Published by Kay Brenner on 02 Jul 2008

Muscling Out PC Irritants

by Kay Brenner

From a design standpoint, Microsoft developed Windows to be easy and intuitive; most computing tasks can be accomplished with relative ease within the cozy Windows environment, and, most of the time, Windows will get out of your way and let you do your thing. But every version of Windows has a dark side that gets a little illumination from time to time: lurking in the cyber shadows are annoying security alerts, long unplugged USB device notifications, and pointless balloon messages that announce the obvious and lame, just to name several Windows annoyances that can be quickly disabled at your whim if you’ve got the inclination and information.

These are some of the common Windows nuisances, along with their solutions.

Irritant: “Delayed Write Failed” Error caused by Disconnecting USB Drive

This problem occurs when you disconnect a USB drive without notifying Windows first. There’s a chance that Windows will still be writing data to your USB drive if you just suddenly disconnect it, which may result in scads of corrupted files, a gamble most users don’t want to take. To ensure that Windows has completed all write operations to your USB drive, always use the “Safely Remove Hardware” utility located in your system tray; this tool will notify you with a message balloon when you can remove your USB drive. For the computer aficionado that craves more control over their numerous USB devices, throw Google a query, as there are plenty of free programs on the web that can manage your USB device collection for you.

Irritant: Die Hard Security Alerts

No matter what kind of a security freak you may be, there is no way you can outclass Windows. You have your firewalls, you have your antivirus software, but still Windows tries to prove you wrong, by sending you annoying security alerts letting you know that a virus is about to take control over your computer. Here is how you can silence these messages. Click on the next one you see and go to Virus Protection Panel. You will see in the Recommendations menu the option saying “I have an antivirus program” that you can mark in order to get rid of these nuisance.

Printer Messages Are A Hassle

If you send files to a network printer, you may have been annoyed at the “item printed” balloon message that pops up every time. To disable this lame option, navigate to the Control Panel and go to Printers and Faxes; next, click File, Sever Properties, and choose the Advanced Tab; at the bottom of the box, uncheck the “Notify me when remote documents are printed” check box.

When URL’s Don’t Act As URL’s

Today, we can use more than just one web browser to surf the Internet. The thing is that Windows do not like changes like these and it acts accordingly. If you wanted to use for some time Mozilla Firefox, and then just returned to Internet Explorer, you will see what mess you have gotten yourself into. Just after you made the switch and you uninstalled Firefox, you get an e-mail through Thunderbird or Outlook. And, surprise! Any URL from the e-mail no longer works and you get annoyed and frustrated. Here is how you should do to save yourself a headache. From Control Panel, choose Internet Options; there, in Programs, make Internet Explorer the default browser for surfing the net. That’s all!

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Published by Ethan Hunter on 30 Jun 2008

Free PC scan

by Ethan Hunter

Whenever you browse the net your computer has a risk of being attacked by virus or spyware. As soon as these Internet worms take over your PC you start to have their immediate effects. The speed of your computer may start to drop, your monitor screen could turn blue, and your computer may hang. There could be other symptoms, too. The settings of your firewall in the system could have been changed, and sensitive data from your PC could be going out. The attachment with your email could be a virus or a spyware program, and as soon as you try to open the attachment, your computer could be hacked with your personal information sent out to some unscrupulous person.

If your computer is attacked by virus or spyware, it starts to control your PC entirely. You may find mass emails are being sent off from your PC to all the addresses in your address book. Within a large network, a virus could start a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack hindering all kinds of communication within the network. Free PC scan is a web-based utility which can help in detecting various kinds of viruses and malware in your system. You should use one of these tools and scan your PC to find out if you have any type of virus or malware affecting your system.

You can have your PC scanned by one of the free PC scan web-based utility found in the internet. The utility can help you to detect any viruses or malware in your computer which is perhaps slowing down your PC. The web-based tool scans for every known Internet threat that may have attacked your system. This may include various types of viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Free PC scan also detects other files or software which is affecting the operation of your system, and also provides you with website addresses for you to download the missing security patches. After each scan, the utility provides you with a report on the various kinds of threats found in your system.

There is malicious free PC scan web based software which intentionally pumps in virus and spyware in your system when you request a PC scan. After the scan, you may find an odd looking tool bar appearing with your browser. A report generated from the scan would show you various kinds of virus that have been found in your system, and a pop-up will continuously ask you to purchase an anti-virus software to get rid of the various types of viruses found in your PC.

There are various kinds of indications when your system gets attacked by virus or spyware. At first, your system may get slow and later hang. A tool bar may appear with your browser, one you have never seen before. The browser would automatically take you to a different website than the one you wanted to browse, and more specifically, if you find that you are not being able to run Windows programs like “Msconfig”, or REGEDIT, it is almost certain you have virus in your system. You can search for free PC scan utilities on the Internet, and one of these web-based tools can help you detect the virus and the malicious software in your computer.

The best way to choose free PC scan is to look for user reviews on the Internet and go through the various observations made by actual users. This may help you select a web-based free scanning tool that is right for you. Virus attacks could permanently damage your computer. You may have to re-format your hard disk and lose all your data. Malicious software may change your browser and firewall settings, and you may be losing your personal information from your PC which may be utilized by a hacker. You would get continuous pop-up advertisements because of adware coming into your system, and for all these, free PC scan web-based utility can help you in detecting such threats.

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