AVG Free 2016 - "Your online security is incomplete" - Annoying Pop Up

UPDATES - SEE BOTTOM OF THIS POST
For some people, this pop up is coming up daily. It is a pop up to install AVG Web Tune-Up, the trial of the Pro (paid) version, disguised as a scare about your Internet Security.

Here is the wording of the pop-up:
AVG Free Pop Up "Your online security is incomplete. Install online security features for maximum protection. Options: Remind Me Later.  Install Now. Or, click the X in the top right of the pop up.

This particular pop up in AVG Free has become quite annoying as it is coming up every day or two. These types of pop ups from AVG used to come up every month or so, but they have escalated their campaign to get you to use their other products. AVG Free has been a great all around product to use, but this new pop up frequency is making it very annoying.This particular pop up is actually to try to get you to upgrade to the trial of the pro (paid) version of the program, not to install some extra program. It is misleading in that it may make people think that it is for an additional part, and not the full program. (If you do end up installing the trial version of the full program, go into Control Panel, Programs and Features and remove AVG. You will end up being given the choice to switch to the free version, so you can do that.)

I am in the process of researching other free antivirus products that would be as versatile and effective, yet not so annoying (So far Avira and Avast are in the running, but they come with other problems). In the meantime, here is a workaround solution that I am testing out. Feel free to test this out yourself. Use this workaround at your own risk. So far it seems to be working for me

SOLUTION ONE
[UPDATE: This one does not work]
If you are getting this AVG pop up every day or every couple of days, here is a temporary solution for now:

1- Click on the X in the pop up to close it, if it is open.
2- Right-click on the AVG icon in the bottom right of your screen in the Notification area
3- Click on Temporarily disable AVG protection.
4- Navigate to this folder C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\Av\
5- Delete the following three folders: Awacs, Banners, Tuneup. [Do not delete anything else. If you accidentally delete anything else go to the recycle bin and restore it.]
6- Re-enable AVG protection (right-click on the AVG icon you clicked on in step 2 and choose Enable AVG protection  (it may take a minute for it to come back on, so ignore any Windows pop ups that say your security is disabled))
7- Done (until the next major AVG program update)

I found this tip in this AVG forum:
https://support.avg.com/answers?id=906b0000000bn1CAAQ
by AVG user Mike C.

I'll let you know how this goes after a few days.


SOLUTION TWO
Another possible solution
(Again, try this at your own risk.)
- Fully Remove AVG Free and related AVG products if they are installed too.
- Use CCleaner's Registry cleaner to clean out leftover AVG entries
- Go to this link and download the appropriate AVG Free version for your computer (32bit or 64bit), and install this version.

Again, this will probably only work until the next major AVG Free update.

Note: This will either fix the problem, or fix it for a temporary period (of maybe a few weeks). At this point, the only way to tell is to try it.

This tip is from John Smith in the same forum.


**** I will post updates here in this post as I discover what works, what doesn't, and if nothing works, what alternatives are out there.

UPDATES
Solution One did not work - the pop-up notification came right back up the next day.

Windows 10 Upgrade Warning

If you have a computer that was brand new previous to the summer of 2015, you should NOT upgrade it to Windows 10.

Windows 10 works very well in a new computer today (or new since the summer of 2015). But for older computers, especially ones that originally ran Windows 7, you can potentially run into some big problems. The big problem is that, although the hardware drivers for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are supposed to work for Windows 10, they don't always. And, for an older computer (like one running Windows 7 originally), there will most likely NOT be any driver updates to help it run Windows 10 properly. So, if you have an older machine, you may, if you upgrade to Windows 10, end up with a machine that no longer works properly. It may be that the laptop DVD drive is no longer recognized, or the wireless adapter in the computer is no longer recognized, or worse.

So, by best advice is:
DO NOT UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 unless the computer was brand new at the end of the summer of 2015, or more recently.

Upgrading to Windows 10

I upgraded a desktop computer running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (with no touch-screen ability) today. Here are some key observations from my experience

Pros

- Overall performance seems a faster

- There's a bunch of new features that I will most likely never use but might be handy in the future.

- There's a few other minor features that I like and probably more as I investigate.

Cons

- The upgrading process is a little buggy

- The Start Menu is still a mess for desktop users

- More settings have been moved to the All Settings section and some overlap with those in Control Panel, and some have moved to new locations so you have to hunt for them (but, you can always type them in, in Search).

- The user interface is flat and less attractive

Conclusion

I won't roll it back to Windows 7. I think the upgrade was worth it for the performance boost. The Cons above are mainly minor and there are workarounds for them.

- If you hate change, especially in the way the operating system looks, don't upgrade. 

- If you are very particular about your solitaire games in Windows 7, don't upgrade. 

- If you have a system that is only a few years old with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on it and you would like better performance, I would recommend upgrading.

Details

I initiated the upgrade from the Windows 10 upgrade app. (I had reserved the Windows 10 upgrade via this app weeks ago. A notice popped up saying my upgrade was ready today.) Eventually, I ended up at a screen that said Working On It for a long time. I researched this issue and followed the common suggestion to solve the problem: Restart the computer, open Windows Updates and upgrade from there instead. Once I did that there were no more glitches with the upgrade.

It took about an hour in total (not including the time it sat on Working On It).

All the data in the user account was still there as was the wallpaper and the user account settings. 

All the installed programs worked with only a couple of updates required. AVG Free needed a restart, and although the video card seemed to work okay, I downloaded and installed a new driver for it. Even the network printer and the PS3 that this computer connects to (via PS3 Media Server) connected fine.

I played around with the Start Menu for some time. Since I could not pin useful things to it after minimizing it/removing all the tiles, I opted to go with Classic Shell. For anyone who still wants the efficiency of the Windows 7 start menu, this is the way to go. Classic Shell is free and can be customized in many ways (including drop-down menus for This PC, listing the drives, and a drop down menu for Control Panel).

There are a few other minor annoyances that I figured a way around without too much hassle. 

Review/Note about the HP Officejet Pro 8610 inkject multifunction printer.

This printer is currently on sale for $60 off (at Staples in Canada), which is a great deal. It's a good printer for a small home business. ... with 2 caveats:

It is not great at picking up any cardstock you put in it.
- To get the cardstock to feed properly you have to remove the regular paper from the tray and place about a quarter inch of cardstock in the tray.
I found this was the only reliable method of getting the cardstock to feed. (In other words, if you need to print a couple of sheets, you can't just place them on top of the regular paper in the tray as you could with most printers that can handle cardstock).

The other issue was in relation to installing the software/connecting the printer when Windows 8.1 was involved with connecting to the printer via a wireless network connection.
I found by trial and error, that the Windows firewall was blocking something in the setup that was necessary, even though the firewall settings showed that everything was being allowed that should have been allowed.
- To properly install the software and connect the printer and scanner I had to temporarily disable the firewall during the initial installation and connection process. Once it was done and both the scanner and printer components were tested to work, the firewall could be re-enabled and everything continued to work. This is not a normal issue when installing a network printer.

Knowing these 2 issues and their solutions in advance would have made things a lot less frustrating. HP seemed to be aware of these issues but did not offer these solutions (just solutions that did not work for these cases).

