aRGee Computers

If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft or claiming that there is a problem with your computer... HANG UP!

Unfortunately, some of our clients have fallen prey to this scam and if you don't pay the $199.00 they ask for they will password protect your computer . Once this password is in place it is impossible to access your computer.

Please pass this on to the older members of your family or workplace. It seems that the older folks are being targeted. If this happens to someone you know, all is not lost. We have successfully recovered the data and remediated the issue in all cases so far.

New Virus Alert. An email containing a serious virus surfaced this week. The email purported to be from the IRS. It claims that your federal tax payment was rejected and contains a link. DO NOT CLICK the link. The email appears to be from [email protected] and the link goes to www.cubby.com... If you see anything that resembles any of these items delete it immediately. It also contained the full name of the recipient. If you have any doubts to the authenticity of any IRS email correspondence we suggest calling your local IRS office.

DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER... That is the latest memo from Microsoft. We have always advocated using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. I know this makes a problem for our realtors and some healthcare professionals but please use IE only for the specific website that only work with it. For all other purposes use an alternate browser.

Attention CA Security Suite Users: It is important to keep your system protected in order to ensure its safety and longevity. If you notice the CA icon in your system tray is marked with a Red X or Yellow Exclamation mark (!) action is needed on your part. Right click the icon & choose “fix now”. If that doesn’t fix it or if your icon is missing please call us right away.

Due to the recent issues we have encountered with USB Flash Drives we strongly suggest that you make a back up of your important files and documents to a CD or DVD. There are many viruses that can render you unable to access or retrieve your files so simply burning your My Documents folder to a DVD can save you time and money!

We are currently urging our customers to refrain from transferring data with USB Flash Drives as we have seen nearly a dozen cases of virus transfer due to the use of these drives in multiple computers. We recommend for the time being to use CD or DVD media to transfer and store data to greatly reduce the risk of virus transfer.

Please be careful when opening emails of unknown origin. There are some very serious virus' going around that require replacement of the hard drive and memory to clean. It's a very expensive fix for something that might be prevented.

We have recently come across an issue where some of our customers are obtaining Viruses after they update their Adobe products. If you need to update one
of your Adobe products we recommend that you visit the official Adobe
website in order to download your update as opposed to clicking any
pop-up windows or balloons that prompt you to update your software.

ATTENTION to all readers! Adobe’s FLASH plug-in offers a McAfee installation that can interfere with several different programs, most importantly, your currently installed anti-virus software! We HIGHLY recommend that if and when you install Flash for your internet browser that you click the check box that offers this installation in order to maintain this highest level of security and functionality on your computer.

We are noticing that almost all of the computers that have been coming into our shop with serious infections have the Google Toolbar installed. We had a similar problem last year with the Yahoo toolbar and are recommending that you uninstall it through your add/remove programs control panel. You can still use Google as your default search engine by using the drop down box next to the search box and selecting Google.

BEWARE!!!... of alerts claiming your computer is infected. There is a rash of Rogue Antivirus Software hitting the internet. The Rogue tricks you into believing your computer is infected. DO NOT CLICK ON THE POPUP!!! Not even in the X box. Use Alt F4 to close the box. If you have any doubt that the alert is from your own Anti-Virus software close the box, launch your software, and run full scans of the C: drive.

Let's talk about Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software... First of all, make sure you have both. You are not fully protected unless you have a product that contains both of these combined or two individual products. Second, make sure you know which products you have installed and when their expiration dates are. DO NOT let them expire.