Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet

Author(s): Simo Johnson
Publisher: MCGRAW-HILL
Format: PDF
Protect your children from dangers that lurk on the Internet. Learn to identify the real threats--be they pedophiles, cyber-stalkers, hackers, spyware, viruses, or adware. This book is a practical how-to guide for WinXP users and doesn't require any special technical knowledge.

This isn't a hand-wringing account of the dangers, it is a practical resource that focuses on the tools that can be used to for access control. The internet and it's related services (the web, email, newsgroups etc) involves two-way traffic. In order to provide protection it's necessary to exercise control over who can send material to your computer and control over where a child-user can go. Dangers are discussed in a calm and factual manner, and examines ways of risk reduction.

The author explains how things work; he provides the non-technical parent and interested reader, with an insight that should give them confidence in dealing with protecting the youth from internet-related dangers. The book is in parts that discuss a specific issue; spam, viruses, spyware and adware, and pop-ups.

This book is an exceptional good reference and resource that deserves a place in any library. A book that should be brought to the attention of parents by schools and community organisations.

Download your copy of Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet now.

Fix Registry Errors & Erase Malware

If you've errors from the registry they will drive you crazy. These errors can take various forms, from the annoying to the dangerous and you need to fix registry errors

A few mistakes linked to files which are no longer installed will at most slow down your pc. Much more sinister errors though linked to spyware ought to be removed speedily as these are not just files in your registry you have to worry about. If your pc runs very slowly, restarts for no reason and should you see frequent annoying pop ups all over your screen then there can be a good chance your registry has some corrupt entries and you need to scan your laptop or computer speedily to verify this and fix registry errors.

The registry is exactly where all the info about programs and hardware is installed in your pc. So if you will discover any errors in it the performance of your personal computer is affected. This is where spyware likes to hide. Spyware might silently install it's own files in your personal computer but the registry will give it away and running a scan in your pc will reveal what is hiding there.

In the event you think your registry has some corruption or some spyware is lurking there it is possible to do numerous things:

#1 - Run a scan in your pc and scan the registry and your system. This will immediately tell you if there is often a issue and if your registry just has some harmless entries which could be removed of or there is something far more sinister going on.

#2 - Install a great registry checker and run it regularly to ensure you'll find no mistakes. This will help you to maintain spyware away from your computer and maintain all your confidential details including credit card details and bank data away from software trying to silently steal it away.

Remove errors within the registry fast and very easily with a registry cleaner.

ChildWebGuardian

ChildWebGuardian is filtering software designed to provide Internet child safety. This program keeps track and checks the content of every web-page the child browses through in the Internet Explorer. If the program finds some obscene content, ChildWebGardian will immediately block viewing such pages.

ChildWebGuardian is a whole software package that is integrated in Internet Explorer and consists of some controlling functions. Such as content filter, porn blocker, parental control, URL blocking, Internet access blocking, games control. Each of these functions forms an obstacle in the way of obscene information from the Internet. And before your child sees any page, it is checked by all those functions. The program can easily be configured for pornography blocking, blocking sites with violence scenes, filtering sites that popularizes drugs, to filter the gambling games, the questionable religious sects and other forbidden materials. ChildWebGuardian will filter the content of every visited and viewed pages.

To block the use of some programs/games, you can use the "Game Control" function in the program. This function allows you to control the using of any programs/games in a specified by you days and time. ChildWebGuardian has functions that allow analyzing the page content itself. That is why even if your child comes across a newly appeared site with obscene content, ChildWebGuardian will stop him from viewing this site anyway.

Download ChildWebGuardian now.

CCleaner Reviewed

As you might know Windows has a tendency to get slower over time.
CCleaner is a tool designed to reduce this effect by deleting files that you don’t need and removing invalid entries in the registry. After running CCleaner you can expect to have a faster and more reliable computer, you’ll even get more disc space!

What CCleaner actually cleans:

Temp files and similar from the following applications:

Internet Explorer
Recycle Bin
Clipboard
Windows Temporary files
Windows Log files
Recent Documents (on the Start Menu)
Run history (on the Start Menu)
Windows XP Search Assistant history
Windows XP old Prefetch data
Windows memory dumps after crashes
Chkdsk file fragments
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Media Player
eMule
Kazaa
Google Toolbar
Netscape
Microsoft Office
Nero
Adobe Acrobat Reader
WinRAR
WinAce
WinZip and more...

