Here is what it looked like and how you can tell it’s fake.

First of all, Signin isn’t a real word.  This should be enough to make you delete it.

Second, Bank of America does not send email from customer@mail.com

Third, my email address is not even in the To: field.

Fourth, B of A will not attach an HTML form for you to fill out.  HTML is for the web.  They will either send you a link or ask you to call customer service.

Fifth, This font looks “totally” credible.

Sixth, Since they are sending me an email about my account, they know who I am, and therefore would not address it to “Dear Customer”.

When you get emails like this, do a quick exam.  This is actually one of the better ones.  Most of them have significantly more spelling and grammar errors.  Keep in mind, this is supposed to be coming from one of the largest banks in the world.  Does this really look like something they would send?

When in doubt, delete it and call customer support on a number you look up yourself, not one listed in the email.

Brand new install with all updates and service packs installed.

When I plugged in the printer, it searched Windows Updates and installed the printer.  It looked good in “Devices and Printers” but when I tried to print, I got this error:

Test page failed to print.  Would you like to view the print troubleshooter for assistance?  Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000007a).

Fix 1:

1. Open Devices and Printers
2. Right click on the affected printer and select Remove device.
3. Unplug the USB cable from the printer or PC
4. Click on the Start button and type Print Management and hit enter.  You will get this window.  
5. Click “All Drivers” to expand the folder.
6. Right click on the affected printer driver and click Remove Driver Package.
7. Reboot
8. Plug the printer USB cable back in and it should re-install and work.

Fix 2:

1. Reboot into Safe-Mode by pressing the F8 key during boot-up.
2. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers
3. Check all the folders for a folder titled “3″ and rename them to “3-OLD”.  
4. Close window and open Devices and Printers”
5. Right click on the affected printer and select Remove device.
6. Unplug the USB cable from the printer or PC
7. Reboot
8. Plug the printer USB cable back in and it should re-install and work.

Windows computers and laptops need ongoing repair to keep them running smoothly. Don’t waste time with slow computers.  Proactively repair and maintain your PCs ti keep them from breaking.

Check your Anti-virus

Anti-virus programs are designed to protect your PC from security threats that can destroy your important data. Some anti-virus programs have stringent security settings where the anti-virus program scrutinizes every file and program on your PC. This may slow your systems down.

Only install/run one Anti-virus program.  The inherent nature of antivirus is to take all of your system resources when it runs a scan, so having more than one will kill performance.  Check which anti-virus programs you have installed and check the security settings to make sure you balance your security needs with performance requirements.

Remove Malware

Malicious software or “Malware” may accumulate on your PC. These programs may run as background tasks without your knowledge. Some programs look for sensitive data, including passwords or they may log keystrokes on your PC. Aside from the security risk, these programs may slow down the performance of your PC or Laptop.

Defrag your hard drive

Over time, as you install and uninstall programs and applications, your hard drive becomes fragmented. This means that bits of data and information are scattered all over the drive, and whenever your computer needs to use a program, it has to hunt all over the drive to find all the necessary parts. The more scattered the data, the longer this takes, and it slows down your computer’s performance. Run the disk defragmenter utility regularly to move that data closer to where it belongs. You will find that doing this improves your computer’s speeds.

For Vista or Windows 7 users, click the start button and type disk defragmenter and hit enter.  This will open this window where you can run and schedule defragmentation.

Run the Disk Cleanup utility

If you are already regularly deleting your Temporary Internet Files and getting rid of junk you don’t need, then you are on the right track, but there are other files on your hard drive that you don’t need that aren’t taken care of that way. To get rid of those files, run Disk Cleanup by right clicking on your hard drive in My Computer and accessing it through the Tools tab.  You can click whatever you want to remove.  There is nothing here that can hurt your computer by removing.

Delete some fonts

Yes, that’s right – fonts. Whenever Windows loads, it has to load all of the fonts you have installed on your computer. This slows down your boot time considerably. Think about the fonts you have on your computer – do you actually use all of them? Fonts like Verdana, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New, Trebuchet, and MS Sans Serif are necessary, but most of the others you have installed are not. You can delete them safely and improve the speed of your computer.

Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.  For Windows 7 users, click start and type “chkdsk” and click enter.  This will open a black window with white text.  Let it run through it’s processes and if there is a problem it will let you know when it is complete.

Remove unused programs

Overtime your computer will collect programs you no longer use or need. Some of these programs may start up automatically when you turn on your PC. Windows includes an add/remove program utility that shows what applications are installed and recently used. Removing unnecessary programs may free up disk space and memory, while lowering the demands on CPU utilization. If you have doubts about a program, contact CODE29 before you remove any programs that may be needed.

