Apple Rises To Fourth In Home Notebook Market

Apple has risen to fourth place in the home notebook PC market, driven by its success at attracting younger, more highly educated, and higher-income households, as well as the self-employed, a research firm said Wednesday.

In a survey of 10,000 U.S. adults, MetaFacts found that Apple is entering households as the second or third home computer. As the third computer, a sweet spot for the computer maker, Apple ranks fifth with 8% of the market. In home notebooks alone, Apple is fourth, also at 8% of the installed base. MetaFacts also found a strong brand loyalty among households with Apple products. More than four in five households with Apple as their primary home PC planned to buy the same brand for their next computer.

In addition, Apple PCs are used differently than Windows home PCs. The former is more often used for Web content creation, graphics, and personal activities, MetaFacts said. Also, 21% of Apple home computers are used in public places, nearly double the 12% of Windows home PCs.

"If you look around at a Starbucks or cybercafe, you might think the whole world's gone to Apple," MetaFacts analyst Dan Ness said in a statement. "Apple users are very active and use their notebooks in more locations than Windows notebook users." The Apple Profile Report 2008 also found that Apple dominated five occupational groups: teacher, artist/designer/performer, management, clerical, and consultants.

Other findings included that Apple's retail stores are attracting many non-Apple households, and that those households tend to have many more children, both strong positive future signs for Apple. Finally, the survey found that Apple households shop differently than non-Apple households and are more likely to be in a Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore or in a Target store, and less likely to be in a Wal-Mart store.

Automatically generate and assign strong passwords in Windows XP

Computer users consistently use very simplistic logic when creating passwords. For example, many of us choose meaningful words, personal dates, or a word commonly found in the dictionary because it makes the password easy to remember. These common practices cause us to sacrifice the security that passwords are intended to provide.

If you’re really at a loss when it comes to thinking of a strong password, you can let Windows XP create and assign a random password to your account. To let Windows XP generate your password, follow these steps. (Warning: Before you follow these steps, please be sure that you are paying careful attention and are ready to actually use a password that might not be as memorable as you’re accustomed to! Also, you cannot use this tip on a Windows Server domain.)

1- Open a Command Prompt window and type:

net user username /random (username is your login account name)




2- Press [Enter]. Windows XP will randomly generate a secure password, as well as assign that strong password to your account. Windows XP will also display the strong password so you can remember it.

At your discretion, you may want to create a Password Reset Disk at this point. This disk will allow you to gain access to your computer in the event you forget your password. Here’s how to create the disk:

1- Open the Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts tool.
2- Click your account icon.
3- Select Prevent A Forgotten Password under Related Tasks.
4- Follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional systems in either a standalone or peer-to-peer workgroup configuration.

How do I… Force Disk Cleanup to delete all temporary files?

If you’ve ever run the Microsoft Windows XP’s Disk Cleanup utility, you probably discovered that your temporary files occupy a significant amount of space. You might select the Temporary Files check box in order to allow the Disk Cleanup utility to delete the files in the Temp folder, but the Disk Cleanup utility will not remove all the files. The reason for this oddity is that the configuration for the Disk Cleanup utility does not allow deletion of files accessed in the last seven days.

Alter the parameters
By altering the LastAccess value in the registry, you can configure the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder regardless of the last accessed date. Here’s how:

1- Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2- Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
ExplorerVolumeCachesTemporary Files




3- Locate and double-click the LastAccess value.
4- When you see the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the Value Data setting from 7 to 0 and click OK.
5- To complete the operation, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.

Changing the value to 0 will force the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all the files in the Temp folder every time you select the Temporary Files check box.

Notes: Since editing the registry is risky, be sure you have a verified backup before saving any changes. This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

How do I… Uninstall Microsoft Internet Explorer 7?

The venerable Web browser continues to evolve. No longer just an application for displaying HTML, the Web browser now has to handle JavaScript, PHP, Java, Active X controls, loosely coupled Web services, plug-ins, multimedia, XML, RSS feeds and more. The Web browser has become an integral part of the total computer experience. All of those expectations make choosing a preferred browser more important than many ever thought it would or should be.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla Firefox 2 are the latest Web browser contenders for your attention (apologies to fans of Opera and other Web browsers, but these are the two that garner the most attention). Many of us have tried both and made a decision about which is the browser of choice.

If you have chosen Firefox 2, then you may want to uninstall IE7. But this brings up two questions: Can you uninstall IE7 and if you can how do you do it? The answers are: Yes, you can and here’s how.

Uninstall IE7
If your installation of IE7 was successful and uneventful, then uninstalling it is relatively simple process. The following steps will uninstall IE7 and restore IE 6.

1- Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2- Click Add or Remove Programs.
3- Scroll down to Windows Internet Explorer 7, click it, and then click Change/Remove.

If for some reason Windows Internet Explorer 7 does not appear in the Add or Remove Programs, you should:

1- Open Windows Explorer
2- Click Tools | Folder Options
3- Click the View tab
4- Make sure the radio button next to Show hidden files and folders is on
5- Click OK
6- Click Start, and then click Run
7- Type: %windir%\ie7\spuninst\spuninst.exe into the text box and click Enter

Specified user account
In some cases, you may get an error message when you try to uninstall IE7 that says you cannot uninstall from a specified user account. To get around this check you will have to edit the Windows Registry.

Warning: Editing the Windows Registry incorrectly can cause the Windows operating system to stop functioning completely. This is an advanced operation and you are encouraged to back up the Windows Registry before you attempt any editing of the file. You have been warned.

Bypass the user account check with this Windows Registry edit:

1- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer.
3- Right-click the Internet Explorer key, click New, and then click DWORD value.
4- Type InstalledByUser as the name, and then press ENTER to finish creating the new registry value.
5- Try to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 again.

