Welcome to the Geek Choice Blog

Many computers are shared by multiple people, be it a family or a small office filled with employees. If you have administrative privileges, provided the computer is your property, Windows 7 grants you the ability to determine just what applications can be accessed by the users of that computer with the use of AppLocker.

There could be an application that only one or two people in your office are authorized to utilize, or you could be a parent who wants to restrict the use of games by children during homework hours.

You must be logged in as an administrator to use AppLocker. First, click on the start menu, which will bring you to search field. In that field, you will enter: gpedit.msc and press Enter.

Looking at the “Local Computer Policy” tree, you will go to: Computer Configuration\Windows Setting\Security Settings\Application Control Policies\AppLocker

Once you’ve selected that, you will see the controls for the applications, which is where you’ll begin setting those privileges.

Click on the “Configure Rule Enforcement” link.

On the “AppLocker Properties” panel, you’ll see an unchecked box immediately beneath “Executable Rules.” Click on that.

Now, press OK.

As an example of how this process works, we’ll use the example of “Jack,” someone who whittles away time playing games while his productivity in the office declines. We’re going to restrict his access to games.

On the “Overview” panel, click on “Executable Rules.”

With being the first time you’ve implemented this feature, you’ll find that there are no rules defined. If you right-click on that clear window, you can then “Create New Rule.”

You’re now at the “Create Executable Rules” wizard.

After selecting “Permissions” on the left hand bar, you will then choose “Deny.”

You will then add Jack as a user who you’d like to place a restriction on.

After he’s added, press OK, which will allow you to toggle him with the “Deny” action.

The “Conditions” panel enables you to determine those conditions under which his access is denied. Selecting “Path” will allow you to deny him access to those games.

Clicking on “Browse Folders,” you can now prevent him from using any of the games within the “Microsoft Games” folder.

You’re given the option to select the name for this restriction, an option that allows you to monitor several restrictions if you so choose to add them.

Once that’s complete, a message will read “The default rules are currently not in the rule list for this rule collection.” With it being necessary to know what this rule or restriction entails, you should click “Yes.”

Looking at the list, you’ll notice that Jack is now restricted from accessing the Microsoft Games directory.

When accessing his user account, Jack will see that he can no longer play those games, which is indicated by a window that will pop up and alert him to this restriction each time he attempts to do so.

This is how you can deny certain applications to those users you specify, being just one of many features included with Windows 7. With it, productivity is guaranteed to be increased — in the office and, if you have children who need to do their school work, at home.

If you have additional questions about Windows 7 and its powerful set of tools, Geek Choice is here to assist you.

Digital distribution of media is a burgeoning, but fast moving, model for the delivery of multimedia. While the content includes music, the central focus of this streaming model is the videos, which include movies and television shows.

Clicker, a startup intent on being the most sought after search engine of television shows on the web, has opened its doors to the public. Limited to a private beta for little over two months, the site is now public, allowing users to sate their appetite for queries of that sort.

After its debut, the site has seen 33% more content added to its current index of nearly 400,000 full-length shows. The site’s content is culled from over 7,000 shows, spanning 1200 sources of content across the internet.

The site continues to improve upon its feature set, recently adding filters that enable users to pare down their search to episode descriptions of a specific show. They’ve also added a “related search” feature, which suggests shows that may be tailored to the tastes indicated by the content you’re presently viewing.

An important addition to the site is the inclusion of premium content, all of which is contingent upon the user’s subscription to that particular service  — Amazon Video on Demand and Netflix’ “Watch Instantly” content.

Instead of hosting the television shows, Clicker’s model is based upon it directing the user to reliable sources from which they’re able to view the specified content. While this is entirely free, there are plans to include premium features, the likes of which have yet to determined.

Visit Clicker today.

Firefox is a favorite browser of mine, principally because of the extensions. Extensions are applets that augment your browsing experience, modifying Firefox so that your management of the information you’re viewing is easier and less involving. Many of the extensions afford users the ability to sort information in a more efficient manner (as many of you might have read, one such extension groups multiple pages of photographs into a single scrollable page), while others enable the extraction of information culled from the page you’re viewing.

