IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I have AVG anti-virus on my computer. A week or so ago it stopped updating and now I get a “computer not protected” warning. What’s gone wrong?

You are probably running AVG7.5 which Grisoft stopped updating at the end of April, 2009. You have to update to the newer AVG 8.0.

If you are running Windows ME 95 or 98, you’ll find AVG 8.0 won’t work on your system so you’ll need to follow our instructions on replacing AVG with Avast!.

Some people have had problems with AVG 8 so you may want to consider Anti Vir or Avast as an alternative.

You need to do this upgrade immediately as you aren’t currently protected from Internet nasties and remember to uninstall the old AVG 7.5 before updating to the new version.

My computer says I am not protected . I just got this 2 months ago. I have never had this come up before.

When I go into all programs it does not show McAfee. Please help.

If you’ve had antivirus onyour computer previously then this is a concern. The first thing you need to do is follow our removing a Trojan instructions to make sure your computer isn’t infected.

When you’re happy the computer is clear, you’ll need to install a new anti virus program. There are three free programs we recommend; Avast! Home, AVG Free and AntiVir.

All three of these will protect you, however as free versions you won’t get any assistance and they aren’t licensed for use in small business and other commercial environments. If you want to buy an antivirus program, we’d recommend the above three along with Kasperski.

Hi , problem is that since a few days back I was using Windows XP on my laptop and I had some encrypted and compressed (locked) folders in d: in which i kept all my important and private data in .

Now yesterday I formatted my c: to install the new version of windows vista home basic but now whenever I am trying to open those folders or files inside them ,its showing errors saying “access to the folder is denied” or you need permission to access this folder . Plz help me coz the data is really important & I literally can’t afford to lose it .

Thanks .Take care .

Normally this is an easy to fix as this Microsoft advice page explains.

However, you’ve encrypted the drive and I’m sorry to say but it’s unlikely you’ll get the data back.

Microsoft’s encryption is fairly powerful and if you lose your passwords or reinstall Windows you will get locked out.

For this reason our recommendation is to keep a secure, unencrypted backup of encrypted data unless you have serious security requirements.

I’d like to give you better news but in this case I suspect recovery is close to impossible.

I have been trying to install Sygate Personal Firewall, as per your excellent “internet protection kit” but am being told that it is incompatible with my Vista SP1.  Should I be comfortable using the “Before you Download” tab which directs me to “Uniblue Registry Booster”?  Is this a safe site?

Many thanks

We don’t know much about Avira, but it seems to be a fine anti-virus. If it seems to be working, and your ISP will support it, then it’s probably worth sticking with.

As far as firewalls go, Sygate is unfortunately no longer being supported, which means there won’t be a version that works with Vista.

Some free alternatives to Sygate are Comodo Internet Security and PC Tools Firewall Plus. Both of these products are basic, but working versions. If you want assistance with them though you’ll need to buy the professional editions.

Both it appears Google searches are being hijacked whether  using Internet Explorer or Mozilla.  This  has started in the last 2 weeks. We have AVG   free  installed and  current. Can you  suggest some free downloads to fix the  problem? Tks

First, be careful you didn’t fall victim to the recent Google mistake. If Google’s your homepage any site you went to it from there may have been caught with the malware warning.

If it appears you have been hijacked, then we have a comprehensive run down on fixing these problems on our Removing a Trojan page. If you follow those instructions it should clear the problem.

Currently on my computer I have AVG Antivirus, Spybot and Adaware installed. Is it advisable to have all three on my computer at the same time? If not which should I uninstall?

It’s fine to have all three as long AVG is the only program running normally. Adaware and Spybot usually aren’t set to scan continuously.

So there’s no problem having the three programs together and it’s good practice to update and run both Adaware and Spybot ever week or so.

I bought and installed a Norton anti-virus package when I got my computer and it has just expired.  My ISP offered me two months free trial of their security package so I downloaded and installed it, so I’m good (touch wood) for a few weeks, giving me time to investigate options.

My geeky friends tell me it’s okay to download free security packs and in fact, a couple say they have never paid for anti-virus software in years of owning a computer.

