Free PC Troubleshooter From Microsoft

Microsoft has just come out with a free computer troubleshooter at their FixIt Center. It’s still in beta mode but I gave it a whirl. The video below is a quick demo of the PC troubleshooter…

It works on the following Operating Systems:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)
• Windows XP Pro (64-bit) Service Pack 2 (SP2)
• Windows Vista, Windows 7
• Windows Server 2003 SP2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008 R2

The tool is fairly limited right now but we’ll see if they expand it in the future.

Two other resources I’ve found for solving computer problems are:

The Windows Secrets Lounge. This is a forum dealing with Windows covering the last 10 years. They’ve just modernized it so it can be spidered by the search engines but there’s still unindexed stuff you can find by searching the forum directly.

Another option if your system is all screwed up and you don’t want to have to reformat and reinstall Windows is called Reimage.

You download and run it on your Windows computer and it ‘refurbishes’ your operating system without having to reinstall all of your data and software.

It used to just work on XP computers but now works on Vista and Windows 7 as well. We’ve used it on several client’s computers and it works like a charm, especially after a virus infection.

It’s less than $50 for one key (good indefinitely on that one computer) or less than $70 for three keys. You can also create a boot CD with Reimage on it for computers that won’t load Windows at all..
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Patches From Adobe And MS Coming Tuesday

On Tuesday, October 13, 2009 both Microsoft and Adobe will be releasing patches to close vulnerabilities.

Microsoft will be releasing a massive patch on its regularly scheduled ‘patch Tuesday’. This will include a patch discovered two weeks ago that I mentioned in a post on the New Vista Exploit. Microsoft decided to wait for its normal patch schedule to release the fix rather than coming out with a special patch.

The whole patch download (13 bulletins covering 34 security vulnerabilities) will cover products that include Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Silverlight, Microsoft Forefront, Developer Tools, and SQL Server.

Also on Tuesday Adobe will release a patch to plug a flaw in its PDF Reader/Acrobat software is being exploited by malicious attackers as part of their quarterly update schedule.

The vulnerability affects Adobe Reader and Acrobat version 9.1.3 and earlier..
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New Vista Exploit On The Way

ZDNet has just released information on a possible new attack vector for Microsoft Windows Vista.

[It] provides a clear roadmap for hackers to plant malware or open backdoors on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and 2 as well as Windows 2008 SP1 server

This puts Microsoft in a bind, since its scheduled “patch Tuesday” isn’t for another two weeks. Do they issue a special patch?

In the meantime Microsoft has released a workaround. Or, to do it yourself you can follow the directions in the workaround section found here.

Vista users take heed..
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Small Business and Windows 7 Recommendations

In this post I’ll cover my recommendations for upgrading and/or purchasing Windows 7. But first, let me confess that I don’t use Vista – never have. Our hardware is fine running XP and we haven’t needed to upgrade, so there was no reason to run out and upgrade hardware just to use a lousy operating system.

Vista is bloated, slow and a pain in the neck to use. Windows 7 is cleaner, faster and uses less power.

So the first recommendation is – which version? There are basically two choices… Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional. The Starter (for tiny netbooks), Home Basic (not available in the U.S. or Europe) and Ultimate (more money for not much gain) are essentially irrelevant.

Here are the extras you get with Windows 7 Professional:

• Only the Pro version can act as a workstation on an internal domain (server)
• Can add a network file/folder as Always Available Offline – Win7 Pro will cache it on your computer, synchronize it and make it available even if the network is down
• If you use Windows Backup you can store a system image to a network drive
• Includes a Windows XP mode to make it compatible with older apps or hardware
• It has a Connect to Network Projector option, which allows you to to mirror your portable PC’s display on a projector connected to a network
• It also has a Presentation mode that automatically kicks in when you connect to a projector and shuts down your instant messaging program, disables your screen saver, and suppresses system messages
• Remote Desktop host service – allows you to connect to the computer remotely without 3rd party software (pcanywhere, GoToMyPC)

So, for small businesses I recommend Windows 7 Professional on all new computers, even laptops. If you need a new computer now I recommend waiting til October 22 when Windows 7 makes its official debut.

Read more.
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Video – How To Show File Extensions

Below is a quick video on how to view file extensions in both Windows XP and Vista…

This is so stupid. Microsoft doesn’t believe you can handle all of that extraneous information, like what kind of file type you are dealing with.

Just follow the steps in the video above and for God’s sake don’t start a war with that secret information you obtain without Microsoft’s knowledge!.
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