They slow your computer down, they ask for your money annually and they rate no better than various free products when compared by AV-comparitives.org. If you have an ongoing relationship with Norton or McAfee, it’s time to break up. Happily, both companies provide free software for doing just that.

Most people who have Norton or McAfee found the software on their computer when they bought it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s important to get a working anti-virus onto a new computer as quickly as possible – but the default software on your computer isn’t necessarily the best. Just ask any former IE user who today uses Google Chrome or Firefox.

Removing Norton and McAfee’s products has a tendency to leave a lot of crap behind, even if you go through the proper channels offered in your control panel. Both companies acknowledge this, and both offer removal tools for the complete uninstallation. If you’re looking to learn how to remove Norton or McAfee and replace them with something free and effective, you’ve found the right article.

Before you do anything you should probably disconnect from the Internet. Leaving a Windows computer connected to the web without protection can be dangerous. That’s why I recommend you read through the guide, download what you need to download and then follow the steps below.

Getting Started

Both Norton and McAfee recommend that you remove your program through the control panel before running their tools. I’ve found that simply running the tool is enough, but if you like playing by the rules you might as well do this first.

• Click your start button, then click “Control Panel“. Click “Add or Remove Programs” if you run XP, or “Uninstall a Program” if you’re using Vista/7. Find the program(s) you need to remove, then uninstall it!

• This may take a while, or in some cases may fail completely. Don’t panic; we’re only halfway through the process.

Completely Remove Norton

Are you a soon-to-be-ex-Norton-user? Congratulations! What you need now is the Norton Removal tool. The best product Norton offers, this program will completely remove all Norton-related software from your computer (including shortcuts and annoying toolbars).

Click here to download the Norton removal tool, then run the executable. You’ll see something that looks like this:

Follow the on-screen directions, mostly clicking “next“, to rid yourself forever of all Norton leftovers. You may have to prove you’re human by typing a few lines of text, but for the most part this is painless. Best of all: when you’re done there’s no sign left on your computer of Norton’s existence.

Completely Remove McAfee

If you’re trying to remove McAfee you’re going to need a different piece of software: the McAfee Cleanup Tool. This program will remove everything to do with McAfee from your computer, and is by far the best product they offer. It does exactly what it says it will do.

Go ahead and click here to download the McAfee removal tool. Run this executable and it will take care of the rest!

Install Something Better

Looking for a better piece of anti-virus software? I myself really love Microsoft Security Essentials, for three reasons: first, it offers great protection; second, it features a really clean and simple user interface; third, it will never ever ask you for money.

But read the comments below and you’ll quickly discover not everyone agrees with me. Check out their recommendations, and be sure to check out our list of the top ten free anti-virus programs if you still need ideas.

Can anyone offer links to tools for completely removing other annoying bits of software?  If so, please share them below.

Article By MAKEUSEOF

It is a well known fact that a high percentage of identity thefts are done by family, friends (I use this word loosely) and acquaintances.  We’ve all heard the cases where someone who the victim knows gets a hold of their personal information somehow and wreaks havoc with their credit.  This can be done several ways including getting a hold of credit card offers (or other personal mail), snooping in purses or wallets, and even snooping on the victim’s computer.

A lot of those incidents can be avoided simply by taking care of your personal items.  Computers are no exception.

There are ways how to tell if someone has been on your computer and to keep prying eyes away from your computer in your home.  You can secure it with a USB drive, Windows logon password, or even a BIOS password.  You can also lock programs and even word documents.  However, as with most security attempts, there’s usually a way around them.  Security is basically a deterrent and the more work you make for a snoop, the less likely you are to become a victim.

OK, so you’ve taken precautions, to the best of your ability, to keep snooping people off your home computer but for some reason you believe someone’s been on there anyhow.  Did you know there are ways to tell if someone’s been on there and, to an extent, what they’ve been up to?  Your job of snooping on this snoop can be either difficult or easy, depending on how well they cover their tracks.  Let’s go through some methods of snooping on a snoop.

Check Recent Items Opened

Depending on your Windows version, you have a menu item named something similar to “Recent Items.”  This is a quick and easy way to tell what files have been opened recently.  Be aware that if the snoop has his head on straight, he could clear this.  However, if it’s cleared, you know someone has been on there, too.

Check Recently Modified Files

You can search for recently modified files in the advanced search window.  Just set the location to search (all hard drives might be a good start) and the date you want to search back to.

Make sure you set it to search for “Date modified.”

Check Which Programs Have Been Opened Recently

Some Windows versions give you a list of recently used programs as soon as you click on the Start button (meant to make them more accessible).

You can also use the Event Viewer for some recent activity, including programs opened and the last time the computer was booted up.  Go to the start menu and click “Run” and type “eventvwr.msc” and click “OK.”

For more help figuring out how to use the Event Viewer, check out this article by Saikat which explains how to use it to solve Windows problems.  It’ll help you get a handle on the viewer which will help you in finding out what a snoop could have been up to.

Check Internet Browsing Histories

What browsers do you have on your computer?  Check them all for Internet activity to see if someone’s been going online with it.  In Firefox, there is a History menu item.

In Google Chrome you click on the picture of the wrench at the top-right corner of the screen and click History in the dropdown menu.

In Internet Explorer, click the yellow star and choose the History tab.

