What To Do If Your Pc Is Infected With A Virus?

What to do if your pc is infected with a virus?

Nowadays even people who only know a little bit about computers are aware of the importance of an antivirus system and keeping it up to date. You may care about your PC very thoroughly and suddenly you find your computer doing weird things. Don’t blame the system straight away, it might be not its fault, it might be a virus.

Yes, it’s still possible to end up with a virus even with an active anti-virus system. The thing is malefactors create new viruses every day and your antivirus system might not recognize them for what they are, or they may be even be downloaded straight from internet or network without your interaction if your computer is not password encrypted.

To determine if your PC is doing something suspicious check unusual activities on your PC, for instance an unexplained hard-disc activity or net-work access (in the first instance you should just listen how the hard disc sounds and check the computer’s disc access LED).

What to do if your PC is infected with a virus

• First off you should update your anti-virus program and start regularly scanning manually. Afterwards set the system up for the everyday scanning.
• If the anti-virus program doesn’t find viruses which are present then follow the steps bellows which will help you to prevent a virus from continuing to work on your system.
• Lock the Internet traffic and home network. You should disconnect all net system such as network cables, and wireless cards (or switch built-in wireless units off) and even phone lines. It will prevent viruses and Trojan viruses on your PC from spreading any infection on to other computers. To lock your Internet traffic you need to turn off your network connections, for that you should right click on the network icon in the Windows system tray and choose “disable”. The other option is to pull out the Ethernet cable from the back of your computer. Make sure that before switching off the internet connection you have installed the latest updates for your system such as your Operating System and the anti-virus system.
• Reinstall your operating system. It may sound not very optimistic because you might lose some files. To prevent this happening next time doesn’t forget to back up all your digital assets. Viruses always cause problems and create a risk which means you may lose some files. It’s better to prevent the problem rather than to try and find a cure. Too late shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted as they says, there are some tips how to keep your computer safe.
• Don’t open any attachments or links which you don’t know! Only unzip files if you know who they are from and you are expecting them. Don’t copy files or back them up until the virus will has been dealt with. Otherwise it will be spread onto all devices such as USB’s and other computers.
• Try to avoid shopping online and sharing your bank card details if you think there is a virus on your computer, they steal your card information so they can perform fraudulent transactions and steal identities.
• And the main advice is to keep your anti-virus system updated.

Ubuntu 11.10 Release Schedule

The Ubuntu lovers might want to synchronise their calendar with Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) release schedule which goes as follows:

June 2nd, 2011 – Alpha 1 release
July 7th, 2011 – Alpha 2 release
August 4th, 2011 – Alpha 3 release
September 1st, 2011 – Beta 1 release
September 22nd, 2011 – Beta 2 release
October 13th, 2011 – Final release of Ubuntu 11.10

Ubuntu 11.10 is the 15th Ubuntu operating System. And like 11.04 it will have Unity as its desktop environment.

How To Open Blackberry Files (.Ipd) Files In Computer

How to open Blackberry files (.ipd) files in computer

Whenever you backup data of your Blackberry phone it always saved in .ipd format. This file contains all your Blackberry data and you can restore it data later. But in some emergency or in certain situation if you want to open your Blackberry data into your computer but you don’t know how to open Blackberry .ipd data file…

Magicberry is a free application that allows you to open and manipulate IPD files. You can read almost all data from the IPD file using MagicBerry. It can extract SMS

Messages, Phone Call Logs, Address Book, Service Book, Tasks, memos and calendar data from the file. You can also combine multiple ipd files using this free app. So you can merge multiple blackberry backup files for use. MagicBerry can run on Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems. You can download this freeware from the link below.

