Google has finally revealed its plans for Gmail and Google Apps to stop working with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9.

The internet ads and search giant said it has stopped all testing and engineering work to make Gmail and Apps work with IE9.

Microsoft’s customers will start receiving notifications in the next few weeks that IE9 is an unsupported browser and telling them to upgrade to a “modern” browser.

Google is killing IE9 in line with its policy announced in June 2011 for its apps and services to only work with the current and prior major releases of browsers.

The policy applies to IE, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari.

IE9’s being cut loose because Microsoft released IE11 in October, meaning Google will now only make sure its apps work with IE11 and IE10.

Google is late in announcing the change, as reported by The Reg here.

When IE10 was approaching last year, with the imminent release of Windows 8, Google prepped users a month in advance to say its support for IE8 would end.

Google had refused say what its plans were for IE9 support, telling The Reg days before the release of IE11: “Google does not pre-announce these things, but we inform users of changes in good time”.

There was no word from Google on why it is late announcing the end of IE9 support.

The decision has broad implications for Microsoft users. IE9 is the browser for Windows Vista up to Service Pack 2 and works with Windows 7 on the client.

IE10 does not work with Widows Vista, so holdouts will need to move to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Windows 7 users will need to ensure they have installed the operating system’s latest service pack, SP1.

Windows 7 users do have the further get-out of installing IE11 that shipped with Windows 8.1, but they need Service Pack 1 installed first.

But with the web littered with reports that IE11 is not working properly with Gmail, Windows customers should be concerned. Google has given them one less browser to fall back on, with IE10 now the only alternative to IE11 .

Attention Skype Users!

Quick heads up for all you Skype users!

A new trojan horse spreading through Skype is causing havoc among home & business PC's.  Once on the infected PC, the trojan begins BitMining for BitCoints (a virtual & untraceable currency that is gaining popularity).  Potential victims are encouraged to install a file that is included with messages like "this my favourite picture of you". If the malicious file is installed, one of its features is to turn the machine into a Bitcoin mining slave.

A hacker controlling 100,000 of these trojans can easily make over $270,000 a day with current bitcoin prices.

If you use Skype and your computer seems to be running slow lately, open up your task manager and see if any program is using 50-99% of your CPU.   If so, you may be infected and should do a boot-time scan with your Avast Anti-Virus (You are using Avast aren't you?).  If this does not remove the infection, or if you'd rather not mess with it yourself, please contact me for a remote or on-site support session.

-Matt

The most important tweak for your Microsoft Server running Exchange 2010.

In Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they decided to have the Exchange software hoard every free speck of RAM on it's host system in an effort to minimize pagefile use and speed up end-user experience.  The result in reality is a system that struggles to keep up with just about any application, including the mail system itself.  The fix is fast and fairly simple for those with some decent IT knowledge.

To determine how much RAM to let Exchange play with, an easy formula I use is 66% of total system RAM for multi-role servers, and 75% total RAM for servers dedicated to the mailbox role.

1) Start the server's ADSI editor
2) Navigate to Configuration > Services > Microsoft Exchange > <Organization Name> > Administrative Groups > <Administrative Group> > Servers > <Server Name> > InformationStore
3) Right-click InformationStore, and edit msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax. Set it it to the number of pages to maximize the Database Cache to. (Pages = M x 32768) Where "M" is the number of GB's of RAM you want to set aside for Exchange.
4) (only necessary in Exchange SP1 which you SHOULD be using!) edit the msExchESEparamCacheSizeMin parameter and set it to 256.
5) Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service for the change to become effective.

Why Java is junk, and how to uninstall it.

BEZALU SECURITY ALERT: Attention all computer users (this includes you too Mac fans)
Due to recent outbreaks in Java based malware/viruses. It is HIGHLY recommended to disable/remove Java from your system. The majority of virus writers have moved to exploiting Java security vulnerabilities. This is due to them being able to infect Windows, Macs, and Linux systems all with one exploit. Java was behind over half a million macs becoming infected with the flashback virus last year. Some security sites are recommending disabling Java, but I recommend uninstalling it completely just to be safe. If you actually need it for something like an online meeting through your company, it only takes a few minutes to download and reinstall it from java.com.

WINDOWS USERS,
You can uninstall it just like any other piece of software under "Control Panel > Uninstall a program". Remove anything under "Java" or "Java Update" or "Java Runtime". Restart the PC.

MAC/OSX USERS,
Click on the Finder icon located in your dock
Click on Applications tab on the sidebar
In the Search box enter JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
This will find the JavaAppletPlugin.plugin file
Right click on JavaAppletPlugin.plugin and select Move to Trash

LINUX USERS,
Open Terminal Window
Log in as the super user
Type: rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so
You will be prompted to remove symbolic link:
rm: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so ?
Type: Y

How To Fix Error 80072EFD On Small Business Server 2008

How To Fix Error 80072EFD On Small Business Server 2008

Microsoft Security Essentials

While I don't have time for a full post,  I just wanted to remind anyone visiting today that I only recommend Microsoft Security Essentials for older computers running XP and Vista computers with less than 2GB RAM.  I recommend a combination of Avast! & MalwareBytes installed together, with each set to ignore each others processes, and either pay for MalwareBytes to get the automatic scans, or use my scripts to have it run weekly.

~Matt

Fake Reviews

Just to prove you can't trust anything on the Internet these days,  there is a surge of companies that offer (for a small fee) to spam google, yelp, and other sites with fake positive reviews.  They cater to companies that have garnered a bad reputation from dissatisfied customers, and post so many fake positive reviews about the company, that most people surfing the net would never come across the negative comments.  This is so much as a rant, as a warning to all you internet review searchers.  Take everything you see on the web with a grain of salt.