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Microsoft never calls you to notify you about your computer.
If you get a call regarding your computer, it is a fake call, they are just trying to cheat you, hang up!
If you get a message that your computer is infected and to call immediately a number, regardless how convincing the message is, do not fall for it. Sometimes you cannot get out of the message, you can always unplug the computer.
If you call and let them connect to your computer, the damage and risk they can infect on your computer can be tremendous.
Below are some articles that may help.
Be careful when clicking
those links
I got a couple of messages from readers who informed me that they had gone to
one of the Fav Links pages and clicked on a link on that page, which opened up
a pop-up window saying something like, "Congratulations! You've won an
iPod. You have 4 minutes to claim it."
Being smart folks, they didn't click that OK button and tried to close the
window, but couldn't. They had to shut down the browser in Task Manager. This
highlights the dangers that lurk out there on the web, even on legitimate web
sites. The hunt for "safe" fun links is one of the most challenging
parts of writing the newsletter each week. Often a page that doesn't reveal a
problem in one browser will have pop-ups in another (or in the same browser
version that's configured differently, or that's running on an OS that's
configured differently, and so forth). And sometimes, in between the time that
I write the content and the time that it's distributed to you, new elements
will be added to a site or the page will be changed altogether.
Always follow a few general rules of web safety: Don't click on pop-ups, no
matter how tempting (or intimidating) they might be. This includes those that
tell you you've won something, those that tell you that your computer is
infected, or even those that appear to be "just" advertising. If the
pop-up describes a product you find interesting, do a web search for it and
find out more about it that way. Also be careful about
closing those windows. Sometimes the X or Close button is designed to take you
to a site or download a file to your computer. Closing the windows via Task
Manager is always the safest route. Most browsers now include pop-up blockers,
but these don't work with all pop-ups. Nonetheless, enabling that feature will
prevent at least some of those annoying pop-ups.
“This is Microsoft Support” telephone scam – Computer ransom lockout
A
trend of the few years has been for scammers to contact computer owners directly
via telephone in the United States in an effort to
convince them that there is a problem with their PC and they’ll need to pay to
have it fixed. In general, these people cannot fix anything, and instead
they merely charge exorbitant fees for absolutely nothing. In other words, they
scam you.
The
call generally goes something like this:
1. A foreigner with a thick Indian accent
identifies himself as a member of Microsoft Support or similar.
2. He informs you that you have a number of critical problems with your PC and that you will
need to have it fixed.
3. To convince you, he offers to connect remotely
and pulls up your Event Log (eventvwr.msc). He
then filters for Warnings, Errors, and Critical events and uses that as
evidence that your PC will soon fail to work correctly if you do not pay him to
correct it.
The
astute among you have probably already sensed that something here is seriously
wrong, and it’s not your PC. It’s the fact that someone is calling you to
tell you there is a problem with your computer. No one will ever do that.
The only way they could possibly know there is a problem is by hacking or
guessing.
In
this case, it’s mere guesswork, and it’s not even correct most of the time. The
Event Log is supposed to log warnings and errors, and even on the
healthiest of PCs there are plenty of Error Events that can be safely ignored,
as they often don’t amount to anything. The important thing to remember is
to never trust someone who calls you about a problem with your
PC, and never, EVER let them connect remotely to your PC.
If
you do make the mistake of letting them connect, but
then you happen to get cold feet and refuse to pay the $180+ they request via
credit card, the next thing that happens isn’t pretty. This scammer proceeded
to actually follow through on his promise of the PC
“not working” if they don’t agree to have him fix it, and so in a few quick
steps, behind the user’s back, he enacted what is known as SysKey
encryption on the SAM registry hive.
SysKey
encryption is a little-known feature of Windows which allows administrators to
lock out access to the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) registry hive so that
login specifics cannot be stolen and the PC cannot be
accessed without knowing the proper credentials. The problem is, unlike other
scams, there is no way around the problem; you can’t simply remove the
password, as the actual SAM hive has been encrypted entirely by the process. If
your Windows installation has had SysKey activated,
you’ll see the following message:
Startup Password
This computer is configured to
require a password in order to start up. Please enter
the Startup Password below.
