PCTips Box

PC Security must be your first priority. Your personal computer is a common target for intruders and other malicious users because they want to access personal data such as bank account information, credit card numbers or any important data they could find.

Intruders not only steal your financial information, they could also use your computer resources – such as hard disk, processor and internet connection to attack other users. This way, law enforcement will find it difficult to solve where the attacks are coming from.

To prevent possible identity theft or computer hijack, follow these eight steps in maintaining PC security: (more…)

At the beginning of May, security company PC Tools revealed that Windows Vista “is not so immune.” And in this attempt to wrap the obvious together with statistics from a limited pool of users and serve the result as a revelation, the security outfit went on to claim that “Windows Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight year old Windows 2000 operating system, and only 37% more secure than Windows XP”. Apparently, PC Tolls had detected 639 unique threats per 1,000 Vista machines, in comparison to just 586 for Windows 2000, 478 for Windows Server 2003, and 1,021 for XP. The conclusion is, of course, nothing short of obvious and was stated as clear as possible, with a challenge to Vista’s malware immunity.

Now, the fact is that citing data from over 450 million computers, in respect to PC Tools’ just 1.4 million machines, Microsoft disputed the findings, and continued to claim that Windows Vista is the safest Windows operating system on the market. Microsoft has repeated this refrain since Vista was launched, and provided ample proof, from the data collected through the Malicious Software Removal Tool to vulnerability counting games involving the main platforms. (more…)

I have become more addictive using gmail these days specially because we have to reply to users who send their computer problems on TroubleFixers

While handling these large number of email, I was just trying to get to know quick and easy to remember shortcuts for gmail. So, I google for gmail keyboard shotcuts and got landed to a page here

But after seeing these shortcuts I was even worried how could any one remember all of them, I filtered out some easy to remember shortcuts.

Quick Easy to Use Shortcuts For Gmail (more…)

In case of outlook 2007 when you configure your gmail account with automatic pop3 configuration the problem of auto filtering of your mails received is done by outlook.

But this auto filtering most of the times does not function correctly which results in non junk mails or clean mails are mark as junk and outlook moves them automatically to junk folder.

You can simply fix the wrong filtering as follows:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 2007 (more…)

If you are frequent web browser ,a blogger or a freelancer if you are in any web related profession then you must be spending around at least about 1-2 hours on web.

Why open multiple pages at start in mozilla firefox ?

Now every minute of your’s is important so it’s you to decide how you can optimise and speed up your repeated browser activity in order to make the most efficient use of your time .

Lets assume that you have a medium speed internet connection and you use firefox every time so, if you have to open intial web sites every time before you start work like open email , dash board of your wordpress blog, google reader etc (more…)

Whether you’re on the road for business or pleasure provided you’re not traveling by canoe in the Amazon jungle or dog sled in the arctic there’s probably a way to stay in touch by e‑mail. With a little knowledge and advance planning, it’s easy to check your e‑mail from the road. Here are some tips to help you remain in contact with friends, family, and colleagues while you’re on the go.

1. Use web mail and travel light

If you use a web-based e‑mail service such as Windows Live Hotmail, you can send and receive e‑mail using someone else’s computer, without the need to carry around your own mobile PC while you travel. All you need is a Hotmail account and a computer with a web browser and an Internet connection. You can even access Hotmail from some web-enabled mobile phones. (more…)

If the number of emails and letters I receive on accidental deletion of files is anything to go by we’re in suffering an epidemic of ‘butter fingers’… Picture files on memory cards are by far the most popular files to get zapped by mistake but it affects everything, from Word documents to album tracks, and I can’t deny that I haven’t done it myself, but when it happens the worst thing you can do is panic. If you do the chances are you make the situation even worse, so when you’ve erased a file, and you want it back the first thing to do is check the Recycle Bin. If it’s not there then there is still a very good chance all or part of it is still on the drive, and this little freeware program, called Restoration could get it back for you. The program is small and runs from any file location, even a memory card, so it doesn’t mess around with Windows. (more…)

Spammers are always willing to do anything it’s possible to create huge lists of valid email addresses in order to be able to launch new attacks. They are even selling huge lists of emails to other spammers who intend to send unsolicited messages to all the contacts. The latest trend seems to be infecting people’s computers with a worm and steal their email addresses. WORM_ZHELATI.AIR was discovered by security vendor Trend Micro, which wrote that it affected most Windows flavors including 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003. Although it has a low damage potential and a low distribution potential, the worm can reach your computer by email or straight from a malicious website visited by the user. (more…)

Over the years we’ve looked at various manual methods of backing up and archiving your email messages but here’s a clever little program that makes the whole thing much easier. It’s called MailStore Home and it works with all of the popular email client programs, including Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird and so on. It allows you to take all of your emails and store them in one convenient place with a single click, on your hard drive or a CD or DVD, and it is smart enough to only save one instance of each attachment (in case you have been sent the same one several times). (more…)

Security has always been one of the top concerns for us no matter if we’re talking about viruses, malware, Trojan horses, credit card fraud or hack attacks. They’re all dangerous and capable of causing important damages or financial losses, so it’s extremely important to apply the most powerful security measures as soon as possible. Christmas is not only that time of the year when you finally get the chance to spend some time with family and friends, but it’s also one of the busiest periods when it comes to computer security. Although we’re all expecting Santa and his nice gifts, don’t be too surprised if you get only Viagra, watches and drugs as spam messages have always been so generous. (more…)