to run both programs at first on your computer, and then settle on which one you like better.

While Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector focuses on insecure and “end of life” software, FileHippo’s Update Checker will check for updated versions of software as well as some hardware.In either case, these programs should become part of your monthly checklist when updating your computer and protecting yourself from threats from the outside world.

Hardware and Device Driver Updates

What about hardware updates? While software updates keep your computer from being infected or otherwise compromised, hardware updates can solve issues from computer lockups, screen freezes, and printing problems among other problems. There is a cool utility from a company called RadarSync that checks your computer against currently 90,000 updates. The free version allows you to scan your computer and shows you updates for your hardware including manufacturer and filename, but does not provide direct download links. You’ll have to go to the manufacturers website and find the driver yourself. RadarSync’s Premium version does provide direct download links to drivers, email notification when a new driver is available, and rollback protection when a driver doesn’t work as expected.

Download and run Radarsync and check for updates now

When Will This Recovery Work?
You’ll want to use the steps on this page to recover from a corrupted registry when you have already tried other options such as System Restore and you receive a message similar to one of the following when you try to boot your computer with Windows XP.

* Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

* Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE

* Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

* System error: Lsass.exe
When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct.

Be careful using this procedure in other circumstances or with an OEM version of Windows XP since OEM installations create passwords and user accounts that did not exist previously and may cause you not to be able to log into the Recovery Console to restore files.

Booting into the Recovery Console

You’ll need to use the Windows XP Recovery Console to fix a corrupted registry, this will either require you to boot from a Windows XP Installation CD or boot directly to the Recovery Console if its installed. Follow these steps to boot into the Recovery Console from a Windows XP Installation CD.

1) Place your Windows XP in the CD-ROM Drive
2) Restart your computer and make sure your BIOS is set to boot from CD
3) When you see the following command press the space bar.

“press any key to boot from cd…”

4) Wait until you see the “Welcome to Setup” screen, and press R to start the Recovery Console
5) Choose which Windows installation you wish to load (this is usually #1 unless you have a multi-boot system)
6) Type the administrator password and Press Enter
7) You should now be at the C:\Windows> prompt

Copy Repair Files Using the Recovery Console

This procedure assumes Windows is installed on Drive C, if you have installed Windows on another drive, please substitute the appropriate drive letter in the procedure below.

At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:

md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart, press F8 as it starts and choose Safe Mode.

Restart in Safe Mode and Find a Recent Snapshot Backup

Restart your computer in Safe Mode by pressing F8 during the initial bootup and choosing Safe Mode. Once in Safe Mode, you need to make sure the files and folders are visible so you can access them. Follow these instructions to accomplish this.

1. Open My Computer
2. Click on the Tools menu, then click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Under Hidden files and folders, click to select Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
5. Click Yes when the dialog box that confirms that you want to display these files appears.

In My Computer, Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP (usually Drive C) to display a list of the folders. then double-click on the “System Volume Information” folder. This folder contains the system restore points stored on your computer. The folders will look similar to

_restore{EE42BEB8-700A-495F-8004-53D26C2E12C5}

You might receive an access denied error message similar to the following when trying to access the System Volume Information folder.

C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied.

This is generally caused because the user you are logged in under does not have permissions set on the folder. To fix this, follow the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 309531 to gain access and continue. Each version of Windows XP is different on how to change these permissions.

Once you have access to the snapshots, use the instructions below to copy one of the latest snapshots to the Windows\TMP directory so you have access to it.

1) In the System Volume Information Folder, click on View, and then click Details to display the date of each snapshot folder.
2) Double-click on a folder that was not created at the current time but rather before the problem started.
3) Double-click on the Snapshot subfolder
4) Using your normal windows copy and paste techniques, highlight the following files and copy them into the C:\Windows\TMP folder

* _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
* _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
* _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
* _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
* _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM

5) Rename the files that you just copied into the C:\Windows\TMP folder by right-clicking on each filename and choosing Rename, then typing the new name. Repeat this for each file in the list below.

* Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
* Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
* Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
* Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
* Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

6) Once you have renamed the files, restart your computer again with the Recovery Console (refer to the instructions above to do this)

Replace the Repair Files with a Current Backup of the Registry

After rebooting the computer and starting the Recovery Console again, type the following commands at the prompt to replace the files with a current backup. You’ll need to press Enter after each command.

del c:\windows\system32\config\sam
del c:\windows\system32\config\security
del c:\windows\system32\config\software
del c:\windows\system32\config\default
del c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\tmp\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\tmp\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\tmp\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\tmp\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\tmp\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

After the files have been replaced, type EXIT at the command prompt to restart Windows in normal mode.

Use System Restore to Return to a Good Backup Point

Because there is more to a System Restore than just the registry files, follow these steps to restore your computer to a good backup point.

1. Click Start, and then click All Programs.
2. Click Accessories, and then click System Tools.
3. Click System Restore, and then click Restore to a previous Restore Point and finish the restore.

One of the more common questions I am asked on a daily basis is how to get Internet Explorer out of Full Screen Mode. Kiosk mode or Full Screen mode is enabled if the bottom task bar (including the Start button and clock) disappear along with almost everything at the top of the browser window as well.

You can see an example of full screen mode by viewing the screenshot below. You notice the top bar just contains standard buttons bar gone are the title bar, menu bar, and address bar in Internet Explorer. This view may be ok to look at a website, but when you want to type something in the address bar to go somewhere else in can be a problem.

Full Screen Mode

Luckily, getting switching between normal mode and full screen mode is very easy. Its just one key on the keyboard - F11.

Press F11 to switch between full screen and normal viewing.

That’s all there is to it.

How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer
The following steps will remove any password set in the Internet Explorer Content Advisor and allow you to reset the program to its original state.

1) Click on Start and choose Run.

2) Type in RegEdit and select OK.

3) Now click on the little plus sign to the left of H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

4) Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft
, Windows, Current Version and Policies.

5) Now click on the Ratings folder.

6) In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you’ll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.

7) Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You’ve just deleted your original Content Advisor password.

Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.

9) Choose View and then Internet Options (or Options for version 3.x). For IE 5 or greater, Click on Tools, Internet Options.

10) Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don’t enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there’s no longer a password.

How can you access blocked sites and cross web filters? Many people deal with controlled access to specific websites. This happens especially in some countries where Internet censorship is applied and people’s access to specific websites is restricted. Also, these days more and more institutions, schools and companies are implementing this type of software on their computers. But Internet filtering is not a problem because there are many tools and methods that enable you to bypass filters and to unblock websites.

Anonymous Web Proxy

One of the most popular methods is using a web proxy. An anonymous proxy server is an intermediate between your computer and the server you are requesting the information. Although this is an easy way it’s not the safest one. Even if the server does not have your information, the intermediate has it so you are not completely anonymous. The advantage of this method is that there are many free web proxies available over the Internet.
The most known resource for web proxies is Proxy.org. The list contains proxies all over the world, it’s periodically updated and provides link to specific web proxies in a random order. Due to the fact that the proxies are listed randomly, the chance of getting an over used proxy is considerably decreased. Other important resources of free web proxies are: Hide My Ass, Anonymouse.org, and Proxify.co.uk.

Hide IP address software

The second option is to use hide IP address applications. There are simple applications where with a simple click you can enable anonymity, or complex application that allows you to add manually proxies into the list, which will allow you to test proxies in advance and even clean cookies and temporary internet files. To be sure that the application suites your needs you should test the trial first and see how many proxies they have and from which countries.

The most known free hide IP address application is TOR Project. The application suits best to advanced Internet users because the configuration is not very simple. Other applications that are easy to use by anyone are: Ultra Surf, Anonymous Surfing, IP Privacy and Not My IP.

VPN connections

A third way used to unblock web sites is through a VPN. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network that is constructed by using public wires to connect nodes. A great advantage of these systems is that they use encryption and other security systems so only authorized users can access the network and the data cannot be tracked. Hotspot Shield is the most used these days and it’s 100% free. It creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway blocking snoopers, hackers, ISP’s, or other person from viewing your web browsing activities.

An important aspect that users must take in consideration is that before changing the IP address you must know what type of address your computer has. If you have a static IP address than you have to call your ISP and ask them to change it while if you have a dynamic IP address than you can apply any of the methods above.

USB flash drives are very common these days and we often take backup from it. Copy and pasting data can be tough job sometimes for users having less RAM and much data to copy. Here is an application which create images of USB memory sticks and MP3 players, that are mounted as USB drives. It allows you switch between images with different music styles on your MP3 Player or to make an exact backup image of your USB Stick.