How can this be so?

I can understand that they offer this free in the hope that over time they’ll convince me to buy (with $$) some of their other products, but am I really going to get something that works as well for (decidedly non-geeky) me, as a package that I pay for?

Are these companies legit?  Is the software legit?  Am I opening myself up to problems I don’t have the skills to handle. How safe can it be to depend on free virus protection? 

I just keep asking myself:  would I give my address to someone I don’t know who’s offering to come around and install free locks!

There’s nothing wrong with free software. In fact, there’s an active group of programmers who believe all software should be free and there is no shortage of free applications available for budget conscious computer users.

The software your friends are talking about are the free antivirus packages. The most common are AVG, AntiVir and Avast. All three of them are good although we’ve had a few hiccups recently with AVG.

These are slightly different to free software, they are more like “teaser” products, where the vendors offer a free version with no support and slightly fewer features than their paid versions to encourage people to use their software.

Despite the slightly limited features and occasional hiccups, these three are as good, if not better, than the popular commercial anti-virus and security products and we’d highly recommend all three of them over the better know brand names.

One thing to watch though are some scams posing as free anti virus programs. If a message pops up on a website saying “you are infected with a virus, download our free scan” be warned that this is almost certainly a rip off that probably has spyware built into it.

Before downloading anything from the Internet, do a quick web search to make sure it is safe and it will do what it promises.

I had a Hotmail address. My address book has been stolen. My password has been changed.

When I seek to get it back via my private question the question is in chinese. I got it translated and the question is the same as in english. Tried to put my answer back but no go.

Many of my contacts have been receiving unwanted emails from a chinese company, now includes hundreds of people I have never heard of!

Some time back I did go to a chinese electronic site looking for a chart plotter. As far as I know I did not enter anything that would have linked me but I must have. Any solutions?

Unfortunately it sounds like your Hotmail account has been hijacked and there is very little you can do about it.

Because the thieves will have almost certainly changed all your profile settings there is little, if any, chance you can prove to Hotmail that you are the account holder.

If your Hotmail password was the same as your online banking password then you should change that immediately and check your accounts.

It would be a very good idea to check your computer for malware as it may be the websites you visited infected your computer with a drive by download.

In future, it’s worthwhile using an alternative browser and choosing a strong password when surfing the net and accessing secure websites.

I am using Vista Home Premium SE and I have the message below popping up on start up, how can I fix it ? Andy

(Error!  Please run this program from the Administrator account so it can set up your license. Once the license is set up, you can run it from any account.)

This problem is due to Windows permissions. A program you installed wants to change a setting that Vista is blocking.

To fix this you’ll have to login as an Administrator or turn off User Access Control.

Once you’ve set the program up, log back in as a normal user or turn User Access Control back on as they are both important in protecting your Windows Vista system from virus and other malware.

I’ve read I should use a different browser to Internet Explorer because of its security problems. Which one should I use?

Internet Explorer is the web browser built into Windows. Because of the way Microsoft have set it up, it is particularly prone to security problems.

To make things worse Internet Explorer is a fundamental part of Windows so any problem with IE becomes a problem for your entire system.

So regardless of the current security scare it’s a good idea to use an alternative to Internet Explorer and there are plenty of options.

Mozilla Firefox

The most popular alternative browser is Mozilla Firefox. You can download a free a copy from the Mozilla website.

Opera

One of the longest established alternative browsers, Opera tends to be the cutting edge browser, while it’s not for everyone it’s fast, stable and is also a free download.

Google Chrome

A new alternative is Google’s web browser. It’s fast but it does do things a bit differently from the others. You can get this free from Google’s website.

Apple Safari

If you use a Mac then the Safari browser is included with your system. Windows users can download a free version from Apple.

All of these alternatives are perfectly good for general web browsing. It’s best to try each and use the one you find works best for you.

Unfortunately you can’t completely get rid of Internet Explorer. Not only is it a integral part of Windows, but some web sites won’t work properly on anything else, so reserve IE for those sites that require it and use an alternative for the rest of the web.