Microsoft: Changed It's Sky Drive To One Drive

Microsoft: Changed It's Sky Drive To One Drive

 

Microsoft has changed it's Sky Drive name to One Drive from 19 Feb 2014, which has been announced on their official blog: Microsoft One Drive.
  They added new features in this process with an extra storage for free! 

If you already have an account, then everything will be switched, automatically, and all you've to do is head over to www.OneDrive.com and log in. 

If you're hearing the service, the first time, then One Drive gives you a best place for all of your needs, such as photos, videos, and documents, and it’s available across the platforms and devices you use every day like Windows, Windows Phone, Office, Xbox, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, Android tablet, Windows device, and Mac.
 

Below link provides a video overview of what OneDrive has to offer.

OneDrive: The One Place for Everything in your Life [YouTube]

What's HTTPS And Why Should It be Cared?

What's HTTPS And Why Should It be Cared? 

When connect to a website with HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), your browser usually looks up the IP address related to the website then connects to it's web server. Over this connection, the data will be transferred in clear text by the means of back and forth and an eavesdropper, such as Internet Service Provider, Hacker, or Intelligence Agencies may also watch the web pages while you're visiting. So, an eavesdropper is able to see any passwords, Credit Card details or other important data, if those were sent over HTTP. 

The problem here is HTTP doesn't support authentication to the correct website. For instance, you may thought that you've accessed your bank's website; but note that you might be on a compromised network, which redirect to an imposter website, then your passwords, Credit Card details would not be encrypted and secured. So, one can easily eavesdrop on them and steal your personal data. In short, HTTP has problems because they're never encrypted.

 

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) having a lock icon in the address bar, which is an encrypted website connection for secure communication over a computer network, especially with wide range of deployment on the Internet. 

Using HTTPS, and for instance, when attempting log into your bank's website, the web browser checks website's security certificate and verifies it was issued by a legitimate certified authority, which helps to ensure that you're actually connected your bank's real website. After logged in or you'd like to send some personal data such as Credit Card details or any payment info will be sent over an encrypted connection of HTTPS, which prevents the people from eavesdropping of your sensitive data. 

HTTPS is not perfect, too; but definitely more secure than HTTP, and sometimes certificate authorities issue bad certificates, so the web page breaks down.

HTTPS is also provide additional privacy to the user, while working on some search engines. Google's search engine, now, supports the privacy, which prevents the people to see what's you're searching on Google. And, before it was easy to anyone, on the same Wi-Fi network, would able to see your searches.

If a user, for instance, searches something on amazon that encrypted over HTTPS, then the other people wouldn't able to see what's the user is searching or which article he's viewing on amazon. Instead, they may only see that he's connected to amazon.

So, HTTPS websites can be identified through the address bar, where you can see a lock icon and, starts with https://. 

Keep in mind that HTTPS, an encrypted and secured connection, is most important whenever logging into something like banks or sending credit card details for an online purchase and other sensitive data. Ensure that you're over an HTTPS site, then enter your password or other personal info.
 
When using an unfamiliar network, HTTPS is also provide some identity verification to the websites, which helps to ensure that you're connected to the right website. And note that if the indicators of HTTPS, i.e., lock icon and https://, doesn't appeared on the login page then you may be connected to an imposter website over a compromised network.  

Clever phishers and scammers may realize the peoples, who look for HTTPS indicators on address bar, and disguise them by changing website's favicon to a lock icon that appears in the address bar as to make visual trick. 

However, HTTPS is not guarantee a site is legitimate and just confirms you're using an encrypted, secured connection, which gives some peace of mind that you're connected to a right site.

USB2.0 vs. USB3.0

USB2.0 vs. USB3.0

USB, an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, is a data storage device that includes flash memory. They are typically removable, rewritable and physically smaller than an optical disc with less than 30 grams in weight. They are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks or CDs were used, i.e., for storage, back-up and transfer of computer files.

Most of the USB flash drives have USB2.0 connectivity with a hi-speed specification of 480 Megabit per second (Mbit/s) i.e., 60 Megabytes per second (MB/s). And USB3.0 offers an improved data transfer rates up to 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s), which theoretically more than ten times faster than USB2.0. All USB3.0 devices are backward compatible with USB2.0 ports. Computers with USB3.0 ports are becoming common, very popular and newer laptops / desktops have at least one USB3.0 port and generally they're colored blue inside.

In above picture, the port at left is USB2.0 and right side port, colored blue, is USB3.0. USB3.0 port expansion cards are available to upgrade older systems, and many newer motherboards has two or more USB3.0 jacks. 

