Microsoft is NOT Responsible for any of these Christmas email Scams

As Christmas nears so does the resurgence of email scams used in the past. I have Emerged as a winner of $550,000.00 winner this time from Microsoft.

Wow what a great Christmas I will have with an extra “five hundred & fifty thousand United State dollars” to buy presents to put under our Christmas tree. That’s over a half of a million dollars.

Unfortunately there are no sugar plum fairies dancing in my head. Just who do these people in charge of the email scams think we are?

I am the “winner” and the email is addressed to “undisclosed-recipients” give me a break!
(Post from Search Engine Optimizician.)

From: micrsoftcorporation@live.co.uk
Subject: You have emerged a winner in the Microsoft yearly giveaway‏
Date: October 15, 2009 8:51:15 PM PDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Reply-To: davidn_micro-soft009@live.co.uk

Microsoft Award 2009
| | | | | | | | | | < <<<<<<<<
Reference no: micro209-2
Batch: GB-16DZ65UTYJG

Dear Microsoft User,

This Email is to notify you that you have emerged a winner of the sum of $550,000.00 USD (Five Hundred & Fifty Thousand United State Dollars) in the Microsoft yearly giveaway.
We do this every year to encourage prospective internet/microsoft users world wide.

You are advised to send your Full Names--, Tel-- and Location-- to our Fund Release Officer for claims.

Microsoft Fund Release Department,
Fund Release Officer>> Mr. David Nelson
Tel: + 44 702 408 7535
Email: davidn_micro-soft09@live.co.uk

Congratulation Once Again

For Microsoft Corp,
Eng” Winfred Chabb
© Microsoft Corporation

Doing some internet searches I turned up an answer to the the validity of the email on the Microsoft Answers site by Michael Murphy a Microsoft Partner.

On June 09, 2009 Mick Murphy wrote:

Microsoft does NOT do that.

It is a Scam.

Totally ignore it.

Cheers.
Mick Murphy – Microsoft Partner

While doing a little more research into Mick Murphy I discovered he had been killed in a automobile accident October 21,2009.

In an article from the Gold Coast News dated October 24th:

Surfers mourn crash victim
Andrew MacDonald | October 24th, 2008

THE Burleigh Heads surfing community has lost one of its favourite sons with the death of local identity Mick Murphy.

The Burleigh Heads Boardriders life member and former club president, who was credited with rejuvenating club-level junior surfing in the 1990s, was the driver of a Toyota HiLux that veered off the road and hit a tree in Currumbin Creek Road, Currumbin Valley, on Wednesday morning.

Mick Murphy was an avid surfer, he also owned and ran a company specializing in mobile computer repairs for corporations, offices, shops and homes.

Mick has plenty of answers to Microsoft questions posted all over the internet. Even those who have never heard of Mick will eventually miss him.

It is people like this “davidn_micro-soft009@live.co.uk” that give email marketing a bad name. While I do accept the fact that the majority of email marketing is spam it is NOT a scam. It is these facts that make effective email marketing all that more difficult. It may be difficult but not impossible.

Late,
Gary Pool

Christmas Present from Microsoft an email Scam to put under my Christmas Tree is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

What Platform is Your Web Site Running On?

As the search engine optimizician I have to deal with Microsoft servers quite often. Even though windows is the most popular operating system for computers, windows servers are not the predominant server used for the world wide web.

I personally like to work with Linux servers. The Linux platform is easier to use. You can create 301 and 302 redirects as well as solving your canonical issues with the addition of a .htaccess file.

A redirect can be accomplished on a Microsoft IIS server by:

• In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
• Select the radio titled “a redirection to a URL”.
• Enter the redirection page
• Check “The exact URL entered above” and the “A permanent redirection for this resource”
• Click on “Apply”

You just have to jump through more hoops when you want to do anything on a windows server. Do you know if your site hosted on a Linux or a Windows server?

What Operating System are Your Home and Work Computers Running?

I am actually using three operating systems in my home and work computers. I use Windows XP, Mac OS X, and a few flavors of Linux on my home and work machines. I basically use Mac for every day use, Windows and Linux to check the rendering of sites I have been working on. I also use the Microsoft platform to run certain applications that haven’t been ported to the Apple platform yet.

