Tech Support Scams Targeting Windows XP Users

XP users have no other choice but to subscribe to third party tech support services. Microsoft no longer provides tech support services for the XP OS. Many hackers and online scam artists are taking this opportunity to dupe the XP users by setting up fake websites online. Recently reported cases about the Omni Tech Support fraud websites are a good example of this trend.

Get genuine tech support for your XP system

World Wide Web is like that. It is full of scams, fake websites and fraudulent service providers. This has always been the same. But, in the past, it was much easier to spot the fake websites. The site would look very crudely designed and not like an official one of a genuine online service provider.

But, unlike in the past, you no longer need to invest much to set up a professional looking website. Website designing has become much easier with the advent of designer tools and ready-made design templates. In other words, it is very much possible to set up an Omni Tech Support fraud website that looks exactly like the official one and it would be very hard to distinguish between the two, if you are a first time visitor.

Since the end of Microsoft support, the XP users are searching online looking for affordable or free ad-supported tech support service plans. And, these online scam artists mentioned above are luring them in with claims of discount prices and quality services. Users are advised to exercise maximum caution when signing up for such tech support services online, especially before you give them your credit card information or make the payment online.

Do not just look at the rates offered; look also at the history of that tech support firm and how long they have been in the support service industry and so on. Also, make sure that you check their BBB rating. If this company is not even registered with the BBB network, then, maybe, you should skip that one no matter how cheap their service package is.

Such precautions are necessary, because at one time or another, you might have to allow these tech service professionals access to your system for repairing some issue. This is how most of these scam artists plant malware applications or steal the information stored in your computer.

If you want to sign up for a third party tech support service online, try OmniTech Support service, which has been in the industry for more than 10 years and has an excellent BBB rating.

About The Enterprise Mode In IE 11 On Windows 7 And Windows 8

Moving from one OS to a new one always creates many problems. Many of the XP users are facing such problems as they are migrating from the 13-year old OS to Windows 7 or Windows 8. Such users may refer to some of the OmniTech guides and articles posted on the site to help them with the transition.

Running enterprise applications that require IE 8 on Windows 7 or Windows 8

One of the problems reported by some enterprise organisations, which recently made the upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8, was that they were not able to run some of the old enterprise applications in their new systems. According to Microsoft, many such applications are designed to run using the Internet Explorer 8 technologies. And, since Windows 7 or Windows 8 uses the latest IE 11 browser, these old applications might not work in these operating systems.

Apparently, Microsoft did come up with a solution for this problem. They are calling it the ‘Enterprise Mode for IE11’. Simply put, you can run IE 11 in the Enterprise mode to imitate many aspects of the IE 8 browser. This provides the software applications mentioned above an IE 8 browser environment to function without any problems. This way, the enterprise organisations can continue to use the same old software applications in the latest Microsoft operating systems like Windows 7 or Windows 8.

However, Microsoft admits that this might not work always and there could be some errors and problems when running a software application like this in the enterprise mode in a new Windows OS system. In other words, this should be seen as a temporary measure and you need to upgrade the software application to its latest version that will run in the latest browsers and operating systems.

For the time being, you can use this Enterprise mode or OS virtualization software for using old software applications designed for XP. As discussed in some of the OmniTech guides posted here, using OS virtualization software is one of the best ways to use old XP applications in Windows 7 or Windows 8. It creates a virtual XP OS environment within the new Windows OS and in this virtual OS, you can run all your old XP applications without worrying about any compatibility problems.

You may contact the OmniTech Support personnel if you have any doubts about setting this up in your system.

The process Of Repairing A Corrupt Outlook File

An email client like Outlook regularly updates the contents stored in its folders so as to sync the account folders in the mail client with that stored in the mail server. Internet connection interruptions and other problems often lead to file corruption of any one of these Outlook files. Normally, the issue is fixed the next time you update the Outlook folders. But, sometimes, this will not happen.

How to repair the file corruption error in Outlook

There are OmniTech guides with detailed instructions provided on the blog page to help you with most of the Outlook problems. But, in the case of Outlook file corruption, you might not require any external help. Outlook comes with an in-built Inbox Repair tool to deal with this particular issue. You can run this tool and fix the problem easily.

