In most cases of an unbootable system, the user encounters a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), black/blue screen with flashing cursor, or a 'startup repair' failure error message. In either of the above outcomes, data saved in Windows 7 based hard drive becomes inaccessible. To access the data in such situations, Windows user needs to restore data from an updated backup. However, if the backup disappoints you and restores incomplete data, then you will need to use an efficient third-party Data Recovery Software to recover lost data. Below is one such scenario that explains Windows 7 unbootability problem in detail.
Suppose you have a dual-boot system with Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 operating system (on primary partition) installed. You installed some driver updates in Windows Server 2008 and restart your system. However, to your surprise, when you reboot your system, you encounter a black screen with flashing cursor. The black screen appears every time you try to boot your system. Since the system is unable to bypass the black screen, the data saved in both Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 based partitions becomes inaccessible.
Cause
The above stated problem occurs under following situations:
Corruption in Boot.ini file
Invalid device driver update
File System damage
Resolution
To resolve the above issue and to access data saved in both the partitions, you will need to follow the below steps:
Boot the system in Safe mode and select 'Last Known Good Configuration' option
Try to boot your system using 'Startup Repair' option
Run 'CHKDSK' command to repair the file system
However, if all the three resolutions fail to resolve the issue, then you will need to reinstall the operating system and restore data from an updated backup. However, in case of no backup, you will need to recoup data using commercial Data Recovery utility. Such Data Recovery tools use effective recovery techniques to recoup data after almost all logical data loss scenarios.
Windows Data Recovery is a third-party data recovery software that recovers data from formatted Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000 based hard disks. Supported by almost all file systems (NTFS, NTFS5, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and VFAT), the tool is easy to understand and doesn't require any prior technical knowledge.
Source: http://goo.gl/NMhZT
Friday, May 27, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Boost Your Computer’s Performance with Windows 7 Virus Scanner
Nowadays, computer viruses are getting more and more sophisticated and can enter your computer even if it is equipped with antivirus or antispyware software in a deceitful manner. So you should be very much conscious about the security of your computer data. These viruses can ruin your computer’s memory as a consequence of which, you may face serious issues with your operating system and application software. You can even lose your entire data stored over the hard disk.
Windows 7 has been shipped with immense features, which can take care of your security concerns by scanning and diagnosing the viruses on real time. So there is no need to depend on antivirus software, which offer only limited protection and that’s too after shedding a considerable amount of money.
But you need to be careful about their status on regular basis.
Features
Inbuilt features of Windows 7 like Windows Firewall and Windows Defender play an important role to protect your computer from viruses and other malicious threats. They must be kept well configured and enabled at every moment when you are online. These are equipped with anti-spammer, effective scan engine, Guard, Quarantine, and Scheduler features, so that you can get holistic protection from all offline and online threats. They can scan and remove computer virus instantly from your computer.
Usability
With the above Windows 7 virus scanning tools, you can get good protection from viruses and other malicious software, which harms your privacy and computer’s performance in many ways. These tools monitor your computer on real-time basis, so that you can keep your memory and Windows registry in a sound condition, which will avoid probability of hardware and software conflicts and minimize chances of blue screen error, hard disk crash and sluggish performance.
Limitation
It has been noticed that Windows Firewall delivers only one-way protection. It can check either the incoming or the outgoing traffic at a time. Windows firewall often becomes problematic, when you try to download or install some application software on your computer.
Recommendation
Keep your Windows Defender and Windows Firewall in a well configured state and also ensure they are enabled. To combat with severe infection from computer viruses, you can deploy online scanner tools available on trusted website. For quick resolution, you can call your tech support provider, which can assist in real-time.
Source: http://goo.gl/TqnWC
Windows 7 has been shipped with immense features, which can take care of your security concerns by scanning and diagnosing the viruses on real time. So there is no need to depend on antivirus software, which offer only limited protection and that’s too after shedding a considerable amount of money.
But you need to be careful about their status on regular basis.
Features
Inbuilt features of Windows 7 like Windows Firewall and Windows Defender play an important role to protect your computer from viruses and other malicious threats. They must be kept well configured and enabled at every moment when you are online. These are equipped with anti-spammer, effective scan engine, Guard, Quarantine, and Scheduler features, so that you can get holistic protection from all offline and online threats. They can scan and remove computer virus instantly from your computer.
