The annoying thing about this new version is that when you install it, it fails to retain your settings from the previous installations. This means that the two big security default settings have been returned to their insecure status.

So, to become safer once again if you are going to be using Adobe Reader this is what you must do.

Start up Adobe Reader and hover over Edit, mouse down and click Preferences…

In preferences there are two settings to change from the default, the first one is JavaScript, click on the category JavaScript and make sure the box which says “Enable Acrobat JavaScript” does NOT have a tick in it.

Then click on the category Trust Manager and make sure the box which says “Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications” does NOT have a tick in it.

In my opinion you may be better off just un-installing Adobe Reader completely and use something like Foxit Reader instead.

Secunia offered a download solution for the problem which I grabbed and installed, a file called AdbeRdrUpd9.msp running this file told me that it was a patch for Adobe Reader 9.4.1 Great! I ran the program and re-scanned with Secunia which was now happy so I went back and looked at Adobe Reader again and found that it had been upgraded to version 9.4.1.222

Why didn’t the old version find that there was an update available when it was told to check for one? I have cut Adobe tons of slack over these recurring problems, as they are a large company with a lot of products to maintain, but I just can’t keep checking and re-checking different ways to see if there are new updates available, if I had to do that with all the software that I use then I would be spending about 12 hours a day just looking for software updates. I am sorry Adobe, but my only conclusion can now be that your Software is SO seriously flawed that it has become TOTALLY useless to me and you have proved that you are TOTALLY incompetent when it comes to repairing and maintaining it, therefore I choose to abandon Adobe products wherever I can. Goodbye Adobe Reader, you are first in front of my firing squad.

I am moving to Foxit Reader.

Thank goodness for Secunia Personal Software Inspector http://secunia.com/products/consumer/PSI/you are a life saver!

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating system
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier for Android
• Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX
• Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh

This vulnerability could cause a crash allowing an attacker to take control of the affected system. This has been found in the wild as an active exploit.

In Vista, Microsoft have made it rather easy to get to the Update page. You simply Click the Start button, click All Programs, then click Windows Update.

Do you need them?

Well, yes, absolutely. Just think of it this way, the bad guys nowadays don’t want to destroy your computer, they want to use it to make them money. How do they do that? Well they need to get a piece of software installed so that they can command your computer to do their bidding for them, it may be used to send spam mail, or it may be used to send “click throughs” on adverts that then makes a small commission for the bad guys. Either way it is YOUR computer not theirs.

So, how do they get their nasty little programs on your machine? Well they trick you into installing them, sometimes silently by directing you to a specially crafted web page or PDF file or any number of other ways. The key is that wherever they send you has been specifically coded to take advantage of flaws in software that you have installed on your computer. Now if you stay up to date with your software programs then their is a much better chance that you will not be vulnerable to their attacks.

Remember it is not just your operating system that you need to keep updated, but EVERY piece of software you have installed, even if you don’t use it, the mere fact that an old software program is on your computer could leave you open to a stealth attack.

So, do yourself a favour, get rid of programs you no longer need or use and keep all the others up to date.

Here is one little freebie to help you with this task. FileHippo Update Checker.

OK, What is it?

According to Microsoft:

“The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software – including Blaster, Sasser, Mydoom and Confiker – and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.”

This has been around since January 2005 and as long as you are checking your Microsoft Windows Updates then you have the latest definitions. There are new definitions released with the regular “Patch Tuesday” (2nd Tuesday of each month) security releases from Microsoft and the tool will automatically run in the background on a monthly basis.

So, why am I telling you this if everything is automatic?

Well it turns out that you can very easily run this tool any time you want, not just on Microsoft’s once a month schedule.

Go to Start > Run and type in “mrt” without the quotes (Vista users click the Start orb and type in “mrt” at the start search bar) a nice little window will open which allows you to see what “nasties” the tool is ready to find and the next window allows you to start a scan. I recommend doing a full scan which can take a few hours, but really digs deep into the crevices of your system to look for any abnormalities.

Keep in mind that this is NOT a replacement for antivirus software, but rather an enhancement of it that could potentially find a hazard that has maybe slipped in between anti virus updates or piggy backed in as an email attachment and is just waiting for the right sequence of events to be activated.

Add this useful tool to your arsenal of freebies and run it whenever the need arises.

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.

OK, those of us who use Windows based computers all have at least one Windows key (unless you have a really, really old keyboard) but what is it used for?

