Upgrading to Windows 11, An Odyssey

I currently have two PCs running Windows 10 that can't be upgraded to Windows 11, and with Microsoft recently sunsetting Windows 10 it was way past time for me to get a new machine, so I did. It's state of the art and I love it, but it's brought about a whole new set of challenges for me.

Both of my existing PCs, a desktop and a laptop, are old and tired, and between the two I have about a terabyte of docs, pics and videos, plus all kinds of old outdated software, so I wanted to start fresh and combine everything into one system running the latest software. Easy, straightforward plan, right? Mostly.

In preparation for the cutover, I copied all of the data I wanted to keep from both PCs to an external hard drive and then started to set up the new laptop. Microsoft makes things relatively easy to set up a PC now, if you want to play by their rules. I, however, do not, and herein lies the problem. I wanted to set the new PC up with local accounts, and they make that awfully hard to do these days. They want you to sign into new PCs with your Microsoft account, there's no local account option anymore, at least not any that are easily accessible, and they want you to live and play in the cloud. No thanks, not a fan. I don't want all of my data being sucked up into the cloud for a multitude of reasons. Number one is privacy, you really don't want things like your tax docs and medical records floating around in the ether. Number two is that I have way too much data, it would cost me a small fortune per month to store a terabyte of data on OneDrive, so I planned accordingly and got a PC with a huge solid state hard drive. Reason number three is that I like to be able to use my PCs offline, I don't want to be dependent on network availability to access my stuff. Three strikes and you're out, so it's local accounts for me, and OneDrive gets turned off.

To accomplish this in Windows 11, you need to interrupt the OOBE (Out Of Box Setup Experience) at just the right moment with a "shift - function - F10" keystroke, that apparently takes more finesse than I possess, but I finally got it to work after a couple of reboots. This key sequence brings you to a command prompt and from there you need to enter: Start ms-cxh:localonly This command causes the PC to reboot and allows you to set it up without a network connection and create local accounts. Of course, Microsoft fights you the whole way with annoying little pop-up suggestions like "Log in to your Microsoft account to get the full user experience", and "You're not protected, let us back up your files and settings". Doesn't matter that my data is still nowhere near the new computer, I'm just "not safe" by their way of thinking. So frustrating.

Anyways, I got past all of that and created two local accounts: an admin account for installing things and a standard user account for everyday use. I've found that this is the best method for protecting your device, if you accidentally download malware while on the user account, it can't install without you raising your privileges by logging into the admin account. It's a nice little safety valve.

Next, I started removing all of the bloatware that comes on a new PC, this is important to do before you install the things you really want and need. Case in point; Microsoft puts a trial copy of Office onto all new machines and because I purchased a full copy of Office Home edition, it had to go. You would think the Office installer would take care of things like that, but it doesn't, and you can't do a clean install of Office until you remove it, so I did. I also got rid of, or hid, a bunch of other non-essential crap, and changed all of the settings to my liking. Making progress!

The next step was downloading and installing my new copy of Office Home 2024. I thought this would be pretty straight forward as well, but surprise; it is not.

Office 2024 requires you to be logged into your Microsoft account to both install and use it. This means that even if you're set up as a local user and you've purchased a full copy of Office, you need to be logged into Microsoft whenever you use Office products. It also turned OneDrive back on, backed up my settings and files, and it used my Microsoft credentials to log me into Edge; "get points and bucks for your search data!" Again, no thank you. Frustration levels rising...

Easy fix though, I went back into OneDrive and turned it off, again, amid more protestation, and I logged out of Edge. This still leaves you logged into your Office products and able to use them, so I'm good with that to some degree. There was a small benefit to this extra step they forced me into; when I logged in it triggered the Windows 10 ESU (Extended Service Updates) and my old machines started receiving patches again, so I guess letting it back up my settings and files on a relatively empty machine was worth it. I was shocked at how fast it glommed onto my new machine and backed it up unbidden though, but it is what it is. It is nice to have a little protection on the old devices while I cut over.

Office wasn't done surprising me yet, though. I told you it's been a long time since I'd upgraded, so long that my old copy of Office came with Outlook, and that's no longer the case. You can only get a full copy of Outlook with the Office Business Edition now. With the Home version, you need to download "New Outlook", which is part of the Office 365 suite and is a web-based product. Why I would want to install Office 365 on top of my full copy of Office Home still eludes me, although Microsoft suggests that it will make all of my other devices more productive... The layman's translation to that is that they want access to all of your phone's data as well. Speaking of access to all of your data, New Outlook wants you to give Microsoft permission for them to access all of your contacts and emails. I don't know about you, but I have hundreds of business, personal and organizational addresses, and it would be wrong for me to hand that data over to a third party, it would be a breach of trust. My provider already has access to it, why would I give it to someone else just to use a third-party mail client? Not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent.

I do like to have an email client though, as it allows me to combine all of my accounts into one view and it also gives you more features and flexibility than webmail alone. After a little research I've narrowed it down to a couple of options to replace Outlook. I'm currently experimenting with eM Client as an alternative. So far, so good, I'll keep you posted as I plod along. I really wish that there was an Apple Mail app available for Windows, it's got them all beat for privacy, functionality and ease of setup in my opinion, but there isn't.

One more tip before I wrap this up, and this is important; if you're an iTunes user, you are much better served going directly to Apple's website and downloading the Windows 64 bit version of iTunes instead of installing the Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Devices apps from the Microsoft store. When you install the apps, you can have a really hard time syncing your devices, especially if you still have any iPods. The Apple Devices app, which you need to manually sync any Apple device, including iPhones, has some awful ratings, some mentioning bricking of phones. The Apple TV and Apple Music apps themselves both work fine, but when either one is installed, they eviscerate iTunes, turning it into a podcast and eBook only shell of itself, and forcing you to download the third app, Apple Devices, for synching, and that's just too risky for me. I'm not using any 1-star rated app to back up and manage my phone. There are literally thousands of reviews from unhappy users about the Apple Devices app for Windows. Stay away, stay far, far away.

So, this exercise in modernization and consolidation has turned into a GIANT project for me, but I've learned a lot. It doesn't have to be so difficult for you though, if you want to roll with the program and set up as a "cloud first device". That's just not what I want, and when I pay this much money for a whole new setup, I want some say in the matter. I understand Microsoft's reasoning, they're basically giving you the Windows OS for free, and making their money from subscription services and packaging deals. Personally, I'd rather pay for my software and own and use it as I see fit. One thing I've learned is that nothing is free in the IT world, you either pay cash money for something, or you pay with your personal information, and in my opinion, your PI is much more valuable than money these days. It's a conundrum we all have to face in this digital age. 

At the very least, it would be nice if they gave you the option to set the machine up locally without having to break out of the setup. If you're not aware of this requirement beforehand, it's a difficult thing to recover from, and that's their thinking, I guess. It feels slippery and disingenuous to me, and I'm really glad I did my homework before I unboxed. An opt out for OneDrive would be greatly appreciated as well, it's annoying and frustrating. The average user isn't going to deviate from the network centric setup, only the fussy old users like me, so they wouldn't be losing any revenue. It would just be the right thing to do. 

