Windows 7: Disabling System Protection

Sometimes there's a need to turn off the System Restore feature (e.g. such as recovering free space on a drive).  By disabling the System Restore functionality, note it will be permanently deleting all existing restore points from the drive.

Below are the instructions on how to perform this action:

• From the Start menu, select Control Panel
• Select System and Security, and open the System control panel
• In the left pane, click System Protection
• If the UAC is enabled, the administrator credentials will be required.
• Select the drive to disable the System Protection feature.
• Generally feature is enabled on Windows system drive, which in most cases is the C: drive.
• Press the Configure... button, when the System Protection dialog displays, select the Turn off system protection radio button, then press the OK button.
• Press the OK button again to close the last dialog.

Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net

This video is a great introduction to modern day malware (e.g. viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc.).



It's been 25 years since the first PC virus (Brain A) hit the net, and what was once an annoyance has become a sophisticated tool for crime and espionage. Computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen tells us how we can stop these new viruses from threatening the internet as we know it.

If you want to know more about how to protect yourself and your family on the Internet from fraud, scams, and malware, check out my book "Avoiding Information Insecurity: Fighting Modern Day Cyber-Threats (2011 Edition)" (ISBN 978-1-4580-2920-1) [For my blog readers I am offering a limited time [October 14, 2011] special deal of 75% off the cover price of the book, use the coupon code TL78X at checkout].

Google Flight Search

Flight search is a feature that helps you explore air travel options for a number of cities, and plan your trip with just a few clicks of the mouse.

The Rasterbator - Make a Poster from any Image

The Rasterbator allows you to creates large posters (up to 20 meters [or 65 feet] in size) from just about any image. All you have to do is upload a picture (from your computer or from a URL), print the resulting multi-page PDF file and assemble the pages into a poster.

The Rasterbate service is available in two versions, online (which requires that you have Adobe Flash Player 7 and PDF viewer) and an off-line downloadable executable. Its pretty easy to use, after you have cropped the image and selected a size, the "rasterbated" image will be sent to you as a PDF file.

HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension

I am a big believer in all types of encryption, to protect yourself and your data while utilizing the Internet you need to encrypt everything.

Many sites on the web offer encryption over HTTPS, but default to unencrypted HTTP communication when you visit their site. HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that forces encrypted  communications with a number of major websites (if this option is available). The HTTPS Everywhere extension works by trying to rewrite all requests on a site to utilize HTTPS.

Note: if the site your visiting is not enable in the extension or site doesn't support HTTPS this browser extension will not work.

Online Monitor Test

Need to test your monitor's image quality, check out the online monitor test at http://tft.vanity.dk.

The monitor tests can be run directly in 3 different modes:

• Ordinary HTML window (press F11 to maximize the image)
• Full screen HTML (opens in 1280x1024 but can be re-sized to fit any resolution)
• Executable full-screen program for any resolution (no installation required)

Hidden Feature: Chrome ABOUT Pages

Notes:

• This article covers a semi-advanced topic, and is not recommended for those that don't understand technical information about applications, network and system information.
• Use these features at your own risk, some of them are for debug web page or the browser and can intentionally cause the tab or browser to crash.

Want to enable experimental features in Google's Chrome browser, get diagnostic data, or see hidden information and features. Then you want to check out the Chrome's ABOUT pages, to access them in the address bar type "about:about" to see a list of available pages.

• about:about: Lists available Chrome About pages.
• about:appcache-internals:  Displays information about the  HTML 5 AppCache manifests.
• about:blank: Displays a blank page.
• about:cache: Displays a list of cached URLs.
• about:crash: Displays a crash page in the active tab.
• about:view-http-cache: Displays a blank page.
• about:credits: Displays credit information about different browser features.
• about:conflicts: Lists all modules loaded into the main process.
• about:dns: Displays browser DNS preresolution information.
• about:flags: Allows the enabling and disabling of experimental features.
• about:flash: Lists information about Flash.
• about:gpu: Displays informaton about the GPU charactoristics.
• about:histograms: Lists histogram about different browser features.
• about:inducebrowsercrashforrealz - Crashes the Google Chrome browser.
• about:kill: Displays a generic error message when a webpage crashes unexpectedly
• about:memory: Displays processor and memory data.
• about:net-internals:  Lists internal network and cache information.
• about:plugins: Displays informaton about the installed plug-ins.
• about:stats: Displays a blank page.
• about:sync-internals: Displays the browser sync information.
• about:tcmalloc: Lists memory and processor information for the browser.
• about:terms: Displays information about Google Chrome Terms of Service.
• about:version: Lists version information for the Chrome browser.

