Computer Tutorials

As you know I’ve been very busy with some home improvements latly, not my choice of fun however it needs to be done. I have completed the Kitchen and I’m just over half way through the bathroom.
Which leaves me with just the guttering outside, and the living room.

I am trying to aim to be back on the site answering comments and writing posts by the end of next week! If you have posted a comment in the mean time, I’m sorry that you will have to wait for a reply.
I just dont have the time to be trouble shooting problems and answering long winded questions while I’m carrying out this work.

Once its all done everything will resume as usual. Sorry I had to do this (Blame the Wife!) I’ll be back before you know it

Adam Nugent

For the next week or so, hopefully not much longer then a week it’s going to be really hard for me to post on the blog. I’m currently fitting a new kitchen and bathroom and a few other little bit’s here and there.

I’ll try to get something up if I have the time, however there is no doubt for the next few days I’m not going to have much time at all.

This is just to let you know that I’ve not gone walk abouts I’m still here but sort of on holiday for the next week. Once everything is back to normal I’ll let you all know.

I’ve got quite a few tutorials that I would like to do to, but with the current situation I’m not going to have the time to sit down and write them out

Adam Nugent

Do any of you remember when I posted Whats My Blog Worth back in July 2007? well back then my blog was worth only $564.54 and I’m English so that’s about £282.27 give or take.

Well I’ve just done the same thing again and I was surprised by the results:

This website is worth
What is your website worth?

As you can see its now worth $2,258.16 which is around £1,129.08 give or take, not a bad improvement, I think anyway.

From £282.27 to £1,129.08 so 14 months on and my site is 4x what it was I’m impressed with that.
Its the first time I’ve done it for the site as a whole www.adamsdvds.co.uk and as you can see above its $4.463.00 (or was at the time of writing this as this one dynamically updates) so that’s around £2.230.00.

I have never spend any money on marketing or out sourced anything to do with the site (To date) everything has been done by me and with no money, except hosting and the domain names of course.

Adam Nugent

***UPDATE***
This issue has now been resolved, There was recently a change in security with my web host that shot my code dead in the water, this has been fixed now and everything is well.. On a side note though they may want to inform customers of changes like this (That can affect them!) so we can resolve the issues quicker :).
I can now breath again without chest pains!!
***UPDATE***

If you have been to the main part of this website today then you will notice that there is no navigation and no ad’s showing!. I know the ad’s not showing is not going to be an issue for you (but it is for me).

What will be an issue for you is navigating my site because all the pages use includes and for some random reason they are not loading, I’m pretty sure its something to do with my host because last night i was experiencing memory issues for the php on the blog.

The blog resolved its self after a while, what I’m getting at here is that I don’t know when this is going to be resolved! For some reason I’ve not received any response from my hosting provider, for either the blog issue last night or the php issue today.

I’m very annoyed at the moment and stressing WAY to much about this, like i said the ad’s wouldn’t be an issue for you but for me its the only money i get! and there not displaying, and you as the reader of my site will find it difficult to find the pages you need with out the search function and the navigation links. (Everything seams fine of the blog though, let me know if you see anything that’s not!).

All issues are on the Main site www.adamsdvds.co.uk and HOPEFULLY they will be resolved very soon.

Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing you
I will of course let you know when anything changes.

Adam Nugent

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is a tool designed by Microsoft for IT professionals, Usually for small to medium sized businesses however it can be used by anyone to check they have the latest security in place on your system and not just that, it will alert you to any misconfigurations and give you guidance. If you would like to read more about this tool before downloading then start here.

This tutorial is for you if you want to make sure that your computer is completely up to date with all the security features that are available, or maybe if your just slightly paranoid with computers

At the time of writing this post Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is on Version 2.1, Which supports the following systems:
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Vista
Windows XP

There are both x32 and x64 editions of the program, you should note however on the download page that x64 is as you guessed it for 64 bit but the other option you have is x86 don’t be confused by this x86 is for x32 bit systems. Which is most cases is the one you will require as a home user, if you don’t understand this and are unsure which you have then it’s no doubt going to be x86 for you.

Once you download and install the program you going to want to run it, so here’s a quick run over what you should do:

For the sake of this tutorial we are just going to be scanning your computer, if you are more experienced then go ahead and play on your own now

Open Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1 (there should be a shortcut icon on your desktop).

Click Scan a computer.

Now leave all the boxes as they are and Click Start Scan.
The program my download updates here before it continues ( it can take a while ).

