How can protect your laptop from theft

Looking for information about security features you can use on your laptop to keep your data safe while you travel?  If you’d like more general security suggestions (whether on the road or at the office), check out 10 ways to work more securely.

Use the tips to learn how you can help protect your laptop from theft when you're on the road or outdore.

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1. Try to Avoid using computer bags.

Computer or laptop bags can make it obvious that you're carrying a laptop. Instead, try toting your laptop in something more common, like a padded briefcase or suitcase.

 

2.  Do not keep them in your laptop bag and Use strong passwords.

Hard passwords that are difficult to break or guess can thwart unauthorized access to individual files and even to the entire operating system. Learn how to create strong passwords:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP

You can check the strength of your password by typing it into a password checker like this free one offered by Microsoft Security.
Learn how to password-protect your files:

• Office 2010
• Office 2007
• W.Office 2003

The strongest password in the world won’t help if you give it away to a thief. Keeping your password with your lapto is like leaving your keys in the car. Without your password or important access numbers, it will be more difficult for a thief to access your personal and corporate information.

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3. Encrypt your data

If someone should get your laptop and gain access to your files, encryption can give you another layer of protection. With the Windows operating system, you can choose to encrypt files and folders. Then, even if someone gains access to an important file, they can't decrypt it and see your information. Learn more about how to encrypt your data:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP

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4. Use a screen guard

These guards help prevent someone from seeing your screen—even if he or she peeks over your shoulder. They can be very useful if you need to work on sensitive information in a public place, and they are especially helpful when you're traveling or need to work in a crowded area. The screen guard from Secure-It is just one example of a screen guard you could use.

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5. Carry your laptop with you

Always take your laptop on the plane or train rather than checking it with your luggage. It's easy to lose luggage and it's just as easy to lose your laptop. If you're traveling by car, keep your laptop out of sight. For example, lock it in the trunk when you're not using it.

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6. Keep your eye on your laptop

When you go through airport or other security, don't lose sight of your bag. Hold your bag until the person in front of you has gone through the screening process. Many bags look alike, and yours can easily be lost in the shuffle.

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7. Avoid setting your laptop on the floor

Putting your laptop on the floor is an easy way to forget or lose track of it as you talk at a ticket counter or order your latte. If you have to set it down, try to place it between your feet or leaning against your leg, so you're always aware of it.

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8. Need to Buy a laptop security device or program

If you need to leave your laptop in a room or at your desk, use a laptop security cable to securely attach it to a heavy chair, table, or desk. The cable makes it more difficult for someone to take your laptop. There are also programs and devices that will report the location of a stolen laptop. These work when the laptop connects to the Internet and can report the laptop's exact physical location. Absolute Software’s LoJack and its line of Computrace products, for example, offer physical location tracing in addition to capabilities for remotely disabling a missing computer, retrieving or deleting data, and more. Search for more computer tracking and recovery solutions.

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9. Try not to leave your laptop in your hotel room

Too many things have been lost in hotel rooms. These rooms may not be completely secure. If you must leave your laptop in your room, put the "Do not disturb" sign on the door to keep hotel staff out. Don’t leave your laptop at the front desk, either.

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10. Affix your name and contact info to the laptop

Security experts advise that you affix your name and contact information, along with a promise of a "Reward if lost or stolen—no questions asked,” on the computer. These can help improve your odds of getting the computer back in the event of theft or a simple mix-up.

Software Failures In Your Leptop or Pc

The more severe software problems are usually caused by a hardware failure. No start (with or without an error message), frequent crashes with different errors each time, frequent freezes or Windows running extremely slow all indicate hard disk, memory (RAM), motherboard or overheating problems. If you have used the recommendations for setting up Windows with two accounts, the chances of having viruses or spyware are very slim. 

Troubleshooting:

There are two ways of doing this:
Try to remove all viruses and spyware, although there are some really nasty trojans and rootkits that are almost impossible to remove. This method seems faster and easier but it can take from about two hours to over six hours.

