Update | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: update

Why use free security software?

photo credit: kalandrakas

A customer asked me a question that I get asked quite often on the radio show and when I’m making my daily house or office visits. “Why do you use free products versus the larger commercial pay products for keeping a computer secure?”

My answer can be summed up in word: effectiveness.

Time and time again, the products I recommend prove themselves in the field as being thorough, effective, and unobtrusive programs. Unobtrusive is a big one for me these days as the leaders in security software (Norton, McAfee, etc) bloat their software beyond recognition and slow down even the fastest, newest machines. Norton claims that their newest versions are Continue reading →

Email Tips — No Comments
6
Oct 09

Learn to stay safe with your email

photo credit: CGehlen

Like any medium, we all need to keep a discerning eye on the information we read on the Internet and in email. You don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper or see on TV do you? The Internet is no different and tends to breed more fiction because its tools are so readily available.

First and foremost, keep an anti-virus software running on your computer at all times and make sure it is updated at least weekly. Remember, keeping an anti-virus program updated is completely different than the program doing a weekly scan of your computer files. I currently favor AVG Antivirus or Avast on my computer and my client’s computers, but whatever you use, keep Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Tech News — No Comments
9
Sep 09

System Engineer fed up with Windows vulnerabilities

Interesting article from a ZDNet author, Christopher Dawson, who also works full-time as a school district computer engineer. Despite locking down Windows computers with security software, tweaking firewalls, and making sure all Windows updates are up to snuff, threats still sneak into their computers. I understand the frustration he exhibits in the article regarding the time and effort spent fighting these threats…especially knowing how much more trouble free a Linux computer or Apple computer can be. Worth the read:

Give me one good reason not to just move them all to Linux | Education IT | ZDNet.com.

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Windows Tips — 4 Comments
20
Aug 09

Cleaning and removing Antivirus 2009, PAV and others from your computer,

Photo by Jim Grandy

Preventing your computer from becoming infected is infinitely easier and less stressful than cleaning up after an infection.

Search my site for tons of information on setting up your computer for security and techniques to avoid scams. However, if you are already bit by one of the most recent nasty forms of software, Antivirus 2008, Antivirus 2009, Personal Antivirus, Internet Security 2009 among others (software I call extortionware that installs itself on your computer and then poses as Continue reading →

Computer User Group / Internet Tips — 7 Comments
7
Jul 09

The Castellini Approach to Internet Security

photo credit: The Joy Of The Mundane

This past week I saw way too many people who are not taking advantage of the free information we give out on the show and the web site. Their computers were suffocating from a preventable disease…viruses and spyware. Yes, preventable, almost 100%. And fighting the war on our home computer security front does not have to be costly or time consuming.

We talk about this subject quite a bit on the program and the web site because of its rapid growth worldwide. In today’s tip, I am providing you with links to information that we have on this site that have been up for months to years that contain the essential information about protecting your computer.

Continue reading →

Announcements — 2 Comments
7
Mar 09

Important Newsletter Information!

If you are a weekly newsletter subscriber, please read this information.

After two weeks of soul searching, research, and web browsing, I decided to move the email newsletter subscribers to my FeedBlitz service. Feedblitz picks out my newest articles and delivers them to you in an email. The service works great and I will be moving the address list into it starting on Monday or Tuesday.

As soon as I move the list into the FeedBlitz system (which is secure and the only access to the email addresses is through me), you will receive an email from the FeedBlitz service asking you to confirm that you want to get the email updates/newsletter from me through them. Click the link in the email that confirms your decision and that’s it! You will soon be receiving the email updates from HelpMeRick.com.

The FeedBlitz team advises the following:

As part of your pre-import advisory message to your existing subscribers, please advise them to:

Add feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com to their address books or email whitelists immediately.

Only unsubscribe using the links we provide in each email, and not their ISP’s spam or abuse buttons.

Look out for the message from FeedBlitz advising them that the change has taken place.

Thanks for your patience through this transition from the old newsletter service which went south on me.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 17 Comments
11
Jan 09

Windows 7 – First Impressions

Windows 7 Desktop

I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any applications was like walking through molasses. I can say that my expectations were pretty low, but I am pleasantly surprised…so far.

