Replies

Susan:

Great article. You said: “For my firm, I have the business credit card configured to send both texts and emails to me for every transaction. That might seem like overkill, but I’ll know instantly if anything looks off.”

I have the same for my personal bank account. I set a $100 minimum for being notified, but your choice for every transaction is probably safer. Mine was recently scammed for a $4000 airplane ticket to the UK. My bank put a hold on it when I didn’t instantly respond to their email. But it was a real mess getting all my web addresses that used my credit card fixed.

And although my bank said they would send my replacement via UPS and require a verified signature, they actually just send the replacement card as regular mail! Anyone who touched the enveloped could feel that it contained a credit card, and then I would have been it trouble again. Sometimes the banks are their (and your) worst enemy when it comes to protection.

One thing you didn’t mention is to look at every website you normally access with a password, and see if they have your credit card info. Sometimes they ask for the card number ‘just in case’. I am removing the card number from all such websites.

Harry

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Steve, rc primak

Susan Bradley wrote a nice article. but it doesn’t matter what color or type of ink that you use, because it all depends on whether the bank teller is paying attention when a stolen check is presented for payment. In addition to the ink that Susan recommended, I use an old fashioned F&E Check Protector, which punches lots of small prick holes in the ‘Pay to the Order of’ and ‘Dollars’ iines on a check, plus prints below the ‘Dollars’ line the exact amount of the check.

But I have had checks stolen, where although the ‘Pay to’ and ‘Dollars’ entries were overwritten, the original amount of my check was still clearly shown in what was imprinted below the ‘Dollars’ line. The bank cashed them anyway, because the teller was not paying attention.

One suggestion that I have not seen mentioned above is to have your bank (if they offer it) send you an email each time a check is cashed for more than am amount that you set. That email includes the check number, and the amount it was cashed for. If that doesn’t match the amount you wrote it for, then I can open up my account on their website, and view the actual check. And then every few days I log onto my account to see what checks have cleared. If a check has not cleared within what I assume is a reasonable period, I call the recipient. If they have not received the check, I put a 6 month Stop Order on it. At my bank, if I maintain an amount above a certain $ value in my checking account, there is no charge for the Stop Order. But this is all a hassle. Even giving the mail to the local carrier is not foolproof. The last 5 checks I had stolen WERE given as a group directly to a mail carrier. I contacted the Post Office Fraud Division and filed a report, and also called the local police dept (who never bothered to come see me).

Harry

Josh:

Good article. But to use File Explorer, one has to have some idea where the file you want is located. I could have put ‘Vacation’ in, say, ‘2021’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Relative Visit’. etc. So I use an old program, no longer updated, unfortunately, named ‘Locate’. You can set it to update where all the files are on any, or all, of your hard drives, every day, every week, etc. Then you just type in a word, or a partial word, and it will located every file that meets that criteria, plus list where it/they are located. Then all you have to do is click on the file name to open it.

Unfortunately, like so many other 3rd party programs, it never made the transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10. So the primary computer I use is the one with Windows 7. I use my Windows 10 computer (which is a laptop) mainly when I travel, or when there is some program or file that won’t load on my Windows 7. Yes, I know that Microsoft support of Windows 7 ran out several years ago, but I think I have enough protection with Microsoft Security Essentials, etc.

If you have come across a program that is an comprehensive and flexible as Locate, and runs on Windows 10, let me know.

Harry

Rick:

I also got 4023057 installed on my Windows 10 Pro 22H2 computer, despite my best efforts to prevent it. It seems like there is conflicting advice as to whether it does any harm or not.

Since it doesn’t appear to solve any problems with Windows, should I just uninstall it?

 

Harry

In Susan Bradley’s AskWoody Plus column of May 4, 2023 (Issue 20.18.1), she said the following:

“However, there is one exception. If you are running Windows 10, update to release 22H2 as soon as possible. If you can’t get to it by Tuesday, defer — but be sure to get it done before the end of May.”

