Stupid Microsoft

Microsoft is stupid. If you bring back the start menu now, it'll somewhat help to restore the crappy PC market. So stupid. 

 "Microsoft recently announced plans to reintroduce the Start Menu to Windows in an upcoming version of the operating system. While the plan was to roll out an update to Windows 8.1 and offer the Start menu later this year, it seems like this is no longer the case. Now Microsoft is reportedly looking to release the Start Menu with Windows 9, which is expected in April of 2015. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have faced a boat load of criticism and hatred, partly due to the removal of the Start button and Start menu. The restoration of a visible Start button on the taskbar was one of the key features of the Windows 8.1 update, released back in October of 2013."

XP updates until 2019!

Just read this. XP embedded will be updated until 2019 and XP can get the updates with a simple registry hack. 

From ZDNet.com (link to ZDNet at bottom):

As reported by Wayne Williams at Betanews and confirmed by us, a simple registry hack to a Windows XP system tricks Windows Update into providing updates for it.

Williams says that the hack, included just below, makes the system look like Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 which will continue to receive updated until April 9, 2019.

To apply the hack, create a text file with a .reg extension and the contents below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady] 
"Installed"=dword:00000001

Run it by double-clicking in Windows Explorer. After this is done, if you run Windows Update, it will find several updates, as illustrated in this screen capture:

(Image: ZDNet/CBS Interactive)

The screen capture is from our own tests, which appear to work. Notice that two of the displayed updates are for WEPOS (Windows Embedded Point of Service) and Windows POSReady 2009. The others are for Windows Server 2003, which runs the same kernel and many other components as Windows XP.

This specific hack works only on 32-bit systems, but a 64-bit workaround is available at this page, which may have been Williams's source for the 32-bit hack.

We asked Microsoft for a comment, but due to the holiday we don't expect one immediately. If we hear back from them we will update this story.

As we would anticipate them saying, Windows XP has reached end of service for a reason: its underlying technology is old and inferior to that of current Windows versions. Despite receiving security updates, it is not possible to secure the system properly. The systems being impersonated, WEPOS and POSReady 2009, are embedded applications that are not designed to be used like regular desktop systems.

http://www.zdnet.com/registry-hack-enables-continued-updates-for-windows-xp-7000029851/

iPhone backup

Was at a client's today and they went around asking for people's phone numbers because they tried to update to the latest iOS, she has a 4s, so not sure what she was on before but she tried to updated it over the air and it failed to boot.   So she lost everything.

If you are going to update your iPhone or Android, backup your stuff with iTunes or however you backup an Android because I do not know.  If that happened and she had a iTunes backup, it would have said ok we need to do a clean boot and then restore and they would have been back up and running in no time instead of wasting days trying to get phone numbers back and whatever else they lost (apps, pics etc).

Backup THEN upgrade.  You've been warned.

Windows 8.1 Update 1

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is out and it does a lot to make the keyboard/mouse people a lot happier.  It will detect what you are using and adjust accordingly, from how I understand it.   But anyway, it's more fixing for the colossal failure that is Windows 8.   Go to Control panel (if you can find it) and go to Windows Update.  There is another way to get it from the settings somewhere in the modern interface but I don't have a clue how to find it without having to hunt around for a very long time.

XP End of Life

Well XP End of Life date (April 8th 2013) has come and gone.   You should upgrade XP for a few good reasons, of course the support updates that won't be coming down to your computer any more leaving you wide open for attack.  If you must have XP, get a really good antivirus, AVG internet security would be a great choice because it'll be all encompassing (do not get Symantec, Norton, or McAfee, they are just be bloated beasts).  

The other reason to get rid of XP is because if you have an XP machine, that machine will be from at least 2009 or older because you couldn't get XP any more when Windows 7 came out.  So the computer you're on is older than 5 years.  The internet is a VERY DYNAMIC beast and you need a lot of horsepower that the old processor that is in your Windows XP machine just won't have any more and your web surfing will be very very slowly to build.  It's only going to get worse.

Tigerdirect.com has a huge selection of Windows 7 machines.  Do yourself a favor and don't get windows 8.  Windows 8 is just a big pile of stinky mess.

Start Menu Returning

This is the best news regarding Windows 8. Now it'll be useful for normal people and not teenagers and early 20 something's who have grown up on touching stuff.  Plus it's just awesome to see Microsoft keep admitting they royally screwed up. Love it!

At Microsoft's BUILD conference today, the company announced that the Start Menu will officially be returning to Windows 8.1. It will combine the Windows 7 Start Menu with a handful of Metro-style tiles. They're also making it so Windows 8 apps can run in windows using the normal desktop environment. In addition to the desktop announcements, Microsoft also talked about big changes for Windows on mobile devices and Internet-of-Things devices. The company will be giving Windows away for free to OEMs making phones and tablets (9" screens and smaller), and for IoT devices that can run it. Microsoft also finally unveiled Cortana, their digital assistant software that's similar to Siri.

Slashdot.org 

Major Website Redesign

I've been redesigning the website and I have the basic redesign done and now I just have to update the text to include more information and just clean things up some more.  But I do think the website looks a whole lot better than what it was before.  I've been wanting to update the website for a long time but I've just been so busy with everything that I just haven't had a chance to spend any time on it.  It's been slow the last week so I've been able to think about it and finally could get moving on it.  I hope you like the changes.  I'll be working on it to clean it up and get more and pertinent information on it.

The web address is http://fortifyit.biz, if you like it, hit the G+ icon. 

Domain Registry Services Host Company Scam?

A couple of my clients got an email from Domain Registry Services indicating that their domain name was set to expire...they were all 3 months away from expiring.  They were saying we can renew your domain...etc.  Their domains were hosted by GoDaddy and I can't remember the other host site so be prepared to look for that and ignore them.  If you have any questions, you can go to http://Who.Is and look up your domain name and see all the exact specs of your website information.  I recommend doing that at least yearly to see where things sit with your domain.  Be Careful of Scams!  If it doesn't make sense, question it and do your research.

Windows XP End of Life

Windows XP is about to be put out to pasture, April 8th, by Microsoft.  This means that there will not be any more security updates for it to fix vulnerabilities.  There will be nothing wrong with the system so you can continue to use it but you will be increasing your risk with every passing day of an attack. So make sure your antivirus is update to date and that you use malwarebytes to protect your XP system the best you can.  Better yet, upgrade to Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 update 1

 Here we go! We're getting close to bringing back win 7 to 8.  All this does is reconfirm that Windows 8 is the worst Windows that Microsoft has out out far eclipsing ME by long mile and at least Vista was usable, not all optimized but at least usable. 

Microsoft is once again planning to alter the way its Start Screen works in Windows 8.1 Update 1. While the software giant originally released Windows 8.1 last year with an option to bypass the "Metro" interface at boot, sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed to The Verge that the upcoming "Update 1" for Windows 8.1 will enable this by default. Like many other changes in Update 1, weâre told the reason for the reversal is to improve the OS for keyboard and mouse users. Wow, a touch interface does not work with a mouse and keyboard. Who saw that coming. I expect photos of many people eating crow. - slashdot.org