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Well all you Skype users out there, now you are the new target for the hackers.

Why is it that everything Microsoft lay their hands on becomes a security nightmare in no time at all. Seems that Skype has become very leaky these days. It's a good job they don't make buckets or wellington boots.

More about this, and other Skype fiascos can be read on the Infoworld website here.

Did you know Skype is one of the most blacklisted apps on the market. What does this mean? It's so bad that many school kid hackers can manipulate it to reveal just about anything about you.

It could be argued that Skype has had security issues for years, maybe so but that isn't a good enough reason to accept such sloppiness from a company like Microsoft who are FORCING you to use it in preference of Messenger to the extent of withdrawing Messenger altogether.

Messenger was bad but Skype is a lot worse which begs the question. Whose side are Microsoft on; yours or the hackers?

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You've just bought a wonderful brand new computer with the latest offering from Mr Bill Gates' company - Windows 8 - and found that you now wish you'd never seen it. You're not on your own so don't think it's just you. Many tech guys hate it just as much because it is so unproductive in a business environment (see previous Windows 8 entry).

How can you get rid of that awful Operating System the guy in the shop said was so wonderful (did you know he gets paid to tell you that). Well, it is possible but such a great pain in the proverbial so we're not going to bother in this article, maybe later. Apart from being a big pain, removing that awful mishmash of an OS will also invalidate your warranty, so what we're going to do is make this awful system a bit more manageable. It will still be Windows 8 with all the 'wonderful' gadgets it has but you will be able to actually use it on your Laptop and Desktop machine without all the cursing and swearing. That's nice then.

OK, how do we go about it then? Well, when we start our computer, or should that be wake it up (Windows 8 doesn't actually turn off the computer - that's why it starts so fast) the Modern UI (or Metro as it was) is wonderful for touch screen devices but useless if you're using a mouse and keyboard so we need to bypass that and go straight to the desktop that we're all familiar with. To do this, you can download a little free utility called WinAero that will do just that. There are probably other downloads that will do the same thing but this is the one that I used and so far, no complaints.

WinAero will take you straight to the classic desktop, bypassing the Modern UI allowing us to get on with being productive in a way that works - almost. There is something very important missing from the desktop - access to your program list - the Start button! With WinAero, you can disable the hotspot corners rather than just hiding them, including that silly little start screen.

But if I don't have a start button or start screen, how do I access my programs. Have you tried accessing you programs from the desktop in Windows 8 - you can't - so this needs a little fix as well.

To resolve the problem of accessing programs, I used a little utility called Classic Shell. Classic Shell gives us the the 'missing' start button back with a few general improvements into the bargain. It even allows us to choose what style of start menu to have from the classic style of Win98/2000/ME or WinXP or Win7 - witwoo.

There we have it. A way to 'tame' that Windows 8 machine of yours without breaking the bank, without losing your warranty and without losing your sanity. I would rate this task somewhere between easy and moderate. I know some people who will faint at the prospect of doing something for themselves and class this as hard but it isn't if you can follow instructions.

Both of these handy utilities are free at the time of writing and instructions on how to instal them is available on the respective owners/websites and elsewhere on the internet. I have no connection whatsoever with any of the programs mentioned in this article and can accept no responsibility if anything goes wrong if you try this yourself. I am simply providing a solution to a problem that was brought to me by one of my clients. You can try this yourself or call me and I'll do it for you at my normal rates.

All registered names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Well, that's a very good question, and here's another. Why did Steven Sinofski, head of the Windows division at Microsoft, leave just a few weeks after the launch of Windows 8?

To many of us, Windows 8 is a miracle, it's an operating system that takes advantage of touch-screen technology and plants that firmly on your desktop machine or laptop. But that is just the problem! Who has a touch-screen desktop machine or laptop? Not the average Joe on the street so why are Microsoft blowing their trumpet extolling the virtues of something that very few people can make use of.

To the rest of us, it's a miracle that it ever made the light of day it's so bad.

Windows 8 is the new Vista. It does not satisfy the demands of the man-in-the-street with his good old tower system sat under the desk, nor does it help those with a laptop. Windows 8 is actually counter-productive in as much as it takes more clicks to perform an action than it did in 7, Vista or XP and this is called progress.