Reinstall Windows. Backup your files, reinstall/restore Windows from the CDs that came with the computer, then install back all the programs you use and copy back your files. This method will probably take at least three or four hours and you will have to redo all custom settings you have in Windows and in the main programs you use. The advantage of this method is that it will take care of all software problems you may be having and your computer will run faster at the end.

 Symptoms:

The most common software failures are caused by viruses and spyware. The Internet doesn’t work, computer is running slow,  there’s an icon next to the clock that tries to scare you into buying some kind of “antispyware”, Internet Explorer doesn’t work, when you try to start a program it takes more than a minute for it to appear, etc.

The other common cause of software problems is when updating or installing a new driver or a Windows update. In these cases the fix is easy: restart the computer in safe mode and use Windows’ build in System Restore to undo the last installation/update. If the computer doesn’t want to start in safe mode, Windows has to be reinstalled.

Pc Viruse and Spyware Removing

You will need an Internet connection with a network cable, wireless will not work. If you use a wireless router, you will need to temporarily attach a network cable between the router and the computer. It is also possible to do this with dial-up connection but it will take quite longer.

Can you still access the Internet? If yes – continue to the next step. If not – you will need to fix it first.
To be able to do that, you will need to download several programs on another computer and burn them to a CD or use a flash drive to copy them to your computer. You will need:

• Trend Micro’s SysClean.com and the latest virus pattern file http://www.trendmicro.com/download/viruspattern.asp.
• Ad-Aware SE Personal and the latest definitions file (defs.zip) http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
• WinsockxpFix.exe
• Firefox or Opera or get both if you want to try them.
• These instructions in plain text file (right-click -> Save As…). Follow those instructions to restore your Internet access, then return here to finish cleaning your computer from viruses and spyware.

First Step: on Plug in the network cable and start the computer in “Safe Mode with Networking”.

To do that you will need to keep pressing the F8 key several seconds after you see the very first (logo) screen when starting the computer. If you have a BIOS password, start pressing the F8 key as soon as you enter it. If a “Select a boot device” screen appears, select the hard disk, press “Enter” and continue pressing F8. If the usual “Windows XP” screen appears, that means you’ve missed the moment. Wait for Windows to load, then restart it and try again. Eventually you will see the advanced startup screen of Windows (black screen with white text). Use the “Up” arrow key to go to “Safe Mode with Networking” and press “Enter”.

Log into your admin account (or your account if you have only one) and dismiss the warning that windows is running in safe mode by clicking “OK”.

Second Step: Clean the Temporary Internet Files and Internet Explorer.

Go to Control Panel -> Internet Options, click “Delete Files…” on the “General” tab, then click “Settings…” just next to it, then “View Objects…” and delete all of them. Then click on “Connections” tab, then “Lan Settings…” and uncheck all three checkboxes there, then click “OK”. After that go to the “Programs” tab, click on “Manage Add-ons…” and disable all. Click “OK”, then “OK” again to close the “Internet Options” control panel.

Third Step : Clean your temp folder.

Open “My Computer” and go to “Local Disk (C:) -> Documents and Settings -> [your account name]“, then on that window’s menu at the top go to “Tools -> Folder Options…” select the “View” tab and click “Show hidden files and folders” and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”. Then click “OK”. Now you should see a folder “Local Settings”. Open it, then right-click on the “Temp” folder and select “Delete”. Repeat this for the rest of your accounts if you have more that one. After that empty the trash.

Fourth Step : Disable all startup items and non-windows services with msconfig.

Go to Windows’ Start button, then select “Run”, type “msconfig” and press “Enter”. This is Windows “System Configuration Utility”. Click on the last tab “Startup” then click on “Disable All”. After that click on the “Services” tab, then on the “Hide All Microsoft Services” checkbox, and then on “Disable All” again. Then Click “OK” and “Exit Without Restart” to return to the desktop. This will disable all startup items and non-windows services. You can enable the ones you need later, after cleaning all viruses and spyware.

