It's the kind of thing that everyone knows and figures should go without saying: You spend a lot of time on your work, so make an extra copy of it just in case, right? The average hard drive probably holds years' worth of information and work, some of it irreplaceable. So you're backing it up, aren't you?

Are you sure? Every standard computer here at Davidson comes with a backup system that's installed with the computer and configured to run automatically, but have you checked yours lately to be sure it's running? There are a lot of pieces required to make a regular, automatic backup work correctly, and even one item out of place can halt or block the backup. If you're not checking yours occasionally to make sure it's running right, you should be. Here's how.

• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.4


• How to ensure your backups are running in Mac OS X 10.5


• How to ensure your backups are running in Windows XP

Windows 7 is Microsoft's newest version of their operating system and is set for release to the general public on Thursday, Oct 22nd. This new operating system has kept the same basic look and feel that existed in Windows Vista but has made vast improvements regarding speed, security and hardware requirements.

Where does Davidson stand regarding Windows 7?
Testing on different hardware platforms continues and we are communicating with our software vendors regarding support for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8, which is built into the new operating system. ITS will work quickly and responsibly to make this new operating system supported on the network and available to campus offices as soon as possible.

Thinking about upgrading your Windows XP or Windows Vista home machine to Windows 7?
One suggestion, proceed with caution! Make sure you back-up your important information before performing any operating system upgrades. When upgrading to Windows 7, you will find that Windows Mail, Movie Maker, Calendar, Contacts and Photo Gallery will be deleted along with the data contained within. Are these Windows utilities gone forever? No, you can download these and many more free utilities from the Microsoft website.

As Inside Davidson becomes the primary tool for getting information about College doings, checking the site daily will become more and more important. The simplest way to make sure you remember to peek at the page regularly is to make it your browser's home page. Depending on your browser, there are several ways to accomplish this, all of them fast and simple.

Mac users running Safari can either set their home page manually with this quick process, or they may opt to grab a copy of our Set Home Page tool, which will automatically reconfigure Safari to use Inside Davidson as its home page. Mac folks using Firefox can use this simple manual procedure.

On the Windows side, use this easy procedure for Internet Explorer, or this process for Firefox.

If you have problems accessing Inside Davidson, please don't hesitate to contact the Help Desk for assistance!

There's a lot of good information floating around the Web. That's a good thing. It's also a bad thing, since finding a few grains of wheat can require sifting a great deal of chaff. Search PDF helps you with that sifting when you need a book, ebook or instructional PDF.

Just open the Search PDF web page and enter a search phrase, book title, etc. From the list of returned links, you can open a direct link to the PDF (using your preferred viewer), or click View to preview the PDF using Scribd's iPaper (so there's no need to start up a separate piece of software on your machine). Search PDF is very much a single-purpose tool, but it does an excellent job of wading through the worst of the irrelevant material, helping you to narrow your searches more rapidly and effectlvely than a straight-up Google search.

It's no great secret. You know it and we know it -- few things in life are more boring than waiting for your computer to reboot. It's a time sink when you have work to do on the machine, and a distraction when you need to be working elsewhere.

It's also one of the single most important things you can do to keep your machine -- and the College's network -- safe and secure.

With that enticing bon mot, tools developers Print What You Like (PWYL) introduce a simple tool called PageZipper. This unique tool quickly and simply merges the contents of multipage articles into a single page for quick reading/skimming (ad-supported sites are notorious for breaking up their content to increase pageviews). PWYL's summary of PageZipper says it best:

Ever read one of those top ten lists or photo galleries where every item is on a different page? You spend more time clicking "Next" and waiting than actually reading anything. PageZipper is a free bookmarklet which automatically merges all the "Next" pages into one, so you can skip directly to the stuff you want.

Everyone's had it happen at least once. You leave the domicile in a rush and reach your destination with only minutes to spare, whip out your computer or flash drive, and promptly discover you don't have the document you need. No? Then maybe you've lost that one bookmark you really wanted to revisit in the wash of hundreds of favorites, misplaced a receipt for an online purchase, or accidentally chucked an important piece of paperwork or business card.

