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You may have heard the term “Patch Tuesday” discussed online, and wondered just what it was. Or, if you’re the type of person who leaves their PC on 24 x 7, you know that usually about once a month, you’re going to sit down at your PC and find that it rebooted itself overnight for some reason. Why?

Blame it on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month.

Patch Tuesday is when Microsoft rolls out all the upgrades and security patches to its various operating systems for those who have Automatic Updates enabled. Even if you don’t, though, there can be the odd time when you’ll find that Microsoft has *forced* an update onto your PC and rebooted it. Generally, though, if Microsoft considers a security issue serious enough to override your settings for updates, it’s probably going to be an update that you really should have.

If you don’t have automatic updates enabled, this is when you should be hitting Windows Update, to try and get the latest updates and patches for your OS. Sometimes it can be better to wait a day or two, though, simply due to the fact that there’s going to be a *lot* of other people trying to do the exact same thing that you are. If you’ve got the time, go for it. If not, waiting a day or two probably won’t kill your machine.

Patch Tuesday Schedule

The remaining Patch Tuesday events for 2008 are:

• Tuesday, August 11th
• Tuesday, September 8th
• Tuesday, October 14th
• Tuesday, November 11th
• Tuesday, December 9th

If you’re like most people with a Windows machine, you use Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to browse the web.  But there’s a few other browsers out there that you may not have even heard of, which may very well do a better job than IE.  Firefox is the one that I’m going to focus on today.

Firefox released the third version of its browser on a week ago yesterday, and more than 8 million people downloaded the new version.  What do these people know about this browser that you don’t?  Keep reading, and I’ll show you.

The Firefox browser draws its roots from Netscape Navigator, which at one time was as dominant a browser as Internet Explorer is today.  But eventually the developers of Navigator decided that they wanted to do something else with the beast, and they laid the plans for what would eventually come to be known as Firefox.

So why should you download Firefox and try it out?  Have you ever been reading a website in IE that just looked like it was designed poorly?  Maybe the graphics don’t quite line up, or things just look a little…off?  Chances are, that page would load properly in Firefox.  Microsoft has taken a few liberties with the web design standards and tweaked them so that IE doesn’t always follow the standard.  That’s why you get funny looking pages.

Firefox follows the CSS (web design) guidelines much more closely, and, consequently, you’ll get better looking pages in Firefox.  But what really sets it apart from IE, is the ability to customize it however you want.

While Firefox there are literally thousands of different themes available for Firefox, you’d be best to probably stick with the original, or maybe try one or two to see how you like them.  Chances are, though, that you’ll come back to the original.  But where the customization really shines is in your ability to install add-ons to the browser, to make it work the way that you need it to.

Without a doubt, one of the very best add-ons available for Firefox would have to be AdBlock Plus.  What this plugin will do is block as much advertising as it can from each page that you browse.  And if the odd advertisement slips through, you can tell it to block it, and you’ll never see that ad again on that site.

I have literally visited some websites while using another computer and asked the user when so-and-so site put advertising on their site, only to be told that it’s always been there.  I didn’t know about it because I’d NEVER seen ads on the site.  Give it a try.  You’ll be amazed at the results.

If you like keeping an eye on the weather, give ForecastFox a try.  It’ll display 3 day forecasts for all major metropolitan centers, and some pretty out of the way places as well, in your choice of format (imperial or metric). 

As with the themes, add-ons number in the thousands, with some being must=haves that will just generally make your browsing experience better, while some are very niche-oriented (in 2006, for example, I installed an add-on that showed me live scores from the FIFA World Cup.  I’m hoping that there’s another one written for 2010 tournament in South Africa).

If anyone would like a list of recommened extensions, leave a comment below and I’ll do what I can to forward you a list of add-ons that would be suited for your needs.

Regardless, though, you owe it to yourself to give Firefox 3 a try.  We’d love to hear your thoughts if you do, too.

