How To: Save and Retrieve Passwords across multiple devices including Windows, Apple iPhone, iPad, Ipad 2, iPod Touch, and Android OS

Lately every single web site that I have been visiting has required a password. It is getting out of hand! Lots  of sites allow logon using a Facebook, Google or other common password service.  I do not like doing this at all! I try to use a different password for every site I visit and it is a good habit and practice that I reccomend for EVERY person on the Internet.

Back in the day, I used to reccomend to my staff members that if they really had a hard time remembering their many passwords, they could pick any base eight to ten character non dictionary word or phrase and than attach the name of the website to the front or the end of it. For example if your base password is dog8kitty, you would use yahoodog8kitty or dog8kittyyahoo for your yahoo password. That way they could have a different yet easy to remember password for each site. Just make sure no one gets ahold of your base password though! My users were notorious for still writing down the base password and posting it on a sticky note on their monitor. I never had a problem accessing their stuff...lol.

And still users are faced with the issue that not all sites let you set your own password type and require all sorts of stupid combinations for your password. How do you remember them all? The truth is, you can not!

My INEXPENSIVE solution to this problem is a free open source program called Password Safe and DropBox.  Now grant it, you STILL have to remember a single safe combination password for Password Safe in order to open up your safe and enter your DropBox credentials once to setup the programs with my solution, but it is far better than having to remember sometimes hundreds of passwords. Just make CERTAIN that you choose a strong safe combination to open your safe and strong dropbox password!

From the SourceForge website, "Password Safe allows you to manage your old passwords and to easily and quickly generate, store, organize, retrieve, and use complex new passwords, using password policies that you control. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away. "

"Using Password Safe you can organize your passwords using your own customizable references—for example, by user ID, category, web site, or location. You can choose to store all your passwords in a single encrypted master password list (an encrypted password database), or use multiple databases to further organize your passwords (work and home, for example). And with its intuitive interface you will be up and running in minutes."

Basically Password Safe will allow you to save all of your passwords into an encrypted "safe" file that is even very portable if you want it to be.  By portable I mean that you will be able to access your passwords from almost any computer or mobile device you own, including your iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, and computer! Further you can organize your passwords into file folders by type of password.  Is that not fabulous?

Read on and I will explain to you more about PasswordSafe, how to get it and a bit how to use it.

Windows
I'll start by explaining on how to find, download and install Password Safe for Windows. The freely available Open Source version of Password Safe can be downloaded from this web link.(you could also choose run and not download the file if you just want to automatically install the program.)  Once downloaded Password Safe, click  on the pwsafe-3.27.exe file to install the program.  If you receive a Windows security warning dialog click on the run button. Next choose a language from the next popup, English is the default, and click on the OK button. Click the I agree button to agree to the license agreement, and now a prompt with a dialogue box that asks what type of install you would like. A regular, (on your computer) or a disk on key, which will allow the ability to install and run the program and save your password database on a USB Key Drive to carry it with you and plug it in and use it on any other Windows Computer you want. To install it on your computer leave the regular choice ticked and click on the next button.

The next screen Choose Components, is to select additional languages, if you only want English click on the next button. The next screen, select the location to install the program to on your computer. You can use the default or change it if you want. Click on the install button to start the installation. Password Safe installs very quickly and will give you a completed screen that you can now close.

There will now be a Password Safe icon on your desktop you can click on to get started using Password Safe. If there is no icon look for the Password Safe folder in the start menu and run the program from there.

There are quick start instructions for the program on the website here.

When starting Password Safe for Windows, there will be a window like the picture above. Click on  theNew Database button and enter your chosen Safe Combination, twice.  The "safe combination" will be your KEY to open your safe and access all your passwords.  Do not write it down or give it out! Be sure you will not forget it either. It is the one password you need to remember always! Click OK.

By default Password Safe will create safes in your Documents/My Safes folder. The safe location can be changed after running the program from within the file menu by resaving the safe file elsewhere. All safe files end with a file extension of .psafe3.   

Entries can be added to the "Safe" by clicking on the + icon on the toolbar of the program to bring up the password entry window. The + icon is also in most of the apps and is used to add an entry in Password Safe.  The password entry window will allow the addition of a name of the site the password is for, username, password and more.  Password Safe will even generate a strong pasword for you. Advanced settings allow setting password policies for Password Safe to use. If  urls of the web sites login page are added then the user can click on the site entry within the program to go directly to the website. Password Safe can even auto enter in the passwords on some sites!

Portability - DropBoxI alluded to putting the Safe installation on a portable USB drive during installation above, but you can make your safe even more portable by placing it in the cloud (web or Internet for you old folk) in a (you got it) password protected PRIVATE folder with a website named DropBox. 

Dropbox is a very handy tool to use which gives the user the ability to access your files from just about any device. Many of the Apple App store apps use Dropbox so it is worth checking it out. In order to have the same database across all of your devices, go to the DropBox website at http://www.dropbox.com and click on the big blue Download Dropbox button.

Follow the instructions to install Dropbox. Note that Dropbox will create several folders on your computer in the Documents folder. Once you create a SECURE logon for the dropbox site, any files put in those folders will be uploaded to the DropBox site. MAKE CERTAIN that you only save your password and any personal files into the PRIVATE folder of Dropbox if you do not want anyone to be able to access them. Using the DropBox Private folder is how to access your passwords on all your devices anytime.  Remember your safe file is encrypted and has your personal KEY. The PUBLIC folder for DropBox means just that! Files in the PUBLIC folder will be seen by everyone on the Internet!! Don't ever put password files in this folder!

Apple iOS Apps for the iPhone iPad and iPod Touch

There are two programs that I personally have used that will open  Password Safe .pwsafe3 database files for Apple ios devices like the iPhone , iPad , iPad 2 or iPod Touch.

The programs are Password Touch by EMMA Multimedia and the one I strongly reccomend is called pwSafe Password Safe for iOS by App 777 Informatica.   

(DO NOT GET CONFUSED! There are several programs in the iTunes APP store called Password Safe. The below two are the only ones I have used and reccomend that work with the open source Password Safe program available on SourceForge described above.)

pwSafe - Password Safe for iOS by App 777 informatca is available at this link*****.

