Computer Technician Hong Kong - Uninstall an Update in Windows 7.

Windows Update is the main method of updating Windows 7 to keep your PC running smoothly and free from errors. However, not all updates operate as you expect. Learn how to easily view all of the updates installed on your computer and how to uninstall single updates.

Windows Installed Updates

Every once in a while, Microsoft releases Service Packs that are primarily a bunch of updates to the Windows operating system that have been packaged up into one download. These Service Packs serve as new version of the operating system so much so that some applications and programs require that your PC be updated to the latest Service Pack before installation.

However, until Service Packs are released, the updates trickle in from Microsoft as individual installations. Although generally tested to be stable, these updates occasionally behave in ways the company did not intend. Luckily, Microsoft built into Windows 7 an easy to use interface for uninstalling individual updates. Computer Service Hong Kong and  Computer Technician Hong Kong tells us step by step process to uninstall Windows 7 Updates.

Uninstall Windows 7 Updates

Begin by logging into Windows 7 with an account that has administrative privileges. Then, click on Start>Control Panel>Programs. Under the Programs and Featureslink, click on the link titled View Installed Updates.

You should now be looking at the Uninstall an Update window. You should note a few things here. First, note that each update is automatically categorized by program. 

Second, note that the next column indicates to which program the update belongs. Third, the next column indicates the version. Note that few updates use this column so don’t be alarmed if almost all of the updates have this column blank.

Fourth, the next column indicates the publisher of the update. Microsoft often makes use of this column but many other publishers do not. Again, don’t be surprised to see this column mostly blank.

Fifth, the last column indicates when the update was installed. This column is particularly important because it can help you diagnose a malfunctioning computer. If you install an update and your computer starts to act strangely, you can sort the updates found in this windows by date and uninstall the most recent updates to try to fix your PC.

You can uninstall any update in this list simply by clicking on it. How the update uninstalls depends on what kind of update it is. For example, Microsoft updates prompt you to ensure you really want to uninstall it.

Other updates may simply uninstall without asking you to verify the un-installation. For this reason, be careful what you do in this window or you may inadvertently uninstall an important update. However, don’t worry because you can always download it again by running Windows Update.

Windows 7 makes it easy to view and uninstall individual updates. However Computer Upgrade Hong Kong recommends unless you have a good reason for doing so, don’t start uninstalling updates to fix a problem with Windows. You may make matters worse and open up your computer to malware and other attacks from which the update was protecting your PC.

To know more about Computer Service Hong Kong and  Computer Technician Hong Kong please visit: http://www.macwintech.com

Computer Repair Hong Kong - How to boot Windows 7 in Safe Mode?

According to Computer Repair Hong Kong apart from using F8 key while restarting computer there are, some other boot options that although not technically part of Safe Mode, complement the Safe Mode options to enhance troubleshooting and diagnosing your computer. These options are found right next to the Safe Mode options.

To view these options, click on Start and then on Run. If you don’t have the Run command on your Start menu, hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the R key. Either method will bring up the Run dialog box. Type msconfig in the box and click the OK button.

This will bring up the System Configuration window. Click on the Boot tab and locate the section of the window titled Boot Options. Notice the four types of Safe Mode options discussed in the previous article.

Notice, also, that there are four additional options just to right of the Safe Mode options. These options are the ones we will discuss here.

Other Boot Options

These additional options can be used separately or in conjunction with Safe Mode. Below is a description of each option and a brief discussion of how they can be used to help diagnose your computer.

No GUI Boot Option

When you choose the No GUI Boot Option, you force Windows 7 to avoid displaying the Windows Welcome screen when Windows starts up. The Welcome Screen is the part of the bootup process that shows the animated Windows symbol and the progress bar.

Although normally used to shave a few seconds off the boot time, the No GUI Boot Option can help you get passed hangs at the Welcome Screen. This is especially true if you suspect graphics problems.

Boot Log Option

The Boot Log Option is your best friend when it comes to troubleshooting boot up errors. Upon booting up, Windows will create a boot log of the start up process that can help you diagnose where you computer has gone wrong. Windows 7 stores this boot log in the %systemroot%/Ntbtlog.txt file which is:

c:\windows\Ntbtlog.txt

for most Windows 7 computers.

Base Video Boot Option

When you start up Windows 7 using any of the Safe Mode options, the video drivers are one of the components of your system not loaded. Instead, the operating system loads the GUI in minimal VGA mode.

If you were familiar with Windows 95, you know that VGA mode has a resolution of only 640×480 dpi. This mode can make the GUI seem huge on your monitor. Unlike Safe Mode, however, the Base Video Boot option loads all other drivers and software normally allowing you to troubleshoot your computer’s graphics problems without sacrificing your system’s other features while you diagnose the issue.

OS Boot Information Option

When beginning the troubleshooting process, computer technicians like PC Repair Hong Kong or Repair Computer Hong Kong commonly use the OS Boot Information option. Upon start up, Windows displays a text listing of every driver as it is being loaded during boot up.