CCleaner is capable of cleaning the following entries from the registry:

File Extensions
ActiveX Controls
ClassIDs
ProgIDs
Uninstallers
Shared DLLs
Fonts
Help File references
Application Paths
Icons
Invalid Shortcuts and more…

CCleaner is getting better and better by every program update. Did we mention that CCleaner got a auto update function? There is a new CCleaner release every month so remember to update CCleaner!
Cleaner is fast in use as long as you choose just to delete files, but if you choose the safe file deletion it takes much longer time, but this is normal as the files are overwritten several times.

Download CCleaner

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Recovering of Deleted Files

Did you lose some important files? Can't find your documents anymore? A folder with photos is gone?

The problem of lost or mistakenly deleted files is quite common. Even if you backup your most important files frequently, there's always a chance that something happens right before the next backup. Home computers are often shared with other family members, so some files may be deleted simply as a matter of misunderstanding. For example, your son may think that you have already those photos and videos from your last vacation burned to a CD. So, he erases the photos and videos to free some space for a new game...

Is there a way to recover deleted files?

Yes. This operation is known as undelete, or unerase. Many years ago, before the introduction of Windows 95 with its Recycle Bin, small command-line utilities named 'undelete' or 'unerase' were supplied with operating systems to make possible recovering of mistakenly removed files. The undelete feature was also built into File Manager of earlier versions of Windows. In Windows 3.1, if you removed a file by mistake, you could choose to recover it by clicking the corresponding option in File Manager.

At this point, you may wonder: why those small utilities aren't there in the modern versions of Windows?

The Recycle Bin offers far better way to deal with removed files. It's safe and user friendly. You don't need to type commands with mysterious keys and switches anymore. Just click yourRecycle Bin and recover files, if you need to do so.

Starting with Windows 95, files are not really deleted. Instead they are put into a special folder and are preserved there for a given period of time. Settings of theRecycle Bin can be adjusted by the user, including the general capacity and the preservation time. Defaults are pretty safe: files are stored for several weeks, and the general capacity of theRecycle Bin is around 10% of your hard disk's space. When the time is over, files are finally deleted and can't be recovered. Well, if you didn't care about the deleted files for several weeks, most probably you don't need them at all. It's reasonable.

Convenient?

In some ways, yes. However, you shouldn't forget that the files aren't deleted if they are put into the Recycle Bin. No space is freed. If it's space that you need right now, you should empty your Recycle Bin, or shouldn't use it at all.

Windows offers an alternative way to delete files. You can press a "Shift" key (left or right, it doesn't matter) on your keyboard while deleting to avoid putting the file into theRecycle Bin. Thus the space occupied by the file is freed immediately.

But with this method, you are risking to wipe out important files. This operation can't be undone. At least, not with the usual recovery from the Recycle Bin.

That's where you may need a recovery tool, like Advanced NTFS Recovery. This easy to use utility is able to scan your hard disk for lost and deleted files. If the required files can be recovered, the program will recover them, even if the file system itself is damaged. The program takes advantage of all NTFS features (if you are still using FAT, it's no problem, as AdvancedNTFS Recovery can deal with different file systems; but you may consider upgrading to NTFS), and it can even access files in the 'raw' mode. Using its preview feature, you can see content of deleted files even without recovering them, which allows to estimate chances.

The worst part of it is that, once a file is deleted, your system can overwrite it any time. This can't happen if the file is in theRecycle Bin, but once the Recycle Bin is emptied, a new file can be written in the same area any moment. You can't control the process. You can't tell the system which of the deleted files are moreimportant for you than the rest.

So, let's consider the above example with a son wanting to install a new game.

If you catch him right after he deletes your pictures, there are very good chances that you will be able to restore all your photos and videos. However, if he has already managed to install his game, some of the valued files (if not all) may be overwritten. If so, they can't be recovered anymore.

But don't jump to quick conclusions. File system follows its own rules when writing data, so you may find that although there's virtually no space left on your hard disk, the deleted files are still recoverable. Don't hesitate to perform a scan. AdvancedNTFS Recovery doesn't write any data while scanning for lost files, so there is no danger of accidental overwriting.

Well, and if you don't have recovery tools on your computer yet? Before using a program you need to install it, which means that program files should be written to your hard disk. Won't they overwrite your valuable files?

The answer is... they may. Every single file, even a small one, can damage deleted files. It is impossible to say what files will be overwritten. Mostimportant? Completely unimportant?

At this point, it is clear that if you want to restore deleted files, you should allow the system to write as few files as possible. If you can prevent the system from writing at all, chances to recover files are about 100%!