The Microsoft Windows platform has it’s own set of problems, not the least of which is the long ……………….. long start up time. I usually try to turn on that machine early and let it run through all its stuff while I am getting work done on my Mac. What operating system(s) are you running on your computers?

Worm Infects Millions of Microsoft Computers

In recent weeks a worm, a malicious software program, has swept through corporate, educational and public computer networks around the world. Known as Conficker or Downadup, it is spread by a recently discovered Microsoft Windows vulnerability, by guessing network passwords and by hand-carried consumer gadgets like USB keys.

Experts say it is the worst infection since the Slammer worm exploded through the Internet in January 2003, and it may have infected as many as nine million personal computers around the world…

Microsoft rushed an emergency patch to defend the Windows operating systems against this vulnerability in October, yet the worm has continued to spread even as the level of warnings has grown in recent weeks. Read more…

Enough said, you now have my operating system preferences let me here about yours.

Late,
Gary Pool

What OS, Windows, Linux, Unix, or Mac? is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you use photos in Windows XP’s 3D Flying Objects?

If you’re familiar with Windows XP’s My Pictures Slideshow screen saver to display photos of loved ones, here’s a twist that you might find interesting – you can use a photo for the texture in the 3D Flying Objects screen saver.

1. Locate the photo you want to use in this screen saver, load it into a graphics program, and save it as a BMP file. (BMP is the only file type the 3D Flying Objects screen saver will allow you to select.)
2. Right-click on the desktop, select Properties, select the Screen Saver tab, and select 3D Flying Objects from the Screen Saver drop-down list.
3. Click the Settings button and select Textured Flag from the Style drop-down list.
4. Click the Texture button and use the Choose Texture File dialog box to locate and select your photo.
5. Crank up Resolution and Size sliders to the Max setting and click OK to close the 3D Flying Objects Setting dialog box.
6. Click the Preview button to test your new screen saver, then click OK to enable it.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Windows XP’s 3D Flying Objects is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you place your applications into a tabbed user interface with WinTabber?

If you’ve been using a tabbed browser, chances are that you can’t do without having a tabbed user interface. Keeping each site you visit on separate tabs during a heavy surfing session is an efficient use of screen real estate and provides a great experience. (Ever hear of Firefox?)

You’ve probably also found yourself in situations where you’re working with other applications or even certain operating system components and wished that the user interface had tabs.

Suppose that you’re working with multiple copies of Windows Explorer and simultaneously working with files and folders on your hard disk and mapped network drives. Maybe you’re working with multiple text files and have several copies of Notepad open at the same time. Sure the Taskbar is designed for these sort of operations as is the task switcher ([Alt] [Tab]), but having multiple windows in a single tabbed interface sure would be nice.

WinTabber has created a FREE tool that will allow you to easily transform your multiple windows into a single tabbed user interface. Once you have WinTabber up and running, you can open multiple windows, and then with the click of a button, you can add each window to WinTabber. Once in WinTabber, each window becomes a tab (Figure A) and you can begin clicking tabs to switch between the windows.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – WinTabber is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you manage the most frequently used programs list on your XP Start Menu?

One of the many features of Windows XP’s Start Menu is the most frequently used programs list. When it comes to configuring this feature, Windows XP provides you with only two controls:

1. the ability to completely clear the list and
2. the ability to specify the maximum number of programs that can appear on this list at any one time

There is one other thing that would be nice to have control over, that is being able to prevent selected applications from appearing on that list.

You probably don’t need to have often used but inconsequential applications such as Calculator or Notepad showing up in that space. You probably would rather not have any other programs you occasionally use show up in that space, either.

Fortunately, you can prevent an application from appearing in the Start Menu’s most frequently used programs list by adding a special key to the registry.

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications.
3. Right-click the Applications key and select New | Key.
4. Name the key the same as the application’s executable file.
5. Right-click your new key and select New | String Value.
6. Name the string value NoStartPage.
7. Close the Registry Editor.

You’ll need to restart the computer, or at least log off and then back on again for this change to become effective.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – XP Start Menu is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you configure Windows Explorer to display Windows XP disk drives?

When you double-click the My Computer icon in Windows XP, you see a list of all the drives on your hard disk.

However, when you launch Windows Explorer, it displays the contents of My Documents in the right panel. If you like the way that the My Computer view displays all the disk drives when you first launch it. Prefer the Windows Explorer view? There is a way you can get the best of both worlds.