Don't get me wrong, I really love my new machine and some of the new features. Windows 11 is streamlined and fast, and not that hard to get used to, all things considered. This latest crop of machines is amazing.as well, so this isn't a Microsoft or big tech hit piece, I just feel that it's important that they know we want, and need, more input into our own setup processes and PI management.

OK, I'm done grousing for now, I've droned on long enough. Stay tuned though; I have some updates and reviews coming up of the actual system I ended up going with, as well as a few apps I'm test driving. First, I'm gonna go take a couple Tylenol and lie down for a while...

Protecting Your Digital Photos and Documents

 We all have a ton of data on our devices; important documents, photos of friends and family, stuff you just don't want to lose. Anything can happen though, disaster is always lurking right around the corner. Spill your coffee on your laptop, drop your phone into the pool, your devices can even just up and stop working, and poof, everything is gone in a flash. That's why you need to back up those important files, and you need to do it now. Do not wait until it's too late.

There's lots of ways you can do it, and they're all relatively easy. You can back your files up to the cloud, you can use a backup program that will copy your files to an external hard drive and then do incremental updates to the saved data every time you make a change on your device, or you can just copy and paste the files you want to protect to an external drive. You have lots of options, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Let's review a few.

Cloud backups can be seamless and easy, but the cloud can get hacked, so I'm not a big fan. I don't want any more of my data floating around in the ether for some bad guy to poach and resell on the dark web, there's enough of it out there already. I'm always getting a notice from some institution or other saying, "We regret to inform you that all of your personal information has been compromised. Not to worry though, we've signed you up for 3 free months of Experian Credit Monitoring Services and DeathGrip ID Theft Protection coverage. Enjoy it on us! (special terms and conditions apply)."

No thanks, I'm good. The best and most reliable way to safeguard your data is to back it up to an external hard drive. I don't like to use automatic backup software to do it though. It's always running in the background, and it slows the crap out of your devices. Plus, it backs up stuff that you really don't need to back up. The file structure it creates on your external drive isn't very intuitive, either. I 'm going to show you a relatively easy way to back up your files, and I guarantee it will take a little bit of the worry out of your life.

My preferred back up method is to copy and paste my primary file folders over to an external drive and then update it on a regular basis. It's quick, easy and painless, and the file structure is simple, it's just a straight up copy of your hard drive. The folders you want to back up (or copy) on a PC are shown below. Note: If you save a lot of stuff to your desktop, you should copy that folder over as well. 

These 5 (or 6) folders hold all of your personal data, and that's all you want to be backing up and storing, cuz that's what's really important here, protecting your stuff, not Microsoft's.

For a reliable external drive, I like to use a simple USB plug and play drive like the Seagate 2TB Backup Plus Slim Hard Drive. It's small in size but big on storage, and there's no power cords to fuss with. It works off of a built in USB 3.0 cable, drawing its power from whatever device its plugged into. It comes with preloaded backup software, but I don't use it. As I mentioned earlier, backup programs always seem to be running when you don't want them to, dragging your device down. I just plug in the USB drive to my device, open it up, ignore the preloaded software and create a couple of folders.

In this example, I've created a desktop backup folder and a laptop backup folder. Inside of each of those folders I create dated sub folders, e.g. "Laptop Backup 07 01 2025". There's plenty of room on these drives to do multiple backups of each device, and you should. Next, I copy and paste my main folders from the device's hard drive to the external drive's new dated folders. Simple as that. You can copy and paste one folder at a time, or do them all at once, your choice.

Once the external hard drive starts to get full, I delete the oldest dated subfolder before I create another one, this way I always have multiple copies of all my files on the external device, and I never run out of disk space on it.

But what about the pics on my phone, you say? The best option is to sync your phone, tablets and any thumb drives or SD cards you have with your PC or Mac on a regular basis. Then when you back up your PC to your external drive you catch everything in one neat package. It's the same principle as above, you don't need any fancy software or devices, just plug your mobile device into your PC or Mac with a USB cable and copy and paste (or drag and drop) the pictures and files over to the computer. Easy peasy. Synching your mobile devices also allows you to safely remove pics and free up storage space on them, something we all need to do.

Bonus Tip: For added peace of mind, I store my external hard drives in our little grab and go SentrySafe burn box. If disaster strikes, all of our docs and pics go with us, even if our devices don't make the cut.

Bottom line, you don't have to do it my way, but you do have to do it. Choose whatever method you're most comfortable with and do it without delay. Do not be that person that calls me on a Monday night in a panic and says "Help, that new upgrade just bricked my device and now I've lost all of my family pictures." All I'm going to do is give you the number for the Geek Squad, and wish you Godspeed and good luck, because you're gonna need it, all of it. 

Email Client Not Downloading Messages

 

Like many of you, I have multiple devices and multiple email accounts, so I use email clients to keep everything organized and available locally. I use Outlook 2013 on my Windows devices, and the standard iOS mail app on my Apple devices. All clients are configured the same to access my providers POP3 and SMTP servers, and all was working well, except on one platform, my Windows desktop. Messages were sending, but Outlook was hanging up when downloading new messages. It would sit and spin on "downloading" for hours, if I let it. Every so often a few emails would download, but it was a painful and incomplete process.

This was a vexing problem because mail was sending on the device, and occasionally, messages were downloading, so everything appeared to be set up correctly, plus the problem was limited to this single device. Hmmm. 

First thing I did was verify a good network connection for the desktop, which was easy for this device, it's plugged directly into a Gig port on my router and upload and download speeds were optimal.

A comparison of email account settings across devices was next, to see if I could find any differences, and I did.

When I first set up my email clients, I used all of the same settings, except on the desktop. The difference was that I had the Outlook 2013 client on my desktop set to "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and I had also checked "delete messages from server after 14 days", a subcategory, as well. On all of the other devices I had only checked "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and hadn't checked any of the deletion options. I had done this so that I could keep my mail server account effortlessly clean, while not missing any messages on any of my devices. My thought, a valid one, was that 14 days before deletion would give me enough time to be sure that I had received all of my emails on all of my devices before they were deleted from the server, and it worked, for a while...

When I unchecked "delete messages after 14 days", my new emails started flowing fast and furious on the desktop, just like on all of my other devices. Nice, like poop through a goose, as they say. Problem solved.

But why was this setting causing me problems? After all, it's something email clients are designed to do. Well, I did a little research and here are the major reasons "Deleting messages from the server" will fail:

A large volume of emails on the mail server can strain both the server and your device, causing freeze ups. Yep, that's me.

Server Issues. This is probably part of the problem as well. My original provider sold my email domain and address to another provider, and that new provider would most definitely not be my email provider of choice, if I had a choice, but I don't. I want to keep my current domain, that email address is ingrained into everything in my life, and I'm not ready to rip it out by the roots and throw my life into turmoil at the moment. Hint: my "new" provider is famous for the phrase "You've got mail". Nuff said?

Outdated or buggy email apps. It's probably time for me to upgrade Outlook 2013 to Outlook 2024, but I'm also in need of upgrading my PC's so that they can run Windows 11, so... I'll wait and do it all at once. *sigh*

Incorrect server settings. They were correct across devices and should have worked. Harumph. 

Slow or poor internet connection. Not my problem, man.