Security: Avoid Cybercriminal Tech Support Scam

Microsoft.com reports: "Cybercriminals don't just send fraudulent email messages and set up fake websites. They might also call you on the telephone and claim to be from Microsoft. They might offer to help solve your computer problems or sell you a software license. Once they have access to your computer, they can do the following:

• Trick you into installing malicious software that could capture sensitive data, such as online banking user names and passwords. They might also then charge you to remove this software. 
• Take control of your computer remotely and adjust settings to leave your computer vulnerable.
• Request credit card information so they can bill you for phony services.
• Direct you to fraudulent websites and ask you to enter credit card and other personal or financial information there.

(Finish reading the rest of the article)

Network: Diagnostics and Performance Web Sites

Here are some useful web sites that  may come in handy from time to time to perform some network diagnostics:

• Need a second opinion if a web site is really down?
• http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
• Do you need an easy way to find out your IP address on the Internet?  
• http://www.whatismyip.com/
• Are you having problems watching YouTube videos, you can check the download speed here?
• http://www.youtube.com/my_speed
• Find out how fast your Internet connection really is, or if your ISP is providing the speed you pay for.
• http://speedtest.net/

New Firefox Beta with Enhanced Performance

Below is a excerpt from the Mozilla blog: "The latest Mozilla Firefox Beta is now available for testing on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. This beta includes performance enhancements that improve the browsing experience for users and enable developers to create faster Web apps and websites." (see the article to view the rest of the features or download the application)

Security Tip: HTTPS Everywhere

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has crated a Firefox extension called HTTPS Everywhere. The extension forces major web sites to use HTTPS to encrypt all your traffic if that option is available.

As most people may know, HTTPS is the standard protocol used by all web browsers and servers for sending encrypted data between the client and server.

Many sites offer an HTTPS option but don't enable it by default. If traffic is unencrypted, then anyone, organization, or government can monitor your traffic.

Windows Live Family Safety 2011

With Windows Live Family Safety 2011 you can monitor and control your children's computer and Internet activities. Some of the features of this service include: reports showing what your children are doing, or control access to websites, games, and programs they can access or set times when they can use the computer.

Other features of the program are:

• SafeSearch allows you to locked down search engines, such as Bing, Google, Yahoo! and others.
• Manage your child’s permissions remotely online.
• When installed on multiple PCs in the household, Family Safety enforces the same settings. 
• Block inappropriate content or even limit kids to age-appropriate web sites.
• Limit your children's email and instant messaging access to approved contacts on Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

Microsoft Camera Codec Pack

The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack (download) enables the viewing of a variety of device-specific RAW formatted camera files in Window Live Photo Gallery as well as other software that is based on Windows Imaging Codecs (such as the Windows Explorer).

Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall

Windows Secrets reports: "Microsoft won’t tell you this, but you can do a fast, nondestructive, in-place, total reinstall of Windows 7 without damaging your user accounts, data, installed programs, or system drivers.

That means you may never have to do a full, from-scratch reinstall again, even when your system is misbehaving so badly that a full reformat-and-reinstall seems the only answer!

As I’m sure you know all too well, from-scratch reinstalls are ordeals. They take hours. And when a reinstall is done, you still have to recreate all your settings, reinstall all your software, and so on. It can take days to fully recover from a total reformat/reinstall."

(read the rest of the article)

Windows 7: Location-Aware Printing

Note: this feature is only available for mobile devices, and not on desktop computers.

