It's truly amazing how much money Microsoft pulls in from what is, in relative computer terms, ancient software. For most applications and software you purchase and buy online, if it's more than two years old it's worthless. This rule doesn't apply to Microsoft, though, the latest version of it's Office suite is nearing three years old now, and Windows XP, still the most popular OS by far, is almost SEVEN. The reason for this is that you're basically forced into owning these hobbling, wrinkled old testaments to mediocrity to do your work, right?

Wrong. Well, you're still sort of forced to own Windows if that's all you've ever used, but for Office there are alternatives. Better alternatives. FREE alternatives. Alternatives like OpenOffice, which does everything Microsoft Office does and is way cheaper. By way cheaper I mean it doesn't cost anything. Compared to the current retail price of Office 2007 ($150 for the academic version) that's a pretty suite deal (ha ha, see what I did there?).

You can download OpenOffice for naught a penny here:

www.openoffice.org

If you own a business and want what basically amounts to the corporate version, you can get it for $35 a license (wowza!) here:

www.sun.com

Oh, and if you're just trying to replace Outlook there's a great, free alternative out there for you as well. Thunderbird, by the makers of Firefox. 

www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Oh, and just a moment of gloating: I was totally right about Conficker. LOL. Okay I'm done.

I'm aware of the media freak-out regarding the oh-so mysterious Conficker worm and it's apparent payload of blowing the back out of your hard drive, poisoning your french fries and killing your dog this April 1st - my advice to you, don't worry about it.

This particular virus really isn't all that much different than a few thousand we've seen this year, it's just a little more streamlined and for some reason the media has got a scary stalker crush on it. You shouldn't be worried. If you're running virus protection (which, if you're reading this blog, you SHOULD BE BY NOW OR SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WITH YOU) then you're ok. If you want to be really safe, download McAfee Stinger from here:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

and give it a run. It'll clean out Conficker if you've got it. Once you've done that, click the Start Button, click "All Programs", then click "Windows Update" at the top and get all the latest updates just to be sure.

After you're done, take a deep breath, relax, and go worry about something real like the economy for awhile. 

Hey gang - your friendly Portland Computer Repair guy here again. After my last entry about tuning up your computer I feel like it might be a good idea to actually tell you some ways to do that. It's a crazy concept but I think we can roll with it.

First off, temp files build up on your system like barnacles on a pirate ship, and every once in awhile it's nice to clean 'em up. I recommend two utilities for this, both of them free. First is Ccleaner. When you install it, make sure you don't install all the add-on crap, just choose the options like I have here:

Once it's installed, launch it from the icon it's placed on your desktop, and choose options like this:

Then click "Run cleaner" and away it goes. 

Next go ahead and do a registry cleanup by clicking "registry" on the side then "Run cleaner". Go ahead and just say yes to whatever it asks you, cleaning the registry with CCleaner is very safe (as opposed to a number of other registry cleaners out there).

Next up we're going to hit your rig with a blast of ATF Cleaner, which sometimes finds a few things CCleaner doesn't. Get ATFCleaner here. Go ahead and launch it from wherever you downloaded it to, and select every option but "Cookies" (most people like to keep their cookies so they don't have to re-login to every website they visit) and click "go".

That should get rid of a lot of the nasty plaque that builds up on Windows over time and keep your system chugging along.  Until next time!

I'm sure you've all heard about Moore's law and the fact that processor speeds (and pretty much everything computer related) double about every two years. For the most part it's true, and it can be tempting to think that you need a new computer each time that happens, but here's the dirty truth that Intel and AMD would rather you didn't know:

Computers have been SO fast for the past three or four years that for the lay-person, none of that progress matters one iota. In fact, high-end machines from four years ago in many cases out-perform brand new ones today just due to the bloated monstrosity that is Microsoft Vista and all the various crap computer manufacturers shove into the system before you buy it.

I heard a hilarious fact the other day - that Best Buy is actually offering a crap-cleanup service when you buy a new computer from them. So,basically, you shell out good money to buy a brand new computer then have to immediately turn around and pay someone else to clean it up for you. That is some thick, juicy irony and a sad state of affairs.

If you are the kind of person that uses their computer primarily for the internet, email, and document processing (in other words, 80% of the country) then this is all you really need:

• Processor: Any dual-core processor, 2.1ghz or better.
  
• RAM: 1gigabyte is fine forWindows XP (although even 512 megabytes is usually ok), 2gb is pretty much required for Windows Vista
• Hard Drive:If you're a picture / movie freak, 300gb is good. For anyone else 160gb+ will cut it.
• DVD: A DVD burner is nice.