Ah, but you can always use the desktop function I hear you cry. Well, yes you can but you still can't access a lot of the stuff you could before AND there is no start button to access the programs on your PC. A system designed so you can't access your programs, what's that all about?!?! And while you're on your familiar desktop, try uninstalling a program - you can't; at least not without using the new interface, Metro, or is it Modern UI. You never know, they might call it dominoes next ;-)

Windows 8 is really 2 different systems bolted together in the worst possible way because neither system talks to the other - a bit like Microsoft and Apple I guess. Just launch your favourite internet browser in the Modern UI (that's Metro) and go to a website, any old website, it doesn't matter. Now take that to your desktop and voila; your browser might be open but it's not showing your webpage. Now flick back to Metro and there it is. Now you see me, now you don't. How useless is that!

I have customers who went against my recommendation and bought a laptop with wonderful Windows 8. A month on with much swearing and cursing they've asked me to get rid of Windows 8 and install Windows 7 simply because - Windows 8 does not work well on your standard desktop or laptop machine. Just as I said it would before it was released!

Windows 8 should have been an OS purely for Tablet PCs and Phones; it should have been kept well away from 'normal' PCs altogether and not allowed to become the Frankenstein monster it is. It is so intuitive, in order to scroll to the right, you actually scroll down.       Exactly!

To show you that I'm not alone in this line of thinking, check out this YouTube video here.

For those who've got Windows 8 and are really struggling who would like some normality bringing back to their PC, I'll be doing another article telling you how I sorted out the machine mentioned here.

Bye for now.
This article is personal opinion.
All registered names and trademarks acknowledged.

Well, it seems that seeing as Microsoft now have two messenger programs (Live & Skype) they are going to pull the plug on Live Messenger on March 15 2013.

Well, to be honest, that's no great loss cos it was a pretty bad program anyway but it is better than their alternative in this department, Skype. Why are they forcing this on us, well, they recently spent $8.5 Billion to buy Skype, so they're gonna make you use it whether you want to or not.

Then again, you'll only use it if you don't know that there are a whole lot of equally useful messenger programs out there including called Facebook, Yahoo, Pidgin and a whole lot more. Time and time again I hear that old chestnut "don't like yahoo messenger" (or any other non-microsoft system). When asked why, they don't know because someone else has told them what to think. They are simply passing on other peoples ignorance and prejudice and just don't WANT to try anything else because Fred down the bar says so. Does Fred know about these things? Well, he spends a lot of time in the bar spouting crap and he's the local bar room barrister and he seems to know what he's talking about so I guess he does - not! If Fred had another brain cell, it'd be lonely.

Anyway, back to topic. What's going to happen on "D" day when Messenger is killed off. Here's a few snippets from their FAQ:
“On March 15, 2013 we are retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except for mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available) and bringing the great features of Messenger and Skype together,” the email alert reads, noting that if you “upgrade” to Skype, you can continue messaging your Messenger contacts via the Skype network.

“Messenger will continue to work as you know it today,” the FAQ notes. “If you are signed in with Messenger on your desktop you will see a banner notification to upgrade. When you click on the banner, an installer window will open with the request to upgrade. This will take you through our installer flow to install Skype and automatically uninstall Messenger.” Oh dear!

“After March 15, Messenger users on desktops will not be able to sign in and will only be able to upgrade to Skype,” the FAQ continues. “If you attempt to sign in, a notification will appear, and if you continue, you will be taken through our installer flow to install Skype and automatically uninstall Messenger at the same time.”

Seeing as this must have been in the pipeline for some time, it's curious as to why Microsoft decided to include its' Live messenger program in Windows 8. Perhaps it's because Skype didn't do the messenger part too well or have all the features of messenger. Well, it's closer now than it's ever been but what gets me is Microsoft keep upgrading my copy of Skype even though I have it set up not to upgrade. This must be illegal as they do this against my will and without my permission.

Personally, I've never used Microsofts' messenger program for the same reason I never use Hotmail. It's hacked to death and Microsoft can't secure it. I am constanly getting emails from my clients' hotmail accounts that have been compromised and I've had many clients who have lost their hotmail accounts because someone has broken into it and changed the password. Not normally an issue if you can prove you own the account but the majority had someone else set it up for them and they don't know any of the security information.

Now here's the best part, they then ask me to set a new one up for them. WHY! Because they've suddenly gone from being a clever clogs to a day one novice who knows nothing. Hold on guys, isn't this why you called me in - because somebody else set up your email account and you expect me to know what the passwords are and the answers to YOUR security questions?

There you have it, March 15, 2003 marks the death knoll for Windows Live Messenger.
Windows Live Messenger is dead! Long live Yahoo Messenger!

