Tech Help and Discussions

I recently installed a trial of Hitman Pro & it stated that i have a worm. 20.01.2016 Imag.scr C:\Users\N3\Documents\My Received Files\ Real or false/positive?

• 5 replies
• 1.2k views
• 1 follower

N3 replied March 12, 20168 yr

The executives at your cable company might not always show it, but they love you more than you’ll ever know. You pay your television and Internet bill on time each and every month, but that’s not why they love you. They love you because you don’t bother to actually look over your bill and see how much it has increased over time. And best of all, you don’t research to see that there are bogus charges on your bill each month that can easily be avoided. Well, it’s time to flip the script and make sure that those cable company executives hate you, because there’s nothing they hate more than an educated consumer. Each and every month, your ISP slaps you with a charge of …

• 6 replies
• 702 views
• 2 followers

allheart55 Cindy E replied March 11, 20168 yr

I decided to do a fresh install of Windows7 Ultimate. This time I am going to see just how important Windows Updates really are and keep a Diary of what eventuates over time using this Rig daily looking for issues. I turned Windows Updates off on install, installed drivers and tweaked to my liking. I have a custom install of Avast, Malwarebytes free and S.A.S. I plan to run ADW Cleaner weekly on this Rig. I will use File Hippo for anything I need. So far from FileHippo I have installed 3 needed additions which are .Net Framework 4.5, IE11 and SP1. I think this will be an interesting exercise.There are so many updates which take forever and when all the updates are ins…

• • 
• 4 replies
• 678 views
• 1 follower

AWS replied March 11, 20168 yr

I used to be able to right-click (maybe left-click, I don't remember) the bottom left corner of my screen to get a context menu that allowed me to get to the Control Panel and more. Now I'm getting the context menu that comes when right-clicking on a blank area of the desktop. Windows 10 just went thru an update. Anyone else seeing this?

• 6 replies
• 593 views
• 2 followers

Tony D replied March 11, 20168 yr

In the last few days, legislators in both the House and Senate have once again pushed the issue of nuisance pre-recorded, auto-dialed robocalls back into the spotlight — urging telecom providers to give customers more tools for blocking these calls, and trying to roll back the government’s ability to abuse robocalls for its own debt-collection purposes. “If robocalls were a disease, they’d be a national epidemic,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) at a press conference on Sunday to discuss the need for mobile and landline providers to give customers more options. “We’d have the best and brightest working to combat the scourge.” The senator noted that that Federal Trade C…

• 5 replies
• 745 views
• 2 followers

Tony D replied March 9, 20168 yr

A new Android trojan that's being detected as Android/Spy.Agent.SI is targeting users for the purpose of stealing their banking and Google account credentials. Security researchers from ESET say that the trojan is distributed via websites that advertise a Flash Player for Android devices. Adobe officially stopped developing a Flash client for Android in 2012, so this is an obvious trick to fool users into installing a dangerous APK on their system. Once downloaded and the installation process started, the trojan will ask for admin rights. Giving it admin rights not only makes it much harder to remove later on but it also grants the trojan the access needed to ca…

• • 
• 2 replies
• 838 views
• 1 follower

starbuck replied March 9, 20168 yr

The majority of teenagers alive today weren’t alive in the 90s, meaning the oldest version of Windows they’re likely to be familiar with is Windows XP. If that tidbit makes you feel old, you might not want to watch the latest React video from Fine Brothers Entertainment, in which a bunch of teenagers are exposed to the wonders of mid-90s computing and Windows 95 for the first time in their lives. They’re not impressed. It starts with first impressions. “The fact that the monitor is bigger than the actual computer itself says a lot” said Daniel, 17 years old, who is young enough to only have vague memories of monitors and TVs that aren’t flat. “I’ve no clue w…

• • 
• 8 replies
• 1.3k views
• 1 follower

Bill M. replied March 9, 20168 yr

I am having issues with an older Intel SSD. This is where I am up to. This is the second SSD in as many days giving me grief. The other SSD issue was posted on another site. I should have posted it here on Free PC Help Forum. I tried to clone this SSD drive onto another spinner. A WD Blue. Wouldn't clone. Gave me an error "MFT corrupt- Error Code 6". First I used "DUMo" for a diagnostic. Results said SSD was bad, likely to fail, export all onto another drive quickly. Next I used Intel's own diagostic and came back all good with green tick. Where to go from here so I run CHKDSK C: only to find any issues with this drive. Results Volume Bitmap is incorrect. T…