More help
If you find yourself still needing help uninstalling Internet Explorer 7, check out the IE7 release notes found on the Microsoft MSDN Web site.

Improve Windows XP Pro’s NTFS performance by disabling the Accessed timestamp

The New Technology File System (NTFS) is essentially a huge database that keeps track of all the files on your Windows XP Pro hard disk. When you create a file, or edit and then resave that file, the NTFS creates an entry and records the date in the Created or Modified timestamp so you can access the Properties sheet of the file and check the Created or Modified entries later.

NTFS also creates and keeps track of another timestamp called Accessed. The timestamp lists the date on which the file was last accessed and whether the file was opened and read or changed and saved. Each time NTFS updates a file’s Properties sheet, an accompanying disk read/write operation occurs. Since the Accessed timestamp does not add much useful information, you may consider the read/write operation incurred to record it wasteful.

If you have an application, such as a search tool, that frequently accesses many files for a simple read operation, the operation required to update each file’s Accessed timestamp can drain your system’s performance. Fortunately, you can use disable the Accessed timestamp using the FSUtil command. Here’s how:

1- Open a Command Prompt window.
2- Type the following command line:

FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1




If you wish to turn the Accessed attribute back on, simply repeat the command and replace 1 with 0.

Note: This tip applies only to Windows XP Professional.

Disable USB storage under OS X or Windows

Whilst randomly browsing a few days ago I came across a document prepared by the National Security Agency (NSA) that describes how to disable USB storage on Linux, OS X, Solaris and Windows platforms.

For OS X the guide describes disabling USB and Firewire storage:

1- Log on with an administrator account.
2- Browse to ‘/System/Library/Extensions’ folder on the system disk.
3- Trash both IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext and IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext which are found in this directory.
4- Empty the trash.
5- Reboot the machine.

Disabling USB storage on a Windows platform is only a little more complicated:

1- From Explorers folder options ensure that hidden files and folders are displayed, file extensions are not hidden and simple file sharing is disabled.
2- Open up the properties for %systemroot%\Inf\Usbstor.inf (%systemroot% would normally be ‘C:\Windows’).
3- Select the security tab and make sure that all options for all users are set to deny. This must include administrators and SYSTEM.
4- Repeat the above for %systemroot%\Inf\Usbstor.pnf
5- If USB storage devices have been used on this machine previously then open up the registry editor otherwise ignore steps 6 and 7.
6- Browse to the registry location ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor’.
7- Open up the registry key ‘Start’ and change the data value to ‘4r42;. Close the registry editor.

That’s it! If simple file sharing was enabled previously then don’t forget to re-enable it.

Help users create complex passwords that are easy to remember

While most end users understand the importance of using passwords to secure corporate systems and data, they don’t always know how to create a strong password. That’s why it’s just as important to create a strong password policy in your organization. Remember: Passwords are only as good as the policy that enforces their use.

By default, Windows disables the password filter in the Default Domain Group Policy Object (GPO) and in the local security policy of workstations and servers. That’s one more reason why it’s imperative that organizations employ a written password policy — and that they take steps to enforce it.

For example, if your company’s password policy only requires a minimum of six characters and doesn’t require complexity (i.e., a combination of uppercase and lowercase characters, digits, and/or nonalphanumeric characters), then you’ve got a pretty weak policy. That means most users will use passwords that are easy to crack through either brute force or social engineering.

How do you make sure your users create strong passwords that hackers can’t easily guess? Your first step is to enable the password filter in the GPO or on local stand-alone workstations and servers. To find the password filter, go to Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy in the Group Policy MMC in the Default Domain policy. After enabling the password filter, you can start creating an effective password policy for your users.

Craft a strong password policy
Let’s look at some best practices for effective password policies. Most organizations require users’ passwords to have a minimum of eight characters. They also specify that passwords must meet at least three of the four complexity requirements — uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and nonalphanumeric characters.

Organizations should also configure the password history to remember the last 24 passwords, which is the maximum setting. This virtually ensures that users won’t reuse passwords.

In addition, you should set the minimum and maximum age of the password to an appropriate level. I recommend setting a maximum age of 180 days and a minimum age of 90 days. This prevent users from cycling through passwords until they can return to the one they want.

Put your policy in action — and enforce it
It’s smart to establish a good password policy in your organization, but it’s even more important to actually enforce it. A strong policy that no one has to follow doesn’t add any more security than no policy at all.

In addition, it’s important to remember that a good password policy doesn’t work if users have to write down their password because it’s so complex. That only transfers the security risk instead of mitigating it.

So how can you make sure users’ passwords are complicated enough to deter hackers and easier enough to remember? One of my colleagues offers the following trick for creating complex passwords that meet complexity requirements while still being possible to remember.

Step 1: Come up with a base word
Pick the name of a pet or any common thing that’s easy to remember. For example, say you once lived in Louisville. You can use that to establish the base of your password and satisfy the required criteria for a strong password.

Remember: You need at least one capital letter and either a number or special character. So, using Louisville as your base word, you can substitute an ! or 1 for i and replace the s with $ — e.g., Lou1$ville or L0u!$ville.

Step 2: Add more characters to the base word
Pick any four characters to add to the base word.

Step 3: Store your password without worry
Now, write down the added four characters, along with a clue for the base word. Using our previous example, you would write down city1xyza, where city1 signifies Louisville with a 1 and $ and xyza represents the four additional characters.

So, even written down, this password reference would serve as a reminder of your complete password while revealing nothing to any roaming eyes. (Keep in mind that this example is a 14-character password. While that may be longer than the actual requirement, it may be easier to remember.)

Final thoughts
Password policies only work if you turn them on. Make sure you’ve trained your users on how to create complex passwords that they can remember without leaving a paper trail that prying eyes can easily follow.