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Now shortcut files get hacked
Earlier this week we got a warning about malware that was spreading via USB keys. Now it seems that shortcut files are also at risk. The McAfee Avert Labs Blog has some useful information as to what can go wrong with shortcuts or .lnk files.
To be honest this was something of a revelation to me because I had always though these files were simple text. That doesn’t make them any less dangerous but at least it is easier to spot what’s going on inside.
Because I’m of a curious frame of mind, I decided to take a look inside a link file for myself. You can see the results to the right courtesy of Hex Editor from Sourceforge.net (I’ve cropped out a lot of the text to the left).
Lo and behold there are some meaningful references to the software – Scribus in this case because the shortcut was on my desktop.
Of course a malicious shortcut might not be so clear and some will use commands on the command prompt to carry out their nefarious deeds.
The good news is that you don’t need to check every shortcut file with a Hex editor. Right-click on the shortcut and then left-click on Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab and check the Target box to see what the shortcut will actually do. Don’t rely on the icon, that’s easy to change and doesn’t mean anything. Does anyone remember that old urban myth about the file with a teddy bear icon being a virus. It wasn’t, but possible it was a bad choice of icon.
The importance of reading the manual
I have a guilty secret. I enjoy reading manuals. There’s something exciting about all that potential and (hopefully) the enthusiasm about the product without any negativity.
Of course there are more practical reasons for reading manuals as this letter in the Times Online reveals
“Sir, As a young electronics graduate many years ago, I remember unpacking a new oscilloscope, the latest and best of its class. Several hours later, having only achieved mixed results, I decided to open the manual. The first page stated in large bold letters: “Now you’ve tried it your way, try it our way”.
Richard Coombs, Mere, Wilts “
For me the context that manuals offer is very important, as the letter demonstrate. Understanding the whole process behind a task is very important and not always properly explained on the internet. I don’t deny that most answers can be answered online, but it’s not always in the proper context.
Sadly, most manuals are supplied as PDFs these days, removing the ease of reading a paper document. This is made worse by the fact that I still have to find a good PDF reader for mobile devices. That is sometimes a problem with PDF as a format, but that’s another story.
Sadly though, there is rarely any humour in manuals. I suppose it’s not the right place but it can brighten up the learning process. I remember one in the LocoScript Word processor manual. Well one of them, this was back in the days when there were 5 manuals totalling about 6 inches supplied.
It was describing the ability to change the background and text colours. The manual conceded that it was possible to set both the text and background to black and then gave instructions of how to reset the changes “should you be perverse enough to try this”. Great days…
Have you got any other manual stories to share?
Disabling Autoplay
What with the current threats to USB disks (memory keys, hard disks, memory cards), it is probably a good idea to disable Autoplay in Windows. If you have XP Pro this can be done through the Group Policy Editor, but that’s not an option for XP Home users, who have to edit the Registry directly.
There’s an alternative in the form of the Microsoft PowerToy TweakUI. This provides a person friendly and safe way to make the required changes in the Registry
Left-click on the small pluses by My Computer and AutoPlay. Left-click on Types in the left hand column and click in the box Enable Autoplay for removable drive so the tick disappears. Click on OK.
To be really safe, it’s also a good idea to access the contents of USB keys and drives with the right-click menu in My Computer, rather than a simple double-click. Select Explore from the menu.
This may make some devices like the ClickFree Backup Drive a little less convenient but I’d say that’s a small price to pay to stay safe.
Today only: Quickbooks SimpleStart for free
The deadline for tax is getting ever closer (that’s a guilty conscience talking) but if you want a little help with accounts for next year, Quickbooks are giving away SimpleStart 2008 free, until 9pm tonight (GMT).
I took a look at SimpleStart a few years ago and was quite impressed, giving it 4 out of 5. I’ve got a little accounting experience and it was better than some of the software I used in a finance department.
Registration is required but then few things in life are truly free. The download link is then sent in an email, with another following later with the license code. The download is 322MB so not one for dial up users.
Wordpad 7 does not support doc does support odt
As promised, I took a look at WordPad in Windows 7 to see what other formats are supported.