Update

Many programs, including your operating system, are designed to automatically update with the latest version. These program updates are designed to resolve performance, stability and security issues. In many cases, you will also benefit from new features from the program update. Staying current on the latest version of your application is a good way to ensure things are operating at top performance. Occasionally, O/S and application patch and updates may not be compatible with one another.   In the old days you needed to be wary of Windows Updates.  The past few years, there haven’t been any where near as many issues with updates.  You are safer doing them, than not.

Getting the most from your PC and Laptop requires regular and proactive PC repair and maintenance. If your system is slow and it has been a while since you have had a PC tune-up, now is the time. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself, call us at 858-461-7275 and we can take care of all of this for you.

Facebook Default Privacy

The first thing you will see is your Default Privacy.  Public means anyone and everyone can see your stuff.  All your posts, all your pictures, all your friends.

Facebook How You Connect

Who can see you?  Who can connect yo you?  You can change these settings here.

Facebook Timeline and Tagging

This one was a bit incongruous.  You have to enable Review Posts. . . and Review Tags . . . to have any control over it.

From the Facebook Help Pages:

If you have Profile (Timeline) Review off, then tags from friends are automatically approved. Whether you have Profile (Timeline) Review on or not, tags from nonfriends require your approval before they go on your profile (timeline).

When it comes to Facebook, I don’t like anything that is automatically approved.

Facebook Ads, Apps and Websites

Yet another place to manage your privacy settings.  We already reviewed the Apps you Use section in my last article Facebook Account Information, so we’ll skip that for now.

How people bring your info to apps they use:

WTF?  So now everyone who knows me takes my info to the apps they use?!?!?!?  Of course, Facebook is making the web “better” and “more social” so users have a “better experience”.

Instant Personalization

Again, here is Facebook making the web “better” by giving these sites your personal information.  Uncheck the box to turn off.

Facebook Ads

Click the Link for Edit third party ad settings.  Wait, Didn’t I just change this setting in the Facebook Account settings Area?!?!?!? No, this is for third party ads, not Facebook ads.  This is really starting to piss me off!

Lastly, check the settings in the Edit social ads setting link.  This may be the only thing I allow, because what is the point of liking something if no one knows it?

SUBJECT: Scan from a HP ScanJet  #99384
BODY:
A document was scanned and sent to you using a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet OFC993-2P

Sent to you by: A.L.
Pages : 6
Filetype(s): Images (.jpeg) View

Location: LK.5FL.

The interesting thing is that there was only one name in the subject line, mine.  This is fairly unique to these types of emails so be careful.  As always, don’t click on a link in an email unless you want to bring your computer to us to fix.

We’d love to fix it, but we’d rather not. 

LinkedIn may have a bit of an issue to deal with.  They are investigating that potentially over 6 million password have been compromised.

Here are some reports to date:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18338956
http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-hacked-2012-6
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1206692–linkedin-users-read-this-then-change-your-password

Please pass this information along.

Also, if you use the same email address/password combination other places on the web, you need to change those passwords as well.

The Winner of the “Like Us on Facebook for a chance to win 1 Year Free Computer Repair” is Vanessa Trevino.  If you liked us on Facebook before 10AM today, your name is on a list here in the shop for your 30% off coupon.  Please mention this when checking in.

The Winner of the “Slot Machine Raffle for a chance to win 1 Year Free Computer Repair” is Chris Dixon. Check out the video here.

Congratulations to the winners.

Today I was talked into trying Spotify instead of my usual Pandora.  If you don’t have a Spotify account, the only option is to sign in with Facebook.  I never do this, for a variety of reasons, but primarily because I want control over where I put what information.

I knew I could disconnect the Spotify App, so I signed up and quickly went to Facebook to disconnect it.  What I found was amazing.  I am VERY careful with my information and there were over 20 apps that had permission to access my Facebook account!

You Need to Review These Facebook Settings

Even if it’s just to know what’s there, you need to review these settings to make sure you know what’s out there.

Go into Account Settings

Facebook General Tab

Under the General Tab, click email and uncheck the “allow friends to include my email address in Download Your Information” unless you want your friends to have your email address in their archive.  Since they are your friends, it’s probably not a big deal, but I uncheck it anyway.

Linked Accounts:

I don’t have any linked accounts, but  from the Facebook Help Center,

Sounds super secure to me.

 Facebook Security Tab

Click through each of these and check your settings.  The one I found most interesting was the Active Sessions where it listed my iPhone and noted where it was.  You may be surprised to see where Facebook thinks you are logged in from.

Facebook Notifications Tab

The envelope with the number by it is the number of things Facebook is allowed to email you about.  As you can see from mine, They are not allowed to email me about much of anything, whereas my wife has a dedicated email account for all of the Facebook notifications she receives.  This is where you turn off all of those emails.