I am currently running Windows 10 Pro 21H2 (64 bit) on two laptops. I don’t understand why I need to update them to 22H2, since, unlike businesses,  neither receive any more critical updates for home users like me.

Please explain the rationale for this recommendation.

 

Harry

Imacri et al:

I downloaded and installed eScan. And I purchased a 1 year subscription, which should do me until I have moved everything I need to my Windows 7.

Those two steps were easy. Then I tried to Register the product and get an Activation Code, which would allow me to use it for a year. (Until this is submitted, the program, although paid for,  is only good for 30 days.) That is when the problems began. It appears that this company is located in India. People who work at the other Indian companies I have dealt with speak good English, probably because they were under British rule for so long. But not these folks. I have spent days, and sent at least a dozen emails, over a week’s time, trying to fill out their registration form, which has entries that make no sense, such as the Machine Code number, which is not noted anywhere on the product. Then I get error messages such as ‘key entered is not a valid key’, but no indication of which key(s) I entered are not valid.

Then they ask for the Dealer/Reseller number. And on it goes.

Maybe others have had better luck than I have, but knowing what I know now, I would select another product other than eScan.

Harry

 

Imacri:

You said: “I found an old Managing Your Money (MYM12) tips page at https://www.starkeysoftware.com/MYM/ that includes a link to instructions for running MYM 12 on a 64-bit Windows computer using vDOS or DOSBox – see https://www.starkeysoftware.com/MYM/windows64bit.html.”

I knew Starkey from years ago (in fact I run his MYMLOCK & MYMBack programs), but didn’t know he was still around. I also noted that he runs VDOS, AND, if I ask he will send me everything on a CD so all I would have to do is cut/paste to my computer. I think I will take him up on that!

But in the meantime, I think I will get the basic version of PandaDome or eScan so I can get my XP back on line.

I’ll keep you up to date with how it goes.

 

Harry

Paul:

Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe eScan doesn’t understand the terminology any better than I do!

 

Harry

Cybertooth:

See attached ad from eScan. Look at the text underlined in red.

I would appreciate your wisdom on this, because I am confused.

 

Harry

Paul:

Several years ago when my financial program had a forum on the internet, there was a member who used DOSbox. But he kept fiddling with it, to get the financial program to run correctly/consistently. So I never tried it. Perhaps it is more reliable and easier to use now.

 

Harry

Imacri:

“Could you please clarify how often, or even if, you connect to the internet with your Win XP computer and update your Avast and Malwarebytes malware definitions?”

My XP was on my network until I uninstalled Avast. I haven’t manually updated Malwarebytes in years. Malwarebytes said it was a 2013 verson. As I may have mentioned earlier, I only use this machine for running some old financial programs. I have no idea why my Malwarebytes, etc. never automatically upgraded. Perhaps I have it set not to? I guess I will have to go check.

I was just getting ready to download escan, but I notice that both it and Panda talk about supporting a network. My other two Windows computers are on my network. I have Microsoft Security Essentials installed on my Windows 7 computer and my Windows 10 laptop says it has Windows Security/Microsoft Defender antivirus. If I install escan or Panda on my XP, aren’t I going to have some conflict with it and Security Essentials and Microsoft Defender trying to protect my network, or am I missing something really basic here?

 

Harry

Imacri:

I just heard back from eScan. In case you are interested, here is how they answered my questions:

<span style=”font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica; font-size: small;”>Thank you for contacting us at eScan.

No Sir, no need to have the internet on the system to install Escan.

Internet is only required to update the virus signatures.

Yes, we will provide you the eScan Setup link to download.

You can download the same on Windows 7 OS system and put it on a USB Stick and install the same on a Windows XP computer.

Hope we have been of assistance to you. For further technical assistance do write to us at support@escanav.com. </span>

 

Harry

 

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Cybertooth

Imacri:

Well my taxes are done, and I just mailed the last check today.

