Replies

Rubyjim – Have a look at Remove PUP.Optional.MySearchDial.A (Removal Guide) for comprehensive instructions. It shows that you need other tools in addition to Malwarebytes in order to successfully remove MySearchDial.A.

Hope this helps.

Cando69 – Comprehensive instructions here.

Hope this helps…

Have a look at Nir Sofer’s Network Password Recovery. It’s the only utility I know off the top of my head that can retrieve user/password combo’s from the credentials file.

Hope this helps…

Microsoft will never call you. They don’t know who you are and don’t have your phone no. As RetiredGeek says, it’s a scam.

If you had gone along with it then the ‘Microsoft’ caller would have offered to help fix your PC and talked you into using something like TeamViewer to take remote control of your PC. Next, it’s likely that he would have disabled any antimalware protection you had and very probably encrypted your data… which he would then have offered to undo for a hefty fee.

I’ve just had this happen to a customer of mine. By the time he thought to put the phone down and switch off his PC it was too late for me to be able to recover his encrypted data.

You did the right thing by shutting the caller down quickly. Do a Google search for “microsoft called me” for more details of this scam.

Hope this helps…

Two weeks ago I bought my stepson a new Samsung laptop with Windows 8 installed. It did not come with any support disks, or a backup partition. I added Norton’s ghost32.exe to the Hirems CD, and then backed up the licenced Windows 8.1 onto an external USB hard drive. Now, if disaster strikes, I can quickly restore his operating system. Ghost32.exe is old, but still works.

Regards…George

Hi George,

Have you tested your Ghost backup by trying to restore it? The reason I ask is because I did the same as you (i.e. used Ghost32.exe from Ghost v11) when Windows 7 came out and found that, although Ghost32.exe created the backup with no apparent problems and the backup appeared to restore OK, my Samsung R7 laptop would not boot into Windows after the restore. It’s a couple of years now and I can’t remember the exact error message. All I remember is that I also tried with 2 HP laptops and the results were the same… not able to boot into Windows after an apparently successful restore. I have no idea whether this was because it was Win 7 instead of XP or because it was SATA disks instead of IDE.

After trying many times (and failing) to carry out a ‘disk to image’ backup then ‘image to disk’ restore I gave up on Ghost. I now use the free utility Redo Backup running on a USB stick to backup my Win 7 (and Linux Mint) PC’s and laptops to an external hard disk. Redo Backup doesn’t have the granularity of Ghost (it has just 2 buttons – ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’) and only does disk backups, not partitions, but… it works! 🙂 (Clonezilla also worked but I wasn’t too impressed by the interface… I just like simple.)

Hope this helps… I would hate to think you rely on the Ghost backup only to find that it doesn’t restore successfully when needed.

dwsolo – I use an AutoHotkey script to duplicate the MS Word functionality you describe, i.e. CTRL+SHIFT then : then u to produce ü and CTRL+, then c to produce ç. The AHK script works in every program, including LibreOffice. I’ve just used the script to produce ü and ç here in this post. 🙂

The AHK script just sits in the background waiting for the ‘MS Word 2003-like’ key combinations to occur then inserts the accented characters automatically. (I just checked… the key combinations also work in Word 2007 and Word 2010.)

I’m not sure there’s any point in posting the code for the AHK script here ‘cos you need to install AHK in order to either run the script or compile it to an executable. However, if you have a look at this topic and look at the post that begins “Thanks Veil! Here’s an adaptation of your script that uses MS-Word/MS-Office style key-codes to generate the same accents.” then you’ll see where I got the AHK script from.

Hope this helps…

Good find, Sudo15… much appreciated.

Hi suvi – e-mail, social networking, office work, kids games and photos can all be done on an iMac (running OSX). They can also be done on your existing PC if you installed a Linux distribution, something like Linux Mint (which is one of the Linux distributions that looks similar to Windows). I don’t know about tax preparation ‘cos I’m in the UK and don’t know about the US. If you prepare taxes online using a browser then this could also be done using OSX or Linux.

The iMac has a very good reputation for being intuitive to use but is relatively expensive in comparison to a Windows PC. Linux is usually free but has a reputation for a steeper learning curve (which is why I mentioned Linux Mint so the change doesn’t come as too much of a shock). Of course, these statements are only gross generalisations but it will give you a slightly better idea of what’s possible.

