Microsoft Reminds Users About Windows XP EOS Through Pop-Ups

About a year ago, Microsoft made an announcement that broke many computer lovers' hearts; they announced to end the support for their thirteen-year-old operating system Windows XP from April of 2014. Until Microsoft announced the end of support for the operating system, it was the second most popular Windows operating system in the industry. The operating system was widely accepted mainly due to its simple design and ease of access. The funny fact is that even after the company released the end of support for the operating system through their Microsoft tech support blog, people are still refusing to upgrade from the operating system.

The operating system still holds about thirty percent of the overall computer market share while the latest operating systems from Microsoft like Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 together hold a share of just 10.36 percent. However, with the end of support for the operating system now in place, we can hope that the numbers of Windows XP operated computers will be getting low in few days. However, the market leader in the operating system field is Microsoft’s own Windows 7 operating system, which is the successor of the Windows Vista operating system.

The company has announced through their Microsoft tech support forum that they will be reminding users of Windows XP who have not upgraded to the new operating system from the thirteen year old operating system that is nearing its end. However, this popup message will be only shown to users who have Windows XP Professional or Home installed in their computers. According to the company, they will be showing the message from March 8, exactly a month before the end of support date of the operating system.

However, the message can be viewed by only users who have their automatic update option for the operating system turned on. In addition, the users will see the message only if they are connected to the internet. The company but failed to mention whether they will be providing the popup message only on March 8th or will continue to display the message throughout. If you are not sure whether you are running the Windows XP operating system or not, you can know that by checking the System Properties option in the My Computer window.

It is better to upgrade to Windows 8 as soon as possible and enjoy the many attractive features that come along with the latest OS from Microsoft.

One Of The Microsoft Support Scam Leaders In UK Caught, Sentenced

At least some of you might have heard about the Microsoft support scams that have been going on for the last few months. A few of you might have even been at the receiving end of a few such fraud tech support phone calls. This has been going on for many months now taking different phones.

One such Microsoft tech support scam teams busted in UK

The good news is that one such tech support scam team was recently busted by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team in UK. They successfully apprehended Mohammed Khalid Jamil of Luton and his members, who were busy fooling naive Microsoft team customers into believing that they were actually official Windows tech support personnel trying to help them with tech problems for a small fee.

The operation was called Smart Support Guys and they used overseas call centres to make phone calls to such Microsoft customers in UK claiming that they were the Microsoft certified tech support personnel. After convincing these customers about their credentials, they would then gain remote access to their systems with their permission.

Once, they gained control the customer’s system in this manner, they would began installing some malware that would slow the system down considerably. They would then point this problem out to the naive customer and make him pay a ‘small fee’ to fix this problem.

Of course, I should also mention here the fact the tool these ‘Microsoft tech support personnel’ would then use to fix the problem is actually available for free at the Microsoft support website online. It was reported that they used charge such gullible customers anywhere between £35 and £150 for such ‘tech support services’.

Recently, the leader of the group, Mr. Jamil was sentenced to a four month suspended sentence and above £24,000 in fine. Part of this would go towards the courts costs – about £13,929 and about £5,665 would go to the victims.

The chairman of the National Trading Standards Board, Lord Toby Harris made the following statement to the press, “This is a landmark case, as we believe it may be the first ever successful prosecution of someone in the Microsoft scam in the UK. Now that one of the many individuals who been operating this scam have been brought to justice, it’s a stark warning to anyone else that they can be caught and prosecuted.”

Few Guidelines To Safeguard Windows XP Machines

Those of you who are using Windows XP are already aware about the end of support for the operating system. According to Microsoft help forum, Windows XP computers will no longer receive any form of support from the software giant. The last day for Windows XP support from Microsoft was April 8, 2014. Since then, Microsoft has stopped release of updates, security patches, bug fixes etc. for the operating system.

Now, a new rootkit malware has been detected in some Windows XP operating systems, named as Alureon. As you all know, a rootkit is a dangerous virus that is designed to steal important information like your credit card number, passwords etc. With something like this, a hacker would find it easier to intrude into your computer system. Now, since Microsoft has stopped Windows XP support, users cannot expect a fix from the software giant. So, what are the other measures that you could take to avoid this type of virus? Let us find out in detail.