One of  Windows 7's new feature is it can automatically switch your default printer when you move between networks (for example, when you move your laptop from your home network to your business network).

To configure this feature, follow the instructions below:

• Click the Start menu and in the search field type Devices.
• Click the link for Devices and Printers.
• Select a printer and right-click Manage Default Printers 
• Select Change my default printer when I change networks
• Select a network, select the default printer you want to use when on that network and press the Add button.
• Do the same for each network that you joined your laptop to it.

When you connect to a network, Windows will automatically select the default printer that was specified for it.

Free Online OCR Site

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process of converting scanned images of documents into text. In the past OCR programs had to be installed on your computer.

The site www.onlineocr.net allows you to upload scanned documents (including multi-page PDF files), photographs from digital cameras and scanned images (JPG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF) to be converted into text.  This site supports 32 different languages.

The converted documents can be exported in Word, Text, Excel, PDF, and HTML formats.

Video: Creating a Strong Password

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, then how many words is a video worth? Creating a strong password is your best defense for protecting your data on the Internet. As we move more and more data into the so called "Cloud", the keys to your digital kingdom may only be as strong as the password you select to protect it. This video provides one of the best visual explanations of how to create a strong password and why you should do it.

Google Project Emerges as Facebook With More Refined Manners

eWeek.com reports: "After more than a year of denials that any major social network initiative was in the works, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) June 28 unveiled Google , the company's take on social networking. Not to be confused with the existing Google 1 search result and ad-sharing services, Google is intended to alleviate certain pain points that plagued Facebook as its network grew to 700 million-plus users. For example, while Facebook users added friends, family and colleagues to one big connection pool, Google is designed to let users create smaller buckets of contacts that share common interests. Users may create these Circles by dragging and dropping Google Profile pictures of users into separate Circles and sharing information only within those Circles."

(see the slide show)

Its been a few years since I have seen something interesting happen in the Social Networking space. I think Google might have gotten it right this time. If they generate enough buzz and interest with this product it will have a chance to survive.

Hopefully it will have privacy by default, and not require you to jump through several hoops just to lock down your profile.

Resources:

• Google Plus (Web Site)
• Google Blog: Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

Windows 7: Changing Remote Desktop Listening Port

Note: This is an advanced tip and only applicable to certain situations.

The Remote Desktop by default uses TCP/IP port 3389, some people think that they can increase the security of the RDP protocol by changing it too different location. This is almost as effective as moving a lock on a door and hoping a thief won't be able to find it. This technique would only be effective against someone who knows absolutely nothing about TCP/IP.

If you still want to move the Remote Desktop default TCP/IP port, here is how you do it:

Warning: This tip requires modifying the registry proceed at your own risk.

• Open the Windows Registry Editor, from the Start menu in the search field type REGEDIT.EXE
• In the Windows Registry Editor navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
• Click the Edit menu and select Modify... or right-click the registry value and select Modify...
• In the properties dialog box, click Decimal, and type in the new port number that you want to use (make sure its not used by another protocol)
• Press the OK button to close the dialog.
• Close the registry editor and reboot the computer.

To access the computer via Remote Desktop over your local network or the Internet, when you enter the machines DNS name or IP address in the Remote Desktop Connection client (under All Programs > Accessories), add a colon and the port number that you used (e.g.: example.com:57619 or 192.168.1.2:57619).

Windows 7: Start Menu Web Searching

Note: This tip only works on Windows 7 Professional and higher.

With the Windows 7 Search box under the Start menu you can search for programs and files, but did you know you can enhance it to also search the web?

Using the Group Policy editor you can enable the Start menu Internet search feature, follow the instructions below:

• In the search field under the Start menu, type GPEDIT.MSC.  This will open the Group Policy Editor.
• In the left pane, under User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates.
• Click Start Menu and Taskbar.
• In the right pane, double click Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.
• Click Enabled and then press OK button.
• Close the Group Policy Editor.

In the Search box under the Start menu when a search term is typed a  link will be displayed that says Search the Internet.