Lookin Good

LooKInMyPC won’t fix your PC the next time it throws a wobbly, but it might make it easier for you, or someone who knows their way around computers, to track down the fault. When called into action it produces a detailed system profile and diagnostic report about all of the hardware, running services, drivers, updates, startup programs, networks, Internet connections, event logs and a zillion other things about your PC that could prove useful. Save the report when the PC is behaving itself and if things do go awry and help isn’t at hand you can email the report to a knowledgeable friend or tech. You don’t even have to install it on your PC after you’ve downloaded the program you get the option to install it on your hard drive, or on a removable drive or UDB memory stick. Hopefully you’ll never need it (some hope…) but if you do, it’s ready to help.

New Free Microsoft Security Essentials Release

A new release of Microsoft’s free security solution for Windows is now available for download. The Redmond company has made available for download extremely quietly the new version of Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 on February 17th, 2010. The latest release of MSE, formerly codenamed Morro, is currently up for grabs from the Microsoft Download Center, with no details available from the software giant as to what, if anything was changed with the antivirus.

“Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple. Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so you’re free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times,” Microsoft noted. Read more

Boot Windows in Under Ten Seconds

How long does your Windows PC take to boot? Two to three minutes is about average, under two minutes and you are doing really well, one minute or less and it’s either only a couple of days old or you’ve been doing some serious tweaking. So how about a Windows PC that boots in less than ten seconds? Well, Bios makers Phoenix Technologies reckon they can do just that. It’s called Instant Boot Bios and is based on a set of standards called UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and some fancy pre-boot footwork in Windows 7, which apparently involves carrying out around 2 million instructions. Apparently with a bit more work it may be possible to boot a PC in a second or less, which sounds great but the question that has to be asked, is when it all goes wrong – as it inevitably will — how on earth will you be able to get to the BIOS menu?

Windows on the Wall

Let me say straight away that so far I haven’t been overly impressed with the performance of so-called pico’ projectors I’ve seen to date. These tiny pocket size projectors produce a small dim image, not much larger then a big monitor screen that you can just about see in a very dark room. That’s fair enough, someone somewhere will find that useful. However, my gripe is with the way they’re often portrayed in publicity shots, showing vast bright displays in what appears to be well lit environments. Maybe one day that will happen, who knows, but as a display device they leave a lot to be desired, so I’m not too hopeful that the Guangzhou Darling DP200 is going to break the mould, and with a light output of just 9 lumens it’s not going to trouble the mainstream projector market, but it does have one other thing going for it. Built ino the case is a Windows CE PC so you have all that you need, in one handy box, to do a quick presentation on the nearest wall. Plug in a keyboard and mouse and you can do a spot of word processing, though good luck seeing the keys in the dark…

The Mesmerising Blob of Infinity

Quite frankly, these days’ screensavers are a waste of time. LCD monitors do not suffer from the ‘screen burn’ effect that affected old style CRT monitors when left to display the same image for hours on end. That said, a blank or simple floating logo screensaver on a black background can provide a small power saving when a PC is left idle (though there are much better ways to achieve it). On the other hand password protecting a screensaver is a handy way of keeping prying eyes off your PC when it is left unattended for any length of time. Well, that’s my excuse for mentioning Zoom Mania. It’s a wacky, trance-inducing fractal blob thingy that floats around the screen giving off streams of smaller blobs that appear to disappear into infinity. You can move it around, zoom in and out and do all kinds of weird and wonderful things to the image. Try it after a couple of pints and I guarantee you won’t get any work done. It’s freeware but when you install it watch out for very kind offers to load browser toolbars and change your home page, unless of course you want it to…

Sticky Security Wiper

It’s bad enough when ordinary programs on your PC won’t go away but some security applications can be particularly difficult to uninstall. Of course it’s mostly self-defence and a lot of malware programs try to delete or disable anti-virus programs and malware cleaners etc., so they are deliberately made more difficult to remove. But that’s no consolation when you want to get rid of one, maybe because it’s causing conflicts, or you want to switch to another program. Either way there is a solution in the shape of AppRemover, a freeware utility that’s designed specifically to remove security applications, failed uninstalls and the files left behind by these programs.

How to get the holy grail of Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. ACCURATE SCORE

Make sure you have an accurate WEI score. Follow our advice to optimise your PC, then close down all open applications and run the test again.

2. PERFORMANCE TWEAKS

If your CPU score is over 5 then overclocking, while risky, might help you reach the maximum. Check your BIOS setup program and documentation for advice.

3. FIND A REPLACEMENT

Upgrading your CPU may deliver the best results. Check your motherboard manufacturer’s web site to see which CPUs it supports, then comparison-shop at uk.shopping.com.

4. CHECK SPEEDS

Can this processor really deliver a 5.9? Visit shareyourscore.com/ ComponentScores.aspx to see how it performs on other people’s systems.
Read more

Apple Keyboard Hack Proved Possible

Slashdot reports that Apple keyboards are vulnerable to hackers’ attacks due to the complexity of their inner workings, which include RAM and flash memory. According to the report, the hack can potentially place keyloggers and malware directly into the device’s firmware.

To make matters even worse, the author of this “proof of concept” has also published the presentation and code in a PDF that’s free to download for anyone on the planet. The vuln is undoubtedly enticing to hackers, some of which are likely to create one or more exploits for the flaw in question. To better understand how this discovery has turned into a potential security issue, we offer you a few excerpts from the published document.

For ethical reasons, the firmware modification we describe is benign. The firmware is modified so that the LED under the CAP S LOC K key of the keyboard will flash momentarily when the keyboard is first plugged into a system. However, malicious payloads can be developed by individuals with mal-intent. Read more

How To Install Nokia PC Suite In Windows 7

Just in case if you are using Windows 7 and have not managed to get Nokia PC Suite working on it, then follow this simple guide to get the PC suite working. I actually thought installing the PC suite would be easy but it required a little tweak before I could get it running on Windows 7.

Following are the steps:

1. Download the latest version of Nokia PC Suite from here and save it on your local hard drive.

2. Locate the Setup File and Right Click on the package and select Properties.

3. On the following window Click on Compatibility tab.

4. Then Click on the button in the bottom that says “Change Settings For All Users”

5. In the following window that appears make the following changes:

- Select Run As – Windows Vista

- Tick Run this program as an administrator (in the bottom)

Now click Ok to close the windows which also saves the settings. Read more

Display Your Disks

For most Windows PC users the only insight into what they have on what’s stored on their hard drive is clunky old Windows Explorer. True, it tells you how much space a file or folder occupies, but what you really need is the big picture, a way of telling, at a glance, which files are taking up the space, and how much you have left. I’ve recommended a number of graphical disc usage utilities over the years but this one, called OverDIsk is arguably the best looking. Key features include a good assortment of disc and file statistics as you hover your mouse, you can drill down into any folder and sub-folder by clicking on it and the window is magically resizable It’s still in beta form and the author admits there’s a couple of bugs that needs sorting but they appear to be a very low level and it performed flawlessly on my test PCs but as usual, you download and this program entirely at your own risk

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