However, the tool is not shown as an option in the Outlook toolbar menu options. Instead, it is there in one of the Outlook or MS Office folders in your C Drive. Just search for Scanpst.exe in C Drive to locate it. But, you also need to know the location of the Outlook PST as well, if want to scan it using the Inbox Repair tool.

If you are using Windows 7, Vista or Windows 8, then the location for this PST file will be - C:\Users \username \AppData \Local \Microsoft \Outlook. Paste this link to the Windows Explorer address bar in the OS to take you there. Here, you need to replace the text ‘username’ with the username you are using for the OS. Paste this link in the Scanpst tool dialog box - %localappdata%\ Microsoft \Outlook.

Similarly, in the case of Windows XP and Windows 2000 versions, the location for the PST file will be - C:\Documents and Settings \username \Local Settings \Application Data \Microsoft\ Outlook. So, you need to paste the following into the Scanpst file location box - %USERPROFILE%\ Local Settings \Application Data \Microsoft \Outlook.

After pasting the PST file location correctly into the Inbox Repair tool, click on the Scan button to start detecting the errors in the file. When this is done, select the option to repair the errors. Microsoft recommends running the tool more than once to detect many errors that might not show up during the first scan.

For finding fixes to any other Outlook problems, you may search through the OmniTech guides and articles posted here. You may also contact the tech support personnel on the helpline number.

Dual Boot Windows 7 And Windows 8

Are you fascinated with both Windows 7 and Windows 8? Here is the best way to get both the operating systems on your computer. Dual boot is one of the features in which you will be able to install both Windows 8 and Windows 7 in the same computer. However, you need to check the compatibility of the same with the computer.

You need to follow this process as per the instructions and remove the installation media at the right time. You need to reboot Windows 8 at the end of the installation.

Instructions To Dual Boot Windows 7 And Windows 8

• Open the Run window and type diskmgmt.msc to launch the Disk Management tool in the computer that runs Windows 7. 
• You need to select the hard drive, from which you are planning to install Windows 8. The usual selection would be disk C. This should be shown as the C: drive and along with some other options such as Recovery Partitions. 
• Make sure you have enough space on the hard disk and also, make sure that the computer supports dual boot. 
• Select the Shrink Volume option to shrink C: Drive. This will give details about the volume in the computer. Enter the amount of space required as 160000 or 200000, click on Shrink to continue. 
• Right click on the space that is allocated, and select the option New Simple Volume. Give the name as Windows 8. 
• Now, you need to insert the installation disk to continue installing Windows 8 on your system. 

Steps To Install Windows 8

• The installation process is simple that you just need to follow the on-screen instructions. 
• Select the installation process type as Custom during the Windows 8 setup process. 
• You need to select the new drive allocated to install Windows 8 into your computer during the setup process. You need to be careful not to select C: drive as it will erase the current operating system installed. 
• Reboot Windows 8 after the installation process. 
• Make sure that you remove all the installation media, when the computer restarts. 

In order to make changes to the default boot, you can do the same by clicking on the "change defaults" sentence on the bottom of the Windows start-up screen. This will let you choose one of the operating system as the default OS.

Steps To Set Static IP Address In Windows Vista

Most of us make use of dynamic IP addresses assigned by our network. However, when there are network errors, you won’t be able to connect to the internet. According to technicians at the Windows support number, in such situations, it might be required of you to use a static IP address for your computer. This can solve the network related issues with the computer.

So, how can you assign a static IP address for your computer? If you are using a Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer, it requires only a few simple steps to assign static IP. In this post, we will take you through the steps involved in this process.

Steps Involved

• Go to the desktop of the operating system and click the Windows logo button found in the left bottom corner. This will open the Start menu in the operating system. 
• Once the Start menu comes up, select the option Control Panel from the right pane of the Start menu. 
• In the Control Panel window, select the option Network and Internet. 
• Select the first option in the new window, which is Network and Sharing center. 
• In the window for Network and Sharing Center, you would find the different internet connections configured with your computer. From the left pane of the window, you will find the option Tasks. Under the heading Tasks, select the option Manage network connections. 
• From the various adapters found in the new screen, find the one for which you wish to set the static IP address. Sometimes, you might be using a wireless connection or a LAN connection. Choose the network that you want to change. 
• Right click the connection and select the option Properties. 
• From the various options found in the Properties window, locate Internet Protocol Version 4. Select it and choose the option Properties. 
• Select the tab Alternate Configuration and enter various details like IP Address, Default Gateway, Subnet Mask, DNS Servers etc. 
• When you set the static IP address, make sure that no other computer in the network uses this address, as duplicate IP addresses will result in conflicts. 
• Select the button OK once the configuration is completed. 

