What Malware removal tool do you use?
I get asked this question a lot. People are always being infected with a virus, or some piece of software that is just plain ol’ bad for your PC.
What software do I use to get rid of those nasty programs? The ones that are trying to get your information, or destroy your PC. I use a couple of programs depending on how bad the infection is, but as my start I always use Malware Bytes.
Once you have installed this program, its really easy to use it, and keep your machine clean.
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Just click on “Perform Full Scan” and “Scan”.
Once you have run this atleast twice then you can run quick scans after that. If the program find anything it will prompt you to remove it, or clean it automatically.
Here are the settings that I use
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and I recommend that you click on the update tab and check for updates every time that you go to run the software after your first download.
You don’t need to purchase the software to get the functionality, but if you like the software, why not give the developers something
I get asked this question a lot. People are always being infected with a virus, or some piece of software that is just plain ol’ bad for your PC.
What software do I use to get rid of those nasty programs? You know the ones that are trying to get your information, or destroy your PC. I use a couple of programs depending on how bad the infection is, but as my start I always use Malware Bytes.
Once you have installed this program, its really easy to use it, and keep your machine clean.
Just click on “Perform Full Scan” and “Scan”.
Once you have run this atleast twice then you can run quick scans after that. If the program find anything it will prompt you to remove it, or clean it automatically.
Here are the settings that I use
and I recommend that you click on the update tab and check for updates every time that you go to run the software after your first download.
You don’t need to purchase the software to get the functionality, but if you like the software, why not give the developers something for their time.
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Categories: Computers, Security, Software, Tips and Tricks Tags: Anti Virus, Security, Virus Scanner
What do I do if I get a pop-up that says I am out of memory?
What do I do if I get a pop-up that says I am out of memory?
Periodically, while operating your computer, you might get a popup from Windows that says “Insufficient Memory” or something similar to this.
This is a general system error that your computer is letting you know that you may have 1 of 2 conditions happening. Either your PC doesn’t have enough RAM to open the applications that you want to run, and hence you might have too many running at the same time. The other option is that you might have some old processes still running from applications that were shut down already.
Depending on the amount of RAM that you have in your computer is normally what will dictate how often you get this error. To check on the amount of RAM you have in your PC, read my other post here. If you have a very small amount of RAM, you might want to purchase more for your PC, if you have enough space to install it (slots for it to sit in on your motherboard).
If you have RAM that is not being freed when you close applications, this can be due to a memory leak or a rogue process that is not shutting down correctly. There are 2 ways to get rid of this message. The first is to simply do a cold boot of the machine, so all memory is wiped clean. A cold boot is done by shutting down the system and waiting 10 or more seconds before starting it again.
If you have applications running that you can’t shut down at the moment, yet you need to get some RAM back, you can “kill” the process that is causing the issue.
***WARNING*** terminating processes that you are unsure of, might lead to data loss in applications that are open.
Let’s start shall we?
First open the Task Manager for Windows. Right click on your task bar and select Task Manager
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when the task manager launches select the Performance tab
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If your system is running out of resources the second graph will be very close to the top.
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select the Processes tab and sort by memory used
Here you will be able to see which applications are using the most RAM on your system. You can select the application, and select end process.
This will terminate the application, and get you back some of your RAM. Remember if you don’t know what the process is, it might not be safe to terminate it.
Periodically, while operating your computer, you might get a popup from Windows that says ‘Insufficient Memory’ or something similar to this.
This is a general system error that your computer is letting you know that you may have 1 of 2 conditions happening. Either your PC doesn’t have enough RAM to open the applications that you want to run, and hence you might have too many running at the same time. The other option is that you might have some old processes still running from applications that were shut down already.
Depending on the amount of RAM that you have in your computer is normally what will dictate how often you get this error. To check on the amount of RAM you have in your PC, read my other post here. If you have a very small amount of RAM, you might want to purchase more for your PC, if you have enough space to install it (slots for it to sit in on your motherboard).
If you have RAM that is not being freed when you close applications, this can be due to a memory leak or a rogue process that is not shutting down correctly. There are 2 ways to get rid of this message. The first is to simply do a cold boot of the machine, so all memory is wiped clean. A cold boot is done by shutting down the system and waiting 10 or more seconds before starting it again.
If you have applications running that you can’t shut down at the moment, yet you need to get some RAM back, you can “kill” the process that is causing the issue.
***WARNING*** terminating processes that you are unsure of, might lead to data loss in applications that are open.
Let’s start shall we?
First open the Task Manager for Windows. Right click on your task bar and select Task Manager
when the task manager launches select the Performance tab
If your system is running out of resources the second graph will be very close to the top.
select the Processes tab and sort by memory used
Here you will be able to see which applications are using the most RAM on your system. You can select the application, and select end process.