Just a quick post to let everyone know we will not be taking calls from 5th May 2013 until 21st May 2013 inclusive as we will be on holiday. We will be open for calls again on the 22nd May.

We are having a well earned break, not having done so for over 2 years. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will, of course, still be monitoring our telephone networks and will be in a position to remedy any problems should there be any.

Are our friends at Microsoft trying to alienate everyone? It seems like it sometimes.

Their latest escapade involves pulling support for Asterisk. Never heard of it? Don't worry, you're not on your own.

Asterisk is the platform that the majority of voip servers run on. What does this mean for Skype users?

Well, you will still be able to Skype people, you will still be able to call telephones at over-inflated pay-as-you-go rates (substantially dearer than mine), you will still be able to send instant messages to each other. In fact, most of you will still be able to do all the stuff you've always done with Skye - even though you've never actually needed it because you've always had software on your PC that can do all that anyway. Skype simply jumped the lead by telling lies, by convincing people they were making free telephone calls that weren't actually telephone calls - they never actually used a telephone!. It is simply a messenger program just like Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger (and a multitude of others).

So how does the lack of Asterisk support affect you?

Well, there are many thousands of people out there who have been using VoIP for many years alongside their Skype setup then all of a sudden, Skype is VoIP compatible. Wahayyy, lets run everything through Skype says many of these. Lets keep everything under one umbrella and make things easy. And why not indeed. Making things easy saves money - of course it does.

Wrong! What these people forgot to remember is that we're dealing with Microsoft here. A little history lesson for newcomers to computing. Once upon a time, there was a little person called Xerox. Now Xerox designed an ingenious little gadget that we now call a mouse. Around the same time as Xerox designed this wonderful little gadget, there was another little man we now call Apple that "borrowed" Xeroxs' mouse for their equally ingenious device called a computer that had a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Then there was another little man called Microsoft who saw this GUI and "borrowed" it, called it Windows. He then paid computer manufacturers to put it on their computers. The rest is history.

So back to our little story. The nice man called Mr Microsoft decided, one day, to buy an idea called Skype, probably with the intention of creating something else because he didn't really need Skype. He only bought it because they got the jump on Mr Microsoft making his "wonderful" messenger program next to redundant and that really peed him off.

Mr Microsoft, now having taken away one source of competition, decides to go for the next; VoIP. How better to do this than make his offering compatible, entice all the VoIP/Skype users to buy in to his idea, get them to make all the investment in going Skype, then pull the plug on VoIP. Voila, a whole new captive audience.

I hadn't intended this to be a Microsoft bashing item but try as I might, I find it difficult for it not to be. If we look at the Microsoft track record in their wonderful operating system, we find a string of rubbish. Bring back DOS, nothing fancy, and it works for computers. Come to think of it, so does Unix. Which leads me into Linux (but that's a subject for another article).


All comments in this article are those of the writer and may contain unintentional errors. Some areas may be over-simplified for ease of reading. All registered names and trademarks acknowledged.

Please forgive the repetition of this article but it seems people read it then ignore it because I'm still getting calls from people who should know better.

The Microsoft scam is where you receive an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, or some firm or other and they may even say they're Microsoft certified or working with Microsoft. THIS IS A LIE! They will go on to say something like your pc is sending them error reports and is about to have a major breakdown and they need to sort it out for you (for your credit card details). Check they're talking about a Windows pc.

One line of defence is to ask them which pc they're referring to as you have 3 running, ask them for the IP address of the one they want to inspect.. Even if they give you an IP address (they generally fall within a certain range but can vary by brand) tell them none of yours has that address. After you've got them tied up with that line you could then tell them that your pc is running Linux Ubuntu, not Windows so they must be wrong.

They are only calling because most people run Windows. 

They might even say they got your phone number from your pc registration but if you brought it from the UK, they didn't - did they!?!?!?!?!?

The best advice I can give anyone getting one f these calls is to tell them your phone isn't near the pc and can they call back on your mobile. Once they've called you on your mobile, just tell them you're going to your pc now and put the phone down somewhere but don't hang up. Leave them hanging on the line clocking up a nice bill.

Please use your intelligence, who is going to ring you up to tell you your pc is about to break down? I don't know of anyone because nobody really knows when your pc is going to break but if you want to pay me €180, I'll sort it out for you just like they will!

Microsoft will never ring you so don't be taken in by Kevin calling from India - he's a liar.

Remember, do not give your details to anyone who cold calls you for ANYTHING, it's probably a scam.

All brand names and registered trade marks mentioned in this article are the property of their respective owners.