Sunday, July 30, 2006
Tech News
Microsoft removed its private folder application due to outcries from IT departments. However, if you still want to encrypt files, try TrueCrypt.
Paul Thurott was complaining about Windows Genuine Advantage…and later discovered that he was running a pirated copy.
Microsoft will be using an image-based install system for Windows Vista.
Will the iPhone be launched in August?
11a-Noon
Q Adam from Kansas - Experience with WGA/Fresh Custom Install of Windows
After booting up a brand new computer, Windows was complaining that it was not activated.
One way to do it would be to get the oldest copy of Windows XP you can find (Service pack 1 or RTM), and then slipstream it up. Then you can create an image of the install and reinstall the image onto the computer. All the dlls you would remove would cause Windows XP to be unstable. Also, to remove Internet Explorer would only hide it. Here’s the
article about how to remove Internet Explorer from a Windows 2000 installation. Here is how to set up an
unattended Windows XP installation.
Q Rusty from Orange - Setting up a website regarding a book
I’d recommend TypePad to post pictures, have photo albums. For $5-$15 a month, Typepad will host everything. However, for e-commerce, you’ll have to create a custom site. To automate all that, you’ll have to hire a web developer. What you could also do is link to a third-party commerce site.
Noon-1p
Q Mike - Computer going bonkers after downloading a “codec”
You’re guaranteed that your computer is infested with spyware and adware. Once you’ve bought one of the programs from the adware, you’re compured is hosed. The spyware guys are changing their software daily so its hard for Windows Defender and other programs to find the software. Because you’ve gone so far into the problem, I think you got to reinstall. You may also want to try doing a system restore to a day before you downloaded the “codec”. Also, scan your computer for rookits using RootkitRevealer. However, my advice would be to back up only your data and do a reinstall.
Q Shooby from San Jose - Installing Windows on an external hard drive using Boot Camp
I’m stumped. I don’t know if Boot Camp is smart enough to partition an external hard drive. Here is a forum thread from Macrumors about it. Also, there are instructions here. You can also try out Q.
Q Mary from Santa Clarita - Outlook on the Mac/Chanting homepage in Safari/Microsoft Access alternative for OSX
Office for the Mac comes with Entourage which is very close to Outlook.
Go to Yahoo (or whatever site you wish to have as your homepage), and in the preferences, click “set current page as default”.
→Instead of using Access on Windows, you can use
Filemaker Pro on the Mac to create much nicer looking forms.
Q Mike from San Diego - Replacing a bad hard drive on a RAID (mirroring)
You don’t want to lose your data. Back up everything first! Make sure you follow the details from your manual. Take out the old bad drive and replace it with the new drive, and then make sure the software is set to recognize the new hard drive. The larger drive will appear as the same size as the smaller drive.
Q Chris from Monrovia - Deleted WGA credentials
Microsoft does say not to mess with temp files. One of Microsoft’s executives even said, “There is no patch for human stupidity.”
1–2p
Q Russ from Laguna Hills - Computer not showing free space after deleting files/Roxio Easy CD Creator 6 crashing Windows
I’m curious to why Windows is not updating the free space. Make sure there aren’t any issues with the drives. This is a known bug in Windows with large files.
Roxio is notorious for bugs. Try out
Nero.
Q Bill from Thousand Oaks - Getting error to replace hard drive
Your hard drive is working. It is a warning that something may be happening with it. I would certainly back up. A new hard drive isn’t to expensive. Spinrite would give you more information about it.
Q Gay from San Diego - Quickbooks problem
The program created a .loc file so people would not tamper with it. When it crashed, it did not clean the .loc file. We have to find the .loc file and delete it manually. I would start by looking in the QuickBooks folder. You want to find where the program stores its temporary files.
Q Audrey from Laguna Nagel - Mail not allowing you to send large images
Many ISPs only offer 10mb of space for email. There may not be enough room for your recipient to receive the images. I recommend going to flickr and uploading your pictures there; then send the images’ link in an email.