This will terminate the application, and get you back some of your RAM. Remember if you don’t know what the process is, it might not be safe to terminate it.
Related posts
Categories: Computers, Software, Tips and Tricks Tags: Memory, RAM, System Error, Task Manager
How do I disable those annoying updates on Facebook?
disable those annoying updates on facebook.
Do you get really annoyed when you login to facebook and all you see on your wall is a bunch of updates from your friends, but not really from your friends? Rather, the update is from a game or application that they are using on facebook, and it has decided to let you know that your friend is playing thier game, and that they want to let you know, or they need your help!
I know that this topic is not one that I normally cover, but I liked the question that I received so I decided to post on it.
In Facebook, these apps and games are trying to advertise themselves to everyone, and thats why they are posting to your wall. I can appreciate that, but I personally find it annoying, so I am going to tell you how to stop it, without blocking your friend!
When you login to facebook and you are looking at the home page, you might see a bunch of updates from farmville, mafia wars, some random quiz, or whatever the latest facebook fad is. The best way and easiest way to stop them is really simple.
Beside each post on the right hand side, there will be a drop down arrow. You won’t see it unless you move your mouse over that area, thats the trick! once you have your mouse over that area, you will be able to select “hide” or hide application. Hide, will remove all posts from that user, so you never see their updates again. Not sure you will want to do that, but its there. Hide application, will remove all the posts from that application. So if you have 20 friends all playing Farmville, or passing around the 10 things I know about you quiz, once you hide that application, you won’t see anyones update about it afterwards.
Although you are not able to do this on the iPhone with the Facebook app, once you do this on your PC in a webbrowser, then you will not see these updates on your iPhone anymore either.
There you go, now you don’t have to see all those application updates anymore!
This was a request from a subscriber to DutchGeek.com. If you want to get your questions answered, why not post a comment below.
Do you get really annoyed when you login to Facebook and all you see on your wall is a bunch of updates from your friends, but not really from your friends? Rather, the update is from a game or application that they are using on Facebook, and it has decided to let you know that your friend is playing thier game, and that they want to let you know, or they need your help!
I know that this topic is not one that I normally cover, but I liked the question so I decided to post on it.
In Facebook, these apps and games are trying to advertise themselves to everyone, and thats why they are posting to your wall. I can appreciate that, but I personally find it annoying, so I am going to tell you how to stop it, without blocking your friend!
When you login to Facebook and you are looking at the home page, you might see a bunch of updates from Farmville, Mafia Wars, some random quiz, or whatever the latest Facebook fad is. The best way and easiest way to stop them is really simple.
Beside each post on the right hand side, there will be a drop down arrow.
You won’t see it unless you move your mouse over that area, thats the trick! once you have your mouse over that area, you will be able to select “hide” or hide application.
Hide, will remove all posts from that user, so you never see their updates again. Not sure you will want to do that, but its there. Hide application, will remove all the posts from that application. So if you have 20 friends all playing Farmville, or passing around the 10 things I know about you quiz, once you hide that application, you won’t see anyones update about it afterwards.
Although you are not able to do this on the iPhone with the Facebook app, once you do this on your PC in a web browser, then you will not see these updates on your iPhone anymore either.
There you go, now you don’t have to see all those application updates anymore!
This was a request from a subscriber to DutchGeek.com. If you want to get your questions answered, why not post a comment below.
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Ever needed to make an online video?
Have you ever tried to explain something to someone, and it was just too complicated to put into words, where if you were just sitting next to them you would point at the location you wanted them to go, say click this, then that, and hit done?
Most of the soft wares that are available to capture and record your screen cost a bundle, well since the dutch are famous for being cheap, so I found something that will suit your needs, and not break the bank in the process.
Screen Toaster allows you to record your actions on your PC. You can create the video as a portion of your screen or, the entire screen. All the recording is done through your browser window, and then you can save the file in a variety of formats.
The file can be uploaded to YouTube, left on Screen Toaster, or save it to your local PC, and send it to the person in an email you are trying to help. The videos are high quality, but small in size so they are easy to transfer.
This is a great way to be able to visually connect with other people for social media sites, or even to just record yourself getting that high score in minesweeper.
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Going Incognito
Have you ever been asked to disable your firewall or antivirus by tech support people for testing and they want you to surf on the net without protection just to test something.
If you are using google chrome or FireFox there is a way that you can surf an let your browser protect you a little. There is an option called private browsing or surf incognito that will stop the sites that you surf from saving cookies onto your computer. This will help when you are unsure if a site will try to put something on your PC. It will be removed as soon as you close the browser.