Outside of those things pretty much everything else is frills / personal perference. Do you want an SD-card reader for your digital camera? Ok, sure. Do you want a WiFi card to connect to your home network? Ok, get 802.11N.

Never spend more than $1000 on a new computer. The only thing that might change this is if you're an avid computer gamer. Computer gaming is pretty much the ONLY thing out there besides video production or 3-D rendering that requires a beefy system, and if you're a gamer that is almost aLL about the video card. Even a four-year-old system with a brand new video card can usually play the latest games.

My point here is this: When people think they need a system they usually don't need a new system, they just need their old one cleaned up. Junk builds up in the registry over time regardless of how nit-picky you are, system files get replaced with weird versions or corrupted, programs get loaded at start-up that you're not aware of, services are installed that you don't need that run in the background,  etc. Cleaning this stuff up regularly will keep your machine speedy and running like a new one. Case in point, my main work computer that I do absolutely everything on (even play games, 3-D render, and fix other people's computers) is almost four years old (dual-core Athlon X2 4200+) and it still runs like a dream. 

Being a computer repair guy in Portland, even though it hurts I have to sell myself a little :). Call me if you want this done. Tune-ups usually take around an hour (will definitely make your system speedier), complete operating system wipes and rebuilds take about 2 (will make it run like a new computer), or I can build you a new, fully optimized Windows XP computer with out all the crap right out of the gate (runs faster then most new computers). There, marketing mode off.

See you next time!

Like most techs, the number one thing I run into doing Portland computer repair is virus and spyware infection. My friend and fellow computer geek Tad and I were having a conversation the other day, and he mentioned that in all the years he'd done clean ups for other people he'd never personally had a system infected with anything since like 2001, and I was in almost the same boat. Honestly, to avoid virus infection it doesn't take a great virus scanner (although that sure helps), it just takes a few simple precautions:

1. Always keep Windows totally up to date.
2. Rarely (if ever) follow links sent to you in email
3. Use an email service with a good spam filter like Gmail or Yahoo
4. Use Firefox as a web browser and be incredibly picky about which "addons" you install, especially if you're on a strange site
5. Realize that almost nothing is actually free on the web. For "free" screen savers and "free" fonts you usually end up paying a lot in the long run, usually to techs like me to clean up your system.
6. Make sure your neighbors are computer gurus.*

I've talked about (or plan on talking about) the others on the list, so let's start with #1. If you're using Windows, click on the start button,  click on "all programs", the click on "Windows Update" at the top. Install everything it tells you to. Do this about once a week if you know what's good for you.

If you're using Windows XP, click with the right mouse button on "My Computer" (either on your desktop or on the start menu) and select "properties". That will bring you to a screen like this:

Under the "system" heading you see something like "Service Pack 3". If it doesn't say "Service Pack 3" or it doesn't say "Service Pack" at all you're in trouble. There are viruses out there that can infect you directly without you having to click on ANYTHING using Windows exploits that were open prior to Service Pack 3. Go to the Windows Update site and install it now.

If you're using Windows Vista, it should say "Service Pack 1". If not, do the same. 

* - interesting fun fact, if you're on DSL or FIOS for a highspeed network connection chances are you're sharing a single external IP address with your neighbors. Internet providers sometimes put everyone on a local network to save their increasingly valuable network addressable IP addresses. This means that any viruses your neighbors may get have the potential for attempting to attack your system directly and with a lot more success than if you had your own IP. Soooo, basically, if your neighbors have bad internet habits and filthy systems then you're at risk. Just like that one guy coughing his head off on your flight to Tucson gives everyone else the flu. Jerk.

See ya next week!

Saving customer's busted hard drives is always a harrowing process. In a lot of cases, you're literally holding someone's livelihood in your hands, or trying to resusitate their sick child in the form of a screen play or novel they've been working on for years. It can be wonderful to restore this kind of data and see the relief on someone's face, but absolutely devastating to have to break the news that the hard drive is beyond repair.

Hard drives break pretty often. They're basically the only moving part in your computer, and they freaking MOVE.They function like record players that spin around completely 7200 times a minute. Oh, and at like 200 degrees.So fast record players in hell, basically. Frankly, it's a wonder they don't break more often.

For this reason it's incredibly important that you make weekly backups. The problem is that a huge portion of the computing populace has no idea where their files actually reside on the hard drive or how to back them up, and the backup solution built into Windows XP  might has well be another version of Solitaire for all the good it does. Windows Vista's is slightly better, but still no shining star.

