Did you recently install Microsoft Security Essentials to protect your computer, and right after installing it, your computer slowed to a crawl? Well, the good news is, you’re not going crazy. It is completely possible for this to happen.

Why? Because for some reason, Microsoft made it so that if you are running MSE on Windows XP, MSE only needs 256MB of RAM to run. BUT (and that’s a BIG BUT!), if you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7, then MSE requires a whopping 1GB of RAM! That’s how much RAM a lot of people have in their whole system, which means there would not be any RAM left to run the OS, never mind run any additional programs.

Windows 7 alone needs 1GB of RAM to run. So if you have WSE installed or want to have it installed, then you need at least 2GB of RAM just to run WSE and Windows 7!

Since that’s the case, if you’re running Windows 7 or Windows Vista, make sure you have at least 3GB of RAM, preferably 4GB, if you want to have MSE as your security suite.

Just a little FYI for ya!

Here’s the page you want to go to to confirm the system requirements for MSE:
System requirements for Microsoft Security Essentials

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If you’re getting the message, “iTunes requires a computer with a G4, G5 or Intel processor”, then that means you’re dealing with an older Mac that has a G3 processor or earlier that is not compatible with the latest version of iTunes.

What’s the fix?

Well, you have to dig around the Internet to find it, but Sarah, a visitor to my blog, emailed me and asked me what to do. So I did some research, and found that if you are running Mac OS X 10.4.1, which is Tiger, then all you need to do is install iTunes 8.4, which you can get here:

Download iTunes 8.4 for Mac
(again, you have to have a G3 processor, and you have to be running 10.4.1 (Tiger) or later)

However, if you are running, let’s say, Mac OS X 10.3.9, which is what she was running, then this is where you need to dig a little deeper on the Internet to find your solution.

Luckily, the boys over at ihackintosh.com did the dirty work for me. They made a blog post that has the direct Apple download links to previous versions of iTunes, from version 7.4 to 8.2 for both Mac and PC. However, you’ll need to research which version is best for your system. Google is your friend in this type of situation.

Check out their list of vintage iTunes download links here.

By the way, the solution I suggested for Sarah was to give iTunes version 7.4 a try. I’ll send her the link to this post, and hopefully she’ll return with positive results that she’ll post in the comments below. I’m sure she’s have some good news.

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I was sitting in Starbucks doing some work when I saw a girl going over her notes on her Mac in MS Word, but with a very cool layout…a layout that not only looked like a real notebook, but that also had tabs! Just having the notebook layout may be cool for students, but it’s not very functional. However, adding the use of tabs to the mix makes all the difference.

Take a look:

Why does tabs add so much more to it?

Let’s say you’re at a seminar with multiple speakers. Instead of having one LONG documents that has notes from each speaker, or instead of having multiple docs, one for each speaker, you can now have ONE document with your notes from each speaker separated by tabs! So much easier to work with and find things.

To activate it, all you have to do is go to VIEW>NOTEBOOK LAYOUT. Then click on each tab on the right to go to that section of the document. To ADD a tab, just click on the “+” below the last tab. And to delete a tab, just RIGHT-click the tab you want to delete and select “delete.”

The version of MS Office that I’m running is MS Office Home and Business for Mac, but, of course, it’s also a feature in Word in MS Office Home & Student.

Enjoy!

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I have a client who bought MS Office Home and Business 2010 for the list price of $279.99 from Best Buy. We installed it, and she ended up not liking it because it was too different from MS Office 2003, which is what she was used to. So I uninstalled it for her and put MS Office 2003 back on. I uninstalled it because MS Office 2010 and MS Office 2003 can’t be installed on the same computer at the same time. It makes both of them not work correctly.

Since Best Buy won’t take back software after it has been opened, I threw it up on eBay for her.

By the way, I called Microsoft, and they confirmed that the 3 installs that came with this software are still available.

So if you’re interested, head on over to eBay! This auction ends this Sunday, March 6, 2011, around 4pm PST, which is in 1 day and 20 hours. Good luck and happy bidding!