Install a good antivirus program

It is always good to take precautions to safeguard your computer. A good antivirus program will ensure that your computer is working fine, free from viruses and other threats. Keep in mind that most of the major antivirus programs in the world still work on Windows XP operating system, and they’ve not stopped support for it. So you may download any of these programs off the internet and run it occasionally. Now, you can go for either a free version of the antivirus programs or a paid version. However, trial versions do not have all the features necessary for complete protection of the computer. Since Microsoft no longer supports your operating system, it is a good strategy to buy a premium version.

Avoid unwanted emails

One of the easiest ways in which your computer could be infected is through malicious emails. Therefore, it is important that you avoid the emails from unknown sources. It is important to delete suspicious emails and make sure that you do not click on the links found in such messages.

Scan USB flash drives

Since viruses can be transferred through pen drives, it is important that you scan them with the antivirus program before using it.

Even though the above-mentioned steps could restrict viruses to a certain extent, there is still no guarantee that your operating system would work smoothly for the coming years. According to Microsoft help forum, an upgrade to any of the newer Microsoft operating systems is the best option available for Windows XP users.

Why Did Microsoft Release The Windows XP Security Patch

Recently, the tech giant Microsoft came up with shocking news to end the Windows support given to the Windows XP operating system, a 12-year-old operating system from Microsoft. Even after so much years of its release, it is still being employed in many organizations and it holds the second place in the computer market share. With the end of support, the Windows XP users will no longer receive any security updates or support and your machine will become susceptible to viruses and cyber criminals.

Microsoft claims that their decision to end the support given to the XP was not just threatening and in fact, they have been planning this for years and those users who are not upgrading the Windows XP systems will make your machine more prone to cyber attacks. Moreover, the efficiency of the machine will also be decreased.

Microsoft’s official blog said, “After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or technical support for Windows XP. Security updates patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited by malware and help keep users and their data safer. PCs running Windows XP after April 8, 2014, should not be considered to be protected, and it is important that you migrate to a current supported operating system – such as Windows 8.1 – so you can receive regular security updates to protect their computer from malicious attacks.”

From the above statement, it is clear that Microsoft really intended to stop all support for Windows XP. However, an issue in its Internet Explorer made them to reconsider the decision to stop support. For this reason, Microsoft was forced to release a patch to fix the issue found in its internet browser. The company’s general manager of trustworthy computing, Adrienne Hall, wrote on the Microsoft’s official blog saying, “We decided to fix it, fix it fast, and fix it for all our customers.”

An upgrade is imminent

The company officials said that Microsoft was forced to release an update since the issues with its IE occurred soon after they officially announced to end the support. This issue in the Internet Explorer made many organizations and companies switch to other browsers. Therefore, they released a security patch soon to ensure customer retention and to fix the issues that were seen in its Internet Explorer.

In the month of April, according to the studies conducted by StatCounter, Windows XP desktop computers constitute nearly 17.2 percent of the computer market share. When comparing the stats, this is a lower number, where a year ago, it was around 22.8 percent. This itself makes clear that most of the Windows XP users have started migrating to other OSs because of the end of Windows support for Windows XP. For more news on this, contact Windows customer care.

Removing The WhiteSmoke Toolbar From Your Computer

Whitesmoke toolbar has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the major advantages of the toolbar is that it helps users in translating web pages to a different language and checks the grammar in it. Now, not all of you might have installed the program knowingly as it comes bundled with other programs. In such conditions, you might find the toolbar annoying. If you are one among them, then this post would help you. Here, we will go through the steps involved in WhiteSmoke toolbar removal.

Removing WhiteSmoke from Chrome browser

• Launch Google Chrome browser and click on the wrench icon found at the right top corner of the window.
• From the drop down box, select the option Settings.
• The above step opens a new tab in the browser with the title Settings.
• Select Extensions found at the left pane of this window and this shows the extensions installed in the browser. 
• Uncheck the Enabled option next to the WhiteSmoke toolbar.
• If you wish to delete the toolbar, select the Recycle bin icon near it.
• Close the Settings window and then Chrome browser. 
• Launch the browser again and you will find that the WhiteSmoke toolbar has been removed from the browser successfully. 

Removing WhiteSmoke from Internet Explorer

• Run Internet Explorer and select Tools from its menu bar.
• Click Manage Add-ons and this launches the Manage Add-ons window.
• From the different Add-on Types, select the option Toolbars and Extensions.
• From the list of toolbars in the browser, locate WhiteSmoke toolbar and choose the button Disable located at the bottom of the window. 
• Select the button Close and then close the internet browser. 
• Launch the browser again and you will find that WhiteSmoke is no longer present in it.

