Rootkits have gone from theoretical to everyday infections in a pretty short time. Tools like TDSSKiller, Sophos Antirootkit, Combofix, and others all help in the battle against these sophisticated infections but the best solution is to avoid getting one installed in the first place. To better understand the threat that rootkits pose, I recommend reading the threat report that … [Read more...]
Windows 8 Action Center: Find and install an antispyware app online (Important)
One of the improvements with Windows 8 will be the fact that it comes with antivirus and antimalware functionality. Microsoft Security Essentials has essentially been absorbed into the operating system. You can replace it with different security software if you would like but for the many people that don't install antivirus software at all, there is now at least a baseline of … [Read more...]
Update Malwarebytes manually without a network connection
It seems like there has been an almost endless stream of malware-infected client PCs (personally owned) reported lately. This has given me an opportunity to see just about every bit of malware under the sun. From ransomware to rootkits, it's all come across the desk with the request to get it fixed. Malware can take various shapes and do very different things to a machine. Some … [Read more...]
Microsoft Surface with Windows RT available for pre-order
The Microsoft Surface will be released October 26th along with the general availability of Windows 8. A special limited-quantity pre-order for Surface with Windows RT started today at 9AM PDT. The pricing comes out to be not too bad since it was originally ballparked to be the same pricing as Ultrabooks. The three configurations for Surface with Windows RT include: 32GB … [Read more...]
How to configure Windows 8 to auto login
It's not great security but it is more practical and a better end-user experience to have Windows automatically login on a single-user computer. Instead of waiting for the person to enter their password, Windows can get right to it and load the profile and startup objects all in one fell swoop. A person might power on their PC, walk away or start doing something else, and this … [Read more...]