Technically Easy

Category: Software

How Does a Security Suite Protect Your Computer?

These days, it’s essential to keep some sort of protection on your computer if you’re connected to the internet. Some people simply use a firewall as their line of defense, and others prefer to maximize their protection by using a security suite. Of course, if you’re going to be browsing the internet at all, a security suite is your best bet as far as protecting yourself against internet baddies goes. There are all sorts of threats lurking online including viruses, malware, spyware, hackers, worms and more. With this many hazards hiding in the shadows, it’s very important to have something like a security suite installed on your computer.

You might be wondering what a security suite can do for you and how it might protect your computer. Because a security suite is packed with lots of useful tools to help build your defense up against threats, there are lots of ways that it can protect your computer. Just think of this type of software as an all-in-one solution for keeping your computer secure and stable. One of the most noticeable and indispensable components of a security suite is its virus/spyware protection. This component offers your computer protection against malicious executables and software that can really do some damage to your computer.

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January 19, 2011
How to Find Autorun Programs in Windows

For a vast majority of us that use Windows on a regular basis, we have come across performance and stability issues from time to time, so it is important to find autorun programs in Windows. On a freshly formatted PC, everything seems to run pretty quick and the system doesn’t crash as often. After a few weeks, months, and years, the computer seems to get slower and less stable.

Many performance and stability problems can be traced back to programs that automatically run when Windows loads up. It seems that much of the software we install seems to want to run an application at startup. The problem is many people don’t know that there are free applications available that can help find autorun programs in Windows and stop those programs from automatically starting when Windows loads.

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December 17, 2010
Data Recovery Freeware Tools

I have recovered data many times using simple data recovery freeware tools. I managed to recover data from bad sectors on hard drives, and deleted data from both USB flash drives and memory cards. Regardless of the media used to store data, chances are with a good tool you may be able to recover some of the important data that has been deleted.

As with most things with computers, I am constantly looking at tools that can help with troubleshooting or solving problems. Over the years I have used quite a few tools, but have recently started to look at free ones, and found they work pretty well compared to paid applications. I will share two tools that I have used in the past to help recover data.

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November 17, 2010
How to Recover Deleted Files With Restoration

It is possible to recover deleted files if you haven’t saved much to the same drive that contains the deleted files. When you delete a file in Windows, it isn’t actually deleted – the data is still stored on the hard drive.

Since the information stored in the files hasn’t been removed from the hard drive, it may still be possible to retrieve the data from those lost files. This post explains how to use a tool called Restoration to recover deleted files, not only from a hard drive but other storage media such as memory cards as well.

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October 20, 2010
How to Fix Keyset Does not Exist in Windows

I recently received an error message stating that the “Keyset does not exist” for all scheduled tasks on a Windows 2003 server. This error caused the scheduled tasks from not running, and caused some problems with a few applications. This is the first time I had seen the error, and so I wasn’t sure what the problem was.

While I have experienced Microsoft Word Errors in the past, this was a first for cryptography in Windows 2003. The error caused the inability to view the “Run as” user ID, let alone change it to something else. Because of this, the tasks couldn’t run, so I had to find a solution to fix it. Fortunately, the solution was easy, and only took a few minutes to implement.

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October 8, 2010
How to Disable Audio Enhancements in Windows 7
A popular post on Technically Easy is where I recommend disabling audio enhancements on Windows Vista to help reduce the CPU usage of the audiodg.exe process. Depending on the enhancements that were enabled, this can have a large effect or no effect on the CPU usage.

While the above post covered how to disabled the audio enhancements on Windows Vista, the same steps apply to Windows 7 as well, unless you have hidden the speaker icon from the system tray. If that is the case, you can use the steps outlined in this post to disable the audio enhancements from Windows 7.

Other related posts:

Fix: Audiodg.exe High CPU Usage
How to Disable Audio Enhancements in Windows 10

Disable audio enhancements

To disable audio enhancements on Windows 7, you can use the following steps:
1. Click the Windows icon in the lower-left corner and then click “Control Panel”. The “Control Panel” window will open on the screen.
2. From the “Control Panel” window, click the “Hardware and Sound” link.
3. From the “Hardware and Sound” options, click the “Manage audio devices” link under the “Sound” section. The “Sounds” window will display on the screen.
4. Select the device you want to change the audio enhancements for, and then click the “Properties” button in the lower-right corner. The properties window will display on the screen.
5. Click the “Enhancements” tab at the top, and then disable any audio enhancement you don’t want to enable by unchecking the enhancement and clicking “Apply”. You can disable all audio enhancements by checking the “Disable all enhancements” checkbox and then clicking apply.
6. Click “OK” to close the properties window.
7. If you want to disable enhancements for other audio devices, repeat steps 4-6 for other devices.
Some people may notice a decrease in sound quality, while some may not notice a difference at all. Keep in mind that the enhancements enabled under the “Enhancments” tab are artificial software enhancements. If you prefer to use enhancements, you should choose to use any that are included with your sound card software instead as they are usually more advanced and provide more settings to adjust the sound quality. You can always enable any enhancements that you disable if you don’t like the sound quality.
September 3, 2010
Mozy 2.0: My Experiences So Far

I am an ardent supporter of developing a good backup workflow, and have written several posts on the topic over the last few years. Most people probably don’t realize the risk to their data if they don’t develope a good backup strategy. Part of my backup plan includes using Mozy to backup my data online.

Recently, a new version of Mozy’s application was released, and while it touts performance improvements, it also includes a new feature that allows for backing up data locally as well as online. After using the new version for a few weeks I have found this new feature very useful, as you can read below.

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June 9, 2010
Keep Your Passwords Secure with LockNote

I recently wrote a post about why long passwords are more secure and received a comment about the “human factor”. The commenter made a very true statement with regards to longer passwords may force people to write them down, making them less secure.

I have a hard time remembering any of my long passwords – especially those that are over 30 characters. Many security experts that create long passwords may have a system that works for them, but I have yet to develop one for myself. This is why I use a simple, secure, but small application to keep my passwords safe.

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April 21, 2010