Would I recommend this printer? For this price? Yes. With knowing the above 2 solutions? Yes. Otherwise no.

HP generally makes good quality inkjet printers. But it was frustrating to have to figure out these issues. I'm glad it is finally working.

Update:
2 other things I found that I like:
Compared to my old Officejet Pro 8500A, with the 8610 the automatic duplexer is faster, and the print job is better aligned (straight) on the sheet.

Update 2:
After using it for a while, I found that I could just put a sheet or 2 of cardstock on top of the regular paper that was in the tray to print on cardstock. It was just really finicky when I first started using it.
Also, when installing the printer software in Windows 10, I didn't find I had any of the problems with the firewall settings as I did when I first set it up in Windows 8.1. 

AVG Free 2015 Winter Update, January 2015

For those using AVG Free 2015

As of Jan. 24, 2015 and shortly thereafter, you may get an AVG pop up about the AVG 2015 Update.
If you do,

Click Update Now
Check off Basic Protection [NOTE: THIS IS A VITAL STEP!!!!]
Next
Restart the computer if asked/required.

When done you will get another pop-up - this time of the regular whole interface, but with a banner across it: Congratulations! You've successfully updated to AVG Antivirus FREE 2015.
Click Continue.
Even though you already had AVG Antivirus FREE 2015, it will show this.
Restart computer to finish.
Since you already had AVG Free 2015 installed, your custom settings will stay the same, so don't worry about that.

NOTE: You may get the Update notice twice (once and then again a few days to a week or so later). Just follow these same instructions each time.

Your AVG AntiVirus FREE is outdated

If you are using AVG Free 2014 already, you may get this notice popping up in the bottom right of your screen. If you do, and you want to continue with the FREE version, here is what to do.

The notice: 
AVG
Your AVG AntiVirus FREE is outdated.
Update now to our 2014 version for improved
protection against the latest viruses & spyware.
Update Now

Click Update Now

Initializing Installation

Wait

Accept the agreement

Now, THIS STEP IS CRUCIAL:
Check BASIC PROTECTION
then click on Next.

UPDATE: SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT CHECKED BASIC HAVE ENDED UP NOT BEING ABLE TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET AFTER THE UPDATE (until they downgrade to the Basic version).


Now it will install the update.

When it is done installing, the AVG main window will come up with a band across it:
Congratulations!
You've successfully updated to AVG AntiVirus FREE 2014

Click on Continue
Close AVG (your previous settings should still be the same)

There will also be a window that comes up:
Computer Restart Required

Now, save anything you might be working on and then click Restart now in the AVG pop up window.
Done

Firefox Tabs On Bottom/Below The Address Bar/Toolbars

If you like your tabs on the bottom - below the toolbars - instead of on top, here is the simple solution. This works with the new Firefox version 29.0.1. 

You may have had your tabs below the toolbars up until now, and then Mozilla updated Firefox to version 29.0.1

If you want your tabs back below the toolbars, download and install Classic Theme Restorer. Restart Firefox. Then open the Add-ons page, go to Extensions, then click on Options for Classic Theme Restorer. Change Tabs On Top to Tabs Not On Top. OK. Done.

I found that manually making the change in About:config did not work, but this add-on does.

There are a lot of other things you can do with this add-on. See this page for more about this add-on.

AVG Free Antivirus Needs To Be Updated

If you get this pop-up on your screen, here are steps to updating AVG Free (to AVG Free).

Click the Update Now button.

Accept the End User Software License Agreement

Check Basic Protection
Next

Now it will install the update.

When it is done, AVG Free will open up and across it will be a green banner with this on it:
"Congratulations!
You've successfully updated to AVG Antivirus Free 2014"
Click on Continue.
Close AVG Free.
Done.
restart computer.

If you missed the pop up and you want to update it manually, or, if you updated AVG Free and now you have the trial version, go here, for instructions and download links.

AVG Free 2014 - Summer Update

The Summer Update is out now. And you will see an AVG pop-up to Update Now on your screen sooner than later. To update:

Update Now - click this button when it shows up.
Check off Basic Protection
Next
When finished installing, click on Restart Now.
After restarting, open AVG
Click Continue
Click Scan Now to run an initial scan with the updated version of the program.
Done.

Note:
IF you made a mistake and did NOT check off Basic Protection, and you ended up with a trial of the paid version, you can easily convert back to the basic free version:
Open Control Panel, Programs and Features and remove AVG 2014. You will be given an option to Downgrade to the free basic version. Select this to convert.

Note:
If you clicked on Later, instead of Update Now, and you want to update, don't worry, it will come up again soon enough.

AVG Free - Safeguard Toolbar and other notifications

For those of you who like just the basics and not the extra annoyances, here are some tips in dealing with the various AVG pop-ups.

If you get a notice to install/update/upgrade AVG Safeguard Toolbar (or AVG Nation Toolbar or AVG Security Toolbar, or something along those lines), you don't need to. Click on the greyed-out decline.
If you accidentally install it, you can easily remove it via Control Panel, Programs and Features.

The same thing goes for other pop ups for computer performance utilities, driver updaters, PC Tune-up/PC Analyzer, ...
Just X these out or decline. If you end up installing an AVG utility you don't want/need, uninstall it via Programs and Features in the Control Panel.

Windows 8.1 Update - Should You Update?

Windows 8.1 - should you update/upgrade?


Installing the update is almost like installing another operating system as you have to go through similar initial configuration steps, and some things need to be re-installed or re-applied after the update.

The 8.1 update mainly contains improvements for the touch interface with little to no improvements (and a couple of added annoyances) for the desktop interface.

First, if, on your computer, you have Windows 7 or earlier, stick with what you have. When it's time to get a new computer you can get the latest version of Windows. A new version of an operating system is never a good idea on an older computer.

Second, if you have Windows 8 and are thinking of updating to Windows 8.1 (a free update), there are a few things to consider.

If you have a tablet or windows phone running Windows 8, there are a lot of improvements that allow greater customization and greater flexibility. So, yes, update.
This also includes if you have a computer and you like and mainly use the Windows 8 Start screen (aka Modern, aka Metro) touch interface with your fingers.

If you have a laptop or desktop computer and are using Windows 8 in desktop mode only:
I just updated (last night) my Windows 8 laptop. I never use the touch interface, I only use it in desktop mode. So far, I have not seen any improvements in the desktop area, only a number of annoyances. So, for people with Windows 8 laptops and desktop using only the desktop interface, I would hold off on updating to Windows 8.1

Although I haven't noticed any performance improvements, I haven't noticed anything getting worse or slowing down.

Summary

Update to Windows 8.1 if:

- You are currently using the touch interface of Windows 8 on your device

Don't update to Windows 8.1 if:

- You don't currently have Windows 8 on your device

- You have a laptop or desktop computer and you use the desktop interface instead of the touch interface (wait and see, no rush to update)

Having Problems With AVG Free? Here Are Solutions

Are you having problems installing, updating, using AVG Free? You may need to remove it and re-install it.

Removal steps
1. First, try removing it via the normal method (via Add or Remove Programs in Windows XP, or via Programs and Features in later versions of Windows).

After removing it, try installing the latest version. See here for instructions and links.

