By Leo Notenboom
Erasing your hard drive before you give it away is important. Exactly how thorough an erase you need depends on your data and level of paranoia.
340 total views, no views today
microsoft software engineer
Ask Leo: Are computers simply too unsafe to use?
By Leo Notenboom
With all the attention that malware and security issues keep getting it’s easy to think that there’s no hope for safe computing. There is.
259 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: How Can I Keep My Laptop Data Secure?
By Leo Notenboom
Laptops are portable, convenient and easily lost. When lost, all the data could easily be available to the finder. Encryption is the answer.
326 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: Where is Windows Mail & Outlook Express in Windows 7?
By Leo Notenboom
I did not realize Windows Mail is not included in Windows 7 Professional. Is there a way to add Windows mail?
It’s true – Outlook Express was replaced by Windows Mail in Windows Vista, but with the release of Windows 7 even that has disappeared, along with Windows Messenger and a few other items.
To be honest, that’s good news for those of us who never used these tools.
But for those who did, it means an extra step or three.
787 total views, 1 views today
Ask Leo: Is Changing My Password Enough?
By Leo Notenboom
I regularly hear from people who’ve had their email or other online account
compromised, who somehow are able to recover access to it and change their
password, only to have the account stolen almost immediately again.
The problem is actually quite simple, though the solution is a bit of
work.
338 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: Someone has created an account in my name … Now What?
By Leo Notenboom
It’s trivial to set up accounts on the free services in which you can be anonymous – using entirely fake information – or in which you can impersonate someone else.
I’m not sure I’d expect much help from the provider – Yahoo, in your case. To be honest, even if they did bother to reply, they wouldn’t know who to believe. You and I know that you’re not, but how’s Yahoo to know that you’re not the impersonator, or just someone trying to hassle someone else?
Here’s what I would do…
1,033 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: How do I keep my information on a shared computer private?
By Leo Notenboom
A reader asks: “I share a computer and I want to know how to
keep my information private.”
Ultimately … you can’t. At least not easily, and even then
it depends on the data that you’re attempting to keep
private, and the technical savvy of the individuals that
you’re attempting to keep it private from.
There’s nothing like your own computer. But if you have to
share, there are a couple of things that might help. A
little.
631 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: Your computer was stolen. What should you do?
By Leo Notenboom
My computer was stolen. It’s password protected, what files can the thieves see?
A reader asks: “My mid-tower computer was recently stolen in
a burglary. The Windows Vista home ultimate system was
password protected at start-up. What files can be accessed
by those trying to enter the system?”
It’ll take a computer savvy thief about 5 minutes to gain
access to everything on your computer.
311 total views, no views today
Ask Leo: How do I keep from getting my account hacked?
By Leo Notenboom
A reader asks: “My MSN HotMail account has been hacked into several times. If
I’m able to recover it, it just gets hacked again. Sometimes I can’t recover
it, and I have to start all over with a new account. What can I do to stop this
all from happening?”
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Ask Leo – Someone is sending from my email address! How do I stop them?!
PC Pitstop is proud to welcome industry veteran Leo Notenboom as a new guest contributor. Leo has been involved in the tech industry for nearly 30 years. After retiring from an 18 year career as a Microsoft Software Engineer Leo went on to create Ask Leo!, a free web site where he answers real questions from ordinary computer users.
By Leo Notenboom
You’re minding your own business and one day you get email
from someone you’ve never heard of and they’re asking you to
stop sending them email. Or worse, they’re angry. Or worse
yet, they accuse you of sending them a virus! But you don’t
know them, you’ve never heard of them, and you know you’ve
never sent them email.
886 total views, no views today