by Justin on January 26, 2012
The Windows 8 Developer Preview has introduced us to the new touch screen friendly Metro-based Windows Start Screen, which at this point appears to be slated to replace the Start Menu for both desktop/laptop and tablet form factors. For desktop and laptop users the new Start Screen is creating some challenges, such as the ability to easily locate the restart, shutdown, or log off options. These options have traditionally been found on the Start Menu, but since Windows 8 is being “reimagined” by Microsoft as a “touch first” operating system, optimized for tablets, which generally do not require shutting down or restarting, the new Metro-based Start Screen only provides options for locking the screen and logging off the current user. However, you can properly shutdown and restart your computer using a couple different methods.
Method #1
Open the Settings pane on the Start Screen by hovering your mouse pointer over the bottom left corner of the screen where the Start Button used to be, and a pseudo-looking Start Menu (called the Start Orb) will appear.
Click on Settings, and the Settings pane will appear on the right side of the screen.
Click on the Power button and select Shut down, Restart, or Sleep (if your system supports the Sleep function) from the menu that pops up.
Method #2:
From the Start Screen or an Explorer window you can press Alt+F4 and it will bring up a classic Windows shutdown screen where you can select Shut down, Restart, Sleep, or Log off.
by Justin on December 14, 2011
Microsoft has released a beta version of a new anti-malware utility that should be in every IT Pro’s toolbox. This new utility is similar to Windows Defender found in Windows 7, with the addition of anti-virus capabilities similar to Microsoft Security Essentials. What makes this tool special is that it is designed to remove malware without Windows running. This addresses a key shortcoming of most other anti-malware solutions, in that many deeply embedded rootkits and other malicious software are sometimes near impossible to remove while the OS is running. The offline tool is designed to be installed to CD, DVD, USB Thumb Drive, or virtually any other media that you can boot from and can hold 214MB.
To use the tool, you will need to download it from Microsoft’s download site, and an optical disk or a flash drive you can erase. The tool will format the media that you selected, make it bootable, and then copy the Windows Defender Offline package to the media. After you have installed Windows Defender Offline to your media of choice, you simply reboot the computer you wish to run it on, and select your media as your boot device. It will then boot into a WinPE-type environment and automatically load Windows Defender, allowing you access to all of the normal scanning capabilities found in the online version. If the software can locate a proper driver for your computer’s network card it will allow you to download the latest malware signature files from Microsoft.
Windows Defender Offline Beta
This tool could prove to be very useful, along the lines of or even better than MalwareBytes because of its offline capabilities. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent previously trying tool after tool to remove deeply entrenched malware because it was running as a protected background process, this should solve this.
