Online Computer Tips Monthly Newsletter - May 2008
Latest Virus/Security Alerts:
IRS Stimulus Check Rebate Scam
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is aware of a public report indicating that a phishing scam is circulating. This scam is related to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service economic stimulus rebate and arrives via email messages that appear to be from the IRS. The messages include text that attempts to convince users to follow a link to a website before a deadline to expedite the rebate process. This website requests that the user provide bank account information.
US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the risks:
Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages.
April's Poll Results:
How many megapixes is your digital camera?
1-3
- 20%
4-6
7 or more
Tip of the Month:
Microsoft Office Live Workspace
The Office Live Workspace is a place where you can store documents online so that you can get to them anywhere that has an internet connection. This means that there is no need for flash drives or sending documents to yourself via email so you can use them at another location. All you need to do is login to your account and access your files that way. Office Live Workspace allows you to password protect your documents as well so only you or people you allow to access them can open them.
There is no software required to use Office Live Workspace so using it is a breeze. You can access your documents from almost any computer with a Web browser and an internet connection. It also helps to avoid confusion caused by having multiple versions of a single document since you will always be working on the same document from any location. You can also synchronize contact, task, and event lists with Outlook.
Office Live Workspace allows you to save 1,000+ Office documents and files in one place. And each document can be as large as 25MB. You can share individual documents or workspaces with up to 100 people. It allows you to access and preview them from almost any computer, whether or not it has Office installed. The service is free and all you need is a Windows Live ID and password and it works with Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
Microsoft Security Security Notifications for May 2008
Microsoft reported that it plans to release patches for four security vulnerabilities on Tuesday, May 13. These patches will fix three critical vulnerabilities and one moderate vulnerability.
The critical flaws affect Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Windows. The moderate vulnerability affects several Microsoft security products, including Windows Live OneCare, Antigen, Defender, and Forefront Security. The critical Windows vulnerability involves the Microsoft Jet 4.0 Database Engine. The Microsoft Jet Database Engine makes data accessible to a variety of Microsoft and 3rd party applications, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Information Services (IIS) applications.
Click here for more details about the updates and here for more details about the vulnerability in the Microsoft Jet Database Engine.
Ever wonder how the processor in your comptuer is made? Check out this instersting site that explains the process of making a processor .
Readers Question of the Month:
No sound or video drivers after using the restore CD
Karen writes in with a hardware question Q.I had my computer dumped clean and re-started it with my Emachine startup disk and now I have no sound and all my things are so big they take up half the screen.
A. It sounds like it didn't install the sound or video drivers. This would account for no sound and the large icons etc. I would go into Device Manager and look for yellow question marks or exclamation points next to the Display Adapters and Sound, video and game controllers section. If you have one of those there then you most likely have a driver problem.
You can try and update them directly from Device Manager which will search Windows Update assuming you are online at the time. If Windows Update doesn't find them then you will have to find out what devices you have for video and sound and download the drivers manually. You should be able to go to the E-Machines website and search by model or serial number and find the correct drivers. Then you would simply download and install them.
Some XP SP3 users are experiencing a problem where after installing the service pack, their computer continuously reboots itself in a loop. The problem appears to primarily affect AMD-based computers, though there are also some cases in which Intel based computers will also run into trouble.
The problem is that with some configurations, SP3 causes the computer to crash during boot, and Windows XP, by default, is set up to automatically reboot when it crashes. That is why you end up in the endless rebooting scenario.
Service Pack 3 adds several networking and security improvements, and compatibility with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 security credential providers. It also incorporates features previously available individually as separate updates, such as Microsoft Windows Imaging Component, Microsoft Management Console 3.0, and Wi-Fi Protected Access 2.
Meanwhile, Microsoft reported this week that users who install XP SP3 will not be able to downgrade from Internet Explorer 7 to IE6.