The
window which appears looks like this:
The
ONLY solution is to find a clean copy of the registry hives from before this
occurred. This scammer knew this, however, and as such, he took an extra step
to block any repair or recovery attempts: he deleted all System Restore
points on the machine, which normally house backup copies of the registry
hives.
Unfortunately for him,
I’m a much better technician. When the customer suspected foul play and decided to call me instead of proceeding, I
immediately instructed them to power off the PC. Here’s how I fixed the problem
without having to reinstall Windows
Remove Fake Warning from Microsoft Edge
Fake warnings and alerts are haunting some
Microsoft Edge users with sticky pop-up alerts. These pop-ups may vary from
simple software endorsements up to a highly fraudulent phone support scam. One
thing that terribly affects web browser is the malware’s ability to alter
Microsoft Edge settings that makes fake warnings to show up as a default page
or tab. The malware also freezes the current window to prevent users
from navigating away from the page.
To be able to process the loop when hijacking your home
page or tabs, malware constantly communicates to its server. This also gives
the hijacker to execute whatever script is used for the loop. Thus, you must
cease the communication between Microsoft Edge and the remote malware server.
1. Unplug your
Ethernet or LAN connector if you are on a wired network.
2. Turn off your
Wi-Fi Modem or Disconnect your if your Wireless access PC is connected
on a wireless network.
3. Close Edge browser. If
this is not possible, repeatedly hit Esc on the keyboard or click OK/Cancel
button on the hijacker window.
Option 2: Directly
Open Favorite Links on Edge Browser
1. Restart Windows 10
(do not open Microsoft Edge browser).
2. Go to your Favorites
folder. Typically it is on this location:
C:\Users\[Your Username]\Favorites\
3. Under the favorite
folder, double-click on any URL and it will open-up with Microsoft edge,
assuming it is your default browser.
4. As the browser
hijacker is still present on Microsoft Edge browser, you will still see it as
an added tab. DO NOT CLICK on the hijacker tab.
Clean Microsoft Edge
Shortcut Links
When the browser keeps
opening to unknown web pages containing fake warnings and alerts, chances
are, malware may have been hijacked the shortcut link. In these instances, try
opening Microsoft Edge browser through the default list of All Programs.
Also, checking and cleaning the shortcut links you always use to run Microsoft
Edge can help resolve the issue.
1. Point mouse
cursor to Microsoft Edge shortcut link icon you normally click to run the
browser.
2. Right-click and
then select Properties from the list.
3. Microsoft Edge browser
properties will appear.
4. Under Target
field, check if there are any extra strings pointing to a malicious web page.
Remove unnecessary strings and click on Apply.
5. Click on OK and
close the current window. You may now restart Edge browser.
6. Alternatively, you can
just delete affected Microsoft Edge shortcut links and create new ones
by going to Start > All Programs > Microsoft Edge, right-click and click
on Send > Desktop (Create shortcut) or Pin to Taskbar.
7. After going through
these process, you also need to clear Microsoft Edge browsing data. See
complete procedures below.
Option 5
: Use Windows Task Manager to Close Microsoft Edge
1. Press Ctrl +
Alt + Delete on your keyboard to run Task Manager.
2. Look for Edge
under Process tab.
3. Right-click
and select Go to Details.
4. Close all
instances of Edge browser currently running under Details tab.
5. Cleaning browsing data
after this process is a must. Follow the procedures below.
Lastly : Clear all Browsing Data
1. Open Edge browser if
it is not running.
2. Click “More actions”
(represented by …) at the top right corner of the browser.
3. Select Settings
from the drop-down list.
4. Under Settings, please
go to Clear browsing data.
5. Click on Choose
what to clear button.
6. Please select
necessary data and click on Clear to apply changes.
5. Click X on the
offending tab to close it.
6. You must clear all
browsing data by going through the procedures as stated below.
Safely Remove USB Drives Just by Unplugging Them
Most Windows users have become conditioned
over time to never unplug a USB flash drive or hard drive without first
clicking Safely Remove Hardware in the System Tray.
Why is that necessary? In theory, it's to
ensure that Windows isn't busy reading from or writing to the drive when you
remove it, something that could result in corrupted data or even a damaged
drive.