Fifth Step : There are quite a few free programs and tools that would help you clean viruses and spyware.

My favourites (at the moment) are below. Download, install, update and run all programs in that order:
Trend Micro’s SysClean.com – download both sysclean.com and the latest virus pattern file. Then unzip them both in the same directory and double-click sysclean.com. It scans all files and may take some time to complete.
BitDefender’s on-demand scanner – look for the free v. 8.0
a-squared free
AVG Anti-Spyware
Spybot – Search & Destroy
HijackThis

This is a more advanced tool that will let you look at some of the inner workings of Windows. After starting it select “Do a system scan only”. It is safe to check all checkboxes and select “Fix checked”, as the program makes backups and you can restore any needed settings later.

LSPFix.exe

If HijackThis reports unknown “winsock providers”, use LSPFix to remove them. The default (Windows) ones are: Msafd.dll, Mswsock.dll, Mswsosp.dll, Rnr20.dll, Rsvpsp.dll and Winrnr.dll. If you have Novel Netware installed, you will have some of these: Nwws2nds.dll, Nwws2sap.dll and Nwws2slp.dll. If you see any other entries listed in LSPFix, remove them. Some antivirus programs have entries there too. You can remove these entries as you will have to either reinstall the antivirus or better switch to another, since your currently installed one has failed to protect your computer.

After you finish with HijackThis and LSPFix, restart your computer in normal mode. Uninstall your current antivirus and after restarting, either reinstall it back or switch to another one. You can also try one of the free antivirus programs. In the last two years I’ve been using AVG Free at home and never had any problems. If you are uninstalling Norton, you better run the Norton Removal Tool after restart.
After that get Firefox or Opera or get both if you want to try them. Both of these web browsers are a lot safer than Internet Explorer as almost all web based exploits work only in Explorer.

Genaral Tips for laptop users

Find out how to properly “manage” your laptop, what to do if… (something bad happens) and how to maintain it working well and avoid “surprises”…

--> Although this site talks generally about laptops running Windows, many articles apply to any personal computer running any major operating system – Windows, MacOS or Linux. LaptopTips tries to look at all basic topics from a beginner’s prospective. After all, over 90% of all computer users would never leave the “beginner” category. Even most of the “power users” are usually experts in one area, mostly the use of a particular software, but may not be aware of basic hardware setup and troubleshooting.

This site contains a lot of concise practical advice on all basic topics that a modern computer user should be aware of, from initial hardware and software setup with data security in mind, to the “bare minimum” of preventive maintenance that would help your computer to work better and last longer. LaptopTips also deals with the more common computer failures, providing a step by step help on the symptoms, how to diagnose and fix them.

Award BIOS / CMOS Setup For Your Pc

This is the BIOS setup for Award BIOS v6.00PG. If you have a different version of the Award BIOS their would be a lot of similarities. If your BIOS is AMI or Phoenix then the common BIOS features would have some similarities. Whatever BIOS you have, this setup guide should give you an idea about how to setup a BIOS. Please note that setting up BIOS incorrectly could cause system malfunction, therefore it is recommended that you also follow the BIOS guide provided on your motherboard manual.

If you decide to make changes to certain options it is safer to make a note of what you have changed. Then restart the system to see how it performs. If the system behaves abnormally or becomes unstable you can revert back to your previous settings.

Click on any of the BIOS setup options below to setup that feature.

Softmenu III Setup	PC Health Status
Standard CMOS Features	Load Fail-Safe Defaults
Advanced BIOS Features	Load Optimized Defaults
Advanced Chipset Features	Set Password
Integrated Peripherals	Save & Exit Setup
Power Management Setup	Exit Without Saving
PnP/PCI Configurations

Softmenu III
 Softmenu III is where you can setup up the CPU without setting jumpers on the motherboard. You can setup the CPU simply by selecting the speed i.e. Pentium III 750 from the list. This ensures that the CPU bus, multiplier, voltage etc, is correctly set for that particular CPU. However you can manually setup each feature if required. Once you have finished with the setup press ESC to return the previous menu. 

