Clear Choice Computer

Internet Explorer 8 officially ended the beta stage today with the release of Release Candidate 1 at 12:00 pm Pacific time, you can download Internet Explorer RC1 directly from Microsoft. IE 8 comes with some cool new features such as the industry-leading security feature InPrivate, which helps prevent your browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and user names and passwords from being retained by the browser, leaving no evidence of your browsing or search history. A really great idea for people that use public computers. A second useful feature is domain highlighting, this helps alert you to websites that are imposter’s of trusted sites, thus reducing the chance of compromising your personal information. With so many sites being impersonated these days it’s a welcome feature.

Microsoft is hoping that IE8 will help them reclaim the edge that they are slowly losing to FireFox.

With conflicker spreading like wildfire, it is important to note that one of  the easiest ways to help keep your computer protected is by disabling auto run.  Auto run is when you place a cd in the cd drive , or a usb stick in the usb port, windows pops up a box asking if you want to open folder to view files, open the files with  a certain program, copy the files, etc. Conflicker takes advantage of this feature and adds a entry to the top of the list that appears as the normal “open folder to view files” entry but it is under “Install or run programs” instead of the normal “general options”. Once you click on this you are infected!

Conflicker Install

I recommend  disabling this feature by follow the instructions located at Micrisoft’s Site

If you are uncomfortable attempting this yourself feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to perform it for you.

After using Windows 7 for a few weeks I can honestly tell you that Microsoft is on the right track this time. It is simply amazing to me that a beta operating system can out perform, and prove to be more stable then the previous version that was released to market two years ago (Vista).  Although 7 isn’t ready for prime time I haven’t found many applications that wont work on it, and I have yet to see a blue screen.

At first I really wasn’t impressed with the user interface being that it looks like Vista, I’m a total XP lover, but after using it for a while I just can’t see myself ever going back to XP unless I’m forced to before the final release of 7. Once 7 is released I will definitely purchase a copy for my main computer, and will be  installing OEM 7  on all of the computers I build and sell.

I have a second Western Digital 640 GB Black Edition hard drive coming tomorrow, I can hardly wait to see how it runs on a  Raid 0

Stay Tuned!

Conflicker, Downandup, Kido are three excellent reasons to be sure your computer is always kept up to date with the latest Windows Updates.

The number of Downadup infections are skyrocketing based on the calculations from F-Secure. From an estimated 2.4 million infected machines to over 8.9 million during the last four days.  That’s just amazing, but what is even more amazing is that it attacks machines that dont have a Windows Update patch that was released back in October of 2008. Your computer security should be your top priority, if you don’t have the time or the knowledge to keep your software and Windows updated  give Clear Choice Computer a call and get on one of our Maintenance Plan. Don’t wait to become a statictic!

Windows 7 was released yesterday to Microsoft Partners with a MSDN or TechNet subscription, it will be released today at 12:00 pm PST to all other partners.

So far it seems to be a very clean and stable Operating System, I installed the 64 bit version yesterday on my main computer which isn’t top of the line but isn’t a slouch either. The desktop has undergone some changes from Vista with the quick launch, task bar, and system tray being completely redesigned.

Hovering over an icon in the task bar or quick launch shows a thumbnail of the open windows, clicking on the desired one will bring it into focus.

Desktop

On the other side of the system tray is the “show desktop” button hovering over it will turn all open windows translucent, clicking on it will show the desktop.

Show Desktop

The Start Menu remains the same as Vista with a few minor differences, such as the ability to pin programs and files to the task bar. I haven’t really got to far into it so far because I’ve spent quite a bit of time setting things up, I am planning on using the betas until the official release, or I until I can no longer get a license update. So by the time Windows 7 is shipping on computers I’ll know it inside and out.

Check back soon for updates.