Download Magicberry from here

WindowsXP Interface Tips XIII

Security, privacy and recovery: tips



34. Create a password reset disk
Here's an important tip… If you are using a password protected user account in Windows XP (and you really, really should be ) you might be nervous about forgetting your password. Well here's a way to put your mind at ease, at least a little bit. Windows XP allows users to create a password reset disk specific to their user account. This disk can be used at the welcome screen to reset your password in the event that you do forget it.
To create the disk: Go to start\control panel\user accounts. Select the account you are currently logged in as.
Under the 'related tasks' heading in the top left corner, click 'prevent a forgotten password' to open the forgotten password wizard. Insert a blank floppy disk and follow the instructions to create your password reset disk.
To use the password reset disk in case of emergency:
Once you have created a password reset disk for a specific user, the next time the password for that user is entered incorrectly at the welcome screen, a message will pop up asking if you have forgotten your password. At this point you can elect to use your password reset disk. Follow the instructions to reset your password.
Note: There are a couple of possible problems with the above procedure. For one, if you have used Windows XP's built in encryption feature to encrypt some of your files and folders, but have not yet updated to service pack 1, do not reset your password, as you will lose access to all the encrypted data. Once you have got service pack 1, it is safe to use the disk. Also, you cannot gain access to the reset feature if you have disabled the welcome screen on XP by using tip #31 above.
Keep your reset disk in a safe location, because anyone else can also use it to reset your password.... muhahaa!
35. Applying a password to the 'administrator' account in XP Home
All versions of Windows XP come with a built in administrator account. In the case of XP Home, this account can only be accessed in safe mode. Unfortunately, the administrative account in XP Home has no password by default, meaning anyone who knows how to launch windows in safe mode could potentially see your data.
To password protect the administrator account in XP Home: Restart your system. Just after the memory and BIOS check screen, but before the Windows splash screen comes up, press F8 a few times. When the Windows boot menu appears, select 'safe mode' from the list of options.
Once Windows XP has loaded into safe mode, go to 'start\control panel\user accounts' select the administrator account and apply a password to it. Restart normally.


36. 'Rolling back' a faulty device driver
Windows XP has the ability to store previous versions of the device driver for certain hardware devices like video cards and sound cards. This enables you to 'roll back' and replace a driver that is having problems with a proven older version. Obviously, this only works if you have previously updated that device with a new driver.
To 'roll back' a driver: Right click 'my computer' and select properties, then the 'hardware tab' then the 'device manager' button. Locate and highlight the hardware device you wish to roll back the drivers on. Press the 'properties' button.
Select the 'driver' tab and click the 'roll back driver' button. If you have a stored older driver for the device, you will be asked if you wish to roll it back.

Microsoft entering the social networking domain?

Internet giant Microsoft may soon be a player in the social domain. First spotted by fusible.com, going to socl.com reveals a landing page for a new social networking site where users can log in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts.

As of now, logging on to the site displays a message that reads, "Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research, which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn't mean to, honest." 

The service supposedly called "Tulalip" sounds like a real tongue twister but sounds catchy at the same time.

How Microsoft plans to makes its name in the social networking circle still remains to be seen. The fact that you can log in with your Facebook or Twitter account eliminates the need for you to have a separate login account all together.

As of today, Microsoft's gaming hardware, the XBOX 360 is a market leader when it comes to social networking on gaming consoles with Twitter and Facebook integration on the consoles XBOX Live service.

Facebook is still the largest social networking group with over 750 million subscribers. Google Plus recently launched by the search giant already has an install base of over 10 million users. News from ndtv.com.

WindowsXP Interface Tips XII

32. Install the Backup Utility in XP Home
Windows XP Home does not come with the Windows backup utility installed like other versions of Windows XP. However, this useful utility does exist on the XP Home CD, and will work just fine once installed. See the Guide to backing up data in Windows XP for more details on using Windows backup once it is installed.
To install Windows backup on XP Home place your XP Home CD in your drive and navigate to '(CD drive letter):\valueadd\msft\ntbackup\'. Then, double click the 'NTBACKUP.MSI' file to start the installation process.

33. Schedule Automatic Data Backups
You can schedule automatic backups of your Windows data using the built-in backup software and the task scheduler. For more information on the backup utility in Windows XP and how it works, see guide on the subject.
To schedule backups in Windows XP open the backup program ('start\all programs\accessories\system tools\backup'). Go to the 'schedule jobs' tab. Choose a month and day when you want the backup job to run for the first time and click 'add job.'
This will open up the backup wizard which will prompt you for the backup type, location and backup update details. Enter this information and continue until you reach the 'when to back up' window.
Click the 'set schedule' button.

From here, use the 'schedule task' dropdown box to set when the backup should occur and the 'start time' box to set the specific time. Click 'ok,' then 'next' and enter your account information (in case another user is logged in when the job runs). Your scheduled backup has been created.
To edit previously scheduled backups, open the scheduled tasks application at 'start\all programs\accessories\system tools\scheduled tasks.'

From here you can double click the job you created and edit or remove it.

Extend Desktop Space To Infinity With GiMeSpace Desktop Screen Extender

We all do Multitasking and for that Multiple Windows are open taking up space all over your screen. If you have small screen Monitor or Laptop, it will be messed up soon and becomes difficult to operate on active windows. To fix that issue, we will see a special utility to extend the space of Desktop screen to almost infinity.