So, "Deleting messages from the server" was the issue that was hosing up my desktop, for a number of reasons, all stated above. To fix this in Outlook, go to "Email Account Settings", highlight the account you want to change, then click on "Change", "More Settings" and "Advanced". At the bottom of the advanced box, make sure that "Leave a copy of messages on the server" is checked, and that all of the subcategories that delete files from the server remain unchecked. It should look like this when you're done:

For now, I'm managing deletions on my mail server using the webmail interface from my provider. It's kind of painful; I'd prefer that it happened automagically, but it's a work around until I can clean up my mail server, and upgrade Outlook. There is another benefit to using Webmail occasionally btw, managing your spam filters at your mail server instead of on your individual devices is a much better solution in that constant battle with spam. Win, win.

One last thing, a friend was having the same issue with their Apple email client on their iPhone, messages either not downloading, or taking forever and then downloading in fits and starts. This same fix worked for them, so this problem is not unique to Outlook.

I think we all need to clean up our inboxes a little... 

That is all. 

Common Problems with Networked Multifunction Printers

Before I upgraded to a network printer, I used to use a manual USB switch to flip my old printer back and forth between devices. With the fixed location desktops it wasn’t such a big deal, but when it came to our laptops, it was a real pain; you had to be physically next to the printer to plug into one of the USB ports, and that kinda took all the fun and portability out of the laptop.

With networked printers you can print from anywhere. Using the laptop in another room? No problem, just connect to the Wi-Fi and bam, your printer is mounted on your device. You can even print from other networked devices like smartphones and tablets the same way, something that wasn’t possible in the old USB printer days. Wicked awesome.

So, what’s the down side, you ask? Well, I’ve found a couple of problems that you probably won’t find listed in the installation manual.

The first and most common problem is the “disappearing printer”. This is usually caused by the printer’s IP address changing. If you set the printer up using the DHCP network option, it will pull a random IP address from your router. Most routers will save an IP for use by a device for a short period of time, but if you were to leave the printer off for a few days, this temporary lease expires. Meanwhile, if you have lots of networked devices in your house like we do, i.e. smartphones, tablets, smart TV’s, iPods, something else is liable to grab the IP that the printer had used during setup. Next time you turn on the printer, it grabs a different address, and your devices can’t find it. This can also happen if you swap out your router or switch due to malfunction or ISP change.

There are a few fixes for this one. You can uninstall the printer on your device and then reinstall it, Windows will find it and make note of the new IP. The problem with this fix is that the printer is liable to “disappear” again the next time you leave it off for a while.

The best solution is to either assign the printer a Static (permanent) IP address, or leave it in DHCP mode and create an IP lease or reservation on your router port. If you decide to use a Static address, you need to use an address from the top of your router’s IP address range, a number that your router would never reach when it’s handing them out.

The next problem is with scanning and it’s a problem that’s unique to PC’s with multiple accounts. When you install a device on a Windows 8 PC you need to either be logged in as the administrator, or if you’re using a user or guest account, you need to enter administrator credentials. Once it’s installed, all accounts are able to print with no problem, but scanning is a different story. If you’re not using an account with administrator privileges and you try to use the scanning function, you’ll get a communications error like this:

Don’t panic, the fix for this one is simple. Instead of double clicking on the scanner icon, right click on it and select “Run as administrator” from the drop down. The system will prompt you to enter your admin credentials, and then you’re off and scanning.

Ok, last problem, this one is with faxing. Faxing is old school, I know, but sometimes you just gotta do it. A lot of banks and state and federal agencies insist that you fax documents to them, it’s got to do with them not recognizing the validity of digital signatures. I’ve faxed successfully numerous times, so I know the function works, but recently I needed to fax some documents and I wasn’t having any luck. I’d hear the other end pick up and start its crazy screeching, but after a minute or so my printer would hang up the line and show a “could not connect” message on the little LCD screen. Frustrating.

The most common problems with faxing are a either a staticky line, or a fax machine mismatch. The fix for a staticky line is to turn ECM (error correction mode) on if it’s not already enabled.

The fax machine mismatch problem is remedied by turning off the V.34 option in the fax setup. This setting has to do with the line modulation technique that the machines use during the fax modem handshake, or screech. When they’re wailing their love cries at each other, they’re really negotiating a connection speed. V.34 allows for a transmission rate of up to 28,800 bit/s, heady stuff in the fax world, and if the fax machine on the other end is an old standalone fax and not a new multifunction device, it’s just gonna say “huh?”, and drop you like a hot potato. Don’t forget to turn it back on when you’re done, though. Although 28,800 bit/s doesn’t seem very fast in these days of Gigabit Ethernet, it’s infinitely faster than the faxing alternatives, which can be as low as 2400 bit/s, and that’s slower than a herd of turtles.

Ok, that’s it. I’ve skimmed through these fixes because the specifics depend on your brand of router and printer. If you need more detailed info you can go to the device’s website, but at least now you have a starting point. Happy printing!

That is all.

Windows Blue is Coming

Good news for those of you who hate Windows 8 with a passion, the Windows 8.1 update, code named Windows Blue, has been released to manufacturers, and a beta version is available for download now (Windows 8.1 Release Preview). The official release date isn’t until October 17th though, so I’d hold off until then, no matter how anxious you are for change, as I’m sure there’ll be some tweaks in the meantime.

Initial reviews are encouraging, looks like they’ll be addressing some of the biggest concerns users have had with the new OS. Here’s a sampling;

The start button returns, although not quite the way you remember it. Clicking on it will just dump you into the Metro/Start Menu that you now see at boot up.

Shutdown options are no longer buried under the Settings Charm and will appear with a right click to the refurbished Start Button, so it is good for something.

You can choose to boot up directly to the desktop once again instead of the Windows 8 Start Screen, and you can also change the Start Screen so it shows the Apps List (your old Programs List that used to appear when you clicked the Start Button) instead of the tiles it defaults to now.

Your Start Screen modifications can be synced across all of your PC’s.

There’s a Control Panel/PC Settings consolidation that will make it a little easier to find all the things you need.

You can turn off the annoying “Charms Bar” that keeps popping up every time you move your cursor too far to the top right of the screen.

You’ll be able to open up to 3 apps at a time and size the windows yourself. Any size you like, thank you very much. If you have multiple monitors, you can even have the desktop on one and the Metro/Start Screen on the other.

There will be a search bar overlay on the desktop and it will open in a window superimposed on your current screen rather than dumping you back to the Metro/Start Screen.

Improvements for easier navigation using a mouse and keyboard, for those who don’t have a touch screen device.

Faster performance, and a new version of Internet Explorer, IE11.

There are many other changes, some you’ll like, some not so much, so take a few minutes to check out the product guide on the preview page. It’s probably a good idea to download it for future reference as well.

As frustrating as Windows 8 can be, it has some very good features that will undoubtedly be made better with this upgrade. The biggest thing for me is that it won’t constantly be dumping me back to the Metro/Start Screen with all those useless tiles when I really want to be on the desktop, also the “optimization” of those old timey key boards and mice will be a good thing. The goal, according to Ballmer, is “refining the blend” between the desktop and the Metro interface.