 Facebook App Settings

This is the one that really surprised me.   

I had over 20 applications listed here that had access to my account.  As I said before, I am very careful about where I put my data na dhow much access I allow, so to have 20 apps here was shocking.  If you don’t want the app to have access anymore you can simply click the x next to the edit link and it will disable access.  THIS WILL NOT REMOVE YOUR DATA FROM THE APP!, Yes, you read that correctly.  In the past, when you disabled a third party app, Facebook requested your information be removed from their database.  With the latest release of their TOS, that is no longer the case.  If you no longer wish them to have your information, you need to contact them directly and request it to be removed.

If you want the app to still be able to access your Facebook account, at least click on the edit link to see what it is accessing.  As you can see from Hootsuite below, it has pretty much full access to my account.  For apps like Hootsuite, I allow this because of the type of tool it is.  For apps like Yahoo! or Slate, they get no access and therefore have been removed.  You can click on the x to remove certain access as well.

 Facebook Ads

No matter how many times I change this setting, they keep moving it and defaulting it back to “on”.  This setting allows them to use your pictures in their ads to your friends.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want them using any pictures of me to promote their crap to my friends.

That is all for Account Settings, but don’t forget to check your Facebook Privacy Settings as well.

Google is Skynet

Facebook is the Borg.

1. MSconfig was designed to be used only as a temporary debugging/troubleshooting tool. It was not meant to be used for long term solutions.
2. MSconfig does not show all startups anyway.
3. If you uninstall programs while they are being disabled with MSconfig, they will not be uninstall properly and you will have to resort to manual registry editing to properly get everything removed. MSconfig will leave orphan entries if/when installed software is uninstalled while under the control of MSconfig . When/if MSconfig is turned back to normal startup, it will give errors on boot due to those orphan entries.
4. MSconfig and Services:
1. If you uninstall programs while you have some of the programs services being controlled with MSconfig, the programs will not be uninstall properly and you will have to resort to manual registry editing to get everything properly removed.
2. When you uncheck a service in msconfig, you completely disable it. If you uncheck the wrong one, you may not be able to restart your computer.
3. It is safer to control services by using Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services (this runs services.msc).
5. You can lock malware items into your registry that you may not see anymore until some point in time where you switch back to Normal Startup mode and now you can cause total reinfection of your PC with the malware. You need to remove the malware not mask it.

If you still don’t understand why not to use MSconfig, see what Microsoft writes here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560The key point is stated as such:

Computer get bogged down with unneeded applications, adware, cookies, and massive amounts of background processes.  These issues hinder PC performance, decrease productivity, and increase the amount of time spent dealing with IT problems.

1.  Kill Background Processes

Most programs that start automatically on computers are optional and usually unwanted by the user, which increases boot time. In addition, because these optional programs continue running in the background, they interfere with the ongoing performance of a computer. Lab testing showed that removing three resource-intensive startups decreased boot time by 41%. That’s equal to a 117 second improvement. Some mis-informed people will tell you to use a built-in utility called msconfig.  Please do not use MSconfig to control startup.  Look in the program for an option not to load when Windows starts and disable it this way.

2. Update

Software makers are constantly releasing new versions of a software you’ve already paid for. These updates can include enhanced features, and more importantly, patches against vulnerabilities. Microsoft, Adobe, Java, and others put out regular updates that contain bug fixes and help improve PC performance. In fact, vulnerabilities from using out-of-date software are one of the most common ways that malware infects a system. Software updates and patches often pop up automatically. Don’t put them off, and when possible, remember to manually check for updates.

3. Clean out the junk.

A computer can become cluttered with junk files, temp files, logs, and browser bloat very quickly. Junk like this can affect PC performance tremendously over time. This is especially true for computers using traditional hard drives (non-SSD). By committing to regular maintenance of your drives, you can save yourself from the hassle of a bogged-down system and the sluggish performance that accompanies it.

A great free utility is ccleaner.

4. Get Rid of unused programs

Programs take up space, and if they don’t serve a specific purpose, they are essentially dead weight. This is also true of browser toolbars, plugins, and extensions. Here too, having a clear sense of what is not necessary, and then removing those items, is a big step in improving PC performance.

5. Defrag

Unless you have already upgraded to a solid-state hard drive, defrag your disk regularly. On hard drives, as you save and delete files, the data gets placed in ”sectors” on the hard drive. This causes ‘fragmentation’ and can increase the time it takes for the computer to find the specific item you are looking for; defragmenting files on the disk will save your computer a great deal of time seeking what it needs.

A great free utility is defragler.