How does one easily resize those large digital photos for sharing with friends or uploading to forums and facebook etc?

Answer!

One quick and painless solution would appear to be the free ImageResizer from software developer Aviraj Ajgekar.

See how easy it is to use…

Step 1: Just right click on a single image or multiple images.

Step 2: Select the required size typically Medium or Large or you can even select Custom size by entering the required resolution.

Step 3: Once selected size you can click on the above option like “Resize the original pictures” This will not create the copies of the resized low res pictures but instead resize the original pictures.

Click on OK and you will get the resized images in the same folder.

ImageResizer for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)

Dowload ImageResizer here.

Firefox Trojan Steals User's Logins

Patchy Phisher Forces Firefox to Forego Forgetting Passwords
By Andrew Brandt

The patch adds a few lines of code, and comments-out other portions of code, that dictate whether Firefox prompts the user to save passwords when he or she logs into a secure site.

Before the infection, a default installation of Firefox 3.6.10 would prompt the user after the user clicks the Log In button on a Web page, asking whether he or she wants to save the password. After the infection, the browser simply saves all login credentials locally, and doesn’t prompt the user.

The keylogging Trojan copies itself to the system32 directory with the filename Kernel.exe; drops and registers an old, benign, deprecated ActiveX control called the Microsoft Internet Transfer Control DLL, or msinet.ocx (MD5: 7BEC181A21753498B6BD001C42A42722), which it uses to communicate with its command and control server; then it creates a new user account (username: Maestro) on the infected system.

• The webroot threat blog, who initially reported this several days ago, suggest installing the latest Firefox will fix the problem by overwriting the hijacked nsLoginManagerPrompter.js file.

Erm, until the next time one presumes?

• Download the latest version of Firefox here.

Although a proper patch has yet to appear, there is a temporary fix from Microsoft, as pictured below, and it’s just a single click away.

Microsoft's 'Fix It For Me' Option.
(click image to visit site)

Internet Explorer Is Not Your Only Choice

Many people use Internet Explorer (IE) simply because it was pre-installed on their computer, and they are not aware there exists a choice.

(A fact the European Union was keen to acknowledge by issuing a $794 million fine to the global corporation in relation to its anti-competitive practises.)

Other Web Browsers

You don’t have to be stuck with a single browser. Download several. Test drive them for a while until you discover your favourite. Here the four most trusted recommendations according to pcdoctor.co.uk

Opera – Our favourite. The fastest and easiest to use. See our recent post, Is This The Best Internet Browser?
Firefox – Most popular browser after IE.
Safari – Apple’s browser is now available for PC users.
Chrome – Google’s relatively new addition to the pack.

Links:

• microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/979352.mspx (microsoft)
• support.microsoft.com/kb/979352 (microsoft)
• News results for “Google Attack” (news.google.co.uk)
• How Did The Google Attack Happen? (businessweek.com)
• Google’s China syndrome (theregister.co.uk)
• Microsoft Corp. v Commission of the European Communities (wikipedia)

Well, it’s the latest incarnation of Microsoft Windows. Please don’t ask what was wrong with the last one. We haven’t the time.

Early reports from users of all levels seem to indicate that Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista. In fact yours truly sceptically bypassed installing Vista altogether, but I feel much more confident about Microsoft’s latest version.

Apart from a number of sensible new features, 7 would appear to be a much more solid build than it’s predecessor.

A good place to start would be these videos from Microsoft. They will help you sort out some of the basics.

• Getting around the desktop
• Personalising your PC
• Using e-mail and the Internet
• Using Parental Controls
• Organising your photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Finding your files
• Changing Windows settings

Opera’s latest Web browser introduces a new technology platform, Opera Unite, allowing you to stream music or share files, photos and more, right from the browser.

• Features At A Glance:

1. Opera Unite
Use applications to share content with others in a quick and easy way.

2. Opera Turbo
Boost your speed with our powerful servers to compress Web pages, so you get them faster.

3. Visual tabs
Drag the handle underneath the tabs to reveal thumbnails of your open Web pages.

4. Customisable Speed Dial
Get easy access to your favourite sites every time you open a new tab. Choose the layout and the background you prefer.

5. Opera Link
Synchronise your Speed Dial, bookmarks, notes and other useful data.

Opera Features screen 1 (Click image to enlarge)

Opera Features screen 2 (Click image to enlarge)

• Plus, My Opera Community offers:

Free Blogging
Our blogs are easy to use and fully customizable. We also support mobile blogging.

Free Photo Sharing
It’s easy to share your photos on My Opera. You can share with everyone or only with your friends – it’s up to you.

Free 1GB Web Space
You get 1GB of free space to upload your files and photos.

This post may, at first, appear like shameless product placement, but I’ve been using Opera myself for years, alongside Explorer and Firefox, and while it has a few things I’d like to change – what software doesn’t? – it’s excels beyond all other internet browsers, including Firefox, who have often sought inspiration from Opera only to reap the benefits. But that’s enough politics, because Opera is the Internet’s best kept secret.