Many snoops are smart enough to clear the browsing history.  Nowadays on some browsers they can choose which history to delete or go completely incognito and browse privately altogether.  It is for these reasons that this method will work only for the careless snoop.

Install Tracking Software

If you are wondering if there is an ongoing problem, install tracking software.  Varun mentions visikid in an article about parental control software.  You can also use other software such as K9 Web Protection to see a log of internet activity and even turn off the internet during specified times.  Then there is the infamous keylogger (which often gets a bad rap because hackers often use them for gathering information) for keeping up with snoops on your personal computer.

So if you are suspecting that a visitor (or even a current resident) of your home is snooping and you are fearing something bad (like your ID being stolen) is going to happen, now you have 5 routes to take to make sure nothing wrong is going on.  This way you can curtail it before the bad stuff happens.

via MakeUseOf

Tinkernut is a great site for how to videos on everything in PC land. They make quality videos with simple language. Anyway, they recently got hacked and decided to share how to make things secure so it doesn’t happen again.

You need to spend time protecting you PC from hackers and other nasties. Believe me, its time well spent. It is always a matter of when, not if you get hacked.

Have a look at this video for some straight forward tips on defending your geek life.

Take a moment and think about all of the sensitive data kept on your computer.  Account passwords, addresses, phone numbers, access to bank accounts and other financial services, and maybe even your social security number.  Almost every aspect of your identity is kept on this little machine.  Now imagine you want a new one.  So, you go out and buy a shiny new laptop.  What do you do with the old one?  Just toss it, right?

Wrong!  If you just throw out your old computer, all of that personal information is still available to any tech-savvy thief.  Merely deleting a file in the traditional fashion will not truly “delete” it.  With a few techniques, a file sent to the recycle bin and emptied can be recovered if the deletion was recent enough.

So how can you erase a hard drive completely?  Well, there a few techniques that anyone can employ to protect their identity.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that the following software and techniques will ERASE your hard drive and you will not be able to get your data back.  That’s the whole point.

Formatting

Most people’s first instinct would be to just reformat their drive to get rid of data.  But there are all sorts of formatting that can be done.

First, you can perform what is called a high level format.  Sometimes, this is referred to as a quick format.  This method is not secure seeing as it only erases the boot sector and partition table, thus leaving all of the other files intact and accessible through purpose built software.

There is also low level formatting, referred to officially as “disk reinitialization.”  This process goes through your disk and sets values to zero and will erase a hard drive completely.

For more advanced users, you can also change the number of passes that the format goes through.  The more passes, the more secure it will be because the format goes through the disk the specified number of times and writes over the information with junk.

As you would expect, more passes take more time, but more passes means your data is better scrambled and harder to recover.

This process sounds like it would do the trick, but there are some catches.  If you use a different file system than the one used to originally format the disk, or if you have multiple partitions, not all of your data will be thoroughly erased.

Thus, formatting the disk is not the preferable way to really, securely erase your data.  Instead, there are some freeware tools you can use to make sure your information is gone.

If you do want to go the reformat route, MakeUseOf already has some good articles on how to do that here and here.  You may have to use your OS disk, or software that came with your drive to perform the format you want.

Darik’s Boot And Nuke

If you checked out Varun’s article linked above, you’ll notice he mentions Darik’s Boot and Nuke.  Let’s take a closer look at that tool.

DBAN, as it is shortened, is a nice little application that lets you completely erase your data.  You can download it for Intel/AMD machines and Apple Power Mac machines by clicking “Downloads” at the top of the home page.  You should see the following.

Download the ISO for your system and burn it to a disk.  Next, pop the disk into your hard drive and boot from it.  This may require you to press F12 at the BIOS screen (the first screen you see when your computer boots up) and choose to boot from your CD/DVD drive.  After the CD boots up, you should see the following.

Hit Enter and the program should boot a few things up before settling on the next screen.

Hit Space when the arrow is pointing at the disk you want to wipe and hit F10 to start the process.  The process will start and you should see something like this.

Let it run through the whole process and you should get a screen letting you know the process was successful.

DBAN is easy and performs well.  There are other options to get rid of your data for good.

Get Physical

The absolute best way to make sure your data is completely gone is to just destroy the drive.  Clearly, this is only an option if you are going to dispose of the drive afterwards.

There are a few ways to go about this.  You could get some high powered magnets and wipe the drive a few times with them.  This scrambles all the data that is written magnetically on the disk.

Another option is to wail on the drive a few times with a hammer.  Please remember to wear proper safety accessories such as safety glasses when using tools.

Finally, you can always take the drive apart to make sure the disk gets completely demolished.  To do this though, you will probably need a special T9 torx screwdriver.  Or, you can try to simply pry the thing apart, but please, as before, use proper safety measures.

On top of making sure you completely sure your information is gone, this can work out to be a good stress reliever.

Now you have the tools to make sure your identity is safe if you want to get rid of an old hard drive.  Know of any other tools or methods?  Let us know in the comments below.

[itk-eticker]via MakeUseOf[/itk-eticker]

Everyone gets stung at some point. Some more than others. And for some, it does much more damage. How can you protect yourself whilst shopping online? Here are some tips and some stories that help build the picture.

Later in the week I will write something on what you can do if you are ripped off.