The pwSafe program by App 777 cost $1.99 but it is worth every penny in order to open Password Safe files on you iOS device.  This is MY choice as the best iOS app for the open source Password Safe! The added benefit of the App 777 version for PasswordSafe is that you can create and make local safes on your iPad , iPhone or iPod Touch. Further pwSafe can sync your safes in Apple's iCloud to use on all your iOS devices! However iCloud will not let you share the safe file seamlessly with your PC, so DropBox is a better choice to use.  PwSafe allows you to enter your DropBox.com credentials and connect to your safes in your PRIVATE folder and open them using your private KEY combination code specified for the safe. You can have multiple safes on your device local, on iCloud and those from DropBox.com.

Password Touch by EMMA Multimedia Mobile is available from this link.

The $4.99 Password Touch by EMMA is not only $3 more than the pwSafe app by APP 777, it is also not worth the addional amount because it lacks many of the features the APP 777 one does.  A DropBox account is required for the app and it must have internet available to link to the safe from your DropBox account.  I do not reccomend this product and it is overpriced in my opinion for what it does.

The iOS version of DropBox needed for the above programs is available from this link in the iTunes Store

A third iOS program I have NOT used is the $1.99 DropSafe by Smith Surasmith available from here. However it appears to be very similar in functionality to the PW Touch program only using the database from DropBox so I would not bother with it.

Android

I'll have to admit I haven't used the Android much other than to play with one at an AT&T store. But the port PasswordSafe for Android, reccomended by the developers, (not me cause I never use it) is available at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jefftharris.passwdsafe

The Android version also uses DropBox to retrieve  your safes from so you will have to install DropBox on your device also from http://www.dropbox.com

 Linux

 PasswordSafe for Linux is Beta software but versions can be downloaded from here. I'll have to admit again that I have not had a chance to even look at or test this version of Password Safe so I can not offer any reccomendations or insight on how well this works.



And for those brave souls who want to tinker there is even a version of PasswordSafe for Windows Mobile Phone Project going on at this link.

Different versions of PasswordSafe are constantly emerging. Check out the related project page at http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/relatedprojects.shtml to see if your OS is supported.

Password Safe and Dropbox have served me quite well over the last few years as a secure way to save my passwords and make them available across all my devices. I have found no other password wallet or utility that is so diverse. Give it a try today.

Disclaimer: There is really never any way of knowing if Dropbox, iCloud or any place else on the web or in the "cloud" where you store any of your files or email is ever 100% secure. *The fact is it probably isn't. There is also no guarantee your data is out there permantly. Always back up important data in at least 2 places.  This doesn't necessarily mean you can not store secure files out in the cloud, it just means you have to be very very careful HOW and WHERE you do it. Always use trustworthy web sites to store your files. Always encrypt personal information and password protect files if possible. Always use strong passwords with letters, numbers and special characters if possible.
 Follow Microsoft's Tips for Creating Passwords.

So you just got an iPad (for Christmas) what killer apps should you get? Kenzig's top 5 picks.

Being a "PC" all of my life and a Microsoft fan boy, I never quite really got into the "Mac" thing throughout my 30 year or so long computer career.  Yeah, I "played" with the stuff, I had several iterations of the old style iPod, set up a Mac IIe for the library, messed around with a blueberry iMac, and even set up and played with a PowerMac. 

But Apple products were never for me, that is until I got my first iPod Touch.  It was a gen 1 I got off eBay and I just had to know what the hype was about. When I got the device in my hands, I was immediately hooked. I began using and carrying it around in my pocket every place using it for email, calendar appointments, notes, internet, apps and sometimes even music.  I had to brag and show it around work and show it to everyone I could. Four years later and I now have an iPod Touch Gen 4, an iPhone 3gs, an iPad I and iPad II.

I guess you can call me a pseudo Apple Fanboy now, I use my iPad now more than my home computer. (I am still a PC though)
I have over the years amassed 533 Apple iTunes Apps, you read that correctly, 533 apps that I have downloaded for free or purchased for the iPod/iPad/iPhone. I have spent far too much money over the last 4 years on "iDevices" and the Apps that go with them. Because of this I have been able to sort through the riff raff of apps and find some true "gems" that I personally can not live without on my iPad for day to day use.  So I picked my top five all time favorite apps for the iPad that I think will make your first iPad app experiences pleasant

Now the iPad comes with many great apps to get you started. And you can get all of the standard social networking apps like twitter and facebook easily enough for free from the app store, but what happens when you really want to get something done? You need the most useful apps and the most bang for your buck.
Before I get too far I want to stress to you, the new iPad owner, that the very first thing you should do before you plug your iPad into your computer is to be certain you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Apple iTunes on your PC/Mac. Click on help and then select check for updates in the iTunes top menu and check to make certain you have the latest version.

I am assuming you have set up the internet and other settings on your iPad for this article and are ready to get started with using it.  I also assume the user knows how to tap the App Store icon and navigate and download an app from the app store. One thing I would suggest to the novice iPad user is to be careful about what free apps you select from the App Store. Most free apps, except those from well known suppliers contain ads that show within the app and will encourage you to buy the paid version to have the ads removed. Know that if you install these free versions, the app will constantly request updates in the App store to update the ads in the app. It can get frustrating seeing the same app want to update itself week after week so it can download the updated ads to it.

I realize that everyone has different tastes, and use will use their devices differently than I do,  but I wanted to take a stab at creating a list of what I believe to be the must have iPad Apps for the common person who just got their iPad and has a shiny new iTunes card in hand. So lets get started already.
BOOKS
One of the main reasons most people want or purchase an iPad is so that they can read books on it. It thouroughly confuses me why Apple does not include one of the most useful apps available for the device which is iBooks.  iBooks is a free App by Apple that lets you read books from the App Store, PDF's and a few other types of files. It also is the only way to get the iPad user manual. I use iBooks at least twice a day to read a PDF file off of the web. There are thousands of free books you can get from the iTunes store to read in iBooks. iBooks can be had for FREE from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8
After download open up the iBooks app, go to the store and search for the FREE iPad user guide for IOS 5.0. This is is must have and a must read. Get the free iPad 2 starter guide while you are at it (or the iPad Starter guide if you have a first gen iPad)

Of course you may want to get the free Amazon Kindle App and Barnes and Noble Nook app if you read a lot. Also don't forget the free Google books, Stanza and Wattpad Apps for many free and public domain writings. This group will surely keep you busy.
NEWS
Under the books and reading category if you like news, I would also highly reccomend the free USA Today app which is made for the iPad. You can get that from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/usa-today-for-ipad/id364257176?mt=8  We won't count these apps toward my fave 5 though.