We should have to know 'how USB3.0 flash drives actually perform in real world!' Are they, really, faster than USB2.0 drives? Bear in mind that these performances are depend on the specific drive. 

Go  tom's 2013 hardware charts for USB3.0 and check out their test of charts, which revealed  speed of scores (in MB/s) for 2013. 

For USB3.0 drives they tested from 11.4 MB/s to 286.2 MB/s.
For USB2.0, showing at the bottom of the chart, between 7.9 MB/s to 9.5 MB/s. 
So, there was a huge speed variation between the both. The worst USB3.0 drive is faster than USB2.0, with only by a tiny bit. The best USB3.0 drive is 28 times faster. The prices also seem cheapest to the slowest drives, while the faster ones are expensive. 

The fastest drives seem to achieve its speed by using 4 channels flash memory instead of single one. So, USB3.0 allows faster transfer speed, but not every drive will take the same advantage with other factors such as flash memory speed, inside the drive, is critical.  

Never believe the speed rates quoted by the manufacturers, as they're often provide exaggerate numbers to mislead. Fake USB flash drives are sometimes sold, claiming to have higher capacities than they actually have. These are typically low capacity USB drives that are modified as to emulate larger capacity (e.g., a 2 GB drive being marketed as an 8 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report themselves as being the larger capacity as they were sold, but when data is written on them, either the write fails; the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. 

Many types of USB devices wouldn't perform a fast process even it's USB3.0. It's clever not to pay extra amount to the devices, in which you may plug USB2.0 devices into USB3.0 ports, too.

Zipped Files

Zipped Files 

ZIP is an archive file format, which contains one or more files or folders and they have been compressed. The ZIP format is now supported by many software utilities and Microsoft has built-in ZIP support, viz.,"compressed folders", in their versions of Microsoft Windows, since 1998. Apple has also built-in ZIP support in Mac OS X. Most of the free OS has also supporting ZIP in the same manners of Windows and Mac.  


ZIP files generally use the file extensions ".zip" or ".ZIP" and the MIME media type. So, ZIP files can be used in lot of different things such as File Compression, Encryption, Split Archives and more. Zip files work in a way of compressing the files and reduce the storage. 

A folder, which contains 20 files or more, and the folder couldn't able to e-mail; instead, you should have to e-mail 20 files, individually, one after one! In these situation, zip format works really great and they zipping-up those 20 files into a single zip archive then allowing you to e-mail them. 

Zip archive is a convenience to reducing the storage by means of compressing then able to transmit them across the net so easier, too. So, zip archives allow to make your files 'compress and combine'; and it's the definition for zip file format. 

Zip and Unzip: Windows has in-built ability to zip and unzip the files; so, no need of downloads to use any software programs. To create zip file folder, right click anywhere on your desktop of blank area. Go to New then select Compressed (zipped) Folder. This process looks similar as creating a new folder; and it can be renamed, moved around various locations on your computer. 
 

When a zip folder is created, just choose the files, which has to be zipped, and drag them into the zip folder. You may, also, quickly zip-up some selected files by highlighting them, then right-click and choose Send to > Compressed (zipped) Folder. 

The primary files, which were drag/send to the zip folder, are not deleted, modified or moved; instead they're only copied and the primary files are, still, in its original location.

 

Now, the copied zip contents could be transferred, e-mailed, backup or do whatever you wish. 

To un-zip a folder, just right click on the folder, then choose Extract All.          

Now, a window will open and you may choose where the files to be extracted. Click on Extract, a folder will be created and the folder has all the zipped files in it. By default, the contents will be extracted in the same directory, where the zip folder resides. 

Third Party Application: However, Windows provides good supportive for zip and unzip the files, a third party application will also performing a best possible manner. There were lot of third party programs available and they offer additional functions for zipping the files. 

7-zip is an open source software for Windows, which provides a bunch of options that you ever need for zipping files. It works on Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 / NT / ME / 98, including Linux/Unix and even on commercial computers. 
          

It's installation is simple and just accept the license agreement then click next until 7-Zip has to be installed. Once installed, just highlight the files, right click over them and add them to a zip archive with 7-Zip.

 

When click "Add to archive", few options will be revealed as follow:

Encryption:  It's is an useful option, when it protected by a password, then no one able to open the zip folder.

Encryption method: It has two types viz., AES-256 and ZipCrypto. If choosing ZipCrypto, which is weaker in encrypting but has some compatibility issues; and AES-256 is stronger, which works in newer versions of system. 