Here are 11 uses for that little key:

1. “Windows” + “E” opens up a new instance of Windows Explorer.
2. “Windows” by itself opens up the “Start” menu.
3. “Windows” + “D” minimizes all open windows and shows the Desktop, “Windows” + “D” again puts them all back.
4. “Windows” + “F” opens the find files feature (or Google Desktop Search if you have it installed).
5. “Windows” + “L” locks your computer.
6. “Windows” + “M” minimizes all open windows.
7. “Windows” + “Shift” + “M” restores the last “Windows” + “M” operation.
8. “Windows” + “R” displays the “Run” command.
9. “Windows” + “F1″ displays the Windows Help function.
10. “Windows” + “Pause/Break” Displays the System Properties dialog.
11. “Windows” + “Tab” cycles through the items in the task bar.

There you have it, eleven uses for the Windows Key

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.

Here we are going to discuss how to get a picture of something that is on your screen into a Word document or similar application. I am sure you have seen instruction documentation which has built in screen shots of the process that it is explaining. If you were wondering how to do that, here is one simple way.

We will be using the “Print Scrn” key.

A lot of people seem to think that if you hit that key then whatever is on your screen will shoot out of your printer. Well, back in the good old days of DOS, that was the case but nowadays, when you press the “Print Scrn” key a copy of your screen is sent to the “Clipboard”.

What is the “Clipboard”?

It is an area of memory set aside for temporary storage, so normally you can’t see it or its contents and that is fine just as long as you know it’s there.

You can use the clipboard to copy text from one place to another with the cut and paste features built into Windows and many other programs, simply highlight the text you want and press “Ctrl” and “C” together, this COPIES the highlighted information to the “Clipboard”, then move your cursor into the location or document where you want it to appear and press “Ctrl” and “V”, this PASTES the information stored in the “Clipboard” to the new location.

It is worth noting that the information stays in the “Clipboard” until it is overwritten by a future “Ctrl” + “C” operation.

So, how does that help us?

Well, if we had a word processor document open that we were working on and we wanted to include a screen shot of our desktop in that document, simply hit “Print Scrn” and then “Ctrl” + “V” and the image should appear in your document. Try it using Wordpad, the lightweight word processor that comes with Windows.

Here’s another little trick using “Print Scrn”, if you hold down the “Alt” key and press “Print Scrn”, that copies just the contents of the active window to the “Clipboard” rather than the full desktop image.

So, there you have it, play around with it and soon you will be an expert.

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.

When you start up Internet Explorer, or any browser, you can have it start on any web page you like. You may have seen websites that say “click here to make this site your start-up” or something similar, maybe you (or someone else) has clicked on one of those and now you would like to get YOUR start page back.

Well, here is how you do it.

Open up Internet Explorer, click on Tools > Internet Options

Under the “General” tab look for the section labeled “Home page”

In the box enter the site URL that you want to start on, for example if you want to start on Google’s home page, you would enter http://www.google.com

Now if you have tabbed browsing enabled you can hit enter after that entry and on the next line put another URL, now when IE opens up you will have two tabs which load your two favorite sites. Just repeat for as many sites as you want to open up.

In Firefox it is very similar, click on Tools > Options

Under the “Main” tab look for the “Startup” section. If you want multiple tabs in Firefox, separate the url’s with the “pipe” character which looks like two vertical lines on top of each other (shift backslash for US keyboards, Alt GR and the key to the left of 1 for UK keyboards)

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.

Does your cursor jump or stick when you move the mouse?

Most computer mice now are the optical type, that is they have a red (usually) light shining out of the bottom of them and the reflection of that light is what determines the movement of the cursor.

The older type have a ball in them. Over time, the ball type mice will accumulate dust and dirt on the insides that can cause your cursor to skip or jump which makes using your computer a pain.

If you have a ball type mouse, turn it upside down and you should see that the hole where the ball protrudes is actually in a small plate which when rotated will come away from the mouse body allowing you to get out the dirt and gunk.

So, to clean your mouse, first remove the plate, then remove the mouse ball. Examine the insides and you should see that there are three things which come into contact with the ball under normal conditions. There will be two straight rods at 90 degrees to each other which control the cursor movement and then a small spring loaded wheel to keep pressure on the rods. These three items are what need cleaning in most cases.

If you look at the rods you may see what looks like a stripe around the middle of them, this is dirt and needs to be carefully removed. Use a small screwdriver or similar item to carefully scrape the dirt away, DO NOT NICK OR DAMAGE THE ROD. Carefully rotate the rod and make sure you get all the dirt off. Repeat for the other rod and the pressure wheel. Now just wipe off the mouse ball, reassemble and you should be done.

If that doesn’t do it, you can always get yourself an optical mouse which are not as prone to dust and dirt collection.

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.