Standard CMOS Features
Here you can setup the basic BIOS features such as date, time, type of floppy etc. Use the arrow keys to move around and press enter to select the required option. You can specify what IDE devices you have such as Hard drive, CD-ROM, ZIP drive etc. The easiest way to setup the IDE devices is by leaving it set to auto. This allows the BIOS to detect the devices automatically so you don't have to do it manually. At the bottom, it also displays the total memory in your system.  

Advanced BIOS Features
As you can see from figure 3, there are numerous advance settings which you can select if required. For most cases leaving the default setting should be adequate. As you can see the first boot device is set to floppy. This ensures that the floppy disk is read first when the system boots, and therefore can boot from windows boot disk. The second boot device is the Hard disk and third is set to LS120. If you want to boot from a bootable CD then you can set the third boot device to CD/DVD-ROM.

Advanced Chipset Features
Here you can setup the contents of the chipset buffers. It is closely related to the hardware and is therefore recommended that you leave the default setting unless you know what you are doing. Having an incorrect setting can make your system unstable. If you know that your SDRAM can handle CAS 2, then making changes can speed up the memory timing. If you have 128MB SDRAM then the maximum amount of memory the AGP card can use is 128MB. 

Inegrated Peripherals
This menu allows you to change the various I/O devices such as IDE controllers, serial ports, parallel port, keyboard etc. You can make changes as necessary.  

Power Management Setup
The power management allows you to setup various power saving features, when the PC is in standby or suspend mode. 

PnP/PCI Configurations
This menu allows you to configure your PCI slots. You can assign IRQ's for various PCI slots. It is recommended that you leave the default settings as it can get a bit complicated messing around with IRQ's.  

PC Health Status
This menu displays the current CPU temperature, the fan speeds, voltages etc. You can set the warning temperature which will trigger an alarm if the CPU exceeds the specified temperature. 

Load Fail-Safe Defaults

If you made changes to the BIOS and your system becomes unstable as a result, you can change it back to default. However if you made many changes and don't know which one is causing the problem, your best bet is to choose the option "Load Fail Safe Mode Defaults" from the BIOS menu. This uses a minimal performance setting, but the system would run in a stable way. From the dialog box Choose "Y" followed by enter to load Fail-Safe Defaults.

Load Optimized Defaults

Like the Fail-Safe mode above, this option loads the BIOS default settings, but runs the system at optimal performance. From the dialog box Choose "Y" followed by enter to load Optimized Defaults.

Set Password

To password protect your BIOS you can specify a password. Make sure you don't forget the password or you can not access the BIOS. The only way you can access the BIOS is by resetting it using the reset jumper on the motherboard.

Save and Exit Setup

To save any changes you made to the BIOS you must choose this option. From the dialog box choose "Y".

Exit without Saving

If you don't want to save changes made to the BIOS, choose "N" from the dialog box.

How to Install Windows 7 In Your PC

The best way to install Windows 7 is to do a clean install. It is not difficult to perform a clean installation. Before you start the installation process I recommend that you check Windows 7 System Requirements list to ensure that your hardware is supported by Windows 7. If you don't have Windows 7 drivers for all your hardware, it is a good idea to download all the drivers from the hardware manufacturers website and save all the necessary drivers on a CD-R or a USB drive before you start the installation.


Windows 7 DVD is bootable. In order to boot from the DVD you need to set the boot sequence. Look for the boot sequence under your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is set to CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
Step 1 - Place Windows 7 DVD in your dvd-rom drive and start your PC. Windows 7 will start to boot up and you will get the following progress bar.

