We generally don’t recommend combining antivirus programs, as they can conflict and eat up resources, but these two programs work really well in tandem, unless you are running Windows XP.  As of early this year, the two programs have sprouted a conflict when running together in Windows XP (they work fine in Windows Vista and Windows 7).  The good news is, there’s a simple solution.

Note: If you had these programs installed on your machine by one of our technicians, we’ll be happy to implement the solution below free of charge.  Just give us a call and we can set you up remotely.

Now for the fix.  The simplest solution is to tell the programs to ignore each other. Remember, this is only necessary in Windows XP, not Vista or 7. Let’s start with MBAM.

To tell MalwareBytes to ignore Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows XP:

• Open MalwareBytes
• Click the Ignore List tab
• Click Add
• A “Browse” window will open showing your computer’s contents.  Navigate to your Programs Files folder and select the Microsoft Security Client and click OK
• You’re done with this part.  You should see the folder in your ignore list, and you can now exit

To tell Microsoft Security Essentials to ignore MalwareBytes in Windows XP:

• Open Microsoft Security Essentials
• Click on the Settings tab
• Click on the Excluded Files and Locations item on the left
• Click Browse
• A “Browse” window will open showing your computer’s contents.  Navigate to your Program Files and select the MalwareBytes AntiMalware folder and click OK
• Click on the Excluded Processes item on the left
• Click Browse
• A “Browse” window will open showing your computer’s contents.  Navigate to your Program Files\MalwareBytes AntiMalware folder
  • Select “mbam.exe” and click OK
  • Browse again and this time select “mbamservice.exe” and click OK
  • Browse again and this time select “mbamgui.exe” and click OK
• Click Save Changes and you are done

After this, the two should behave just the way they are supposed to.  Remember to set scheduled scans in each program, and be sure to set scheduled updates in MBAM.  You are now protected about as solidly as possible.

If you don’t have this elegant and efficient combination running on your Windows computer, we recommend it.  It’s done best when installed by a professional, and we’re available to help with our professional in-home, business, and remote support services.  If you know of any other tips & tricks for Microsoft Security Essentials or MalwareBytes AnitMalware, feel free to comment below.

Update: Reader Sam comments that he also tends to tell MSE to ignore Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys and Windows\System32\drivers\mbamswissarmy.sys.  We’ve never included those in our exceptions, but I don’t see how it could hurt (I think it could only help).  On my test system running MBAM + MSE on a Windows 7 Professional x64, I did not find the mbamsissarmy.sys file, but if you are running Windows XP it may be there.  Consider adding these two files to your MSE ignore list!

Today we’re proud to announce the release of our latest WordPress plugin, and our first public plugin.  The plugin is called Custom WP Update Message and it performs a basic (but very practical) purpose.  WordPress has a very easy update functionality built right in, allowing site administrators to upgrade to new versions of WordPress with a single click.  This is phenomenal for important security updates, allowing non-technical site administrators to secure their site easily.  However, some updates are more complex than a simple security fix, adding new features and changing WordPress.  These updates can sometimes be problematic, causing incompatibilities with older plugins or custom theme code.

Custom WP Update Message allows web developers (like ourselves) to customize this update message.  Developers can put their own contact information into the update message so that clients know to call or email before going forward with the update.  Developers can also put in a special message, or just turn off updating for certain types of users.  See the preview below.

Custom WP Update Message is free and open source, available via wordpress.org or directly through your WordPress dashboard in the Add New Plugins section.  If you have any suggestions for improvements, please share!

Apple iPad – The Ultimate Holiday Gift

OK, I admit it, I bought an iPad on the very first day they came out.  I am proud to say I didn’t wait in line.  After an early morning Twitter search for “iPad line Best Buy” and “iPad line Emeryville” I discovered that while the line at the Apple Store was 2 hours long, Best Buy was empty and stocked with the majestic tablets.  I was satisfied as soon as I opened the box.  I can’t quite describe the joy of unboxing one of these things – just holding it was pretty phenomenal.  Starting at $499, the iPad is an expensive gift, but one that keeps on giving.

