Tech Tips

Windows 7 is finally arriving in retail stores on October 22nd. The operating system has received really positive reviews so far. We've been using it on a couple of PC's and we're pretty impressed. If you have the money it's a worthwhile upgrade, especially if you have a computer that is currently running Windows Vista. However, if you have an older computer running Windows XP which is borderline adequate to run Windows 7, you are probably better off purchasing a new computer with Windows 7. To see the reccomended system requirements for Windows 7, visit Microsoft's page concerning this issue. If your system doesn't meet these requirements, then a new PC upgrade should be in order.

In a rather unexpected move, AT&T has announced a momentous policy change that will enable VoIP iPhone applications to run on its wireless network. There are already quite a few available in the App Store, like Skype, Vonage, and Truphone, but up until now users who wanted to use them had to do it over a Wi-Fi connection. So if you have a Vonage or Skype account and don't want to use up those precious anytime minutes; this looks to be a valid option. Also this may be a great, cost-effective way to place calls outside of the country.

1. Fake Personal Antivirus
Recently, we have been inundated with calls and fixed lots of computers infected with "Personal Antivirus 2009" or one of the many variations. This program is a virus/spyware that poses as a real antivirus program. We urgently recommend everyone to take the following steps to help prevent becoming another victim to this insidious annoyance. First, it's important to know what the real antivirus program is that is installed on your computer. If anything pops up on your screen saying that your computer is infected or needs to be scanned that isn't from your antivirus: click the X in the upper right hand corner of the window. Don't answer any questions the program/popup asks you, just click that X! Next, make sure that your computer has ALL the latest updates from Windows. Most times, the pop-ups arise due to exploitive code that is allowed to run because your system isn't "fully patched". Malware writers deliberately write code by reverse engineering Microsoft updates to take advantage of the (many!) users who don't keep their systems updated. Follow the "rule" of never click on any part of any browser pop-up or e-mail link. Nothing of any consequence ever comes from either!

2. Ad-Aware 8.1 Released; Great AntiSpyware Scan
Ad-Aware has been one of the best antispyware applications for many years now. This new version promises much faster scans than previously, which was really the software's only down side. Scans that took 10 minutes before, now only take 3, which is quite a performance boost. Ad-Aware is a free program for protecting against spyware, but there are paid versions which include antivirus protectionl. It's always a good idea to run an anti-spyware scan once a month or so. Ad-aware is one of the industry leaders in the antispyware field; so if this is the only antispyware scan you run along with your antivirus, you should be in pretty good shape.

Click here to download Ad-Aware.

3. Windows 7 Doesn't Come with an Email Program
Microsoft already let go of Outlook Express with the release of Windows Vista; where it was replaced with the Windows Mail program. With Windows 7, Microsoft would like you to use their Windows Live Essentials package to use their Windows Mail program (click here to download Windows Mail). But this may be the perfect opportunity to use a different mail client. This may be the first time that Microsoft really opens the door for competition. One of the best free mail programs is Mozilla Thunderbird. It's a feature rich e-mail client, and if you're switching from Outlook Express you should be rather impressed as it will easily import all of your mail, contacts, settings, etc.

Click here to visit the Thunderbird website.

Consumer Electronics Show 2009
The 2009 International CES covered 1.7 million square feet of exhibit space, housed more than 2,700 global companies, including 300 new exhibitors & roughly 20,000 new technology products. Attendance was down slightly from previous years, about 90,000 people.

Some of the hottest products at the show included the HAVA Titanium HD WiFi, Palm Pre, the Sony OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) television- as thin as a credit card, Sony’s flexible OLED TV, Panasonic’s super thin plasma TV, Panasonic’s 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System, NVIDIA® GeForce® 3D Vision which can make all of your old games, movies, and photos show up in 3-D, Yahoo!’s TV Widgets, and the LG Watch Phone. Photos and details on these and other products can be seen at this link. If you look toward the end of this article, you will find products that are either just plain fun, or totally absurd.