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I recently bought Pages ’09 (for only $19.99, btw) for a client via the Mac App Store on my Mac, because you need at least Mac OS X 10.6 to get the Mac App Store on your computer, which he did not have. And my client wanted to buy Pages separately. He did not want to buy the whole iWord suite. He also didn’t feel like leaving the house. So logged onto the Mac App Store, bought it, and downloaded it thinking I could just take the installation file, copy it onto a USB flash drive, and then install it on his computer.

However, that’s not how it went down. I ended up having to keep it, because at the time, it looked like when you buy an app from the Mac App Store, you don’t buy the installation file, you buy the installation of the program on the Mac that you are using to buy the app, because right after it downloaded, it installed without asking me. And nowhere on my Mac was there an installation file for it.

However, I just found out yesterday that if you log into your account on the Mac App Store on another Mac of yours, you can download and install an app that you have already purchased and installed on the Mac that you used to buy it. Very cool of Apple to do that.

Anyway, back to issue at hand. So what happened was I already had Pages ’08 on my Mac. So I figured that when I downloaded and installed Pages ’09, it would simply take the place of the older version. NOT SO. Pages ’08 and Pages ’09 can co-exist on the same Mac, meaning they can both be installed on the same Mac and each be fully functional without any issues. I did not know this. So when I launched Pages from my Dock (the launch pad on the bottom of the screen of every Mac where you launch apps), it would launch Pages ’08.

I didn’t know why, so I called Apple Care (800.APL.CARE) and they told me that when you buy an app that is part of a suite (e.g. the iWork suite is made up of the following apps: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), it does not put it in the folder for that suite. It simply installs it as a standalone app and lists it with all of the other apps in the Applications folder, NOT in the suite folder.

To give you a visual, here is a screenshot of how the iWork ’08 suite is listed in the Applications folder when it is installed as a suite from a disk:

You see how Pages is INSIDE the iWork ’08 folder?

Now here is a screenshot of how Pages ’09 is listed in the Applications folder on your Mac when you buy it from the Mac App Store and download & install it:

As you can see, this time Pages is listed with all of the other apps. It’s not in the iWork folder. This proves that Pages ’08 and Pages ’09 can co-exist on the same computer, because they are not located in the same folder. So, in order to launch Pages ’09, I either have to go into the Applications folder, which is not necessary, or I can just drag the icon for Pages ’09 from the Applications folder down to my Dock, which is exactly what I did.

And with regard to the icon for Pages ’08 that is already on my Dock, I can either click on it, drag it up, and let it go on the desktop so it will disappear in a puff of smoke, and I will just have one icon for Pages in my dock, or I can just leave both of them in the Dock and remember which one is which, or put them in different locations on my Dock.

So if you ever buy an app separately on the Mac App Store that is part of a Mac suite like iWork or iLife, then remember to go into the Applications folder, click on the icon for the newly installed app, which will be listed with all of the other apps, and drag it down to your Dock.

Enjoy!

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Today I attempted to purchase an Apple application called, Pages (Mac’s equivalent to MS Word), on my Mac via the Mac App Store. Pages is part of Apple’s iLife software suite. It’s a great suite and is MUCH less expensive than M$’s Office.

Anyway, since my client does not have the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X, Snow Leopard 10.6, and you need Snow Leopard to get the Mac App Store, I decided to purchase it for him on my Mac since I had the Mac App Store already installed.

Well, we signed in with his Apple ID, clicked on “Buy,” entered his password again, and NOTHING. Tried it again. NOTHING. Signed me out of iTunes thinking me being logged into my iTunes account on my Mac while logging into his account via the Mac App store was causing an issue. It wasn’t. Still didn’t work.

Called Apple, and we tried doing it via a different user account on my Mac. Still no go. So they told us to contact iTunes. That was going to take too long, so I thought of the brilliant concept to just buy it for him and have him pay me for it. So I did.

When I clicked “Buy” while logged in with my account, it worked flawlessly. However, there was one thing that we were not aware of. When you buy an app from the Mac App Store, you are not buying the installation file that you can just throw on a USB stick and install on another Mac. You are buying the app being installed on the Mac that you are using to buy it, and that’s it! It works just like a software update. It downloads, and then installs right away.