As for those who think the only problem with Windows 8 is that the user community is afraid of change, I call BS. I’ve been rolling with the changes since the mainframe and teletype days, quite nicely, thank you, and I understand Microsoft creating an OS suited to mobile devices. What I don’t understand is their one size fits all OS dream. Forcing it onto desktop users just didn’t make sense, and it looks like they’re finally admitting it, to a degree, anyway. Optimizing 8.1 for keyboard and mouse, what a novel idea…

doh!

In comparison, Apple’s iOS and OSX look and smell enough alike so that you know they’re part of the same family, but they’re different depending on the platform, as it should be with Windows. Different keystrokes for different folks, I say.

OK, enough sermonizing. Version 8.1 will be pushed down for free to Windows 8 machines via Windows Update on or after the October 17th official release date. Read up in the meantime, it will help you through the transition.

That is all.

Operation Ghost Click: Are You Ready For July 9th?

On July 9th, the ISC (Internet Systems Consortium) plans to shut down some DNS servers. How will that affect you? Well, pull up a chair and uncle berry will tell you a story.

Last October, after 2 years of investigation, the FBI in conjunction with a myriad of domestic and international partners, broke up a cyber crime ring based out of Estonia that was using rogue DNS servers to hijack user’s computers and ring up 10’s of millions of dollars in fraudulent ad and click revenues.

DNS, or Domain Name System, is the service that converts URL’s (eg: www.google.com) into those impossible to remember IP addresses. Your ISP provides you with access to a valid DNS server and your computer caches the server’s address. When you open your browser and enter a URL, the DNS server looks up the name and returns the proper numeric address. Think of it as an alpha-numeric translator.

These Estonian cyber thieves were infecting user’s computers with DNSChanger malware, which changes the address of your DNS server to one of their own, a rogue DNS server. The rogue server then either directs you to the wrong site, or to the correct site, but the ads you see have been replaced by ones of their choosing.

You know when you’re on the wrong site, but how do you know what ads you should be seeing when you’re on the right site?

Very devious.

But they didn’t stop there; once they had infected your computer, the malware would try to break into your router using the default settings, and if successful, it would change the DNS settings there, also. Why? Because if you have a router, your real DNS settings are cached there, and your computer caches only the address of the router. You could wipe your computer clean and still wind up being misdirected. And just as an added kick in the pants, some of the sites you are misdirected to download other malware, things that prevent OS patching and antivirus updating. Oh, those crazy Estonians...

So, how does infecting your computer make someone else money, you ask? Well, the world of internet commerce is a very complicated place. There are millions of publishers, every web site owner is a publisher, and there are just as many advertisers. How do the two get together? Through middlemen, of course; publisher networks and ad brokers. The Estonians set themselves up as a publisher network under the name of Rove Digital, one of many shell companies they created, and proceeded to cash in. It’s pretty easy to make money off of ad views and clicks if you have a bot net of millions of end user computers clicking and viewing the ads and websites you specify. Kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

They operated with impunity from 2007 until 2011, when they were finally tripped up by an international task force. It was only a matter of time before they got caught; their malware wasn’t discriminatory and had penetrated computers in some very sensitive places, so the FBI, NASA, the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance, the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Dutch National Police Agency, the Estonian Police and Border Guards and a plethora of universities, technical institutes and private sector companies all banded together and tracked them down. The FBI dubbed the effort “Operation Ghost Click”, a very appropriate name, and the operation highlights the incredible effort and international cooperation needed to combat cyber crime in our brave new world.

Breaking up the crime ring and bringing those bad boys to justice wasn’t the end of the story, though. The task force quickly realized that if they shut down all of the rogue DNS servers the Estonians were operating, they’d effectively be turning off the internet for the millions that were infected. The Internet Systems Consortium was tasked with replacing the rogue DNS servers with valid ones, and keeping them running during the cleanup process, and the DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG) , an independent group of subject matter experts, was formed to aide end users with the cleanup.

On July 9^th, 2012, the formerly rogue servers are scheduled to be shut down for good, they can’t keep them running forever, it costs a lot of cash, and anyone still infected with the DNSChanger malware will suddenly find themselves off the air. There are steps you can take to make sure you won’t be one of them, and the first step is the easiest.

The DCWG has set up an incredibly informative web site, and you need to make use of it. There’s a link to find out if your PC is infected, that’s your starting point, but it’s not all you need to do. You need to check your router also, and even if it hasn’t been compromised, you need to change its username and password from the default. Never leave default credentials in place on any device.

How do you check your router? The DCWG website has a link for that, also. The OpenDNS Store has instructions for every router conceivable. You don’t need to sign up for an account with them, you can just browse for the info you need.

Both Facebook and Google are teaming up with DCWG also, and will be alerting you if they notice a rogue DNS server address on your system, so don’t blow off any warnings you see on either site that informs you that your computer might be infected. This is no hoax, people.

If you are infected, the best fix possible is to reformat your hard drive and reload your operating system. This malware is a bear to get rid of, so if you have your system disks and a good backup, the wipe and reload method is your best bet.

If you don’t, DCWG has a link to help, of course. The DCWG Fix page has a list of free tools and self help guides, but it’s not an easy repair, and the site actually recommends that if your system is old, now might be the time to junk it and upgrade. That says a mouthful about the pervasiveness of this malware.

Don’t panic though, after all, it won’t be the end of the world if you lose internet connectivity on July 9th, but it will be a lot harder to set straight once you're off the air, so be proactive, and while you’re in a proactive mood, take a moment to read our post on creating system recovery disks and backing up, especially if you’re thinking about scrapping your system in favor of a new one. It will serve you well.

That's the end of my story, at least for now. There'll be more to tell as we get closer to the cutoff date, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I've given you lots to think about, and lots to do, so get busy. I'll leave you with one last thought, just because I can't help myself...

Beware of Estonians bearing gifts.

That is all.

Buying a PC This Holiday Season?

There are some great deals out there, but before you pull the trigger, there’s some important things you need to know.

I’m not going to get into the whole “what’s the right device for me” question. There are so many choices; desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets, and there’s a plethora of good deals in all categories. For most, usage patterns and pricing will drive their purchase. What I want to talk about today is ensuring that you get the most out of your purchase, and my advice holds true across all platforms.

First thing; whatever you end up buying, make sure you ask the question “How do I reload the system if it becomes hosed up?”

Some systems come with a copy of Windows, or a manufacturer specific recovery disc. Most systems require you to create your own recovery disc. You must do this immediately, and you must store your recovery disc somewhere safe. Store it where you can find it in say, a year or two, and label it boldly, so you don’t accidently toss it, should you find yourself in a cleaning frenzy one day.

You also need to have a plan in place to back up your data on a regular basis. By data, I mean your music, photos and documents. Basically the contents of you’re “My Documents” folder.

Last, but not least, you have to have a decent antivirus program loaded on your PC before you start surfing the web, and you have to update and run it regularly. Symantec/Norton antivirus is great, and usually comes preloaded on your new machine, but you need to pay for it, and renew your subscription periodically. I find that most people either put it off, or just forget. I recommend using a good free program, like MSE. Note: If you’re going to replace Symantec/Norton, you’re going to need the Norton Removal Tool, because a plain old uninstall just isn’t enough.

OK, so here’s why these things are so important;

This past month I’ve worked on 3 PC’s, all were hosed up to varying degrees with spyware and viruses. One of them was my own desktop, proving that no matter how careful you are, it will happen to you. It’s just a matter of time.

