Everything you need to know about Windows updates

Understanding the different monthly security and quality updates for Windows, and how they’re getting more efficient.  — Thanks to TechRepublic for this informative blog!

Since October 2003, the second Tuesday of the month has seen a slew of fixes and updates for Windows — but those aren’t the only updates that come out for Windows every month.

Looking Forward to 2012

It’s the last week of the year, but 2011 is far from over.

Whether you’ve followed the political revolutions or the economic reformations, the events of this year will resonate for the rest of this decade, if not longer.

Where technology is concerned, this year has been pivotal. This will forever be the year the world lost Steve Jobs, possibly the greatest innovator of commercial technology since Thomas Edison. However Mr. Jobs did not part this world before we had all realized what he already knew: the future of the personal computer is mobility, agility and simplicity. In years to come 2011 may mark the beginning of the end of a second generation of users, still chained by mouse and keyboard to hulking PCs, still tethered to wall sockets, to draw sustenance of both power and information.

Reimage Tips & Tricks: Giving the boot a Boost!

Remember the days when restarting your system meant that it was time to make a few phone calls or go for a smoke (yes kids, once upon a time people spoke on phones that were tethered to the walls and we were also allowed to smoke indoors).

One of the great bonuses with Windows 7 is the time it takes to boot up. Relative to previous versions of Windows, it was like being upgraded from having to take a 12 hour transatlantic flight to flying in a concord (I remain optimistic that most of you were born before 1990).

Reimage Tips & Tricks: Keyboard shortcuts for Windows

In an effort to make life easier for the average Windows PC user, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to provide keyboard shortcuts. Whether you know them as keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys, they have been around for as long as I have used a PC (and I’m reserving the right to keep that information a secret), and in recent years, more and more apps and programs are providing users not only with keyboard shortcuts to speed up and simplify their workflow, but are enabling users to customize and create their own shortcuts.

Revenge of the Stuxnet: Microsoft isn’t ready to face off with Duqu

Yes folks, this time last week it was Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, unfortunately this new patch won’t fully solve the latest of troublesome trojans, Duqu (not to be confused an evil Jedi master).

Duqu is a recent meddling malware that many suspect may have been created by the same person, or persons, who created Stuxnet, arguably the most important malware in history. However, where Stuxnet primarily targeted automation and PLC gear, Duqu acts as a recon drone for future attacks, collecting various information from infected systems. I dare say that I am not alone in assuming that a bigger threat might be out there, lying dormant, awaiting this information only to wreak havoc on PCs worldwide.

-App, App, and Away!

There is very little we can do on a PC without applications, or apps. Everything from a monstrous memory munchers like Adobe Illustrator down to the itty-bitty Windows’ calculator and notepad; if it isn’t part of the basic operating system, it’s an app.
Microsoft includes a number of apps in its Windows OS package, and for a while these basic apps were so frequently used you may have considered them paramount. But that was before the Internet, way back before the crazy days that became a prologue to the Dot.Com bubble.

BIOS gets the Boot

The Microsoft BUILD convention is finally behind us, but with the recent announcement of the new Windows 8 boot process, many developers of 3rd party software and hardware have returned worried.

Microsoft seems to be doing away with the BIOS it has relied on since day one. Instead, Windows 8 PCs will rely on an implementation of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), claiming that it is more flexible and programmable than soon to be decedent BIOS. The UEFI will liaise between the Windows 8 operating system and the firmware.

Microsoft’s “Accidental” Leak is a Buzz-Kill

The biggest buzz in the tech world is that Microsoft “accidentally” exposed the new Windows 8 file Explorer. In the post, that appeared on August 29th on Microsoft’s MSDN.COM blog for developers, screen shots of the new Explorer graphic user interface (GUI) and descriptions were revealed to further whet consumers’ appetite for the upcoming Windows 8.

Microsoft stress that “Windows 8 is an opportunity to substantially improve the (user) experience for everyone”, claiming that “Customers have a lot of suggestions for how they’d like to see Explorer evolve”.

The Windows Recovery Virus Returns

Over the past few weeks we have been receiving comments from technicians and private subscribers who have used Reimage to resolve the Windows Recovery Virus.

This virus has been around for a while but has recently resurfaced. The Windows Recovery Virus is a harmful malware that disguises itself as a certified Microsoft optimization program, initiating a scan of the user’s hard-drive, with or without permission. Once this has happened, we must assume that the virus has infiltrated the system, effectively hijacking it by modifying the system settings. It then proceeds to disable any anti-virus and firewall applications. In many cases, the virus prevents any installed programs from running, rendering the PC virtually unusable. To add insult to injury, the virus repeatedly prompts the user to purchase the Windows Recovery registration key, in order to repair the unstable system.

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