NOTES

The next task you are going to use your iPad for a lot is taking notes. While I understand there is a built in Notepad App for the iPad, you will find it not sufficient if you want to organize your notes and better keep track of them.  The app that is a must have is one called Awesome Note.  It is like sticky note on steroids for your iPad.  You can organize the notes in folders, set timers on the notes on the calendar, make todo and grocery lists, take quick notes while in a meeting or on the phone.  And you can sync your notes with Google docs or Evernote. At $3.99 US you will not be dissappointed.  Awesome note is my most favorite utility App for both my iPhone and my iPad. You can get it from the following link:   

       
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/awesome-note-to-do-diary/id320203391?mt=8

Runner up Note Apps you also may want to look at are My Notebook!, Evernote, or Penultimate. Again not in my favorite five though.


CALCULATOR
Previous IOS versions on the Apple devices contained a Calculator app.  When Apple introduced the iPhone 4 and the IOS 4.5 that went along with it, the Calculator app was suddenly absent.  Big sigh. What the hell Apple? I don't get it. Now so many, many developers came out with Calculator apps it is hard to slush through to find a useful one. There are a boatload of free ones out there, though inundated with ads. Pony up 99 cents and buy Calculator 4. You will be glad that you did. You will use it all the time and it will serve you well. Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calculator-4-ipad-edition/id387648188?mt=8


CALENDAR
I use my favorite calendar app a lot to remind me of bill pay dates and for my upcoming meetings and doctors appointments.  The iPad has a built in calendar app that may be sufficient for most people but not for me. Before iCloud in IOS 5.0 it was not very easy to sync your appointments between your iPhone and your iPad. Further backup of your appointments was difficult unless you used an app like Mobiun Copy.  While I realize that has all changed with IOS 5.0, the built in calendar is still not enough for me.  My calenday of choice is Pocket Informant HD.  At $14.99 this is probably one of the most expensive apps I have paid for. It has been worth every penny for me. Pocket Informant HD has allowed me to sync my Google Calendar and local appointments all on to one calendar. (It also will sync with Toodledoo calendars) Direct to Outlook for Windows Sync is available though it requires separate $5 WebIS Desktop Sync software from http://tinyurl.com/yggbk2a . Pocket Informant HD allows me to make tasks and set alarms or reminders.  I never miss a bill payment because I can set up repeating appointments.  Pocket Informant HD also gives you List, Day, Week and Month views and planner style screens. I just can't say enough good things about it.  You can get more information and download Pocket Informant HD from here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-informant-hd-calendar/id380732176?mt=8

Best Game

It was tough coming up with a choice for my final category. After all what is the iPad without the lacking weather app. My dad used to always tell me to look out the Window if I wanted to know what the weather was like. If you want my opinion the Weather+ App wins this category hands down so there is no discussion.  How about entertainment and TV? If you search the iTunes App store you can find free Apps for all of the TV networks. Music? Lots of free apps like Pandora, IHeartRadio, Radio.com and Aol Radio. But for the diehard radio fan everone knows Wunderradio beats them all and worth the $3.99 price. And I know there are still more thousands of utilities and useful business line apps out there I could of picked.  Still none of these apps are on my everyday use list. And they are all fodder for follow up articles in each of their respective categories.

When not using my device on the web and in the other 4 apps I have mentioned, the rest of my time is spent playing games. After all, the iPad is a fabulous game device and there are tens of thousands of games available for it. Sure I tried the most famous Angry Birds, mindlessly shooting birds of all sizes at pigs in various structures, and I was bedazzled by Bejeweled for hours. But I must be becoming an old fuddy duddy because my all time favorite past time and game to play on the iPad is Scrabble by Electronic Arts. If you are a fan of the board game spend the $4.99 and get this one. This is one game that will keep your mind sharp and you may learn a word or two playing against the computer.  You can also play multiplayer by passing it around the room to friends and family, or play with friends on Facebook who have the app. Get it here:

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scrabble-for-ipad/id363306776?mt=8

I would be remiss if I did not point out that a close second to Scrabble when it comes to games for me is Pinochle by Fishdog.Net (again out comes the fuddy duddy). Once again if you are fan of the game there is no better version.

FINALLY

More Advice

I realize in the scope of this article I can not give you advice for all app categories. However a great app to give you advice about other app categories and to get you started is called AppStart by Appadvice. This free app will give you some of the best tips of suggestions for those other killer Apps you should have on your iPad. I still use this to find new apps almost every other day. Get Appstart from here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appstart-for-ipad/id408984648?mt=8

So there you have it my top 5 picks(and then some) for the best killer iPad apps you should take a look at.

My tips and gotchas to upgrade your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad l or iPad ll to IOS 5.0

My tips and gotchas to upgrade your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch,
and iPad l or iPad ll to IOS 5.0

We all love our Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices but it gets really scary when it is time to upgrade the devices to A new IOS.

Since I personally own each one of these devices I learned firsthand the headaches of trying to get them upgraded to IOS 5.0 without losing all of my apps data and contacts.
It is actually a more daunting task than it should be and Apple and ITunes have a major flaw at the end of the hours long process that COULD cause you to lose all of data! Scared yet? You should be.

I had to lose almost everything on my iPod Touch 4 before I picked up on the problem.

First and foremost here are a few things you should do before you begin to upgrade any of your devices.
-Upgrade your version of iTunes to the latest version on your computer. This is critical!

-if you have a lot of Calendar events and contacts go to the app store and get Mobiun Copy. It will easily copy all your contacts and events to the cloud for later restore should things go wrong.

-For photos and videos get the Simple Photo and Video Transfer App from the app store, that will allow you to backup and transfer your photos wirelessly to your desktop computer.

-If your Apps support it back up your data to Evernote, Google Docs or Dropbox first.

