If you ever need to reinstall the software, you will be required to re-enter the product key. For this reason, it is imperative that you keep a copy of your product keys in a safe place. The Computer Psychic recommends that you print out a page containing any pertinent information for a given program. This would include the program name, the product key, any user names and passwords associated with the application, plus contact information – company’s address, help line number, and the like.

You can then keep a file of all of these pages in a handy location, in case you ever need to reinstall. There is one more precaution you can take. If you have a web-based email account (Windows Live Mail, GMail, Yahoo Mail), or if your internet service provider has a web-based tool for their email (most do), you can email yourself a list of all of these product keys. This way if you have a fire and lose both your computer and your product keys file, you can always recover these from your email.

One more thing to keep in mind. The Windows operating system also has it’s own product keys. If your computer came with Windows pre-installed, there will be a sticker on the computer showing the version of Windows you have, and its product key. Since these stickers have been known to come off, or wear down such that they are illegible, you will want to add that information to your product key file as well.

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.

The reality is, these days a good credit score can not only save you money on a car loan, mortgage and insurance, but it might dictate whether or not you get an apartment or even a job!

With so much riding on your credit score, it only makes sense to monitor it regularly. Fortunately, the internet makes it easy to do that.

First of all, forget FreeCreditReport.com. That’s the one we all hear about on the radio and TV. However, if you sign up with them, you’ll find the credit report is only free if you subscribe to their monthly monitoring service. And that’s not free! Here are some other resources you can use to monitor your credit score, and they really are free!

Credit Karma – Their easy to read reports and graphs allow you to track your credit score from month to month. In addition, they offer free tools and advice to improve your score.

Quizzle – As their tagline says: Don’t guess. Know. This easy to use website not only gives you your credit score, but also your full credit report, home value, and tools and tips.

AnnualCreditReport.com – This website was created as mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. It is operated by the big three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Under the rules of the act, you are able to receive one free credit report per year from each agency. This means you can log in once every four months and request a report from a different agency. As mandated by the act, ou will receive your full credit report, but – since credit scores weren’t part of the mandate – you will have to pay extra to view your credit score.

With all of these sites, you will need to provide personal information, including your social security number. But rest assured, the sites are secure and so is your data.

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.

No, The Computer Psychic didn’t just have a stroke. I meant to type the above paragraph that way. For those of you not into texting, here’s what it says:

Does this look strange to you? Can you even read it? If you’re comfortable reading this, then you are familiar with texting.

If you have kids – and if they have cellphones – odds are they text more than they talk on them. But what is all that gobblygoop they type? It’s simply a form of shorthand that makes texting on a telephone keypad quicker and easier. And, even though they may not admit it, they also think it’s “cool” to text like that.

It’s pretty easy to decipher text-speak. You simply read the characters as they look. For example, take a look at the title of this article. It translates into “What are you texting today?” In addition to this shorthand, there are many acronyms these darn kids today use as well. Following are just a few:

And, once again proving that you can find anything at all on the internet, check out the Lingo to English translator.

So, now that you know all bout texting, put dwn yr keybord, pik ^ yr ph, n gt txtN!

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.

When the computer hibernates, it still powers down completely. However, in this mode, it saves an image of the computer’s state – all running programs, what files are open and the like. So when you next power up, the computer doesn’t  need to go through the entire boot up process. Instead, the screen opens with all of your running programs already open. This saves considerable time over a normal boot.

You can use virtually any picture as an image on your desktop. If you have a picture in your computer that you’d like to use as desktop image, all you need to do is browse to that file’s location, and the right-click on the file. In the subsequent pop-up, select Set as Desktop Background. Easy, isn’t it?

If you’re browsing the internet and come across a picture you want to use as a desktop background, that’s just as easy. Simply right-click on the image and in the pop-up select Set as Background. (If you’re using the Google Chrome browser, it’s a bit more difficult. Right-click the image and then save it to your computer. Then browse to that saved file’s location, right-click on it and select Set as Desktop Background).

Using this method, you can set your desktop background to whatever suits your mood at the moment. The Computer Psychic’s media center computer, for example, currently displays a skeptical hippo.

