support.com Blog

IQ Quiz request from a friend? Read the fine print.

2009-11-12T01:26:00Z

There are many ways to be scammed on the Internet... this is just the latest. And with this scam your anti-virus / anti-spyware software won't help you - this scam takes advantage of a way to get plugged into your cellphone bill. As part of the ongoing support.com series of blog articles on avoiding Internet scams add this to the list. The IQ Quiz that turns into a $9.99 monthly charge on your cellphone bill. These scams have even reached the pages of Time Magazine . One of my daughter'sTwitter...(read more)

Microsoft crashed my Movie Theater!

2009-11-04T07:32:00Z

The most awaited movie of the year was releasing tomorrow and somehow I managed to get tickets. My excitement fizzled after swiping my credit card in the Ticket Vending machine in the theatrer. The ticket vending machine refused to recognize my credit card and displayed the message “please insert the same credit card used to reserve tickets” along with a pop up text box which advised me to contact Microsoft for help fixing the ticket vending machine! The only alternative I had was to...(read more)

Facebook Virus via Email - How to Avoid Infection (updatetool.exe)

2009-10-28T23:51:00Z

The Facebook virus authors tried again - and failed - to infect my computer. Screen shot grabber in hand I've documented the experience to (hopefully) prevent your computer from being infected. As I've recommended in other blog entries, being observant and following a couple of simple rules will prevent the majority of security attacks from being successful. How did this attempt begin? As with many attempts, this started with an email. Here is what I saw in my inbox: The title alone made...(read more)

Windows 7 - Surviving the Upgrade

2009-10-27T23:09:00Z

I've written previously about my experiences upgrading three different computers from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (one more to go) - the upgrade process worked... and required a bit of tech expertise (read more here: part 1 , part 2 , part 3 . That was before Windows 7 was officially available. With Windows 7 now available for the general public, and off to what appears to be a fast start, we are starting to see at support.com some post-upgrade challenges. Below is feedback from a Salem, Oregon...(read more)

Avoiding Phishers (for one thing, they can't spell)

2009-10-26T05:52:00Z

As reported on several support.com blog posts, a "phisher" is a hacker that primarily uses bogus emails to trick consumers into giving up personal information. To help consumers avoid being snared by phisher tricks we publish real world examples. A real world example arrived yesterday - in the guise of a Bank of America email (for some reason, Bank of America is a popular phishing ruse). In this case our corporate spam filter correctly blocked the email... I manually let the email through...(read more)

Welcome Windows 7 - Worth the Wait, Worth an Upgrade

2009-10-22T18:43:00Z

October 22 - just another Thursday for many people but an important day for Microsoft Windows watchers. Today Microsoft released Windows 7 - the next advance in the Microsoft Windows operating system that runs most of the world's personal and business computers. We've been testing and working with Windows 7 since the first beta releases were made available to the tech community and have been documenting our experiences along the way. Is Windows 7 another Vista fiasco? We don't think so...(read more)

Why online computer repair? (our customers speak)

2009-10-22T07:34:00Z

When you have a computer problem, there are a wide range of options to get your computer repaired. The typical options include your PC or device manufacturer, your ISP (Internet Service Provider), a retail store or a local computer repair shop. Depending on the type of problem, each of these support providers would either fix the problem or declare the problem “out of scope”, forcing you to find another option. This game of “not my problem” can be very frustrating. More recently...(read more)

Cloud Computing: A New Age Computing Environment

2009-10-21T11:28:00Z

The term “cloud computing” has gained currency in the information technology world in the past 18 months. Cloud computing describes the ongoing evolution in how people access and manage digital information. Recent evolutions in information technology have led to a more distributed computing environment, while also reviving the utility of centralized storage. The growth in high-speed data lines, the falling cost of storage, the advent of wireless high-speed networks etc. have helped drive...(read more)

How to avoid Cyber Security – and other Tricky Rogue Anti-Spyware

2009-10-08T11:44:00Z

Rogue anti-spyware software is a class of bogus software that uses clever techniques to trick consumers into installing software that creates problems and then asks payment to make those problems go away. Software like this is kind of like the Mafia of the Internet – pay us or we’ll continue to pop-up windows and frighten you. Paying these rogue anti-spyware companies is like paying protection money. Once installed, rogue anti-spyware is very hard to remove. Once installed rogue anti...(read more)

Windows 7 HomeGroup - Built-in home networking that finally works

2009-09-30T14:13:00Z

Microsoft has promised with each new operating system release simplified homenetworking - from Windows XP through Windows Vista and now Windows 7. My household perhaps isn't typical but does provide an incubator for home networking challenges. We have five computers - a a slimline desktop PC hooked up to the living room television, my wife's notebook, my daughter's notebook, another desktop computer in the study for home movie editing and finally my work notebook PC. A WiFi-network printer...(read more)

Facebook Virus / Koobface Removal

2009-09-11T21:29:00Z

Koobface (a play on the word Facebook), is a virus distributed via Facebook messaging, the Facebook Wall and other Facebook communication tools. The Facebook (Koobface) virus can turn your computer into a zombie and hijack your web browser. Koobface attempts to automatically send Facebook messages to your Facebook friends list in an attempt to infect more computers. Koobface has spread quickly to hundreds of thousands of computers because consumers are (not surprisingly) more likely to trust messages...(read more)

Windows Vista to Windows 7 - Upgrade Fun Continues!

2009-08-29T16:38:00Z

This is the third in a series of experiences upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (here are the first and second ). In this example I upgraded my wife's Windows Vista (32-bit) notebook to Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit). This time it was a relatively new computer (less than one year old). Should be simple, right? Well - it worked in the end but still required tech expertise to get there. I started as with the other computers by running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft. The Advisor...(read more)

Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 - A Second (messier) Experience

2009-08-24T23:37:00Z

This is the second article on a real-life experience upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (the first is available here ). The first Windows Vista to Windows 7 upgrade I successfully completed was pretty straightforward because the starting point was a clean PC. Not very many applications installed. This second example was a different story because I decided to upgrade my primary work PC (a notebook with multiple years of applications installed and configurations set). The no surprises approach...(read more)

Technologies You Should Care About – Twitter

2009-08-18T06:03:00Z

As technology becomes an integral part of our lives and more and more people adopt the Internet, companies are trying harder than ever to come out with interesting products and services. Competition among these companies is intense and that means the pace of innovation is frantic. It is not easy to keep track of all the innovations, promotions and goodies out there in the market. We at support.com have taken up the challenge and are featuring some of these products and services providing an unbiased...(read more)

Windows 7 Upgrade - Easier (still not perfect)

2009-08-17T21:54:00Z

I've been running Windows 7 Beta and RC (Release Candidate) versions for several months on a test computer. Lots of reasons to like Windows 7 that we've written about separately. Microsoft recently released the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version of Windows 7. The RTM version is shipped to PC manufacturers who are lining up to support Windows 7 when the public gets Windows 7 on October 22. With the RTM version in hand (which developers can get earlier) I set out to upgrade one of my home...(read more)