The iPad experience is like that of an iPhone on steroids.  Calendars, maps, and other apps look simply beautiful on the big screen.  It feels extremely solid and natural in the hand.  While the keyboard experience is a bit awkward (I can type faster on the iPhone), and the web browsing feels a lot more like a phone than a laptop, the beauty of this device is in the apps.

With apps from the App Store, the iPad is an ever-evolving productivity tool toy.  It never gets boring.  Between games like Tilt To Live and Angry Birds, surprisingly easy book reading through iBooks and Kindle (don’t underestimate the value of this – it’s a great reading medium), endless news apps, Netflix (!), and the legendary Words With Friends, this is a gift that keeps on giving.  Apple themselves sum it up perfectly with their holiday message: “You give one present, they get thousands”.   The iPad gets our thumbs up as the all-around ultimate holiday gift for 2010.

Honorable mention: iPod Touch.  Starting at less than half the price of an iPad ($229) these little devices can do most of what the iPad does (plus more – video!) at a fraction of the cost.

iTunes Gift Card (for Music and Apps)

If you aren’t ready to shell out $500+ on a loved one or friend for a new iPad, and they already have an Apple product, an iTunes Gift Card is an amazingly flexible and useful gift.  These cards can be redeemed for music, TV/Movies, and iPhone/iPod/iPad Apps from the App Store.  A simple $25 gift card can turn into hours of entertainment.  Bonus – this gift is popular with all ages, just make sure they have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch before giving!  Here’s the link: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/giftcards/itunes/gallery

Canon Powershot A495 – Cheap, Simple, Easy to Use Camera

Digital cameras are getting easier, cheaper, and higher quality every year.  Last winter my wife and I purchased a Canon Powershot for under $150.  This year, they cost less than $100.  The PowerShot line of cameras has been around since the early days of digital cameras, and this year’s offering really shows the benefit of Canon’s experience.  The menus are easy to navigate.  The photos are crisp.  The LCD screen is easy to view in any light.  We took ours to Europe on our honeymoon and never had to charge the battery once!  I think the photos look as good as the more expensive point and shoot models (of course they aren’t as nice as the fancy SLR cameras).  Here’s an insider tip: tell them to use the free and powerful Google Picasa image software to import, manage, and share their photos.  The Canon software is OK but Google’s free offering makes the management of your photos an absolute pleasure.  This model is on sale at Amazon.com for $89 – http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-A495-2-5-Inch-Blue/dp/B0032JRRXY.

Clairsonic Mia – Sonic Face Cleaning Brush

Not all technological advances have cool touchscreens and USB ports.  Clairsonic has created a very attractive new product with wide appeal – who doesn’t want a cleaner and less acme-blemished face?  The Claisonic Mia has taken the technology behind electric toothbrushes and applied it to face cleaning.  It’s new, it looks and feels cool, and it might improve your skin (it also could be a gimmick, it’s probably too early to tell).  My wife brought one of these home the other day and I had no idea what it was.  After trying it out for a few days, I have to say my skin feels cleaner and clearer.  This is a great gift idea for teenagers, wives, or anyone who cares about personal hygiene.  Plus, the recipient is highly unlikely to already have one since they are pretty new.  $150 and up – http://www.clarisonic.com/shop/sonic-cleansing-system-mia.php.

Have other ideas for technology related gifts in 2010?  Feel free to add them to the comments below.

Computer Courage is up for the “Best of BayList” contest at SFGate.com.  We’re going for “Best Computer Services”.

It’s super easy to vote for us (just a quick 1 page registration), just go to our voting page here and click “VOTE”.  That’s it!

Thanks for your support – please vote for us today!

