Software
Updating to AVG 2011
The latest AVG is out now and if you’ve been using this anti virus software we do recommend you upgrade it to the newest version. As always it is very important to have the latest anti virus installed and to make sure that it has all it’s updates. New viruses appear daily and a good anti virus is very important.
If you’re not using AVG you can check it out with a free version for home users at http://free.avg.com
If you are using AVG already here’s a quick guide to the update (this is for the free version)
First open AVG and click on the Get it now button on the ad at the bottom of the screen. If you are using the free version, click on the get Update Free Protection. Download and run the update. Again you will need to choose to use the Free Version.
Accept the next two screens with license number and for Quick Install. This will run for a few minutes or more as it downloads updates and installs.
Next it will ask you if you want to install the AVG security toolbar and set Yahoo as your home page. At the moment we recommend unticking both of these boxes. You should keep your homepage at whatever you like (and we do hope it’s the TekBusters website) and the AVG security toolbar has had some issues with browsers slowing down the computer.
Then let is continue to install, accepting all the defaults. If you do get an error, just restart your computer and try again and it will work.
Just for geeks – JBOSS error
For the geeks out there playing with JBOSS application server. If you come across this error “The JBossAll Service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do, for example, the performance Logs and Alerts service.” then one thing to check is your Java (there are lots of other causes but this one is another to try).
What we had was JBOSS installed by a script and the JAVA_HOME environment variable pointed to Java 6u20. Since we had update 21 installed on this server then JBOSS would not start. So check not only that your environment variables (and PATH) are set, but that they point to a real directory.
Windows 7 compability mode
One of the nice features of Windows 7 is that it allows us to install in compability mode. While we wait for all the manufacutrers to update their software and drivers to work with Windows 7 we can still install the older drivers once we tell Windows what version the software is. I recently was installing a HP 2025x printer but when I ran the CD I got some strange error messages. “This program cannot be run using the Run As command”. I had to log in as administrator to run this. Which would be fine but I was logged in as administrator. It turns out the software does not have a Windows 7 64 bit version available. So I checked HPs website for the latest software (always try to get the correct version) and since there was none I installed it by telling my computer this was a Vista install. Just right click on your install file and choose Properties. Then in 
the Compability tab choose the version you need. In this case I used Visat Service Pack 2 and it installed (and works) just fine.
Malwarebytes will not update
- Open your internet settings (in IE this is under Tools – Options, or use Control Panel – Internet Options).
- Under the Connections tab, click on LAN Settings.
- Untick the Proxy Server boxes and click on OK.
Free Software
You don’t need to know anything about code to use it, you can just download and install it.
Open Office. This is sponsored by Sun and is a full office suite, word processing, spread sheets, databases and presentatioon software. It will open and save files in it’s own format and also in Microsoft Office format. You can download Open Office here.
Mozilla Firefox. This is a browser, like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Google’s Chrome. You can download Firefox here.
Mozilla Thunderbird. An email client from Mozilla, this works well for handling all your email. You can download Thunderbird here.
There’s also non open source software that’s available for free use in certain conditions. AVG provides a free version of their anti virus software for home use. It’s really good and anti virus is essential to protect your computer. Download AVG free here.
Posted in Computer Support, Software | 
Tags: AVG, Firefox, Free software, Open Office, Thunderbird | 
1 Comment »