One such extension we’ll touch upon is Web2PDF, a neat tool that allows you to convert any webpage you’re viewing into a PDF format. This is especially convenient if you’re looking to distribute the information gleaned from that particular website to multiple people. With Web2PDF, all one need do is convert the page to PDF format and distribute it accordingly.

Once the extension has been installed, you’ll have to ability to begin converting those page. Looking at the top of your browser, you’ll notice the addition of a button associated with the task. After you’ve decided to convert the page into a PDF, you’re tasked with just pressing that one button. Upon its submission, you will observe the conversion process.

Upon completion of that process, the tool will prompt you to download your newly created PDF. Simply right click and designate a location to which you’d like the PDF saved.

When viewing the directory in which the file has been saved, you’ll notice that its filename corresponds to the webpage from which it originated.

If you’re one of those people who’s ambivalent about installing too many extensions on your browser, Web2PDF can also be accessed directly. You can visit their website, where you’ll notice a field in which you can enter the URL of the webpage you’re looking to convert.

For those of you who’re looking for a better means of saving the information you read while browsing the web, this is a simple way to do so.

You can download the Web2PDF converter here.

For you Mac users who use Safari, the web browser released for the Mac OS X operating system, Apple has come out with the latest version. Released just today, Safari 4.0.4 introduces a number of improvements to its performance and stability.

Apple recommends that all users of Safari install this latest update. The fixes include:

• Improved performance of Javascript
• Improved performance of Full History Search, for those of you with a sizable number of history items
• Improved stability for 3^rd party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail

For a more detailed look at the security content included with this update, visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Versions available are:

• Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• Leopard
• Tiger

A single version for Windows operating systems – Windows 7, Vista, and XP – is also available.

This update is available at Apple’s Safari download page.

If you have any questions, feel free to call us at Geek Choice.

Still in its infancy, the internet is a growing community, home to everything from recipes for the most outlandish dishes to books that are no longer in print. As use of the internet has exploded, so has the content it exists as a medium for, with no boundaries on what’s available to those entering its domain.

This includes content that some might deem objectionable.

Guarding your family against this has been difficult, the near unregulated structure of the internet serving as a platform for what many would find highly offensive. While there are safeguards that monitor internet use, they’re not always effective, a result of the internet’s unceasing growth.

Given the internet is almost inextricably tied to the development of our children, at home and school, it’s unreasonable to assume that they will not make use of its function. As any responsible parent knows, protecting our children against harmful material is paramount in the process of nurturing them into well-adjusted young adults. However, preventing children from using the internet does them a disservice that has been shown to stunt development in this information age.

With Google’s search engine being the most popular of its kind, it’s  likely that your children will put it to use at some point.  Whether it’s a search for the latest videogame tips or rumors about their favorite teen starlet, there’s plenty of safe content that’s available for them to search for. Unfortunately, the chance of them happening upon search results of a questionable nature can be high.

Google has always allowed its users to filter the results of their searches, removing content that is deemed inappropriate. Helpful as that feature’s been, the ability to lock those settings has never been available until now.

Today, Google launched an improvement that allows one to lock the SafeSearch setting to the strictest level of filtering. To prevent a minor from tampering with this feature, it will be password protected, leaving only the guardian empowered with the ability to change the setting.

As seen below, results generated by any future use of the Google search engine will be observably different, the page on which they’re normally displayed accompanied by colored balls that sit on top. This serves as a reminder to parents and teachers standing from afar that their children’s content is being filtered.

For a demonstration of how to use this feature, Google has provided a video:

This is but one of several measures you can take to protect your children during their time on the internet. While Geek Choice encourages responsible use of the internet, we understand that many children aren’t informed about the dangers that lurk about its corridors. Use of this option in combination with other measures and discussion with your children about online safety should ease that concern.

