My Windows desktop is often cluttered with icons and files. In the past, I’ve occasionally deleted things I needed and not realized it until after emptying the recycle bin. If this has happened to you in the past, I have a free file to recommend that you’re going to love.

Recuva, by Priform, makers of the most-excellent CCleaner, is a program made to recover files you’ve accidentally deleted from your hard drive of USB flash drive. During our recent Summer Reading Program at the library I accidentally erased an audio file I’d been working on with the kids. Not too long after the incident, I installed Recuva and it managed to recover all but 15 seconds of the audio. It found two Word documents I needed as well.

As with Priform’s other products, Recuva is a completely free download. You may acquire it via Recuva.com. Should you have any questions on how to use the program, feel free to comment on this post.

Microsoft hopes to win back the countless number of folks it lost due to displeasure with Windows Vista with the next version of their operating system, Windows 7. It doesn’t release until October, but you may currently pre-order the upgrade and save around $79.99. The upgrade works if you have either Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Click here for an article from Microsoft about the pre-order and how to take advantage of it.

If you’ve ever encountered a pop-up similar to the one shown in the image above on your computer, don’t worry. This is merely a clever attempt to sell you on a product disguised as a legitimate warning from Microsoft Windows. If you were to click OK you’d be whisked away to some site offering you an amazing deal on a product you must have. In the case of the example below, it would be for Personal Antivirus.

Phrasing is key in determining the legitimacy of messages like these. The biggest clue is the mention of the product, Personal Antivirus in the case of our example. A Windows warning message will never say “You’ve got Spyware, You need Program X to get rid of it”. Also, a real Windows message wouldn’t be as vague as the one pictured here. The opening sentence’s inclusion of “your computer has various types of adware and viruses” is another big clue that the message is false.

Should you ever see anything like this display on your computer, I highly suggest ending it by hitting CTL+ALT+DEL , selecting Internet Explorer/Firefox (whatever browser you were using last), and the end task in lieu of merely clicking X. Should the pop-up have came from someone with a nefarious agenda, clicking anywhere on it could take you to a site with actual spyware or viruses on it. That’s a worst case scenario, though. They’re usually just trying to sell you something. To be safe, stick to the CTL+ALT+DEL method for getting rid of them.

People my age will have fond memories of the game Oregon Trail. It, unlike most games, actually attempted to teach you something while you had fun. A group called Hunters of Kentucky hopes to do the same with a new game they are developing called Virtual Frontiers: Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky.

“In 1774 and 1775 the first permanent settlements were established in Kentucky just as the American Revolution dawned,” the game’s website states. “It was in this world turned upon its head that settlers such as Daniel Boone, James Harrod, and Simon Kenton would attempt to settle their new frontier … Virtual Frontiers is a 3D adventure game that gives players the opportunity to explore this world first hand, guided by historical quotes and observations to assist them.”

A demo of Virtual Frontiers may now be downloaded from the Hunters of Kentucky website (www.huntersofkentucky.com). The full game may also be downloaded from the site in March for free. Hunters of Kentucky hope to educate more than make a profit.

The Muhlenberg Co. Public Libraries has lots of great programs scheduled for 2009. This week, we’ll re-‘launch our one-on-one computer tutoring and will soon be conducting full classes again. A complete schedule for the available one-on-one sessions appears below.

Wednesdays @ Central City Library
Thursday @ Harbin Memorial or Annex
9:00-10:45 am or 10:30-11:45 am
January 7, 8, 21 & 22
February 4, 5, 18 & 19
March 19
April 15, 16, 22 & 23

To sign up for these please call 338-4760. Our full classes will begin in March; I’ll post a schedule for those in February.
If interested in our other programs, feel free to stop by either library location to pick up a brochure with our complete January through May programming brochure.

The flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer I mentioned a few days ago has now been patched. If you have automatic updates notified you should have already received a notification of this. To verify if you’ve got the patch, visit the Windows Update site and it will show you the updates and patches you’ve yet to install.

Microsoft is encouraging users of their Internet Explorer web browser to switch to one of their rivals today as a new vulnerability has been found in the program. The flaw allows for hackers to take over a computer that has visited an infected site regardless of whether or not they’ve downloaded an executable file. Reportedly, the hacking community is mainly using this IE flaw to steal computer game security keys but it has potential to be more dangerous than that. According to Trend Micro, a popular Anti Virus company, around 10,000 sites have already been infected.

Switching to one of the rival browsers temporarily is the best thing to do at this time. Eventually Microsoft will fix the problem via a Windows Update but they’ve yet to schedule one. Also, as I often encourage you to do in my classes, make sure you primarily use your computer as a limited user. A virus or exploit acquired as a limited user can do less damage than one picked up while logged in as an administrator.