So I am finally getting back to my XP issue. My answers are not in any particular order relative to your last comments and questions.

I cannot prove that Avast was the only program that affected my loading speed. I only know that since I removed it, the speed to load has been drastically shortened, and in no instance has the XP locked up, and had to be rebooted. Please note that currently the XP is NOT connected to the internet, so it is possible, I guess, that being connected could have caused part of the problem.

These two programs now consume the most CPU time during startup: E_TATIHEA.EXE (1:57) (an Epson status monitor for the Epson WF-7010 color inkjet printer I have) and EPCP.exe (7:09) (an Epson customer participation program). The posts I saw said I can safely uninstall EPCP.exe, but one thing at a time. I must also have these files on my Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers also.

To make it easier to test new programs, since my XP is in a custom built tower, I am going to take it down this week to my local shop and have them install (either internally or as a unit that will sit on top of the tower) a couple of USB female connectors, so I can use USB sticks. I read that the formatting of said USB sticks for the XP is somewhat different than for Window 7 and 10.

I have old versions of C. Cleaner (5.64.7570) and Malwarebytes (1.75.0.1300, dated 4/2013) on the XP. I ran them both today, and no issues/problems were detected.

I just sent emails to both Panda (for Panda Dome Essential) and eScan asking if their programs can be installed on my XP from a USB stick, without being connected to the internet. Do you happen to know that answer?

I notice that eScan recommends 1 GB of memory space, along with 1 GB of disk space. I could not find that information for Panda. Do you have any idea what the Panda requirements are? A post on the msfn.org board that was noted is a 3/23/2023 post from ‘AstroSkipper’ saying he has Panda Dome and that the RAM & CPU usage are ‘very low’.

Harry

Sorry I have been away for a while. But I am trying to focus on getting my taxes done right now. I will get back to this anti-virus issue once those are done. I want to solve that anti-virus problem.

Imacri said:

“Just an aside, but perhaps it’s time to find new financial software that runs on your Win 10 machine and just retire your Win XP machine. I don’t know if your DOS financial program can export your data to a .QIF file or some other format that can be imported into other financial software”

MYM will export data as a .txf file, which most financial software will read. There is lots of financial software that will run on my Windows 7 and/or Windows 10 machines. It is not the software that is the issue. It is my ability/inability to learn the nuances of new financial software. Over the years I have compiled lots of typed notes regarding how to most effectively use MYM. I tried a couple of other programs, but never got comfortable with using them. Twenty years ago I probably could have handled it, but at 84 I can’t. So if I can get the XP to safely run for a few more years, that is all I need. Then my heirs can deal with the taxes.

Harry

 

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Cybertooth

Imacri:

Thanks for all the details and the pictures.

You said: “If you don’t have a working antivirus at the moment the safest way to use one of these portable utilities would be to use your Win 10 machine to download the .zip file onto a removable UBS thumb drive and unzip them, and then plug the USB thumb drive into your Win XP SP3 computer and double-click the appropriate 32-bit or 64-bit.exe executable to run the utility (i.e., there is no need to actually install these portable apps on your computer), but I suspect from some of your comments that your Win XP computer does not have a USB port. If not, is there some other safe way you can transfer the .zip file(s) to your Win XP machine and unzip it there?”

No, there is no USB port on my XP. But I have a CD drive on the XP,. So I should be able to put the utilities you mentioned on a CD (I have lots of blanks) and transfer the programs to my XP from there. Since several of you have said that SSE2 is vital, that will be my next step.

I will try to run spsetup132.zip.  PCano suggested I run avgclear.exe to get rid of any trash left over after I removed , but I got an error message saying: ‘E:\avgclear.exe is not a valid Win32 application.’

And I have no idea why the folks you know can run Avast on their XP and not have issues. As noted in my original post, AvastUI.exe, (and sometimes also avBugReport.exe) took 100% of my CPU. After 30 minutes or so, I would have to do a force close on my XP, and reboot.

Harry