Malware,Adware and browser problems fixed by "Spybot search and destroy" Free anti-malware software.

I have an old Windows XP machine that I have not used for a couple of years since getting Windows 7 and I noticed that once the copy of Norton Antivirus had expired on it, suddenly it seem to have lots of problems with Firefox crashing out. It was as though Norton had subdued some Malware that had been sitting and waiting to attack. Despite running Malwarebytes anti-malware and clearing problems it would always come back.
It affected all internet browsers Firfox, IE8, Safari and Opera. What ever was there was making them crash out as soon as you searched for anything.

Then I tried something called Spybot S&D, this is FREE software and it found problems and fixed them completely. The old XP machine now works perfectly !

If you would like this software then get it from their site :
www.safer-networking.org/en/home
Click on the Download link on the left menu, then the download link to download, then click the second "Download here" button on right "BN Fileforum - fast worldwide distribution" Then the link in the blue panel on right "Download Spybot S&D".
Install the software, update it and then click "Check for problems". This will find any problems that you may not be aware of and fix them for good.

Malware,Adware and browser problems fixed by "Spybot search and destroy" Free anti-malware software :

Spybot finds things other software can't see. (Click to see large version)

hope this helps someone.
Andy

An important choice to make: your browser, New update from Microsoft KB976002 is not very user friendly

Today a new Windows Update has been installed (KB976002)  which after booting up your PC will show a screen with the title..

"An important choice to make: your browser".
The window has a title of "Information Regarding Web Browsers".

It has an OK button to click on, if you click that then it shows the screen I have pasted in here, it also shows this if you click on the close button.
It shows a random selection of 9 choices of browsers.
Below each one are two buttons labelled "Install" and "Tell me more".
Apparently this update is something to do with Microsoft having to make people aware that they do have a choice as regards which web browser they wish to use, so the “Web browser choice screen” has been added to Internet Explorer users in Europe, its required by the European Commission.
This windows update is being rolled out in March 2010. So if you have not seen this yet then you will very soon (unless you have turned off Windows updates).

I think this browser choice screen is very badly thought out because there is NO option to click "I am happy to stay with my current browser choice, Ignore and don't remind of this again".
On my PC I have the latest versions IE8, Firefox, Opera and Chrome already installed yet as you can see the screen that shows does not say "Already installed" below those browsers.
Surely this is a fundamental error in the layout of this screen as its not very obvious what you need to do to ignore this Browser Choice screen.

If you click on the "Select Later" button then this just hides the Browser Choice window until you reboot next time.

On my Windows 7 machine, when you reboot after this update has installed you will notice that the shortcut to IE on your Quick launch taskbar has gone! I bet lots of people are going to google "My Internet Explorer icon has vanished on Windows 7" after this windows update has gone on.
You will notice as well as the IE8 icon vanishing from your quick launch bar that you now have a new icon on the desktop called "Browser Choice", if you run that then you will get the browser choice window.
I guess the idea of this is to force you to choose IE over other available browsers.

On my XP SP3 machines , when you reboot after this update has been installed it actually runs the Browser choice window without any interaction.

So what do you need to do?
Windows XP:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal. It won't bother asking you ever again.

Windows 7:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen.
If you want to keep Internet Explorer goto the task bar and right click on Internet explorer and select "Pin to Task bar" then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal.
I do not have Vista any more so not sure how that behaves, perhaps someone can post a comment to say if its the same as Windows 7.

Hope this helps those people out there who are not sure.

The screen that shows when you click the OK button on the first screen takes you to this page :
http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm

For information about this Windows update :
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976002

There is also a shorcut icon on the desktop which runs :
C:\WINDOWS\system32\browserchoice.exe

If you goto Start - Run and type msconfig and then click on the startup tab you can see its set to run browserchoice every time your computer starts up.


One thing I also don't understand is the selection of browsers its has to offer, Everyone I'm sure will know all of the popular ones such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome but also listed are several browsers that I have never heard of, also some that have not been updated for ages such as Maxthon which seems to have been abandoned back in 2008.
As a web designer I have kept en eye on what browsers are popular as things change over the years. There is an upto date table month by month which shows which browsers are popular. See this here :
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
As you can see people KNOW they have a choice of web browser with Firefox being a clear winner these days.
People that only use Internet Explorer are most likely people that don't even know that there are different browsers available, so to suddenly offer a bewilldering range of browsers to these people is going to cause trouble.

I dare say in the days to follow this update will cause lots of chaos with PC users not knowing what to do.

Andy

iPhone UK TV streaming service for all the main UK TV channels

This is absolutely amazing, its NOT an App its a FREE website that allows you to watch 27 UK TV stations almost live (about 15-25 second delayed).
The quality of the video is stunning on 3G. Not even tried it on Wifi yet as 3G quality was amazing.

So now anywhere in the UK you can watch BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Five, ITV 2, BBC three, Film 4, E4, More 4, 4 Music.
As long as you have a good 3G signal or wifi signal strength.
If you have ever used the BBC iPlayer you will have noticed that it only works on wifi where as this works on 3G.

To watch TV now

On your iPhone, Run Safari and goto:

http://iphone.tvcatchup.com/
Then click on Register, all you need is an email address and a password. The login details will also work on the Web version of the TV viewer on your PC.
Then click on one of the channels and after about 10 seconds it will start playing that TV channel.
At any point you can tap the screen and click the Done button and it will return you to the webpage that allows you to select another TV station to watch.

Its worth adding this to your homepage so it has its own icon (like an app has)
To do this goto the home page http://iphone.tvcatchup.com
then click the + button at the bottom of the Safari browser screen
Then click the Add to Home Screen button
Now edit the text as you wish, e.g. "TV Catchup" click the Add button.
Now if you press the home button on your iPhone you should see an icon on the home screen which will allow you to get to the TV channel selector page very quickly.


iPhone users who live outside of the UK trying to access the site will be informed they are “not authorized” to view the content.

This works on O2 3G but not sure if it works on Orange 3G, anyone confirm this?

Andy

iPod Touch iPhone, Safari web browser lock up. How to fix it guide.

Last night my iPod Touch developed a problem with the web browser.
While looking at a webpage about home brewing Cider:) Safari locked up, clicking on the bookmarks did nothing, trying to type a web address in did nothing, clicking the back arrow just made the back arrow stay lit.
Turning the iPod Touch off and back on did not fix it either. Even tried connecting to the computer and syncing iTunes but still no luck.

Safari seemed to be locked up for good and nothing would fix it, not even clearing all the cache and history or turning off Java.

I did eventually find a way to fix it, it was similar to the lockup on a iPod Video.

Do this to fix it:
1) With the iPod/iPhone on, or in standby mode, press two buttons at the same time as per photo below

(1) The home button (the one at the bottom) and (2) The power button (on the top edge of the iPod/iPhone) and keep them pressed, after a few seconds a new screen will show which has a red arrow which says Slide to power off.


2) Slide it across and the iPod Touch/iPhone will power off with a swirly thing in the centre for a couple of seconds.

3) Now press and hold the power button until the white Apple logo shows, it will show for 10 seconds followed by about 20 seconds of blank.

4) It will then power up in the normal way.

5) Slide the power on and goto Safari and you should now see that its working ok again.

This also works on my iPhone 3GS and I think also the 4G iPhone too !

Hope you find this useful. Please leave comments if it did.





Andy