Whether you’re looking for your seasonal flu shot or you’re concerned about the availability of a vaccine that combats the H1N1 swine flu, Google has rolled out with a handy locator that points you towards the nearest location to service that need.

Just visit their flu shot locator.

Once that’s loaded, it might prompt you to enter your location. To do so, select the “Change location” link.

Once the search is completed, you will see a red icon in the form of a needle. This will show you where to obtain the regular seasonal flu shot. A blue icon of the same type notes where you can get the H1N1 vaccine. A needle that’s mixed with both red and blue indicates a location where both services are available.

Clicking on any of the icons will present you with more information about that particular location.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all of the locations on the map. While most of these are pharmacies, Google has said that more sites will be added with time.

One important bit of information that’s omitted from these details is whether or not the flu shot or vaccine is in stock. While the icon indicates that the location is supplying those services, looking to the left of the map tells you that the stock is depleted.

In addition to the locator, Google also has a site that follows flu activity, highlighting those areas in which its prevalence is high.

Google continues to remind us why their presence on the internet is so invaluable. They harness the simplicity of their model to innovate how our community utilizes an internet that is still in its infancy when considering the possibilities.

While we at Geek Choice hope you never come down with the flu, we also know that staying informed can often be the best possible defense.

Oftentimes, through no fault of either party, our customer service representatives encounter unintended obstacles when attempting to detail exactly why a customer’s computer has ceased to properly function. One of the more frequent problems encountered by our clients is the infamous “Blue Screen of Death,” or BSOD. The “Blue Screen of Death” is an ominously nondescript blue screen alerting the user that, for any number of reasons, the computer must shut down to prevent further damage. This screen is accompanied by text, of which much is unintelligible to all but the most tech savvy.

As calls come into our office, our phone reps attempt to detail the specific problem as best they can, but their understanding of what lies at the heart of the issue goes only so far as the end user is able to articulate it. No blame can be attributed to the client, for even some of the most accomplished technicians find themselves at an immediate loss for what’s ailing a system stricken by BSOD, their answers coming after the issue has been researched.

BlueScreenView is an informative utility that operates as a interpreter of sorts, taking what many find to be incomprehensible and processing  that information in a manner that makes it a bit easier to digest. The necessity of a utility like BlueScreenView becomes obvious when observing how little time you have before the “Blue Screen of Death” proceeds with a system reboot.

With BlueScreenView, the user can access BSOD dump file, filtering that information through a report that’s just a bit easier to understand. When launching the application, it will scan for the minidump files generated by the system crash, which are usually located in C:\windows\minidump. Taking that data, it displays it in a window, with the dump file listed above and those drivers associated with the crash sorted below.

You can read even more information about the driver’s role in the crash by double-clicking on each one. Or, you can simply decide to parse the selections down to just those drivers that were directly implicated in the system crash.

It bears mentioning that this is merely the precursor to any troubleshooting that is to take place on the stricken computer. BlueScreenView translates the garbled messages from the BSOD and creates a clearer account of just what precipitated the system crash. While this utility will not solve the conflict, it will grant the user a better understanding of where the focus should be.

For those users who are interested in calling Geek Choice, this might prove handy, particularly when relating the details of what you’ve experienced to the phone representative that takes your call.

You can download BlueScreenView here.

If your system experiences a sudden crash, or if you have a question about an unrelated matter, Geek Choice is here to help.

As a number of entries on this blog will attest to, the technicians in our office are huge fans of Google, finding its robust array of web-based products to be superior to alternatives – even those based on a subscription model — that one might otherwise use.  Driven by a clear understanding of what the end user is looking for, Google’s innovations speak to their drive to make our use of the internet as comfortable as possible. It all began with their search engine, the most popular and highest rated of its kind.

Below, you’ll find a number of tips that aid you in the process of searching with Google’s engine, making your use of this tool more efficient in both the time spent and the results its use brings.  Whether you’re looking the latest movie showings in your area or searching for a specific document to aid in research, these tips will make those tasks all the more simple to complete.