1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Select New | Shortcut.
3. Type C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, C:\ in the text box, then click Next.
4. Type My Explorer in the text box and click Finish.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Windows Explorer – Windows XP Drives is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you copy desktop themes to other Windows XP computers?

If you have created a favorite desktop theme and you work on more than one Windows XP computer, you may have considered recreating that theme on your other computers. Manually re-creating the desktop theme can be a boring, tricky and time-consuming operation. Here’s how you can easily copy your favorite desktop theme from one Windows XP computer to another.

1. On the computer containing your favorite desktop theme, right-click the desktop and select Properties. On the Themes tab (Figure A), with your theme selected, click the Save As button and save the file to the My Documents folder (or folder of your choice).
2. Launch Windows Explorer and access the My Documents folder.
3. Look for files with the .theme extension, locate your file, and copy it to a floppy disk or USB thumb drive.
4. Go to the other computer on which you would like to have your favorite desktop theme and copy the .theme file to My Documents.
5. Right-click the desktop and select Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box.
6. On the Themes tab, click the Theme drop-down list and select Browse.
7. In the Open Theme dialog box, access the My Documents folder, locate your theme file, and double-click it.
8. Click OK to load the new theme and close the Display Properties dialog box.
9. While Windows XP loads the desktop theme, you’ll see a Please Wait message in the middle of the screen. Your current desktop colors will fade to gray while the new settings are applied.

One warning to this approach, if part of your theme involves wallpaper you created or other graphical elements unique to that particular PC, those elements will have to be copied over along with the .theme file.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Sharing Windows XP Desktop Themes is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you install Microsoft Management Console 3.0 for Windows XP SP2?

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) application provides you with an interface shell that you can insert various tools called snap-ins to create custom consoles. While custom consoles can come in handy for performing any number of tasks, Windows XP’s MMC 2.0 convoluted console-creation process can often seem to be counter intuitive.

Microsoft has made their new MMC interface developed for Windows Vista available for Windows XP. Version 3.0 of the MMC application provides more functionality for snap-ins than prior versions and sports a much better looking user interface that makes it much easier to create and use the consoles.

One of the biggest changes in MMC 3.0 for Windows XP is the new Add Or Remove Snap-ins interface. Instead of having to use a tedious procedure that involves two separate dialog boxes to build a custom console, the new MMC 3.0 provides a single dialog box that makes it much easier to create custom consoles.

Downloading and installing the MMC 3.0 for Windows XP is a pretty easy. However, you must manually enable the new user interface by adding a key to the registry.

1. Download the Microsoft Management Console 3.0 for Windows XP from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Locate and run the WindowsXP-KB907265-x86-ENU.exe executable file to launch the MMC 3.0 installation wizard.
3. Once the installation is complete, launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC.
5. Right-click the MMC subkey and select New | Key.
6. Name the key UseNewUI and press [Enter].
7. Close the Registry Editor.

When you launch MMC.exe from the Run dialog box, now you’ll be able to take advantage of the new Add or Remove Snap-ins interface. You simply scroll through the available snap-ins in the left panel and click the Add button to build your custom console in the right panel.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Microsoft Management Console is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you retrieve information for multiple Windows XP disk drives?

You can obtain detailed information about the amount of available and used space on your Windows XP disk by right-clicking any drive icon in My Computer and selecting Properties. You get a fancy pie chart display that represents the disk information graphically, which makes it easy to quickly analyze your hard disk usage.

If you have multiple drives, performing this operation on each one can take quite a bit of time. Windows XP can provide the same type of pie chart display for all your drives in one tabbed dialog box.

1. Open My Computer
2. Hold down [Ctrl] and select each one of the drive icons
3. Right-click the last one and select Properties.

The resulting dialog box will have a tab containing a pie chart for each drive. You can use this technique with removable as well as floppy disk drives.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Multiple XP Disk Drives is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you add image thumbnails to a folder in Windows Explorer?