You may have heard the term “Patch Tuesday” discussed online, and wondered just what it was. Or, if you’re the type of person who leaves their PC on 24 x 7, you know that usually about once a month, you’re going to sit down at your PC and find that it rebooted itself overnight for some reason. Why?

Blame it on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month.

Patch Tuesday is when Microsoft rolls out all the upgrades and security patches to its various operating systems for those who have Automatic Updates enabled. Even if you don’t, though, there can be the odd time when you’ll find that Microsoft has *forced* an update onto your PC and rebooted it. Generally, though, if Microsoft considers a security issue serious enough to override your settings for updates, it’s probably going to be an update that you really should have.

If you don’t have automatic updates enabled, this is when you should be hitting Windows Update, to try and get the latest updates and patches for your OS. Sometimes it can be better to wait a day or two, though, simply due to the fact that there’s going to be a *lot* of other people trying to do the exact same thing that you are. If you’ve got the time, go for it. If not, waiting a day or two probably won’t kill your machine.

Patch Tuesday Schedule

The remaining Patch Tuesday events for 2008 are:

• Tuesday, July 8th
• Tuesday, August 11th
• Tuesday, September 8th
• Tuesday, October 14th
• Tuesday, November 11th
• Tuesday, December 9th

If you’re like most Internet users, you get frustrated at the sheer volume of spam that hits your inbox on a daily basis.  You probably wonder if the company you gave your email address to in order to download that utility sold it to a spam broker.

If you use Google’s Gmail, though, there’s a way you might be able to find out. 

Now, this method isn’t foolproof, but if you want to find out if someone sold your email address, this can help you point the finger in the right direction.

For example, when I signed up for the iTunes Music Store, I provided an email address of myaddress+itunes@gmail.com, for my login address.   This will still be delivered to myaddress@gmail.com, and the plus-sign with the additional information behind it helps me to filter my mail to see if it’s been sold.

I created a filter in Gmail that basically says, anything with the +itunes designation in it should have an ‘iTunes’ label put on it, and put in a special folder.  If I ever get an email at that address that’s not from Apple, then I know that they either gave or sold my address to someone for the purposes of spamming, because the ONLY place that has ever seen that email address is the login server at the iTunes Music Store.

(For the record, I’m not accusing Apple of selling my address, because every email I’ve ever received at myaddress+itunes@gmail.com has been a receipt for a purchase at the iTunes Music Store).

As I mentioned above, though, it’s not foolproof - but not for the reason that you think.  Some websites won’t allow you to enter an email address with a plus-sign in it, but there’s a way around that as well, although it won’t show you who sold your address if you use this method at more than one site.

In addition to myaddress@gmail.com, mail sent to myaddress@googlemail.com will also show up in your inbox.  So, if you get email sent to that address and it shows up from someone you never gave the address to, there’s your smoking gun.

Just another reason why you might want to consider switching to Gmail.

One of the best ‘power toys’ that’s available for Windows XP is Microsoft’s TweakUI utility, which provides a user with a very wide range of ways in which they can customize XP so that it acts just the way they want. 

It can even help deal with some of the XP issues that you might be having.

Clicking on each of the options in the sidebar on the left will open a number of options for that heading in the right hand pane.  Most changes will take effect when you close the application, but some will require you to reboot your machine.

For example, if you don’t want to see the shortcut arrows overlaid on your desktop’s icons, click on ‘Explorer’ and ‘Shortcut’.  Click the ‘None’ radio box, and you’ll never see the arrow again.  This is one of the very first things that I change when start working on an XP machine.

You can also change the settings that determine which applications show up as ‘Frequently Used’ when you click on XP’s Start button.  Applications that you never launch directly (ie, Acrobat Reader, which gets launched when you click on a PDF), can be removed from the list here if you wish.

Ever wondered what half the stuff in your Control Panel does, and why an application is there if you’re never going to use it?  This is where you can toggle whether or not applications show up in the Control Panel.  I’ll put up another post highlighting which apps are generally safe to remove in the near future, but this is one place where de-cluttering can really help.