-When your device is connected in iTunes be certain to transfer all of your purchases by right clicking on your device in the left pane of iTunes and choosing to upload your purchased items from the context menu.

- Backup your device from within iTunes.

-I can't speak for iTunes on a Mac but on a PC, iTunes is going lock up and stop responding at some point. Windows Task Manager won't kill it, only a reboot will get you going again. Of course this is the last thing you want to do during an upgrade. Do yourself a favor and download a free program I have been using for years that is a staple in my quick launch called Dtaskmanager by Dimio. You can download it free from this link http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ Just scroll down the page to the Dtaskmanager program. Note this page for later because there are a lot of other great free apps here you will find useful. Anyways, just download the program directly to your desktop and it will run from there when you click on it. The benefit of Dtaskmanager is it has a kill task override choice that will definitely kill any task that is not responding. No ifs and or buts. This is a lifesaver for preventing reboots and really stopping a program.

-Make sure all of your apps are up to date from the app store on your device.

-Turn off the lock screen on your device. It will mess up reboots during the upgrade

-Turn off power save features and screensavers on your computer prior to the upgrade.

-Close all other programs on your computer, don't use your computer for anything else during the upgrade.

After all this you should be ready to upgrade your Apple device to IOS 5.0 after you stop all apps and restart it.

Eject your device, press the iButton twice to show all running apps in the bottom bar, push and hold the first app until it starts shaking. Press on the X of each of the running apps in the bar to close them. Next push the iButton once more to stop the apps from shaking. Now turn off your device by pushing and holding the button on the top side until slide to power off shows. Slide and power off your device and then once it is off turn it on again by holding the top button until the apple logo appears. Your device should now be ready to upgrade.

Plug the cable into your computer and the device and when your device shows in iTunes choose upgrade when given the choice. Be CERTAIN to read each screen along the way when you are proceeding through the upgrade. The upgrade will back up your device and will stop the process if there is a problem backing up. You will get an error -35 message if your backup is corrupt or there is not enough room on your hard disk to back up your device. STOP if you get this and quit the upgrade. Kill iTunes with Dtaskmanager if you can't get out of it. Make space on your hard drive, you can explore to your iTunes backup folder in your profile in documents and settings and delete the backups (or move them to an external drive to save them) Reboot your computer, start iTunes plug the device in, cancel the upgrade prompts and do a backup again of your device. Now eject and reconnect your device and start the upgrade process again.

iTunes will backup your device again and then begin to download the IOS 5.0 upgrade, this will take between 7 and 25 minutes depending on your Internet speed. This is where patience pays off. It could take a loooong time for the upgrade to complete, hours even depending of the size of your device. BE PATIENT! Let iTunes do it's thing.

(NOTE since I wrote this Apple seems to have fixed the below, and the progress bar WILL continue, so ignore the below directions unless it doesn't)

When the upgrade is complete your device will reboot, the upgrade tells you to keep your device connected. Here is where I had the problem with every one of my devices, the iPhone 3GS, the iPad and my iPod. What happens when your device is reconnected after the reboot is IOS 5.0 begins the setup process on the device. iTunes on the hand begins to supposedly be restoring your data on your device and shows a progress bar, but it lies! Your device is waiting for you to accept the apple terms of service and go through some initial setup screen!! This is imbecilic on Apples part. What happens, you guessed it, is iTunes locks up and stops responding! WTF. So what I did is go through the screens on my device (iPad, iPhone 3GS, etc) to put in the initial items and accept to Apples TOS. Then I used Dtaskmanager to kill task override the no responding iTunes again. Rebooted my computer again,started iTunes, plugged in my device and the did a restore from iTunes. After the restore all was fine and I had IOS 5.0.

Now my problems may have been specific to my Windows 7 computer, but I doubt it.

For my 4 devices it took me 4 days to upgrade them all. I devoted a day to each of them.

One final suggestion is, do not pick a day that there is a chance you could lose power, like a thunderstorm or snowstorm. The last thing you want s for your computer to go down during the upgrade. Good Luck and Happy Upgrading

Life's difficult decisions

I was recently faced with a decision of whether or not to begin an IV drug called Tysabri for my MS that could possibly have deadly side effects. The drug could give you brain disease called PML that could cripple or even kill you. Your odds of getting PML are about 1 in a 1000.

In the end the benefits outweighed the risks for me, but the whole process got me thinking. Not that I don't think and worry about things a LOT mind you, but this was an important life decision. So what I started to think about is ALL of the important life decisions I have made over the years.

A realization came to me that despite all of the decisions I have made in my life and all of the possible outcomes I may have worried about, when the time came for the question to be addressed, the answer/solution really wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be.

Having had anxiety all of my life, it turned me into a perfectionist, making me "worry" and probably see all probable possibilities prior to them ever being able to happen. I am certain that this shortcoming actually has allowed me to succeed not only when it comes to the computer industry but life in general.

Worry will only get you so far though. I realized most importantly that worry drove me to go out on my own and learn to find out all of the FACTS, prior to making a decision. I learned if I didn't do that, things usually did not go very well, especially when it came to computers.

RTFM really WAS important, I learned to say "give me 5 minutes" so I could gather the facts before pressing the enter key. If I was going in for surgery I would read every possible piece of medical information so oftentimes I would know more than the surgeon performing it. It works everywhere.

So looking back on life I asked myself if I had made all the right decisions and decided that while I had many mistakes, and sometimes not made many friends, and sometimes gained a few wives, one of whom I am still happily married to, children, and crashed servers and destroyed computers, was afraid to kiss that girl in 7th grade(good choice btw), worried myself into sickness at times, lost or left jobs(over 40 in my lifetime!), lived through the death of my daughter, parents and friends, websites, all made me pause and realize something.

Every decision I have ever made, no matter how difficult or how much I worried, when the time came to make it, no matter how informed I was, or how the decision was arrived at, and even if the outcome was bad or unexpected, I realized that it was ALWAYS the right one, because once it had been made, I had to live with the consequences of my choice. That could never be changed, but I also discovered in my reminiscing that I used every choice to learn, and I rarely made the same mistake twice in my life.

Raising my children I have been painfully reminded of the fact that no matter how hard I try to protect them, and teach them from the decisions or choices I have made, that in the end they have to learn from the experience for themselves. I can only sit and hope they will make the "right" choice for them whatever that may be.