2. If this doesn't work, you need to use the AVG Remover tool here. Choose the one for the version you are removing. Example, if you are removing AVG Free 2013 on Windows XP, you will most likely need to use AVG Remover(32)bit 2013. Download and run the special remover and then restart your computer, following any steps/instructions the remover shows you.

Once removed, install the latest version of AVG Free. See here for instructions and links.

E-Readers and E-Books - The Pros And Cons When Compared To Books

In February 2013, I bought my first e-reader, a Kobo-Glo. 

I thoroughly researched e-readers before deciding on that model.

I bought an e-reader for a number of reasons. Here are a few reasons that initially came up: I had started to notice that e-books are often less expensive than even paperbacks. Some books I wanted were just for reference or interest (non-fiction) and it didn't bother me whether I had a nice looking book or just an e-book. With the introduction of self-lit e-readers recently, this meant I could read in bed without disturbing my partner and without needing a separate book light (and the way the light is in the e-reader, it doesn't leak as much light around as a separate book light does.) And, you can adjust the font size and weight, choose different fonts, and adjust the light brightness on an e-book like the Kobo-Glo, so I don't need to wear my reading glasses either.

Some people say they will never use something like an e-reader, that they love the look and feel and smell of a real book. But there are some obvious benefits to using an e-reader.

Here are the pros and cons of an e-reader vs books.

Pros

• Portability - Small and light-weight. An e-reader is smaller and lighter than some books (if the book is larger than the average sized paperback novel). Also, an e-reader can hold hundreds of books at one time.
  
  
• Ease of viewing - No more glasses. If you need glasses to read, if the strength you need is not too extreme, you can increase the font size for a book on an e-reader so you won't need your reading glasses.
  
  
• Built-in light - new e-readers (like the Kobo Glo and the Kindle Paperwhite) have built in lights so you can read in the dark.

• Personal library space - No more bookshelves. This is an extra special bonus if you are an avid reader and you have limited space where you live. Since e-books are digital, you won't need bookshelves to store your books. e-books can be stored on an e-reader, your computer, or on a cloud (on-line storage). Kobo e-reader owners can store books acquired directly from them on their cloud storage (unlimited number of books). Digital books are relatively not very large (number of kilobytes/megabytes) so a vast number can be stored on computer storage devices. Some e-readers have an SD card slot so even more books can be stored in the e-reader. Current average memory is about 2GB (part of this is used by the system, but the remainder can hold about 1,000 books).

• Price - Cheaper. e-books are usually half the price or less than the the price of the physical book. And, there are many sites with free e-books (mainly older books).

• E-reader Extras - e-readers can do more than just act as a book. e-readers let you take notes, highlight, set multiple bookmarks, look up word definitions, translate words (all included in the e-reader – no need of pens or paper, etc.). Some also include these features: games, web browser (for those with a wireless connection and/or 3G connection), a sketch pad (Kobo Glo). There are other features too.

• 24 hour purchasing – e-books can be purchased on-line at any time. You can also borrow e-books from your local library site, which can be downloaded any time.

• Environmentally friendly – E-books don't require trees and ink.

• Self publishing – It is easier for new authors to self-publish and sell e-books than printed books
  
  
• After having an e-reader for a few months now, I've found that I read more – partially due to the fact that the e-reader is so small and portable compared to many books I read (which are often very thick/and or over-sized) – so I end up reading while I'm waiting, including waiting in long lines at stores, etc.

Cons

• Cover art - With e-books, you don't get a physical cover with cover art on it. This situation is similar to the change from Vinyl albums to CDs and then to digital music files. There is the loss of the art-form that was the cover. (Yes, there is often a picture of the cover in your e-book, but it's not the same.)
  
  
• Electricity – You need charge your e-reader every once in a while (but the battery charge lasts a long time).
  
  
• Damage/loss cost – If you lose a book, it is usually fairly inexpensive to replace. If you lose your e-reader, it is fairly expensive to replace (around $100 to $200 currently – Feb. 2013). (Note: if your ebooks are from a seller like Kobo or Amazon and you only had the e-books stored on your e-reader, you can get those books back for free as they will have a record of what you bought and they will allow you to re-download them for free.)
  
  
• Personal Library – You won't have a library to show what books you have/how many you have (except for books you had/have already). 
  
  
• Colour – currently, e-readers deal with greyscale and not colour (Although if you read on a tablet you have colour)
  
  
• Art/comics – if the book is available as an e-book, sure you can look at it on an e-reader, but you will have to look at it in a pretty small format, or, you will have to scroll around the screen. Currently, most e-reader screens are too small to use to properly appreciate comic books or books of photos/artwork. (Though, if you have a tablet that is bigger than an e-reader, it works better and it's in colour.)

• Variety – There are far more books in paper format than currently available in digital format. However, more older books are being scanned in, and most new books are now released in e-book format (sometimes exclusively).
  
  
  Regardless of whether you decide to get an e-book or not, they do have their uses, and they are definitely here to stay. 

AVG Free 2014 Installation and Configuration Guide

AVG Free 2014 just came out. Here is my guide for a clean basic installation and configuration.


If you already have AVG Free 2013, you should download and install the 2014 version sooner than later. If you don't, you will have pop-ups come up eventually asking you to update (and they will steer you toward the full paid version instead of the free basic version).

Print these instructions out, or bring them up on another computer in order to follow them through the process.

Download it from here and choose either the 32bit version or the 64bit version. If you still have Windows XP, you most likely need the 32bit version. Most people running Vista or Windows 7, or Windows 8 will need the 64bit version. When in doubt, try installing the 64bit version. If it's not the right one, the installation won't get all the way through.

The interface and settings are pretty much the same as in AVG Free 2013

Note: these instructions are for if you are installing AVG Free 2014 on top of AVG Free 2013. If you are installing AVG Free for the first time, the steps will be very similar. Also, for first time installers, if you have any other real-time security programs running on your computer, you will need to remove them before installing AVG Free.

Having problems installing AVG Free? See my post here for a resolution.

INSTALL

• Close any open programs, including your browser.
• Run the file you downloaded.
• Accept the license agreement
• Check Custom Install and click Next.
• Un-check Additional installed languages. Make sure AVG Add-Ons is UN-checked (if it shows in the list). Next
• UN-check Use the AVG Toolbar to improve my Internet protection. By default, nothing else should be checked off in this Window. Make sure all the boxes in this window are NOT checked off. Next. 
• Now it will install. This can take a few minutes or longer, depending on your computer.
• When that is done, UN-check I want to help AVG improve its products ... (or leave it checked if you don't mind the program sending AVG anonymous information about threats it bumps into and security issues related to AVG in order for AVG to use this info to improve their program). I leave this checked. Note: for some of you, your browser might open with a notice from AVG that they are sad to see that you uninstalled the Security Toolbar. Ignore this and close the browser.
• Click on Restart Now
• If your operating system asks if you want to restart now, yes, restart.
• Wait for your computer to restart and wait for AVG window to open. If it doesn't, double-click on the AVG tray icon. If your tray icon ends up hidden, un-hide it (click the little up arrow and choose Customize and beside AVG, change to Show icon and notifications, and then click OK)
• Click on Update Now (if it shows Program Up To Date, then skip this). Let it update. Continue doing this until it says You are currently up-to-date. From the Update screen, to get back to the main screen, click on the back arrow on the left side (white arrow in green). 