USB Image Tool is an ultimate tool to :

* create image files of USB drives
* restore images of USB drives
* compressed image file format
* show USB device information
* manage favorite USB images
* command line utility

Download Instructions : Click here to visit download link.

Its works fine on Windows XP and Windows Vista

Bootable CD’s and DVD’s are difficult to carry, so for urgent use of bootable CD here is an alternative method. MakeBootable is a simple application with which you can make your Pen Drive bootable and boot your system same as Windows Bootable CD.

About MakeBootable :

It is an easy-to-use application software that can make a great addition to your
Pen Drive. It allows you to make your Pen Drive a boot-up disk without erasing any data in
the device. It consists of a single executable file and requires no installation. Just a few clicks on the mouse and get ready to explore this extra feature with your Pen Drive

System Requirements :

* Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
* Pen Drive using Phison’s solutions
* Motherboard / BIOS with USB boot support

How to use this application :

This software is very simple to use. Just execute the .exe file, select your pen drive and click on Make Bootable. Simple !

Download Instructions : Click here to download

The ZIP file above contains the set up file and read me file.

but read this also

Note : Before running this bootable pen drive make sure you select USB as First Boot Device

I am a regular visitor of Yahoo Answers and in the free time I help others in Computer & Internet section. I usually see people asking for which is the best anti virus ?? Which is the best firewall ?? Which is the best package I should use for Internet Security ?? and alot of questions regarding Internet Security.

In the month of March I wrote a post about Internet Secutiy Tips. In that post I told you about how you can remain secure from vunerable attacks of viruses,spywares etc.

But I get alot of mails asking me about best Internet Security package.

By Internet Security Package I mean combination of 4 secutity applications :

>>Anti Virus Program

>>Anti Spyware Program

>>Firewall Program

>>Internet Browser Program

I am writing this post from my own experience. Till now I have used almost all anti virus, firewalls, anti spyware, so in this post I am going to tell you the best 2 Internet security packages I have ever used. I have divided these 2 packages according to the users computer speed i.e amount of RAM user have.

So let start :

For users having RAM more than 512 mb :

Best Anti Virus : Kaspersky Anti Virus

Best Anti Spyware : Super Anti Spyware

Best Firewall : Comodo Firewall

Best Internet Browser : Mozilla Firefox ( You can download it from Right Sidebar )

For users having RAM less than 512 mb :

Best Anti Virus : Nod32 Anti Virus

Best Anti Virus : AVG Anti Virus or Super Anti Spyware

Best Firewall : Zone Alarm Firewall

Best Internet Browser : Mozilla Firefox ( You can download it from Right Sidebar )

Twitter is a simple and yet famous social networking website, recently I wrote a post about some basic habits every blogger should adopt. Reading that post, one of our readers asked us to share the secret to get hundreds of followers on Twitter. Well, Chankya told ‘ Never ever share your secrets with anybody, it will destroy you ‘. I do not care what Chankya said, I only care about my readers and I love to share my thoughts with them. So here is trick that will help you in getting hundreds of followers.
Requirements :

* A Twitter account
* A good Internet connection. Dial Up users will feel this post a little annoying.
* Huitter ( I’ll tell you about this service in this post later)

Tutorial :

Step1. Open your Twitter account and now search for a profile with a lot of followers. You can easily find such users on Twitter having thousands of followers.

Step2. Now, open their followers list and start following as much users as you can. I am not telling you to follow all of them at once, you can do this job taking small breaks in between. Following users on Twitter is very easy, all you have to do is click on the Follow button below each user name.

Result :

Wait for some time and you will see that majority of the users whom you are following will start following you back.

Now comes the tricky part, now use this free service called Huitter that will bulk unfollow people that are not following you back. With this tool, you can automatically unfollow all the people that are not following you.

You can repeat Step1 and Step2 above, as many times as you want and in return you will get a lot of followers. All you have to do is click, click and click and these clicks will turn out to be your followers in future.

Twitter, a microblogging service has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. Today I’ve a great service to share with you all called TweetAFile. With TweetaFile you can easily send pictures, videos, documents to your followers.
How to use this service

First visit TweetAFile and log in with your Twitter username and password and then click on Browse and select your file that you want to send to your followers and click on Upload File.