You may have heard of Workspaces where we arrange different number of windows according to their work on different workspaces. Space Extending is somewhat different concept, It is like having amultiscreen laptop. So, you can go on placing windows side by side upto infinity.

GiMeSpace Desktop Extender is a small utility when installed sits in system tray. It provides an extended desktop in the horizontal direction. When you move the mouse to the left or right you will see that the desktop has limitless space in those directions. Simple and effective to create more desktop space like you would have many monitors next to each other!

Simply, It provides a cheap alternative for adding more monitors to your computer.

Software is compatible with Windows XP and further. It won’t be possible to add a screenshot of this utility so, check out the video to get clear understanding of it’s working.

There is also a paid version of this software which supports vertical scrolling too whereas Free version supports Horizontal screen extending. Download GiMeSpace Desktop Screen Extender Free version.

iOS PDF Vulnerability Creates Security Risks, Allows Easy Jailbreaks

The German IT Agency has issued a security note about a PDF vulnerability affecting Apple’s iOS. This vulnerability is related to the way iOS handles fonts embedded in PDF files, and could allow remote code execution. In other words, loading a malicious PDF file, either received by e-mail, or loaded from a web page, could lead to attackers executing code on an iOS device.



This vulnerability has been used to provide a simple way to jailbreak iOS devices from a web page. (Jailbreaking is a way of hacking the operating system to allow users to access other features and install software not available through the iTunes Store.) Intego strongly recommends against jailbreaking iOS devices, as this opens them to a number of security risks.


Apple should release a security update to iOS in the near future to deal with this vulnerability. In the meantime, users are advised to avoid downloading or viewing PDF files from untrusted sources on their iOS devices.

How to enable Secure “https” brwosing on Facebook

Its a dirty cyberworld. And with the advancement of technology advanced are the dangers. On an unsecure wi-fi connection hacking facebook is child’s play. You might have heard of “Firesheep” add on of Firefox which enables to login in to others’ opened facebook account on the same network. Apart from that, packet sniffers can also be used to steal your password on the fly. Man in the middle attacks are also very popular in the same sense.

One of the most easy way to avert any of the above attack is to use safe browsing withhttps(Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) which is an enhanced secure version of the popular http protocol. Till now https was mainly used for secure payment transaction over internet but recently Facebook and twitter added the option of secure browsing to avoid increased compromising of their user accounts.

• To enable this feature, go to your “Account Settings” on the top right corner.
• In “Settings” tab look for “Account Security“
• Click on “change“
• Tick on the “Secure Browsing (https)“
• Save it.

How to recover Windows Administrator password??

Sometimes when you are not a frequent user of a machine, it may happen that you forget the login details of a computer. If you forget the administrator password and don’t have a password reset disk or another administrator account, you won’t be able to reset the password. If there are no other user accounts on the computer, you won’t be able to log on to Windows and will need to re-install Windows.(Sources: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-to-do-if-you-forget-your-Windows-password). This is what Microsoft says, but fortunately for us , that is not true. There are many password recovery tools available on internet that can help you recover the lost password in minutes. Out of that one free to download open source software is Ophcrack. Follow the steps:

1. Download the Ophcrack LiveCD image from http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/. If you are using Windows 7, download the “Vista” version.

2. Burn the image on a CD/DVD.

3. To recover the log-in password, place the CD in drive and reboot your system. While booting choose to boot from CD (In case you do not know how to boot from cd, as it starts booting start pressing F2 or F12 to go to boot options. There choose the option “boot from cd”).

4. The LiveCD will be booted and it will recover all the users and their corresponding passwords, in minutes.

This is the best software to recover passwords even if you don’t know the ABCD of the complex password recovery process. You can also use it to hack into the systems of your friends (or your lab’s administrator account ).If you want more details, I would suggest you to visit pcsupport.about.com

Troubleshooting FreeRADIUS

Recently I was working with FreeRADIUS to do PEAP authentication. I went under a lot of trouble from installing to configuring the FreeRADIUS. Thankfully, I noted down the problems I encountered and the solution I followed. This is not a complete guide for FreeRADIUS installation but provides you with possible solution to a few errors.

1. While executing radiusd -X, it may throw the following error:

“radiusd: error while loading shared libraries:

 libfreeradius-radius-2.1.10.so:

cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory”

The reason for this error is that the libraries have been installed in a place where dynamic linker cannot find it. To solve this problem use this command:

sudo /sbin/ldconfig -v

2. While running in debug mode the RADIUS server may give the following error:

“Ignoring EAP-Type/tls because we do not have OpenSSL support.

