5 Steps To Keep Your PC Safe Online

There are some simple steps you can take to ensure your PC remains protected while you surf the Web. Following each of these five guides can help protect your PC from virus, spyware and other online threats.

1. Update Windows

Microsoft regularly releases free downloads to fix security problems with Windows, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft software such as Office. This guide explains how you can get these important updates.

2. Install A Firewall

A good firewall such as ZoneAlarm will prevent programs from accessing the Internet without your permission, and block access to your PC from intruders. This guide explains how to install and set up a firewall.

3. Check For Viruses

Malicious virus code can infect your PC's system files and damage your important data. This guide explains how to use an anti-virus program to find and remove malicious programs.

4. Remove Spyware

Spyware is malicious code that tracks your movements on the Internet and can even affect your PC's performance. Read Remove Spyware which explains how to get rid of malicious spyware and adware.

5. Browse More Safely

The latest web browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 offer security features like pop-up blockers and phishing filters to keep you safe when visiting web sites. These guides explain how to install and use these browsers.
Start Using Internet Explorer 7
Browse The Web With Firefox

source: http://techflag.com

How to archive email in Ms Outlook

A friend asked how to archive email in Ms Outlook. He wanted to archive his old email in Ms Outlook. Ms Outlook come with archive email function. You can archive your email to a different files and it will improve your outlook performance and at the same time it minimize the file corruption possibility.

To archive email in Ms Outlook, follow the steps below:-

1) Start your Ms Outlook, and click on File -> Archive (Archive Window will pop up)

2) You may select “Archive all folders according to their AutoArchive Settings” or “Archive this folder and all subfolders”, just select either one according to your preference.

3) Then select a date at the bottom “Archive items older than:” and Specify your location for your Archive file at “Archive file:”

4) Once everything done, click on “OK” button, Ms Outlook will start the archiving process, this process might take several minutes depends on the amount of email you are going to archive.

5) Once done, you will see a “Archive Folders” at your front “Folder list”. you will see the archive files here.

Source: http://techflag.com

How to open .rar file in Mac OS X

Mac newbie might wan to know how to open .rar in Mac OS X. I once look for ways to open .rar file in Mac OS X too. To open .rar file in Mac OS X you need to third party software help. By default Mac OS X doesn't come with tools that open .rar file (or might have that i do not know, correct me if i’m wrong)

To open .rar file in Mac OS X, follow the steps below:-

1) Open your browser, and go to UnRaR website and download a copy of UnRarX.

2) UnRarX is a freeware that is written by Eugene Roshal. Thanks Eugene!

3) Once downloaded, unpackage it and drag the UnRarX icon to your Application folder

4) Now you can start UnRarX to open any .rar file in Mac OS X

Source: http://techflag.com

Play All video Files In Media Player

Windows Media Player faces problem when playing some formats.Its because the Video makers use different kind of codecs for the same format.So it has clashes which may leads to play only audio or even may cause suspicious end to media players.

The First and the Short answer for this question is to install K-Lite Codec.K-lite codec is such a famous that it is known as all in one codec.With K-Lite installed all kind of files can be played in Media Player.

3 Packs Of K-Lite Codecs Are :

1)K-Lite Codec Pack Full - It has encoding support for various formats. This powerpackage is for professional user who make thier own encodings.

2)K-Lite Codec Pack Standard - It fits the average users who almost use almost 3+ uncommon extensions

3)K-Lite Codec Pack Basic- It contains only the most essential Codecs. It just has common extension support codecs.

Get it And install and Your Media Player Starts working as VLC Media Player. Make Your Media Player A Pro.

Source: http://techflag.com

How to protect your computer from virus in pen drives

Pen drives, Memory cards and other USB drives are most common source of virus.

One simple way to avoid virus from pen drive is to open it by right-clicking on the drive icon in “My Computer” and clicking on Explore or by typing the drive letter in the address bar followed by a “:”

You can also use a software called “Autorun Blocker” to fix this virus

“Autorun Blocker” gets loaded automatically into system memory. It eats very low memory.

When you connect a pen drive to your computer which contains autorun.inf viruses, it automatically renames autorun.inf files on the device and changes the attribute of autorun.inf file to be normal and visible to the user.

Now you can delete the autorun.inf files on the drive and also delete all other virus files on the USB drive, whose names are their in the autorun.inf files code.

source: http://techflag.com

Daphne – Kill Not Responding Process Without Restarting Windows

We have received so many problems regarding several windows and third party process which may hang sometimes and goes into not responding state which in turn create a problem as no other process respond to user mouse action at that point of time.

