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This is for all you Microsoft Windows users out there! Microsoft is now releasing monthly security updates.

End-User Bulletins:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/20031015_windows.asp

Technical Bulletins:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.asp

Visit the websites, read them, and follow the instructions. Maintaining a computer is like maintaining a car people. Just like you have to change the oil, rotate the tires, etc, etc you have to update your computer from time to time too.

There are several things you should do from time to time to keep your system in tip top shape:
1) Update and patch your operating system at least once every month.
updates and patches are vital! They provide bug fixes and plug security holes that could expose your computer to hackers.

2) Update anti-virus software every week (or better yet have the software auto-update daily).
viruses spread rapidly. It's better to keep the anti-virus software updated ahead of time so it can stop a virus before it gets into your system then play cleanup after a virus has infected it. It's worth spending 10-15 minutes a week to make sure the software is updated than having to loose your computer for 2-3 days while it's being cleaned up at the computer shop.

3) run scandisk and defrag on your hard drive once a month.
scandisk checks to make sure your hard drive is functioning properly. It makes sure there are no physical defects that could cause lost data. defrag reorganizes the data on the drive so that it performs better. As time goes on data gets shuffled and unorganized. running defrag will put things back in order. As a result your computer will start up faster, applications will load quicker, etc.

4) clean the inside of your computer case once a year. Over time dust and hair gets sucked up inside your computer by the fans. All that junk inside can impede air flow and cause the computer to overhead. An overheated computer will crash more often. So once a year go buy a can of compressed air from an office store. The cans usually run about 10 dollars. Open up the case and give the insides a good blow down. You'll be surprised how much dust and hair are inside!

Now get to it, you have some work to do!

If you've been having problems with the IM program Trillian crashing on startup lately it's becuase of yahoo.

Found this at the Trillian Discussion Board:

quote:

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26 September 2003

On Thursday, Yahoo changed their protocol in an effort to prevent spammers. As a result, Trillian's connectivity is also affected. You may get a crash in Yahoo.dll or an Invalid Login error when connecting to the Yahoo Messenger network. Cerulean Studios is working on a solution for this problem and will post an update here when a fix is available.

If Trillian crashes when you load it, preventing you from shutting off your Yahoo autoconnect, follow these steps:


Close Trillian. Locate your Yahoo.ini file. Press Windows-F or click your Start Button then Search -> All files and folders -> Yahoo.ini. If you can't find it this way, look in C:Program FilesTrillianUsersDefault or the Trillian Settings directory under your current user's C:Documents and Settings folder.
Edit the file by double-clicking or opening it in Notepad. Replace all occurences of "auto connect=1" with "auto connect=0" and save the file. Now reload Trillian and it won't try to autoconnect to Yahoo, which causes the crash.
We will post an update here as soon as one is available.

Thanks,

Cerulean Studios

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If you're anything like me you probably hate Windows Messenger with a passion. It got even worse when XP was released. It seemed Microsoft integrated the stupid thing into everything! It loads when you log in, every time you use Internet Explorer, even Outlook Express. Here's the simplest way to disable it so it never runs again.

1) First run "gpedit.msc" by going to start menu and selecting Run...

2) Find the Windows Messenger policies at "Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Messenger".

3) Set both "Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run" and "Do not automatically start Windows Messenger initially" to the Enabled state.

4) Restart your machine.

If you use Outlook Express you will find that it now takes a very long time for Outlook Express to load. Here's how to fix that:

1) First run "regedit.exe" by going to start menu and selecting Run...

2) Find the Outlook Express key at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Outlook Express"

3) create a new DWORD value by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New.

4) Set this new DWORD name to "Hide Messenger" and the value to 2.

5) Exit all programs and restart the computer.

Outlook should now load quickly again and there's no Windows Messenger! Note that this will also stop the new versions of AIM from integrating into Outlook Express as well.

It turns out that in Internet Explorer if your homepage is a local file and not a website the menu option "Work Offline" doesn't show up in the File drop-down menu. As a result you won't be able to set IE to offline mode.

This will prevent you from viewing pages that you told IE to download for offline mode because it will try to connect to the actual website instead of using the local offline copy.

To fix the problem just follow the easy step by step guide at the Microsoft Knowledge Base.