This protection can also be used to keep sites that you visit from being recorded into the history of the browser. Let’s say you want to surf some sites that you don’t want other people that might use the computer to know that you went to. Like at a internet cafe or library or school. You can start a private browsing session and surf to your online mail site or your banking site. All information will not be stored in the history so it adds another level of security for you.
Hope this helps you at some point.
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Need a way to covert a PDF to Word?
The other day I needed to be able to convert a PDF to a word file so I could edit the text. I tried the adobe software but the formatting became all messed up and I thought that there had to be a better way.
I did some searching and now you get to benefit from my time. I found a great tool that does a better job of keeping the formatting intact. Just like the next user I am a little leary of installing unknown software an this removes that problem as well.
I found a website that will allow you to upload the file and do the conversion online. It did a great job of keeping the formatting and it allowed me to get the word version of the file.
The website is pdftoword.com simple enough? Atleast it has an easy to remember name!
Just upload the file that you would like to make into a word file, and it will perform its magic. Once it is complete, you get an emailed copy of the Word file.
Try it out, and let me know what you think!
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Categories: Tips and Tricks Tags: computer, internet
Is my Blog working?
A little while ago, I wrote a post on how you could check to see if a website was working for you. I posted a link to a site that I found that you check the status of a website to see if it was down for the entire world, or just for you.
Well, I found another great little site that you might be interested in. If you blog, or if your thinking about starting a blog, I would bookmark this one!
This is a great site that you simply type in the name of your blog, and it gives you some quick information about it. it will report if your server is online, if your RSS feed is available, what your robots.txt file looks like, and even your links for Google and Bing!
How cool is that? A single page to see all the Tech information about your blog that you can use to make sure that your readers are getting the best experience.
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Categories: Computers, Tips and Tricks Tags:
Is your Wireless Network secure?
Hello again!
I came across this issue the other day, as I recently moved into a new area. I didn’t have my Internet Connection setup, and I was just logging into my laptop to use my iPhone as a tethered device, so I could check my email, and surf a little as well.
Low and behold, I saw 10 different networks in my area. 9 of the 10 were secure. 7 using WPA and 2 using WEP. Of the 2 my preference is on WPA.
WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access. This protocol was created after problems were found with the security of the WEP protocol. WEP stand for Wired Equivalency Privacy.
If you have a wireless router at home, and you are unsure if you network is secure, you can login to your router and check wireless security. There will be a setting there for WPA, and it will ask you to generate a passphrase or a key depending on the router.
Once this key is generated you will be able to add this to your connection, and know that your network is more secure, as people will need this key in order to log in to your network.
As I am writing this, I am logged into an unsecured network, and I am able to see all the other PCs that are on the network for this user. I may or may not be able to log in to each PC, but I am still able to access the Internet, and if you have a limit on bandwidth, then other people might start large downloads, or play games, watch movies etc. All the time they spend on the Internet is on your dime!
If you have any questions about securing your wireless network, leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer your questions.
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Categories: Computers, Hardware, Tips and Tricks Tags: Networking, WiFi
Is my favorite site down? or is it just me?
Today’s topic is a good one.
Have you ever gone to your favorite website and not seen any updates, or wondered if it was online? Well there is a wonderful website that you can use to test to see if your favorite site is still up and available for the world to see.
This website will check to see if your favorite site is still up and running, or if you have a connection problem to that site. Simply type in the URLl that you are looking for, and it will report the status back to you.
They have conveniently named it:
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com
If the site is up, it will report back to you that it’s just you, and you can know that your DNS settings are just needing a bit of time to refresh.
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Categories: Tips and Tricks Tags: DNS, internet, website
Just what is this DNS thing I keep hearing about?
Out there on the intertubes, there is a thing called DNS. This stands for Domain Name System, and its very important to you and everyone else out on the net.
The best way to think of it is that DNS is your phone book, plain and simple.
To a browswer searching on the internet, it wants the address of the place that you are trying to get to. Say you are trying to get to google.com. Your browser really wants to see you type in http://74.125.67.100 but lets face it. How many of you are going to remember that number?
Here’s where DNS comes in. you can remember google.com right? well DNS tells your computer and browser that google.com = 74.125.67.100. Hence DNS is your phonebook to the internet. It links the address to the name of the site.
There are lots of DNS servers on the net, and sometimes it takes a while to update all around the world. Normally changes can update in a few minutes up to 48 hours depending on your internet service provider.
If your favorite website (www.dutchgeek.com) changes their IP address (phone number) on the net, its the DNS servers that need to update to make sure that dutchgeek.com has the right address. During this update, you might not be able to see the site, or might see an older version of the site until the change has made its way all around the world.
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Categories: Tips and Tricks Tags: DNS, internet, website