Then I came to a grand realization for me, I, meaning me, (wish I had realized this long ago) never really thought about the fact that EVERY human being has a unique thought process that given identical situations to mine, would probably not have made the same decisions I had. And their decisions would inherently have had differen outcomes than mine. Maybe in an alternate timeline or dimension....I digress.

That is what makes you and I unique. It is what makes us human. The sentience and ability to make our own choices and decisions. Ones that are ALWAYS right for us. Our realization that the rest of the human population isn't always wrong would go a long way towards world peace, wouldn't it?

ALERT: SCAMMER CALLS ABOUT "ERRORS" IN YOUR REGISTRY CLAIMING TO BE FROM MICROSOFT

Well the computer scammers have gone back to the phone lines to try and steal your banking and credit card information again.

This scam has been around a while but I wanted to write a blog entry to warn people again NOT to fall for it. I got a call just the other day and here is how it went. The caller had an Indian accent and at first was a "little" convincing. Me being a Microsoft MVP once in my lifetime I eventually saw right through it. He had my name and phone number from someplace, probably a phone directory.

Me: Hello
Caller: Yes I am looking for ah a Mr. James Kenzig

Me: Thats me what can I do for you.

Caller: Ah yes Mr. Kenzig, sir I am calling from PC..(garbled) and am a Microsoft Certified Technician and we have noticed problems on your computer.

(Note that Microsoft will NEVER call you if you have a problem on your computer. Ever!!)

Me: Really? Which one of my computers? Mac, PC?

Caller: Ah sir on your Windows computer, we have noticed you have problems with your registry on your computer.

Me: Really? What registry key has the problem, I'll take a look. 

Caller: Uh sir there are 2 files in your event log in the registry that have problems.

Me: Wait a minute is the event log or the registry that has a problem?

Caller: Uh sir we noticed there are 2 files in the event log that have a  problem.

Me: Well there are only log entries that are in the event log not files are you certain?

Caller: Uh sir the files are in your registry of your computer.

Me: No I am pretty sure that there are no files in my registry, only entries that point to files. Where did you say you were calling from again?

Caller: Uh sir I am a Microsoft Certified Technician from PC...(garbled again). We know that there are 2 files in your registry that could cause terrible problems on your computer!

Me: (At this point I had enough of this idiot and said to him) Well tell you what, I am a Microsoft MVP and you don't know your @$$ from a hole in the ground and hung up on him.

Had I continued the call, this is how the scam would of worked: The scammer would of got me to go to my event log and try and have me find any error entry and claim that was the problem. Note there is always an error or two in your event log for Windows. It is inevitable.

The scammer would say, look there are the errors and would instruct me to download and install a file so they could "access" my computer to fix it.  Once you have done this, EVERY piece of information on your computer is available to the scammer to see and use. The download will send your passwords back to the scammer  and they will get access to your bank accounts or any other account you use on your computer. Further the scammer may ask for money to remove the programs from your computer to continue the ruse.

Bottom line here is to remember to not ever give any kind of personal information to anyone who calls you out of the blue. Microsoft, Apple or any other computer company will never call you. Be wary of anyone who wants access to your computer. Stay Safe.

Where has Jim been?

It is difficult to believe I have not posted here in almost a year. The simple truth of the matter is that since my last post in October 2010 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that wreaks havoc on your nervous system. I went through 3 months of weekly shots of a drug called Avonex. The side affects were flu like symptoms that lasted for me, four days every week. After 3 months of it and the symptoms still progressing I had too stop taking it.

My increasing eyesight loss from the MS caused me to have to retire from my position at the county library on disability. After 15 years I was no longer able to keep up with 80 servers and over 1500 computer workstations anmore.

MS knocked me out of the computer industry and SBC community at large. My stature was gone, not to mention I felt like crap all the time. So you can see why I haven't had much incentive to write here about anything.

Last month I started a new drug for my MS called Tysabri. It seems to have slowed my symptoms to the point I at least feel a bit better.

I wanted to write this to send a shout out to my visitors and the SBC community at large and thank you for your support and friendship over the years. I am entirely unsure if our paths will cross again. At least in person anyways. I will mostly exist henceforth in cyberspace forcing my wisdom and experience on the willing (and probably unwilling) forevermore.

"Fried Chicken"~Freddie Mercury of The group Queen at the end of the song One Vision

How would you like to reset your webserver from anyplace. and device, anytime using a Citrix Xenapp Published App?

Often times as an administrator you are some place out in the field and you will get a call that your Web Server has crashed for some reason and needs reset. Or you want your helpdesk people to be able to reset the Webserver but not really have access to the actual desktop.

Here is a method I came up with to publish and Icon within Citrix Xenapp to allow an admin or helpdest staff to quickly do an IISReset remotely via Citrix Xenapp application to get your web server back going in most situations.

As a bonus this will give you a log file that gives you an idea when your web server is crashing and people are resetting it so you can research your log files for a fix.
Note that this script assumes that your Citrix Server is on the same network as your webserver.  I haven't tried it using IP addresses instead of a server name, but I suspect it might work as long as you are putting in an account that has admin priveleges on the Webserver in the script)

To get started you will need to do a few things.

Firstly you will have to download PSTools from Microsoft and copy the PSExec.exe file to the root of the Citrix server that you will be publishing the app to. Lets call that server CitrixAdmin henceforth. PSTools is written by Mark Russinovich and can be found at:
Link to information page on PSexec
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

Direct Download Link to PSTools.zip:
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/PsTools.zip

Download, extract the PSTools zip to a folder on your CitrixAdmin server and then copy the PSExec.exe file in the root of your C: drive. Also copy the PSExec.exe file to the C: drive of your Webserver.

The other thing you will need to do is copy the IISreset command to your C:/ root of your Webserver from the C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder (open a command prompt and type: copy C:\WINDOWS\system32\iisreset.exe c:  or use Windows Explorer to do it)

Next you need to create a simple command batch file on your CitrixAdmin Server that will run your IISReset command on the remote server that we can publish in your Citrix APP farm.

In order for the IISReset and PSExec to run you will need to pick an account with admin priveleges.