It took exactly 21 minutes from when I inserted the install DVD until I reached a workable desktop. Very impressive! The setup was painless and required very little input. In fact, it was so easy, I think that the folks at Microsoft must have taken a page out of the Linux/Ubuntu installs. It was easily the fastest and easiest install of any version of Windows. I hope it doesn’t change much with the final version.
Bootup time is faster than Vista too. With my fresh install of Windows 7 and no security software, boot time was just under 2 minutes.
Overall, the new OS feels snappy and clean. I haven’t seen any User Account Control (UAC) pop-ups yet.
On my Toshiba laptop, like Linux, I didn’t have to install a single driver. Once the quick install finished, my wireless, Ethernet, sound, video, SD card, and web cam all worked perfectly.
Microsoft has revamped and simplified the wireless connectivity…again very Ubuntuish in my opinion.
This beta version of Windows 7 also includes the new Internet Explorer 8 which doesn’t feel much different than 8, but is supposed to be more compatible and flexible than 7. I will test it a little, but still prefer Firefox. I will probably install Google Chrome as well to see how it runs in Windows 7.
The revamped Start menu has a new feature that when you hover on a recently used program it will also present to you your most recently used documents for that program. Nice.
The taskbar has also been changed, but I need to work with it some more before deciding exactly how those features affect uability and productivity.
I plan on installing AVG or Avast antivirus and OpenOffice to test them and will report more about speed and usability.

I’m writing this article and took the two screenshots in Windows 7 using the Snipping Tool introduced with Vista. I did use picnik.com to edit the photos, however, since the updated Paint program, although it does have a new Crop and Resize feature, the resize feature doesn’t have much flexibility.

Stay tuned for more articles about Windows 7 leading up to its release later this year, or early next year. If there are questions YOU have about Windows 7, leave a comment below and I will test them out for you.

Windows 7 taskbar

Internet Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick / Windows Tips — 2 Comments
17
Dec 08

Correcting some spyware infections with an often overlooked tool

Some of the nastiest spyware infections can be dealt with easier than previously thought if you try the following steps immediately after becoming infected:

Shut off your high speed modem OR simply unplug the Ethernet cable connecting your computer to the modem or router
Restart the computer in Safe Mode and attempt to run a disk cleanup from the Accessories –> System Tools menu or use the CCleaner or Cleanup program if you have them installed.
Then go to the accessories menu and run System Restore. Choose a date at least two weeks prior to the infection and restore the computer.
After the computer restarts, IF the restore was successful (and it will tell you so), run a full disk scan with your antivirus software and any anti-spyware software you have loaded
Restart your computer again, and this time connect back to the Internet
Update your antivirus and antispyware products and run another full scan

I have had good success with this routine if the infection is caught quick enough (usually within a day or so).

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
3
Dec 08

Acer Aspire One Netbook

Today, I had my first opportunity to get some hands-on time with Acer’s entry into the netbook craze, the Acer Aspire One. The young lady I helped bought a blue Aspire One on Black Friday for just over $300. Sporting a 120GB hard drive, an extremely nice 8.9″ screen, 1 GB of RAM, and Windows XP, this little unit was very impressive to look at and use. After some discussion with me, she decided that she didn’t want to leave the Windows XP on it and have to maintain security updates, anti-spyware software, anti-virus software, etc. She planned on using the netbook for traveling mostly and some email, Internet, and downloading her digital photos from time to time on it.

I decided to try installing Ubuntu’s new Netbook Remix (UNR) operating system for her. After doing some research, I discovered that before doing the Ubuntu install, a BIOS update was necessary so the SD card readers (there are two of them on the Aspire One) would work once UNR was installed. That was the biggest hurdle, and I haven’t cleared it yet. After following many instructions on the Acer and other user sites to get the BIOS installed (requires a bootable USB drive), I gave up because of time restraints. Frustrated, but not beaten, we decided to go ahead with the install of UNR. At home, I downloaded and created a UNR bootable flash drive for the install (has to be done in Ubuntu). Literally within 8 minutes of inserting the USB drive and starting the netbook, we were staring at the cleanly laid out desktop of UNR and just another 30 seconds to connect to the Internet via wi-fi. Amazing! It took nearly 40 minutes to get the computer to boot up and finish installing and configuring Windows XP when we first turned the machine on out of the box. The AspireOne community documentation at Ubuntu’s site for installing and configuring UNR is nothing short of awesome.

I need to help the young woman clean up a few little rough edges with some plug-ins and get the card readers to work properly, but overall, I was impressed and she was happy with her purchase. The Aspire One comes in a few different colors and configurations. The XP seemed snappy enough on the netbook, but I know that wouldn’t last long after all the Windows updates were installed, security software was installed, etc. UNR runs extremely fast and smooth and should be virtually trouble-free for this happy new netbook owner. You can buy the Acer AspireOne with Windows XP and use the steps I did to install UNR or stay with the XP. Or you can get the Aspire One with a special version of Linux pre-installed.