Windows 7 for $29.99!

Scroll down on The Ultimate Steal website - you can order Window 7 for $29.99 (as well as the fantastically 91% price reduced Office 2007. (if you have questions about upgrading please let us know, and ALWAYS back up your data and gather software before upgrading).

http://www.theultimatesteal.com/

Facebook, security, and fake anti-virus applications

My mission: for everyone to understand anti-virus, spyware, trojans, and other security risks to your computers! This article is really important!

http://tiny.cc/wgib8

More from the Crabby Office Lady

She's great!

10 ways to get office help (short version)

Office Help (longer and EXCELLENT) article. Really, folks, she's the best!

Interesting statistics - protecting and removing malware IS important!

If you are curious, read this entire article. If not, just read these statistics, and know that it is just talking aboutAustralia, who has far fewer computerss than we do. In Australia, it is estimated tha 100,000 computers are infected with trojans, and that each of those 100,000 infected computers has the ability to send out 10,000 spam messages a day.

Learn to be safe, learn how to keep your computer "clean".

September 15, The Register – (International) Australia mulls botnet takedown scheme. Australia is considering the adopting of a code that would oblige ISPs to contact, and in extreme cases perhaps even disconnect, customers with malware-infested computers. The voluntary eSecurity Code is designed to put a squeeze on the estimated 100,000 zombies in Australia, each of which might be capable of kicking out 10,000 junk emails a day. Pilot data sharing schemes in Australia are praised for resulting in the reduction of malware-infected systems. Around 68 ISPs were involved in a 2007 Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI) programme credited with reports of 10,000 compromises every day. The scheme cost a relatively modest A$4.7 million over four years. Australia’s Internet Industry Association (IIA) is hoping to extend this scheme via a draft code of conduct, set to be applied from December onwards. A consultation scheme on the programme is due to run until 30 October 2009. Once an ISP following the code has detected a compromised computer, it should contact the customer and offer a clean-up advice. The scheme also covers a reporting system. ISPs that adhere to the scheme gain the right to display an IIA tortoise logo on their site. Technology for identifying and blocking compromised clients and for delivering “clean feed” internet traffic exists, but is not cheap. Whether ISPs will be able to create a business model for getting customers to pay the cost of security-enhanced services is a potential obstacle to the scheme. ISPs would be doing the cause of internet hygiene a favour in taking part in a zombie-clampdown scheme, but that’s not going to happen if it places them at a competitive disadvantage to those who carry on regardless. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/oz_botnet_takedown_scheme/

Where can I get help with my computer?

The Help Desk does not have the resources to help you when you computer is sick. We would love to, but we just do not have the staff to do this.

So, what can you do? We now have a FAQ that you should read to help you get help (for your computer)!

Crabby Office Lady and the Quick Access Toolbar

I love the Crabby Office Lady. She writes a column for Microsoft, and is just a little silly. Like me, silly and a little crabby, except I write for the Help Desk and she writes for Microsoft...

One of my biggest things is to find out the easiest way to do something. This month, Crabby is in my court.

Crabby Office Lady is talking about one of my favorite efficiency parts of Office 2007 - the Quick Access Toolbar. In every class I have taught there has been one person who said that this tip made it worth the whole class (now, I choose to believe that the rest of the class was ok, but they really loved this tip!)

So, here it is, the Crabby Office Lady and the Quick Access Toolbar! Go forth and be efficient and have fun with it!

Do you Jing?

This is my favorite application right now!

Jing is a freeware application from TechSmith (www.jingproject.com) for creating screen captures or videos. After you install the softtware and create an account there is the option to watch their little demo video. I would recommend the few minutes it take to watch it. It is seriously the best find of the last several years! (Remember to cite your source!)

Help Desk uses this application frequently. Anytime you receive an email from us with an image in it, that was made in Jing. You can even use arrows and add text to an image.

You can copy your image immediately to the clipboard (what I use to copy into email), save the image to your computer (for later use) or even save this to their website to have a simple URL to use (we use this for chat support).

Watch their video and be amazed! (they made their video using their own Jing software ;-)

Passwords, they are the bane of our existence, really. But, they are critical in both securing data and in the time wasted because we forget them (not to mention the time wasted if our identity is stolen)!

Here is a foolproof way to make good, secure passwords that you won't forget!

1. Start with an original but memorable phrase. Make it something you can remember. "I do not like summer because it is too hot".
   
2. Take the first letter of each word = *Idnlsbii2h*
   

A mnemonic does not have to be written down because it is easy to remember. Just remember to add a number and a character - replace too with 2, for with 4, hate with h8 (you might h8 winter - I hate winter in Minnesota because it is too cold = Ih8wiMbii2c!).

Really, it's that simple. Use capitalization rules (first letter, M for Minnesota) for sentences, add a character, and you have a fairly secure password.

Now, for security reasons on sites like your email, bank or credit card, facebook, twitter, or for online shopping, you should change you password. Change something in your sentence. I hate summer..., I love winter..., Spring is pretty in Minnesota because I love tuilps for my table. SipiMbIlt4mt!

Using the above password for Facebook? SipiMbIlt4mtFB. Twitter? TW at the end. Email, the same.