Open up Notepad or your favorite text editor and add the following text between the lines:
_________________________________________________________________
Echo This is a script file to reset the Web Server
Echo The web server was reset at %time% %date%>>C:\WebReset.txt

Echo Off
c:\psexec.exe \\web -u administratoracct -p accountpassword c:\iisreset.exe /restart
exit
__________________________________________________________________
Save the file to the C:\ root folder (or another folder of your choosing) on the Citrixadmin server as "resetweb.cmd"



(In the above script you will need to change file://web/ to file://the%20name%20of/ your webserver. You will also need to change the administratoracct text with the account name that has admin priveleges on your Webserver and accountpassword with the password to that account. Note: yes it is open text password but this file will be on your CitrixAdmin server and not out on the web server)

OK so what this little script does is remotely run IISreset on the Webserver from your CitrixAdmin server.  Then it generates a file on the webserver called Webreset.txt that keeps track of the time and date that the script was run. You can even test the script by clicking on it and running it.  It will reset your IIS Web server so be certain that it is during off hours when you test this.

Now all that needs to be done is create a simple published application for the resetweb.cmd script file you created on the CitrixAdmin Server.

As a Citrix Admin you should know how to publish an application but I will give the steps here anyways. 
On your CitrixAdmin find and Open the Citrix Access Management Console and drill down to the Farm applications folder, right click on it and Select New/ Publish Application from the context menu. Proceed as if you are creating a new app by giving it a name, description etc. and go to next screen.  Keep the defaults on the application publishing screen as an application being published from the server and click next.

To set up the application on the Application Location Properties screen all you need do is type in:  C:\resetweb.cmd   into the Command Line field and C:\ into the working directory.  Finish through publishing the app by adding your users you want to be able to reset the web server and thats it! (note if you put the webreset.com into a different directory you will have to modify the command line and working directory with that directory and the psexec.exe file must also be in that directory.

Connect to your Citrix apps via your favorite device and you now will have an icon you can click on to reset your Web server from where ever you are at! And you will have a log file in the root of your webserver that will tell you whenever this is done.

Now that you have done this what other applications/scripts can you think of that you can use PSexec to run commands remotely via a Citrix published app to save on administration time? The possibilities seem endless.

Fixing the Ofice 2007 Quick Access Toolbar for users with Roaming Profiles, QAT files do not roam from Locallow folder.

Hi All,
I went back and tackled this issue again. There are many sites out there that suggest the fix of this issue.

First some background. When Microsoft Office 2007 was released Microsoft placed the settings for the Quick Access Toolbar (.qat file) in the Locallow folder of the users profile. The locallow folder can never roam so if sites were using roaming profiles, a users settings they set on their Office Applications quick access tool bar would get lost after every logout of their session. This became quite a frustration for users.

Over the years many suggestions were given including using scripts to copy the qat files in and out of the users profile at login and logoff. A big pain, and a way to slow down logins. Microsoft released a "fix" to add a registry key to the users profile (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958062 and later included in Office 2007 Service Pack 2 )however, that fix was still a Manual fix. Admins had to edit each users registry in order for this to work.

Enterprising people came up with solutions to use Citrix Profiles in order to change the setting (http://blogs.sepago.de/helge/2009/12/09/fixing-office-2007s-quick-access-toolbars-with-citrix-user-profile-manager/)

Ok, but I don't use Citrix profiles and I have a thousand users with roaming profiles that have the issue.

SO, still searching I ran across an obscure blog posting by Kay Sellenrode that links to an Adm file that provides the ideal solution. Set the Key for the qat file redirection in the Microsoft or SP2 fix via Group Policy!
Kays post is here: http://geekswithblogs.net/ksellenrode/archive/2009/01/05/128362.aspxBravo!

So I guess the solution has been around a bit it just takes some searching to find it.
-------------
Here is Kay Sellenrodes Posting:
"A lot of people that migrated to Office 2007 probably ran into the issue that the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) is not included in the Roamind profile.

This caused a lot of frustration, until a while ago the only solution was to have logon/logoff scripts that would copy the files over to a roaming location.
But Microsoft heard the complaints and they silently released an update to address this.
You are now able to move the QAT files to the roaming part of your profile through the following steps

Request the hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955142/?FR=1 (JK Or install Office 2007 Service Pack 2 is later fix)
In most cases this update is already installed, so you probably don't need it.
Change the Registry, so that the hotfix will become active, use one of the following three solutions
Install the ADM or ADMX template which you can find at http://blogs.platani.nl/downloads.php
If the System is not managed by policies you can change the following registry key for each user.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars
QuickAccessToolbarRoaming DWORD with a value of 1

In case that you are using policies you can change the following registry key, though I would advise you to use the ADM or ADMX instead.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars
QuickAccessToolbarRoaming DWORD with a value of 1 "
-----------
Of course the easiest solution for me was to download and use the sensational group policy template by platoni which worked like a champ. Links are below.

Office QAT ADM file ADM file to set the right policy value when using the Office 955142 hotfix (jk: or Service Pack 2) http://blogs.platani.nl/tools/OfficeQAT-ADM.zip


Office QAT ADMX file ADMX files to set the right policy value when using the Office 955142 hotfix (jk: or Service Pack 2) http://blogs.platani.nl/tools/OfficeQAT-ADMX.zip

