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Today is our last post from our Password series!  It’s always important to treat all your passwords with care.  It’s essential that you do so because you never know who may want get hold of your password or pass phrase until it’s too late!

• Reveal – Make sure you keep your passwords away from everyone (even family), especially children.  You never know who they may accidently tell.  You never know who may pass on your password without thinking.  The only exception to this is a joint account created with a spouse.
• Protect Recordings – Make sure you store any passwords you’ve written down in a careful place!  Never put it in the bin with out shredding and ripping the paper up profusely.  If you save them on your computer make sure the file is well hidden and not easily accessible.
• Email – Never give your password out via email.  If you’re emailed asking you to go to a website to verify your password it is more than likely to be a phishing scam.  Click here to find out more about phishing!
• Regular changes – It is a great idea to regularly change your password, depending on its length. If your password is around 8 characters long then we recommend you change it every couple of weeks.  If it is strong and 15 letters long we think it should last for years!
• Control of Computer – We suggest that you should only access profiles and accounts when you’re on your own computer.  It can be dangerous to do so in internet cafe’s etc because criminals can easily access previous used passwords using their technical equipment.

We hope that you’ve found the Password Series interesting and helpful!  Don’t forget to check out the Microsoft Password Checker to test the strength of your passwords!

Below is a 6 step method to creating a strong, good quality, easy to remember password!  Our method is easy to remember, just think the ‘S and 5 C’s’ method!

1. Sentence – Think of a personal sentence of phrase that you find really easy to remember, e.g. I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars.  This is known as a pass phrase.
2. Compatibility – Some systems, whether it be on the computer or online, may not allow spaces in your password.  If the system you’re using does allow for spaces use the pass phrase from step one and move to step 4.  If not then move to step3.
3. Conversion – If the system doesn’t allow for spaces convert the phrase.  For example, take all the first letters from your pass phrase to make a word, e.g. ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ changes to ‘ihtpratb’.
4. Complicate things – Make the password harder to guess by varying between upper and lower case letters and throw in the odd number too.  For example, your pass phrase could change from this  ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ to ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ or your converted pass phrase could change from this ‘ihtpratb’ to ‘Ih3PrA2b’.
5. Characters – Now try to replace any words, letters or numbers with symbols and alternative characters.  For example, your pass phrase could start as ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ and change to ‘! h@v£ 3 p£t R@BbIt$ & 2 BuDgEr!g@r$’ or your converted pass phrase could start as ‘Ih3PrA2b’ and change to ‘!h3Pr&2b’.
6. Check – Finally, check the strength of your password using the Windows Password Checker.  The stronger the better!

Over the next few weeks we’re doing a series on passwords!  It is always important to have a good password.  Having a strong password makes it even harder for any hacker to get into your private accounts and information, etc.

Here are some good ways to ensure you have a good quality password:

• Length – It is ideal to have a long password.  By long we mean at least 8 letters long but if possible even longer!  Generally, the longer it is the harder it is the hack.  Many systems now also allow for spaces in your password.  Therefore it may be a good idea to invent a long phrase rather than a word.
• Use the whole keyboard – It is a great idea to use letters, numbers and symbols in your password.  The greater the variety of keys the harder it is for an attacker to break into your account.  Surveys have shown that having a 15 character password using both letters and numbers is far stronger than having an 8 character password with just letters.  In fact it’s 33,000 times stronger!
• Make it memorable – It is essential that your password is really easy for you to remember!  However, it is also essential that other people, even your friends, wont be able to guess it easily!

Finally, check out the quality of your password with the Microsoft Password Checker!

Are you finding that emails from some of your contacts are sneaking into your Junk Mail/Spam folder?  Here is a great little tip for those of you who are running AVG 8/8.5 to stop this happening!

1. Open up the AVG Interface (Start –> Programs –> AVG –> AVG User Interface)
2. Click tools and then advanced settings
   
3. Click on the (+) next to Anti-Spam and then Click Settings.  After this click in the box next to ‘add recipients of sent e-mails to whitelist’ to make sure there is a tick in it.  (Click on below image to make it bigger)
   
4. Select Apply and then click OK.

We hope this helps!

You don’t have to have all these snazzy photo programs to print a decent photo on your PC.  Vista have a great tool which is easy to use and comes preinstalled on your machine.  Here’s how to use it…

1. To Start click on the Vista Start Orb and select Pictures
   
2. Click once on the photo you wish to print.  If you wish to print multiple photos hold down ‘CTRL’ on your keyboard whilst clicking on the photos you want to print.  Then click print at the top of the window.  (Click on the image to make it larger)
   
3. A window will then appear.  You will than have a few decisions to make…
   • First of all select your printer, paper size and print quality from the drop down.
   • You can also choose how you wish the photos to be laid out on your paper by browsing the options on the right hand side (please note, if the options aren’t there it is because the paper size you have selected has no options to choose from).
   • If you want to print more than one copy of each picture you can by changing the number in the box.
   • The ‘fit picture to frame’ stretches your photos so they fill up the entire space that you have given to each photo, but beware in some cases an edge of the photo maybe cut off by selecting this option.
   • If you click options you are taken to ‘print preferences’, colour management etc.
     (Click on the image to make it larger)

   

4. When you’re happy with all your choices click print!

Any questions?

You may find that your AVG Anti-Spam isn’t catching some of your SPAM Emails.  There are two different ways to catch SPAM emails.  The below tutorial will show you both ways, starting off with HAM.  HAM training of Anti-Spam teaches AVG what emails you want.  The other method is SPAM training, this teaches AVG which emails you don’t want.  Both methods are pretty straightforward and we highly recommend you teach AVG to do it in both ways.  You may have to do this a few times but AVG catches on pretty quick!

