Windows XP? Is It Still Safe?

If you own a Windows XP computer you have at least seen the message saying that “support for windows XP has ended on April 8th” what does that mean? 

The windows XP operating system was release in mid 2001. Despite its age Windows XP known for its stability still holds over 25% of the world market share and more in many business environments. I know many people who still use windows XP Computers everyday. Over the last 12 years Microsoft has diligently looked for problems or security holes and created patches and fix’s for them that we the users know as “windows updates” This April Microsoft  stopped creating new updates and patches for XP, since they have been at it for 12 years they have already patched all of the known issues and will continue to provide for download the fixes that have already been made; however no new updates will not be made. If problems or security issues are discovered in the future they will not take any action to fix the problem. The second change is Microsoft will no longer provide phone support for Windows XP. Luckily this is not something used by most users. The third and last effect that the end of support could have on anyone using a windows XP computer is that as a part of the end of support Microsoft has discontinued their free anti virus program Microsoft security essentials for Windows XP. If you are a Security Essentials users you have most likely noticed a few pop up messages saying that your computer is no longer supported. This means you will need to switch do a more modern anti virus program. On a Windows XP computer I recommend upgrading to Avast free anti virus or a more comprehensive paid program like Norton Internet security. If you have a windows XP computer and are using a good security program you are safe and there is no immediate need to upgrade; however keep in mind that you computer might be nearing its last legs and its time to start thinking about something new. Although Microsoft suggests it upgrading a windows XP computer to windows 8.1 is usually not possible and when it is often cost as much or more then a new computer, so I normally recommend purchasing something new over attempting an upgrade.

 Do you walk, run, hike, cycle, wonder or do any form of outdoor activate? Outdoor activities are one of the most popular pastimes in our beutiful county and for good reason! Whether you are out for a picnic or training for a race sometimes its nice to know how far you have gone, or how long it took you, or what kind of speed you walk at on your weekly sunday morning stroll. All of this information can be easily recorded with a GPS, however if you already carry a smartphone with you that might be all you need. Almost all smart phones have GPS capability build in that you might of used to navigate in your car. That same technology allows your phone to track you smaller excursions as well, all you need is the proper software. There are two applications I use and recommend RunKeeper is a free application for both apple iPhone and Android phones that is very simple and easy to use. Although it is named for runners it is excellent for tracking most outdoor activities including walks, cycling, hiking, and rowing. RunKeeper keeps a history of your activities so you can watch yourself improve as you work towards a goal. The second Application is only available on the iPhone and is for the more detailed person who wants to replace a standalone GPS with their phone to save on the expense and bulk when traveling. MotionX GPS ($1.99) has great maps, and can track your walk, run, drive or just about anything else. It allows you to save waypoints, track routes ahead of time and much more. If you are interested in using a GPS but do not already own a smartphone I recommend Garmin handheld units depending on the size and features they range from $90-$250 and are extremely reliable and well built. 

Computers, the internet and the ability to post home videos on sites like youtube.com have allowed anyone who is an expert at any skill from automotive repair to cooking, sewing and cosmetic make-up to share their skills with anyone who has internet access. Creating their own tutorial page or video on how to create things, modify things or get started in the hobby of their choice. It has become fairly common to look for recipes on the internet and follow cooking instructions from sites like allrecipies.com or recipies.com Something that is just now becoming more and more popular is taking this trend out of the kitchen to whatever hobby you are interested in.  A search on the popular home movie site youtube.com for something as obscure as “how to build a ship in a bottle” brings up nearly 100,000 results. Something more mainstream like “make up tutorial” Brings up about 3.8 million videos to choose from. With this kind of library of videos tutorials and instructions available for free without purchasing a guide or subscription to anything It allows the do it yourselfer and lifelong learner in all of us to thrive. With free instructions on everything from making your own website to learning to cha-cha and changing the brakes on your exact make, model and year of car you can truly teach yourself almost anything. Many of these videos are professionally produced by product manufactures or professional videographers who want to build their portfolios. I am often impress with the quality of the free instructions and content available. No matter the topic or problem you are having give searching for it a try, if anyone else has had that problem before chances are there are instructions or at least suggestions of how to fix it available for free!