• 4 replies
• 1.6k views
• 1 follower

DSTM replied March 9, 20168 yr

KeRanger not only demands $400 in Bitcoin, but also attempts to encrypt files backed up by Apple's Time Machine. A new strain of ransomware which strikes OS X devices has been discovered by researchers. The ransomware, dubbed KeRanger, was discovered on the legitimate website of open-source BitTorrent client project Transmission, Palo Alto Networks said in a blog post on Sunday. Ransomware is a virulent type of malware which is on the rise. Often spread through phishing campaigns and malicious files, ransomware focuses on infecting compromised or vulnerable machines for the purpose of encrypting files and locking users out of their PCs and networks. As highl…

• • 
• 3 replies
• 3.2k views
• 1 follower

starbuck replied March 8, 20168 yr

What advantage/disadvantage does "ESET Online Scanner" have over NOD32 Antivirus Pro?

• • 
• 6 replies
• 810 views
• 2 followers

N3 replied March 8, 20168 yr

Mozilla has put the YouTube Unblocker add-on on its “blocklist”, as it has been discovered that it was changing users’ security settings and covertly downloading and installing an additional, malicious extension that injects ads in pages visited by users. The popularity of YouTube Unblocker was due to it allowing users to view YouTube videos blocked in their country. The add-on used to be offered for download on the organization’s official portal for Firefox extensions and themes, but no more: The various comments in the discussion about the bug that has been started on Mozilla’s bug tracker a few days ago showed that the developers of YouTube Unblocker have b…

• • 
• 1 reply
• 871 views
• 1 follower

starbuck replied March 7, 20168 yr

Scammers have a new way of getting to you. Their weapon: a phishing email claiming to come from the Social Security Administration. The subject line reads “Get Protected” and the return address appears as “no-reply@ssa.gov.” The email appears to offer new features that will help you monitor your credit report and warn you of unauthorized users of your Social Security number. It even refers to the IRS and mentions the “SAFE Act 2015.” All you need to do to register is click on a link. This Social Security email is a classic phishing ploy, a form of identity theft in which hackers use fraudulent websites and fake emails to attempt to steal your personal data, especial…

• • 
• 2 replies
• 931 views
• 1 follower

Mommalina replied March 7, 20168 yr

A South Florida scuba diver was taken on a terrifying ride through a nuclear power plant's intake pipe that he feared would end in his watery death. What started as a scuba and lobster-diving trip with family and friends became what felt like a ride to hell for Christopher Le Cun last summer when the 30-year-old swam up to what he says was an improperly marked intake pipe to a nuclear plant in Port St. Lucie. For some five minutes back in July, Le Cun was pulled along at seven feet per second through a pitch black, barnacle-encrusted pipe with no idea what lay at the other end. They were five minutes Le Cun said will forever be imprinted on his mind. "We were …

• 1 reply
• 442 views
• 1 follower

Bill M. replied March 6, 20168 yr

Good morning everyone. It's Thursday and the snow stayed to the south of me yesterday so that makes today a good day.

• • 
• 20 replies
• 1.7k views
• 2 followers

DSTM replied March 6, 20168 yr

Cerber, the latest ransomware threat, doesn’t just encrypt all of your files: it also tells you about it, out loud, and repeatedly. It’s like something out of a 90s hacker movie, except this isn’t fake: your files really are all gone until you pay up. “Attention! Attention! Attention!” is what infected computers will say to their users, using the text-to-speech engine built into Windows. “Your documents, photos, databases, and other files have been encrypted!” Cerber is the latest in a long line of similar attacks, but is unique in a few ways, including the bizarre voice. Cerber’s modis operandi is outlined in a blog post by Lawrence Abrams of security blog Ble…

• • 
• 4 replies
• 1.1k views
• 2 followers

starbuck replied March 5, 20168 yr

Windows 10 may be “free,” but there’s a price to pay for claiming your no-cost upgrade from Windows 7 or 8: The operating system’s brimming with ads designed to coax you into buying this app or using that Microsoft service. Some of the ads are pretty unobtrusive, to be fair. Several get right up in your face, however—an unfortunate experience in any case, but one that hurts even more if you’ve already dropped $100-plus on a Windows 10 license rather than snagging a free upgrade. Fortunately, most of Windows 10’s ad pushing can be disabled with a few simple menu tweaks, and it’s worth making the effort to do so, since Windows 10 is the best Windows yet once you get …