This option is useful if you suspect that certain drivers are not loading correctly. Unfortunately, this options tells you whether the drivers are loading successfully but does not help you find out why a driver is not loading properly. Still, it can help you narrow down the cause of your computer’s errors instead of forcing you to look for a needle in a haystack.

Although not technically part of the Safe Mode options, you can use the boot options discussed above to complement Safe Mode when troubleshooting Windows 7 errors. Each one offers something different that can help you track down and eventually fix whatever ails your computer.

To know more about Computer repair Hong Kong and  PC Repair Hong Kong please visit: http://www.macwintech.com

Laptop Repair Hong Kong : 3 Ways to get rid of Viruses & Spyware

According to Laptop Repair Hong Kong Viruses, spyware, malware, etc… they all suck. They slow down your computer, corrupt your files, illegally steal your info, and more.

You have probably seen those commercials advertising a website that will give a free scan and magically clean your computer as well as make it 20x faster. Well, those websites that they are advertising will scan your computer, that part is true.

However, the heavy majority of them will charge a fee to get rid of all of the errors found in the scan… And none of them will make your computer 20x faster.

Basically, those commercials use a simple antivirus scanner/remover. There is far better software out there that is available to you for free. By following this article, you will without a doubt, be able to remove any type of virus, spyware, or malware from your computer.

But, first things first, you need to understand that viruses and other computer threats come in several degrees. So, method 1 might not necessarily remove a virus from your computer. If not, Notebook Repair Hong Kong recommends one of the following methods.

Method 1 – Perform A System Restore

System restores are a good way to get rid of light malware and spyware programs. They require no downloading of any software and can be performed directly by Windows.

System restores work best if you catch the intrusion right away. But, you do not want to do a system restore if you believe that you have had malware, spyware, or viruses on your computer for any significant amount of time.

This could cause you to lose files, applications, or data. To do a system restore in Windows, navigate to the control panel using the path Start > Control Panel. Click the Recovery icon located within the Control Panel and hit the Open System Restore button on the next screen.

The rest of the process is very straightforward as the Windows Wizard will guide your through it.

Method 2 – Scans

There are thousands of different programs out there in the spyware/virus removal category, many of which are free. The thing to remember is that different virus removal programs will bring different results; and none of them are 100% completely accurate.

For example, you can scan your computer with one virus removal program, remove the viruses… then turn around a scan your computer with a different program, which will catch even more viruses that the first program didn’t pick up.

However, you do not want to stack tons of virus removal programs on top of each other. Doing so can actually throw off effectiveness. One good antivirus scanner should be enough.

We recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. Aside from the virus scanner, it is also wise to use a spyware and malware scanner. Two great choices that you can check out are Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy.

Method 3 – Clean Install

A clean install is not the most fun thing to do. However, a clean install is the one guaranteed way to get rid of viruses, spyware, and malware. It’s simple… when you do a clean install, you are deleting everything on your hard drive. Thus, no more viruses.

Most of the time, viruses will not infect items like pictures, text documents, videos, or MP3 files. If step 2 (scan), is not working for you, more than likely the virus is in your computer’s registry. This is good because you can backup all of your pictures, documents, etc… before doing the clean install. That way you will not lose anything important.

The most common way to backup files is by using an external hard drive, flash drive, or burning DVDs. Doing a clean install is not at all as hard as it may seem, it’s just time consuming because you have to wait for Windows to copy itself to your hard drive. 

To know more about Computer repair Hong Kong and Laptop repair Hong Kong please visit: http://www.macwintech.com, http://www.laptoprepairhongkong.com

PC Repair Hong Kong - How to detect computer monitoring or spying software?

As an IT Pro, I routinely monitor employee’s computers and emails. It’s essential in a work environment for administrative purposes as well as for security. Monitoring email, for example, allows you to block attachments that could contain a virus or spyware. The only time I have to connect to a user’s computer and do work on directly their computer is to fix a problem.

However, if you feel that you are being monitored when you shouldn’t be, there are a few little tricks from Computer repair Hong Kong you can use to determine if you’re right. First off, to monitor someone’s computer means that they someone can watch everything that you are doing on your computer in real time. Blocking porn sites, removing attachments or blocking spam before it gets to your Inbox, etc is not really monitoring, it’s more like filtering.

COMPUTER MONITORING

So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here’s PC Repair Hong Kong tells you what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP2 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you’re logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you’re reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected.

So why is that useful? It’s useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it’s a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows.

So now we’re looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won’t know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service.

That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.

Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you’ve not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It’s usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there. You can contact Fix Computer Hong Kong for further assistance.

However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you’re not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right?

So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start, Control Panel, and Windows Firewall.

Click on the Exceptions tab and you’ll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are “open” and the unchecked or unlisted ones are “closed”. Go through the list and see if there is a program you’re not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!

The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to theProcesses tab, you’ll see a column titled User Name.

Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!

For any assistance on removal of spying software contact Computer Repair Hong Kong.

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