Q Mike - Need a wireless router to go about 50 yards
Pre-N routers will do this. Linksys and Belkin both make these routers. You’ll have to get all pre-n equipment though. You can also use directional antennaes.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
Listener Comments
30 July 2006
I will never use anonymizer again, the slow downs I accepted as tradeoff. But when it’s file was corrupted and I had to reinstall, they suspect me as an illegitimate user and suggest to buy another expensive copy. Now the slowdowns persists, that means I’ll have to spend more money ! Who wants to be squeezed like that?
I have three homebrew computers. I bought the components and Windows XP from PC Club. All three Windows appear to have official Microsoft disks with the holograms, certificates and all. Each time I need to reinstall, the OS will not pass validation. After jumping through “support link hoops” they will be accepted anyway.
WoW A homie From Hoxie Is On The Phone
11:42 by nfs?.
Internet Explorer was never needed from Windows95 on!!! No one really ever mentioned about what happened between BEOs and the fact that Microsoft did sell a version called Windows XP Embedded, without IE, it sold for about $800.
11:42 by Tim?.
I have tried to make a slipstream disk of xp with sp2.I get all the way but the command line entries will not update to SP2.Help please…
Codec/Spyware download -
I’ve had really good luck with my clients who have downloaded WindowsAntivirus/antispyware Software.
1- Reboot after Systeme Restore
2- Set pagefile to 0 (Make a note of setting)
3- Reboot - Turn System Restore OFF
4- Reboot - Return Pagefile setting to previous
5- Run Hijackthis.exe and process it through one the online log Processor - http://www.hijackthis.de/
Good luck
Hey Leo,
Any comments on John Dvorak calling you and Pat Tard Norton a couple of Apple Biggots on your TWIT (appropriately named) show???
ref. When Apple launches new hardware, YOU give it tons of attention while when Dell, Gateway, HP announces the same hardware or new processor in their PC’s or notebook BEFORE Apple does, YOU never mention anything. Hmmm?
Ooops More:
6 - Clean up anything indicated by Hijackthis.exe
7 - Reboot, re-enable System Restore
8 - Get rid of Norton - I like Avast for single systems and TrendMicro products for networks.
9 - Run an A/V scan
10 - Run Spybot,Spysweeper and adaware scan
11 - With 25 IBM or Dell laptops running Windows Defender for the last year, I’ve not had a single spyware problem
12:22 by anonymous.
That hijackthis.de/ site looks kinda fishy
Say, what do you do if your Leoville profile password wont work?
12:24 by nfs?.
I hope that Windows Vista will be a much more improved version of XP --- but how many people used to, the administrator account, and how Windows did things in the past will be comfortable with a Unix/Linux/Apple based approach to security???
In fact, how many people will get tired of typing in a password when they install something. I know some people just get tired of hitting Next, Next, Next…
12:32 by anonymous.
I had Windows Vista on one of my computers. I wasn’t able to install any of my games or any software that works perfectly on XP. I hope that microsoft will have a fix for this because I have alot of money invested in software now and would hate to have to buy everything all over again. Any Idea’s or suggestions?
Shooby gets his five minutes of fame but still can’t spell TEMECULA!
This is interesting, in the Belaire Camera commercial, Leo “claims” that the Canon XT SLR is his “favorite”, yet if you’ve been watching Leo on cable or to his podcasts, he often talks about his Nikon D70 being the best Digital SLR he’s ever had and loves it.
Apparently Leo will tell you listeners ANYTHING is his favorite or best for paid commercial advertisers. Makes you wonder what other product “endorsements” are BS? Makes you wonder ….
12:48 by anonymous.
The “TROLL” is back
12:59 by anonymous.
Problem with Firefox. Firefox updated this week to 1.5.0.5 now I am unable to listen to KFI’s stream. I’ve had to go back to IE6. Anyone else with this problem?
13:02 by Adam.
I bought Windows Xp Home Sp2 OEM thurasday and i havnt had an problems with wga
Legit WGA problems? call 800–642–7676
13:10 by Adam.
dont forget mocrosoft office has a simular version of the windows WGA
I have no problems listening to KFI’s stream with the latest Firefox
CD Burning: NTI CD Maker from New Tech Info Systems. Nero is very cumbersome. This has a straight forward drag and drop interface.
13:21 by Mel?.