Of the 3 systems, the easiest to repair was my own. I have the system recovery discs, and I also have a couple of recent backups. All I needed to do was format the drive, reload the system from the recovery disc, run Windows update, and then reload my music, photos and documents. It took me all of one night and I now have the equivalent of a brand new machine. Anything I hadn’t used recently didn’t go back on, which freed up a ton of disk space, and the reformatting of the drive cured one of the biggest problems with an older system, fragmented files.

The other two systems were a different story. The owners didn't have the recovery discs, they weren’t even sure if they had ever made them, and they had never backed up their files. I could wipe their systems and reload them with another copy of XP, but then they’d lose all of their personal data.

If they had a copy of their My Documents folder, the fix would be easy. Without it, it’s a slow and painstaking process. You have to clean up the machine enough to be able to write the data to DVD, and if the machine is really hosed, that can be a daunting task.

Both machines had Norton Antivirus and Lava Soft’s Ad-Aware loaded on them when they were new, but neither program had been updated in months, and the last full scan run with either program was back when I had installed them.

After updating both, Norton found five viruses on the laptop and Ad-Aware flagged 253 suspicious items. That one went pretty well, all things considered. I was able to clean it up and save all the data.

On the desktop, neither program would even start. Some piece (or pieces) of malware had disabled both Norton and Ad-Aware, and the host table had been diddled, so I had to resort to reloading them from DVD, along with a few other cleanup tools. The machine was so slow that it took hours to load and configure them.

Very frustrating, and way too much time and labor to be spending on a frelative’s PC. In my spare time, no less, but what are you going to do? It would be a pretty costly endeavor for them to take it somewhere to be fixed, so I try to help, that’s what friends are for, but my rule of thumb is this; The first time it happens, I try to save things, but if you find yourself up the same tree a second time, it’s wipe and go service only.

I value my digital pictures, as do most, and I’ve seen the reaction when someone realizes that all of their files are dust in the wind; anger, anguish, remorse, and sometimes, tears. It’s an awful thing to see. Without those recovery disks and a recent backup, all you’re left with when the hammer comes down is a useless hunk of junk.

Don’t put yourself in that bad place; backing up isn’t so hard to do. I use an external drive with a built in backup program (HP SimpleSave) that’s brainless and painless. I also copy my pictures and documents to DVD and I run the iTunes backup tool periodically. It only takes a few minutes, and it’s time well invested. I keep the most recent copies with the recovery discs, someplace safe.

Also, don’t use rewritable DVD’s when you’re backing up your files (DVD-RW), use write once discs only (DVD-R). I had someone hand me a DVD recently, saying proudly “I have all of my pictures saved on here”. I found out later that they had been writing and rewriting to that same DVD-RW for days, and had overwritten most of the files. It was a hard drive replacement, and a hard lesson. Luckily, I was able to recover the contents of the drive later on, but that’s another story for another time. What I want you to focus on here is that rewritable DVD’s can be dangerous. Capisci?

So, to sum things up:

• Find out if the machine comes with a recovery disc.

• If it doesn’t, create one.

• Store the disc(s) somewhere safe.

• Add or activate antivirus software.

• Back up your important files regularly.

Simple, right?

I hope you’re all nodding your heads out there... If you're not, then we're both in trouble.

That is all.

HP SimpleSave - Revisited

Last year I added an HP SimpleSave 1TB External Hard Drive to my ever expanding desktop disk farm, and I did a post shortly thereafter extolling its virtues. Not only did it increase my storage capacity, it also automatically backs up my systems on a regular basis, and it’s large enough to be useful for both purposes.

After having it in service for a few months, I’m still pleased with the device, but… I have a little user tip that I’m way overdue in sharing.

This drive kicks off an auto backup after 5 minutes of system inactivity, which is a great way to insure that you’re always backed up, but the timer settings can’t be tweaked, and if you have a document open the SimpleSave program write locks it in preparation for backup after about 4 minutes of idle time. That’s just too short. It’s so short that even a quick bio break can trigger it.

Usually my first hint of trouble is an error message that pops up to the effect of: “Saving the Auto Recovery file is postponed for (your file name here)”, which means that Word has tried to do an auto-save on the document, and failed.

The consequence is that any changes you’ve made since the last time you’ve saved it, or the last time Word has done an auto-save, are going to be lost when you close the document. Word still prompts you to save the document when you try to close it, but that fails also.

When it catches me, I’ve usually just started creating a document and I’m cooking along, so when I see that error message I know the whole thing will be lost if I don’t engage in evasive maneuvers.

If it catches you, the fix is simple, although it’s a pain. Click Edit, Select All, and then Copy. Now close the document without saving changes, and then open it again, click on Edit and Select All again, and then paste.

Note: Be sure to go down to the system tray, right click on SimpleSave and selct Exit before you go any further, otherwise you’ll be painting yourself into the same corner.

The real fix is to either remove SimpleSave from your startup, or right click on the system tray icon and select exit before you start anything. I prefer to leave it in the startup and then kill it when I’m going to be working. It’s a pain, but that way I don’t have to sweat whether or not I’ve done a backup in times of crises.

Of course, the ultimate would be if HP made the idle time setting selectable, but I’m not holding my breath. I will, however, be holding my water.

That is all.

Turn Your Laptop into a Hotspot

Happy National Wi-Fi Week!

Actually, it’s not really a national thing yet, but here at berryjooks headquarters we like to kick off the summer vacation season by celebrating those little invisible radio waves that bring us all of that Internet goodness we crave when we’re unplugged and roaming.

We’re going to share a couple of tips with you this week, and we’re going to start with something simple, wirelessly sharing a single Internet connection between multiple computers.

There are two types of Wi-Fi connections; infrastructure and ad-hoc. An infrastructure connection is when you connect to the Internet via a Wi-Fi enabled router or a WAP (Wireless Access Point). An ad-hoc connection is a peer to peer (laptop to laptop) wireless connection that runs solely over the laptop’s Wi-Fi radios, no external hardware is involved. This can be a great tool for file sharing amongst a group when there’s no network available, or if there is a wired Internet connection available, you can take it a step further and enable Internet sharing on one of the laptops and use it as a WAP or Hotspot.

I had a friend ask how to set this up at their vacation cottage the other day, and rather than try to give them a tutorial, I did a quick Google search and found the excellent video below on CNET. It walks you through set up on Windows XP, Vista and Mac OSX, and it even discusses how some PC’s are set to shut down their radios when a wired connection is present and how to get around this.

Note: This video was made before the release of Windows 7, but the Vista instructions will work for 7 also.



Pretty neat, huh?

That's it for now. Later this week I’m going to show you how you can dumb down wireless routers and use them as WAPs to increase your wireless coverage in a large home or office, so stay tuned!

HP SimpleSave 1TB External Hard Drive

The HP SimpleSave 1TB external hard drive is a great buy for $99. It’s sharp, roomy, quiet and self contained, as its automatic backup software runs right off of the drive. The only thing it installs on your computer is a virtual CD drive that autoruns on boot, starting the auto backup procedure, which I must admit is pretty slick. The HP window launches, and gives you a 30 second countdown before it starts its backup, which is plenty of time to either cancel it if you’re not ready, or change the options.