[eap] Request found, released from the list

[eap] EAP NAK

[eap] NAK asked for unsupported type PEAP

[eap] No common EAP types found.

[eap] Failed in EAP select

++[eap] returns invalid

Failed to authenticate the user.”

The reason for this error is that open ssl dev library “libssl-dev” is not installed. Install the library (sudo apt-get install libssl-dev) and re-configure (by running configure, make and make install) FreeRADIUS server.

3. Running the RADIUS server may also result in the following error:

“Error: Failed binding to authentication address * port 1812: Address already in use /usr/local/etc/raddb/radiusd.conf[240]: Error binding to port for 0.0.0.0 port 1812”

The reason for this error is that another instance of radius is running and has occupied the port. See which radius process is running: “ps aux | grep radius”

And then kill that process:

“sudo kill -9 process_id”

4. While running the RADIUS sever it may also throw an error: “no soh-server”. To solve it, copy “soh” file in /usr/local/etc/raddb/sites-available to /usr/local/etc/raddb/sites-enabled.

Microsoft Unveils IE10 for Windows 8

Microsoft recently revealed the latest test version of Internet Explorer 10, which is going to be the stock browser to ship with the highly-anticipated Windows 8 system. The current release uses the same IE engine that was displayed in the initial demo of Windows 8.

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 2, the formal name for the release, uses a number of new capabilities provided by HTML5, optimizes the performance capabilities of HTML5 and adds a number of security options for various Web-based and Web-dependent applications.

The previews from Microsoft started in delivering a lead-up to IE9, but using bare-bones engines for developers to try site code on. Platform Preview 1 for IE10 was let loose on developers during April’s MIX11 conference for developers to get their hands on it. In a statement, Microsoft IE team member Ryan Gavin said that “we continue to get a lot of good feedback from developers on the balance that we’re striking between openness and transparency, while respecting developers’ time as we deliver meaningful updates with the Platform Previews.”

The current strategy is a contrast to the strategy of open source browsers, usually described as “nightly release.”

HTML5 as a developer platform is a bit of a contradiction, however. For one thing, while it was designed and meant to be used as a cross-platform compatible specification, the disparity among the browsers that do support it is greater than almost anything else on the market. Every browser has instead chosen to use some variation of the standard, such that an HTML5 page will display incorrectly except for one specific browser. The problem isn’t getting browsers to respond to HTML5 calls – that has never been that much of a concern – but whether or not the features can be implemented correctly.

Incidentally, despite Windows 8 using HTML5 as a main developer platform, IE10 actually scores very poorly on HTML5Test.com – the site used to measure how compatible a browser is with the code – compared to the currently-available competition. The Microsoft team has apparently worked extensively with the governing standards body of the Internet, the @3C. The second Platform Preview does bring in features new to HTML5 support, but many of them were updates for functionality other browsers already had.

HTML5 for IE has played catch-up in the form of drag-and-drop functionality, file readers and Web workers. The last is a function that lets Web-based applications to run processes in the background without affecting front-end performance. New features in IE10 that use HTML5 support include Channel Messaging and Page visibility, which allows developers to see when a page is visible, rather than in the background or kept minimized. The last tool is useful because it allows developers to allocate processing power more effectively, improving the performance of other software while browsing.

A new – and so far, unique – feature for IE10 is the HTML5 Sandbox and iframe isation. This allows developers to effectively “box off” elements of a site, preventing it from initiating any actions or effects – or doing damage. The Sandbox can, for instance, be used to cut off third=party ad services and protect users from potential malware that might be present.

As per their standard methodology, Microsoft has chosen to let the new browser engine become available and published a few demos to show off what it can do.

WindowsXP Interface Tips XI

31. Recovering Deleted Files

So your two year old has just deleted five hours of essential work? So he somehow managed to avoid the recycling bin altogether in the sort of computer anti-miracle that only the very young and the very tech-phobic seem to be able to achieve? Don't panic. Though the recycling bin is present as a safety net against accidental or mistaken file deletion, just because it's not in there doesn't mean your data is gone forever.

Data that is deleted from a hard drive is not actually removed from the disk. It is simply marked by the operating system as having been deleted, and will be treated as empty disk space from then on. Until it is actually written over by new data, the old data remains and is easy to recover.

To get your data back, you should obtain a copy of Restoration, a free file recovery utility. This program is small, effective and very easy to use, which is why we like it. To recover accidentally deleted files start Restoration...

Choose the drive you wish to scan in the 'drives' drop down box, and click 'search by deleted files.'

A list of deleted files is created. To restore one or more files, highlight them and click 'restore by copying' then choose a target directory.