When dealing with a folder in Microsoft Windows containing many images, it is often helpful to see a thumbnail representation of each of those images in the Windows Explorer display. One warning, turning on the thumbnail feature will increase the amount of resources being used by the operating system. Those darn little thumbnails take up space on the hard drive and in memory when they are being displayed. Depending on your system, the available resources, and the number of images involved, you can quickly slow down your PC to a crawl if you just do it willy-nilly.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder of images for which you would like to see thumbnails. On the Windows Explorer menu, click Tools | Folder Options to get to the Control Panel. Click the View tab:

Under the Files And Folders section, you will see the Do Not Cache Thumbnails check box. If this box is checked, there will be no thumbnails cached on your hard drive. So if you want thumbnails, you will want to uncheck it. Click OK after you’ve made your selection.
To start seeing thumbnails, you have to change views in Windows Explorer. On the menu bar, click View – Thumbnails, and Windows will replace the normal file icons with thumbnails of the images. Windows will also create a new file in that folder called Thumbs.db, where the thumbnail information is stored.

The Thumbs.db file will be created in every folder you designate to display thumbnails. To apply your changes to all Windows Explorer folders, navigate to Tools | Folder Options and click the View tab. From there, make your changes and click the Apply To All Folders button then click OK.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Windows Explorer Image Thumbnails is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you tweak Windows Explorer to open in the directory of your own choosing?

The default display for Windows XP Explorer is to show the My Documents folder with all of its subfolders expanded and ready to be selected.

To get to the Windows Explorer Properties dialog box, right-click the Windows Explorer shortcut. You can copy the shortcut in the Start Menu to your Desktop to make it easier to work with. I have several Windows Explorer shortcuts in my toolbar for easy access. Each will take me to a different place. When you right-click and go to Properties and click the Shortcut tab, you should see a screen similar to:

To change the Windows Explorer shortcut to open a specific folder of your choosing, change the Target box to read:

c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, X:\Folder of your choosing

For example, files can be saved on a network drive (U) in a folder dubbed Working Folder. The Target box for this shortcut looks like this:

c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, u:\working folder

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Windows Explorer Directory is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

How do you permanently set your flash drive’s default AutoPlay action?

If you have a USB flash drive that holds your various Microsoft Windows XP files, you may want to configure the drive to automatically open Windows Explorer rather than display the AutoPlay dialog box. (On Mac OS X the flash drive automatically or should I say magically appears on your desktop.)

Just select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer and then select the Always Do The Selected Action check box but that only configures the flash drive for one file type. To configure your flash drive to open Windows Explorer for all file types at the same time:

1. Insert your flash drive into the USB port.
2. When you see the AutoPlay dialog box, you have to click Cancel.
3. Open My Computer, right-click your flash drive icon, and select Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog box, select the AutoPlay tab.
5. Now perform the following steps for each item in the Content Type drop-down list:
   1. Select an item in the Content Type drop-down list.
   2. Choose Select An Action To Perform in the Actions panel.
   3. Select the Open Folder To View Files In Windows Explorer action.
   4. Click the Apply button.
6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.

You should now use the Safely Remove Hardware feature to remove your flash drive – wait a moment or two and plug it back in. You’ll see the AutoPlay progress appear momentarily, and then you should see Windows Explorer open to show the contents of your flash drive.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks – Flash Drive AutoPlay is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician

Windows XP Top 10 “How Do You” Tricks and Tips

As a Mac guy over the years I have had a disdain for PCs. I have owned one only to check my work on Windows Explorer, or as I refer to it Windoz Exploder, and to run the antiquated PC-only programs. I guess Longhorn, I mean Microsoft OS X, I mean Mojave, oh yeah that’s it, it’s called Vista, has created some respect for Windows XP.

So now as the year 2008 is coming to a close I am going to post a Microsoft Windows XP Series.

How do you:

1. Permanently set your flash drive’s default AutoPlay action.
2. Tweak Windows Explorer to open in the directory of your own choosing
3. Add image thumbnails to a folder in Windows Explorer.
4. Configure Windows Explorer to display Windows XP disk drives.
5. Install Microsoft Management Console 3.0 for Windows XP SP2.
6. Copy my desktop themes to other Windows XP computers.
7. Retrieve information for multiple Windows XP disk drives.
8. Manage your most frequently used programs list on your XP Start menu.
9. Place your applications into a tabbed user interface with WinTabber.
10. Use photos in Windows XP’s 3D Flying Objects.

During the next few weeks I will be revealing each one of the “how do you” Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks posts listed above.

Late,
Gary Pool

Microsoft Windows XP Top Ten Tips and Tricks is a post stolen from the Search Engine Optimizician