Once the scan is completed you will be displayed with Report details for the computer you scanned, what we are more interested in here is downloading whats missing and making our computers more secure.

Now that you have scanned your computer and it’s displaying the results to your in the table, what you need to pay close attention to is Result field in the table, in this table you will want to click on the little blue link that says Result Details.

This will open a new window and give you download links to the updates you are missing for that program, if you look to the right you’ll seed a download field displaying images of little drives with red arrows above them. To download the update simply click on these images and your download will start.

I’m sure you understand what to do from here, download all the updates that you are missing and install them on your system once you have done this scan again and you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your computer is up to date will all the latest security updates.

Some of the results that you are given will not be for updates they will be for things such as the Guest account is active on your computer and needs to be disabled to make your system more secure for items such as this you will want to Click the litte blue link that says How to correct this which will open a browser window and take you to the information you need.

I hope this has helped you keep your system more secure, if I have missed anything out or you are unsure about anything let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to solve the issue.

Adam Nugent

I know what you are saying right now “Isn’t Outlook part of Office 2007, why would there be another set of requirement’s other than that of the Office requirements?”

Well Microsoft Outlook is a part of Office 2007 and will work within the requirements that Office 2007 asks for however Outlook 2007 has had its own set of publicized system requirements so it is only fair that I let you know them. As you will see there is not much difference in fact the only difference that I have noticed is in the Operating System.

Minimum System Requirements for Outlook 2007
CPU – 500MHz
Memory – 256MB (Not an issue for people using Windows Vista)
Hard Disk – 1.5GB
Drive - CD-ROM
Display - 1024×768
Operating System - Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Desktop Search 3.0
Browser - Internet Explorer

Now to be honest those requirements are only going to be an issue to a very small amount of people, if you have an up to date computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista you really don’t even have to think about this.
Always remember that Minimum means just that, it will always be better to have a system that exceeds the minimum requirements to ensure smooth running all of the time.

Adam Nugent

since I have started up dating the site again I’ve come up with a few ideas, I can’t seam to get them off my mind but I’m not sure what you people as my readers would think about the changes. I’m going to go over a few things here and then If you have got the time I would really like it if you could leave me a quick comment with your feedback.

1. At the moment adamsdvds.co.uk is the domain name that I’m using and does not really fit in with what this site is about or what its going to give you, I do have the domain name adamstutorials.co.uk which i think is much more better suited.
Ok the problem is that I only have around 300 visitors a day at the moment which has took a long time for me to get and my site is earning around $50 a month, I’m scared that if I change the Domain name I will lose quite a bit of traffic even if I’m using redirects, if anyone has more experience on this I would love to hear what you have to say.

2. There is a Static website and a blog in use on this domain at the moment I do get more traffic to the website but i have only just started to put more into the blog and began to realise that posting on the blog is much less time consuming then taking all the pictures i was doing and coding a tutorial for the site. I think i all ready know the answer to this one but to be sure I need some feedback, do you want just a site just a blog or both? pictures tutorials in the blog even??
Again with this i have the same issues as above i think i will lose traffic when/if i start to change paths e.g at the moment the blog is at /blog/wordpress/ where as if i turned the whole site into a blog that address would become just www.adamsdvds.co.uk or adamstutorials.co.uk

That’s about it that is strong on my mind at the moment, but please feel free to add any other comments or ideas that you have your self I want to pull this site back out of the gutter and get it on the map.

Adam Nugent

Outlook has gone out of the window quite literally with windows vista and has now been replaced by a program called Windows Mail. I use this program myself to download and read the emails from this site and in this post and I’m going to give you some details on why windows mail is now the standard with windows vista.

Firstly to access Windows Mail go to:

Start (the little round button in the bottom left).
You may see it right there in the window that opens if not then click All Programs, and then click Windows Mail.

Whats new with Windows Mail and why should i choose to use it over Outlook Express, what are the new features?

Windows Mail is the the successor to Outlook Express, people like to stay up to date with software so they don’t fall behind. Windows Mail will replace Outlook Express and become the default in time as more and more people start to move to Windows Vista, this will of course take time because alot of people are still using Windows XP and alot of companies out there are still using Windows 2000!!

There is Also Windows Live Mail is the new version of Windows Mail, However this post is about Windows Mail and I am yet to have any experience with Windows Live Mail

One of the best new features that windows mail brings that will benefit the home user is the junk mail filtering (Spam) which will over time learn to be smarter based on your habits, meaning that it will learn from you what is more likely to be spam and start to act based on your past habits. This program is called Bayesian Spam Filtering.
Why we are on the subject of spam there has also been a phishing filter put in place to protect you from from websites that have been identified as being malicious.