Yes. If you avoid saving files on the partition where the deleted files were, you may be able to restore every single file. No magic, just a bit of good programming.

But then, what about installing the program? Is there a possibility to install it safely, without damaging the files you need to restore?

Even if your computer has only one hard disk, there can be several logical drives. It's quite a common practice to create at least two logical drives: C and D. If that's the case with your computer and if you have lost files only on one of the drives, you can with no worry install Advanced NFTS Recovery onto another drive. The deleted files will remain absolutely safe.

However, there may be other situations. For example, what if your computer has only one logical drive? Or if you don't remember where exactly the files to restore were?

In such circumstances you may install the program onto removable or external media. Your USB memory stick or external hard drive are ideal solutions.

The most important thing to remember when you want to recover deleted files is the following: avoid using the drive where you lost files. Don't save anything there. Shut down programs that need to save something from time to time (for example, Microsoft Word creates a backup copy every 10 minutes), but be careful, as some programs save different kinds of files when shutting down. And, of course, don't panic. Your nerves are moreimportant than any documents, even if it doesn't seem so in the moment.

Microsoft Office Professional 2007

The 2007 Office System is by no means just another collection of incremental tweaks to the world's most widely used productivity suite. What does that mean for users who already live and work in older versions of Office? Like any software that undergoes significant interface changes, the 2007 apps impose a more-demanding learning curve than their predecessors did.

The redesigned interface makes finding and using these applications' powerful features much easier, and it is especially useful if you want to make your documents look their best. The XML file formats reduce file size, let corporate users easily transfer information between applications, and automate formatting and other changes across huge libraries of documents. Since they're based on an open Microsoft spec, rival productivity apps should eventually be able to duplicate and work with Office documents faithfully. For network-connected workers, the suite provides more tools than ever, including the new Office Groove collaboration app, and support for wikis and blog posts. These features become even more useful for enterprises that invest in Office server products, such as SharePoint Server or Groove Server.

The sweeping design changes in Office 2007 can be unsettling. Instead of depending on myriad cascading text menus and skinny taskbars, most of the action in Office now takes place in a fat band or "ribbon." It appears where the taskbars used to be and graphically displays features that change as you click the different menu bar tabs. You may have to scramble at first to find the new locations of familiar options. But the ribbon may also introduce you to tools and commands you never knew existed. In addition it supports a useful new feature called live preview: Select all or a portion of your document, hover your mouse over a formatting option (a new font, for example), and you'll see how it changes the actual document's appearance.

Significant revamp provides more applications and many design improvements, though these take time to learn. Get your copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 now.

Internet Security and Anti-virus Software

Is it really necessary to have anti-virus and firewall software installed on your computer?
Afterall, with only 200 new threats created daily, who really cares? Is it really that big of a deal if hackers are able to access your computer, look through your data, user names, passwords, and account information? Seriously, is identitiy theft really that important to you? Or what about the viruses that cause your computer to go so slow you think you will never be able to load your Internet browser. Why should you worry about malware that can cause your system files to be destroyed or your favorite family photos stored on your computer to disappear in an instant? Does it concern you that your email can be sent to thousands of spam sites and pop-ups are all over your screen offering you software to fix your computer?

Any idea what causes these types of issues? How about malware, which broken down is short for malicious software such as viruses, trojans, worms, rootkits, spyware, adware, I think you get the point. Oh wait, I forgot, you have a customized super sized computer that is not vulnerable to viruses. When I hear people tell me this, I tend to wait and act surprised when they come back saying, "oh no, I got a virus".

It does not matter how sophisticated your computer is, you are vulnerable to malware! If you don't have internet security software installed on your pc, you are at risk of being infected with viruses, spyware and even hackers that want nothing more than to steal your information.

So what should you do now that you already have viruses on your computer? Well you could download the latest internet security software and hope it will detect, delete or repair the
infected files. Many times you will have to do a re-format of your harddrive which will cause you to lose everything on your computer so be sure to save what you want first. If you do a re-format, it has to be done properly, or it will not delete the viruses. I would recommend you to contact your local computer shop.

Although Internet security and anti-virus software will protect you against these threats, no software is guaranteed to block 100% of all malware. Many of these threats are found on websites that you visit and files that you download such as video's, music and pictures. If you use peer to peer file sharing, I am sure you already know all about viruses and spyware. Want a hint? Stop downloading from those sites and you will stop getting viruses.

Okay, here are a couple internet security software programs I recommend that offer the best protection, features and support.