Tag Archives: Microsoft Windows

Phone scam

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You are probably aware already that there is a phone scam going around in Australia and  don’t know what other countries. I have heard it on the radio and several have been taken in by it.

What happens is that someone rings and says they are a technical support person who is a representative on Microsoft or Windows and they say you have a problem on your computer which is ‘pinging’ back to them. They ask you to go into Command on your computer and give you a command to run and up pops various reds and blues. Or they ask you to go to your Event Viewer. The event viewer is accessed by going to your Control Panel > Administrative Tools and then Event Viewer. Then they offer to fix this (non-existent) problem for  a price. These calls appear to be coming from India but if people ask for a phone number they get an Australian phone with an Australian name.

If you accept you will lose money for nothing AND have more malicious code put onto your computer.

Microsoft will never ring you. Nor will any other software technical support.  If you ask them to give you your computer’s IP address (those numbers you often see), they don’t seem to know them.

DO NOT give these scammers your credit card details or access to your computer remotely.

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The nightmare of the new hard disc drive

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Samsung HD400LD hard disk drive (400 GB storag...
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Okay, so I found that I couldn’t reformat my old hard drive because it was corrupted.

I backed everything up on an external drive. Backing up emails is easy, but restoring them is less so.

I bought a new 1 TB Sata hard drive over the internet.  Sata HDDs are much more common now that IDE drives and much easier to connect. As I installed it, I took photos of the old one within the case so I would remember how the wires went. I can’t find them this minute, because these photos are untitled.

I inserted everything correctly finding where the cables went.   I started installing Windows XP and pressed F2 to see Set up or BIOS. I saw that the new Hard drive was there. I changed the boot up sequence so that the computer would boot up from the Windows disc.

At a certain point the Windows disk would stop and it would say “no hard disc detected”. Installation has failed. I tried every combination of BIOs settings and boot sequences. No luck.

Finally, I rang a tech company and when the guy came out, all was well, except that my version of Windows did not contain the drives necessary for the motherboard and new HDD. So off it went to the factory and 3 days later at came back all fixed.

I’m restoring everything now. Thank God for the password reminders on web sites, because of all the folders in my outlook email account guess which one didn’t restore. My passwords!!

It’s very nice to see updated software from the web though.

So, if your motherboard is old and that only means a few years, then your search on the internet for how to change a HDD (which is easy) won’t bear fruit. If it is newer, it is a synch really.

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Freeware Windows Driver Update

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Windows logo
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Device Doctor is a freeware Windows application that scans your computer hardware and checks to see if there are new driver updates available for your devices. It also locates drivers for “unidentified devices” in the Windows Device Manager.
NOTE: This tool was designed to be very simple and easy to use.

Just click on ‘Begin Scan’ to detect your hardware; Device Doctor queries our manufacturer driver database and immediately fetches the correct driver files for your computer.

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How to make a screen capture tutorial video

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CamStudio
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What do you need

1. A video device. In this case I used a video screen capture program called CamStudio. This is free.

2. A microphone of good quality, if not broadcast quality. I now use a headset with microphone and listen back over the headset.

3. A computer which runs at least XP and has at least 80gbs of memory. Movies are big files.

4. A movie maker program. In my case I used Windows Movie Maker which comes with XP service pack 2.

( I heard on the news that Microsoft has lost its court appeal in the EU over abusing competition rules concerning the fact that Windows Media Player comes with XP. It no longer comes with Windows Vista. I’m wondering about the future of Windows Movie Maker because this also comes with XP)

I decided on my topic and practiced a lot. CamStudio for tutorials on the computer is best set to a small region, rather than the whole screen. The final video makes everything look smaller so the more detail you can capture with the region of screen setting, the better.

You need to speak very clearly, loudly and without spitting too much into the microphone. I fall down here.

It’s okay to make a few jokes or to have the viewer hear how you react as you demonstrate the tutorial. Swear words are not a good idea however.

I have much to learn about using a microphone and about feedback too. Turn off your speakers when using a microphone. Speak into it in as soundproofed a room as possible. Speak clearly. I have an Australian accent and I have been to America twice. They often DO NOT understand you and your audience will be mostly American. We have an ugly accent at times too. After 6 weeks of hearing only American accents, when you arrive at the airport to come home and hear those Australian voices, you feel both at home but also embarrassed by our tones and accents. Not that the American accent couldn’t do with some improving.

Speak more slowly than usual but not too slow.

It helps having been a teacher in the instruction stakes. Assume your audience knows nothing and make sure you do not miss essential steps in your tutorial.

Practice and good luck. If you want to buy a video recording program I recommend Camtasia.

Here is my first attempt. I have bought a microphone since and will be making another tutorial soon.

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