It comes preconfigured to back up most file types and locations, and allows you to add more. The only fault here is that it won’t take wildcards when you’re adding new extensions, but believe me, there’s not many you’ll need to add. You also have the option to have it back up other external drives, or not. Once you start the backup, the program assesses your files and presents you with a really comprehensive rundown of exactly what it’s going to copy, and from where. If you're happy you can kick it off, if not, you can add or subtract things.

The first time you use it, it does a full backup which took about 2 hours on my Media Center (170GB of video, pictures and music), not too bad. It creates a backup folder and uses the computer’s name for the label, so you can backup multiple systems and still find things easily. When it’s done, it presents you with a report telling you exactly what it copied or skipped due to errors.

After the first use, it will backup only files that have been modified or added, and it will start the procedure itself any time the system has been idle for more than fifteen minutes, making backups a breeze. Some reviewers have stated that they didn’t like the autorun software, and I was a little skeptical myself at first. After all, I’d hate to have a drive that big that was just a one trick pony, but it’s not. You don’t have to use the autorun software to reload files, although it does make things pretty easy. You can drill right down into the backup folders and grab any file you like. I also created a separate folder on it to transfer selected content from all of my portable drives, and I’ve barely made a dent in it’s free space.


All in all, you can’t go wrong with this baby for under a hundred bucks. It also comes in both a 1.5TB and 2TB size for $129 and $159, respectively, so you can start your own disk farm!

Click Here For An Important Update!

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX Notebook PC

The CQ60-615DX is a very serviceable laptop at a rock bottom price.

I love doing my personal shopper thing, it’s one of my favorite parts of being the family’s go to guy in the technology department. It gives me the opportunity to test drive a lot of different devices and it’s certainly got it all over spending the weekend at their house cleaning viruses off of their machine. Plus, when I do the initial setup on a device it makes the inevitable future cleanup and recovery go a little easier…

The CQ60-615DX is the perfect machine for someone who only uses their PC for mail, word processing and surfing. It has a 15.6” screen, an almost full sized keyboard (with numeric keypad) and pretty impressive sound for a laptop in this price range ($349). It’s powered by a Celeron processor (2.2 GHz), has 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4), a 250GB hard drive, wireless b/g/n, 8X CD/DVD±R/RW drive and runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The only thing it lacks is a media card reader, but standalone readers are a dime a dozen these days, and at this price you can definitely afford one.

Having a decent sized hard drive for storing your pics, a DVD player/burner for sharing/archiving said pics, and a keyboard that’s actually usable make this system a much better alternative then a comparably priced Netbook for those non-power users in your life.

VAIO CW Series Notebook PC

The Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/W is a sweet little mid-priced laptop chock full of both processing power and bells and whistles.



When shopping for a laptop, it’s very hard find one that’s a good performer and has all of the features that you want without spending a ton of cash. There are lots of lower end systems out there at great prices ($360 to $599), but they don’t have a lot of features or horsepower. There’s also a great selection of top of the line systems ($899 and up), but the midrange systems always force you to make trade offs. This one has a better processor and more memory and disk space, but no video card. That one has a serviceable processor, less memory and disk space, but it’s got a video card, stereo Bluetooth and a webcam. I don’t know about you, but I want it all, and I don’t want to pay a premium for it, so I’m constantly comparing and contrasting them looking for the best value for my buck.

The Sony VPCCW21FX/W has all that and a side of fries. It sports an Intel i3 quad core processor (2.13GHz), 4GB of DDR3 RAM (with room for 8GB), a 500GB hard drive, an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with 256MB of dedicated video RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS, a 14” HD quality widescreen, A2DP Bluetooth, Wireless b/g/n, Gigabit Ethernet port, CD/DVD player/burner, Multimedia card reader, ExpressCard /34 media slot, high quality webcam with motion and face tracking technology, HDMI and VGA video outputs, IEEE 1394 firewire input and 3 USB 2.0 inputs.

It’s truly in the portable category, weighing in at a scant 5.3 lbs, and it’s truly in the midrange system category, with a price that weighs in at between $809-$849 (Best Buy had it for $809 last week).

The only 2 drawbacks to this system are the less than stellar audio (decent but tiny speakers) and the choice of colors (Blue or Ice White are the only colors available off the shelves in the retail stores), but both are things that I can live with.

As I said, there are plenty of systems out there that offer more, but as an all around standout performer at a great price point, this VAIO is the pick of the litter.

Linksys WRE54G Wireless - G Range Expander

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

I recently installed a Linksys Wireless-G Range Expander, the WRE54G, and I have to say its working better then I expected.

I got a call a while back from the manager at our vacation time share. Seems the wireless, which was spotty at best, had stopped working altogether. Another owner had donated a couple of Linksys Range Expanders, and she was wondering if I might be able to come down for the weekend and see if I could get the WiFi up and running again, and maybe install the Range Expanders while I was there.

I was all over it, mainly because:

A. We love the place, and the people who run it.

B. It would benefit me greatly to have better coverage when I’m there. All my gadgets would work!

C. The fix/install would be a cakewalk and we’d be free to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Bonus!

Well, the fix/install wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, but it wasn’t bad either. We still had plenty of time left over for a little off season R&R.

Upon arriving, I set up in the office and immediately noticed that I was getting two 5 bar WiFi signals. Different SSID’s, but I was receiving both like they were broadcasting from the same room. Probably because they were.

Originally someone had plugged a Linksys WRT160 wireless router into one of the LAN ports on the office’s Verizon router. This had worked OK, but mostly just provided coverage in the lobby area. When I tried to log in to the Linksys router wirelessly using its default IP, I found myself connected to the Verizon box instead. I double checked the notes that the original installer had left and I was using the right address, so I tried again. Same result.

That’s when the light went on, and I got down on my hands and knees. To crawl under the desk, that is, so I could take a gander at the provider’s router that was hiding under there. Just as I thought, it had a little WiFi light on it, and it was merrily blinking away. AHA!

Seems Verizon had come in over the winter and upgraded their router. Once their new WiFi router was up and running, they very nicely plugged the Linksys WiFi router back into it. Problem is, both devices had the same address, and they were within a few feet of each other. There was a major IP conflict going on, and the dueling radio signals were wreaking havoc on each other. Easy fix. I just shut off the Linksys, re-cabled the office PC’s with longer cords, and moved the Verizon box up on the shelf where the Linksys had been. A quick reboot of everything after the Verizon router was back up, and we were cookin’ again. Nice.

Now it was time to tackle the Range Expanders. I had read quite a few reviews that indicated that they could be a bear to set up, but initially I had no problems. First I did a quick signal check to find the initial coverage boundaries. The building is a large 3 story C shaped structure and previously only the first floor rooms adjacent to the lobby had coverage. I found that the signal was much stronger now and I could connect from all of the second floor rooms in the main hallway. I would lose signal when I turned the corner onto either of the wings, but hey, it was a start.

I went back down to the office and plugged the first Extender into a switch port on the router. Don’t use the included setup CD that comes with it, just plug it directly into your router and log into it through your browser using the default IP address. It’s much easier and cleaner this way. If you feel that you just have to use the CD, then use it as a drink coaster. You’ll be much better served.

