Author: Matthew Skelly

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

Voice Searching and Scammers

One of the issues I’m constantly running into is people who have been taken advantage of by scammers. You know, the old “This is Microsoft calling! Your computer will self destruct in ten seconds unless you let us remote in and fix it for $200!”

These scams aren’t limited to hone calls though. there’s plenty of fake tech support ads floating through the web. In fact, when you do a web search for a tech support phone number, you always have to be extra careful. It’s not unusual for the first few numbers to be random tech places, using words like “Microsoft” or “Google” or “Norton” in thier names.

 

The rise of voice recognition technology on the smart phones that pervade our society has led to a new twist on this old scam. You see, while you can look at some of these URLS and try to figure out whether it’s legit or not… Alexa isn’t that clever.

The Better Business Bureau reports that scammers are taking advantage of Alexa and Siri’s auto-dialer to send you to the wrong websites or phone numbers. For instance, you may ask your phone to find you tech support for your printer, but the scammers have figured the keywords better than the manufacture and you end up talking to a tech support schemer who has no connection to the manufacturer whatsoever.

You’re always better getting your information from an official company website or correspondence such as a bill or invoice. For more information, visit BBB.org/Scamtracker

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

How to fix a corrupted user profile in Windows

 

Problem:

The User Profile Service failed the logon, loging on with a temporary account

Solution:

In the past, we’ve “fixed” this by creating a new profile and copying all the data from the old one (in the users or documents and settings folder) over to it. However, you can try this registry fix first;

Step 1. To fix the user profile, click Start and type regedit into the search box and press Enter.

Step 2. Registry Editor will launch and you need to navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList

Step 3. Click each S-1-5 folder and double-click the ProfileImagePath entry to find out which user account it relates to

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

Grime Fighter keeps windows from booting

 

Problem:

Power on windows, but Avast Grime fighter immediately loads and cause a black scren – never moves farther than that. To make matters worse, there is no entry in the BIOS for this boot option.

Solution:

If your system runs Windows 8 or 8.1, please try this:

Boot to a Windows CD. You may have to disable Secure boot or mess wit UEFI settings in the bios to do this. As lon as the CD is the first boot device, it should allow you to bypass Grimefighter.

Select “Advanced options” -> “Troubleshoot” -> “Advanced Options” -> “Command Prompt”

Login to your Windows account if it prompts you

In the command prompt type (without the quotes)  “bootrec /fixboot”  and hit ENTER

Then type “exit” and hit ENTER

Select “Turn off your PC”

Power on the PC with the power button

If the above “bootrec /fixboot” command doesn’t work for you, you can remove the Grimefighter boot entry manually by booting back to the command prompt and doing this:

run “bcdedit /enum firmware”

Scroll up and look for the Windows Boot Manager entry with a description of Avast! Grimefighter

There will be an identifier number for this entry, it will be a random string of numbers like {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}

Hightlight the identifier, including the curly braces, this will copy the identifier, so you can paste it into the next command, to paste after highlighting, you hit the right mouse key

Scroll back down so you can run another command

To delete the Grimefighter entry run “bcdedit /delete {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}” using the identifier you have copied for your Grimefighter entry instead of my example one, be very careful here and make sure the identifier you delete is the one for Grimefighter, double check it before hitting ENTER

by Matthew Skelly Matthew Skelly No Comments

Program syncing with Outlook 2010

 

Problem:

If security center service is missing or damaged, or antivirus software is not installed and current, Outlook 2010 will not allow sync with other apps without prompt.  Eg. Commit.

Solution:

You could try adding the following key to the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice14.0OutlookSecurity

In this key add the following value:
ObjectModelGuard, DWORD =2

The values 0, 1 and 2 correspond to the options in the Programmatic Access Security settings in the Trust Center.
0 = Warn if Anti-Virus is out of date (recommended)
1 = Always warn
2 = Never warn

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