One of the questions I have been getting often lately is how to get internet video channels, Netflix streaming, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon instant, the Smithsonian channel, A&E, History, All PBS programming, CBS and NBC News, TED talk’s and literally thousands of the internet video channels on to your television for optimal viewing. If you are interested in watching any of this programming for free and didn’t already know it was available do a web search for the station or network you are interested in. Most now have a large percentage of their programming available on their website delivered directly to you, when you want it for free to watch on your computer. There are also thousand of new internet only channels with topics from knitting and sewing to automotive repair and improvement, also all available for free.  Its great to have all of this content available on your computer, but that can be limiting. It is usually much nicer to enjoy a movie on the bigger screen in the comfort of the living room. Because of this many new Televisions or Smart TV’s come with the ability to access internet programing  directly form the TV’s menu. If you don’t have or need a new TV there are a few affordable ways to access internet programing. If you already have an Xbox 360, Wii or PlayStation3 video game console connected to your TV the internet features within them allow you at access and watch high quality internet programming for free with what you already have. Many new BlueRay players also have internet channel access. If you need a new device to use with your TV from my experience the Roku player which is a very small box that connects to your TV and wirelessly to your home internet connection giving you access to thousands of channels of programming including Netflix streaming and over 100 music stations. The Roku is easy to use and can’t be beat with it’s well under $100 price tag. The Roku 2 connects to both your new HD flat screen and older TV. If you already have a large collection of music, movie or family photo’s on your computer(s) that you would like to play on the TV or sound system easily and wirelessly a $99 Apple TV is very easy to use and does a great job of connecting to your computers and streaming your own music, pictures and videos directly to your TV as well as a huge amount of online content. This is a great way to show off those digital photo’s in the living room on a slide show or with family and friends!

In the last few months almost every time I bring up computer’s someone mentions how troublesome the new Windows 8 can be. This is mostly because it was designed to be used with a touch screen, and if you do not have one it can be very difficult and frustrating to navigate or do simple tasks with. Microsoft designed it so that every computer, desktops, touch screen tablets and phones will all work the same way. That can be nice is you which devices often but can be very frustrating on a normal desktop computer. Windows 8 is being sold with almost all new computers bought at any retail location this year. Luckily there is a fix that can make your Windows 8 computer work like a normal computer you already know how to use. There is a great small program called Menu 8 that puts a start menu back in the lower lefthand corner of the screen just like previous versions of windows and skips the new Metro tile screen all together. Your Windows 8 computer can look almost identical to the reliable and easy to use Windows 7. Menu 8 is 100% free and secure. It is made by iObit a software company that makes a number of good both free and paid programs and utilities that I use. I have installed Menu 8 on dozens of computers and it makes a world of difference. If you do a web search for “Menu 8” You will find their website with quick and easy instructions. If you have a technology related question or suggestion for an article pleas email [email protected]

This article continues my series on great free computer programs with two that I use almost everyday, both programs are made by Google. Currently they are both free as are many of Google’s products.

The first program is Picasa  which is a free photo organization and editing software.  Picasa helps you find, organize and edit all of the photos on your PC or Mac.  Picasa automatically puts your photos in albums by date and allows you to easily drag and drop to create albums for special events or people. Picasa also makes editing your photos something easy that anyone can do with its powerful one-click tools for improving your pictures. Cropping, adding or removing shadow and taking out red-eye along with many other tools are a breeze to use. Picasa makes sharing your photos with friends very easy! You can easily print, email and post your photos to the internet directly from Picasa once they are edited just to your liking. If you take a lot of photos like I often do Picasa is a must have and you can’t beat the price of free.

The Second Google product I would like to talk about is the web browser Google Chrome. Since it is a web browser, Chrome is similar to Internet Explorer or Firefox in its basic functions of showing websites. Chrome however was built from the ground up to be faster and more secure. These are two things that I feel are important.  I use chrome myself because it makes my Internet searches faster plus it takes up less of your computers resources meaning your entire computer runs faster. On top of that chrome is significantly more stable then its competitors meaning it crashes and freezes much less then other browsers something I think everyone can appreciate. Chrome’s security and other helpful built in features clearly makes it the best web browser in my eyes. Visit chrome.google.com if you’re interested in downloading it.

