bruceb news

These are the rules for being safe using a Windows computer in 2012. Memorize them, forward them to your friends, post them on Facebook, alert the troops, sound the alarm, and walk from door to door passing them out to your neighbors!

If a web site brings something up on your screen that might be malware, turn your computer off with the power button. Get your hands off the mouse and do not click on “OK,” “Cancel,” or the X in the upper right corner! Anything that you click might lower the defenses on the computer and install malware.

Antivirus software & UAC will not always protect you against malware if you click OK at the wrong time. […] continued

Microsoft released a particularly large crop of patches and updates on Tuesday. Your computer probably restarted on Tuesday or Wednesday night.

If you’re a subscriber to the Bruceb Remote Management service, your computer is also installing additional Microsoft updates that were released at the same time as the critical updates sent through Microsoft’s Automatic Updates system.

Java version 6 update 30 will be arriving on all your computers soon, too. If you install it manually, please make sure to avoid the noxious Ask Toolbar being pushed along with it!

If your computer is even a little wobbly on Thursday or Friday, restart it. […] continued

Apple’s brilliant success since Steve Jobs returned in 1997 has made it the largest company in the world by almost any measure, with a market capitalization that exceeds Microsoft and Intel combined. iPhones define the smartphone market, even if they do not completely dominate it now that Android has taken the lead in market share. iPads, however, so completely dominate the tablet market that Amazon opted not to directly compete but instead to seek a different niche that will leave Apple as the undisputed king of the 10′” tablets – for now, at least.

Apple’s lineup of Mac computers and its releases of OS X upgrades are watched by bloggers and the media almost as lovingly as its mobile devices. […] continued

Microsoft will deliver five run-of-the-mill security updates for Windows and Office tonight, in the regular monthly Patch Tuesday release. There’s more information about this month’s updates in Microsoft’s security bulletin here.

Close programs and save any work in progress at the end of the day. Your computer will probably restart tonight.

Also on Tuesday, Adobe is releasing updates for all recent versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader, for Windows and Mac. Reportedly the updates address a number of issues but we won’t know until Wednesday whether they fix the bugs introduced in the Acrobat 9.4.5 update.

The primary issue addressed by the Acrobat update stems from a hacked Dutch certificate authority. […] continued

Previously:
Say Goodbye To Six Year Old Computers

Windows XP computers are falling over left and right. Many of them are simply insufferably slow for all the reasons I wrote about last fall. Windows XP is a much heavier, slower OS than when it was first released, and six year old computers simply don’t have the processing power to run Windows XP at acceptable speed after years of security updates and patches.

Another trend has been quite noticeable. The wave of malware delivered from poisoned web sites continues unabated, and almost every computer I’ve seen taken down by malware in the last year has been running Windows XP. […] continued

These are the rules for being safe using a Windows computer in 2011. Memorize them, tape them to your refrigerator, pass them on to your friends!

Install updates from Microsoft promptly. Look in the lower right corner for the gold shield (WinXP) or update icon (Win7/Vista).

Install updates to Acrobat, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java, and Quicktime promptly. Each will alert you from the lower right corner.

• The best way to keep up with updates: sign up for the Bruceb Consulting monitoring service.

Install antivirus software and keep it up to date.

Know the name of your antivirus software. […] continued

A large collection of patches and updates will be delivered tonight, Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month. Last month was a paltry bunch of updates, not really worth mentioning, but this month brings 17 security bulletins fixing 64 different vulnerabilities, the most ever fixed in one month. Here is Microsoft’s official notification about the bulletins, and here’s an article with some more details about the individual fixes.

When you walk away from your computer at the end of the day on Tuesday, close all open programs and leave your computer turned on. You should be greeted by a login screen on Wednesday morning after the system has restarted. […] continued

If you use Microsoft Security Essentials for antivirus protection, keep an eye on the icon in the lower right. The exclamation point means it’s ready to install the upgrade to version 2, released a few weeks ago as a manual upgrade and now being rolled out to everyone using the program. Double-click on the icon and click on the “Upgrade Now” button for a painless process that should take only take 3-4 minutes.

You may be asked to restart the computer when the upgrade has been installed. (I’m not sure when that’s required, but I’ve only had to restart on about half the computers I’ve worked on.)

If you don’t see the exclamation point, no worries – either it hasn’t been rolled out to you yet, or it’s already been installed. […] continued

Previously:
Bruceb Consulting Offers New Patch Management Service

Yesterday I announced that my monitoring software will also install patches and updates for my clients. Let me give you a few more details about that service.

This works just as well for home computers and laptops. Monitoring a single home computer is easy and effective and just as important as protecting an office computer. I can bill you once for a year of service (separately from the office account, if you like), and have you up and running in five minutes. Drop me a line or give me a call to get started! […] continued

I am excited to announce a new service for all my clients – patching and updating your workstations.

Bruceb Consulting Monitoring will review and install updates to Windows, Office, Firefox, Java, Flash, Adobe Reader, and other important programs and utilities – automatically and silently.

I will review the updates that are necessary for you to be safe online, and I’ll install them on your computers.

There’s a monthly charge for my monitoring service. It’s a small price to pay for two important reasons:

• SECURITY You’ll be at less risk from malware delivered by poisoned web sites, because browser add-ins like Java and Flash will be up to date on your computer.

[…] continued