Encrypt file names: Giving names to files/folders is a better idea to know the contents inside and encrypting file names is a choice in which someone couldn't able to archive them. So, tick 'Encrypt file names' button to access this option.  


In archive format, select file extension 7z instead of zip to encrypt file names.  
    

7-zip application should also be required on other systems to open 7z files, when forwarding to others. If the other end of receiver doesn't has 7-zip application on his system, then create 'self extracting archive', a zip file format with .exc extension, which provides best archives at both ends. 

To create 'self extracting archive' just tick 'Create SFX archive', to enable the process, which automatically, extracts the file to execute.
   

Split to volumes: If an archived file, around 1GB, has to be kept on a CD, which can hold a data of 700MB, then 2 CD's (700MB + 700MB) are need to keep 1GB file. The file of 1GB has to be split-up then to fit on those 2 CD's. 7-Zip application can do the process by split-up the file and fit them on 2 CD's. Just select the common values as shown below or enter the custom size, which would've to split. 

 

Compression level: 7-Zip will provide a good compression level, especially, to the big group of files and slower CPU. Keep the compression level to Normal, which eliminates good compression.
 

What's SMART! And Why You Need To Check?

What's SMART! And Why You Need To Check?

Our system's hardware is not perfect at all and they may failed any time without any S.M.A.R.T. warnings.

 

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; written also as SMART) is a monitoring system for computer hard disk drives to detect and report on various indicators of reliability, in the hope of expecting failures. When a failure is realized by S.M.A.R.T., the user may choose to replace the drive to avoid unexpected outage and data loss. The manufacturer may also use S.M.A.R.T. to discover where faults lie and how prevent them to designing drives in future. So, SMART gives you some advance warnings, if the hard drive is starting to fail.

 

Windows doesn't equipped an easy-to-use built-in tool, which shows the hard disk's SMART data. So, we should need a third-party tool to view these info; however, it's possible to check SMART status, through your system's Command Prompt.

 

To make a quick SMART check, few commands have to be typed at Command Prompt window.

Press Windows Key, type Command Prompt and press Enter. 

 

When command prompt windows opens type wmic, press enter; again type diskdrive get status press enter.

Now the command prompt window reflects SMART status as OK, which means everything is working properly; if the status is showing other than OK, then assume there were some problems or errors in retrieving SMART info. 

Using a third-party tool will also display SMART status of hard drive in Windows.

Crystal Disk Info is a third-party, open source, easy-to-use program, which reveals not only the SMART status of hard drive, but included temperature, and hardware specifications. If there will be a problem or error, you may identified what exactly is wrong with the hard drive. Make sure to un-check the browser's widget, while installing it. If everything works properly, you may see the status as Good.

However, when using either of the above or other reputable programs, if you found an error that doesn't mean the hard drive is going to fail immediately. But you should assume that the drive is in failing process, where a complete failure may occur in few hours, few days, or few months. How long it takes for complete failure, and you shouldn't trust the hard drive with your precious data. Your data on hard drive should be back-up every time on another media, such as an external hard drive or burned discs.

If a hard drive fails in SMART test, then it shouldn't be reliable, even the hard drive doesn't die completely and may corrupt the portions of the data.

How To Let Someone To Use Your Computer Without Giving Him To Access All Your Stuffs

How To Let Someone To Use Your Computer Without Giving Him To Access All Your Stuffs

If you allow someone to use your computer, then he may access your personal stuffs such as your saved passwords, files, e mails and so on. Instead of sitting behind him and watching over his shoulder, just arrange a guest account on your system and let him to use.

 
Guest accounts are special type of user accounts that designed for the people, who use your computer to log-on infrequently to surfing net, checking e-mails, etc., and ensures they wouldn't snoop your private data, even accidentally.

Computers are intensely personal things, and allowing someone to access via a guest account will make you relax, instead of looking over their shoulder, and not bothering they may accidentally open your email or read an incoming private message. Guest accounts also having limitations on access, and the user could not able to install software or changing system settings.

The ability of logging into multiple user accounts will, even, allow you, not to be log-out and let the guest use your computer. The system will remain running, safely, with your programs in the background and you may log-out the guest account then unlock your main user account's desktop session when the guest finished his work.

To create a guest account in Windows 7: 

Start > open Control Panel. From User Accounts and Family Safety choose and click Add or remove user accounts.

To create a guest account in Windows 8, click Change account type option.

