Avast Free Subscription Renewal

I am a satisfied and proud user of Avast 5.0.594 free antivirus.

Just recently I received a notification that its expiring and need to be renewed. Its a yearly renewal, I've been renewing it for the past 3 years. This antivirus is simply cool!

Renewal process is simple, just type-in your name and email address. Presto! you've just renewed your subscription.

Here are some of its features:

State of the art scanning engine provides reliable protection against viruses, spyware and other forms of malicious software.
Real time anti-rootkit protection

Unique "on access" technology checks all kernel-mode drivers that the operating system is loading for signs of rootkit behavior. This enables even unknown rootkits to be detected and stopped before they can do any damage. Get more information here: Avast Download and Features

Personally, I like it for the following reasons:

1. 1. Light on resources (tough on virus, gentle on computer)
2. 2. Active scanner that will give notification when detected some malicious activities.
3. 3. System files are correctly identified (windows files, device drivers, program files) vs malicious files.
4. 4. Its FREE!

WD Announces New 3 TB External HDD

Monday brought rumors that Western Digital (WD) was gearing up to introduce a 3 TB hard drive, however the company made it official on Tuesday. The announcement trails behind Seagate's own 3 TB GoFlex Desk external hard drive released back in July, the first of its size to hit the market.

According to WD, the new 3 TB drive will be part of the company's My Book Essential line of external drives consisting of both dual USB 3.0/2.0 and cheaper USB 2.0-only models. The dual-interface 3.0/2.0 models will offer a choice of 3 TB, 2 TB and 1 TB capacities, whereas the USB 2.0-only models will offer capacities of 2 TB, 1.5 TB, 1 TB, 750 GB, 640 GB, and 500 GB.

Tuesday Western Digital also said it added a 500 GB USB 3.0 model to its My Passport Essential line of portable drives. Consumers can choose between five “fun” colors-- Midnight Black, Cool Silver, Real Red, Pacific Blue and Arctic White.

The company also added two USB 3.0 drives to its My Passport Essential SE line offering 750 GB and 1 TB capacities. The drives will be offered in stylish black, silver, metallic blue and metallic red colors...

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Scareware Mimics Microsoft Security Essentials

In PCMag's testing Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 didn't rate as well as the best free antivirus products. Microsoft says that's OK, because their real aim is to get free antivirus into the hands of users around the world who have no protection at all. That's fine, but what if that copy of Microsoft Security Essentials is a total impostor?

Researchers at CyberDefender recently discovered a rogue antivirus threat that does a really impressive imitation of Microsoft Security Essentials. Click on the image above to see the impostor and the real McCoy. Can you tell which is which?

Here's a clue. If you were searching for "Dancing with the Stars" and later found Microsoft Security Essentials apparently running, you're looking at the fake. I know. In reality you'd be suspicious because you never installed the product, but not everyone is as discerning as you are. (OK, the lower image is the real one).

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Dell's Convertible Inspiron Laptop is Also Genius

We're used to seeing convertible notebooks that turn into tablets, but this latest creation from Dell is like nothing we've seen before.

This is the Inspiron Duo. It's a 10-inch netbook that turns into a 10-inch tablet. However, the way the display swivels around is pretty different to what we're used to because it actually rotates inside the frame of the display's bezel.

Dell showed off the unique netbook at IDF yesterday, the slim Duo is powered by a dual core Intel Atom processor and runs Windows 7 Premium. The company revealed the netbook by introducing it as a Windows 7 tablet and gave a fairly run-of-the-mill media tablet demo by showing off music, photos and movies. However, they then shocked the audience by splitting it open to reveal that it was actually a laptop.

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Hackers Create 57,000 Malicious Pages Each Week

Hackers create 57,000 new web pages every week in a bid to infect web users with malicious software, says PandaLabs.

The research arm of security firm Panda Security revealed that on average 375 keywords or brands are hijacked every week and used in the URLs of these malicious web pages.

Furthermore, 65 percent of these fake websites are designed to look like they belong to banks while 27 percent hope to fool web users into thinking they're part of online auction sites including eBay.

PandaLabs also said 2.3 percent of the remaining hoax websites were posing at sites from other financial institutions (such as investment funds or stockbrokers), while 1.9 percent were created to look like government organizations.

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How To Fix Windows XP Freezes

You are about to complete your work but before hitting the save button your computer freezes and nothing else you can do but to reboot and loose your unsaved documents

Listed below are common causes of computer freezes and its recommended solution.


RAM (Memory)

• All memory is being used by an application, so it takes time to process succeeding instructions. This is common on low memory system.
• Faulty RAM

Recommended solution:

• Terminate some of running applications to free some memory.
• Test the RAM, use MEMTEST tool.
• Replacement

Video

• This usually causes freeze when there is a demand of video acceleration such as games, video (movie or editing), or graphics designing.
• Faulty GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) will surely cause freezes. Windows 7 and Broken Video Card is one sample of a broken video card.

Recommended solution:

• Visual check is needed, check GPU’s capacitors, chips, etc this part get busted over time.
• Update the driver when needed.
• Replacement

Device Drivers (incompatible device driver)

• This is common issue. Especially for GPU drivers and will definitely cause computer freezes when not corrected.
• Outdated drivers. It is known that latest driver may not be the best for you, it depend on your requirements. If your driver is not giving you problem then why update? Updates are needed if you’re installing new application and need feature from latest driver.

Recommended solution

• Update Windows XP drivers as much as possible. Manufacturer's support/download site is the best option but if you get tired of searching then use a tool for search, download and install it for you.
• Read driver's release notes before installation.
  

Bad Motherboard

• Motherboard is considered one of the last parts of a computer to be replaced because replacing it is like buying new unit.
  

Recommended solution:

• When you start encountering problem to your computer and you’ve isolated that none of your peripherals is causing it then it the time to consider the motherboard. Visual inspection is needed. Check bloated capacitors and chips or see if the whole board is bent which usually happen on old computers.
• Send it to repair shop for troubleshooting.
• Replacement.

Hard drive (HDD)

• When you start experiencing slow access to your files, slow boot and freezes.
• Knocking sounds from inside the computer.

Recommended solution:

• Perform scandisk (chkdsk /r /f) to recover files on bad sectors.
• Perform disk clean up to delete temporary and unwanted files.
• Perform disk defragmentation.
• Replacement

Software

• Software conflict such as antivirus, firewall, anti-malware, and other tools.

Recommended solution:

• Uninstallation of latest software installation.
• Updating the software.
• Uninstallation of unnecessary application.

Windows Registry

• As being the database of all setup and configuration of windows machine when messed up will give unwanted result.

Recommended solution

• Keep it clean, use registry cleaning tool. I use ccleaner for that which is impressive and most of all free!

My Computer Dont POST, Not after a Walk Break

Just this afternoon after 2 hours my computer wont POST - Power On Self Test.

I has been up for about 8 hours from morning till afternoon, then I decided to go for a 2 hour break, then when I opened it just simply don't POST.

Being an IT, here is what I've done and checked:

1. Listen to any beep codes, its OK
2. Opened the casing and remove HDD power not to corrupt it from turning it on and off.
3. Removed RAM then powered it on hoping to hear any error beep code, no avail.
4. Re-connected my VGA cable to CPU box, no avail.

after these 4 procedures I decided to go for a walk thinking of what may just happened and the reports I need to pass today...

Guess my walk break works, I've re-connected the VGA cable at the back of my monitor and its power adaptor and everything is back to normal like nothing happened.

OK may be I just tired or something but I am happy that I can now write it up and send my reports :)

Was thinking that I may have something to do with my windows xp drivers but thanks it is updated and nothing to worry about it.