42
15 - 21 JUNE 2012
Life tech
with Aunty Virus
Email auntyvirus@roundtownnews.com
Running Malwarebytes and Superantispyware Peter from La Siesta asks;
HELLO AUNTY, I have AVG 2012 free version on my computer, and like you have suggested many times in the past, Malwarebytes and Superantispyware. AVG is set to update automatically each day and also scans my email. I run Malwarebytes and Superantispyware every couple of weeks and have noticed that it seems to detect the same things each time, such as: Mywebsearch, Ads Revolver, CurePCSolution, Double Click, HitBox, MediaPlex, Tradedoubler, WebTrends live. I click on ‘Fix Problem’ but the above seem to appear again the time I run the scans. Is this normal and are they a serious threat? Aunty Says; Hello Peter. Some of those are particularly nasty bits of spyware and I suspect they are lurking in both your restore points and recycle bin. The best thing to do is to empty your recycle bin and switch off system restore. From control panel, click on the ‘system’ icon and select the ‘system restore’ tab. You can empty your recycle bin with a right click of the mouse. I often run and updated AVG etc. in safe mode (F8 before Windows starts) as some of the more devious bits of Malware can hide themselves in Windows when it’s running in normal mode.
Google calendar
Roger via email asks; DEAR AUNTY, I wonder if you can help. I belong to a small sailing group. We have to take turns for the boat. We want to adopt a Calendar that we can all access and amend to make our bookings. We have experimented with Google but with little success, can you offer any gems of advice, many thanks. Aunty Says; Hi Roger, I’m surprised you didn’t get on with the Google calendar as I’ve found it really good. You could try the Yahoo one which is similar but with less features. You’ll need to setup a Yahoo account that you all have access to, have a quick look at the help section and you will be fine.
Recognising file types Jenny via email asks; SINCE I have been receiving some of my bank statements and facturas via email I have started getting a message “This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action”, “Create an association in the Folders Control Panel”. I have tried this action without success. I have had the same and similar attachments on my other computer and I had no trouble reading or printing them. I’m back using XP as I couldn’t get on with Vista at all. Aunty Says; We’ve covered this before Jenny but it does come up quite frequently. When Windows does not recognise the type of file you’ve been sent you need to associate a particular program with that particular file type. As you haven’t mentioned the file type I’ve assumed it is an
Adobe Acrobat document with a .pdf at the end (known as the file extension) but the following should work for any file type. Open ‘My Computer’ and chose ‘tools’ from the menu at the top and select ‘Folder Options’. Click on the ‘File Types’ tab and you will see a long list of extension names, click once on the one you have received and you can associate a program from the list using the ‘change’ button. These are the most common file extensions and the best programs to run them. A ‘.pdf’ extension is an Adobe Acrobat file so you’ll need to download Acrobat Reader from www.adobe.com to view one of these. If it has a ‘.doc’ extension, use Word or WordPad. For a ‘.jpg’ use ‘Microsoft Windows and Fax Viewer’ and an ‘.mp3’ use Windows Media Player. Don’t forget to tick the ‘Always use the selected blah blah blah’ box. Oh and if it’s an email attachment with an ‘.exe’ extension be very careful.
Error messages after sending emails Tom from Quesada asks; DEAR AUNTY, on two separate occasions when I send an email they leave my outbox OK but they returned immediately with error messages from the postmaster. The first is to a Hotmail address and a second btinternet in the UK. Any clues as to why I am unable to send anything to these specific emails? I know both addresses are OK as I’ve sent them emails in the past. Aunty Says; I notice you are using an old Terra.es email address Tom, and this is probably being blocked somewhere along the way. Get yourself Google Gmail account and you’ll have no more problems.