CONFIGURE

• Now, time to configure
• Go to the main AVG Free screen
• Click Options (top right), Advanced Settings
• UN-check the bottom 3 items: AVG Advisor Notifications, Boot time improvement notifications, and Statistical notifications (all mainly just annoying messages). Then click Apply
• Click on the + sign beside Scans and then on Removable device scan.
• Check Enable Removable device scan, and Heal/Remove virus infections without asking me
• Scroll to the bottom of this window and change Adjust how quickly ... to High Priority. Apply
• Back on the left, click on the + sign beside Schedules, and select Scheduled Scan
• Check off Enable this task
• Leave the default setting or adjust to a day and time of the week when the computer is normally on.
• Apply
• Okay, and back to the main screen. And close (X in the top right corner).
• Eventually, usually within an hour from installation, AVG will pop up and ask you to do an initial scan. Do it.

TIPS AND NOTES

• Everything that you will ever see in the Notification area (bottom of the main AVG screen) regards upgrading to the paid version of the program. For most people you can ignore this. 
• Fix Performance - Don't use this. There are better free tools out there and most things like this that profess to tune up your computer only make it worse. 
•  Driver Update - Don't use this. It's not necessary and can end up installing an incorrect driver (which can really foul up your computer).
• If you accidentally upgrade to the paid version or a free trial of the paid version, you may find, among other things, that you get a lot of annoying messages popping up while you are on-line, and that you can't access some web pages that you regularly access. To revert back to the free basic version, remove the program via the Windows Control Panel and Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP), or Programs and Features (Windows Vista, 7, 8). Once you select to remove/uninstall it, you will be presented with various choices. Choose the one that converts or reverts you to the free, or basic protection/version.
• UPDATE: If you accidentally install the AVG Nation Toolbar, you may notice that it hijacks your browser (adds a toolbar, changes your search engine and home page). The simple solution is to just un-install it. To do so, go to the Control Panel, Programs and Features and remove it. Once removed, your browser settings will revert back to what they were.

Thumbnail Zoom Plus Firefox Add-On

If you would like to be able to see large versions of pictures on all sorts of pages on the Internet when you hover your cursor over a thumbnail, this is the Firefox add-on for you.

I bumped into this add-on today and am loving it. I was using it on Google Image Search results, and later on an artist's blog. For pages like a Google Image Search result page, I found I had to hover for a few seconds on some pictures for the large version to pop up, but, considering the amount of pictures loading on these search result pages, it is a minor annoyance.

Go here to get it.

Google Image Search Freezes In Firefox - Solution

When you run a Google Image Search and the results freeze for a number of seconds before Firefox responds, you may have a problem add-on installed. 

Checking

First, try the search in any other browser. If it runs fine in the other browser, then it is something going on in Firefox.

Next, run Firefox in Safe Mode. To do this, in Firefox, click on Help, then Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

Now try the image search. If it runs fine, then one or more add-ons are the culprit. 

Go to your Add-ons page in Firefox (Tools, Add-ons or Firefox button, Add-ons). 

• Write down all the enabled add-ons
• Disable a bunch (make sure to mark down which ones you disabled) and restart Firefox
• Test an image search. If it doesn't work, re-enable the ones you disabled before and disable a bunch more (marking those ones down) and restart and test again. Repeat this process until you get the image search working
• Once the image search is working, you will know that the problem add-on is in the most recent bunch you disabled.
• Re-enable one add on at a time, restart Firefox and test until the search freezes again. This way you will find which add-on is causing the problem
• Once you find out which add-on is causing the problem, disable it and re-enable the others you want enabled, restart Firefox and do a final image search test. If all is working, remove the problem add-on.

I recently had this problem and found that Linkification was causing the problem, so I removed it and all was well again. If you read up on this add-on at the link, it may seem obvious why this would cause a problem. It was a useful but not necessary add-on.

Windows 8: Boot to Desktop option coming in Windows 8.1

http://blog.gsmarena.com/boot-to-desktop-option-coming-with-windows-8-1/

It's not clear if this is going to be in a service pack or if it will be a whole new version of the operating system.

But why wait? If you have Windows 8 and don't like/want/use the touch interface and just want to use the Desktop interface, get the Classic Shell Start Menu, that also includes a default setting to boot straight to the desktop (along with some other useful tweaks). It's free. If you like it, they accept donations.

AVG 2013 Summer Update

Here are my instructions for those using AVG Free 2013 who wish to continue using the free version with the least amount of annoyances.

Starting March 21, 2013 and soon after, you may get a pop-up in the lower right corner of your screen (If you haven't got the pop-up yet, don't worry, you will eventually. If you can't wait to get it, visit my post on Installing AVG Free 2013 to get the latest version, and when installing over the previous version, choose Repair install):

AVG needs to be updated.

Here are the steps you need to take to install the update:
- Click on Update Now
- Accept

- IMPORTANT STEP: Check off Basic Protection (If you miss this, you will end up installing the trial version of the paid version. To revert back to the free version, see the last point in the Tips and Notes section of this post).

- Next

- IMPORTANT STEP: Un-check the 3 check boxes in the lower section of the window (if they are not already un-checked), and, un-check Use The AVG Toolbar... NOTE: if you don't make sure these are all un-checked, you will end up with an unnecessary AVG security toolbar in your browser and AVG will replace your homepage too!

- Next.
Now it will download files and install the update.
- When finished, you will see the Congratulations! window. I normally leave the top check box checked off. However, some may wish to un-check this box. Either way is fine.
- If you need to wait to restart (due to working on things at the moment/files open), click on Restart Later. Otherwise, click on Restart now (recommended) to finish the installation process. (Note: you do need to restart the computer in order for the installation to complete).
Done.

Once finished, if you open up the AVG window, in the bottom left of the Notification area at the bottom, it should be "2013 build 3267" or greater.

If you are not using AVG Free and you wish to install it for the first time, please see my main post on installing AVG Free 2013.

How To Block Spammers From Your Facebook Page

Here are a few tips on blocking spammers from your Facebook Page.

Make a note of the web address of the SPAM site

Hover over the spam, click on the arrow to the right of it, Mark As Spam.
Then, click on the arrow again and choose Delete. Choose Delete and Ban User.

Up at the top, click on Edit Page, Manage Permissions.
Go down to Moderate Permissions
Type in the core of the address you took note of earlier (example: address.com), and, Save Changes.
Now, anyone (from any Facebook account) trying to spam you with that site will not be able to.

The above info is from this brief video by Mike Mueller.

Facebook hoax - To all my FB friends…I want to stay PRIVATELY connected…mouse over my name

 http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/hoax-alert-to-all-my-fb-friends-i-want-to-stay-privately-connected-mouse-over-my-name.html

 

This is a Facebook hoax that has been going around for quite some time, in various forms. 

 

In case you didn't already know...

Excerpt:
If you follow the instructions in the message, you won’t be protecting your privacy or that of your friend. The only thing you’ll be doing is unsubscribing from any of their Facebook comments and likes. This kind of defeats the purpose of being friends with them in the first place.
...
The best thing you and your friends can do to protect your privacy is to set all of your privacy and sharing settings to ‘friends only.’ As we have mentioned in another blog post, sharing with friends of friends can potentially expose your post to almost 150,000 people! Also keep in mind that if you comment or like items that are public or set to ‘friends of friends,’ then your likes and comments are exposed to everyone who can view the shared item.

