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Have a look at this YouTube video:
It is amazing how many problems can be cured by a restart/reboot, that’s why it is a worthy early step.
Many people will remember those conversation in the school playground where kids would brag about the fighting prowess of their respective fathers. Let us consider the modern Internet variation of this game!
For those business and people whom are obsessed with web traffic, and more in particular hits and page views, you should question the business rationale for such a craving. Would it not be better to have in place procedures and systems that monitor and report the revenue being generated through your web presence?
Technorati Tags: amusing, blaugh.com, funny, hit, humor, humour, marketing, web stats
In the vast majority of cases hoax and SPAM emails are a nuisance, but a new breed of scam email is causing concern amongst its victims. The email will purport to come from a hitman who’s been hired by a so called “friend” to get rid of you for $50,000, but he is willing to drop the contract if you pay $80,000. Of course, sums may vary depending on what the scammer perceives your worth to be!!
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has an excellent news article on this alarming scam.
Anyone who is alarmed by the receipt of this type of email should inform their local police station and other internet related law enforcement agencies in your country.
Technorati Tags: email scam, hitman, hoax, police, scam, spam
At various times over the last couple of years there have been reports of instances when the service host control process (SVCHOST.EXE) ramps up and stays at 100% utilisation. During these periods, the system performance could be crippled with a noticeable slowing down and sluggishness of response from the computer.
One of the main causes of this was the Windows/Microsoft automatic update process, but no one, including Microsoft, was able to narrow it down any further than that. All throughout this time there have been many numerous fixes and workarounds, the most common and successful of which are shown below.
SOLUTION
Turn off automatic updates and do things manually!
SOLUTION
Only use Windows and Office update. The former could be set-up to run automatically, but the later had to be checked manually.
SOLUTION
1. Open the properties of the “Automatic Updates’ service.
2.In the tab “Log On”, make sure the option “Local System account” is selected and the option “Allow service to interact with desktop” is unchecked.
3. Repeat the above steps with Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) service
4. Re-register Windows Update components by opening a command prompt and typing the following commands (or put them in a batch file and execute it):
REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
5. Stop the Update service (from a command prompt):
net stop wuauserv
6. Delete or rename the Update folder “SoftwareDistribution”, normally found under “C:\Windows”
7. Re-start the Update service (from a command prompt):
net start wuauserv
8. Manually start Microsoft Update & follow the usual prompts (eg install ActiveX Control), etc.
THE FINEST SOLUTION & THE ONE TO USE
The WSUS Product Team believes this solves all three svchost problems that Windows users have been experiencing.
1. Download, save and then install the KB927891 update.
2. Download, save and install the recently released ’standalone’ version of Windows Update Agent 3.0 for 32 bit machines (*not* Vista or any x64 version of Windows).
This fix has just been successfully used on a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook that was locking up when running Microsoft Update.
We know there will be many happy Microsoft customers out there now that this fix is finally available. The SVCHOST issues has been a scourge for too long!
Microsoft has an update (KB906569) that adds a “Tools” tab to the System Configuration utility, which is otherwise known as “MSCONFIG”, to systems running Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, MSCONFIG, update, Windows XP, SP2
Google searches web’s dark side and finds some very scary results. Their investigation revealed one in ten websites contain serious malware that will infect the computers of visitors.
Bottomline time: don’t visit dodgy websites which includes crack, serial number, warez, and porn websites amongst others. Only visit reputable websites from individual and companies you trust.
Microsoft’s monthly updates seem to have broken Outlook.
Customers have been reporting Outlook 2003 as running slow and there being a painful wait (lag) when opening and rendering emails. People are starting to report the issue on various forums throughout the Internet, so this is a significant issue!
Current thinking is the problem might be related to the Internet Explorer cumulative update contained in May’s patch cycle. Turning off automatic updates and uninstalling “Cumulative security Update for Internet Explorer 931768″ has so far been successful in our limited testing. Of course, if you’ve yet to do May’s patching and you use Outlook 2003, and possibly prior versions, then you may wish to put off installing the problematic update until Microsoft fix it.
It has been suggested that changing Outlook’s start-up configuration to show Outlook Today also works around the issue, but we’ve yet to test this “fix”. Please leave feedback if this works for you.
Hopefully, Microsoft will fix this ASAP as it is causing all kinds of problems for end customers. Thankfully, Outlook 2007 isn’t affected by this issue since they moved to using the Word rendering engine.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft update, Outlook, patch Tuesday, performance issue
Seems like there is an issue with a Dell addin called “Media Direct”. The advice coming from Dell users is to ditch this addin to improve Outlook 2007 performance. If only this was the only issue causing performance problems in the new version of Outlook.
[ Source: Tim Anderson's Blog ]
Technorati Tags: Dell, media direct, Outlook 2007, Tim Anderson
Some of our customers have bought new systems with Windows Vista preinstalled. Many have found it usable, but some have found it torture.
Q. Will Microsoft fix the issues with Windows Vista?
A. Undoubtable and it will become a stable and worthy successor to Windows XP.
Q. When will Microsoft get it fixed?
A. Don’t expect to see the first service pack until later this year or maybe earlier next.
Q. Should I try Vista?
A. Only try it on non-critical systems i.e. best avoided for business systems at the moment in our opinion.
Domestic customers may feel it less of a risk to give it a try.
Technorati Tags: blaugh.com, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, XP
We know many folk look to do damage to their PCs when it lets them down, so here’s a solution if you’ve got more than one:
Let us help to take away your PC pains. We can assist in making your PC work for you in a secure and productive manner.
Technorati Tags: dominos, PC , technology pain
