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November 2010


 This Month's Bit Of Savings

Your computer can wind up overwhelmed by junk software, fragments of leftover code, even viruses and malware that evaded your notice. Regular preventive maintenance from our qualified professionals will get this junk out of your way and off of your hard drive, leading to better performance.

10% Off All System Optimizations

Mention the coupon code: System11

Do Not Fall For Fake Email Scams

By Jonathan Imberi 

The number of fake e-mail scams received by users each week is overwhelming. You need to be cautious of emails that come from banks, eBay, PayPal and any other financial intuitions you have accounts with.
Aside from the obvious grammatical and spelling errors that run rampant in these fake e-mails, there is a quick and easy way to separate a fake from the real deal.

You want to examine any links in the e-mail. The link may say http://www.ImberiPC.com but when you hover your mouse over the link, 
you can tell it points to another website like http://www.out-to-get-you.com.

When you hover your mouse over the link, the address that is being linked to will show up in the Status Bar on the left hand side. Your Status Bar is located at the bottom of your browser window just above the Task Bar. See the examples below.
As seen in Internet Explorer 7 

 As seen in Google Chrome 

Hover your mouse over the link above and see how even though it says "ImberiPC.com" it actually points to a rather malicious sounding website. (This is purely an example for this newsletter. ImberiPC.com is of course a safe and secure web site!)

Never click on a link inside an e-mail from an unknown or unrecognized sender. If the e-mail looks to be from a legitimate source, and you have an account with this company, then double check the links before clicking just to make sure they go where you expect them to. Remember, images can contain links too, so be sure to check them as well.

If you are uncertain of the link's destination but the e-mail seems legitimate, bypass the link altogether and go straight to the web site and log in. It is safer to visit the company's web site directly rather than click on a link you are unsure of.

Random Byte Of Knowledge

An IP Address is the Internet equivalent of a mailing address. 
Each computer has a unique address on the Internet. 
This is called your IP (Internet Protocol) address.

Tired Of Taking The Long Way Home? Try These Shortcut Keys Instead.

By Jonathan Imberi

Shortcut keys can provide an easier and often quicker method of navigating and using computer programs. The most common shortcut keys are accessed by using a modifier key such as [Alt], [Ctrl], and/or [Shift] or the [Windows Key] in conjunction with a single character. The standardized method for listing a shortcut is "Modifer plus character". For example "Ctrl+C" is telling you to press and hold the [Ctrl] key while also pressing the [C] key to perform the shortcut.

You can find the shortcut keys to most of your popular programs by looking for underlined letters in their menus. In the picture to the right you can see that the "S" in Save has been underlined. Now you know that you can press [Alt] and [S] to access the Save dialog. (Note: Some programs or versions of Windows may require that you press and hold [Alt] to see the menu bar and underlined characters). Some of the common features such as Open (Ctrl+O) and Save (Ctrl+S) have multiple shortcut keys assigned to them.There are numerous shortcut keys that are almost universal in terms of comparability with today's software. I have listed many of these keys below. Look for more shortcut keys in our future Newsletters.

 Alt + F  File menu options in current program.
 Alt + E  Edit options in current program.
 F1  Universal Help in almost every Windows program.
 Ctrl + A  Select all text.
 Ctrl + C  Copy selected item.
 Ctrl + X  Cut selected item.
 Ctrl + V  Paste
 Home  Goes to beginning of current line. 
 Ctrl + Home  Goes to beginning of document.
 End  Goes to end of current line.
 Ctrl + End  Goes to end of document.
 Shift + Home  Highlights from current position to beginning of line.
 Shift + End
  Highlights from current position to end of line.
 Ctrl + ⇦    Moves one word to the left at a time.
 Ctrl + 
⇨
 
  Moves one word to the right at a time.

Have A Question For Our Techs? Ask Us! Send an e-mail to SaraImberiPC.com

Ask Our Techs

  • Question:
I am getting popups for AVG Free 2011. How do I upgrade AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition to the new 2011 version?
  • Answer: 
Although the Free Edition of AVG Anti-Virus is more than sufficient to keep your computer protected, AVG still tries to get you to upgrade to the Paid Version. This is NOT necessary. We have put a presentation together that will walk you through the upgrade and installation of the Free Version and help you to avoid some of the tricky spots.

  • Question:
I do not visit inappropriate web sites, so how does this fake security software get on my computer?
  • Answer: 
Rogue security software, also known as "scareware" or "fake alerts," is software that appears to be beneficial from a security perspective but provides limited or no security, generates erroneous or misleading alerts, or attempts to lure users into participating in fraudulent transactions. Rogue security software designers create legitimate looking pop-up windows that advertise security update software. These windows might appear on your screen while you surf the Web. The "updates" or "alerts" in the pop-up windows call for you to take some sort of action, such as clicking to install the software, clicking to accept recommended updates, or clicking to remove unwanted viruses or spyware. When you click, the rogue security software downloads to your computer.