Locating various types of files:

Many of you scour the internet for files of varying types, from PDF files to simple documents. You might be a student in need of something to reference from, or a salesman looking to land a huge account. No matter the need, the internet is home to a myriad number of documents that may aid in your effort. Searching for that right one can be daunting, with the process often seeing you pore over each result that’s returned from your search. On any particular subject, the search can be easily narrowed by entering the following in the search field: [insert subject of research] filetype:[insert type of file].

For instance, if I’m looking for research study on underage drinking, I might input:

Underage drinking filetype:PDF

As you might see, doing so results in thousands of PDF files that pertain to the issue you’ve specified.

Retrieving definitions of words:

Another great tip, especially for those who might scratch their head at the use of a certain word in an article they’re reading, is to use Google’s search engine as a dictionary. Instead of always visiting Dictionary.com or keeping a pocket dictionary on you, you can simply type: define [insert word].

This will instantly show you that word’s definition. Not only with words in the dictionary, this tool will supply the meaning of other forms of language – slang, abbreviations, scientific terminology.

An instant forecast:

Looking to travel to California? Visiting your parents down south? Wondering if you’re going to start the week on a rainy day? Google makes it easy to check the weather in any region, no matter how remote. All it takes is the region you’re inquiring about and the term “weather.”

We’re located in Boston, MA. Typing “Boston weather” in the search engine field reveals that it’s currently 60 degrees outside, with similar temperatures expected tomorrow. Like any forecast,  its accuracy is up for debate, but it’s always helpful to receive an idea of mother nature’s temperament.

Finding movies playing in your area:

While this is a bit different from the other shortcuts, bypassing your use of the search engine, locating new movies playing in your area is as simple as typing www.google.com/movies in your address bar. Including both the latest blockbuster releases to those obscure independent films that are playing at only a select number of locations, this page lists all of the movies, sorting them by the cinema – which is listed according to the zipcode that is associated with the IP address from which you’re searching – and the movies’ showtimes. If you click on the name of the movie, it lists every location at which that particular film is featured.

In closing, these are just a few of the shortcuts that I use, some more frequent than others. There are plenty more where those came from, and we’ll touch upon them at a later point. As Google builds upon its interface, Geek Choice will continue to keep you informed about how you can put its convenient features to use.

This afternoon, Apple released a second update for Snow Leopard, the latest installment of their Mac Operating System. The most notable inclusion in Mac OS X 10.6.2 is a patch that addresses the guest account bug, fixing it along with several other issues.

This particular bug takes effect when someone logs in and out of a guest account on a machine running Snow Leopard. Once that individual logs back into their regular account, they’ll notice that it’s been cleared of all the data.

Since its discovery, Apple has been working on a fix, finally releasing one today.

In addition to this critical patch, a number of other concerns have been redressed, the following list describing just what’s been corrected:

• The deletion of data that would occur when using a guest account
• A problem that would see users randomly logged out of their account
• Exchange contacts omitting Spotlight search results
• Menu extras
• Compatibility with Hebrew and Dictionary
• The sound of a shutter when taking a screenshot
• The four-finger swipe gesture
• A problem preventing the addition of images to contacts in Address Book
• Performance issues with Front Row when watching movies
• Generating mobile accounts for Active Director users
• Stability of VPN connects
• Improved peformance for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
• Performance issues with VoiceOver performance
• Video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) computers that are known to arise when using AirPort.

These are just the fixes that have been applied to the Operating System, with many more issues addressed elsewhere. For the complete list, visit Apple.

You can download this update here.

Most of us are already well familiar with the frustrations of spam: unsolicited email advertisements. In recent years, unwanted emails have evolved in an attempt to avoid increasingly advanced filters and wary consumers. The contents and goals of unsolicited emails are not always the same, however, and some emails are more dangerous than others. We’ve put together a list of red flags to help you quickly identify emails that may be harmful to your computer and your wallet.