Setup was a breeze. I configured it with the Verizon box’s SSID and security settings, shut it down, unplugged the Ethernet cable from the switch port, and then powered it back up. It immediately found the WiFi signal and connected, indicated by the idiot lights turning from flashing red to steady blue. I popped its address into my browser and connected to it wirelessly, good to go.

I shut it down again, removed the power cord and replaced it with the included wall mount plug (think nightlight), moved it up to the second floor and plugged it into a wall outlet that was just inside my coverage zone. Once again, red to blue and I’m good to go. After another signal check I decided the next one needed to go up on the third floor.

I logged into the first one again, changed its default address so it wouldn’t conflict with the new one during setup, and it came right back up. Next I brought the second extender into the office and repeated the setup process. Perfect. Switched the back plate, brought the unit up to the third floor and plugged it in. This is where the fun began. After two power cycles, I finally got the desired blue lights, but upon returning to the office I found that the wired desktops had lost all connectivity. WTF…

A reboot of the router cured things, but now one of the extenders wasn’t showing up on the network. Once again it took two reboots of the extender to get it back in the blue, but wouldn’t you know it, the router was only passing wireless traffic again. Hmmm.

I tried all kinds of stuff, to no avail. It seems that a second extender connecting back to the router through an existing extender slaps the Verizon box with the goofy stick (technical term…). Both work fine when they’re in close proximity to the device, they both show up as registered on the router, and I can log into either wirelessly. When they’re both remote they still show up on the router device list, but one always shows a disconnected icon, and the Verizon box eventually takes leave of its senses.

I finally gave up on getting the second one up. I could have tried turning WiFi off on the Verizon router and hooking the Linksys router back up to it, things might have worked better Linksys device to Linksys device, but it was getting late and I was leaving the next day. You never want to mess with the provider’s gear if you’re not going to be around to pick up the pieces should things malfunction later.

Coverage was much better with the new setup and the single extender (third floor now!), and we’re actually better served with just the one. A little known fact about extenders is that you only average about half of the speed of the original connection when you connect through one. If it connects back to the router at 54Mbps, it will pass along 22Mbps connections. Daisy chain another to it and you're now passing along 11Mbps, and that's before you factor in competing with other traffic, signal interference, etc. While some connectivity is better than none, some isn’t, and you’d be approaching the “isn’t” range with a second unit.

The right thing to do in a case like this is to pull Cat5 cable to your locations from the main router, and then hardwire WAPs to the network. WAPs are Wireless Access Points. You can purchase dedicated WAPs, or you can just dumb down any old wireless router and use it as a WAP. Take a WiFi router, turn its routing capabilities off in the setup, and it becomes a switch slaved to the main router.

We left it that the cable pulls would be targets of opportunity. Next time they need to open up a wall or ceiling, pull some cable. We can install the Linksys WRT160 that I took out of the equation on this last trip once the first cable is in place. A simple and cheap plan of action, my favorite kind!

So, bottom line, the WRE54G is a great product if you’re trying to boost the signal in your home, but it’s not the right solution for a large installation in a hotel or office.

Oh yeah, and you get great service when you visit places in the off season.

That is all.

Problems Creating Clips In Google Reader

Clips are little “boxes of info” you can create in Google Reader that neatly display your most recent news feeds on your website, blog or Facebook page. You select the feed folder you want to display the content of, click “create clip”, and then customize it to your liking. When you’re satisfied with the look and content, you simply copy the HTML code Reader has created for you and embed it on your web page. The result is a neat little box containing the “x” most recent posts from any given feed. You can see the results over in my right hand border (Tech News, Patriots News, etc.).

Recently I started having problems creating clips. I’d click on create a clip, and nothing would happen except for an “errors on page” message at the bottom of my Explorer window. What’s supposed to happen is that Reader pops a small window that allows you to configure your clip. This was extremely frustrating for me, as I had a clip that had stopped updating. It either contained some bad code, or the source of the feed had stopped sending updates, and I wanted to replace it. There’s not much entertainment value for my readers when the same 5 headlines have been in my Celtics News clip for close to a month.

I did some searching through the Google Reader help files and came up empty, although I did find that people were having a similar issue with the “email a link” function, which is part of the same tool set as “create a clip”. The answer there was to create an exception for Google in your pop up blocker settings, and after reading it, the light went on inside my head.

I remembered that there had been quite a few security fixes pushed down for Explorer recently, and I also remembered that links in my received Gmail documents had started requiring me to “temporarily allow pop ups” too work. Hmmm, a pattern perhaps?

Yes!

I went into pop up blocker settings, added Google to my allowed sites, and Viola… create a clip was working again!

The screen shot above shows my blocker settings now. To access the settings window, go to “Tools”, “Pop up blocker”, “Pop up blocker settings”, then add the address www.google.com

As you can see in the screen shot (click to enlarge) this isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this. You can also add wildcards as I did with Verizon. Some of their pages use www22 instead of plain old www, tricky devils, so I entered *.verizon.net.

So, my Celtics news clip is working again, I’m happy, and maybe I’ve just made you happy too!

Windows 7

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’re probably aware that Microsoft has released a new version of their operating system, Windows 7. According to early reports it’s a vast improvement over their Vista experiment, and it’s generating quite the buzz. Before you run out and buy a copy though, you should read this very comprehensive article on CNNTech, after you've read this one, of course.

The long and short of it is, it’s a cakewalk to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, but a bit more difficult to upgrade from XP.

With XP you'll need to back up all of your files, wipe the system, and then reload with 7. Microsoft has an Easy-Transfer Tool to help you, but before you make the move you need to download and run Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor. It will check out your system and peripherals to see if they’re compatible with the new operating system. Be sure to have ALL of your peripherals plugged in and powered up before you scan your system (flash drives and memory cards included), as the software will query the devices and advise you of their compatibility. This is very important, as it’s good to know if you’ll still be able to use your printers, etc., before you drop any coin on 7.

My take is this; if you’ve got a new system that came with Vista, then it’s worth upgrading. If you’ve just bought a new system with a legacy copy of XP on it, it’s probably worth upgrading, providing the system and peripherals pass the upgrade tool’s sniff test. If you’re running XP on an older system, don’t even think about it. Wait until your next system swap out and get a machine that has it preloaded.

Remember, there are no magic bullets in life, or computing. A new operating system will not fix what’s wrong with your computer if it’s old, tired and slow. From the perspective of changing technologies, the average lifespan of a desktop is 3 to 5 years. I’m not saying you need to throw your PC away every 3 to 5 years, but I would not recommend tricking out a system of that vintage with the latest and greatest OS. Wipe it, add some memory and load a fresh copy of whatever OS came with it, and you’ll have a very serviceable PC that will last you until you have some sort of catastrophic hardware failure.

Getting back to Windows 7, there’s also the question of what version to buy. I found a very good article on the differences between the versions here on the digital inspiration site. As with both XP and Vista before it, you’ll probably want to go with the Windows 7 Professional edition if you use your PC for anything more than email and browsing. Professional also has an XP mode, that will allow you to run a virtual copy of XP for apps you have that won’t run on 7. The good thing is, with 7 you’re able to upgrade any version, for a small fee, if you find out later you need more functionality.

