Windows Tools, Help & Guides

If you’ve downloaded a file and are not sure you can trust it before opening it, did you know you can use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) to scan it for viruses without running a full virus scan?  MSE lets you do this and it can help give you peace of mind before opening an unknown file.

This feature can be particularly useful if you’re opening a file from removable media (CD, DVD, external HDD etc.) and MSE’s real-time virus checker has not had a chance to do a preliminary scan at the file yet. If you’ve turned off real-time virus scanning, this will also help you avoid virus infection.

Caution: Even if a virus checker doesn’t detect a virus, never open a file from an untrusted source.

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Windows Forums member and owner of Real Security, geohac, has written a comprehensive (and growing) guide to help users remove malware from their PC. In the guide, geohac covers steps you should take to prepare for removal such as disabling proxy servers (to give you a better chance at getting online and getting to the sites you need for virus removal software.) The guide then goes on to show you how to boot into safe mode to fight a virus (something we recommend ourselves) and then shows you which tools you should use to remove a virus (downloading these tools on a non-infected PC is the safest bet and making sure, if you have to use a USB drive to transfer the files, that you don’t put the same, now potentially infected, thumb drive back in the clean PC.)

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DropBox have recently updated their Security Terms of service to inform you that, if required, they’ll decrypt your files and hand them over to law enforcement. While this doesn’t really present a problem for most of us, please be aware that storing your evil plans on DropBox is probably not a good idea… at all.

Here’s the wording from their security policy:

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A recent question from a reader, inspired me to write this article on how to set up and switch between several email accounts in Outlook 2010. The How To article showing you how to set up an account has already been written and I will not repeat that part but rather link to it later on.

Setting up a second (third, fourth … ) account in Outlook.

Adding several accounts to your Outlook 2010 is a simple task. Using them and switching between them is also very easy. What you DO need to decide before adding several accounts is, which will function as your main account, and should the accounts use the same PST-file (the database storing your emails) or should you use separate PST-files ?

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These days with the Internet being all around us, using a secure browser is essential. We all have that one browser we love to use, and often in disregard to its security or lack there of.

The lack of security may lay in an outdated browser version, but also in the plugins, add ons and what not installed. The over eager use of plugins (as done in MSIE and Firefox) is why I personally dread most browsers. Mostly because these plugins tend to clutter my “browsing space” but also due to the lack of security.

How do you know how safe your browser experience really is ?

The short answer is: BrowserCheck By Qualys

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This is a common problem and I am sure many of you have had this problem before. Your antivirus detects a virus, then it removes the virus but your system doesn’t act the way you expected. In this post you will learn how to fix a computer after a virus infection.

We have spoken before about removing Windows virus:

Test to See if Your Antivirus Software Works (Safe)

Remove Viruses And Malware in Safe Mode [How To]

Thomas has written a post about a program that restores several windows features:

Re-Enable 2.0 – Restore Windows functionality after virus and Trojan attack [Freeware]

In this post  we are going to use another approach with SuperAntiSpyware portable to do this:

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