Just thought I would share that little tidbit with ya so you don’t waste any money buying software for a friend or family member because you have the latest version of Mac OS X and they don’t.

Of course I understand why Apple does this, and I’m sure you do, too. If we were buying the installation file, we could just take it and install it on multiple computers while only paying for one copy.

However, they could monitor that by setting it up so that you have to enter a product key to install it, which would be noted on their servers (Like MS does with their OS), and then it would know that it has already been installed on a system if you try to install it on another Mac.

But, Apple certainly seems to know what they are doing, and I love them for it. So, I’ll let this slide and enjoy the latest version of Pages.

Update: You can actually buy one app and install it on all of your Macs. All you have to do is log into the App store of each of your other Macs with the same Apple ID that you used to purchase it, and it will let you download and install it. You’ll simply do that process for each of your Macs.

The second way of going about this would be to download the trial version of iWork if you don’t mind paying for the whole suite, and then purchase a serial number for it if you like it. However, just realize that if you buy them separately in the App Store, you’ll save $15.

One of our readers pointed this out. Thanks, Justin!

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Is an application that you are using on your Mac not responding? Do you get the notorious beach ball spinning around, not allowing you to do anything with that app? Or maybe your Mac is slower than usual and you’re not sure why.

Well, in either case, it could simply be a matter of an application not responding, which is an easy fix (see below).

Or, if you are new to the Mac world and are used to hitting Control-Alt-Delete on your PC keyboard to bring up Task Manager so that you can force an application to close by “end tasking” it when it is not responding, then you’ll want to know how to do that on a Mac, as it could be helpful to you in the future, or it could even be helpful to you now.

Well, true to Mac form, it’s very easy to do.

NOTE: Before we get started, I just want to let you know that when you force quit an app, you could lose the data you have created since you last opened the app. However, this is not always the case, because Mac is very good at making sure your data is backed up as quickly as you create it with most, if not all of its apps. But just be prepared to lose your data if you force quit an app just in case that happens. If you’re concerned about losing your data, simply wait a little and see if the app catches up with itself and starts responding again. That happens quite often.

OK, now on with the fix.

First, you’ll want to find out which application(s) is/are not responding. There are two ways to do that.

The easiest way is to hit the OPTION-COMMAND-ESC keys on your keyboard all at the same time. Those are three separate keys, by the way.

A “Force Quit” window will pop up showing you which applications are currently running. If there are any applications that are not responding, then it will say, “Not Responding” next to those applications. Be sure and scroll down the list so you see all of the apps, if there is a scroll bar. If there is not a scroll bar on the right side of that window, then that means that you are seeing all of the apps that are running in the list, so there is no need to scroll.

If you see an app that is listed as “not responding” in the list in the Force Quit window, to “force quit” it, all you have to do is click on it in the list so that it is highlighted in blue, and then hit the “Force Quit” button. Done. You can then get on with your life.

Another way to get the same “Force Quit” menu to come up is by going to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen, and selecting “Force Quit.” Then simply do the same thing that I just mentioned above to find and force quit the apps that are not responding (click on the app in the list that is not responding and hit the Force Quit button).

And if you know which apps are not responding, which is easy to find out if when you are working with the app, because it will give you a spinning beach ball and not let you perform any function with that app, then all you have to do to Force Quit it is RIGHT-click on the icon for the app at the bottom of your screen in the Dock (or hold down the CTRL key and click it if you have a Mac laptop with no mouse), and select “Force Quit”. If it does not give you an option to “Force Quit” in the menu that pops up, then it is working OK.

To confirm that the app in question is working OK, simply hit the OPTION-COMMAND-ESC keys at the same time, and look for that app in the list that pops up. If it does not say “Not Responding” next to it, then that app is working OK. If that is the case, then while you have the the Force Quit window in front of you, look for an app that is not responding, click on it, and hit the Force Quit button to close it.

That’s it. Pretty easy, huh? Any questions, post them in a comment below.

Enjoy!

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Mozilla recently released a beta version of Firefox 4, and it’s ready for download. The only thing that I will mention as a precaution is that if you have a Mac, I would not suggest downloading or installing it just yet.