By the way, you can also display the image original size or stretch it to fit your desktop. Right-click on the desktop and select Personalize, and then Desktop Background. (XP users, select Settings and then Desktop.) Here you can size it as desired.

One more thing – if you want even more variety, you can install an application that changes your background automatically. One good free app that does this is John’s Background Switcher.

Bottom line is, it’s your computer! Have some fun with it, and personalize it to fit your mood.

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.

So, we all agree that malware is bad. Given that there are literally scores of anti-virus programs out there, what’s the best way of removing an infection? This article will give you the tools and methods to clean most infections out of your computer.

To perform this task, you will need a second computer where you can access the internet, and a removable USB drive – often called a flash drive. This will allow you to download the required tools with the assurance that they aren’t infected by your current virus.

On the “good” computer, download the following two tools: Rkill and SUPERAntiSpyware Portable. Save both files to your flash drive. (Make note of the filename downloaded from SUPERAntiSpyware. In order for it to sneak by some viruses, it downloads with a random filename, so we can’t tell you in this article what it will be.) Now we’re ready to get to work on the infected computer.

The first thing to do is to restart the infected computer in safe mode. Safe mode is a special state of Windows where it runs with just the minimal processes required for operation. It doesn’t load any video drivers, sound drivers, startup programs, or -hopefully – viruses. To start your computer in safe mode, turn it off, wait a few seconds and then turn it back on. Before the starting Windows screen appears, while you still see a black screen with text, press the F8 key. (I usually just start pressing the F8 key as soon as I turn the computer on, about one press per second.) After a bit you’ll see a screen with boot options. Select the first – Safe Mode. The computer will proceed to start in safe mode. Since no video drivers have been loaded, keep in mind the screen may well look different.

Some viruses have been known to be able to infect safe mode. So the next step will be to attempt to stop the running virus. Insert the flash drive. You may get a screen asking what you want to do with the drive, select the option to Open to view files. If not, open My Computer and browse to the flash drive. Double-click on Rkill to start it. When it’s done it will display a screen showing what processes were stopped. You can close that window. Keep in mind that Rkill didn’t remove the virus. It just stopped it from running, allowing us to remove it with the next tool.

Browse back to your flash drive and double-click the SUPER Anti-Spyware file you downloaded earlier. This will start the portable version of SUPERAntiSpyware. On the introduction screen to SUPERAntiSpyware, click the button labeled Click here to start.  Select your language, and then click the Scan your computer button. Now just click the Next button to perform a complete scan of your system. The scan may take quite a while. Once it’s done it will present you with the number of found infections. Click the OK button to continue. The next screen shows a complete list detailing what it found. Simply click the Next button to remove the infections.

When SUPERAntiSpyware is done, restart your computer and let it boot normally. Your computer should now be malware free!

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.

There’s a particularly nasty virus going around these days. It goes by the name of Internet Security 2010. This virus, if left unchecked, will progressively inject itself into running processes, block internet access, prevent you from accessing certain Windows features, and eventually render your computer unusable.

Internet Security 2010 infects your computer with the Vundo virus. This virus is often missed by the latest anti-virus programs, meaning even if your anti-virus software is up to date, you may still get infected by the virus.

So, how do you know if you’re infected with Internet Security 2010, or another wrapper for the Vundo virus? First of all, you will see a screen showing a fake security scan. This scan will purport to have found several viruses, with an option to purchase the program and correct the issues. Don’t fall for it. This screen is a fake. Yes, you have a virus (most likely, at this point, several) but IS2010 won’t fix them. They will take your money and pretend to fix the issues, but in reality, you will be more infected than ever.

Other symptoms of IS2010 may or may not include:

• Your desktop wallpaper changing to simple text telling you that your system has been infected and will be suspended.
• You may be unable to access certain web sites
• Windows update may be disabled
• Your current anti-virus program may be suspended
• You cannot access the registry
• You cannot boot into safe mode
• If you can boot to safe mode, you may receive these same fake virus warnings
• Your firewall may be disabled

Internet Security 2010 often looks different on different systems. Depending on how long it’s been in your computer, you may not see all of the above symptoms. The longer it’s active, the more infected your computer becomes. In addition, it acts as a “gateway” allowing your system to become further infected with other viruses.