As it turns out, however, you can safely
sidestep Safely Remove Hardware with little to no loss of performance. In fact,
this option may already be enabled on your system, and you just didn't know it.
Yep, you may have been wasting extra clicks all this time.
Do this:
1. Plug your USB drive into your PC, then open
Device Manager..
2. Expand Disk Drives, then find the entry for
your removable drive. On my system, for example, it's called "USB2.0 Flash
Disk USB Device."
3. Right-click that entry, then click Properties.
4. Click the Policies tab; you should see
something like this:
5. If the first option, Quick removal,
is already selected, you're good to go. As noted in its description, "you
can disconnect the device safely without using the Safely Remove Hardware
notification icon." If Better performance is selected,
switch to Quick removal and click OK.
Wi-Fi doesn’t have valid IP configuration, how to fix it?
Solution 1 – Reset TCP/IP
One of the simplest
ways to fix this issue is to use netsh command. To do
that, follow these steps:
1. Start Command
Prompt as administrator. To do that press Windows
Key + X and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
2. When Command Prompt
opens, enter the following lines:
o netsh winsock
reset
o netsh int ip reset
3. Close Command
Prompt and restart your PC.
Users reported that
this solution usually fixes issues with IP configuration problem, but bear in
mind that if you use static IP address you’ll have to set it again. If
the previous commands didn’t work, you might want to try these commands as
well:
·
ipconfig /release
·
ipconfig /flushdns
·
ipconfig /renew
Solution 2 – Change wireless SSID and password
It was reported that
you can fix Wi-Fi doesn’t have valid IP configuration error by accessing
your modem and changing the wireless SSID and password. To do that, you’ll have
to connect your PC with your modem using Ethernet cable, access your modem and change
wireless SSID and password. For more details on how to do that, we strongly
suggest that you check your modem’s manual.
Solution 3 – Set the channel width to Auto
One suggested
solution is to set the channel width to Auto. To do that, follow these steps:
1. Press Windows
Key + X and select Network Connections from the menu.
2. When Network
Connections window opens, right click your wireless connection and choose Properties
from the menu.Click the Configure
button and go to the Advanced tab.
3. Locate 802.11n
Channel Width for band 2.4 and set it to Auto.
4. Click OK to
save changes.
·
READ ALSO: Anniversary Update doesn’t fix 5 Ghz
Wi-Fi issues
Solution 4 – Set your IP address manually
When you connect to
wireless network you’re usually
given an IP address. This process is done by DHCP, but if there’s an issue
with DHCP or with its configuration, you’ll get an IP configuration error. One
workaround that is suggested by users is to assign an IP address for your
device manually. To do that, follow these steps:
1. Press Windows
Key + X and choose Network Connections.
2. Right click your
wireless network and choose Properties from the menu.
3. Select Internet
Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click the Properties button.
4. When Properties
window opens, select the Use the following IP address option and enter
the IP address, Subnet mask and Default gateway. We used
settings that work for our configuration, but you might have to enter
different data. In addition, you’ll have to enter the DNS server manually. In our example we
used Google’s Public DNS, but you can also use 192.168.1.1 as your Preferred
DNS server.
5. After you’re done,
click the OK button.
Alternatively, you
can access your router and turn off DHCP and configure it to assign a static IP
address to your PC.
Solution 5 – Change the number of DHCP users
According to some
users, you can fix this problem by increasing the number of DHCP users. Some
routers are usually limited to 50 DHCP users, and this can cause Wi-Fi
doesn’t have valid IP configuration error to appear. To fix this issue you
need to access your router and increase the number of DHCP users manually.
Users reported that after increasing the number of DHCP users all issues were
resolved. To see how to increase the number of DHCP users on your router, be
sure to check its manual.
In addition, some
users also suggest that you can fix the problem with IP configuration by
increasing the number of maximum wireless users. Some routers are limited to
only 10 wireless users, and by increasing the maximum number of users the issue
was resolved.
Solution 6 – Perform a Clean boot
Some users claim
that you can fix this problem by performing a Clean boot. By using Clean
boot you’ll disable all third-party applications and services that might be
interfering with your wireless connection. To perform Clean boot
do the following:
1. Press Windows
Key + R on your keyboard and enter msconfig.
Press Enter or click OK.