I always make one generic password for things I don't care about, like an account for an online newspaper. Here's one idea, I hate registering for this newspaper because I keep forgetting my password! Ih8r4tnbikfmp!

Are these passwords harder to type? Yes. Are they very secure? Yes. You have to choose which is more important to you, a little longer to type a password or someone stealing your identity?

Think about it for a minute - how much personal information do you have in your email account? What kind of information do you share with your Friends in Facebook?

As always, if you have questions please contact the Help Desk. We are more than happy to help you with this, or anything technology related!

Adding a Flash movie to a PowerPoint presentation

It is just a few more steps, but you can add a Flash movie to a PowerPoint presentation. Just follow these steps (and visit www.wikihow.com for more how-to-do-this information!)

1. Click Microsoft Office Button on the top left corner > click "PowerPoint Options" at the bottom of the panel > go to the "PowerPoint Options" window > click "Popular" on the left column > select "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" on the right column > click "OK" at the bottom
2. On the "Developer" tab > go to "Controls" group > Click the icon of hammer and nail for "More Controls" > go to the "More Controls" window
3. On the "More Controls" window > select "Shockwave Flash Object" in the list > click "OK" at the bottom > use your pointer to drag on the slide to draw and resize the control
4. Right click the control you draw > click "Properties" in the right-click menu > go to the "Properties" window
5. On the alphabetic tab > click the "Movie" property > type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C\:a.swf) or URL (e.g. http://www.a.com/b.swf)
6. To make the Flash play automatically when the slide is displayed, set the "Playing" property to "True"; To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set "EmbedMovie" property to "True"
7. Finally close the "Properties" window and save your presentation.
8. On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.

One Primary Password is here!

Yeah - we finally have it! You will have just one Primary Password for our four major systems! And, with the handy-dandy Security Question that you created in KateWay, you can reset your own password online! If you have any questions at all please contact the Help Desk and we will be happy to help you!

Folks, it is all about security and prevention. Knowledge truly is power!

The Most Dangerous Search Terms On the Internet
by Richard Quest

If you like to search for "music lyrics" or "free" things, you are engaging in risky cyber behavior. And "free music downloads" puts 20 percent of Web surfers in harm's way of malicious software, known as "malware."

A new research report by U.S.-based antivirus software company McAfee has identified the most dangerous Internet search words that places users on pages with a higher likelihood of malware.

The study examined 2,600 popular keywords on five major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, Live, AOL and Ask -- and analyzed 413,000 Web pages.

"Just in the past year, we've seen a pretty dramatic shift in what we call malware," David DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee told media.

"It went from a hacker in a basement, to organized cybercrime to now, literally, terrorism and other forms of organized geopolitical attacks," he said.

Categories that had the highest risk of run-ins with malware: screen savers, free games, work from home, Olympics, videos, celebrities, music and news.

Riskiest terms: word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, free music downloads, phelps, game cheats, printable fill-in puzzles, free ringtones and solitaire.

The study shows how cyber criminals are increasing in sophistication.

"We can have massive outages with a hacker in the basement. We saw that recently with the 'Twitter worm,' a 17-year-old in his basement basically perpetrated tens of millions of (computer) outages. Or, we can see an organized attack bringing down infrastructure," DeWalt said.

Antivirus software companies lag behind latest developments by cyber criminals. "We've been way behind, that's true for the entire world, the global infrastructure of the internet has grown dramatically -- 50 percent of the world's PCs are unprotected," he said.

Despite the increased risk, DeWalt doesn't believe there will be a "cyber Armageddon" causing widespread destruction of computers and Internet infrastructure.

"Last week, you saw President Obama in the United States talk about a major cyber-security initiative sponsored by the government, other governments are sponsoring this as well," DeWalt said. "I think we're learning this can happen, and if we get ahead of it, we can prevent it."

(CNN)

Useful Office 2007 information!

• Essays by Microsoft's Crabby Office Lady
  Interesting essays filled with tips and tricks and a quick wit.
• Hidden Gems in Excel 2007

FontSpace is a community of font designers and fon addicts. All told, there are 10061 free typefaces!

34 timesaving mouse tricks for Word users:
By Jody Gilbert (techrepublic.com)

Keyboard shortcuts are a mainstay for most Word users who are trying to streamline their work. Even brand-new users start slinging around [Ctrl]C and [Ctrl]V soon after mastering the intricacies of scrolling. But keyboard shortcuts are often nonintuitive and hard to remember. (What mnemonic would you use to recall that [Ctrl]E centers document text or that [Ctrl]T produces a hanging indent?)

That’s where mouse shortcuts—the unsung hero of built-in functionality—can take up the slack. Users probably know the basic moves: Right-click on an item to display a shortcut menu, double-click to select a word, triple-click to select a paragraph. But Word has quite a few additional mouse tricks up its sleeve. This overview will help you (and your users) learn some easily remembered techniques to gain quick access to a host of Word options.

Click here to open this PDF document

Increase Office 2007 Recently Used File List

Office 2007 allows you to increase the recently used files list to 50!

• Click the Office button and
• Advanced in the left pane.
• Scroll down to the Display section and enter the setting you want for Show This Number Of Recent Documents.