One thing to consider is what peripheral equipment you use, e.g. printer, scanner, etc. as there could be some issues changing to a non-Windows OS.

Another thing to consider is IT support. The Lounge here has an immense collection of knowledge about all flavours of Windows (and Microsoft applications) but far less so for other operating systems. For example, the Non-Microsoft OSes sub-forum has only 464 posts in total in comparison to the thousands in the various Windows sub-forums… the Windows 7 sub-forum alone has 5,096 posts. There is thus the chance that your questions may not be answered by the same amount of informed contributors.

Did your son say exactly why he advised a change to an iMac? Is it because he uses an Apple device himself? I must admit I didn’t actually like using Windows 8 so when I needed a new laptop recently I bought a MacBook Pro from Apple. I’m over the moon with it but still tend to use (and love) my Windows 7 desktop PC, whilst I become familiar with OSX.

To be able to advise you appropriately it would help if forum members knew a little bit more about what you and your family currently use your present PC for and what you want to be able to do with any replacement in the future.

(For example, if your needs are limited to just being able to surf the internet safely and get email then it’s possible that another alternative may be a better proposition.

The more you are are to tell us about your circumstances, what you want to be able to do with a PC, what IT support you have, etc., the better forum members can provide their input.

Hope this helps…

Many BIOS’ allow you to save the settings (for mass deployment to identical devices). I don’t know about its current range but for many years Toshiba laptops included a Windows utility to make changes to the BIOS so, as RetiredGeek says, it’s most definitely do-able.

Hope this helps…

Dick – Unfortunately it’s easy to get round the Windows password, usually by just removing it (very easy) rather than ‘cracking’ it (time-consuming but do-able). Have a look at Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor as just one example or do a search on YouTube for “bypass windows password”.

A BIOS ‘power-on’ password is safer… but these can often be circumvented too.

As F.U.N downtown says, have a look at whole disk encryption, e.g. the free Compusec which I’ve used for years to protect laptops in a sensitive environment.

Hope this helps…

Rick, you whole approach to this topic lacks integrity. You have blatantly misrepresented what the article you quote says, by omitting anything that doesn’t agree with your POV, then you have the hide to accuse me of supposedly omitting something. Had I done so, the post would have shown that it had been edited – which it doesn’t. I not that you edited yours though, as I am now doing to mine… Keep it up and you won’t be welcome here.

I couldn’t care less whether you decide to view (for free) your documents on an iPad or choose to pay to be able to edit them. Your whingeing about having to pay just because you don’t want to update to Office 2013 is purile in the extreme.

Thanks for this. I’m sorry to read that you think I was “whingeing” and lack integrity. However, you are entitled to your opinion and I respect that.

I guess it answered my proposal that “we need to agree to disagree”.

PS – It’s ‘puerile’. 🙂

As you may know Office2HD has now been renamed QuickEdit… and it does most of what you seem to want… and I DO use it to amend existing docs and spreadsheets on my iPad…

Excellent! I wasn’t aware of either the name change or pricing. Many thanks for the info.

Let’s face it, you’re really not interested in the facts. You just want to criticize MS.

Thanks… I had to laugh at this and your subsequent comment “without which Apple probably wouldn’t exist (as even the late Steve Jobs acknowledged).” which for some reason you omitted. 🙂

Let’s face it, you’re really not interested in the subsequent licensing costs for ordinary users who have already purchased recent versions of MS Office and would just like to amend an Office doc on their iPad.

Sorry but… I guess we need to agree to disagree in a world where alternatives abound. 🙂

Yay!… personal opinions rock! (no?)

PS – If the original article’s caption had been ‘Microsoft releases Office Viewer for iPad’ then I doubt we would be having this ‘discussion’. 🙂

Yes, I am in the process of going back to win7 after I gather all my data files etc and plan a strategy.
Win 8 and 8.1 remind me of the way the early windows was overlaid over DOS. Yes I remember those days!
If you want a new OS make it really new. I like android on all my other devices.

I agree with this poster’s decision (unfortunately).

IMHO Win 7 has been fine (even great!), Win 8.x not…

Win 8.x may well be a fine operating system in time… but consensus of opinion within my family, friends and customers is that current versions of Win 8 (all flavours) are ‘a bridge too far’ (“We just want to do simple stuff”).

Luckily it’s just my opinion (and those of my family and friends)… which we’re all allowed to have. 🙂