All of these problems have a single, simple, elegant solution: Evernote.

I discovered Evernote months ago while it was in beta, tried it briefly, and forgot about it. For some reason, I wasn't impressed. Tweaked by friends who are avid users of the current release, I jumped back into the service two months ago, and have since become completely addicted. Evernote is, as its name implies, a single repository for your documents. Here's how it works.

Everyone knows Google is an excellent search engine for text and links. Fewer know that it's a great way to find images as well. Until recently, though, only a very few people realized that you can also search Google's database of images according to the color of the image. Here's how.

First, load up Google Image Search. Then enter the keywords you need to specify the category of images you want to search for. For purposes of this example, I'll search for "car." Obviously, this is really, really broad -- the basic search returns about 129 million results.

A new piece of Windows malware is going around that offers to "fix" your files. What it actually does is encrypt your files (including Word documents and pictures), then demand money to decrypt them.

Details are still sketchy, but one way people have caught this is through a bogus MP3 file downloaded from file sharing sites. Exercise extreme caution!

Most people bump up against this scenario once or twice. You're browsing the Web happily enough, then you click a link and - whammo - a non-English page pops up, and your pleasant browse comes to a screeching halt, because whatever language the page is in, you can't read it. Well, as seems so often to be the case, Google to the rescue. Say hello to the "To English" bookmarklet.

There are other ways, even some that are automated, to translate pages, but this is by far the simplest tool I've found. The bookmarklet is just a bit of JavaScript that takes advantage of the Google Translate service. Here, try it for yourself. Just click and hold on the "To English" below, and drag it to your bookmarks or favorites bar:

To English

On Tuesday, February 3rd, we will push install Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), long held back awaiting vendor certifications with most campus software, out to Windows computers. This version of Microsoft's browser is a substantial upgrade from Internet Explorer 6. It includes features now common in other web browsers such as anti-phishing, tabbing, and an overall better user interface. The transition will take a matter of minutes, be done in the background, and you may continue to work as usual during the process.

When you open Internet Explorer 7 for the first time you will be redirected to a "Customize Your Settings" page. Please select the following:

Section A. Please select "Keep my current default search provider." Section B. Please place a √ beside "Turn on automatic phishing filter" Please leave all other options as they are by default. After you "Save your settings" you may take a tour of the new features of Internet 7 or close your browser.

If you would like to take a tour of IE 7 before the upgrade, please see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/tour/fre/interface/. Please do not download it from the Microsoft web site. For future support and maintenance, we will install it on your computer via the campus network.

Starting October 27, 2008, all campus wireless networking for college-owned computers, as well as for computers owned by students and employees, will use DavidsonSecure for wireless connectivity. This wireless network is encrypted to better protect your data. Learn more about the change.

On that date, students and employees logging in to DavidsonWLAN or WildcatNet will be directed to the upgrade instructions and must update their computers and other wireless devices to connect to DavidsonSecure before receiving network connectivity. But you don't need to wait until then - upgrade to DavidsonSecure now!

ITS is pleased to introduce CounterSpy, a new tool to protect campus computers from all kinds of threats including spyware and malware. CounterSpy will replace Ad-aware on standard Windows computers.

The changeover will be done over the network beginning on Wednesday, May 21st. No action is required on your part. The transition will take a matter of minutes, be done in the background, and you may continue to work as usual during the process. CounterSpy will automatically scan for malware and spyware. If your computer isn’t connected to the network on Wednesday, there’s no need to worry. CounterSpy will install automatically the next time your computer connects to the network.

If you wish to initiate a manual scan or have other questions, please refer to our instructions and Frequently Asked Questions documentation.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk with questions.

As you may know, Congress passed a law that changes the start and end dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST). The end date for DST is Sunday, November 4th, 2007.

Microsoft released the patch for the Daylight Saving Time change in August. ITS has already applied the necessary update to all campus servers and college owned computers. As a user, the update should be transparent to you and requires no additional action. Campus Apple computers did not require any updates for the DST change and are unaffected.

