Interestingly enough, the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center site is estimating the time to infection of an unpatched Windows machine on the Internet.. is currently about 4 minutes. This is based on an un-patched Windows machine that is not behind a firewall or router of any kind (directly connected to the internet).As many of my current clients know, I've pushed routers (in conjunction with other security measures) upon all of them for security reasons. A few have called me paranoid, so it's nice to see a study backing up my paranoia! While they were more expensive several years ago, ...

You probably have asked yourself before "What is all this crap that starts up when I turn my computer on?!"You're not alone. 3rd party vendors load all kinds of junk software onto your computer. These programs all serve legitimate purposes, and are not intended to bog down your system, but they do. AIM, Antivirus programs, all of the little programs sitting in your task bar, and some programs you can’t see all contribute to the performance of your system.Disabling unused Windows Startup ApplicationsThe following steps will teach you how to remove programs and services from the startup ...

Oddly enough, according to a new study released shows that 62% of current dial-up users have NO interest in going to broadband!When asked what it would take to tempt them to switch, 35% said the price of broadband would have to fall, while almost a fifth said that nothing would tempt them to upgrade, suggesting many die-hard dial-up users simply don't see the need for the higher speeds that are available.About 3.5% of the visitors to our website are still on dial-up as well.You can read more of this article over on PCProSmartBox Web Marketing - Turnkey Local Online Advertising for Doctors ...

Computer problems are frustrating. Becoming frustrated during the troubleshooting process will only lead to more problems. So the important thing to do first is take a deep breath, think happy thoughts, and plan out your course of action. Have tools ready, restore disks and drivers. This will save you time and patience.Before you begin, jot down notes about any recent activity you have taken: Have there been any software changes? Did you recently add any new hardware? Did you unplug the PC and move it across the room?If there have been no changes to the PC or its environment, then its time to ...

Not quite yet, at least not completely. Microsoft has laid to rest rumors that it might reconsider pulling Windows XP from retail shelves and from most PC makers next Monday. Large manufacturer's like Dell have already announced their intentions to charge a $50 penalty per computer than comes loaded with XP instead of Vista! Quite a price to pay when it actually cost less than Vista..Microsoft's Bill Veghte wrote to customers reiterating that June 30 would be the deadline when Microsoft halts shipments of boxed copies to retailers and stops licensing the operating system directly to OEMs. ...

As a working PC tech, this is one of the most common issues that I face day in and day out. Although it happens to varying degrees, everyone at some point realizes that their computer is not performing like it used to. To some the slowdown process is gradual, to the point where they hardly notice until someone else uses their computer and complains. For others, it happens very quickly so that there is a sudden and unmistakable loss of usability. Whichever is the case for you, here are some general guidelines to help you in diagnosing the cause (or causes) of the slowdown.The first thing I ...

Windows XP is an example of a typical operating system that has virtual memory. Windows has an intelligent virtual memory manager that uses a default setting to help Windows allocate hard drive space for virtual memory as needed. For most circumstances, this should meet your needs, but you may want to manually configure virtual memory, especially if you have more than one physical hard drive or speed-critical applications. To adjust your virtual memory: Click Start and open the Control Panel. Double-click on System. The system dialog window will open. Click on the Performance tab ...

A customer asks: My new Dell computer is really slow. The other article on turning off programs (How to Disable Auto-Start Applications on Startup) helped a lot, but is there anything else I can do?My answer: YES! As a computer and network technician, I have visited many clients who wanted me to fix a certain issue that had nothing to do with the speed and 'pep' of their system. As we sat together waiting (for quite a while) for screens to load, programs to open, and things to download, I would always ask, "Would you like your system to work faster than it does?". The answer was always a ...

While on-site this morning, a customer asked: How can I keep this 'crap' from starting up every time I turn my computer on?!My reply was: Follow the given steps to disable the windows auto run applications. To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.Click the Start button, click Run, and type msconfig in and press Enter.A small System Configuration Utility dialog box will appear with many options like General, System.ini Win.ini, Boot.ini, Services, Startup and Tools.Click on the Startup tab and uncheck the applications that you ...

A customer asks: My new Dell computer is really slow. The other article on turning off programs (How to Disable Auto-Start Applications on Startup) helped a lot, but is there anything else I can do?My answer: YES! As a computer and network technician, I have visited many clients who wanted me to fix a certain issue..read more | digg storySmartBox Web Marketing - Turnkey Local Online Advertising for Doctors & Professionals ...