Windows Tools, Help & Guides

If you’re selling your computer, sending a faulty drive back to its manufacturer, donating your PC, or sending it to the curb, you should take precautions to ensure your data is properly erased. This guide explains:

• Why you should properly erase your data.
• What precautions you should take when erasing data.

Then I’ll show you three different techniques you can use to completely erase your hard drives:

1. Using Windows Explorer to format your drive.
2. Using Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN.)
3. Using a drill.

Okay, I won’t show you how to do number three but it’s a perfectly feasible option.

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If you receive an email with the subject “Here you have” or “Just for you” don’t open it because it can contains links to a virus. Read the rest of this entry »

Some days ago I wrote a post about Hacking InPrivate Browsing, there you find useful information about how to find traces left by Internet Explorer using InPrivate Browsing.

Incognito Mode in Google Chrome, Private Browsing in Firefox, and InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer are, in essence, the same. This feature restricts the information that browser stores while using the internet. What information are we talking about?

• History: If you enter a web page, information about the site, title and URL, as well as when that page was entered is saved.
• Cookies: Many sites need to track information about the user, for example a set of books on a library site. One way to achieve this is using cookies that store the information on the user’s computer.
• Cache: If you enter more than once on a website, the browser doesn’t need to download all components of that site every time. It’s clear that these programs need storage  and a way to organize the files.

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Passwords are getting more and more a part of our daily life. With many services relying more and more on their users going online, you can get many passwords to keep in mind. Remembering them all can be a daunting task. And if your work make you change your passwords every other week, you’re in really big trouble.

Here in Norway we have become very Internet dependent in our every day tasks. We pay our bills online, we register our income tax report online, we make doctors appointments over the Internet, we are highly represented in Facebook and its equals . If we get unemployed, we have to register and fill in every personal information in secure websites. We even apply for loan, jobs etc via the net.

So the question is, how do you keep track of all the passwords? How creative are you ?

How easy (or hard) is it to guess your passwords ?

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Windows Forums member, walt1019, made the following suggestion in our suggestion box:

Tips on securing home wireless networks could be useful. So many are still using the default settings which are wide open while some just use WEP, MAC filtering or not broadcasting the SSID which offers little to no protection.

This guide will show you how to do the following:

• Access your router’s administration panel.
• Secure your wireless network.
• Secure your router.
• Disable SSID broadcasting.
• Connect to a non-broadcasting network.

Why do You Need to Secure Your Home Network?

With an unsecured network, I can get access to your router, PC, private documents, printer, peripheral devices, and can even monitor your instant messaging activity, emails, bank passwords etc. I can also use the internet you pay your hard earned cash for, without paying for it myself. It’s important to protect your home network and this guide will show you how. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, we asked you which antivirus software you use on your personal desktop.

Thank you to everyone who took park in the poll. Here are the results:

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