Usability
With the above Windows 7 virus scanning tools, you can get good protection from viruses and other malicious software, which harms your privacy and computer’s performance in many ways. These tools monitor your computer on real-time basis, so that you can keep your memory and Windows registry in a sound condition, which will avoid probability of hardware and software conflicts and minimize chances of blue screen error, hard disk crash and sluggish performance.
Limitation
It has been noticed that Windows Firewall delivers only one-way protection. It can check either the incoming or the outgoing traffic at a time. Windows firewall often becomes problematic, when you try to download or install some application software on your computer.
Recommendation
Keep your Windows Defender and Windows Firewall in a well configured state and also ensure they are enabled. To combat with severe infection from computer viruses, you can deploy online scanner tools available on trusted website. For quick resolution, you can call your tech support provider, which can assist in real-time.
Source: http://goo.gl/TqnWC
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Windows 7 Operating System Security
An operating system is always developed keeping in mind the advantages and disadvantages of the microprocessors of that time. The hardware should always be at par with the software and vice versa. I am actually trying to point at the 64 bit implementation of the Windows 7 on Intel Core vPro processors. Windows 7 has gone through a Security Development Life Cycle or SDL in which technical aspects were taken into account. To get assistance on computer security, consult a tech support expert. Let us discuss the outcome and implementation of it as seen in the operating system.
1) Data Execution Prevention or the DEP feature of the OS executes the ED it or the Execute disable bit in Intel Processors against computer viruses that uses the buffer-flow technique for corrupting the computer.
2) Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) is another worry factor for those hackers who target specific memory address locations. Imagine that the critical areas of your hard drive where data and other system files reside are being hacked to the level of specific addresses but if the address locations are randomized then no matter where the data resides, it will be difficult for any malicious code to detect it and bring harm to the computer. Cool idea isn't it?
3) Safe Structured Exception Handling. What is that? Well, an exception is a situation which is other than natural and needs to be taken care in a specific manner. This, in programmed structures are done in a specific way so that subroutines are robust enough when due to a virus infection or system file corruption an unwanted situation arise in a computer.
4) Do not forget the Kerberos v5 a protocol for encryption that is used to send passwords over the internet. The question is why should we do so? The answer is that even when you are logging into a website you need to put a password which is again using the internet as the carrier.
5) There are a number of tools which enables us to look after the health of the operating system like the Event Viewer and the UAC (User Account Control) which gives you the required security and at the same time better tools to dive into the changes that went on in the recent past and created the problem you are facing now with the computer.
All said and done, the question still arises as to why do we still get virus infections in our computer? The answer is that no machine in this world is fully perfect and the war between the good and the bad continues no matter whether one wins the temporary game against the other or not. The malicious-code writers are still there. Consult a good technician for total PC maintenance and virus removal. It is not always the branded antivirus software that can give you total security form malicious code. The wireless connectivity between your router and the computer, encrypting your mails, configuring your antivirus cum firewall are some simple ways that actually serves your purpose.
Source : http://goo.gl/AOlir
1) Data Execution Prevention or the DEP feature of the OS executes the ED it or the Execute disable bit in Intel Processors against computer viruses that uses the buffer-flow technique for corrupting the computer.
2) Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) is another worry factor for those hackers who target specific memory address locations. Imagine that the critical areas of your hard drive where data and other system files reside are being hacked to the level of specific addresses but if the address locations are randomized then no matter where the data resides, it will be difficult for any malicious code to detect it and bring harm to the computer. Cool idea isn't it?
3) Safe Structured Exception Handling. What is that? Well, an exception is a situation which is other than natural and needs to be taken care in a specific manner. This, in programmed structures are done in a specific way so that subroutines are robust enough when due to a virus infection or system file corruption an unwanted situation arise in a computer.
4) Do not forget the Kerberos v5 a protocol for encryption that is used to send passwords over the internet. The question is why should we do so? The answer is that even when you are logging into a website you need to put a password which is again using the internet as the carrier.
5) There are a number of tools which enables us to look after the health of the operating system like the Event Viewer and the UAC (User Account Control) which gives you the required security and at the same time better tools to dive into the changes that went on in the recent past and created the problem you are facing now with the computer.
All said and done, the question still arises as to why do we still get virus infections in our computer? The answer is that no machine in this world is fully perfect and the war between the good and the bad continues no matter whether one wins the temporary game against the other or not. The malicious-code writers are still there. Consult a good technician for total PC maintenance and virus removal. It is not always the branded antivirus software that can give you total security form malicious code. The wireless connectivity between your router and the computer, encrypting your mails, configuring your antivirus cum firewall are some simple ways that actually serves your purpose.