The list is quite interesting. We knew about docx but I wasn’t expecting ODF, which is the format of OpenOffice.
One small word of warning. We’ve been here before with file formats in trial versions. I got all excited about PDF output in Office 2007 only to find it was taken out of the final version (though still available as a free download). But it bodes well for the future, and for when I accidently submit copy from OpenOffice.
Windows 7 Wordpad to support Office
One of the biggest frustrations with a clean install of Vista was that there was no way to edit Word documents. WordPad in Windows XP could open and save Word documents, even if it lacked the advanced editing capabilities.
According to Lifehacker, this wrong has now been righted and the Windows 7 WordPad will be able to open Office 2007 documents. There’s no mention of earlier versions of Word, so I’ll fire up a virtual machine and take a look for myself
Small Basic video
I discovered SmallBasic a couple of months ago and was very impressed as way for people to start with programming. It offers far more than the first programming language I ever learnt ( Locomotive’s Basic 2* under GEM ) with code completion and constant help for the information required by the various commands. Microsoft’s Channel 9 website has an interesting interview with the creator of SmallBasic, Vijaye Raji.
The video above is a Silverlight video, if you cant view it head over to the video page on Channel 9, where it can be downloaded in a variety of formats including iPod and PSP.
*I see there is no actual Wikipedia page on this language, perhaps I should dig out the old manual and write something.
Think carefully about Autoplay
I’ve been reading several stories on security blogs over the last month or so about the potential risks of autoplay with CDs, DVDs and USB keys. It’s possible to start all manner of software with the right setup and according to Sean over at the F-Secure it’s now appearing as a real threat thanks to the Downadup worm. Worrying stuff, I think I will be a lot more careful when people bring USB keys down to my desk.
As you can see from the picture on the F-Secure blog, the autorun option to run the software has been made to look just like the option to simply view the files on the key. If I’m honest it could well catch me out if I was having a busy day.
A techie’s guide to Solid State Drives
The world of hard disks has been quite quiet really. There have been every larger capacities and data densities but the breakthroughs rarely make the headlines in the way that new processors do. A big change has been in the new crop of Solid State Disks (SDDs). Based on the same technology as USB memory keys SSDs offer the advantages of no moving parts but at the expense of greater cost and lower capacities. HardOCP has interview with an Intel SSD engineer that explains a lot about these exciting devices.
Vista has the answer
Well, to my gripe about the Safely Remove Hardware anyway. Martin Wood kindly pointed out that Vista now has a menu option in the My Computer window that replaces the Notification Area. Or rather compliments it.
As this icon has been known to disappear from time to time, this is worth bearing in mind as a safer alternative than just uplugging the device regardless.
Thanks Martin!
Safely remove gripe
Practising what I preach, I always use the Safely remove hardware shortcut in the Notification Area to remove a USB disk, whether flash or otherwise.
Only there is a slight problem of not enough information. As you can see here I’ve got three disks attached. But no information as to which is which. I’ve named the volumes so that I know what they are but this text doesn’t appear in the menu.
This also is true of Vista.
Anyone know of a way to do this?
Mailmerge in Office 2007
I often use mail merge at work, but it has it’s uses for home too, the example here of making envelopes could have saved my wife a lot of time with the Christmas newsletter (for that reason, please don’t tell her about this post before I do!). There is a good explanation here for Office 2007.
One tip that I have found particularly useful is that a named range can be used for the mail merge; you don’t have to create a whole new worksheet for the merge. This works in Office 2003 (and maybe earlier) so the article is worth a look even if you’re not using the most recent version of Office.
What's new in Windows 7?
You might have thought about installing and trying the Windows 7 beta, but unless you have a spare PC to try it on this can be a risky business. We've put together a video guide so you can see all the new features found in this new version of Windows with none of the hassle of installing it.
For more video guides, check out Computeractive TV
ClickFree Automatic Backup drive review
Although I often find myself nagging people about backing up their computers,I’m often derailed when they ask how. Quite frankly it worries me as well.
