FAQ'S

Q: Do I have to accept Cookies?
A: Yes. Cookies are used to track your Username/Password and which posts you have read for your current session. Without accepting cookies some functions won't work properly.

 

Pop-Up Ads:

Q: How do I get rid off the annoying pop-up adds?
A: Unfortunately you will not get rid of all of them. Just secure yourself by buying Norton Security Firewall and set it to block certain websites as they invade your privacy. As of now we can't stop as many as possible. Another thing you can do is get the program "Cyber Sitter". That will help you monitor website activity

 

Shut Down Errors:

Q: Problems Shutting Down Windows ?

A: Control + Alt + Del, then select task manager and click on the application that is not responding then click end task.

Upgrading Windows:

Q: Upgrading from Previous Versions of Windows To Vista or Win 7 or Win 8?
Here is what you need to know..

System Requirements:

PC with 1.7gigahertz (GHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 600-MHz minimum required. (Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD family, or compatible processor recommended) PCI Express (800x600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor. 1gig minimum of memory is recomended;anything less may limit performance and some features) 1.5 tarabit recommended but at the least 320gig(TB) of available hard disk space. CDRW/DVDRW or DVD drive recomended

How do I setup email?

email configurations My email will not send or receive what should I do? check your email settings, in outlook go to tools options then double click the email acount listed then check the server settings.

Pop3 should be mail.your ISP mailserver name or your domain name. the Smtp should be mail. your ISP mail server name or your domain name. then click test account. See step by step instructions click here

Side Bar issues?

Q: How to fix windows vista/windows 7 sidebar issues click here

Q: Will we all have to upgrade to Windows 8?

At some point we all will have to upgrade our systems to Windows 8. Microsoft will stop support of all windows OS from Windows 7 down to windows Vista. Date not known as of now.

Can You upgrade from vista to Windows 7?

No you cannot even though it looks as if its upgrade when you are prompted to select installation type Upgrade will be grayed out forcing you to perform a new install

How do I perform a search?

There are several ways to perform a search. One way is to type in the search box at the top of any open window or in the search box on the Start menu. When you start typing, the search begins automatically.

You can also use the Search folder: Open Search by pressing Windows logo key +F.

When will Windows 8.1 be available?

Windows 8.1 is available now—it was released in October 2013

What's new in Windows 8.1?

When Windows 8 was released in 2012, many users complained that it was difficult and confusing to use, especially compared to older versions of Windows.

Windows 8.1 includes a number of improvements and features to address some of these issues. Below are some of the most helpful and notable features:

Start Button: Windows 8 replaced the traditional

Start menu with the Start screen and removed the

Start button from the Desktop. Windows 8.1adds the Start button back to the Desktop. Clicking the Start button on the Desktop will launch the Start screen, which you'll use to open programs and search for files.

Boot to Desktop: Rather than launching the Start screen when you turn on your device, Windows 8.1 now gives you the option to boot directly to the Desktop, much like older versions of Windows. This is especially helpful if you're not interested in using the Start screen very often.

Snap Start Screen Apps: Windows 8 introduced full-screen apps for the Start screen, but it did not allow you to view more than two apps at once. Windows 8.1 allows you to view several different Start screen apps and snap them to different parts of the screen. Traditional desktop apps still work the way they did in earlier versions of Windows: They'll appear in individual windows that you can move and resize

How Browsers Store Your Passwords (and Why You Shouldn't Let Them)

Chrome

Difficulty to obtain passwords: Easy
Let's start with Chrome. Disappointingly, I found Chrome to be the easiest browser to extract passwords from. The encrypted passwords are stored in a sqlite database located at "%APPDATA%\..\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Login Data". But how do they get there? And how is it encrypted? I got a majority of information about how passwords are stored in Chrome from written over 4 years ago. Since a bit has changed since then, I'll follow the same steps to show you how passwords are handled using snippets from the current Chromium source.

Internet Explorer 7-9


Internet Explorer
Difficulty to obtain passwords: Easy/Medium/Hard (Depends on version)
In previous versions of Internet Explorer, passwords were stored in two different places, depending on the type of password.

For the sake of this post, we'll discuss credentials from form-based authentication, since these are what an average attacker will likely target. These credentials are stored in the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IntelliForms\Storage2

 

Firefox

Difficulty to obtain passwords: Medium/Very Hard

Next let's take a look at Firefox, which was tricky. I primarily used these slides (among a multitude of other resources) to find information about where user data is stored.

But first, a little about the crypto behind Firefox's password manager. Mozilla developed a open-source set of libraries called "Network Security Services", or NSS, to provide developers with the ability to create applications that meet a wide variety of security standards. Firefox makes use of an API in this library called the "Secret Decoder Ring", or SDR, to facilitate the encryption and decryption of account credentials. While it may have a "cutesy name", let's see how it's used by Firefox to provide competitive crypto:

When a Firefox profile is first created, a random key called an SDR key and a salt are created and stored in a file called "key3.db". This key and salt are used in the 3DES (DES-EDE-CBC) algorithm to encrypt all usernames and passwords. These encrypted values are then base64-encoded, and stored in a sqlite database called signons.sqlite. Both the "signons.sqlite" and "key3.db" files are located at %APPDATA%/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/[random_profile].

So what we need to do is to get the SDR key. As explained here, this key is held in a container called a PKCS#11 software "token". This token is encapsulated inside of a PKCS#11 "slot". Therefore, to decrypt the account credentials, we need to access this slot.

But there's a catch. This SDR key itself is encrypted using the 3DES (DES-EDE-CBC) algorithm. The key to decrypt this value is the hash of what Mozilla calls a "Master Password", paired with another value found in the key3.db file called the "global salt".

Firefox users are able to set a Master Password in the browser's settings. The problem is that many users likely don't know about this feature. As we can see, the entire integrity of a user's account credentials hinges on the complexity of chosen password that's tucked away in the security settings, since this is the only value not known to the attacker. However, it can also been that if a user picks a strong Master Password, it is unlikely that an attacker will be able to recover the stored credentials.

Here's the thing - if a user doesn't set a Master Password, a null one ("") is used. This means that an attacker could extract the global salt, hash it with "", use that to decrypt the SDR key, and then use that to compromise the user's credentials.

 

Windows 8 auto repair loop problem?

Outside of restoring the OS nothing else can be done. Perform a back-up and restore your computer.