 

Click the link at the top for more details.

AVG Web Protection Pop-Up

For those of you using AVG Free 2013, who have opted out of using the AVG Security Toolbar and Safe Search, you may occasionally get a pop-up in the bottom right of your screen asking you to use these features again. The top of it will begin with:

AVG
Enable Web Protection for a better and safer Internet experience (free).

These features are more annoying than anything else. If you don't want them/don't use them, un-check the 3 check boxes and then click on Decline, to get rid of this pop-up.

Java Security - Version 7 Update 11 Now Available

You have probably heard about a recent security threat related to Java. This threat affected versions 7update10 and previous versions. It affected the browser plug-ins and not the Java program on your computer itself. A new update - version 7update11 - is now out. Download and install it. This fixes this latest problem. 
Note: when installing, un-check the option for installing the Ask Toolbar, as this is unnecessary and annoying.

Background
Java is a background program that a lot of web pages and programs use to run things. Unfortunately, malicious software/viruses often use Java to run too. This has ALWAYS been the case and is nothing new.

To stay safe while using Java, keep it up to date (when it pops up wanting to update, update it). Check to make sure you don't have old versions (in Add or Remove programs or Programs and Features). Remove old versions of Java if you have any.

Also, regardless of the Java issue, you should always make sure your anti-virus program is up to date and is working properly and scanning your computer regularly. As an added security level, I recommend installing the free version of Malwarebytes and running a manual scan with it if you suspect you might be infected by something that may have got by your main anti-virus program. 

User Behaviour
You could have the best and most up to date security, but if your habits on-line are bad, you can still infect your computer.
- Avoid bad sites that are infected (often Google and your anti-virus program will warn you when you try to go to one of these sites, but not always).
- When you download a program or a file, always scan it with your anti-virus program (especially from a suspicious site (you can usually do this by right-clicking on the file on your computer and choosing to scan with with your anti-virus program from the drop-down menu).
- Don't let friends, guests, relatives on your computer. If you do, run a full scan with Malwarebytes as well as with your main anti-virus program. Also, look for programs they may have installed and un-install them if you don't want them. 

Tab Mix Plus for Firefox 17

If you've been using Tab Mix Plus for Firefox, you may have found that it doesn't work in Firefox 17.

Here is a version that works. Go to this page and click on the blue Dev-Build to install the new version.

Tab Mix Plus Dev-Build 0.4.0.4pre.120724a Released

Facebook - Remove Location From Status Updates

Facebook will automatically add your location to your status updates. If you don't want this to happen, here is the solution:

To fix this, when you update your status you will need to, before you post it, remove the location. Hover over the location below the status you have just written and click on the X to the right of it to remove it. Post your update. Done.

In the future, it shouldn't automatically add the location again. However, if you had to delete your cookies, or if you are on a different computer, it may try to add the location again.

Note, you can also use this feature to change your location, including to somewhere you are not.

See also:
http://www.doncaprio.com/2012/01/how-to-remove-or-show-location-under-facebook-status-updates.html

My Top 20 Free Windows Programs - Sept. 2012

Backup
Cobain Backup - a free backup program that you can fully customize - scheduling, backing up to various drives including network drives, differential or full backup, etc. Uses Shadow Volume Copy so you can back up while you work on your computer. In the task pane it now also shows the total size (GB, MB...) of your backup task.

Browser
Firefox - Still the best browser. Faster than ever. Better memory management. More secure and stable. Tons of extensions to meet your needs. Check out Personas - an easy way to dress up Firefox. Now also available for mobile Android devices.

Clean-Up
CCleaner - great for cleaning up temp files, temp files leftover from crashes, and cleaning up the Registry, disabling unnecessary start-up items, cleaning up IE add-ons, scheduled events and more.

Revo Uninstaller - an advanced un-installer program that enables you to remove the usual leftover registry items and folders. Scroll to the bottom of the page at the link to get to the free version download link.

Defraggler - from the makers of CCleaner, this program is a great replacement for the Windows defragment program. Works in all recent versions of Windows. This program lets you see what is going on (like the old program in XP). It is fast and can work even if you have less than 10% of the hard drive free. Not as necessary in Windows 7, but very handy for older XP and Vista system hard drives.

Email
Thunderbird - an excellent email program from Mozilla (same group that brings you Firefox). I find this much easier to customize and to backup and move files around when need be, and much more stable than Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail/Windows Live Mail programs. Tabs, excellent search function, File-Link (large file management) and more.

Entertainment
Winamp - best free media player overall - yes it has playlists and you can use it with your ipod or any other MP3 player. Works better than iTunes and doesn't install other programs behind your back, and you can customize its many settings (file formats to deal with, whether it launches on its own or by your command...). Great for doing live mixes as you can queue songs up.

Freemake Video Converter - With video collections moving to hard drives away from disc collections, here is a great free program that you can use to convert your DVD movie or TV show into an AVI file (or other digital format).  Here is the short how-to video for this process. To go with this, here is a decryption program - DVD43 - that operates in the background. It should work with most DVDs.

VLC Media Player - for playing a wide variety of video and music files, DVDs, and streaming. When Windows Media Player won't play it (WMP in Windows 7 works much better but there are still files it won't play), this will. The user interface isn't that pretty, but it works.

File Sharing
uTorrent - the best little torrent program around. Pronounced MOO-torrent (as the initial u is actually the micro symbol). Although there was a threat to stick ads in the free version, they backed down and made them optional.

Peerblock - lets you control who your computer "talks to" on the Internet. By selecting appropriate lists of "known bad" computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been "hacked", even entire countries! They can't get in to your computer, and your computer won't try to send them anything either.

Productivity 

Libre Office - the best free alternative to MS Office. Libre Office picked up where Open Office left off - same program but newer/more developed. And it can open .docx  and .xlsx files. You can create a PDF directly from any of the programs in the suite with a click of an icon. Word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, and a math program. You can make it save things in MS Office format by default if you need to share documents with others who have MS Office. The link takes to you the page where you can download the main installation file and the help file. Download both, install the main one first and then the help file. If you currently have Open Office installed, make sure to remove it before installing Libre Office. The first time you open the program it will take a while to load to configure itself. You may need to open it again if it doesn't fully open. After that it opens normally.

EssentialPIM - A personal information manager. Similar features to Outlook (outside of the email part). If you want a PIM that is not bogged down by the email part of Outlook (and it's other issues) - just a basic appointment calendar, contact list, To Do list and notes - this is a great program.

Security
AVG Free - anti-virus and anti-spyware and more, and continues to improve. Easy to use and works better than the big commercial programs. Go here for installation instructions for AVG Free 2013.

Malwarebytes - A good anti-spyware removal program to use along with your regular security program to occasionally check for bugs. Has a quickscan mode that takes about 10 minutes, and a full scan mode. Also adds as a context menu so you can right-click on a file/folder/drive and choose to scan it with Malwarebytes.

Mailwasher Free - filter out Spam before it gets to your email program. Works with a wide variety of email programs. Free version only works for one email address. Paid version will work with multiple addresses.