External hard disks are the most attractive medium for backups as they are small and fast. DVDs and CDs have the advantage of not letting you alter files once they are backed up, but swapping them mid backup is annoying.
So with my external hard disk in hand I’ll just drag and drop my user account folder to copy it? Well not quite. Some files will be in use and that will derail the copy process. There’s still some kind of software required.
The idea behind the Clickfree drive is to combine the software and hardware together to make backing up as quick and painless as possible. For the most part it does this very well. The hard disk is set up so that software starts automatically. Vista requires you to give it permission to do this.
It searches for different file types and then backs them up onto the drive automatically. It can keep files for ten different computers separate, which is an advantage if you rely on a techie family member for your backup, less so for me, who is likely to be making the backups. More positively, many of us have more than one computer, so it does make sense.
Overall, I like the Clickfree drive. My biggest disappointment was that it does not backup Thunderbird email files without being told to. As Simon pointed out in his review for Computeractive it is possible to add all manner of different file types if need be.
Keep reading to see how it all works.
After the software has loaded there is a 30 second delay to cancel the automatic backup…
Then it searches for the files to back up. This is done by the file extension rather than location. Just as well for me as I don’t follow the normal conventions. Not recommended really. My one disappointment with the search process is that it doesn’t include the Mozilla Thunderbird mail box format. It was simple to add but then I thought to check. That was the only thing missing I could find, the rest of the list was very comprehensive.
Once the list has been finished the download starts.
And after that there is a report of how many files were backed up. Very simple.
Very funny cartoon
Travelling to the USA? You'll need to talk to ESTA
Visas are confusing things. Until recently, though, travellers from the UK (and several other countries) were able to travel to the USA without needing a visa under what's known as the Visa Waiver Program.
While the VWP still exists, there is now one new step all travellers need to take before they arrive in the USA, which is to fill in an application on ESTA, or the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation. This is a website that asks for various details on how you'll be travelling and why. It's been running in test mode since August, but as of January 12, 2009, it's compulsory for people using a visa waiver.
It's all part of the wave of legislation enacted after the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC, the aim of which is essentially to make it more difficult for terrorists to attack the USA. Whether or not it does that, and whether the burdens it places on legitimate travellers and 'ordinary citizens' are worthwhile, is a source of some contention, but outside the scope of Windows Watch, if we're honest.
One particular source of confusion is particular to journalists, who require a special visa (called an I visa) to visit America for work. Where it gets tricky is that, if you have an I-visa, or other nonimmigrant visa, and you're travelling to the USA but not for work, you need to travel under the Visa Waiver Program instead.
Although the whole thing can be quite confusing, there's a lot of information on various official American websites concerning the process and how it works. But one thing we couldn't figure out from all the documentation was whether or not we needed to fill in an ESTA application even if we already held a valid visa (given that the American Department of Homeland Security already has all the relevant information from the visa application).
In the end, we spoke to the press office at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, which answered the question straight away: you do need to fill in the ESTA form even if you have a valid nonimmigrant visa, if you're travelling to the United States of America for leisure rather than work.
Windows 7 Editions Revealed
With a public beta now available, many of us are wondering about when the final version of Windows 7 will hit the shops. Before that can happen, of course, Microsoft needs to decide on how many versions of the operating system it will produce, and what each one will contain.
Windows Vista is available in five key versions (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate), so it stands to reason that there'll be a few quite a few different copies of Windows 7, but what will you get with each one? We've picked a few likely candidates - but please add any versions you'd like to see in the comments.
Windows 7 Ultimate
Contains every single new feature Microsoft's engineers have come up with over the past three years, whether they're any good or not. Also the only version with "downgrade rights" to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, and 2p from every sale goes into a legal fund used to fight against planning permission for new Apple stores.
Pro: With 2,014 versions of Solitaire, you'll never be bored again.
Con: Except during installation, which requires six DVDs
Windows 7 Web 2.0 Edition
Will revolutionise the way you use your computer until, 18 months later, the startup funding runs out and it stops working.