I use CD Burner XP Pro. This works fine for CDs. http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ CDBurnerXP Pro is a free CD/DVD burning solution.
With this software you can burn CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs. All features in detail you can
read on the features page.
And its free!!
Norton problems-
Look at it this way: You’re at dinner, you come back to your car to find the windshield smashed with a brick (along with 3 other cars).
There are two greasy looking guys across the street with a pile of bricks. There’s also a priest and a little girl.
Who smashed your windshield?
Yes I agree… CD Burner XP Pro is pretty slick… especially for the price!
RE: Computer not showing free space after deleting files.
Russ said he was using Norton SystemWorks - That usually installs the ‘Norton Protected Recycle Bin’. Deleted files will reside in the protected Bin for at least 1 day or until ‘Empty Norton Protected Files’ (Rt. clik on Recycle Bin)
Shooby, did you follow the directions that came with Bootcamp? Apple has a PDF with complete instructions including how to partition your drive to add bootcamp and get Windows XP running.
like leo I too have favorite gadgets. I love them all. especially habdguns. depending on my mood @ the moment the S&W .44 maybe my favorite or it might be the Isreali .44 special automag.
either one will do the job. just a thought for the troll.
hahaha. just a joke. I’ll use my Nikon instead…
DeletOnBoot utility. Use with care.
13:48 by anonymous.
Anyone who does so much bashing on one SINGLE person, like Truth In Radio does on Leo, has Severe Mental Problems. To say, that everything he talks about is wrong or Invalid there is something really wrong with this guy.
13:53 by .
For the person with quickbooks, Why doesnt she just go into the taskk manager, and look for quickbooks.exe in the processes and end it
I find it a bit strange that Leo keeps telling people not to click on links in email, yet he touts the benefits of sites like Flickr where you upload files and send people emails with links in them.
Not a direct link. Just to the folder.
Just a tip For Creating a PRIVATE Folder take the File association such as .exe or .wmv off of the end of the file NAME and rename it to .uyu or something no one can figure out what to use to open it. then when YOU need it Just CHANGE It Back to .wmv or Whatever it was origonaly.
What was the CD burning softwar Patrick uses Burn----??
for 12:18 Webster Phreaky: leo comments on gadgets that are a joy to see & use. Especially if they represent a significant step in ease of use for oldsters like me or kids like you. When those box makers do make something great he mentions it everytime. check & see how often they do it & see how quickly leo mentions it.
for 12:18 Webster Phreaky: leo comments on gadgets that are a joy to see & use. Especially if they represent a significant step in ease of use for oldsters like me or kids like you. When those box makers do make something great he mentions it everytime. check & see how often they do it & see how quickly leo mentions it.
20:30 by -?.
we read it the 1st time al
31 July 2006
01:34 by anonymous.
thank you extrastep for the reply to my show recording comment. are you a computer whiz type of guy or girl? or are you just an average computer user like me? oh yea,by the way how do you set up or get the password feature when you click on name sender?
12:32 by anonymous.
I had Windows Vista on one of my computers. I wasn’t able to install any of my games or any software that works perfectly on XP. I hope that microsoft will have a fix for this because I have alot of money invested in software now and would hate to have to buy everything all over again. Any Idea’s or suggestions?
Response: Check out DL.TV #80—20 minutes in Robert Heron reports on the latest version of Vista he’s running—for the most part he’s very happy with it, especially with gaming load times. Remember, Vista is a progressing beta and Robert is going to have a machine that can handle Vista AND gaming pretty smoothly, but it sounds like most fairly modern [XP era] software will be compatible.
I’m just an average dude, but I did stay at a Holliday Express last night.
Seriously, do you mean the password feature accessed from the names on this page? If so, that is now strictly controlled by Mr. Laporte and his most trusted minions I believe.
I am not trusted nor a minion but I have the aquarium XP Media Center screensaver going on the widescreen right next to this monitor. Is that SS cool or what! I actually watch the darn thing! Except for the prolific.com logo down in the blue stones and the fact that none of the fish ever die its VERY realistic. I’ve got to find a way to port it or get a version for my mom’s XP home system….