They are some of the just some of the more important points that will affect you as a standard home user, if you want to know what the more advanced and technical new features are take a look at Windows Mail Wikipedia

The main goal of this post was to make users aware that Outlook Express is not installed on Windows Vista and what you can use to take its place, both them points have been covered above. If you have any questions leave a comment

Adam Nugent

Protecting your Privacy is what we are going to cover in this post. Anyone can take a look at your history and find out what you have been doing on your computer, and this raises serious privacy concerns. I’m sure you don’t want to be one of the statistics you hear about on the new all the time.

Identity theft
Wake up to have your credit card maxed out
find out that your in debt by no fault of your own..

We live in a time where things like this are at there peak with technology getting better by the day, the average person doesn’t have the time to learn about computer to an advanced level unless ofcouse that’s there job, which leaves you in a very bad place.
You have all that technology in front of you storing all of your information everything you do just waiting for someone to take advantage of it.

I’m going to give you a few tips that you can do to prevent these issues below.

1. I’ll start with the obvious one, never give your information out to someone for example user names/passwords/credit card details unless you can trust the person you are giving them to.

2. Always check that you are using a secure connection when you enter credit card information. (In firefox you will see the padlock at the bottom right of the window where as in Internet explorer you will see the padlock in the address bar)

3. Run anti-virus/spy ware programs on a weekly bases and keep them up to date.

4. Don’t forget a good firewall

5. Only enter your email address and other details and sites you know can be trusted, this is something you can easily find out by doing a quick google search on the company name.

Now lets talk more about the information that’s stored on your computer! This can be very damaging to your family, your credit records, and most importantly yourself. It can even be damaging to your health as we all know high levels of stress cause all kinds of health issues and stress is going to be one of the biggest factors for you if someone got hold of your personal information.

there are a few ways that are build into windows to help you get rid of stored up history and cached files, they do work but not to the extent you would. If the person trying to get hold of your information knows what there doing they will still be able to get all the details they need, this is where third party programs come in to help you.

Now I’m going to show you a few ways to clear history.

Clearing Firefox History.
Tools > Options > Privacy
Click Clear Now
select all the boxes and then click Clear Private Data Now
** Please be aware when deleting passwords, make sure you can remember them first or leave that box unchecked at your own risk.

Clearing Internet Explorer History.
Tools > Internet Options > General
Under Browsing History Click Delete
Now click Delete all
**Again if you want to keep your passwords saved click each box manually.

Windows Vista Disk Cleanup
Windows Logo(start) > Computer
right click Local Disk (C:) and select properties
on the General tab click Disk cleanup
select all the boxes then click OK.
then click delete files
** This can take a while!

There are a few other ways to remove history but i would rather not take you into the file system and start telling you to delete files as this is for people with more then average computer knowledge and i wouldn’t like to see you delete the wrong things and end up with a broken computer!

There are Also programs that can Help protect you much more then what I’ve show you above. Two such programs are listed below

Ccleaner
This is a very good Open source free piece of software.

Winclear
This is a very good professional paid for product.

Please take a look at both these products and make your mind up for your self or even better yet use them both as there might always be something that ones misses that the other does not.

That’s about it for now, Keep safe

Adam Nugent

When you look at your computer and start to think it’s slow and full of viruses don’t feel to bad, because I’m sure you have no where near 11,000 viruses causing you problems!

Yes, you did hear that right! 11 thousand viruses on just one computer found with just one scan of AVG which has got to be the most viruses I’ve ever heard of one just one computer. It’s amazing that this computer is still functional but as you will be able to see in the video there doesn’t even seam to be any slow down! Which brings me to another very important point, just because your computer is not becoming slow and your not getting errors and pop-ups all the time does not mean that your computer is virus free.

You see viruses can lay dormant on a computer in file format never actually infecting you, however which just one click of the mouse your computer could turn into a paper weight! There are also viruses/worms/Trojans out there that will not cause any visible harm to your computer but my let other people with illegal intentions gain access of your computer and all your information and lets be honest here that’s much more serious then your computer crashing!

Just take a look at the video below and then if you have not done recently do a scan of your computer, if you don’t have AVG then I would suggest that you download it as soon as possible and make sure your not riddled with infection like the poor person in this video. Download AVG Free edition and scan your computer this is in my opinion the best free anti-virus product out there at the moment.

Heres the shocking video!

Adam Nugent