Sure, you can protect your computer’s sensitive data by using a firewall, anti-virus/malware programs, etc. to help keep hackers out, but what if your laptop or computer is stolen?

If you’re a Windows user, you may feel a little better thinking that your Windows account password will keep the thief from sifting through your personal information stored on your hard drive. While it’s understandable to feel that way, you might want to think again.

There are many programs out there that make it very easy to hack one’s Windows account password. While most of these programs are designed for legitimate purposes, they often fall into the wrong hands allowing personal information to become discovered and distributed very easily.

Our suggestion to protect against this form of data theft? Disk encryption — including your OS — by using a secure algorithm. Which leads us to this handy little program called TrueCrypt. Not only is TrueCrypt free, but it allows you to encrypt your entire hard drive(s) very quickly and easily thanks to this tutorial aimed at beginners.

Choosing the right level of disk encryption is optional depending on your needs obviously. But it is far more secure than a simple Windows account password and will keep the common thief from harvesting your private data. To better understand encryption algorithms so you can choose the right one for you, see their documentation located here.

It should be said that it is always a good idea to backup your data to an external source prior to encrypting your drives in case anything goes wrong during the encryption process (we’ll follow up with a later post on our favorite backup/imaging methods).

TrueCrypt not only works on Windows, but Mac OS X and Linux as well. If you’re ready to give TrueCrypt a shot, you can download the latest version here.

TrueCrypt's boot time protection

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Final has been released by Microsoft. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an important update that includes previously released security, performance, and stability updates for Windows 7. SP1 also includes new improvements to features and services in Windows 7, such as improved reliability when connecting to HDMI audio devices, printing using the XPS Viewer, and restoring previous folders in Windows Explorer after restarting.

For more information on this release, have a look at the following links:

Deployment Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and Windows 7 with SP1.doc – click here.

Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.xls – click here.

Notable Changes in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.doc – click here.

Release Notes for Windows 7 with Service Pack 1.doc – click here.

There are a couple of ways to download and install Windows 7 SP1. You can download it through Windows Update, or you can obtain the full install package from Microsoft’s website:

To download the Windows 7 SP1 32-bit version (x86), click here (537.81 MB).

To download the Windows 7 SP1 64-bit version (x64), click here (903.2 MB).

Joann asks us via our contact page for a recommendation on a media player that can play many different video formats as well as audio.

To answer your question Joann, we really like VLC from VideoLAN.

Not only is VLC free, but it can play many different media formats without the need for bulky third party codec packs. Codec packs can often cause more issues than they’re worth. The versatile VLC contains just about every codec you will need to play your favorite video and music files.

In addition to being a great multimedia player, VLC is also an encoder and streamer. VLC can play CDs, video CDs and DVDs as well. Its cross-platform supporting Windows, MAC OS X, GNU/Linux and many others.

If you don’t like the default VLC interface, there are plenty of other nice looking skins to choose from.

Unlike some free media players, VLC is spyware and ad free. VLC can be downloaded here.

Happy computing, Joann!

JS-Computing would like to wish you and your family a happy and safe holiday.

Maybe you just reinstalled Windows, or maybe you deleted a device from Windows Device Manager by accident.

Whatever the case may be, we’ve received quite a few requests for various — and some hard to find — hardware drivers lately so we decided to create a driver request forum for this purpose.

If you have a driver that you’re desperately looking for, or don’t know which drivers you need for your computer, request away right here in our forums. If it’s out there, we’ll do our best to find it

Antivirus 2010 is a rogue anti-malware program. It’s also older brother to Antivirus 2008 and 2009. It’s usually picked up via internet ads claiming that your computer is infected and also through trojan horses. It tries to force it’s victim to purchase it as well. Yeah right.

While it’s quite annoying and can produce different pop-ups including a fake blue screen of death, it’s actually rather easy to remove thanks to the free Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

Per a member’s request, I have posted a quick and easy removal guide here on our free support forums.

It should also be noted that Antivirus 2010 and other malware like it can be easily thwarted by using solid anti-malware protection. I have listed many free programs here to choose from that will help keep you safe and free of malware going forward.

Mozilla Firefox has been updated to v3.6.3. This release fixes a critical security issue according to Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2010-25:

Title: Re-use of freed object due to scope confusion
Impact: Critical
Announced: April 1, 2010
Reporter: Nils (MWR InfoSecurity)
Products: Firefox

Fixed in: Firefox 3.6.3

Description:

A memory corruption flaw leading to code execution was reported by security researcher Nils of MWR InfoSecurity during the 2010 Pwn2Own contest sponsored by TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative. By moving DOM nodes between documents Nils found a case where the moved node incorrectly retained its old scope. If garbage collection could be triggered at the right time then Firefox would later use this freed object.

You can update your version through Firefox’s internal updater by opening Firefox and selecting Help > Check for Updates. You can also get the full download here.

Update: JS-Computing.com forum member, torquemasterice, has recommended a free program aimed at simplifying this process called, WinToFlash. WinToFlash works with Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7. It is important to note, however, that WinToFlash is currently in beta. If you run into bugs with WinToFlash or choose not to use it, you can continue reading the tutorials here.

A few folks have asked us if there’s a way to install Windows from a flash drive. Well, there sure is.

I have posted the simple methods here on our forum.

There are a couple of reasons why we prefer installing Windows from a flash drive. One, installing from a flash drive is much faster than installing from a CD or DVD. And number two, we waste fewer disks!

Have an easier method that you would like to share? Drop us a comment below or on our forum thread.

We’ve just updated our free technical support forums. Feel free to come check it out and let us know what you think! Feedback and feature requests are always appreciated.

Our favorite internet browser, Firefox, has been updated to v3.5. You can update your version of Firefox by opening Firefox and selecting Help > Check for Updates.

Firefox 3.5 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past year. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use. Some of the notable features are:

• Available in more than 70 languages. (Get your local version!)
• Support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it here!)
• Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
• Better web application performance using the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
• The ability to share your location with websites using Location Aware Browsing. (Try it here!)
• Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.
• Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
• Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.