Tech Help and Discussions

Over the past six months, security experts from Kaspersky have observed the slow evolution of the Asacub malware from simple spyware that sniffed info about the device into a full-blown cyber-threat capable of collecting banking information, opening a backdoor on infected phones, and installing ransomware. First detected in June 2015 as Trojan-Banker.AndroidOS.Asacub, the malware was a simple app that infected Android devices and collected data, sending it to a C&C (command and control) server. The first version of Asacub gathered information such as the list of apps a user has installed on their mobile device, their browser's history, and their contact list. Op…

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 20, 20168 yr

We already know that Comcast can — and does — inject alerts into users’ web browsers to alert them to potential copyright infringement, but the nation’s largest Internet provider can also use this ability to interrupt your enjoyment of the web in order to remind you to upgrade your modem. Consumerist reader and Comcast customer “BB” says that the cable company upgraded the network in his area in recent months, and has been writing and calling him regularly about upgrading his modem ever since. “For months we received multiple letters in the mail, explaining how we were missing out on the great new capabilities of their network,” writes BB. “This eventually escal…

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 18, 20168 yr

In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel's Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months. Enterprise customers are still the bulwark of Microsoft's Windows business, in both the client and server segments. Any machine that earns a place on the elite enterprise support list will get very special treatment indeed, with the idea being to reassure corporate customers that these models are especially likely to perform well on Windows 10 in the new era of continuous updates: For the listed systems,…

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AWS replied January 17, 20169 yr

“1 billion is a big number” In the last few months I have participated in multiple discussions about Microsoft’s goal of getting Windows 10 on 1 billion devices in the first 2-3 years of its availability. That opening quote is shared with me from one particular person on a consistent basis and it is very accurate and presents a challenge for the Redmond company. They do not want to nor can they afford to miss this goal. In early January Microsoft touted that Windows 10 now has over 200 million active users and that is the fastest uptake of any previous Windows operating system ever for the company. Now, it is a free update so that makes it a very attractive o…

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AWS replied January 15, 20169 yr

Hey guys, very first time I am coming across a unit like this. PowerEdge 840 Service Tag: 14CM6C1 | Express Service Code: 2439837073 I read the manual but still confused, can I load win7 on this machine? Can it work like any regular windows machine?

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AWS replied January 15, 20169 yr

Hey guys, I reloaded win7 on this unit, it started restarting on it's own after I choose the shut down option in windows and it shuts down but now "sometimes" when i go to the net it will shut down too and restart, any ideas please?

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 12, 20169 yr

After ruining Microsoft's reputation for years, and recently also targeting Apple customers, tech support scammers have started picking on Dell's customers with a voracious appetite. During the past year, tens of Dell customers have started reporting being picked on by aggressive tech support scammers that were calling them about their Dell laptops and computers. Unlike typical tech support scams that rely on ads and scareware, or hunt tech support forums for victims, these particular individuals were calling Dell customers that previously had a problem with their laptop in the past, as 10ZenMonkeys reports. Scammers have access to sensitive, private Dell custome…

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 12, 20169 yr

Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade is clearly going well. Back in October the software giant revealed that 110 million devices were running Windows 10, and that number has now jumped to more than 200 million. Microsoft first released Windows 10 as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users on July 29th, so in less than six months it’s well on its way to reaching 1 billion devices. Tracking Microsoft’s Windows 10 numbers is important to see whether the company can quickly reach its goal of 1 billion devices within two or three years. The key will be whether Microsoft can maintain this momentum throughout the year. Windows 10 is only supposed to be a free upgrad…

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Rachel replied January 9, 20169 yr

Unofficial apps stores that target users of non-jailbroken iOS devices have expanded their presence from the Chinese market and are now targeting users from multiple countries. The reason why third-party hosted app stores exist is because Apple and Google strictly moderate, check, and approve every app they list on their stores. Users who want to download and install applications that are clones of popular paid apps, are piracy-related, or show adult material, usually have to go to the app maker's website or unofficial app stores. Third-party app stores abusing certificates to fake their real origin While installing non-signed apps in Android is as easy as pre…

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AWS replied January 8, 20169 yr

The DDoS tool's control panel. Similar-looking malware targeting both Linux and Windows computers has been linked to a DDoSing toolkit sold by Chinese hackers via the ddos[.]tf service, Malware Must Die! reports. The malware, codenamed Linux/DDOSTF (or Linux/MrBlack) targets mainly Linux machines running Elasticsearch servers, but it also attacks and infects Windows systems, particularly older Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server instances. Malware Must Die! reports that Windows infections occur via a PHP-MySQ webshell that exploits the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) architecture, allowing it to infiltrate systems, upload the exploit, and later executing …

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AWS replied January 8, 20169 yr

A malware family named Brain Test has resurfaced on the Google Play Store, after previously being taken down, first in September and later in October of 2015. The malware was first spotted in the Brain Test app, an IQ testing application with around 1 million downloads, which also gave the malware's name. Check Point's staff first analyzed the app's sneaky behavior, and following their research, Google took it down. This didn't stop its authors from packaging the malware in other applications, but researchers from Lookout quickly spotted these apps too, and by October, they had Google remove them from the Play Store as well. As you've probably guessed it, the mal…

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 7, 20169 yr

Hello all, this unit was brought to me with win7 Pro installed but the owner had some issues and asked me to reinstall win7. After wiping the drive clean and attempting to reinstall win7 pro, when it gets to the end of the "Completing installation" on the Installing Windows screen, I am getting a prompt stating : Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this hardware I tried both the win7 pro 32 and 64 bit versions but same deal. Owner said this was a business desktop which had some sort of lock on it so he could only go to the net and could not download and install any programs. What can i do here please?