More information about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Daylight Saving Time change is available from the US Department of Energy http://www.energy.gov/about/EPAct.htm

Sophos Anti-virus Home Use Option enables Davidson College faculty and staff to install Sophos Anti-virus on one (1) personally-owned computer. These instructions describe how to install the application which will stay updated via the Internet each time you go online. Updates are downloaded, either manually or automatically, from Central Installation Directories (CIDs) on Davidson's Sophos web server.

ITS is pleased to announce the availability of Office 2007 for Windows. We would like to make the upgrade to Office 2007 as rewarding and trouble free as possible. To help guide your decision, please review the Key Information and Request to Upgrade.

Along with the release of Office 2007, Microsoft introduced a new file format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In order for earlier versions of those applications to open Office 2007 files, a converter must be installed.

In preparation for the widespread use of Microsoft Office 2007 on and off campus, ITS will install the converter on standard Windows computers running Office 2003 on campus. The installation will take place on Monday, July 23. No action is required on the part of the computer user, as this “silent” install will take place via the campus network.

Information about the new XML format is available on the Microsoft web site.

Note: This information does NOT apply to computers running the Macintosh operating system or non-standard Windows computers.

Last week Microsoft released the final version of the Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 to their enterprise clients. The anticipated release date for the general public is January 30, 2007.

ITS is testing these new versions and planning the rollout to campus in the new year. We anticipate the migration will start in the spring for computers in faculty and staff offices. Most computer classrooms and labs will migrate to the new versions in the summer.

Information about Vista and Office 2007 are available on the Microsoft Web site.

Beginning in October, ITS will make Dreamweaver 7 and Adobe Acrobat 7 available to faculty and staff for both the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Please watch the top level ITS Web page under “News and Events” for the official announcement on how to request these software products.

Adobe has recently announced the addition of Acrobat Professional 8 to their software line but has not made the product available for use. When Acrobat Professional 8 is officially released, individuals using version 7 will have the option to upgrade.

If you are backing up your computer with the Maxtor OneTouch drive, you should check at least once a month to ensure your backups are taking place.

To check if your backups are running on a Dell with Windows XP: click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks. Locate your Weekly Backup task and ensure the “Last Run Time” date listed is no later than 3 weeks ago. If your system indicates a date older than 3 weeks ago, please email the Help Desk and request that someone check your backups.

The Mac backup is an exact duplicate of the user's home directory, so verifying is just a matter of checking that the contents of the backup drive match the contents of the backup source (i.e. the home directory). You can also open SilverKeeper and look at the Status tab for a summary of the date and outcome of the backup attempt.

If you do not have a Maxtor OneTouch drive, please email your request to the Help Desk. This option is available to both Mac and Windows XP users. If your computer's operating system is Windows 2000 and if it has a Davidson College property tag over 4000 you will need to upgrade to Windows XP prior to the installation of your Maxtor drive. You will need to submit both a Maxtor drive request and a Windows XP upgrade. Please use davidson\username when prompted.

Apple, Dell, and other laptop manufacturers voluntarily recalled millions of batteries last month. Because these batteries may overheat and cause a fire, they will be replaced at no-charge to their customers.

Learn more about the recall, determine if your battery has been recalled, and how to request a replacement.

Apple

Dell

In addition, Toshiba America today announced a voluntary exchange program for Sony-made batteries in select Dynabook and Satellite models sold in the United States between March and May of 2006. This does not affect any College-owned machines, but if you use a Toshiba Dynabook or Satellite at home, you may wish to contact Toshiba support at (800) 457-7777 to determine if your machine is part of the recall.

Microsoft is preparing the next version of Office for Windows. We are anticipating that Office 2007 (formerly known as Office 12) will be released early in the new year, although Microsoft has not yet announced an official date.

If you would like a preview of what's to come, visit Microsoft's web site and view a demo of the new user interface. It's quite different and very exciting. You may need to install a Flash plug-in to run the demo. Just follow the on-screen instructions.

ITS recommends that you refrain from installing the beta version of Office 2007 on your office computer. The latest beta version is very stable, but may cause unanticipated problems with your system.