Once you complete the above steps, launch any of the internet browsers and navigate to a few websites to check if internet is working fine. For further help on this issue, you may call the Windows support number or contact our technical support team.

Procedure To Remove OpenCandy From Your Windows System

The problem with third party software is that every now and then, some undesirable programs may enter your system during the installation process. This usually happens because most people tend to overlook the check mark next to a recommended software install bundled with the particular third party software they want.

We may unwittingly click on next or continue without un-checking the recommended software install, which we do not want. These software programs can be annoying sometimes, as they make several useless changes to the customized settings in your computer. OpenCandy is such an annoying program.

This software exists for a specific purpose though. In this Windows tech support article, we will see more about OpenCandy and its removal.

What is OpenCandy

There are various ways to know that you are installing this clean up tool unintentionally. The easiest way to determine whether the installer uses OpenCandy or not, is to check for the OpenCandy EULA link in it. When this software programs runs in your system it collects information that includes version, country, location as well as the time zone.

OpenCandy should then end or terminate when you have completed the installation process of the software program no matter whether you accepted to include third-party offers or not. In case you have opted for some third-party offer, the OpenCandy helper application will run on your computer for a limited period. This happens mainly for verifying that the third-party offer was activated.

You need not worry though, as Windows tech support team highlights that there is an OpenCandy Cleanup Tool available online, which is specifically designed to remove any trace of OpenCandy from a Windows powered computer.

The interface of this cleaner tool is simple, which displays two buttons and a progress bar on start up. For initiating the system scan, all you need to do is to click on the start button. The progress of the scanning process is displayed on screen, so is the success or failure status message. This way, you will be able to know if the operation finished successfully or not.

Though the sly OpenCandy program may not stay in your system for long, you can anyway remove all its traces (if there is any) from your system by using the OpenCandy Cleanup Tool. However, if you bump into any issues while using the same, contact our tech support team for assistance.

Connecting Your Vista PC To A Wired Ethernet Network

Ethernet cables are one of the most commonly used forms of network cables on wired networks. These help in the connection of PCs, routers as well as switches.

If you’re running the Windows Vista operating system in your computer, you can easily connect to an Ethernet cable. For this, you need to have a hub or a switch and also access to a cable or a Cat 5/5 e network. According to the technicians at the Windows Vista help and support team, Ethernet networks don’t have the portability of wireless networks. But then, these cables are amazingly faster than all the traditional dial-up connections. Moreover, such Ethernet networks can also be shared by multiple computers.

You can use the following instructions provided by the Windows Vista help and support team to connect your PC to a wired Ethernet Network in your Vista computer.

• At first, you’d require obtaining a Cat 5 or Cat 5e Ethernet cable for every computer you want to connect. Cat 5 is a kind of cable used for data transfer that is used for high-speed access. For buying a Cat 5 cable, you can contact your local computer or even the office supply store. 
• Next, you can try purchasing a hub or switch with enough ports for each computer in your home or office. Using switches can increase the speed of the network, but they cost a little more than a hub. But then, investing more in buying switches is generally recommended to experience their high-end performance. If you’re using a company network, opting for a router is also considered beneficial. 
• Now, you can shut down all computers as well as the switch/hub to use the Ethernet cables. Try connecting them to each of the computers to be connected to the hub. 
• You need to first plug one end of the Ethernet cable into the switch or hub and then connect the other end into each PC's network adapter. 
• Once you have connected it, try turning on the switch or hub. Now, turn on your computers. 
• Now, wait for the computer to start and then run the Network Setup Wizard to get your network get connected and start working. 

By following these steps, you can easily connect your Windows Vista PC to a Wired Ethernet Network. To get more assistance in setting the connectivity, feel free to contact our Windows technical support personnel.