We know how these items can "disappear from the web so here is the text from the  QAT.ADMX and QAT.ADM files in case they do so you can copy and paste and make your own. First the QAT,ADMX file:
--Right Click and use select all from the below box and then right click and copy the text into a text file to create your admx file.--
<br /> <policydefinitions revision="1.0" schemaversion="1.0"><br /> <br /> <policynamespaces><br /> <target namespace="FullArmor.Policies.AE30A6DE_AC2C_4094_926E_DCB7FD970712" prefix="fullarmor"><br /> <using namespace="Microsoft.Policies.Windows" prefix="windows"><br /> </policynamespaces><br /> <supersededadm filename="c:\windows\inf\officeqat.adm"><br /> <resources minrequiredrevision="1.0"><br /> <supportedon><br /> <definitions><br /> <definition displayname="$(string.SUPPORTED_WIN2K)" name="SUPPORTED_WIN2K"><br /> <definition displayname="$(string.ADMXMigrator_NoSupportedOn)" name="SUPPORTED_NotSpecified"><br /> </definitions><br /> </supportedon><br /> <categories><br /> <category displayname="$(string.OFFQAT)" name="OFFQAT"><br /> </categories><br /> <policies><br /> <policy class="User" displayname="$(string.EnableRoamingQAT)" explaintext="$(string.EnableRoamingQAT_EXP)" key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars" name="EnableRoamingQAT" presentation="$(presentation.EnableRoamingQAT)" valuename="QuickAccessToolbarRoaming"><br /> <parentcategory ref="OFFQAT"><br /> <supportedon ref="SUPPORTED_WIN2K"><br /> <enabledvalue><br /> <decimal value="1"><br /> </enabledvalue><br /> <disabledvalue><br /> <decimal value="0"><br /> </disabledvalue><br /> </policy><br /> </policies><br /> </policydefinitions><policydefinitions revision="1.0" schemaversion="1.0"><br /> <policynamespaces><br /> <target namespace="FullArmor.Policies.AE30A6DE_AC2C_4094_926E_DCB7FD970712" prefix="fullarmor"><br /> <using namespace="Microsoft.Policies.Windows" prefix="windows"><br /> </policynamespaces><br /> <supersededadm filename="c:\windows\inf\officeqat.adm"><br /> <resources minrequiredrevision="1.0"><br /> <supportedon><br /> <definitions><br /> <definition displayname="$(string.SUPPORTED_WIN2K)" name="SUPPORTED_WIN2K"><br /> <definition displayname="$(string.ADMXMigrator_NoSupportedOn)" name="SUPPORTED_NotSpecified"><br /> </definitions><br /> </supportedon><br /> <categories><br /> <category displayname="$(string.OFFQAT)" name="OFFQAT"><br /> </categories><br /> <policies><br /> <policy class="User" displayname="$(string.EnableRoamingQAT)" explaintext="$(string.EnableRoamingQAT_EXP)" key="Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars" name="EnableRoamingQAT" presentation="$(presentation.EnableRoamingQAT)" valuename="QuickAccessToolbarRoaming"><br /> <parentcategory ref="OFFQAT"><br /> <supportedon ref="SUPPORTED_WIN2K"><br /> <enabledvalue><br /> <decimal value="1"><br /> </enabledvalue><br /> <disabledvalue><br /> <decimal value="0"><br /> </disabledvalue><br /> </policy><br /> </policies><br /> </policydefinitions><br />
---End of ADMX file--

And here is the text from Qat.adm file
--Start cutting below this--
#if version <= 2 CLASS USER CATEGORY !!GPONLY_CAT POLICY !!GPONLY_POL KEYNAME Software\Policies PART !!GPONLY_TEXT1 TEXT END PART PART !!GPONLY_TEXT2 TEXT END PART END POLICY END CATEGORY CLASS MACHINE CATEGORY !!GPONLY_CAT POLICY !!GPONLY_POL KEYNAME Software\Policies PART !!GPONLY_TEXT1 TEXT END PART PART !!GPONLY_TEXT2 TEXT END PART END POLICY END CATEGORY #endif; version <= 2 #if version >= 3
CLASS MACHINE
CLASS USER
CATEGORY !!OFFQAT
KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars
POLICY !!EnableRoamingQAT
VALUENAME QuickAccessToolbarRoaming
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
EXPLAIN !!EnableRoamingQAT_EXP
#if version >= 4
SUPPORTED !!SUPPORTED_WIN2K
#endif
END POLICY
END CATEGORY ;GENERAL
#endif
[strings]
; GPONLY
GPONLY_TEXT1="System Policy Editor does not support this policy template."
GPONLY_TEXT2="You must use Group Policy in Windows 2000."
GPONLY_CAT="Unsupported Administrative Template"
GPONLY_POL="OfficeQAT.ADM"
; SUPPORTED
SUPPORTED_WIN2K="At least Microsoft Windows 2000"
; CATEGORIES
OFFQAT="QAT files."
; CATEGORY EXPLANATIONS
OFFQAT_EXP="QAT files."
; POLICIES
EnableRoamingQAT="Change the default location of QAT files."
; PARTS
; POLICY EXPLANATIONS
EnableRoamingQAT_EXP="This setting let's you change the default location of your QAT files in Office 2007, so they are included in the roaming profiles."
---Stop cutting above here--


I hopes this solves your headaches on this issue!!

Thin List Archives are now also available on YahooGroups and Open to ALL!!

Hi All,
With some changes Yahoo made recently to Yahoogroups, I have finally been able to open up for viewing/searching the Thin List archives that have been saving to Yahoogroups. Years ago (6/2002) I accidently set the list at Yahoo to private and was never able to change it back because of yahoo. It made it so no one could see the list, so I moved the list to Freelists,org. But THIN kept archiving and having messages saved at Yahoogroups.

For those that don't know the Thin list has been around since early 1997. The Thin.net Thin list was first on online website called Onelist, which got purchased by Egroups whom got purchased by YahooGroups. The archives of the list pretty much stayed in place during these transitions. The archives at Yahoo date all the way back until April 2000! The archives from 1996-2000 exist on the rare Thin Net archives CD that I produced years ago, as I ran it on my own personal servers for those 3 years back in those days.

Now EVERYONE can see, search and access the Yahoogroups Thin List archives!! Over 143,000 messages!!


If you don't like the freelists archive search at http://www.freelists.org/archive/thin this is a new option for you.

So another version of the Thin List archives that dates back further than the Freelists archives is available here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/thin/

AND
This also gives you an additional RSS feed to use for the list at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/thin/rss

(note that Freelists also has an RSS feed of the list at http://feeds.feedburner.com/freelists-feeds/thin )

(ALSO Note you can't subscribe/unsubscribe or manage any of your settings to the Thin list or do anything at Yahoo other than look at the archives, you will still have to do all changes you want at Freelists.)

Hopefully this will give you all another great resource and choice for finding answers from the archives. I am also hoping by opening the yahoo archives up that they will also get better indexed in the Yahoo search engine.
Regards,
Jim Kenzig
Thin List Moderator

So you just got a new computer for Christmas. Now what?