As always if you have any questions about free software, anything else technology related or a topic your interested in feel free to send me an email: [email protected]

This month I am going to begin to talk about open source or free software and how using free community based  alternatives to expensive computer programs can save even the basic computer user a few hundred dollars, and some even more! Open source software is computer software that the creator or copyright holder has licensed it so that anyone can study, change or distribute it free of charge. Open source software is often developed in a collaborative manner. There are also many programs that are not open source but can be used and shared for free with no ad’s or sales involved, just great software from free. 

Some common open source software you might of heard of or used are Mozilla FireFox, Thunderbird or the popular Open Office set of programs. So, what are the best free programs and how can they save you money? Read on to learn more about software that does what you need and more all for free. One of my favorites programs is Something called Libre office, it is an advanced (but easy to use) office suite comparable to the popular Microsoft office. It has an easy to use and powerful word processing program as well as a strong spread sheet program very similar to Microsoft Excel called Calc. It also has great programs for creating slideshows and presentations, diagrams, maintaining databases and compose math formulas. Libre office is completely free and runs on both windows PC’s and Macs. Compared to its paid equivalent’s you can save between 100-250$ by using free office software. It can open documents sent to you by other people and save them as Microsoft word, the world standard so anyone you send files to can access them easily. I recommend everyone download it and give it a try because it is completely free and easy to install just go to www.Libreoffice.org you can give it a try before purchasing something else. (they do ask for donations if you enjoy the product and feel you can)

The second common piece of software that can be expensive is photo editing tools. They can historically be hundreds of dollars. If you interesting in medium to advanced photo editing or graphic design then there is a great program you should know about called Gimp. It is another open source project but this time in the world of graphics. Gimp is a powerful photo editing or graphics tool that has tools used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photomontages, converting between different image formats, and more. It might not be enough for some businesses but Gimp has far more tools than most of us know what to do with. It is VERY similar to Adobe’s Photoshop but at a much more reasonable price for the causal user. Free or donation, www.gimp.org Similar programs sell for between 90-600$ so gimp can be a great find. It also runs on both Mac and PC and can open and save to almost any file format.

I hope that these two tips can help you get more out of your computer! Read next month to hear about the best free or lo-cost tool for everyday computer use like email and web surfing. As always if you have any question large or small about free tools, getting your computer set up to use them or have a question in general about technology please email me! [email protected]

This month I want to talk about one particular computer based scam that I have seen growing over the past few months. It is the Phone call tech support scam. There are several different variants on this scam but the basic plot goes something like the following.

 You are sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon when the phone rings, you answer and it’s a kind, usually not native English speaking young person who says “Hello I am from IT Solutions (sometimes they will claim to be from Microsoft directly) and your computer has been infected with a virus” (or some other reason it needs immediate attention) they will then have you sit down at your computer and follow their instruction to click here, and click there. Showing you that your computer has a huge number of problems weather it actually does or not. Then, sometimes with your permission and understanding and sometimes without they will have you give them remote control of your computer. Once this happens they will ask for quite a large amount of money to fix these none existent problems. Usually around 150$ If you refuse to pay or are not interested they will lock you out of your own computer or do other untold amounts of damage. Unfortunately this is rather effective for criminals because almost everyone home has a Microsoft computer and almost every one of those has had some kind of issues or problem recently that they can claim to be able to fix or as the reason for their call. It is impossible for them to know what is happening on your computer, so they are just calling phone numbers at random and hopping to get someone with an issue. These calls seem to be target at home numbers and areas with the most seniors.

I have seen more than a few perfectly good computer system rendered unusable because of this scam. If you get a call from someone you were not expecting about problems with your computer you have not experienced yourself or from anyone who wants to fix your computer remotely that you have not met in person first chances are it’s not a legitimate company and your about to have more trouble then you had before, Don’t do what they say, you do not want to become another victim of their illegal scam. The best protection from this kind of crime is to not follow the instructions of a complete stranger over the phone. Remember if they called you, they were looking for business, not coming to a request.

As always if you have any questions about computer scams, viruses, and computer security. Have a question you would like to see answered in an article or any other technology related questions feel free to send an email to: [email protected]