House Call Computer - Computer Repair Service

04/27/2024

As many of your know Cox is giving all their email to Yahoo. If you sign in through webmail the change is not very big. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird your email will stop working. Cox and Yahoo did NOT send out information on how to Switch your email program to Yahoo. I know how to switch your email program to Yahoo. Call me at 949-481-3412

06/14/2023

I have had several experiences with Microsoft Onedrive not backing up files. I would not recommend using Onedrive as a primary backup method. I have also seen Microsoft's file history which is Microsoft's backup program for Windows 10 and 11 fail to backup to an external hard drive. If your going to use Microsoft's backup software check once a month to see if it's working. EaseUS Todo Backup has free version and has worked well for me.

12/31/2019

Many people know that Windows 7 will be unsupported by Microsoft as of Jan 14th. I can upgrade your PC to Windows 10. Erasing and reinstalling gives the best speed but many people have programs like office were the install disk may be lost. I can do a direct upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 without erasing the PC. All files and programs from Windows 7 stay intact except for a few that not Windows 10 compatible. Contact me if you need to upgrade your PC.

02/23/2019

Solid state state had drives (SSD'S) dramatically improved the speed of your computer. There is software that allows your current hard drive to copied to the SSD so no re-installation of software is needed. Contact me if you want to improve your computers speed.

09/15/2018

A customer of mine who's a senior citizen, had changed a pin number on his iphone. He did not remember the pin. We had to do a full reset on the phone which erases everything. Fortunately he had icloud turned on so everything was backed up. So many of us have become so dependant on our smart phone If we lose what's on the phone we're in trouble. Make sure your phone is backed up.

09/09/2017

A recent experience reminded of how important backups are. A customer had a computer they bought in 2011. They had a whole lot of family photos on it and business resumes as well. The computers hard drive failed, all the data is gone unless you send out for expensive clean room data recovery. Fortunately someone hooked up an external USB hard drive that was being used by Windows backup program. The program was backing up once a week for years. Everything they needed was on the external backup drive. Disaster averted. Contact me and I can help you protect all your important information.

06/25/2017

I have had another customer who got an unsolicited phone claiming the person had problems with their PC. All of the calls I have seen are to senior citizens. It looks like these crooks have a database of phone numbers for seniors. If you get one of these calls hang up.

06/25/2017

I had another service call were someone got an unsolicited phone call telling them they had computer trouble. The customer allowed the caller to remote access the PC. He declined to pay for the computer work the caller was suggesting. As a revenge the caller placed some kind of hack in the PC that made it come up to login screen I have not seen before. My customer could not login to his PC. I was able to remove the login screen. If you get an unsolicited phone call about your PC just hang up.

06/22/2017

I am seeing an explosion of fraudulent tech support issues for Windows PC's. Some people are getting pop ups or web pages that tell them something has expired and needs to be renewed. Someone I worked with recently got a pop up that the windows operating system has expired ( this never happens, windows is a one time purchase) Other people are getting fake web pages that a virus has infected their computer. Some people are getting fake messages that their antivirus needs to be renewed.
Lots of fraudulent phone calls are coming to people. One company called my mom and they were from Windows ( no such company) and saw that her computer has problems that needed fixing. If you get an unsolicited phone call about your computer just hangup. One customer recently got deceived by a company called Tech Kangaroos. Tech Kangaroos has created lots of websites that try to duplicate the look of legitimate software websites like Norton, Microsofts Office 365 website and Malwarebytes to name a few. If you call the phone number on the screen they will try to rip you off for a tech support contract. They will try to let you give them access to your computer. If you agree to buy their tech support, they install remote access software on your computer. My customer has me come and remove the software. I found a file on the computer that could be used break any remote access software being able to reach the computer. It looks like they were preparing to sabotage the computer at a future date. Perhaps if the customer changed their minds.

06/16/2017

Have you heard of Ransomware?



Teslacrypt finds document files like word and excel documents, PDF's, pictures or any data of use

to and encrypts the file with program that has pretty much unbreakable encryption. What this

means to you is your files are now all unusable. If your willing pay a ransom that might be $500

you might get your files back. The encryption hits every file you have access to including cloud

services like Dropbox. The only files that are safe offline files. This is a good reason to save your files to an external hardrive that is offline except during backups. The backup programs that save your files into a large backup file seem to be safe to leave connected to your computer for now. There is a program that can protect you from the current ransonware programs and there is a free version of the program. The program is called Cryptoprevent and the link is here

https://www.foolish*t.com/cryptoprevent-malware-prevention/

YES, this is the original CryptoLocker prevention tool you’ve read about, designed to prevent infection from the first “ransomware” threat which emerged in late 2013, encrypting v…