Tag: malware

Free Morro Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0

June 19, 2009 by Jason

Come June 23rd, 2009, Microsoft will open up codename Morro, its upcoming free security solution designed to replace Windows Live OneCare 2.0, to the public. The Redmond company offered official confirmation that codename Morro had been rebranded as Microsoft Security Essentials, and that the first Beta for version 1.0 was ready to debut next week. Access to Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 Beta will be granted to testers in the United States, Brazil and Israel, the software giant informed. The information provided by Microsoft comes after screenshots of Morro made it into the wild, followed by the actual bits, leaked a couple of days ago.

“The Microsoft Security Essentials Beta will be made publicly available in Brazil, Israel and the U.S. starting June 23 at about 9am PDT from www.microsoft.com/security_essentials, and general availability is scheduled for later this calendar year,” a Microsoft spokesman told pctipsbox. Read More»

13 security and privacy tips for Firefox

April 24, 2009 by Jason

1. Delete items from address bar history
While it’s very handy to have your recently visited pages autocompleted as you type, it’s not always desirable. Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited. You can highlight and delete these at will, for maximum privacy.

2. Protect your PC from malware
You don’t have to visit the seedy side of the web to pick up a virus – even the best social networking sites regularly host all kinds of malware. But you can reduce the chance of infection by installing NoScript. This handy add-on blocks Javascript, Java, Flash and other executable content from running unless you explicitly allow it, and is a great way to keep yourself safe online.

3. Speedily search for images
Browse Google images and your results are split into blocks of 21. But use CoolIris and you’ll get all your results displayed on a 3D photo wall, a much faster and easier way to find the images you need. It only works with some sites, unfortunately, but as these include Google, Flickr, Picasa, Yahoo, Photobucket, Facebook and MySpace then you’ll still have plenty to browse. Especially as it searches and displays YouTube videos, too. Give it a try. Read More»

Conflicker Checker

April 04, 2009 by Jason

Contrary to some of the stories circulating in the more excitable sections of the media millions of PCs didn’t suddenly blow up following the much-anticipated reactivation of the Conflicker C virus on April 1st. In fact, at the time of writing nothing much seemed to have happened and the world moved on to more important matters. Nevertheless, this virus, and its ilk do present an ongoing threat, especially for PC owners who do not keep their security software and Windows Updates current. By the way, if you have any concerns about Conflicker C and malware in general and you think your PC may be infected I wouldn’t ask Google. I typed in ‘Conflicker C Removal’ a couple of days ago and the first three hits all led to websites carrying the virus!

If you have been lax with your security updates then your best bet is to download the free Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, which scans your PC for Conflicker and a raft of other nasties, but in the end the best way to avoid becoming infected is to install a decent anti-virus program and regularly sweep your PC with cleaners like AdAware, A-Squared and Spybot.

malicious

0-Day Exploit for Critical Firefox Vulnerability

March 27, 2009 by Jason

The release of proof-of-concept exploit code for an unresolved critical bug that allows for remote arbitrary code execution on the latest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has put developers on alert. A fix will be included in the 3.0.8 version of the browser, which is scheduled for release in a few days.

The vulnerability is described on SecurityFocus as a “Boundary Condition Error” and allows an attacker to execute potentially malicious code by calling a malformed XML file from a Web page. Parsing a specially crafted “root” XML tag in an XSL file results in a memory-corruption error.

These drive-by types of attacks have become the weapon of choice for many of today’s malware distributors. Cross-site scripting (XSS) weaknesses are used to inject rogue exploit-serving IFrames into legitimate pages. These exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, or the browsers themselves. Read More»

Free Rapidshare Downloader

February 14, 2009 by Jason

Recently we had written about a free download  for rapidshare free users, which lets you download more than one file simultaneously with out any time lag in between. Today we will tell you about another free rapidshare downloader which lets you download any fie from rapid share with ease.

Rapid Download is fast, portable and lightweight download accelerator for rapidshare, the use of this rapidshare downloader is quite simple as you just need to copy all the links of the rapidshare files to be downloaded in a file called download.txt and double click the executable of the application rapiddownload.exe

Rapidshare downloader is very small in size with only 14 KB in size, moreover it also checks whether the file as per the download link is still there on the rapidshare servers before downloading.

