IT'S BEEN A LONG CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAY SEASON

Dear viewers,

Sorry for being so quiet for the last few weeks, but our Christmas and Holiday Season this year took a lot of our available time and kept me away from the blog. Sorry for those who visit us regularly.

Did you know that we have visitors to this blog from countries, (other than the United States), such as Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine and United Kingdom ? It is true.

However, I am very surprised that very few viewers ever post comments, suggestions, problem experiences or ask questions. I wish you out there would be more open and communicate with us; this would make the blog a lot more interesting for all.

I do help a lot of friends in the area where I live and other people around, whom I did not know but, (by word of mouth...), came for help for their computer problems.

In the week before Christmas one friend came to me for help. He had a frozen computer that had been attacked by a mysterious virus. He was afraid he was going to lose all his picture and data files and other very important information. Can you believe that he had no backups of his files whatsoever? True and I'll bet that some of you are also in the same situation...

I tried all I know to restore his computer to no avail. It would not even boot on safe mode, so
here is what I was able to do for him:

1-Removed the hard drive from his computer.

2-Installed the hard drive as a second drive in one of my computers that I use for testing software and resolve problems, etc.

3-I was able then to open his hard drive, copy all his picture and data files to an external drive.

4-Reformatted the drive using Windows in my testing computer.

5-Reinstalled the drive in his computer and used his Windows disk to reinstall the Windows 7 software.

6-Since he had the disks for most of the apps originally installed in his computer, I was able to restore all these apps, (although it took most of the day to do it).

7-Copied all the picture and data files from the external drive back to his computer and PRONTO, his computer was back to normal.

My friend is ever so happy now. By the way, I convinced him to buy an external drive and from now on, backup all his files on a regular basis.

I mentioned the above because this is a problem that is sooo common...

The only way to cure such a problem in most cases is to do what I have explained above.

Today I'll bring to a great page from PCWORLD:

Their Best Free Downloads of 2010.

If you're looking for high-quality free software, here are some of 2010's best-reviewed and most-popular programs from our Downloads library. From effective antimalware tools to handy utilities to media helpers, here are the top free downloads of the year.

Go to:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1660-order,4/files.html

Hope you'll enjoy it.

Let me hear from you soon.

Happy New Year to you all.

George Freire