I’m not sure about “trusted minions” but besides Leo, the only two other people who have edit access to the wiki is Shooby, who does the show notes and myself who posts the chat logs. I have also been known to fill in for the Shoobster in doing the show notes.
All show related feedback is now done in the comments.
15:07 by .
How would you send a large 66 mg. video over the internet? flickr only handles photos.
17:30 by Max?.
Sub: Sending large files.
If its just the one or a few files sent once or a few times a site like box.net or dropload.com might work. You can store and access up to a gig at box.net for free. Dropload is a large file transfer protocol type service.
yousendit.com is another but put your file in a .zip and it will work better
18:50 by anonymous.
Re: Free Anti-Virus. I had some ‘issues’ with AVG & dumped Avast (because I thought I had a worm it didn’t catch, but I didn’t)…Is Avira ok? Any suggestions?
22:01 by Max?.
Oh, the red umbrella guys, AntiVir. Yeah, they’re ok. It may come up with a few false positives, some legitimate Java stuff, other locally stored antivirus definitions if available, and one kooky one for me was one particular HP video driver among many that were stored on an HP system for easy configuration-specific setup during assembly.
Maybe it just did it to show me it was working eh? Cuz I went back to AVG on most of my systems and that silent night-stalker hasn’t come up with a FP or real virus in tens and tens of bunny generations. Some people might get nervous during long, extended, silence…not me!
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..hello?
01 August 2006
where is the podcast for Sunday’s show… ????
04:58 by anonymous.
ty Max, I may give AVG another try, sounds good to me! I didn’t get Saturday or Sunday’s podcast…..
08:02 by .
Leo,
Concerning:
Microsoft will be using an image-based install system for Windows Vista.
I heard on an e-week podcast (possibly Microsoft Watch) that Vista will contain a rootkit. Could you check on that and report back if you learn anything? Thanks!
It does suck just sitting around, tapping, waiting for the two most recent shows to be released. Leo has a show notes guy, a chat log guy, and I think he also needs a dedicated expert record/edit/render/release guy.
Leo is the most “artistic” tech geek within my realm of knowledge though and Leo wouldn’t be Leo without that other inconsistent, let it all hang out, distracted by shiny objects side.
Unfortunately, I have the artistic nature of a dog rolling in road kill—so times like these are tough! I picked the wrong weekend to stop rolling my own!
02 August 2006
Podcast interviews made easy.
For those of us fortunate enough to have Macs, apple has truly simplified podcasts interviews.
To do podcasts interviews on a mac start a chat with someone (either audio or video) through iChat. NExt open Garageband (it actually doesnt matter which order you do this) and select new podcast episode.
Click the Record button.
A dialog appears asking if you want to record the conference. The dialog also lists the participants and reminds you to tell them they are about to be recorded.
Click OK.
GarageBand creates a Real Instrument track for each participant with the participant’s name, enables the tracks for recording, and starts recording the iChat.
To stop recording, click the Record button again.
Doing this you can record digital copies of your conversations or video conference and it will place each person in the conversation on a seperate track so you can edit individual participants. ENJOY!
17:09 by WALDO .
waldo is back nooooo208
My opinion is that WGA is probably not a good thing…
Bought a new Dell (from Dell) about a year ago. After setting it up I used windows update ---which stated that the program could not be activated.
Fortunatley, Microsoft’s site help me to finally activate and register the software after going through some very unnecessary, and time consuming steps: Where and when it was purchased, by whom etc.
Not sure if WGA was around then but, it wouldn’t suprise me if things are now even worse than before.
21:33 by anonymous.
I just was listening to the podcast but if you want to add and remove parts of XP and Win2k that you can’t usually un install .Try XpLite it lets you cut down the install size the web address is
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html
03 August 2006
Nlite allows you to remove windows components that you don’t want. For example you can remove the messenger service, or any other component of windows.
Last weekend Leo gave the name of application that will wipe clean all data on a drive making it safe to give away the computer. He was going to add the link but I don’t see it. Does anyone recall the name? Thanks
Norton! I hope they like anti-viral suites on the moon, cuz that’s where you’re goin’!!