-Adam and the Computer Courage team

As many of our clients know, we are firm beleivers in Google Applications.  Gmail is fast and universally accessible, Google Calendar can be synced to any device, and Google Documents is allowing for some unbeleivable new functionality in the world of document editing and sharing.  But the main problem with these solutions has always been that you need to be online.  This cuts out access to calendar, email, and documents when you are on a plane, or not near a WiFi connection.  Now that’s all changed.

Google now allows offline access to mail and calendar through the use of a browser plugin called Google Gears.  Google Gears can be installed into Firefox or Internet Explorer, and is built in to Chrome (Google’s new browser).  Sorry Safari users, no Gears for you yet (Mac users can install Firefox.)  Gears installs into your web browser and allows you to sync certain websites to your computer for offline browsing.

Google Gears with Gmail allows you to view your emails when you are offline, and even compose emails (they will be sent next time you are connected to the internet in Gmail, though for some reason you can’t use attachments yet.)  You can also view appointments in Gcal, and even create new ones, which will be synced the next time you log in online.   Another innovative feature – Google has a “Flaky Connection” mode for bad connections – it will switch into Google gears when the connection drops, and sync up when it comes back.

Here’s how you can set up Offline Mode for Gmail and Google Calendar.  Note that this access is still in Beta (experimental.)  Google warns that aspects of the service, and sometimes the whole service, may come and go as they test it, so don’t rely on this 100%.

To enable Offline Mode:

1) First you’ll need to either download Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) or get Google Gears for your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser (http://gears.google.com.)

2) Next you’ll need to sign up a Gmail account if you don’t have one.  If you do, log in to Gmail.

3) In the top of the Gmail page, look for the menu item “Settings” and click on it.  From the settings page, click on the “Labs” tab.  If you don’t have a Labs tab, check back periodically as Google sometimes takes a while to add it to your account.

4) In the “Labs” page, the first lab should be “Offline”.  Just click on “Enable” next to offline.  If you don’t see it, you don’t have it right now.  Nothing you can do but wait for it to appear, check back next week.  Once you’ve clicked “Enable” then click “Save Changes”

5) You’re ready to go.  Just click “Offline” in the upper-right hand menu of your Mail or Calendar and Google will start to download your messages and appointments.  It will give you a status indicator as well, and you can work away while it downloads.  Just be sure not to close your browser or you won’t have everything synced up.  Google will let you know when it’s done.

A few notes about Google Offline:

1) Don’t forget it’s still in early testing.  Features may come and go.

2) If you have a lot of messages, you might not get all of them Offline.  Google downloads up to abotu 10,000 emails.  We don’t know how it picks and chooses, but it has some intelligent method of selecting them so your most needed emails are more likely to be there.

3) Google Gears is per-browser.  So if you sync up with Firefox, you won’t see your ofline mail in Chrome, etc.  This also means that if you sync up in multiple browsers, you’ll have mutliple copies of your messages on your computer (which takes more storage.)

4) Finally, this syncing represents something of a security concern.  In the past, all of your content was stored on Google’s servers and security was their concern.   Now, your browsers will have copies of all of your mail, sensitive or otherwise.  In many ways, this is nothign new, as any Outlook or Mail.app user has the same issue, but it’s a new issue for Gmail users.

We hope you find this guide usefel.  Check out Google Offline access and let us know what you think in the comments.

For PCs, the name of the environmental game is energy consumption – how little energy can you burn while still getting things done?  Companies like Apple are going a little further these days, creating laptops and computers in a more environmentally friendly process, using more recyclable materials.  But if you can’t shell out the big $$$ for a new MacBook Pro, Edison can help your today.

For Windows only (see our previous “green” post for some tips on keeping your Mac greener,) Edison has some fantastic options.  We all know telling your system to hibernate after 10 minutes is good for the enviornment, but it can be a pain for some.  With Edison, you can have different power schemes during day and night (let the system hibernate after 5 of inactivity at night, and after 30 minutes of activity during the day.)

