Tag Archives: files
Backing Up Files Isnt Just About Saving Your Work Information
Every responsible business owner knows that backing up files related to your business is not just smart its essential. You may use a thumb drive. You may use the Cloud. You may even have a backup hard drive attached to your computer for just that reason. But if youre not also backing up photos, emails, music and personal files, you could lose more than you bargained for in the next power outage.
Most of the really terrible stories data storage companies hear happen after the computer crashed. Thats because so many small business owners are diligent about backing up files for their business, but they completely forget about their personal information.
We understand why, too. Many business owners use a specific computer for personal use, and one for their business. But were willing to bet that you use your home computer for work, too. So while you always remember to backup your hard drive at work, you probably forget to do so at home. That means youre not backing up photos, e-cards or important documentation that you could lose through file corruption after a storm.
Another Backup Hard Drive Can Make All the Difference
Pretend for a moment that the computer crashed, and youve just turned it back on. Suddenly, you see the BSOD or the Blue Screen of death, as its commonly called by college students and techies. You try entering through safe mode; you try working with the screen commands before Windows even opens. But try as you might, you cant access the information on your computer and you forgot to plug in your backup hard drive. Sure, it reminds you that backing up files at home is important but are you fully aware of what you may have lost?
Pictures: Graduations, holidays, weddings, a honeymoon all gone. If youre not backing up your photos every time you upload them, you risk losing them for good.
Receipts: Do you shop online? Do you save all of your receipts in your email? If you dont, now is a good time to start. Those receipts will stay in the Cloud even after your computer crashed, so you can access them for returns, exchanges or tax purposes later.
Bills: So many people pay their bills online now, and you may have that service run directly through your bank. But if you save questionable bills, utility cancellations or your credit information in a separate file on the computer, you could lose your records.
Homework: If youre taking classes online or if you have kids who use the computer, chances are that youre backing up files through your word processing software. But once the computer crashed, those files were at risk of corruption or deletion. The same goes for backing up photos used for science projects, book reports or even Power Point presentations. And teachers dont like “the computer ate my homework” any more than the old story about the dog. A backup hard drive is an excellent way to save documents from disappearing into the great beyond.
So dont forget that backing up files goes beyond saving your work-related information. You should get into the habit of backing up photos, receipts and other personal documentation as well. It might save you a lot of heartache in the end.
How to Remove Keylogger From a PC Your Handy Support Guide
A keylogger is essentially a dangerous computer program intended to record every mouse movement and keystroke movement made by a user on the keyboard. Thus recorded data is saved or sent over the internet by the keylogger program to an already known remote host. Such a program runs silently in the PCs background and uses a hardware device or software application that the user is completely unaware of. Some of the keylogger programs are highly advanced to capture all the computer activities and even take screenshots of whatever the information is on the screen. Further, these programs automatically start themselves as soon as the PC is turned on without requiring a users input at all.
How Dangerous can a keylogger be?
A keylogger can be extremely dangerous as it logs all your key input movements on the keyboard. You might be doing Net banking to send/receive payments or forwarding confidential attachments to your office; all the personal or confidential information would be secretly passed over to the intended attacker who would further misuse it for stealing money from your bank account or leaking the confidential information out to other sources.
Before we go through the instructions to remove keylogger files, we need to understand what kind of files they are and how to identify them. A keylogger file can bear any extensions such as “.exe”, “.dll”, “.Pif”, and “.scr” etc. The.exe files are the commonest type of files used to communicate keylogger programs. The .scr files are the most difficult files to detect than the .exe files.
Fix-it-all Solution
Below are the easy steps that should help you resolve the keylogger issues:
Ensure that your PC is all up and running.
Right click anywhere on your desktops taskbar, go to Task Manager.
You can also press and hold Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys together on the keyboard to get to the Task Manager window.
When the Task Manager window appears, click on the Processes tab on the top.
A list of all the running or hidden programs would be populated, identify the possible keylogger programs, if possible write it down and close the window.
Then click on Start, go to Control Panel.
A window containing multiple programs would be up in front, then click on Add/Remove Programs.
Select the already identified program, click on Change/Remove or just Remove whatever option is there and follow the instructions to uninstall the program.
Go back to the Task Manager window and right click on the identified program.
From the list of options, click on Open Containing Folder and delete all the files associated with the identified programs identity or name.
Locate your hard drive (C:) with the help of Windows search tool.
Search for all the files that resemble the same name as the keylogger program and remove all of them from the hard drive and the programs folder, make sure that you delete all the files of keylogger as they bear multiple identities.
Ensure that the deletion process has completed and then restart your PC in order to let the changes take effect.
When the PC is all up and running again, go to the Start menu and then click on Run.
In the Run window, key in regedit and press OK.
The window will bring up all the registry entries of your PC, select the registry entries associated with the keylogger program and delete. (Most Imp: Before you go deleting the registry entries, you need to ensure that you have a backup of your entire registry directory. Deleting the important registry files would either prevent your PC from functioning properly or lead to a system crash.)
After cleaning the registry directory, restart your PC.
When again the PC is all up and running; recheck your Task Manager, startup configurations, and registry files in order to ensure that the keylogger program is completely removed from your PC.
The whole procedure demands the thorough knowledge of settings and registry files etc. in addition to patience. Though, it was the easiest process to resolve the keylogger program, if you still find yourself stuck with it then better contact a certified technical help and save your valuable time. There are a number of third-party service providers out there that provide online technical support services.
Tips for changing web hosts
If you have a hosting provider already, you may find that you are not happy with the services you have, maybe that they don’t supply sufficient storage space, not enough bandwidth, upgrade options are way to expensive, usually it’s because up time is bad and they do not provide a good enough customer support service. If this is happening to you, then the best thing to do is to change your hosting provider.
Many people think that changing hosting providers is a lot of hassle and that they will have too much disruption to their current services, the truth is it’s easy and you need not to have too much down time, if any, providing you make the right choices. It’s much better to make the decision to change to a new web hosting provider than to stay with one which continues to give you problems.Changing hosts can easily be done by following the steps below.
Check out new web hosting providers
If your absolutely sure you wish to change hosting providers, start by having a look around, there are many to choose from so have a google search and check them out. Don’t cut your ties with your current provider just yet, use this time to checkout different deals, packages and plans which suit your specific needs.
Prepare for the move
Be careful not to rush things, you don’t want your current hosting company to cut you off just yet, you might lose all your valuable files. The next thing to do is make backups of all your files. Start to move all your files and databases into local copies on your computer, this way you won’t lose any important files or information when your current hosting provider cuts off your access, you may want to backup your emails as well.
Choosing a new provider
Once you have all your files backed up, the next stage is to choose a provider and prepare for the move. The most important thing to think about is not to make the same mistake you made the first time around. By this point you would have looked at a few companies which provide the kind of hosting packages you need, make a short list of about five different companies, then just check out personal referrals, references and testimonials, have a look at web hosting review sites and see what experiences other people have had with that particular provider.
Make the move
Once you have chosen your new hosting provider, its time to move out. Begin by moving all your files onto your new server, once you have all your files uploaded the next thing to do is to setup your email accounts on the new server too. At this point you should still have all your services working with your old provider. As soon as your website files and data are all safely move onto your new hosts servers, all your email accounts are setup and ready on the new server you are now ready to point your domain at the new hosting account, to do this you will have to change the nameservers on your domain name to your new hosting providers nameservers.
Nameserver changes can take up to 72 hours to fully propagate and take effect, although you will usually see results in 3-6 hours. Once changes have taken effect you can now close your hosting account with your previous web hosting provider.