Hi People

Take a look at the link below, it appears that Microsoft products are full of 'holes' that can be (if not already) severely compromised
http://vista.blorge.com/2010/10/13/patch-tuesday-brings-another-record/

The situation is becoming more and more of an issue, and the programs being exploited, are any that have possible access to the internet or that is involved with the security of a computer using a Microsoft OS.

My advice (for what you may consider its worth) is that you consider alternatives to the Microsoft products on your computer.

My suggestions for alternatives are :

• Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer - Google Chrome is a clean, few frills browser with a 'sandbox' between you and the internet.  This adds another level of security to your browser.
• VLC media player instead of Windows Media Player - It is open source so it is free, with many users adding to it all the time.  It also contains a DVD player, which doesn't require a third party codec to play the films.
• OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office - Again it is open source and free. It reads and writes Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. It also allows you to create a PDF file, so that when you have completely finished a document (no further editing required), then you can create it as a PDF so no one can change it.
• Superantispyware instead of  Defender/Microsoft Essentials - A third party antispyware product is going to be less of a target than anything from Microsoft.
• Yahoo Messenger instead of  MS Messenger
• Thunderbird instead of Outlook Express or Outlook

So there are alternatives to many vulnerable Microsoft programs and most are totally free.  Consider them carefully as you may well need to be less of a target for hackers and other internet nasties.

See you next time

ThankYou for your attention

Prometheus1618

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The 'Arrange Icons By' Options

Hi People

Did you try the tip on the last post?

If you did you would have seen much more than what we dealt with.

I mean look at the picture below,  the Arrange Icons By
(Note here that you left click to set an option - a tick will appear when an option is set - see below)

The Right Click Options  From The Desktop - The 'Arrange Icons By ' section

As you can see there are a lot more options, so let's go through them.

The Sort By Section
The top four items are the sort order, which allow you to sort your desktop items by Name, Size, Type, or Modified.




The first three are probably quite self explanatory (type is the type of file it is for example a program file, a shortcut for a picture, or drive).

The 'modified' option is the one which may cause some scratching of heads.
It refers to how recently the files have been used.  This might need a bit of explanation. OK, so when a file (or folder) is created, the date and time is kept as TWO values (the 'creation' date/time and the 'modified' date/time - exactly the same at the start).  Now every time the file is used the 'modified' values for date/time are changed to the exact date/time it was opened..

Next up the Arrangement Section


The 'Show in Groups' is greyed out and not available on the diagram.
The 'Auto Arrange' option will move all the icons ( in the order set in the Sort By Section), as far left and then down the desktop.  Any icon moved will pop back to the group on being dropped.

The 'Align to Grid' will place each icon at a set distance from its neighbours.  The 'Grid' is invisible and inactive unless this option is ticked.

The Other Options Section


You may be surprised to learn that you can actually have all your icons removed (visibly) from the desktop.  To do this just left click on the 'Show Desktop Icons' (this will remove the tick next to 'Show Desktop Icons')

The 'Lock Web Items on Desktop' option is only if you have used the 'Web' tab on the 'Customise' button from the 'Properties' menu (more on this on a later post).

Finally you can 'Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard' which will remove the little used icons from the desktop for you.

So there you have it so far

Any comments please leave them below

And Thank You for your kind attention

Prometheus1618

















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Want More At Your Finger Tips?

Hi People

Frequently, I find that people are amazed at the simplest things, that I do on their computers.

How did you do that? Or can you show me how to do that? Or can you wait until I get a pen and paper.

It happens frequently, so over the next few entries we will go over some useful BASIC bits and bobs

Let's start with

How to create a folder


Folders are exactly the same a physical folders, in that they contain files or other folders and files.

To create a folder on the Desktop:

• Simply RIGHT click on an area of the desktop (not on an icon or the taskbar)
• LEFT click on 'New'
• LEFT click on 'Folder'
• Now type the name you want for the folder (by default it is called 'New Folder'
• Once you  have finished press the 'Enter'  key or simply click anywhere outside the newly created folder.
• To open it quickly, you need to DOUBLE LEFT click.  If it does not open you have not been quick enough with the double clicking.

Next time we willl go through the other Right Click Options for the Desktop.


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