Soooo... without further ado, here's my first attempt at a little video to show you how to setup nightly backups to an external hard drive using the free Cobian backup. First you'll need to buy an external USB 2.0 hard drive and plug it in. You shouldn't have to spend more than $70 or $80 on one. They're everywhere, and they look a lot like this. Then, you'll want to follow my step-by-step instructions that I outline in my first ever wacky computer repair video here:

I hope that's pretty straightforward. Comment below with any questions and I'll help out the best I can! See you next week.  

Mozilla's Firefox web browser has become kind of a big deal in the past few years because it's the first browser to actually make any kind of progress unseating Microsoft's clunky Internet Explorer behemoth. The reasons for this are simple:

1. Firefox is faster than Internet Explorer
   
2. Firefox is more extensible than Internet Explorer
   
3. Firefox is SAFER than Internet Explorer

If you want to continue listening to me ramble feel free, or just go start using Firefox now by clicking the following link. It will import all of your Internet Explorer favorites during install, so you don't have to worry about starting over.

One of the neat things about Firefox's rise to fame has been that it's forced Microsoft to actually start DOING something. Interesting fact: They sat around picking their bums on version 6 of Internet Explorer for almost FIVE YEARS before releasing version 7. That's absolutely insane. THINK of all the innovation surrounding the computer industry at that time! Almost every computer component quadrupled in power, "typing skill" was no longer a major resume builder, and your mother started reading your blog and saying things like "downloaded it from the internet" in common conversation. All that time Microsoft was doing nothing.

Then along comes Mozilla with Firefox and gobbles up 15% of Microsoft's share in the browser market and all of a sudden we've got two new versions of Internet Explorer in 3 years. Both 7 and 8 are available now, and you can bet that THAT's no coinkeedink. My hat is off to anything that inspires innovation. 

"Safer" is interesting too.Technically, Firefox really isn't any safer then Internet Explorer. The actual base code for the browser is posted online for anyone to see, nefarious or righteous in intent. However, since Firefox still has a relatively small market share, virus and spyware authors tend to focus on the browser everyone's using, not the little upstart. Therefore, there are like 1/10th as many viruses infect Firefox as there are IE viruses (I'm totally making that number up, but I'm sure it's close). It's the same reason why Mac's are so much "Safer" than PC's. Not because they're actually any more secure, just nobody cares enough to write viruses for them. A good slogan for them might be "Safer because nobody gives two craps!'.Actually, that's not a very good slogan.

Anyway, if I haven't sold you yet: Install a little program called "Adblock Plus" into Firefox once you're running it, and you'll come close to never seeing an internet ad again. Really.

Hey there, greater Portland area. Looking good today! Have you lost weight?

I'm Justin, the head geek and owner of 12:01 Computer Solutions, and I've had this blog idea kicking around in my head for awhile. You see, I run into a lot of problems with computers and such that could have been avoided relatively easily with a little fore-knowledge, and I figured, why not do what my Mom always taught me and share?

So, each week I'm going to try and impart a little of what I know to help you in your day to day computing life. Keep in mind that the advice on this blog is free and worth every bit what you paid for it.

Without further ado, let's get on to the useful bits. This weeks topic is:

UPDATES
(and why to avoid them)

Now, I would imagine that most techies out there would lynch me for advising you to avoid updates, and they're right in some respects, but I'm going to anyway. Here's why: You see, spyware and virus writing is now a multi-million dollar industry. There are actually entire businesses with employees and HR guys and dental plans existing overseas and out of the watchful eye of the US justice system that write spyware for a living.They've got focus groups and trend analysis, and one thing they've learned is that people seem to trust things that look like updates. "You're anti-virus is out of date!" they say. "Windows needs to be updated!" they say, and then they convince you to click "yes" to a bunch of things that a brain damaged four-year-old would never agree to and WHAM. You're chock full of virus. 

There are only two things on your computer that require constant updates. Your virus scanner and Windows. Both of these things SHOULD be set to update automatically. Your virus scanner definitely is, Windows probably is. To make sure Windows XP is, just:

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Control Panel
3. If you see an option for "Security Center", click on that, otherwise:
4. Click on "Automatic Updates" or "Manage Automatic Updates"
5. Make sure "install updates automatically" is set and that it's set for a time your computer will be ON.

If you do shut down your computer every night, make sure that you click on "install updates and shut down". This will ensure that Windows is kept up to date.

Now here's the tricky part: IGNORE EVERY UPDATE MESSAGE YOU ARE PRESENTED WITH. Remember what they taught you in health class and Just Say "NO" to everything, close every update prompt window, click on every "X", kill every stupid Java script and HP balloon prompt telling you anything regarding updates. A few bug fixes are just not worth the possible infection, especially if everything on your system is running fine to begin with.

See you next week!