In such a type of situation a free program like Daphne can be very useful to kill the not responding or hanged process which has caused the whole trouble. Daphne is a small system tray application which can be used for killing, controlling and debugging windows process.

You can kill any process by dragging the mouse over windows, right clicking the process in the Daphne process list and select end process. It can also be used to set any window to be on the top, to be transparent or to be enabled.

source: www.troublefixers.com

How to block any installed application from lunching on your computer

This will help you to block any windows built-in applications or other third party programs from being executed on a target computer. If you want to restrict an application from running your family members and co-workers then AppLocker provides a simple solution to do so.

However this tip is very useful for you, if you are sharing your computer with others or you do not want that other persons run all installed applications. This trick will work in nearly all of the windows versions like windows 2000, XP, 2003 and 2008.

AppLocker provides us a complete solution to block any programs from being executed on a target computer. You can download this tool for any windows version using AppLocker link. Download it and run the easy setup.

After installation, double click on AppLocker icon on your desktop to start the Application Locker software. Now this application will display the list of computer software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and many others

Here click on any application checkbox and then click on Save button to block any software. For example, if you want to block Internet Explorer then select the checkbox of internet explorer and now after saving the change click on Internet Explorer to start it. Here you will get following message:

Now here you can add other application other than the default lock application list, you can lock other programs by clicking the “Configure” button to open the configuration window. Type the caption you want displayed on the ‘Lock application list’. Then, type the programs executable file name and click the ‘Add’ button to add new applications.

How to disable the right click functionality on the desktop

This is very useful particularly for home users who want to protect their system default settings against unwanted changes that other users can make. For example changes in system desktop appearance, themes, and screen saver as well as other display settings. Using registry editor, you can disable the right click functionality on desktop to access the "Display Properties" dialog box and this will also prevent users to access windows explorer.

Follow the given steps to disable the right click functionality on desktop:

To use this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

Click Start button and type regedit.exe in Run option then press Enter for next.

Here locate the location to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Here in right side panel, right click to create a new DWORD value with the name NoViewContextMenu (it is case sensitive), then assign number 1 in value data box.

Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.
But next time, if you want to enable right click functionality on desktop then simply change the value of data box or delete the NoViewContextMenu DWORD item.


source : www.computerfreetips.com

Unhide the Administrator

Few people are aware of Windows XP's cloaked administrator account (called, appropriately enough, "Administrator"). This account is invisible unless either your system has no other accounts or you are booting in Safe Mode. To remove Administrator's camouflage and add it to XP's Welcome screen, navigate to & select

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the Registry Editor,

and double-click the Administrator icon in the right pane. If you don't see this icon, right-click in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator, and press Enter. Type 1 in the 'Value data' box, and press . From now on, when you open the User Accounts window via the Control Panel, you'll see the Administrator account. You can easily change its picture or give it a password. In addition, the next time you see the Welcome screen, your Administrator account will be visible, along with the entire computer's other user accounts.

Disabling the Boot Logo

You can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP. This little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but seconds count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and running as quickly as possible.

The only negative is that if you remove the boot logo, you will also not see any boot messages, such as check disk. To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:

1. Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.

2. In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.

3. On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.

Disabling Recent Documents History

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down.

1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it

once it is created.

4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.

5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the

change to take effect.

How to setup free Yahoo POP3 email

The easiest way to setup free yahoo pop3 email is register yahoo ac with YMail.com domain. YMail come with free POP3 and email forwarding service. Yahoo mail offer YMail.com domain few months ago.

To setup free yahoo pop3 email, follow the steps below:-

• Go to YahooMail and click on “Sign Up”
• Fill in your personal info at Section 1 and while choosing Yahoo email in Section 2 please select “YMail.com” and you may finish the rest of the info and click “Create My Account”
• Once your account being created, login to YahooMail with your new email address as username and password just entered.
• Once logged in, click on “Options” at the top right and Select “POP & Forwarding” at the left navigation section
• If you see “Pardon our appearance during construction”, You may click on the link at the bottom, “Setup or edit POP & Forwarding”
• New window will appear, Now select “Web and POP access” and click “Save” button
• Click on the link “POP Settings” beside the “Web and POP access”, it’ll show you the information to configure your free yahoo pop3 email in Outlook Express or Thunderbird.
  You may refer to my previous tutorial on how to setup POP3 account in Outlook express
• Done, you just setup a free yahoo pop3 email.

source: www.techiecorner.com