Death is never easy.  We’ve all had to deal with the loss of a loved one, a mentor, a co-worker, etc.  Today, the Geeks to Go family has to deal with the loss of a colleague, known online as SpySentinel.  SpySentinel was a malware helper here, and in the past year became a mod.  He was a respected member of our staff, and his death leaves a big hole in our hearts. In real life, he was a college student.  He started his college career in the computing field, but realized it wasn’t where his heart was.  He changed his major to elementary education, and was looking forward to becoming a teacher and mentor to young children.  He would have succeeded, had he had the opportunity.

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Do you have an SSD or Solid State Drive on your Christmas list? Maybe hoping Santa leaves an SSD in your stocking? SSDs are currently the number one way to increase the performance of your system. Instead of using a physical platter that must be read and written, using an arm much like an LP record album, SSDs are solid state. Only electrons move. Chances are I’m speaking to the choir. If you’re reading this article, you probably  know the benefits of SSD.

There are many guides to installing SSD drives, but most of them are outdated. If you’re using Windows 7, you don’t need to change a bunch of settings. Windows 7 will recognize the SSD, and change them for you. SSDs have about the same failure rate as traditional hard drives, and modern SSDs don’t require all kinds of exotic changes to your operating system to protect them. Chances are the only change you need to make is in your BIOS. Just make sure drive is set to use ACHI and not IDE.

Probably the most painful part of installing an SSD is performing a clean install of Windows. Now Paragon Migrate OS to SSD has a simple solution to that problem as well. As the name suggests, it will help you migrate your existing Windows installation to your new SSD. Retaining all your Windows settings, avoiding reinstall of your software.

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TDSS/TDL4 has been a resilient and common rootkit used to infect computers, installing botkits, fake antivirus, and browser redirects. Just as it appeared development of the rootkit had stalled, some new variants have been appearing. Many antivirus programs are not detecting these new variants. They are detected by ESET as Win32/Olmasco, and BitDefender as MAXSS or Pihar. If not detected by antivirus, the most common symptoms are browser redirects and multiple Internet Explorer processes not started by the user that will respawn when terminated.

These variants have begun appearing in our malware removal forums. For example here and here. Due to changes in how they operate, these new variants require some new techniques to remove. Previously the MBR (Master Boot Record) was overwritten. The new version leaves the MBR untouched, but creates a hidden partition and marks it as boot. This means tools and techniques that scan the MBR for changes, or rewrite the MBR will no longer work, and may result in an unbootable system. Newer techniques and tools for removal are still being developed, but mostly involve booting offline, using a live Linux CD like gparted.

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The passing of Steve Jobs means there will be, or already is, a proliferation of blogs, essays, and articles remembering a man who helped revolutionize how we use computers, how we listen to music, and how we use our phones.  A fitting finale would have been the announcement of the iPhone 5 the day prior to his passing, but it wasn’t to be.  I could write the typical article lauding his accomplishments and mourning his death at much too young an age (being just 5 years younger, I wholeheartedly feel he died much too young).  I don’t feel, however, that I could do justice to his life and accomplishments, and much has been written already. Instead, I’ve decided to give thanks for his creative genius, for that, coupled with the equally creative genius of that other computer company (no, not Dell; Microsoft) has made sites such as Geeks to Go a haven for those desperately seeking help for these sometimes confusing and uncooperative pieces of technology upon which we so desperately rely. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been an avid reader my entire life.  As a young adult, I would sometimes spend several hours a day reading; I’ve often stayed up past my bedtime to finish a good book; and it’s not uncommon for me to take six or seven books on vacation and read them all.   I was very intrigued by the Kindle when it was first released, because the thought of having access to multiple books,  newspapers and magazines  in one device was extremely attractive.  On the other hand, I like reading the physical book, or curling up on the couch with the paper and a cup of coffee.  During the winter of 2009-2010, when back-to-back blizzards meant no newspaper delivery for a week, I was bemoaning the lack of the newspaper; my husband pointed out I could read it online, but I’ve tried it and I just don’t enjoy it. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to our friends at Lenovo, we’re giving away an M90z All-in-One multi-touch computer. This powerful, versatile PC would be at home in a classroom, on a workstation, or on your desktop. The All-in-One design eliminates most cables and clutter. Powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM, Windows 7 Pro (64-bit), and a 500GB hard drive. It also features a huge 23″ multi-touch screen. Read our full review.

So how do you win? It’s easy:

• Login to Facebook
• Click on this shareable link: http://woobox.com/j95fvo
• “Like” Geeks to Go on Facebook, enter your name and email address to enter.
• Share w/friends, get an extra entry for every Facebook friend to enter!

Update: Our contest ended May 14th.  Thank you to all who entered.

It was just like out of an old country western movie. So there I am, sitting in the bar minding my own business when a guy walks up to me and says “You work in a school right? Wanna try out a new computer?” Well, not exactly like a country western movie, but close right? Now this conversation may sound really strange to someone looking in, but to understand the context you’ve gotta understand that this bar was in Seattle, Washington and I had spent the day at the Microsoft campus in Redmond for the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. Computer chatter over a beer was commonplace.

The guy I’m talking about works for a fantastic company who wants to give me a Lenovo M90z on a long-term loan to let me play with it and see what I can use it for.   The M90z is an All-In-One (AIO) multi-touch computer from Lenovo.  Everyone knows that touch computing is the way of the future. From smart phones, to tablets, to slate computers, everything is going touch. So why shouldn’t the desktop offer some form of touch component?

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1) They asked. Microsoft Communication Services is cloud hosted Exchange and Sharepoint + Outlook 2010. Rackspace waived the $12.50/month fee on their plan for 1-year, in exchange for our feedback. I’ll also share my experiences here, and in future posts. $150 in free services didn’t motivate the change. I was curious, and excited to explore an alternative to Google Apps. A 14-day free trial is available to everyone.

2) Gmail performance issues. Randomly, inexplicably, without warning, and without explanation Gmail gets slow. Not usually a big deal for personal email, but a productivity killer, or even loss of business for some. For a company that prides itself on speed, Gmail suffers. Some people are even begging to pay for better performance.

Google, please set a price — any price — that you determine is necessary to keep anyone’s account running smoothly at all times. I’ll gladly pay it. I don’t care if it’s $100 a year or $1,000 a year. It would be worth it.

What if you’re unlucky enough to have your emails accidentally deleted (and later restored)? When’s the last time you backed up your Gmail account?

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Geeks to Go is proud to announce that we will be giving away a beautiful Lenovo M90z computer to one

lucky person. Lenovo and Ivy Worldwide have teamed up with GTG and 25 other websites to give away 25 of these computers to lucky contest winners.

The Lenovo M90z is a 23” All-In-One multitouch computing beast that any technology buff would be lucky to have in their collection.

The specifics of the GTG contest are still being hashed out but we know for sure that our contest will begin on May 10 and our winner will be picked and announced on May 14.  Note: Comments to this story will not count as entries to our contest.

Stay tuned to the GTG homepage for the Lenovo M90z review and for more contest information.

Please head on over to the other websites participating in the giveaways and try your luck in all the contests.

UPDATE: Details for our contest can be found on our Facebook page: facebook.com/geekstogo

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This time, we have an interview with one of our very own Trusted Tech staffers on Geeks to Go! Troy has a lot of knowledge regarding hardware and we wanted to know a little bit more about him. (I still remember the day he helped me with my very own rig.  Enjoy!

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