Pro: Geeks will love the web interface (it's written in django!)
Con: Continually posts updates on your web surfing to Twitter.
Windows 7 Edition X
Completely redesigned interface, with the taskbar replaced by a suspiciously familiar-looking floating line of icons. Immune to most viruses, but entirely incompatible with other Windows software. Updates available for a fee.
Pro: It just works, apparently
Con: Drivers only provided for four specific models of Dell hardware that cost 20% more than usual. Running Edition X on any other computer is illegal.
Windows 7 Bargain Edition
Designed for the credit crunch, this version comes with a huge "CLOSING DOWN SALE EVERYTHING MUST GO" sticker on the box.
Pro: Cheaper than the Standard edition
Con: .. but only by 10p, as revealed in the small print. Also, icons appear slightly shop-soiled.
Windows 7 Basic
Includes clever search tools and a glossy new interface, but those upgrading from older systems might have problems with drivers.
Pro: Looks intriguingly familiar, and it's cheap
Con: Yes, it's just Vista again.
Windows 7 Netbook Edition
Optimised to run on low-power processors, and using a simplified desktop and file system to limit the graphics and memory overhead
Pro: It's Windows XP Professional..Sadly Microsoft's real editions, whenever they finally get revealed, will probably lean towards the dull (Home, Office, Enterprise and so on). But what Windows edition would suit you, and what features would it include?
Con: .. but resold at a higher price
Museums and technology, part one: Cold War Modern at the Victoria and Albert Museum
We're going to be taking a look over the next few weeks at several museums and the ways in which they're using technology to enhance the visitor's experience.
First off, a prime example of how to do it well. The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London, may not be the most forward-looking place in town, concerned as it is with historical design, architecture, art and fashion.
But linked from its website are a series of videos such as this one on the rocket-shaped Ještěd Telecommunications Tower in the Czech Republic.
In the well-shot video, curator Jane Pavitt takes the viewer in and around the remarkable communications tower, which is now a hotel. It's hosted on Vimeo (see the V&A's Vimeo channel) which means that it can be viewed full-screen in impressive quality.
There are only four videos on the Vimeo channel - they're all part of the museum's recent Cold War Modern exhibition.
There are more on the exhibition's Youtube channel, and on the main V&A site you can even view a transcript of the commentary alongside the video (presumably this has something to do with complying with the Disability Discrimination Act, which requires websites to make themselves easier to use for blind and deaf people).
Apart from the rocket tower, we're particularly taken by this film on the building of the then-secret Post Office Tower, which is now the BT Tower, in central London.
Admittedly, none of this is particularly difficult to do, but few museums or similar institutions are using technology or the internet to engage with their own visitors or web users who wouldn't necessarily visit the museum (and who may even be in a different country). Putting such videos online is a great way not only of engaging with the public but also of prolonging the exhibition after it's ended.
Picture by Sludgeulper. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.
Things we've learnt today: Obama and Microsoft
It seems Microsoft saw soon-to-be American president Obama coming. The words Barack and Obama were added to Word's dictionary way back at the end of April 2007 (previously, the suggested replacement for his first name was Boatman, according to Slate.com).
The same fascinating Slate piece goes on to explain the differences between Google's word-matching algorithm, which tries to figure out just what it is users are searching for, and Word's algorithm, which tries to figure out what it is they're trying to write about.
It also includes some interesting information about how the two companies go about finding out about new words: Microsoft, for instance, anonymously scans its Hotmail users' email as well as the words people tell Word to add to their user dictionaries.
(Bonus 'thing I've learnt today', also from the Slate piece: the word 'overchicked' can be used to describe a man who is significantly less attractive than his female companion. The things people say, eh?)
Standards for standards
Maybe the recession has forced vendors to appreciate the value of a grown up attitude to standards. Panasonic's approach to an industry-wide standard for 3D high-definition video belies the new reality facing manufacturers of luxury electrical goods and service providers.
