HMTech.ca

For security purposes, I always run as a limited user under Windows XP. Although it’s more secure to run Windows this way, it also causes a lot of inconveniences. One of which occurred earlier today, when I tried to disable XP’s autoplay feature.

Autoplay would scan my external hard drive every time I connected it to the computer. Not only is this annoying, it’s also a security risk, because autoplay could inadvertently execute malicious code on any external storage device that connects to my computer.

Autoplay scanning the external drive

After quickly searching Google, I found two solutions. Solution #1 is for WinXP Pro users and Solution #2 is for WinXP Home users.

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I’ve been using SquirrelMail to access my webmail for a couple of years now.  Over the past year, the number of spam messages I receive has been increasing steadily.

In an attempt to cut down on the number of spam messages entering my inbox, I enabled SpamAssasin from my Bluehost cPanel.

SpamAssassin in cPanel

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After successfully installing the free Cobian backup software (version 9) on a friend’s computer, I was annoyingly greeted by a re-occurring Windows popup balloon every time Windows Vista would start. The popup balloon above the system tray would say:

“Windows has blocked some startup programs…”

Windows Vista’s UAC (User Account Control) was blocking cbInterface.exe, the user interface for Cobian, from starting automatically. This is because cbInterface.exe was recognized as needing to be run as an administrator. After doing some research it became apparent that for many people, the problem began after they upgraded to Vista SP2.

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