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Fred, I found a third scenario. Sometime shortly before updating from 1511 to AU I had removed windows.old. I manually upgraded to AU now I have neither windows.old nor windows10upgrade folders. Even after 6 weeks and many automatic updates neither has appeared. I did notice a few lines in the setuperr.log but none of them seem to relate.
setuperr.log:
Error MOUPG CInstallUI::GetDefaultLanguage(1715): Result = 0x80070002[gle=0x00000002]
2016-08-23 14:23:40, Error MOUPG CSetupManager::GetDUSetupResults(5249): Result = 0x80070490
2016-08-23 14:23:42, Error MOUPG CDlpTask::Cancel(979): Result = 0xC1800104
2016-08-23 14:23:42, Error MOUPG CDlpTask::Cancel(979): Result = 0xC1800104
2016-08-23 14:23:42, Error MOUPG CDlpTask::Cancel(979): Result = 0xC1800104
2016-08-23 14:23:42, Error MOUPG CDlpTask::Cancel(979): Result = 0xC1800104

I find that all word or excel email attachments open protected and need to click on enable edit. Is this part of a similar problem?

Fred
I always move my data, (Documents, Music, Pictures…) like “stonedumpr” and never have a problem. I also find I cannot use Libraries to link in my network drives as Libraries need to be able to index the drive. I keep all my music, videos and pictures on a separate server. The library “add” won’t allow me to add \serverfoldername because it cannot index it so I create symlinks in a folder called C:Netdrives using the command “mklink /d media \servermedia” then I can just use Quick Access links to the various folders c:NetdrivesmediaPictures etc.
The only way I have found that I can use network folders in libraries is to map drives to network folders. Is there any other way?

Have a look at PowerShell you can easily add your own objects and collect lots of information about any PC to populate those objects. You might like to start with the first tutorial at http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/Content/ViewContent.aspx?et=3286&m=3284&ct=17862

One way to get around the problem is to leave the DATA in the folder C:UsersuserAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram FilesapplicationDATA and create a symbolic link to it in C:PROGRAM FILESapplication.
To do this, open a command prompt as an Administrator, make sure that you do not already have a directory called
C:PROGRAM FILESapplicationDATA then:
CD C:PROGRAM FILESapplication
mklink /d DATA C:UsersuserAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram FilesapplicationDATA

Because the directory C:UsersuserAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram FilesapplicationDATA can be modified by the user you can leave the UAC properly enabled protecting the user from bad behaviour.

“Frontier is committed to protecting your personal data online. As part of that commitment, we strongly recommend that you upgrade your email security settings to protect your privacy and confidentiality. “
SSL only protects your data while in transit from you to Frontier by encrypting the data stream. It does not encrypt or protect your email while passing through the many servers it may pass through before reaching its destination. It doesn’t protect it from prying eyes sitting on the recipient’s mail server. SSL protects the data while travelling between you and Frontier. If you want the content of an email protected encrypt an attached document and give the key to the recipient separately.

Password manager or system? Either is good provided you learn how to use it. I have spent the last ten years trying to educate our local seniors computer club to stop putting passwords on post-it notes by the side of their computers and to stop using the same password for everything. It is very clear to me that the biggest vulnerability in most computer systems is the user. There are many free password managers; use one and learn to use it effectively and make sure that you have backups of the database. I use KeePass and it works for me on Windows PC’s and laptops as well as Android Phone and Tablet and on my Linux systems. I haven’t tried it but I believe has unofficial support on OSX, iOS, Blackberry and Palm OS. So it doesn’t matter what combination of devices you have you can use the same database. I automatically keep two cloud based copies and three local backup copies to keep me feeling comfortable with what has become an essential tool. http:/keepass.info

Another good one is http://cdburnerxp.se/download

I second that. It is a bit like very early versions of Nero, 4 or 5, so is simple and just gets the job done. I have been using it on XP, W7, W8 & W8.1. Simple fast and no fuss.

Many times I have found that files with the .dat extension are not really winmail documents. If you save the file then rename it to .doc then it can be opened with word. It is much easier to do this if you are NOT hiding extensions of known file types.

Have you looked at IrfanView. It can merge PDFs and in command line mode can use file lists. I use V4.36 and if you look at the Help FAQ & Command Line Options I think you could easily work a solution in conjunction with your Excel speadsheets to create the file lists. You may have to include Ghostscript.

As has been said before no anti malware program can guarantee complete protection without some intelligent help from the user. It often surprises me that people will usually carefully look both ways before crossing a busy road but will not check what others think of a program before installing it.

I only have Windows Defender running on my Windows 8.1 and occasionally run Malwarebytes, I do have a S/W and H/W firewall; I keep UAC at the next to highest level(default) and run as a standard user except when first setting up a system. I have not so far run into any problems.

I think good habits can mitigate the risks of getting hit by malware even if they cannot eliminate them.

A few other things I do that help reduce the risks. Always use different strong passwords on different websites/systems particularly webmail sites such as yahoo/gmail/hotmail. I use “Keepass” to keep track of them. I run “Ghostery” in Firefox and Chrome to block sites that tag and allow uncontrolled advertising and use “NoScript” in Firefox to only allow JavaScript on sites that I have authorised.