(Note this was written 12/31/2008 and has been updated with Microsoft Security Essentials Link on 10/1/2009)

With the economy the way it is the price of the personal computer has reduced so drastically that many people are finally able to own one. I am writing this article for the first timer who just got a new computer this Christmas as a guide to places you can go to get help and point out some free utilities that will make your life easier.

First of all of course I am assuming since you are reading this that you have figured out how to get your computer hooked up to the internet. This was probably accomplished by the ATT, Time Warner, Comcast, Wowway, Directv, AOL, Geek Squad or whatever guy coming to your house, plugging in a box, running a utility on your computer, handing you a sheet of paper and Saying, Yup, you're all hooked up Maam, I gotta go call in..y'all have a nice day. You are left holding a stack of papers and trying to sort through the ugliness of it all.

If you just plugged your computer into the internet the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT thing you want to do is Update, Update, Update. Assuming your computer is running some version of Windows be it Windows XP Windows 7 or Windows Vista you need to go out to the Microsoft Windows Update site BEFORE YOU GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITE! To get to the windows update site open your Internet Explorer browser and click on the Tools Menu at the top and choose Windows Update from the drop down. One of two things will happen depending on what version of Windows you are running. If you are running Windows XP a new screen will popup and you may get a prompt asking to run ActiveX controls. Click OK. You may need to right click on a bar across the top of the screen and choose Allow active X control. Then you should click on the Grey Express button to start searching for updates. Once all updates are found Microsoft will give you a list of them. Click on the Install now link to install all of them. Wait until they are done installing. Click on Reboot if you are prompted to.

When the computer comes back up. Repeat the above procedure Over and Over and Over again until there are no critical updates left. DO NOT GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITES UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS! If it is Windows 7 or Windows Vista you are using, another Window will pop up with a yellow box that you need to click on to search for updates. Search for updates, allow Windows to install them, reboot if necessary, repeat, until it tells you there are no more updates. If you do not do anything else in this article to your PC this is the THE most important piece of inforamation you should take away from it.

Now your PC is updated and protected for the most part but you are still not ready to go off into the annals of the World Wild Web. If you did not have Microsoft Office and want to install that install it now. Put the disk in, follow the prompts, install it. If you are Windows XP go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/FX101859091033.aspx otherwise if you are Vista go back to the Microsoft Update site and keep updating until there are no more. Lather, rinse, repeat. Install any other Microsoft software repeat.

Antivirus is next. Some computers come with Antivirus preinstalled or a trial version installed.

Whatever it is unless it is Microsoft Security Essentials, Mcafee or Trend, go to your control panel from your start menu and choose programs (or add remove programs on XP) and uninstall it and then go back to Best Buy or whatever computer store you bought it from and demand a discount on one of those packages because you just paid $500 for a computer from them and the AV software they installed is for the most part crap. There are free antivirus programs out there and I have written about them, but it is worth $30 to protect your investment and your time is worth more than that. Spend a weekend(weeks maybe even) without a PC while someone cleans off a virus for you and you will know what I mean. Symantec/ Norton Antivirus is just an OK product compared to Trend or Mcafee. Just trust me on it. One of my first jobs in IT over 25 years ago was as a Virus Technician at NASA Glenn (former Lewis) Space center. I've followed these products and know what is and isn't going to be useful.

Now install the Antivirus of your choice. Go into the program and run the update feature. Keep running it until there are no more updates. Lather, rinse, repeat.

NOTE: Since I wrote this, Microsoft Onecare has been Released as a FREE product called Windows Security Essentials. I highly reccomend you install this product which can be donloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/
Further Trend makes a web browser add on to keep you safe while you are surfing at:
http://free.antivirus.com/web-protection-add-on/ which should also be installed on all of your systems.

Now your experience on the web is useless unless you have 3 utilities installed on your computer and they are now owned by Adobe. They are Acrobat Reader, Shockwave, and Flash. The 4th program you'll need is Sun's Java. You may as well do these first.

Lets start with Shockwave first. Go out to the Adobe website at http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ Click on the Yellow button that reads "Agree and Install now" If you are running Vista you may have to click OK on a User Access Control prompt

Uncheck the box to include Norton Security scan in the popup if you get it and click on Next, you may get a yellow bar across the top of your browser that you have to right click your mouse on to allow the installation. If all goes right shockwave will finish installing and you will be done.

Next lets install Adobe Flash. A LOT of websites require Flash. Head on over to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Click to uncheck the box in front of "Free Google Toolbar" (you don't need it) and then click on the yellow Agree and install now button. You may have to click inside the box on the next screen on the Green Shield and choose Install ActiveX and then continue or Allow on the Windows Vista User Access Control prompt. Then Click Install in the next popup window. Flash should then be installed and you are done.


Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF's at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ is installed in much the same way as the Flash Player. Be sure to click to UNCHECK the box in front of Free Google Toolbar and then click on the download button. Right click on the yellow bar across the top of your Internet Explorer browser window and choose Install Activex control from the drop down. If you have Vista as your Operating system click Continue on the User access control prompt that comes up. Next click on the Install button in the popup window. Follow the prompts to finish Adobe Reader installation. Note that there are other free versions of PDF readers like Foxit but Adobe is the industry standard.

Finally you will need Java installed. Go out to http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
and click on the blue button that reads "Java Download" , if you are Vista, click Continue in the User access control popup you get, allow any other firewall prompts you may get. Then click on Install in the popup. The java installer will download java. Accept the license agreement by clicking on the accept button. Then click on Finish when it is done. Watch for check boxes along the way prompting to install MSN or Google Toolbar and uncheck those boxes if they come up.

Now you are ready to enjoy and surf the web. Try out your new installs over on my Stressedpuppy games Site at http://www.stressedpuppy.com/ it makes use of many of the plugins we just installed! Happy computing!

Here is an additional tip from Microsoft on what to do before you connect your computer to the internet: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/xppc.mspx

And finally there are lots of other applications that you might want to install on your computer.  A new website that will install needed apps (many of the above listed ones included) is called Ninite.com.  Ninite lets you click on several choices to install multiple apps at once and it removes all the toolbars (yahoo, msn, google) etc prompts that most have. You can also install some Microsoft Products from this link IF you have the license for them.
Check out the site at http://www.ninite.com/