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Like first love, you don’t get anything like your first laptop.

I installed Windows XP on my new laptop today. Though I tried hard to get a flawless installation, the laptop has few glitches. One, the wireless driver does not control the indicator lights. They keep on showing red all the time. Two, the in-built microphone of the laptop doesn’t function.

The earlier laptop, though of lower configuration, was far more suited for me. It did not only behave the way i wanted it to, it had a flawless Windows XP installed. Not a single glitch. I miss my first laptop.

Someone broke into my room and took away my laptop that I was so fond of. After losing lot of work, passwords and of course, money, here are few lessons that I got:

1. Get your laptop insured.

2. Keep your Windows account/ or any account protected with a strong password.

3. Don’t save your passwords on the computer. No “Remember me” please.

Until I get a new computer, no more frequent updates on my blogs. I cant work on my blog during hours which my company pays for.

What do you do when you Google for something, say Wallpapers? Click the links that appear on the top by making some guesses about the safety of the site. But since google doesn’t really filter the good and bad on the web[at least not extensively] you may end up at some malicious site that may infect yourPC with some virus or spyware. What if you could find out which sites were safe and which were not?

In my last post, I mentioned about open source, free antispyware Winpooch that integrates with ClamWin antivirus to provide real-time protection to your PC.

McAfee Site Advisor

All those lucky guys who use Mozilla Firefox web browser, you can make your PC more secure by getting real-time advice regarding the safety of the site and also the links that appear on webpages by installing McAfee Site Advisor plug-in for Firefox.

This plug-in gives you a button in the browser which indicates the safety of the site by changing colour — green for safe site, yellow for a bit problematic and red to warn you of the dangers.

The plug-in also gives green, yellow and red marks indicating the level of safety for the links that appear on Google search pages. [And you will be amazed to find that many sites that appear on the top of the search pages may not be very safe.]

And, if you wish to get advice before visiting a site, just go to the homepage of McAfee Site Advisor and ask. This way you don’t have to go to any suspicious site only to see the McAfee® Site Advisor button turn red giving you fears of risng your PC.

The plug-in also adds a search option in the Firefox’s search bar so that you can easily check for some advice on any site before actually going to the site.

The McAfee® SiteAdvisor Firefox Extension protects you from a variety of online nuisances and security threats such as spam, adware, spyware, viruses, and online fraud through color indicator overlays in your search results and in your status bar.

[Windows only] The web is a vast repository — both of good things and the malicious. As soon as you connect to the internet [or even without connecting] your computer is always vulnerable to attack from viruses that may damage your system or remain dormant without causing any apparent damage to the PC. There are also the dangers of spywares lurking on the web which are quick to capitalize on your slightest neglect or carelessness. a spyware infected computer does not only cause irritation but may also lead your to embarrassing situations. Imagine someone need to use your PC for sending a mail. You don’t want them to see the unwanted toolbar that was downloaded to your browser when you visited some malicious site.

Winpooch is a  free and open source anti spyware and anti trojan for Windows. It gives full protection against local or external spyware attacks by scanning the activity of programs in real time.

Winpooch goes a step beyond protecting your PC from spywares by associating with ClamWin antivirus. Once associated with ClamWin antivirus [or Bit Defender antivirus], Winpooch also starts protecting your computer against viruses in real time.

ClamWin antivirus is an effective open source antivirus but it lacks real-time protection. But once it is attached with Winpooch it starts protecting your PC from virus attacks in real time. Winpooch-ClamWin make a lethal combination for protecting your computer against dangers lurking on the web and also in various removable media.

Are you among those who want to use illustration softwares like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw but can’t afford these expensive softwares? Creative Docs .NET is the answer for you.

Creative Docs .NET is an vector-based graphic design tool which can be used for creating posters, brochures, illustration, flow charts and the like. The application is free for non-commercial use. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Server and the latest Vista.

What are the system requirements for using this application?

• PC running Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 or Vista.
• 1 GHz processor
• 1 GB memory recommended
• 1024 x 768 pixels graphics card, or better
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

If you do not have Microsoft .NET Framework installed on your computer Creative Docs .NET will automatically download it for you.

Via: Digital Inspiration

However absurd it may sound, it’s a fact that deleting the password from your Windows XP user account will only make it more secure and save your from any unauthorised access to your computer from the internet or local network.

Most of the time we do not want to set a difficult password to our Windows account. And these passwords can be easily cracked by hackers. If the computer is connected to the internet or a local LAN network, it becomes easy target of hackers.

So, you may desire to secure your computer by adding a password to your computer and would also like to make it some what difficult to guess. [I actually did set a password that was too easy to crack to keep hackers at bay. Now I know I only made my computer more vulnerable to attacks/hacking.]