So, it’s a nasty virus, it injects itself in many parts of the system. The question is, how do you remove it? Since it disables many anti-virus programs, removal can be problematic.

First of all, try to boot into safe mode. (Restart the computer. While the screen is still black – before it says Starting Windows – press the F8 key. You will see a menu with various safe mode options  select Safe Mode with Networking.) If you can’t boot into safe mode, go ahead and boot into regular mode.

Download and run rkill.com by clicking this link. This app will attempt to stop all IS2010 processes.

Now download and install SuperAntiSpyware free edition by clicking this link. Important: be sure to check the option telling SuperAntiSpyware to automatically download the latest virus definitions and updates.

Once SuperAntiSpyware is installed, go ahead and run a quick scan. Once it’s done it will present you with a list of infections. Click the button to fix the issues.

After SuperAntiSpyware has performed it’s magic, restart the computer, in normal mode. Now run SuperAntiSpyware again, this time doing a full scan, just to make sure everything has been removed.

Just like that, Internet Security 2010 is removed. So, how did you get it, and how do you prevent further infections? The most common way of getting infected is from the internet. You are contentedly visiting a website and you see a popup saying words to the effect of, “Warning. Your computer is infected with spyware or adware. Click here to download the latest version of Internet Security 2010.” (Keep in mind, the message may vary.) There will be two buttons, one labeled OK and one Cancel. Or maybe one labeled Yes and one labeled No. Or Install and Don’t install. You get the idea. There’s one that says Do It and another that says Don’t. The thing is, no matter which button you click on, the virus will be downloaded. The code behind the two buttons is identical. The only way to safely close this window is to click on the X in the upper-right-hand corner of the window. If there is no X, you can use the Ctl-W keyboard combination to close the window. Or Alt-F4 to close the internet.

So, in a nutshell, be aware of what you’re clicking on when browsing the internet. Keep your anti-virus software up to date with the latest virus definitions, and you’ll greatly reduce the chance of getting infected by malware.

Of course, one option is to simply shut down the computer. This closes all running programs, exits Windows and powers off the computer. When next you turn on the computer, it will power up and start Windows. Windows will then load all necessary drivers, plus any programs that are configured to run at startup. This by far is the slowest method.

Another option is to put the computer to sleep. Sleep mode is a power saving state of the system. When you put the computer to sleep, Windows saves all running programs and then powers down the computer. The system doesn’t completely turn off, but suspends operation, using about 10% of amount of power used by Windows when it’s running. Entering sleep mode can be equated to pausing a DVD – the system is ready to start at a moment’s notice – usually in just a few seconds.

A third option has the advantage of completely shutting down your computer, thus using no power, combined with a fast startup. This mode is called hibernate. When you hibernate, Windows will save all open documents, and then power down the system. However, before the power down, it will save the state of Windows in a temporary file. When the system next starts up, the previous state will be restored, thus eliminating the time-consuming process of loading drivers and startup programs.

So, which should you use? There’s rarely a reason to completely shut down the computer. If energy savings are a concern, then use hibernate. If quick startup is driving factor, then use sleep. If the computer is a portable system and it won’t be plugged in, keep in mind that sleep will continue to drain the battery. So if you’re going to be away from the system for some time, better to use hibernate.

Not all systems support sleep mode. Certain video cards are incompatible with sleep, thus you may not have that option available. You may have to enable hibernate for that option to be available. To enable Hibernate, open the Control Panel, and then select Power Options. Click the Hibernate tab and select Enable hibernation. But with this information, you can make a more intelligent when shutting down your computer; which mode combines the best – for you – combination of power savings and quick startup times.

This article is provided by Steve Smith, The Computer Psychic. All content is protected by applicable copyrights, and may not be reproduced without express consent of the author.

The information in this knowledge base article is provided “as-is” with no warranty, express or implied, as to the suitability or validity of its content. It is up to the reader of this article to determine if the steps outlined herein are appropriate for his or her use. As with all tasks on the computer, be sure to have a current backup of your data before proceeding.