Source : http://goo.gl/AOlir
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Windows 7 Security Feature
Microsoft Windows 7 has seen users reporting various security level norms and problems that are undergoing within their operating system. Microsoft has sought out the solution by providing users with free security solutions to Windows 7 users, but then too it was neglected by many revenue companies towards the solution.
According the problem, users always seems to see their security related problems first, in such regard Microsoft team offered Windows Update feature in their Windows 7 operating system which can detect the presence of Windows 7 Antivirus solutions into their operating system. In a survey, it was seen that many had reported with no Windows 7 Antivirus solution uploaded in their system. Therefore, Microsoft sought to offer free Antivirus software to Windows 7 users which is the Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) software feature. However this brought about a fight in antivirus software sites which started revolting against the announcement of Microsoft to provide free antivirus software at no cost of money.
There were totally many issues raised up in the regard. The Antivirus software companies reported that there is no dependence that users can be with downloading the free Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) from the feature of Windows 7 updates. It shouldn't be implied as a way of distributing softwares within the operating system as it might get spammed. The companies feel that Microsoft should close up with this feature and allow the Windows 7 Antivirus softwares to come up legally with advanced operating mode to Windows 7 users.
Source mywindowsclub
According the problem, users always seems to see their security related problems first, in such regard Microsoft team offered Windows Update feature in their Windows 7 operating system which can detect the presence of Windows 7 Antivirus solutions into their operating system. In a survey, it was seen that many had reported with no Windows 7 Antivirus solution uploaded in their system. Therefore, Microsoft sought to offer free Antivirus software to Windows 7 users which is the Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) software feature. However this brought about a fight in antivirus software sites which started revolting against the announcement of Microsoft to provide free antivirus software at no cost of money.
There were totally many issues raised up in the regard. The Antivirus software companies reported that there is no dependence that users can be with downloading the free Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) from the feature of Windows 7 updates. It shouldn't be implied as a way of distributing softwares within the operating system as it might get spammed. The companies feel that Microsoft should close up with this feature and allow the Windows 7 Antivirus softwares to come up legally with advanced operating mode to Windows 7 users.
Source mywindowsclub
How to use VPN Reconnect
Roaming users generally rely on VPNs (virtual private networks) to provide a secure connection between their computer and the internal company network. You don’t have to know how it works, but it’s the magic technology that convinces IT managers to say yes to working from outside the office.
When you’re sitting in a hotel room, at a customer’s office or in your own study, and you establish a VPN connection, your PC will generally stay logged on without any problems. However, when you’re relying on a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile broadband dongle to establish a VPN connection while on the move, you may suffer frequent dropped connections and a cumbersome process for re-authenticating and re-establishing the VPN connection each time.
The VPN Reconnect feature allows Windows 7 to automatically re-establish active VPN connections after Internet connectivity is interrupted. As soon as Windows 7 reconnects to the internet, it will also reconnect to the VPN.
Inevitably, the VPN will still be unavailable as long as the internet connection is down, and the process of reconnecting will take a few seconds after access becomes available again, but VPN Reconnect at least ensures that your network resources will pop back up as soon as possible, without you having to fiddle around with anything.
We promised you some technical details, so: VPN Reconnect is basically an IPsec tunnel using the IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange) protocol for key negotiation and for transmission of ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) packets. ESP is part of the industry standard IPsec security architecture, which provides confidentiality, authentication of data origin and connectionless integrity.
In plain English: the system knows where data is coming from and that it hasn’t been seen or modified on the way.
Why all this fuss just to maintain your connection? Well, it’s a trickier job than it might seem. For example, when viewing streaming video over a VPN connection while you’re on a train, you would typically lose all buffered data and have to start the video again every time the connection went down.
The features of the IKEv2 IPSec tunnel and ESP help to ensure a persistent connection, despite wrinkles like the IP address changing during the reconnection (as it well might when you’re connecting to someone else’s server, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile phone network), and allow the streaming video to resume from the point it was at when VPN connectivity was lost.
Source pcadvisor
When you’re sitting in a hotel room, at a customer’s office or in your own study, and you establish a VPN connection, your PC will generally stay logged on without any problems. However, when you’re relying on a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile broadband dongle to establish a VPN connection while on the move, you may suffer frequent dropped connections and a cumbersome process for re-authenticating and re-establishing the VPN connection each time.
