Month: April 2010

.. but some seem to think that it is. I have copied text from a BBC News item because the links to this kind of stuff disappear over time, and I want to ensure that this doesn’t. Google warning on fake anti-virus software Fake anti virus is often distributed through adverts Fake anti-virus software that infect PCs with malicious code are a growing threat, according to a study by Google. Its analysis of 240m web pages over 13 months showed that fake anti-virus programs accounted for 15% of all malicious software. Scammers trick people into downloading programs by convincing them … Continue reading Not exactly new..

Scenario A computer running Windows XP SP3, fully updated and running AVG 8.5 also fully updated. There is a REGCURE popup which will not go away and, not unsurprisingly, the uninstall for REGCURE throws up an error message. AVG 8.5 appears to be blissfully unaware of its presence and makes no attempt to remove it. Next.. I uninstalled AVG, and installed Microsoft Security Essentials from a USB drive. MSE’s first scan showed two problems, both being summarily cleaned from the system. I rebooted and then ran Malwarebytes free version. The ensuing report showed no problems. Results.. AVG 8.5 gets a … Continue reading AVG v MSE

A message from Microsoft on Office 2010.. "Instructions and Resources Important: Microsoft strongly recommends the use of 32-bit (x86) versions of Office 2010, Project 2010, and Visio 2010 applications as the default option for all platforms." Before you rush to load Office 2010 in 64-bit guise, bear in mind also that it will not work alongside 32-bit versions of Office 2003 elements e.g. Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. I have also heard that Xobni (http://www.xobni.com/) doesn’t play ball with the 64-bit variant, and no doubt there will be other casualties. Preparation/installation I copied all of the PST folders to an external … Continue reading Outlook 2010

.. that you have come across this scenario at work. You may have even been a player.. 🙂   Cartoon courtesy of Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator and mentor.. for more Dilbert humour, click on the link.. http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-04-24

The latest version of MS Office has made it to RTM. It will be officially released to the business community on May 12th and should appear in retail stores during the month of June. MSDN and TechNet will apparently have it available for download on April 22nd It is the first version of Office which will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit , but the 64-bit version will only work with Vista 64-bit and above. The 32-bit version will be good for everything XP SP3 and above. There is a change in appearance, matching the look of Windows 7, and … Continue reading MS Office 2010 now RTM

Here we go again. Yet another release by nVidia, the third WHQL this year. As far as Windows 7 is concerned, this release is good for everything 6 series and above. After install, the screen is jittery until the system is rebooted, after which it all settles down nicely. This version appears to have fixed the occasional cursor twitch which was apparent in 197.31. As releases go, this one seems to be fairly harmless, and I would suggest that it is given a try at least.. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

My motherboard is maxed out on memory (4gb limit), I upgraded the mid-range single core AMD processor to a mid-range dual core type, and all drivers are up to date as much as possible. Is there much difference between the single and dual core processors? NO.. For what I do, a single processor worked well. For gamers, a single processor was also good. I am not totally convinced that early dual core technology was as good as claimed. Compared to an i3 powered Toshiba laptop which has recently entered the family, my dual core is desperately slow. Mind you, there … Continue reading The quest for speed..

. but it is no worse than it was, and may even be marginally better. I remember seeing a post in the MS Vista General newsgroup aways back which told of a new Intellipoint 7.1 driver. So, today, I installed it and waited a while. All good, so onto the next step and install nVidia 197.13. Before the reboot, Pageflakes was unusable as were the new Microsoft Forum web pages. After a reboot, my mouse cursor has stopped jumping around from time to time, and is now perfectly stable (at the time of writing). Should I stick my neck out … Continue reading I couldn’t leave well alone..

.. to the point where I have once again reverted back to 191.07. To be honest, none of the updates since 191.07 have added anything of merit to the performance of the 6 series video cards, so I may just leave things as they are from now on. I am not going to make a silly statement to the effect that I would never buy another nVidia card either because, from what I have seen in the MS forums, ATI cards and drivers are no better..