Suspicious attachments

Attaching files to an email is a quick and easy way to share files with your contacts. The downside is that unscrupulous spammers can attach files like viruses and trojan horses in the hopes that an unwary recipient might download the file and infect their computer. Any time you see an email with an attachment that you weren’t expecting, be very cautious about downloading the attachment or even opening the email.

Links that don’t make sense

In an email supposedly from Yahoo, a link to a specific page on Yahoo’s site appears. So why does the text of the link not begin with “http://yahoo.com”? Because it’s a scam. Many scam artists attempt to gain account information or even credit card numbers by posing as respectable web companies looking for information about your account. These emails typically contain a link where you can reset your password, confirm your credit card information, or log in to access some special new feature. To spot these bad links, you need to look at the url: the address of the page that is being linked to. All urls begin with “http://” or “htpps://” and from there vary from website to website. If the url is not visible in the link, you can hover your mouse over the link and see the url in the lower left corner of your web browser.

email containing links that don't match up and suspicious sender information

Notices about accounts you don’t have

Virus spreading emails that mask themselves as emails from major websites are banking on their recipients actually having accounts with that website in the first place. If you get an email about your facebook account when you never signed up for facebook in the first place, the odds are very good that this is a phishing or virus email.

Password reset requests you didn’t send

One of the most common phishing emails currently is the fake password reset. These emails claim that you recently requested a new password, and direct you to a webpage where you can enter your “old” account name and password. You may be able to identify these emails by the link urls or because you don’t have the account that you would supposedly be resetting a password for in the first place. Even if you don’t see anything wrong with the link or the account information, never respond to a password reset email that you didn’t specifically request.

Sender addresses that don’t add up

An email from YouTube.com will be sent from an account that ends with @youtube.com. If “joey5683426$$@ytmail.com” is sending you important updates about your YouTube account, it’s a safe bet this is also a malicious email. If your email system hides sender information, you can change your settings to show full headers or usually click a link right in the email to show all of the sender information.

Money transfer requests

Typically from Nigeria, these emails claim that there is some obscene amount of money sitting in an account somewhere that the sender wants moved to the United States before something terrible happens to it. It’s not uncommon for these emails to be completely in upper case and poor English, although there are exceptions. These emails are scam attempts, trying to get your bank account information so that the sender can access your funds. No matter the pretense for the email, you should never share bank account information with anyone you don’t know. Recent versions of these emails claim to be from “a member of your church.”

Weird emails from friends

The most dangerous and difficult to spot malicious emails are the ones sent by your friends and other contacts. Usually if you receive a suspicious email from a friend or co-worker, it’s either because their system has been infected or because their account has been compromised. If you see an email from one of your contacts that contains strange characters in the subject, has attachments that you weren’t expecting, links to a file sharing site, or otherwise looks unlike the correspondence you’re used to from that person, take the time to check with them before clicking on any links or downloading any attachments. If you do find a strange email from a contact that later turns out to be a virus or online scam, it’s important to remember that your friend most likely was not the one that sent the email to you. These are almost always sent either by a virus or by someone who gained unauthorized access to your friend’s email account.

Email from the user's account containing a suspicious link and subject

Emails from yourself (that you didn’t send)
These emails can be disturbing when you find them. If you find an email from your own account sitting in your inbox that you know you didn’t send (and you have not allowed anyone else access to your account) immediately change your password and security question for your account. Next, check your “sent mail” folder to see if any other emails went out that you were unaware of. Let everyone who received one of these suspicious emails know that you did not send the emails, that they should not open them or click any links or attachments and that you suspect your account was compromised. You can also let your email provider know about your concerns. If this problem recurs, your system may be infected and need virus cleanup service performed.

As users and spam filters become more aware of these malicious emails, scammers will develop new schemes to get at your computer, bank account, and other information. The best weapon against these attacks is a healthy dose of skepticism, though even vigilant users can fall victim to scams and viruses. If you believe you may have a compromised email account or infected machine, or if you just want more information about how to prevent these problems, give our office a call at 1-800-GEEK-HELP (433-5435).