Finally, if you’re tired of right clicking, selecting New, and getting a long list of options for new files to create for various applications, have a look at the rather shorter list that I’ve configured on my machine:

If you’re looking for a truly useful configuration tool for Windows XP, and one that’s free to boot, TweakUI is definitely worth a look.

Alas, Vista users don’t have the option of a free version (at least yet), but rest assured that one will probably be available before long.

You may have heard the term “Patch Tuesday” discussed online, and wondered just what it was. Or, if you’re the type of person who leaves their PC on 24 x 7, you know that usually about once a month, you’re going to sit down at your PC and find that it rebooted itself overnight for some reason. Why?

Blame it on Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of each month.

Patch Tuesday is when Microsoft rolls out all the upgrades and security patches to its various operating systems for those who have Automatic Updates enabled. Even if you don’t, though, there can be the odd time when you’ll find that Microsoft has *forced* an update onto your PC and rebooted it. Generally, though, if Microsoft considers a security issue serious enough to override your settings for updates, it’s probably going to be an update that you really should have.

If you don’t have automatic updates enabled, this is when you should be hitting Windows Update, to try and get the latest updates and patches for your OS. Sometimes it can be better to wait a day or two, though, simply due to the fact that there’s going to be a *lot* of other people trying to do the exact same thing that you are. If you’ve got the time, go for it. If not, waiting a day or two probably won’t kill your machine.

Patch Tuesday Schedule

The remaining Patch Tuesday events for 2008 are:

• Tuesday, May 12th
• Tuesday, June 9th
• Tuesday, July 8th
• Tuesday, August 11th
• Tuesday, September 8th
• Tuesday, October 14th
• Tuesday, November 11th
• Tuesday, December 9th

Last week I got a call from my dad asking if there was anything I could do about the fact that his six year old XP machine wasn’t booting. I got that sinking feeling, and immediately headed over to see about downloading a copy of Knoppix, as it’s generally the best utility for recovering systems that appear to have died. Someone also suggested Ubuntu, which I had multiple copies of at home, so….

I didn’t intend to go over that night, so I left the Knoppix CD at work, and then when I made the decision to go work on the machine last night, grabbed a copy of Ubuntu, and my external hard drive, on the off chance that I’d have to pave the machine.

When I arrived, I powered up the machine and the external hard drive, to see where we stood. It was dead, all right, reporting that Windows\System32\Config\System was missing or corrupt. Dead registry. Great.

I rebooted with the Ubuntu CD in with the intention of backing up and reinstalling. But when the desktop came up, it wouldn’t (or couldn’t) mount the hard drive. The internal one. This was not good. Now I had to proceed even more carefully.

But at least I had a working net connection with Ubuntu running, so I headed out and tried to find some tips on recovering this train wreck. I found the answer fairly quickly (sorry, but I didn’t keep track of the URL), but it took me a fair bit longer to get it resolved.

There were essentially two solutions - copy the registry files over from the last restore point, or copy the *original* registry over the corrupted one. From 2003. Uh, let’s try solution #1 first.

After a fair bit of checking and double checking, making sure I had all the information I needed (because I obviously wouldn’t have a working net connection while attempting this) I was ready to give it a go.

Unfortunately, copying the registry from the last restore point didn’t work. The machine still halted almost immediately after the POST. I didn’t think about trying the one prior to that because I didn’t know how far back the corruption went.

So I decided to try the 2003 copy of the registry, and amazingly, the XP splash screen came up on reboot, and the machine booted into the desktop. I wasn’t quite out of the woods yet, though. All of the drivers (and things like NAV) were no longer installed. But a quick run of the driver CD, and everything seemed to be back up and running.

The next task, of course, was to back up the My Documents folder to my external drive. Something that should have been done more frequently, and hopefully will be done so after this experience.