Utilities
7zip - 32bit or 64bit - decompression and compression of many many compression formats. After installing, run 7-Zip File Manager program as administrator, go to Tools, Options,click on the two + buttons, Apply and close the program.

Adobe Reader - Although it's big and sometimes annoying, this is still the best all round PDF reader. Works well in browsers. (I used to recommend Foxit Reader, but it is kind of buggy when dealing with opening PDFs inside a browser)

Crossloop - enables you to remotely connect to another computer to give or get help. Very simple to use. No need to create an account.

Dropbox - Actually a service, not a program, but very useful. Need to share or sync files with yourself or others in your group/business remotely, or, want to backup your work on-line? Free account starts at 2GB. There are other on-line free storage services, but Dropbox is probably the easiest to use and most versatile (and the least buggy).
From Wikipedia: Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software. In brief, Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on each of their computers, which Dropbox then synchronises so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of the computer it is viewed on. Files placed in this folder are also accessible through a web site and mobile phone applications.
You can also share a file with someone who does not have a Dropbox account. To do this: Open your Dropbox folder. Open the Public folder. Right-click on the file you've put in there, select Dropbox, Copy Public Link. Then, send this link to the other person. This is a great way to send a file that is too large for email servers, or share a safe file that your email service keeps blocking (installation files, even when zipped, are often blocked by email services).

Honourable Mentions:
CDex - A simple program for converting CDs to digital audio files.

Freemake Audio Converter - a great program for converting digital audio files. Converts from and to many file formats.

EMDb - a free DVD/Video catalogue database program. Automatically downloads info from IMDB. I haven't used this but it looks like the best free one.

PDF Creator - Easy to create PDF files from any file - just print and select PDF Creator and it creates a PDF version of the file. You can also merge multiple files of any format into a multi-page PDF file. If you have Libre Office and only need to create PDFs of files you create with it, there is no need for this creator program.

More Programs
AlternativeTo - This is a great site for finding alternative programs (free or commercial) if you can't afford the usual expensive version, or for finding programs for very specific purposes.

Got any favourite free Windows programs for computer I left out? Add them in comments below.

AVG Free 2013 Installation and Configuration Guide

AVG Free 2013 just came out. Here is my guide for a clean basic installation and configuration.

Print these instructions out, or bring them up on another computer in order to follow them through the process.

Download it from here and choose either the 32bit version or the 64bit version. If you still have Windows XP, you most likely need the 32bit version. Most people running Vista or Windows 7 (or 8) will need the 64bit version. When in doubt, try installing the 64bit version. If it's not the right one, the installation won't get all the way through.

AVG Free has a new interface to fit with the new Metro theme in Windows 8. Love it or hate it, there it is.

INSTALL

• Close any open programs, including your browser.
• Run the file you downloaded.
• Accept the license agreement
• Check Custom Install and un-check the 2 boxes below that. Next. Note: some of you may have those 2 options show only below Express Install. If so, then these will be dealt with further in the Custom Install.
• Un-check Additional installed languages. Make sure AVG Add-Ons is UN-checked. Next
• Some of you may get a separate window for the AVG Security Toolbar option. If so, un-check I would like to set AVG Secure Search as my default... and un-check Improve my Internet protection .... Next.
• If you have a slow machine (or something more than a few years old) now is the time to go to the bathroom, have a beer, read a book, do the laundry or something that will take a while. If you have a modern or fast machine, don't go anywhere, it will only take a few minutes.
• When that is done, un-check I want to improve my security by participating ... (or leave it checked if you don't mind the program sending AVG anonymous information about threats it bumps into and security issues related to AVG in order for AVG to use this info to improve their program). I leave this checked. Note: for some of you, your browser might open with a notice from AVG that they are sad to see that you uninstalled the Security Toolbar. Ignore this and close the browser.
• Click on Restart Now
• If your operating system asks if you want to restart now, yes, restart.
• Wait for your computer to restart and wait for AVG window to open. If it doesn't, double-click on the AVG tray icon. If your tray icon ends up hidden, un-hide it (click the little up arrow and choose Customize and beside AVG, change to Show icon and notifications, and then click OK)
• Click on Update Now. Let it update. Continue doing this until it says You are currently up-to-date. From the Update screen, to get back to the main screen, click on the back arrow on the left side (white arrow in green). 

CONFIGURE

• Now, time to configure
• Go to the main AVG Free screen
• Click Options (top right), Advanced Settings
• UN-check AVG Advisor Notifications (mainly just annoying messages)
• Click on the + sign beside Scans and then on Removable device scan.
• Check Enable Removable device scan, and Heal/Remove virus infections without asking me
• Scroll to the bottom of this window and change Adjust how quickly ... to High Priority. Apply
• Back on the left, click on the + sign beside Schedules, and select Scheduled Scan
• Check off Enable this task
• Leave the default setting or adjust to a day and time of the week when the computer is normally on.
• Apply
• Okay and back to the main screen. And close (X in the top right corner).
• Eventually, usually within an hour from installation, AVG will pop up and ask you to do an initial scan. Do it.

TIPS AND NOTES

• Everything that you will ever see in the Notification area (bottom of the main AVG screen) regards upgrading to the paid version of the program. For most people you can ignore this. 
• Fix Performance - Don't use this. There are better free tools out there and most things like this that profess to tune up your computer only make it worse. 
• If you accidentally upgrade to the paid version or a free trial of the paid version, you may find, among other things, that you get a lot of annoying messages popping up while you are on-line, and that you can't access some web pages that you regularly access. To revert back to the free basic version, remove the program via the Windows Control Panel and Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP), or Programs and Features (Windows Vista, 7). Once you select to remove/uninstall it, you will be presented with various choices. Choose the one that converts or reverts you to the free, or basic protection/version.

Facebook Privacy Hoax

See:
[Hoax Alert] To all my Facebook friends ... I want to stay PRIVATELY connected ... mouse over my name.
 Key info from the article:

"If you follow the instructions in the message, you won’t be protecting your privacy or that of your friend. The only thing you’ll be doing is unsubscribing from any of their Facebook comments and likes. This kind of defeats the purpose of being friends with them in the first place.  When the original hoax first hit, our friends at Sophos posted a detailed article as to why it doesn’t work.

They also shared this important piece of advice:
“It is not just your settings that control what goes in your Facebook newsfeed and appears on your friends’ tickers. Anyone’s posts which have privacy set to more than “Friends” will go to all the friends of all the commenters. This is a fact! We’ve tested it!”

The best thing you and your friends can do to protect your privacy is to set all of your privacy and sharing settings to ‘friends only.’ As we have mentioned in another blog post, sharing with friends of friends can potentially expose your post to almost 150,000 people! Also keep in mind that if you comment or like items that are public or set to ‘friends of friends,’ then your likes and comments are exposed to everyone who can view the shared item."

........

If you want to share something with Friends of Friends or with the Public, you can do so (but just remember, that item will then be shared with Friends of Friend, or with the Public, depending on which you choose). You can choose who to share each individual post with by clicking on Custom - choosing who can see it and then you can also choose who can't see it. You can also do this after the fact from your own wall/Timeline. 