Consumers now demand more than ever ease of use. The ability to get smething working out of the box without having to mess about is an inherent aspect of good value now. Proprietary standards, sockets, plugs, menus and media are the antithesis of the easy life. Adapters, and anything that gives the feel of an adapted technology, are like bandages for a scab that the electronics industry couldn't stop picking at.
Until now, the one thing that the industry really couldn't bear the thought of was competiton. It requires intensive R&D and information gathering, none of which protects vendors from the threat that someone else has the better idea, bigger budget or loudest voice.
Standards mean that companies have to differentiate on quality and added value, giving us the ability to pick, mix and match. It will be interesting to see how the new approach works out. This could be the start of a better and more coopertaive strategy in electronics - or the closing of a door by an elite handful of companies that recognise there's plenty to go around for all if they play their unwritten part.
The dreadful spectre of Ballmer's buns
Irony died at CES yesterday evening as Steve Ballmer set out his open source credentials with a metaphor that left me shivering in a dark mental place.
The call for open standards has been a recurring theme of CES 2009, and despite insisting that Windows still ruled the world of electronics Ballmer acknowledged the importance of allowing partners and developers access to code. Which is a start, I suppose. It was just the way he put it:
"The 'special sauce' of Windows was the realisation that there were so many innovative companies out there."
Putting aside the fact that it doesn't make any kind of sense, there's an association between the notion of sauce and the image of the bounding, howling, sweating Ballmer of video fame that is anything but special.
Thankfully, he left that metaphor to die of natural causes, sparing us the dreadful spectre of what Ballmer considered the buns and meat of Windows. Think I'll skip lunch. More on Ballmer's high-pitched CES speech here.
Windows Live Essentials out of beta
The various programs that make up Windows Live on the desktop are now ready for download: Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery and Writer. Movie Maker is also available but still in beta.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been using Photo Gallery for a while, and most of my blog posts are written with the excellent Writer. If you haven’t given them a go, I think that you should.
Windows 7 beta out Friday 9th
Microsoft has finally announced a public beta version of Windows 7. The beta, which we recommend trying for testing purposes but not for use as your main operating system, will be available to download from www.microsoft.com/windows7.
For the full story, see our news article here.
Singing from the CES song sheet
Given the amount of times you're likely to hear the word 'innovation' at a technology showcase like the Consumer Electronics Show, it's a pity the many vendors speaking at the event don't compare notes to avoid a monotonous drone of identical presentations.
It's too early to give a definitive list of the themes of the event, but the first two presentations for journos and bloggers on press preview day suggest that this year's technology love-in mostly will be wearing the words "challenging" and "sustainable" on its sleeve.
The challenge, of course, is to persuade consumers to part with cash for luxury items such as high definition TVs and other gadgetry. The problem for the industry is that the oneupmanship of the past five years has led to consumers being wary of splashing out for great new features because they know the same technology could be on sale for half price or better next year.
LG led the charge by announcing deals with media partners that will enable consumers to "access the material they crave" on TVs.
Toshiba followed up with a similar marriage of devices and content that raised the spectre of the early 'walled garden' days of internet access. But the inclusion of partners such as Youtube suggests the old behemoths have learned a few lessons about how consumers set the ageda for product development.
Both companies stressed that cash-strapped consumers will be spending more time sat on their bums at home - so the innovations on show focused on more insular use of technology. in effect, pumping the content that people have come to accept as mainstream from PC technology such as digital music, IPTV and photo albums, into their TV. More of the same, but less need to move from the sofa.
Sustainability could be an easier sell, as long as vendors remember to stress the money-saving aspect of environmentally friendly gadgets, as my feeling is that when financial push comes to credit shove, the average Briton couldn't give two hoots about polar bears.
LG brings out the big gun at CES
We all knew things were tough in the IT industry but LG clearly felt the need to launch its press conference at CES 2009 this morning by setting a tough-guy image.
The company's CEO was intorduced as "Vietnam veteran Michael Ahn," raising hopes of a Rambo-style assault on rival vendors exhibiting at the event. Cold water was poured on this idea by the added revelation that Ahn has also been commended as Humanitarian of the Year, although the source of this accolade was drowned out by collective sigh of disappointment from the hacks.