To verify if you’re an administrator in Windows XP/Vista, do the following:
1. Click Start, then Control Panel.
2. From the next screen select User Account.
3. If you’re in Windows XP, the next screen that displays will have each account currently registered on the computer at the bottom. Each account will have Limited User or Computer Administrator underneath it. In Vista, the screen will only display the account you’re logged in as.

To create a new user account, do the following:
Windows Vista
1. From the User Accounts screen, click Manage Another Account.
2. Select Create a New Account at the next screen.
3. The following screen will allow you to select the account type. You’ll want Standard User.

Windows XP
1. From the User Accounts screen, select Create a New Account.
2. After that, you’ll be prompted to enter a name for the account.
3. The third screen will ask what type of account you wish to create. Select Limited User.

It looks as though there is no way to completely guarantee your safety from this new exploit aside from switching browsers. Running as a limited user is suggested by most tech industry professionals, though. I typically suggest that users keep two accounts – one administrator and one limited user – and run mostly as a limited user. When something needs to be installed, simply switch to the admin and do what needs to be done.

I also wish to stress applying the latest patches and updates from Microsoft. As annoying as Windows Update can be, in cases such as this one they help immensely.

Several patrons have requested that the library offer a class on the subject of web design. The subject is one near and dear to my heart as I have an e-commerce background so I am happy to oblige those aforementioned requests. In March, I’ll be conducting two sessions – Web Design I & II – and cover the basics of HTML code and WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) visual editors.

The reason behind this blog entry is to encourage those interested in design to try out Nvu, the WYSIWIG editor we will be using in class. It’s a surprisingly robust free alternative to Dreamweaver, the industry standard WYSWIG. Dreamweaver’s suggested retail price is $399.00 which inspired me to seek out a cheaper option.

We’ll also make use of Paint.net which I recommend trying as well. It’s a free image editor you can use to color correct photos and produce logos for your website.

Download Paint.Net
Download Nvu

Feel free to download both programs and play around with them. If you plan on signing up for the class, this will give you a good jump start on thing as I intend on focusing primarily on the both of them. Once you’ve used them a bit come back and tell us of your experiences in the comments.

Those interested in applying a web content filter to their home computer should check out BlueCoat’s K9 Web Protection. It is a tool I’ve used myself for several months now and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. Best of all, it’s completely free for home use.

There are several levels of security you can set. Their preset levels tend to be a little too constrictive but they’ve thankfully provided custom settings. You can tell it you want to block out adult/mature content, hate speech, illegal/questionable activity, and a variety of other topics just by clicking a few boxes. You may also enter in keywords you wish to block. Don’t want guests who use your computer to install a specific program? Simply type it in to the keyword blocking section, apply it, and save. Now access to the site that hosts that particular program will be denied.

The major negative aspect of the program is the same with every web content filter. It’s not an exact science. There are words and phrases that have both good and bad meanings which means a filter will sometimes block something that is harmless. If that ever happens K9 Web Protection provides a blank to enter your administrator password on the page it displays when something is blocked and allows you to unblock a specific site permanently.

This program does require a minimal amount of set-up after installing. Right away, you’ll be given a strict level of security and will be unable to browse very many websites before logging in to K9 and tweaking the settings. I’d recommend doing that immediately after installing the program.

To download the program or read more about it visit BlueCoat’s official website by clicking here.

Everyone making use of the internet will download something. Even if you’re not going after songs, videos, or some other sort of media to burn to disc, each time you visit a website technically counts as a download. With the advent of broadband the speed of downloading has grown quite fast. That increase, however, has been slightly less significant when it comes to uploading.

What’s an upload, you ask? Well, it’s the exact opposite of a download. Anything you send to the web for display such as pictures or video has to be uploaded to a web server somewhere in the world. If you’ve done this before then you know that sometimes the process takes quite a bit longer than downloading.

Internet service providers (ISP) have a preset speed for uploads and downloads. There are typically several tiers of service they offer in which that speed varies. ATT, for example, offers a small business package with an “up to” 6.0mbps (megabits per second) downstream and an “up to” 412kbps (1 megabit = 1024 kb) upstream. The level of difference between the two is quite drastic and I believe many get so excited at the thought of quick downloads that they fail to notice the upload speed is written in kilobits. One assumes the speed difference is due to uploading being much more taxing on them than downloading.

If you’re thinking of upgrading your internet connection I suggest paying a visit to BroadBandReports.com which has reviews from real users of assorted internet services. Lots of good information may be gleaned from the site.