4 Important Applications for Windows Laptop

Having a laptop is really cool, and can be a great way to build your career and enjoy your life. One thing about laptops, or any other computer for that matter, though, is that they can’t just operate on their own, and for you to really get the best from them you have to install a few applications on them.


I have been using laptops for years now and I’m always on the lookout for new and cool applications to install on my laptop. Over time, I have noticed some applications to be more important than others and I think there are some applications every laptop owner can hardly do without. If you own a laptop, below are 4 applications you need to have installed on your laptop.


Open Office


The first application you should install on your laptop is Open Office. The great thing about it is that it is available for both Windows and Mac, but since this post is focused on Windows let’s continue. Open Office is a great alternative to Microsoft Office for Windows users, and while it is easy to just have Microsoft Office installed I think Open Office is better. Why? You get a lot more features than Microsoft Office, and it is completely free. It also has an option that allows you to convert your documents into PDF, and the great thing about it is that it also opens Microsoft Office
Documents.





Prey


The next application on this list that I think every Windows Laptop owner needs to install is the Prey software application. It is a laptop monitoring application that makes it easy for you to track your laptop wherever it is in the world, and it also provides you with several options, including the option to be able to use your Webcam to take screenshots when your laptop is being tracked. The great thing about the Prey software is that, like Open Office, it is completely free.


Avast


Avast is a very solid software application that works as both an antivirus and a firewall, and it provide great security to laptop users. By installing Avast on your laptop you will be able to protect it from being infected by a virus and you will be automatically notified whenever your laptop is in potential danger. The Avast antivirus can be got for free, and you can also use a premium and more sophisticated version if you think that is what you need.


Darkroom


The final software on this list is the Darkroom software. While you might not have heard of it before, it is a software application tailored towards those who use their computers regularly for a lot of writing, and its main purpose is to help writers focus on the task at hand. Darkroom is a simple, plain-text, writing software, and it also has an option for you to use it in full-screen mode thereby cutting all distractions away. Darkroom is also a completely free software.

Angry Birds for Windows (Download)

The most popular game in the iOS (Apple’s operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) App Store,Angry Birds, is now available for Windows as a standalone game.

It costs $4.95 but you can download a free demo from the link below. It works with Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download It Here:

http://download.angrybirds.com/

How to Prevent Website Copiers

If you have a good website some people may steal your design and/or text.

How to find out if your site has been copied:

Copy some specific text from your site e.g. one of your well written sentences.

Visit www.google.com

Paste your text into the search box (between quote marks ie: "your text here") and hit 'Search'.

You will see a list of sites with that exact text.

Check them out to see if they have blatantly copied your text and/or design.

What do about site copyers:

Make sure it is blatant copying e.g. lots of your text or design - things that they couldn't come up with by chance.

Inform them that you are onto them.

Find the earliest record of your site at: www.archive.org (this is a historical record of websites) it shows when you created your text / design.

Tell them to remove your content from their site.

You can: Report them to theira host and the search engines; talk to your solicitor about it.

1.) Get their IP with: http://www.samspade.org (or similar service).

2.) Then from the IP get their host with: http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html

3.) Report them to their host with a link to your site originality at http://www.archive.org 

Common Types of Internet Scams

• Internet and Email Scams
• More internet and email scams.
• Lottery win scam
• You receive an email (fax or letter) to say you have won a substantial amount in a lottery. However you have to pay to get the money. Guess what happens to the money you pay...
• Cancer fundraising scam email 
• You receive an email: This person is suffereing from cancer.... Go to this website... buy $100+ of products there... all sales commissions will go towards treatment... No it doesn't, your money goes to the pond-life scammer!
• Renew domain name scam
• Owners of a domain name receive a letter to say renew it urgently by sending a cheque/payment to this company (a company you have never heard of).

Steps of Computer Security

• You must run quality security software on your computers to protect your work and private data from viruses, spyware, and other security threats. When it comes to security, there is no substitute for quality. See below our recommended quality solutions. If any of the following is difficult for you, get an IT Expert to do it for you. You must do the following or risk all of your work/data being compromised (think of it as locking your front door):
• Get good anti virus software e.g. one of the below.
• Recommended anti virus software:
• - AVG - Our most recommended Antiv Virus software.
• - Norton Anti virus
• - McAffee Anti Virus
• - Sophos Anti Virus
• 
  
• Be sure to regularly update your 'virus definitions' e.g. once per week
• Install a quality Firewall 

• There are many firewalls available, some good, some bad. Our recommendation is the FREE ZoneAlarm. They provide a paid version with extra tools (of course), but we think the free firewall-only option is fine. Its getting harder on their site to see the free one (so look carefully!). At time of writing, go here, scroll down and click the free option. If the above link doesn't work, start looking from the Zone Alarm front page.
• Install an anti-spyware application 
• There are many available, some good, some bad. Our recommendation is the FREE: Spybot - Search & Destroy. Download here, and find Spybot info here.
• Email Attachments: BEWARE OF ATTACHMENTS. Do not open email attachments you are not expecting. Viruses come with some very nasty messages to trick you into opening the attachement e.g. "Your email account has been cancelled, see attachment for details". Even worse, the virus looks like it comes from an email address you recognise e.g. from admin@yourDomain.com (where 'your domain' is the domain name that you use). Virus attachments can have the following 'file extension': .exe, .pif. If you receive a .zip attachment and open it - make sure it doesn't contain a file with one of those extensions. Do not open attachments you haven't requested, even if they appear to be from people you know.