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AWS replied January 7, 20169 yr

Microsoft is ending support for Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 next week on January 12th, releasing a final patch encouraging users to upgrade to one of the company's more recent browsers. The end of support means that these older versions of Internet Explorer will no longer receive security updates or technical support, making anyone who uses them much more vulnerable to hackers. A recently-announced patch will deliver the last few bug fixes, as well as an "End of Life" notification telling users to upgrade to IE 11 or Microsoft Edge — the company's successor to Internet Explorer, built for Windows 10. Internet Explorer is dying — long live Microsoft Edge. This m…

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allheart55 Cindy E replied January 6, 20169 yr

I was getting annoyed with Windows 10. There are certain things that changed that seemed to be a step backwards. Doing little things was harder than it was in any previous version. The revamped control panel is the worst. Just trying to find one setting takes forever. I found I had to use the search feature to find the things I used to be able to go right too. Since I'm speaking about search, since Microsoft decided to move so many things, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'd search for something and either get the wrong results or no results at all. Start menu, while I liked it at first, is a mess. Since it takes forever to find the app you want to use I would pin it to…

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AWS replied January 6, 20169 yr

Ransom32 may be the first cross-OS ransomware family A new type of ransomware has been spotted, the first of its kind, a ransomware that uses JavaScript to infect its users, being coded on top of the NW.js platform. NW.js, formerly known as Node-WebKit, is a powerful platform that allows developers to create desktop applications via Node.js modules. The platform lets programmers use JavaScript in the same way, and with the same power and reach inside the underlying operating system's guts, as other more powerful languages like C++, Delphi, Java, ActionScript, and C#. If the name hasn't tipped you off yet, NW.js uses a stripped down version of WebKit, the same…

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AWS replied January 4, 20169 yr

A rather embarrassing bug has been discovered which allows anyone to break into a Linux machine with ease. If you press the backspace key 28 times on a locked-down Linux machine you want to access, a Grub2 bootloader flaw will allow you to break through password protection and wreck havoc in the system. Researchers Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll from the Cybersecurity Group at Universitat Politècnica de València recently discovered the vulnerability within GRUB, the bootloader used by most Linux distros. As reported by PC World, the bootloader is used to initialize a Linux system at start and uses a password management system to protect boot entries -- which not …

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KenJackson replied January 2, 20169 yr

A denial-of-service attack was responsible for Steam account details being revealed to other users and the service shutting down on Christmas Day, with the company working on identifying affected users. Gaming platform Steam has confirmed that a denial-of-service (DoS) attack took place on Christmas Day, which it said caused around 34,000 users to have their sensitive personal information returned and possibly seen by other users. Between 11.50am PST and 1.20pm PST on December 25, a "configuration error" meant some users saw Steam Store pages that had been generated for other users. "The content of these requests varied by page, but some pages included a Steam us…

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AWS replied December 31, 20159 yr

Apple rolled out iOS 9 in September, and just as expected, it brought several new features on the latest iPhones. But the fruity-named firm actually shipped the same update to both older and newer devices, with some of them getting significantly slower than expected, despite the company’s promise of better performance. A group of approximately 100 iPhone 4s owners decided to start a legal action against Apple for providing misleading information about iOS 9, as their devices ended up running the new operating system without the promised performance boost. No downgrade is possible While iOS 9 is mostly a worthy update for iPhone 6 and newer, there’s no doubt th…

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starbuck replied December 31, 20159 yr

Hey guys, i am trying to find an audio driver for this machine running Vista Home basic 32bit. The onboard card was shot ans so was a PCI audio card so I ordered a USB audio adapter but it plays choppy and in the DM the Multimedia Audio is Yellowed and I am not seeing an audio driver on their page below, help please? http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=401821&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=2094

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mikehende replied December 30, 20159 yr

Hey guys, someone just called me, he wants an exact image of his pc transferred unto a new SSD drive, I told him he would need the license info for all softwares to re-activate them on the new drive, is there any way around this assuming that he does have licenses for softwares on his existing drive please?

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mikehende replied December 28, 20159 yr

Hey guys, just wishing you all the safest and happiest xmas ever! May God bless us and our loved ones and we pray for the unfortunate people everywhere that they too may find some peace and happiness this xmas season, as the saying goes "God bless us everyone", AMEN! Have a GREAT one guys.

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Mommalina replied December 26, 20159 yr

I have never worked on a tablet before, can anyone tell me how to recover data from this HP Touchpad's HDD please? Far as the owner knows, it powers on but no video.

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allheart55 Cindy E replied December 23, 20159 yr