Who knew Jack Gleason was so smart. I have to defend (get it, defend) the Roxio suite software a little. I use version 6 on a bunch of systems and even use the drag-n-drop discmaker subroutine all the time—not even one glitch or problem, ever. My only small quibble is that if the burner is high speed and I want to use some old low speed discs, I can’t step the burn speed down far enough but maybe that is a hardware limitation. AND, of course I do not, nor will I ever run Norton, ever.
The other most common complaint I come across, in fact even more so, is problems with networking, yet 90%+ of those are running a third party software firewall (99% of those, Zone Alarm)but I’d have better luck trying to get to the moon myself than convincing someone to get rid of the offending software. Oh well…
And the guy who opened an attachment, then clicked on an email link to a supposed codec, then clicked on and went to a website via a pop up or tray icon that said he had a problem and needed to go there and buy that software to get rid of the problem…and he had a bunch of anti-spyware and antiviral programs in use…
THE most important thing to use is between the ears because the spyware was written by someone(s) with that thing between their ears and the defense software was written with that thing between the ears.
Leo keeps saying you shouldn’t have to use that thing between your ears to protect yourself but one has to realize that would mean trusting that a bunch of people have such enourmously capable things between their ears working on our behalf that the ones who use the thing between their ears for evil purposes don’t stand a chance. I’m reminded of a Dirty Harry line, “Do you feel lucky, well punk, do ya!,” or something very similar.
—written with that thing between my ears—
Rusty,
an easy way to do what you want with selecting a charity is to just post 5 different books (the same book five times) — with each of them with the different charity, that will give you an easy total for each.
04 August 2006
We have turned off system restore, via GPO, in my corporate company, because we have found a lot of the spyware hooks into this and uses it to re-install themselves after removal.
08:34 by Ray?.
Regarding the Quickbooks problem,
There should be a db.log or log.db file in the Quickbook database folder. What I did was to delete away that file whenever Quickbooks did not shut down properly. It works. Not sure if this info will help.
Re: Why Leo gives Apple tons of attention.
Change that to “Good Attention”. :-) He gives Microsloth tons of spyware, adware, and virus attention (how to clean it up: Format, reinstall, slap yourself).
The problem with Dell and Gateway is they are rarely innovative. Usually all their designs are copies from something else.
Apple’s had its failures. Newton comes to mind. I have a feeling the Apple boom box won’t do well either as it is way too expensive for a box of speakers. Note to Apple: Leave audio to the audio experts, Bose, Polk, Klipsh, etc.
05 August 2006
computer boots,runs for a couple of minutes, then shuts down and reboots.What is wrong?
The easiest way to support five different charities with sales of one book with something like TypePad, without custom web authoring, is simply to sell the same book in five “versions” (or five SKUs if you want to think of it that way)— all of them ship the same book, but each supports a different chaity.
07 August 2006
I Would love to help Rusty from Orange, I am a New Webmaster and just starting out. I know Leo always says get a College Student to get it cheaper. I am going to put a link to my site (this is just for Rusty I really don’t want to have my site web crawled, I need links for my resume and like the cause) http://tct.arhynes.org I’m local in SoCal.
10 August 2006
List this message was gura.
I’m listening to the podcast and I just heard Adam’s question about removing Windows components. Leo did mention nLite, but seems to dismiss it. Adam should definitely check it you. With it you can in fact remove all of Internet Explorer (and much much more). Yes, removing certain components will break things but if you find you don’t need the stuff that breaks it certainly is an option. Nlite is free, so all Adam has to lose is time.
Nlite can be found at http://www.nliteos.com/
MSFN has an excellent unattended Windows install guide at http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/
Good luck, Adam. :)
16 August 2006
RE: Mike’s codec problem
After reading this article on Businessweek (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060816_466084.htm), I remembered Mike’s spyware problem that began with his installation of a codec. Sound like Mike got the Zlob trojan.
To quote the relevant text from the article:
“A Trojan program called Zlob masquerades as a video-decoder program intended to be an update for Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Media Player. Users may come across a video clip they’d like to see, and on clicking a link are given an error message and a link to install a new version of the player software. The user’s browser is then redirected to a download site that gives them a program that includes the Zlob Trojan, which in turn downloads more spyware and other malicious software programs.”
