One of the biggest complaints I hear from customers is how their computers go into sleep mode at the most inconvenient times. It happens mostly with laptop computers that are stationary and are using the ac power charger. The best way to deal with this issue is to change the power options inside of Windows. Here is how to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / Windows 8.1.

Right out of the box, Windows does a pretty good job of matching its' power options to the hardware inside of your computer. But for some of us, those settings won't work. I don't like my system to go to sleep or hibernate. One of the biggest problems I have encountered is having my computer go to sleep as I'm charging my smartphone via USB port. When the system goes to sleep, so does the USB port. I have disabled hibernation entirely on my system. I have the display turn off after a certain amount of time.

How to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / 8.1

1. Go to the Control Panel and left-click on Hardware and Sound.

2. Left-click on Power Options.

3. In the left-side column, select Create a power plan.

4. Select an existing plan to start with; give it a name and left-click on Next.

5. Make any changes to you may want for the display and when the computer goes to sleep, then left-click on Create.

6. Now you should see your power plan set as default. To change the advanced power settings, left-click on the Change plan settings on the right side of your power plan name.

7. Left-click on Change advanced power settings.

8. On the Advanced settings dialog box that appears, left-click on Change settings that are currently unavailable. Now you can modify every aspect of the power settings for your computer.

When it comes to computer repair, you have to be prepared to work on different types of systems. One of the biggest issues is having the correct video display connector. With more than ten different types of connectors it can be difficult to identify the correct one. Here is a list of the most common video display connectors.

Most common video display connectors
S-Video 3 variations - 4, 7 or 9 pins.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) 2 variations - DE-9 (9-pin) & DE-15 (15-pin).
DMS-59 (Dual Monitor Solution, 59 pins) It provides two DVI or VGA outputs in a single connector. An adapter cable is needed for conversion from DMS-59 (digital) to DVI (digital) or VGA (analog).
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) 5 variations - DVI-I (Single Link), DVI-I (Dual Link), DVI-D (Single Link), DVI-D (Dual Link) & DVI-A . DVI-I (integrated, combines digital and analog in the same connector; digital may be single or dual link). DVI-D (digital only, single link or dual link). DVI-A (analog only).
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) Electrically compatible with the DVI. 4 variations - Standard, Dual-Link, Mini and Micro.
DisplayPort Backward compatible with VGA and DVI through the use of adapters. 3 variations - Standard, Mini and Micro.

Keeping your computer secure has always been challenging. It seems like every week there is another exploit making the rounds. Nobody can predict what kind of attack hackers will use next. But you can protect your computer from the most common actions and techniques used with the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 5.1 (EMET).

The main screen inside of EMET 5.1

What is EMET? It monitors selected programs (Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office programs, etc.) for known attack actions and techniques. When one of the several pseudo mitigation technologies is triggered, EMET can block or even terminate the program in question. It will also validate digitally signed SSL certificates inside of Internet Explorer. Here's is the current list of mitigations EMET currently looks for.

• Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP)
• Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
• Heapspray allocation
• Null page allocation
• Mandatory Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
• Export Address Table Access Filtering (EAF)
• Export Address Table Access Filtering Plus (EAF+)
• Bottom-up randomization
• Return Oriented Programming (ROP)
• Attack Surface Reduction (ASR)

The about screen inside of EMET 5.1

EMET 5.1 includes the following improvements:

• Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) has been updated to limit the attack surface of applications and reduce attacks.
• Export Address Table Filtering Plus (EAF+) has been updated to improve and extend the current EAF mitigation.
• 64-bit ROP mitigations have been improved to anticipate future exploitation techniques.
• Several security, compatibility and performance improvements.
  

EMET can also be customized via the registry (see EMET manual for instructions). Here are a few of the items that can be modified:

• Enable unsafe configurations.
• Configuring custom message for user reporting.
• Configuring certificate trust feature for third party browsers.
• Configuring local telemetry for troubleshooting
• Configuring EMET Agent icon visibility.

Here's a quote from Microsoft's website:

The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) helps raise the bar against attackers gaining access to computer systems. EMET anticipates the most common actions and techniques adversaries might use in compromising a computer, and helps protect by diverting, terminating, blocking, and invalidating those actions and techniques. EMET helps protect your computer systems even before new and undiscovered threats are formally addressed by security updates and antimalware software. EMET benefits enterprises and all computer users by helping to protect against security threats and breaches that can disrupt businesses and daily lives.

EMET should never monitor anti-malware and intrusion prevention or detection software, debuggers, software that handles digital rights management (DRM) technologies or software that uses anti-debugging, obfuscation, or hooking technologies.

Every computer repair technician has a digital toolbox, more than likely several. They are either on a CD / DVD or USB drive and contain programs that we use regularly. Here are a few of the programs that I have in my digital toolbox.

All of the following programs have one thing in common; they don't require installation. Just right-click on them in File Explorer and select Run as administrator, that's it. Some of the programs may require access to the Internet for complete functionality.

AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is one of the best stand-alone adware removal tools I have found yet. Right out of the box, and it will scan your system with a generic set of definitions. But if you are connected to the Internet before you start up AdwCleaner, it will download a current copy of adware definitions. And if you select uninstall, it will remove any quarantined files and then delete itself.

AdwCleaner

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool

When it comes to resolving .NET problems, you are sometimes better off just removing and reinstalling the framework. The .NET Framework Cleanup Tool is a stand-alone program that does just what its name implies. Just pick the version you wish to remove (or all) and click Cleanup Now. Once it is complete, reboot and use Windows Update to reinstall whatever version of .net framework you need.

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool

Sysinternals Suite

Sysinternals is hands down, the best collection of Windows troubleshooting tools. All of them are stand-alone programs, over 70 altogether from seeing everything that automatically starts up with Autoruns, exploring running processes with Process Explorer, or monitoring network usage with TCPView. When it comes to Windows diagnostics, you cannot beat the Sysinternals Suite.

Sysinternals Suite

External storage devices like flash drives or hard drives are so convenient for carrying data between computers. Just plug and play, as they say. But did you know it's not the same for when you unplug your drives? Here's how to safely remove external drives from your Windows computer.

Recently I was at a customer's location repairing her computer and needed some files from one of my USB flash drives. When I was done, I went through the process of ejecting the USB drive from her computer. She was surprised that I didn't just pull the flash drive out. You can, most of the time, unplug a USB device like a mouse or printer without having to do anything to your Windows-based computer. It's only when you have a storage device, like a flash drive or external hard drive, that you have to take an extra step to remove the device safely.

What is write caching?

By default, Windows enables write caching on storage devices for better performance, whether internal or external. Write caching allows programs to write to the device and continue without waiting for the data to be written. By properly ejecting a storage device, you ensure that the cache is getting written to the device before you disconnect it.

How to safely remove external drives

1. Left-click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon on the Taskbar.
   
2. Left-click on the device you want to disconnect.
   

or

1. Open File Explorer (Windows logo key + E).
2. Under This PC / Computer, right-click the drive you want to disconnect and select Eject.

Windows will display a notification when it's safe to disconnect the drive.