Here’s why…

I installed it on my Mac, which, at the time of this blog post, is up to date with Mac OS X 10.6.5 and has the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed. After I installed Firefox 4 Beta, I went to YouTube to check it out, and all I got was a black box where the video should be playing. I checked the Mozilla support forums, and it seems as though many people are having the same problem. So, if you’re a Mac user, then I would hold off for now.

But if you’re a PC user, I know Firefox 4 Beta works on both Windows XP and Windows 7. I’m sure it works on Vista as well, but I can only confirm XP and Windows 7. So if you’re using a pc, then you should be good to go!

Here’s the link where you can download it:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/

And here are the new features:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/

Enjoy!

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Microsoft is still in the testing stages with their latest version of Internet Explorer 9, but you if you feel brave and want to give it a shot, simply go here:

Download and Test Drive Internet Explorer 9 Beta

Although I still prefer and suggest that you use Firefox (get it here) because all of the spyware programs and browser hijacking targets Internet Explorer since most people use it for their Internet browser. So 9 times out of 10, Firefox goes unaffected.

If after you install Internet Explorer 9 Beta, you feel it is not for you and would like to go back to using the previous version you were using before, do this:

1. Close all programs
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel
3. Click Uninstall a Program under the Programs category
4. In the Tasks pane, click View installed updates
5. In the list of installed updates, double-click Windows Internet Explorer 9
6. In the Uninstall an update dialog box, click Yes

Note: If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

7. Follow the instructions to uninstall Internet Explorer 9
8. When the uninstall program is finished, restart your computer
9. After you restart your computer, open Internet Explorer
10. Click About Internet Explorer on the Help menu. If Internet Explorer 7 or 8 appears in the About Internet Explorerdialog box, then you have successfully completed the uninstall.

NOTE: I would only suggest installing a beta version of any program if you are an intermediate to advanced Windows user. Install at your own risk. I have not tried it yet.

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I just had a client who was infected by this nasty spyware. No, it was not a virus. It was spyware acting like an antivirus program.

First and foremost, never…

ever buy an antivirus program that pops up on your computer. Never will a legitimate antivirus program just appear on your screen and say, “Your computer is infected! Buy me!” That will ALWAYS be spyware that does that. So DO NOT fall for it. Buy nothing. Install nothing, and do what I suggest below IMMEDIATELY.

The first thing that you MUST do to fix this issue is to get your computer into Safe Mode. Why? Because as you probably know, if your computer is infected with this threat, you can’t execute any program. It disables the ability to do that. So, get your computer in Safe Mode and you will once again be able to run programs.

How do you get it into Safe Mode? Immediately upon rebooting (restarting) your computer, hit your F8 key (it’s at the top of your keyboard) repeatedly until a black screen with white text appears asking you to choose how you would like to boot up your computer. Choose “Safe Mode with Networking” so you can still access the Internet.

However, to get into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking, there is one possible catch. If you are working with a desktop and you have a USB keyboard, it may or may not allow you to go into Safe Mode. Some USB keyboards will not work until the computer starts to boot up into Windows. So hitting the F8 key repeatedly may or may not register when using a USB keyboard. That’s why it is best to get your hands on an old school PS/2 keyboard (the kind that has a connection that is round with prongs) for this job.

The two programs that will remove this annoying and PINA spyware are the following:

1. Combofix – you can both download and be shown how to use this program with that link
2. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition – this also includes an anti-spyware component, which is what will remove and fix this issue

You will need to install and run ComboFix in Safe Mode with Networking, since you will not be able to do anything with it in regular windows.

When you use Combofix, there is no need to post the results on a website like the instructions on the page that I link to above suggests. Just running it will fix the issue, at least it did for my client. So run that program first.

Then download, install, update, and run AVG, just to be sure. HOWEVER, you’ll need to UNINSTALL your current antivirus program to do that, if you have one installed. You can not have two or more antivirus programs installed on your computer at the same time. They will cancel each other out and you won’t be protected. It could also potentially harm your computer.

If you don’t want to remove your current antivirus program and install and run AVG FREE edition, that’s OK. But I highly suggest you do it if you want this threat to be GONE from your computer.

Good luck!

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