• 4 replies
• 640 views
• 1 follower

starbuck replied March 4, 20168 yr

Earlier today I wrote about a recently discovered issue between Outlook 2016 and POP3 based email accounts that can cause you to either lose emails on some devices or get duplicates. This got me thinking about how long the POP3 aka Post Office Protocol has been around. The original version of POP was developed in 1984 and POP3 was established in 1988 – if you are counting that is nearly 30 years ago for POP3. The POP standard was a simple one and was easy to implement and basically downloaded content from your email server to your local account. It had no support for folders or any type of storage structure on the server although you could manually organize mail …

• 4 replies
• 625 views
• 2 followers

allheart55 Cindy E replied March 4, 20168 yr

WinRT PDF, the default PDF reader for Windows 10, leaves Edge users vulnerable to a new series of attacks that are incredibly similar to how Flash, Java, and Acrobat have exposed Web users in the past few years. The Windows Runtime (WinRT) PDF Renderer library, or just WinRT PDF, is a powerful component built into recent Windows OS versions that allows developers to easily integrate a PDF viewing feature inside their apps. The library is used for many apps distributed via the Windows Store, the default Reader App included in Windows 8 and 8.1, and even with Edge, Microsoft's latest Web browser. Hackers can abuse WinRT PDF for drive-by attacks Mark Vincent Yaso…

• 1 reply
• 535 views

AWS replied March 3, 20168 yr

Do you remember the WebTV? You may not have even known anyone who used them, but they were a device that turned a regular TV into a slow Internet terminal. Some people who find computers intimidating really liked the idea. However, they should not pick up this unit that Liz found on the shelf at her local Walmart, mostly because there’s not much you can do with it. Microsoft owned WebTV, and they shut down the service that powers the device more than two years ago. Much of the technology that went into the WebTV ended up in the Xbox or in set-top boxes. The retail price of the WebTV was about $200 when it was on the market. How much is Walmart selling it for now tha…

• 1 reply
• 758 views
• 1 follower

allheart55 Cindy E replied March 2, 20168 yr

Our company will be upgrading all of our Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 in the coming months. Would like to know what would be the quickest/fastest way to deploy the upgrades to the clients? Also how much time would we be looking at per machine upgrade?

• 2 replies
• 616 views
• 1 follower

Tony D replied March 2, 20168 yr

My Windows 10 laptop sits on the coffee table in the family room. I look to it occasionally for email, etc. Today when I looked to it, it was updating. That update took just over an hour. Then it restarted The first message said that it had updated my PC, then it said my files are exactly were I left them, Then it said that there were new features that I should be excited about. Then it said Don't turn off your PC. Then it said it'll be ready soon. And then finally I got to my desktop. I wasn't able to delay the update until a future time when I had the time to wait. Additionally, having to wait over an hour for an update to install is unacceptable. Especially without…

• • 
• 9 replies
• 900 views
• 2 followers

Tony D replied March 2, 20168 yr

Pete, can you tell me (or us) about a nasty called "distromatic"? I don't know where it came from but blocked my net access and wouldn't let me log into my router? JRT removed it. If this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it. Thanks.

• 10 replies
• 1.4k views

starbuck replied March 1, 20168 yr

I'm working on a Vista machine. Windows update fails to install IE9 for Vista with error Code 9c48. IE 9 is already installed on this computer. The version in the About IE is KB3100773 9.0.8112.16421 . The version associated with the exe is 9.0.8112.16717. Those two version number are not the same. Doesn't sound right to me. I downloaded IE 9 from MS. It says it’s 9.0.8112.16421. When I try to install it, it says there is a newer version already installed. This makes sense looking at the version number of the installed .exe. I searched the machine for any other iexplore files. It found a bunch in c:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-i..explorer-optional fol…

• 5 replies
• 904 views
• 2 followers

allheart55 Cindy E replied February 29, 20168 yr

The Vivaldi browser now offers a Google-free replacement for Chrome on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Switching requires very little effort because, like several rivals, it's based on open source Chromium code, and renders websites exactly like Chrome. Vivaldi even runs extensions from the Chrome Web Store, including uBlock Origin and TinEye Reverse Image Search. (I've not had problems, but test your must-haves before switching.) However, the long-term aim is to deliver a browser that does what its users need, not one that needs overloading with extensions that slug the performance. Why would anyone want to switch away from Chrome? Generally, there are three…

• • 
• 2 replies
• 1.2k views
• 1 follower

DSTM replied February 28, 20168 yr