Maybe Guitar Hero won’t kill proper music after all
We took a look at Guitar Hero World Tour before Christmas and decided it was a lot of fun – if I look like I’m scowling it’s because I’m concentrating, I do it with ordinary instruments too.
I had one big reservation though. I’m worried that children will see Guitar Hero and Rock Band as the main way of making music. There’s not actually any real relation between what you play and hear, and there’s no scope for improvising your own tunes. Granted I’m unlikely to be popular breaking out a real drum kit when returning from the pub!
Well it seems that it might not be such a problem as a study by the charity Youth Music has found that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have actually encouraged youngsters to start learning musical instruments. And that many instruments are actually cheaper than buying the virtual kind and a console.
Thanks to Musicians Tools for the link,
Remember to check the downloads
One of the mostly overlooked changes in Windows Vista is the new Downloads folder in a users account. It's even so popular that Firefox has automatically put downloads there since the release of Vista.
While that's certainly an improvement on the old way of using a temp folder somewhere in the Windows folder (the number of times I've lost work from working on documents that were actually in a temp folder so I couldn't find them after closing the document is not a happy thought), it can present a problem of disk space. When I'm using Windows XP, my normal workflow is to download an installer file to the Desktop and then delete it after it has been used. Occasionally I might save it to a USB hard disk if I want it for other computers.
With Windows Vista, I tend to click on the open option in the Download window in Firefox, and then forget about the file. My memory was jogged yesterday when I noticed that I was running out of space on my C drive. I went through some music that could be moved to my music server and then thought about the Downloads folder. 1Gb is quite a significant amount of space, and it was enough to take me out of the red.
Small aside: A very positive feature in Vista is the bar in the My Computer window that warns when disk space is getting low, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed this problem until later and it was causing real problems.
Christmas photo management with Live Gallery
I managed to take a break from the computer for most of the Christmas break but did end up spending quite some time with Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta, and was quite impressed.
Since scratching my CD of Photoshop Elements 2 beyond use, I’ve struggled to find a good photo management program but Live Gallery seems the best I’ve tried so far.
The good bits
It picked up both of my photo folders without hassle, including one on a shared drive on the network.
I like the checkbox method of selecting multiple photos. It is far easier than holding down the Ctrl button and more reliable. The only snag is that right-clicking on a single photo to check the properties wipes out the selection.
Photos can be uploaded to a Windows Live account for online storage and sharing. This is a quick form of backup and the 25Gb of available space was a strong reason for signing up to Live. Unfortunately for me, the publish tool resizes the images to the equivalent of a 2 megapixel camera. Given that my total collection is well under a quarter of that, it seems a wasted opportunity.
More encouraging was the option to email a collection of photos to a friend. Assuming that you are using Windows Live Mail it creates an email with previews of all the images, saving larger versions suitable for printing online. The recipient just has to click on the image to load the full size. They don’t have to be using Live Mail as I sent a couple of emails to my parents who use Thunderbird.
The interface is also very good; there is no old style menu lurking behind the scenes waiting for the Alt key to be pressed to access essential options as sometimes happens with programs like Windows Media Player.
The bad bits
It’s not all good as there were a couple of things that were missing or irritated me.
Firstly there is no option to backup a photo collection. I still find it hard to believe that so many photo editors miss out this essential task. The online publishing option is limited by the resizing of the images.
There is an option to create a data CD but this just launches the ordinary Windows CD burning window and this cannot span a collection over several discs.
The other is that it got in a muddle when I renamed a folder. It’s mostly my fault; I now name folders as ‘Year Month Description’, eg 2008 December Christmas Day. I forgot that it is now 2009 until after Gallery had picked up on the pictures. With the folder name changed, an error message appears. And I can’t delete the image from the collection because it cannot find it.
Overall
Even so, I really like Photo Gallery and will stick with it for the time being. It works well and hopefully my pet peeves will be sorted by the time it comes out of Beta. Elements has a good backup tool (or had the last time I used it at least) but this is the best I’ve found so far if you don’t want to part with any cash.