The VPN Reconnect feature allows Windows 7 to automatically re-establish active VPN connections after Internet connectivity is interrupted. As soon as Windows 7 reconnects to the internet, it will also reconnect to the VPN.
Inevitably, the VPN will still be unavailable as long as the internet connection is down, and the process of reconnecting will take a few seconds after access becomes available again, but VPN Reconnect at least ensures that your network resources will pop back up as soon as possible, without you having to fiddle around with anything.
We promised you some technical details, so: VPN Reconnect is basically an IPsec tunnel using the IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange) protocol for key negotiation and for transmission of ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) packets. ESP is part of the industry standard IPsec security architecture, which provides confidentiality, authentication of data origin and connectionless integrity.
In plain English: the system knows where data is coming from and that it hasn’t been seen or modified on the way.
Why all this fuss just to maintain your connection? Well, it’s a trickier job than it might seem. For example, when viewing streaming video over a VPN connection while you’re on a train, you would typically lose all buffered data and have to start the video again every time the connection went down.
The features of the IKEv2 IPSec tunnel and ESP help to ensure a persistent connection, despite wrinkles like the IP address changing during the reconnection (as it well might when you’re connecting to someone else’s server, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot or mobile phone network), and allow the streaming video to resume from the point it was at when VPN connectivity was lost.
Source pcadvisor
Friday, April 1, 2011
Ultimate guide to Windows 7 security
Windows 7 has been warmly received and swiftly adopted by businesses, with the result that many IT admins are now struggling with the platform’s new security features. In addition to changes to User Account Control, BitLocker, and other features inherited from Windows Vista, Windows 7 introduces a slew of security capabilities that businesses will want to take advantage of.
Windows 7 improves on Vista with a friendlier UAC mechanism, the ability to encrypt removable media and hard drive volumes, broader support for strong cryptographic ciphers, hassle-free secure remote access, and sophisticated protection against Trojan malware in the form of AppLocker, to name just a few.
In this guide, I’ll run through these and other significant security enhancements in Windows 7, and provide my recommendations for configuring and using them. I’ll pay especially close attention to the new AppLocker application control feature, which may be a Windows shop’s most practical and affordable way to combat socially engineered Trojan malware.
New and improved
Windows 7 has literally hundreds of security changes and additions, far too many to cover in one fell swoop. While this guide focuses on the ones that most organizations will be interested in, keep in mind that plenty of others may deserve your attention. A few the biggies not discussed here are built-in support for smart cards and biometrics, the ability to force the use of Kerberos in a feature called Restrict NTLM, and support for the new DNSSec standards, which are becoming essential to prevent DNS exploitation attacks. Also noteworthy is a new feature called Extended Protection for Authentication, which prevents many sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks that can strike at some of our most trusted security protocols (such as SSL and TLS).
User Account Control
A Windows Vista feature that users loved to hate, User Account Control has been significantly improved to be both less intrusive and smarter at distinguishing between legitimate and potentially malicious activities in Windows 7. However, depending on whether you are logged on as administrator or a standard user, some installs of Windows 7 may have a default UAC security setting that’s one level lower than some experts (including yours truly) recommend. Standard users have UAC security default to the most secure setting, while administrator accounts reside a notch below the highest setting, which is potentially riskier.
Note too that, although UAC provides a much-needed mechanism to prevent the misuse of administrator privileges, it can be bypassed. If you need high security, users should not log on with an elevated user account until they need it.
Your domain environment should already be at the highest and most secure level (“Always notify”). If it isn’t, make it so. That way, users will be prompted to input their passwords to perform high risk administrative actions. No matter what else, UAC should be enabled.
more on hacking-news.com
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Windows 7 security defeated by 8 out of 10 malware applications
Basically, Microsoft went ahead and reacted to the public outcry regarding the Vista security confirmations. I think we can all agree that they were really annoying (and most power-users turn UAC off because of how irritating they are). As a result, there are significantly fewer UAC warnings in a default Windows 7 installation -- hooray! The problem is that the new default setting in Windows 7 leads you to falsely believe that you have a secure installation right out of the box. Sadly, this is not the case.
It's no surprise then that 8 out of 10 malware Applications defeated the default Windows 7 UAC setting in tests.
So practice safe surfing (duh!) or go and hoik your UAC settings up to the most secure -- and annoying -- setting. Ars Technica has a great guide on patching up your UAC for new Windows 7 users -- or even an experienced user like myself that falsely believed the default setting to be secure.
Source:-downloadsquad.switched.com
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