No matter how bulletproof (or new) your machine is, please backup everything that you can’t afford to lose. Photos, documents, music. All of it. Regularly. We dodged a bullet this time, but might not be quite as lucky next time. Ordinarily you only have to lose all of your date one time before you get religion on backing up.

Don’t wait for that time, please.

Okay, the other day I posted a schedule for SP3 for Windows XP, with the promise that I was going to spend the weekend finding out what all was going into SP3.  As it turns out, SP3 is not going to be as dramatic a shift as SP2 was a couple of years ago.

Once again I turned to Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows for the details on what was going to be included in SP3.  Here’s essentially what it comes down to.

The first thing that SP3 is going to do is make your system as current as it can be, patch-wise, including everything that was in both SP1 and SP2.  Microsoft does require, however, that SP1 already be installed on your PC prior to adding the new service pack.  They also recommend, but not require, that SP2 also be installed prior to the upgrade.

There’s also four new minor features that Microsoft has included in SP3 that they’ve effectively drawn from Windows Vista, although these aren’t really ‘user end’ features.  In other words, they won’t affect your experience of using XP in any really noticeable ways.  They include:

1. Network Access Protection compatibility: allows Windows XP computers to interact with the NAP features built into Windows Server 2008.
2. No need to enter a Windows product key during setup.
3. Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module: this module will “encapsulate several different cryptographic algorithms”.  According to Microsoft.
4. Black Hole router detection: if your router drops certain types of networking packets, XP will now ignore it.  Not generally something you’ll need to worry about, though.

And that’s it.  Have I lost anyone yet?  Admittedly, there’s nothing particularly sexy about SP3, but if for no other reason than it’ll patch your machine to a state that’s as current as can be, get the update when it becomes available.  It’ll help deal with some of the XP issues you might be having.

At least according to this post on Ars Technica, which got its information from Neowin.  Apparently, this is the timetable that Microsoft is working on:

• April 14: Support is available for SP3
• April 21: OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers), Volume License customers, MSDN and Microsoft TechNet subscribers get access to SP3
• April 29: SP3 becomes available on Windows Update
• June 10: Automatic updates

So, by June 15 or so, unless you’ve got automatic updates turned off, you’ll soon be running Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

I’m going to be doing a fair bit of digging this weekend to see what I can come up with regarding the upgrade and will have a post on Monday morning with the details of what I’ve found.

When used in conjunction with Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware can be one of the very best things that you can run on your machine to keep it working optimally.

Adware is any application that downloads or displays ads on your PC while you are using an application or viewing a website. It can even be used to override the advertising that’s already configured to display on a website. The other thing that Ad-Aware is top-notch at removing is any tracking cookie that a website may have placed on your PC. While cookies are generally harmless, some people feel better if they wipe them off the machine each time they run the application. Whatever suits you is fine.

As with Spybot, the first thing you need to do is click the Update button and let it grab the latest definitions from the website. After that’s completed, click on Scan Now, and select your level of paranoia. I personally just go with the default setting (Smart Scan), which scans the areas of your drive that are most likely to be affected by adware.

After the scan is complete, it’ll show three tabs, as below, with the various severity levels indicated.

The three tabs are headed Critical, Tracking Cookies, and Logfile. If there’s anything under the Critical tab, let Ad-Aware deal with it. The other two are personal choices. I don’t worry a whole lot about the tracking cookies myself, but if you’d feel better deleting them, by all means do so.

Ad-Aware does feature a few other tools to help keep your PC running its best. Ad-Watch monitors your system in real time to protect the most commonly attacked areas of your operating system, including the Registry and all running processes. It’ll also clear all cookies every time you close your browser if you wish, and even delete cookies on the fly if it deems them to be malicious.

Regardless of how you look at it, though, both Ad-Aware and Spybot make for an excellent defense against the malicious software that tries to get on to your PC on a daily basis.

Download Ad-Aware from LavaSoft, and then please have a look at the Spybot tutorial.