Edison’s reporting features are fascinating as well.  You can watch how much money, carbon, and electricity you are saving, and brag to your friends.  Best of all, Edison is free (though you do have to sign up with them to use it.)   Happy savings to everyone.

Rule #1, you pretty much have to have a Mac with an Intel processor.  That’s any Mac bought in the last 3 or 4 years, so you’re probably good on that one.

First – Apple’s Boot Camp.  This is a free program, but it’s only included in OS X 10.5 (Leopard.)  If you have an older version of Leopard, you’ll have to upgrade.  Contact us to find out about our upgrade services.  Boot Camp allows you to turn your Mac into a PC, and even switch back and forth.  This is a great solution for those of us that run Windows more than OS X, or who need to harness the full power of their computer when using Windows (gamers, artists, 3D modelers, etc.)

Next is virtualization.  With virtualization, we run a little “virtual Windows” installation inside of OS X.  There’s no rebooting, and you can run Windows and Mac simultaneously – even keeping applications from Windows and OS X open together on the same screen.  This is a very convenient solution, though not quite as fast as Boot Camp (it’s faster to open your copy of Windows, but Windows will run slower.)  The kings of virtualization on the Mac are VMware Fusion and Parallels.  Parallels is the easiest in our opinion, including features to migrate your old PC into your new Mac.  This week, Parallels released version 4, which increases performance by 50% – a huge boost.  If you want help purchasing and installing Parallels, give us a call.

Finally, for the brave of heart, there are programs such as CrossOver which attempt to run Windows programs without Windows itself, using a system called “Wine.”  I wont get into the technical details, but you should know that these programs are pretty experimental and only good for the simplest of Windows applications.

So there you have it – run Windows apps on your Mac – it doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult.  Don’t forget though that you will need to puchase a copy of Windows XP, which is a cost that people often don’t consider.

If you have questions about using Windows on a Mac, just contact us and we’ll give you some more help.

If you can’t make it, and have a computer questions, just contact us and I’ll probably just answer it for you.

The definition of phishing, according to Wikipedia, is “the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”  This is a long winded way of saying that phishing is an attempt by bad guys to trick you into giving them your secret information.  When a bad guy successfully phishes you, he or she will acquire banking passwords, credit card numbers, email passwords, etc.  This information is very dangerous when put in the wrong hands – it can lead to great expense on your part, inconvenience, invasion of privacy, and identity theft.

What you need to know.  Below are some explanations and guidelines to avoid phishing:

1. Don’t give any information over email when requested.  No bank will ever email you to ask you to verify your information (address, password, credit card info, SSN, etc.)  So you can just plain ignore any such request – it’s bogus.  If you are unsure, you can always contact us.
2. Don’t follow links from suspicious emails.  I’ll go into detail about links in a moment, but for now the safest way to avoid going to the wrong place is to go directly to where you want to go.  Just open up your browser and type in the web address of the institution instead of clicking on the link.
3. Upgrade your browser (Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 are the current versions) and enable the Phishing filter in IE.
4. Run good antivirus software at all times.
5. Watch for sites that don’t use HTTPS security (look got https:// instead of http:// in the URL.)
6. Know your URLS – this is the most complicated but most important.  This is a bit too complicated to explain in an newsletter, so
7. Here’s a great case study of a phishing technique such as described above.  Notice in this one the visible link looks normal, but the link actually takes the user somewhere else.  The lesson is don’t follow links from email.  See an example here.

Remember, your best technique is common sense.  Keep these main philosophies:

1. Be skeptical and cautious with all banking transactions.
2. Avoid opening links from email when possible.
3. Never give your private information for “verification purposes.”
4. Run antivirus software and update your browser.
5. Know your URL structure.

When in doubt, contact us at Computer Courage and we’ll help you with any suspicious emails, websites, or computer behavior.  Thanks everyone and stay safe.

By the way, we’ve moved to 1700 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley (at Virginia) to a nicer office, sharing a building with Berkeley’s own internet service provider – LMI.net, come visit any time.