And speaking of fees, if you’re buying a copy of 7 for a computer you already have, you’re eligible for the upgrade pricing as long as you already own a genuine version of Windows 2000, XP or Vista. You’ll save a c-note over the full version price, and that ain’t bad.

Windows Autorun/Autoplay Problems

I recently did some major scrubbing and upgrading of my system, and as is often the case, broke something in the process.

My PC had gotten sluggish; it needed a good cleaning and more memory. Norton had flagged a couple of downloaders and a Trojan Webkit that it couldn’t remove, or quarantine, so I decided just to nuke it and start over.

Confident that I had a good backup, I popped the hood and added another 2 gig of RAM, then reloaded Windows. Next I spent about 2 hours researching and removing all of the useless crap that comes bundled on the reload disks. Once I was happy with it, I plugged in the network cable and began downloading and applying all of the security patches and updates that had come out for service pack 2, culminating in the application of service pack 3. Done, or so I thought…

The computer was running great. It was clean as a whistle and fast as lightning, and I was a happy man. That is, until the first time I popped a CD into one of the drives.., and nothing happened.

Normally the Autoplay wizard fires up when you insert or connect any media or media devices into your PC. It’s the little wizard that pops up and asks you what you’d like to do with said media. Insert a CD, DVD, USB drive or connect a camera or MP3 player, and it asks you to choose a program to open, play or import data with. It’s not a necessity to have, but it sure makes life easy.

If I opened up My Computer, I could see the media mounted in the drive, so I could use it, but something was blocking Autoplay from starting. I checked all of my settings, and found the process was enabled on all of the drives, so I began searching the Interwebs for an answer.

First I found this document on the Microsoft Help and Support site. It described the problem to a T, and came to the conclusion that the problem was caused by having certain versions of Easy CD Creator loaded on the machine. The fix was to remove the software, and then make some registry changes to re-enable Autoplay. Not having this program, I continued to search for an answer more appropriate for my situation.

Then I found this link to an Autoplay Repair Wizard available from the Microsoft Download Center. After verifying the authenticity of my copy of Windows, Microsoft allowed me to download and run the wizard, which indeed found a problem, fixed it, and wrote the changes and results to a log file. The wizard requires you to log out and then log back in to complete the fix, and once I did, the system immediately recognized the CD I had in one of the drives and fired up the Autoplay feature. Sweet.

Just to be certain I had the problem licked, I switched the CD to the secondary drive. I’m glad I did, because I found that I wasn’t done. I ended up having to run the wizard on all of my drives and ports, one at a time, with a logout in between each. For the USB drives, I had to insert a thumb drive to get them to show up in the wizard’s device repair list, but once I fixed the first one, they all began to work again. It was a bit tedious, but it looks like my system is finally back to normal.

This must be a fairly common problem, as Microsoft has come up with a repair wizard for it. The last puzzler I had like this was the Media Center black screen problem, which they also had a wizard to fix. My post on that problem, and repair, has been the top visited post via keyword search on my blog for over 6 months now, so I hope this one proves to be just as helpful.

Free Public Wi-Fi?

Every so often when I refresh my available wireless networks list, “Free Public Wi-Fi” pops up as an available ad-hoc network. I usually don’t troll for signal unless I’m on the road, so seeing it pop up in numerous locations really piqued my curiosity.

Had I stumbled onto some great and noble geek humanitarian effort; a plan to give free Wi-Fi to the masses? Or, more likely, was it a diabolical plot by unscrupulous villains to steal my identity and trash my computer? I was intrigued, but as so often happens, I got busy, lost the thread, and never looked into it.

It popped up on my available networks list again last week while I was on vacation, then on my first day back someone asked me if I had ever seen a “Free Public Wi-Fi” offering and if I knew what it was. They even voiced my own fears that it was someone up to no good. Well, that was it. I started Googling and found a plethora of information.

It seems the phenomenon has been around for a while. The first reference I found to it was in 2006 on the Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog. It appears to be a Microsoft “feature”. When your laptop can’t find a wireless network to connect to, it will offer itself up as an ad-hoc node for others to connect to, advertising itself with the name of the last ad-hoc network it tried to join. I guess Windows is sending out an electronic mating call, in search of other offline geeks.

The Chronicle writer’s theory on the actual spread of the SSID name “Free Public Wi-Fi” is very good and is worth the read. After you finish this, of course.

The Fix:

To be done with it once and for all, open up your “Available wireless connections” screen, click on “Change advanced settings” and check the box “Access point (infrastructure) networks only” under “Networks to access”. That’s it. No more Free Public Wi-Fi. No more ad-hoc networks period.

It would have been much cooler if it really had been a great and noble geek humanitarian effort. I’m so disappointed.

Windows Media Center - Black Screen Syndrome

I recently went to start up Media Center on my PC and instead of getting the expected Microsoft sound and the familiar blue window... I got nothing.

Actually, I got more than nothing. I got a black screen, and a little acid reflux.

I use the Media Center PC for all my video processing. It's one big ass Tivo, with all kinds of inputs and tuners, just perfect for recording and mixing all kinds of media.

Personally, I think Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was Microsoft's best work, and they should have stopped there. It was the step before Vista, and it's the best of both worlds. It boots up in XP and allows you to start up the Vista-ish Media Center when you need it.

So anyways, the PC is a pure work horse and I try to keep it clean. No careless surfing, no installs of anything until I've done my homework.

But as I'm sure you know, it's not always easy to keep a networked computer clean. I went to a site that I thought belonged to a university, but soon discovered it was a spoof, and blam!, I picked up a downloader.

I struggled with it for a while, and hopefully I won the battle. I'll chronicle that little adventure in another post. What I want to talk about now are the after effects.

Shortly after the downloader incident, Media Center stopped working. Whenever I'd click on the green desktop icon I'd get a black screen.

At first, all I could do was Ctrl+Alt+Del and stop the process, with no idea what was going on, and even that wasn't easy. The screen would briefly show the Media Center window and the Task Manager, then revert to black. It took two or three in a row to get control over the window.

I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with the system. It performed just fine as long as I didn't try to start Media Center.

So, being a natural born rock head, I opened Media Center again (and again, and again), until I found that if I hit Ctrl+Esc I got some control. The Media Center screen would appear and I could click one option, and then I was back in black. The next Ctrl+Esc showed that I had advanced to the Videos screen, and now I had a valid error message: "The video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed".

A Clue!

After a little searching, I found this site: Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility. Once the great and powerful Microsoft determined that my copy of Windows was on the up and up, I downloaded DECCHECKSetup.exe. Running the setup installs the Video Decoder Checkup Utility under Programs, Windows Media.

When you fire up the utility, it goes off and checks for installed video decoders and reports back on what you have, which ones are Media Center and Media Player compatible, and which one is set as the "preferred decoder". Nice little utility!

Right away I saw that my InterVideo decoder had been deposed by a pretender to the throne.

The utility allows you to change the preferred decoder after it finishes it's check, and just like that, I was back in business.

The wrong video decoder will also cause similar problems with Windows Media Player 10 and 11, so the Decoder Check Utility is a handy tool to have even if you're not running Media Center. The fact that Microsoft has a utility specifically for this problem indicates that it's pretty common.