Open Winmail.dat Attachments In Thunderbird

If you are using Mozilla's Thunderbird program for email, and you sometimes get emails with attachments that are stuck inside a winmail.dat file, have no fear, there is an easy solution.

Why do you get winmail.dat attachments?
If the sender is using Outlook and has it set to send messages in RTF format (instead of HTML - which is what everything else uses by default, including newer versions of Outlook), then anyone not using Outlook to receive the message will often get an email with parts of it missing and there will be an attached winmail.dat file, or, if there are attachments, they will be inaccessible and inside the winmail.dat attachment. More information on this and how to configure Outlook to NOT send in RTF format here.

Thunderbird solution.
If you are using Thunderbird, download and install the Lookout add-on.
With this installed, when you look at an email with attachments with a winmail.dat file, you will also see, beside it, the actual intended attachment file(s). You can click on these and save them or open them normally now. 

How to post links to your blog on blogspot dot ca on Facebook

As of May 27, 2012, Facebook blocked all links and text referring to blogspot dot ca (written out here as dot ca instead of ".ca" so it won't be blocked when posted to FB).
I am assuming they blocked this due to a number of complaints about SPAM sites using Blogger in Canada.
However, this blanket blocking of Blogger sites from Canada is unfair to the thousands of legitimate bloggers in Canada who use Blogger. 

SOLUTION
For now, here is a workaround:
To post a link, first, copy the link to notepad, then replace .ca with .com in the URL. Now, copy and paste this edited version of the URL to Facebook. The link will direct to the correct location. 

Please write to Facebook and ask them to stop blocking all of Blogger in Canada. If they have complaints of specific blogs in Canada, they should block those specific URLs, not the core URL.


UPDATE
As of a couple of days ago, Facebook unblocked blogspot.ca
  

Fix Thunderbird Tabs Position

Thunderbird 11 changes the tab position from being below the menu bar to above it. If this is annoying to you and you would like the tabs back below the menu bar, download this add-on for Thunderbird and install it.To do so

• Go to this page, right-click on  the Download Now button and save the file to your computer.
• Open Thunderbird (if you haven't update to version 11 yet, do so by clicking on Help, About Thunderbird, Check for Updates...), Tools, Add Ons.
• Click on the button with the cog wheel on it beside the Search for all add-ons field
• Select Install Add-on From File
• Navigate to where you saved the file, select it and choose Open
• Now your tabs should be back below the Menu bar

Libre Office 3.5.1 is available

If you are using Open Office still, or Libre Office 3.5.0 or earlier, you should upgrade to Libre Office 3.5.1.
It is available here for download, along with the help installation file.

Remember, if you have Open Office installed, remove it first before installing Libre Office.
If you are going to install the help file, install it after installing the program.

Extensions for Open Office generally work in Libre Office. You can get them here.
I recommend the Canadian spellchecker (for working in Canadian English), and Pagination (improves the implementation of page numbering).

Here are the release notes for Libre Office 3.5.1.

My earlier post about Libre Office.

 

Replace Open Office with LibreOffice

Open Office was great, but it stopped being developed April 2011. 
If you are still using Open Office, you may have begun to see problems - files crashing for no apparent reason, among other things. Many people who had Open Office 3.3 installed and then installed Internet Explorer 9 (either knowingly or via a background Windows update) found that Open Office would often crash and was not workable. 

For the end user (you), what matters is if it is working or not, and if not, how to fix it. 
For anyone out there still using Open Office 3.3.0 or earlier, I would strongly recommend switching over to LibreOffice. 

LibreOffice is continually being developed now, whereas Open Office is no longer being developed. LibreOffice is basically Open Office, but more evolved. The interface is pretty much identical (some of the icons are a bit different, but they do the same things. And, it is still free. Yes, you can still open the latest MS Office file formats, and you can export any file to PDF format.

To upgrade:

• Download the program and the help part of the program from here.
• Remove Open Office by going to (Win XP) Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs..., or (Vista, Win 7) Control Panel, Programs and Features...
• Install the LibreOffice Program, and then the help program (must do it in this order).
• LibreOffice should automatically see and incorporate your basic settings from OpenOffice
• To ensure that LibreOffice is seen by Windows as the default program - in Windows Vista/Windows 7: Start Menu, Default Programs, Set your Default Programs, Choose LibreOffice in the list on the left. Set This Program As Default. (Note: This will set your simple txt files to open with LibreOffice Writer. If you still want Notepad to open for simple txt files, go to a txt file, right click, chose Open With, choose Choose Default Program, check off the Always open with this box, and select Notepad.)
• If LibreOffice is not in this list of programs (above in the Default Programs), close this window and re-install the LibreOffice  program and choose Repair. If it is still missing, restart the computer and check again.
• done.

 

Further information on LibreOffice can be found at their site here, or at the Wikipedia entry here.  

Facebook Tips Update - Notifications Overload and Social Fixer

Notifications.
After the recent changes on Facebook, if you moved any friends into the close friends list, you may have noticed that you get tons of notices now about everything they do. If you don't want this - if you just want to be notified about the usual stuff you used to be notified about - here is the fix:
Go to your Facebook homepage, look on the left for Lists, find Close Friends and click on it. 
In Close Friends, click on the Notifications button and choose Off.

If you do have one or two friends who you want to be notified about everything, go to their page, hover over their name on a post and Subscribe. When you Subscribe for the first time, you subscribe to everything. You can modify this by going to the Subscribe button and clicking it and then checking/unchecking your desired settings.

Social Fixer/Better Facebook
I wrote, a while ago, about Better Facebook and how it was a great script to use. Then Facebook kept changing things and the script didn't work so well any more (or at all).

Now the script has become an add-on and it has been much improved. 
So, remove the script (or disable it) and go here to install the add-on for your browser. 
Once installed, you may need to restart your browser.
Then, go to Facebook and click through the wizard that pops up. When you get to the sign-in page, cancel the wizard. Once you log in, the wizard will pop up again - go through it this time.

Settings
I found that some settings I made in the wizard did not stick. I had to open up the Social Fixer options (icon beside your name on the Facebook toolbar) and re-do them.
 

Here are some of the settings I found to be very useful:

- Comments: Popular, check off: Fix "Enter Key" behaviour...   Also, in Posts: check off Fix the missing cursor problem ...

- Chat: Popular: check off Change profile pictures in Chat to names. And, Chat: check off: Show all online friends in chat list, group friends by online status, and Use compact chat list (no thumbnail images).

- Images: Popular: check Show full image previews when hovering your mouse over pictures.

- Applications/Games - if you play games and use applications, you may like to show different game/application stories in different tabs - to do so: Popular, check off Automatically move posts from Applications (games) into their own tabs. Also, if you play games and don't like the new game sidebar that shows up on the right of your screen, you can get rid of it: Layout: hide the game icon sidebar

 

- Filters: Don't play games or use applications and don't want to see stories about these filling up your newsfeed? To hide these stories: Filtering, Type, scroll down and click on Posts by any application, then check off Hide under Action.

 

- Ticker/Friends Activity: to hide this: Layout: Hide the ticker feed of friends activity

Once done with the settings, SAVE, and then reload the Facebook page (don't just click on "Facebook" - use your browser function to reload the whole page.)

