We’ve shared some of our best tips for dealing with malware over the years, and now it’s your turn! Share your favorite tips for protecting against, or getting rid of viruses and other types of malicious software.

Unfortunately, if you’re a PC user it’s a given that you have to play defense against various forms of Malware. We’ve written several articles showing how to get rid of viruses and other forms of malware over the years using various strategies.

We have some excellent articles explaining how to get rid of Advanced Virus Remover, Antivirus Live, Internet Security 2010, and Security Tool – all of which disguise themselves as legit antivirus apps.

Now we turn it over to you to share your favorite tips and tricks for defending against malicious infections. If your computer has been infected, what steps did you take to get rid of it and clean up your machine?

Leave a comment below and join in the discussion!

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If your computer crashes or you get a virus infection that makes it unrecoverable, doing a clean install can be a hassle, let alone getting your data back. If you’re backing up your computers to Windows Home Server, you can completely restore them to the last successful backup.

Note: For this process to work you need to verify the PC you want to restore is connected to your network via Ethernet. If you have it connected wirelessly it won’t work.

Restore a PC from Windows Home Server

On the computer you want to restore, pop in the Windows Home Server Home Computer Restore disc and boot from it. If you don’t have one already made, you can easily make one following these instructions. We have also included the link to the restore disc below.

Boot from the CD then select if your machine has 512MB or RAM or more.

The disc will initialize…

Then choose your language and keyboard settings.

Hopefully if everything goes correctly, your network card will be detected and you can continue. However, if it doesn’t like in our example, click on the Show Details button.

In the Detect Hardware screen click on the Install Drivers button.

Now you will need to have a USB flash drive with the correct drivers on it. It has to be a flash drive or a floppy (if you happen to still have one of those) because you can’t take out the Restore CD.

If you want to make sure you have the correct drivers on the USB flash drive, open the Windows Home Server Console on another computer on your network. In the Computers and Backup section right-click on the computer you want to restore and select View Backups.

Select the backup you want to restore from and click the Open button in the Restore or view Files section.

Now drag the entire contents of the folder named Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore to the USB flash drive.

Back to the machine you’re trying to restore, insert the USB flash drive with the correct drivers and click the Scan button.

Wait a few moments while the drivers are found then click Ok then Continue.

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Every so often we all need to look at a map for reference purposes or to get directions. If you are looking for a great quick reference app then join us as we look at the Mini Google Maps extension for Google Chrome.

Mini Google Maps in Action

While this may look like a rather basic map extension there is more to it than meets the eye at first glance. Here is the default view when you open Mini Google Maps for the first time. Things that we really liked about this extension were:

• Three different aerial views available (Map, Satellite, & Terrain)
• Three different viewing sizes available (and the extension remembers your chosen size)
• The ability to get directions in combination with a map

We decided to try each of the viewing sizes available…here you can see the “Medium Setting”. Notice that the scale stays the same but you get more territory included to view.

Then the “Large Setting”…which we infinitely preferred to the others. Once again look at the amount of territory included by default…very nice.

Switching over to the “Satellite View”…

Followed by the “Terrain View”.

For our first example we decided to peek at Vancouver, British Columbia. After zooming out a little bit we had a very nice looking map.

For the next test we asked for directions from Vancouver to Toronto. Both the directions and map turned out very well.

And just for fun we looked up Paris, France with the “Satellite View”.

Conclusion

If you find yourself needing to view a map or get directions often then the Mini Google Maps extension will be a very useful tool for you.

Links

Download the Mini Google Maps extension (Google Chrome Extensions)

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If you use Windows 7 Media Center to record live TV, you’re probably interested in skipping through commercials. After all, a big reason to record programs is to avoid commercials, right? Today we focus on a fairly simple and free way to get you skipping commercials in no time.

In Windows 7, the .wtv file format has replaced the dvr-ms file format used in previous versions of Media Center for Recorded TV. The .wtv file format, however, does not work very well with commercial skipping applications.

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Want to keep in touch with your Facebook friends throughout the day?

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