Now click over on Guest Icon to enable the account.

Now Windows asks 'Do you want to turn on the guest account?'. Now click Turn On button to enable guest access.
So, you’ve enabled the guest account, and it will be appeared as a separate user account on your main screen. Now anyone could able to log into the guest account after switching your computer or accessing it when it’s locked. You can log out from your current user account or use the Switch User feature to stay logged in, keeping your programs open and your account will be locked while allowing the guest to use your system. 

Guest accounts are, generally, disabled by default in Windows; so, you've to move the way as indicated in this article to use it. Guest accounts are found on all desktop OS, such as Windows, Ubuntu, Mac, Chrome and other Linux Distributions as well.

What Have To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

What Have To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

In recent days many viruses and other types of malware are simply designed to cause chaos and malware is used for crimes to steal credit card numbers and other sensitive data. If you're notified by a message saying 'a virus is detected' or your system goes slow and unreliable then this article will dealing a process for the infection and to remove the malware.

 
If you alerted by a pop-up message saying 'a virus has been detected', which means the installed antivirus on your system is working properly and likely to remove the detected virus. Now, you should go into the antivirus program to check its quarantine or its virus detection logs to view more info about the virus and what action has to be taken.

If your system doesn't having an antivirus or the antivirus that you've on your system is out-of-dated then the system become slow and unreliable, which means your system probably infected by a virus. So, it is the time to have an antivirus software on your computer or you should have to upgrade the antivirus, which is out-of-dated.
 

Well, you can find variety of free antivirus products over net and download them, including Microsoft Security Essentials. As you know the antivirus should ideally have ability to clean up the viruses then fix the problems after installing it. If the antivirus couldn't fix the infections of your computer, then go further the below section to dealing more troublesome infections. If you mistrust on your installed antivirus program, which properly not detecting the viruses, then you may choose another option from other antivirus products. You should not have to install multiple antivirus programs on your system and running them concurrently will degrade the performance and create conflicts on each other.

However, using multi-scanning concept will create applications, and running multiple engines concurrently as single antivirus engine is not 100% effective against every malware threat. Testing agencies have published results on using multi-scanning that each engine uses different scanning methods and updating their malware definitions at various frequencies, and increasing the chances of catching malware before it can affect a system or network. 

Antivirus venders are usually preparing variety of products such as one-time scanning tools, which doing a quick scan and no long processing of installation. ESET Online Scanner is an one-time virus scan program, which offers a quick scan without a long installation process and allows you to scan along with the antivirus that has already installed on your system.

Sometimes, its necessary to disable virus protection, when installing some major updates from Windows such as Windows Service Packs or updating graphic card drivers and so on. Active antivirus protection may partially or completely prevent the installation to some major updates. 

Anti-virus software can cause problems during installation of an OS, when upgrading to a newer version. However, Microsoft recommends that anti-virus software be disabled to avoid conflicts with the upgrade installation process. Technology solutions often have policy assessment applications, which require an up-to-date antivirus is installed and running. If the antivirus application is not recognized by the policy assessment, then the user unable to access the said technology solutions on his system.

Some types of viruses and malware may dig the system deeply, then spread their hooks, which make you harder to kill. In these situation, booting the system in Safe Mode may help you to remove them. To boot into Safe Mode, restart the system then press F8, while the system is booting-up, choose Safe Mode from boot options menu and press enter-key. Run antivirus in Safe Mode then restart the system after you cleaned up. In Safe Mode, Windows would not load third-party software, including the virus program, so you'll be able to run the antivirus program without interfering in background. If you need Internet access, in Safe Mode, choose Safe Mode with Networking in the boot options menu.

Running antivirus, in Safe Mode, wouldn’t work, then try booting from an antivirus rescue CD. When booting into the rescue CD, the antivirus gets a clean environment to scan your hard drive while the virus lies dormant, making it easier to clean infections that make themselves hard to remove. You can download rescue disks from using Kaspersky, Avira and Bitdefender  to remove viruses from computers.

If nothing will work to remove the viruses properly or the malware is destroyed your system badly and Windows is not working properly after the removal of viruses, then its better to revert the system to its factory state.

Most of the computers come with re-store partitions; to access the re-store partitions, you've to press certain key during the time of booting (to get this key, check related computer's manual or consult the shop, where you bought the system). You may also use Windows installer disk to re-install Windows. But keep in mind that re-installing Windows will delete all the files and programs from your system; so, the important data has to be backed-up before re-installing Windows.