Step 2 - The next screen allows you to setup your language, time and currency format, keyboard or input method. Choose your required settings and click next to continue.

Step 3 - The next screen allows you to install or repair Windows 7. Since we are doing a clean install we will click on "install now".

Step 4 - Read the license terms and tick I accept license terms. Then click next to continue.

Step 5 - You will now be presented with two options. Upgrade or Custom (Advanced). Since we are doing a clean install we will select Custom (Advanced).

Step 6 - Choose where you would like to install Windows 7. If you have one hard drive you will get a similar option to the image below. You can click next to continue. If you have more that one drive or partition then you need to select the appropriate drive and click next. If you need to format or partition a drive then click Drive options (advance) before clicking next.

Step 7 - Windows 7 starts the installation process and starts copying all the necessary files to your hard drive as shown on the image below.

Step 8 - It will go through various stages of the setup and will reboot your system few times.

Step 9 - When your PC reboots it attempts to boot from DVD as its the first boot device. Do not press any key during the boot prompt so Windows 7 will continue with the installation by booting from the hard drive.

Step 10 - After the reboot your computer will be prepared for first use.

Step 11 - At this stage you need to choose a user name and computer name. Click next to continue. The user account you create here is the Administrator account which is the main account for your Windows 7 that has all the privileges.

Step 12 - Choose your password and password hint just incase you forget your password and need to jog your memory.

Step 13 - You can now type the product key that came with Windows 7 and click next. If you do not enter the product key you can still proceed to the next stage. However Windows 7 will run in trial mode for 30 days. You must therefore activate Windows within 30 days otherwise you can not access your computer after 30 days.

Step 14 - Help protect your computer and improve Windows automatically. Choose Use recommended settings.

Step 15 - Review your time and date settings. Select your time zone, correct the date and time and click next to continue.

Step 16 - Select your computer's current location. If you are a home user then choose Home network otherwise select the appropriate option.

Step 17 - Windows will now finalize the settings for your computer and restart.

Step 18 - After the final restart Windows 7 will start to boot up.

Step 19 - Finally you have the logon screen. Just type your password and press enter or click on the arrow to logon to Windows 7 for the first time.

Step 20 - After you have logged on to Windows 7 for the first time, you will see similar desktop to the image below. At this point you can start using your computer. However it may not be fully configured. You need to make sure that all the hardware is detected correctly and the necessary device drivers are installed. This can be done from the device manager.

Step 21 - To go to device manager click - Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Device Manager. You will see all your hardware listed as shown on the image below. You need to check if you have any yellow exclamation marks next to the name of the devices, similar to "Multimedia Audio Controller" on the image below. This indicates that the driver has not been installed for this device.

At this stage you can install the driver for this device. To do so, Right Mouse click on Multimedia Audio Controller -> Update Driver Software...

Step 22 - You can choose to "Search automatically for updated driver software" or "Browse my computer for driver software". If you have the driver CD or if the driver is on a USB drive then choose "browse my computer for driver software". Window 7 will search and install the driver from the CD or you can locate the driver manually.

Once you have removed all the yellow exclamation marks from the device manager your Windows 7 configuration would be fully complete.

Step 23 - Finally check if you have successfully activated Windows 7. Click Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System. You will get a window similar to the image below. Towards the bottom you will see Windows is activated followed by your product ID. This shows that your copy of Windows 7 is fully activated.

How to Install Windows XP In Your PC

This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows XP Professional. The procedure to install Windows XP home edition is very similar to the professional edition. Since Windows XP Pro is more advanced operating system, it will be used to demonstrate the installation procedure.

The best way install Windows XP is to do a clean install. It is not difficult to perform a clean installation. Before you perform the installation I recommend that you check Windows XP Compatibility List to ensure that your hardware is supported by XP. If your hardware is not on the compatibility list you can check your hardware manufactures website to download the drivers for Windows XP. Save all the necessary drivers onto floppy disks or CD before you start the installation.

 DETAIL HERE

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