I swear, I feel like I'm talking to a wall most of the time.  I've been telling my clients — and my readers — for years to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.  Yeah, I know it's the most popular browser, and for two reasons:

It comes 'bundled', or pre-installed, on all Windows computers. It seems to run most online apps, and play online media content, with fewer problems than its competition.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.  The first reason was judged in Federal Court to be an unfair business practice, but that's a subject for another Rant.  (Chuck Opperman tells me that was over-turned on appeal — I didn't know that until now.)  But it's the second reason that makes IE such a bad choice in the browser wars:  Microsoft's use of executable extensions and add-ons make it super-vulnerable to exploitation by hackers, virus authors, online thieves, and all the other scum that clings to the Web's under-belly.

Have you been bitten by the fake Microsoft Security Center yet?  If you haven't, and you're using IE, you will be eventually:  You get a popup message, saying your computer is infected, and offering to download the software to fix it.  At this point, it doesn't matter what you do:  you're already infected!  The worst thing you can do is click on the button to download the software, but all possible choices are bad ones, in that nothing you do at this point will remove the infection... because it's not really an infection at all, it's an ActiveX control, and you already gave it permission to load, or you'd never have seen the popup warning in the first place.  I have managed to remove it using System Restore, but I've also failed to remove it using the same utility.

Here's a better idea:  Reboot into Safe Mode, open Control Panel  »  Internet Options  »  Programs  »  Manage Add-Ons.  Choose "All Add-Ons" on the left, and go down the list on the right, looking for any add-on that doesn't have a publisher name you recognize, or that says, "not verified" before a publisher's name, even if you do recognize it.  Highlight each of these suspicious add-ons in turn, and click the Disable button, lower-right.  When you finish, click on Close.

Once you've repaired IE — hopefully, that's what you just did — you need to download and install Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) or Apple's Safari web browser (www.apple.com/safari).

And let that be the last time you ever use Internet Explorer:  open Control Panel  »  Add or Remove Programs  »  Add/Remove Windows Components.  (I started to include specific wording for fixing the problem in Windows Vista and "7", then realized I haven't seen it in those OS'es yet, only XP; I wonder...?)  When the "Windows Components" window pops up, remove the check mark next to Internet Explorer, and click Next.  Click Finish when the process completes, then reboot.  You can't actually remove Internet Explorer, Microsoft has rigged it so that would break Windows; but you've at least made it harder to find and run.

After mentioning the fake Security Center last month, I received an email from a reader, suggesting I try WinPatrol to see if it could protect from the malware in question.  Great minds think alike:  I've used and distributed WinPatrol for at least six years; I push it on all my clients, as well.  But it has the same problem IE has:  it stops and asks.  If you don't know any better, you can still give permission for malware to load.

Sad to say, but any program so restrictive as to completely protect you from yourself will keep you from having full enjoyment of your computer.  You have to stop and think when offered ANY change to your PC, and ultimately take resposibility for deciding what to accept and what to reject.  That's only my opinion, but this is my column, so it all kinda works out:  if you want someone else's opinion, go read their column.  I'll wait for you right here.

And if you just don't know what to do when offered a new startup program, etc., call me:  727 687-0842.  I'll ask a question or two, then tell you Yea or Nay, for free.  Don't toss in any other problems while you're bending my ear — I only do phone support for a few of my very best clients, and I won't be polite about it.  But I will answer the Yea or Nay questions WinPatrol asks (maybe not so much IE, as I just told you to quit using it).

1. Select an empty cell, somewhere outside the range used by your pricing table.

2. Enter the value 1.1 in the empty cell.

3. With the cell selected, press  Ctrl+C  to copy its contents to the Clipboard.

4. Select the entire pricing table.  You should not select any headers or non-numeric information in the table.

5. With the Home tab of the ribbon displayed, click the down-arrow at the bottom of the Paste option (left side of the ribbon).  Excel displays a drop-down list of pasting options.

   The Paste Special dialog box, 2007-style.

6. Choose the Paste Special option from the drop-down list.  Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box.

7. In the Operation area of the dialog box, make sure you select the Multiply option.

8. Click on OK.

9. Select the cell where you entered the value in step 2.

10. Press the Delete key.

Copyright © 2009 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.  Reprinted by permission.
Thousands of free Microsoft Excel tips can be found online at  excel.tips.net

Microsoft Word Tip:  Inserting the Total Number of Pages in Your Document

It is not unusual to put a page number in your headers or footers, if you choose to use headers and footers with your document.  You can also, however, insert a field that indicates the total number of pages in a document.  This can be used in a header or footer, or directly within the text of your document.  To insert the total number of pages in your document, follow these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the total number of pages to appear.

   The Field dialog box.

2. Choose Field from the Insert menu.  You will see the Field dialog box.

3. In the Categories list, choose Document Information.

4. In the Fields Names list, choose NumPages.

5. Click on OK.

Monthly Maintenance Update

I updated my nearly-famous Monthly Maintenance routine in February; maybe you saw it?  Almost immediately, Phil Del Greco wrote and told me how much he prefers Piriform's CCleaner to EasyCleaner, and Piriform's Defraggler to IOBits' Smart Defrag.  I tried them...

Next month, I'll be replacing EasyCleaner in my Monthly Maintenance routine, and publishing instructions on how to set it up just once so it does everything you need automatically from then on.  I'm still testing Defraggler to see if I prefer it to Smart Defrag; it seems to take twice as long to do a thorough defrag, but so far I can't tell if the results are worth the wait.  But I'll know before the May issue goes up.

Till next month...

DaLe aTchiSon DaLe@ComputerRepairShop.biz back to top of page