Read the rest of this entry »

This tutorial will show you how to run a ScanDisk on your Vista PC.

What is a ScanDisk?

ScanDisk, also known as ‘Error Checking’ simply scans the file system and repairs any errors or bad clusters.  This just helps keep your computer running smoothly and hopefully quickly, so its worth doing.  How often depends on how much you use your machine, every three months for the home user should be fine.  Busy home machines or business machines I would say monthly ideally.

How to run a ScanDisk

1. Firstly, close all programs.
2. Click on the Start Orb.
   
3. Select ‘Computer’
   
4. Right-Click on the drive which has the Label ‘(C:)’ and then select ‘Properties’.
   
5. Select the ‘Tools’ tab and then ‘Check Now’ (Click to Enlarge Image)
   
6. Ensure that both boxes are ticked, then click ‘Start’.
   
7. Click ‘Schedule Disk Scan’ and then restart your machine.
   

Any questions?

This tutorial will show you how run/schedule a Defragmentation on your Vista machine.

What is a Defrag?

If you use this analogy, your computer is like a filing cabinet, it starts all neat and tidy but over time it becomes messy and disorganised.  Defrag simply tidies things up which makes it easier for the computer to locate the information it requires therefore improving the performance of the machine.

Tip:

We suggest that you don’t have any programs running whilst running a Defrag.

How to run a Defrag

1. First of all click on the Start orb
   
2. Then select ‘Computer’
   
3. Right-Click on the drive which has the Label (C:) and select ‘Properties’.
   
4. Select the ‘Tools’ tab and then Defragment Now (Click to Enlarge Image)
   
5. Select Defragment Now (Click to Enlarge Image)
   
6. Select which disks you wish to be defragmented (we recommend that you Defragment all Disks).  Once you’ve selected click OK.
   
7. Your computer will now be running a Defragmentation.  This may take up to a few hours.  (Click to Enlarge Image)
   
8. You will be informed when the Defrag is complete.  At that point you can close the Defrag Window and continue using your computer as you normally would.

How to Schedule a Defrag:

On Vista, Defragmentation is set on a default schedule.  However, that schedule may not fit to your work style.  So here is how to change the Scheduled date and time.

1. Follow steps 1-4 from ‘How to run a Defrag’
2. Select ‘Modify Schedule’  (Click to enlarge Image)
   
3. Decide when you would like the Defrag to be Scheduled for by using the drop down menus (Click to Enlarge Image)
   
4. Click OK

Have you found this helpful?  What would you like pctoolbox to do next?!

You may find that your AVG Anti-Spam isn’t catching some of your SPAM Emails.  If this is the case you will need to train AVG.  You may have to do this a few times but AVG catches on pretty quick!

1. First of all open up your email program e.g. Microsoft Office 2007 (Although we are using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 for the example, the process is very similar in most email software.)  Now you must create a new folder.
   
2. Give the New Folder a name.  We suggest ‘TRAIN_SPAM’.  Then Click OK.
   
3. Drag into this new folder any Spam emails that AVG has missed.
4. Once you’ve put any missed spam in the folder you need to open up AVG.  Select ‘Tools’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’.
   
5. Click ‘Anti-Spam’, Settings and then ‘Train Anti-Spam’.  (Click on image to make bigger).
   
6. Select your Email Software from the list.  (Click on image to make bigger)
   
7. Now you will be asked for your profile name.  For most people there will be only one option because you will only have one profile.  But for those who have more make sure you select the right one, i.e. the one you will to train with.  You can make your selection via the drop down list.  Then Click OK.
   
8. Find the folder which you wish to train.  Then click ‘Next’.  (Click on image to make bigger)
   
9. Select All Messages (No Filtering) then Next.  (Click on image to make bigger)
   
10. Click Next.
11. Once the process is complete click ‘Finish’ and then ‘OK’.
12. Go back into Outlook or your email program and delete anything that was in the TRAIN_SPAM folder.

From now on the files like those that were in the TRAIN_SPAM folder should be sent automatically to your junk email folder. Sometimes they need to be trained a few times as there are variants of Spam so just repeat the steps above. Give it a go and let us know if you have any suggestions!

A couple of months back AVG 8.0 Free was released and here at pctoolbox we have decided that its time to give it the quick once over and create a quick tutorial to help you use some of its basic features.

New Features:

The most noticeable thing about AVG 8 Free is the new user friendly interface. Not only is it far more stylish and a long awaited/needed face lift it is designed in such a way that everything just seems so much simpler! You can also modify the settings a lot more to suit your style and needs.

Another great new feature is Safe Search, Safe Search scans all the results from your searches in search engines, e.g. google. This is a great way to help prevent any viruses getting into your system. There is also Safe Surf which works very similarly to Safe Search, the difference being it scans in real time the website you are on/visiting instead of the search results. You can be told by ticks or crosses if the site is safe.

Three other new features which are very similar but equally as important are Safe LinKScan, Safe URL Scan and Safe Download Scan. Safe LinKScan Scans any links in emails, web pages, documents etc to check the are safe. Safe URL Scan inspects your favourite websites to check they are safe. Safe Download Scan Scans any downloads you may make to check that they are safe to download.

We recommend that if you download AVG 8.0 Free you download it from Download.com.

Click ‘read the rest of this entry’ to read:

• Installation Tips
• How to initially Configure Your AVG
• How to Change Scheduled time for Scans/Updates
• How to Run a Manual Scan
• How to Run a Manual Update

Read the rest of this entry »