You don’t have to remove or stop using your current browser.
Opera, Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc, can all happily run side by side giving you ultimate choice. Sometimes one browser might work better than others in certain situations.

There is even a portable version of Opera that’s capable of running standalone on a USB stick.(no install required!)

Try it! ;]

The Links
→ Download Opera
→ Download Opera Standalone
→ My Opera Community: Free Blog & 1GB webspace.

Especially on the internet.

However, the internet is also there to help you. Here’s a few useful website links you might wish to bookmark.

As Rogues Gallery of Suspicious e-mails says, “It’s important to know that banks do not send out email messages to “Dear Customer” asking you to confirm your security details. If you receive a message from your bank, building society, insurance company, or from PayPal, telling you about some new security update, it is generally a hoax! The emails are most likely to be from crooks impersonating the bank and hoping to fool you into divulging your personal security data so they can steal your money!”

The millersmiles.co.uk website contains a comprehensive database of scam emails including, “…a wide variety of scams from eBay, Paypal, AOL, Yahoo, Earthlink, MSN and Hotmail through to Barclays, Citibank, Nat West, Nationwide, Fleet, the FDIC and Halifax Banks.”.

Get Safe Online states, “Hoax emails, such as chain letters or bogus petitions, are sometimes nothing more than a nuisance but they can be used by spammers to collect email addresses and some are more sinister. Learn how to spot a hoax.”.

Hoax-Slayer is, “…dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues.”

What is Phishing?

According to Wikipedia: “In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

The Links

• millersmiles.co.uk
• Rogues Gallery of Suspicious e-mails
• Get Safe Online
• Hoax-Slayer
• Phishing defined at Wikipedia

Free Windows Vista Ebook

Microsoft has produced a simple and useful guide to help you improve the performance of Vista on your computer. Moreover it’s a free download!

Windows Vista Performance and Tuning Overview

“Windows Vista and SP1 focus on delivering greater performance and overall system responsiveness by striking a balance between speed and responsiveness. This guide looks at the following areas of performance improvement:”

• Changes that help your computer feel more responsive.
• Using hardware to boost your computer’s memory.
• Making changes that help your computer to start much faster.
• Making the computer more reliable and help increase performance.
• Monitoring performance to prevent problems.

Download The Guide

You can download this easily understood and clearly laid out 14-page PDF document directly from Microsoft by visiting → this page.

More vulnerabilities discovered in Adobe Reader

Certain security issues have been discovered in Adobe’s software Acrobat Reader which have the potential to allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code in PDF files using JavaScript.

First a quote from Adobe, then the easy fix that takes only a few seconds to stay safe.

“Adobe is aware of reports of a potential vulnerability in Adobe Reader 9.1 and 8.1.4, as described in SecurityFocus BID 34736. We are currently investigating, and will have an update once we get more information.”

“Adobe plans to provide updates for all affected versions for all platforms to resolve this issue.”

“We are working on a development schedule for these updates and will post a timeline as soon as possible”

“We are currently not aware of any reports of exploits in the wild for this issue. To mitigate the issue disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader.”

The Fix!

To switch off JavaScript in Adobe Reader
• Open Adobe Reader
• Select the Edit tab on the toolbar at the top of the screen.
• Select Preferences
• Select JavaScript
• Now, untick the box that enables JavaScript (see image below).

How to disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader

Source: Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team

As a companion piece to the previous software recommendation, Starter, we bring you StartupMonitor.

Mike Lin, the software author, probably does the best job of explaining the usefullness of this indispensable little application, so it’s over to him…

StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn’t even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents annoying programs from registering themselves behind your back.

StartupMonitor does not require Startup Control Panel, but it complements it nicely. When you choose not to allow a program to register itself, the program’s entry becomes disabled in Startup Control Panel, so you can go back and enable it later if necessary. StartupMonitor watches the Start Menu’s Startup folders and the Run entries in the registry.

StartupMonitor works on all modern versions of Windows through XP. I haven’t tried it on Windows Vista yet.

→ StartupMonitor can be found here.

pcdoctor.co.uk rating: Recommended!

Click to enlarge

Starter is a startup manager. It allows you to view, manage and tweak all the programs that startup automatically each time you switch on your PC.

Not one for the complete novice, we recommend that you make sure you know what you’re doing before diving in and changing everything, however it is doubtless one of the must-have pieces of software to have on your PC. Here’s what the author has to say…

As a primary purpose, Starter allows one to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever operating system is loading. It enumerates all the hidden registry entries, startup folders’ items and some of the initialization files, so that the user could choose to temporarily disable selected entries, edit them, create new, or delete them permanently.

Secondary purpose is to list all the running processes with possibility to view extended process’ information (such as used DLLs, memory usage, thread count, priorities etc.), and to terminate selected process (even a Windows NT service, having enough access rights).

Another one is Windows’ services (and drivers) manager with some advanced features.

→ Track it down here.

pcdoctor.co.uk rating: Recommended!