Features of Rapidshare Downloader (Rapid Download): Read More»

Free Password Protect Files Program For Windows

February 14, 2009 by Jason

One of the most important feature which almost every windows user wants in windows is to protect the private files with password. Many people keep some of the very sensitive files on their hard drive and other portable drives which they don’t want other to see.

Androsa (Password Protect Files Via Ghacks.net) is a free password file protector to protect your confidential documents or any other file with a secret password. It lets you lock any file in windows with a secret password.

When ever you password protect any files with this program it will convert the file into an encrypted file which can be opened only with software and de-protected by entering the correct password. You can select among different encryptions method at the time of password protecting your files with this program.

Let’s see how simple you can password protect any program with this software. Read More»

10 Tips to Make Your Computer Run Faster

February 03, 2009 by Jason

1. Upgrade Your RAM

Yeah, the most obvious tip but people hardly upgrade it. RAM these days is very cheap, especially if you buy it through Amazon or eBay. When I checked Amazon, the price of 1 GB RAM was around $20-$30.

2. Get Rid of Unneeded Software

Most PCs come shipped with unneeded software. Uninstall all of them. I’m sure there are better alternatives to those software. For example, my PC came shipped from hp with lots of bloatware such as HP Image Zone, Norton AntiVirus 2004, Record Now! CD & DVD Burning software etc. I uninstalled all of them and replaced them with better software like Picasa and Nero.

3. Keep Only One Browser

This is part of the getting rid of unneeded applications but I decided to separate it because so many people have 3, or even 4 browsers installed on their computer. I used to do this; I used to have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Now I only have Mozilla Firefox. Yes, I even removed Internet Explorer! Read More»

Windows 7 Beta/RTM Official Security Solutions

January 05, 2009 by Jason

Just ahead of the public Beta of Windows 7, Microsoft has started recommending security solutions that can be integrated with the next iteration of its Windows client even at this early stage in the platform’s development. The first products designed to protect users running Windows 7 Beta come from Kaspersky and AVG, according to the Redmond company, which have promised to work with ISVs in order to produce security software compatible with Windows Vista’s successor since 2008. In this context, when it comes down to bulletproofing Windows 7, AVG and Kaspersky are ahead of the rest of the security industry with AVG Internet Security 8.0, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0, and the Technical Preview of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows 7, respectively.

“Before you install antivirus software, check to make sure you don’t already have an antivirus product on your computer. If you do, be sure to remove the product you don’t want before you install the new one. It can cause problems on your computer to have two different antivirus products installed at the same time,” a message from Microsoft explains. Read More»

Top 10 – November 2008 Popular Tips

December 01, 2008 by Jason

November 2008 Popular Tips for Pctipsbox.com – TOP 10

  1. Installing Windows XP Using A USB Flash Drive
  2. XP SP3 and Vista SP1 DirectX Update
  3. DirectX 11 for Windows 7 and Vista SP1
  4. How To Reduce Firefox Memory Usage
  5. Make Your Windows Vista Super Fast
  6. How To Change Text On XP Start Button
  7. Vista SP1 and XP SP3 Vulnerability Hit by Malware
  8. Maximize Security in Outlook Express
  9. PcTipsBox October 2008 Popular Tips – TOP10
  10. 9 Tips Make Your Computer Run Faster

Read More»

Morro Antivirus for all windows

November 21, 2008 by Jason

Introduced in 2005, Windows Live OneCare is heading for an early grave, with Microsoft planning to discontinue license sales of the all-in-one PC care and security product come June 30, 2009, and to offer support only as long as existing subscriptions will last. In the place of OneCare, the company is cooking what it referred to as a security solution, focused on core anti-malware protection and tailored to Windows 7, Windows Vista (which will have evolved to Service Pack 2 by mid-2009) and Windows XP SP3.

However, the software giant wanted to make it clear that codename Morro was simply a consumer-oriented product, with no impact whatsoever on the company’s current enterprise grade security products.

“So, people may ask how does ‘Morro’ compare to Forefront Client Security? Will enterprise customers use it? The answer is no, ‘Morro’ is intended for consumers, whereas Forefront products are enterprise solutions, providing the capabilities and features required in sophisticated IT environments, e.g. centralized deployment, management and reporting, security state assessments, scheduled signature distribution, update management, etc,” revealed a member of the Forefront team. Read More»