It’s probably a sign of the times that security updates for computers are now national news. Read any of the Internet news outlets—The New York Times, CNN, or MSNBC—and you’ll see stories about security vulnerabilities in our software and what the vendors are doing about it. During April both Apple and Microsoft released sets of patches deemed “critical.”

Automatic Updating

Whether you use a Mac or a PC for your personal use, patch distribution can be handled either automatically or manually. For Davidson-owned Windows systems, patches are pushed out by a system called “Windows Server Update Services” or WSUS. The WSUS server synchronizes its patch inventory with Microsoft. After a period of testing and evaluation, most patches are approved for distribution. If your system ever asks you if it’s ok to apply patches, you should save your work first, and answer "yes." Automatic updates may also be configured on non-Davidson Windows machines. It’s one of the property settings of “My Computer.” On April 11 Microsoft released several critical patches, one in particular that addresses vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Whether your system is Davidson-owned or not, you don’t need to visit the Microsoft Update site yourself; your system can handle updates automatically for you.

On the Macintosh side, the security patches were bundled into a “point upgrade” of OS 10.4—specifically 10.4.6. These point upgrades are more like the service packs periodically released by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. Various Macintosh support programs also received minor upgrades making the complete suite of updates over 100 MB. Like a Windows machine, there are various ways of handling updates, the most common is by configuring the “Software Update” application under “System Preferences.” The Apple updates were released on April 5.

Exploits Typically Addressed

Often the types of updates released by Apple and Microsoft are very similar in the types of exploits that they address. The two main categories that they address the most often are buffer overruns and privilege elevation. The buffer overrun vulnerability can allow savvy attackers to execute their own programs that might attack your computer or take control of it. The privilege elevation vulnerability can allow an attacker to gain administrative control of your computer and cause further damage. At Davidson we make every effort to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to patching. The modern operating systems we use the most, such as Windows, OS X, and Linux, are extremely complex so vulnerabilities are bound to crop up. Staying up to date on security patches, like staying up to date on virus scanning software, is an important way to ensure the integrity of your system.

Problem: By default, documents created in Word, Excel and PowerPoint may contain revealing information regarding the document's author and/or commenters/editors.

Cause: This is the default behavior for Office applications.

Solution: The solution varies slightly for each program, but all are generally similar.

Important Caveat: These procedures do not anonymize tracked changes or inserted comments in a document. These items are attributed by their nature, and must be manually modified.

Mac OS – Office 2004

Word

Open Word and choose Word | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Excel | Preferences | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose PowerPoint | Preferences | Advanced.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Windows – Office XP, Office 2003

Word

Open Word and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
If you wish to be alerted when a document contains trackable information such as comments or edits, check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

Excel

Open Excel and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Under Privacy Options, check Remove personal information from this file on save. This will strip author name, initials, etc.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: The command to remove personal information is not "sticky." It must be enabled for each document you want information stripped from.

PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint and choose Tools | Options | Security.
Clear the fields marked Name and Initials.
Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.
Note: This action is not "sticky," and must be performed for each new PowerPoint file.

Here's a quick quiz on passwords.

Do you share any of your passwords?
Do you use "password" as your password?
Is your password the same as your username?
Is your password something that would be easily guessed, like your last name, a pet's name, or "1234."
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions it is important that you read up on Password Security. Even if you think your password is secure check out the article to review your responsibilities for your accounts and passwords.

ITS offers three methods to faculty and staff for getting to your important information from off-campus. That information can be your email using the Outlook full client, files on Louise, or confidential information on Banner or another server. All of these methods provide secure access for your connection. Note: Entourage does not need any special configuration to access the email server from off-campus.

Methods for secure remote access:

RPC over HTTP - Remote Procedure Calls over HyperText Transfer Protocol - allows use of the full Outlook client.
WebDAV - Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning - provides access to files on Louise.
VPN - Virtual Private Network - gives you access like you were on campus.

Starting January 16, 2006 all Dell laptops purchased through ITS will come standard with a new wireless network card, the Intel Pro 2200. This wireless network card allows for a stronger signal, greater wireless range and a more intuitive user interface. The Intel Pro 2200 wireless network card replaces the Dell True Mobile wireless network card.