Better Facebook

There are a lot of things that annoy Facebook users, especially when FB makes big changes. Some changes are good and take some getting used to. But a lot of changes can make things more annoying. Better Facebook is a script that works in all browsers except IE. It combines controls that many different scripts have individually into one great script. I was using FFixer, Unfuck Facebook, Facebook Comment Fixer, and a couple of Adblock Plus filters to make Facebook work in a better way. I've switched to only using Better Facebook (for now, as of Sept. 2011) as it takes care of all that the above-mentioned did and more.

Go to

http://betterfacebook.net

to install.

If you have Greasemonkey in Firefox, and you know how to use it, you can install it that way instead (make sure to disable other scripts first before installing Better Facebook as there may be conflicts) 

Here are my settings in Better Facebook

• all the recommended default changes plus:
• Added the old Comment button
• Lock the header bar at the top so it scrolls
• Change profile images in Chat to names
• Force the News Feed to be chronological and hide Top Stories
• Layout, Right Column: Hide the live feed (The Ticker) of friends activity (you can do this instead of using the AdBlock Plus filters).
• Chat: Show all online friends in chat list, Group friends by online status, Use compact chat list,
• Theme: Light Sky (yes, there are different themes available that will change the background from white to other things)

Facebook Notifications Overload

Since the recent Facebook updates (Sept. 2011), you may have noticed that you are getting far more notifications than before. This is most likely due to adding some people into the Close Friends group. Depending on how you have arranged your lists, you may need to follow these instructions for more than just the Close Friends list.

To get the notifications back to normal (this applies to notifications from everyone on the list):
* In Facebook, on your Home page
* On the left, click on Close Friends
* In the top right, click on Manage List
* Click on Choose Update Types ...
* You will see: Updates to Show - under this: Status Updates, Photos, Games, Comments and Likes, Other Activity.
* The one that will generate the most notifications is Comments and Likes. Un-check this. I would also recommend un-checking Games if any of your close friends play Facebook games because now, you will be sent a notification any time they do anything in a game
* Depending on how many things show up in your notifications you may want to leave checked or un-check other of the items on this list.

If, for some reason, you like all the notifications you are getting, but just not from certain individuals, you can adjust only the notifications from each person by hovering over a link to their name, hovering over Subscribed, and then choosing which items you want to be notified about or not.

More Facebook Changes - Ticker, News Feed, Lists...

Facebook has just rolled out more changes as of Sept. 21, 2011.

Ticker
This is a mini real-time news feed at the top of the right column. Many people find this very annoying/useless and would like to hide it. Here are some tips on hiding it:
How to Kill the Facebook News Ticker
The AdBlock solution should work until FB changes the code again.

News Feed and Ticker
Here is more information about the changes to the News Feed, and scroll down a bit for more info on the Ticker.

Menu Bar
Links on the menu bar have been changed. Now, to get to your profile, click on your name. To get to the regular home page, click on Facebook, or Home. The arrow beside Home will show other options, like your Account and Privacy settings. 

Friends Lists/Lists
Facebook has also made some changes to Friends Lists, introducing some handy (or not so handy) default lists, allowing you to merge lists, and more. How to edit your lists has changed. 
To see and edit Friend List(s) now, you will need to go to Lists, on he left, and hover over Lists and then click More, to the right of it. You should now your various lists and the new default lists. To manage/edit a list, click on it. Now you will see a feed of those people only, but to the top right, there will be a Manage List button. You can make adjustments to the list here. For more info on this, click here.

If you want to see a list of all your friends, click on your name at the top of the FB page, then click on Friends on the left side. They have added more ways to search, but seem to have removed the Recently Added Friends list. If you know where to find this, please let me know.

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Information about this here.

AVG Free 2012 - Installation Guide

The new version of AVG Free is out. Here are my instructions for installing/upgrading to AVG Free 2012. 


Download the latest version from these links and save the file to your computer.


32 bit version
64 bit version


Which version should I use?
To find out if your operating system is 32bit or 64 bit, click on Start, Control Panel and System. This will bring up a window that will show this information.
If that is too complicated: If you are running Windows XP, or if you got Vista as an upgrade, or, if you got Vista when it first came out, you should most likely pick 32 bit.
If you got Vista later, or if you are using Windows 7, you should, in most cases, download the 64bit version.

What if I install the wrong version?
If you are running a 64bit operating system, it will allow you to install either version. Either version will work fine in a 64bit system (but the 64 bit version will run faster). If you are running a 32bit operating system and you try to install the 64bit version, it won't let you install it. When in doubt, try installing the 64bit version first. If it lets you install it, then you have made the right choice. If not, ho harm, download and install the 32bit version.


These instructions assume you are upgrading from a previous version of AVG Free.
If you are installing AVG fresh (not upgrading from a previous version), the steps may be slightly different.


Print these instructions out before continuing.


Installation
Once you have downloaded the installation file (see link above), run the file.
* Accept the License Agreement
* Choose Custom Install. [Vista and Windows 7: also un-check Installs and displays the AVG Gadget...], Next
* Un-check Additional installed languages, Next
* Un-check both: I would like to set AVG Secure Search... and Improve my Internet protection..., and Next.
... wait for it to install ...
* Un-check: I would like to get news...
Choosed to check or uncheck (doesn't matter): I want to improve...
Restart Now
....
* Double-click on the AVG tray icon to open the interface. [Win7 - if it has disappeared, click on the little up arrow in the Notification Area, choose Customize, scroll down to the AVG icon and change the setting to Show icon and notifications. Okay]
* Hide Notification at the bottom (this is an ad for the paid version)
* Click Update Now. If there are any updates, Update Now. Repeat this until it says you are up to date - Update completed successfully.
 
Note: Although AVG automatically checks for updates once a day (once for definitions and once for the program), you should manually check when you first install it as there might be updates waiting and updating right away after installing lessens the chance that you might have to restart the computer again after a day due to a special program update).

Configuration
* Tools, Advanced Settings, Scans. Click on the tiny arrow beside this to open the subsections. Removable Device Scan. Enable, and check off (leave the other things checked that were checked off already - do not uncheck them): Automatically heal..., Report enhanced set of ..., and drag the slider under Adjust how quickly Scan ... all the way to the right. Apply, OK.

* Also in Advanced Settings: Schedules, Scheduled Scan: Enable this task. Run at specific time interval. Check for once a week. Default setting is every Wed at noon. Leave if this is okay for you, change if another time is better.

Note: if you have a computer that is less than 5 years old, then the AVG automatic scan should run fine in the background without slowing down your computer. If your computer is older and the AVG scan is slowing things down while you try to work, right-click on the tray icon, choose Running Scans and then Pause all scans. When you are done working, un-pause the scan.

* Make sure Run on computer startup if task has been missed is checked off. Apply, OK.
 
You can ignore My Apps, PC Analyzer, Family Safety and LiveKive.

* Close interface.
* Done.

It will download and install updates automatically, and run a weekely scan automatically. Sometimes program updates will require you to restart your computer. It will ask you to do this when applicable.

Note about the trial paid version.
If you do make the mistake of installing the trial of the paid version, and you would like to have the Free version instead, remove AVG (In XP: Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs. In Vista/Win7: Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features). When you initiate the removal procedure, you will be given the option to convert to the Free version.