I also check on any software, that I am not familiar with, to see what other think of it before installing it and also only get it from the author’s website or a well respected download site like download.cnet.com or occasionally tucows.com.

I never run software from attachments on emails and am vigilant when opening emails from unknown sources or unexpected styled emails from known sources.

I have no doubt there are many other little things that I do to prevent getting attacked but I have been using AV software since Dr. Solomon first created it in the early 80’s and despite having found a few viruses over the years I have never been caught out. Luck? Probably but common sense mostly.

Don’t get paranoid but do look both ways when crossing the road, even a quiet one.

I use several different cloud storage providers.

The most convenient is Dropbox, easy to set up, easy to share, easy to add more space by recommending others, you get 500MB free space for each new user added, and it is quick to sync. It is not one I use for high security as the encryption doesn’t happen until it gets to the cloud servers. I use it primarily to share folders with different groups/clubs. I have got about 18GB of free space but I am only using about 3GB with some of it shared with as many as 30 other people. One of the shared spaces is used by just 3 of us for the club accounts working copy while the backups are kept on the club treasurer’s PC as well as informal copies on mine.

SkyDrive I find OK for static stuff like picture sharing but I find it tediously slow to update. I put stuff there to archive and encrypt with TrueCrypt or Axcrypt sensitive/private files before uploading them. I use the same encryption for some files on Dropbox.

The most secure I use, but least flexible is Wuala by LaCie the Swiss manufacturer of backup/nas and Bluray/DVD drives. Storage is in Switzerland and subject to strict Swiss privacy laws that make EU and US privacy look weak. All encryption is done on your PC so if you loose/forget your password you loose your data. You get 5GB free. This one is set up just to look like another hard drive on your PC but it can’t be mapped to a folder and unless you load it automatically at boot up, it sometimes doesn’t use the same drive letter which makes it difficult to use in automated scripts.

Another I have tried but didn’t find as convenient is SpiderOak and is expensive for more than the free 2GB and is clearly targeting business users.

One of the most useful features of cloud storage I find is getting access to the information from multiple devices including smart phone and tablet when I’m away from home, for this Dropbox and SkyDrive are the easiest to use. Also for sharing large files that exceed the size limit for some email servers (which can be as low as 1MB and often 5MB).

As has been said before you generally don’t know where your data is being stored, even which country, you don’t know who has access to the encryption keys/passwords and you don’t know how long they might be in business. Wuala is the only one where you have the only encryption key and data is stored in Switzerland. Make sure that you keep copies of everything within your own systems, but don’t get paranoid. The cloud is a convenience if you are aware of its limitations.

I help many retired folk with their computing needs and have found the biggest problem with those on Office 2003 is handling .docx and .xlsx files. Most have the compatibility pack installed but that doesn’t always work opening email attachments directly, no problem if they remember to save them first. Lately I have switched most of them to Libre Office 4 because they found it difficult to justify spending GBP90+,(USD150) for the current version. Libre Office looks like Office 2003 but can handle all the formats like Office 2013. A few users I also changed over from XP to Linux at the same time so they could eke out a few more years out of their 256MB or 512MB PC without getting into setting tar motion.
My personal opinion is to choose between amortizing the cost of updating to the current version with the relearning required or updating to one of the free options, my choice Libre Office 4. Staying with Office 2003 with the compatibility pack is not a good option, not because of security issues, but file compatibility issues.

I have bought 3 SSDs over the last couple of years for use in my main PC. The first was a Crucial m4 64GB. I found it good for the first few months then I experienced the occasional lockup which it always recovered from with a power down and was back online in a minute or so. The drive became rather full so I then got a SanDisk SSDP-128G and I cloned my existing system to it using Macrium Reflect. This took about 20 minutes all together to be up and running again including expanding the partition into the full space. At this time I decided to move the swap space onto my HDD. The SanDisk has performed flawlessly since 9th March until I decided to replace it with a Sandisk 256GB Ultra Plus on 19th July as I had nearly filled the 128GB. My SSDs get worked fairly hard with testing software and production of presentations and I have never had a failed SanDisk NAND product out of the 25 or 30 I have purchased over the past few years. I suspect that the Intel 256GB is using the SanDisk chip with the Marvel controller although I have not looked inside, if so it is probably the same performance and reliability as the SanDisk Extreme II.

I know that Windows 8 Home no longer has the Advanced Appearance settings dialog which was present in most all of the prior versions of Windows. Does anyone know how to at least change the window background color from bright white to perhaps a light silver? Is this customizable in other versions of Windows 8, like in the Enterprise Edition?

I also find the bright white background harsh. My workaround is a little tedious and counter intuitive but worked for me.
Right click on the desktop and select personalise. Then I selected High Contrast White. Then you have access under “Color” to all the color controls, that is the bit that can be tedious to get a combination that is acceptable. Lastly select Desktop background then the Picture Location, I found that selecting “DesktopBackground” it picked the one I had been using previously.