Windows XP disables the facility to access the computer from network for any user account which is not password protected. This simple trick can work the best for those who have just one computer , or whose computers are not networked and does not require access from other computers. But if the computer is not in a safe physical environment, it becomes easy prey to those who want to steal something from your computer. All they will have to do is turn on the computer and get easy access to your account.

So there you will have to secure your account with a strong password.

[Digital Inspiration, Image: LifeHacker]

With the Web 2.0 phenomenon gaining momentum, there is a large number of services offering online file storage and sharing, like Xdrive, FreeDrive. [Learn about more file sharing sites, including media sharing sites, here.]

But you may still not be satisfied with these sites because they do not give you the complete freedom. You may have to cross several hurdles to access these ervices. But what if you can use an online-file sharing site that synchronizes with your Windows or Machintosh, allowing you to save and share your files and folders online as if you were saving it locally on your PC.

You can save and share you files very easily by just dragging-and-dropping your files and folders in a Dropbox, one of the most simple online file sharing and synchronizing service.

Dropbox is an intelligent combination of Box.net, dot.mac and Microsoft’s FolderShare* syncing service. It makes online storage and sharing of files as simple as dragging files into specially marked local folders.

When you install Dropbox on your Windows PC or Machintosh [Dropbox for Linux is also on the way], it integrates with the file browser and gives you a My Dropbox folders. Every time you drag a file into you My Dropbox folder it is automatically saved online. All of your stuff is available via the web, so you can get from anywhere. You can also undelete files or restore older versions of files. Changes made to the files and folders that are synchronized between various computers get reflected instantly.

The real time changes makes sharing files that require to be edited and worked upon in sequence very easy. Any number of people can work on files and save them. The changed file will become available immediately to all others synchronized with that file or folder. This feature allows two [even more] people t work on a file as if they were sitting on the same table. One makes the change and shows to the other and asks for suggestion. The other makes some more changes, and finally the work is done.

Watch the screencast showing Dropbox for Machintosh on Dropbox or watch it for Windows in the YouTube video here.

The site is currently in beta version, and is open for only on invitation. Beta users get 5GB free as compared with the 1GB that shall be available to regular users when it launches. And the best part is that all beta users retain their 5GB account even after its commercial launch when it will provide free and premium services. So, go and grab an invitation today.

*Windows Live FolderShare is a free service from Microsoft that helps you keep files and folders across multiple computers [both Windows PC and Machintosh] synchronized with each other. You can access your documents, music, photographs and other files from any computer (PC or Mac) that is connected to the Internet.

GigaOm [Via Download Squad ]

[Windows Only]

Do you keep changing your Windows desktop resolution (screen size)? And are you among those who arrange their desktop icons to suit their needs and preferences? [I like the Recycle Bin to stay in the bottom-right of the desktop. Makes things lot easier as I can delete temporary files/folders that re on my desktop after work easily by dragging-and-dropping.]

Whenever you change the screen resolution one undesired thing that happens is that the desktop icons get re-arranged in a way that many people would not like. So, you end up spending good time arranging icon to your desired locations.

Here are two small freewares for Windows that will save you from the hassles when you change screen resolution or want to have different setting for icons –Icon Restore and DesktopOK.

Icon Restore

Icon Restore lets you save the state of your desktop icons and restore them . This small freeware installs LAYOUT.DLL (along with the required registry entries) from Microsoft. It adds two new options to the pop up menu that opens when any Windows system icon (like My Computer) is right clicked — “Save Desktop Icon Layout” and “Restore Desktop Icon Layout”.

There is currently no way to uninstall Icon Restore using Windows’ Add/Remove Programs. If you wish to uninstall Icon restore, you will have to download an uninstaller application from the Icon Restore site. [I recommend you download the unistaller as well with the program.]

DesktopOK

Another small application DesktopOK does a very similar job, also allowing you to save and restore multiple layouts. This means you can have any number of desktop setting with icons at different positions for the same screen resolution.

DesktopOK stays in your system tray when minimized. When you want to change your screen size or desktop icon positions with the same screen size, you can open it, save your desktop state, and then make any changes you want. Restore your desktop to the previous state when you want your previous state. You can also keep a couple of saved layouts for different situations.

Download DesktopOK (ZIP file)

[Via Download Squad]

This is a nice cartoon that I found at Brainstuck.com, a cartoon blog.

How true is this cartoon. Most anti-virus applications eat up so much of resources, including memory and internet bandwidth. And even then you can get infected with some virus or spyware that can outsmart the dumb anti-virus.

In response to this post, Anshul [the person behind Brainstuck] wants us to see the smart virus in action.

Thanks Anshul.