Removing WhiteSmoke from Control Panel

• Open Control Panel window and double-click on Add or remove programs.
• In the window for Add or Remove programs, you can locate WhiteSmoke toolbar in the last section, since the programs are sorted in alphabetical order by default.
• Select the toolbar and click on the button Remove.
• Restart your computer to finish the removal process.

The above steps would help you with the WhiteSmoke toolbar removal process. Once this toolbar is removed from the computer, you will find that the internet browser no longer redirects you to unwanted pages and runs faster than before.

Accessing Outlook.Com Email Accounts Using Imap

In Outlook, Microsoft has enabled the IMAP support in order to improve the connectivity of the email application. Earlier, users only had the option to enable POP3 connectivity or use the Exchange ActiveSync on those devices, which supported the feature. While getting connected to the POP3, the Outlook users could be connected to clients such as Thunderbird or Mac Mail. But then some users prefer using IMAP support instead of opting for the services of these clients. According to Outlook tech support, Microsoft included IMAP support to the Outlook email setup to improve support especially for those devices that do not support Exchange Active Sync.

As compared to POP3, IMAP does not need to be enabled on Outlook’s website before you can make use of it. In POP3, you’ll first will require enabling the feature under Options > Managing your account > Connect devices and apps with POP. For configuring the email client to use IMAP to connect to Outlook.com, you need to configure the following settings in the Outlook email setup:

Incoming IMAP

• This includes configuring Server as imap-mail.Outlook.com, Server port as 993, and Encryption as SSL.

Outgoing SMTP

• Here, Server needs to be configured as smtp-mail.outlook.com, Server port as 587 and Encryption as TLS.

For configuring Outlook.com in Mozilla Thunderbird, you need to follow these steps:

• In the first step, you need to launch the Thunderbird email client in your system. Now, click on the File option, followed by New, and then on Existing Mail Account. Now, you need to type in the required information such as your name, the Outlook.com email address and password on the page.
• Once you have filled in the information, you can click on Continue, and then select the Manual Config option on the next page. Here, you will see the POP3 option set as default, so you need to add the information manually to change it to IMAP.
• For this, go ahead and choose IMAP under incoming and change the server hostname to imap-mail.outlook.com, the port as 993 and SSL at SSL/TLS.
• Similarly, you need to change the outgoing server hostname to smtp-mail.outlook.com and select the STARTTLS and port 587 options.

These steps would help you to successfully access Outlook.com email accounts using IMAP. For more information regarding the features of Microsoft Outlook, feel free to dial our 24/7 Outlook tech support number.

Running Android Applications On Your Computer

In this era of advancing technology where everyone has a smartphone, the app developers are having a good time as the number of users for smartphones is on a rise. However, with more and more applications and games being developed for Android smartphones daily, which are well accepted by users all over the world, some of the users have wondered if there is any way to run Android apps on PC. Well this thought has given rise to the development and deployment of emulators. If you have one of the emulators installed on your computer, you will be able to run all the applications that were previously only available for smartphones on your computer.

Now you will be able to access and run popular Android apps like WhatsApp, Fruit Ninja, Vector, WeChat and Where's My Water for free on your computer. One of the best Android emulators is known by the name Bluestacks and can be used for downloading and running the apps on your desktop or laptop computers. The best feature of the emulator is that it provides the users a mouse friendly interface such that they will get ease of access when using the emulator for running and downloading the Android apps.

One of the greatest features that make the Android users go head over heels on the Bluestacks emulator is that the application can be easily synced with your phone accounts, so that you will be able to play the paid apps installed in your mobile phones on the laptop as well. However, there is a slight disadvantage in this way of playing games, as you will not be able to get the same comforts while you run Android apps on PC when compared to playing on smartphones, as most of the games are touch optimized and it will be a difficult task for the player to play it with just the mouse.

However, with some of the guides available in the internet, you will be able to score high scores in the games even while playing it using the computer. You can use the tips given in the guide for setting new high scores for the games. The best thing is that since the Android operating system is completely open source, you will be able to get high quality emulators that are free of any legal issues that usually come with downloading of games for Apple and Windows.