Apr
25
For years now, Microsoft has released updates to its Windows operating system on the first Tuesday of every month. This month was no exception. However, notable this month is the shear number of fixes released. March’s updates fixed 4 known issues– April’s however fixed a whopping 64 bugs within the operating system.
If your computer has rebooted on its own, or been taking abnormally long to shut down, you can probably blame it on installing this large number of updates.
Apr
06
Masquerading as a legitimate anti-virus Program has quickly become a favored tactic among virus writers. A piece of software is written which looks legitimate—usually impersonating a well known product—the fake software tells you it has discovered infections and demands a credit card in order to remove them. These “Scareware” viruses are nearly indistinguishable from their legitimate counterparts however there are a few tricks for spotting fakes. I’ll take you through a few of the most effective.
A legitimate version of AVG 2011
Does it scan automatically, finding infections immediately?
The vast majority of anti-virus programs on the market require the user to manually begin a scan in order to reveal threats. In contrast, fake anti-virus programs will start scanning as soon as the computer is booted or the program opened, usually finding infections or “threats” immediately.
Does it ask for a Credit Card?
A legitimate anti-virus won’t ask for a credit card while doing a scan, or right after a scan, or after telling you about the results of a scan. Instead, most anti-viruses use a subscription based model which will warn you long before you need to reenter payment information.
A scareware virus impersonating AVG 2011
Do you remember installing it?
Its always a good idea to familiarize yourself with the applications installed on your computer. If you see an icon you don’t remember installing, there is a good chance it shouldn’t be there. Most anti-virus installations are fairly involved, requiring internet registration etc. Chances are you’ll recall the experience.
Mar
30
Mar
20
Time Machine is the easiest way to back up and restore your Mac. In this guide you will learn to use Time Machine to go back in time and recover changes you made to apps, documents, photos and etc. Most Mac users do not know the life saving power and potential of this killer app, as this is the easiest way to backup and restore your Mac .
If you do not see this window, check to see if your external hard drive is turned on and plugged in correctly
That’s all you have to do for Time Machine to automatically back up your data and apps. As long as your hard drive is plugged in; Time Machine will create hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups until your backup drive is full. Keep in mind that the first time you run your Time Machine backup it may take several hours for it to complete, however you can still use your Mac while it transfers your data.
Time Machine allows you to go “back in time” to restore files, versions of files, or your entire Mac OS X system. Make sure your backup disk is connected to your Mac (if not, Time Machine will alert you that “The storage location for Time Machine backups can’t be found” when you launch Time Machine).Restoring specific files or foldersWhile your backup disk is connected, click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and the Time Machine restore interface appears.
You can select the date from which the backups were made on the bottom right hand side with the 3d arrows and preview files by tapping the spacebar to activate Quick look.
With your backup disk connected, start up your Mac from your Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard installation disk. After starting up, use the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer DVD.
When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you’ve already made. You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities folder on your Macintosh HD).
Well that should about cover it. If you have any questions about how to use Time Machine or backing up your data; contact a technician at Pine Computers as we can custom tailor a backup solution that is not only stored at home but is also in the cloud with our offsite backup services to help alleviate life’s little data disasters.
follow: RSS
